Confidential Agent

October, 1937. Luis Denard is a volunteer soldier for the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, volunteering in large part as his wife and adolescent daughter were killed in the war and belying his past as a musician. In this role, he is assigned to the confidential mission of traveling to London to negotiate purchase of coal - now unavailable in Spain because of the war - for powering munitions factories, or secondarily preventing the Fascist opposition from doing likewise. His most important possessions are his documents which he will use as proof with those prearranged clandestinely to help him in London - someone providing accommodation at a budget hotel, and someone at a language school - and with those from who he will ultimately make the purchase. He is aware this is a less than straightforward mission, but may not be prepared for how truly dangerous it is with the Fascists having a fingerhold in England and being aware of the reason for his trip. As such, he has to learn who and who not to trust, the latter category which may not include those with who he was scheduled to meet. He decides the two people he will trust are Else, a fourteen year old maid, and bored socialite Rose Cullen, who made the same sailing with him to England and with who he shared a less than uneventful ride from the coast. His trust in these two is despite their association with others who he doesn't trust.