condensed master

The Reluctant Agent
A Compelling Story of Espionage
could be wrong. Then out of the blue he was given the opening. "I suppose you've
got lots of unanswered questions?"
"Yes I have, but most of them are water under the bridge now and insignificant
compared with what's happening at present."
There was a few minutes of silence and Henderson continued. "After the war
the change of emphasis was so dramatic there was some doubt as to whether we
would continue."
"You're not in the mainstream of British Intelligence then?"
"No, just one of their satelite organizations created to do certain types of
work."
"That explains away some of the why's and wherefor's especially whilst I was
in Australia."
"The massive immigrant influx there provided us with a lot of work and the
unrest in Europe after the war kept us going until industrial espionage became
predominant."
"You were involved in Australia then?"
"Only in the early days when the agencies were being developed in Melbourne
and Sydney. Since then I moved on to other things, mainly to do with
organizational matters and my day-to-day was work passed to others. The only
significant thing I remember was a supervising agent that was killed in Melbourne.
An agent was sent from the U.K. to make sure that there was no loss of
continuity."
"Yes, I remember him. His name was Derek Bates."
Conversation abruptly ceased. The silence between them like a brick wall.
Damn it! I've gone too far, he's probably closed the door to any further
information. He would have to take the risk and test Henderson further. "Tell me
Bob, would you object if I asked you about Bates. Not now, perhaps later?"
"No, provided that your enquiry is straightforward and doesn't involve his
activities within the organization."
The car steered off the motorway and entered the country lanes again. After
about ten minutes they stopped at the wrought iron gates of a typical old stone built
gatehouse. Henderson got out and was met at the gates by a blue uniformed
security man. At the conclusion of their conversation the man came over to the car
and peered inside.
393