Same disclaimer as before
A couple of bad words, for those who are bothered by this sort of thing.
Chapter 3 Happy days are here again?
The next morning, Ruth was accompanied to the Grid by Connie. She spent the morning catching up with some of her old colleagues, at least those who were still around.
She was upset that Zaf was no longer there. She remembered Zaf's comment to her, that day on the dock, how he would always smile at a beautiful girl, including Ruth. It pained her that she would not be able to see Zaf's cheeky smile ever again. The female of the species has suffered a great loss. First Danny, then Colin, now Zaf. The Service has this incredible ability to cut down these brilliant young men in their prime. It was not only restricted to men … there was the tragic case of Fiona. What about Tom and Zoe? A never ending list of victims. Such a waste. Ruth herself was also a victim, until recently. Was it not possible for people who worked for the Service to have a happy ending?
Jo was overjoyed to see Ruth again; she had no idea that someone had arranged for Ruth to return. Ruth was extremely concerned to see that Jo seemed to have aged a lot since she last saw her. Of course people aged over time, but not like this. What hell did you go through in the field to have changed you this much? Ruth thought to herself. When Jo first came on the Grid, she was so young and full of life. Why did this job have this nasty habit of chewing you up and spitting you out, just like that, time and time again? Ruth made a mental note to find time to talk to Jo after she was settled back on the Grid, see if there was anything she could do to help her.
Then there was Adam. Sweet, wonderful Adam. They hugged for the longest time. She wanted to find out everything that has happened to Adam, and Wes. Did Wes like boarding school? Who was Adam's new love interest? Ruth remembered the first nanny she recruited for Wes after Fiona died. Adam had delegated this task to Ruth and she thought she identified the perfect candidate. Even though the candidate was on the young side, she looked like she had a good head on her shoulders. How was she supposed to know that Adam would start that stupid fling with the nanny and leave her heartbroken? Maybe it was not really Ruth's fault. They say that the loss of a spouse was about the most traumatic experience one could go through in life. In those circumstances, perhaps Adam's little dalliance with the nanny was understandable.
As for Ros, well, she remained one cool ice queen. They were civil and courteous to each other, but since they had never been bosom buddies to start with, there was no reason to start now. Ruth had long since forgiven Ros for her part in the whole Mik Maudsley affair but it would be some time before Ruth could count Ros as a friend.
There were a number of new members on the team. Malcolm said that he would introduce them to Ruth at a later time. After a couple hours of catching up, Ruth finally sat down to go through paperwork with Malcolm. He gave her the bad news first. It seemed that Human Resources was not used to this resurrection business and they were still passing Ruth's file within the department before deciding what to do. He remembered clearly the frustrating conversation he had with HR the day before.
"Sir, I cannot remember the last time we had to deal with reopening a "dead" employee's files. I'm not sure which forms to fill in or what vetting procedures we should go through. I will have to ask one of the old timers, but I'm not sure which one I should approach? This could take some time." The junior officer at HR sounded rather distraught when she was dealing with Malcolm on this matter.
"Section D wants Ruth Evershed reinstated as an analyst as quickly as possible." Malcolm tried to use the most authoritative voice in his repertoire but to no avail.
"I can only issue a pass which clears Ms. Evershed for low grade work, and the pass would only have a six month validity period. I will do my best to expedite this case." The HR clerk looked earnestly at Malcolm and hoped that he would accept this as a temporary peace offering.
Malcolm decided to leave things at that for the time being. He had pushed this far enough. He supposed that he could go and ask Adam to intervene, but since he, Malcolm, was given the task of bringing Ruth back to life, he was reluctant to trouble Adam with bureaucratic red tape. Perhaps when Harry got back from his meeting at Havensworth, he could light a firecracker under these bureaucrats' bottoms and really get things moving. Harry was good at that sort of thing.
"Ruth, I have just received information that Harry's car has just entered the outskirts of London. He should be coming through the pods within the hour."
"Good. Thanks for letting me know, Malcolm."
Was there a pill for settling butterflies in one's stomach? Ruth told herself she should have made enquiries at the chemist counter at the airport. They have pills for everything these days. There has to be a pill to calm nerves. Maybe they were only available as prescription drugs. Perhaps a mug of hot sweet tea would help. Ruth was glad to see that the pantry area was still where it was. Her own mug was no longer there of course. She made do with one of the guest mugs.
After an hour passed, there was still no sign of Harry. Everyone on the Grid was busy with something or other, so Ruth just sat in the forgery suite by herself. She did not want to get in anyone's way.
Suddenly, she heard the familiar beeps of someone's pager, quickly followed by more beeps. The team had been red-flashed … something had gone wrong somewhere. Since Ruth was not officially a member of the team yet, she had to be content just watching everyone jump to attention and making all sorts of arrangements on the phone or via the computer. After about 15 minutes of frantic activity on everyone's part, Malcolm walked into the forgery suite with a solemn look.
"I'm afraid its bad news, Ruth. Seems that someone tried to assassinate Harry as he was getting out of his car outside Thames House. He has been shot in the head and in the chest. They are transferring him to hospital for emergency surgery as we speak."
"Oh my god! Malcolm, can you take me …"
"Yes of course, Ruth, I can organize a car to take you to the hospital. Come with me. I'm afraid I will not be able to accompany you, there's a lot of work to do here. We need to find out urgently who was behind the assassination attempt and the point which these people want to make. One of us will come to the hospital later when things have settled down a little on the Grid."
"Yes, of course I understand Malcolm. I would stay and help analyze whatever intelligence there is. But since I don't have clearance yet, I think it may be more helpful if I were at the hospital, to find out how Harry's doing."
Whilst waiting for her ride outside the entrance to the car park, Ruth saw the pool of blood on the pavement. There were a large number of crime scene experts already there, collecting evidence such as bullet casings. The cleaners would not be able to tidy up the mess until they received clearance from these experts. She felt weak in the knees and had to hang on to one of the walls for support; otherwise she was in danger of collapsing on the floor. That was Harry's blood, and there was so much of it. How could any one survive after losing such much blood? Ruth had never been a particularly religious person, but right now, she was praying to whichever god was out there listening : please let him live.
It then occurred to Ruth, Harry did not usually get out of his car on street level. Why did he do this today? He would only have done this if he was in a hurry to enter the building. It was faster to get out of the car at ground level, walk round the corner and enter through one of the discreet side entrances. Usually, Harry waited for the driver to navigate the car to one of the underground levels before taking one of the internal banks of elevators. Why was Harry in such a hurry?
Malcolm was aware of Harry's movements. Didn't he say that he was supposed to arrive within the hour? Did Malcolm actually speak to Harry and if so, did he mention to Harry that someone was waiting to see him on the Grid? Did Malcolm reveal the identity of that visitor? Malcolm had said that he wanted this to be a surprise. The truth of the matter was, if only Harry had stuck to his usual routine of getting out of the car only after it has reached one of the underground levels, then this would not have happened.
It had to be the ultimate irony for something awful to happen to Harry Pearce on the day he was supposed to be reunited with Ruth Evershed. What had she done to deserve this? Did she do something horribly wrong in a past life and was now being punished for it in this life through this convoluted relationship with Harry? If this was not about her, then what had he done to deserve this? Was this a sign that perhaps the two of them were not meant to be together?
Ruth wanted to cry, but she stopped herself. Pull yourself together, woman. Now is not the time to have any sort of breakdown. Harry needs you. You can save the dramatics for later.
When news of Harry's attempted assassination reached Jools Siviter, he was stunned. Damn, it just buggered up my plans to acquire a new best friend, he thought. Would Mace and his friends go so far as to order a hit on Harry Pearce? How could I have miscalculated things by so much? The minute Ruth Evershed was back, all hell broke loose. What a mess! If Harry did not survive this hit, then it would have been all because Jools made the decision to bring Ruth back from the dead. He was not sure he was comfortable with the thought that he might have somehow contributed to the demise of Harry Pearce. If Harry lived, he would be hopping mad over Jools' machinations.
Although Harry Pearce had his share of enemies, in and out of Government, Jools had no doubt that the hit was ordered by someone connected with the Cotterdam incident. That would be the only explanation for the hit taking place on the very day that Ruth Evershed showed up on the Grid. Jools just never figured that these people would hold a grudge for so long or go so far as to order the taking of a life.
In the conference room at the Grid, Jools met with Adam, Connie and Malcolm.
"Who would do this? What self respecting terrorists would assassinate a civil servant? Don't they know that for every one they take out, we will simply replace him with 10 more like him? Don't they usually shoot politicians?" Jools was trying to deflect attention from the fact that maybe, just maybe, his little scheme had fucked up Harry's life.
"Well, Jools, these days, there is not such thing as a terrorist with self respect. People who are prepared to blow themselves up with a bomb and take busloads of innocent civilians with them have no compunction in shooting any one." Malcolm tried to point out the obvious to Jools. Surely Jools already knew this.
"I wonder, though. The audacity of shooting a senior member of the Service right on its doorstep! Look at the way it was carried out, it suggests that the hit was done by professional hit men. If you look at Harry's injuries, this thing looks personal. Bang, hit the heart. Bang, hit the head. They wanted Harry dead, not merely wounded." Adam pointed this out, ever the practical one.
"Well, the shooter didn't do the job properly, which means that if Harry lives, the shooter will probably not be paid the last installment of his fee for carrying out this hit." Jools did some quick calculations in his head as to how much this hit would cost on the market. These assassins were usually paid in installments, one payment made on accepting the job, another payment made depending on progress made and a final payment made when the target had been successfully killed.
"You're probably right, Jools," said Adam. "Nowadays, there are any number of assassins for hire on the streets of London, from the old Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and a whole range of other countries."
"If this was a specific hit, then they would have been casing Thames House for some time. When Harry got out of his car on street level this morning, they hit their jackpot. Have you boys and girls reviewed all available surveillance tapes in and around Thames House yet?"
Connie piped up. She started clicking on a remote control which brought up some footage on the LCD screen in front of them. "Yes, we have. It would appear that a team of three suspects has been snooping round Thames House for the past week. One on top of the roof of a nearby building and another who kept walking around the nearby streets. We believe that the actual shooter was a third person who had a motorbike parked nearby. As soon as he was told that Harry's car was approaching Thames House, he drove by in his bike. We actually have footage of him driving by, taking his gun out of his leather jacket and shooting Harry. We cannot see his face since he had a helmet on. Judging by the build of these three men, they do not look Caucasian."
Jools's eyes narrowed and a thought occurred to him, but he decided not to share that thought with the men in this room. "Its not cheap to order up an actual assassination these days. It must have cost this person somewhere in the region of a few hundred thousand quid, if my price list is up to date."
"Don't you think that its not purely coincidental that Harry has been shot on the day that Ruth came back? I am not suggesting that Ruth herself has anything to do with this, but perhaps someone with a grudge against Harry found out about our plans to resurrect Ruth and decided to teach Harry a lesson?" As usual, it was Adam who was able to connect the dots.
"Funny you should say that. Several people come to mind who has that kind of money for pocket change and connections to pull this one off. Well worth looking into. The more troubling question is, if the return of Ruth Evershed was the match that lit the torch, then how did this person know about our little arrangements? Who is our mole?" Jools started to worry. He wanted to raise the possibility that there might have been a leak within Section D but thought better of it. Maybe that nice young man he had taken under his wings since he came back was not as reliable as Jools thought. He made a mental note to put someone onto him and check him out … really check him out this time.
The meeting broke up after Jools left instructions as to lines of enquiry each person was to pursue. Whilst Harry was out of action, Adam would act as temporary Head. Adam was not sure whether he could cope with the added responsibilities, what with at least three ops he was currently running. He was not sure whether he wanted Harry's job, now or sometime in the future. He desperately wanted to put a call through to his son at boarding school, just to make sure that he was alright. He felt really tired.
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