"Jo!" Malcolm called, with a wave of his hand. "How are you?" He made his way quickly over to her across the Grid after spotting her stepping out of the pods and looking around warily. "I didn't expect to see you here. Harry and Adam didn't tell me you were coming back."

Jo smiled at Malcolm's cheerful greeting, he was as exuberant as she had ever seen him. "I'm not," she started, "well not properly. I'm not ready for it just yet."

Malcolm nodded. "Well what can we do for you?" he asked, leading her over towards the forgery suite where he and Connie had been trying to crack a code that seemingly related to several bomb threats across the South of Wales. They were pretty convinced that these were false alarms and a cover for something else. But whoever was sending them the warnings, obviously had a first rate mind and the work was keeping them busy to say the least. He opened the door for her and let he go in first "Or have you just popped in to say hello?"

"No, well not just that." Jo answered, before smiling broadly at Connie who was sat hunched up at her desk, a long forgotten, half empty, cold mug of tea sat beside her and who looked up as soon as they entered the room.

"Jo, my dear girl," she said standing up and making her way quickly over to her, "and to what do we owe this unexpected surprise?"

Jo smiled at the warm greeting she had received from two of her old colleagues, as much as she'd tried to block things out over the last few weeks, the warmth shown to her was another reminder of what she'd miss if she decided not to return to the Grid full-time. "I take it you wouldn't believe me if you said I was just passing and popped in for a cup tea." She said in an amused tone.

Connie chuckled, "no one ever just decides to pop in here. Have you come to see Adam... or Harry about returning."

Jo shook her head briefly, "I'm not quite ready for that," she said softly as Malcolm and Connie made their way back to their respective desks.

"So why are you here? Malcolm questioned curiously. "Not that you're not more than welcome, but if you're not just here to say hello and haven't come back to start again then..."

"You've not come back to resign your commission?" Connie asked, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh Jo, don't make decisions like that in the heat of the moment."

"It's hardly the heat of the moment," Jo began, before quickly continuing as she saw Malcolm's expression, "and I haven't come here to resign."

"So...?" Malcolm queried, his voice tailing off.

"I've come to help." She glanced behind her quickly to where the door behind her was open leading to the hustle and bustle of the main office of the Grid. She moved quickly, shutting the door so that only Malcolm and Connie could hear her. "Adam told me about... well you know, about the postcard."

"And I believe you're the one that made the breakthrough." Malcolm looked up at her, a proud smile on his face.

Jo nodded, "more luck than anything else," she said modestly. She looked between the two of them, "have you had a breakthrough, only Adam told me he'd tell me straight away if you'd found something, but that was two days ago and I've heard nothing."

Malcolm and Connie glanced quickly between themselves before Connie answered. "Nothing as yet I'm afraid."

"Though we've not actually had much of a chance to do too much." Malcolm admitted, "We've both been up to our eyes in other matters and unfortunately for Ruth..."

"And Harry." Connie chipped in, a rather enigmatic smirk on her face.

"And Harry." Malcolm continued looking at Jo and raising his eyebrows slightly at Connie's mild barb. "We just haven't had the time to do much other than pull the list of names from their database, along with their addresses, credit card details and the code which is attached to each order."

"And that was the easy part." Connie interjected again.

Jo withheld the smile that was threatening to break out on her face, only the two of them could consider the easy part to be breaking into an encrypted database and pulling out all that information. Not for the first time she was glad that they were both working for the state, rather than plying their trade on the private market. "That's where I thought I could help." She looked across at the two of them again. "If you could set me up on a computer in here where I'm not likely to have people coming up to me and questioning me all the time, then I could do the search leaving you two to get on with whatever it is you're supposed to be doing."

"Well its certainly feasible." Malcolm murmured, rubbing his hand across his chin while in thought.

"It'll potentially be hour upon hour of utter boredom." Connie cut across the top of him. "Given the only clue we have now is the picture itself, you'll have to wade through their photo database to find the one that matches and there are quite literally millions of files."

"It's not as bad as all that." Malcolm interrupted hastily, spotting the look of horror on Jo's face. "While there are millions of prints, we can order them by date and by choosing a window initially of April to June which is two weeks before Harry received the card and the timeframe when we think it was most likely to have been created, then it narrows it down to around 40,000 images."

Jo gulped, "only 40,000," she said merrily, not letting her trepidation sound in her voice, "it'll be a breeze."

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Connie asked not unkindly, while she and Jo would never have much in common, she felt for her and the horrors she had been through.

"Yes," Jo nodded firmly while clutching her arms around her body, "if nothing else, it'll keep my mind of other things."

Malcolm lifted a warning eyebrow to Connie not to say anything else. While he was used to the direct and blunt manner the Analyst spoke in, Jo was not and she was also currently a shadow of her former self. "Well then," he said with a beaming smile, "give me five minutes to get you set up and logged on and we'll be good to go."

"Is Harry around?" Jo queried. "It's just that Adam mentioned that I wasn't to tell Harry I knew anything so..."

"He's over in Whitehall at a meeting with the Home Secretary at the moment," Malcolm said, "he's not due back for a couple of hours at least."

"And even when he does return, he's hardly likely to pop in here," Connie said waspishly.

"To which we are eternally thankful for," Malcolm smiled, raising his eyes conspiratorially at Jo, "it gives us the peace and quiet to get on with our work."

"Well..."

Jo cleared her throat before Connie let her feelings be known about Harry's lack of visits to the forgery suite. "How about I go and make us all a hot drink," she said, indicating the half empty mug on Connie's desk, "then by the time I get back, you can talk me through what I need to do and you can get on with your work." Without waiting for an answer she turned and after opening the door made her way quickly to the kitchen, not wanting to talk to anyone else. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, the little spark that had lit when she had realised the link from the postcard to Evolve, was burning suddenly brighter as she realised she was looking forward to the challenge of finding out more answers. She wasn't ready to return to the Grid properly, not just yet, she thought to herself, but the idea wasn't as abhorrent to her as it had been a few days ago.

"Thank you Sir and have a good evening yourself." Harry's smile slipped away the second he closed the door to the Home Secretary's office. He'd been cooped up in there alongside a delegation from the Russian Embassy as details and deals were thrashed out for the imminent swap of a Russian spy currently being held at a Detention Centre in Colchester and Lucas North, the spy the Russians had captured eight years previously and who no doubt hadn't been kept in anyway near as favourable conditions as his Russian counterpart had. Harry still rankled over the way Blake had held the meeting, a politician to the last, the insinuation had been that they wouldn't have to be letting a Russian spy go free, despite getting virtually no intel out of him during the last five years of his six year incarceration, if Harry had managed to keep his Officers under control at the time and the Russians hadn't stumbled across the valuable intelligence that had led to North's capture. Harry pursed his lips, still deep in thought as he strode along the corridor; it still puzzled him to this day, how the Russians had come across that highly sensitive and confidential information, information that only a very select few Officers had been privy too. It had been put down to a sheer stroke of luck on their part at the time, but Harry still harboured niggling doubts about that and still felt guilty that one of his own had spent the last eight years of his life languishing in a Russian cell.

"Harry!"

He stopped in his tracks at the voice that rang loud and clear down the hallway, turning round slowly as he recognised the voice that he had hoped he'd never hear again in his lifetime. "Oliver," he uttered coldly as the other man drew closer to him, "I heard you were back."

Mace stuck out his right hand as he reached Harry, before lowering it again to his side a few moments later when he realised that Harry wouldn't be shaking his hand. He looked pointedly down at Harry, "So that's how it's going to be is it?" He uttered with a slightly amused smug grin on his face. "Can't we let bygones be bygones?"

Harry looked at him in disgust. "If it was up to me, you'd be dining at Her Majesty's Pleasure for the rest of your life rather than swanning round Whitehall as if nothing had happened."

"Tut Tut Harry, I really thought you would have got over all of that malarkey around Cotterdam by now." He raised a eyebrow archly, "I mean it's not as if anyone actually died."

"Didn't they?"

"Well not anyone who actually matters, and from what I hear, your little Analyst can be included in those figures. Her death faked with her spirited off to France to live in exile like so many burned spies before her."

"Her life as she knew it, taken away from her just because you wanted to get one over me you mean." Harry hissed, his voice laced with a quiet menace.

Mace held up both of his hands as if trying to calm Harry down. "It was all about the ends rather than the means old chap, she just happened to get in the way... or rather you did and she was obviously your rose tinted blind spot."

"My what!" Harry spluttered.

"I think that's what she was referred to as by at least one member of your team." Mace said condescendingly. "In your position you should really know better than to fall for the hired help."

Harry's nostrils flared as he took as step towards the other man, what he lacked in height he more than made up for in strength and Mace backed away slightly. "If you ever..."

"Oh come now Harry. I only did what you would have done in the same position, go after a person's weak spot to gain the result you want." His lips narrowed as he moved his head slightly closer to Harry's, "And its something you've done time and time again for your own advantage, so don't try and take the moral high ground with me because of what happened."

"The difference being..." Harry ground out.

"Don't fool yourself Harry. You know perfectly well I'm right." He looked at the other man, whose face was red with barely suppressed anger and continued on with a gleeful expression, "and from what Dickie told me, your Disciples are searching for the delightful Miss Evershed as we speak..."

Harry took a few steps forward until his face was mere inches away from Mace's with his hands balled into fists at his side. "You do not speak her name to me again, do you understand me."

"Now Harry." Mace said in a placatory fashion as he took another two steps back and suddenly hit the wall behind him.

"I mean it Oliver. If Ruth ever does come back and you so much as look at her in the wrong way then I won't be held responsible for my actions." Harry lifted his right hand and pointed his forefinger at Mace's face. "In fact that goes for any one of my team."

"Are you threatening me Harry?"

Whatever answer Harry was going to give was lost as the sound of approaching footsteps seeped into his consciousness and he took a step back. "No I'm not threatening you Oliver." He said clearly as he turned round to make his way back to Thames House. "I'm promising you. If you so much as breathe in their direction, then your Falklands posting will suddenly start to look as appealing as a stay at a five star resort in the Caribbean compared to what I'll do to you." With that and with Mace staring after him, he walked as calmly as he could down the corridor, trying not to display exactly how much seeing Oliver Mace again had unsettled him.

Adam looked up as Harry entered through the Pods with a face like thunder. It had been two days since Harry had bumped into Mace, and thanks to a passing Under-Secretary who had witnessed the tail end of their discussion, news of their discussion had spread like wildfire and the last version Adam had been regaled with, had had Mace lying on the floor while Harry stood over him slowly pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. That these rumours were being reported with glee, said a lot about the high regard Harry was held in and the low opinion most had of the former Head of the JIC.

"Connie and Malcolm in there?" Harry said stonily, pointing towards the closed door of the forgery suite.

"Ah yes... but." Adam cleared his throat.

"But what ... something in there that I might not expect?" Harry said in a deceptively jovial manner, "or rather someone.."

"Harry." Adam began, as his boss made his way over and yanked the door open to where Jo, Malcolm and Connie were sat talking excitedly amongst themselves, although they quickly fell silent when they realised who was at the door. "Harry," Adam tried again after following the older man across the Grid, "this isn't what it looks like."

"And what does it look like," Harry whirled round suddenly so that he was suddenly face to face with Adam. "It looks to me as if Miss Portman here has decided to re-join our team and no one had the decency to let me know." He turned around again to face the three incumbents of the room who all looked they had been caught with their hands in the biscuit tin. "How are you Jo?" He asked suddenly in a much warmer fashion.

Jo gulped, "You know, getting there," she said nervously.

"And what exactly is it you're working on in here with the door closed?"

"Harry," Adam interjected quickly, "this is my fault, I brought Jo into this."

"And it's a good job you did," Connie interjected waspishly, "otherwise we'd still be going round in circles."

Harry suddenly looked closely at the small image at the top left hand side of Jo's screen, recognising it immediately as the image on his postcard. "So despite what I asked of you," he began coldly, addressing Adam, Malcolm and Connie by staring at them all individually for a few moments, "and despite what you all promised about telling no one else, I suddenly find at least one of you lied to me."

"Harry," Adam started, once again getting no reaction that Harry had even heard him.

"Is it just one person, or am I going to find this on the bloody MI5 intranet tomorrow morning along with the days weather report and the daily cartoon strip." Harry's voice started off calmly but got louder and louder the longer he spoke.

"Harry," Adam interjected again loudly, closing the door to the forgery suite behind him after noticing a few curious glances coming through from the Grid. "I told Jo and if you calm down for 5 seconds I'll tell you exactly why."

Harry looked across at him, his lips pulled tightly together. "Go on then," he bit out sharply. "Why?"

"Oh for goodness sake," Connie said clearly getting up and facing Harry. "It doesn't matter why, you silly old fool. It just matters that we're ten steps closer to finding her than we were before she was told."

Jo kept her head down as Harry looked directly at her. "And how may I ask, did she help?"

"She saw the link between the card and the online supplier," Connie continued, "It was our only lead and one that we all completely missed... including yourself."

"What link?" Harry asked in a puzzled tone. Looking around at his team assembled before him.

"We didn't want to get your hopes up," Adam said quickly, "but Jo discovered that the postcard was bespoke, made out of a photo rather than a standard card you can buy in shops."

"So after we found that out." Malcolm jumped in and continued with the story. "We hacked into the company database and for the last two days, Jo has been trawling through picture after picture trying to find your one."

Harry looked in shock. "So you may be on the way to finding her..."

"No may about it." Malcolm beamed excitedly. "About thirty minutes ago Jo found the picture."

"Picture number 26,708." Jo said with a wide smile.

"You didn't tell me," Adam grinned in surprise.

"You were out at the time," Connie chided, "so we matched the picture to the credit card that paid for it..."

"And we're now running a search across all the major credit cards," Malcolm indicated towards his and Connie's screens where lines upon line of data were scrolling past quickly.

"I don't know what to say." Harry said faintly, as he grabbed a chair from behind him and sat on it heavily.

Connie looked at him disapprovingly. "Thank you would be a good start," she uttered sardonically.

Harry looked at her and said nothing before turning to Jo. "Thank you," he said to her quietly and with meaning.

Jo nodded, a faint blush colouring her cheeks as Adam grinned and winked at her across the top of Harry's head. "I'm glad to have helped."

"So what name do we have?" Adam queried, but was cut off as Malcolm's computer let out a beeping tone as the data scrolling across the screen suddenly stopped.

Harry looked up at the sound. "What's happened? He asked, "has something gone wrong."

Malcolm looked over at him with an incredulous look on his face. "Quite the opposite I'd say." he exclaimed reading off the screen. "The credit card was used two days ago in Polis in Cyprus. in one of the café's there and the name on the card is Alison Ruth Evans." He looked round at them all, the joy on his face coming through clearly. "I think we've found her!"

TBC

A/N - Her Majesty's Pleasure for anyone outside the UK who hasn't heard the term before refers to the prisons within the UK (HMP). Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter, hopefully this one went down okay as well, particularly as it seems they're finally getting somewhere! Any further reviews would be welcome