Same Disclaimer as before

Chapter 7

Late March 2009, London

It was more than a couple of days after his meeting with the DG and the Home Secretary before Harry heard from either of them. He met with them on a Wednesday, and it was not till the following Tuesday before Harry received a response. That must have been the longest week in Harry's life. He was antsy, he was irritable, and he walked around like a bear with a sore head, much to the annoyance of his team. He almost bit some poor girl's head off when she failed to put a call through to him and took a message instead, even though Harry was somewhere on the Grid. He only calmed down when he saw that the caller was not the one he was expecting.

Harry had tried to make it as easy as possible for the Government to approve his trip. By offering to be suspended and to resign, Harry was giving the Government a way out. He knew that if anything happened to him during that trip, then as long as he was suspended, the Government could claim ignorance of his activities and wash its hands off him, if it should come to that. There was always the possibility that Harry would be told that either Ruth could not be resurrected, or that he was not allowed to go, or both. What then? Will I go anyway and disobey a direct order? Would I be prepared to give up my job, my life, to go and see Ruth, in much the same way as she had sacrificed herself for me? Surely the Government cannot be that cold hearted and watch with folded arms when a former intelligence officer's life is at stake? Then again, maybe those bastards would be capable of doing just that! Harry always knew that Ruth had done a remarkable thing, by agreeing to fake her own death in order to save him, but he never realized what incredible bravery it took to abandon a settled way of life in favour of the complete unknown until he was now confronted with the same option.

The call finally came through and it was the DG who called.

"Harry, you've been cleared to go to Hong Kong," the DG came straight to the point. "Now are you sure you don't want any back up from Six?"

"No, thank you, Peter. Sherman Tang was quite specific about not involving Six."

"Well, in that case, whilst you are there, do try and keep a low profile, won't you? If we're going to keep Six in the dark, then you certainly don't want the local press picking up your presence the minute you land. We've also agreed to restore Ms. Evershed's identity, if she wants to come back to us, but there is one condition – the resurrection will not become effective unless and until we are absolutely certain that during her time away, she has not done anything that could be remotely regarded as being treacherous to Britain. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Peter, I understand. Thank you."

"If she is ready and willing to be resurrected, contact the local British Consulate so that they can issue her with a temporary passport to allow her to re-enter this country in her own name. I will make sure that they receive the necessary instructions on this matter. Once Ms. Evershed returns to London, she will have to be debriefed, by someone other than you. You understand how it goes, standard operating procedures and all."

"Yes, of course, Peter, I don't have any problem with that arrangement."

"If she passes the debriefing with flying colours, we can then discuss her return to the Service. We've also accepted your suggestion that you should be treated as being suspended during your time away, but with pay. If everything turns out well, that suspension will be expunged from your records. Oh and Harry, I've been given your resignation letter to hold onto for the moment. Lets talk about that when you come back, shall we?"

"Certainly. Thank you, Peter, for all that you've done." Harry knew that the DG must have gone to bat for him on this occasion and he was truly grateful for the DG's efforts in this respect. He also knew that the powers that be would have reviewed both his and Ruth's service records before making a decision. For once, he was glad that he never initiated the paperwork relating to his potential relationship with Ruth; if they knew that there was a personal element involved, they might not have approved his trip.

After Harry finished his call with the DG, he called the Trade Winds Travel Agency and ordered his plane ticket. He would have liked to have boarded a plane that very evening, and he did not think that the travel agency would have any difficulty in getting him on a flight that quickly since there were at least 10 flights leaving London for Hong Kong on a daily basis. However, he needed time to finalise a couple of operations which were ongoing, so he picked a date in two days' time, which would bring him to early April, as his departure date. He would leave London on a Thursday evening and arrive in Hong Kong on Friday around noon, local time. He was about to go and speak to Malcolm about doing up a legend for his forthcoming trip when he received an envelope which was sent round by bike messenger. The envelope indicated that it was sent by the Trade Winds Travel Agency. It could not have been more than an hour since he called the travel agency and he was not expecting any package other than an invoice.

When he slit open the envelope, he found an invoice, a copy of his e-ticket which had details of his itinerary and ticket reference number, a hotel reservation voucher as well as a Hong Kong Identity Card in the name of 'Harvey Patterson'. There was a note attached to the card which informed him that with this identity card, he would be able to clear immigration formalities in Hong Kong without having to show a passport. The unspoken message from Sherman was loud and clear, we don't care what papers you use to exit Britain, but as far as entry into Hong Kong is concerned, there is no need to make up your own legend.

The picture of Harry in the ID card was an old photo which appeared in a newspaper article some years ago, enhanced with digital imaging software. It added to the authenticity of the ID card being several years old. Harry realized that it would have taken Sherman's team at least a day to make up this ID card, not a couple of hours. This meant that Sherman probably arranged to have this identity card put together immediately after his breakfast meeting with Harry last week.

You sly old fox, Sherman. You knew I was going to take that trip, didn't you?

# # # # #

On the morning after Harry left London, Lucas North strode onto the Grid at 8 am. He noticed that the lights in Harry's office were not on. Harry was usually the first person on the Grid. Lucas assumed that Harry must be away at some early meeting in Whitehall. Still, he turned to the nearest dogsbody and asked him, "so, where's our fearless leader this morning?"

"Gone sailing, I hear."

"What? Didn't know he's a sailor. Are you sure?"

"Yup. Something to do with the South China Sea race."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sailing from Hong Kong to Manila. Must be a sweet ride, if the wind is in your favour."

"But, but …"

"Harry's taken some vacation time, that's all and yes, he has gone to the Far East for some yacht race." Connie had now joined the two men. "Now stop acting like gossipy school boys and round up the others. Life goes on whilst the chief's away. We still have work to do. Meeting room, NOW!"

"But Harry has not mentioned any of this," Lucas continued to mutter under his breath as he made his way to the conference room. "Very unlike him to take off so suddenly." Lucas then noticed the glare which he now received from Connie. Well, there's no mistaking who is in charge whilst Harry's gone …

# # # # #

Early April 2009, somewhere in the airspace over Europe

Flight time between London and Hong Kong was a little over 13 hours. Harry was sure that the invoice he received from the travel agents said business class. At the Cathay Pacific check-in counter at Heathrow, however, he was told that since the plane was not full on his flight, he had been given a complimentary upgrade to first class. Harry suspected that this must have been arranged by Sherman Tang. His suspicions were confirmed after he took his seat on the plane; contrary to what he had been told, he noticed that first class was in fact full for that flight.

During the course of the journey, Harry had a lot of time to think. His thoughts were mostly of Ruth. Harry had forgotten whose idea it was that he should get Ruth seconded from GCHQ to Section D, but he was glad that he did since his Section was in desperate need of a good analyst. Initially, he was not sure that he could trust Ruth, as there were indications that Ruth was passing intelligence back to GCHQ. Inter-departmental rivalry and all that. Over time, Ruth proved herself to be a very valuable member of his team. Ruth was often overworked but she seldom complained. Her intelligence analysis was always spot on, and more often than not, her work saved the team going down wrong tracks and making unnecessary blunders. Harry had also become dependent on her advice on a whole lot of issues.

When was it that I started to take a personal interest in Ruth? Was it after I was shot by Tom and lying in that miserable hospital bed when I was told that Ruth had tried to pass a note to me about Oliver Mace taking over the department by telling the nurse that she was my wife and was expecting twins? Was it over the John Fortescue affair? Harry saw how much in love Ruth thought she was over a voice. He also saw how disappointed she was when her efforts to parade herself in front of Mr. Fortescue failed to provoke any response of any kind from that man. Perhaps it was after the Andrew Forrestal incident. Had it not been quick thinking on Danny's part, Ruth could have died at the hands of that evil man. How Harry hoped, at the time, that Ruth was clinging onto him instead of Danny when they finally broke down the door to Andrew Forrestal's house and saved Ruth. When he heard later that Ruth had said to Danny, "I knew you would come for me, Danny", it nearly broke Harry's heart; she should have been saying that to me! But he held it all in. Harry was a leader, and leaders do not give in to personal emotions.

That was the trouble with Harry. Always the leader and always doing what he thought was right for a man in his position. Ever since his first marriage ended, he had ceased to entertain romantic notions of any kind. He had embarked on a disastrous affair with Juliet Shaw, in order to get back at his wife for having had the affair with one of her fellow teachers. The revenge did not taste sweet. It was quite bitter, in fact, when Juliet Shaw turned up much later on the Grid and used the affair, amongst other things, to blackmail Harry and coerce him into supporting her nomination as Joint Intelligence Chief. He felt even worse when Juliet Shaw resurfaced as a member of Yalta and stuck that needle into Roz Myers.

Over the years, Harry thought that he had managed to develop a heart of stone, a heart which was immune to any feelings of a personal nature. It was necessary for the job which he was in charge of doing, he told himself. Things changed when Ruth managed to chisel a place in his heart of stone. Harry knew that his job gave him a front row seat in the circus called life where all instances of man's inhumanity to man were constantly on display. Whenever he thought that it could not get any worse, he would be embroiled in some new incident where he was surprised to see that the inhumane man had sunk to a new low. At times like that, he wished he could crawl home and snuggle up to someone soft, warm and pure; it had to be someone and not something like a dog or a cat. Gradually, that someone he longed for morphed into Ruth.

When Harry first noticed that Ruth took a personal interest in him, he was flattered. Harry always knew that he had the loyalty and respect of his team members, but Ruth's interest in him was sweet and endearing. However, he told himself that he should not take advantage of the situation. In his job, he had managed to offend enough people in Government as it was, with his uncompromising attitude on morality issues, so he was not about to put himself in a situation where he could be accused of seducing a junior officer for his own personal gratification. His enemies would rub their hands in glee if they ever found out about Harry's feelings for Ruth, and as it turned out, Oliver Mace did and used it to his own advantage.

By the time Harry got up the nerve to ask Ruth out for dinner, he knew that he had fallen for her. Whilst the Service encouraged fraternization between officers, it was more of a problem if the fraternization was across ranks. At the time, Harry felt that with his seniority and service record, he should not have problems in convincing the DG to approve his relationship with Ruth. But it was a frustrating courtship that never made it out of the gates. Harry was elated when Ruth accepted his dinner invitation, but was plunged into deep disappointment when after that first date, Ruth told him that they could not see each other again socially because she was under the impression that her colleagues were laughing at them. She said that she did not want to compromise Harry's position at work. That night at Havensworth, in the corridor, it took all of Harry's resolve to keep from grabbing hold of Ruth and telling her that everything would be alright if only she had more faith in him, in them.

It was much later that Harry found out about Malcolm's little comment which helped to nib his budding romance in the bud. Of course, it all made sense. Malcolm was Ruth's accomplice in that disastrous Scratch Mozart evening involving John Fortescue; he had gone along pretending to be Ruth's brother. When things did not turn out the way Ruth imagined or hoped they would, she did not smile for days and Malcolm knew this. Malcolm also knew about the almost fatal outcome of her impromptu date with Andrew Forrestal. So when Malcolm found out about Ruth's dinner date with Harry, he was genuinely happy for Ruth. He thought that she had at last found a man who was worthy of her love and affection and told her so. Unfortunately for all concerned, Malcolm did not know that Ruth would interpret his comment as a dig at the 'resident office spinster' (Ruth's perception, not Malcolm's) and her pathetic attempt to romance the boss. If only Harry had known all this at the time, he would have done or said something to correct Ruth's assessment of the situation.

After the Havensworth conference, Cotterdam took place so fast that he did not have an opportunity to discuss this matter again with Ruth. When Ruth kissed him goodbye at that dockside, Harry knew that Ruth was still in love with him though she felt that she had no choice but to leave him. Harry was confused, but more importantly, he was heart broken. He stood totally immobilized by that dockside and for once in his life, he had no idea what he could do in order to get that tug boat to turn back. He remembered getting very drunk that night, after he resisted the temptation all day to break a wall or two on the Grid with his fist.

Sometimes, Harry would ask himself whether any lingering feelings of the romantic kind which he still carried around grew out of gratitude on his part for what Ruth had done for him. Perhaps those feelings were borne out of guilt over allowing a woman to take the fall for him; and now that woman was out there somewhere, all alone and possibly in some danger. After kicking these arguments around for a while, Harry was quite sure that that was not the case. When Harry found out that Ruth was still alive on the other side of the world, he knew that he had to go and see her, come what may. He would have liked to be able to worm more information out of Sherman about Ruth's current love life, but that was hardly appropriate in the circumstances.

Harry had a confidential discussion with Connie about his sudden plans for a vacation. Since Connie was one of his oldest friends and now one of his closest allies, Harry was totally honest about the purpose of his vacation.

"Connie, I will be taking two weeks' vacation starting this Friday."

"Oh? That's rather sudden. It wouldn't have anything do with your recent meeting with Sherman Tang, would it?"

"Well, yes," Harry confessed and proceeded to give Connie a summary of his recent discussions with the DG and the Home Secretary. "The only way to find out whether Ruth is in any trouble over that wretched document is to see her myself. It was useless trying to get anything out of Sherman Tang. Now that he knows that she had an involvement, I don't want him to think that he can do whatever he likes to her, by way of punishment or otherwise. Sherman offered to guarantee my safety whilst I'm over there."

"Well, good. Its about time you sorted out that little episode in your life." Connie was referring to Harry's feelings for Ruth and not just her involvement with the encoded document.

"The only thing is, I have a sneaky suspicion that I might be walking into a trap set by Sherman."

"Oh Lord, what makes you think that?"

"Let's just call it an uncomfortable feeling. I can't put my finger on it. He sent round that Hong Kong Identity Card so quickly, it almost felt like he couldn't wait for me to go. Do you think we should come up with a couple of contingency plans, you know, just in case I find it difficult to leave Hong Kong or something?"

"You're being paranoid, Harry. Sherman might be a lot of things, but he wouldn't have guaranteed your safety and then turn around and do something nasty to you. Don't flatter yourself. You're not that attractive or desirable to the Chinese. They already have their hands full in dealing with Taiwan, North Korea, Japan and Russia, and you're no help to them in any of those dealings. As far as I can tell, they're not about to mount any terrorist attack in Britain, so there's nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by detaining you in that part of the world."

"I knew there had to be a reason why you're the president of my fan club. I'll be thinking of you whilst I languish in a Chinese prison."

"Well, it's a dirty job but someone has to keep your head from getting any bigger. Besides, spending time in a Chinese prison might do you some good. You could do with losing a few more inches round the middle. And if you do end up being detained there, I'll see what I can do about sending you the odd food parcel from time to time. Anyway, its too late to worry about this now, given that you have already pestered both the DG and the Home Secretary into letting you go and you've refused back up from Six. This trip is not about you, its about Ruth, isn't it? You'll be fine. I'll try and hold down the fort whilst you're gone. Good luck!"

Luck? I suppose I need all the luck I can get! If Sherman was intent on detaining or punishing Ruth for her part in leaking information about China's dealings with Iran to the West, there's very little I can do by myself in a foreign city. And yet, Sherman did indicate that he was ready to make a trade by allowing me to go to Hong Kong and to see Ruth. As for the personal issues, what can I possibly hope to achieve by taking this trip all the way across the other side of the globe? All I know is that I want Ruth back in my life, but what about Ruth? What makes me think that after all this time, Ruth would still be available and interested in a life with me? She's smart, she's beautiful. What's not to like? She could be married now with three kids. No, Pearce, be real, you can't have three kids in less than three years … or can you? Well, if she does have somebody else in her life now, I'll just get the official business over and done with as quickly as possible, then turn around and get out of her life.

Connie also said something else to Harry before he left Thames House.

"Have you told Sandra?"

Until Connie brought up her name, Harry had clean forgotten that he even knew any one called Sandra Smith.

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