Harry got to the Grid early that day. He sat in his office, staring at his email inbox.
"Ruth Evershed is in the care of The True Athletes. There are three bombs hidden around London. We have the only detonators and the only way of disabling them. If you want to save lives, do nothing and await further instruction."
Harry jerked back from his desk, to better see the rest of the Grid. It was true that Ruth wasn't at her station, but he couldn't assume anything. It was still early and there could be a multitude of reasons for why she wasn't at work. For one thing she wasn't due to arrive for another seven minutes, but this was Ruth, she was always early.
He decided he couldn't do anything until he had assessed Ruth's whereabouts. He reached for his phone, and dialled her home 'phone number. It rang out. He dialled her mobile number. It went straight to voicemail.
Ten minutes later, Ruth was still absent and Harry was starting to take the threat seriously.
He sent a Red Flash to Ruth's phone, though he knew in his heart of hearts that in ten minutes time her absence would be continual. Red Flash's were generally only used for field agents, but whether she knew it or not, and liked it or not, she was now working in the field.
He gathered his thoughts for a team meeting, which he would lead himself. A terrorist had issued a threat against London, but that happened nearly every day. Somehow though, Harry knew that this threat was different, they had gone after Ruth. That had to be personal somehow. With no sign of Ruth and no word sent, his nerves were almost humming audibly.
Thirty minutes later the team, minus Ruth, were assembled in the meeting room.
"Shouldn't Ruth and Adam be here?" Someone piped up. Harry wanted to reprimand them for their lazy approach to what could have been an intelligent contribution.
He was still thinking of a reply that would be fair when the doors opened and their team leader came into the room, shaking his head once towards Harry.
Ah yes, Adam, one of his brightest and best, but the news he brought was not good. Harry had sent Adam over to Ruth's cottage to look for her when she did not respond to the Red Flash. He needed the details, and it was about time the team learned the gravity of the situation.
He sat down, to better gather his thoughts in his hands.
"Adam... would you bring us all up to speed?" Harry sighed.
Adam gave Harry a quick, surprised glance, but hid it quickly and cleared his throat.
"OK, listen up. This morning we received a threat against London, sent by a group calling themselves The True Athletes, boasting that they had taken Ruth. I've just been to her house… Somebody broke a window in Ruth's kitchen. It could have been her cat, it could have been Ruth herself. All we know is that today Ruth didn't show up for work, nor did she respond to a Red Flash..."
"Did they really take Ruth?" Asked Sam, alarmed at last.
"We can't know for sure yet, but it'll be your job to answer that. Find out everything you can about this group. They claim three bombs are located around London… We need to know who they are and what they want…You know the sort of stuff." Adam replied directly.
"Zaf, you and I are going back to Ruth's house to look for further leads. Malcolm, do your techy thing, try to locate Ruth's 'phone - it's still missing. We meet again in one hour."
As the team filed out of the room, Harry found his gaze drifting over towards Ruth's empty station. He went back to his office, and tried to keep busy.
