Ruth's phone on her desk rings. She quickly answers it. "Hi Harry." "Of course I'll call the head of MI-6 and let him know your meeting needs to be postponed." "Be careful Harry." Ruth puts the receiver down and runs her fingers through her hair. She picks up her phone and dials the number for MI-6. "Sir, unfortunately Sir Harry Pearce will not be able to meet you at the agreed upon time. He's in the interrogation room with suspects at the moment, but he still would like to meet with you at a mutually agreed upon time." "Thank you for your consideration sir. We appreciate it very much." "Sir Harry will call you as soon as he's out of the interrogation room." Ruth puts the phone down again and runs her hands over her face again. "I can't stand being his secretary. Why can't he hire a secretary like every other head of section in the service?" Ruth asks heavily.
"Because anyone he hired just wouldn't compare to you. You manage to outshine everyone Harry even considers hiring. He trusts you implicitly with everything. There's no one else who could ever take your place, Ruth, and Harry know it. He's tried to hire a secretary before and brought them in on a trial basis, but they weren't you. I think he feels guilty hiring someone who would just be a secretary. You multitask so well, Ruth. Harry hates the thought of spending money on a secretary when he could hire another agent to work here. He's very conscious of that fact every time he looks at the budget. He never has all the money he needs to prevent burnout. He has to be so careful with his budget. He can't have a secretary and keep you at MI-5 and we both know who'd he choose." Malcolm says teasingly.
Ruth smiles at Malcolm. She knows that he's right. Harry would never allow Ruth to leave MI-5 even for budgetary reasons.