Gray Salvation by Alan McDermott Page A

were playing out. Harvey was being used as a pawn in Moscow’s game, a token to be discarded once it lost its strategic importance. She thanked Cooper for the input and hurried back up the stairs and onto her own floor, almost bumping into Thompson as she barged through the door.
    ‘Sorry, Veronica. I was miles away. I’m heading home now.’
    Ellis considered telling her the news, but decided it would be counterproductive. Thompson desperately needed sleep, and she wouldn’t get that if she knew her lover was being held hostage in a war zone three thousand miles away.
    ‘Take it easy,’ Ellis said, and held the door open for her.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ Thompson asked, and Ellis knew her face was betraying her.
    ‘Nothing,’ she lied. ‘I just hate to see you like this.’
    Thompson seemed to accept the answer, and put her hand over her mouth as yet another yawn escaped. ‘I’ll be fine. See you this afternoon.’
    Ellis watched Thompson leave and felt bad for not levelling with her. But her focus was on getting the powers that be to heap pressure on Milenko to secure Harvey’s release. She walked into her office and dialled the home secretary’s mobile.
    ‘Maynard,’ she heard the familiar, no-nonsense voice say.
    ‘John, it’s Veronica. I have news about Andrew Harvey.’
    She brought the minister up to speed on the situation in Tagrilistan.
    ‘How the hell did he end up there?’ Maynard asked. ‘I thought you said they were holed up with him in Oxfordshire.’
    ‘That’s what we thought, but somehow they managed to get him out of the country. I’m working to establish exactly how they did it, but in the meantime I need you to ask the foreign secretary to put pressure on Milenko to accept their offer.’
    ‘I’ll mention it,’ Maynard said, ‘but don’t get your hopes up. This deal has been two years in the making, and the PM isn’t going to jeopardise it just because one of your boys got careless.’
    Ellis could barely contain herself. Careless? Careless was dropping your phone. She desperately wanted to tear into Maynard for the insensitive remark, but she needed him as an ally, not an enemy.
    ‘Andrew Harvey risked his life investigating the murder of one of his colleagues.’
    ‘I appreciate that,’ Maynard said, ‘but I’m just letting you know how things stand. I’ll take your request to the PM, but ultimately it’s his call.’
    Ellis thanked him and asked him to contact her as soon as a decision was made. She disconnected, knowing a political resolution was out of her hands, but there were other options to weigh up.
    She walked quickly back down to Cooper’s office and knocked as she entered the room.
    ‘My team will be here in half an hour,’ Ellis said. ‘As soon as they arrive, I need you to do a presentation on Tagrilistan.’
    ‘Sure. What do you need?’
    The events leading up to the conflict were well known to anyone with a television or smart phone, so Ellis told her to skip that and go straight to the current state of play. ‘I need to know which areas are controlled by the Russians, and your best guess as to where they might be holding Andrew.’
    ‘The first part’s easy,’ Cooper told her, ‘but we’re talking about an area almost the size of England.’
    ‘They must have a command centre. Start with that, then expand it to other possible sites.’
    Cooper looked worried. ‘Are you thinking about a military incursion?’
    Ellis pursed her lips and gave the slightest shrug.
    ‘That’s not my call, but it might be our only option.’

    Sarah Thompson stirred in a fitful sleep and reached over to Andrew’s side of the bed. When her hand hit empty bedding, she cracked open an eye and looked around the room.
    It took her a couple of seconds for the events of the last thirty-six hours to come flooding back, and she grabbed the spare pillow and hugged it, the faint scent of Harvey’s cologne still lingering on the pillowcase.
    She stayed like that for a few