'I believe you should take Ruth with you rather than I go and Jo agrees with me,' Ros tells Harry, when they are sitting in the meeting room in advance of his meeting with Russell Price in the hope that he will share whatever it is that he knows about Nightingale and Samuel Walkers untimely death.
'Why?' is Harry's obvious response, before turning to look at Ruth to see her reaction, which is to smile.
'Because Price will see Ruth as inconsequential when she'll be anything but so will be more likely to let something slip, whereas if you and I turn up together, if he does know anything which he doesn't want to disclose he'll either go on the defensive or lead us down a blind alley.'
'Or just plain lie,' suggests Ruth, proving Ros's point just as a weary and clearly disappointed Tariq comes in to join them, having failed to come up with any further information after Jo had sent Beth and Dimitri home at midnight to get some sleep, including the current whereabouts of Nicholas Blake whose details appear to have been wiped off the Home Office web site, in the same way that Samuel Walker's what Harry is still convinced is murder is being given very little coverage by the CIA, other than to say that the date of the funeral has been postponed until after the autopsy which is due to take place when his wife and daughters have flown in from the States.
All of which are questions which prove that Ros had been right in her decision to send Ruth, after Price turns up without apologising for being late in as much as she is doing a very good impression as someone who is new to the job so doesn't react even visually when Price says, 'I've had a word with your Home Secretary and he's agreed with my decision that the way forward is to arrange talks between both parties and their delegations,' when protocol clearly dictates that the way to proceed is to approach the Security Services of the country concerned and ask for their opinion not that of the Home Office, which sees Harry gritting his teeth before responding 'not before time,' before completely changing the subject by asking Price, 'am I right in assuming that Samuel Walker's suicide was due to the fact that he was a member of Nightingale, because on both counts I find that very hard to believe?'
Only for Price say, 'I've only been in the country a couple of days,' which implies he has no idea what Harry is talking about which on its own sets off warning bells as opposed to what Harry believes is the truth, which is that Price isn't prepared to answer even the simplest question or to suggest that he'll get back to them, which means that he'll have to rely on the team, some of whom have very little experience, to help him discover the truth. Which is a description which certainly doesn't apply to Ruth who despite her enforced absence is still invested in doing whatever it takes and not just because she and Harry are together in every sense, so is why once they have put some breathing space between them and the man who has left them with more questions than they have answers and having stopped for a coffee on their way back to Thames House he asks for her opinion.
'That Price in some way holds the key and that wherever the talks are held, security will need to be our main priority. But what I really cannot understand is why he dismissed Walker's death with such ease and failed to react to you mentioning Nightingale, because wherever he has been for the past couple of days, surely in his position he would have been kept informed which on its own makes me suspicious, and not just because I didn't like him, or would I trust him to do anything unless he was going to gain something from doing so.'
'And you wonder why I struggled to manage without you Ruth and now that you're back, I have no intension of letting you go again,' goes way beyond just her value as an analyst as she well knows.
Which is why she responds, 'I should hope not, besides where would I go and as much as I'd like us to, we can't sit here all day or go home and pretend that we're still on holiday, so regrettably we need to get back to Thames House so that you can brief the team.'
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'Everyone's in the meeting room, I'm just about to make coffee,' Beth tells them, when half an hour later having left the bench where they had been sitting they had continued to walk along the embankment, the familiarity of being somewhere with a connection that had once seen them torn apart only to re emerge stronger and having continued to talk as equals with no restraints, stringing it out for longer than was perhaps wise, they arrive back onto the grid with what is a rough plan as to how to get the information that is missing.
Waiting until the drinks have been handed round Harry says, 'Ros was right about Russell Price ignoring my questions as though they were insignificant, including my suggestion that Samuel Walker would have never under any circumstances taken his own life. So, with that in mind I need you Tariq to work your magic and pull up the CCTV in and around the building where he died and see who was in the vicinity at the time. Equally important is that we have someone other than myself attending his funeral at a date and location yet to be decided according to Price and I want you Beth and Dimitri to do that. Ros will brief you in advance as to how during what will be a fact-finding operation you can get close enough to hear what is being said, but in the meantime spend some time with Ruth who is going to identify the CIA operatives who we expect to be there. I meanwhile am going to invite the Home Secretary to a meeting on the grid so that we can judge if there was more said during his meeting with Price than just suggesting that both parties should be brought together which is something I find hard to believe. A meeting where I want him to feel outnumbered as I frequently do and is why I want Ros, Jo and Ruth to attend, but in his case based on how he behaved when Ros and I went to see him suggests that if he's in a room with four women he will be more likely to tell us what really happened as opposed to telling us what he did when he was still wearing short trousers.'
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Beth has got used to making the coffee or in Ruth's case tea, but with the Home Secretary who had responded to Harry's call by saying that yes, he had a slot available at three so is due to arrive in ten minutes time and knowing she is the warm up act in that she is another blonde to be added to the number before the star turn, is looking forward to seeing his reaction. More so now having been offered the recently vacated by Ruth spare bedroom at Jo's whilst she looks for somewhere of her own, but more than that having asked Ruth if she could, Jo has told her the diluted version in that she didn't mention George, backstory about Oliver Mace and how to save Harry, Ruth had sacrificed her career and the chance of a relationship which had it not been for Jo and some of her colleagues gossiping, cost them not only two years but had seen Harry tortured only to be sold on to the highest bidder before Ruth had been forced to return from Cyprus where she had been working. Which explains to Beth who up until now hasn't had a relationship of any substance, or does she want one, why Ruth and Harry look and behave as though they had been together forever and more importantly why Harry demands absolute loyalty which includes respecting their privacy as a couple. Her thoughts interrupted when Andrew Lawrence arrives and just as Harry had planned looks around the meeting room with an expression to suggest that not only is Harry a lucky bugger but that he himself is in the wrong job.