Redflash.
Ros turned straight down the corridor to the Ops room.
Lucas put down his drink and excused himself from the rather dull woman at the bar.
Harry kissed Ruth.
Ruth kissed Harry.
Redflash.
Redflash.
The two, finally and most unwilling, pulled tenderly apart.
"I think I quit," whispered Harry.
"You can't."
"I want to."
"No, you want to find out why you've been redflashed, Harry."
"I don't care."
She got up.
"Come on," she said and held out her hand to him.
"Lead on, then, Ruth. For where you lead, I am bound to follow."
"This better be good," growled Harry, walking into the ops room. He waited for Ruth and shut the door behind her.
"Oh, it is," said a very smug looking Tariq. In fact all three of the team were grinning madly.
Ruth sat in her chair to listen as Harry perched on the desk.
"Go on, then," he said.
"We know where Chan-Sook was for the missing hour," smiled Lucas.
"Not with me," said Harry.
"Indeed. In fact, not even in the hotel."
"Then where?" asked Ruth.
"The stables," announced Tariq.
"I didn't even know there were stables," said Ruth.
"And?' Harry was curious.
Ros was smirking.
"No wonder she was in such dire need of pinning it on you. Think of the worst case scenario for her and then double it."
"She's having an affair?" suggested Ruth.
Lucas nodded.
"Hardly worth going to all the trouble of framing me," Harry knew there was more to come.
"No!" said Ruth, suddenly.
"Oh, yes," said Tariq.
Harry hadn't got it. And then he did.
"My god, she is having an affair with one of the North Koreans?"
Lucas grinned.
'No wonder she was so desperate," said Ruth.
"Thanks very much," said Harry.
"But not just any one of the North Koreans," continued Lucas mysteriously.
"Someone high ranking?" Ruth guessed.
"The Ambassador!" said Harry, incredulously.
The other three shook their heads and then Ros, with great relish pronounced the truth.
"The Ambassador's wife!"
"No!" said Harry and Ruth together.
"Oh yes," said Lucas and Ros.
And they turned to Tariq, who held up a photo of Chan- Sook and another woman, in a rather intimate position.
"Now I know why they call her Chan-Sook!" said Harry, turning his head to take in the full implications of the photo.
And they all began to laugh.
It was at that moment that the Foreign Secretary burst through the door with his usual posse of Koreans.
"Glad to see that you're having a good time," he pronounced sarcastically, before looking at Ruth, "and that you've got your clothes on."
Harry stood up, persuading himself that hitting the Foreign Secretary was not the brightest of ideas.
"Sir Harry, Chan-Sook has reported you, I'm here to ask you to accompany me to the police, who are waiting outside."
"The only case to answer, is not mine to the police, but Chan-Sook's to her husband," said Harry, as he brandishes the photo in front of the Foreign Secretary.
He had the good grace to look embarrassed, the South Koreans behind him though took the prize for 'most shocked facial expression'. They did not stay, they had to report back to the Ambassador. The photo went with them.
"Good, well, that's concluded."
The FS followed them, no apology, no thanks, no grace.
"Drink?" said Ros and she, Lucas and Tariq all rose as one and headed for the door.
"You coming?" Lucas asked Harry who hadn't moved.
"Right behind you."
The room was suddenly still.
"Well, you wouldn't have put money on that," said Ruth, smiling.
"No, " Harry was quiet and still.
"What is it?"
"It's happened, Ruth."
"What has?"
"They've gone."
She looked confused.
"The South Koreans," he added.
She understood.
He waited, afraid he had lost all he had so recently found.
"Well, we can still go and have a drink with the others can't we?"
He nodded, disappointed she said no more.
"Come on."
And she opened the door, waiting for him, as he walked sadly past.