What happens
In 1913 Vienna, Colonel Alfred Rader, head of the Empire's counter-espionage bureau, learns that his close friend Captain Helving has been executed as a spy in Russia. Shaken and addicted to opium, Rader is blackmailed by Russian agent Major Akofsky into selling the empire's military secrets. Part of the story follows Rader's growing guilt as he betrays his country and friends. The episode is a broadcast from the Suspense series, with Herbert Marshall in the lead role, and was first aired on October 8, 1951.
Vienna, 1913, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with scenes in a hotel, a post office, and the counter-espionage headquarters
Characters: Colonel Alfred Rader, Captain Helving, Lieutenant Hausaufer, Major Akofsky, Oscar Helsinki, Adolf Zane, Arnold Sonderheim, Madame Boudin
Listen for: Akofsky's blackmail of Rader and Rader's growing guilt over betraying his friends and country
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.