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kirsteenaTitle: Transformations and Machinations
Fandom: Spooks/Dr Who
Word Count: Total: 19226 (this chapter: 5250)
Rating: 15
Characters: Lucas North, Ros Myers, Connie James, Martha Jones, plus two guest appearances
Spoilers: All of Season Seven
Summary: The race through the tunnels to stop the suitcase bomber takes an unexpected turn.
Disclaimer: Don't own Spooks, just playing in the sandpit. No money being made etc etc. All rights belong to Kudos and the BBC.
Author's Note: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
apocabigbang. Many, many thanks to the wonderful ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
verdant_gt for the beta, and to fenna_girl and ladyofbrileith for their support.
Day One
LUCAS
Always rushing, never stopping. Even when he felt the bullet enter him just above the hip, he merely resettled his backpack and carried on walking, protecting the two women in front of him. Now they were deep in the tunnels, away from CCTV, yes, but also away from any support from Malcolm or Harry, and Lucas wondered just how good an idea this was, this travelling underground, a thought further confirmed by Ros’ next words. He had barely looked up as they’d run along the tunnels, but now he did.
"Whose bright idea was this?" Ros asked, throwing a glance at Lucas, though there was a hint of amusement in her voice.
"I forget," he responded, staring at the last thing he had expected to see down here – an abandoned tube train. Given that they were in an Underground service tunnel, long abandoned by most of Transport for London, he supposed they should have run across one eventually. It had just never entered his calculations.
He took his familiar position at the rear of the three of them. Ros was in the lead, Connie firmly set in the middle, Lucas bringing up the rear. The two of them shielding the traitor from harm. There was a certain irony to all of this, he thought to himself as they carefully picked their way through the ramshackle vehicle. The woman suddenly rising from the seats to confront Ros wasn’t what he had expected either. He kept just enough grip on his nerves to ensure that he didn’t jump in shock, though he watched with a sadistic sense of amusement as Connie did just that. He gave a small grim smile. She wasn’t so cool and collected now.
“Here. Take my watch, take it,” he heard Ros say, and it brought his attention back to the here and now. He was exhausted, not having slept for nearly forty-eight hours, and the oppressive heat in the tunnels wasn’t helping, but he forced himself onwards. The wound in his side where the sniper’s bullet had entered helped – the pain gave him something to focus on, keep his mind sharp.
The train safely negotiated, he snuck a glance at his watch. 2.10pm. According to the information, 50 minutes to get across London safely, get the information, find the bomb and defuse it. Easy. He didn’t want to think about how close the Russians could be if they had figured things out. They wouldn’t be far behind.
He gritted his teeth and moved on.
ROS
They had to stop for a moment, take a breath. "What time is it?" she asked Lucas, bending over slightly to catch her breath.
Lucas glanced at his watch. "Half past," he said, passing a bottle to Connie.
"You’re not gonna make it," Connie replied, giving a slight laugh. "Your best chance of survival might be..."
"Might be what?" Ros asked, giving the traitor a sour look.
"To go deeper."
"And you’d do that, would you? Burrow down like a rat?"
"Like a mole," Connie said, breathing heavily. There was a desperate edge to her laughter.
"Yeah, and wait for central London to be annihilated."
"Yes."
"And here’s you with no love for Russia."
Ros turned away from the woman, sickened by the very sight of her. She took the bottle of fruit juice from Lucas and took a small drink, just enough to dampen her mouth. She watched impassively as Lucas tended to his gunshot wound, bloody hands carefully placing a dressing over it, catching a glimpse of one of the tattoos she knew existed. Odd to suddenly have a reminder of his past flare up. The dressing wouldn’t stop the bleeding, she knew, but it might help stop it from becoming infected, though the chances were high that it was too late for that. The tunnels weren’t exactly the cleanest places they had visited. All three of them had smudges of dirt over their faces and hands.
She looked around her, a sense of dread sweeping over her completely out of the blue. Every part of her went on alert. Had the Russians found them so quickly? Surely they hadn’t gotten past Lucas’ makeshift electrical barrier that quickly. She peered into the darkness of the tunnel, Lucas catching her change in mood.
"Ros? What’s up?" he asked sharply.
"I don’t know," Ros confessed. All she knew was that something was wrong.
Lucas looked at her, and nodded, taking the bottle and drinking from it. Suddenly the walls of the tunnel shook violently, causing Connie to fall from where she was sitting to the floor, and Lucas and Ros to clutch ineffectually to the sides of the tunnel. It continued to shake violently for a moment or two, then silence. There had been dim lighting up until now, but all the lights went out, leaving only tiny battery powered emergency lights that seemed brighter than they should be in the sudden blackness. Lucas groped on the drum’s surface to pick up the torch he’d placed there, shining it first on Connie, then on Ros. The three of them turned and looked at each other, shock and surprise foremost on their expressions.
"Okay. What was that?" Ros asked quietly after a moment, almost as if she was afraid to break the silence.
"I don’t know," Lucas replied, looking around. "But can you feel that? The temperature in here just went up. It’s definitely gotten warmer." He turned to Connie, who had gone pale. "What? Do you know what just happened?"
Connie took a moment, appearing to have to steady herself. "I can’t be sure," she said, her voice shaking.
"Can’t be sure about what?" Ros replied, picking up on her mood. She glanced over at Lucas.
"The aim of Tireseus is to cause maximum chaos at the heart of the UK, to cripple it, yes?" she said, looking between her two captors. "Cause economic instability, civil unrest, push the country as far as it can go?"
"That’s what we understood from the dossier, yes," Lucas said. "I believe that would be the reason why we’re here."
"Yes but Tiresius has been in place for twenty-five years. Backups will always be part of it. Sugarhorse was created the same way. I’m sure Harry would have had backups in place, for instance when Hugo died."
"You think that Tiresius knows what we are trying to do?" Ros said, sneering at Connie. "Now how would they do that? I thought the kill squad was merely trying to recover a lost asset."
“Probably,” Connie replied. “However, you know as well as anyone that they are pervasive. They have managed to place themselves god knows where. My contacts would have known when I went off grid, where I was being held, and what was likely to happen next. They will have had a back up already in place.”
“Which is?” Ros asked. She couldn’t ignore the cold ball of fear which appeared in her stomach.
“A second bomb. One no one knew about. They would have known the first thing we would do would be check the numbers stations, monitor the internet. Place a decoy with that, which may or may not be real, get our focus away from the real bomber. A simple message, could have been anything, to set up the second bomber.”
Ros went pale. “Are you saying that a nuclear bomb has just gone off in London?” she whispered, looking at Lucas, who was also showing signs of shock.
“I believe so, yes,” Connie said.
There was silence for a moment. "Options," Ros said quietly.
“Go deeper,” Connie said. “Initial half-life will be over in three to four days. Until then we shouldn’t be anywhere near the surface. After that, we can go for short bursts if we have to. We have to survive out those first few days.”
“We have to be able to survive down here, too. Supplies are virtually non-existent,” Ros said. “And we can’t last for three days with what liquid we have, not with the temperature in here. Think how hot it gets on a summer’s day down here, this is going to be a lot worse. Never mind that when we get out we won’t be able to eat or drink anything for fear of contamination.”
“Supplies – I might be able to do something about that,” Lucas said thoughtfully, looking at Ros through narrowed eyes. “What? You think I know my way around these tunnels by chance? Harry made me learn these tunnels and their secrets a very long time ago. It’ll just take me a few moments to be able to remember. However...”
“We have to assume that the Russians are on our tail, that at least some of the squad made it down here. I’d rather think worst case scenario and work from there,” Ros said, finishing his thought for him.
“Always such an optimist, Ros,” Lucas said, smiling slightly at her.
"Do you think they will believe us when we tell them we suspect a nuclear bomb has gone off in London?" she asked.
"Would you? Even so, we have to make them try," Lucas responded.
"And if we don’t?"
"Then we’re dead, either from radiation, or from them shooting us," Lucas said. "Personally, I don’t like either option." He turned to Connie. "Do you think they will have jumped to the same conclusion we have?"
"I’m not sure," Connie responded. "They won’t have the information we do. We have to either confront them, and hope that they don’t shoot us on sight, or try to hide."
Ros and Lucas looked at each other. "I’d rather know one way or another than have to watch our backs the whole time," Lucas said, glancing at his watch. "But on my terms."
Suddenly, the three of them turned to look from the direction they had originally come from as a single gun shot rang out, cutting through the silence. "What would you do if you were them?" Lucas asked, not taking his gaze away from the darkness.
"Send in a runner." Ros stood upright as she realised, dragging Connie up with her.
"So would I," Lucas replied, putting his back pack on once again, before hurrying Ros and Connie in front of him. "Come on, we’ve only got a couple of minutes."
CONNIE
Connie was sat in the middle of the tunnel, on an empty wire drum, waiting for the Russian runner to appear. She wasn’t sure how they were going to respond, but she knew very well that she couldn’t communicate with them without Lucas and Ros understanding. Besides, for the sake of survival, she knew the best chance they all had was to work together. Lucas was the only one who knew where any supplies were – something even she, with all the trust Harry had once held in her, hadn’t known – so she had a vested interest in keeping him alive. Besides, she knew he wouldn’t give up the information voluntarily. He’d survived five years in Lyushenka, after all. It truly was in all their best interests to make it through the next few days together. When they made it above ground... then she could see which way the wind blew. There were opportunities to be had on both sides, after all. She just had to be well placed and ready to take any chance.
Suddenly the runner that they had suspected was on the way came into view. He stopped when he saw Connie, bringing his gun up to aim it at her, walking forward carefully – and then was knocked flat on the ground by the carefully hidden tow cable Lucas’ had set up across the tunnel. He’d stolen it from a car before meeting up with Connie and Ros, and had draped it across the tunnel, pulling it taut just as the runner approached it. He bounded forward – no mean feat for someone who had lost the amount of blood he had – grabbing the gun out of his hand.
Connie could see the indecision radiating from Lucas. Every instinct he had would be screaming at him to kill the Russian before they were killed – but he knew that both the runner and Connie as hostages was the best chance they had at negotiating with the others. Necessity won out. "How many are coming?" Lucas asked in flawless Russian. He aimed the gun not at the runner’s head or heart, but at a more sensitive area. "How many?"
"You think I’m going to tell you?" he spat out, trying to roll out of the way. Lucas moved slightly, placing one foot above his throat, ready to stamp it down if needed. The Russian swallowed convulsively, going completely still.
"It’s been a really long day," Lucas said. "And pissing off the man with the gun isn’t such a good idea. Let’s get straight to the point. Did you hear the noise earlier, feel the shaking of the tunnel?"
The runner looking up at Lucas for a moment. "Da," he said eventually.
"Did it occur to you to wonder what it was?"
"Niet. I had my orders," he replied. "A bomb?"
"Typical. Follow orders without thinking. Okay. Think big. Think... really big. Think nuclear," Lucas said, watching the man’s expression. Ros had also come closer.
The runner didn’t disappoint. His expression ranged from disgust at his predicament through to disbelief. The Russians didn’t know – or at least, this one didn’t. "You lie," he spat out after a moment.
Connie had also walked over to the group. "They’re not," she said, slipping into Russian as well. There was no way to impart anything to him – Lucas certainly, and Ros to a slightly lesser extent, were both too fluent in it. "That’s what they were trying to do, except we think there was a second bomb that no one knew about. An insurance policy, if you like. The signs are all there." She pointed to his digital watch. "Stopped, hasn’t it? Electromagnetic field."
"And if you are wrong?" Connie could see the indecision in his eyes.
"If we are wrong, we’ve just condemned central London to death as a nuclear bomb will go off at 3pm. That’s what we were trying to stop. If we’re wrong, we’re all dead anyway. Do you want to be the one to go up and check on whether we’re right or not?" Lucas asked. "Think about it. Whatever it was had to be big, given we are over thirty metres down here. To shake that violently... Also, take a listen. All the trains above us have stopped. Electricity is out. It’s getting hotter – I’d estimate it’s at least three degrees higher down here already. What could cause that?"
The runner looked up first at Lucas, then at Connie. There was doubt in his eyes. "They will kill you as soon as they see you," he warned. "Our orders are to retrieve Connie James at any cost. Without any countermand..."
"Then we’re going to have to be persuasive," Ros interrupted. "Bored now. Tell us how many of them there are so we know what we are up against. And your name. After all, you know ours. It’s hardly good practise to call you ‘Hey you’ all the time."
The runner was silent for a moment. "Dmitri. Dmitri Leinov. And there are six others."
"A full kill squad," Lucas noted. "Heavily armed, most likely."
Dmitri moved, sitting up slowly. Lucas stepped back, but kept his gun trained on him. "You were at Lyushenka, weren’t you?" he said. "I read your file."
Lucas was silent for a moment, watching Leinov. "Yes," he said eventually.
"Start praying they believe you, or your time there will have been easy in comparison."
LUCAS
This was the part that Lucas was most worried about. Getting one Russian, with a gun pointing at his head to agree that there might be the tiniest possibility that a nuclear bomb had gone off in London was one thing. Getting six Russians, heavily armed and following their own specific orders, on their own with no back up to call on, to listen to what could sound like an insane story was a much harder proposition. If they pulled it off, for his next trick, Lucas would walk on water.
They both had about an equal chance of success.
Three o’clock had passed, and there was no sign of further explosions on the surface. Even if it was a small suitcase bomb, they would have felt it. He was more and more convinced that Connie was right, although the normally silent optimistic part of him was praying that for once, he might have been wrong.
He winced slightly, resettling the backpack on his shoulders. Ros caught the motion and looked at him. "How is it?" she asked, obviously concerned. "And don’t say fine."
Lucas gave her a tiny wry grin. "I was going to say it stings like a bitch," he said. "I’m really hoping that when we find these supplies there’s some painkillers in there."
Ros gave a sweet smile. "If you ask the Russians nicely, they might have some aspirin," she said, turning away from him.
"’By the way, your sniper shot me, hope you don’t mind if we stop and ask for aspirin?’" Lucas joked.
Ros gave him a small smile, then looked around. "Shall we do this?"
Lucas took a deep breath. "Yeah. They can’t be far away." He turned back to the two prisoners. It was easier to think of them that way. He certainly didn’t trust Connie as far as he could throw her.
"Lucas? Are you really sure about this?" Ros asked again quickly, taking her position opposite Lucas. She was using the other gun that Lucas had carried, the one that had no ammunition left after the brief fire fight with the kill squad, using the idea that bluffing was their best chance of getting an opening.
"No," he replied honestly. "But I can’t think of another way. Connie? Dmitri? Can you?" He stood up, deliberately aiming his gun at the Russian runner.
"No. You are going to have to make them pause, simply to buy you time to talk," Connie said. Dmitri was silent. He knew that he was the one most likely to be shot by Lucas first – where was the incentive to actually help them? "As long as you can get them to start talking, you should be okay."
"As opposed to shoot first, worry about it later?" Lucas said.
"Aren’t we giving them too little credit?" Ros asked. "For all you know, they might have realised what had happened, and will be willing to talk."
"Or they might be looking for revenge," Connie said, sighing in frustration. "Can we just get on with it?"
"That’s rather up to them, don’t you think?" Ros replied, smiling sweetly.
Lucas heard them before he saw them. They were quiet, true, but in the eerie stillness of the tunnel, every footstep, every tiniest sound was heard. A silent city was a frightening place, he realised.
Their torches lighting the path before them, four people appeared, looking haggard. Lucas relaxed minutely. Two missing. They could be circling round behind them, but he had a feeling it was something else, that they knew from the way they were walking. "Stop," he said, falling into Russian automatically. "Stay where you are."
Four guns were suddenly pointed directly at Lucas. "You’re outnumbered," the leader said scornfully. "One gun, against four of us. Just what do you think you are going to do? We are going to take our man and Miss James."
"We’re going to have a nice little talk, explain a few things," Lucas said, hauling Dmitri to his feet, holding the gun against his head.
"Explain?" the leader said, amused. "What you can possibly explain that would result in us sparing you? Outnumbered, with one injured... you think we didn’t see the blood in the station?"
"What we can give you is information about the nuclear bomb that went off thirty five or so minutes ago," Ros said, speaking up for the first time as she moved forward, pushing Connie ahead of her. "And make that two guns. Make one move, and I’ll make sure she is of no use to you as an asset, and given your orders would be to bring her back alive, better not annoy your superiors, had we? That is, of course, assuming you can talk to them again."
The lead Russian fought for control for a moment, then suddenly nodded, his whole posture sagging slightly. "We sent two people up to check what happened when the tunnels shook. They haven’t returned. They should have been back thirty minutes ago," he said eventually. Lucas nodded, relaxing his grip on Dmitri slightly.
"They won’t," Connie said grimly, struggling slightly against Ros’ grip, which only led to Ros holding on tighter. She turned slightly to glare at Ros before carrying on. "Your superiors back home allowed a nuclear bomb to go off in London. We were trying to stop it, but were too late."
The lead Russian shone his torch first at Connie and Ros, then at Dmitri, and finally directly at Lucas. "You lie," he spat out eventually, tightening his grip on his gun. "They wouldn’t do it, not with us here." He didn’t sound quite so sure of himself, though.
"I don’t think so," Lucas said quietly. "Think about it. Why the urgency to cross London underground, the urgency to get Connie James away from you so we don’t run into any more kill squads? She’s a traitor, you think I’d be bothered if she were killed? Why was every available officer used to try and stop us? There has to be a reason for it. We were trying to stop it from happening, to save all of us."
"Listen to them, Andre," Dmitri said. "You have to admit, they might be right."
Lucas could see the indecision on Andre’s face. "Andre, right?" he said, nodding. "Look. How about we make a deal?"
Andre cocked his head to one side, watching Lucas. "What kind of deal?" he asked eventually.
"We work together for now. Three o’clock has been and gone, and there was no sign of an explosion – one that should have happened according to our information. One of two things occured. Either it has already gone off, or else it never was going to. We wait out four days, down here. If a bomb has gone off, that should be long enough for the initial halflife to have occurred. We work our way as far as we can in the tunnels. After four or five days, we can go above ground, and find out what’s happened," Lucas said. "It will still be toxic, but there is a way round that."
"You aren’t exactly giving us a lot of incentive," Andre replied. "We have no supplies with us. We will die with lack of water before then."
Lucas gave a small smile in response. "Ah, but I know where there are stashes hidden down here for just such an emergency. Have done for years. And before you try and work out who knows, only I do. Work with us, and you can get access to them. If you don’t... well, you will die down here. If we’re wrong, and no bomb has gone off, well, I guess you get to make a present of us to your superiors. Tied up, with a nice shiny ribbon."
"Lucas..." Ros said in a low voice. Lucas turned to look at her, giving her a wry smile. She knew what it cost him to say that, and if they knew anything about them, the Russians would know that too. Lucas was offering himself up to go back into Russian hands.
"It’s the only way, Ros," he replied, just as softly.
Andre nodded his head slowly. He had obviously done his homework. "And if it has gone off?" he asked. "What then?"
"What else? We try to find where others have gathered, and work out our next step then. I’d worry about that later, because we’ve got a long way to go."
ROS
Ros was hyper alert. The Russians may be cooperating for now, but she knew it wouldn’t last. The fact that they’d obviously lost two of their officers, and that it was increasingly obvious that whatever had shaken London was big and deadly was the only thing that was working in their favour. Lucas was their trump card now. His knowledge was vital to keeping them all alive.
But Ros was worried about him. The bullet he’d taken may not have hit anything vital, but he’d been running for hours now, still losing blood. The bullet itself had to come out at some time, and she was worried about infection. They were all filthy from running around grimy tunnels, and some of that had to have gotten into the open wound.
She caught up to Lucas, who was leading the small group, limping. He was obviously in pain, and just as obviously doing his best to ignore it. "How much food and water in each stash?" she asked him quietly, glancing back at the Russians.
"Not sure," Lucas said, grimly continuing to walk onwards. If he stopped, it might take him a while to get started again. "I’ve never needed to actually use them, and Harry was only ever vague. Certainly nowhere near enough for eight people for three days."
"Our advantage then," she said, nodding once. "If they want to survive they have to keep us alive."
"That’s the plan," Lucas said, wincing slightly.
"How is it?" Ros asked, flicking the corner of his coat aside to look. It was saturated in blood, her hand coming away covered in it. "There a first aid kit there?"
"Should be. Harry wanted to ensure it would be stocked for all eventualities," he said pausing for a moment, first of all looking back the way they had come, then ahead of them.
"What’s wrong?"
"I just need to get my bearings," Lucas replied, before ducking down a service tunnel. "It’s close."
"Are you sure?" Ros asked, quietly looking up at him.
"I’ve got us this far, haven’t I?" Lucas said, grinning slightly.
"There’s always a first," Ros replied. Lucas stopped, shining his torch against a wall.
"Here," he said, handing his torch to Ros. It was their only source of illumination, agreed upon in an effort to conserve battery life. Lucas stopped for a moment, thinking. "Each combination is different," he said, raising his voice slightly to ensure it was heard, before pressing a series of numbers on the keypad of the door. "Harry set it up like that. Coded." The implication being that they had to keep Lucas alive in order to open them, even if they did manage to find any of the other stashes.
The door opened into a small walk-in cupboard packed with supplies. A small keg of water, with purification tablets strapped to the side. Tins of food, army rations. Torches. Gas masks, even. Harry really had made sure that it was well stocked. Ros stepped forward, passing out some of the supplies. "Make yourselves useful. Purify the water," she said, passing the tablets to Andre and the female officer, Komorov, and tins over to Connie. She spotted a first aid kit, and turned to Lucas. "You. Sit there and get rid of your top. We need to at least clean up that wound and stitch it, even if that bullet isn’t coming out."
Lucas grimaced as he dropped the rucksack he’d doggedly carried for so long to the ground. A convenient drum was close by, and he sat on it before shrugging off his jacket first, then struggling out of his top. It stretched the wound, and he hissed in pain.
"How far is it in?" he asked. "If it’s too bad, we’ll worry about getting the bullet out later," he said. "Just sew it up." Ros gave him a tight smile. She appreciated his use of tense.
"It’ll hurt," she said, glancing over his torso. Knowing someone was covered in prison tattoos was most definitely not the same as seeing them first hand. "Bit too dark in here to take it out, to be honest."
"I can take the pain, don’t worry." She glanced at Lucas, who was giving her a grim smile. They just looked at each other for a moment, maintaining eye contact before Ros nodded, turning to the kit and then beginning to clean the wound.
"How on earth did you remember the location of this and the code?" she asked quietly, hoping that casual conversation would help distract Lucas.
"Remember the information about the Russian sub I passed on?" he asked her in return, waiting till she nodded slowly. "I only saw that for about a second before Malcolm killed the screen. It’s a talent I’ve always had, being able to put myself back in a certain place and remember things. Something I was tested for early on in my career. It wasn’t part of Kachimov’s testing or design, but more Harry’s."
Ros continued her work, nodding at his response. "Our guests?" she said, "When do you think they will turn on us?"
Lucas had been watching the scene, and didn’t move. "We should be safe until we make it topside," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Down here, we have the advantage of territory. They need us right now more than we need them. We can simply wait it out, after all. It’s when we hit reality up there that the problems will start, because unless Connie was lying to us, which, let’s be honest is possible, there is no central London, no matter what, and the Russians and Americans are lining up against each other. We will become irrelevant very quickly."
"Blame the Americans too much for it, and they will respond," Ros noted, gently cleaning away the blood from the surrounding area.
"And that terrifies me, because Russia will as well," Lucas replied.
"For once, I’d say let’s not go borrowing trouble," Ros said, pausing in her cleaning as Lucas winced involuntarily.
"You? I thought you were all about the worst case scenario?" Lucas said, nodding to her to carry on.
"How long do you think this water will last?" Ros asked, raising her voice slightly. One of the Russians had moved closer to them.
"Given the temperature in here, eight people, and how much more we’re going to need to drink to compensate, eight to ten hours," Lucas responded. "More if we ration carefully."
"Andre?" Ros called out, knowing that he would be close by.
Andre came over to the pair cautiously. "Da?" he asked, glancing at Lucas’ wound, then back at Ros.
"Once I’ve cleaned Lucas up I think we should take a break. Try and catch a few hours sleep. I’ll keep watch for our side to start with, I expect you to have someone do the same?" A question and a statement all in one. Ros knew how rough it would be for them, as she and Lucas would have to trade off watches, whereas the Russians had the advantage of numbers.
"Yes," Andre replied. It was obvious he was torn between believing her and wishing it weren’t true, but he was being cooperative – for now.
"Fine. Break out the food and water, then let’s get some rest. It’ll be a rough few days."
Link to Chapter Two
Fandom: Spooks/Dr Who
Word Count: Total: 19226 (this chapter: 5250)
Rating: 15
Characters: Lucas North, Ros Myers, Connie James, Martha Jones, plus two guest appearances
Spoilers: All of Season Seven
Summary: The race through the tunnels to stop the suitcase bomber takes an unexpected turn.
Disclaimer: Don't own Spooks, just playing in the sandpit. No money being made etc etc. All rights belong to Kudos and the BBC.
Author's Note: Written for
apocabigbang. Many, many thanks to the wonderful verdant_gt for the beta, and to fenna_girl and ladyofbrileith for their support.Day One
LUCAS
Always rushing, never stopping. Even when he felt the bullet enter him just above the hip, he merely resettled his backpack and carried on walking, protecting the two women in front of him. Now they were deep in the tunnels, away from CCTV, yes, but also away from any support from Malcolm or Harry, and Lucas wondered just how good an idea this was, this travelling underground, a thought further confirmed by Ros’ next words. He had barely looked up as they’d run along the tunnels, but now he did.
"Whose bright idea was this?" Ros asked, throwing a glance at Lucas, though there was a hint of amusement in her voice.
"I forget," he responded, staring at the last thing he had expected to see down here – an abandoned tube train. Given that they were in an Underground service tunnel, long abandoned by most of Transport for London, he supposed they should have run across one eventually. It had just never entered his calculations.
He took his familiar position at the rear of the three of them. Ros was in the lead, Connie firmly set in the middle, Lucas bringing up the rear. The two of them shielding the traitor from harm. There was a certain irony to all of this, he thought to himself as they carefully picked their way through the ramshackle vehicle. The woman suddenly rising from the seats to confront Ros wasn’t what he had expected either. He kept just enough grip on his nerves to ensure that he didn’t jump in shock, though he watched with a sadistic sense of amusement as Connie did just that. He gave a small grim smile. She wasn’t so cool and collected now.
“Here. Take my watch, take it,” he heard Ros say, and it brought his attention back to the here and now. He was exhausted, not having slept for nearly forty-eight hours, and the oppressive heat in the tunnels wasn’t helping, but he forced himself onwards. The wound in his side where the sniper’s bullet had entered helped – the pain gave him something to focus on, keep his mind sharp.
The train safely negotiated, he snuck a glance at his watch. 2.10pm. According to the information, 50 minutes to get across London safely, get the information, find the bomb and defuse it. Easy. He didn’t want to think about how close the Russians could be if they had figured things out. They wouldn’t be far behind.
He gritted his teeth and moved on.
ROS
They had to stop for a moment, take a breath. "What time is it?" she asked Lucas, bending over slightly to catch her breath.
Lucas glanced at his watch. "Half past," he said, passing a bottle to Connie.
"You’re not gonna make it," Connie replied, giving a slight laugh. "Your best chance of survival might be..."
"Might be what?" Ros asked, giving the traitor a sour look.
"To go deeper."
"And you’d do that, would you? Burrow down like a rat?"
"Like a mole," Connie said, breathing heavily. There was a desperate edge to her laughter.
"Yeah, and wait for central London to be annihilated."
"Yes."
"And here’s you with no love for Russia."
Ros turned away from the woman, sickened by the very sight of her. She took the bottle of fruit juice from Lucas and took a small drink, just enough to dampen her mouth. She watched impassively as Lucas tended to his gunshot wound, bloody hands carefully placing a dressing over it, catching a glimpse of one of the tattoos she knew existed. Odd to suddenly have a reminder of his past flare up. The dressing wouldn’t stop the bleeding, she knew, but it might help stop it from becoming infected, though the chances were high that it was too late for that. The tunnels weren’t exactly the cleanest places they had visited. All three of them had smudges of dirt over their faces and hands.
She looked around her, a sense of dread sweeping over her completely out of the blue. Every part of her went on alert. Had the Russians found them so quickly? Surely they hadn’t gotten past Lucas’ makeshift electrical barrier that quickly. She peered into the darkness of the tunnel, Lucas catching her change in mood.
"Ros? What’s up?" he asked sharply.
"I don’t know," Ros confessed. All she knew was that something was wrong.
Lucas looked at her, and nodded, taking the bottle and drinking from it. Suddenly the walls of the tunnel shook violently, causing Connie to fall from where she was sitting to the floor, and Lucas and Ros to clutch ineffectually to the sides of the tunnel. It continued to shake violently for a moment or two, then silence. There had been dim lighting up until now, but all the lights went out, leaving only tiny battery powered emergency lights that seemed brighter than they should be in the sudden blackness. Lucas groped on the drum’s surface to pick up the torch he’d placed there, shining it first on Connie, then on Ros. The three of them turned and looked at each other, shock and surprise foremost on their expressions.
"Okay. What was that?" Ros asked quietly after a moment, almost as if she was afraid to break the silence.
"I don’t know," Lucas replied, looking around. "But can you feel that? The temperature in here just went up. It’s definitely gotten warmer." He turned to Connie, who had gone pale. "What? Do you know what just happened?"
Connie took a moment, appearing to have to steady herself. "I can’t be sure," she said, her voice shaking.
"Can’t be sure about what?" Ros replied, picking up on her mood. She glanced over at Lucas.
"The aim of Tireseus is to cause maximum chaos at the heart of the UK, to cripple it, yes?" she said, looking between her two captors. "Cause economic instability, civil unrest, push the country as far as it can go?"
"That’s what we understood from the dossier, yes," Lucas said. "I believe that would be the reason why we’re here."
"Yes but Tiresius has been in place for twenty-five years. Backups will always be part of it. Sugarhorse was created the same way. I’m sure Harry would have had backups in place, for instance when Hugo died."
"You think that Tiresius knows what we are trying to do?" Ros said, sneering at Connie. "Now how would they do that? I thought the kill squad was merely trying to recover a lost asset."
“Probably,” Connie replied. “However, you know as well as anyone that they are pervasive. They have managed to place themselves god knows where. My contacts would have known when I went off grid, where I was being held, and what was likely to happen next. They will have had a back up already in place.”
“Which is?” Ros asked. She couldn’t ignore the cold ball of fear which appeared in her stomach.
“A second bomb. One no one knew about. They would have known the first thing we would do would be check the numbers stations, monitor the internet. Place a decoy with that, which may or may not be real, get our focus away from the real bomber. A simple message, could have been anything, to set up the second bomber.”
Ros went pale. “Are you saying that a nuclear bomb has just gone off in London?” she whispered, looking at Lucas, who was also showing signs of shock.
“I believe so, yes,” Connie said.
There was silence for a moment. "Options," Ros said quietly.
“Go deeper,” Connie said. “Initial half-life will be over in three to four days. Until then we shouldn’t be anywhere near the surface. After that, we can go for short bursts if we have to. We have to survive out those first few days.”
“We have to be able to survive down here, too. Supplies are virtually non-existent,” Ros said. “And we can’t last for three days with what liquid we have, not with the temperature in here. Think how hot it gets on a summer’s day down here, this is going to be a lot worse. Never mind that when we get out we won’t be able to eat or drink anything for fear of contamination.”
“Supplies – I might be able to do something about that,” Lucas said thoughtfully, looking at Ros through narrowed eyes. “What? You think I know my way around these tunnels by chance? Harry made me learn these tunnels and their secrets a very long time ago. It’ll just take me a few moments to be able to remember. However...”
“We have to assume that the Russians are on our tail, that at least some of the squad made it down here. I’d rather think worst case scenario and work from there,” Ros said, finishing his thought for him.
“Always such an optimist, Ros,” Lucas said, smiling slightly at her.
"Do you think they will believe us when we tell them we suspect a nuclear bomb has gone off in London?" she asked.
"Would you? Even so, we have to make them try," Lucas responded.
"And if we don’t?"
"Then we’re dead, either from radiation, or from them shooting us," Lucas said. "Personally, I don’t like either option." He turned to Connie. "Do you think they will have jumped to the same conclusion we have?"
"I’m not sure," Connie responded. "They won’t have the information we do. We have to either confront them, and hope that they don’t shoot us on sight, or try to hide."
Ros and Lucas looked at each other. "I’d rather know one way or another than have to watch our backs the whole time," Lucas said, glancing at his watch. "But on my terms."
Suddenly, the three of them turned to look from the direction they had originally come from as a single gun shot rang out, cutting through the silence. "What would you do if you were them?" Lucas asked, not taking his gaze away from the darkness.
"Send in a runner." Ros stood upright as she realised, dragging Connie up with her.
"So would I," Lucas replied, putting his back pack on once again, before hurrying Ros and Connie in front of him. "Come on, we’ve only got a couple of minutes."
CONNIE
Connie was sat in the middle of the tunnel, on an empty wire drum, waiting for the Russian runner to appear. She wasn’t sure how they were going to respond, but she knew very well that she couldn’t communicate with them without Lucas and Ros understanding. Besides, for the sake of survival, she knew the best chance they all had was to work together. Lucas was the only one who knew where any supplies were – something even she, with all the trust Harry had once held in her, hadn’t known – so she had a vested interest in keeping him alive. Besides, she knew he wouldn’t give up the information voluntarily. He’d survived five years in Lyushenka, after all. It truly was in all their best interests to make it through the next few days together. When they made it above ground... then she could see which way the wind blew. There were opportunities to be had on both sides, after all. She just had to be well placed and ready to take any chance.
Suddenly the runner that they had suspected was on the way came into view. He stopped when he saw Connie, bringing his gun up to aim it at her, walking forward carefully – and then was knocked flat on the ground by the carefully hidden tow cable Lucas’ had set up across the tunnel. He’d stolen it from a car before meeting up with Connie and Ros, and had draped it across the tunnel, pulling it taut just as the runner approached it. He bounded forward – no mean feat for someone who had lost the amount of blood he had – grabbing the gun out of his hand.
Connie could see the indecision radiating from Lucas. Every instinct he had would be screaming at him to kill the Russian before they were killed – but he knew that both the runner and Connie as hostages was the best chance they had at negotiating with the others. Necessity won out. "How many are coming?" Lucas asked in flawless Russian. He aimed the gun not at the runner’s head or heart, but at a more sensitive area. "How many?"
"You think I’m going to tell you?" he spat out, trying to roll out of the way. Lucas moved slightly, placing one foot above his throat, ready to stamp it down if needed. The Russian swallowed convulsively, going completely still.
"It’s been a really long day," Lucas said. "And pissing off the man with the gun isn’t such a good idea. Let’s get straight to the point. Did you hear the noise earlier, feel the shaking of the tunnel?"
The runner looking up at Lucas for a moment. "Da," he said eventually.
"Did it occur to you to wonder what it was?"
"Niet. I had my orders," he replied. "A bomb?"
"Typical. Follow orders without thinking. Okay. Think big. Think... really big. Think nuclear," Lucas said, watching the man’s expression. Ros had also come closer.
The runner didn’t disappoint. His expression ranged from disgust at his predicament through to disbelief. The Russians didn’t know – or at least, this one didn’t. "You lie," he spat out after a moment.
Connie had also walked over to the group. "They’re not," she said, slipping into Russian as well. There was no way to impart anything to him – Lucas certainly, and Ros to a slightly lesser extent, were both too fluent in it. "That’s what they were trying to do, except we think there was a second bomb that no one knew about. An insurance policy, if you like. The signs are all there." She pointed to his digital watch. "Stopped, hasn’t it? Electromagnetic field."
"And if you are wrong?" Connie could see the indecision in his eyes.
"If we are wrong, we’ve just condemned central London to death as a nuclear bomb will go off at 3pm. That’s what we were trying to stop. If we’re wrong, we’re all dead anyway. Do you want to be the one to go up and check on whether we’re right or not?" Lucas asked. "Think about it. Whatever it was had to be big, given we are over thirty metres down here. To shake that violently... Also, take a listen. All the trains above us have stopped. Electricity is out. It’s getting hotter – I’d estimate it’s at least three degrees higher down here already. What could cause that?"
The runner looked up first at Lucas, then at Connie. There was doubt in his eyes. "They will kill you as soon as they see you," he warned. "Our orders are to retrieve Connie James at any cost. Without any countermand..."
"Then we’re going to have to be persuasive," Ros interrupted. "Bored now. Tell us how many of them there are so we know what we are up against. And your name. After all, you know ours. It’s hardly good practise to call you ‘Hey you’ all the time."
The runner was silent for a moment. "Dmitri. Dmitri Leinov. And there are six others."
"A full kill squad," Lucas noted. "Heavily armed, most likely."
Dmitri moved, sitting up slowly. Lucas stepped back, but kept his gun trained on him. "You were at Lyushenka, weren’t you?" he said. "I read your file."
Lucas was silent for a moment, watching Leinov. "Yes," he said eventually.
"Start praying they believe you, or your time there will have been easy in comparison."
LUCAS
This was the part that Lucas was most worried about. Getting one Russian, with a gun pointing at his head to agree that there might be the tiniest possibility that a nuclear bomb had gone off in London was one thing. Getting six Russians, heavily armed and following their own specific orders, on their own with no back up to call on, to listen to what could sound like an insane story was a much harder proposition. If they pulled it off, for his next trick, Lucas would walk on water.
They both had about an equal chance of success.
Three o’clock had passed, and there was no sign of further explosions on the surface. Even if it was a small suitcase bomb, they would have felt it. He was more and more convinced that Connie was right, although the normally silent optimistic part of him was praying that for once, he might have been wrong.
He winced slightly, resettling the backpack on his shoulders. Ros caught the motion and looked at him. "How is it?" she asked, obviously concerned. "And don’t say fine."
Lucas gave her a tiny wry grin. "I was going to say it stings like a bitch," he said. "I’m really hoping that when we find these supplies there’s some painkillers in there."
Ros gave a sweet smile. "If you ask the Russians nicely, they might have some aspirin," she said, turning away from him.
"’By the way, your sniper shot me, hope you don’t mind if we stop and ask for aspirin?’" Lucas joked.
Ros gave him a small smile, then looked around. "Shall we do this?"
Lucas took a deep breath. "Yeah. They can’t be far away." He turned back to the two prisoners. It was easier to think of them that way. He certainly didn’t trust Connie as far as he could throw her.
"Lucas? Are you really sure about this?" Ros asked again quickly, taking her position opposite Lucas. She was using the other gun that Lucas had carried, the one that had no ammunition left after the brief fire fight with the kill squad, using the idea that bluffing was their best chance of getting an opening.
"No," he replied honestly. "But I can’t think of another way. Connie? Dmitri? Can you?" He stood up, deliberately aiming his gun at the Russian runner.
"No. You are going to have to make them pause, simply to buy you time to talk," Connie said. Dmitri was silent. He knew that he was the one most likely to be shot by Lucas first – where was the incentive to actually help them? "As long as you can get them to start talking, you should be okay."
"As opposed to shoot first, worry about it later?" Lucas said.
"Aren’t we giving them too little credit?" Ros asked. "For all you know, they might have realised what had happened, and will be willing to talk."
"Or they might be looking for revenge," Connie said, sighing in frustration. "Can we just get on with it?"
"That’s rather up to them, don’t you think?" Ros replied, smiling sweetly.
Lucas heard them before he saw them. They were quiet, true, but in the eerie stillness of the tunnel, every footstep, every tiniest sound was heard. A silent city was a frightening place, he realised.
Their torches lighting the path before them, four people appeared, looking haggard. Lucas relaxed minutely. Two missing. They could be circling round behind them, but he had a feeling it was something else, that they knew from the way they were walking. "Stop," he said, falling into Russian automatically. "Stay where you are."
Four guns were suddenly pointed directly at Lucas. "You’re outnumbered," the leader said scornfully. "One gun, against four of us. Just what do you think you are going to do? We are going to take our man and Miss James."
"We’re going to have a nice little talk, explain a few things," Lucas said, hauling Dmitri to his feet, holding the gun against his head.
"Explain?" the leader said, amused. "What you can possibly explain that would result in us sparing you? Outnumbered, with one injured... you think we didn’t see the blood in the station?"
"What we can give you is information about the nuclear bomb that went off thirty five or so minutes ago," Ros said, speaking up for the first time as she moved forward, pushing Connie ahead of her. "And make that two guns. Make one move, and I’ll make sure she is of no use to you as an asset, and given your orders would be to bring her back alive, better not annoy your superiors, had we? That is, of course, assuming you can talk to them again."
The lead Russian fought for control for a moment, then suddenly nodded, his whole posture sagging slightly. "We sent two people up to check what happened when the tunnels shook. They haven’t returned. They should have been back thirty minutes ago," he said eventually. Lucas nodded, relaxing his grip on Dmitri slightly.
"They won’t," Connie said grimly, struggling slightly against Ros’ grip, which only led to Ros holding on tighter. She turned slightly to glare at Ros before carrying on. "Your superiors back home allowed a nuclear bomb to go off in London. We were trying to stop it, but were too late."
The lead Russian shone his torch first at Connie and Ros, then at Dmitri, and finally directly at Lucas. "You lie," he spat out eventually, tightening his grip on his gun. "They wouldn’t do it, not with us here." He didn’t sound quite so sure of himself, though.
"I don’t think so," Lucas said quietly. "Think about it. Why the urgency to cross London underground, the urgency to get Connie James away from you so we don’t run into any more kill squads? She’s a traitor, you think I’d be bothered if she were killed? Why was every available officer used to try and stop us? There has to be a reason for it. We were trying to stop it from happening, to save all of us."
"Listen to them, Andre," Dmitri said. "You have to admit, they might be right."
Lucas could see the indecision on Andre’s face. "Andre, right?" he said, nodding. "Look. How about we make a deal?"
Andre cocked his head to one side, watching Lucas. "What kind of deal?" he asked eventually.
"We work together for now. Three o’clock has been and gone, and there was no sign of an explosion – one that should have happened according to our information. One of two things occured. Either it has already gone off, or else it never was going to. We wait out four days, down here. If a bomb has gone off, that should be long enough for the initial halflife to have occurred. We work our way as far as we can in the tunnels. After four or five days, we can go above ground, and find out what’s happened," Lucas said. "It will still be toxic, but there is a way round that."
"You aren’t exactly giving us a lot of incentive," Andre replied. "We have no supplies with us. We will die with lack of water before then."
Lucas gave a small smile in response. "Ah, but I know where there are stashes hidden down here for just such an emergency. Have done for years. And before you try and work out who knows, only I do. Work with us, and you can get access to them. If you don’t... well, you will die down here. If we’re wrong, and no bomb has gone off, well, I guess you get to make a present of us to your superiors. Tied up, with a nice shiny ribbon."
"Lucas..." Ros said in a low voice. Lucas turned to look at her, giving her a wry smile. She knew what it cost him to say that, and if they knew anything about them, the Russians would know that too. Lucas was offering himself up to go back into Russian hands.
"It’s the only way, Ros," he replied, just as softly.
Andre nodded his head slowly. He had obviously done his homework. "And if it has gone off?" he asked. "What then?"
"What else? We try to find where others have gathered, and work out our next step then. I’d worry about that later, because we’ve got a long way to go."
ROS
Ros was hyper alert. The Russians may be cooperating for now, but she knew it wouldn’t last. The fact that they’d obviously lost two of their officers, and that it was increasingly obvious that whatever had shaken London was big and deadly was the only thing that was working in their favour. Lucas was their trump card now. His knowledge was vital to keeping them all alive.
But Ros was worried about him. The bullet he’d taken may not have hit anything vital, but he’d been running for hours now, still losing blood. The bullet itself had to come out at some time, and she was worried about infection. They were all filthy from running around grimy tunnels, and some of that had to have gotten into the open wound.
She caught up to Lucas, who was leading the small group, limping. He was obviously in pain, and just as obviously doing his best to ignore it. "How much food and water in each stash?" she asked him quietly, glancing back at the Russians.
"Not sure," Lucas said, grimly continuing to walk onwards. If he stopped, it might take him a while to get started again. "I’ve never needed to actually use them, and Harry was only ever vague. Certainly nowhere near enough for eight people for three days."
"Our advantage then," she said, nodding once. "If they want to survive they have to keep us alive."
"That’s the plan," Lucas said, wincing slightly.
"How is it?" Ros asked, flicking the corner of his coat aside to look. It was saturated in blood, her hand coming away covered in it. "There a first aid kit there?"
"Should be. Harry wanted to ensure it would be stocked for all eventualities," he said pausing for a moment, first of all looking back the way they had come, then ahead of them.
"What’s wrong?"
"I just need to get my bearings," Lucas replied, before ducking down a service tunnel. "It’s close."
"Are you sure?" Ros asked, quietly looking up at him.
"I’ve got us this far, haven’t I?" Lucas said, grinning slightly.
"There’s always a first," Ros replied. Lucas stopped, shining his torch against a wall.
"Here," he said, handing his torch to Ros. It was their only source of illumination, agreed upon in an effort to conserve battery life. Lucas stopped for a moment, thinking. "Each combination is different," he said, raising his voice slightly to ensure it was heard, before pressing a series of numbers on the keypad of the door. "Harry set it up like that. Coded." The implication being that they had to keep Lucas alive in order to open them, even if they did manage to find any of the other stashes.
The door opened into a small walk-in cupboard packed with supplies. A small keg of water, with purification tablets strapped to the side. Tins of food, army rations. Torches. Gas masks, even. Harry really had made sure that it was well stocked. Ros stepped forward, passing out some of the supplies. "Make yourselves useful. Purify the water," she said, passing the tablets to Andre and the female officer, Komorov, and tins over to Connie. She spotted a first aid kit, and turned to Lucas. "You. Sit there and get rid of your top. We need to at least clean up that wound and stitch it, even if that bullet isn’t coming out."
Lucas grimaced as he dropped the rucksack he’d doggedly carried for so long to the ground. A convenient drum was close by, and he sat on it before shrugging off his jacket first, then struggling out of his top. It stretched the wound, and he hissed in pain.
"How far is it in?" he asked. "If it’s too bad, we’ll worry about getting the bullet out later," he said. "Just sew it up." Ros gave him a tight smile. She appreciated his use of tense.
"It’ll hurt," she said, glancing over his torso. Knowing someone was covered in prison tattoos was most definitely not the same as seeing them first hand. "Bit too dark in here to take it out, to be honest."
"I can take the pain, don’t worry." She glanced at Lucas, who was giving her a grim smile. They just looked at each other for a moment, maintaining eye contact before Ros nodded, turning to the kit and then beginning to clean the wound.
"How on earth did you remember the location of this and the code?" she asked quietly, hoping that casual conversation would help distract Lucas.
"Remember the information about the Russian sub I passed on?" he asked her in return, waiting till she nodded slowly. "I only saw that for about a second before Malcolm killed the screen. It’s a talent I’ve always had, being able to put myself back in a certain place and remember things. Something I was tested for early on in my career. It wasn’t part of Kachimov’s testing or design, but more Harry’s."
Ros continued her work, nodding at his response. "Our guests?" she said, "When do you think they will turn on us?"
Lucas had been watching the scene, and didn’t move. "We should be safe until we make it topside," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Down here, we have the advantage of territory. They need us right now more than we need them. We can simply wait it out, after all. It’s when we hit reality up there that the problems will start, because unless Connie was lying to us, which, let’s be honest is possible, there is no central London, no matter what, and the Russians and Americans are lining up against each other. We will become irrelevant very quickly."
"Blame the Americans too much for it, and they will respond," Ros noted, gently cleaning away the blood from the surrounding area.
"And that terrifies me, because Russia will as well," Lucas replied.
"For once, I’d say let’s not go borrowing trouble," Ros said, pausing in her cleaning as Lucas winced involuntarily.
"You? I thought you were all about the worst case scenario?" Lucas said, nodding to her to carry on.
"How long do you think this water will last?" Ros asked, raising her voice slightly. One of the Russians had moved closer to them.
"Given the temperature in here, eight people, and how much more we’re going to need to drink to compensate, eight to ten hours," Lucas responded. "More if we ration carefully."
"Andre?" Ros called out, knowing that he would be close by.
Andre came over to the pair cautiously. "Da?" he asked, glancing at Lucas’ wound, then back at Ros.
"Once I’ve cleaned Lucas up I think we should take a break. Try and catch a few hours sleep. I’ll keep watch for our side to start with, I expect you to have someone do the same?" A question and a statement all in one. Ros knew how rough it would be for them, as she and Lucas would have to trade off watches, whereas the Russians had the advantage of numbers.
"Yes," Andre replied. It was obvious he was torn between believing her and wishing it weren’t true, but he was being cooperative – for now.
"Fine. Break out the food and water, then let’s get some rest. It’ll be a rough few days."
Link to Chapter Two
