What we've got here is failure to communicate
Captain (Strother Martin), Cool Hand Luke (1967)
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Part 8 – Cool Hand Luke
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2003.
Thames House.
London.
The others stared at him with open mouths as he paced before them.
"I have a state of the art alarm system. A random burglar wouldn't know where to start." Harry glanced at the others, they were clearly unconvinced. "I've found traces of blood, they're being analysed now."
Ruth leaned across the table towards him. "You have to tell them. Six will have copies of the codes and we need them."
"Harry, it's our duty as much as yours to report this."
Harry nodded reluctantly. "I know. But I would ask for a few hours while I try and save my career. I'll be in my office." He turned and left, swiftly.
Ruth sighed, literally biting her tongue before she spoke quietly. "Rule number one, never ever take your work home with you."
Zoë leaned across the table towards her and Tom. "Rule number two, report any officer that does, especially when he goes and loses it! We could all be implicated in a cover-up."
Danny nodded in agreement. "Harry wouldn't be the only one to lose his job."
Zoë reached for the phone in the center of the table but Tom's hand closed over her before she could lift the handset.
"I know the implications of this but he asked for a few hours so lets see that he gets them." Tom told her, pushing her hand away.
"And you think he'd do the same for us?!" Zoë asked, shaking her head.
"I'm sure he would." Ruth stated quietly, looking directly at Zoë. She opened her mouth, probably to disagree, then shut it just a fast.
Tom could sense the obvious tension and attempted to break it. "Besides, we all know Harry's history of taking his work home with him." He looked directly at Ruth. "It all works out in the end doesn't it?" He smiled slightly and she smiled softly back. "And we need to find a clean skin."
"I didn't sign up for this." Zoë told him as he stood to leave.
"Yes you did. I read the paperwork." He replied, feeling all their eyes on him as he strode out.
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1993.
St Cross Rd.
Oxford.
Harry leant back in his chair, drumming his fingers. "So… you speak five languages. Your IQ is over 160 and you beat me at scrabble with the word." He leant forward. "Money." He elongated the word to emphasise the stupidity of losing with a 5 letter word.
Ruth shrugged. "Triple word score. Sorry."
"Well I'm never playing with you again." Harry joked with her.
Ruth smiled widely at him. "Sore loser?"
Harry nodded. "Absolutely."
"Oh well." Ruth sighed dramatically. "I'll have to play with someone else." She paused and Harry could see her face redden slightly. As always he enjoyed it.
"What do you say I treat you to dinner?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
Ruth shrugged her shoulder but the redness remained. "Okay, it's not as if I've got anything else to do."
Harry paused for a moment and looked at her. "I am sorry about this you know."
Ruth nodded. "I know."
"But I promise you that I'm working on it. It's just safer for you to stay here."
Ruth nodded. "Where you can keep an eye on me." She added for him.
Harry couldn't disagree with her, she was right after all. He needed her close by, it gave him the upper hand with Mace and it meant he could attempt to work out what was going on. It also meant they could spend time together. Time that he enjoyed much more than he should.
"That also." He told her simply.
"And Lucy's going to start asking questions soon." She told him. "What do you want me to say?"
"I don't mind. It would be better if she didn't ask questions. Tell her I'm your boyfriend or something like that. It'll explain why I meet you after classes." Harry was nothing if not logical.
Ruth's blush had returned and Harry stood quickly, eagerly grabbing his coat. "So what do you want?"
"What do I want?" Ruth repeated, not understanding.
Harry raised his eyebrows, smiling slightly. "With your chips… I'll go and get them."
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2003.
Thames House.
London.
Tom was watching the screen, waiting for impatiently for Harry. His foot tapped softly on the meeting room floor as he kept his eyes on the boy in the interrogation room.
"Sometimes, in order to gain what we must have, we have to take risks. Firestorm tips the scales. It outweighs the risk of anything we might lose. And that includes my job." Harry told him as he walked into the room.
Tom moved his eyes from the screen towards his superior. "Harry?"
Harry sat down, leaning back in the chair. "The codes are gone, Tom. My time is up. I have to come clean."
Tom nodded, he knew it was what needed to be done, no matter the consequences. "You're telling Six." He stated needlessly.
"And the DG. I'm reporting to him at four." He stated, knowing and accepting his fate. "You make a mistake, you pay the price. Those are the rules. Firestorm is our priority now. We have to get it back."
Tom's eyes were drawn back to the screen. "We choose to do this job. JJ's a child. What choice are we giving him?"
Whatever reply Harry was about to give was interrupted by Ruth and Zoë entering the room.
Ruth look a breath before starting, her eyes glued to Harry as if she could see right through him. "I've checked the passenger list from the Chinese plane. A missile expert was on board. Dr Zheng Jing Hui."
Zoë continued but Ruth and Harry maintained their eye contact. "He called Hastings from the plane. A meeting's been arranged for tomorrow."
Harry looked away from Ruth and towards the screen.
"That boy has a photographic memory." He told them simply, looking at each of them in turn, his eyes lingering on Ruth's as she shook her head in disbelief.
"He's fourteen years old..." Tom started but Harry interrupted him.
"That's why no one would ever believe MI5 tasked him to steal anything." He spoke the truth but that didn't free him from stare of his soon-to-be-ex-wife.
Ruth had caught up fast, unsurprising considering she knew Harry's mind better than anyone else. Zoë was only just getting there.
"Your not serious Harry?" Zoë asked in disbelief.
Ruth stared at him forcefully, the anger and disappointment stemming from her was obvious. "Use a child as a clean skin?"
Harry spoke directly to her as he explained. "You think this would be the first time? Terrorists aren't the only ones to manipulate youth. It's all part of the game."
Ruth continued to shake her head. "The game? The same game as before? This is not a game Harry. This has never been a game. You're using a child as a pawn and it's disgusting."
"Do you have an alternative? Because if you think that there won't be consequences once I'm gone then you're very mistaken."
"No everything revolves around you." She replied scathingly.
Harry smiled, slightly smugly. "Oh you'd be surprised what does. You know as well as I do that as soon as I'm gone then so is this department."
"And you'd use anyone."
"For the good of the country."
"And for the good of Harry Pearce."
"They're not mutually exclusive Ruth." He looked away from her and shrugged at the other two. "If you can't think of an alternative, and fast, a 14-year-old is our best option."
Zoë followed Ruth from the room as Tom simply stared back at Harry.
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1993.
St Cross Rd.
Oxford.
"You're the reason Kate left me you know?" Simon deadpanned.
"And there was I thinking it was more to do with you shagging the nanny." Harry returned swiftly, eyebrows raised even though Simon couldn't see that over the phone line.
"Yeah… that may have influenced her to." Simon conceded, sighing with boredom. "Malcolm's replacing me tomorrow though so maybe I'll get the chance to play with something more interesting."
Harry ignored him, letting his gaze fall onto the sleeping woman across the room. "Tell me you've got something." He needed something, anything to get them out of this place. He was much too comfortable; she'd gotten far too close to him. It just wasn't natural for him to be enjoying her company so much. It wasn't natural for him to want this to continue when he surely had much more important work back at Thames House. Yet Ruth, combined with Oliver Mace and whatever was going on there, was definitely something to ponder.
"Not unless you want me to lie through my teeth."
"Great. Just great." Harry tried to convince himself that having no leads wasn't a good thing. But he was still unnaturally pleased that they were getting nowhere. Which definitely wasn't a good thing. At all.
"So you're not getting anywhere either?" Simon asked, sounding only vaguely interested.
Getting somewhere, was on the tip of this tongue but he didn't vocalise it. "Would we still be here if I had?" He said instead.
"I'm actually not sure anymore." Simon returned. "You're far too happy doing nothing for my tastes."
"Shut up." Harry said simply.
"Shutting up."
"Look lets go back to the beginning." Harry started, not liking where Simon was going. "Could we have missed anything?"
"You mean the background check?" Simon asked.
"Yes."
He could almost hear Simon's shrug. "You've got everything, the stupidly large file of transcripts of… everything. School records. College records. Doctors records. We've even got her father's death certificate. There's nothing else."
"There has to be."
"Look… maybe you're taking this too personally. Maybe she just scored high on a Six test."
"That's no reason to send Oliver Mace. He's too much of a desk spook now." Harry sighed. "What about family ties. Anything there?"
"Father's dead, obviously. Mother remarried. No siblings, only the stepbrother."
"And?" Harry pressed.
"And they cleared because the brothers on protection duty for Princess Di."
"You mean we didn't recheck?"
"There was no need, waste of recourses." Simon stated simply.
Harry felt something click inside him. "I want a complete background on the brother."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, completely… I've got a feeling, something she said earlier."
"If you've got a hunch then God help us all."
"A.S.A.P."
"As bloody always."
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2003.
Thames House.
London.
"It all worked out in the end." Zoë stated, sitting down beside Ruth in the almost empty grid.
Ruth nodded, sighing despondently. "It's beneath us to use children. No matter what their intelligence." She spoke passionately.
Zoë nodded in agreement. "You're preaching to the already converted."
Ruth grinned slightly. "Sorry…"
Zoë smiled back. "It was the wrong thing to do but… at least it didn't go wrong."
Ruth shook her head. "But it could have… and… it's alright for adults to do this job because we have a choice." She paused, remembering a time not so long ago. "If we have a choice… we choose to live our lives like this and that's fine because we decided that and we were willing to make the sacrifices but… that was just a kid and we didn't really give him a choice. Practically threatened him really and it was wrong."
"Ruth…" Zoë sighed. "I know it's not my place and… and I know we don't know each other very well but if you ever want to talk…" She trailed off, simply looking at the other woman.
Ruth smiled at her, nodding before looking quickly around the room. "My past… my life… is much to complicated for one simple conversation but… it almost happened to me."
"What did?" Zoë asked, not understanding.
"My recruitment is what most people would call a fiasco. If there was ever a reason for more interdepartmental communication then my case would be the perfect example of what happens when people keep secrets from each other." She took a breath. "The short story is that one day when I was in a library, minding my own business a man walks up to me and tells me that if I don't sign the official secrets act he'll kill my mother." She said it lightly, as if she wasn't talking about a death threat.
"What?" Zoë shook her head in disbelief. "Who was he?"
"He was Six… and I didn't sign. Mostly because I was so utterly terrified of this secret agent man that my hands were shaking too much."
"What happened?"
Ruth smiled genuinely. "Harry." She looked towards the closed blinds of his office. "I met Harry… or rather Harry met me. He sorted everything out. Eventually." She added quickly.
"So that's how you met?" Zoë enquired.
Ruth nodded. "Yes. Beginning of the story I suppose." She sighed heavily. "I never thought Harry was like him. But I didn't know this Harry and I've been wrong before." She looked at Zoë quickly. "Anyway, must get going. Cats to feed." Zoë nodded, taking the heavy hint and moving away.
Ruth looked back at Harry's office for another moment before turning to the computer. She was about to shut it down when her eyes were drawn to an email she'd that had only just arrived.
She opened it quickly and skimmed through the paragraph.
Dear Ruth
Your Secondment to MI5 is currently under review. Discussions with your Head of Sector, regarding your continued placement, are on-going and a decision will be made within 7 days, after which time you may be returned to GCHQ.
Yours Sincerely
Simon Horwood – Liaison Officer
"Shit." Her face fell and her eyes drifted once again to Harry's office.
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