Slough House

Joe Country / C07

Chapter 7

Book 6 Part One 6313 words POV: Louisa Guy, Diana Taverner, Anton Moser

Summary

Louisa Guy drives into Wales through steadily worsening snow, bound for Bryn-y-Wharg, a cottage near Pegsea whose address she has found by having Roddy Ho trace Lucas Harper’s Fitbit and Emma Flyte pass on the map coordinates. She arrives in the early afternoon to find the cottage dark and empty. Meanwhile Diana Taverner lunches at a members-only club off Wigmore Street with Peter Judd, who is planning a political comeback and says he has information: some rather bad people intend to commit naughty deeds on her patch. In a disused barn a mile outside a Welsh town, Anton Moser, Lars Becker and Cyril Dupont are briefed by Frank Harkness. The target now has professional help, he says, a woman from Slough House, and she is to be killed if she appears, with no guns and nothing that looks like murder. Back at the club, Judd explains that a boy catering an arms dealers’ gathering at Caerwyss Hall saw a royal known as Number Seven and tried to extort fifty thousand pounds; Judd referred the problem to a nation state, which brought in professionals, and the boy’s father was a dead MI5 officer named Harper. Taverner leaves without agreeing to talk again. Louisa, parked above a crossroads where the Fitbit coordinates lead her to an empty junction, takes a monkey wrench from the boot and walks down the slope.

Beats

  • C07S01 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy drove into Wales through worsening snow, having left early with a bag of energy bars and the map coordinates Emma had passed on for Bryn-y-Wharg, the cottage Clare and her boys used twice a year. Roddy Ho had traced Lucas Harper’s Fitbit to Pegsea. The last twenty minutes of the journey took an hour, and she found the cottage dark, its windows blank. She parked opposite the church wall, struggled into her new ski jacket, and stepped out into the snow.
  • C07S02 · Diana Taverner — Diana Taverner gave a lunch off the books at a members-only club off Wigmore Street, where Peter Judd arrived late and tore up a card pressed on him by a former adviser to David Cameron. He talked about a comeback built on college networks and asked after her trimness. Taverner needled him about Seb and about Lamb’s long memory. Judd said he had come to demonstrate his bona fides: some rather bad people were about to commit naughty deeds on her patch, and he offered to go on.
  • C07S03 · Anton Moser — Anton Moser waited in a disused barn a mile outside a Welsh town with Lars Becker and Cyril Dupont, the three of them briefed by Frank Harkness, who had walked the ground and checked the terrain first. Harkness said the target now had professional help, a woman from Slough House, and that if she turned up they were to take her out. No guns, and it had to look accidental. He passed round her photograph, gave Becker the command, and drove off to eat in town.
  • C07S04 · Diana Taverner — Diana Taverner heard the rest over shepherd’s pie. Judd described a gathering at Caerwyss Hall in Pembrokeshire, attended by an arms-dealing client’s guests and by a royal he called Number Seven. A catering boy had seen too much and asked for fifty thousand pounds, so Judd referred the matter upwards to a nation state, which brought in hired professionals. The boy’s father, Judd added, was a dead Five officer named Harper, one of Lamb’s. Taverner left, declining his suggestion of a further talk.
  • C07S05 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy parked at the top of a lane above a crossroads and called in her debt: two spa days, and Emma Flyte got Roddy Ho to refresh the Fitbit coordinates, which brought Louisa within a couple of hundred yards of an empty junction with trees and fields around it. She took her backpack and a monkey wrench from the boot, walked by the fenceposts under cover of a scraggly hedge, tore her new ski jacket on something, and went down the slope thoroughly pissed off.

People

  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse who drives to Wales to find Lucas Harper and ends the chapter walking down to an empty crossroads with a wrench.
  • Roderick Ho — Slough House computer man who traced Lucas Harper’s Fitbit to Pegsea and later refreshed the coordinates.
  • Emma Flyte — Ex-Park officer, now working elsewhere, who passes Louisa the map coordinates and negotiates spa days for the traces.
  • Lucas Harper — Missing boy whose Fitbit Louisa is following; Min Harper’s son.
  • Clare Addison — Owner of the Bryn-y-Wharg cottage, which she and her boys use twice a year.
  • Min Harper — Dead slow horse, Louisa’s former partner and Lucas’s father, whose memory Louisa does not want stirred at Slough House.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse who believed he had received a call from Sidonie Baker and whose grandfather Frank has reappeared.
  • Sid Baker — Former slow horse, shot in the head; rumoured to have been planted in Slough House and possibly still alive.
  • Frank Harkness — River’s grandfather, dead in this account, whose reappearance has unsettled River.
  • Diana Taverner — First Desk of the Service, who lunches with Peter Judd and hears his warning.
  • Claude Whelan — Taverner’s erstwhile boss, thought of over lunch as an absent friend.
  • Peter Judd — Former Home Secretary turned PR man, planning a political return and passing Taverner a warning about a boy and hired professionals.
  • Seb — Judd’s former valet, killed in an earlier attempt on a member of the security services; Judd says he misses him.
  • Anton Moser — Contractor and ex-member of a secret service, bedded down in the barn and unimpressed by the weather.
  • Lars Becker — Contractor in Harkness’s crew, given command of the operation.
  • Cyril Dupont — Contractor in Harkness’s crew who jokes about the woman they may have to kill.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse named as the previous owner of the monkey wrench Louisa takes from her boot.

Places

  • Pegsea — Town where Roddy Ho traced the Fitbit; Louisa calls Emma from a pub on its High Street.
  • Slough House — MI5’s department for screw-ups, whose operatives are called slow horses.
  • Caerwyss Hall — Pembrokeshire house where the arms dealers’ gathering and the encounter with Number Seven took place.

Lines worth keeping

“It was snowing by the time Louisa crossed into Wales.” — Narrator, Opening line of the chapter.

“it seems that some rather bad people are about to commit naughty deeds on your patch.” — Peter Judd, Judd tells Taverner why he asked her to lunch.

“The only Harper I recall was one of Lamb’s. A slow horse.” — Diana Taverner, Taverner places the name Judd has just given her.

“So if she turns up, take her out.” — Frank Harkness, Harkness briefs his crew on the woman from Slough House.

“No guns. It’s got to look accidental.” — Frank Harkness, Harkness rules out firearms for the killing.

“Wrench in hand, and thoroughly pissed off, Louisa Guy made her way down the slope to the tree-marked junction below.” — Narrator, Louisa approaches the crossroads where the Fitbit signal sits.

Threads

  • Plants: Judd says bad people intend to commit naughty deeds on Taverner’s patch and offers to continue, with the details given after the meal.; Judd identifies a catering boy who saw something at Caerwyss Hall and asked for fifty thousand pounds, and says the matter was referred to a nation state that brought in professionals.; Judd says the boy’s father was a dead Five officer named Harper, prompting Taverner to expect Lamb to complicate matters.; Harkness orders that the woman from Slough House be killed if she appears, with no guns and the death made to look accidental.; Harkness has a photograph of Louisa taken at a gathering he gate-crashed.; Louisa tears her new ski jacket on the right breast on the way down the slope.; Louisa carries a monkey wrench once used in battle by Shirley Dander.; Louisa has promised Emma Flyte a call at nine o’clock.
  • Payoffs: The Fitbit trace Roddy Ho ran is cashed in mid-chapter when Emma passes Louisa live coordinates.; The coordinates Emma pinged Louisa in the opening section lead her to the junction she walks down to at the end.; Judd’s promised details arrive in the fourth section: Caerwyss Hall, Number Seven, the boy and the hired professionals.
  • Continuity: Louisa left early, breakfasted on muesli and apricots, and bought two breakfast McMuffins on the road.; The last twenty minutes of Louisa’s drive took almost an hour; it is early afternoon but streetlamps are already lit.; Harkness’s crew arrived the day before after a night in Stevenage; they are a mile out of town and a little over a mile from the coast.; Harkness sets boots up in three hours, wants the crew in place ninety minutes before the boy shows, and calls a regroup at twenty-two hundred.; Judd’s boy asked for fifty thousand pounds; the bar bill at the gathering came to more.; Taverner dismantles her phone, removing both battery and SIM card, before the lunch.

Characters

Places