Broken | Lucas North - Spooks/MI5 Story [Featured]

Chapter 18

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Kudos and BBC. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's note:  There's an additional Spooks/MI5 character in this chapter that, if you haven't seen Season 1, may be unfamiliar to you. But you can find some vids on Youtube if you do a search for Hugh Laurie's amazing and awesome character in Spooks/MI5 named Jools Siviter, head of MI6.  This includes the reference to the opera, Wagner.

I also want to thank you for following the story this far and hanging in there.  Your votes are appreciated a lot and I value all your comments.

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“Don't cry, I'm sorry to have deceived you so much, but that's how life is.” 

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

Harry was inside his office when the envelope was delivered by someone from the lobby.  It had been dropped off by courier, the man said, as he handed the thick manila envelope to Harry, its exterior slightly dotted with rain that had just begun to drizzle outside.  Harry thanked the man and watched him close the door behind him.  

Outside his office, the Grid was slowing down its pace.  Malcolm, however, was still hard at work, punching the keyboard in front of him as his eyes looked up at the screen.  Next to him was Liam, watching the older man intently.  Somehow, Harry thought, both of them had gotten along quite nicely, something that surprised even Malcolm.

Liam loved computers, and apparently knew how to work his way around some complex systems in addition to killing some nasty monsters on his handheld game console.  With Ros and Jo at the hospital escorting and keeping an eye on Mikhael Lubienko, the Grid was a bit understaffed at the moment.  

From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Ben Kaplan, one of his junior case officers, working on some files on his desk.  Connie James, his intelligence analyst, walked in.  She had taken the day off today but Harry had eventually called her in anyway, needing the extra help as they’d encountered some new intelligence through the network and he needed all hands on deck.

Harry watched as Connie walked over to Malcolm’s desk and met Liam for the first time.  Liam laughed at something she said and Harry found himself smiling.  The child deserved a little sunshine on this otherwise frightening day and as Connie reached to tussle the child’s hair, Harry tore open the envelope and pulled out the file contained within.

The file folder contained only photographs, black and white grainy photographs that depicted his god daughter in various forms of abuse.  Harry’s pulse raced as he flipped through the images.  The photographs had dates stamped at the bottom right, most of them from nine years earlier, when Alexa was held captive in Moscow.  The man doing most of the abuse had his back to the camera but Harry didn’t need to have the man turn around to know who it was.  The moment he flipped onto one of the next photographs, with the man turning to look at the camera, he needed no other confirmation.

Arkady Kachimov.

But as Harry put down the photographs on his desk so abruptly, not wanting to touch them anymore, another series of photographs tumbled in front of him.  These were more recent, he thought, but the people in the them didn’t concern him as much as the timing they had been taken did.

They were of Alexa and Lucas in her flat.  Two of the photographs were taken from the living room and the next one from her bedroom.  In light of the fact that Liam was Lucas’ son, Harry wasn’t as concerned over the fact that both of them had connected as soon as Lucas returned from Russia.