Thanks for the fab reviews everyone. This one is a short filler chapter to make time move along a bit, so it follows no episode structure. It's hard making eight episodes last a year!
27th May 2009
Ruth has discovered that these rogue agents are going under the cover name Nightingale. I've never heard of it, and neither has she. After running it through the systems everything's come up blank too. If Ruth can't find it, there's nothing there to find. At least until something starts happening.
On other news Sarah Caulfield has been taken back to Washington for a brief hiatus. I don't miss her but I have a feeling the opposite is true for Lucas. He's worrying me, and I wonder if he's hiding more than I'd be truly comfortable with, if I knew the whole truth.
1st July 2009
Catherine called me today. She's engaged. I'm sure I'll hate Mark the second I meet him, but I congratulated her anyway. It will take all of my self control not to run Mark Tyler through the MI5 system, but I know Catherine would never forgive me. I hope she'll be very happy, and I'm relieved that our relationship is now firm enough that she can tell me these things. I will give her away at her wedding, and I'm already looking forward to walking my daughter down the aisle next Spring.
25th July 2009
Ruth has excelled herself. A Russian turncoat is sleeping with the Chinese ambassador of foreign policy. An extremely useful piece of information to know, because neither of their spouses would be too happy if we let the information slip. Its nice to have them where we want them for a brief period of time. I didn't know Ruth spoke Chinese. I asked her about it. She closed my office door and confided in me that she spent some time looking at the departures board in Charles de Gaulle airport straight after Cotterdam. She had no idea where to go, and had always wanted to travel to Beijing. So being impulsive she'd caught a plane with the fake passport Zaf had given her and stayed there for a couple of months. Enough to pick up the basics of the language.
I hate that there's a huge chunk of her life that I don't know about. But on the other side its good to know she can be impulsive when she wants to be. Normally so organised and methodical, but it clearly happens. Over the past few weeks I've noticed her smiling at me occasionally. Holding a glance too long. I want to mention it but I'm afraid to. If I talk to her about it, she might stop it, and that's the last thing I want.
15th August 2009
We can't put it off any longer. We've started interviewing candidates for Jo's job. I hate the thought that its her replacement, but we've gone more than four months and we need another agent. Knowing that the psychometric testing and evaluation will take months in itself, it will probably be nearer a year since Jo's death by the time the next candidate comes into the grid. We could get a temporary replacement, but I don't want that. I prefer to know and trust my colleagues before handing them sensitive information.
In the meeting room I asked for a volunteer to go down to the ground floor and oversee the candidates. I was very surprised that Ruth offered to go. Once everyone save her had left the meeting room I asked why. She'd replied with a change of air. Plus, until a terror attack came forward she'd caught up with all of her work to date. I couldn't argue against her logic and allowed her to go down to the interviews. I missed her smile today.
1st September 2009.
Sarah Caulfield is back from Washington, which means we have to put up with her again. I rather liked the brief spell we were having American free, but I should have known it couldn't last.
Back to business as usual from the next chapter. Also I'm away between Thursday and Saturday so can't post any new chapters then.