Eye of the Needle

1944. Faber receives instructions to rendezvous with another agent, but he doesn’t want to do so because the procedure he is to follow is an old one he doesn’t trust. Having seen the public hangings of arrested German spies, Faber does not wish to get caught. However, he decides to make the rendezvous because he is bored and would like a challenge.

The rendezvous is to take place at a set time in the morning and again in the evening, and the agent is to wait five days for contact. Faber goes to the area and identifies the agent but does not approach him. Instead, Faber watches from a distance and quickly spots an English police officer observing the agent.

Faber follows the agent to his boarding house. He assumes the man will occupy the highest room in the house in order to use his wireless radio transmitter. Faber returns to the house late that night and breaks in through a downstairs window. On the third floor, Faber picks the lock on the agent’s bedroom door before straddling the man on the bed and pressing his stiletto to his throat. Faber identifies himself through the code words meant to be used at the rendezvous.