Ruth's Diary - No.12 (3.2)

[Beatriz]

Sorry for the delay guys, again...

Thanks to JHyde for all her help with the entries, very much appreciated.

**********Spoilers for 3.02 ***********

[23rd August 2004]

I've just come back from a few days off. Harry practically had to push me out the door (I am still wondering what he wanted to do so urgently that needed me out from under his feet). So I went to Cornwall and spent some time with Sall from uni. We were both classics tutors while I was doing my Masters. It was so lovely to chat about nothing. I know it wasn't really about nothing., it was all sorts of things that are important to both of us, but they seem insignificant when contrasted with the things I usually talk about at work.

It was hot and sunny while I was there and I took lots of walks down by the beach, where the water still managed to be chilly. The sand massaged my feet and the children played and it was though the world of the Grid was far away....

When I came back, everyone said how rested I looked. I know this is something people always say to those who have been on holiday but it really sounded like they were being genuine. Maybe I was frothing at the mouth before they sent me. I returned to a strange request: the BBC (via Oxford) invited me to take part in a special edition of University Challenge. I wasn't wild at the prospect anyway, and fortunately for me Harry knocked it back almost immediately. Backstage hand though I am, there's a visibility that goes with such an appearance that could cause trouble for me, not to mention that awkward questions would be raised. I don't mean, of course, the questions on the show, but rather questions about what I do for a living these days. When I bumbled my way through the sentence I've just written verbally, Danny made a joke about being disappointed that he wouldn't get to see me stumped for a change. I think we'll have to make a night of it when it airs just so I can prove him wrong! Dear Danny, he's having a rough time of it with Zoe playing oblivious to his feelings. Not that I blame her - what else is she meant to do if she doesn't feel the same way?

I don't think it mattered so much that some of us having been ducking away for long weekends. The Grid is pretty light on the work at the moment. We're mostly worried about illegals and suspicious looking tourists.


[5th October 2004]

Tom has just returned from Maine, where Lisa Joyce lives in a catatonic state after all she suffered. Harry sent him to see her, although what he hoped to achieve by doing so I have no idea. Tom seems different since he came back. More emotionally fragile than ever.

Operation Meter (otherwise known as my recruitment of London taxi drivers) has been expanded into a proper program, with discreet advertisements planted in various publications. I have some misgivings about the size of such a program, but I'm excited to see where this op might go. It can only be a greater success than my turning spy for Five against GCHQ once Tom found about my being a plant.

[8th October 2004]

This last week has been all about Operation Flytrap, in response to evidence that an unknown terrorist group is attempting to make an atomic bomb but having difficulty with a trigger. Because all of the groups we monitor have no access to nuclear material right about now, we're somewhat blind on this one. We plan to draw them out by putting it about that Red Mercury has been made and available for sale.

The first step was easy enough to accomplish, with Harry and Tom blowing a hole in the side of an apartment block. I think they rather enjoyed it actually. The story fed to the press was that two bombers made a mess of things after playing about with our magic potion - although we didn't spell it out quite so clearly.

The second step was Harry awakening a sleeper he recruited twenty years or so ago, a chemical engineer with great promise and of great ambition. Since Fred Roberts was adopted by the Service he has had his path smoothed and doors opened, all unbeknownst to him. But now his Mephistopheles is calling in his Faustian debt and Roberts is to pretend that he is rogue and capable of creating Red Mercury. Roberts wasn't mad about the idea (he strikes me as the vain type who agreed in his twenties for a bit of fun and excitement) but he agreed lest the Service destroy his life as easily as they helped him build it.

We have painted Roberts as a problem gambler, temporarily draining his bank accounts and falsifying records everywhere. Tom tested him early on (making him lie to his wife about their finances, a test which he passed) but perversely seemed to take pleasure in his distress and that of Helen Roberts too. I'm concerned about Tom. He swings between over-concern for assets and completely the opposite the next minute. I don't know where his head is at right now. But what would I say that Harry and others haven't already noticed for themselves?

[10th October 2004]

Five million dollars for five grams. That's what Roberts was offered today by Lawrence Sayle, a grad student at the college. We're now convinced he's not just a grad student but also a Syrian Intelligence asset. We were lucky Roberts remembered the salient details of the meet as he was severely rattled and he's drinking himself into oblivion now that his wife and daughters are holed up in Leeds. It doesn't help that Mr Sayle let on none too subtly that the family is under threat and will be harmed should the chemical engineer not come good on his promise.

Tom told him we were watching the family, but we can't risk the surveillance at this stage of the operation. On the night of the handover we're expecting something different and we'll make sure they're taken care of. But for now.....

[15th October 2004]

Operation Flytrap was a success, the terrorists specifically of concern captured, Roberts' family safe. But at a great cost. Tom Quinn is no longer a member of Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Tom got cold feet regarding the operation. Tired of lying to Roberts about his family being safe, he made a dash for it last night, bare hours before the takeover. He tried to convince Roberts that it was wrong, all wrong - and only a tip off from Danny and an intuitive Harry meant that the operation was salvaged. So close. It was also close for the family. We placed surveillance on them just prior to the takeover as we had planned of old and that paid off as the handover went slightly wrong and shots were fired on the wife and daughters. Scared but not hurt.

Harry decommissioned Tom at the side of the road. That sentence sounds so wrong and final and it is. He is not the Tom who turned me double agent and helped me stay in Section D. He is not the Tom on whom we have all depended for so long. If I am sad about this, I can only imagine how Zoe and Danny must feel. It must be like a part of them has been wrenched apart, never to be put back together.

We watched him, all of us, not saying goodbye as he packed what little of his personal life was on his desk into a small box. He sealed parts of his Service identities into other small boxes and tossed them into the bag the guard waited with. Boxes. It's all we are in this job, just bits and pieces packed up and sealed away. Tom understood that well, better than I do. So far.

I can't believe he won't be there tomorrow. Adam doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but I'm reluctant to think of Tom's job being done by anyone else. At least for tonight.

[Aria]

Great entry Beatriz. Loved all the Ruth background you put in - her holiday in Cornwall and University Challenge. It all helps add greater depth to her character. You've captured Ruth's anguish at Tom's leaving beautifully and her realisation of the toll the service takes from its agents. Loved the boxes line at the end.

[Tea Lady]

loved the University Challenge part. Was that invented or did you read that in one of the various Spooks books?

Good entry.

[Aria]

(15-04-2010 10:57 AM)Tea Lady Wrote:  loved the University Challenge part. Was that invented or did you read that in one of the various Spooks books?

It was mentioned in Spooks: The Personnel Files.

[lwhite53]

This is great Beatriz -- we get so much about Ruth and her observations about other members of the team. Really liked the image that Tom's leaving left Danny and Zoe somehow incomplete. And those boxes, pieces of one's life compartmentalized and kept away from each other. Wonderful stuff.

[Silktie]

Lovely entry, it's nice to get some bits that doesn't have to do with work. Loved the fact that she suspects Harry is up to something because he forced her to go on holiday - that's typical Ruth, hee! Haven't read the personnel files so the stuff about University Challenge was nice to learn. I like that you give us a view of what Ruth may have been thinking about everything that is happening at work.

[Beatriz]

Yes, it's in the Personnel Files; we try to include some of the things mentioned there and in Harry's Diary.

Thanks for your reviews, thankfully JHyde helped me.