Extraordinary Rendition Part VII

[Silktie]

Tuesday 7 June 2011
London, The Grid

Calum Reed was a brash young man who didn’t scare easily. He was confident in his ability to hold his ground against most other men. However, standing there in front of a furious Harry Pearce, he was afraid. The brown eyes had darkened to a glittering near-black, and there was no trace of mercy to be found in the set features that glowered at him from across the desk. In that moment he was reminded what a hard man his boss was rumoured to be; a man who ruthlessly dealt with those he perceived to be enemies. The thought that he now found himself on that list spurred Calum on to offer a hasty explanation.
“I did my duty! If I know that a current or former officer is betraying us to Al Qaeda, I have an obligation to report it.”
“Yes you do. But not to the bloody Americans! You come to me!”
Sweat began to form on Harry’s upper lip as he struggled not to lose control. He cast around for something to take out his anger on. The only thing within easy reach was the phone, so he grabbed the receiver and smashed it against the edge of the desk. Hard, a couple of times, making Calum flinch away. The sound startled everyone in the outer office into immobility, and all heads turned to Harry’s office. The receiver came apart in his hands and he hurled it away from him in disgust, before sitting down and rubbing his face with both hands.

“Why didn’t you come to me?” he asked after collecting himself.
Calum shifted from one foot to the other. “Everyone knows that you’re unreceptive towards claims that your officers are disloyal to you. I thought...”
Harry lifted his head. “What? What did you think? That I would be more receptive towards your kind of treachery?”
“No!” Calum’s eyes flashed. “I thought that if I let the Americans deal with it, it would spare MI5 from doing so. I know Malcolm Wynn-Jones’ reputation; his betrayal could devastate us.”
“How altruistic.” Harry bit off the words. “Since you’ve arrived here, you have done nothing but promote your own agenda and sow dissension within my team. Forgive me if I regard your excuse with incredulity.”

Calum looked at his shoes. “Look. I know I haven’t been a model team member until now. But I didn’t do it to undermine you, or the team. You must know that your Section is deemed the cream of the crop in MI5, and everyone wants to work here. I thought if I could find some old, dormant operation and resurrect it with a bit of technical wizardry, I’d score points with you. But when I trolled through this Malcolm’s work, I stumbled on a very cleverly hidden back door in the database that didn’t seem to go anywhere. It took me a month to trace it to the server with all the Al Qaeda documents on it.” He paused. “Wynn-Jones is a genius, I’ll give him that.”
When Harry didn’t react to this statement, he continued. “Anyway. I didn’t want to bring it to you because then I would just be the bloke that discovered that Malcolm Wynn-Jones was a traitor. It would stain me for the rest of my career. But if the Americans knew, they would act on it, and it would solve the problem for everyone rather neatly.”

Harry looked past Calum to find Ruth’s eyes on him, obviously concerned about what was going on.
“Except for Malcolm, of course,” he stated wearily.
“What?”
“It worked out neatly for everyone, except Malcolm,” Harry reiterated.
Calum frowned. “But he’s a traitor, he doesn’t deserve our-“
“No.” Standing up to emphasise his point, Harry glared at Calum. “Malcolm is not a traitor. What you stumbled on was an operation to penetrate Al Qaeda electronically. If you hadn’t gone off half-cocked instead of checking with me, you would have known that. Instead, you caused an innocent man to be snatched from his home and lumped in with terrorists.”
Calum paled. “But there was no official paperwork, nothing to indicate that it was a sanctioned operation.”
This time he received a pitying look from his boss. “If you think everything we do here is officially sanctioned, you’re going to be severely disillusioned.”
Harry paused for emphasis. “And that’s why you bloody well check with me before you do anything rash, like hand information over to the Americans.”
“Oh, shit.” Calum sank down on one of the visitors’ chairs, and Harry let him be.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. There was no indication...”
“Yes, well, you were right about one thing: Malcolm is a genius,” Harry stated mercilessly. “In fact, I’m surprised that you were even able to find that back door and server.”
He scrutinised the dumbfounded techie in front of him speculatively. “The fact that you did find it speaks well for your own talent. We can use that to help Malcolm. We need to prove that it was set up as a trap for Al Qaeda, and I want you to do it.”
Calum’s head snapped up. “Me?”
“Yes. You got him into this mess, and you will get him out of it. There are only a few hours remaining before Malcolm will be handed over to their Military Intelligence, who will fly him God knows where to be tortured, and we need to get the proof before that happens. So why don’t you go back to your desk, and prove to me how much you want to remain in this Section.”
With a determined look, Calum straightened up. “I will.”
“One more thing.” Harry’s voice had dropped to a low, no-nonsense tone. “If you ever act in a threatening manner towards any of the others again, you are out. Do you understand?”
Calum swallowed. There would be no second chances on this point, he realised. “Yes Harry.”
Harry nodded dismissively, not looking at him as he exited the office.

His mind had already moved on to other things, and he reached for his phone, only to find the receiver missing.
“Oh shag,” he muttered, before heaving himself to his feet and striding to the door.
“Erin! Dimitri!” he yelled, and moved back to his desk.
They appeared sharply.
“There is a possibility that Malcolm may be moved from the Embassy in the early morning hours. I want you to draw up a plan to snatch him back from the Americans.”
The two field officers looked at each other in astonishment. Dimitri recovered first and a slow, delighted smile spread over his face.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Harry confirmed.
He heard Dimitri laugh as they exited his office and proclaim to Erin, “This is a great job.”
Harry couldn’t help but smile to himself at that.

He followed them to the outer office and explained briefly what was going on to the rest of the team. He did not tell them that Calum had given the information on Malcolm to the Americans, only that it had been an operation from some time ago that the Americans got hold of and misinterpreted. When he’d finished, Tariq got up and followed Calum back to their workstation. In response to the other man’s surprised expression, he shrugged, “I’ll help you. We have a better chance of figuring something out together.”
Ruth and Harry smiled at each other, almost like proud parents. Remembering something else, Harry leaned in towards Ruth.
“Erm, could you perhaps ask Maintenance to come and replace my phone? It seems to be broken.”
She squashed a smile and nodded, then stopped him from walking off with a hand on his arm. “You okay? Is it only the phone that’s broken?”
He enjoyed her touch, and wondered fleetingly if people would find it strange if he should remain standing there for a long time to keep on enjoying it. As always, she calmed him by her mere presence.
“I’m fine. Only the phone’s broken,” he assured her with a gentle smile.
“Good,” she said and trailed her hand down his arm before removing it slowly.
Harry went back to his office with a lighter step.

* * *

Same day, 19:00

When Ruth entered, Harry looked up expectantly.
“Any progress?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
He got up and moved to the glass wall, observing the two heads bent over the same terminal, one dark and one blond. “How’s it going between those two?”
“They’re working well together, bouncing ideas off each other without resorting to shouting,” she smiled as she came to stand next to him.
“Hmm. Calum has the makings of a genius, if he can be steered to apply his talents in the right direction,” he commented lightly.
Ruth studied him, surprised. “You’re thinking of keeping him on the team?”
Harry turned his head to her. “How would you feel about that?” he asked in lieu of answering her question.
“It doesn’t matter what I feel about it,” she returned somewhat shortly. “You must do what you think is best for the team.”
His eyes searched her face intently.
“It matters to me, Ruth,” he responded softly.

She looked at him sharply and their eyes held. There was such respect and adoration in those gentle eyes that she faltered, and swallowed down the rebuke that was on the tip of her tongue.
“It shouldn’t,” she said lamely in the end.
He turned towards her and slipped his hands into his pockets before he indulged in the strong urge to touch her. “I know. But it does, and I can’t change that.”
When she glanced away uncomfortably, he moved off abruptly and took himself behind his desk. He was a fool for continuing to butt his head against her defences, he knew, but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to let it go. She still had feelings for him, he could sense it, and as long as that was the case he would not settle for anything less; anyone less than this brilliant and compassionate woman he was so deeply in love with.
“I trust your judgement, Ruth. I always have, and it has nothing to do with the way I feel about you.” He sounded defensive, which annoyed him.
“What did you want?” he asked wearily.
Ruth stood by the glass wall and watched him as he bent his head over the papers on his desk and refused to look at her. Her eyes travelled over his familiar features, mapping every line on his face. She had been thinking about the way she felt about him ever since their early morning discussion on the bench. There was no denying it: she loved him. The feeling coursed through her anew and she was powerless against it. His determination to save Malcolm had once again highlighted all the qualities she so admired in him, and which had made her fall in love with him in the first place. Perhaps it was that which had finally convinced her that those qualities outweighed the choices he’d made that she did not agree with. Or perhaps she was just ready to let go of her own guilt, to start living again. Either way, as she stood watching him, she was filled with an overwhelming desire to get to know all of him, in both the emotional and physical sense.
Taking a deep breath, she plunged in. “I wanted to ask if you would have dinner with me when this is over.”
His head jerked up incredulously, as though he thought he’d heard wrong; but upon seeing the truth in her eyes, his expression changed to one of cautious joy.

* * *

Same day, 23:00
US Embassy

Malcolm was dragged from a fitful sleep by the door of his cell clanging open. The brightness of the lights dazzled him momentarily as he sat up and involuntarily pressed himself back into the wall. The scrape of a chair made him open his eyes, to find the tall CIA
officer seated in front of him and regarding him quizzically. The American did not speak and the seconds ticked by ponderously.
“Hello,” Malcolm finally ventured, at a loss as to what else to say to fill the silence. Almost immediately Harry’s voice spoke up in his head.
One of the most effective techniques of interrogation is silence. Most people can’t stand it, and feel the urge to say something, anything, to fill it. Once you get them talking, it is easier to manipulate the conversation and trick them into revealing things they don’t want to. The ones that never say a word are much harder to break.
Crestfallen, he contemplated the fact that he had stumbled at the first hurdle, and resolved to do better.

Beecher continued his study of the man in front of him. “I have to admit that you seem the least likely of terror suspects. But looks can be deceiving, as we all know.”
Malcolm clamped his mouth firmly shut, determined not to utter another word.
When he got no response, Beecher shrugged and got up. “I’m sorry, but you’re to be handed over to Military Intelligence in an hour’s time. I can’t stall them any longer.”
The blood drained from Malcolm’s face and he watched mutely as the man walked out the door. He wanted to throw himself at Beecher and cling to his legs whilst pleading with him not to do it. But he didn’t, and he felt slightly better about himself for at least hanging onto his dignity for the time being.

* * *

24:05

“YES!!!”
Calum’s shout brought everyone running. He looked at Harry with gleaming eyes. “We’ve done it. We can prove the server was set up as a trap for Al Qaeda.”
He launched into a technical explanation, but his boss was no longer listening. Harry had already reached for his mobile and called Beecher, not caring about the late hour. Beecher answered promptly, which set off the warning bells in Harry’s head.
“I have proof that Malcolm is innocent. It was all part of a top secret operation to penetrate Al Qaeda electronically.”
The line crackled with ominous silence in his ear. Harry cast a worried glance at Ruth.
“Beecher?”
The American’s voice finally answered, laced with regret.
“I’m sorry, Sir Harry. Military Intelligence left with your man five minutes ago. You’re too late.”

tbc

[A Cousin]

Well, shoot! I was hoping that Malcolm would be released in this chapter so he could bang Harry and Ruth's heads together! Where are Erin and Dimitri with the snatch-back plan when you need them?

Favorite bits:

- Calum's naivety. I thought he might be a straight-forward baddie but you turned it. It's better this way.
- The way Harry turned Calum and made him want to earn Harry's respect. Harry's the master!
- Dimitri's reaction to Harry's request to put a plan in place to get Malcolm back. Proof again that it does not take much to define all of the characters. They don't have to have a big revelatory scene. They just have to react to the situation at hand honestly.
- Harry realizing that he can't make a phone call because he busted his phone. LOL!
- Malcolm trying so hard to do the right thing in that situation. Malcolm has reserves of bravery that even he is not aware of. I hope he gets to use it?

[beatrice4ruth]

Once again, Harry gives a chance to a team member, cocky Calum, to redeem himself. You have to admire Harry for his open-mindedness and for taking risks with his staff. The cold fury of Harry is pretty frightening.

The description of Harry’s feelings toward Ruth is so touching and so true. I am glad that Ruth is finally accepting her love for Harry and is ready ”to get to know all of him, in both the emotional and physical sense…”

I am very worried about Malcolm, who is so courageous in a quiet way. Section D has to save him from the shameful policy of rendition.

Thank you for a great story, an exciting mixture of espionage and human relationships.

[DogSoSmall]

(13-07-2011 01:19 PM)A Cousin Wrote:  Where are Erin and Dimitri with the snatch-back plan when you need them?

They'll be there. Now that Harry has reeled in both Erin and Callum they'll be an unstoppable team.

My favourite bits? - All of it. I think it does you a disservice to call your stories fanfic, Silktie. They are starting to simply be additional episodes to me! I can picture them so well, and the characterisation is so perfect it never hits that false clanging note that so many stories do. Honestly, I think you could keep us happy until Series 10 starts if you can keep coming up with these.

[thegrandtour]

I really would want to see all this on screen! The scene with Calum, Malcolm's fear in his cell, Harry and Ruth getting closer. That would be a great script to see on the screen.

I must admit one thing though: I hope you didn't hear a few expletives along with "nooooooo" and "arrrrrrgggggg" at the reading of the last line!

Hope you won't leave Malcolm and your readers in misery for too long!

Thanks again for another great chapter.

[pookster]

Blimey ... this is so good. Calum's arrogance being stripped away by Harry. And Harry's ability to tear the idiot apart and then motivate him to help Malcolm. Amazing writing and perfectly IC. And its great to see Ruth admit and get closer to Harry. But I'm fearful for Malcolm.

More please

[Tea Lady]

Loved the Harry/Calum moments in this chapter. I could see it all in my minds eye.

The Harry and Ruth moments were nicely done too. Very realistic. Perhaps Harry should have smashed his desk up a few years ago if the result was getting a date.

Come on Malcolm, hold on!!

[Sparky]

Loved this chapter, Harry was awesome as always and glad to see Ruth finally taking the initiative with him! I'm hoping Malcolm will be rescued soon hopefuuly with Dimitri and Erin snatching him back from underneath the Americans noses.

As others have said, this would make a fantastic 'real life' episode of Spooks!