It's all over the news Harry, I can fill in the gaps,' Ruth said to him the following morning, when he refused to discuss their latest Op. 'I'm not a fool, so please don't treat me like one, it's just that with me sitting here and you God knows where, this is more difficult than I thought.'

All her resolutions of the previous day had faded on the wind, when she had woken at four with the current news going round and round in her head. Unable to go back to sleep, she had got up long before Harry, hell bent on having breakfast with him before he left for work. She was an analyst first and foremost and knew full well that if the current situation between, India and Pakistan wasn't resolved, it could well result in all-out war. Add China and then heaven knows who else into the mix, and the word nuclear loomed large in the frame. It had all seemed so simple when they had discussed her staying at home, but with the knowledge that she had accumulated over the years and her vivid imagination, she could picture scenario after scenario, all of which would put Harry in danger.

'I'm sorry, I really have to go,' said a now frazzled Harry, wondering why she had suddenly become so irrational and if it was just her hormones, although he knew better than to ask. 'We'll talk about this tonight, I promise,' he told her, swallowing the last of his coffee as he grabbed his keys. She knew that he was already under pressure and that she shouldn't be adding her concerns into the mix, besides which she didn't know why she felt so flaky, it just wasn't like her. She needed to say sorry and the best way to do that was to kiss him, so she followed him to the front door. She got her wish, as before he buttoned his coat, he held it open for her to walk inside. Wrapping it tightly round her, he kissed her as though his life depended on it. 'We'll talk tonight,' he whispered, 'I promise.'

'So what do you think of him?' asked Ros, when she and Harry were sitting in his office ahead of the morning briefing. They had come back from Whitehall after their meeting with the new Home Secretary, who she felt was a breath of fresh air, compared to the usual old buffers that they had to deal with. Harry didn't look happy and clearly thought otherwise, but then he had liked Nicolas Blake, so maybe that was the reason. The Op itself seemed pretty straight forward, not ideal in that they had been ordered to share the security detail with the CIA, but given the seriousness of the subject, it wasn't surprising that this was the case. Why a huge and prominent London Hotel had been chosen as the venue, she couldn't fathom, when it would have been so much easier to use Chequers. Their staffing levels were still at an all-time low and given that she and Lucas would be missing for the day, Harry would be left at Thames House with just the bare bones of Jo and Tariq.

She was halfway to his door, when his phone rang and he snatched it from the table and gave her a look that said 'well off you go.' That's not the Home Secretary is it she thought, as she watched him relax and his smile return. Ruth she mused, as she gave him one of her most knowing looks and shut his door.

'Right,' said Harry as they sat round the meeting room table having been joined by Lucas, Jo and Tariq. 'You have all seen the news and presumably understand the ramifications if these talks fail. The hotel is vast with over six hundred rooms, although I'm reliably informed that the majority of those will be empty. Ros and Lucas are going over there now, to discuss the security details with Russell Price, head of CIA European Ops, before the main players arrive after lunch.'

'There's one thing that's niggling me,' said Ros. 'Apart from the fact that it has good road links from the airports, why have they emptied a huge London hotel, when there are so many smaller and more suitable venues?'

'A question for Russell Price when we see him,' suggested Lucas, 'he seems to be running this op.'

Now why would Lucas say that? Harry wondered, as he looked across at Ros. First Ruth and now Ros, with concerns about what was going on, both with good instincts and far less blinkered than he was, when it came to politicians. There were more questions than answers and that unsettled him, what if this was just a smokescreen to something far bigger? He needed a word with Ros before they left and he certainly needed her to keep in touch.

Price was waiting for them in the foyer and showed them a detailed plan of the hotel. He dismissed their concern as to the venue, saying that the lower three floors, including the basement were empty and with no time to look at alternative venues, they had made a snap decision. His team were going to check the top three floors, so he suggested that she and Lucas should check the lower ones. Ros still felt unhappy, the place was a warren and made more confusing because every floor looked alike. Huge stairwells as well as escalators linked the floors, so even with their security presence there was easy access if anyone wanted to disrupt the talks.

'I'll take two and three, I want to keep an eye on Price and his cronies,' she told Lucas, 'you take the basement.'

Harry Jo and Tariq had watched patiently as Ros and Lucas arrived. Once they went inside the hotel there was no means of tracking them other than via the coms, so they were virtually on their own. In addition to the police and the security services, the place seemed to be crawling with press, all eager to take photos as people arrived. Harry wasn't entirely happy with the crowds, but it all appeared to be very congenial with lots of handshakes and smiles. That all changed in a blink of an eye, when Tariq shouted to Harry, that Ros had lost contact with Lucas.

'Ros can you hear me?' Harry said, 'get back outside and waylay the Home Secretary and the Pakistan Prime Minister and get them away from that hotel. You have my full authority to do whatever it takes to get the right outcome, leave Lucas to me.'

Leaving Jo and Tariq as the only core staff on the grid was risky and went against everything that he had promised Ruth and Ros, but he had no choice. 'Anything,' he said to Jo, looking at their two earnest faces, 'call me.'

If, God forbid, Lucas had some sort of alternative agenda, then he needed to find him and to trust Ros to save the talks. As he had battled his way through the huge police and press presence and into the foyer it was eerily quiet, like the calm before a storm. Basement Ros had said, as he headed down the stairs, he would start there. Pushing open the very heavy door he stepped inside, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light. It was far too dark, he couldn't see a thing.