Thanks guys for all the lovely reviews, It was grand to hear that you're still onboard with this :) Here's another part for you.
Littleton Farm - 1045 Monday 16th January
"I'd put the guns on the floor if I were you," a voice rang out as the basement was flooded with light. Adam and Jo spun round to face the source of the call, guns brought to bear on the speaker.
Words died in the back of Jo's throat as her eyes adapted to the sudden intrusion of light. There were four figures at the top of the stairs, one of them dwarfed by the others. 'Ruth!' the name fell from her lips. Her relief at seeing her colleague alive was tempered by the state that she was in. She had an arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders and the barrel of a handgun placed against the side of her head. Her eyes were wide with fear and she looked as though she hadn't slept for days. Jo didn't want to dwell on what else might have happened. The important thing was that she was alive. Now all they had to do was get out of there.
"Unless you want your colleague to go the same way as the bungling amateurs next to you, I suggest you place your guns on the floor and back away," the man holding Ruth ordered.
Jo glanced down at the men who lay dead at their feet, trying to work out what exactly was going on.
She heard Ruth gasp in pain and turned back to see that the man holding her now had his hand wrapped tightly around her throat; as she watched, his grip tightened and he pulled Ruth's head up and back, forcing her up onto her toes as she struggled to maintain her balance.
"If you want I can kill her here and now. I still have al-Hassan; he is the one I have real interest in."
"You know who we are?" Adam questioned, trying to keep his eyes focussed firmly on the man holding Ruth. He was looking for a clear shot, but the man was using Ruth as a shield.
"Of course I know who you are," the man replied, his tone mocking. "There were only ever two groups likely to be looking for al-Hassan; the ones who really wanted to meet with him, and the ones who lost him in the first place." He nodded down at Ruth. "I'm assuming this is yours?"
"We're not here to do deals," Adam warned.
The man smiled. "And I'm not looking to make any. I just want you to lower your weapons and throw me the keys to your car."
Adam kept his eyes locked on the man holding Ruth, as he slowly lowered the barrel of his gun towards the floor. "You came here for al-Hassan; you've got what you want, just go...leave us here."
"Shut up," the man snapped.
"So far you've not killed a member of the security services... and you might even get a reward for your actions. Why don't we discuss this situation like rational human beings?"
"Why don't you shut up before I break your friend's neck?"
Adam heard the choked sounds from Ruth as the pressure on her throat was increased.
"Ok ok, you've made your point."
The rulebook was very clear when it came to situations of this kind. At no point was any officer to make deals with anyone threatening the life of a colleague. Sentimentality was not a trait that they were allowed the luxury of experiencing.
At the moment however they were also out-numbered and out gunned. There was nothing to be lost by trying to establish some sort of dialogue with the men, whoever they were. Adam crouched down slowly, placing his gun on the floor. Moments later he caught sight of Jo out of the corner of his eye following his actions.
He straightened back up, keeping his eyes locked on the speaker.
"You want al-Hassan...we don't. There doesn't have to be any..."
"Shut up! Drop your car keys onto the floor and turn to face the wall."
"And if I were to say that I didn't have any keys?"
"Then I'd know you were lying, and I'd be tempted to blow your little friend's brains out."
The keys in his pocket suddenly felt as though they weighed a tonne. So much was riding on them. He could feel Jo's eyes locked upon him; silently pleading him to comply with the man's demand.
Reluctantly, he pushed his hands into his pocket and pulled out the keys.
"If I'm to give you these, I want some sort of guarantee that..."
Ruth let out a choked gasp as the pressure on her neck was increased again.
"Ok ok," Adam realised that it was pointless trying to broker a deal.
The man nodded in Jo's direction. "Give them to her."
Adam noted the way that Jo tensed at the man's casual dismissal of her as a threat, and hoped that she'd have the sense to keep calm. He held out the keys and dropped them into her open palm.
"Bring them here."
Jo felt her hand shake as the keys landed; she was convinced that she was going to drop them. All she had to do was take them the short distance across the room and leave them on the bottom step; but she was aware that if she made one wrong move, made it look as though she was going to do something else, then that could be enough to end Ruth's life.
"Bring them over here," she heard the man's voice bark and she struggled to force her legs to obey. The keys felt unnaturally heavy in her hand and she closed her fingers tightly around them; feeling the cold metal dig into her palm.
She swallowed nervously and stepped out with her right foot; her eyes focussed straight ahead, not wanting to look at Ruth, not wanting to be reminded of what was likely to happen in the next minute. There was no guarantee that the man was going to keep his word. They had killed already and it was highly likely that they were going to do so again.
"Where is the vehicle?"
Jo was glad when Adam picked up on the question and explained their trek across the field; she wasn't certain that she was ready to enter into a conversation. She was fearful that her voice would betray her nerves, and they'd lose whatever slender bit of respect that the men might have for them.
"Put the keys down," the man's told her abruptly and she dutifully followed his instructions, placing the keys on the rough stone of the step before taking half a dozen steps backwards to rejoin Adam.
"Turn around," the man barked. "Turn around and face the wall...Now!"
Jo exchanged a look with Adam and was grateful for the look of reassurance that he shot her.
"Face the wall," the man ordered again.
Swallowing nervously, Jo followed the man's instructions. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable gunshot.
Thames House - 1040 Monday 16th January
"I'm giving you the authority," Harry bellowed into the phone. "Get in there and neutralise the situation."
Zaf looked on silently as Harry paced back and forth across the room. He'd been on the phone for the past five minutes and his temper was most definitely beginning to fray.
"My people are in there and I do not want their deaths on my conscience because your team are incapable of acting on information received. What are they waiting for…a gilt edged invitation to proceed…or one of my officers dead on the floor?"
From what Zaf could make out, there was a team in position outside of the farm buildings. It was just a matter of who had the authority to send them in. He watched as Harry made another circuit of the room, switching the phone from one ear to the other.
"Well unlike you, I am very sure of the facts. If one of my officers has even a hair on their head harmed then I will see your head on a spike on London Bridge…Are we clear on that?"
The pacing stopped momentarily as the officer on the other end of the phone replied.
"Well then get your officers in there and do your job," Harry ended the conversation with a snarl, punching the end call button with more force than was strictly necessary.
Zaf stared up at the clock on the wall. All they could do now was wait; wait and hope that the outcome was the one that they wanted.
Littleton Farm - 1100 Monday 16th January
Jo could feel the adrenaline coursing through her system; her heart was pounding and her breath was coming in jagged gasps as she struggled to remain still. Her hands were beginning to tremble and there was a part of her that just wanted the situation to be over. She strained to hear anything above the thump of her own heart, but there was nothing.
Without warning there was a blinding flash accompanied by a deafening loud bang that reverberated around the walls of the enclosed room. That sound was followed almost immediately by a series of short muffled shots.
It took Jo a few moments to realise that she was fine. The explosion had come from the floor above. She reacted without thinking; turning and realising that they were now on their own, she headed for the stairs, ignoring Adam's shouts to remain where she was.
She took the stairs two at a time; the smoke from the grenade ghosting into the basement as she reached the top of the flight. She grabbed the rotting wooden frame of the doorway with both hands and pulled herself into the passageway. She was about to head further back into the building when she felt hands close around her waist from behind and pull her to the floor.
She took in a breath, preparing to shout at Adam, but smoke caught in her throat and she was over taken by a hacking cough.
"MI5," she heard Adam's voice from somewhere behind her. "Don't shoot."
She closed her eyes as smoke pricked at the corners, and lowered her head onto the cold stone of the floor, realising just how close she had come to running into trouble.
Moments later she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder.
"Come on," Adam told her, "I've convinced them that we're friendly."
Jo pulled herself to her feet and stumbled forwards, trying to peer through the heavy blue smoke and see what had happened.
She blinked and tried to ignore the way that her eyes were smarting with the acrid smoke. She raised a hand as though that would in some way stop it from invading further.
To her left someone smashed a window and the temperature in the already chill room dropped, as the cold gusting wind from outside swirled in.
The smoke slowly began to clear and Jo could make out four bodies lying on the ground...One of them was unmistakeably Ruth.
Oblivious to the orders to remain where she was, she covered the ground as quickly as she could to get to Ruth's side. She knelt down next to her, reassured by the sight of the slight rising and falling of her chest.
"Ruth?"
There was no immediate reply and Jo fought against the urge to shake her colleague by the shoulder.
"Ruth?"
She placed a hand on her shoulder and noticed immediately just how cold she was to the touch.
"It's over," she told her softly, hoping to gauge some form of reaction.
She felt the tremors that ran through Ruth's body and wondered if they were caused by the cold or by shock setting in. She hurriedly unbuttoned her own coat, slipping it from her shoulders and placing it over Ruth's shaking form.
"The paramedics will be here soon," she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. "We'll have you out of here and into the warm as soon as we can." She raised her eyes and met Adam's gaze, hoping that he was going to back her up, but he seemed to be engaged in conversation with the head of the armed response team.
"Thanks," Adam offered the word, aware of how inadequate it sounded. "How did you know we were here?"
Despite the protective mask that the officer was wearing, Adam could see the amused expression on the man's face.
"You've got some very persuasive friends." He gestured around the room. "We've cleared the ground floor and the upstairs of the property. I take it that the man outside was your doing?"
Adam nodded. "There are four bodies in the basement."
"Your doing as well?"
Adam shook his head. "The doing of the people that you just took out."
He turned his attention towards Jo and saw the concerned expression on his colleague's face. "I take it that there's an ambulance on the way?"
"Ambulance and meat wagon were part of the initial call out," the officer confirmed, removing his headgear and pushing a hand through his hair. "We were told to expect trouble."
He pointed back in the direction of the front door. "We came across two more individuals on our way in. One now dead, one seriously injured. Any idea of who they are?"
"Adam!"
Hearing the panic in Jo's voice, Adam broke off from the conversation. "I'm sorry, can that wait?" He gestured to where Jo was crouched down next to Ruth. "Just how far away are the paramedics?"
"I'll chase them up for you," the officer turned and activated his headset.
Adam offered what he hoped was a reassuring look in Jo's direction.
"They're on their way," he told her quietly.
St Angela's - 1330 Monday 16th January
Ros spotted Harry sitting on a chair at the end of the corridor; he looked shattered. It was, she reasoned, not altogether surprising. She'd worked long hours in the past three days and Harry had always been there when she'd arrived and still working when she left. It had just been an assumption on her part that he'd returned home at the end of each day, now she was beginning to suspect that he had in fact been working in some capacity for the entire time.
She nodded in greeting as he raised his head at the sound of her approach.
"What sort of condition is al-Hassan in?"
Ros shook her head. "Past tense I'm afraid." She watched as Harry wiped a hand across his tired eyes. "He didn't say anything to me," she continued with her news, knowing that it wasn't what Harry wanted to hear.
"So we have no idea who it was he was supposed to be meeting up with?"
"Nothing concrete I'm afraid."
Harry sighed heavily and pulled himself to his feet. "This is one phone call that I'm not looking forward to making."
"Didn't Ruth have anything to say?"
Harry shook his head. "Not going to be able to talk to her for a while."
Ros thought about mentioning the need for urgency, but decided against it. It seemed that as far as Harry was concerned, there were a different set of rules when it came to Ruth. She closed her mouth and took a seat, feeling a wave of tiredness wash over her. What she really needed now was a comfortable bed and a good night's sleep. What Harry probably had in mind for her was a night writing up reports.
She raised her head as she realised that Harry had yet to make a move away.
"Thank you," he told her quietly. "I know the past few weeks have been tough to deal with and I appreciate the time that you've put in on this."
She acknowledged the thanks with a short nod of the head. She'd never been big on receiving thanks, but after the way that she had spoken to Harry only the previous week, it was reassuring to hear that she hadn't completely blown her chances of staying within the department. Developing 'people skills' had been something that had come up on her annual assessment on more than one occasion, and she had never really given it any thought. She had been born to join 6; she'd never really thought of a possibility of there being another career path for her. Now she had one and she realised just how close she had come to throwing it all away. She might never agree with everything that he said, or everything that he claimed to stand for, but Harry Pearce was someone she felt that she could rely on… and in her line of work, that was the highest accolade there was.
Thames House 1700 Monday 16th January
"So who do we have to thank for the armed response team?" Adam wanted to know as he made his way across the office.
"Harry," Zaf replied with a smile. "You should have seen him. I, for one, am glad that I wasn't on the receiving end of that particular phone call."
"Like that was it?"
"Majestic I'd call it," Zaf smiled as he took in the state of the returning officers. "What have you two been up to? Playing in the dirt again?"
Jo scowled at him as she flopped down onto her chair. "Not funny."
Zaf took in the tense expression on her face. "How was it?"
Jo shook her head. "Not just yet…alright?"
"Alright." He pushed his chair away from the table and rose to join Adam who was heading in the direction of Harry's office. "He's not there," he called out. "Headed straight for the hospital as soon as the word came through."
"Thought as much," Adam replied. "Just want to leave him a message, that's all… thank him for the bail out."
Zaf smiled. "You'll have to thank Ros as well."
"Really?"
"She went hunting after Henderson and realised what was likely to go down….alerted Malcolm and it all went from there."
"Any word on Ruth?" he abruptly changed the subject.
Zaf shook his head. "Ros phoned to say that Harry was going to wait to talk to her. Doctor's don't want to let anyone in until they say it's ok."
Adam's mouth formed into a tight smile. "I can imagine that that went down well with Harry."
"Ros seemed to think that he was taking it all remarkably calmly."
"Where is Ros?"
"On her way back to Henderson's. I think she wants to get one more look at the place before the plods or 6 remove anything."
"She'll be lucky."
Zaf nodded back towards where Jo was sitting. "Is she going to be ok?"
Adam nodded. "I think she's just a little shaken."
"Close one?"
"Pretty close."
St Angela's –1830 Monday 16th January
Harry knocked gently on the door as he pushed it open, expecting to see Ruth looking bored and voicing her impatience to be out of the hospital and back in her own home. What he found instead was an empty bed with the covers thrown untidily back and no sign of the room's occupant; an IV tube dripping fluid slowly onto the floor.
Turning, he made his way swiftly to the Nurse's station.
"Where's Ruth Evershed?" He took in the blank expression on the nurse's face. "The patient from room 411? The person you're being paid to care for?"
The nurse regarded him with a slightly bemused expression. "The patient in room 411 is... in room 411."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "Oh no she isn't."