I decided it was time to bring in the team :)

Thanks again to Deskspook for looking over my grammar

Ruth was the first one to pull away, she took a step back and smiled, "So much for self control," She said

"Living in self denial for too long will do that," Harry looked a bit embarrassed as he quickly wiped away his tears. After he regained his composure he looked at her and somberly asked: "Ruth, how did you get involved in this? What is this Casper network?"

"I don't have the time to give you the full version right now," Ruth sighed, "Let's just say that for a while I tried to live a normal life, be an ordinary citizen for a change, and let go of my past. It didn't work Harry, it seems that ordinary is not something I can do anymore." She gave a bitter laugh; "The bottom line is I was bored, and I missed my old life, I missed my job and I wanted them back. One of Zaf's people that helped me leave London, John, was a member of the Casper network, he wanted me to join them back then, at first I refused but, when I realized that it was the closest thing to Section D I could ever have, I contacted him again and joined Casper. It wasn't a perfect solution but it kept me busy."

She guessed what Harry wanted to ask by the look on his face, "John knew what kind of people I agreed to work with, so there was never really any conflict of conscience," she reassured him, "I didn't ask John too many questions about the Casper network itself, to be completely honest I didn't care to know"

Harry started to ask his next question when he was interrupted by a silent cough behind him. "Time's up, we need to go," Sharon said gently.

Ruth nodded in agreement and looked at Harry, "We'll make contact some time tomorrow, in the mean time I need you to find out who's after Sharon, use these," she handed him a set of photographs, Harry recognized the two men that went after Sharon in The Stubborn Mule.

"Wait," he wasn't ready to see her go yet, "Where are you staying?"

"I can't tell you that, " she saw his hurt expression and explained, "It's not that I don't trust you Harry, you know I do, with my life, but both Sharon and I are supposed to be dead, and I think that for now it would be best if we stayed that way."

Even though he knew she was right he couldn't live with the thought of not knowing where she was again, "Let me put you two in one of our safe houses, nobody will know you are there."

"Ruth, we really need to go," Sharon said while looking around nervously

"I'm sorry Harry, but we need to stay under the radar for now," she gave him a quick hug and whispered in his ear, "You'll see me again soon, don't worry"

And then both women went into the grove and disappeared.

------

Malcolm rushed to Harry the moment he saw him walking through the pods, "Well? How is she? What's going on?" he asked impatiently.

"Gather the team," was all the answer he got as Harry walked towards his office and closed the door behind him.

5 minutes later in the meeting room Harry looked at his team's questioning looks, "Before I give you all the information I want to make something perfectly clear: This is an off the books, unauthorized operation. If any of you have a problem with that leave now, after that there will be no talking about this to anyone outside this room. Any problems should be reported to me and me only."

"What?" Ros protested when she noticed Harry was looking straight at her.

"Now's your chance to leave," Harry ignored her and looked at the team as they all kept to their seats.

"Good," he smiled and without wasting any more time he said, "Ruth is back and she needs our help."

"You knew about this, didn't you?" Jo looked at Malcolm, "That's why you were on edge all day."

Malcolm shrugged and gave her an apologetic look, "Sorry, I was under strict instructions not to say anything," he then addressed Lucas' confused looks, "Ruth Evershed, she used to work here, I'll explain later."

After telling the team about the events of the last two days Harry gave them each their mission. "Malcolm, try to find out who is after Sharon, " he handed him the pictures Ruth gave him, "Jo, I want you to find out anything you can about this Casper network, the fact that I have never heard a whisper of them means that you will need to dig deep. Ros, I need you and Lucas to track Ruth down," he looked embarrassed when he continued, "I planted a tracker on her when we met at the cemetery, see where it leads you, keep your distance, I just want you to make sure she's safe and that no one else knows where she is."

Once everyone left for their assignments Harry sat down and mouthed a silent prayer that nothing will go wrong.

-----

Lucas was looking curiously at Ros whilst she drove silently, following the tracker signal on the GPS screen.

"What did you do?" he finally asked.

"What do you mean?" She kept her eyes on the road.

"I saw the look Harry gave you at the briefing, and obviously Ruth is more then a missing colleague to him, so what did you do?"

"Nothing you wouldn't do in the same situation, the only reason Harry is holding a grudge over it is because it's Ruth, you'd think that after three years and what we've been through he'd let it go…" She trailed off when she noticed they were a few feet away from the tracker signal, she stopped the car and they both went outside looking around them, they were in the middle of a large wheat field, and there was no one in sight.

Ros followed the tracker signal which led her to a scarecrow that stood in the middle of the field; the tracker was pinned to its chest together with a small note that read: "Sorry, you'll have to wait patiently for tomorrow, S"

"Smart girl," Ros mumbled, smiling secretly.

-----

"Anything on the Casper network?" Malcolm approached Jo's desk.

"Nothing much, I found some leads on the internet but they all ended in a dead end. I even tried looking in Zaf's old files, for this John guy, but found nothing. If Zaf knew anything about them he didn't report it. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was doing some face matching on the photos we got from Ruth; I couldn't find anything on the first one. But this guy," Malcolm fingered one of the men in the picture, "His name is Ron Robson, he's a dead six agent, he died during an operation in China last year"

"Is it Halloween already? Too many dead people are walking about these days," Jo said, "Do you think he has anything to do with the Casper network?"

"I don't know," Malcolm sighed, "We'd better tell Harry"

"Tell me what?" Harry asked from behind them.

"This Casper network, something doesn't smell right," Malcolm explained and told Harry about the dead 6 agent just when Ros and Lucas stepped back into the Grid.

"Well, anything?" Harry turned his attention to Ros.

"Sorry Harry," she said and handed him the note, she couldn't help but feel a little smug.

Harry read the note and then crumpled it in his hands, obviously annoyed, "Well, I think you should all call it a day, we'll carry on tomorrow. Hopefully, Ruth will contact us and we'll be able to get some more information from her and Sharon. Good night," he then went to his office and set behind his desk, holding his head in his hands, trying to make sense of it all.

The loud ringing of his desk phone disrupted his thoughts, Harry looked at his watch, it was almost midnight. "Yes?' he answered impatiently.

"Hello Harry," Harry felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the voice on the other side, "I believe you have someone that I want, let me know where she is and I won't let the DG know that Ruth Evershed is alive and in London."

Who could that be? The answer will come quicker if you review :)