'At the risk of misunderstanding what you're suggesting and with an expression to suggest that Harry thought Alec had lost the plot, run that by me one more time,' he told him.

'I said Lucas want's your job, I think he always has.'

'What in god's name makes you say that? Because even if I was thinking of retiring, based on his recent behaviour, Lucas would be the last person I would expect the panel to consider, never mind appoint.'

'You know that and I know that, but if the report you wrote after his initial interview is taken at face value, then there's a fair chance that they might think otherwise.'

'But that was ages ago and more importantly, given that it was marked strictly confidential, how on earth did you find it?'

'In the same way that I find everything, but what really matters now, isn't that I've broken into the system, but your suggestion that he had huge leadership potential and at some time in the future, providing that nothing changed to make you think otherwise, you saw him as one of the rising stars of the Security Service.'

'Which no longer applies.'

'That's as maybe and this is only guesswork remember, but I think Lucas's behaviour is as a direct result of you sending him to Russia.'

'In what sense?'

'Affairs of the heart Harry, which as we both know can be a powerful motive for revenge or indeed blackmail, given what Lucas told Caroline. Because not everyone is as lucky as you are when it comes to the ladies, or remained faithful for however long Ruth was away. That and it's blindingly obvious how close the two of you are which is something Lucas will have been party to from the day that Ruth came home. At a time when as you yourself pointed out, he was just coming to terms with the fact that his wife had chosen to stay with her new partner and on top of that, traitor or not he lost Sarah. In fact, I would even go as far as to suggest that he blames you for Ros's death. Which makes him not only delusional but dangerous.'

'Not that I necessarily agree with you, but having brought you in for the sole purpose of finding out what it is that's motivating him, your plan is?'

'To keep him dangling on a thread. Avoid contact with him at all costs and carry on as though nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Monitor how he how reacts to being ignored, whilst not losing sight of my suggestion which is a plan to bring you down.'

'When you say we, am I right in assuming that you'll still be here to scrape what's left of me off the tarmac?'

'For what you're paying me I'll marry if you ask me, but yes I'll still be here.'

.

'We're home,' from the hallway and knowing that Ruth will have done the shopping whilst she and Caroline have been out, gives Harry an excuse to bring an end to the discussion. But not before he assures Alec that that 'he and Ruth will be back on the grid first thing in the morning,' does he go.

What if anything else they have been doing, is a thought which is replaced by a question, when Caroline announces that 'she's going upstairs to get changed.'

The 'why?' he leaves until he hears her bedroom door close, by which time he and Ruth have carried what looks like a minor mountain of shopping through the kitchen.

'Because Caroline and Malcolm want to give us some privacy, so they're going out to lunch.'

'Does that mean I'm allowed to smile and suggest that he might even give her a lift home, when the time comes?'

'Only if you help me unpack the shopping and make me a cup of tea. And when the time comes for us to have our own lunch, that we keep it simple and eat it in front of the fire.'

Not one to turn down that kind of invitation , a couple of hours later when Malcolm rings to say that he and Caroline are on their way to the National Gallery, and from there they intend booking tickets for the theatre, Harry and Ruth are stretched out on the sofa with their eyes closed.

Another not so subtle hint perhaps, which after a quick calculation suggests that they have been gifted extra precious hours on their own, which sees them taking advantage of the situation by abandoning the sofa in favour of the comfort of their bed. Only to find when they get there, that pouring proverbial water on what in Harry's mind is going to be the first chance in several days to have meaningful sex, is his promise to tell Ruth what if any progress Alec has made. Which balanced as he is, teetering on the brink because they are revisiting how Ruth had reacted when he had arrived back with Caroline, whereas now when they are both completely naked, it will be touch and go as to whether they will get out of bed until the morning, the man who up until Ruth had come back into his life had always put work first, abandons his belief and throws caution to the wind.

A sentiment which the ever-tactful Malcolm adopts, although in his case, if he does have an opinion when he comes into the kitchen the following morning to find Harry making the tea while Ruth is buttering toast, having arrived home with Caroline not long after nine, to find the only light on was the one in the hall, he keeps it to himself.

As he does his observation that they both look more relaxed, despite Harry's suit jacket hanging on the back of a chair and Ruth being dressed in what suggests they are going into work. Only to have the latter confirmed after a look passes between the two of them and Harry says, 'neither of us is planning to stay beyond five, so we should be back at the usual time. Other than that, you know where everything is so do help yourselves.'

'Business as usual,' Malcolm dares to reply, knowing that this is far from usual and not in the sense that Harry and Ruth will be travelling in together.

If only thinks Harry, remembering the moment just before Malcolm had Caroline had arrived back, when he'd been telling Ruth what Alec had said and how even in the darkness of their bedroom, he had felt if not see the fear in her eyes. Because with a few short words, she had conjured up just as he had, another moment and another time, when someone else had tried to drive a wedge between them and how for all the resources available to them which had been far in excess of what they have now, with only Malcolm left to remember it, they'd been parted for the best part of three years.

.

The change in core staff and certainly the most recent after the sudden loss of Ros, had allowed Harry to refigure the layout of the grid. Indulgent maybe but that Ruth's desk now faces his, means that not only can he keep an eye on her, but can do so without leaving his own desk. What he can also see are the comings and goings through the pods, the most relevant of which and within the next few minutes will see the arrival of Alec, who he is going to introduce as having been sent over from six, until a permanent replacement for Ros can be found.

What Alec does or where he goes in pursuit of evidence, he intends leaving to the man himself, which as he and Ruth discussed on the way in, will leave a gaping hole in her personal safety when he himself is called to see the Home Secretary or attends a meeting of the JIC? Which within certain limits is the reason that they have decided to come clean with their colleagues.

Before that though and by mutual agreement, he intends testing the water by telling Beth, who they both know is more than capable of handling herself. That she and Ruth happen to be in the kitchen, designed by someone who thought that making hot drinks in a space somewhere slightly larger than a broom cupboard was safe, and that if someone of his stature walked in would immediately make it feel as though it has shrunk in size, then they were mistaken on the first count and right about the second.

So, for Beth to say, 'I wasn't going to' when Harry implies that he thought she would deny knowing that he and Ruth were in a relationship, is not only confirmation that Beth is someone who Ruth can confide in, but that whatever situation she finds herself in, she is going to treat his request to look after her seriously. Had she not, his only other option would have been Dimitri, whereas now he can use him to fill in the other gaps in Alec's plan.

'In that case and before we go and speak to the others, I think it only fair to update you on what has happened since we came back from Ros's mothers,' he tells her. Suggesting as they had done with Tariq, that they do so away from the grid.