I realise Adam died in series 7 ep 1, but for the purposes of this fic he's still alive.
"Where are we?" Harry asked as he emerged from his office.
"We have some pretty lousy CCTV from the market where she was taken, which Malcolm's been running to try and get a face recognition match. No luck so far," Adam said. "Connie's trying to get the Turkish consulate to play ball and Ros is dealing with the backlog of our normal business."
"Okay, and what are you doing?"
"Getting the background on Turkish and Russian people who have some sort of history in this sort of thing. Kidnapping at the least, and Russians because that's who Malcolm thinks is behind this. I am not going to argue with him."
"Good," Harry said. "What are their demands?"
"They don't have any," Malcolm replied. "They take people who are no longer valued, then they might be overlooked for longer. They want to get information out of her, they don't want money or anything else we can give them."
"When was she taken?" Harry asked. There was a silence in the room which meant he knew he wouldn't like what he was about to hear. "Adam?"
"Yesterday around lunchtime," Adam said. "We didn't know," he added quickly The Turkish government and six didn't see fit to pass the information on to us until late last night. Which Malcolm saw this morning."
"So she's already been gone for nearly twenty four hours?" Harry asked, his voice deathly quiet. "Perfect. Right, I'm going to the Home Office."
"What do you hope to achieve?" Ros asked in surprise.
"I'm going to put pressure on the Home Secretary, because with or without his permission I am going to start blackmailing some people in the Turkish secret service to help me. I am at least going to dignify him with advanced warning."
"Harry…" Adam started.
"Let him go," Malcolm interrupted. "He needs to be doing something." Harry was grateful for this because Malcolm was right. He had to be doing something. Harry walked towards the pods, letting the others get to the bottom of this, while he hoped and prayed he'd see Ruth alive again.
Ruth had been left alone for hours. All that had interrupted her pointless existence was the screams from someone next door. She knew it was only a matter of time before someone came to make her scream in the same way. It did not help her get some sleep while she could. On top of that she was beginning to get hungry and she hadn't had a glass of water since they'd taken her. Dehydration was beginning to set in, clinically she knew that, but it didn't help her in the here and now.
Just when she'd come to the conclusion that they weren't planning to kill her straight away, the door opened. She sat up, but decided not to stand. She didn't know if her legs would hold her. One heavily muscled man came in, wearing black with his head covered. He held a tray out for her, with a bowl of cold porridge and a glass of water. She guessed the food was drugged, but she was in no mood or condition to be picky. He put the tray on the floor and looked at her. Ruth didn't move. He said something short in Turkish she didn't understand. She shook her head, not knowing how else to respond. Then he spoke in German, his tone flat with no emotion. "Can you understand me?"
"Yes," she replied in the same language.
"What languages can you speak?"
"English, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Wu, Arabic, Ancient Greek and Latin," she replied, thinking it was better to be honest at this moment in time.
"Latin's a dead language," her captor said, showing no surprise at her competence with multiple languages.
"You asked what I speak," Ruth replied with a shrug.
"Drink. You must be thirsty."
"What drugs are in there?" Ruth asked before she could stop herself.
"Nothing. Yet. We need you aware for when we interrogate you."
"Which will be when?"
"You seem calm," he said. "Usually they start begging that they know nothing."
They. He'd done this before, several times. Which meant the victims never escaped and her captors had never been caught.
This was when she started to really worry about her wellbeing for the near future. "This will go quicker if you just tell me what you want from me," Ruth said once she calmed herself down enough that her voice wouldn't shake.
"We know you're not really Rosa Edwards, despite what your passport says. We know your real name." Ruth bit her tongue and didn't say anything, waiting for him to say more. "Ruth Evershed. Who used to work for MI5. Anti terrorism unit. Am I right?"
"Yes." She thought it pointless to deny it. Clearly they knew who she was, which meant someone had given him her information. Otherwise how could they find her?
"Good," he replied, amusement creeping into his voice. "You're not lying. That's a promising start. Eat. We'll deal with you later." He turned and left and as the door closed behind him Ruth listened, hearing three locks shut. Ruth sighed, knowing there was no possible way of escape. She wasn't going to waste energy trying. She drank her water greedily, which tasted clear and drug free, if a little warm. Then she turned her attention to the porridge which was disgusting but she ate it all. And then she waited.
"Harry, I cannot authorise you to bully your way through Turkish democracy," Nicholas Blake said, his head in his hands. "Especially for only one British citizen
"I'm not asking your permission." Harry sighed. "This is merely a courtesy, because I consider you a friend."
"It will cost you your job if you antagonise the Turkish secret service to this degree. If you cause irreparable damage to the relations between our countries, your job is gone."
"Nicholas, I don't care," he said. "Keeping my job is not my priority right now."
Nicholas said nothing, but he was mulling things over in his mind, Harry could tell. He bit back his irritation with difficulty, waiting for him to say something. Harry could be doing so much more right now. "It's Ruth Evershed isn't it?"
"How did you know?"
"Because I know you Harry," he said. "This changes things somewhat. What do the group want? Money?"
"Not as far as we're aware," Harry said. "They want information." Harry left out the fact that everything Ruth knew two years ago would currently be useless. Trying to get the Home Secretary to feel a bit of pressure, which he wasn't convinced would work.
"I'll cover for you to a certain extent," Nicholas said eventually. "But tread carefully Harry. I won't be able to protect you."
"Thank you," Harry said. "I appreciate it." Harry left the office as fast as he could, heading back to Thames House.
It's probably going to get a bit grusome in the next chapter. Sorry!