Seldom has the weight of global politics descended so heavily on such a tiny and unprepared nation as Panama—the young country of 2.5 million souls which, on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal. And seldom has the hidden eye of British Intelligence selected such an unlikely champion as Harry Pendel—a charmer, a dreamer, an evader, a fabulist and presiding genius of the house of Pendel & Braithwaite Co. Limitada, Tailors to Royalty, formerly of London and presently of Panama City.
Yet there is a logic to the spies' choice. Everybody who is anybody in Central America passes through Pendel's doors. He dresses the Panamanian President, and the General in Charge of U.S. Southern Command. He dresses politicos and crooks and conmen. His fitting room hears more confidences than a priest's confessional. And when Harry Pendel doesn't hear things as such—well, he hears them anyway, by other means.
