False Omen Ch. 5

[JHyde]

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 8. PLEASE READ CHAPTERS 1-4 BEFORE PROCEEDING.

Because so many of you return to work or school tomorrow after the holidays, I hereby present you with a marathon chapter filled with action and (hopefully) some answers. The delurker challenge still stands, but I'm widening it a little. If you are a recruit on the Grid (check your title near your avatar for your position) post me a review with a word for me to incorporate into my next chapter. As long as said word doesn't violate rules of the forum.

I love the reviews guys, please keep them coming. And thanks to people who gave me a +rep for the fan fic, it's much appreciated. Moderators like to feel loved too.

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"Bushra arrives when?" Harry's brusque question opened the morning briefing, beginning an hour earlier than usual. The team knew they were in for a long day, but even Harry did not anticipate just how interminable it would seem by its eventual end.

"She'll be here in half an hour. Ruth and I will continue the de-brief downstairs." Lucas liked mornings. There was something about their new beginnings that appealed to him, the anticipation of the unexpected. "But it does mean we need to rope in Wendy again today to help Ros track Amir to his meeting with...whoever our masked man is."

"Lucky me." Ros smiled back at Lucas.

"It's not so bad, you can compare heel heights," Lucas grinned.

"And leg lengths!" Tariq thought.

Harry grimaced. "Well Ros, whatever you and Wendy manage to talk about, do us a favour and and find out who The Lone Ranger is. We can't afford to go another day without knowing his identity. Everything we know about this so far suggests that the attack will take place sometime this week, and their haste in wanting to deal with Bushra would seem to corroborate that."

Harry snapped his head around. "Where is Ruth?"

"I'm here, I'm here!" She bustled in, trying not to drop the files she was carrying on the arrangements for the PM's protection in ____ that coming weekend. She distributed the copies quickly, beginning with Harry, but as she brushed past he caught her scent, lingering long after she had moved on. It was as though he had been winded. Since returning to Section D she had worn a new, unfamiliar scent, equally lovely but new and more confident. This morning she had reverted to wearing the old fragrance that had cloaked her in the early days, the days of hope as Harry sometimes sentimentally thought of them. Scent is the sense most closely associated with memory, and Harry blanched as he recalled a time when that smell evoked the most carnal of responses in him. Truthfully, it really wasn't so different now. The old wound was ripped open anew, as it seemed to be several times every day since her return.

"Harry?" Ros was watching him, indeed, all the team were focused on his bemused expression. He struggled to remember where he was as the sensual aroma faded into the ether of the commonplace. He shook his head, as though wigging water from his ears after a swim.

He gulped. "I'm concerned about the number of officers we're required to front over the weekend."

______


Bushra was even more distant today, determined to be unhelpful. She was still angry, Ruth knew - she had been the bearer of bad news, the herald foreshadowing the end of Bushra's old life. No wonder she was enraged. For now, Ruth focused on identifying anything unusual in her friend's life that might explain why she now sat across from her, a hunted woman. Or rather, presumed dead.

"I have told you already, Ruth." Bushra's voice was flat and cold as the air inside the closeted room. "He has done nothing differently with me for weeks."

Ruth sighed imperceptibly. Lucas stepped in. "I know, Bushra. Perhaps we should try any new people who might have visited the house recently. Any changes in his routine. Anything unusual he might have asked you to do recently."

The laborious process continued for hours until Ruth noticed a recurring absence of activity on Sunday afternoons. She interrupted Lucas as he drilled Bushra for information on her husband's morning routine. "Bushra, what about Sundays in the afternoon. It's Amir's only time off every week and you said he spends it at the house. What does he do? It's a much longer period than any other he spends at the house during the day."

"He usually spends it with Emir and some other boys he knows from his football team. He used to coach, but now there is no time..."

Ruth cut her off. "Bushra, is it just the boys? And do they stay in the garden or in the house?"

"Both. They usually have a game in the garden and then come inside. One of the boys' fathers comes too, often. His name is Danish, he teaches at the local high school in Newham."

Lucas looked at her intently. "How often does this man come to your house, Bushra?"

"I think he met my husband about six weeks ago. He came over for lunch, and now he comes often."

"Has he only ever come on Sunday?" Lucas' eyes gleamed. Was this it?

"He was at home for dinner about a week ago. And then he and Amir had coffee in the study."

Ruth interlaced her fingers and leant forward. "What's his last name, Bushra?"

"I don't know. But he teaches Chemistry at the school."

_____

Lucas and Ruth left the room briefly some time later.

"I'll get Tariq on the voiceprint, we need to know if this man on the phone is Danish. Hopefully Ros can get a photo this afternoon and we can verify that this is the guy." Lucas was thoughtful, and made to move upstairs.

"Lucas, I'm not sure this is enough. It can't simply be that Bushra knows this man, surely it would be more than that. That she could point the finger at him as an associate or acquaintance or whatever he is. The boys from the football team can do that too."

Lucas paused but then brushed away the vague unease he felt at Ruth's probing analysis. "Sometimes it's all the justification they need, Ruth, but keep pressing her if you think there's something more."

_____


Ruth continued to talk to Bushra, pushing her for every detail she could remember about their handful of meetings over the last month. What did they talk about at dinner? How much time did the men spend alone in the study? In which language did they commonly converse? It was a quiz result upon which so many lives might depend. And the right answer wasn't just waiting to be read from an index card. But for once, the thrill of the chase was gnawing at Ruth's insides.

"And last Wednesday night? They had coffee in the study?"

"Yes," Bushra groaned. "I brought it to them."

"And this time they were speaking in Arabic? As opposed to the Urdu they usually speak when they are alone together?" Ruth hesitated, wondering how significant this might be. Nothing could be discounted, she reminded herself. Not at this point.

"Yes, I don't use it much myself these days unless I'm with Mother, but it's solid enough."

Ruth permitted herself a smile. Bushra saying she was solid in something meant she was very much still above average. "Did they break off when you entered?" she pressed on.

"Initially. But then Amir sort of waved and they kept talking."

Ruth's eyes glittered, sensing an opening. "What did they say?"

"They were discussing several boys from Danish's school. Their talents, strengths, so forth."

Ruth leaned back into her chair, suppressing the sigh that came unbidden.

"Those boys are boys Amir has been interested in for some time, I have met them. They used to be on the football team he coached, and Danish apparently taught them a few years back. A level students, I believe now. Danish sent Amir an email about them just this week. It seems the boys are to start coaching their own teams early, before school, beginning this week."

The adrenaline coursed through Ruh's veins once again. "What email? How do you know what the boys are doing?"

"Amir and I have a joint account, we share....."

Lucas re-entered the room, and a jumpy Ruth simply looked at him. He knew immediately that she was close, that look of the hunter was common to all Spooks, no matter their department. It was the look of recognition as a trail turned hot, as the realization came home that perhaps these endless hours of talk might actually lead somewhere.

"We might have something. Bushra, you opened an email. For whom? And from whom?"

"It was to Amir, from Danish. I didn't recognize the sender's address, so I opened it."

Lucas got there first. "The contents, Bushra. The details."

Bushra swallowed. "It was just about the boys playing football." (Lucas glanced at Ruth; she shook her head slightly, not wanting to interrupt Bushra in the flow of revelation.) "It had three locations, one in central London, the others.....I'm not sure, I can't remember."

"The boys, Bushra. What are their names?" Lucas asked quickly.

______


Ruth hurried upstairs while Lucas remained with Bushra, trying to get her to remember what she had seen. She burst into Harry's office as of old, not pausing to knock. Harry looked up expectantly, almost smiling at the old familiarity of her action.

"I think we have it, Harry."

Even as he felt relief that this might turn out better than had hoped, Harry couldn't help but appreciate Ruth's excitement. Her flushed cheeks and gabbled speech made her so lovely, so young. She positively sparkled when moments like these came her way. He became alert to her words.

"It seems that Danish and Amir have recruited students from Newham _______ in order to carry out attacks. We have names, but not locations, but we should be able to retrieve them if we can get to the house while Amir and Danish are meeting later today. We can do it, Harry. Lucas and I can do it, we'll go together with Bushra and get the locations, but it looks like it's meant to take place tomorrow."

Harry smiled briefly, it sounded promising and he told her so, cautiously. "But why do you need to go with Lucas? And why Bushra too?"

"Oh," Ruth paused, realising she had missed a step. "The laptop is fingerprint and eye scan protected so we need Bushra."

"Fancy."

"Well, yes. Protective of personal security certainly. Lucas will be outside for us, and Bushra has no idea how to use a USB and we need to copy of his email, as well as whatever other intelligence we can get. We can't pass up an opportunity to crack into his personal laptop, Harry. This is his PRIVATE account. We never had access to that when we were building the initial profile. Who knows how far or deep his contacts go, or if indeed this is the only cell? And what if there is a code used for the locations? It makes sense......"

"For you to go, I agree. It is the most sensible solution, and we're badly stretched. This way we get a headstart and maybe get further into Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen. And she saw this email?"

"Yes, we think this is why she was meant to be killed. He was apparently very angry when he discovered that she had opened it, but then suddenly dismissed the subject and said no more about it. Has the morgue guy contacted Amir to confirm that it was her in the car?"

Harry nodded. "Tariq caught the morgue call and then was on the call to the-man-we-think-is-Danish about half an hour ago. We still couldn't get a trace on the call, which means Ros and Wendy are definitely on reconnaissance this afternoon, I want a look at the bastard. And then maybe we can put a picture in front of Bushra and get strict confirmation that this is him. She never recognized the voice on the phone, did she?"

"No. But her ear isn't the best, it never has been. What time do they meet? And do we know where or is it still the 'usual place'?"

Harry smiled at the off-hand reference to the life Ruth and her friend had once shared. It was so like her to remember the small details about how a person learned and remembered. "5pm. We don't know where, so no, Ros and Wendy will have to get as close as they can and use their considerable brains to good effect. Find out whether Bushra knows what type of car the man drives."

Ruth nodded eagerly. "We'll make sure that we're there ready to go at the house as soon as we can. And afterwards I'll send Lucas back with the memory stick to get Tariq started and drop Bushra off myself."

Harry looked up quickly from the file he was now skimming - he had not trusted himself to maintain eye contact with Ruth any longer without wondering whether her lips were as soft as he remembered from that one, sad kiss so very long ago. "You'll be careful, Ruth. Make sure you change cars and....."

She laughed a little. "Harry, I can manage counter surveillance. I did well on that part, or at least, I got better at it." She walked toward the door but turned back as she slid the door open. "Thanks Harry. I'll get Lucas to talk me through it before we leave. Just in case. You never know who's watching the watchers. You might have someone from Section ___ checking up on me, making sure I'm doing allright since...." she faltered. She had not mentioned her return in some time, and certainly never mentioned Cyprus.

"I have no doubt, Ruth. If I was checking up on you, it wouldn't be for that." He couldn't resist watching her flush slightly, just as she caught the glint in his eye as she quickly turned and hurried away.

_____


It had been a long afternoon, and as Ros and Wendy tailed the black Audi, three others waited down the street from Bushra's former home. The anxious mother had spent the last few hours asking the same question every way possible - where is my son and is he safe? His whereabouts were unknown and they had not made anything beyond basic enquiries so far; to do so would only alert Amir's family, and who knew how far this went? Who knew if the boy was even with relatives? For now, they waited in tense silence, waiting for Ros to tell them that Amir had stopped.

Ros glanced down at Wendy's heel shod feet below the passenger seat. She didn't like to entrust the driving to anyone she did not know absolutely. "I understand, I wear heels too, but I'm not sure they're exactly running shoes. This isn't a chick flick."

Wendy shrugged. Ros' cynicism didn't bother her, this was the Section Chief's manner of small-talk. "One of us will be staying with the car, I'm guessing. And I'm fairly confident you won't let me make the approach or take the picture. So even if I couldn't run in them, which I can, there's no need, is there?"

Ros almost smiled through her annoyance. She could see why Lucas liked her.

"The even-if technique. Works every time." Wendy followed up her advantage, not quite realising she had pushed her luck as much as Ros would tolerate for now, The older woman opened her mouth to retort, but closed it again as Amir took a sudden turn into a sidetreet.

"Damn. No public meeting then." Ros stopped the car and barrelled out, grabbing the paparazzi worthy camera with her as she went, concealed in a doctor's bag. Wendy slid over awkwardly into the driver's seat and switched on her comms headset.

"Bravo One, target has stopped. Proceed as planned."

____


Bushra pressed her index finger to the scan pad, and then crouched in front of the webcam that provided the eye scan. Ruth set about getting what she needed, while Bushra looked silently around. Nothing was different, nothing that would indicate that Amir had told people she was dead. He really must be against her.

Ruth was in the email already, and downloading the contents as swiftly as possible. She made a separate file for the email in question; thankfully it was only sitting in the trash folder and not deleted completely. It was a matter of minutes to download the contents of the hard-drive, and then only a few more as she deleted the history and covered her tracks. Amir would have to look very hard for evidence of intrusion to find what smear of data remained of their theft.

Lucas popped in just as they were shutting it down. "Ros has a picture. She's going to try and get some audio as well, but you two should get going if you have everything. Ros and Wendy will meet you at the safe house to show you the picture and confirm whether Danish is the man or not as soon as they're free."

Ruth slipped him the USB. "For Tariq. No codes that I can tell."

The two women hurried out, leaving Lucas to lock the door behind them. They left in the discreet navy blue Mazda, not noticing the silver Lexus that trailed after them. Nor did Lucas see it with his back to the street, as it was on the other side of the small landscaped strip with tall trees that lined the wide road. He left in the other car around the corner, without a tail as Ruth and Bushra drove on toward the safe house that was now Bushra's sanctuary.

______


"No audio," Ros grumbled, getting into the car. "But a nice picture I got from the top of an adjacent wall. I've missed my calling, it seems."

"They left a few minutes ago," Wendy replied. "Lucas sent the girls on their way more than ten minutes ago, so even with counter-surveillance, they'll be there by the time we get there."

They were unhurried as they drove, hitting some traffic as peak-hour hit the city outskirts. There was no urgency in their approach. But as they walked down the alley into the former shop's entrance, the door ajar signalled something badly wrong. Guns drawn, the women crept in, only to discover an empty house and an overturned lamp. Wendy immediately tried Ruth's phone, only to discover it was switched off. Ros swallowed hard and spoke to Tariq directly.

"Bravo Two, get Harry. The safe house has been compromised. Ruth and Bushra aren't here. Someone's onto us."

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Please don't kill me! Leave a review!

[almh]

Why can't we kill you? I'm only kidding, that was mean, totally utterly mean... But still, really good

[kirmostar]

thrilling stuff I can picture everything so vividly! encore encore!!!

[Silktie]

Argh! Poor Ruth! Poor Harry! You build up tension really well. At least I now know why they were after Bushra. But please don't harm Ruth, she needs to be in good nick for the reunion scene with Harry...

[JHyde]

I'm sorry it took so long to find out why Bushra was being hunted. But I couldn't get it in the last chapter though I tried, so I settled for a really long chapter to get the rest of the hype or exposition out of the way.

It's mainly action from here on in. And possibly other stuff as well.

[Beatriz]

JHyde this is sooo good!! You're a talented girl!!

Love Harry's scent memories

JHyde Wrote:he had not trusted himself to maintain eye contact with Ruth any longer without wondering whether her lips were as soft as he remembered from that one, sad kiss so very long ago.

snif snif *wiping tears* So sweet

[YourFutureMuse]

LOVE IT!! But soon as though it is such a cruel cliffhanger I think you need to get the next chapter written sharpish

[Tea Lady]

I am holding back my +rep to see what happens between R/H....if anything.....

[wezyjugz]

Fantastic writing such suspence. I'm freaking out now please update soon

[JHyde]

wezyjugz, you're a recruit. Do you want to suggest a word for the next chapter?

Thanks for the props, guys.