Thanks again for the reviews, I really do love getting them (and I'm not ashamed to admit it). This story was completed before series 9 started, so I couldn't have known that they'd suddenly bombard Ruth as the 'Russia specialist'. Which is why Lucas is the only one in my story who knows Russian.

5

The information Purdey and Ruth had uncovered tied in nicely with the phone conversations Malcolm had managed to intercept. Lucas listened to them first thing the next morning, as he was the only one on the Grid who spoke Russian.

Just as he finished listening to the last conversation, Harry summoned them all to the briefing room. He got straight down to business, feeling there was no time to lose. "Lucas, what have you managed to find out?"

"It appears they're smuggling large quantities of weapons into the country. These weapons are part of an operation to be carried out on a target in central London. Unfortunately they remained rather vague about said target, so I've not yet managed to find out who or what it is," he answered.

"Well at least we're getting somewhere," Harry said. "Did you hear anything about where they're keeping the weapons?"

"I don't know the exact location, but I think I've got a pretty good idea of where they're hiding them," Lucas said.

Harry nodded his approval. "Good, I suggest you check the place out. Take Purdey with you."

While Lucas and Purdey made a hasty retreat, Harry addressed the rest of the team. "The rest of you will remain on the Grid. Malcolm, keep monitoring those phone calls. Ruth and Jo, try to gather as much data on these men as you possibly can. Ros, we'll go and exchange some pleasantries with the Russian ambassador."

Purdey and Lucas arrived back at the Grid two hours later. They had taken a look at the warehouse where the Russians were thought to keep their weapons, but they hadn't had a chance to go in, as the place was too heavily guarded. Whatever they were keeping there, it wasn't meant for just any minor operation. They were planning something big.

Ros and Harry arrived back not too long afterwards, and they hadn't had much luck either. The Russian ambassador didn't seem to know what was happening, or was just very unwilling to disclose any information. As it stood, they had gotten no further than they had been this morning.

As per usual, Ruth was already present when the rest of the team entered the Grid the next morning. But this time it didn't seem as though she was just early, but rather as if she'd been there all night. Her hair looked messy, and the dark circles under her eyes gave away that she hadn't slept at all. But oddly enough she didn't show any sign of fatigue, and she couldn't wait to get everyone assembled and share the information that she'd found.

When everyone had finally gathered in the meeting room she didn't waste her time getting started, taking charge of the morning briefing without even giving Harry the chance to have a say in the matter.

A few gasps were clearly audible when the documents found by Ruth made their way onto the screen.

It showed that Ruth had managed to break into the inboxes of prominent members of the Russian opposition party, as well as hack several restricted areas of their official website. This showed an enormous amount of documented conversations between the party members and high-ranking members of the Russian mafia, all discussing a planned attack on the president and a few more senior members of his cabinet.

"And that's not all I found," Ruth continued. "Apparently they'll try and pull off the attack during the Russian state visit next week, thereby trying to make it look like a British attack, whereas it is in fact an insider's job."

"Oh my god," was all Jo could say, while the rest of the team kept quiet.

"Brilliant work Ruth," Harry said. "It seems no institution in the world is safe from you."

"I'd like to think so," Ruth smiled as she replied.

Harry took over the morning briefing after this, telling everyone to keep digging for more information, and very soon everyone was on their way to perform their assigned tasks.

It proved quite difficult to find anything remotely significant to the planned attack, and it wasn't until late afternoon when they finally had a breakthrough.

Malcolm had been gathering flight information on all flights to and from Moscow, starting on the day the increased activity had been first noticed, all the way through to the day before the attack. He had picked out every passenger who seemed only slightly suspicious, had checked their background details, and had cross-referenced these details with their travelling habits.

As everyone gathered in the meeting room for the second time that day, Malcolm showed them four men whom he thought could very well be linked to the attacks. They were all travelling on British passports, all had return tickets from Moscow to London and back, and he couldn't find records of these men anywhere. By adding up all these pieces of information it was easy enough to conclude that these men were Russians travelling on false British passports, thereby trying to fly below the radar and having easy access to the UK.

"All four of them will arrive at Heathrow tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock," Malcolm said as he concluded his findings.

"And we'll be there to pick them up as soon as they go through customs," Harry continued. "Good work Malcolm."

Harry continued. "I will inform Scotland Yard of the fact that there'll be people coming in tomorrow on false passports. However, their arrests should be kept quiet. Ros, Jo, you two will be at Heathrow tomorrow morning to assist the police with the arrests. Then the men will be transported back here to Thames House. Ruth and Malcolm, you'll be in charge of monitoring CCTV at Heathrow. Purdey and Lucas, you'll be at Heathrow as well, but try and stay out of sight. Check for anything suspicious, see if the others pick up any tails, that sort of thing. I don't think there's much more we can do right now, so I suggest everyone goes home and has an early night. Tomorrow's going to be an important day."

Everybody nodded in agreement and started to move out of the meeting room, gathered up their things and went home.

Purdey felt both nervous and excited as she caught a bus home. This was the first time she was going to be a part of anything major since joining section D, and she could only hope she was up to the job.

TBC