Ruth's Diary - No.23 (4.4)

[JHyde]

A shorter entry than usual about episode 4.4. Also includes Harry's 50th.

Please review!

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[11th October 2005]

We all knew it was only a matter of time before Juliet really started throwing her weight around. We lured Mohammad Yazdi, a known Al Kahf bomber, to Britain in the hopes of turning him as a double agent for us and revealing the Al Kahf cell we believed did exist among us. But it was all a trap, an intricate trap, laid by Yazdi himself, so that he might be put in a room with Prince Hakim (the heir to the Behar throne), whom he claimed was masterminding the whole affair. But it was really so that Yazdi might have the means and opportunity to kill him.

Which is what happened, ruthlessly and in the most brutal way possible. Yazdi murdered the Prince with his own glasses, removed only for a moment. It was positively grotesque.

It was Juliet who ordered the Prince be interrogated by Yazdi, who we believed had been turned double agent for us. In fact it was Juliet who ordered us into the mission in the first place, one which surely stepped on the toes of Six while we were at it. The only really successful thing about the mission was the breaking open of an illegal immigration ring that was run by the Prince and that's not even within our purview.

Yazdi has fundamental Muslim objections to sheikhs who live one way at home and then another in Britain. Hakim was his sole target. It was as much a slap in the face of Britain's alliance with the regimes these men represent. We're now cleaning up the mess but this one wasn't easy to hide.

Adam was a huge part of this operation. He was the one who suggested going in undercover to try and turn Yazdi. It was a risk that we originally thought had paid dividends and for Harry the prospect of recruiting a double agent was too much to turn down. Adam can be very reckless but I think a big part of the reason he went in on this one was that he's an eternal optimist, despite everything he's seen and done in this line of work. That's really something to admire. I know Fiona worries about him terribly - he's always the one to take on the risky assignments, there's a real pride he gets from it. But Danny's fate makes me tremble.

The main thing that worries me from this last mission was what Yazdi would have done without us to bring him in it. His sole objective would surely have remained the Prince, I wonder how he would have gained access to him without us giving him a free pass into the interrogation room. We've had a look at security for all Arab dignitaries in the last 24 hours, I would hate to think there are more attacks like this one to come. We're not responsible for them, yet it will fall to us to safeguard them from men like Yazdi.


[21st October 2005]

I did some digging on Juliet today. Harry upgraded my security clearance for a few hours to do something completely different and after everything that happened a few weeks back I decided to be disingenuous and check out her history. I wanted to understand her better.

I wasn't prepared to discover that she and Harry had an affair more than 25 years ago. I wasn't prepared for that at all.

I gave Harry the intel he had asked me to look for and he was very pleased as it proved him right about something Mace is up to. I can't remember the last time he was so pleased about something and he had me come with him to brief Juliet and I couldn't look her in the eye. It's difficult enough to do that at regular times without finding out this stuff on her just beforehand.

Juliet's good looking and clever and ruthless and I suppose it's not really all that surprising. It all happened around a mission of dubious worth and origin and perhaps it was all just an escape for him.

But still. An affair. With Juliet.


[1st November 2005]

It was Harry's fiftieth birthday today and I gave him four bottles of Glenlivit with the letters of my name spelled out on the bottles. I would have liked to give him something more personal but perhaps that would be inappropriate. Well, more inappropriate than what it was. As well as the fact that Harry is difficult to get to know that closely.

He smiled his thanks to me in the conference room later on, in much the same way I thanked him for his gift back in April. It's a strange dynamic we have going for us, here at work. I never quite know what to think.

[Tea Lady]

I liked the acknowledgment here that the op was stepping on the toes of Six. Also, is Ruth being totally truthful in her diary about her reasons for snooping into Juliet's background? I wonder. Ruth surely must have had an inkling that there was something more to Harry and Juliet's relationship.

Wish we got to see the whiskey scene and Harry's face when he found the bottles. I can use my imagination though.

Lovely entry.

[JHyde]

The way I imagined Ruth finding out is actually as straightforward as I make it here. I think she went digging for what Juliet's history said about her and found out something else altogether.

We have no indication from any spin off publication or from the show that Ruth knew. But with Ruth's talents for finding stuff out, I think she would have.

[Silktie]

Another great entry. Interesting concept about Ruth finding out about the affair. Her reaction to that and her admission that she doesn't quite know what to think about her and Harry's "dynamic" sets up what happens in 4.5 nicely, I think. It seems she is beginning to get ready to admit to herself that she has a thing for him.

[A Cousin]

Damn! FOUR bottles of Glenlivet? How do I get Ruth to fall in love with me? I could use four bottles of the 12 or 18 year single malt, please.

I really, really dig that she has not fully twigged re: her feelings about Harry yet. Its all there, they just can't/won't/haven't seen it yet.

Good old Ruth! She has to make a conscious decision to be disingenuous. Would the whole world were so naturally forthright! She and Harry are well matched in their sense of integrity.

Good observation about Adam as the reckless optimist. Spot on!

I really need to read Harry's Diary at some point really soon because I have a question. I assume Harry's Diary mentions his 50th birthday occurring in S4? The S1 DVD special features I have dates him as 52. Not that it really matters. Just curious.

[JHyde]

There are some major continuity errors between all the spin off publications and the show itself. We've usually tried to make the best of it and get as close as we can to agreement.

My fave mistake re: Harry's birthday is that it is supposedly on the last day of 2.8's mission but is totally in the wrong month. It is from Harry's Diary that I lifted his telling of finding the bottles. Pretty pricey present even if it wasn't terribly personal!

It's worth getting, A Cousin. I'm fairly confident that Neil Cross did the ghostwriting and there's some really good bits in there that add a lot to the overall picture of Harry that we have, though there are bits I'm not crazy about. If you do decide to buy it, please buy it from the Spooks forum shop as a tiny percentage of the payment goes towards forum costs.

Also, if you do get it, we have a thread especially dedicated to discussing it. We'd love someone new to join in, it's been a while.

Thanks for the review!

[A Cousin]

(30-07-2010 06:17 PM)JHyde Wrote:  It is from Harry's Diary that I lifted his telling of finding the bottles. Pretty pricey present even if it wasn't terribly personal!

The 12 year single malt is 40-ish USD. The 18 year 60-ish USD. I know because this is my I-need-to-get-the-hubby-a-present-but-I-don't-know-what-to-give-him present. I don't know about it not being very personal on Ruth's part. I think it is very personal. She spent a helluva lot of money, got him something she knows he will love and she wrote her name on them. If I were Harry, I'd melt!

I will absolutely purchase Harry's Diary from the Spooks shop and have almost done it several times. I am just steeling myself for the Hubby's reaction when it arrives!

[watchstrap]

Oh, just rough it up a bit, write a cheap price inside the cover in pencil and say you got it in a charity shop!

[Ceridwyn2]

(30-07-2010 06:58 PM)watchstrap Wrote:  Oh, just rough it up a bit, write a cheap price inside the cover in pencil and say you got it in a charity shop!

LOL. Which works if you have separate credit card accts an not joined ones.

But yes, an expensive 'impersonal' present to give to one's boss. Something which she knows he will enjoy and spelling her name out on the bottle tops. Just as well she didn't use Evershed.

Ruth is a born spook for sure. I like her realizing that dynamic btw herself and Harry is changing into something more but not sure exactly what it is or means.