There were four of them gathered in the briefing room. Malcolm was seated on one side of the table, Jo on the other. Lucas was standing and had propped himself against the wall, arms folded, while Ros was prowling the length of the room.
Harry was still missing, and no demands had been received, so the team felt very much in the dark. They were discussing who might have wanted to take him, and in doing so were trawling through the past. Recollecting Yalta had made Ros feel somewhat uncomfortable, though the team had obligingly omitted to mention her role when recounting the story to Lucas.
Lucas was more in the dark than any of them, given his fairly recent return. He soon heard about Tessa's betrayal, Angela's infiltration of the grid, and the plot to eliminate the whole team with a car bomb.
Jo reminded them about the Cotterdam incident and explained for Lucas' benefit, "A couple of years ago, Harry was arrested and accused of covering up the fake deaths of seven terrorists. Someone made it look like he was a mystery man, codenamed Fox, at a top secret meeting. But someone else took the fall for him. Chose to take the fall and disappeared. We never found out who Fox really was, if they even existed."
None of them needed reminding about the most recent threat. It was only days since Connie had murdered Ben. Her betrayal was the worst of all, and they didn't know if anyone else was connected.
Ros suddenly sprung into action, and headed towards the door, "Alright. Jo, I want you to go back over every inch of CCTV footage and follow Harry from the moment he left the grid. There's got to be something we missed.
"Malcolm, we need to know what Connie was up to, especially over the last few days. I've got a nasty feeling that there's someone else we need to to be looking for.
"Lucas, you get over to Harry's house and see what you can find. I'm going to see if there's anything in his office that can point us in the right direction."
*****
Harry's office wasn't much help, save for the bottle of whiskey which Ros helped herself to, but Lucas' trip to Harry's house was surprisingly revealing.
Carefully letting himself into the house, Lucas realised how little he really knew about his boss. The bookshelves were filled with a diverse collection of reading material: Shakespeare, Dickens, and somewhat surprisingly even some John Le Carre and a Jane Austen novel. The contrasting musical styles of Nina Simone and Led Zeppelin lay next to the stereo, worn covers signaling much handling over the years. There was also a piano, and walls filled with tasteful artwork.
As he entered the small, tidy kitchen, a scratching noise from the laundry caught his attention. He slowly opened the door, and Harry's dog Scarlet peered around it cautiously. Lucas chuckled and squatted down to pat her, reading the name tag on her collar and noticing a pair of cats curled up asleep on a pile of sheets. He looked in the almost empty refrigerator for something for the animals to eat. Scarlet obviously wasn't meant to be a guard dog!
It was in the office upstairs that he spent the most time, even though there was very little to see. Harry might have taken files home to read sometimes, but he would never have left them there. The files went straight back to the office when he did. And he was far too experienced to leave his computer openly on offer.
There were missed calls on the phone, mostly from the grid over the last few hours, but no calls or messages from anyone else.
The desk had two drawers, and locked in the bottom one was a small box and an envelope. The box contained photos that were obviously of his children and some letters, but the envelope was filled with postcards.
Some of the postcards seemed innocent enough: I'm doing fine. Wish you could see this place, it's beautiful. Others were clearly asking for Harry's help: I wish I could come home. Is there any hope?
They were postmarked from all over Europe, and a few from further afield. All written by the one person - no names, just a simple: R xx.
Lucas put the postcards back in the envelope, and left the house with them, cautiously watching out for nosy neighbours and counter surveillance.
