"Shit" Zaf says as he closes his phone. He runs his hand through his hair. He's standing at his kitchen counter dressed in jeans and a long sleeved dress shirt. Handsome. And ready for the office.
"Who was that?" asks Jo, entering the kitchen.
"Harry. And he sounds more angry this morning than yesterday morning." He says as he reaches to put butter on his toast.
"Oh, come on now Zaf. He has to know it's not your fault. You were only doing what Ruth wanted, right?" asks Jo, as she reaches over him to place bread in the toaster.
"Well, I'm not so sure if this is what she wanted. When we were waiting for the tug to arrive, she seemed scared. I should have just ended it right there. I should have just taken her to one of our safe houses. That was such a bad idea letting her go to France. At the time it seemed ok. But now" he trails off.
"Why, what 's different now?"
"Well for one thing. I called Marc, my contact in Calais. Ruth hasn't reached out to him yet. She was instructed to go to him first. She should have been in Calais by 4pm yesterday." Says Zaf worriedly.
"Oh," says Jo.
"Yeh, it's a lot more than 'oh'. Harry will have a shit fit when I tell him that." Says Zaf.
"Yes, he will. You know I've never seen him like this. When he came back to the grid yesterday and ordered you and Adam to head out with him, he looked crazed." She says as she sips her mug of tea.
"Yeh, lucky you…missing out on a 6 hour bender at the Brown Jug. I never even knew that place existed. And I thought I knew every watering hole this side of the Thames. We started with pitchers of beer. That was Adam's doing. He must have known Harry would head to the scotch soon and wanted to prolong the inevitable. But the pitchers of beer, ugh, my insides feel like they've been scraped down with sand paper. I'm sure the taps in this place have never been cleaned. I feel sick." He says as his face droops like a puppy and he looks to Jo for sympathy.
Jo reaches up a hand and places it on his cheek.
"You'll recover, you always do. I think I heard this same speech six days ago when your mates from university were in town." She says as she tapped his cheek lightly.
"Well, Harry wants to see me at 11am. Hopefully my contact will have some good news for me by then. Could you do one thing for me this morning?" he asks sheepishly.
"No, I can't Zaffar Younis. It is your responsibility for the bathroom cleaning, we made the deal…" she starts to argue her voice rising.
"No, no, no, it's nothing like that. Can you go down to the docks at 45st and 2nd? I didn't get the name of the tug company that brought Ruth out to the rendezvous point. I'll need to get in touch with that tug pilot if my contact in Calais fails." He says.
"Sure, no problem. I'll get that on my way in and text it to you." She says, smiling. He wasn't having the best morning. She takes it easy on him.
"Great. I have to meet an analyst from GCHQ this morning at Thames House. There has been some chatter picked up, something about a new threat originating out of Pakistan. They want to make us aware of it. Adam put me on it since I used to work that area. I'm sure we'll all be briefed on it later this afternoon." He says.
"I'll get the tug boat information first thing. Then I have a dead drop pick up at Kensington Park, it's just information from an older Chinese asset that keeps informing on counterfeit goods and alien smuggling. I should be in the office by 10am." She says.
"Great. See you on the grid." Zaf says as he heads out the door.