8. I just hope they can locate his brain.
Harry had had the quickest shower of his life, and was just finishing shaving when his phone again rang. He expected the caller to be Alec or Tariq, but this time the name on the display belonged to the person with whom he least wished to speak.
"Harry Pearce," he said, perhaps rather too formally for so early in the morning.
"It matters not that this woman isn't Ruth, Harry. A brunette is a brunette, and so this one will have to do. She tells me her name is Kristen. Albany for this woman's life."
"I've already told you that I have no idea where it is."
"Bullshit. Stalling will only ensure that this woman dies."
"Lucas .."
Harry hadn't had time to formulate a sufficiently placating answer when down the phone he heard a loud crash, and then several male voices shouting. Then it was clear that Lucas had dropped his phone, but had omitted to end the call. Harry was powerless to do anything but listen.
"Who the fuck are you?" he heard Lucas saying, accompanied by a whimpering, which must have come from the woman he was in the process of kidnapping.
"Let the woman go." Alec's voice. Harry hoped he had backup, because Alec had little chance in a one-to-one skirmish with Lucas.
There was a gun shot, and then more voices. Harry couldn't determine to whom they belonged, and then the line went dead. He looked at his phone, wondering whether Lucas had picked it up and ended the call. A more likely scenario would be that he'd accidentally stepped on it. Given that his house was at the very least a fifty minute drive from the safe house, Harry could only wait.
First things first. He headed into his bedroom to dress for the day, and then went downstairs to the kitchen. He needed a strong coffee.
Harry received regular updates from Tariq, who, through an earpiece, was able to listen to everything happening within Alec's earshot.
"Lucas is down, and the girl is threatening to destroy Lucas's manhood .. with her teeth," he said when he first phoned Harry with a `progress' report. When next he rang it was less than ten minutes later, but things had escalated. "The girl got shot in the thigh, and now she's bleeding quite freely. Alec and Tony and Jack have Lucas on the floor. I think one of them hit him, but I can't be sure. Lucas groaned, and then he said nothing. He might even be dead."
Harry resisted the urge to drive to the scene, but chose instead to drive to Thames House. He'd eat later, once the situation was under control. When he stepped onto the Grid he was met by Ros, who looked like she hadn't slept at all. "It's all over," was all she said. Harry dipped his head to the side, inviting her into his office, where he turned on the light before he sat down, and indicated with his eyes that she should sit in her usual chair. "You can let Ruth know that she's no longer in danger," Ros continued once she'd sat down, "if in fact she ever was."
Harry nodded. "Where is he, and where is the girl he tried to kidnap?"
"They're both in hospital. The girl took a bullet to the thigh – through and through – while Tony Sumner, who'd entered the house by the back door, attacked Lucas from behind, hitting him across the back of the head with a plank of wood he'd found outside the flat. It knocked him out."
"Is he all right?" Harry asked, suddenly concerned. The last thing his section needed was another dead agent.
"He was unconscious for around ten minutes, but I imagine he'll live. He's having scans and all that. I just hope they can locate his brain," Ros added, "because he's been acting like he's misplaced his."
Harry nodded. "I'll visit him later this afternoon. I trust he's safely under guard."
"His room is locked from the outside. Tony and Jack are there now, while Alec is due to take over the late shift. I thought I might pay him a quick visit this afternoon." Ros hesitated, breaking eye contact with Harry before she continued. "What are your plans for Lucas?"
"He needs considerable time away from the service. I'd resisted decommissioning him, but that appears to be my only option at present."
"Had you done that when I suggested -," Ros began.
"He would have done this anyway. Clearly he needed a lot of money. Do you have any idea why he would have needed so much money?"
"I can only guess. The woman he's been mooning over – Maya – has been encouraging him to leave the service. He hasn't confided in me .. just provided some snippets of information which I've had to piece together in my own way. I'm not even sure Maya is a real person. I've never seen her, so maybe she's ..."
Harry twisted his mouth to the side while he contemplated Ros's words. "I can't imagine he's that far gone, but after today nothing would surprise me."
They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Ros added, "I suppose it's a bit too early for a drink, isn't it?"
Harry smiled and then checked the time on his wristwatch. "7.20 am. Yes, I think so. Give me twelve hours and I'll welcome that drink."
The first thing Harry did after the 8 o'clock briefing with his available team was to send Ruth a text message, informing her about Lucas. For far too long he fussed over the correct wording, so that in the end the text he sent was abrupt and to the point. It's now safe for you to unlock your doors and venture outside. Lucas is in hospital after an aborted attempt to kidnap a female Mi6 agent from a London safe house. Then he worried about how best to sign off. Without a personal touch, the message was too formal, too official. In the end he placed a `x' at the end.
While waiting for Ruth to reply to his text Harry wriggled in his seat, got up to close the blinds, and then got up again to open them, while checking his phone every two or three minutes. Forty minutes after he'd sent the text she rang him on his pay as you go phone. "Yes?" he said, not yet relieved of his escalating nervous tension.
"I'm on the cliff top wondering whether I should climb down to the beach."
"Have you checked the timing of the tides?"
"Of course I have. I noticed you left a tide book on the kitchen counter beside the electric kettle. Hardly a subtle move, Harry."
He sighed with relief at the note of teasing in Ruth's voice. "You got my text?"
"Yes. I must say I was disappointed."
"Disappointed? Why?"
"Only one kiss at the end."
He was a little shocked by her teasing. All those years ago they had quite comfortably flirted with one another, but since she'd returned from Cyprus he'd had to tread carefully around her, and they were still a long way from being as relaxed with one another as they'd been back then. "I .. thought .. maybe .."
"It's all right, Harry. I like the kiss at the end. Do you put a kiss at the end of texts you send to your other staff members?"
"Of course not."
"I'm flattered."
"I'm not trying to flatter you, Ruth. I was just attempting to convey .. how I feel."
"I already know how you feel."
Of course she did. "Do you want to know what happened earlier this morning?" When she said she did, he spent another fifteen minutes describing the morning's events to her, and then answering her questions.
"Have you seen Lucas since this happened?"
"Not yet. Ros is planning to visit him in early afternoon, and I'll see him after that. I think I need to inform him in person that I'm decommissioning him."
"I'm sure he'll expect that."
Harry wasn't so sure he would expect it. The Lucas who attempted to kidnap a total stranger in the early hours was a different man to the one who'd returned to England from Russia.
It was mid afternoon before Harry heard from Ros Myers. "I've just seen Lucas, Harry. He asked after you."
"Not an enquiry into my health, I take it."
"Sadly, no. He says he needs to talk to you."
"How did he seem?"
Harry heard Ros take a deep breath and then sigh down the phone. "Mollified. I suspect the cocktail of drugs he's been given have rearranged his brain cells, and he's seeing things differently. I did meet Maya, though. She's a doctor at the hospital."
"Did you find out anything?"
"Not really. She's as perplexed as we are. It seems he didn't share the details with her, either. I don't know, but she intimated she'll be attempting to separate herself from .. what he did."
"That's hardly surprising." Harry hesitated before he continued speaking.
"So .. you're still planning to speak with Lucas?"
"I thought I might."
Harry had only just finished his call to Ros when he received a call from Kadir Khan, who was Kristen Ahmed's section head at Six. Thirty minutes later Harry was in his car and on the way to the hospital. He was not looking forward to seeing his former section chief. Seeing a once powerful and seemingly invincible man at his lowest ebb was not something he relished. He was relieved to see Jack guarding the entrance to the corridor, with Tony standing just outside the door to Lucas's hospital room. Tony nodded to Harry, and then unlocked the door to the room. "Do you need me to keep an eye on you while you're in there?" Tony asked, dipping his head in the direction of Lucas.
"Is he ambulatory?"
"Not in the slightest. He seems a bit … zonked."
"Then no, I won't. Unless he plans to poison me with his words, I expect we'll be fine."
Harry stood just inside Lucas's hospital room as the door was closed and locked behind him. The man on the bed was a shadow of Lucas North. His face was pale, his head bandaged with white gauze. His eyes were closed, his arms resting on top of the bed covers. Harry approached slowly and sat on the chair beside Lucas's bed. He could wake him, but he thought it best to wait until Lucas woke in his own time.
Harry sat silently on the chair in Lucas's hospital room, and allowed his mind to wander to the man he had known both before his incarceration in Russia, and then again once he returned to the UK. Lucas had always been a complex man, one who had triggered extreme reactions in others – women as well as men. Harry had wanted to trust him, which was why he'd rejected Ruth's warning. She'd been right. He should have listened to her. Her instincts were always so much sharper than his own, which were so often clouded by shared history, as well as a generous dose of wishful thinking. Thinking about Ruth had his mind wandering to the day he'd driven her to Port Isaac, and how, on the drive there they had talked so freely and easily, chiefly about safe subjects, such as the state of the Grid without Lucas, about how stressed the field officers were without Ros to lead them in the field, about the burden of work Tariq was having to shoulder, and about how he, Harry, needed to take more time off, away from work.
"I don't need any more time off," he'd complained.
"Everybody does," Ruth had countered. "If you continue burning the candle at both ends you'll crack up."
Maybe Ruth was right. She usually was.
"Harry, how kind of you to pay me a visit," Lucas's voice was deep, but weak.
Harry focused on Lucas and nodded. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Numb." Harry nodded. "So, why are you here? I'm a little old for a telling off."
"Perhaps, but you're never too old to have your life saved by being redirected to another area of the security service."
Lucas stared at Harry, his forehead wrinkled in a deep frown, as he attempted to absorb Harry's words. "This is where I again get sent to some hell hole in the third world .. isn't it? Where is it this time – Somalia? Sudan? Myanmar?"
"Pakistan. Mi6 are a man .. er, woman down in Pakistan."
"Jesus!"
"I hear it's better than Russia, and preferable to twenty years in gaol for attempted treason," Harry said briskly, with no sign of emotion.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then you'll likely be given a gaol sentence. I wouldn't advise you to object, Lucas. I'd been about to decommission you. At least this way you'll still have a job."
Lucas looked away and stared at the ceiling, his mind clearly in turmoil. He turned his eyes back to Harry, and the older man could see in them the contempt that perhaps he had earned when he'd allowed Lucas to rot in a Russian prison. "And what about Maya? She hasn't visited me. She's expecting me to contact her."
"One of the conditions of your change in … employment is that you make no attempt to contact Maya Lahan. She has asked me to give you that message."
"Bullshit."
Harry took out his work phone and offered it to Lucas. "Ring her and see. When she knows it's you she'll hang up."
The belligerence drained from Lucas as he flopped back against his pillows. Harry noticed a tear at the corner of Lucas's right eye, which then rolled down his cheek, and he made no attempt to wipe it away. "I love her so much," he said hoarsely.
"Then if you love her that much you'll let her go."
Again Lucas turned towards Harry, but this time his eyes were flashing with anger. "And I suppose you know all about that, don't you?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." Harry held Lucas's eyes, not wanting to be the one to look away first. Let him ask questions. Let him try to understand. "If you really love her, then you have to leave her to live her life safely .. in this country."
Lucas looked away, and Harry noticed the relaxing of the younger man's jaw, as though his own words had hit home. "Who is to be my section head?"
"Kadir Kahn. He'll be contacting you in the next few days. He'll find you somewhere else to live. Somewhere you can -"
"- make a fresh start. Yes, I know all about that." Harry waited for Lucas to further object, but all the fire seemed to have left him. He was beginning to accept his future .. his future without Maya. Harry also knew all about that.
Between comparing notes on Lucas with Ros, checking Tariq's findings about Lucas's phone calls, and fending off awkward questions from the Home Secretary, Harry had had little time to think about Ruth. He was about to ring her when Ros appeared in his office doorway. "Got a minute?" she asked, although she was already half way to the chair. Harry nodded, indicating the chair in which Ros was already about to sit. "I've had two calls from Towers," she began.
"Only two?"
"He wanted to know what was going on."
"What did you say?"
Ros looked down. "I suggested he ring you."
"Well, thanks for that."
"And has he?"
"Rung me?" Ros nodded. "He has. Three times, and each time I've told him the bare bones of the story. He's a politician, and if he got wind of what almost happened with Lucas, he may find it hard to not tell someone."
"Is that what you think of him?" Ros asked.
"Don't you?" Harry felt his frustration levels rising, as he slipped a finger inside his collar, running it around to separate the collar from his skin.
"I barely know the man. I was in hospital for -"
"I know you were. I'm still assessing him, and until I know which way he leans -"
"Meaning whether he's in support of what we do, or in support of his own job."
"Exactly. Until I know that, then I'm only sharing with him what I consider to be absolutely necessary. The less he knows about Lucas North's intentions the better."
"You're afraid he'll make an example out of it?"
"Yes." Harry still felt deeply uncomfortable, and he sat with his hands clasped on the desk in front of him, trying hard to appear in control of his emotions. The truth was he was very far from it. "There has been nothing documented about Lucas's demands .. his intentions .. and there's every chance Towers has never heard of Albany."
"Do you think that likely?"
"I do. He can't possibly know everything .. can he?" Harry stared at Ros, hoping she'd get the hint and drop the subject. It had caused them all so many headaches already, without the Home Secretary getting wind of it.
"So you're saying we should simply drop it?"
"That is what I'm saying."
Ros stood up, slowly, because it was close to the end of the day, and she was tired. "Then on your head be it," she said, leaving.
Harry nodded. Wasn't absolutely everything on his head?
With Ros heading back to her desk, and almost everyone else having left for the day – barring Tariq, who appeared to live on the Grid – Harry took out his pay as you go phone, and was about to ring Ruth when his desk phone rang. One look at the caller display had him dropping the mobile phone back in his pocket, and picking up his desk phone.
"Felicity?" he said, hoping that Ruth's psychologist was just wanting to compare notes, and that nothing more sinister was afoot.
"Mr Pearce -"
"Harry .. please, call me Harry."
"Harry, have you spoken to Ruth today?"
"Yes, but it was much earlier today. I was just about to call her when you rang."
"I'm just ringing you to let you know that for the time being Ruth has decided to not take any calls, other than from me, although she's even reluctant to do that."
Harry felt a chill in his chest and neck. "Can you share with me why that is?"
"I took a call from her around two hours ago. She was having what I could only describe as a panic attack, but what I suspect is the beginning of a period of break down."
"Break down? She's on her own. Is it safe to let that happen?"
"Provided someone checks on her daily, and I believe she has a woman who is doing that."
"Ellen Penhaligon. Many years ago Ellen spent a number of years in admin at Section D. She's discreet .. and wise." Harry waited a moment to allow that information to sink in. "After around a week I asked Ellen to call in on Ruth daily .. just in case. There was also a situation here to do with an agent who'd gone off the rails, but I texted Ruth once the situation had cleared, so -"
"I think, whatever that situation was -"
"And I can't tell you what it was."
"I know that, Harry. I think it was that … perceived threat which set Ruth off."
"Should I be worried?" Whether he should or not, Harry was worried.
"No, not unless Ruth has ever shown signs of … how shall I say it ..?"
"You're asking me if Ruth has ever shown signs of wanting to end it all?"
"Yes. Has she?"
"Not in the time I've known her, and I have known her for almost eight years. It was only a little over eighteen months ago that she lost her partner, and then was denied contact with her step son, and only weeks later one of our agents – to whom Ruth was especially close – was killed in the line of duty. I wouldn't say that Ruth has been terribly happy since these events, but nor has she been suicidal."
"I agree with you. She has told me about all the events you mentioned. I think that as much as she misses the three people concerned, it's been a blessing that she still has you."
Well, she'd floored him with that observation. Harry was quite literally lost for words. Felicity quickly ended the call, citing a appointment with a client. Harry sat back in his chair, and for the second time that day he stared through the large window of his office into the darkened office area. Surely Ruth would answer a call from him … wouldn't she? She'd told him she loved him. She'd looked forward to his daily phone calls. Not accepting Felicity's words, Harry took out his pay as you go phone and dialled Ruth's number. He listened as it rang six times, and then went to voice mail. He left a quick message, the gist of which, once he'd closed the phone, he couldn't remember.
He waited, sitting at his desk, glancing through a summary of the day's risk assessments compiled by Ros. He initialled each page as he skimmed through, but most of his attention was on the phone which sat next to his left hand, ready to grab it should it ring.
Around an hour after he'd rung Ruth she sent him a text message: I have asked Felicity to ask you to not contact me until I am ready to again talk to you. Please respect my request for some space. xx
Harry sat back and sighed. Patience was not normally one of his virtues, but this time he had little choice. He had done it before and he could do it again. He would keep busy until Ruth was once more ready to speak to him.
