Women have been MI.6. agent Andy Osnard’s weakness. As punishment for being caught sleeping with the wrong woman on his last posting in Spain, Andy is relegated to the global backwater of Panama as his next field assignment. Although nothing is happening there on the surface, Panama is still seen as having global importance due to the canal, with something always possible to rock the boat as seen by the recent history of the corrupt regime of
Manuel Noriega. The advice of his superior is to co-opt one of the only few hundred British nationals living there to act as an informant for pay. Who Andy chooses is Harry Pendel, a men’s suits tailor with Savile Row credentials through his now deceased business partner Arthur Braithwaite. This choice is because of Harry’s client list, he the tailor to the elite and powerful, including the Panamanian president, who may treat him like the proverbial “bartender” or “hairdresser” confidante, and because his American wife, Louisa, works in a senior managerial position within the canal authority. But what may have swayed Andy’s choice the most is that he knows the truth about Harry: that he not only does not have Savile Row credentials, but is an ex-con, Arthur Braithwaite was his Uncle Benny, also a criminal, and that despite his tailor shop doing good business, he is deep in debt from a farming venture gone wrong, none of this about which Louisa knows. As such, Harry has no choice but to cooperate, the payment from Andy which at least gets him out of his farm debt. As a side, Harry also has some connections to people who actively worked in the opposition against Noriega: Mickie Abraxas, who has turned to the bottle to cope, and Harry’s store manager Marta, the right side of her face which shows the physical scars of that war, the scars at the hands of Noriega’s men. With Andy placing more and more pressure on Harry to provide intel of some importance, Andy eventually learns through Harry that the Panamanian government is planning on selling the canal to the Chinese. This intel is exactly what Andy was looking for to set in motion a plan to reach his ultimate goal with this Panamanian posting.
—Huggo
参考翻译：
女人们一直都是MI。6.安迪·奥斯纳尔探员的弱点。安迪在西班牙的最后一个岗位上被抓与错误的女人睡觉，作为惩罚，他被降级到全球死水巴拿马，作为他的下一个实地任务。尽管表面上什么都没有发生，但巴拿马仍然被视为因运河而具有全球重要性，从巴拿马腐败政权最近的历史来看，总是有可能让船摇摇欲坠曼努埃尔·诺列加。他的上司的建议是，从仅有的几百名居住在那里的英国公民中，挑选一人作为报酬的线人。安迪选择的是哈里·彭德尔，他是一名男装裁缝，拥有萨维尔街（Savile Row）的资历，现在已经去世的商业伙伴阿瑟·布雷斯韦特（Arthur Braithwaite）就是其中之一。这一选择是因为哈里的客户名单，他是精英和权贵的裁缝，包括巴拿马总统，他可能会把哈里当作众所周知的“调酒师”或“理发师”的知己，还因为他的美国妻子路易莎在运河管理局担任高级管理职务。但最可能影响安迪选择的是，他知道哈利的真相：他不仅没有萨维尔街的证书，而且是一名前囚犯，亚瑟·布雷斯韦特是他的叔叔本尼，也是一名罪犯，尽管他的裁缝店生意不错，但他因一次农业冒险失败而债台高筑，路易莎不知道这些。因此，哈利别无选择，只能合作，安迪的付款至少让他摆脱了农场债务。作为一方，哈利也与那些积极反对诺列加的人有一些联系：米奇·阿布拉克萨斯（Mickie Abraxas）和哈利的商店经理玛尔塔（Marta），她右边的脸上显示了那场战争的身体伤疤，诺列加手下的伤疤。安迪向哈利施加越来越大的压力，要求他提供一些重要的情报，安迪最终通过哈利得知巴拿马政府计划将运河出售给中国人。这条情报正是安迪想要的，他希望通过这个巴拿马帖子来启动一个计划，以实现他的最终目标。-雨果
重点词汇释义
have been来过
on the surface在表面上，在外表上; 浮
rock the boat破坏现状，捣乱
one of…之一
act as担任…角色
Savile Row萨维尔街，裁缝街
because of因为; 由于①because of是复合介词，其后可接名词、代词、动名词或由what引导的从句。②because of一般引导状语，不引导表语；但当主语是代词时，because of短语在句中可用作表语。
