Slough House

London Rules / C11

Chapter 11

Book 5 Part Two 5169 words POV: Catherine Standish, Claude Whelan, Zafar Jaffrey

Summary

Dawn finds the Slough House team in Roderick Ho’s office: River and Coe flat on the floor, Louisa exercising, Shirley with her torn ear taped, Catherine Standish reading the news. Talk turns to what the attackers will do next. Shirley suggests a television studio; Louisa and Welles argue that the dud bomb on a train shows the crew are ticking boxes rather than wrecking infrastructure; River concludes they are after a media event. Emma Flyte comes in and says Kim has talked. Flyte reports that the crew are students planted years earlier, working on the SSD’s instructions for the Watering Hole Paper, and that their leader Shin let Kim live. Shin told her the whole world would be watching, and spoke of the snake eating its own tail. At Regent’s Park, Whelan tells Diana Taverner the attacks are North Korean and are following a British blueprint. Taverner says the crew must die and the Service will deny the document. Whelan later sets the hub hunting two students on Chinese passports and tells Josie to call Dancer Blaine. Zafar Jaffrey travels to London and pays the rest of Blaine’s money in a stationer’s near St Paul’s. In a van leaving Birmingham, Danny presses Shin about the girl he claimed to have killed, while An turns on the radio and hears about the Westminster Abbey service.

Beats

  • C11S01 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish sat uncreased and alert in Roderick Ho’s office at dawn, listening to the murmur of Emma Flyte’s interrogation across the hall and reading the news on her iPad: Gimball’s death, Abbotsfield, a memorial service at Westminster Abbey that afternoon. Shirley Dander woke with her ear taped and guessed the next target was a television studio; Louisa Guy and Devon Welles argued it down to a media event, a box ticked rather than a building. Then Flyte came in and said Kim had talked.
  • C11S02 · Claude Whelan — Claude Whelan read Josie’s rundown on Dancer Blaine, a small-time fixer near St Paul’s the Service had spared for years, while the hub worked late on the new assumption that the attacks were not Islamist. Diana Taverner came in, told him his presence at the Gimballs’ had officially not occurred, and heard him out: the attacks were North Korean and following a British document. She concluded the crew had to die. Near five, two students on Chinese passports surfaced, and Whelan told Josie to call Blaine.
  • C11S03 · Catherine Standish — Emma Flyte came in and told the room the attackers were students, nineteen or twenty, planted years earlier; Catherine Standish moved to fetch tea but Devon Welles got there first. Flyte said the girl had been recruited in a club and reeled in on the SSD’s instructions to obtain the Watering Hole Paper, and had survived by wrapping Shin around her finger. Shin had told her the whole world would be watching, and spoken of the snake eating its own tail.
  • C11S04 · Zafar Jaffrey — Zafar Jaffrey travelled down from Birmingham by commuter train, gave Tyson Bowman all the cash he had and sent him away, then circled the streets near St Paul’s until Dancer Blaine’s stationer’s opened. He rehearsed approaches and found criminal enterprise full of rules he had never considered, and watched London fill with people in no hurry. Inside, a young man behind the counter denied knowing Blaine until Jaffrey slapped the envelope of money down and asked whether he had heard of him now.
  • C11S05 · Danny — Danny rode in the back of the van with Joon’s cling-wrapped body, Shin, An and Chris, in heat and stink, and watched Shin’s authority collapse. Shin said there would be armed police and helicopters; An said they could not know. When Shin let slip a question about the girl, Danny pressed him — the girl was supposed to be dead, and nobody had seen the body — but An stayed silent. An turned on the radio: a service at Westminster Abbey. Danny concluded Shin was a traitor.

People

  • Catherine Standish — Slough House’s office manager; keeps the night watch in Ho’s office and follows the news.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse; works out that the next target is a media event.
  • JK Coe — Slow horse; explains what the Watering Hole Paper was written for.
  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse; argues the crew are ticking boxes rather than wrecking infrastructure.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse; ear taped, suggests a television studio as the next target.
  • Jackson Lamb — Runs Slough House; steers the discussion and hands Kim to Flyte.
  • Roderick Ho — Absent slow horse whose office the team has occupied.
  • Dennis Gimball — The columnist whose death dominates the morning news.
  • Emma Flyte — Park officer; reports what Kim told her in the interview room.
  • Devon Welles — Flyte’s colleague; supplies the point about the bomb being on a train.
  • Claude Whelan — First Desk; learns the campaign is North Korean and built on a British document.
  • Josie — Whelan’s subordinate; brings him the rundown on Dancer Blaine.
  • Diana Taverner — Tells Whelan the crew must die and the document must be denied.
  • Reginald Blaine — Small-time fixer near St Paul’s who supplies fake IDs and the occasional firearm.
  • Zafar Jaffrey — Politician; travels to London to pay Blaine the rest of his money.
  • Kim Park — Ho’s girlfriend; the source of Flyte’s information, held at Slough House.
  • Shin — Crew leader whose authority has collapsed overnight.
  • Tyson Bowman — Jaffrey’s tattooed aide, sent away with cash.
  • Danny — Crew member who concludes that Shin let the girl live.
  • An — Crew member who contradicts Shin and holds one of the assault rifles.
  • Chris — Crew member who drives the van.
  • Joon — Dead crew member, wrapped in clingfilm in the back of the van.

Places

  • Slough House — Ho’s office, where the team has spent the night, and the room where Kim is held.
  • Regent’s Park — Service headquarters, Whelan’s office and the hub.
  • Westminster Abbey — Where the memorial service is to be held that afternoon.
  • Abbotsfield — The Derbyshire village shot up, holding its own smaller service.
  • Birmingham — Where Jaffrey addressed a meeting and where the van set out.

Lines worth keeping

“Where does that mention a building?” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb, cutting through the team’s guesses about seizing the media.

“Not the media. A media event.” — River Cartwright, River lands on what the crew’s next move actually is.

“They’re using our playbook.” — Diana Taverner, Taverner, in Whelan’s office, on the North Korean crew and the stolen document.

“They have to die, Claude. I would have thought that was obvious.” — Diana Taverner, Taverner on what must happen to the killing crew.

“What he did tell her was, the whole world would be watching. And then he said something about the snake eating its own tail.” — Emma Flyte, Flyte reports what Shin told Kim.

“Heard of him now?” — Zafar Jaffrey, Jaffrey, having put the envelope of money on the stationer’s counter.

Threads

  • Plants: Shin’s line about the snake eating its own tail, and his promise that the whole world will be watching.; The Westminster Abbey service that afternoon, attended by the PM and the younger princes, under the world’s cameras.; Two students travelling on Chinese passports who dropped out of sight the previous weekend.; Whelan tells Josie to call Dancer Blaine and arrange a meeting.; Jaffrey pays the remainder of Blaine’s fee at the stationer’s.; Joon’s body, wrapped in clingfilm, in the back of the van.
  • Payoffs: Coe explains the Watering Hole Paper: written for a pre-satellite state with one television channel and one radio station, so seizing the media meant something simple.; Seize control of the media is resolved as a media event rather than a building, one more box ticked.; Kim’s account of Shin reaches the team through Flyte’s interrogation.
  • Continuity: The team has spent the night in Ho’s office; Lamb’s bottle is nearly empty.; Shirley’s ear is held together with Sellotape and Coe reopens the scratch on his chin.; Danny believes Shin is a traitor; An refuses to back either of them.; The van left Birmingham an hour before the section opens.; The attacks so far: the penguins at Dobsey Park, a dud bomb on a train, Abbotsfield, and Gimball’s death.

Characters

Places