Max Springer is an agent with the CIA.
Retired agent would be more accurate and certainly what he thinks of himself as but most retired people walk away and that's it for; Springer will find himself back in the action despite his having put in his papers.
Our first meeting of him is a brief flashback to a particularly unpleasant time he had as an operative working under alias in Panama in 1988. The story then returns us to the modern time for Springer in 2016 as he looks out at the glassy Pacific vista visible from his new home, a condominium along the coast again in Panama.
We are told that Springer has for quite a few years been "an active field agent, running operations in Central and South America". "His last years working for the Agency had been in analysis and training of new agents."
When it came the time for Springer to retire, he immediately thought of Panama and the fond memories he had of the place, minus, of course, the days spent in the 'care' of that tortuous Noriega general. Panama was where his father had been born and Springer loved the place and since Springer was a native speaker, he was able to fit in very well.
It would be around a year after his separation that he would unexpectedly hear a voice from out of the past; that of the man who had tortured him nearly three decades before and a man who is still a target of the CIA. Doing what he felt was right and reporting the encounter to Langley would start a chain of events which would see Springer once again back in action.
Retired? It does not look like to to Springer.
Good Lines:
- When a new acquaintance speculates on his previous employment with a "NSA, CIA, or DIA?", Max Springer responds, "Yes, sometimes. Let's leave it at that".