Disclaimer I do not own Spooks. No copyright infringement intended.
Identity?
Beth closed her eyes as she tried to force herself to go to sleep. She was worried about Dimitri, it seemed it was only a matter of time before he told her what was wrong but she had a feeling whatever was worrying him was more personal than professional. She sighed as she rolled on to her back and stared at the ceiling. Things had changed between her and Dimitri since New Year and she couldn't be happier at the fact but now he seemed to be pulling away from her and it scared her more than anything she had faced since she had joined Section D. She closed her eyes and turned her thoughts to Zaf and the girls wondering how they were getting on in the field.
xxxxxxxx
Zaf met Ros in the hotel bar as planned. He smiled as he sat down next to her, glad that the bar was unnaturally quiet for the time of day. He watched as she glanced towards the barman, still uncertain whether she could use the man as an unwilling asset.
"Hi" Zaf turned on his best charm smile.
"You ok?" Ros smiled slightly in return as she asked. Zaf nodded as he looked across the bar, following Ros' gaze. The barman glared.
"Right, what's his problem?" Zaf looked at Ros "Kid serving behind the bar shooting me evils"
"Fancies me" Ros stated matter of factly "I did the damsel in distress routine and he was stupid enough to fall for it"
"Never took you as the damsel type" Zaf smiled and shook his head as she reached across the table and took his hand in hers, keeping the legend Malcolm had created going. Zaf raised an eyebrow.
"No? Well he did"
"Poor sod" Zaf laughed as Ros nodded, scanning the room for Ruth. The longer it took for Ruth to make the meet the more Ros didn't like it. She knew what Ruth was like for finding trouble and just once hoped her gut instinct that one of her team was in trouble was wrong.
xxxxxxxxx
Zoe stared at the depleted team as Harry took his place at the Briefing Room table. She missed Zaf but the absence of Ruth, Ros and Zaf from the meeting just made the loss all the more tangible. She smiled as she realised it wasn't just her that missed them. Ros should have been stood in her customary place in front of the cupboard, Zaf should have been teasing Ruth and Tariq while Ruth should have been sat next to Harry glaring at the file in front of her as the rest of the team practically watched the brain cells firing off in her head. Instead it was left to Zoe and Malcolm to come up with the information that would save the day. And Zoe had never been more nervous in her life.
"Zoe?" Adam prompted her as she turned to the team.
"Yes, well" She pressed the on button on the white board at the front of the room. "Maria Chen, aged 41. Single, no children. The only child of Su Li Ming and her second husband Li Chen. Became the CEO of the East's biggest Oil Company when her father died. Heart attack in June last year"
"She hasn't been in charge very long" Tariq mused as Harry raised an eyebrow.
"No, but that hasn't stopped her making enemies" Zoe continued "Of course there are always going to be the old chauvanists that don't want a woman in charge of a major firm like that but she also made enemies due to her intention to move the company away from using fossil fuels."
"Isn't that what her company would want? To produce and sell oil? Isn't that why she is at the Trade conference to begin with?" Dimitri asked as Zoe nodded.
"Yes, but she had been very vocal in her desire to drag the company into the 21st Century" Zoe folded her arms as she spole.
"Sounds like something from Superman" Beth smiled as she shook her head.
"No, they did it on Top Gear a couple of years ago. Cow Pats as fuel" Tariq looked up as Adam and Lucas nodded. Harry sighed.
"Ok, so car programmes aside" Harry glared at his field officers "Is Maria Chen upsetting people to the extent they want her dead? If so when and where is this assasination to take place?"
"Yes she was" Malcolm sighed as all eyes fell on him. "I, er, well that is to say I took the liberty of bugging Ruth, as she is the one who is most likely to spend the most time with Chen. Ruth knew I was bugging her, she was going to try to bug Chen at some point. I think she has been succesful"
"Ok Malcolm" Lucas spoke calmly "What does Ruth's bug tell us?"
"Maria Chen." Malcolm took a deep breath and avoided everyone's gaze. "Well, Maria Chen is not Maria Chen"
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Ruth walked through the hotel bar as Maria and the body guard walked towards her. Ruth smiled slightly as she saw Maria notice her. Every sense in her body told her something was wrong. It all felt incredibly wrong, but then she reasoned she had a feeling she was being watched since the moment she had met Maria. Something about the hotel felt wrong, something about the delegates felt wrong. She walked towards the other woman hoping that the bug she was carrying and the CCTV cameras had picked up what she was doing as she realised Ros and Zaf were nowhere to be seen.
"Hello" Maria smiled at her as she spoke in English. Ruth smiled back. Maria shrugged and slipped back into Manderin.
"I am to meet today with the American and British delegates. This is in one hours time" Maria watched as Ruth nodded.
"I know" Ruth replied in Mandarin as she glanced up at the security cameras. She just hoped someone was watching.
xxxxxxxx
"Maria Chen is not Maria Chen?" Harry tried not to explode.
"No" Malcolm looked towards Zoe for clarification. Zoe nodded.
"I did some digging" Zoe folded her arms. "Everything I just said about Maria Chen is true. Apart from the fact she was found dead forty eight hours ago"
"Care to elaborate?" Harry stated rather than asked. Lucas swore quietly under his breath as Malcolm seemed to get increasingly flustered.
"Maria Chen was killed three days ago" Malcolm continued. "Her body was found in a suitcase forty eight hours ago. Just as we recieved the redflash to say we had a potential problem"
"So who is this woman?" Lucas asked. Adam stood and walked towards the white board.
"She is Mai Su Yung" Malcolm stared at the image on the screen "Same age as Maria, same type of background. Chinese by birth but works for various organisations as an assassin"
"You mean to tell me the hitman has already killed the target and is now in the UK at the most prestigeous trade conference ever to be held here? That the woman in that photograph is the hitman and now has access to some of the most powerful people on the planet?" And she's with Ruth! Ruth, Ros and Zaf are inadvertantly trying to protect the person we are trying to catch? Ruth is in trouble and this time she doesn't know it. Harry looked around the table.
"Right" Adam turned to the assembled spooks. "First we warn our people in there. Second we find the real target and thirdly we stop Mai and her friends."
"Get hold of Ros" Harry looked at Lucas "Warn her we have a problem. I don't care how we do it but our officers are coming out of there before any of them get killed. Beth, Dimitri get over to the cousins. See what they know. I'd bet my pension they are holding out on us. Adam, you and Malcolm put the squeeze on our counterparts in Legoland."
"Harry?" Zoe turned to him.
"Zoe and I are going to the Chinese Embassy. This stops today" Harry stood as the assembled spooks began to disperse from the room. It was only Beth that hung back as Harry covered his eyes with his hand.
"Harry?"
"Yes Beth"
"Ruth will be ok. I know it's all a bit soon after her Mum but she will be ok" Beth smiled slightly as Harry nodded.
"Thank you Beth" He sighed. He just hoped his junior officer was right.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Zaf looked around the conference room as the various delegates made their way into the room. He knew Maria Chen and Ruth were due to arrive just after he had, while Ros was intending on getting into the delegates rooms and planting a few bugs. She also had to contact base for an update. He looked around the room and sighed with relief as Ruth walked in, just ahead of Maria. He could see Maria was talking as Ruth closed her eyes and glanced at the floor. Something in the way Ruth was holding herself was wrong. She looked as if she had seen a ghost but Zaf knew right at that moment he had to trust her to do the job and just hoped she could keep herself together until he could find out what was wrong.
xxxxxxxxx
Ruth looked around the busy conference room as Zaf caught her eye. She was relieved to see he was there in one piece. She felt sick. The woman she was supposed to be translating for knew English perfectly well. It seemed Maria Chen spoke English as well as Ruth did. She turned as the bodyguard whispered something in her ear. Ruth nodded as she looked around to see Zaf talking to a member from the British delegation. Work it out Zaf, work it out. She is not Maria Chen. She is not the person we thought she is. Work it out Zaf! Ruth stepped away from the body guard and froze. She was certain she was in the middle of one of her nightmares. She would wake up any second to find Harry next to her and Scarlett barking to be let out. She tried to control her breathing as the chairman began making his speach. No, it can't be. He's dead he can't be here. Ruth felt her legs turn to jelly as she spotted the older man cross the room to where Zaf was stood. She couldn't believe her eyes. The man talking to Andrew Lawrence and stood next to Zaf had killed himself over a decade ago. She closed her eyes and tried to focus as the chairman ended his speach.
xxxxxxxxx
Ros walked into the room where Zaf was staying, glad to have a few minutes on her own. So far she had managed to persuade at least half a dozen people she was a journalist for one of the financial columns in the national papers. She just couldn't believe what she had seen as she had walked back along the corridor. The anger was almost too much and she barely resisted the urge to scream. Instead she sat on the bed and picked up the phone.
"Harry" Ros spoke as he answered.
"Yes"
"This is a set up. Has been from the start."
"What makes you say that?" Harry had a feeling she was right. He hadn't liked anything about the way the op had gone from the moment Ruth had decided to go undercover.
"It stinks, either get us an out or get us back-up. Maria Chen is not the real target" Ros walked across the room and sat on the floor with her back against the door.
"You know who the real target is?" Harry paused as she swore. "Ros?"
"Yes, I think our trade delegation is the target."
"Andrew?"
"Yes. Andrew Lawrence is the target" Ros ran a hand through her blonde hair " And us"
A/N Well who did Ruth see? Is Ros right to be worried? Can Harry and the others help? Please review xx
