Same Disclaimer as before

Chapter 11

Early April 2009, Hong Kong

Whilst waiting for Ruth to return, Harry was tempted to do some snooping around the apartment to see if Ruth had done other work apart from her day job. He decided against that course of action very quickly since the last thing he wanted was a fight with Ruth if she returned and caught him doing something inappropriate. She had been gone now for over 20 minutes and could return at any moment. So he parked himself on one of the sofas in the living room and picked up the newspapers lying on the coffee table to read. There was quite a selection of local as well as foreign newspapers.

After a while, he had the distinct sensation that he was being watched. He lowered the newspaper to see a rather large pair of green eyes staring at him. The eyes belonged to a very chubby British shorthair blue cat who came out of nowhere and was now sitting on the coffee table. He must be getting on in years since his jowls had started to droop. He did not look friendly at all. When Harry tried to pick up another newspaper to read, the charcoal grey cat reached out one paw as if he wanted to stop or scratch Harry. Harry was quicker, though, and managed to get the second newspaper before the cat could do any damage to him. Harry was not about to be intimidated by a cat, of all things, but he felt uncomfortable sitting in a strange apartment being given the evil eye by this animal.

The keys turned and Harry looked at the door anxiously, hoping that it would be Ruth. A Filipino woman in her late fifties entered the apartment. She was startled to see Harry sitting in the living room, with the cat perched on the coffee table, staring at Harry. Harry now remembered that Amy had mentioned, during their drive to the university, that the Filipinos were the largest group of foreigners in Hong Kong and that most of them were employed as domestic helpers or drivers. After a moment, a look of recognition came over the Filipino woman's eyes.

"Oh, you must be Harry," she beamed at Harry. "Hello, I'm Dalane, I look after all the apartments in this building for the teaching staff. I just came in to check on Ms. Everton's windows, to make sure that they have been closed properly. With this typhoon, I don't want any leaks inside the apartment."

"Hello …" Harry was surprised that this woman not only appeared to know who he was, but also knew him by his first name. Maybe she ran into Ruth outside the apartment and Ruth told her about me.

"I have seen your pictures many times in the past. I'm glad to meet you, finally ." Dalane gave Harry a dazzling smile.

What? How is that possible?

Dalane saw that Harry was perplexed and said to him, "come." She then led Harry into Ruth's study.

In contrast to the living and dining room, Ruth's study was stuffed full of books and papers everywhere, either on the bookshelves or stacked neatly on the floor. This was clearly Ruth's domain. Harry saw that Ruth had installed an Apple computer in her study, complete with the 30 inch Cinema Display as her monitor. Harry was not surprised by the brand of computer used by Ruth since they used Macs on the Grid. Harry thought that the 30 inch monitor was a bit of an extravagance. The university must pay their staff well. I wonder why she needs all this computing power? He did not know that Apple Computers had a policy of giving deep discounts on their hardware and software to academics and students.

Dalane moved the mouse and the screen sprang into life. Harry found himself staring at a desktop image which was, well, himself. The screen also showed a dialog box which asked for the username and password. After staring at the screen for a few minutes, the screensaver software kicked in and again, he was looking at various photos of himself flying out from the four corners of the computer screen.

He was both alarmed and pleased to see his pictures on Ruth's computer. Ruth must still have strong feelings for me, otherwise why would she use my photos as a desktop image and as her screensaver? But here was the problem. How did she get hold of those photos? Who took the photos? Why didn't I know that my picture was being taken? They appeared to be surveillance shots of him going about his business in London. As far as surveillance shots go, they were quite good though Harry was a little surprised to see that he seldom smiled. He also noted that those were recent photos of him, not photos which Ruth might have gotten before she left the Grid for good. If she can still manage to take surveillance photos of me, she must have been working for the Chinese. Harry's heart sank at the thought that this would put a much more complicated spin on things.

Harry could take a stab at guessing Ruth's username and password but he did not have Malcolm's skills in that respect. He did not feel that he had the right to intrude on Ruth's privacy, much as he was anxious to find out what sort of work Ruth had been doing for the Chinese Secret Service. He considered briefly whether he should go through the various piles of paper on Ruth's desk, but he knew that Ruth would not have sensitive documents lying around in plain sight. In any case, he could not run the risk of Ruth returning at any time and finding him in her study. And then there was Dalane, still hovering close by.

"Whenever I clean this desk, I will see your pictures. I asked Ms. Everton once a long time ago who this was and she told me that it's a man called Harry, someone who means a lot to her. I only know that sometimes, Ms. Everton would stare at these images for hours. I'm glad to finally meet you in person. I guess you will be staying here tonight?"

"Yes, I will be in the guest room." Harry gave an embarrassed little smile.

Dalane gave Harry a doubtful look but did not comment on that arrangement.

"In that case, I better put fresh linen in the guest room. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, that's alright. Thank you."

Of all the teaching staff Dalane worked for over the years, she like Ms. Everton the best. Like most of the other academics, she was always polite and kind to Dalane, but unlike the others, she always looked a little sad when she did not think that any one was looking at her. Sometimes Dalane would joke with Ms. Everton that she should go out more, but those kinds of conversations never lasted long.

Harry went back to his newspaper whilst Dalane busied herself with fixing up the guest room. Harry could no longer concentrate on his reading. How did she get those photos?

The supermarket was a small one located in the basement of the building next to the one which housed Ruth's apartment. The buildings were connected by a covered walkway so Ruth did not have to worry about getting wet. The small supermarket was only meant to stock the bare essentials in life, for the convenience of busy academics who could not make it to the bigger supermarket over on the main campus.

It never ceased to amaze Ruth how seriously the people in this city took a typhoon. These things rarely lasted more than one day, two at the most. Most people who lived in high rise apartment blocks in the urban areas had nothing to worry about. The city was served by two very efficient power companies and all power cables were underground. So there was no question of the power going out at a time like this. All of the other essential utilities continued to be available, such as water, gas and telephone services. For most people, it meant an unexpected day off work. Why do they always feel the need to stock up on everything as if the world was going to end?

Ruth was not worried about what to serve Harry for dinner tonight. She was expecting her domestic helper to come in and she could depend on her to put something together in a hurry. But Ruth had no idea what Harry usually had for breakfast. She seemed to recall that back on the Grid, whenever they pulled an all-nighter, Harry tended to have something simple, just a croissant or a toastie, and coffee, for breakfast. She wondered whether that had changed. She knew that she still had some eggs and cheese in the fridge, so she picked up some bread, an extra carton of milk and a jar of instant coffee. She then checked the wine section briefly and decided against buying a bottle of wine for dinner. This little supermarket did not have a good selection of wines and only stocked cheap South American imports. Ruth tasted these before and decided that they were mostly vinegar masquerading as red wine. She found a bottle of scotch in the shelves just behind the cashier. This was regarded as an expensive item for poor academics and was usually kept under padlock and key. It was probably not Harry's preferred brand, but she felt that she did not have a choice. She asked the cashier to unlock the cabinet and show her the bottle.

Then again, Ruth told herself that she did have a choice. I don't need to buy the liquor for Harry. Why am I going out of my way to ensure that my guest for the evening is well catered for? Why is Harry here? How did he find me? Do I really want to see him?

Ruth gave the bottle of scotch back to the cashier but before she had a chance to explain that she did not want it, the cashier had rung it up as part of her purchases. The poor girl was under so much pressure to get through all her customers before the supermarket closed that Ruth felt bad about asking her to cancel that last item. There was such a long queue at the checkout counter that Ruth did not realize that she had been gone now for almost an hour. She simply paid for everything and left with her purchases.

January 2007, Hong Kong

Horace saw Ruth for the first time at the Havensworth conference. He literally bumped into her at the business centre when Ruth went downstairs to pickup that ice hockey DVD for Ros so that Ros could ingratiate herself with the US Ambassador. She gave Horace an apologetic smile and that left quite an impression on Horace. One of his colleagues from the London office later told him that she worked for MI5. Horace did nothing about this encounter until a couple of months later when he read about Ruth's 'death' in the London papers and her apparent involvement with the Cotterdam scandal. He thought that it was an odd item and decided to dig deeper. Again, he did not do anything until another month went by when one of his mates from the Paris office, who knew about his interest in Ruth, sent him a text, "Just saw a dead woman walking around in Rouen. Wanna come see?'. After getting clearance from his boss, Sherman Tang, Horace flew to Paris immediately.

In the early days, in order to make sure that Ruth had no problems settling into her new life, Horace spent a lot of time with her. One night, after one too many glasses of wine, Ruth started to wax lyrical about her old boss and how he could do no wrong. Horace became a little sick of hearing this and bragged to Ruth that he could probably order surveillance photos of Harry in London without Harry even knowing about it.

Ruth knew that it was not difficult to arrange for surveillance photos to be taken of anyone anywhere and without the subject's knowledge. For a start, there were all sorts of telephoto lenses available in the market. For photos taken at close range without the help of sophisticated equipment, if the photographer simply took one or two photos at a time and left the scene immediately after taking the shots, the subject would not be able to pick up on the fact that someone was following him or taking his picture. Besides, every mobile phone was equipped with a camera these days and at any time, there were millions of tourists traipsing around London and most had cameras hanging around their necks. One could not get too paranoid every time someone pointed a camera at somewhere.

Ruth was intrigued by the thought that she could get photos of Harry. She did not have any to start with and she left London in such a hurry that she was not able to take many of her personal belongings with her. She thought that having a few photos of Harry might help her feel less homesick. So she egged on Horace and said that Harry would probably know about it before the photographer's finger even left the click button.

A few weeks later the photos arrived, and the moment Horace gave them to Ruth, he regretted what he had done. He saw how ecstatic Ruth was over the photos and how she would not stop looking at them. He suddenly understood how Ruth felt about her old boss. Way to go, you moron. This is definitely not how you score brownie points with the woman you're interested in, Horace told himself. He decided that he would not get any more photos for Ruth. More importantly, he stopped because of the bollocking he received from Sherman Tang. The Chinese agent who took the photos for Horace became worried that he might lose his job and snitched to Sherman about Horace's little request.

"You are not to use official resources for private use, is that understood?" It was one of those rare occasions when Sherman raised his voice. Horace knew that this was a sign that he was extremely upset. "Can you imagine the international incident this could cause, and the resulting embarrassment to our Government, if it becomes known that we have been taking surveillance photos of such a senior member of the British Secret Service, for no apparent reason? I thought you had more sense than to do something as stupid as that. That thing inside your head is called a brain. It wouldn't hurt if you used it from time to time!"

Horace had led a rather sheltered social life up to this point in time. He only ever went out with Chinese women, but living in the West meant that the sample group of Chinese women who were available was rather small, and the ones he did go out with did not keep him interested long enough to develop any long term relationship. Some were too Chinese, others were too Westernised. He had a lot of Western friends, but he never considered going out with a non-Chinese woman, that is, not till he bumped into Ruth.

After Horace relocated Ruth to Hong Kong, he did not pursue Ruth actively since he felt that she needed time to settle into her new identity, and he did not think that he should take advantage of the vulnerable state she was in. He himself was busy with work commitments throughout 2007 and 2008 and saw very little of Ruth after that first month they spent together. When he eventually left Ruth on her own, he gave her a phone number which she could use to contact him, for example, in case of emergency. He noticed that Ruth never used that number. The two of them did not communicate by email or text messages at other times. Each of them knew that spies did not maintain friendships by leaving a paper or email trail. Even so, Horace did try his best to keep in contact with Ruth. Even though he was not stationed in Hong Kong, every once in a while, he would make sure that his itinerary required a stopover in Hong Kong and when he was in town, he would take Ruth out for dinner. He was pleased that Ruth never turned him down.

After receiving those photos of Harry, Ruth set about building a cocoon in her study, one in which she could pretend to live the life she used to have. It was not difficult given the way the world wide web had managed to close the distance between people and countries.

In order to keep in touch with her old world, she read every available online newspaper from Britain, including the tabloid press. If something was not available online, she would take out a hard copy subscription. She even subscribed to Time Out London and knew more about shows which were available in the West End than she ever did when she actually lived there. She listened to the BBC world service and every other British radio station which was available on the internet. It was quite surreal listening to London traffic news and weather whilst sitting 6,000 miles away. Traffic reports such as this eased her homesickness somewhat :

A lorry has overturned and shed its load on the M1 so expect delays …

Ruth watched only the BBC channels which were available on the local cable network. It did not matter to her that most of the programmes shown were repeats since she never spent that much time watching television anyway when she lived in London. Her work schedule on the Grid did not permit such extravagances. Now she had all the time in the world to catch up on these TV shows, some of which were more than ten years old.

At other times, she would simply stare at Harry's photos on her computer and dream about what might have been.

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