Unlike Harry and his team, William Towers was at home. Listening to the weather forecast for the South East of England as he relaxed in his favourite armchair, he was giving little or no thought to the poor souls who were battling against the elements. Having long since given up second guessing what Harry and his colleagues got up to on a daily basis, as long as they delivered him a positive result, then he'd learnt not to ask too many questions. Besides which and against all the odds and what he'd been told by his overbearing counterparts at the Foreign Office, he actually liked Sir Harry. More importantly he trusted him. Miss Myers though, racing out of his office this morning without so much as an explanation had been uncharacteristic. Something that had been playing on his mind. Now at home and free from interruptions, he could either ignore his concerns, or he could call the grid and ask to speak to whoever was on duty. Better still he could call Harry in person. Except that it was already close to midnight and given that Harry was an early bird when it came to going into work, maybe he should resist the temptation to disturb him until the morning?
On the grid and had he rung, Malcolm and Tariq were still resolutely manning the screens. Thermal imaging of any sort was always sketchy, but as the weather had worsened and despite their efforts, it had become non existent. Having identified the property after Harry had called them, to be told that they shouldn't contact him again, other than in an emergency, hadn't stopped them worrying. Especially as all their means of communication had also gone down. Not that either of them had considered going home. Ineffectual though their presence might be, they were still part of the team.
What they had been able to relay to Ros before they'd lost the signal, was that Lucas appeared to be occupying the lower floor and that assuming nothing had changed, Ruth and Catherine were upstairs. So close that it almost looked as though they were tied together. On a bed or on the floor, they hadn't been able to determine.
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Jo, the only one of the team who was enjoying what could be described as the comforts of home, had arrived on the marsh independently. As well as disabling Lucas's car, she'd charmed the pants off the elderly vicar who live in a nearby cottage. Assuring him that they'd put a substantial donation into his roof restoration fund, he'd offered them temporary respite in the old vicarage. Buying into her tale that she'd got separated from her friends and that they were on their way to find her, shivering from the cold hadn't been a problem. Having sent a short message to Ros, to confirm that she'd been given extra blankets and the means to make a hot drink and some food, she of all of them, had already done her job. Not that she'd been able to sleep, as she'd dozed on the sofa and listened to the rain that had been pounding and still was, against the windows. Harry's face when he'd come down the stairs at the safehouse and looked at her, dogging every other recollection about the day. The thought that this was her fault, despite Ros having told her that it wasn't, still waiting to be addressed. That if Lucas had hurt either Ruth or Catherine, then at best she'd be out of a job.
.
'Never underestimate the power of love, when it comes to giving you the strength you need,' Ros told Dimitri, as they waited in the small passageway for Harry to come downstairs. Unlike them, and despite his imagination playing havoc with his digestive system, he had managed to grab an hour or so of sleep. His footfall on the creaky old pub stairs, barely audible when he arrived beside them. His face set in an expression of complete composure and at odds with how Ros knew he was really feeling.
As predicted, the rain had been unrelenting since midnight, which meant that the already sodden ground was awash. One step away from either the road or the path and no matter that they were wearing heavy boots, they'd be ankle deep in water, or worse still mud. A mile or so on foot was what lay ahead of them, as they stepped out into complete darkness, with nothing more than a nod of confirmation passing between them.
On arrival, which given the conditions they'd estimated would be in twenty minutes at best, there would be no guns blazing. Ros was the only one of them that was armed. Harry was going to enter the house alone, with all the appearances of having come to mediate, while at the same time, Dimitri was going to scale the back wall and get in through a window on the landing and from there on, into the room where Ruth and Catherine were being held. Only when he confirmed that Ruth and Catherine were both safe, was Ros going to make an appearance.
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Towers wasn't the alone in thinking about Harry and what was happening in the world outside the window. Call it a sixth sense, but something was telling Ruth that she needed to stay awake. Not only because it had felt like the longest and most terrifying day of her life, or that Catherine had been drifting in and out of sleep. It was more than that. Catherine having told her that she'd already been there for two days and despite Lucas feeding her and giving her a second blanket, that she couldn't stop shaking, she was also convinced that her Dad wouldn't come for her. Close to giving up, and Ruth knew how dangerous that could be, she shuffled up even closer in an attempt to give Catherine some extra protection. Only to feel her own blanket slipping to the floor and with no means of retrieving it, unless Lucas came to check on them. Unlikely, as the church clock had just struck three, her only means of knowing what the time was, she tried to ignore her own involuntary shiver and deepening fears. Turning instead to her recent memories of the time she'd spent with Harry and that he would move heaven and earth to save his daughter and now her. With a strong team behind him, she had to believe that he'd find them. Whether it was tonight or tomorrow, he'd come for them she told herself, as another a flash of lightening illuminated the horrid little room.
Here her rational thoughts ended, because since Lucas had marched her out of the house at gunpoint with her hands tied behind her back, he'd said nothing, other than it was Harry who he had a grievance with. Which meant what? And why had he felt the need to take Catherine, when it was her performance in the restaurant that had unmasked him? Maybe he was just hedging his bets, or god forbid he knew that she was more to Harry than just being his analyst. Which opened up the possibility to one of those dreadful 'you have to choose' scenarios? In which case, she knew that Harry would never sacrifice his daughter. Would he come armed? Would he be so angry, that he'd come charging into the house and get himself shot? All these questions enhancing her need to stay awake. That and Lucas knowing how Harry's mind worked and that he'd know it wouldn't take him long to find out where they were and in most hostage situations, it was rare for all parties to walk away unscathed.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts, that it took her a few moments to realise that the door to the room was being opened very slowly. Coinciding with another flash of lightening and a rumble of thunder in the distance, she saw a figure who was dressed very much like a member of SO19, but obviously wasn't, making his way to where they were lying. A finger across his lips, indicating that they needed to keep quiet wasn't a problem for her, but if Catherine woke up and saw him she'd scream. Offering her wrists so that he could cut the table ties and allow her to sit up, she rubbed her wrists to get the feeling back and edged closer to Catherine. Then as gently as she could, she placed a hand across her mouth. Eyes as startling as Harry's opening briefly and then closing again, only going to prove that whoever this was, had arrived in the nick of time.
'I'm Dimitri, I need to get you both out of here,' only answered one of her questions.
'Where's Harry?' Didn't get an answer, although the expression on Dimitri's face told her not to worry, just to get a move on. She could walk but Catherine obviously couldn't, something that she and now Dimitri both knew would spell the end for Lucas if Harry saw them. Lifting Catherine up as though she was weightless, he beckoned to her to follow him. A short distance that also involved them negotiating the narrow staircase. At which point she heard voices, or in this case a single raised voice and it clearly wasn't Harry's. Causing her to delay her own escape for a moment, while ahead of her, Dimitri was indicating that she had to keep moving. It took every ounce of her will power and a silent prayer, to enable her to turn away, but as there was every chance that the door would be ripped off its hinges, such was the strength of the wind if she didn't help him, she followed Dimitri outside. It was only then that the full force of the elements hit her and the realisation that she wasn't prepared for this. Still dressed in the same jeans and jumper that she'd been wearing when Lucas had taken her, that she'd be soaked within minutes. The short distance to the rectory taking them across an open field, as she slipped and skidded and at one point ended up bent double with her hands in the mud. Dimitri looking back every so often to make sure that she hadn't fallen or turned back, until the door was opened by a relieved Jo and they stumbled into the warmth of the rectory kitchen.
.
Harry's reason for going in unarmed, had been made after what had been a lengthy discussion, based on Lucas's desire for something more than to kill him. Having been made to strip out of his clothes and have his phone stamped on, before being allowed to get dressed again, not easy to do when you were soaking wet, had been followed by a pretty much one way conversation, with a gun pointing at him from close range. Not the first time that one of his officers had done this, although in Tom's case, it had been with a shotgun in his hand and the reason hadn't involved the people that he loved being held hostage. A glance at his watch, although he had no way of being sure, indicated that Dimitri should have got Ruth and Catherine to safety, which at least meant that he could stop pleading with Lucas that he needed to see them. Something that he'd so far been denied, because having been asked why it had taken him so long to get there, he'd been stupid enough to let it slip that he'd been to see Lucas's parents. The result of which, had been to see Lucas's expression change to one of contempt, before he'd thrown his own well documented abject failings as a husband and father, back in his face.
Deciding that he needed to put an end to this and before he inflamed Lucas any further, he clenched his fist and attempted to turn the ring. Something that resulted in Lucas leaping to his feet and dragging him outside. Before slamming the butt of his gun across his forehead, causing his legs to buckle and the ground to come up to meet him. His last conscious thought, that if Lucas was about to shoot him, that at least Ruth and Catherine would have each other.