Let The Rain Fall Down

God Condemn All Those Who Let Us Down

My eyes opened to water, all around there was freezing cold water and I knew that I was drowning. Where I was made no difference as I fought currents and the murkiness all around me, there had always been that knowledge that you hid away in the back of your mind that you would die doing this job. I now could understand completely why Lucas had come back from Russia and hidden away the dark nightmares that had haunted him, death wrapped itself around you like a cloak and ate at your soul. I had done all of this not because of loyalty or the promise of acknowledgement, certainly not that - no one received acknowledgement for what we did, look at Ros and Adam to name but two who had gone before. No, I did it because of one reason.

It was the right thing to do to protect those who needed protecting in secrecy.

Except, now I was dying.

The burning in my lungs, the calm that overpowered the sense of fear I should have had, the dull weight my body was experiencing, it was becoming all too easy to let them let me die. I'd be a body washed up on the Thames, a Doe body - bloated and unrecognisable. Those who knew would raise a drink in my honour and weave a sob story about how I had hidden my pain so well until it had come too much, and those I loved more than anything would eventually move on. One last silent scream left my lips as I sank down into the black.

* * * *

I found myself sitting in the chair that had long since gathered dust, Lucas having decided that it was forever Harry's refused to sit there, the sentiment surprising so many but that Lucas North now, he was more willing to show his emotions it seemed. Looking over the maps and footage we had collated since Lucas had disappeared off the radar there appeared to be one location that fitted all the intelligence we had on this group - especially as luck was on our side and we discovered the agreement the grandfather of one of the known members of the League claiming ownership on the building next to the one that aroused our suspicions. It was time to act, Lucas had been off the radar for nearly eight hours and to our cost, we had learnt quickly that the League did not mess around. If we wanted to have Lucas alive, if only to scream at him for his foolishness then we had to act.

There was an armed response unit moving quietly throughout the streets, unmarked police cars moving in formation towards the destination we had and my car, Beth sat at my side, her face gaunt, her eyes devoid of any emotion but her mind no doubt in turmoil. Lucas, Chloe and the children had changed our section within MI5 forever. They had shown us that despite everything you could have the normality that we all in different ways and different amounts craved. I'd never get mine now, he lay six foot under the man I would have loved and married if circumstances had been different. Harry and Ruth, Ruth and Harry - a love that never was fully and never would be now.

"He'll be fine. This is Lucas - if all those years in Russia couldn't destroy him, a few hours with some over-zealous Lords won't."

It was then, that I realised it wasn't Lucas. It was Dimitri. Of course, it would be. I hadn't told her that he'd disappeared off the radar the same time Lucas had - I was still waiting on reports from the various surveillance analysis teams we had on what they knew. No point worrying Beth and the team if Dimitri had merely gone into a meeting with the League and couldn't report in, it had happened before after all and the Home Secretary had ripped us a new one for wasting government expenditure.

"He hasn't replied to my texts."

I played the busy card, navigating the car through the early evening traffic, not an easy task in rush hour. We weren't even than far from Lords when I brought the car to a halt around the corner from the street of old town houses, all vacant and boarded up bar one but it should have been, the glass of every window was broken or missing the door was metal and covered in flyleaves advertising God knows what from circuses to concerts and adverts for missing dogs etcetera.