Slough House

Real Tigers / C01

Chapter 1

Book 3 Part One 9501 words POV: Narrator, Catherine Standish, Roderick Ho, Louisa Guy, Marcus Longridge, Shirley Dander, River Cartwright, Jackson Lamb

Summary

Slough House endures a heatwave. A roving narrator tours its mildewed offices at dusk, finding slow horses grinding through meaningless data, one efficiently run office, and Jackson Lamb asleep next door. Catherine Standish, Lamb’s PA and a recovering alcoholic, lets herself out through the back yard and is greeted on Aldersgate Street by Sean Donovan, a former soldier and former lover thirteen months out of a five-year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. She refuses a drink and a coffee, says she cannot be seen with him, then walks north laying a false trail, aware of a black van and a watchful ex-soldier near the tube. In a bar near the Barbican, Roderick Ho announces his plan to take up with Louisa Guy and is backhanded by Shirley Dander for calling her ripe; Marcus Longridge is there only because Ho is blackmailing him over casino sites used in office hours. Louisa, drinking alone south of the river, picks up a stranger on condition he stops talking. River Cartwright sits with a comatose colleague and explains his passport-backlog theory. Donovan seizes Catherine, the van’s doors open, and she is carried off. Lamb finds two missed calls from her and dismisses them.

Beats

  • C01S01 · Narrator — A roving narrator toured Slough House at dusk, finding its offices thick with heat, mildew and pointless data work, one efficiently run office, and one occupant snoring loudly behind a closed door. Catherine Standish let herself out through the back yard into Aldersgate Street, where a voice from her past spoke her name.
  • C01S02 · Catherine Standish — Catherine recognised Sean Donovan, an ex-soldier and former lover released from prison thirteen months earlier, and he fell into step beside her. She reflected that chance encounters happened to other people but never to spooks.
  • C01S03 · Roderick Ho — Roderick Ho, drinking with Marcus Longridge and Shirley Dander, rehearsed his conviction that Louisa Guy was waiting to be taken up and tried to draw Marcus into advising him. Shirley mocked the idea and Marcus refused to engage.
  • C01S04 · Catherine Standish — Donovan asked whether Catherine was still at the Park and pressed her to join him for a drink or a coffee. She refused, saying she was still with the Service and could not be seen with him, and they parted at the junction.
  • C01S05 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy, drinking alone in a bar south of the river, was joined by a stranger in a made-to-measure suit who talked at her about his work in solutions. She let him buy her drinks and told him he could come home with her if he stayed silent until she had finished them.
  • C01S06 · Marcus Longridge — Marcus watched the new Home Secretary, Peter Judd, on the bar’s television and traded insults about him with Shirley while Ho looked on. Ho defended his pursuit of Louisa by saying that the bitch was ripe, and Shirley backhanded him hard enough to send his spectacles flying.
  • C01S07 · Catherine Standish — Catherine walked north towards the Angel to lay a false trail, recalling Donovan’s trial for causing death by dangerous driving and the drinking years they had shared. She called a number that went to voicemail without leaving a message, and a black van idled a hundred yards behind her.
  • C01S08 · Shirley Dander — Shirley found that slapping Ho had not calmed her, and recalled how Marcus had talked her into the evening by threatening to air her cocaine use in front of Ho. Ho came back to the table with a reddened cheek and demanded to know why she had done it.
  • C01S09 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright sat with a comatose patient in a hospital room and described his passport-application task and his theory that false identities were sold on after the 1981 civil service strike backlog. The patient gave no sign of hearing him.
  • C01S10 · Catherine Standish — Catherine noticed an ex-soldier watching the tube entrance, turned back, and then saw the same black van pass in the opposite direction. Concluding that she was being targeted, she left the bus stop and ran across the road.
  • C01S11 · Marcus Longridge — Marcus, hiding in the gents, reviewed the roulette-machine debts and office-hour casino sites that had put him in Ho’s power. Back at the table he warned Ho that he would break every bone in his body if he talked about them, told him his whole life was worthless, and left the bar, after which Shirley dropped Ho’s spectacles into his unfinished Guinness.
  • C01S12 · Catherine Standish — Catherine hurried through Georgian squares and a long terrace, convinced that a man was following her and that the van would return. At the next corner Sean Donovan caught her up in an embrace, the van’s rear doors opened, and she was carried inside in seconds.
  • C01S13 · Jackson Lamb — Jackson Lamb came out into the back yard, found two missed calls from Standish on his phone and assumed they concerned stationery or a broken printer. A plume of his cigarette smoke briefly swelled with impressions of the house’s inhabitants, then vanished.

People

  • Catherine Standish — Lamb’s PA and a recovering alcoholic; meets Donovan, realises she is being followed, and is abducted
  • Sean Donovan — former soldier and Catherine’s old lover, thirteen months out of prison; hands her into the waiting van
  • Roderick Ho — slow horse convinced Louisa Guy is available, and blackmailing Marcus over casino sites
  • Marcus Longridge — slow horse with mounting gambling debts, dragged into the evening by Ho’s hold over him
  • Shirley Dander — slow horse who mocks Ho, slaps him, and admits to recreational cocaine use
  • Louisa Guy — slow horse drinking alone across the river; picks up a stranger on her own terms
  • River Cartwright — slow horse working the passport backlog and visiting a comatose colleague
  • Jackson Lamb — head of Slough House; sees two missed calls from Standish and dismisses them
  • Peter Judd — the new Home Secretary, seen on the bar’s television

Places

  • Slough House — MI5’s exile office in Finsbury, wedged between a Chinese restaurant and a newsagent’s

Lines worth keeping

“Catherine Standish—never a joe—knew this much too: that chance encounters might happen in some places, to some people, but they never happened here, to spooks.” — Narrator, on meeting Donovan

“Friend or foe?” — Catherine Standish, hearing her name called

“Bitch is ripe” — Roderick Ho, on Louisa Guy

“If you’re still here when I’m done, I’ll go home with you.” — Louisa Guy, setting terms with a stranger

Threads

  • Plants: Donovan was released thirteen months into a five-year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, and turns up outside Slough House the same evening.; A black van and at least one watching ex-soldier shadow Catherine before she is taken.; River’s theory that false identities were sold off after the 1981 civil service strike, hiding in the passport backlog.; Marcus’s gambling debts, and Ho’s knowledge of the casino sites he uses in office hours.; Shirley Dander’s cocaine use, which Marcus threatens to expose.
  • Payoffs: The black van and the soldier at the tube are confirmed as a snatch team when Donovan takes Catherine at the corner.
  • Continuity: Catherine is Lamb’s PA, a recovering alcoholic, and has never been a field officer.; Donovan is a former soldier in his mid-fifties, out of prison thirteen months after a five-year sentence.; Peter Judd is the new Home Secretary, and therefore the slow horses’ new minister.; Min Harper is dead, and Louisa Guy is still raw about it.; Spider Webb is on life support and not expected to wake.; River crashed King’s Cross during a training exercise and was sent to Slough House for it.; Slough House’s front door is famously never used; staff come and go through the back yard.

Characters

Places

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