"Elena was my asset."
"I've read the file, Harry."
"It was a long time ago. Things were different. I was different."
"You were a risk taker. You still are."
"I was hot headed, young, and yes I took risks but didn't you, Ruth?"
"Only about what to buy from the tuck shop. I was still at school, Harry."
He sighs .
"At the time we were," he hesitates, "...very close."
"That's your business, not mine."
"I need to tell you about this, Ruth, I need to explain."
"No, you don't, not to me."
"Especially to you," he insists.
She looks at him, head tilted, like a bird but her face is blank, impassive and yet in it is a challenge to him, a challenge to stop right there and not go on.
"There's only one person I need to explain this to," he says softly.
"Yes, her husband."
"Ruth, please."
"Harry, listen to me. Unless this impinges upon what we do, upon Gavrik, upon our agents then I don't need to know how much you loved her, or if you still do because it has nothing to do with me."
"I don't love her."
"I don't need to know."
"I did, I admit that I did, once."
"We all have pasts, Harry."
"Yes, and I've probably got more than most!"
"So stop trying to explain it to me."
"I can't."
"What do you want from me Harry, approval, forgiveness, a shoulder to cry on, what?"
His eyes are unblinking .
"You know what."
It hangs in the air until he breaks the moment.
"We have to find out what's going on, Ruth, I need to keep her close."
"Close?"
"Yes. I may need to …"
"Cultivate her?"
"Yes."
"Seduce her?"
"Well…"
"Screw her?"
"Ruth …"
"You may need to, it may be the only way to 'keep her close', wouldn't you say?"
He cannot answer.
"And if you do, Harry, then it still has nothing to do with me."
"I won't."
"You might."
"I won't."
"How do you know?"
"Because whether you love me, or don't love me, whether you ever did, or never have, it doesn't matter. I know what I feel."
"And if the only way of keeping Gavrik alive, of making sure the secrets stay buried, of making sure you are safe, I'm safe, is to sleep with Elena, then what?"
He hesitates.
"Not that easy is it?"
"I'd do anything to keep you safe, Ruth, you know that."
"Anything within reason?'
He nods slowly
"Would you keep me safe by screwing her?"
"You said it didn't matter to you."
"Maybe I lied."
"I don't want Elena, Ruth."
"You want me?"
"You know I do."
His face is filled with honesty, with love.
It is her turn to pause.
"I don't want you to sleep with her," she admits.
"I won't."
"No matter what?"
"No. I'll find another way, whatever it takes."
"As long as the other way isn't to bed Gavrik instead!" she says.
He laughs.
"No, don't worry, Ruth, I have no plans to bed anyone."
"No one?"
"No one Russian."
