22nd December 2012 – London:
Strangely for an inner city hotel, the lift is empty, so the woman wearing the long grey coat hurries through the open doors, pushing the stroller in front of her. She then turns so that she and the stroller face the open doorway, and just as she is about to push the button for the lift to take her to the fifth floor, she and her baby are joined by a tall man with very dark eyes, dark shoulder length hair, and facial stubble. The woman nods to the man, barely registering his presence, before she bends down to check her child, whose eyes had closed in sleep as they'd turned a corner while approaching the hotel. The woman tucks the blanket tightly around the child's legs, and then fondly pushes the little girl's blond curls back from her eyes. She smiles, awed by her daughter's perfection. The child's unblemished skin calls to her to reach out and stroke the soft cheek with her fingertips, while her baby's long eyelashes rest on her cheeks, the fingers of one hand still grasping the leg of a soft toy – a bright green penguin called William, a name suggested by her husband. William is rather plump, and with a grumpy expression, and her daughter loves him, and won't settle at night unless William is in the cot beside her, her small arm curved around his neck.
The woman then stands behind the child's stroller, her fingers curved tightly around the handle. She stares ahead of her, very aware of the man standing just behind her right shoulder. For reasons she cannot summon, his presence has triggered a familiar response, a frisson of discomfort which passes across her skin and down her back in a ripple. She cannot provide reasons why she reaches out to press the button for the second floor, which she knows has an exit door close to the lifts. Her hand is about to touch the button, but the man reaches out from behind her and grasps her wrist. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he says. Deep voice, continental accent, most likely French. The woman withdraws her hand, closes her eyes, and does something she hasn't done in a very long time. With her hands tightly grasping the handle of her daughter's stroller, she prays.
22nd December 2012 – Thames House:
Erin Watts' head is bent over the stack of files in front of her on the desk – Harry's desk – as Tariq Masood slides back the door and enters Harry's inner sanctum. Were Harry in situ he'd knock before entering, but Erin seems less precious about such formalities, and she has never once yelled at him, made unreasonable demands, or suggested he wear a proper shirt, one with buttons down the front.
"Tariq?" she says, lifting her head and raising her eyebrows.
"There's something you need to see."
Sensing the urgency in the younger man's tone, Erin quickly follows him from the office. He is hurrying, and so she suspects he may have something to show her requiring her immediate attention. The Christmas period has been far too quiet, and this worries her.
When they reach his work station, he has four windows open on his monitor. Two are running live CCTV feeds, and two are images which he has captured. Erin sits in the chair next to him, while he turns the monitor towards her. "These stills were captured only minutes ago," he says. "They are from the front foyer of the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel in -"
"I know where it is," Erin says quickly, "and that looks like Alain Regnier," she adds, pointing to one of the still images of a tall thin man with a long nose and shoulder length, dark wavy hair, as he enters the hotel through the front door. The Sir Walter Raleigh is chiefly a residential hotel, somewhere people can hire rooms and suites long term, and she knows Alain Regnier would not have a room in this hotel. He is more likely to rent a flat south or east of the city.
"It's a match all right," Tariq replies, "but he's ahead of me this time." With one click of his mouse the other two CCTV live images disappear, replaced by a feed of Regnier hurrying towards the lifts, and then entering a lift in which a woman stands facing him, a child in a stroller in front of her.
"Rewind that," Erin says, and Tariq does. He can detect the urgency in his Acting Section Head's voice.
"Stop there," she says, pointing to the monitor. "Can you enlarge the image of the woman?"
"Right," Tariq replies, and so he does. What they see has them both unable to speak. It is Tariq who recovers first. "I thought she was in the US, or somewhere," he says.
"So did I, but it's her all right, and she has a child."
"I wonder does Harry know about this."
Erin has been thinking the very same thing, but her mind is rushing ahead of her, doing rapid calculations. The child appears to be around ten to twelve months of age, which means it would have been born around December of the previous year, which would have it being conceived in March of the previous year, which was not long before Ruth had taken extended leave from the service. For the past fifteen months Harry has reduced his working hours, demanding he have most weekends free. How he's been spending his weekends, and where, is something he's managed to keep to himself, but the word on the Grid is that he has a house in the country, and that his weekends are spent there. Erin had not thought that unusual, given Harry must be considering retirement. Added to that, he took leave for all of the previous December, and he hadn't returned to work until mid January. This December he is taking leave from mid December until early in the new year. It is uncharacteristic for Harry take leave at all, let alone being off-Grid for weeks at a time.
"He must have a girlfriend," Alec White had suggested.
Dimitri had laughed, while Tariq had declared that men Harry's age are more likely to spend their time doing DIY, or gardening. Erin had remained silent during the discussion, believing that Alec may have been on to something.
Erin acts immediately. "I'll ring Dimitri. He's not far away, and he should have Tony with him." She had sent Dimitri and Tony to watch the flat of Abby Rocher, the girlfriend of Alain Regnier, and knowing Regnier had already entered the country, they were presuming he'd turn up at Abby's flat.
Erin is about to leave when Tariq says the very thing they are both thinking. "Shouldn't we call Harry?"
"Probably, but our first priority is to get to Regnier before he -"
"- kills Ruth."
Erin is already half way across the Grid floor, so Tariq's rather dark response enters the air around him, but falls short of other ears. Most of the team are out of the building, while some have taken an early leave. London has been deceptively, worryingly quiet, with only the usual crazies and the bomb-mad disaffected in the population creating a ripple through an otherwise busy and clamourous holiday season.
"Dimitri," she says quickly once he answers, there being no time for the niceties. She quickly describes the situation to him. "I'm about to ring the hotel so that they can have their own security staff on standby."
"I'm on my way," Dimitri says. Erin had heard him call out to Tony. "I don't know why we didn't think of keeping tabs on Ruth from the time she left."
"Because Harry specifically asked us not to."
Erin hears the engine of Dimitri's car kick over, and then a few quiet words being exchanged between him and Tony, one of their junior field officers, who has been shaping up well under Dimitri's tutelage.
"There's another thing," Erin says quietly, knowing that Dimitri is concentrating on driving through heavy traffic. "Ruth has a child with her – a baby of around twelve months of age."
"Jesus," Dimitri breathes, "does Harry know about this?"
"I … suspect he does. It's my guess that he is the child's father."
"Yeah, I'd thought the same thing," and Dimitri hangs up.
Erin's next call is to the hotel. Speaking to the security chief at the hotel, she discovers that one of the lifts has stalled between the second and third floors, and the front desk has received a call from a `man with a French accent' making certain demands. "We've already cleared the foyer, and have security staff on all of the ground floor, and the second and third floors. We can't seem to get the lift to move, which means it's being electronically jammed from -"
"- an external source," Erin finished for him. "Are you aware that the woman hostage has a child with her?"
"No," said the security chief, "that has not been mentioned, and we have not heard sound of a child down the phone."
Erin then informed the security chief of the brief history of Regnier, chiefly his background as a member of the French security service, and him having had a probable history with her own current section head. "He's currently on leave, but I'm about to contact him. There are at least two members of the security service due at your hotel within minutes. Please give them free rein to act as required. The woman in the lift with her .. abductor is former security service."
Her next phone call is to Harry Pearce.
Harry has just locked the front door of his house, and is on his way to his car, an overnight bag in his hand, when he receives the call. "What is it, Erin?" he says, irritation clear in his voice.
"You need to listen carefully," Erin begins, and she gives him a brief summary of what she knows about Ruth's abduction.
When she finishes, Harry is silent for some time. When he does speak his voice sounds tight. "She's being held hostage," he says, his voice surprisingly calm, given what Erin suspects of his relationship with Ruth.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because eighteen years ago Regnier's wife was accidentally shot and killed by a member of the German security service, and Regnier has always believed the shooter to be me. At the time the shooting occurred I was in London, and in a meeting with our Foreign Secretary. Alain Regnier warned me that if I ever married, he would come after my wife, and kill her in front of me."
"But … Harry, you're not married .. are you?"
Erin hears a pause as Harry weighs up how much he can tell her. "Ruth and I have been married for fifteen months. We decided to keep our marriage secret because .. of the possibility of situations such as this."
Erin hears the surge of the car engine as Harry starts the car. "How do you think he found out?" she says, her mind racing ahead of her, but getting nowhere.
"I wish I knew. I'm going straight there, Erin, and you need to remain on the Grid to ..."
"I'm coordinating, and Tariq is keeping electronic surveillance on the situation at the Sir Walter Raleigh, although the CCTV inside the lift is not operating."
"Right," Harry replies, "then we're doing all we can .. at least, for now."
Erin crosses the Grid floor (for what feels like the thousandth time) to speak with Tariq, who is busily following the events at The Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel. "Any change?" she asks him hopefully.
"Sorry, no," he says, glancing up at her quickly, and then dropping his eyes to his monitor, on which four different live feeds from the CCTV cameras at the hotel show a number of security staff either side of the doors to the lift in which Alain Regnier is holding Ruth and her daughter. There is no sign of progress, just a lot of waiting.
"I have another search for you to set up, but you appear to have your hands full. We need to know how it is Regnier knows about Ruth and Harry being married."
Erin's words bring a startled expression to Tariq's face. "Really?"
Erin nods. "Someone knows, and we need to find out who, and how it is they found out."
"I have to keep my eye on this, Erin, but someone needs to check out Regnier's family and close associates."
"I seem to remember he has a son, so perhaps we could begin with him," Erin suggests.
"I could give that job to Marley."
Ah, Marley. The girl who already knows absolutely everything. Twenty-five years old, and with nothing more to learn. "Is she the best you have, Tariq?"
"Next to me, yes. She's thorough and she thrives on challenge."
Erin can't argue with that. Does the amazing Marley also turn water into wine? Erin could do with a bucket of it right about now. "Right. I'll get on to Harry. Just keep an eye on her, won't you, Tariq."
"Sure," he says, but he isn't really listening.
In the end, it is Alec White whose actions save the day. Dimitri had rung him with the outline of what had happened to Ruth. "I need you at the hotel," Dimitri had said, trusting Alec's `old dog' instincts as much as his own. Around three minutes later Dimitri had rung Alec back. "Change of plan," he'd said. "I need you to get into the girlfriend's flat, and see if you can find anything incriminating .. or anything at all, really. We need something to draw out Regnier, and we're stuck. He's been talking to the chief of hotel security, and he's doing little more than playing a game of cat and mouse."
"I'm sitting outside the flat as you speak. I thought I'd check it out first."
"Then get yourself inside. I don't care how you do it, but gain entry."
Alec mentally rubs his hands together. Illegal entry to a residence; possible confrontation with the resident; thinking on his feet. His favourite things in the world. He has always loved being a spy. It's the rules, or more accurately, his resistance to following the rules, which had been his downfall, plus the early morning starts. Alec's metabolism barely kicks in until after midday.
Abby Rocher has a good job as a data entry analyst for one of the financiers in the City, so why she had chosen to live in such a run-down building is bewildering to Alec. He also lives in a run-down flat, but with one ex-wife and several ex-girlfriends later, he is minus two houses and a rather nice flat in North London. Bitter? Not at all. Just older and much wiser.
Alec circumvents the building until he reaches the window at the rear of the flat, the one which overlooks the back yard, little more than a large expanse of concrete. He could knock on the back door, but that would only alert anyone inside to his presence. A blind covers the window from inside, so he cannot be seen, so he scratches on the window with his fingernail, and then grabs a stick from ground and draws it along the brickwork beneath the window. Then he stands with his back flush against the wall beside the back door, and waits, his eyes turned towards the door. As expected, the door opens, and a face looks out.
Alec acts quickly, pushing the young man back into the flat, until his opponent's back is against a wall. Elbow against the younger man's Adam's apple, he speaks, his face so close he see the panic in the other man's eyes. "Who are you?" Alec says roughly, already having a fair idea.
Harry had arrived at the hotel, entering by the tradesman's entrance, and then he'd climbed the stairs at the rear until he reached the third floor. Dimitri nods, and then moves closer to him before speaking.
"You'd best stay out of the way for now," the younger man says in a low voice, his eyes intermittently darting to the closed doors of the lifts half way along the corridor.
Harry nods. He has no intention of getting himself shot by this lunatic. "Do you know what weapons he's carrying?"
Dimitri shakes his head. "One of the hotel security staff has phone contact with Regnier, but he hasn't told her much, other than he needs you to be here while he shoots Ruth, so … we can assume he has some kind of firearm."
"And my daughter?"
Dimitri doesn't flinch, or react in any way to Harry's question, other than a reassuring, "Regnier has said that the little girl is still asleep."
"How long is it since he abducted Ruth?"
"According to Tariq, it was a bit over fifty minutes ago."
"And he hasn't done anything?"
Dimitri hesitates before answering. "He's waiting for you to appear, which is why you need to remain here, out of his line of sight should the lift door open. I'm about to get closer, and I'll get Tony to do the same on the second floor."
Dimitri is surprised when Harry nods. The older man must be panicking, but he gives off the pretence of calm. Suddenly, taking him by surprise, Dimitri's phone rings. He takes it from his pocket and frowns when he sees the caller display. "Alec?" he says. "What have you found?" Dimitri looks up to see his boss's eyes displaying a glimmer of interest. He listens to Alec before relaying Alec's news to Harry. "I suspect this is good news," he says. "Alec is at the girlfriend's flat with Charlie Regnier, son of Alain. Charlie is a hacker -"
"Hacker?"
"He hacks into systems to steal information, and then sells it on the dark web."
"Dear God. Is nothing safe?"
"Not very, no, but the good news – or the less bad news – is that it's Charlie who is operating the lift remotely from the flat in Ilford, and Alec has suggested that the lad convince his father to let the baby go. To do that Charlie has to move the lift to the third floor, and then open the door."
Harry becomes more animated. "Will it work?"
"We don't know, but it won't help Alain's cause were he to hurt your daughter."
Harry nods. Given the situation, the cooperation of Regnier Junior is necessary. Without that, they were like a blind man stumbling around in a room with no windows. He waits while Dimitri stays on the phone, intermittently exchanging information with Alec. Who knew Alec White to be skilled at negotiation? He had been once, but with the chaos in his personal life, and his increasing alcohol consumption, Alec had lost his edge. He is still skilled at surveillance, and perhaps his having to deal with the son of Alain Regnier alone is just the challenge the man needs.
Harry can't lie to himself. He is frightened. He is frightened for Ruth, and he is frightened for his daughter. Were he to lose either of them, his life would be shattered. Were he to lose them both, he would not want to go on. Harry signals to Dimitri that he needs to speak with Alec, and so Dimitri hands over the phone.
"Alec, it's Harry."
"Harry. I hadn't expected you. I thought you were -"
"Listen to me. Is Regnier's son a reasonable man?"
"It seems so. I think I can," and he lowers his voice, so the other man cannot hear, "convince him to talk to his father, and perhaps to … talk him down."
"He needs to know that it wasn't me who killed Alain's wife. I had already returned to London when it happened. I have proof of that, and can show him."
Harry waits while Alec relays the message to Charlie Regnier. A brief discussion follows. "Charlie wants to know who it was shot his mother."
"I was told at the time that the shooter was a member of the German security service called Detlef Holst. He bore a … slight resemblance to me at the time, and then word got around that it was me who killed her. Unfortunately, Holst died while on an operation in Iraq in 2003."
Again Harry waits while Alec relays the message to the younger Regnier. There is a long moment of silence, and then Harry hears Charlie Regnier say quite clearly, in a lightly accented voice. "I will tell my father, but first he must release the child. I don't want blood to be spilled any more than you do. You must know that when I agreed to do this, I believed he would just hold her until her husband appeared. I hadn't expected … this."
"Did you hear that?" Alec says.
"I did. I'll hand you back to Dimitri."
To Erin's surprise, Marley has quickly sifted through all the information she could find on Alain Regnier. "There's quite a bit," she says, glancing up at Erin nervously, "but I think the most important person in his life must he his son, Charlie, who was only seven when the wife was killed. Charlie regularly visits London, and stays in the flat of Regnier's girlfriend, who works long hours, so the flat is empty during the day. It appears that the son has been in London for the last three weeks. It seems likely he has some kind of electronic set up in the flat, and he prefers working from there, especially since the French police have been sniffing around his flat in Reims."
Tariq, overhearing the conversation between Erin and Marley, interrupts. "Sorry, but I've just had a quick phone conversation with Tony. Alec is at the flat with Charlie Regnier."
"Charlie Regnier is a hacker," Marley adds, not wanting to be sidelined.
"Good work. Both of you." Erin is impressed. "Is anyone on comms?"
"Unfortunately no," Tariq replies. "Tony and Dimitri were just on a regular surveillance of the flat, and Alec has been on surveillance nearby. Neither job was considered high priority."
"Until now." Erin twists her mouth as she thinks ahead. "Dimitri has told me that Alec is attempting to convince Charlie to get his father to back down."
"Alec?" Tariq adds with some distaste.
"He was once very skilled at negotiation," Erin replies. "We need to have faith in him."
"Okay," says Tariq, lifting his head so that Erin can see his brown eyes above the top of the monitor.
Her team have worked well today. She is proud of them, and she hopes Harry will have cause to be proud of them also. Suddenly she is distracted by the ringtone of her mobile phone, which she takes from the pocket of her jacket. "Erin speaking," she says, followed by, "Calum. How are things in Leicester?"
Harry waits near an alcove, a distance of around twenty metres from the lifts, watching while Dimitri approaches the lift, and removes his firearm from its holster. Less than ten minutes have passed since Charlie Regnier had promised to attempt coaxing his father to back down and let the baby go. Every muscle in his body is tightly wound. He opens his mouth to move his jaw from side to side in an attempt to release some of the tension. He has been in situations similar to this countless times, but this time his whole life, his love, his happiness is at stake. He watches, barely breathing, as the door to the lift slowly opens and the stroller containing his precious daughter is pushed from the lift.
Harry watches as Dimitri stands facing the open door of the lift, his hands holding his Glock 17 pistol in front of his face, his eyes trained on the doorway. Harry waits while the lift door again closes, and then he jogs across the carpet to where his daughter is sitting in her stroller, awake now, her eyes frightened, her mouth open as if she is about to let out a howl. Then she sees Harry, and she calls out, half plea, half cry, "Dadda," she says. Harry bends down to remove the straps which hold her firm in her stroller, then picks her up, dropping William the penguin on the carpet. The child bursts into tears. "Dadda, Dadda," she whimpers, as Harry holds her against his body.