Seb
Who they are
Peter Judd’s fixer: sleek, quiet, and kept for the jobs that leave no paperwork — watching a Second Desk officer drink in a pub, putting her into a cab, and, when the Home Secretary decides that Jackson Lamb has become a liability, walking into Slough House at night to kill him. He is given no surname and almost no dialogue. He is defined by being the thing Judd sends.
Book 3 — Real Tigers
- C09 — Judd, told that Tearney has him by the throat, telephones Sebastian and reflects that a more permanent solution may be needed.
- C13 — Sits in the corner of a pub off Great Portland Street, watching Diana Taverner drink, and does not approach her.
- C14 — Collects her: takes her elbow as she leaves the pub and bundles her into a cab, on Judd’s instruction.
- C16 — Climbs to the closed door on the top floor of Slough House, and is shot dead by a Lamb who is awake with his gun in his hand.
Book 6 — Joe Country
- C07 — A name used as a blade: Taverner needles Peter Judd about Seb over lunch, and the chapter’s list of people describes him as Judd’s former valet, killed in an earlier attempt on a member of the security services, with Judd saying he misses him. He does not appear.
Tells
The sleekness, which is the word the chapters use for him every time. The patience of a man who waits in a corner rather than at a table. The absence of anything to say, and the hand on the elbow instead of a threat.
Open questions
What Judd offered him for a killing, and how often he had done this before — the book never distinguishes a first assignment from a habit. And whether his death closes Judd’s interest in Slough House or merely changes the method.