Thank you to all who have taken the time to review – each one is appreciated.
Again, there are some dodgy medical details in this chapter. I tried to make them as authentic as possible, but a leap of acceptance and understanding may be required. Also I know less than nothing about International Law, so I just made it up!
oOo
Harry had only just woken and taken into account the presence of a warm body lying in bed next to him, and the identity of this person, when she spoke.
"Are you missing it?"
"Am I missing what? And good morning to you too," he added, reaching beneath the duvet to find her face so that he could cover it with kisses. The kissing turned into a major snogging session, so her answer had to wait. They eventually came up for air, laughing at the breathlessness of the other. Harry could not remember the last time he had had fun without the assistance of intoxicating substances. He had missed having fun. His whole being relaxed when he was totally happy, as he was at this moment.
"Good morning, Harry. What I was asking you was are you missing being at work? I thought you might be missing being at the centre of all that action, saving lives and performing random acts of heroism."
"Only marginally. There's only so much heroism a man can perform in one lifetime. There's also the addiction of the adrenalin rush, but I don't miss that. And if I do, there are compensations to be had." He smiled at her, an intimate, knowing smile. "Last night, when we made love, do you realise it was only just after 9.30? Normally I'd still be at work. What do you think I'd rather be doing?"
"I'd like to think you'd say that you'd rather be making love to me."
"And you'd be right. Ever since I gave away Albany, I've been seeing more and more how it is it needs a younger kind of spy to keep up with the the world we live in. The timing is perfect for me to be putting it behind me."
"But what if you begin to miss it, Harry?"
"Then I'll take up gardening. Or kick-boxing."
"I can't see you doing either."
"There are sides to me that are yet to be revealed, Ruth."
"I'm seeing new sides to you all the time. For instance, I hadn't imagined you to be such a considerate and tender lover."
Harry bent down to kiss her, slowly and thoroughly.
"I think I'm more suited to being a lover than a fighter," he said, lifting his mouth from hers.
"Being a lover suits you, Harry."
"I hope it does for many years to come, too."
What began as snogging then quickly became a whole lot more, with lips and tongues and exploring hands on naked skin.
"If we're to continue where this is headed," Harry said breathlessly, "it had better be a quick one. Malcolm and Felicity are due in less than an hour, and we haven't had breakfast."
"I'm having you for breakfast," Ruth replied, slipping her head under the duvet to take his penis in her mouth, rapidly bringing it back to life by flicking her tongue up and down its length.
Harry held in a deep moan of sheer enjoyment before he drew her up so that her face was level with his, but more so that he could enter her as they lay side-by-side, facing one another. "I told you this has to be quick."
She replied by slinging her leg over his hips and around his waist to give him better access. This time their love-making was faster and more urgent, but no less satisfying. They both came quickly, Ruth calling out Harry's name with the abandon she'd not been free to express when she'd been in Cyprus, while Harry gasped his release soon after. He put both his arms around her and pulled her against his chest until their breathing settled.
They showered together, `to save time' was Harry's excuse when he joined her in the shower cubicle in the en suite. Ruth knew that he had a need to be near her – to see her, to touch her - which her long absences from his life had created, and which may take time before he could live with her without acting it out. He still had to accept that she was there, and she was his, and that she had no plans to be anywhere else. They soaped each other all over before standing close together under the stream of water, sharing quick glances with the other. Before he turned off the shower, Harry leaned down and kissed her, his soft lips caressing her own. Ruth had not known it was possible for her to feel this valued, this cherished. It made her feel special to be loved in the way Harry loved her.
Breakfast was a pot of tea and a few slices of toast, which they ate at the kitchen table. Normally, they'd linger over the tea, talking about their plans for the day, or the next few days. The doorbell rang before they'd even finished their first cup of tea.
.
Harry answered the door, and as he walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, he was followed by Felicity Sharma and Malcolm Wynn-Jones. Malcolm was dressed in sensible grey – trousers, shirt and jumper - while Felicity had replaced her standard cape with an oversized jumper - dark orange polo neck - which fell to her knees over skinny black jeans and black ankle boots. Ruth stepped out of the kitchen to greet them, a tea towel in her hands.
When he saw Ruth, Malcolm stopped, his mouth open, his eyes shining. He then smiled at her widely. "Ruth," he said warmly, "how lovely to see you looking so well."
Ruth realised how hard it must be for her friends to greet her normally after all that had happened. It was unlikely that Malcolm would say something like: I can't believe that I read a poem at your funeral, now here you are! She put the towel on the dining table and held her hands out to him, grasping his hands in each of hers. "I'm so happy to see you, Malcolm. I hope this is all not too much of a shock. I heard about your mother. How is she?"
"Yes, it was a shock when I first heard about it, but it's a very happy one, Ruth. And Mother is well and happily settled, thank you for remembering her."
Ruth would like to have hugged Malcolm, but she knew that such a display of emotion would very likely embarrass him. He was one of the most decent, kind and honest men she knew. Along with Harry, she would be prepared to entrust her life with him. Years ago, when she and Harry had been skirting around one another, before they ever went out to dinner together, she'd been aware that Malcolm had been attracted to her. She'd thought it to be one of those loving-at-a-distance kinds of things, perhaps triggered by their need to work in tandem. Then after she and Harry had gone out to dinner, it had been Malcolm who had approached her to let her know how happy he was for them to have found one another. It had taken her some time to understand that Malcolm's love for her – if indeed love was the correct word – was only ever paternal and protective, and had never been self-serving or sexual. He had always wanted what was best for her. In a way, while they'd both worked at Section D Malcolm had been her father-substitute.
"Tea or coffee?" Harry said, stepping behind Ruth to enter the kitchen, his hands resting briefly on her shoulders, his need to make physical contact with her noted by Malcolm as well as her.
.
The four of them sat over a pot of tea at the dining table. Ruth felt comfortable with these three people, who were fast becoming her family.
"This was faxed through to Erin from the Home Office," began Felicity, handing across a manilla folder to Ruth. "It's the results of your blood tests, Ruth."
"Should I look at them now?" asked Ruth, opening the folder and quickly scanning the top sheet, itself a summary of the results.
"Only if you want to. Malcolm and I have already been informed about the patterns of the bloods which were taken from all who were part of the project. It's common knowledge."
"And?" Ruth replied, looking across the table at Felicity.
"The most noticeable anomaly, found only in the women, is the low iron count. Have you been feeling tired and washed out? Exhausted?"
"Yes, I have." Ruth glanced at Harry sitting next to her.
"I've spoken to my younger brother, Jeremy. He's a medical doctor and researcher. He's been interested in this project ever since I first told him of my involvement. He's discovered that Genesis 1197, when used in the doses it was on you and the others, Ruth, and as effective as it is in some ways, also reduces the levels of haemoglobin in the red blood cells, so that over time, iron deficiency, and eventually anaemia, can result. Your iron levels are quite low, and this is why you've been feeling so tired."
"Is there something I can do to reverse this?"
"A slight dietary change won't do any harm, but the quickest way is with iron tablets. There's a page in that report listing all the iron rich foods. Red meat is a good start, so I hope you like eating beef."
"I'll have to introduce you to my beef hot pots, Ruth," Harry said, smiling at her. "They're famous throughout the land."
Ruth nodded, relieved that a solution to her fatigue is likely to be so easy to achieve. She looked across at Harry and he smiled at her, giving her a slight, but encouraging nod.
"You may both be interested to know, also," Felicity continued, "that the research doctors' notes have been fully decoded, and there have been some interesting outcomes."
"Apparently, Ruth," Malcolm continued, in tandem with Felicity's statements, "you were due to be let go from the medical facility only ten weeks after you were rescued. The minimum stay in close proximity to medical care was to be six months. They planned to keep no-one there longer than eight months."
"The minimum time of six months," continued Felicity, "is just to give patients time for their body's metabolism to adjust after the treatments. The other drug – the hypnosis drug – is then tapered off, assuming that all of you would have simply slotted into lives outside the facility, but not gone looking for your loved ones. Their intention was to keep tabs on you without having you in-house. After the results were written up, I doubt they would have cared what you did, or where you went. Essentially, you were all the means to an end. My research has also uncovered other similar projects in other parts of the world. The common factor is the team of investors." Felicity looked at Malcolm, who passed a sheet of A4 paper across the table to Ruth.
"Mahmood Malik? Isn't he -?"
"The Pakistani Foreign Minister," breathed Harry, looking over Ruth's shoulder at the page in front of her. "Edward Jawahiri? He's the Iraqi advisor to the British presence in the Middle East. He was educated at Oxford."
Ruth ran her finger down the list of names, expressing incredulity each time she recognised the name of someone of influence.
"What will happen to these …. investors?" asked Ruth.
"Probably nothing," replied Malcolm. "Until we learn otherwise, they can easily plead ignorance. They can claim they were investing in the company, and that they had no knowledge of what the company was doing."
Felicity continued. "My brother-in-law, Rohan, tells me that the law is a little vague around this sort of thing. There is nothing to stop these people from investing their money as they wish, and they are not held accountable for how that money is used by the companies they invest in. Besides, what is acceptable in one country is not in another, so the laws of each country come into play, until it all becomes very murky indeed."
"But the research has been successfully halted in Britain?" Ruth asked.
"For now, yes."
"What does that mean?" asked Harry, belligerence just beneath the surface of his words.
"It means," began Felicity, "that there are still plans to develop Genesis 1197, but this time as a drug to facilitate the healing of wounds, mainly after major operations. My brother, Jeremy, works for Delphyne Pharmaceuticals - and they have the task of developing and patenting the drug – under a new name, I believe – for use in hospitals. It will still be a money-spinner. Jeremy says that in the right doses, it can reduce the time a patient takes to heal after major trauma by around sixty to seventy percent."
"So long as they don't call it the God drug, I can't complain," Ruth said. "My scar from when I was stabbed almost four months ago is already just a faint jagged line on my skin. Isn't it, Harry?"
"Yes," he replied. "If you didn't know where to look for her scar, it's barely noticeable."
"More tea?" Ruth asked, sensing a slight discomfort in Malcolm at the mention of an area of her skin which was normally hidden under layers of clothing. Were Ruth to let slip in front of Malcolm that less than an hour before he and Felicity had arrived she and Harry had been having sex upstairs, she's sure he'd turn the colour of beetroot, or perhaps even pass out. He must have known that she and Harry had reached this stage in their relationship, but he didn't need to hear about it, much less visualise it. Felicity, on the other hand, would no doubt express approval in some way unique to her. Ruth imagined that the word, `Hurrah' may pass from her lips during such approval.
"Thank you," replied Felicity, "I'd like another."
They settled into general conversation, mostly about The Grid, and the other operatives, as Ruth went through to the kitchen to make a fresh pot.
"I think I've managed to win over Calum," Felicity said. "All he needed was for me to ask for his help occasionally. I think he'd been feeling displaced."
"You make it sound like he's shallow," said Harry.
"If the shoe fits," Felicity replied.
When Ruth had brought a fresh pot of tea to the table, Malcolm coughed, as though preparing to make an announcement. "Ruth and Harry," he began, "those of us still working in Section D are issuing you both an invitation." Malcolm passed a large envelope across the table and left it in front of Harry and Ruth.
"Should we open it now?" Harry asked.
"I believe that would be best," Malcolm replied.
Ruth picked up the envelope and pulled out a large piece of red card. She turned it over to find both sides blank.
"That was Calum's idea," explained Malcolm. "He wrote the invitation in invisible ink, then refused to tell us how to expose the message." Malcolm smiled apologetically.
"I'm glad to hear his time and skills are being well used," replied Harry. "Have you any idea what he wrote?"
"None at all," replied Malcolm, "although I know what he was meant to have written. It's an invitation to your farewell from MI5, Harry. This Friday night at my house. 8 o'clock."
"You'll come, then?" asked Felicity, her eyes shining with anticipation.
"That's only two days away," Ruth commented.
"Don't tell me you have nothing to wear," said Harry. "You bought up half of Picton Street in Bristol a couple of days ago."
"Only half?" said Felicity. "You disappoint me, Ruth. It's smart casual dress, by the way. We didn't have time to agree on a fancy dress theme. Calum and Erin wanted a pirate theme," to which Felicity rolled her eyes, "while Malcolm couldn't get past Regency. When Dimitri suggested we all dress up like spies, I made an executive decision and called off the whole idea of dressing up."
"Do we bring anything?" Ruth asked, suddenly embarrassed for she and Harry to be at the centre of so much attention and pre-planning.
"Just yourselves," Malcolm replied. "This is the first time since I was very young that I've had a party in my house. I'm looking forward to it."
"And we are, too," Harry replied. "We're planning to visit a cottage in Kent tomorrow. It may eventually become our permanent residence."
"If you do end up buying it, promise me you'll have a house-warming," Felicity said.
"We haven't even seen it yet," Harry said, "but I imagine that a house warming is a necessary ritual …... wouldn't you agree, darling?"
"Definitely," Ruth said. "And we'll have to invite all our friends, of course."
"All five of them," Harry added, tucking his arm around Ruth's shoulder, chuckling at his own joke, realising the truth in his words. Their line of work had only allowed the fostering of relationships with their own kind, and the creating of romantic liaisons was not only difficult, but also frowned upon. He and Ruth were two of the luckier ones. They had found one another at a time when they were each ready and willing to leave the dangerous and unpredictable environment of the security services, and devote their energies to one another.
They had each denied themselves a life with the other for long enough. The farewell party would place the full stop firmly at the end of their security services sentence.