"I don't know if it's just your bad luck or if I should question you both as possible killers."

John exchanged a look with Anna before shrugging as Superintendent Flintshire. "Honestly sir, at this point I'm not sure myself."

"First your ex-wife and now this man who's…" Flintshire frowned, "Well he's got some kind of connection to Doctor Smith here."

"Not to mention he tried to kill John and me when we got our only living witness." Robert added from the corner. "It's worth noting for the record we're keeping about the abysmal luck we've had on this case."

"It certainly makes no damn sense to me." Flintshire almost collapsed in his chair, eyeing John and Anna. "Compels me though."

"I'm glad it's interesting." John sighed, "Because it's absolute shit on the nerves, I can tell you that."

"Language, Bates, there are ladies present."

"I've heard worse, sir." Anna smiled before glancing toward the clock on the wall. She met John's eyes and gave the barest hint of a nod.

"Sir," John cleared his throat, "Are we dismissed or-"

"Not sure what else there is to add." Flintshire heaved a breath. "Everything about this case has stunk from the beginning but now it's positively rancid."

"Couldn't agree more sir." John stood, Anna following suit. "But we'll let you know if we're able to find out what's rotten in Denmark."

"At this point, I'd settle for just knowing that it's over with." Flintshire closed his eyes as he leaned his head back in his chair. "I'd like a nice holiday."

"Wouldn't we all sir?" Robert left on that note, joining Anna and John in the corridor. "What've you got?"

"A meeting with someone who knows a little more about what's going on than we do." John jerked his head toward the door, "Doctor Smith is going to provide us the introductions."

"And where will she be providing these introductions?"

"My office." Anna shrugged when both men turned to her. "It seems the best place given that it's a central location and there won't be anyone there this time of day… Especially given it's the weekend."

"Is it?" John huffed, "I forgot what day it was when my adrenaline's running this high for so long."

"Brings back awful memories of Singapore?" Anna winced and John gave a short nod. "Do you need-"

"I'm fine."

"Besides," Robert clapped John on the shoulder, "I'm sure he's found a few ways to dispel any of the lingering tension."

"Robert!"

"He's not wrong." Anna gave Robert a smile and John almost cut himself in two trying to reprimand his friend while also fighting back a self-satisfied smile at the utter shock painting Robert crimson. "And I've greatly enjoyed being on the receiving end of that marvelous stamina he's got."

"I-"

"Now," Anna cut off whatever else Robert might have attempted to say. "I do believe we should leave now or we'll be late for this very important date."

John coughed on his reply and ducked his head to follow Anna, noting Robert trailing him as they left the station for the street. With the smog thicker than ever all three of them pulled their scarves up to cover their mouths and noses before trudging up the street. The risk of trying to find a cab, despite the distance, was they would still reach their destination faster than any motor vehicle attempting the same distance. And thus they slogged to Anna's office, entering the building with sighs of relief as they finally removed their scarves.

"They say it may never lift." Robert grumbled, tucking his scarf to the side. "It's the coal, you know. We're still burning it and we're choking ourselves on the fumes of our progress."

"And yet, it could also blow away tomorrow." John and Robert froze as a lanky man, dressed in a fine suit, emerged from a shadow and tipped his hat to them. "It's all about the way of the wind when it involves the weather."

"Do you control the weather, sir?"

"I've no interest in the weather. I spend most of my time inside." He took a step, almost waving his arm toward Anna's office. "Shall we continue this inside? Barren as the corridors are, I've got a feeling we should take this conversation away from the potential for listening ears."

"You're very well spoken for a man of the shadows." John frowned as he studied the man, "I know you. You were one of those I interviewed the night of Mr. Pamuk's death."

"An unfortunate coincidence."

"I don't really believe in those when so many others from that night are occupying cold slabs in the morgue."

"Ah, yes, but," The man raised a finger, "Those people were sitting at the same table. I, if you remember, was there on other business and occupying a completely different table."

"Would you tell us what your business was that night?" Robert stepped forward as well and John caught the look Anna passed the man before he sighed as Robert continued. "If you're so innocent then you won't mind explaining the cruel twist of anger that keeps tangling us all together."

"I was having dinner with some friends."

"Their names?" Robert nudged and the man gave another, beleaguered sigh. "For confirmation."

"They'd no more confirm it now than I would if asked again but," He held up his hands. "This… Hour is a bit of a gray area. A momentary intersection of worlds as they intersect for the briefest of periods."

"Then you'll tell us?"

"Yes, in another room." He ushered them toward the door and Anna took the lead to unlock it so the others could enter. They all found seats, Anna taking hers comfortably behind her desk as John sat on a stool, Robert found a chair, and the lanky man folded himself into the only other comfortable seat in the room. "Finally, a place to sit and be civilized."

"Is that what we are?"

"My dear Inspector Crawley we're here as friends, not enemies." John noted Robert's flinch as the other man knew his name. "This is a courtesy. A payment of a debt I owe the good Doctor and therefore decided to use to help bring some peace of mind to you and your colleague on what must be a rather daunting case."

"I've been almost killed in the course of it more times than I faced enemy fire during the war so yes, it's a bit daunting." Robert risked a quick look at Anna but thought better of it and moved on. "Let's start with the basics, what's your name?"

"The name you'll know me by during this conversation is Henry Talbot."

"Is that your real name?"

"Wouldn't matter if it was since you won't find me in a phone book, employee records, or even as an army service file." Talbot gave Robert a sincere smile. "The work I do is sensitive and I must be as light on my proverbial feet as the wind itself. It's one of the reasons we can have this conversation."

"Because you don't exist?"

"Because you can't ever tell anyone what you learned in the course of this conversation." Talbot shrugged as Robert's jaw dropped a little. "That's the way of it. This is a courtesy, nothing more."

"We're just supposed to listen to you answer all our questions and then keep it to ourselves?"

"If you'd listened to the plea from the Ambassador a few weeks ago then you'd have less than you do now. As it stands," Talbot smiled toward Anna. "You're a couple of persistent buggers and I'm rather impressed by your tenacity."

"So this is a mercy?"

"More an equal exchange of intrigue." Talbot swallowed, sitting as unbothered in his chair as if he were merely sharing tea with old friends. "And the people I was meeting with the night of Mr. Pamuk's murder were the Viscount Gillingham, Tony Foyle to his friends, the Honorable Evelyn Napier, and the equally Honorable Charles Blake."

"What for?"

"Dinner. We're old friends, from before and during the war, and given the hectic nature of the branches of service to which we've all endeared ourselves, we find it sodding horrible how little we see one another now."

"I remember you now," John pointed at Talbot. "You used the same name that night. Acted like you'd no idea what was going on."

"That night I didn't. Since then…" Talbot gave a low whistle. "My life has been as utterly consumed by that night as I'm sure your lives have."

"Why was yours?" John pressed and Talbot sobered a moment.

"For the same reason the Turkish Ambassador and Mr. Napier tried to convince your Superintendent to leave off this case." Talbot opened his hands to them. "Kemal Pamuk and those sitting at his table."

"Do we have you to thank for the stacking of the bodies from that table in our morgue and in hiding?"

"No." Talbot shook his head. "While I might've done work like that during the war I'm mostly office fodder now. In this case I was chasing down the leads this series of incredibly unfortunate events happened to dig up and leave rotting."

"Leads about what?"

"About what Mr. Pamuk was actually doing on his trips to London." Talbot narrowed his eyes and turned to John. "I do believe there's a map in your coat that you should share with the group, Inspector Bates."

John only spared a second to wonder how the man knew what he did before spreading the map, with Anna's help, over a table in the middle of the room. Talbot tapped each of the points John and Anna located the night before then straightened to hold his hands behind his back. "I make no claims at being a mastermind but I do claim the architecture of a plan envisioned, however loosely, by Doctor Smith while she and I worked together during the war."

Robert barely managed a glance in Anna's direction before John's stern glare forced him to focus on the map again. "How's that?"

"Doctor Smith drew it up as a way to control supply lines and earn untraceable capital during our exploits for His Majesty's Government." Talbot traced the lines again for them. "It was a desperate plan then and we never really got it off the ground or working. Each time betrayal dogged us more than the moral uncertainties but the flexibility of our morals during that time isn't what I wanted to discuss with you all this evening."

"How'd Alexander Green get ahold of this information?" John met Talbot's gaze as the other man flinched ever-so-slightly. "Did your division recruit him after his discharge?"

"I'm sure Doctor Smith related to you the desperate nature of our circumstances at that time."

"She did." John did not falter. "I'm just wondering how a government claiming to fight evil hires on a man court martialed for raping local women."

"I didn't have any part of that. Or know he was one of the people they put on the ground when I…" Talbot took a breath. "Green was recruited for missions they hoped would kill him. Suicide ventures that he inexplicably survived. The man is… Was, I supposed, a cockroach."

"And yet…"

"And yet there are certain vermin the government would rather work for us then simply find a plot of land where they can lay six-feet-under."

"Better the devils you know then?" Robert scoffed but Talbot stood his ground, bearing Robert's scorn. "How very magnanimous of you."

"I'm not the one responsible for that. Or him, as it happened. This," Talbot made a third motion toward the map. "Was an idea I presented again, at the end of the war, but never heard anything about afterward. I was drafted to another department and I didn't know that anyone took up the idea until the shitstorm deposited its entire load on my desk the day after Mr. Pamuk's rather untimely demise at the Cerulean."

"That was the first you heard of this being used as it is?" Anna offered and some of the tension among the three men dissipated. "You wouldn't have used it otherwise? If there was no other choice…"

"Anna," Talbot's voice cut through the distance between the two of them and, for a second, John noted the relationship they shared, the secrets between them, could take a lifetime to unravel. "I didn't do this."

"Then why the meeting with representatives from the Home Office? Why work with the Turkish Ambassador?"

"Because we knew that his attaché, Mr. Pamuk, was involved in an illegal drug trade. One we'd traced, irrefutably, to him and were going to use to either make him our unwilling agent or blackmail him back to Turkey and hold the information over the head of the Ambassador to get more favorable deals in the negotiations." Talbot drew a breath, "Part of me hoped his death was the work of his countrymen trying to rid themselves of a pest and nuisance."

"And when the drugs didn't stop flowing?" John pressed and Talbot shook his head. "Is that when you knew there was more to him?"

"That's when I suspected that someone might've used the idea I suggested when I was still high on the adrenaline of the war." Talbot sighed, "Hindsight is always preferable, is it not?"

"Then what was their goal?" Talbot frowned and John rephrased the question. "For the drugs they were moving. What could our noble government hope to gain from that?"

"I don't know if the government was ever, actually, involved." Talbot winced, "The more I dug into it the more I found evidence that Green, like most of the operation I could trace, had been moved off-book. It was as black as any operation I'd ever seen and even harder to dig out since I was sure they made it so there were no links back to any of the original minds in case this very thing happened."

"Then they're rogue elements?" Anna spoke again, almost startling John with her voice. "They're not working with you at all?"

Talbot nodded, "There's an investigation, headed by the Home Office, that began shortly before Mr. Pamuk's death. It was why I met with Mr. Napier, Mr. Blake, and Lord Gillingham that night. They were the ones investigating it all and I was one of their sources of information."

"And Ross? Or Atticus?"

"They're not involved. At least, they weren't until they were needed to try and mop it all up." Talbot managed another wince. "Hence Ross's interest in the counterfeit bills and Atticus's information about the pen. They're trying to tie off loose ends and, hopefully, help us suffocate the snake."

"Any luck there?" Robert almost snorted again but held back at the expression on Talbot's face.

"Some. Not enough. It's skunked several of our operations in Turkey and made it difficult for us to move forward since we're… Untrustworthy now."

"You were trustworthy before?"

Talbot ignored Robert's jibe and continued. "What I know is that Richard Carlisle is the mastermind behind it."

"Was he one of your agents?"

Talbot shook his head at John. "As asset but never an agent. He's got too many connections to ever truly trust his motives as an agent but those same connections have proved a boon to our work in the past."

"And a bane, if that's how he extracted information back." John waved his hand at the map. "How else would he put this together?"

"Fair point."

"Is there anything else he's gained because of a privileged relationship and more covert liaisons?"

"From what I've gathered he's got someone at your station helping with the bric-a-brac of the investigation you're leading but I've not worked out who."

"It can't be a long list." John turned to Robert. "Technically it's just us and the Super. And Doctor Smith, of course."

"You're forgetting someone." Both men turned to Talbot who only smiled toward Anna. "They really do always forget, don't they?"

"It's what made it easier for us."

"And more difficult on our end." John glanced between Talbot and Anna. "Who did we forget?"

"The wives." Anna pointed at Robert, "I'd hazard you tell your wife quite a bit about your work."

"Yes but she doesn't know anything about this case. At least not in those details." Robert flustered and stuttered a second. "And she'd never-"

"I know." Anna put out a calming hand. "And Inspector Bates, technically speaking, has his mother. But Superintendent Flintshire has someone as well."

John and Robert looked at one another, "His wife."

"That's the ticket." Talbot checked his watch before clicking his teeth. "Unfortunately I must be off."

"But we-"

"Had your questions answered as I could in the time I could give." Talbot replaced his hat and nodded to the two men before taking Anna's hand. "Always a pleasure, dear Anna, and I do hope we'll have a reunion of our own some time. Someplace like the Excelsior. A better crowd."

"I look forward to it." Anna gave him a firm shake. "Safe travels Henry."

"And to you." Talbot gave them all a final farewell before leaving as swiftly as he arrived without a trace of him left.

Robert gaped after him before addressing Anna and John. "We've trapped ourselves in a bloody conspiracy."

"We're getting the answers we need and we'll solve this case. With or without the help of the Security Services."

"Will we now?"

"Yes." John pushed past the doubt in Robert's raised eyebrow. "We know where to start looking next and we've got this far without his help."

"What about the case? The one that's hold the last of the evidence we hope to use to prove anything happened at all?" Robert tapped the table to get John's attention up from the map. "What happened to that?"

"I've kept it here." Anna motioned to the room about them. "After… After our interviews at the site where they removed Mr. Green's body, I brought the case here for safekeeping."

"And what about the part where we'll not be able to keep it."

"Not all of it." Anna clarified before shrugging. "And I guess you'll just have to make do. You've still got most of it. You've got this map. You've even got a witness."

"Two if we can get Flintshire's harpy of a wife to bend to our will long enough to serve her own self-interest."

"That was never Susan's problem." Robert put a hand to his hair, ruffling it slightly in his agitation. "Poor Shrimpie. This'll ruin his career you know."

"It can't be helped." John put a hand on Robert's shoulder. "Why don't you see what rest you can get and we'll tackle Susan Flintshire later. There's… There's time for that and all it'll entail later."

"This isn't something that'll get better with time." Robert shook his head before leaving John and Anna alone in the room.

He sighed, slumping a little as he perched on the edge of Anna's desk. "Is that the kind of thing you had to deal with during the war?"

"Unfortunately." Anna shrugged a shoulder, her arms crossing over her chest a second before she separated them, and paced a moment before facing John. "It's a part of my life that I've… I've still got mixed feelings about."

"We've all got parts of our lives like that." John settled more securely on the desk. "My former marriage is one of those times for me. Although I can't really associate myself with a lot of good during that time."

"This is different." Anna shook her head, "Because it wasn't… I was a different person. Not someone ruled by emotions but an almost clinical detachment."

John frowned, "I'm not entirely sure that you mean."

"For example," Anna pointed at John. "When you were married and had your… falling outs, you'd associate that with emotional response yes?"

"Of course."

"What I did, the person I was… Or, the people I was, to be more honest, isn't who I am now." Anna dragged her hands in the air next to her, as if putting herself on display. "The person you know, the person I am now, isn't who I was when I worked with Henry. That person could shed skins the way people change their clothing and did to accomplish her goals. Anything was an option until all were eliminated. Either by success or desperation."

"No one was really at their best during the war."

"It was…" Anna closed her eyes, shaking her head as if to try and sort her thoughts by mechanical motion. "It was different. And I try to forget it."

"Are you ashamed of it?"

"Not of the results but I did things that don't make me very proud." Anna winced, "I do hope that's not changed anything between us."

"Why would it?"

"Because…" Anna closed the distance between them. "Because I think you put me on a pedestal. That you think I'm beyond fault and therefore I'm perfect or untouchable and I'm not."

"I don't think that."

"But if you did…" Anna took another breath, putting her hand over John's interlinked ones. "I wouldn't want this to ruin what we're developing. And… And I wouldn't want to wait for the other shoe to drop if you found out."

"Found out?"

"Found out what I did or who I was."

John shook his head, "Even if I did, which I doubt because who you were is sealed by the government, I wouldn't think differently of you."

"Not at all?"

"Never." John turned his hands in her grip to hold hers and bring her closer. "You've accepted me in all my beautiful brokenness and it would be a poor return of that affection if I didn't do the same."

"Only if you think I deserve it."

"You do." John brought her hands to his lips and kissed them, holding Anna's gaze. "You deserve all the best things."

"Do I?"

"You do." His eyes flicked to the desk and, in a second, John had Anna trying to stifle a laugh as he set her atop it. "All the best things I can give you."

"John-" Barely a glance told John he might regret the pains in his knees later as he set them on the wooden floor but the excited exhale Anna emitted, as he immediately set to kissing her thighs and working into her skirt, immediately convinced him to continue in the cause. "John I-"

"All the best things." John repeated against her skin as he moved her to the edge of the desk, sliding under one of her legs, and dragged his tongue under the edge her knickers before tugging them to the side to allow his mouth full access.

Anna's fingers were in his hair a second later. They practically clawed at his skin when John's tongue delved deep. And it took three solid tugs of her knickers to tear one side enough to allow him full access. The kind of access that had Anna lying back on the desk to better wrap her legs around his shoulders and hold to him as John continued using his mouth on her. When she tightened them John delved even further and did not stop until Anna shook and trembled around him.

Pulling back, John listened for other sounds from the office. When he heard none, he helped Anna sit up and almost fell into the desk when Anna's fingers curled into his lapels. She jerked him forward to put her lips on hers.

While it took him a moment to breathe, Anna ravished his mouth. Her fingers remained tightly clutched at his lapels as her legs wrapped around her hips and urged him forward until his thighs hit the desk. It scooted slightly when Anna moved on it, successfully bringing herself to the edge, and she risked a hand loose from his jacket to tug at John's belt.

His hands, otherwise idle in his moment of confusion, quickly helped her. They worked in a flurry, otherwise robbed of finesse, and it took a moment more than either of them wanted to find the right angle. But when they did, John buried his forehead on Anna's shoulder and let his hands grip at her hips to hold steadily there to ground himself.

She shifted against him, one of her hands still holding fast to the lapel of his jacket as the other took its usual place at the back of John's neck. The heat from her breath ran over John's skin and he used the pace of Anna's breathing to set his own as he adjusted his angle just enough to strike deeply when he thrust forward. A sharp tug at the back of his neck and sideways on his jacket gave John leave to continue and he drove into Anna with abandon.

The huffing of her breath over his skin urged him faster. The cling of her vaginal walls about him drove him deeper. The half-whimpered pleas begged him further. And together they found a rhythm as they clung to one another with all the energy they possessed. Moving quickly, seeking a sloppy kind of efficiency as time ticked against them. But they came.

John slowly loosened himself from around Anna and drew back, whipping his handkerchief free of his pocket to try and clean them both. It would only perfunctorily work but John tried anyway. And paused when Anna shivered under his touch. Quivering slightly when John touched her again.

So, keeping his eyes locked on hers, John worked over Anna until her entire body tightened. It only took another touch to watch her loose as the tension drained from her in a rolling climax. One John tried to clean with the same method but barely managed to address.

"Honestly, one would think you'd never had to mop anything up before." Anna chided, kissing at John as she snatched for some cloth of her own and practically erased all evidence of their encounter. "It's almost shameful."

"Most of the time I'm leaving the mess for someone else as they collect evidence from it." John balled up his handkerchief and stuffed it into his pocket. "I don't tend to…"

"Engage in intercourse with a lady on her desk?"

"Most definitely not." John let out a breath, "Although I wouldn't mind engaging in the same with this lady again."

"I don't believe this lady would mind either." Anna sobered, "What'll you do now? You and Inspector Crawley, I mean."

"We'll follow the trail, wherever it leads."

Anna reached for John's hand, "Be careful, please?"

John turned his hand in her grip, pulling it to his lips to kiss. "Always."