The long awaited next chapter, bit long and more action filled...hope you enjoy! R&R x

oh this is for Gem's a sort of pressie for her big news throws glitter.

"Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth,

Mid sweet talk news paper word cut outs,

speak no feeling."

Imogen Heap

"Mark Johnston!" Malcolm exclaimed bringing Harry from his thoughts. "His name is Mark Johnston." He pointed repeatedly at the screen.

"Do we know who he is?" Harry asked.

"I'll run him through our link files." Malcolm hit a few buttons and a file popped up, he began to read. "Mark Johnston, used to be MI-6, was decommissioned for shooting an innocent, just before Mace was brought down actually. He is now a hit man for hire apparently and no prizes for guessing what he's up to now."

"So Mace hired him to shoot Ruth? But that doesn't make sense he would have don't it by now." Adam interjected.

"I don't think Ruth's the target" Malcolm said turning to look at Harry who was sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

"So it's me he wants, what a horrible way to get to me, so normal though. Why didn't I see it?" He said muffled by his hands he shook himself and got up starting to pace. "So we need this man alive then, I will have to resist the temptation to kill him." He joked but realised it really wasn't funny.

"They've been in there for almost 24 hours now, at the longest he will think he has another 24 hours, given you wont be expecting her home until then, that is if he thinks you haven't got the message and he hasn't seen us." Malcolm paused for a breath. "So we have a good few hours to do this properly."

Harry had begun to pace, Adam was playing with his wedding ring and Malcolm was tapping away on the computer. It had been three hours since they had found out who the man was. Adam had cleared the hotel of other guests, thankfully there were only eight other people staying so it didn't look too suspicious. They had the whole place bugged too, they had managed to do everything very inconspicuously. Malcolm was indeed a master at his game. Adam had set up a legend and booked himself into another room, so he could pose as a normal guest and Harry had been going stir crazy locked in the room where next door anything could have happened to her and he couldn't help.

"Right." Said Adam finally, "I think its time to put this into action." Malcolm stood and disappeared into the bathroom, returning a minute later dressed in a white suit, he was posing as room service, or rather a chamber maid, but he didn't like that terminology. "Your trolley is down the hall, three doors on the left, you know what to do. I'll cover you and Harry will be listening to everything." Malcolm disappeared and Adam turned to Harry. He placed one hand on his shoulder. "I won't let anything happen to her mate." He smiled and squeezed his shoulder before turning for the door. Harry wished he could be sure of that. He hoped she was alright, she had hurt him, yes but that didn't mean he stopped worrying about her as soon as he found out. He sat on the edge of the bed and delved into his coat pocket. He pulled out a gun, he wasn't supposed to have it but all high ranking spooks had a secret stash of weapons, that was common knowledge in the force. He had brought it along, just in case, a hit-man seemed to cover that.

"Harry, Adam. I'm ready." Malcolm said over the radio.

"Go."

"Go." Both replied and Harry heard Malcolm knock on the door. No answer, he knocked again. "House keeping" he called, still no answer. Harry had an awful feeling, and so did Adam it seemed.

"Er excuse me, I was wondering if you could replace the towels in my room, mate" He heard Adam say.

"Certainly" Malcolm replied. Both entered the room a second later.

"This is too easy." Adam said as soon as the door closed. "I've got a new plan."

"Oh?"

"Harry, this man is counting on you coming after Ruth, yes?" Harry nodded, he had an idea where this was going. "Well we give the man what he wants then."

"You mean, pretend I'm coming after her so he will put himself at risk to complete his operation?"

"Exactly. Do you think it will work? For instance if he sees me arrive and I lure him out of the room, do you think we could get in? Or do you think he expects me to go careering in there hoping to catch her with her knickers down?" He gulped once he had finished, more at the faces staring back at him than the words he had uttered. Both men looked suitably worried about their so called leader.

"I think the first option would be better" Malcolm stuttered.

"Yes so we need to get you out, have you drive back in and make a bit of fuss so he will leave her in the room but keep you safe at the same time, then we can get in and make sure Ruth is alright." Adam confirmed. They sat and devised a plan, a simple one, but it was still a plan.

Around an hour later Harry pulled up out side the hotel for the second time that day. He tried to stay calm and hurried himself inside. He flashed a glance over the hotel as he went, catching sight of a man in the window he knew was the room, he knew he had been seen. Good he thought, their plan was going well so far.

Inside Malcolm was still listening to what was going on in the room, he could hear footsteps moving across the room then a creak, he must has sat on the bed. There had been no speech in the room since Ruth had phoned Harry.

"If only you were alive to see your lover brought down, If you can still hear me I hope your screaming inside at your naiveté" Malcolm gulped, if he understood correctly, Ruth wasn't going to make it through this debacle. They needed to move fast but he didn't want to compromise Harry any more by telling him what he had just heard.

"Malcolm, Harry's arrived we need to get going on this." Malcolm nodded. "I'm going to back Harry up, you hack into the thermal imager and track mine and Harry's mobiles, I need to know exactly what is happening. If anything goes wrong, you need to get to Ruth."

"Adam" he said quietly "I don't think there's much point in me going after Ruth, it would be more help if I came after you."

"What are you saying Malcolm"

" Johnston just left the room, he basically talked to her as if she were dead."

"Shit, don't tell Harry, there's still a chance she's alive but we need back up. Stick to us, once we have him, we can sort out Ruth."

Malcolm nodded and turned back to his laptop. Harry had made his way to the back of the building, a stair well up to the higher floors, it wasn't the fastest way to the rooms, but Harry wasn't supposed to know the ins and outs of the building. They had also decided it was the safest area to carry out the operation, plenty of dimly lit areas to hide in. He focussed the thermal imager on the building, they only had eight minutes before it would have to be relocated, he hoped they could work fast.

8Minutes- He located the room they were in and subsequently the room Ruth and Johnston were in. he watched Johnston put something in his pocket, the item was blurred by the heat of his body but he was pretty sure it was a gun. He saw him leave the room with one last glance over his shoulder at Ruth. He signalled to Adam to leave the room once Johnston was at the end of the corridor.

Adam knew he needed to be careful, Johnston had no idea where Harry would be, there were three stair ways up to the floor and one lift. They had agreed not to use the lift and he suspected Johnston would work this out.

7Minutes-Malcolm watched as the mark made his way to the lifts, pressing both buttons to ensure they would come to that floor, he waited until the doors opened then pressed too more buttons, they sped on up with out Johnston. He was making sure Harry could not use them. He turned back and walked down the corridor.

6Minutes-"Adam" Malcolm said more alarmed than Adam wanted to hear. "You need to move Johnston's coming right for you. He will probably know you. You need to move. He will be on you in three seconds." There was no where to go. He looked frantically round for a door a hidey hole, anything.

"Ah, Mr Carter, I see my little female friend alerted you all when she phoned her boss, or should i say ex-boss." Adam gulped; he had just compromised the whole operation. Johnston lunged forward bringing his gun handle down on top of Adams head. He fell to the floor, not yet unconscious he wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Malcolm gasped as Adam fell to the floor, but silently cheered as he watched him swing his legs round bringing his attacker to the floor. They grappled on the floor for a few seconds before Adam brought his fist down, punching Johnston in the cheek. Johnston returned the favour, cracking Adams head against the door frame they were up against. Adam stopped struggling.

4Minutes- Malcolm scanned the screen, spotted Harry and patched himself through, "Adams down, and Johnston's coming for you, we don't have any more back up, do you want me to cover you?" Johnston was moving to the first set of stairs, he ran down them.

"No Malcolm I need you to be my eyes, as soon as he's on top of me come and find us but until them I need you to tell me what's going on." Malcolm replied positively, informing Harry that Johnston was headed for the set of stairs he was in. They needed to be quick the thermal imager only had 3 minutes left, if they didn't hurry they would be blind.

Harry had positioned himself half way between the first and second floor. "OK. He's in the stair well." Harry walked down the few steps and took the door to the first floor corridor just in time for Johnston to see him disappear. "He's following" Malcolm reassured. Harry took a glass door that lead to the leisure complex within the hotel, risking a glance back he caught his first real glimpse of the man who was trying to kill him, who had already killed him. "You need to hurry Harry, we only have two minutes left. The pool is to your right." As soon as Harry got through the door he ran the edge of the pool, trying to vacate the room before Johnston entered it. He heard the door click behind him and froze, there was no way he could get out quick enough. He spun on his heals to face his enemy. He took him in, tall, dark hair, chiselled jaw line, defined features, broad shoulders and large hands. Hands that were pointing a gun directly at his chest.

"There's no where to run Harry. You try to escape I'll shoot you in the back, undignified don't you think. To be assassinated while you try to flee in fear. Your other option is to die in a more dignified manner." Johnston was closing the gap between them, Harry couldn't focus his mind, he had no way out, was about to be shot and all the could think was that this bastard had slept with Ruth. She still penetrated his psyche even in his last moments, even after she had betrayed him and lured him here and broken his heart. "Harry what's going on? The thermal imagers stopped and" Malcolm's voice brought him back to earth. "I can't hear what's happening, there must be some sort of interference down there. If you can hear me get out of there." His ear piece started to crackle he tried to block it out and concentrate on how the hell he was going to get out of this alive.

Suddenly the lights when out, Harry reacted quickly and dived into the pool, he was safer in the water he knew that. He heard a gun shot as he resurfaced, it hit the water but not him. He dived back under heading for what he hoped was the edge nearest the door. He didn't know what was happening above, if he could be seen under there or if his attacker was headed for the same exit, all he could do was hope. He came back out of the water when his arm hit the edge. He could see a shaft of light coming from the door way, this was his best bet. He pushed himself swiftly up on the side, spinning him self round to try and gage where Johnston was, He heard another shot, it hit the wall just behind him. He stayed low to the floor and edged his was forward. Another shot, this one closer but still not accurate. He would have to be quick if he wanted to get out alive. He lunged at the door, pushing it open as he dove through the door way. He quickly re-adjusted to the light and pushed himself to his feet, he chanced a quick glance back, a figure was advancing to the door. Harry ran down the corridor, desperate to get away. He turned the into the corridor and pushed himself back into a door way. Malcolm appeared at the other end. He opened his mouth to speak but Harry shook his head and gestured for him to take up the same position as he. They heard the door slam open and foot steps approaching. Johnston appeared at the edge of the corridor, he turned to face Harry, the gun raised. Harry had no choice but to close his eyes and hope in vain.

A shot rang out down the corridor.