Story continues below. A little warning though. This chapter is M rated.
Lucas arrived at the centre some twenty minutes later to find that Jo had already taken a description of the man who had collected Alice and rung Malcolm to ask him to scan the CCTV footage in the area to identify number plates of vehicles travelling on the roads between 3.00 and 3.20pm. 94 vehicles were identified and after knocking on doors of neighbouring properties eventually they came to one elderly lady who recalled a dark haired girl getting in to a grey car with blonde man a little after 3 that day. Tariq narrowed the possible getaway vehicles down to 12 grey vehicles. When shown images of different makes and models flashed through from Tariq on Lucas' laptop, the woman wasn't certain of the exact type, but managed to exclude 8 of the 12 cars. Which meant they were now chasing four vehicles which could have been used to take Alice.
Jo was immediately suspicious of Louise. She was the only one who appeared to have any motive for taking the child and the timing seemed too coincidental for it to be mere chance for a stranger to have taken her, and a stranger who knew enough about Alice's situation to present themselves as her uncle. Lucas agreed that Louise should be considered as a suspect but seemed more reluctant view her as the prime suspect. It seemed to her that he was still protecting her, that he wanted to believe that she was innocent. There was clearly still something between them, perhaps he was even in love with her.
After they had questioned the neighbours and reviewed the CCTV footage, Jo returned home to see if Louise had returned from her excursion, and was unsurprised to find that she hadn't.
It was now 8pm and the hunt continued. Lucas was on the grid with Ruth who had stayed behind to help them out, a move which Harry had approved despite the fact that this was officially a Police matter. Alice's disappearance had been reported to the Police but the only action they had taken so far was to interview both him and Jo and take down some notes, interview the lady who had seen the child leave with the blonde man and say that they would put an alert out for Alice and review CCTV footage, which Section D had already done. If Alice was to be found, Jo was pretty sure that they would have to do it themselves.
They spent the next two hours reviewing CCTV cameras but it was more difficult to track vehicles at night and no leads developed. Jo decided to look into Louise's background but could find nothing untoward. They did however arrange for a contact in Newcastle to visit her address, but no one was at home. When eleven o'clock came, Lucas told Ruth to go home. The fog had set in once again which meant that it was now impossible to get decent footage of car numberplates and it seemed unlikely they would make further progress that night. Ruth had to be in at eight the next morning and it wasn't reasonable to expect her to work the night through on a case that didn't even officially belong to MI5.
At 11.19pm Lucas received a call on his mobile.
"Hello," he answered, expecting that it would be Ruth or Harry calling for an update on the situation.
"Hallo, Lucas North," a male voice replied. Lucas recognised the accent immediately. Russian.
"Who am I speaking with?" he responded quickly.
"You don't need to know my name. What you do need to know, Komrade, is that I am the man who has your niece."
Lucas's finger slipped down to his computer to select the 'track' button to try to get a fix on his location as the caller continued, ''And that if you would like to see her again you will need to prepare fifty thousand pounds for exchange. I will call with the details of where and when the handover will occur after 12. Do we understand each other Mr North?"
Lucas took in a breath, reminding himself he needed to keep his cool. "I will have the money ready for you," he improvised smoothly, "but you will receive it only on the condition that my niece is alive and well and unharmed. If you hurt her in any way there will be no money and what is more I will hunt you down and make sure that you suffer for your actions in ways you could not possibly imagine."
There was a silence at the end of the phone for a few seconds and then the man appeared to have recovered from Lucas' threat. "If you have the money your niece will be returned to you unharmed. If you don't have the money, well, as to what may happen to her, I cannot say."
The line went dead and Lucas looked at his computer screen and swore. 11 seconds. The call hadn't been long enough to identify where it had come from. They were no further along now than they had been three hours earlier. He made his way downstairs and out the front door of Thames House, heading for the nearest cash machine, thinking to himself that he was pleased that he was with a bank that didn't impose daily withdrawal limits.
His backpay for the last eight years had amounted to 357,000 pounds and after the purchase of his flat he had had roughly 130,000 pounds left in his bank account. If things went according to plan he would never actually have to hand over the funds in the first place, but if he did have to he was confident they could be recovered. All that really mattered now was to get Alice back safely.
Ten minutes later he returned to the Grid and headed for the meeting room where Jo had shifted to continue her work to try to trace Alice.
"Lucas," she sighed in exasperation, her eyes fixed on her screen. "I'm sorry but it's hopeless trying to do this in this weather. It's impossible to get any identifiable footage of numberplates in the fog, even when I try to lighten the images with our software it's still no good and I'm not sure where to go next with this. We seem to have chased all the leads I can think of already."
She glared at her screen angrily for a minute, willing the images to suddenly become decipherable, but nothing changed.
Lucas had already taken the liberty of placing Harry's whiskey decanter in the meeting room and she had had one glass earlier.
"Drink?" Lucas questioned abruptly. She nodded and he poured two glasses. She stood up to collect hers and gulped it down rapidly, and then, feeling irritated at their lack of progress, poured herself a second and began to sip more slowly. She tried not to think about Alice, to ignore the fact that it was raining now and bitterly cold out there and she hadn't dressed her in her coat today.
After a few minutes she raised her eyes from her glass and looked up at Lucas, noting for the first time his expression. "Lucas?" she prompted anxiously.
"They called," he said shortly, not even looking at her but staring into his glass.
"What did they say?" she asked, immediately concerned.
"They said they had her. They want me to pay them fifty thousand pounds. I have the money now and they said would call back at midnight with the details of an exchange."
She watched him silently, not sure what to say. She couldn't ever recall having seen him like this before. His expression was dark and there was an intensity in his eyes that made her think that whoever had taken Alice had definitely chosen the wrong man to mess with.
"I could try to trace the call when it comes in," Jo started, only to be cut off by Lucas replying abruptly. "Yes. I don't hold out a lot of hope that we'll get a location, but we can try."
Jo nodded and sipped her drink, leaning her back against the table. She looked at the clock. 11:37. Twenty three minutes to go. She had done everything she could think of to try and find Alice. And now there was nothing left to do but wait, she reflected, looking down at her glass.
She hadn't anticipated what would happen next. She could recall his hands on hers setting aside her glass and then he was standing in front of her and the world seemed to contract, to become smaller until there was only the two of then, left alone together in the quiet stillness of the night with their fears as his lips sought out her mouth.
Even though she registered somewhere in the back of her head that this was wrong, she didn't stop it. Now that it was happening she realised that there had been something between them for almost as long as she could remember which made it seem that it was always going to end like this. Like so many things in their world it had been unspoken and unacknowledged, but there was an attraction there and a sameness about their experiences which drew them together, however much they might try to resist it.
He pushes her backwards on to the table until she can feel the hard wood pressing against her back and Lucas on top of her. She watches him as he removes first his shirt and then his trousers and then her fingers are tracing the inky outline on his chest. He lets her for a minute, and then his hands are on her, tugging at her jumper and skirt impatiently. As her clothing falls to the floor and his hands tighten around her waist everything suddenly becomes so fast, so desperate between them that it was almost hard to imagine that they would ever have had the freedom to choose anything but this.
Everything is quiet and all she can hear is the rain pattering against the window pane. His hands move over her body and she is falling, sinking deeper and deeper into something it seems impossible to resist and Lucas is the cause.
When he whispers, "I want you," and presses against her, something inside of her flinches. She has heard those words before and for a second she thinks she might cry. If she can only keep still and silent perhaps the fear will recede and then she will be immune to it. She shuts her eyes and holds on to him as he enters her and when she looks up all she can see and hear is Lucas. She is not afraid any more and is left only with a curious kind of sensitivity to his voice and touch. This is Lucas and she knows now that this is different to what she remembers in her past.
His kisses burn her lips as she slides her hands up the muscular arms on either side of her and curls her fingers around his neck. He turns his head so that his mouth presses against her cheek and calls her darling and it is like they are fused together. Lucas is now moving harder, faster inside her and it seems that whatever they do or say from now onwards they will never get away from this, and she thinks that this is all there will ever be for them – no past, no future, only this moment. The hardness and heat from his body leave a trail inside her aching for him when he withdraws from her body, if only for a few seconds, and she pulls him closer again.
"Jo," he murmurs, as she feels him move inside her one last frantic time that and her breath falls from her lips in ragged gasps.
"Sweetheart," he says and his lips move to press against the whispy strands of hair that curl by her ears and she wonders why she feels suddenly sad, a hurt which grows stronger with every heartbeat. And then she knows why, because she is in love with him but he doesn't belong to her, he isn't hers. She will have to give him up, give him back to someone else. This moment is fleeting and without Lucas it would feel like a part of her was missing.
For a minute it is quiet as they lie against each other and then Lucas is leaning his long legs over the table. He stands up and reaches over and pulls her to her feet, then places one final lingering kiss on her lips, leaving her breathless and flushed. When he lets her go she sways unsteadily on her feet for a moment, before regaining her balance.
He frowns, "Are you drunk?"
"No. Yes. Maybe a little bit."
She steadies herself against the table and looks to the clock, registering the time with a shock. 12.00. They would have to be forgotten because tomorrow was already here.