Same Disclaimer as before

For Isa, thanks for helping me with all the French bits.

Chapter 5

Late December 2006, Paris

After Ruth left London, she made her way to Southampton to board one of the larger ferries to go to France. She landed at Caen and stayed in a number of bed and breakfast places whilst slowly making her way to Paris. She had been given a number of contacts in Paris by Zaf, people who would be able to help her relocate elsewhere. She was not in a hurry to meet those contacts. She felt extremely tired and traumatized and spent a lot of time sleeping. All those years of working till all hours of the day and night on the Grid had taken its toll. Her tiredness could also have been a sign of adrenaline withdrawal. Everything happened so fast before she left London. More than once she asked herself, what the hell happened and how did I end up like this?

Ruth never stayed in one place for long, since she was not sure whether the people whose careers were affected by her 'death' accepted her demise without question. She was not sure whether any one would be sent after her, in order to make sure that she was really dead or worse, to capture her. After about one and a half months of wandering aimlessly around the countryside, she finally made it into Paris. She had taken a one week lease on a small apartment in one of the suburbs. She promised herself that before the end of the week, she would make a serious effort to contact the people Zaf had recommended.

Late one afternoon, Ruth found herself standing inside a bread shop. She was trying to decide on the kind of bread which she wanted to buy. She had not been eating very much since she left London. She never stayed in one place long enough to have access to a proper kitchen, and there was no question of her sitting quietly in a restaurant in order to have a decent meal. Ruth had walked past this shop a number of times in the last couple of days and it had always been packed with customers, regardless of the time of day. It had to be a sign that its products were good. The smell which came out of the shop when the latest batch of baked goods left the oven was quite overwhelming. Ruth finally resisted the temptation and walked in this afternoon, even though the shop was full of customers, as usual. She thought that she would get a couple of baguettes in this shop and some cheese and cold cuts from the shop next door. That would be her dinner for the night.

"Je voudrais deux baguettes, s'il vous plait (#1)," she told the shop assistant and pointed at the ones she wanted. After waiting for 15 minutes, it was finally her turn to be served.

A short, thin, middle aged man with a receding hairline stood next to Ruth. He was busy making his own selections known to the girl behind the counter who was serving him. Gilles Ledoux worked for the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure as a desk officer. His English was better than most of the other French staff, and for this reason, Gilles was the liaison officer whenever there were requests for assistance from across the channel.

Gilles heard Ruth speak and he was sure that he had heard that voice before. Gilles had a good memory for most things. Although the woman spoke good French, he could still detect her English accent. There was a husky quality to her voice. Gilles was quite certain that he had spoken to this person in the past, perhaps over the phone. Gilles turned around slowly to look at the woman. She was of medium height with shoulder length dark brown hair. She had a lovely oval face and a pair of large expressive blue/grey eyes. He knew that he had not met this woman before, not in person anyway. By now, Ruth was aware that the man standing next to her was staring at her. She also turned to face him.

"Excusez-moi, mais nous sommes nous déjà rencontrés, Mademoiselle (#2)?" Gilles asked. As soon as those words left Gilles's lips, he felt very foolish. It sounded like a very lame pick-up line. Gilles was not trying to pick up this woman, not in a bread shop, for heaven's sake. Gilles was not a ladies man, by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe he should have thought of a better opening line. He was about to repeat the question in English when the woman responded.

"Non, je ne pense pas (#3)," replied Ruth. Ruth did not wish to sound rude. By now, she had also noticed that the voice of this man sounded familiar. Ruth started to panic. She told herself that she had to either make a quick purchase or abandon her purchase altogether, because in either case, she had to leave the shop before this man had the chance to interrogate her further and unmask her.

Before Ruth was able to decide what she should do, a Chinese man in a well tailored business suit grabbed her arm from behind.

"Darling, I've been looking for you! We're double parked outside, so we should really hurry," said the man in English with an American accent.

The Chinese man put his arm around Ruth and half dragged and half pushed her out of the bread shop, and bundled her into a waiting limousine outside. Ruth wanted to protest, sir, you have the wrong person, I don't know you. But she quickly realized that she had been saved from a potentially disastrous situation by being kidnapped by this stranger. She decided that she was not in a position to scream or cause a scene in order to get away from her "saviour". When she was hugged by this man, she felt the unmistakable bulge of a weapon under his jacket.

Once inside the car, Ruth's Chinese captor gave instructions in Mandarin to the driver to leave that part of town. He then turned to introduce himself to Ruth.

"Ms. Evershed, my name is Horace Shen and I'm with the Chinese Security Bureau. Please don't be alarmed. I don't mean to cause you harm."

Ruth's eyes gave her away. How does he know who I am, really, and what does it mean now that my cover has been blown, as far as the Chinese Secret Service is concerned? This man looked like he was Ruth's age but she could not be sure since there were usually less lines on a Chinese face than on an European face.

"Some of our agents have been shadowing you as soon as you arrived in Paris. My instructions to them are that you are not to be harmed or put in danger, under any circumstances whatsoever."

Were these people sent by Harry, Ruth wondered.

"We weren't going to make direct contact with you but when we became aware recently that you might be in some danger, we decided that we had to make our presence known to you."

Danger? What danger? What was this man talking about? He's starting to scare me.

"We discovered that your new neighbours in the apartment building where you are currently staying are connected to unfriendly groups from the Middle East. We also found out that they seemed to have taken an unhealthy interest in your movements. We have it on good authority that they have connections with some of the people who lost their jobs over Cotterdam."

Why did I not notice the new residents who recently moved into my building? Is it because my skills as a spy are getting rusty, or is it because I have finally decided to let my guard down and not regard anyone or everyone around me as potential enemies? Now that this Horace person mentioned it, Ruth did recall seeing an Algerian family of four moving into the ground floor apartment recently, maybe the day after she herself moved in. She ran into the mother of that family yesterday. She thought that there was something strange about that woman but did not give the matter another thought. Now she realized that it was the woman's eyes – they were much too hard and cold for an ordinary woman. A shiver ran down Ruth's spine.

"How do you know who I am?"

"I first saw you at Havensworth a few months back," said Horace. Ruth kept a very low profile during that conference. She was confined to her room with all her computer equipment most of the time. She remembered being sick of room service after three days. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she actually left the room to go wandering around other parts in the sprawling hotel complex. Yet, this keen eyed Chinese spook managed to pick up her presence. Ruth wondered whether back on the Grid at that time, Malcolm and Jo managed to keep track of the activities of all the other spooks who were present at the conference.

"Your team was so busy with the African states and the Americans during that conference, I doubt that any one paid any attention to us. We were there to look after the ambassador from the People's Republic of China. When I heard that you were somehow involved with the Cotterdam mess, I decided to look into this matter further. At the time, it did not strike me as plausible that you could be a traitor to your team, or that you were the type of person who consorted with the likes of Oliver Mace."

"I am flattered by all this attention from the Chinese Security Service. But back in that bread shop, did you have to drag me out …"

"The man who started to talk to you is an officer of the DGSE. His name is Gilles Ledoux. You might have spoken to him over the phone from time to time when you were still working for MI5. That's why your voice sounded familiar to him. If I had not intervened, it might have only taken him another minute before he realized who you really are. I don't think that he meant any harm, but you wouldn't want your cover blown, now would you?"

Well, my cover's blown as far as you are concerned! Why did I not realize that that was Gilles Ledoux? She had spoken to Gilles frequently whenever she needed anything from the French. They even flirted a little over the phone. Once Gilles commented that Ruth had a sensuous voice and wondered whether she had the face to go with that voice. Ruth had laughed and offered to buy Gilles a drink if he ever found himself in London; then he could see for himself whether the face matched the voice. Although Ruth had a dismal love life, she could flirt with the best of them behind the safety of a telephone. The Chinese spook was right, had she exchanged more words with Gilles, he would have been able to identify her. That was a close call. She remained guarded in her attitude since she still had not figured out why the Chinese Secret Service felt obliged to come to her aid.

"If it was that easy for us to keep eyeballs on you, just think how many other agents from any number of other countries out there who are also able to monitor your movements?"

Ruth had to concede that there was some truth to that observation. She had dealt with a number of European agencies during her years on the Grid so that the chances of some other agents recognizing or 'making' her were more than good. She had found life on the run very difficult and had quickly developed an aversion to being caught in any crowd. If she had not been hungry, she would not have gone into the bread shop when it was so full of customers.

"We don't think that it is safe for you to remain in Paris, now that you have acquired these Algerian neighbours. I have a suggestion and would ask that you give it serious consideration."

Ruth looked at Horace Shen. She could not read his face as well as she might be able to read a Caucasian face. Why should I trust you?

"We can offer you safe passage out of France and place you somewhere in the Far East, in a city which is under our control so that we can guarantee your safety. We can offer either Shanghai or Hong Kong. Given that you may not have too much experience with Asian cultures, I would suggest that you consider Hong Kong. It remains a very Westernized city, even though it has been more than 10 years after the change in sovereignty. We can set you up with a new legend and a job …"

"Are you trying to turn me, get me to work for your team?"

"No, no, Ms. Evershed, please don't misunderstand. Whilst we would be delighted to have someone with your skills and experience on our team, that was not what I meant. When I mentioned a job, I meant either a teaching position with one of the local universities or one of the bigger trading companies, in any capacity you like, though obviously not a high profile on. We can always revisit the possibility of you doing some intelligence work for us once you have settled in, when you feel up to it."

"Why are you doing this? What is the price that I'll have to pay for this arrangement?"

"Nothing. I know that in this trade, we are always trying to outguess and outdo each other, but when we see a fellow intelligence officer in trouble and we are in a position to assist, we will offer that assistance, without any strings attached. We don't have any beef with the British Intelligence Service. In fact, we'd like to think that we have a rather special relationship with the British, given the many years spent negotiating over the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. There is an old Chinese saying, never make an enemy when you can make a friend. We are only trying to help."

Ruth doubted whether that was true, but she was not quite up-to-date with her Chinese idioms and so she did not take issue with this point. If she accepted this offer, somewhere down the line, she would be called upon to repay the debt. She was not sure she wanted to be put in that position.

"You are not even obliged to stay in the Far East forever. In a few years' time, I'm sure all this excitement over Cotterdam will have died down. You know as well as I do that in politics, nothing stays the same forever. And when it becomes safe for you to move about again, you can always choose to go elsewhere."

"How much time do I have, to consider your offer?"

Just then, Horace's mobile phone rang and he excused himself in order to take that call. The call was conducted in Mandarin, sadly not a language on the list of languages over which Ruth could claim proficiency. Horace looked serious when he terminated his call.

"I've just been informed that one of your Algerian neighbours broke into your apartment for a look-see. Since we haven't bugged your apartment, our watchers can't tell what they were looking for or whether they might have planted some devices in your apartment. Apparently, they've installed their two kids at the entrance to your building as watchers. They will pretend to play until you show up at which time the kids will pretend to quarrel and create a ruckus. That would be the signal for whoever is still in your apartment to get out as quickly as possible. We'll just drive round the block a couple of times for you to see."

When Ruth looked outside the car window, she noticed that she had been driven back to her apartment building. Sure enough, the two Algerian kids were playing at the entrance to the building and appeared to get along fine whilst the car slowly went round the block twice. On the third go round, Horace encouraged Ruth to get out of the car and walk towards the building. He reassured her that he would be following immediately behind her in order to protect her. When the kids saw Ruth approach the building, they broke out in a fight and one of the kids started to scream and yell at the other kid. Horace caught up with Ruth and suggested that they slow down their walk to give the Algerians time to get out of her apartment. Horace then accompanied Ruth back to her apartment. At the door to her apartment, Ruth noticed that the little toothpick which she had planted at the foot of the door was gone, a sure sign that someone had broken into her apartment.

Ruth was now really frightened. This latest development meant that she had to make a quick decision as to whether or not she should accept help from the Chinese. She would not have time to check out whether the story about the Algerian neighbours was one which was fabricated by the Chinese. Then again, there appeared to be no need for the Chinese to fabricate any story since they have effectively 'captured' her already, whether she liked it or not. Then there was her chance meeting with Gilles this afternoon in the bread shop. Surely that kind of coincidence could not have been manufactured. Since her cover had been blown as far as these Algerians were concerned, it might be difficult and dangerous to continue to rely on Zaf's contacts and in turn, this meant that staying in Europe was no longer a viable option.

It was one thing to fake your own death, especially when you had help from your colleagues but even then it had not been all fun and games. It was quite another to stare certain death in the face or worse, face torture and/or rape at the hands of her prospective captors. This would not be the first time that her life was in danger. She remembered that time when she was out in the field and was captured by members of The British Way, a group of White supremacists, who held a big, sharp knife to her throat and used her as bait to lure Adam Carter into their trap. Although she was scared senseless that time, she knew that Adam would turn up to save the day. This time, there would not be any one to come to her rescue, except maybe this Chinese spook standing in her apartment. She knew that whoever was after her now would not simply put a bullet in her, that there was a real chance that she would be tortured for information about Cotterdam, information which could be used against Harry.

Ruth took a good look at Horace Shen. He was a little over six foot tall, which Ruth thought was a little unusual for a Chinese man. He wore spectacles and was quite good looking, in a bookish sort of way. Ruth might have pegged him as a writer or teacher, not a spy. Ruth did not think that this person was capable of torturing any one though she could be wrong. Up until this point in time, Ruth had felt safe in his presence. So why shouldn't I trust him? He did say that the Chinese did not have any grudges against the British.

Ruth blamed herself for her present predicament. She had left it too late to contact the people Zaf had told her to get in touch with. Somehow, she had hoped against hope that Harry would have sorted out everything and came to collect her before she had to subject herself to a brand new identity. Sadly, that did not happen and now, it looked as if it might never happen. It can't be that simple to reverse my fake death. Maybe Harry's too busy. I've already said my goodbye, why would Harry still come for me? The problem with life on the run was that Ruth felt completely deaf, dumb and blind. Back on the Grid, she had a constant stream of intelligence on whichever subject she was interested in researching. Now, as an ordinary citizen, she had to rely on the usual media outlets for news and information. She knew very well that often times, what the public got to hear in the news was only a small portion of the real story. She had no idea what had been happening back in London after she left. Maybe its time to accept the fact that there's no turning back.

Horace was now looking at her in a way which implied that Ruth had to make a decision without further delay. If staying in Europe was going to be dangerous, perhaps there was some merit to the suggestion that she should now run and hide in the other side of the world. In the end, the decision which Ruth had to make was quite easy.

(#1) I would like two of those baguettes, please.

(#2) Pardon me, but have we met before, mademoiselle.

(#3) No, I don't think so.

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