Chapter 12

Summary

Hassan Ahmed, hooded and bound in the boot of a moving car, works through the severed head he was shown on a kitchen table: it was real, so the threat to cut off his head and post it online is real, and he will not survive to do the stand-up he had planned. River Cartwright hotwires a battered Austin, finds its pre-pay phone out of credit, and drives to Tower Hamlets to collect Kay White; he arrives in time to watch a man guide her, uncuffed, into a waiting car and does nothing, then steals the Austin again. In a padded basement room, Diana Taverner tells Struan Loy that nobody has ever returned from Slough House to the Park, shows him a photograph of Alan Black, and asks whether he has seen Black with Jackson Lamb; she offers him a part in the solution. Min Harper and Louisa Guy, having found Loy’s flat empty in Brixton, drive to Roderick Ho’s house in Balham, climb a fence into his back garden and knock at the rear door. Dan Hobbs, sent by Nick Duffy to collect Ho alone, rings the front bell and is answered by a stranger who is not Ho; he jabs the man in the throat and searches the house. Ho has spent the night dismantling the life of a Lexus driver who honked at him, and lets them in only after learning Lamb sent them. Duffy, told Ho is gone, hangs up on Hobbs.

Beats

• C12S01 · Hassan Ahmed — Hassan, bound in a car boot, accepts that the severed head he saw was real and that his captors will kill him; he abandons any hope of ever performing stand-up again.
• C12S02 · River Cartwright — River hotwires an Austin, finds its phone out of credit, and reaches Kay White’s street in Tower Hamlets only in time to watch a man guide her into a waiting car and drive off.
• C12S03 · Diana Taverner — Taverner tells Loy that nobody has ever gone from Slough House back to the Park, shows him Alan Black’s photograph, and offers him a part in the solution; he stops saying no.
• C12S04 · Min Harper — Min and Louisa, having found Loy’s flat empty, reach Ho’s house in Balham, force a fence in the back passage, and approach the rear door with music audible from an upstairs room.
• C12S05 · Dan Hobbs — Hobbs, sent by Duffy to collect Ho alone after the hospital fiasco, leans on the bell, sees a shape behind the marbled glass, and prepares to go in through the front.
• C12S06 · Roderick Ho — Ho finishes taking apart the life of Simon Dean, the Lexus driver who honked at him, notices someone at his door, switches off the music and goes down to answer it.
• C12S07 · Louisa Guy — Louisa, still carrying Alan Black’s head in her mind and reassessing Cartwright for being sick, decides Ho’s loud music is typical of him, and knocks on his back door.
• C12S08 · Dan Hobbs — A young man in a Che tee-shirt answers instead of Ho and is rude; Hobbs confirms the address, jabs him in the throat, steps over him and goes looking for Ho.
• C12S09 · Roderick Ho — Ho learns Lamb gave Min and Louisa his falsified address, concludes Lamb can dismantle a life without computers, and fetches his laptop; Duffy, told Ho is missing, hangs up on Hobbs.

People

• Hassan Ahmed — Hooded hostage in the car boot, convinced he will be beheaded
• River Cartwright — Steals a car and fails to stop Kay White’s abduction
• Diana Taverner — Questions Loy in a basement and recruits him
• Struan Loy — Slow horse offered a route back; identifies Alan Black
• Min Harper — Breaks into Ho’s garden, still carrying the paperweight
• Louisa Guy — With Min; knocks on Ho’s back door
• Roderick Ho — At home wrecking a driver’s life, then collected
• Nick Duffy — Head Dog; tasks Hobbs, then hangs up on him
• Kay White — Taken from her home by an unidentifiable man
• Alan Black — Dead colleague, identified from a photograph
• Ingrid Tearney — Named as Loy’s and Taverner’s boss in the email joke
• Sam Chapman — Invoked by Duffy as the Dog who feared Lamb

Places

• Regent’s Park — Offstage: the Park Loy still hopes to return to

Lines worth keeping

“None. It’s never happened.” — Diana Taverner, Tells Loy no one has ever gone from Slough House back to the Park, then leaves the door ajar.

“Tell me, Struan. How would you like to be part of the solution?” — Diana Taverner, The offer that turns Loy into her informant.

“Lamb told us.” — Louisa Guy, Answers Ho’s question about how they found the address he hid.

Threads

• Plants: Taverner’s promise that the journey back to the Park has never been made, immediately qualified; Loy’s agreement to be ‘part of the solution’; Ho altered his own personnel records to a false address; Min still carrying the paperweight from the Moody confrontation; River watching Kay White taken without intervening
• Payoffs: The head on the kitchen table is confirmed real to Hassan; Taverner’s photograph identifies the head as Alan Black’s; Ho’s falsified records explain how Lamb knew an address Ho never gave out; Ho’s grudge against the Lexus driver resolves into the destruction of Simon Dean
• Continuity: Time is around four in the morning; River’s Austin is started by disconnected ignition wires; Hobbs leaves a civilian choked on the floor of Ho’s house; Duffy’s call to Hobbs ends with the line going dead

Characters

• Hassan Ahmed
• River Cartwright
• Diana Taverner
• Struan Loy
• Min Harper
• Louisa Guy
• Roderick Ho
• Nick Duffy
• Kay White
• Alan Black
• Ingrid Tearney
• Sam Chapman

Places

• Regent's Park