Chapter 3

Elizabeth sat down with a sigh on the lounge after moving everything to the kitchen ready for washing. She closed her eyes as her mind wandered over the course of the day, like a replay in her mind. Harry stepped in to the lounge room and quietly sat down, not wanting to disturb Elizabeth. He waited for a few minutes, enjoying the rest himself. Elizabeth could sense someone had entered the room and roused herself from her musings to find Harry sitting across from her with his eyes closed. Elizabeth smiled to herself.

"I suppose rest would be a rare thing in your line of work." Elizabeth commented. Harry opened his eyes and nodded his response and said,

"Yes. Although, thankfully Christmas seems to be quieter; terrorists have families too."

"Maybe there is a god after all." Elizabeth replied with a grin.

"I know you didn't come down to have a rest though, so... what's the latest?"

"Well, the good news is that we've got satellite surveillance on the house and a 5 mile radius; so you won't need to fear someone approaching the house uninvited. However, you will need to stay here for the next few days. I sense we might be in for the long-haul on this one."

"At least I can feel safer now...Thank you."

"It is me who should be thanking you, for your hospitality. I'm so sorry you've been dragged into all of this."

"Apology accepted. I think I'll have a nap and face the washing up later." She closed off the conversation and lay down across the lounge. Harry got up and headed to the kitchen to start on the washing up thinking he might as well help now while he can.

Ros and Zaf finished chatting to the cleaning staff with no leads.

"I hate playing catch-up." Zaf complained,

"Let's check out CCTV." They moved to the security room and started asking questions, to which no replies were particularly helpful.

"Right, pull up all CCTV for tour groups coming through," said Ros, taking charge. They sat there trawling through hours of CCTV in fast forward.

"STOP! Rewind a little. There, what's going on there?" Ros said, pointing to the screen.

"We had a tourist trying to see into one of the offices; but he wasn't too insistent, just curious," the head of security replied.

"Which office is that?" Zaf asked.

"The Home Sec.'s" Ros replied.

"Was the Home Sec. notified of this incident?" Ros asked.

"Yes, he viewed the CCTV and said he'd not seen him before. We ran the face through our computer to see if he'd been here before, but had no matches. False alarm."

"Okay. Keep us updated for any regular visitors and / or strange incidents," Ros said as she got up to leave. Ros and Zaf headed back to Thames House ready for the next check in.

Harry stopped washing up once the drying rack was full. He left it to dry and moved upstairs.

"Ros, where's Adam?" Harry asked at the next check in.

"Still checking out the H.P. personnel. We got nothing from the H.P. CCTV. They'll notify us of any incidents."

"Okay. Ruth?"

"No French connections; still looking though."

"Malcolm?"

"Jo's checking out an incident two streets away from the H.P. now; but so far nothing seems out of the ordinary."

"Right; Ros, Zaffar, go hard on the S.B. idiot. Malcolm, Colin, keep up surveillance. Ruth, check out all the latest political issues, anything that could cause such a violent response overseas and at home. When Jo returns, she'll co-ordinate with you."

"Sure" Ruth replied.

"Okay. It's a waiting game now. We need another call to give us more information. Keep at it, we'll get something soon." Harry hung up and began pacing the room again. Ruth brought up all the newspapers for last two weeks, scanning headlines for key issues.