The physical pain he was coping with, he could deal with it. But it was the mental torture that was resulting in dream filled nights causing him to wake up bathed in sweat, that after weeks of interrogation were beginning to take their toll. For what already felt like a lifetime in one of the CIA's most secure units, they had tried and failed to get him to confess. Guilty of plenty he was and ready to admit it to anyone who asked it of him, but they had no interest in what he may or may not have done, other than in getting him to confess to the crime that he alone could tell them that he was innocent, the murder of his friend James Coaver. Lying there in his featureless hell with a small chink of light heralding the start of yet another dawn, he stole himself against the prospect of another day and of their relentless questioning.
With the morning came the memories that never left him of the last time that he had seen her, burrowing their way into his consciousness to torment him. Worse still, was his belief that if it continued like this that he would eventually lose his mind and that even the sound of her voice and the gentle touch of her hand, would be lost to him forever. They were all that he had left to sustain him. As if it hadn't been bad enough that he'd had to say goodbye to her for what he knew to be the last time, they'd had an audience. William Towers, who he had almost come to consider as a friend, had watched on unmoved as he'd made one last desperate attempt to tell her to make a life for herself, before he'd stolen the luxury of a kiss and then walked away.
Four weeks earlier.
'He got what was coming to him and we simply don't have the resources, accept it, ' Erin told her outraged colleagues, when two days after Harry had been dragged away to God knows where, Callum suggested that as they all knew Harry to be innocent, that they should find a way to convince the Americans and to bring him home. The once 'indifferent towards Harry' Callum, had been going out with Catherine with Harry's blessing for some time and felt entirely differently, so whatever Erin's motives were, which he imagined went far deeper than her talk of lack of resources, he was determined not to let this go.
'For Christ sake Erin,' he yelled at her, 'how would you feel if this was you that we were discussing and someone told me that I had to go to your home and pass this message on to Rosie?' brought no response, although Callum couldn't quite believe that with the mention of Erin's daughter, he hadn't made some sort of impression, despite her not answering.
Beth, Dimitri and Tariq had sat watching but had so far said nothing, although all of them were silently begging Callum to continue. Erin was new, parachuted in by the DG from heaven knows where and here she was, daring to write Harry off as though he didn't matter. He was worth more than that, in fact compared to Erin he was almost a god in their eyes and totally indispensable and if it meant them conspiring behind Erin's back and working in their spare time away from the grid to prove him innocent, then they meant to do it.
'What about Ruth, have you written her off as well or even given a thought as to what this must be doing to her, you do realise that it was Harry's birthday yesterday?' Beth finally chipped in, realising too late that she had inadvertently divulged some information to which Erin might not be privy. To hell with it she thought, Ruth was her friend who had offered her a roof over her head which despite Ruth's need for privacy, she was still enjoying. Remembering Ruth's devastated and defeated expression when she'd come back to the flat the previous evening and then finding her gone when she'd woken up that morning, she owed her this, so ploughed on. 'She's upped and gone Erin, to who knows know where, how can you be so bloody heartless?' Had no effect other than for Beth to watch their new Section Head's eyes grow even more steely and determined.
'Enough,' Erin ordered them, before she pushed back her seat and walked out of the meeting room and back into what only she deemed to be her office.
Dimitri and Beth were fuming and Tariq had sat through the entire exchange with his head in his hands, close to tears. He'd been the one that had stood at Ruth's side when Harry had walked to what they had believed to be his certain death on the rooftop with Lucas, he'd seen her reaction then and he barely dared to imagine how she must be feeling now.
'What the hell do we do?' asked Beth of Callum, who knew Erin far better than the rest of them did.
'To be honest, I really don't know,' he told them, 'but we make a start by digging out as much footage as we can in the hope that we can prove Harry innocent and then we go to the DG or if that fails to the Home Secretary and ask for his help, with or without Erin,' was received with determination but with little hope that they would be able to work against the system.
'Come on Tariq, we'll sort this out,' Beth told him, putting her arm around his shoulders. 'You start looking and we'll do our best to keep Erin off your back.'
They weren't the only ones that were unhappy, at the Home Office WilliamTowers was close to combusting. He had a crucially important meeting with the PM to explain why the Head of Counter Terrorism had been extradited, and with less than an hour to go, he'd been told that his security adviser had apparently gone missing. Shouting at her PA Margot, had resulted in her bursting into tears and racing towards the cloakrooms, with the real possibility of him getting reported for his less than savoury language that had ricocheted like a bullet onto the grapevine of misinformation that was Whitehall. But Christ all bloody mighty he needed some help here, to explain his way out of yet another sticky situation and Ruth Evershed wherever she was, was his only road to salvation.
'Back off,' Dolby had told him, when he had attempted to try and intervene on Harry's behalf, never realising until it was too late, that the politics that went on in the higher echelons of the Security Services could be even more devious that those between scheming politicians at Westminster, and that one Harry's own would stretch to such lengths to get rid of him. Moreover he was being set up as the bad guy, all because of a small indiscretion with an Under-Secretary years ago when he'd worked at the Treasury.
Margot without Ruth couldn't function. They'd become a team in what was well known to be a male dominated environment and she'd loved it. Sir Harry was different, he was always courteous to her despite his sometimes gruff exterior, whereas Towers who she didn't like, spent most of his day muttering at his female staff and eating his way to a long overdue coronary. Abandoning the idea of hiding herself in the ladies for the rest of the morning and finding herself virtually redundant without her new boss, she headed out along the embankment in search of somewhere to sit, to clear her head and try and decide the best course of action to help Ruth. She'd been trying to reach her on her mobile for the best part of two hours, but having got no response she called Thames House and Beth who she knew to be Ruth's friend, begging her to come out and meet her.
Not knowing Margot other than by reputation and what Ruth had told her, Beth stalled, telling Margot that she was still trying to find out what had happened to Ruth and would ring her later. She was however curious and if Margot did have some useful information, then perhaps she ought to talk to her.
'Maybe it would be less obvious if we met after work,' she suggested to her, 'far less eyes after dark if you understand my meaning,' seemed to calm Ruth's very agitated PA.
It had been in Tower's power to delay Harry's extradition, which would have given them time to prove him innocent, but he'd seemingly done nothing and before Beth met anyone else from the Home Office, she needed to clear it with Callum.
With the pretence of checking the latest intel, Tariq had taken himself to what had once been Ruth's desk, which meant that Erin was in his direct line of sight and he would be forewarned if she made a move in his direction. The initial task that Callum had set him was to search back through the files and find out everything there was to know about their new boss and more precisely what she'd been doing, during the weeks that had led up to the current situation. Callum's instructions were quite clear. He had to do everything in a way that would be untraceable, which at least made that part of his job very simple.
Callum was well aware that they would be under scrutiny so had arranged that the headquarters for their first clandestine evening meeting would be at the home of the recently retired Malcolm, who Tariq had replaced. Callum knew that he had worked with Harry for years, in fact according to Catherine they had been close friends and he had a reputation second only to Ruth's, for the ability to bend the technological system. Tariq's remit would a clear one, to find out what the hell was going on and then jointly with Malcolm, work out who was behind it and why.
'Any luck?' asked Dimitri, delivering him a cup of coffee and planting himself in the seat next to Tariq.
'Zilch,' wasn't very helpful and not what Callum would want to hear, so he left Tariq to his ministrations and headed in the direction of his Section Head's desk where he and Beth were deep in conversation, about an asset that Beth was supposedly going to meet that evening, called Margot.
'Go ahead if you think it will help, but be careful what you tell her,' Callum was saying, obviously dismissing it as probably of little use and wanting get back to the matter in hand. 'What I don't understand,' he continued, 'is why in the name of God would anyone want to get rid of Harry and now apparently Ruth as well, we have to find the connection.'
'Please tell me that you're not suggesting that they've succeeded in extraditing Ruth as well?' asked Beth, as she tried to blank out the picture of Ruth in a cell somewhere and being terrorised. God almighty, she wouldn't survive a day never mind a week or longer, she was gentle and kind not bloody tough and blood splattered as she'd been on endless occasions. Something that she'd persuaded Tariq to delete from her personal file. Worse still, were Ruth and Harry together with some bastard trying to get Harry to confess to something that he hadn't done, it was curtains. He'd confess to anything to protect Ruth.
'Sorry guys, I need some air,' she told them, heading up to the roof terrace to give herself time to calm down.
A few weeks ago, during the course of what had turned out to be a very long evening, Beth had come home late and found Ruth half way through a bottle of wine and whispering sweet nothings down the phone before saying goodnight rather abruptly when she'd appeared. Pouring herself a large glass and then opening another bottle to compensate for the fact that she was drinking Ruth's wine, she'd finally managed to get her to confess that she'd been talking to Harry. Ruth had looked guilty, loved up in her opinion, but despite her efforts she'd failed to get her Ruth to elaborate. Could she and Harry be having some sort of sordid affair? Beth rather doubted it, Ruth certainly didn't seem the type, although there had been an evening earlier in the week, when she'd been sure that Ruth had stayed out all night.
There was clearly something going on and being curious and at a loss for something to do when the grid's workload had miraculously ground to a halt soon afterwards, she'd hacked into Ruth's record. It was spotless and full of praise, including a report that Harry had written which had resulted in Ruth being transferred to the Home Office. Was there a connection that had taken them both to where they were now she hoped not, or was there something that Harry had confided in to Ruth during the years that she had been his analyst? Either way, they were both in deep trouble and somehow or other, she and the rest of their colleagues had to fix it.
There was also the possibility that she was reading more into this than was necessary and that Ruth simply needed time to come to terms with Harry's extradition. If that meant that she'd taken herself off for a few days, then good luck to her, she would back her all the way. That didn't ring true though. Ruth never took time off work even when she was poorly so disappearing without an explanation was a totally uncharacteristic thing for her to have done. Unlikely as it might be, another dark thought had crept into Beth's head that she discounted immediately. Rather than face life without Harry, Ruth had done something silly. Maybe she did need to talk to Margot, before they went to see Malcolm?
'Good heavens no,' Malcolm exclaimed, as he showed them into the tiny bedsit and Callum in an attempt to lighten the mood, suggested that he lived there. 'This has been Harry's bolthole for years. We've had many a clandestine meeting here when the power's-that-be have attempted to conspire against us, although never to this extent,' was said with genuine concern in his voice.
'We're all new to this Malcolm, we don't have the history to back up any of our theories and to be honest we don't really know where to start,' was Callum's honest assessment as he dusted off a chair and suggested Malcolm sit down.
'Well I certainly have the history,' Malcolm told them with a wry grin, 'so ask away, because I'll do anything to help Ruth and Harry, other than to talk about their personal lives.'
Admirable thought Beth. It was exactly the loyalty that they had been hoping for from Malcolm, but this was personal in some way, she was sure about that and the connection needed to be made.
'Time isn't on our side Malcolm, we need your help and I'm absolutely certain that with Harry and Ruth quite possibly fighting to stay alive, whatever you tell us wouldn't be considered to be an indiscretion.' She told him.
Whilst Tariq made them all a cup of tea, Malcolm considered what Beth had said. She was right, it wasn't the time to hold back, they needed to know.
'What I am about to tell you, is absolutely confidential and must never be repeated beyond these four walls,' he told them, waiting until they all nodded before he continued. 'This isn't the first time that Harry and Ruth have been separated, which if you dig deeply enough you will find out. I'm not suggesting that what has happened now has any baring on that, but I would stake my life on the fact that whoever has orchestrated this, was around at the time.'
'And?' ask Callum when Malcolm paused.
'Almost from the first moment that Ruth arrived on the grid, there was a connection between them, it was uncanny. Ruth came to us from GCHQ, she was brilliant and just what we needed to shake the section up. Harry was besotted with her and eventually plucked up the courage to ask her out. But when some of their colleagues started to whisper behind her back, she put a stop to what could have blossomed into a full blown relationship. During the years that followed we unfortunately lost a lot of field officers and Harry grew to rely on Ruth, to the point where if he wasn't around, then everyone deferred to her for information, a situation that still exists today. Harry's innocent so presumably has been set up, but why on earth Ruth's been targeted again or just gone missing, I have no idea.'
'So we're stuffed,' suggested Dimitri rather unhelpfully.
'Absolutely not, there has to be an explanation, and I'm supposing that I've been invited here to find out what it is?' Malcolm asked Callum, going on to say that he couldn't do this on his own because he didn't have the resources any more.
'Which is where Tariq comes in.' Callum told him. 'He'll work with you and send you encrypted files of everything that we dig up. He'll also be the liaison between you and us on the grid. If you spot anything or remember something no matter how small that might have triggered this, then tell him. The rest of us need to pretend that we're working on other cases, or our new boss will get suspicious, are you fine with that?
'When do I start?' was Malcolm's predictable reply.
The two people that he cared most about, apart from his dear old mother who he knew wouldn't be around for much longer, were in trouble and by all accounts there was the real chance that he'd never see either of them again. Harry had clawed himself back from a multitude of possible endings over the years, but if Ruth was being held up as a hostage then Malcolm knew he would break. Just as Tariq had surmised, Malcolm knew that Ruth was everything to Harry and he would rather die than let anyone hurt her, it had always been the case and Albany and his bloody suspension had been testament to that. Those though were dead and buried, the Russians and the Chinese had been placated. So it had to be something that had happened in way back in the past or maybe very recently that had triggered this to happen. He needed to think more laterally.
Shaking them all by the hand, he turned to Tariq, the young man that Harry had waxed lyrical about, kidding him that he was a far better techie than he had ever been. Well now was the time for him to prove it, they were running out of time.
'Right young man,' he told him, 'this is going to be a long night.'