Title: Sent Away for the Weekend
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)/Sherlock (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 632
Summary: Harry sends Lucas away
A/N: The next part of Co-operation

It was the morning after the cocktail party Lucas had been invited to by members of Zarmutek.  Harry had called Lucas into his office to de-brief him.  Lucas had been wearing the wire again, so assumed Harry wanted to discuss his observations rather than receive a blow by blow report of the evening.  He was therefore startled to find Harry looking annoyed.

“Take a seat, Lucas,” Harry said.

Lucas sat down and wracked his brains to think what the problem was.  He hadn’t been aware anything had gone wrong.  He had played his part exactly as he had been told; the only exception might have been giving insufficient attention to the leggy blonde who had been provided as his companion.  But that was easily explained away; they had talked briefly, but it had soon become obvious they had no interests in common and after a while she had drifted off to join some other friends.

“I heard from Mycroft Holmes first thing this morning.  There have been alarm bells ringing in the FSB.  Do you know this man, his name is Piotr Wojcik?”  Harry pushed a photo across the table to Lucas.

“I met him at the hotel, and saw him briefly at the party.  I thought his name was Valery,” Lucas replied.  “He seemed to have taken an instant dislike to me.”

“He’s an FSB operative.  It appears he’s infiltrated Zarmutek for them, but as yet we don’t know why.  We need to get him out of the way as soon as possible; we’ve put too much into this operation to risk it being jeopardised at this stage.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“You?  We want you to do nothing.  You mustn’t be seen to be involved.  In fact, you are going away for the weekend, somewhere quiet where there is no chance of you being implicated in any way.”

In his surprise Lucas stood up.  “Surely I can do something, even if it means staying on the Grid.”

“No, it’s all been sorted.  Mycroft has a man waiting outside in a car ready to take you away immediately.  Goodbye, Lucas.”

Lucas left Harry’s office in a fury and stormed down the stairs.  There was no point arguing or resisting.  He wondered whether he would spend the weekend being guarded to prevent him from making any attempt to return to London.  It was clear he wouldn’t be told what happened whilst he was away on the pretext he would be more plausible if he truly knew nothing.

He found the car waiting for him as Harry had described.  He presumed he was supposed to sit in the back and therefore opened the front passenger door and sat down next to the driver.  “Go on then,” he said, “take me wherever we’re meant to go.”

Lucas sat moodily staring out of his side window for the first few minutes of the journey, before turning to the driver to see if he would tell him where they were going.  As he did so he realised the man had removed his chauffeur’s hat to reveal some distinctive curls.  “Sherlock,” Lucas exclaimed.  “What are you doing here?”

“I persuaded Mycroft, if you had to be secluded somewhere in the country for the weekend, I was the best person to take you.  I also knew the ideal destination.”
“Where are we going?”

“Sussex.  We have a small family cottage on the Downs where we can be completely isolated.  Mycroft will ensure it’s properly provisioned and no-one will come near us all weekend.  And we won’t have to stay indoors all the time; I know plenty of walks we can take where we won’t see anyone.”

Lucas stretched out in the seat and grinned.  “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do this weekend.”