"They've gone offline," she said, still staring at a blank screen, where only moments before the screen had been divided into six panels, each an image from three different locations. "Lucas? What does that mean?"

Lucas noticed the dark circles under Ruth's eyes, her panic being tempered by weariness. They'd been in the uninspiring safe house for well over twenty hours without a break, and were still no closer to discovering where the raid – or the attack, or the assassination - was to take place. He sighed heavily, passing a large hand down over his face, and grasping his jaw, his palm covering his mouth. It was a gesture he used when he needed to think, but didn't know where to begin.

"I think you know what it means, Ruth."

Ruth did. It meant their surveillance had been discovered, and had been electronically blocked. At worst it could mean that there was a mole in MI5, and possibly even in Section D. At best they were being faced by an opposition unknown to them.

"It means you'll have to wake Harry."

"Me?"

"Who else?"

"Would that be … wise?"

Lucas couldn't contain his grin. Ruth and Harry were so obvious. They acted like they were fooling everyone into believing they were just colleagues. They'd not fooled him for a minute. He and Ros sometimes talked about it … not often, because they had so little time together themselves, but in the weeks before the bombing Ros had been known to begin a sentence with: Did you notice those two today? She'd never needed to explain who it was she'd meant.
"I'd rather were he to get mad, he'd be mad at you," Ruth mumbled.

"Well, Ruth, it's like this. I'd prefer were Harry to not be mad at all, and the only way to ensure a calm response from Harry is to send you to wake him, after all …"

"After all what?"

"He's used to waking to see your face next to him."

Lucas spoke the words very, very quietly, but distinctly, so that Ruth heard every syllable – all twelve of them. So they knew. The cat was out of the bag, and once out of the bag, it could never again be recaptured and stuffed back inside the bag. Lucas watched while Ruth struggled with her feelings of confusion and embarrassment. He knew she and Harry were each very private people, and together they valued their privacy even more. He understood that. He also thought it naïve and unnecessary. Just because a few of their closest colleagues knew they were in a relationship of intimacy, the world as they knew it was not about to change were they all to know about them.

"Who else knows?" Ruth said at last, and he noticed the hard set of her jaw, and the fire in her eyes.

"Well … most of us know. All senior Grid personnel – me, Ros, Tariq, Dimitri -"

"Dimitri? He's a massive gossip."

"Ruth … Dimitri is the one who regularly insists we all leave you and Harry alone to get on with it."

As soon as the words `get on with it' had left his mouth, Lucas closed his eyes, and waited for the outburst from Ruth. Nothing happened. When he opened his eyes, Ruth was on her feet and standing in front of him, looking down at him.

"Just don't tell Harry … that you know … all right?"

"Ruth, he already knows … that we know."

Ruth turned away for a moment, and he saw her struggling with that information. "All right," she said, "that can wait. Harry needs to know about this … this glitch."

Ruth headed straight up the stairs, and Lucas breathed out heavily, and then looked back at his own monitor. Unfortunately, nothing had changed.

Ruth opened the door to the upstairs bedroom, and slid quietly inside, pulling the door closed behind her. Very carefully she sat on the side of the double bed, and waited. The room was very dark, and it took a few minutes for her night vision to kick in. Harry was lying on his side under the duvet, facing away from her. The only sound she heard was his soft and regular breathing. She loved that sound. Harry's steady breathing told her that no matter what was happening in the world outside that room, all was well in her own world. She could sit there for the remainder of the night, listening to him breathing, or she could get on with why she was there.

"Harry," she said quietly, placing her hand on his shoulder. He kept breathing rhythmically, breathing out through his nose. "Harry … wake up."

He'd been out on his feet at midnight, having not slept the night previously, when Lucas had suggested he catch a few hours sleep. Ruth was tempted to leave him be, and to sort out the surveillance problems with just Lucas and Tariq, but Lucas knew something she'd not been privy to, and Harry's input was necessary. Ruth leaned closer to Harry's sleeping form, and turned her body so that she leaned most of her weight on her elbow. She squeezed his arm, and spoke close to his ear, "Harry, please wake up," and then she placed her lips against his ear. Her last gesture had him turning to face her, his eyes wide.

"Ruth? What's wrong?"

"How did you know it was me?"

"Lucas is not in the habit of kissing me on my ear, or anywhere else."

Smiling into his eyes, softened by sleep, Ruth found herself rubbing the palm of her hand up and down his upper arm, which was covered by the sleeve of his white undershirt. She wanted to find out for herself what he was wearing on the lower part of his body, but this wasn't the time, and nor was it the place. Instead, she removed her hand from his arm, and sat up. Harry's response was to reach out a hand to her, touching her cheek lightly with his knuckles. For a moment they held one another's eyes, and they each read the `if only' in the eyes of the other.

"It's the surveillance. We've been sprung, and the connection has been lost. We have no vision at all from either property."

"When did this happen?"

"Around ten minutes ago."

Harry turned from her and grabbed his watch from the bedside table. "Mmm … 3.27," he said, almost to himself. "That means it was around 3.15 when access was blocked."

Ruth nodded.

"What about Tariq? Does he know?"

"Just over an hour ago Lucas suggested he get some sleep, so … I'm supposing he doesn't."

Harry sat on the far side of the bed, rubbing his palms up and down his face in an effort to wake himself. "I could have done with another hour or two of sleep."

"I know. I'm sorry I had to wake you. It's just that Lucas and I had no contingency plan for this." For the first time since Harry had sat on the edge of the bed, Ruth noticed he was wearing black trunks. She smiled to herself, remembering the first time they'd undressed one another. Had it only been six weeks ago? They'd both been so terribly nervous, trying hard to not be caught ogling the other as garments were discarded, one by one. When he removed his hands from his face, he turned to face her, his expression unreadable. In the space of only a few seconds he'd gone from being her lover to her section head.

"Perhaps I should have told you this before I came upstairs," Harry said quietly, barely holding eye contact with her, "but I was hoping it would be a straight forward op, with no necessity for engaging the back up plan."

"There's a back up plan?"

Harry nodded, looking her in the eye, his own eyes soft and gentle. "I don't know if there's urgency, but we have to act as though there is. We've never been certain about the identity of the target."

"And here was I believing we have no idea who it is has created the threat."

"That too," Harry said as he stood and walked to the chair where he'd thrown his clothes. He pushed his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket, and drew out a slip of paper. "With the kind of surveillance we're using, any interference can only be coming from close by. I chose this particular safe house for a reason."

"Because it's a bit of a dump and no-one in their right mind would be using it?"

"No, it's because of its location. On this slip of paper is an address of a property less than half a mile from here. It's the proximity of this property which had us choosing this particular safe house."

He handed the paper to Ruth, and when she read the address, her eyes widened, and she took in an audible breath. "But … how? How is … Harry, what's going on?"

Harry had already pulled on his socks, and was buttoning his trousers. "Ring Tariq. He knows what to do."

Ruth turned towards the door, the slip of paper in her hand. Her overriding feeling was one of hurt. Harry had kept her out of the loop. He never did that. As well as being his lover in their private lives, she was his confidante at work, so why had he not told her everything?

"Ruth," he said, as she opened the door, and turned to face him as he spoke. "I'm sorry I didn't warn you of this. I thought it best you didn't know .. for your own safety. There was no knowing this would happen. It's … unexpected. The backup plan was only formed on the off chance …"

Ruth stood for a moment, internally debating as to whether this was the right time and place to address her need - or not – of his protection. She decided that the discussion could wait.

Once downstairs Ruth turned on the kettle, and while waiting for the water to boil, she rang Tariq. He had only managed to sleep for an hour, and while she'd been upstairs with Harry, he had rung Lucas. When she read him the address, all he said was, `Just as I thought.' She wanted to ask him what it meant, but this wasn't the time. By the time she'd made three cups of coffee and carried them into the living room, Harry was downstairs, talking to Lucas. Both men turned as she entered the room with the tray, and both thanked her for the coffee. They each sipped their drinks in silence, and it was Ruth who spoke first.

"Are you going to tell me, or do I need to get online and examine the chatter?"

Ruth noticed Lucas avert his eyes, and concentrate once more on the screen of his laptop. She noticed Harry's chest lift as he sighed heavily. Ruth was sure she could read embarrassment on his face.

"By the time I finish telling you the whole story as we know it, it may all be over."

"Nicholas Blake has been in on this?"

"He … may have been the brains behind it, or ..." Harry glanced at Lucas, but seeing him busy, he turned back to Ruth. "The electronic blocking had to have come from his house."

"He did this?"

Again Harry sighed, and he sat on the wide green sofa, and patted the seat beside him, an invitation to Ruth to sit beside him. She remained where she was, in the middle of the living room, with Harry directly in front of her, and Lucas to her right, but still in her peripheral vision. For once in her life, Ruth had the height advantage, and she wasn't about to give it up so that Harry could feel better about his decision to leave her out of the planning of the operation. She stared at Harry. She knew that his operational decisions were his business, but she couldn't help the sharp hurt and the irritation she felt. Suddenly Lucas spoke up, his eyes still on the monitor.

"The electronic signal is coming from the basement in his house, which doesn't necessarily mean he is the one doing it. Someone may have set something up in his basement, and is controlling it remotely from elsewhere." Lucas looked up and held Ruth's eyes. "Tariq's job is now to identify the source of the blocking signal. Even though it appears to come from the former Home Secretary's residence, it is probably originating elsewhere in the Greater London area."

Ruth hesitated, taking it all in. "So ….. either Nicholas Blake is behind this, or perhaps he is the target." Suddenly the penny dropped, and Ruth looked right at Harry. "Why aren't you getting him out of there?"

"My belief all along has been that he is safer in his own home than anywhere else. He has his own security detail. I had already contacted the chief of CO19, authorising Tariq to give the call for them to act."

"Act? How?"

"We need them to be close by, ready to act when – and if – we need them. Tariq has the software which we hadn't the time to set up here. Besides, he's the only one who knows how to use it. He can't know who the target is until he traces the electronic signal. Right now, my bet is that it's Blake."

"There's only two and a half hours to go until daylight," Lucas said, somewhat unnecessarily.

No matter from which direction she looked at it, Ruth was still annoyed … annoyed with Harry, annoyed with the boys' club that MI5 so often could be, and annoyed with herself for caring as deeply as she did for this enigmatic man who, as of fifteen minutes ago, was even more enigmatic.

"Has Blake's security been checked? Could one of them be …?"

"Tariq is running that as we speak, Ruth," Lucas said quietly, lifting his eyes from the monitor to watch her.

Ruth suddenly saw a new set of possibilities. "Harry …" she said softly, watching him lift his eyes to hers, "could this be an elaborate scheme by Nicholas Blake to take his own life, while at the same time implicating whoever it is targeting him?"

Lucas turned in his chair, and faced Harry. "Harry," he said, his face serious, his voice deepening, "I think we should get over there … now."

Harry only took a moment of thinking time before he stood, his back straight. "I think you're right," he said, heading into the kitchen.

When Harry returned to the living room, he was tucking his Glock pistol into the holster under his jacket. "I'll meet you downstairs," he said to Lucas, who quickly took the hint, and left the flat. "Ruth, I'm sorry, but this has to be done."

"Only a minute ago, you said that Tariq was calling CO19. Which is it?"

"Lucas and I will be working in tandem with CO19. I think our esteemed former HS has been up to something, and I'd quite like to find out before he goes out in a blaze of glory, with his reputation intact."

"What reputation? Harry – what are you not telling me?"

Harry ignored her questions. "I have to be there to prevent loss of life, and that includes his. You do understand … don't you?"

Ruth nodded. "It doesn't mean that I have to like it. Just … don't get shot." With her hand Ruth brushed her hair away from her face in a gesture reminiscent of a small girl.

By this time they were standing quite close to one another, but not quite touching. The moment was broken by the ringtone of Harry's phone, which he grabbed from the pocket of his jacket.

"Yes?" he snapped. "Very well. I'm on my way." He closed the phone, and when he looked at Ruth his eyes were soft and sad. "I'll be back soon," he said very quietly, before he leaned into her, and gave her a brief kiss on her lips. And then he was through the door, and the flat was again empty and quiet.

"You'd better be," Ruth said into the silence, before she headed back to her own computer terminal.