Chapter 18
Only Fools and Remorses
Lucas was crouched quietly in the tunnel, standing beside her prone figure, hoping something would happen before he roasted in the enclosed tunnel. After the showdown with the thug that had cornered her he had dragged her back down into the safety of the tunnel and was beginning to wish he had not. The longer he spent crouched in the small cavern, the more the walls seemed to close in around them.
When they had travelled through the tunnels to get here in the first place it had been fine, he had been in control of himself as they were moving, now, alone in the stifling cave, feeling the weight of the world pressing in around them, he began to feel the familiar feeling of terror clawing at his stomach, the one that followed his nightmares of Russia and preceded total surrender of his sense and senses.
He glanced down at her again, her top was soaked with scarlet blood but that was not the problem. The problem was that they were stuck in this damn cave and no-one knew they were there, with the walls caving in on them, surely they would suffocate, they would die down here, because he could not leave her, would not leave her, and so he condemned them both to death.
Catching himself as his thoughts ran away with him he took a deep breath and closed his eyes focussing on his breathing. He was interrupted by a choke and a snarl,
"And where the Hell were you?"
He smiled and said, without opening his eyes, "I can't be in two places at once Ros, and they banned human cloning."
"Jesus..." she groaned, sitting up,
"No, just me." He said, mildly, smirking, "How hard did you hit your head?"
"If I could see straight I would shoot you..." she informed him.
"How do you feel?" he asked, concerned, handing her a bottle of water.
She accepted and said, "God you sound like Ruth, I'm fine."
"Let me see," he said, gently brushing the wound at her temple,
"Don't." She snapped, batting him off, she took another drink before saying, "You took your bloody time."
"You're welcome."
"What did you do with him?"
"Apparently he jumped out of a window." Lucas said, matter-of-factly, reluctantly accepting the bottle of water she was thrusting so insistently at him that it was beginning to slop out of the top onto his hand.
"You shot him Lucas; I don't think that will fly."
"Probably not, but they'll make it, they don't want this announced to the press any more than we do. They'll cover it up, all of it, at least until these talks are over."
"You really don't seem too cut up about this Lucas..." she said, quietly, becoming very interested in her hands, it was not like he had never killed anyone in the line of duty before, but it was not usually a security guard, generally it was a psychotic terrorist threatening world domination, whatever the circumstances, however much adrenaline had overtaken the guard and made him act irrationally, he had only been doing his job...
"He was going to kill you Ros...There was no choice in the matter, and I have no regrets." He said, softly, as if reading her mind, a habit he had fallen into altogether too easily recently. "Can you stand?" he asked, softly,
It was only then she realised that his hands were trembling on the bottle and he was paler than usual, while she felt as though someone had cleaved her head in two and she was in danger of throwing up if she stood, she recognised that he would end up in a far worse condition if she insisted on keeping him trapped down here for much longer.
"Yes." She said, stubbornly, using the wall a little too much for support.
He noticed this, and also knew why she had done it and so, ignoring her protests, took an arm and wrapped it around his neck and supported most of her weight as they set off slowly down the tunnels.
It took them far longer than they would have liked and both were relieved when they reached the end of the underground maze, both craving fresh air and sunlight, neither of them willing to travel via the underground for several months after this,
"Well, if nothing else," she said, as Lucas gently set her down on the soft ground and handed her the water bottle again, "At least we became intimately familiar with the layout of the house, I doubt we've seen the last of it."
"Indeed." He said, shortly, closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths, bracing himself against a tree and leaning forwards, hands on his knees.
"Are you OK?" she asked, quietly, knowing perfectly well that he was not,
"I'll be fine, Ruth." He said, smirking, and knowing that his last comment would irritate her enough to shut her up.
"What happened?" she asked, finally, partly out of a real desire to know, and partly out of a desire to have him focus on whatever flashbacks he had been struggling to suppress for the last few hours, knowing that for all his jokes and assurances, he was far from fine. She now knew that the gunshot had belonged to Lucas, and the blood that she was covered in did not belong to her but she wanted him to say something anything and she hoped he would tell her something she had not already deduced.
"I came round the corner, he was standing over you holding a gun, I put two and two together, shot first and asked questions later...I take it you weren't just role playing?"
"No, bastard caught me off guard." She said, sounding distinctly annoyed,
"You passed out somewhere around this point, I pushed him out of a window and carried you back down into the tunnel." He continued, matter-of-factly, beginning to pace around the clearing,
"Right, we should be making tracks, we need to get back on The Grid soon or Ruth'll have had kittens..."
She couldn't stand his pacing, after so long in Russia, most of Lucas' habits were hidden along with just about everything else, from his deep thoughts and feelings to his favourite colour, however the one thing he insisted on doing, understandably, was the one thing that drove her up the wall.
He smiled and slipped the car keys from her pocket, "Just in case." He smirked as she scowled.
"Ruth's heard back from Ros and Lucas, briefly, they're both fine, though apparently he suspects she has a concussion because she's more irritable than usual." Sofia told Harry, smirking as she hung up.
"Ros Myers? Irritable? Whatever next..."
She grinned and said, "How did it go with your favourite member of the CIA?"
"If the whole world was as pretentious as he is, I'd have launched a global genocide to prevent the world's only impression of the human race being that." He said, contemptuously, eliciting a small grin from Sofia, who had more than expected this and was not disappointed by the entertaining rant that followed. "What do you think of our Home Secretary?" he asked, finally stopping his rant due to the irritating necessity of having to breathe.
"It had been a while since I'd been in a politicians office, if possible even more over the top than I remembered, and we're in a recession...As for the man himself, I choose to reserve judgement...Man's like an onion, too many layers to see from the surface, cutting in too soon will result in floods of tears, no I'll wait, and let him peel himself."
Harry, who by now was becoming fairly used to her strange metaphors, most of which seemed to involve food or tea, nodded and said, "I agree...Slippery fish, not at all as innocent as he makes out I think."
"I think you're right...Strange man, I've never met anyone like him before, though maybe I've just been out of the game for too long."
"I don't think even when you were out of the game you ever stopped playing." Harry said, wryly, seeing from her smirk that he was right, "Even so, he's odd, I'll give you that..."
"But odd for us or odd for them?"
"You suspect him of being a double agent?" Harry said, generally these things were not spoken aloud on hunches, thought yes, guessed, definitely, not this.
"I don't think he got to where he is without being able to play the game, and play it well at that. And I want to know why he's being so nicey nicey with the North Koreans."
"Well that's understandable, if the North Korean's make a deal during these peace talks, some of that will reflect very well on him."
"Yes, so offering them tea and scones is understandable, not growing the tea himself and giving them a grand tour of the bakery, no something's going on there, or I'm a paranoid lunatic."
"Well yes, but that doesn't mean you might not be right." Harry smiled, wondering how long it would have been till she mentioned tea again and thinking that the junior officers would soon turn this into a drinking game.
As they crossed into the Home Secretary's lavishly furnished office, they were informed by his harassed looking PA that he would be along in a few minutes.
"If prison teaches you anything it's that minimalism really is the way forwards..." she said, looking around the room with distaste.
"Really, I would have thought it would have had the opposite effect."
"No, you learn to be happy with what you've got and then you realise that there isn't really a place for the things you don't, ask Lucas, I bought him a bank one year for Christmas and watched as he almost had a stroke trying to decide where to put it..."
Harry chuckled at this, it was something that he had noticed, the younger man did not have many habits but that was one of them, everything had its place and God help whoever attempted to change that, before picking up on something he did not know, "A bank?" he asked curiously,
She smiled and shook her head as the door opened and the Home Secretary entered the room.
"Sir Harry and the charming Sofia...Where is Ms Myers?" he enquired with 'irritating bounce' as Harry described it later.
"Otherwise engaged I'm afraid, so you'll have to make do with us." Harry told him, taking his seat once more.
"Oh I'll try and manage." He said, with a small smile, winking at Sofia "So, why am I having to make do with you just now? Another visit so soon? You're spoiling me Harry." He said, leaning back in his chair and watching them carefully over his interlocking fingers.
"We need to discuss this country's current condition." Harry began grimly,
"You make it sound as though Britain's been infected with the Black Plague." He said, cautiously,
"If this goes badly you may wish it had been." Sofia injected flatly,
"Dear me, what's happening?" he asked, quietly,
"We have received intelligence relating to an attack on the President, while he is attending these talks-"Harry began,
"Yes, the two lovely ladies you sent two days ago told me as much..." He said, watching him carefully,
"We have more than guesses and inferences now, the President is being targeted and this places us in a delicate situation." Sofia said, in no mood to dance to the Home Secretary's ridiculous tune.
"Of course, and I take it you've decided against telling our favourite cousins?" he said, perceptively,
"We have. If the CIA gets hold of this now, it will be catastrophic for these peace talks, not to mention our relationship with the Americans." Harry said, "One way or the other, the President must attend these talks, and we all felt this was slightly more likely if he wasn't in the crosshairs of some lunatic."
"I agree...Do you have any intelligence on this particular lunatic?"
"We do. This attack is being carried out by a group called 'Hiroshima' and while they want to assassinate the President, their main aim is the collapse of these peace talks and of international peace in general. They wish to provoke a nuclear war, believing that we're always headed in that direction, and to do it now."
"Just when you think you've hear it all." He said, loftily,
"Then I meet you." Sofia said, casually.
The Home Secretary laughed at this and said, "Wherever did they find you?"
"We're not entirely sure...We can only guess." Harry said with a small smirk, glancing sideways at Sofia.
"I'm sensing that you didn't just come here to confirm something you've already told me and give me a few more snippets about an extremist group, you want something Harry, what is it?"
"Permission." Sofia said, quietly,
"I don't think there would have been anything you could have said that would have terrified me more Miss Fletcher, MI-5 asking for permission..."
"I could have asked for money..." she smirked
"Indeed." He chuckled, "You'll go far with us I think Miss Fletcher, now tell me, what do you want permission to do?"
"I need you to grant me the ability to seed some of my officers within the talks. We can't stop the assassination from the outside; it must be done from within. I want-"
"Harry, Harry, I've already said, I don't want your people serving me drinks, openness and trust is not bred from the secret service being party to these talks, I've already said I don't want you to make a big song and dance out of this-"
"Well someone's going to." Sofia said, flatly, "And what kind of trust is bred from one of the most influential men in the world being murdered in your playground? Especially if the other leaders realise you knew he was in danger and failed to protect him, or them for that matter."
"Well I'm quite sure you won't fail to-"
"No, we won't, if you let us do this." Harry said, jumping in and building on top of the foundation Sofia had laid,
"Harry, if they find out, I've said,"
"You're worried about a politician being caught lying?" Harry scoffed, "That's like catching cold in winter, it's to be expected..."
"And as we are, as you so rightly pointed out, your secret service, then there's no reason that they should find out." Sofia pointed out, delicately,
"Even so, it's a terrible risk to take...We're trying to build peace and stability here, you have no idea how delicate and tentative these relationships are-"
"Yes and I'm sure that the assassination of one of the leaders attempting to bring about this delicate peace and stability you talk about won't do nearly as much damage as diplomats whispering about a few little white lies." Harry snapped,
"I don't want this to happen anymore than you do, but it's my job to-"
"Yes, and it's our job to ensure you can do your job, and no amount of truth and openness will allow you to do that in the face of this." Sofia snapped,
"...I presume this would be discrete?" he said, looking distinctly uncomfortable,
"Of course Home Secretary, only a few of my best officers would be placed under cover, assisting the various delegations on behalf of the British government." Harry replied reassuringly, though Sofia could see he was fast losing patience with the other man's insufferable whining.
"Is it really necessary to have them be directly involved with the diplomats, I'm sure you could do this more discretely than having them as aides for the delegations, that just screams mistrust Harry-"
"That's because we do mistrust them, and they mistrust us. None of us will be going into these talks without several extra cards up our sleeves and guns in our socks." Harry snapped, as Sofia fought to keep her face impassive as the Home Secretary blanched. "With all due respect Home Secretary, either you're being manipulated by something beyond your control, or your stupid beyond my contempt, whatever the case, I don't have time for this. Call me when whichever of these options permits you to come up with an answer."
He got abruptly to his feet and stormed from the room leaving an amused Sofia sitting opposite a very shell-shocked Home Secretary.
"This is why visits from us are rarely pleasant." She said, with a small smile, also standing, "Have a nice day, Home Secretary." She said, patting him sympathetically on the shoulder before following Harry.
"Bloody politicians..." he fumed as she jogged up to meet him, "The corrupt ones have brains and the innocent ones are idiots...I can't decide which bothers me more."
"You think this is all just politics?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"It's a little too familiar, they all want to be bloody peacemakers and get their names in the history books for saving the world from themselves...You think there's more to it?" he asked, pausing in his furious tirade and throwing her a questioning look.
"Might be nothing but we'll soon find out." She said, looking worryingly satisfied with herself,
"What have you done?" Harry asked, suddenly concerned, knowing her it could be anything from hacking his email to charming his cabinet into releasing an incriminating statement to the papers.
"Don't look so worried, I just put a tiny little bug on his collar...Harmless really."
"You illegally placed a bug on the Home Secretary?" Harry hissed, torn between being impressed and livid.
"That's not like us at all...It won't be a problem." She said, smoothly, ducking into the car, driver's side after lifting the keys from Harry's pocket while he was otherwise engaged with the Home Secretary.
Ignoring her pick pocketing and control issues in favour of concentrating on her new habit of digitally stalking the man who paid both of their wages, he said, "It will be a problem if he finds it."
"Well, based on your observations, if he's an idiot, he won't find it, and if he's corrupt, he won't find it until it's too late...Personally my money's on the latter, which is far more fun."
"Fun?" Harry repeated, weakly,
"It has to be Harry, or we'd all be robots."
"Sometimes I think that would be preferable..."
Lucas and Ros wandered back onto The Grid, to her extreme irritation he had driven her back to her home and had refused to let her back into the car until she had showered and changed and he was satisfied that her head was not in imminent danger of imploding.
"Thank God." Ruth breathed, as they walked towards her, settling themselves at their desks, "Are you alright?"
"No Ruth, I just dragged myself up from the car trailing my entrails behind me so I could see your cheerful face." Ros dead-panned, earning her a sharp nudge in the ribs from Lucas.
"What happened?" she asked, directing her question at Lucas.
After silencing Ros with a look, he proceeded to explain what had happened, from their initial journey through the tunnels, their examination and interruption in the reception room as well as Tariq's idea about the bugs and Ros' distraction (heavily edited) up to his arrival in the corridor whereupon he shot the guard threatening Ros.
"Well thank goodness for your timing Lucas." Ruth murmured, as Tariq ambled up to them,
"Did you get it?" he asked Lucas, expectantly, making to take a drink from his fresh cup of coffee before thinking better of it and handing it to Ros instead.
"Yes." Ros said, shortly, as Lucas fished the ear piece out of his pocket, "And God help you if I can't hear every single person in that building breathe on demand."
At this point, a soft hiss from the pods distracted them as Harry and Sofia entered the room as well,
"I hear you almost got shot." He said, airily to Ros,
"Almost, unlike some people." She said, smirking at Lucas, who scowled good-naturedly at her. "How did it go with the Home Secretary?"
Harry muttered darkly under his breath, "We'll see..." before retreating to the confines of his office.
"Harry walked out on him telling him he was either an idiot or traitor; he's been trying to decide which one's worse since." Sofia supplied helpfully, taking a seat behind the desk.
"About time." Ros muttered,
"Sofia? Ros? A word?" Harry called from his office, having made a decision about something.
The two women Ros obligingly and slipped into the office, Sofia closing the door behind them,
"The listening device you placed on the Home Secretary, what can you get from it?"
"Whatever he says in its presence, only drawback is that it's all self-contained, I'll need to physically get it back to listen to it, I couldn't risk having it transmit, they would have picked up on the signal."
"You bugged the Home Secretary?" Ros asked, sounding amused,
"Yes she did, and it was either brilliant or suicidal-"Harry began before being interrupted by the phone,
"Speak of the devil?" Ros said, as Harry confirmed it was the Home Secretary.
He was about to pick up the phone when Sofia placed a hand on it and said, "Maybe someone who's not recently called him an idiotic traitor should get that?" she suggested with a grin,
"Be my guest."
"Home Secretary, Harry Pearce's office." She said, smoothly, smirking and putting it on speaker so Harry and Ros could listen in,
"Who is this? Where is Harry Pearce?" he demanded,
"Sofia Fletcher, I'm afraid Harry's not here, if you want to sack him you'll have to wait until he comes back from his lunch break." She said, pleasantly, "Can I take a message?"
There was a pause until he said, finally, "You tell him he can carry out this harebrained scheme of his, but if any one of you so much as dreams about MI-5, I'll have him taken out and shot." He hung up irritably,
"And here I had a lovely little monologue prepared about Loch Lomond to distract him..." Sofia smirked, delicately replacing the phone in its cradle, "I'd say that went fairly well considering."
"Indeed, so, we make a few calls and have us integrated among the diplomats." Ros said,
"Oh I've already done that...The three of you can start drawing straws as to who gets who." Harry replied, mildly, looking faintly pleased with himself as he leaned back in his chair.
A/N: Won't be another up-date until Monday evening I'm afraid, in the mean time, hopefully you all enjoyed this, I find it damn near impossible to write Harry so fingers crossed this was OK, anyone with tips on how to write him is welcome :) Thanks for reading and reviewing!