Harry and Ros sat with an ever growing sense of horror as Connie unveiled her plan. She was a traitor with no desire to spend the rest of her life in prison so was quite happy to die. She was going to blow herself up in one of London's squares at precisely midnight and at exactly the same time, Juliet would kill Ruth. She would ring him at eleven pm and tell him either the name of the square or the address at which Ruth was being held, giving him and him alone the chance to be at one or the other. If he chose to try and save Ruth then dozens of people would die, if he chose to come to the square then it would be Ruth that he would lose. Any sign of other colleagues or CO19 and she and Juliet would execute both plans.
'They're bloody lunatics, it's not a case of one or the other it's both,' said Ros to an ashen faced Harry as she leapt to her feet and headed back onto the grid.
'Find that bloody car or we lose Ruth,' she yelled at Malcolm and Tariq, 'everyone else, meeting room now.'
Standing at the head of the table, she took a deep breath and formulated her plan.
'Harry won't be going anywhere, but he will tell Connie that he is going to the square. Dimitri and I with the help of CO19 will eliminate Connie. Lucas and Beth will go to wherever Juliet is holding Ruth and extract her. If it means killing Juliet so be it. It will be exactly five minutes to midnight when we will strike.'
She tried and of course failed to persuade a now apoplectic Harry to agree to stay on the grid. After a short debate, she agreed that he could go with Lucas and Beth but that he must promise to hold back until they were sure that Ruth was safe.
It was an agonising half hour later when they got the breakthrough that they needed. Tariq had finally traced the car. It was parked at the end of a narrow road that led to what appeared to be a deserted farmhouse. Access looked good and assuming that there were no outside cameras, they would be able to drive all but the last quarter mile after which they would have to go on foot. As yet they had no sightings of Connie, but Alec suggested that for maximum impact she would go for one of the major squares to gain worldwide news coverage.
Tariq and Malcolm sat with a list of London squares in front of them, slowly eliminating those that were small, were full of office blocks and those with high buildings on all four sides. They had got the list down to four but the most likely they thought was either Leicester which would be full of people as they left theatres or Trafalgar which was always full of people many of whom were tourists.
Lucas and Beth were mapping the quickest route to Ruth's location and organising firearms, blankets and medical supplies and had spoken to the ambulance service in anticipation that Juliet and more importantly Ruth would need treatment. It was a hostage situation they told them and on no account were they come within a mile of the place until they got a call.
Ros and Dimitri now fully armed and kitted out in bullet proof vests were studying models of both squares as was Michael who with only half an hour to spare, had been recruited from Section E as Harry's double. They were taking a huge risk but were banking on two factors. Firstly that Connie's eyesight was poor and it wouldn't be until Michael was within forty yards that she would realise that it wasn't Harry and secondly that it would distract her for the instant that it took for CO19 to take the shot.
Harry despite the urge to tell Ros that he was still nominally the boss, had given in to her demands and was sitting on his sofa with his eyes shut, doing his best to eliminate the nightmare that was engulfing him. Everything depended on Connie believing the lie he was about to tell her, that he was coming to the square and was prepared to sacrifice Ruth. At exactly 11pm his phone rang.
'Well, what a surprise,' said Connie, as she gave him the location where she would be at midnight, 'and here was me hoping that just for once, the great Harry Pearce would be faithful to a woman.'
The farmhouse they already knew about, the square was Trafalgar and within minutes, two cars were racing out of Thames House car park and CO19 were on their way. Alec had stayed on the grid and was linked via comms to Ros as Malcolm who sat in front of his computer screen was covering all angles of Trafalgar Square. Tariq who was linked to Lucas was trained on the road leading to the farmhouse, and once they arrived would be able to help them gain access.
Even at that late hour Trafalgar Square was packed with people, more in fact than Connie had expected. Her plan to kill herself, Harry and a large number of innocent civilians looked easily achievable but what she hadn't anticipated, Alec had. The combination of a dark and cloud filled night sky, the bright lights throughout the square and the fountains in each corner created a glare which made it difficult to distinguish faces. You certainly couldn't see the rooftops of the surrounding buildings and CO19 had been in place even before she arrived.
It was precisely eleven fifty when Ros and Dimitri got the call from Alec to say that Connie was walking away from the east corner in the direction of Nelson's column. She had stopped and was scanning the area presumably in an effort to spot Harry.
'You're on,' whispered Ros to Michael, 'now remember what we said. When you're into the square walk slowly, pause every now and again as though you're searching for someone and when you get the word which will be forty yards before you reach Connie, stand absolutely still. When you see Dimitri and me on either side of Connie it will be job done, which is when you go back to the grid.'
Alec and Malcom watched what was a copy book execution of an Op. Michael, who all but the fact that he was slightly taller than Harry looked remarkably like the man himself did exactly what Ros had told him up until the moment when CO19 took the shot and Ros and Dimitri stepped in.
