Slough House

Slow Horses / C11

Chapter 11

Book 1 Part Two 4799 words POV: River Cartwright, Larry, Diana Taverner, Curly

Summary

Outside the Waterloo house Lamb takes all four phones and drops them down a storm drain, tells River the dead man was a slow horse, and splits the team: River, Min Harper and Louisa Guy are to fetch Roderick Ho, Struan Loy and Kay White from addresses in Balham, Brixton and Tower Hamlets, and everyone meets at Blake’s grave. In another car Larry accuses Curly of murdering a spy and panics that everything has changed; Curly says nothing has. At Regent’s Park shortly after three, Diana Taverner hears the house was empty but for a decapitated body she identifies as her own agent, Alan Black, and tells Ingrid Tearney, airborne over the Atlantic, that Lamb ran Black and has gone rogue; she wins authority to arrest Lamb and orders the crew to disappear the body and clean the house with fire. In Louisa’s car River argues they are being framed, reasons that Lamb keeps a flight fund and would not have sent them for the others if he meant to run, and the three agree to test him at the grave. Curly, who had a warning call from Gregory Simmonds of the Voice of Albion, had already buried an axe in Moe’s back and cut off his head for the camera, and drives on with Hassan bound in the boot. Taverner goes down to the basement to break a slow horse, having told Nick Duffy she would rather Lamb’s people were hurt than hers.

Beats

  • C11S01 · River Cartwright — Lamb destroys all four phones, says the dead man was a slow horse, gives three addresses and the rendezvous at Blake’s grave; two black vans arrive as they leave.
  • C11S02 · Larry — Larry accuses Curly of murdering a spy and insists everything has changed; Curly says nothing has, and laughs.
  • C11S03 · Diana Taverner — Taverner tells Tearney that Lamb ran Black as his agent, wins authority to arrest Lamb, and orders the Waterloo house cleaned and burned.
  • C11S04 · River Cartwright — River argues the team is being framed, notes that Lamb keeps a flight fund and would not have botched an op, and the three agree to test him at the grave.
  • C11S05 · Curly — Curly recalls Simmonds’s warning call, then buries an axe in Moe’s back and cuts off his head for the camera, while Hassan lies bound in the boot.
  • C11S06 · Diana Taverner — In the basement of Regent’s Park Taverner tells Duffy the kidnapping was not what it seemed, and sends him to arrest Lamb and every slow horse.
  • C11S07 · Curly — Curly refuses Larry’s suggestion to dump Hassan, calls the beheading legend, and keeps the car moving with the camera and axe aboard.

People

  • Jackson Lamb — Destroys the phones; names the grave as rendezvous
  • River Cartwright — Argues they are being framed; goes to collect Kay White
  • Louisa Guy — Drives; recites the three addresses from memory
  • Min Harper — In the car; doubts Lamb with Louisa
  • Roderick Ho — To be collected from his home in Balham
  • Struan Loy — To be collected from Brixton
  • Kay White — To be collected from Tower Hamlets
  • Alan Black — Dead agent; ex-slow horse; the body in the kitchen
  • Diana Taverner — Runs the cover-up; orders Lamb and the slow horses arrested
  • Ingrid Tearney — Taverner’s boss, airborne, authorises the arrests
  • Nick Duffy — Sent to bring Lamb in personally
  • Hassan Ahmed — Bound in the boot of the kidnappers’ car
  • Curly — Killed Moe; drives on with Hassan
  • Larry — Wants to dump Hassan; drives instead
  • Jed Moody — Discussed by Taverner and Duffy as Lamb’s dead colleague
  • Mahmud Gul — Hassan’s uncle; whose anger Tearney weighs

Places

Lines worth keeping

“He was one of us, Cartwright. He was a slow horse.” — Jackson Lamb, Identifies the headless body as a former Slough House joe.

“Disappear the body. Clean the house.” — Diana Taverner, The order that turns a murder scene into ash.

“I can’t give an instruction, Nick. But if people are going to get hurt, I’d rather it was them than us.” — Diana Taverner, Sanction to use force against Lamb and his people, deniably.

Threads

  • Plants: Lamb’s order to meet at Blake’s grave; Taverner’s back-up plan already set in motion; Curly’s secret pre-pay phone and Gregory Simmonds as a tripwire; The digicam, tripod and laptop in the back of the car; Taverner’s instruction to bring them in separately
  • Payoffs: The body is Alan Black, the agent Taverner planted inside the group; Moe is revealed as Black: the planner Curly killed; The ‘friendly’ among the three kidnappers is identified, already dead; The beheading is explained as Curly’s improvisation, not the plan
  • Continuity: All four phones go down a storm drain; Taverner’s conversation with Tearney is shortly after three; Tearney is over the Atlantic, nearer New York than London; Louisa repeats the three addresses without notes; River leaves the car to travel back for Kay White by other means

Characters

Places

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