The Belfair Pinch

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>IN </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>YUGOSLAVIA </strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>OF </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>JANUARY 1942</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> a civil war rages; factions of </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>royalists</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>communists</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> and </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>fascists </strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>are either fighting or collaborating with each other. To the Allies fighting the wider World War this fractured country is an unknown cipher. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Captain Reginald Wallace of the </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>British Merchant Navy</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> is enjoying his rest & relaxation in Egypt after his ship was torpedoed out from under him. For ten years too focused on advancing his career </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>-</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> approaching thirty and unmarried </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>-</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> he's getting older and feeling it. He begins a </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>torrid affair</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> with </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Millicent Featherstone</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> the General's clerk.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>But he's tapped to be a temporary </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>SOE agent</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> for a single short mission: very simply he's to be dropped into </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>occupied Yugoslavia</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> to retrieve the HLV </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>BELFAIR</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> a </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>neutral Swedish-crewed ship stranded there</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> and bring it out to safety in Egypt. Millie eagerly awaits his return.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Things never do go as planned do they? In Yugoslavia he becomes enamoured with </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Pavlina</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> a gorgeous </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>assassin </strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>on the run from the </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Nazis</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>. But Slavic commanders have ordered their </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>female partisans</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)> to never become pregnant or the man will be executed. Now what's a fellow to do? Well first get the ship out! Easier said than done when the ship is </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>under 24 hour guard.</strong></p>