Chapter 1

Sir Harry Pearce sat in his office taking in every detail about the woman sat in front of him. She was taller than he and was slender but had curves in all the right places. She had copper hair that hung in loose yet perfectly formed waves to just below her shoulders. Her skin was pale and clear; it contrasted hugely with the brilliant emerald green of her eyes.

Harry noted, as he always did, that she was well dressed in black jeans tucked into flat, grey ankle boots and a green wrap around cardigan.

"Miss Amber Hayward," Harry read from her file, which was on the table in front of him, "Age 28, birthday 27th March 1982. You have been transferred from Section K to Section D for the sole reason that Section K seems to have become 'overrun by newbies'-"

"My boss' words. Not my own," Amber interjected then smiled hesitantly.

"So why has he sent you here?"

"He didn't – I sent myself. Section K wasn't for me. Plus, the newbies they keep getting always seem to be favoured." Harry looked up at her and she blushed. "I'm sorry, I know, I'm a little arrogant. It's one of my fatal flaws."

"Everyone has a flaw, but you need to loose it if you want to fit in here. This job comes before everything; you need to forget your pride, your arrogance, even your morals – to a certain extent at least. If you don't, then you have no hope of ever fitting in. And a word of warning – don't think that you don't need to fit, because you do. Section D is all about working together. Remember that," Harry said sternly.

Amber blanched at his words; she had heard that he was formidable, but hadn't quite realized how much. "I'm sorry, Sir Harry, I'll try and be more careful."

"Glad to hear it. Let's dispense with the formalities for now, and I'm going to put this incident behind me and pretend it never happened, okay?"

She nodded cautiously.

Harry closed her file and stood up, "I'll just introduce you to everyone and then you can start working." He turned to her, "I'm assuming you know that the Swine Flu outbreak has now reached pandemic level?"

Amber nodded, "Yes, but it's mostly further up north, isn't it?"

Harry shook his head gravely, "I'm afraid not. It seems someone in Cabinet has recently had a meeting with someone in Mexico. Idiot, he shouldn't have gone. Still, now the PM is going mad and I'm just hoping that the press don't find out. God knows what the country would do if it got leaked…"

"Go into free-fall?" Amber suggested.

"Precisely," replied Harry. "This is why it would be better if it didn't get leaked."

They both left his office and stepped into the main part of the Grid. "Ah, Amber this is Ros Myers, my section chief," Harry said gesturing to a tall, thin woman with short blonde hair, who had just approached them both. "Ros this is Amber, our new recruit."

"Pleasure," said Ros shaking Amber's hand.

"Nice to meet you." Amber smiled nervously. After her incident with Harry she wanted to make a better impression on the rest of her colleagues.

Ros smiled briefly at her then turned to Harry, "We've just had some news from Jo and Ben, and they'll be back soon. The Home Secretary's just called and he wants to see us, with you preferably, but you can come once you're done showing Amber around, and I'll wait for you?"

"Yes, you go ahead and I'll catch you up in a bit," Harry agreed.

"It was nice meeting you," Ros said, turning back to Amber.

"You too."

Ros smiled politely, then turned and walked briskly down the corridor, her patent heels clacking on the tiled floor.

"Who are Jo and Ben?" Amber asked as she followed Harry to the computer area.

"Jo and Ben are our other junior case officers. They're both currently meeting with people from WHO. They're getting all the procedures should the Swine Flu get even worse."

A small woman with wiry grey hair came around the corner carrying a large pile of files. She stopped when she saw Harry and placed the files on a nearby table. "Amber Hayward I imagine, I'm Connie."

"Pleasure to meet you, Connie," Amber replied.

Connie smiled warmly at her, then said to Harry, "Has Ros told you about Jo and Ben?"

Harry nodded, "Yes she has, thank you, Connie."

Connie nodded, then said, "Lucas and Malcolm are over there, I don't know what they're doing, but I mentioned our new recruit had arrived." She smiled again at Amber before disappearing behind the pile of files and carrying them over to another desk, presumably her own.

Amber followed Harry's gaze to a computer screen with two men by it. He turned to her and said quietly, "One thing you should know about Lucas before you meet him: for the past eight years he has been in a Russian prison. He was caught in Moscow and has suffered greatly. I don't know quite the extent of what happened to him because I don't dare to ask, and I get them impression it pains him too much to discuss it, but I do know this: he was tortured continuously for 17 days. He hasn't been back long but he has been through more than anyone here, and I would advise you not to ask him about it."

She felt her gaze lingering on the two men, and found herself wondering what kind of job she was getting herself into by joining Section D.

"Malcolm, Lucas!" Harry called to them both. Hearing their names made them both jump. "That involved with your work, are we?" He joked as the two men turned around. "I'm just here to introduce our latest recruit: this is Amber Hayward. She's been transferred from Section K."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Malcolm," said the shorter and older of the two men. He smiled warmly and the smile reached his eyes, making them sparkle with an inner youth.

"I'm Lucas," said the other man. He was tall and handsome with jet-black hair and perfect features. His icy blue eyes met her gaze and lingered on her long after she had shaken his hand and turned away.

"Nice to meet you both," Amber said. Section D certainly was worlds apart from Section K; she hadn't quite made up her mind whether or not she liked the people, though she usually reserved her judgement until she had gotten to know them a bit more. Amber noticed that Harry and Lucas shared a silent conversation and felt her cheeks flush slightly when Lucas looked in her direction.

"I look forward to working with you," Lucas said.

"Here's a list of all our telephone and mobile numbers and addresses for you to put into your phone. We already have yours. Just make sure to lose the bit of paper after," Harry said handing a small, square of paper to her. "If you need anything don't be afraid to ask, we don't bite."

"Much." Lucas smirked at Malcolm, presumably sharing some inside joke.

"Now I really must go and meet Ros, before she starts giving the politicians both barrels" said Harry, turning to leave.

"Shame, you should let her do that. I'm sure they'd appreciate it," Malcolm said. "They drive me up the wall sometimes."

"Be thankful that you rarely have to meet with them," Harry said, before leaving them, and hurriedly walking down the corridor.

Malcolm turned to Amber after Harry had left, and asked, "So, what does Section K do exactly? Isn't it something to do with immigration?"

"Yeah," said Amber. "It's all about immigration and, more recently, illegal immigration. It's a very tiring job and requires an extensive amount of research."

"So you didn't enjoy it much then?" Lucas questioned.

Amber shook her head, "Not in the slightest. Counter-terrorism seems much more exciting. So anyway: work, before Harry comes back and sees that I haven't actually done anything yet. What do we have here?"

"This is all the information that we've received about Swine Flu. So far, there are more confirmed deaths in Mexico and America." Malcolm sighed.

"Great. More panic. Is there anything more about this idiot in cabinet?" Lucas asked.

"He's not dead yet," Malcolm said, his face deadpan.

Lucas tried to stifle a laugh, then shook his head exasperatedly and moved back over to his desk.

"Shall I run you through how to use our systems? Obviously they're slightly different because they're counter-terrorism, but I'm sure you'll pick it up easily," Malcolm showed Amber to her desk. It was beside Lucas' and opposite an empty desk.

"Whose desk was that?" She asked, gesturing to it hesitantly.

Malcolm's face dropped. "Adam Carter's. He was blown up on remembrance Sunday last year; terrible shame."

"Oh Malcolm, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." She instantly regretted saying anything.

Malcolm smiled sadly and shook his head, "Don't worry about it, there have been many deaths here."

Amber smiled back at him and then sat down at her new desk, her mind already in work-mode.

"Been working hard?" Harry asked some time later as he walked past Lucas, Amber and Malcolm on the way back to his office, having returned from his meeting from the Home Secretary.

"Naturally," Malcolm replied.

"Is there anything new?" He paused by Malcolm's desk.

"A couple more confirmed deaths, none in this country, and nothing more from whatshisname in cabinet. Anything from Jo and Ben?" Lucas said.

"They'll be back soon, we'll find out then. Can you copy the file on Section D for Amber?" Harry asked Malcolm.

"Of course." Malcolm moved to the filing cabinet, pulled out the requested file, and then headed for the photocopier.

"I'll be in my office if you need me," Harry said to Amber and Lucas.

"Why do we need to know about these cases of Swine Flu?" Amber asked after he had gone.

"It's just a protocol; everyone at MI5 needs to know what's going on, even if it isn't anything to do with our section. It's just in case," Lucas explained.

"Here, this will explain everything you need to know about Section D. I suggest you read up on it, when you have time of course." Malcolm returned to his desk and handed her the copied file.

"Thank you."

"Looks like Jo and Ben are back." Lucas nodded towards the door as a man and a woman entered. Calling to them, he said, "Hey come over here and meet our newbie."

"Hi newbie, I'm Jo," said the woman brightly. She was short and slender, with white blonde hair cut in a crop. "What's your real name?"

"Hi. I'm Amber." She shook Jo's outstretched hand.

"You're newbie to us. I'm Ben," said the man, who was tall with dark skin.

"Nice to meet you Ben."

Amber wasn't sure that she liked her new nickname, to her it seemed a bit rude, demeaning even. But,

it seemed she was stuck with it, for now at least.

"So, what's the story? What are we doing?" Lucas asked.

"At the moment? Nothing. Basic procedures – if anything happens MI5 will be working with the other civil service agencies to ensure that the nation is protected." Ben yawned.

"You'd better not let Harry catch you yawning," Malcolm warned.

"Yeah…I know. Is he in his office?" Ben asked and Malcolm nodded. "C'mon Jo, better go report to him.