Intrigue - Part 3.1: No Lucas - No Fun

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By reading any further, you state, that you are at least 18 years old.

The following content contains violence and situations, which might be offensive for some readers.

So be warned and do not read on, if James Bond like situations do not appeal to you.

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Harry Pierce walked up and down inside his office. He just had received a call from the Home Secretary. His influence did not seem to suffice to keep Harry in his position. Researches were to start tomorrow and there was an unnamed, influential group involved, demanding his at least temporary release from any office as long as researches into his affairs were going on.

Harry was not overly disturbed about this, whatever the outcome was. He had had his career and had seen lots of injustice and suffering. In lots of cases he had not been able to help or had made things even worse than they were before. It all seemed so futile to him at the moment. He would be glad to lay down his responsibilities and step back from his position.

The picture of his son popped into his mind. Retirement would leave him time to care for those he really cared for. What difference could he make here? It was as good when he left. He did not cling to his office seat. He had offered the home secretary his resignation, but he had refused once again. The home secretary had told him, Harry could do nothing better to help his opponents. But Harry did no longer care whichever way the researches went. He was tired, tired of all the sacrifices he had made for his work. His family, his wife, his son. He thought about Ros and Lucas...

He felt tired, empty, devastated and the worst part was, he felt utterly helpless.

The thought about Lucas brought back his initial intention, before the telephone call had interrupted him. He had to hurry to find out more about Lucas' real purpose behind his strange behaviour. He had to access the systems secret files before his access was restricted.

He was not sure, should he involve Tariq to help him cover his tracks inside the system? – No, he decided. That would only leave one more security risk, even if he would not tell Tariq what he was searching for.

He would use the same method Lucas had used. He could not get used to the idea to call him anything other than ‘Lucas’. His real intentions would not be hard to hide as he clearly did not know what he was searching for. Ruth had provided him with a list of all files which had been touched during Lucas’ break in. It would take him hours, if not days to get access to all of them and look them through. Fortunately his still in place full access allowed him even to copy those strictly restricted files. He would take them and would get a smokescreen in place by accessing and copying quite a number of further top secret files, which were important for national security, but Lucas never had touched. They would get all alarm bells of potential researchers on, but would not give away his real intentions.

He got to work and copied as important files as electricity supply for CCTV around Buckingham Palace. If that would not get their full attention, he did not know what else would.

After an hour he was content with the files he had selected, secured them on stick and copied them on a DVD-ROM, to be double sure. He shut down his computers and turned off the light of his office. The DVD-ROM he placed in a hard cover and packed it in an envelope he addressed to Ruth. He added a small, in soft cloth covered object, sealed the envelope and put on stamps.

Then Harry left the office altogether, not expecting to be allowed in again on the morrow. He went down to the Thames River, posted the envelope in a nearby postbox he knew was unobserved and left for his car.

At home Harry poured himself a glass of Whisky, sat down in his leather armchair and took up the newspaper. He was not really in a mood to take in today’s news or even the headlines. He sat there, hidden behind the newspaper and skipped to the obituary notices and found, what he had searched for:

Lucas North
Lucas. We regret to announce the death of Lucas, aged 36, mourned by his colleagues and friends. Private Cremation Ceremony for family and friends only on Tuesday 28th June at 2.30 pm.

Harry pressed his lips together. The cremation would already be finished by then and he doubted that many of his former colleagues and friends would appear at the ceremony. He was reminded of the fake and real funeral for Ros and remained sitting there deeply in thought, swirling his Whisky in his glass, mesmerized from the dark brown liquid. He doubted that his next night would be any better than his last had been.

During the last night nightmares had kept him awake and what he clearly remembered of them was the repeated image of Lucas begging for his trust. What had Lucas meant by that in the final interrogation? Had all been a lie to fool him, to let him go? Should he – could he believe in anything Lucas had ever said? Who was he - was he really? What kept him going, what were his intentions in joining MI-5, working hard and befriending him? Had this been the real individual behind Lucas, the easygoing friend, efficient colleague and worker, intelligent operator? Or had it all only met a purpose, a purpose unknown to him, Harry?

At least now it was official: Lucas was gone.

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