John Daniel

But now it seems that someone, somewhere on the Soviet side...

may have taken the decision to escalate, and they appear to have access to good information coming from inside the agency.

And that means Kit Bennett, who's running solo in cover as a NOC, is potentially incredibly vulnerable.

Original music by Anthony Tonnen.

Graphic design by Oliver Wall.

For RNZ, sound production and final mix was by Mark Chesterman.

Production coordinator was Brianna Eurotic-Greek.

Thanks to Steve Burridge, Ali Marsden, Jeremy Ansell and William Saunders.

Thanks to Megan Whelan and thanks also to Susan Baldacci.

Thanks also to CNN, TVNZ, BBC, the ABC, Universal and Paramount.

To read more about the documents and articles we've mentioned, you can go to rnz.co.nz forward slash the agency and you can see the links in the show notes.

Previously on the Agency.

This is Kit Bennett, who worked for New Zealand's SIS before he was seconded to the Central Intelligence Agency as an exchange officer at the end of the 1970s.

At one stage, there were more than 20,000 American Marines in the region.

Initially, they were there to train for war in the Pacific, but then some of them came back to recuperate.

Up until the Second World War, Britain had been New Zealand's foremost ally.

But British power in the Pacific dropped away after the fall of Singapore in 1942, while American military might came into the region to push back the Japanese Imperial Army.

And I said, you've got to know people.

And those ties with the people we know continue to shape the way New Zealand keeps itself safe.

And I'm John Daniel.