Slough House

London Rules / C01

Chapter 1

Book 5 Part One 6031 words POV: Roderick Ho, Shirley Dander, Louisa Guy

Summary

Dawn crosses Slough House from the rooftops, passing Jackson Lamb’s office, Catherine Standish’s tidier room opposite, a near-empty kitchen and the two lower offices, then gives way to another slow day. Roddy Ho spends his lunch hour near Aldersgate Street playing Pokémon GO; nearby, a car pulls away from the kerb. Catherine Standish’s morning has already included two errands that put drink in her path; at her desk she works on the department’s biannual accounts and worries privately about Shirley Dander, River Cartwright and J.K. Coe. Shirley has sixty-two drug-free days behind her and cocaine in her pocket, with the last of her anger management sessions that evening in Shoreditch. Louisa Guy cross-checks library loan records. Coe composes another letter to a woman called Tina, signing himself Dan. Shirley sees a silver Honda mount the pavement towards Ho, knocks him out of its path, and the car escapes. River Cartwright returns from a morning at his grandfather’s care home and reads of twelve dead at Abbotsfield and of Dennis Gimball’s attack on Claude Whelan. Ho blames Shirley for spoiling his game. In the late afternoon Shirley wonders whether to tell Catherine and Louisa what she saw.

Beats

  • C01S01 · Narrator — Dawn came to Slough House over the rooftops opposite, since the front door never opens, and passed through Jackson Lamb’s cramped top-floor office, where a standard lamp stood on telephone directories fused together, then Catherine Standish’s squared-away room, a kitchen holding two energy drinks marked Roddy Ho and an old tub of hummus, and the two lower offices, one still carrying a memory of violence. It left by the back door into the yard and gave way to another slow day.
  • C01S02 · Roddy Ho — Roddy Ho spent his lunch hour near Aldersgate Street hunting Pokémon GO, wearing a new baseball cap above his goatee and an iPod in his ears, convinced he was closing on a rare creature. A little way down the road a car turned its ignition and pulled away from the kerb. That morning Catherine Standish had bought a Guardian at the newsagent’s and noticed how easily drink was offered to her, and by afternoon she was writing up the biannual accounts and worrying about her colleagues.
  • C01S03 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander had sixty-two drug-free days behind her and a wrap of cocaine in her pocket as a reward for finishing eight months of anger management that evening in Shoreditch. Walking back to Slough House past the estate, she saw Roderick Ho performing a ballet with his phone, and then a silver Honda turning left where there was no left turn, mounting the pavement and heading straight for him.
  • C01S04 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy sat at her desk in Slough House cross-checking library loan records against county databases, a task Lamb had given her three months earlier with the assurance that the odds were a million to one and that Scotland could be left out. She had reached Buckinghamshire and covered not quite half a sheet of A4. Bored, she stood to stretch, looked out at Aldersgate Street, and heard a screech and a bump from not far off.
  • C01S05 · J.K. Coe — J.K. Coe’s letter to Tina, cut off mid-sentence, reported that Dan was being laid off at the end of the month in Devon so that the boss’s sister’s son could have the job, and that the boss had found him a six-month contract wiring three new hotel builds in Albania, cheap to live in, so that he would be able to save a bit.
  • C01S06 · J.K. Coe — Coe stopped typing and looked across at the Barbican, thinking about London Rules: make others take you on your own terms. He was writing Dan’s long goodbye to Tina because joes never wrote their own letters, a job that had fallen to him after he shot a handcuffed man and was parked in Slough House. His dreams and panic attacks had faded, and he hoped nothing would happen.
  • C01S07 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander covered five yards and hit Roderick Ho waist-high, bringing him down half a moment before the silver Honda ploughed through the space where he had been standing, bounced off a low brick wall and screeched to a halt. The car circled the enclosure, turned left onto the road and went east. She got neither plate nor count of occupants. Ho, his phone in pieces, yelled that she was a stupid cow.
  • C01S08 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright took a train back into London after a morning at Skylarks, the care home where his grandfather, the O.B., sat in the garden telling him stories that turned out to be films. On the train he read that twelve were dead at Abbotsfield, that Islamic State had claimed the attack, and that Dennis Gimball had spent a late-night session lambasting Claude Whelan. He closed his laptop and decided he was now his grandfather’s handler.
  • C01S09 · Roddy Ho — Roddy Ho sat up, brushed his new leather jacket and blamed Shirley Dander for ruining his hunt, complaining that he had nearly caught a bulbasaur and that she had only wanted a quick grope. He told her to keep the story straight for Kim, his girlfriend, and dismissed her talk of a car trying to run him over as a tale with too many follow-up questions. He collected the pieces of his phone and walked back to Slough House.
  • C01S10 · Narrator — By late afternoon all the slow horses were back at their desks, River returned from his morning off, and Lamb scraped a foil dish of chicken fried rice and threw the container into a corner. Shirley Dander sat scowling over whether the car had truly been aimed at Ho or whether she had flattened him in front of an ordinary bad driver, and decided she might tell Catherine Standish, and perhaps Louisa Guy.

People

  • Jackson Lamb — Runs Slough House from the top-floor office; his account entries and his noise on the stairs are described, and he promises a departmental meeting.
  • Catherine Standish — Keeps Slough House’s paperwork; buys a newspaper and the office milk, writes up the biannual accounts, and worries about the others.
  • Roderick Ho — Slow horse who spends his lunch hour playing Pokemon GO and is nearly run over; also called Roderick Ho.
  • Kim Park — Roddy Ho’s girlfriend, whom he mentions in connection with his image and his story about the morning.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse, sixty-two days clean, carrying cocaine as a reward; she knocks Ho clear of the car.
  • Marcus Longridge — Dead colleague; Shirley still stares at the wall behind his old desk, which has been painted over.
  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse working through library loan records for Lamb; she hears the crash from her desk.
  • JK Coe — Slow horse who writes the letters sent to people like Tina on behalf of deep-cover officers; he shot a handcuffed man.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse who takes the morning off to visit his grandfather and reads the Abbotsfield news on the train.
  • David Cartwright — River’s grandfather, a former Service desk man now in a care home, his memory failing.
  • Dennis Gimball — MP who attacked the Security Services in a late-night parliamentary session.
  • Claude Whelan — Regent’s Park’s First Desk, whom Gimball called unfit for purpose.

Places

  • Slough House — The street in Finsbury where Slough House stands; Ho hunts there at lunchtime.
  • Skylarks — The care home, chosen for its security, where River’s grandfather lives.
  • Regent’s Park — The Service’s headquarters, referred to as the Park.

Lines worth keeping

“It’s one thing casting light on a subject. It’s another expecting it to shine.” — Narrator, Dawn comes to Aldersgate Street and Slough House.

“Sixty-two drug-free days.” — Narrator, Shirley counts the days since she last used.

“But what I wouldn’t have done was join the intelligence service. Because that would have been fucking ridiculous.” — Narrator, Louisa reflects on her library research task.

“The car smeared Roderick Ho like ketchup across the concrete apron; broke him like a plastic doll across its bonnet, so all that was holding him together was his clothes.” — Narrator, Shirley sees what the car is about to do to Ho.

“You stupid cow!” — Roddy Ho, Ho’s response to being knocked to the ground.

“The internet was screaming its head off, as usual.” — Narrator, River reads the news on the train back to London.

Threads

  • Plants: A silver Honda with no plate recorded, heading east after mounting the pavement at Roderick Ho.; Ho does not notice the car at all, and treats the incident as an inconvenience.; Shirley’s wrap of cocaine, kept for the evening her anger management course ends.; Shirley resolves to keep an eye on Ho, and thinks of telling Catherine Standish and Louisa Guy.; Coe’s hope that nothing will happen.; Louisa’s library list, built from borrowers of titles such as Islam Expects and The Meaning of Jihad.; Lamb’s promised departmental meeting.
  • Payoffs: The car that turns its ignition and pulls away from the kerb at the end of the Ho passage is the silver Honda that mounts the pavement in the seventh section.
  • Continuity: Shirley has sixty-two drug-free days and eight months of anger management, with her last session that evening.; Louisa has worked the library list for three months and reached Buckinghamshire.; River has done no work for three weeks and takes the morning as care leave.; Twelve dead at Abbotsfield; Islamic State has claimed the attack.; Gimball’s parliamentary attack on Whelan took place the previous evening.

Characters

Places