Chapter 3

Trust and Lies

Lucas and Sofia were silently arguing when Harry re-entered the room looking irritated. Sensing the tension between them he opened his mouth to question them about it but Sofia, not wanting to answer diffused the situation first,

"What did the Home Secretary want? Is he planning on using Buckingham Palace to host the talks?"

Understanding that whatever had passed between them would pass no further Harry answered her question as opposed to asking one of his own, "No, but I wouldn't put it past him. The North Koreans are getting jumpy; to use his words these talks need to 'run smoothly without a hitch'."

"So an attack during the talks may be considered as a slight problem I take it?" Sofia said,

"Indeed." Harry muttered, "It is vital that these talks are a success, particularly after the Lighthouse saga, Russia probably feels the same way but we have been given the right to use any means necessary to ensure that these talks succeed. That is why I have asked you both in here."

"What can we do?" Lucas asked, with a glance towards Sofia.

"Do either of you know Artem Salko?" Harry asked, looking for a reaction from both of them.

There it was, direct, specific, he had backed them into a corner, one that neither of them had wanted to go near. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, knowing the weight of her answer,

"I've heard the name, why do you ask?" she said, evasively.

"We need to know more about him. Before we meet him and hear what he has to say I wanted to know more about him. I know that he was used infrequently as an interrogator in Russia, but he was also involved in several operations in the nineties, one of which was the one that sent the two of you to Moscow in the first place. I need to know, if either of you have met him."

They both paused, neither speaking, each trying to guess what was going on in the other's mind. Harry took their silence as a reluctance to discuss their experiences in Russia, "I know this is difficult but any information you have on him could be vital."

"No Harry, I've never met him..." Lucas answered softly.

"Thank-you Lucas, you're sure?"

"Quite sure." He said, firmly.

"Sofia? Do you know why you remember the name?" Harry pressed, gently.

"If it had been...I would remember..." she replied, softly, refusing to meet Lucas' cold stare.

"Very well, thank you both." Harry said, clearly dismissing them.

Lucas and Sofia left together, he deftly caught her arm and steered her into the deserted corridor beyond. Once Harry had exited, heading for his office he smoothly slid back inside, pulling her with him.

He closed the door and studied her without speaking. Finally she lost patience and snapped, "I'm not a mind-reader Lucas. If you-"

You don't have to be a mind-reader to know what I'm thinking Sofia." He hissed roughly, "What the Hell was that?" She shook her head and turned away from him, but he continued speaking preventing her from leaving, "You are willing to risk this entire operation, ruin your career for him? You're willing to lie to-"

"I didn't lie." She snarled, angrily cutting across him.

"You didn't tell the truth; call it whatever you like, the outcome is still the same." He said harshly.

"That's funny I didn't see you jumping in to correct me." She breathed, cruelly, taking a step towards him.

"Don't. You put me in an impossible situation Sofia, just because I'm not willing to lie so you can get, whatever the Hell it is you hope to get out of this, does not mean that I would go against your wishes entirely, I respect you more than that... The choice is yours to make, not mine." He said quietly.

"Choice? None of this is my choice."

"Sofia." He gently took her arm, she knew what he wanted, looking at him she saw concern and confusion in his eyes as well as a trace of anger and something else that she could not quite place, before he said quietly, "Why are you doing this?"

"I don't know." She said, without thinking as he voice cracked. The mask-like persona that so often adorned her impassive exterior slipping slightly to reveal something like vulnerability beneath.

"Why should they know?" she hissed, suddenly aggressive as she changed tact, the shutters coming down once more, "I've known most of these people for less than two weeks, none of them have earned the right to know anything about me..."

"It's not about what rights they have, it's about trust." He said softly.

"No it's not. You can spend the rest of your life trying to make amends for your 'betrayal', shoving honesty and loyalty down their throats and it won't make any difference, they still won't trust you, not completely. It's impossible for human beings to fully trust another. They can trust you with their life, their secrets; even their soul but they will never trust you unconditionally. Humans are fallible, by over very definition. Our ability to make mistakes, to be flawed, is known by every other member of our race and it goes against every instinct we possess to entirely put our faith in something that we know to be imperfect in the first place. There will always be doubt, and where there is doubt there can never be trust. I refuse to spend my life chasing after something I can never have."

"Sofia...You know this is about more than that, that there is more to it than that. The very definition of trust is that is a vow of faith, you don't expect that person to be perfect, that is not what it means, and I would never say I could give or receive perfect trust from someone, but how far we can trust people is enough for me. This is about more than that, you don't not believe in trust, you don't want it, you can't have it because then you would have to give them your trust. I know why you can't do that..." he told her softly.

"It doesn't matter...Why I won't trust people, or if I don't want them to trust me in return. "She said, turning away from him and breaking the connection between them, "I don't think that telling them my mother's maiden name or my cat's favourite brand of tuna is going to make them trust me any more or less than they do now." She said coldly.

"This is a little more than serious than tuna brands..." he protested quietly as she stood stiffly with her back to him.

"It's the same principle, they don't need to know."

"You know that's not true, how can you-"he began,

"No, no I do not. Nothing about me, nothing that has ever happened to me, nothing that nearly happened to me, nothing that may happen to me or nearly happened to me, will ever matter enough for them to know. They have no right to ask, no right to know...I don't owe them anything and that is my choice Lucas." She said, breathing hard and staring at him with something close to hatred.

"How can you say that? You owe them more than this Sofia, you may not owe them irrelevant details about your past and private life but this goes beyond that. This directly affects them, you could be risking their lives to satisfy nothing...They deserve more than that...If one of them pays for your stupidity do you want that on your conscience?"

"I will have nothing on my conscience, I will deal with it...If you're so concerned, why don't you free up your own, you know just as much about this as I do." She snapped.

He refused to answer, but she didn't need him to, one hand clenched tightly around the handle of the door she said quietly, without looking at him, "Don't bullshit me like that again Lucas..."

She walked down the corridor irritated. He knew her better than most people and therefore knew which buttons to press. He had annoyed her because she could see where he was coming from. He cared about these people and the idea that she was putting them in harm's way to calm her paranoia had placed him in an impossible situation.

"You OK?" Ros asked, interrupting her thoughts as she met her halfway down the corridor.

"Fine." She said, shortly, Ros took the hint,

"I've got bugs from Tariq; we're heading to The Asquith on the pretext of vetting their penthouse suites to see if they're worthy of our various delegations."

"Alright, I'll drive." Sofia said, shortly, fishing the keys from Ros' pocket.

"Control freak..." Ros muttered, though she did not protest over much.

"Pot, you're black!" she smirked,

"Where's Lucas?" Ros asked, grinning and changing the subject.

"Lost in deep thought in the briefing room." Sofia told her.

Ros smirked, "I'll find him, you get the car sorted."

"Deal."

...

Lucas was standing alone in the room, wrestling with himself. They were both right, he knew her well enough to know and understand her point of view; if he was honest with himself he had reacted in the same way when confronted with a similar situation. He had not had anyone then to act as his conscience and tell him what he should or should not do. Had he, he would have told them something similar, they had no need to seek intimimate details that even the most open among them would be unwilling to reveal. It was too much to hope that she would. She had been closed before Russia and her time there had done nothing to improve her faith in humanity. This was her choice and he would not go over her head and make it for her. His relationship with her was more important to him than that with anyone else, for all her words about trust and its impossibility, she trusted him, and he in turn trusted her. He was confident that she would do what needed to be done when the situation called for it, but by then the damage would be done.

On the other hand, he had to think about the team, she was playing a dangerous game and if it turned out that she could not deal with it, the consequences would reach further than Section D. Exasperated, he finally decided that none of this analyzing made any difference. She was not going to share details of her relationship with Salko to the others and he had already decided not to either.

He was about to leave the room and find something productive to do when the door opened, Ros stuck her head in, "Come on Cinderella, you're pumpkin awaits you outside...Impatiently."

A/N: I'm not really too sure about this to be honest. As someone pointed out I tend to be more plot than character driven but this was always planned to focus more on characterisation, still I'm not sure if the conversation between Lucas and Sofia worked, it felt a little awkward to me but then they're both awkward characters so I don't know if that would be a desired effect :) Any advice on this would be great, thank you all for the reviews so far :)