Same disclaimer as before

Chapter 3

Late March 2009, London

Harry left the offices of the Cold Case squad with a million questions swirling round his head. As soon as he went back to Thames House, he handed the document to Malcolm with instructions to drop everything else and start working on this right away. By 8 pm, Malcolm was able to report to Harry that the information contained in the document related to sales figures of Chinese arms to Iran, sales to be concluded within the next 12 months. After Harry thanked Malcolm for his hard work, he summoned Connie to his office and showed her the document.

"Connie, what do you make of this?"

"Hmm, the fact that the Chinese have been supplying arms and munitions to the Iranians is old news, Harry," said Connie after giving the document a quick look. "The information contained in this document is not so incendiary as to start a war, but it still makes interesting reading. For example, we did not know the extent of those arms sales, and we certainly did not know that the Chinese had these," Connie pointed to a few items on the list, "or that the Chinese even had the technology to manufacture these other items for resale. Its not your usual carton of milk and half a dozen eggs kind of grocery list. The problem is, unless we know who compiled this list, we don't know whether this intelligence can be relied on. It could be the Chinese puffing up their chests to pretend that they're more dangerous than they really are. Where did you get this?"

Harry told Connie about his visit with DI Boyd. "Ruth Evershed's prints have been found on this document and in the plastics envelope which carried it. DS Boyd has already told me that these are recent prints. And now we know that the encoded message deals with current intelligence," Harry said with a heavy sigh.

"I had no idea that Ruth Evershed is still in the business?" Connie looked worried. She knew all about Ruth and what happened to her. She wondered why Ruth should resurface at this time, and in this manner. Connie was worried for Harry's sake, since she knew how badly Harry had taken Ruth's 'death'. She was relieved that Harry appeared to have recovered from his broken heart recently and now this! Connie was sure that Harry was capable of covering his own back side where politics with Whitehall were concerned. But as for affairs of the heart, Connie doubted whether Harry could weather this latest turn of events.

"Neither did I. If she did compile this list, god knows how she managed to lay her hands on this sort of information. If it was her, its very unlike Ruth to be so sloppy as to leave her fingerprints all over the place, even if she did not use to be much of a field agent, in which case, we have to consider whether the fingerprints were left deliberately and if so whether this is a cry for help and if it is, I don't know how or what we can do to help. For starters, we don't even have her present location, except that it could be somewhere in China. I don't know what to think." All of these thoughts came tumbling out of Harry as he started to pace in his office.

"Calm down, Harry. Let's take one thing at a time and start working our way backwards. We don't know who is the intended recipient of this information, us or the Americans who would practically wet themselves if they received this kind of intelligence, assuming that it is genuine intelligence. You know how most of these illegal immigrants from China seldom stay on in this country. They sneak across to North America at the earliest opportunity."

"So the dead boy was probably used as a mule, a courier, a messenger?" Harry felt frustrated.

"We don't even know if the boy knew that he was carrying this information to start with. If he did, maybe he was told that this would be his ticket for safe passage to the US, or to remain in Britain. If only we knew who was supposed to receive this information, then perhaps we can start making enquiries at that end before tracing it back to the document's author."

"But with the boy now dead, there is no way of finding that out. I wonder if we need to put a few feelers out in Chinatown to see if anyone was expecting this document. But if we do, Six might want to muscle in on the act and I really don't want them involved, not till I find out the extent of Ruth's involvement in all this."

"How about making enquiries with the Americans?"

"No, absolutely not, not yet anyway."

"So what are we going to do, Harry?"

Harry took a long moment to think before responding to Connie. "I'm not sure, Connie. Its late and there's nothing further we can do by sitting here and staring at this list. Why don't we call it a day, sleep on it, and maybe I'll be able to think of something in the morning."

Harry had little sleep that night. He vacillated between feeling elated, as he now knew that Ruth was still alive, somewhere on the other side of the world, and despair, since it was unclear whether Ruth was somehow mixed up with some unsavory crowd. How else could she have gotten hold of this information? He shuddered to think how deeply she would have to be involved with the Chinese in order to be anywhere near this kind of information. He tended to accept that the information contained in the document was genuine, given Ruth's apparent involvement. But if the list was compiled by Ruth, is she now in any kind of danger? If the information is bogus, could she have been set up, and if so who is out to get her and why? Does she know what or who she is dealing with?

Then there was the possibility that Ruth had been turned and was now working for the Chinese Secret Service. It came as a shock and disappointment to Harry whenever a member of his team was turned, as was the case with Ros Meyers. Harry always felt a tremendous sense of personal failure when that happened. Someone you would have trusted your life with, someone who knew all about how your mind worked, your deepest secrets and fears, that person was now working for your enemy. The sense of betrayal felt just as bad as, if not worse than, finding one's spouse in bed with another man, or woman.

But Harry was not sure if Ruth was capable of being turned. He thought that he had understood her better than that. Harry wondered again whether the list was compiled by Ruth and if so, was she sending any message other than what was already encoded in the document? Malcolm should have noticed any secret hidden messages in the document, other than the information relating to arms sales, but then I put him under such time pressure that perhaps he didn't have the chance to pursue that aspect. Harry wondered whether he should ask Connie to do some analysis along these lines in the morning. Is it possible that Ruth is being kept by the Chinese against her will and coerced into dealing with that document? If that was the case, he would have to try and save her, but how would he go about it? China was a vast country and he would not know where to start.

In his heart, Harry was still burning a candle for Ruth, though the light had started to dim. Did he want to see her again? The answer was undoubtedly yes. But did she want to see Harry again? Harry had no idea. Why couldn't she just send a postcard and let me know where she was so that I could go and get her? But no, she'd be worried about compromising my position. I told her that I'd sort everything out, but then I lost track of her and had expected the worst … Using an illegal immigrant as a courier was surely not the most efficient way of making a drop or sending a message.

Harry went through every permutation of the situation that he could think of. By 5 am, Harry gave up any attempt to get any sleep and asked to be driven to work at 6 am. When the car reached the Embankment, Harry instructed his driver to let him out. He wanted to stare at the river for a moment in order to clear his head. He told his driver to park somewhere within line of sight and come back for him in 10 minutes.

After he stood before his favourite spot on the Embankment for five minutes, Harry noticed that a Chinese man had slipped quietly next to him.

"Morning, Harry. Didn't know you to be such an early bird."

Harry turned to look at his visitor. It was Sherman Tang, a senior spook from the Chinese side. He was not stationed in London, that much Harry was sure of, though he seemed to fly in and out of London with monotonous regularity. Harry had dealt with Sherman in the past. They met a few times during security briefings whenever any Chinese politician visited London.

The Chinese were not usually the cause of any domestic terrorist activities in Britain, so Harry did not have too many dealings with the Chinese spooks in London, though he was aware of their presence. As long as they, or spooks from any other country for that matter, behaved in a respectable manner, Harry was inclined to leave them to their own devices. However, there had been recent reports of an increase in espionage activities in London by the Chinese. Even though for the moment, this was confined to mostly commercial matters, e.g. hacking into servers maintained by banks and other large corporations which had operations in London, the increase was a cause for concern and MI5 (including Harry's Section D) had been briefed to keep a closer eye on the Chinese spooks in case their activities turned into any form of domestic disturbance or were likely to cause disruption to the London financial markets.

"Hello Sherman. Doing a bit of worm catching yourself, I see. Its been a while. I hope you have been keeping well."

"Thank you, Harry, can't complain. Bit nippy this time of the morning." Although it was now late March, the early morning air was still quite cold.

Sherman Tang was a little older than Harry and was taller and thinner. He had a gaunt look and a pair of rather cold eyes. His hair was peppery grey and he was clean shaven. He spoke with what could only be described as a mid-Atlantic accent, with just a hint of his Chinese accent coming through now and again. Like Harry, he was always impeccably dressed. He gave the impression of a man who was in control of everything around him.

Harry had noticed that whenever there was a meeting with the Chinese, they always started with a discussion about the weather, and depending on how the weather was, that could be an indication as to how the meeting would go. But Harry was not interested in discussing the weather with this Chinese spook, not this morning anyway. So Harry came right to the point, "what can I do for you, Sherman?"

"I noticed that you spent yesterday afternoon with Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd and his crew." Sherman gave Harry a knowing smile.

Harry wondered if Boyd had his offices swept regularly for listening devices. Harry did not believe in coincidences, especially on a cold March morning at 6:30 am. He only found out yesterday that Ruth might be alive on the other side of the world. If indeed Ruth had an active involvement in compiling the arms sales list or handling the document, could he be looking at her new boss?

"Why is this matter of any interest to you, Sherman? I had no idea that there is a Chinese connection to my discussions with DS Boyd." Harry lied in order to stall for time. He had to find out how much Sherman knew before he could decide how much of what he knew should be disclosed to Sherman.

"We are interested in the body of the dead Chinese boy which DS Boyd and his team have been examining," said Sherman whilst he examined his leather gloves in order to give an air of nonchalance.

So the Chinese have been tracking the teenage boy's body. "Why would a man like you be interested in the body of an illegal immigrant? Surely your team has not been reduced to cleaning up this sort of mess." Harry was still hoping to fish more information out of Sherman.

Sherman only mentioned a 'dead Chinese boy' and yet Harry was immediately able to describe him as 'an illegal immigrant'. Sherman smiled when he realized that Harry had just inadvertently admitted that he did go and see DI Boyd about the dead boy and so he volleyed right back, "why would a man in your position spend an afternoon with the leader of the Cold Case Squad on the very day this body was delivered to them?" Sherman knew how to play this game and he was not letting on any more than he wanted to.

Harry started to feel annoyed by that infuriating smile but he was also intrigued. So, Sherman knows about the document.

"Look Harry, even though I come from northern China where the winters can be as harsh as can be, I really don't care for this cold weather. Can we adjourn to more pleasant surroundings before we carry on with this conversation? Can I interest you in some breakfast? I know just the place."

To show that he did not mean any harm, Sherman suggested that they take Harry's car. Even so, Harry had no doubt that Sherman's car would be following right behind his car.

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