Sally looked at her phone when she heard knocking on the door, it was 10:45. She pulled a dressing gown on and went to see who it was. A smiling Jane Goodley was standing there, Sally opened the door for her to enter. The bedroom door was open, she saw Dave still sleeping in his clothes. “He’s been there since we came upstairs, if you want to speak to him, I can try to waken him.”
“I’ll make coffee while you do that.”
Eventually he woke. Sally said it was almost 11:00. “Shit, I didn’t mean to sleep this long.”
“Jane is here to see you, she is making a drink, do you want to shower first?” There was a nod, still dressed, he went into the bathroom, returning showered and shaved. Jane watched him as he went back into the bedroom with a small towel barely covering him.
Dressed, he came through to the table where the others were sitting. “Have you been home?”
“I left about 03:30 once I knew most of the arrests had been made, there were only a few we missed, but the regular police are now after them. The Prime Minister held a press conference at 09:00 saying they had arrested most of the people involved, including the ring leaders. He thanked the security services for their effort in resolving the situation quickly and efficiently.”
“If you don’t need me, would you mind if I went to get dressed.” Sally went into the bathroom.
“David, there are several dead in the Major’s house, what happened?”
“They fired guns at us, we fired back, I think there were only five dead plus the Major was shot. Is he still alive?”
“Yes, he has been arrested in the hospital. What are you going to do now, obviously there will be a report to write for last night, but what are your immediate plans?”
“Spend quality time with Sally, can you speak to Flemings Hotel, I’m not sure if we will be welcome after the other day? I would like to go there tonight, I will do the report and send it over to you, we need to have the chat you spoke about. How are you, are you ready to slip back into your role as leader, or do you need more time?”
“No, I was OK yesterday, hopefully it will be quiet over Christmas and New Year. I will be OK from then on.” Jane paid less attention to Sally as she walked from the bathroom into the bedroom. She was back out, dressed, as Jane was leaving.
When she had gone, Dave said to pack. “We won’t be staying here tonight, it will either be the hotel or home, I have a plan.” Everything they didn’t need was taken down to the carpark and put in their car, the Glocks were put in Dave’s old backpack, the Uzi’s were hidden in the boot. They kept one laptop and the briefcase together with the suitcase.
It was after midday when the were sitting in Jane’s office. “The hotel is OK, I have booked you a room for tonight, let them know if you want to stay for another night. David, you will be required to be back here on Monday, Sally as well if she wants to. There will be several meetings you need to be present at. I spoke to our contact at Loughborough University, they are OK about Sally’s absence.”
“It’s Saturday now, I’m not sure how many nights we will stay, especially if I have to be here on Monday, don’t book the first one too early, and hopefully there will be nothing after that. Christmas is next weekend.” Jane kissed them both as they left, Dave thanked Howard for his help, a car was waiting to take them to the hotel. This time there was no trouble. They checked in as normal and went up to their room, there was a large display of flowers, champagne was sitting in an ice bucket, glasses on the adjacent table. Sally picked up the card, ‘Thank you both, J. xxx’.
“This is from Jane, I’ll message her later, right now this is our time, get undressed and into bed, we’ve been together all week, but there has been no time for us.” Two hours later having made love then spent time lying with each other, Dave opened the Champagne, they sat in bed each with a glass. Sally started crying, she put down her glass and buried her face in Dave’s chest, his arm was round her. He didn’t say anything, he let the tears flow. She moved to be sitting on his legs facing him. “I’m not bothered about the people we shot, they deserved it. I was drinking the Champagne thinking how happy I was, I then thought about the dead and injured in the tube station. The survivors and their families and the relatives of those who were killed are going to be having a shit Christmas. These people a fucking evil bastards.” She leaned forward and hugged Dave.
When they finally got out of bed, she asked Dave what his plan was. “I have to write the report from yesterday, while I am doing that, will you go to Selfridges or another shop. Buy some clothes for dinner tonight, for both of us, take my American Express card.”
Dave rang for room service, he had two meals and a jug of coffee sent up, they ate before Sally set off. Sitting at the desk, he scribbled the beginnings of the report, he wrote it out again before he typed it up on the laptop. It was read through several times before he sent it off. He poured out more of the Champagne before running a bath. As he was relaxing, he heard Sally return, the bags were left on the bed, she undressed and joined him. She wouldn’t tell him what she had bought. “You will find out later,” was all she would say.
Dave was sent down to the bar once he had dressed, Sally spent some time getting ready, a manicurist came in to file and then paint her nails, the dress she had bought was returned from housekeeping ready for her.
Dave saw her come out the lift, she was wearing a sky blue silk dress which finished just above her knees. She walked easily in the high heels she was wearing, the makeup she had put on accentuated her eyes, her lips looked inviting. Dave walked across from the bar to meet her, she was being looked at by the men and woman in the bar. “You look beautiful,” she was kissed on the cheek. “I feel very lucky to be with you.” She said it felt good to be dressed up after days of being in jeans and trousers. “I’m almost lost for words, you look so good. Do you want a drink here or to go straight into the restaurant?”
“I’m hungry, so let’s eat.” They were among the last to enter, they ate slowly, talking about anything but the last two weeks, they tried to plan out the next week to be ready for Christmas. The waiter asked if they wanted another bottle of wine when he saw the empty bottle. “No, the dessert menu and coffee please.” Sally looked round the almost deserted dining room, she excused herself. Dave sat looking at the menu until she came back, something was different, he looked at her. “What have you done, the dress looks different?”
“You will have to guess,” she picked up the menu and held it in front of her while she looked at it. Sally ordered cheesecake, Dave had ice cream, the waiter took the menus.
Sally looked straight at Dave, he tried to figure out what was different. “Your nipples are showing, they weren’t earlier.”
“I took out the padding from the front of the dress, if I lean forward, you can see right down. My knickers are in my bag.”
Dave suggested they skip dessert. “No, I want to stay, we will go when I say, you have been dishing out the orders for the last week, now its my turn.” She slowly ate her cheesecake, when she thought no one was looking, she would lean forward to allow Dave to look down her dress. Again, with her coffee, she took her time, when she thought she had teased Dave enough, she said they should go. On the way out she stayed behind Dave so no one could see how excited she was.
In the lift on its way way up to the second floor, Dave and Sally kissed, his hands had pulled up the back of the dress, and were round her bum. One of Sally’s hands were rubbing the front of his trousers. They stopped as the lift doors opened, Sally walked off in front of Dave towards the room, she checked no one was in the corridor before pulling up the back of her dressed and showing Dave her bum. He ran up behind and playfully slapped it.
Sally was undressing Dave before the door was closed, he lay on the bed and let her. Sshe wouldn’t let him pull the dress off, they made love still partially clothed, they then undressed and carried on in the bed.
Neither of them wanted to get up in the morning, they missed breakfast, the cases were packed and they headed down to reception to check out. Sally ordered sandwiches in the bar, at the desk, he was told the bill was to be sent to the Home Office, he booked a room for Monday night. He shared the food with Sally before heading to MI5 to retrieve Sally’s car. She was chatting to the porters when he returned, everything was put in the boot, on the way home, she said she had been asked about the shooting, “I said I couldn’t remember much about it.”
The house was as they had left it, food in the fridge had to be thrown out. Dave was sent off to Tesco’s, when he returned, Olivia and Michael were sitting in the lounge. Sally made coffees and brought them through. Michael asked if it was all sorted, Dave nodded. Olivia wanted to know about the shooting outside the hotel, neither of them would say anything.
Michael said he had seen on the news, almost one hundred people had been arrested with more to follow. Explosives had been recovered from an address in Wales, where bodies were found. Dave said he should have bought a paper when he was out. It was agreed Sally and Dave would host Christmas Day lunch. Olivia said their other friend Sam and her new partner Aaron wouldn’t join them, they had just moved in together and might want to spend their first Christmas together. “I’m down in London again on Monday to tie up some loose ends before the long break, I will be back on Tuesday. No doubt there will be a long shopping list for me on Wednesday.”
Once they were on their own, Sally said she wanted to curl up on the sofa next to Dave. He put on some music, turned the volume down low and sat on the sofa, Sally lay with her head on his lap. His hands ran through her hair and caressed her face, she was soon sleeping. At 22:00 he gently woke her, “time for bed, I have to pack for London tomorrow.” He hung a suit up ready for the morning, in the case he put a change of clothing for Monday night and more for Tuesday, his Glock was wrapped up in a towel.
He kissed Sally before driving to the station, he left her in bed. He thought he would be at the hotel by 10:00 and half an hour later sitting in MI5. Just after 08:30, his phone pinged with an email. It was a list of his appointments for the day. 11:15, the Prime Minister, 13:00, the Home Secretary, 14:30, the head of the Civil Service, 16:00, the Chief of the Defence Staff. The last meeting was at 19:30 in Flemings Hotel with Jane Goodley, he forwarded the email to Sally so she would know where he would be. The taxi dropped him off in Whitehall, he was tempted to enter through the gates. However he thought it unwise for several reasons, the main ones being, he might not be let through and secondly, there might be a load of photographers and TV crews waiting for the PM. He went round the back and in the usual way, he only had a brief wait before he was taken to the Prime Minister’s office.
Richard Carlton stood up as he came in, he asked if he wanted coffee. Dave said yes. “Sit down please. I want to thank you for what you did last week, your swift actions saved the country from another lot of bombs going off, we found a list of the next targets.”
“It wasn’t just me, many other people played just as important a part in the operation.”
“You managed to run two separate investigations at the same time, the official one and the covert one you and Miss Fellowes carried out while sitting in for Miss Goodley.”
“It wasn’t much, just a bit of admin.”
“This investigation is going to take months, do you want to be any part of it?”
“No, I’ve done my part, it’s down to investigators and researchers to take over now. Appoint someone in overall control, they need to be good, a senior case worker or similar, it will be a full time job for some months. I suspect there will be more people in positions of power to be found out. I think the MP’s computer might be quite interesting.” They talked about what direction the investigation should take, as he did so, he wondered why the PM was taking such a keen interest, he would try to figure it out later.
Walking to Marsham Street to see the Home Secretary, it was much too early to go in, he found a sandwich shop and stopped for some lunch. The conversation was pretty much the same, except it was less friendly. He was quizzed on who his accomplices were during the raid in Chepstow and if the killings were necessary. “We don’t shoot people because we enjoy it, we do it because they are trying to kill us.”
He walked back to Whitehall for the last two meetings, the one with Sir Rupert Parsons was much friendlier, he didn’t ask about the investigation, he wanted to know how he had coped with his few days in charge. “I’m not sure, I think I did OK, but others might say differently, the Home Secretary wouldn’t get off my back. I think if he kept on like that, I would have to take him to one side and speak to him. The official paperwork takes a bit of getting used to, there is a lot to read before it is signed. I would do it again if the need arose. If I was doing it for any length of time, there would have to be changes, but I was only there in a caretaker roll.”
He was questioned about what he would change. “I think it could be run more efficiently, I would want to spend around six months, watching and learning before I would start to make changes, only small ones to begin with, see if they work, then go for the more radical ones.”
Dave was three quarters of an hour early for the last meeting of the day, he used his MOD ID to enter the building. He made his way to one of the canteens and had a hot meal, he sat when he had finished, thinking about the first two meetings. Neither of them was an official ‘thank you’, most of what he said could have been read in the numerous reports written already. He was outside the office at 16:00, the Chief was waiting for him, Dave could tell this wasn’t going to be a long meeting. He could see he wasn’t a happy man, there was no offer of coffee. “Why didn’t you tell me there was a traitor in our midst?”
“If I had done, it would have compromised the entire investigation.” Dave thought if there was to be a bollocking, then he would be giving as good as he was getting. “There was no one I could trust other than my assistant Sally Fellowes. No one knew, not even the Prime Minister. I didn’t trust him, or Jane Goodley.”
“The forces sorts its own problems out, we don’t need to call in other parties.”
“Yes you do when you don’t know how compromised it is. Ex-Army people were responsible for the deaths in Kings Cross Tube Station, how would you have sorted that out? Told the Major he was a naughty boy and not to do it again. It was a long way past that stage, most of the organisation were ex-military. There is no way the Army could handle an investigation of this size.”
“You’re out of line soldier with what you are saying, you shouldn’t be speaking to me the way you are.”
“Ex-soldier, and if you don’t like it, then cancel my working arrangement with the MOD. Many departments have lost or will lose face over this, it’s nothing compared to the people who were killed or those permanently scarred. If you have nothing more to say to me then I will go.” He stood up and walked out the room, he took the lift to the ground floor and walked out the building. He wasn’t sure if he would ever be back inside. Hailing a cab, he made his way back to the hotel.
Sally wanted to know how the day had gone when he called her. “The first two meetings were strange, we talked, but nothing was said. Sir Rupert was only interested in how I had coped. At the MOD, I was about to get a bollocking, but gave as good as I got, the Chief was pissed off because I didn’t tell him there was someone in the MOD connected to the bombings. I said if he didn’t like it, then to cancel the work arrangement, he called me a soldier. I had to remind him I was an ex-soldier.” Sally asked what the meeting later with Jane was about, “I don’t know, we haven’t spoken, I’m going to have a long soak in the bath before I go down to meet her, if it’s not too late, I’ll call you afterwards.”
He was down in the bar at 19:20, ordering a glass of wine, he waited for her arrival. She was on time, walking in wearing a blue business suit and carrying a small handbag. Dave kissed her on the cheek and asked her what she wanted to drink, seeing him with a glass of wine, she asked for the same. “Is this a business meeting this evening?”
“Yes and no, there are several things to discuss.”
He said for her to follow him, “I want to speak to you before we have dinner, it won’t take long.” They sat in the lounge away from other people. “Will you tell me how you are, and what happened the other morning?”
“I’m OK now, I suddenly felt I couldn’t cope, phones were ringing, I didn’t know what to do, I sat and cried, something I’ve never done at work before. I’m glad it was you who found me. I don’t think I would have come back if it had been someone else. It’s not a good look to see the head of MI5 sitting at her desk crying.”
“We are all vulnerable, it can be a small thing which pushes us over the edge. What does Ruth say?”
“David, this is my private life we are talking about.”
“I know, it’s why I am asking. I could ring Ruth but I’d rather you told me.”
“We love each other, she is very supportive but she sees how much the job takes out of me, she doesn’t like it.”
“Sally is the same with me.”
“I don’t want to talk about this any more at the moment, there are other things we need to discuss.”
“Jane, what happens at home affects how you are at work, you need to sort out what ever it is you’re not telling me. What is Ruth doing this evening?”
“She is waiting for me to come home.”
“Phone her, have her join us at the end of the meal, she can tell me what you won’t. You drifted apart once before, don’t let it happen again.” Jane had taken a tissue from her bag, she wiped away a tear. “Take your phone out and call her, or do you want me to do it?”
Her number was in Dave’s phone, the call was answered almost immediately. “Ruth, it’s David Stretton, don’t worry, Jane is alright, would you join us at the hotel at around 21:30. I would like to talk to you both,” she agreed. “OK, let’s eat, you can tell me why you are here,” before she stood up she said she hated and loved him in equal amounts.
© 10210ken 2026
