Chapter 5

Of course Malcolm knew where she was – Ruth had accessed the MI-5 system once a month, cleverly using the cover of the monthly security sweep, thinking that no-one would notice a small electronic blip as they would be so busy with the sweep of the offices. In fact, it had worked very well. Malcolm hadn't noticed until a year or so after Ruth had left. Even then it had been a complete accident. He happened to be watching the port traffic log files to try and pin down an error when he saw something unusual. There was only a trace in the log of her activity for a few seconds at most, before it was edited out. However, once he knew when to watch and what to watch for, it was easy to see the backdoor that Ruth was using to scan through the department files.

He knew it was her – who else would search for any reference to Ruth Evershed and then Harry Pearce but not read any of the ops records. Who else would look through the team photographs, flicking through the image files one by one, always finishing with Harry's? She was good at covering her tracks, and he let her continue as it allowed him to work on tracing her and she wasn't accessing anything too important. At least, that's how Malcolm justified it to himself. He knew the boys in IT or even Adam would have a different view on that, but Malcolm still trusted Ruth. Her loyalty was unquestionable, whether she was on the Grid or in hiding.

It wasn't easy to find time and privacy to formulate a plan with Adam. The Grid was bustling with action but they both knew it was imperative to avoid the possibility of the others finding any reference to Ruth. Especially Harry. Malcolm though that the old boy would hit the roof – either charging off to do something himself or else be enraged that they would put Ruth in any further danger.

Adam planned to break in to the bookshop late in the evening and plant a listening device amongst the shelves. They had some new 97-Bs in that would do the job quite nicely as although they were bulky compared to the usual bugs, their mainly reverberating ceramic construction cut down the components to the bare minimum. This meant that they could broadcast within a certain range but were less likely to be picked up by any scanning devices. A bookshop should offer plenty of places to hide the small matchbox size transmitters and Ruth would be within a hundred yards. Using them would also make Adam's airport check a little easier to get through.

Ruth was to receive an early 19th century copy of the Dryden translation of The Aeneid – Adam had bought it from a bookseller near Russell Square that afternoon for a rather large sum of money and was assured that it was quite valuable despite the poor condition. It seemed almost a travesty, Malcolm thought, and he was sure that Ruth would be horrified, but needs must. The last 10 pages were removed and the flat data recorder transmitter for the system was inserted. He would encrypt a program for her to download from an anonymous server to connect her laptop via a small but highly secure Bluetooth signal from the recorder. On the first 10 pages, he carefully underlined in the faintest of pencil, a coded message based on the dactylic meter of the original Latin. He felt sure that Ruth wouldn't take long to notice and decode this. He didn't have time to be more oblique, but started with a quote from the text that he knew she would read as confirmation that it really was genuine.

"And I could not believe that with my going I should bring so great a grief as this"

He hoped that she would also know that she was still so missed.

The rest of the message was simple –a brief explanation of the situation and an imperative to avoid contact with the men at König Bücher but to record whatever she could and place this upon the MI-5 server in a certain folder along with a field report each evening.

The book was parcelled up in a specialist dry sealed case and addressed to Ruth in her newly assumed name. Malcolm noticed she had kept the Helene and only chosen a new surname. He smiled slightly as he knew it meant she must have liked his choice. A handwritten note was included in the parcel from a 'book dealer', requesting for the book to be restored by Helene as word of mouth had indicated her skill.

Sunday PM

Adam's trip to Munich went smoothly. A night flight in to the Franz Josef Strauss airport, a short ride on the city's underground train system and he found that the bookshop was accessible from the back via a ageing maze of metal fire escapes. There was remarkably little security, although the alarm system had taken extra time as Adam wasn't as familiar with the wiring on the German brand. The most valuable books were in additionally wired cases but Adam didn't need to do anything more than seat the 97-B in a small cavity he made on the top of a bookcase in the centre of the office space. He glued the flat piece of wood back on top of the hole and checked that it felt relatively smooth to the touch. From below, the top surface wasn't even visible and he was lucky that the shop had a controlled environmental system that meant there was very little dust to reveal any work that he had done. Ruth's shop was even less protected – he shook his head at the ease with which he entered and envied the obviously low rate of crime in Munich. He decided to leave the parcel propped up against her desk with several others that had been delivered recently. Malcolm had even thought as far as to stick franked Deutsche Post stamps on the outside so the package did not look out of place. He was sure that Ruth would see it first as it was difficult not to trip over it in order to sit down. Adam could tell it was her desk from the small trio of china cats that sat in a row on the back edge against the wall, whilst the correspondence piled to one side confirmed this as it matched the name that Malcolm had given him as her alias.

It was only when he was safely back on his flight to London at 5am that Adam realised he was disappointed that he hadn't been able to stay and see Ruth. Making contact itself was out of the question – he wouldn't have known how she would react. Seeing her though, even from a distance, would have brought him some comfort that she was ok. At the very least, when he next caught Harry at a low point, he would know he meant it when he managed to find the right moment to say what he offered every six months or so – "I'm sure she's alright, Harry, somewhere...she's alright". He got no more than a look in return that very definitely meant that it wasn't a topic for discussion. Adam felt that it should still be said and so, when things looked really bad, he did.

For now the important thing was finding out what Siegfried Herman had planned and how to remove the threat. Ruth was Adam's fastest way to finding out and he hoped she would recognise the importance of what he was asking her to do.