A/N: Swear word alert.
Thanks to all who have shown an interest in this. As I've said with other fics of mine, the plot makes sense in my head, but I can't guarantee it will in yours. I just need to remind readers that the first section of Ch 1 (set in 1962) is significant, and not just some random filler. All will be revealled in later chapters.
Harry's office – the Grid (continued):
Fifteen minutes later, Erin Watts notices that Harry has been sitting in the same position for some time, staring blankly at his monitor. Feeling concern for him, she enters his office quietly, and moves to stand beside him. He looks up at her, and she can see that his face is pale.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he says, his voice very quiet.
Erin looks at the large photograph on the monitor, and gasps at what she sees.
"How is that even possible?" Erin's complexion has become as pale as Harry's. "Did you know about this?"
Harry shakes his head as he stares at the photograph. He doesn't even notice the tears rolling down his cheeks.
There is an unspoken question which Harry immediately answers.
"My daughter sent these. If you look closely, you can see they are date-stamped the day before yesterday. She's been in Peru, checking out some of the natural sites. Her husband is a photographer, and she's a documentary film maker. That rock outcrop," he adds, pointing to the rock in the foreground, "is called the Monument To Mankind, as is said to have formed naturally in this way. As you walk around it, facial features appear in the rock face. It's said that everyone who looks at it sees something different, although how can we know that?" Harry hesitates before he continues, his voice a monotone. "That is definitely Ruth in the background, sitting down with a backpack at her feet. As if that isn't remarkable enough, the woman with her arms around the man is Zoe Reynolds. She worked here until late in 2004, when she -"
"- had to go to Chile."
"Yes, and later, her partner, Will North followed her there. Obviously, he's no longer in the picture."
"Or she's on a break," Erin quipped.
Harry grimaces, and Erin pulls away from Harry, giving him some space.
"What is so remarkable about this – apart from Ruth being alive – is that she is with Zoe and my daughter. Catherine mentions in her email that the three of them are travelling together."
"What do you want to do about this, Harry?"
"Do? I don't know. I'll have to give it some serious thought overnight. I can only imagine that …... I don't know, really. I'm open to suggestions …... if you have any."
Erin steps back, and spends a moment in quiet thought. "Harry …... can I share this information with Calum? If there's to be any action taken – like someone going to Peru to look for Ruth – then he'll want to be involved. I might also need to contact Dimitri Levendis. Last I heard, he was in Panama, which is not all that far away."
"I thought he was in the Middle East."
"He's monitoring some suspected terrorist activity in Ecuador and Panama."
Harry waits while Erin considers how much she should share with her boss.
"I worry for him," Erin says. "Ever since he and I broke up, he's been …..."
"Unhinged?"
"Taking risks."
"Dimitri is a man who has always taken risks. It's part of his nature. Hell, Erin, you take risks as well. It's what we do." Harry sits back in his chair, but his eyes are still on the image on the screen.
"Can I share this information with Calum and Dimitri, Harry?"
Harry sighs heavily, and Erin notices how tired he looks. She suspects that in the last eleven months since Ruth had been pronounced dead, he has slept little. Ruth has been a topic which is out of bounds with Harry, and so she is feeling relieved to be able to use the other woman's name in his presence.
"I'll let you know after I've slept on it. For all I know, Ruth may not want to be found."
"If you give the go-ahead, I'll have to bring George into it. He'll be able to do a lot of the leg work from here."
George Fairbrother. Ruth's replacement. He had been the third analyst Harry had tried after Ruth's death, and as much as he may have wanted to, he can't fault him. George is a public school boy who entered Oxford University on a scholarship at the age of sixteen. He's brilliant – like Ruth was ... is – and he works quickly – also like Ruth. He is also on probation, and Harry would love to find a reason to let him go, but he has come to depend upon him.
"If I decide to look for her," Harry says quietly, "George will definitely have to be in the loop."
"It's fortunate that things are quiet at present, then," says Erin.
"And I hope they remain that way," Harry replies.
Section D have had an easy time of it since the Olympics ended, and Harry is relieved about this. It has allowed for him to go home earlier, attempting to catch up on much-needed sleep. The problem is that he spends most of each night lying awake, thinking of Ruth, wishing he had acted differently. The only times he has been able to fall asleep has been after he has had sex with Lydia, and now he has decided that he will not see her again, thus exposing himself to more nights with little sleep.
After Erin leaves his office, he sits back in his chair, and looks through all the photos of Peru which Catherine had sent. Ruth and Zoe are in three of them, and so he flips between the three photos, drinking in the face he has missed so much. She looks wonderful …... healthy, tanned, slim, perhaps too slim. He had always appreciated her curves. He'd watch her walking across the Grid, trying to determine the shape of her body beneath her clothing. In the photographs from Peru, Ruth is wearing jeans and a rather tight-fitting shirt. He wishes he were there with her.
When Harry arrives home, his first stop is his office, where he powers up his computer, and opens Catherine's email, and then prints off the three photographs featuring Ruth. He has no idea what to do about this. Not recognising that he is still in shock, he forgets to eat dinner, and goes to bed.
At 3 am he wakes, hungry and mentally confused. There is only one thought in his mind. Why, after having asked him to share her life, did she fake her death and disappear from Britain, and from his life?
That is the question, and the more he thinks about it, the angrier he becomes. He had believed he and Ruth were close. They were close friends, and they were about to be even closer …... perhaps lovers. And yet, she'd deceived him.
Hang on, Harry, how can you use a loaded word like `deceived', when you have no idea what has happened?
He heads to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich, and once he has eaten, he heads back to bed. He is sure his head had only just touched the pillow when his alarm sounds, and it is time for him to get up, shower, and dress for another day on the Grid. He knows without even giving it clear thought that he is about to share his news with Calum, and perhaps Dimitri... definitely George Fairbrother, who has never met Ruth, and so will not know just how important this is to him.
A second floor flat – Lima, Peru – 2 days later:
Rachel is about to finish her translating for the day, when she hears a quick rap on her door.
"It's me." Kerry's voice, so she lets her in, and leads her to the small kitchenette, where she is about to make a cup of tea.
"So, he's let you out of bed, I see," Rachel says, a smirk on her face.
"Yes, well, we can't do it all day and night. Anyway, Ruth, you're just jealous."
"We agreed not to use our names. We don't know if …..."
"Oh, I am so over all that spy crap. You still haven't told me why you're here, when you already said you didn't want to leave London. I don't get it, and I'm going to call you Ruth when we're alone."
"I'd rather you didn't, Kerry."
"For fuck's sake, why?"
"Firstly, you have no idea if Will is looking for you, and what he'll do when and if he finds you. You said yourself you don't trust him, and neither do I. He drinks, Kerry. A man with a drinking problem is not reliable or predictable."
"I know that." The younger woman's face looks pained, worried, and she breaks eye contact by looking through the window towards the jumble of rooftops.
"And the people behind me being here, so far away from home, would kill me in a moment if they thought I was here with another former agent. We're taking a great risk every time we meet."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
"The fact is …..." Rachel lowers her voice, as if she believes someone may be listening in to their conversation, "I've asked my employer to find me somewhere else to live. Just for a while. Central Lima isn't the safest of places, you know."
"Harry would know what to do."
Rachel's very blue eyes become even larger. "Why do you say that?"
"He's Harry, isn't he? He can do anything. Big boss man."
"Not always," Rachel says quietly, almost to herself.
"I just remembered something. Just last night I was thinking about that woman, Cate …... you know, the young woman we met on the bus."
"Cate? What about her?"
"Did you ever meet Harry's daughter?"
"No," Rachel says carefully, slowly. "Why do you ask?"
"Cate Clifford. That's her married name, but I'm sure that she's Catherine, Harry's daughter. I didn't meet her, but I saw her photograph. Ruth? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Why would Harry's daughter hook up with the two of us unless she knew who we were?"
"It's called coincidence, Ruth."
"I simply can't believe in a coincidence that huge, Zoe."
"Haha – knew you'd weaken eventually!"
"Oh no …..." Rachel/Ruth looks pale, and puts her hand over her mouth.
"What now?"
"Can you remember her saying she was about to email those photographs from Marcahuasi to her husband, brother, and her parents? If Harry's her father, she'll have sent one to him, and then -"
"What? Why are you so afraid of Harry?"
"I'm not. I'm afraid of what he'll do without knowing how dangerous it may be."
"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"
Ruth nods slowly. "If he comes looking for me – and he will – he could put us both in great danger."
"You and me?"
"I was thinking more of he and me, but perhaps you also."
Kerry/Zoe's eyes widen, as if she's seeing something for the first time. "You and Harry, right? You were …... together? Wow!"
"I asked him to leave the service and live with me."
"Jesus! What did he say to that?"
"He said yes. And then everything went pear-shaped, and I had to leave."
"Bloody hell. I'm still stuck at you and Harry. Bloody brilliant. No wonder Juan Carlos and I get under your skin. You're itching for Harry. Bloody hell!"
Ruth makes a face which shows she has shared the information with much reluctance, and now perhaps wishes she hadn't. "Just keep that to yourself, Zoe. No-one must know. No-one, okay?"
"Who am I going to tell? Juan Carlos? I don't fully trust him, so I tell him nothing."
"All the same. Don't tell a soul. I'm going to ring Gabriela. She has a beach house further up the coast, and she offered it to me, but I chose to stay here because it's central."
Ruth rises from the table and picks up her phone. Her call to Gabriela is brief – in Portuguese - and she seems satisfied when she closes her phone. She stands beside the table, clearly deep in thought.
"I'm leaving tonight, Kerry. I'll be leaving a lot of my things here, so you can crash here when Juan Carlos gets tired of you, or you of him. I'll leave you with a spare key. Even if you don't sleep here, could you drop in every few days to make sure it's not been invaded by cockroaches?"
Kerry/Zoe nods, still more than slightly bewildered by her friend's revelations. There's something going on, and she's curious. Besides, Ruth's flat is lighter and airier and bigger than her own. She just might move in.
.