This story is set towards the end of s6 though some of the timeframes might be a little out of whack. I couldn't bring myself to watch it again so apologies for any mistakes. This chapter is more a setup for the story, so I hope you enjoy and more to come, hopefully next weekend...

xxx

Harry glanced out of the window of the seventh floor of Thames House as the monthly catch-up of all Section Heads with the DG came to a close. Two hours of tedium the first Tuesday afternoon of the month at 2.00pm on the dot, it was the only time he came close to wishing some catastrophe would happen, nothing major but some minor disturbance or threat that could be considered a suitable reason for cancelling. He let his mind drift as he considered what else he still had to do that afternoon with threats coming through from Nottingham and Inverness and GCHQ flagging some suspicious chatter which he'd asked Malcolm to look into a little closer. He also had the ongoing issue with Ad...

"Sorry Harry old boy," Harry jerked awake quickly as he heard his name mentioned, "not boring you are we?"

"Not at all Dickie," he replied smoothly thanking what ever deity had given him the gift of always keeping one ear open, "just thinking about your marvellous plan to hold a 'Security Service' open day for potential new recruits."

"Oh," Richard Dolby looked at him slightly suspiciously, he'd obviously had been listening, but Dolby was equally sure that Harry Pearce was the last person in MI5 who would describe an Open Day as a marvellous idea; he suspected, quite rightly, that should such a day ever occur, then offers of assistance from Section D would be in very short supply.

"Yes, can't see anything wrong with that idea at all," Harry continued, "I always thought the most ridiculous thing about the Secret Services, is the actual secrecy. Let's get all our spies and secrets out on display for the world and their wife to see." The sarcasm in his tone was amplified by the look of innocence on his face.

Dolby lifted his eyebrows while simultaneously pursing his lips, "that's not exactly what I had in mind Harry as you well know." He glanced round the table, at least half the other Section Heads were trying and failing to curtail smiles, while the others had a long suffering look on their face, Harry was looked up to by some and seen as a dinosaur by others, "and as you're also aware, it's the Security Services nowadays, not the Secret Service."

Harry raised an eyebrow but said nothing, this Open Day like so many other things they discussed in these meetings would likely come to nothing. "If you say so Dickie..." he said at length.

Dolby stared at him hard for a few seconds before deciding it wasn't worth the hassle and turned around to address the rest of the group. "Well on that note gentleman, that's the end of the meeting."

"And ladies," Harry injected quickly, nodding his head towards Sarah Millingthorpe, the Head of Section F who was sat with a look of controlled amusement on her face.

"And ladies of course." Dolby continued with a practiced smile. "Just a figure of speech Harry. Now unless any one else has anything to say..." He paused as he glanced round the room to be met with silence, "well then, if you could all ensure that your budget proposals for the next financial year are with me by the 18th as we discussed earlier, then I bid you all good day."

Harry pushed his chair back along with the rest of the table, it's like the school bell has gone he thought wryly, as he did every time he was in one of these meetings, so desperate was everyone to get out.

"Ah, Harry, before you go." Dolby's voice carried above the melee of everyone trying to leave the office as one.

Harry looked up, "yes Dickie?"

"If I might have a quick word?"

"Now?"

"If you've got the time... otherwise we can schedule another meeting for tomorrow?" Dolby looked at him with an slightly smug expression on his face knowing he had him trapped.

Harry checked his watch quickly, it was quarter to five, and five minutes now was a much better prospect then fifteen minutes tomorrow. "I've got a few minutes," he said shortly.

Dolby nodded and moved over to his desk and motioned for Harry to join him as the room emptied and the door closed leaving them alone. "Whiskey?" He offered as he stood to pour himself one.

"Will I need it?" Harry asked dryly, "look Dickie, if this is about my reaction to the Open Day then..."

"This could have been you in this seat Harry." Dolby cut across Harry as he handed him a very generous measure and ignored what Harry had been saying. "If you played the game a little more, worked with the politicians rather than continuously railing against them."

"That's rather more your forte than mine." Harry replied, "besides, I like being nearer the action."

"To each his own," Dolby sat down and took a large mouthful of his drink, "and no Harry, this isn't about anything that was said in that meeting, either by you or anyone else, this is something else, something altogether more delicate."

Harry sat up in his chair, his senses suddenly buzzing, "so what is it?"

Dolby sat forward, "about two months ago we had a walk-in downstairs, a lady by the name of Janet Oliver, does the name ring any bells?"

Harry shook his head, "never heard of her..." He took a sip of his drink, racking his brains trying to work out what was suddenly troubling him, "should I have?"

"There was a possibility the name would ring some bells with you," Dolby admitted, "but I wasn't sure."

"And yet her name rang a bell with you?" Harry looked at him carefully, not yet knowing what this was about. :We have multiple walk-ins a day Dickie, why did this one make it's way to you?"

"Her name was flagged."

Harry looked at him curiously, "So what, hundreds if not thousands of names are flagged. They still rarely get to the attention of the Head of MI5."

Dolby nodded, "well yes, you're right of course, but this one we never really expected to hear from and she is somewhat of a special case."

"This still isn't making much sense to me." Harry said looking slightly perplexed, his brain trying to recall if the name Janet Oliver was lost somewhere within there.

Dolby cleared his throat before standing and making his way to look out of the large window with its commanding views of the Thames. "It's about the female officer from your section," he turned round to face Harry, "the one who faked her own death and went into exile."

"Ros." Harry looked incredulous, "but that only happened last week, how the hell could anyon..." The blood suddenly drained from his face as he noticed Dolby slowly shaking his head.

"Not Ros, Harry. The other one."

"Ruth," Harry spoke her name softly, "Ruth Evershed"

Dolby nodded, "yes that's her." He noticed Harry's suddenly pale demeanour and moved quickly to refill his glass.

Harry looked up, "what's this woman got to do with Ruth... and how the hell did you know her death had been faked anyway?"

"I'm the DG Harry, it's my job to know. I know you just think I sit up here playing at politics, but you forget that I'm every bit as much as a spy as you are."

Harry inclined his head towards him in acknowledgement. "Does anyone else know?"

Dolby paused for a moment thinking. "Not within Five," was his somewhat evasive answer, "that's why Janet Oliver's name was flagged and why I was made aware of it as soon as she came in?"

Harry took a large mouthful of his drink. He was suddenly all at sea, whatever he had expected this chat to be about, this hadn't even been on the far horizon. "But who is she?" Harry cast his mind back to the few awful days that had taken place around 15 months ago that he'd tried and failed to blank out completely, "is she related to Maudsley?"

"No," Dolby returned to his seat again, "she's the one that came forward as a witness, the one who said she'd seen Ruth push Maudsley onto the track at the station."

Harry slumped back in his chair and leant his head back to face the ceiling. "I never knew her name," he mused quietly, "it never seemed important."

Dolby smiled sympathetically, while he and Harry were never going to be friends, they were cut from the same cloth, had moved through the ranks of the security services at a similar pace and had known each other a long time. He might not like the man or often his approach to his work, but he respected what he stood for. "Well her coming in to Thames House was a surprise to me."

"What did she want?" Harry asked softly.

"She said she couldn't sleep at night, that the guilt of taking the money and lying about what she'd seen was eating away at her and she wanted to confess."

"So why did she come here?" Harry looked curious, "why not go straight to the police?"

"Because she knew the people she was dealing with at the time were from the Security Services... and she knew that they were no longer here. I think that's what took her so long to come forward."

Harry nodded, "so what did she confess to?"

"She said she was approached and offered money to say that she'd seen Miss Evershed push Maudsley into the path of an oncoming train. They'd told her that she was a wanted criminal and this was for the good of the country... the money also helped significantly."

Harry shook he head and stared into his glass of whiskey trying to get his thoughts into order and his emotions in check. "I still don't understand why she's suddenly decided to confess... or to be honest, why you're suddenly telling me this two months after the fact. We already knew Ruth didn't do what she was accused of... though she did go round and threaten someone, presumably the same lady."

"Threaten?"

"Before she went into deep cover," Harry pinched the bridge of his nose trying to recall events, "Carter and Younis thought it'd make her 'suicide' more believable."

Dolby took another sip of his drink, "I wasn't aware of that."

"She didn't mention it?" Harry looked surprised.

He shook his head. "No. She just said how what she'd said at the time kept playing on her mind. She'd confided in her local vicar I believe without going into any of the details, and he'd encouraged her to come forward."

"So why wait two months to tell me all this?"

Dolby again stood up, "I know that you were close to Ruth..."

"She was an integral part of my team, yes"

Dolby lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at Harry, "I'm not stupid Harry, I know you were a damn sight closer to her that that."

"Dickie," Harry's voice was laced with a warning tone. "That really is none of your business."

Dolby held up his hands as though backing away, "fine, have it your way, not that it makes any real difference." He moved over to a cabinet at the other side of the room and withdrew a blue manila folder from it before sitting back down. "I didn't involve you at the initial stages Harry because I didn't want to give you false hope."

"False hope?"

"A confession by itself means nothing, you know that."

"I'm well aware of that." Harry's brain was churning and he was struggling to think straight, trying to work out what pieces of the jigsaw he was missing, hearing Ruth's name mentioned after all this time had thrown him far more than he was ever likely to admit to anyone.

"After speaking with her and ascertaining that she was being truthful I made a few enquiries of my own into the matter." Dolby fiddled with the file in front of him

"I see."

Dolby looked down at his desk knowing what he had to impart next wouldn't go down well. "I followed a few paths that led me down various rabbit holes and then I spoke with Oliver Mace three weeks ago."

Harrys head shot up and his face darkened in anger, "Mace," he spat out, "I wouldn't believe a word that man has to say about anything."

"Yes, well I never really liked him myself Harry," Dolby said mildly, "but he's keen to make amends and be allowed back into the fold."

"Back into the fold," Harry stood up suddenly before stalking across to the whisky decanter and helping himself to another large measure, "I hope you told him to take a running jump off the side of a cliff."

"Just a valued member of your team was she." Dolby asked rhetorically before catching a glimpse of the anger burning in Harry's eyes and hurrying on. "You know a man like Mace was never going to stay out of the fold indefinitely, he knows too much, knows too many powerful people, both in politics and business."

"Well I thought he was destined to stay in overseas diplomatic posts like every other disgraced political highflyer."

Dolby's lips quirked in amusement, "So you do know what he'd been doing then since forced to leave the country?"

"Of course," Harry retorted angrily, "I wanted him where I could keep an eye on him. Make sure he didn't ruin anybody else's life in the process. It's hardly my idea of punishment though."

"Well a diplomatic posting to the Falkland Islands is hardly a picnic Harry."

"Got sick of the penguins has he." Harry said venomously, "if it'd been up to me, it wouldn't have been to the Falklands he'd been posted to. Pitcairn would have been a far better option."

"Well that's as maybe Harry, but regardless of your feelings on what should have happened to him, we both know the way the system works."

"And people wonder why we have such problems." Harry muttered into his drink darkly, "so what happens now. What did Mace say?"

"He made a deal Harry, not with me but with Siviter over at Six."

"Siviater is involved as well?" Harry looked at Dolby in disgust, "talk about the old boys network."

"You know as well as I do the processes that are in place for when something like this happens."

Harry shook his head, trying to make sense of it all, "so what happens now?" He asked wearily, the fight suddenly draining out of him, for the moment anyway.

"Well," Dolby started.

"No let me guess, Mace confessed to everything, pleaded remorse and Jools has bent the ear of the PM so Mace gets let back in, probably with a slap on the knuckles and a job in the FCO if he promises not to do it again and Jools gets a key asset inside Government who owes him a lot of favours."

Dolby nodded sadly, "that's pretty much it Harry."

Harry pushed his chair away from the desk, "I don't know why I bother," he exclaimed heavily. "Well thank you for telling me Dickie, I know it can't have been easy, now if you'll excuse me I have things I need to be getting on with."

"Harry wait," Harry stopped as he reached the door.

"What now?"

"I haven't quite finished."

Harry rubbed his hands over his face, "if you're trying to break the news to me that Mace will be joining MI5 then you'll have my resignation letter in the morning."

"Sit down Harry." As Harry made his way back over and took the seat, Dolby pushed the manila folder over to him. "Open this."

Harry took the file and looked inside, there wasn't much, a few documents, a birth certificate and a passport. He opened it slowly not knowing what to expect and sagged back into his seat once he read the name, "this is a passport for Ruth," he said softly, "dated three days ago."

Dolby nodded, "when I say Mace made a deal, we did it on the condition that he told us everything. He backed up Janet Oliver's confession that Ruth never pushed Maudsley, he also admitted that Fox had never existed and that there had been no one from Section D at that meeting which started all these problems off."

"So this means that Ruth is now considered innocent?

"Well she always was Harry, as you well know, but this means that she's free again." He smiled at the man in front of him. "It's taken a few days to get this all cleared up but her death has now been expunged from the records and now all you have to do is give her the documents and let her know she's free to come back to England and resume her old life."

Harry sat still, he couldn't quite believe what he'd just heard, he'd more or less come to terms with the fact that he'd never see Ruth again and that to all intents and purposes she had actually died and now this. "So you know where she is then?"

"Ahhh, no." Dolby looked over at him from across his desk, "I thought you would know?"

Harry shook his head mutely, "we thought it was safer for her if we had no idea where she went."

"So no one knows?"

Harry looked at him ashen faced, "No one... And I wouldn't even know where to start..."

TBC