It took only a moment for Harry to push aside his inner struggle and get back to work. That was the thing to do with Ruth nowadays. And for most of the time he'd known her, unfortunately. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and wipe away every doubt in her mind and to love her and make her happy for the rest of their days. Instead, he had the Home Secretary and the CIA in the briefing room to worry about.

He sent Ruth to go see to Tariq as he returned to calm Beecher down. The man was going on and on about sharing American security technology with them and now whinging about unstable persons having access after Tariq's outburst.

"I have already agreed to have only operatives with priority-level access on the Grid today. But I need my core team. Tariq is part of that. It's non-negotiable," Harry insisted.

Harry understood the importance of Cybershell. He respected the Home Secretary's enthusiasm for it. He knew this was necessary. But the process of dealing with the Americans was always such a bloody nightmare. He wished they'd just install the terminal and leave. Beecher didn't need to be here to moan on about things.

Before Beecher could moan any further, a sharp knock came as Ruth walked right in. Funny how she'd knock coming into the briefing room but never his office. At least he hoped she wouldn't start knocking before coming into his office. He complained about it, of course, but he never, ever wanted her to feel as though she had to seek his permission or that she weren't welcome. It was important to Harry that Ruth was on his side and felt comfortable to be open with him. At work, at least. And elsewhere. Christ, there he went again.

"Excuse me," she interrupted, "The terminal's ready."

"How's Tariq?" Harry asked in return. She'd say he was fine, just frustrated about whatever issue that he was working to fix, and that would be that. Beecher and Towers would be satisfied.

Only that's not what Ruth did. Her lips tightened, and she nodded, but there was a terror in her eyes that Harry knew all too well. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

"Actually, perhaps we'd better discuss this later," he said, pointing at the guests seated before him, casually throwing them off the scent.

"Wait a minute, I want to hear this," Beecher insisted. Bloody Americans, always shoving their noses where they weren't invited.

But Harry was firm. He stood up and said, "I have the notion that I'm still nominally in charge around here, Mr. Beecher." Harry walked around the table, gesturing for Towers and Beecher to leave. "Now, the agreement's been signed, your terminal is in place, my officer is en route to collect your cryptographer, so if there's nothing else…" He landed by the door, next to Ruth, feeling for one moment that they could be a united front together.

Towers luckily got the message. "I'm due at a constituency surgery anyway." He stood up to make his way out. "Another edifying afternoon of overhanging trees and collapsing church roofs," he chuckled good-naturedly. "Come along, Beecher, I'll show you out."

Reluctantly, Beecher followed suit. "I'd appreciate an update," he said, looking to Harry and Ruth suspiciously as he left with Towers.

And then Harry and Ruth were alone in the briefing room with the water and coffee and pastries abandoned on the table. He took her arm and gently led her to the chair he'd just vacated, turning it somewhat violently to have her sit down. Harry took Beecher's seat at the head of the table and leaned in to speak with Ruth away from prying eyes and ears. Something had happened and he needed to know what it was.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked bluntly.

She was nervous. He hated seeing her nervous. "Just…forget about Tariq," she told him.

Harry frowned. What was she going on about?

"I've been meaning to talk to you, in private."

A flicker of panic ripped through him. This wasn't about Tariq at all. Or the Americans. This was about them. The ten days were up tomorrow, they were going to talk about it then. If Ruth was coming to him privately the day before the ten days, it could only mean one thing. She was going to well and truly end it and destroy every vestige of hope he had left. Well, perhaps that was a bit melodramatic. He pushed down his feelings once more and tried to listen to her calmly.

"It's about us," she confirmed. "I know things have been difficult since you said…what you said. Since I…well…" Ruth reached out and took his hand resting on the table and held it in both of hers. Her touch was more of a surprise than anything she was saying. "I just wanted to…"

Harry opened his mouth to try and find something to say, but no words came out. But then Ruth looked him dead in the eyes with such an expression of insistence and gravity. She was telling him much more than she was saying.

"We mustn't talk about it. Not here. Not a word. Ever again."

And then her hands slipped away from him, leaving the paper she'd pressed into his palm. This was not the first time they had surreptitiously exchanged something between their hands, though before it had been an SD card on the bus in public. This time it was a note of some kind in the briefing room of the Grid. And the way Ruth had spoken those words and secretly passed the paper to him could only mean one thing: someone was watching. And listening.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, you were right to," he told her. Now that he understood she was giving him a message, he realized that she hadn't actually said anything at all. Not about their relationship, at any rate. Harry had to play along.

He stood up and went over to the pitcher of water in the center of the table, the note still clutched in his right hand.

"Would you like a glass of water?" he offered.

"No, thank you," she replied.

He took the glass with his right hand, holding the paper between his hand and the glass and poured water into it. And as he lifted it up, he could see what Ruth had written on a bit of loo roll and given to him.

GRID COMPROMISED

NO TALK.

Harry took a swig of water as Ruth looked on. "So what are we going to do?" he asked. Now was time for the real spycraft. Communicating without anyone else knowing. "We have to find a way to…talk about this out in the open."

"I have an idea how we might be able to sometime…in the future," she said.

So she and Tariq had already figured something out. Good. The pair of them were brilliant and worked quite well together. He couldn't have been prouder of his technical team here on the Grid. And of course, he'd always known how brilliant Ruth was, particularly in a crisis. No one else he'd ever want by his side at a time like this.

"But till then, let's not talk about it. Not in person, not on the phone, not on email, okay?"

Ah, so the phones and computers were being watched as well. Damn. That certainly made things more complicated. But he knew they'd figure it out.

Harry gave a nod of understanding, and Ruth stood up to hurry out of the room. Just as she was leaving, Harry's mobile rang, and she paused at the door. It was Lucas. And he'd have to pretend as though everything was just fine. They'd need to find a way to get the message to Lucas eventually, but for now, all was right with everything.

Lucas said he was stuck in traffic, and Harry said everything was going to plan and to keep them up to date. Ruth gave a single nod and then left.

He would leave it to her to coordinate with Tariq and the rest of the team. Thankfully, due to the Cybershell terminal installation, the only people on the Grid today were Harry, Ruth, Tariq, Beth, and Dimitri. Small but mighty. They'd be alright.

Harry went out of the briefing room and headed to his office. Tariq was off somewhere. Beth and Dimitri and Ruth were all at their stations. And all of a sudden, the power went out.

Tariq came running in. He'd forced a total system reboot, giving them two minutes.

Harry announced, "Everyone, stop and listen. This is a blue one emergency. Ruth?"

As usual, he left it to her to explain. "The Grid has been compromised," she said, moving to stand beside him in front of the rest of the team. "We are under surveillance. Anything we say or do is being seen and heard by an unknown cyber attacker."

"We have one minute and forty seconds to formulate a plan of action, after which we continue on as normal but without revealing any further sensitive information," Harry said.

They all started brainstorming, Beth coming up with an idea, Tariq pointing out the flaws, Dimitri going in a different direction, Ruth then taking them down another path with Harry agreeing with her. Which felt nice, all things considered. There was a plan to delay Lucas and Ortiz to protect Cybershell until they knew who was behind all this, and Tariq was getting started on figuring out how they could communicate.

Everyone went back to normal, including Harry returning to his office. He spared a glance to Ruth and allowed himself a brief moment to notice how lovely she looked today. But only a moment. That was all he could risk, both for the current operation and his own sanity.