Ruth's Diary - No.11 (3.1)

[JHyde]

Sorry it's late guys. Please review x

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[9th July 2004]

The last thing Zoe told me yesterday before Mace hung up my phone was to tell Harry. Of course, I knew this needed to be done, but he was in Surrey and in hospital, so I wanted to give him the extra day to recover. Mace couldn't do anything more yesterday anyway. I went in early this morning and the door was locked with a man of Mace's outside - Harry looked terrible. It was a serious trauma surgery he had to undergo and according to the one doctor I was permitted to speak with, he is recovering remarkably well for his age and health. But I couldn't get in to see him.

So I turned to tradecraft and looked for a pretty, young nurse who might be susceptible to a bit of bribery and a sweet tale of office romance. I convinced her that Harry and I were lovers and that I needed to get a note to him. Two spies in love at the office and fifty quid didn't quite do the trick. So, surprising even myself, I lied further. 'I'm having his child,' I said! It worked and Harry received a note scrawled in Morse code instead of badly scrambled powdered eggs for breakfast. I didn't want a code I could mess up in a hurry and he might misread in his drugged stupor.

Once I got back to London, Danny called me and said to meet at the stomping ground. We managed to grab some time together, on the sly though it was. I went by changing taxis a few times and there we all were - Zoe, Danny, Malcolm, Sam and I. Our problem is that Mace is a man of considerable power and influence and no doubt has Downing St in his pocket. I heard nasty stories about him even back at GCHQ - some four years ago in Kosovo, 3 Serb agents died in detention and it was covered up. He's also a little too keen on torture for my liking.

We were interrupted by a spook disguised as a tramp (someone sent by Harry?) letting us know that Sam was bugged and goons were on the way. Whoever he was, he was our guardian angel and we managed to get away in time. That left Zoe and Danny to see what they could convince Christine Dale to give up. We had barely managed to decide that our best option in this mess was to clear Tom of any wrong-doing when our friendly tramp rolled over and broke us up.

I'm still curious as to who our mystery man was.


[10th July 2004]


My little charade at the hospital worked. Harry had to sign all sorts of forms and get checked out by all sorts of doctors, as he was leaving against medical advice. But then there he was, kicking Mace out of his assumed office and arguing violently for us, for our Service while in pain and half dressed. The whole Section (and most of E as well) stood ranged around the office staring in at Harry's fishbowl of an office while they bellowed at each other. We're lucky to have a lion like Harry brawling on our side.


After Mace was ignominiously kicked out by Harry, Malcolm and I started to tell Harry about our tramp with the blessed timing from yesterday afternoon. Speak of the tramp and he doth appear - it turns out that our tramp is a man from Six called Adam Carter. Harry managed to contact him yesterday afternoon and had him watch the watchers so that we weren't disciplined to being in contact while suspended. Adam's an interesting man who couldn't be more different from Tom. Laidback, with an insouciant charm that really suits him, Adam thinks our best chance of fighting Mace is to prove Tom innocent. Unsurprisingly, this plan of attack is very attractive to most of us and it's an attitude Mace and his cronies would do well to adopt.

Harry looked like he was in a dreadful amount of pain and was a total misery guts all day. Not that any of us blame him. Until this matter is dealt with, he's threatening no sleep for any of us. We all know him well enough to know that's it not a hollow cry.

[20th July 2004]

Late last night Hermann Joyce was dropped off outside Thames House, by Tom we presume. But he wasn't telling us anything, not just because he has a grudge against Five, but also because he was dead. This time for real.

Tom's claim that it was a set-up is looking more and more likely. I spent some time investigating Tom's history with the Joyces and it is horribly sad. The daughter, Lisa, was recruited by Tom to infiltrate an anarchist cell and she was tortured. To the degree that she now exists in a catatonic state in a home in Maine.

Ugly, awful truths today about this job I do.

[21st July 2004]

Tom casually dropped in on Zoe and Danny last night. Apart from smelling and looking terrible in his current disguise as a tramp, he also handed over Hermann Joyce's mobile. Thanks to Malcolm, we had decoded messages between Joyce and his wife Carmen that confirm she was part of it all. So we're getting the wife to London (by texting her, pretending to be Hermann) to try and find the truth that might save Tom and our Section. And possibly the Service too.

Adam and Harry have this begrudging but very real respect for the Joyces. Real, old school spies. But rogue spies aren't anyone's idea of a good thing and these two have managed to destroy quite a few lives in the process of them turning bad.

[22nd July 2004]

We managed to lure Carmen Joyce to London and she arrived today, taking various routes to her eventual destination, the Portman Hotel. Unfortunately, Mace had his band all over the Hotel so the best we could do was to make sure that neither he or us were able to pull her in.

The good news was that once Mrs Joyce left the hotel (for their very own safe house, it turns out!) she stepped into one of the spook taxis I've set up over the last few months. Harry was wretchedly confused when I told him in the heat of the moment and I suppose it is a bit unorthodox but it's so much cheaper than hiring cars. He dismissed it as inititative and we were able to follow her to Peckham, where her hidey-hole was.

We had the flat surrounded by Special Forces but that wasn't going to secure Tom's bill of freedom. So Adam went in and managed to coax Carmen into revealing all the master plan as it ran to digital recording. Adam is very impressive, very direct with his lies and he's not easy to wrongfoot. It wasn't quite as simple as telling Carmen that both Hermann and Tom were dead, but that was the gist of it. So simple, and yet it was a ploy that saved us all, especially Tom. Joyce knew the only way out was to take her own life or else face an American jail for the rest of her life. So suicide it was.

Harry was livid Mace had managed to get hold of her location. We still don't know how he managed that one.

[24th July 2004]

It turns out that it was Christine Dale who tipped Mace of about the location. Tom saw her a few days ago and she must have been wearing a wire after all. Poor Tom.

Harry is interested in how I recruited the 'spook taxis' and wants to see how far we can go with them. There are rumours of a bigger program, whatever that means.

Reading back on the entries of these last few weeks makes me realise how many synonyms for 'goons' I really need in this job. That is surely not something they tell you in basic training.

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[Tea Lady]

Ha ha, What has Ruth started with her Spook Taxis. She's learning quick. She certainly was concerned about Harry but also Tom.

Good entry.

[Aria]

Great entry JHyde, you convey Ruth's concerns for both Harry and Tom brilliantly. One typo that I noticed, in paragraph 4 you refer to Christine Dale as Christine Quinn.

[JHyde]

Yeah sorry, I just had that pointed out.

Sorry, I'm not usually so dense.

[lwhite53]

Great entry -- loved the idea of how many ways are there to say "goon." And the spook taxis, of course!

[Silktie]

Great chapter. I think you capture well how Harry is slowly growing in importance in Ruth's conscience, but that she at this stage believes it's just professional respect that she has for him. Although she did notice he was only half-dressed, great touch. Also liked her first impressions of Adam, as she did seem the one to accept him the quickest after Tom left.

You also captured the essence of Ruth quite well, as at this stage of her career she has that wonderful compassion for her colleagues, but are perhaps a little less concerned with the fall-out of what they do as she becomes later on.