The Spy

A traveler who intended only a brief visit finds himself suspected of espionage upon arriving in a tropical port; local politics and corporate interests clash in a three-way struggle for valuable nitrate deposits, producing bribery and intrigue. Shadowed by government and corporate agents, he navigates a social scene of diplomats, reporters, and spies while recounting encounters with a mysterious man named Schnitzel and a persistent correspondent. Episodes mix wry observation of diplomatic posturing, satire of commercial skulduggery, and a growing implication that violence or foreign intervention might follow, as the narrator seeks to clarify his own accidental presence amid escalating tensions.