Ruth's Diary - No. 21 (4.1 & 4.2)

[Beatriz]

Thanks to JHyde for all her help and advise.

[9th July 2005]

I’m exhausted. A big operation finished today, one in which we captured operatives for Shining Dawn. Hitherto, Shining Dawn has been only US based until now, but two days ago they bombed London with the promise of a further bombing every ten hours until their leader, Michael Munro, was released. (He has been imprisoned here in England for some time.) Of course, there was no way we would release Munro, especially with the Americans all over the scene - they obviously had a vested interest given that Shining Dawn has bombed several US cities over the last few years. Shining Dawn tried to bomb again, another 3 times, all unsuccessfully. But it was a close thing every time. We stopped three bombs. But more than 50 people died in the first explosion, so we can hardly call ourselves successful. I have a feeling (and so does Harry) that the Home Secretary won't be lasting much longer after the last few days.

It all started at Danny’s memorial service. Harry had promised there would be time to grieve and it had arrived, albeit later than we thought. We were all there but Fiona, who couldn't manage to come inside. It's not just how close she came to dying herself, it's guilt over Danny.

However, the world didn't stop for his funeral. Terrorists were out bombing London. We were in the church when we felt a violent explosion, in a matter of seconds our pagers began to go off. All the members of the Grid rushed to the door, but me. At first, I didn’t care what had happened, I needed to say goodbye properly. Danny deserved that. In the end, Harry came back for me and only convinced me to go with him because he argued more people would die without my help.

The Grid was designated Command and Control Centre with Harry as Gold Commander (flashy title!) and we had Special Branch and some Americans buzzing around to help us with the situation. Harry and Adam tolerated them, as they did Juliet Shaw, a ruthless woman I know by reputation who is set to take over Guy Facer's old job.

Adam sent me to Oxfordshire to question Professor Curtis, a man who spawned some of the views of this group. In fact the ideas behind Shining Dawn were based on some of his books, such as “The Future Does Not Need Us”, which was a huge inspiration to Munro. They believe the human kind is a stain on this planet, humans are out of control and are destroying the Earth. We are a plague and we need to be culled. In order to get what I needed from him I had to pretend to be much less than I am - it was both reprehensible and exciting at the same time.

After an hour or so of talking with him, I saw a man carrying a gun through the window so we fled the house through the back door and discovered Roy, my driver, dead. I couldn’t find the keys to start the car so we ran to the meadows to get phone coverage and ask for help. Curtis eventually told me where he had met Munro but he tried to tell me in the most snide way possible. Little did he know that references to Homer are easy pickings for me.

We went to a safe house, Curtis continued acting as all this was a game, now that he knew I wasn’t as ignorant as I wanted to appear, he tried to get to me. He is despicable so I didn't let him. Adam wanted Professor Curtis to convice Munro to talk his followers out of continuing this bombing plan. The team had managed to stop two bombs so far, not without difficulty, and they were making progress on finding the next one.

While waiting for a driver to take us to The Grid, I made a huge mistake, I was so tired after a sleepless night babysitting Curtis and since I haven’t been sleeping much since Danny died, I fell asleep on watch. Curtis took his chance to escape. Thankfully Colin was monitoring him and he woke me up. Curtis almost got himself killed by Munro's men who were keeping watch on the Professor; thankfully Zaf and Adam appeared and we managed to get to the Grid.

As soon as Curtis and I entered the Grid, he told me he had just seen somebody in the building he recognised from the meeting with Munro. He identified Richard Boyd, the leader of the American team involved in the operation. Our mole was as high up on the chain as they come.

Zaf and Adam caught Boyd. He had an agreement with the man (Foster) who was planting the bombs all around London; he would give him passports to flee from this country. We made Boyd to try and get where the next bomb was located. No luck with this move, Boyd was murdered by an unknown shooter, at least Foster gave away that the next bomb was in a hospital.

The Royal Eastern was the nearest hospital to the tower block where we found this morning's bomb. Luckily enough (in fact, with all the luck in the world), that was the hospital where they set the bomb. We evacuated the whole hospital and searched for the bomb. It was Adam who found the device and a girl strapped to it. Her name was Tash and according to Malcolm, this was the girl who helped us indentify Foster.

Curtis and I went into the interrogation room. It didn't take a genius to know that they disliked each other but Curtis came good for us in the end. He managed to work out that he and Foster had spoken online and hazarded a guess at which code could defuse the bomb. He got it on the second try - Foster had called himself Kronos 2, the son of Gaia (the spirit of the Earth, for whom Shining Dawn believe they are agents). The 2 was to differentiate himself in the chat room.

Adam had stayed with the girl and the bomb and disobeyed Harry. They were lucky that the interrogation came good or they both would have died.

We got very lucky on this operation. Adam and Zaf and I and the Professor all came very close to getting killed, as did Tash a couple of times over. I start shaking every time I think of Danny, I don't want any of us to go that way too.

Trying to be positive now. Zaf is a wonderful man - quick, funny, charming. He is kind and good and Adam had decided to throw his weight around and draft him into Section D. It's hard not to feel uncertain with everything that has happened this last month but Zaf's cheeky smile does make things a little better, I'll acknowledge. Fiona's still on compassionate leave but she's expected back soon.

I had a phone message waiting for me from Sam when I eventually got home. Harry moved her sideways into GCHQ, a department in London so she doesn't have to move and with one of the better people he knows in the Service. She's still on medication and really struggling and wants to have lunch sometime soon.

We will have lunch one day, I don't know how soon though. I'm pleased for Sam that she's out of this madness but I'm reluctant to be close to anyone right now. And the Section will be recovering from this attack for weeks to come. I can quite legitimately claim work is keeping me busy.

I think I've written myself out sufficiently for now. Perhaps now sleep might be forthcoming.

[Aria]

Really enjoyable entry, Beatriz. Loved how much Ruth enjoyed her time in the field with Curtis and getting one over on him. Loved the reference to Sam at the end.

[Nia M]

Lovely stuff, and it makes sense how you've grouped these two episodes together.

Nice to see that poor Sam hasn't been completely forgotten

[lwhite53]

Good entry Bea -- liked Ruth remembering Sam and also acknowledging that acting less smart than she really is bothers her.

[Silktie]

Good one, I liked how she mentions that Harry came back for her in the church, and also her dismay at having to play dumb for the professor. But most of all I like how she enjoys doing what it takes to get the job done, and her pride in a job well done.

[Tea Lady]

A good entry for what are two busy episodes for Ruth. I liked her thoughts about Zaf and she isalso starting to mention Harry more and more now in her diary.