Dead Lions / C01

Chapter 1

Book 2 Part One 10142 words POV: Narrator, Jackson Lamb, Shirley Dander, Louisa Guy

Summary

With the roadworks gone, Aldersgate Street is calmer, and an imagined Siamese cat walks the reader through Slough House: Ho’s jungly first-floor office, the two new arrivals, Min Harper and Louisa Guy, River Cartwright, Catherine Standish — and finally Jackson Lamb’s lair, which is empty. Nobody knows where Lamb is. He is in Oxford, badgering station staff about the previous Tuesday’s rail chaos, then in Reading, where he passes himself off as the grieving brother of the man who died on a replacement coach. Posing as a fussy academic, he talks his way onto the bus, searches the seat and finds an old mobile phone; the driver remembers a black hat left on the rack and handed in at Oxford. Lamb recovers the hat and, scrolling the phone’s drafts, finds a single unsent word: Cicadas. Back at Slough House the new horses, Marcus Longridge and Shirley Dander, begin a wary conversation about their colleagues, while Min and Louisa are summoned to St James’s Park by James Webb and seconded for three weeks to babysit a visiting Russian, Arkady Pashkin, ahead of talks about talks — a job shadowed by a Regent’s Park audit.

Beats

C01S01 · Narrator — An imagined Siamese cat’s tour of the building introduced Slough House and its inmates — Ho, the two unnamed new arrivals, Min and Louisa, River, Catherine — and ended in Lamb’s empty office. For once Jackson Lamb was not there, and nobody in the building knew where he had gone.
C01S02 · Jackson Lamb — At Oxford railway station Lamb questioned a ticket clerk about the previous Tuesday’s disruption, easing the way with a visible twenty-pound note. He learned that the replacement buses had run from Reading, and went to catch the next train there.
C01S03 · Shirley Dander — In the first-floor office the two newest slow horses, Marcus Longridge and Shirley Dander, broke their silence. Marcus forced the conversation open and Shirley, against her instincts, answered him, and he heard the start of something.
C01S04 · Jackson Lamb — At the Reading depot Lamb posed as a donnish, grieving brother of the man who had died on the coach, and talked the manager into walking him out to the vehicle. The manager pointed out the bus, and Lamb asked to sit where his brother had passed.
C01S05 · Shirley Dander — Shirley told Marcus how she had been exiled to Slough House: she had floored a colleague who harassed her, twice, and invited them to sack her for it. She warned him against playing her, and they agreed to begin their assessment of the office with Lamb.
C01S06 · Jackson Lamb — Sitting in the dead man’s seat, Lamb recalled Dickie Bow as a Berlin street rat and worked over the coach for a message, checking the rack and the window lining. Wedging his hand between the cushions, he cut his wrist and came out with an old, fat, bottom-of-the-range mobile phone.
C01S07 · Shirley Dander — Marcus and Shirley traded assessments of Lamb, agreeing that his bulk disguised how dangerous he was. Marcus argued that Lamb was not being punished but enjoyed his authority, and supposed they might find out if they stayed long enough.
C01S08 · Jackson Lamb — Lamb questioned the driver, who remembered nothing of the passengers but recalled a black hat left on the overhead rack and handed in to lost property in Oxford. Lamb also learned that the passengers had been met by a waiting train and hurried away from the scene.
C01S09 · Shirley Dander — Shirley and Marcus worked through the rest of the staff — Ho’s territorial coffee mug, and the fact that Guy and Harper were sleeping together. Marcus judged the affair the only significant thing about them.
C01S10 · Louisa Guy — Louisa explained to Min that a Regent’s Park audit, triggered by Sir Leonard Bradley’s diverting of funds, lay behind their summons. In St James’s Park James Webb seconded them for about three weeks to vet and babysit a visiting Russian, Arkady Pashkin, and asked after River Cartwright with unconcealed satisfaction.
C01S11 · Jackson Lamb — Back at Oxford station Lamb cornered the same clerk and, with threats and a reminder of the untouched twenty pounds, made him lead the way to the lost property office on platform two. Lamb said he was looking for a hat.
C01S12 · Louisa Guy — Walking the lake in St James’s Park, Louisa teased Min about nearly challenging Webb to a fight, and he admitted he had been thinking that the last Regent’s Park operation had been meant to damage them. Louisa explained the phrase black swan to him as a black swan patrolled the water.
C01S13 · Shirley Dander — Marcus passed on what he knew of the others: Catherine’s drinking, River’s King’s Cross disaster, and his grandfather David Cartwright’s reputation. Pressed about how she had kept her job, Shirley said she had told the Service she was gay, and refused to say whether it was true.
C01S14 · Jackson Lamb — On a bench at Oxford station Lamb reasoned that the abandoned hat belonged to someone who did not want to be noticed, then worked through the dead phone’s five contacts and its empty inbox. In the drafts folder he found a single unsent word, Cicadas, and said it aloud twice.

People

Jackson Lamb — Head of Slough House; absent without explanation, retracing Dickie Bow’s last journey in Oxford and Reading.
Roderick Ho — The house technician, alone in his cluttered first-floor office and territorial about his possessions.
Louisa Guy — Slow horse; explains the Regent’s Park audit to Min and is seconded with him to Webb.
Min Harper — Slow horse and Louisa’s lover; seconded with her to babysit the Russian visitor.
River Cartwright — Slow horse; weighed up by the imagined cat and enquired after by Webb with relish.
Catherine Standish — Lamb’s assistant on the top floor, and the source of Louisa’s information about the audit.
Marcus Longridge — New slow horse, ex-Ops; makes the first move in drawing Shirley into conversation.
Shirley Dander — New slow horse, ex-Comms; guarded, watchful, and eventually explains her expulsion.
James Webb — Regent’s Park fixer who seconds Min and Louisa during a walk in St James’s Park.

Places

Slough House — MI5’s dumping ground off Aldersgate Street in Finsbury; the chapter tours its offices and its empty top floor.

Lines worth keeping

“If you’ve got a complaint, there’s a helpline number on the posters.” — Jackson Lamb, refusing to tip the clerk

“When lions yawn, it doesn’t mean they’re tired. It means they’re waking up.” — Narrator, as he threatens the clerk

“The Russian kind.” — James Webb, briefing Min and Louisa

“Means a totally unexpected event with a big impact.” — Louisa Guy, explaining black swans to Min

Threads

Plants: Min and Louisa are seconded to Webb for about three weeks to babysit and vet Arkady Pashkin ahead of talks about talks.; A Regent’s Park audit under Limitations’ new chair Roger Barrowby is interviewing all staff on their financial, operational and sexual histories.; The Oxford lost property hat and the recovered phone point to a second man on the coach.; Shirley Dander’s claim to be gay is left unresolved.; The phrase black swan — an event with huge impact that looks predictable in hindsight — is introduced.
Payoffs: The question left hanging at the chapter’s opening, where Jackson Lamb is, is answered: he has been retracing Dickie Bow’s journey through Oxford and Reading.
Continuity: Shirley Dander was sent to Slough House after punching a harassing colleague twice in the canteen; she told the Service she was gay to protect herself.; Marcus Longridge and Shirley Dander arrived within the same fortnight, about a month before this chapter.; Min Harper’s marriage ended after he left a classified disk on a tube train; Louisa Guy botched a tail job that put guns on the street.; River Cartwright’s assessment exercise caused a rush-hour panic at King’s Cross and is still used as training footage.; Lamb’s search of the coach turned up a black fedora in Oxford lost property and an old Nokia with five contacts.; Webb is the man River once knocked unconscious, and the reason River is a slow horse.

Characters

Places

Slough House