They were tired, they were stressed and after yet another night when no one apart from Ruth and Harry had had any sleep, they were running on empty. A concerned and exhausted Jo had turned to Harry for a solution, whereby without compromising their security, he and Ruth could become part of the surveillance. Unsurprisingly given what they had been through, the only way that she'd been able to get him to agree, was to assure him that he and Ruth would be able to work together. She'd watched him watching Ruth and never once had he let her out of his sight. Having put together a rota whereby besides them, two at a time they could grab some sleep, she'd arranged an early briefing.
Having had his breakfast in the main house and a brief chat with Diana, Dimitri was the last to arrive. Not surprisingly, Alec who was also late was still tucking into his food. Feeling like the new boy and a bit of a get to know you chat, Dimitri poured a cup coffee and wandered over to join him. Having been outside for some fresh air and a chat, when Harry and Ruth walked past them in the opposite direction, Alec speaking under his breath, made what Dimitri considered to be an unnecessary and completely inappropriate suggestion.
'Yes mate, and she's very much out of your league,' Dimitri told him, as he watched Alec's head tilt to one side with an appreciative stare at Ruth's departing figure.
'She's his analyst, they come and they go,' Alec suggested with a knowing look in his eyes, 'and let's face it I'm younger than him.'
And soon to be dead if he catches you thought Dimitri, going on to tell him that he had no idea what he was talking about.
Having spent a week with the Prime Minister, there was virtually nothing that Dimitri didn't know about Harry Pearce and Ruth Evershed. The man had given a lifetime of service and up until now, had lost virtually everything that he'd ever had. Not withstanding the fact that they'd been locked in a watery cell for nearly a week, Michael Rodgers had said that it had been a real privilege to have spent some time with him. Ruth Evershed he had described as an absolute gem and one of the bravest and most compassionate women you could wish to meet. If any couple deserved to be together and have a long a happy life, then it was them. It had been a glowing and truly heartfelt summation and it had really got under Dimitri's skin. Alec was an prat and unlike him had no ambition. He'd been more than happy when Adam had told him that he was going to Tring, with the specific purpose of being their private protection.
Leaving Alec to ponder and if he had any sense take on board what he had said, he went back upstairs to catch up with his charges and to tell them that he and Jo were going off duty for a few hours, but if they needed anything that he was only a stone's throw away.
Less than two miles down the road in a small and scruffy bed sit that she'd rented, Tessa was getting ready for her day. An indefinite tenancy and that she wanted to be left alone, had been the stipulations to her seedy looking landlord when she'd handed him a handful of cash sufficient for the first month. There had been no contract, the place was so awful that she wondered if there had even been a previous tenant, but having given it a reasonably good clean and using her own bed linen, it was serving its purpose. Booked in as Ms Wild, she was combining a birdwatching holiday with visiting friends who lived locally, and with her recently shortly cut and dyed hair she was supremely confident that she wouldn't be recognised.
Two days earlier she'd travelled back to London to empty and then ransack what had once been her office, before having one last meeting with her assets and cutting all communications until the big day. Recent events had taught her to be wary of everybody and God help anyone who had grassed her up to those buggers at Thames House. Nicholas hadn't talked she knew that, because he'd rung her just after he'd arrived at his house in Scotland, or scot free as the idiot now called it. She was home and dry.
Her objective was as it had been for almost every day since she'd been there. Posing as a tourist or local depending on her legend on the day, she would walk both the available routes into and out of the village, popping into the churchyard as if visiting a grave, reading the notices that talked about future events and as she passed the gates to the house, assess if anything had changed. In various guises, she'd varied the times that she'd done it. A visiting aunt collecting her nephew from nursery had been her favourite so far, when an elderly couple who were walking their dog had stopped to talk to her. Watching from the woods that bordered the house on two sides, she'd counted the number of CO19 operatives and knew exactly the time that their shifts started and ended. They wouldn't be her problem her lads would be dealing with them, but none the less she wanted to keep on top of things. Scaling the exterior wall at a blind spot that she had discovered would have been her preferred method of entry and it irked her that she wasn't capable of doing that any more. That left her two other options, one of which was to wait until her lads were creating their diversion and then brazenly walk through the main gates or to arrive through a small but hidden gate via the churchyard. She was almost as fit as she had been when she'd first joined five, the wretched annual assessments that they put you through had seen to that. Dressed entirely in black, there wasn't one single reason why either of the two distracted young spooks would see her coming.
Having got Blake's confession, Millington was no longer a threat but had become an asset. As Juliet had so succinctly put it, he would be useful for years to come. Promising him exemption from prosecution if he not only confirmed the whereabouts of Alan Taylor but what Adam most wanted, a guaranteed publicity embargo on the current situation, he'd obliged without question. He would ensure that there were no headlines in the papers or announcements on the television that the police had raided several houses in an around central London and had taken in several suspects for questioning. Secondly and essential to the continuing stability of the section , was that when the op was concluded, he would publish a glowing article that the recently maligned security forces should be commended, not only for preventing an atrocity that would have taken dozens of lives, but had saved the life of their Country's Prime Minister.
Now resigned to his fate, Taylor had been exactly where Millington had told them he would be, hiding in a house that belonged to one of Tessa's assets. Rounding them up and bringing them in had been left to Special Branch and for the remainder of the day they'd been questioned and cross questioned by Adam and Juliet. Their conflicting stories and their attempts to point the finger at anyone rather than themselves had led Adam and Juliet to the same conclusion, and they now knew the how and hopefully they knew the when. Abandoning them in the holding cells to rot alongside Nicholas Blake, Adam reached for his phone and rang Jo and then Harry.
Despite everyone's attempt to lighten the mood, the atmosphere around the dinner table was tense. As Harry listened to them talking, he became increasingly confident that despite their lack of experience, this young group of colleagues were more than capable of protecting both Ruth and him and in addition detain Tessa. Jo's plan was a sound one and everyone had been deployed to the best of their ability. Not only that, it heartened him to think that in the future when he'd gone, that the section would be in good hands.
Varying the time as they had done every night, it was at 10pm that they turned off the lights as if going to bed. Knowing that Tessa would be coming alone they had revised their plans so that the annexe would be empty and Alec and Beth could be join their colleagues outside. With the exception of Ruth, they were all armed although that was as a last resort. They all knew exactly what they were required to do and despite Ruth's very emotional protest which none of them had witnessed, that now included Harry.
It was at 3am just as the church clock was striking its relentless hourly chime, that Beth spotted a movement. She, Jo and Alec were stationed at the front and sides of the house whilst Dimitri was at the back, leaving the now darkened annexe unguarded. As soon as the residents of the main house had gone to their rooms, it had been barricaded like Fort Knox with two from CO19 and Harry on watch inside. Spirited away into Diana Jewell's apartment, a now very unhappy Ruth, separated from Harry for the first time in over a week, was imagining what to her would be impossible to cope with, a life on her own if she were to lose Harry again.
Just as Tessa had planned it, all hell broke loose around the perimeter fence, as what were left of CO19 enacted what sounded like a full blown riot. While Beth stood stock still, Jo instructed Alec and Dimitri to stay exactly where they were while she moved round to join her colleague. The small buttresses that supported the wall gave them sufficient cover to watch who they knew to be Tessa, make steady progress across the garden in the direction of the annexe. Completely unaware that the majority of Section D was within seconds of where she was heading, she took one last look around before racing the last few metres. Using the tried and tested method and with not so much as a look behind her, she unlocked the door.