Slough House

Slow Horses / C03

Chapter 3

Book 1 Part One 3595 words POV: River Cartwright

Summary

River Cartwright takes the evening train from London Bridge and reaches Tonbridge by eight, having given his grandfather only a phone call’s notice; supper is a pasta bake and a salad that did not come from a bag. Over Glenmorangie in the study River asks about Robert Hobden. The O.B. calls him a spent force, recalls his years as the Telegraph’s crime reporter and his Manchester drugs series, shrugs off his Communist Party membership as ordinary for the time, and warns that Hobden was not excommunicated for his beliefs but for airing them; the company he kept before his fall, the O.B. says, was worse than what followed, and River should not go off reservation. River admits his hand injury came from opening a flash-box without the code: he had stolen a laptop, copied its files to a memory stick bought near Slough House, and has not looked at it. He describes grading voice-recognition transcripts of intercepted calls, 842 read and none marked above one. The O.B. says the posting is a hoop meant to make him quit, and comes close to admitting he put in a word after the King’s Cross fiasco. Next morning River climbs the stairs at Slough House to find everyone crowded into Roderick Ho’s office watching a hooded figure in a cellar hold up a shaking English newspaper. Sid Baker says they are going to cut his head off.

Beats

  • C03S01 · River Cartwright — River’s evening with the O.B. produces a warning about Hobden’s old associates and near-admission that his grandfather saved his career after King’s Cross; next morning he reaches Slough House to find the kidnap video playing.

People

  • River Cartwright — Visits the O.B.; carries a stolen memory stick and a burnt left hand
  • David Cartwright — River’s grandfather; ex-Service; warns him off Hobden and off breaking out
  • Robert Hobden — Former Telegraph crime reporter turned columnist; ‘a spent force’
  • Jackson Lamb — River’s boss; his ‘sin’ and his authority discussed
  • Sid Baker — Out on a real op; names the video’s threat
  • James Webb — Regent’s Park officer River resents running errands for
  • Catherine Standish — Cited by River as proof nobody leaves Slough House
  • Min Harper — Cited as the disk-on-a-train man who will never go back
  • Roderick Ho — Whose monitor carries the hostage video

Places

  • Tonbridge — The O.B.’s four-bedroom house; River’s childhood home
  • Slough House — Where River returns to the video next morning
  • Regent’s Park — The destination the O.B. promises River will return to

Lines worth keeping

“Hobden wasn’t excommunicated because of his beliefs. It was because there are certain beliefs you’re supposed to keep under wraps if you want to dine at High Table.” — the O.B., Names the rule that will decide who survives the coming scandal

“Be more than careful, lad. You don’t deserve Slough House. But make a mess trying to break out, and nothing anyone says will save your career.” — the O.B., The closest he comes to admitting he intervened after King’s Cross

“They’re going to cut his head off.” — Sid Baker, Closes the chapter: the errand has become a hostage crisis

Threads

  • Plants: Hobden is ‘on your radar’ and political; the company he kept before his fall was worse than what came after; River holds a memory stick copied from a stolen laptop and has not looked at it; possessing it is imprisonable; Sid Baker is out on an actual op while River runs errands for Spider Webb; The O.B. as much as admits he spoke up for River after King’s Cross
  • Payoffs: River’s hand injury is explained: he opened a flash-box without the code to see if he could; The King’s Cross fiasco is confirmed as the cause of River’s posting and his grandfather’s intervention
  • Continuity: C03 is ’earlier that evening’ — the same night as C02’s Slough House scenes — and runs to the following morning; River is not yet thirty; his grandmother Rose died four years ago; he was left with his grandparents at seven and did not speak to his mother for two years; The O.B. lives alone in a four-bedroom house; Glenmorangie is drunk in the study; he has trouble with his waterworks; River read 842 intercepted-call transcripts and graded none above one; River travelled London Bridge to Tonbridge, arriving on the outskirts by eight; The burn is on River’s left hand; the brief flame was doused with bottled water; the laptop went into a jiffy bag bought near Slough House; The video shows a badly lit cellar, a hooded figure in orange on a chair, gloved hands and a shaking English newspaper — the orange garment is not accounted for by C02, where he is stripped to his boxers

Characters

Places

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