"He murdered her, Harry."
Harry wished that Beth's words surprised him. He wished he wasn't proven right by the circumstances. Goddamn bloody Russians. Even so, this was a serious accusation for Beth to make. Not something to take at face value just because Harry might get the opportunity to tell Towers 'I told you so.'
"Are you sure about this?" Harry asked, turning away from the window where he'd been staring at Victor speaking to Tariq and focusing instead on Beth, Lucas, and Dimitri in his office.
"When I left the room, Meg was definitely alive," Beth confirmed.
"Victor?" he asked Lucas.
"Claims she slipped into unconsciousness," Lucas replied.
Dimitri added, "I called the morgue, and there are no signs of a ligature. But if he drowned her, the postmortem results would look the same.
A quick knock at the door caused them all to turn. Ruth came inside, sliding the door closed behind her. Two conflicting and odd reactions went through Harry's head in that moment. First, he was strangely disappointed that she had knocked, though she did sometimes do that when there were others in his office and she was coming to interrupt. Second, the way her skirt moved around her legs as she entered was quite alluring, and Harry had to instantly scold himself for noticing that. After all, they were trying to locate a deadly nerve agent and deal with an FSB officer who had killed the daughter of a man they had in custody and Ruth was still upset at him. Now was not the time to be thinking about putting his hands up her skirt.
"Harry, our Russia intercept team has intel," Ruth announced. "There's an order for a medevac flight, London to Moscow. And the Paroxocybin must be readmitted to cryogenic storage within seventy-two hours."
"They've been using us to track Aibek," Lucas deduced.
"Why?" Beth asked.
Harry lowered himself into his chair slowly, trying to maintain control. He could be angry at himself later. "They want the Paroxocybin for themselves." He spoke calmly and steadily while his mind berated, oh you stupid fool! "Lucas," he said sharply, indicating for his Section Chief to develop a plan of attack.
"On it. You two, with me," Lucas said, gesturing to Beth and Dimitri. "And Harry, Kirby needs to be informed."
Christ, Harry had almost forgotten that the man he'd been interrogating for the last hour had just lost his daughter. He nodded and stood up again, walking out of his office without a word. Ruth followed him, and he was glad for it. He took his time walking through the bowels of Thames House, trying to organize his thoughts with his hands in his pockets and the concrete corridors reminding him of where he was and what he was doing. But once they were alone and away from the hubbub of the Grid, Harry paused, turning to Ruth. She did not hesitate to stand quite close to him, quietly waiting for him to speak.
"It appears I have allowed us to be played by Moscow from the start," he said, admitting defeat.
"Well not right from the start, Harry," she countered. "It wasn't why you let Aibek go."
Harry fixed his gaze on the wall, unable to look at her. "But by allowing him to escape, I did the Russians a favor, and I have to admit that was my mistake."
"A mistake of judgment, maybe. But not of decency."
The softness of her voice and insistence of her words made him turn. She was so close and so lovely and all Harry wanted in that moment was to feel her in his arms once more and to be lost in the glory that was Ruth.
"Sometimes, you have to do what's necessary, Harry," she continued. "You are a good man, and it shows in everything you do and every choice you make. And when your decency results in mistakes of judgment or whatever other consequences, we deal with it. That's all we can do."
His heart expanded and cried out for her. But now was certainly not the time to give in to it. He swallowed back his emotion and merely whispered, "Thank you, Ruth."
She reached out and gave his hand a small squeeze before walking past him. They had work to do. He caught up to her and went first through the door to where Kirby was being held, and Ruth closed the door behind them.
Harry steeled himself, seeing the man standing and staring out the back wall. "Doctor Kirby."
"Is it about Meg?"
"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry," Harry told him softly as Kirby turned and started to walk toward them.
"How did she die?"
"She drowned. She was drowned," Harry amended quickly, knowing the distinction was an important one.
Kirby sat down, and Harry and Ruth both joined him, sitting side by side and almost touching. A united force together.
"I'm afraid she told Aibek what he needed to know," Harry said.
"No. Never," Kirby protested.
"One of our officers was with her, and before she died, she told her." Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Ruth hang her head. Kirby, too, sagged in defeat. "No one could blame her," Harry went on. "Even a trained officer in those circumstances would only last a few hours."
"We can still save the Paroxocybin and stop the man who did this, Stephen. Bring him to justice," Ruth said. Oh that gentle voice of hers, so kind and yet full of such determination. "But not without your help. You have to tell us where the sample is."
And he did. Harry listened and thanked him before leaving Kirby with Ruth for the details. Harry left to consult with Lucas, and the two of them went to talk to Aibek. Harry wanted to speak to the man who was alive only because of Harry's mistake of judgment. But not a mistake of decency. He knew that. Respected it.
Harry sent Lucas, Dimitri, and Beth with Victor to the cryogenics lab where Kirby had stored the Paroxocybin. He stayed on the Grid with Ruth and Tariq. The plan was all arranged. Victor would wear his body camera to witness the destruction of the sample, but Aibek would be waiting for them. Lucas took Victor to the real sample after the decoy was sent away in the convoy. Or rather, that was what Victor thought. Ruth had arranged with Porton Down to securely store the Paroxocybin while Aibek put on a good show of stealing the fake sample.
In the end, Victor killed Aibek and Lucas killed Victor. It was all a lot of meaningless bloodshed, but Harry was pleased with the overall outcome. Tariq did a wonderful job doctoring Victor's body camera footage to make it look like Victor was the hero, killed by Aibek who they said escaped with the Paroxocybin, and Lucas and Beth had done all they could to save Victor. Harry presented the McGough Medal to the Russian ambassador.
The ambassador left, leaving Harry alone with the Home Secretary. "Bloody cockup, letting Aibek escape with the Paroxocybin," Towers grumbled.
"I understand the Azakstani government have persuaded the Russians to withdraw," Harry noted, sitting back down across from the Home Secretary's desk.
"Didn't have much choice, did they? Not with the other side possessing a WMD."
"I suppose not," Harry answered, concealing the smirk he could not quite prevent.
Towers stared at him, realizing what wasn't being said. "Oh, get out, Harry."
"Home Secretary," Harry said with a nod, turning to walk out of the office and allowing himself to smile.
He walked out of Whitehall to the car waiting for him, its driver standing outside the vehicle. Ruth was in the front seat, staring straight ahead, and Harry got in the back where Doctor Kirby was waiting. "Thank you for seeing us," he said to the old man.
"Did I have a choice?"
"Your daughter did not break her promise, Doctor Kirby," Harry told him. "An officer was with her when she died. She kept the faith to the very end."
"You lied to me."
"Yes. I'm sorry. It was necessary."
"So, some crackpot terrorist organization could get hold of it. Another success for British intelligence," Kirby lamented.
Harry took no offense to that. "I realize you are a highly principled man, Doctor Kirby."
"Spare me the platitudes, please," Kirby interjected.
"I am therefore going to tell you something which I probably shouldn't," Harry continued, talking over the interruption. That, for the first time since Harry got into the car, caused Ruth to turn towards the men talking behind her. Well, Harry would deal with her later. He continued, "The Paroxocybin, your Paroxocybin, was taken under armed guard to Porton Down where it will be kept in secure storage."
Doctor Kirby shook his head in disbelief. "But the newspaper reports said…"
"Not always accurate," Harry informed him with a small grimace.
Kirby let out a deep breath. "And the AFF? They have nothing?"
"They have what they need," Harry said. "Russia's belief that they possess the power to strike back."
They fell silent. Kirby sighed. Harry told him the driver would take him home. He and Ruth got out of the car and walked down to the embankment.
"If he talks, you'll lose your job," Ruth said.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"You'd lose everything."
"Possibly." Harry kept walking toward the wall overlooking the river. She was needling him, but he wasn't too bothered. They had other things to discuss, and if this was how she wanted to broach it, he'd not stop her. But he wouldn't indulge her doomsday attitude about this matter, not now that it was all taken care of. "He won't talk, though. He's an honorable man."
Ruth turned to look at him at that. "You can't know that for sure, Harry."
"Sometimes you have to give a man a chance, Ruth, to show you who he really is." He turned to look at her with those words, to look into her eyes, to now try to actually talk about what mattered: their relationship.
She stared at him, surprised and flustered. Her eyes looked luminous in the gray light of the day. The light breeze swept her hair back, and the cold had put a pretty pink tinge on her lips. He watched her. And waited.
Eventually, she shook herself slightly and said, "Harry, I know who you really are. I…oh come on, we have to get back to the Grid."
Even more surprising than her lack of response was the way she grabbed his gloved hand with hers and practically dragged him down the road towards Thames House. It was not a long walk, they'd done it many times before, but they nearly always got a car. "What are we doing back at the Grid?" he asked. He'd dismissed everyone before leaving for the Home Office and having Ruth pick up Kirby.
"Just come on," she insisted.
Realizing he wasn't going to get any other answer out if her, he fell into step beside her and walked quickly but silently along the river. She didn't need to pull him by the hand when he was walking next to her like this, but he wasn't going to let go if she wasn't. They walked ten minutes like that, not dropping hands until they reached Thames House and had to go through security. Harry didn't know what they were doing, but he had a very pleasant walk holding hands with his fiancée.
They went down the lift to the pods. Ruth was certainly a woman on a mission, and Harry found himself equally bewildered and charmed by it. The chaos and nightmare of their work had paused for the moment as they finished one operation and had not yet begun the next. Ruth was focused on something, though, and he'd just follow her lead until he figured out what on earth she was up to.
"Briefing room," she announced upon reaching Dimitri and Beth at their desks. "Where's Lucas?"
"He went home," Beth said.
"Oh. Well, that's fine," Ruth answered, somewhat distracted. "Dimitri, go get Tariq."
Beth caught Harry's eye and looked at him questioningly. Harry just shrugged in response. They both followed Ruth into the briefing room. Dimitri and Tariq showed up two steps behind them.
"Right. Sorry to interrupt. I just thought you all should know that Harry and I are engaged to be married," Ruth blurted out.
"Well that's one way to do it," Harry muttered to himself. He steeled himself for whatever reaction awaited them.
Beth's face broke into a beaming smile, but she said nothing. Tariq looked rather shocked, looking with wide eyes from Ruth to Harry and back to Ruth. Dimitri seemed to be the only one with the power of speech. He smiled—not as widely as Beth but still in an obviously happy manner—and said, "Congratulations to you both."
Ruth pulled the chain from where it was hidden beneath her blouse and unclasped it. She took the ring off the chain and went to put it on her finger, but Harry stopped her. "Let me," he insisted quietly.
She gazed at him with such a look of adoration, it took everything in him to not kiss her right there. He put the ring on her finger, just as he'd done when they bought it and every time they'd been together away from the Grid since.
"You two?" Tariq finally said, the shock obviously not having worn off.
"Does your surprise come from the fact that we're constantly bickering or the fact that I'm far too old for her?" Harry asked him bluntly. He earned a withering glare from Ruth for that.
"I would say both, but then, I already had time to get used to the idea," Beth said.
"I forgot to take my ring off when I went home on Saturday, so I sort of had to tell her," Ruth explained. "So that makes you two the third and fourth people who know. Malcolm was the first," she told Tariq and Dimitri.
Dimitri came over and shook Harry's hand and gave Ruth a hug. "I hope I'm invited to the wedding. I have a feeling you'd be fun at a party," he teased.
"We haven't really begun to plan the wedding yet," Harry said. He'd learned his lesson from discussing that issue incorrectly with Malcolm.
Ruth came and took Harry's hand, which was quite a bold move on her part. It caused a warmth to bloom inside him. Though he was coming to recognize that Ruth caused that warmth whenever she was around.
"We'll figure everything out in time. But I just wanted to tell everyone. Harry and I love each other and we want to get married…eventually. It isn't fair to either of us to feel like we have to hide," Ruth said.
Harry smiled. He was so proud of her that he wanted to burst. Ruth stood up proudly and took his hand and told their colleagues that they loved each other and they were going to be married. A far cry away from when she'd told him they couldn't go out to dinner again because people were talking and laughing about the two of them. But in so many ways, both he and Ruth were a far cry away from those two people who had shared a white burgundy and talked of thermobaric bombs. It was the right time for them now. They could carry on, hand in hand, into their future.