Title: Self-Preservation
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: PG
Length: 414 words
Summary: Lucas acts out of self-preservation.
Mentions of violence

Lucas looked around the area in some alarm.  Things had not gone as he’d planned and now he needed to get away as quickly as possible, but first he would have to do something with the body.  The last thing he wanted was for someone to happen upon the corpse and call the police.  In addition, he was bleeding slightly and although he didn’t think the wound serious, it would be sufficient to call attention to himself.

He pulled his jacket off and looked at his arm.  He had been right; the knife had only given him a flesh wound.  It had also ripped his sleeve, so he tore the rest of the sleeve off, and using his tie made a makeshift bandage, which was obscured once he replaced his jacket.  Fortunately, the jacket itself wasn’t badly damaged.

That was the easier problem.  He then pulled the body into the end of the passageway.  There was a brick wall at the end, and the whole area was in shadow.  Some cardboard packaging had been thrown beside a rubbish bin, and he took that and used it to cover the body.  It wasn’t perfect, but it should be sufficient to disguise the corpse for the moment.

He debated about taking the knife with him, but it was too big to carry without risk of it being spotted, so he took another of the boxes, put the knife inside it and slid the box under the body.  At least that way if anyone did find the body there was less chance they would take the knife.

Satisfied he had done all he could, he slipped out of the passageway and walked briskly away.  He knew there was a small square nearby which had a patch of grass and a few seats around the sides.  He selected an unoccupied seat and took out his phone.

“Ros,” he said, as soon as it was answered, “I was jumped by Sargsyan.  He pulled a knife on me.  I’ve only got a flesh wound, but I had no choice.”

Lucas gave Ros directions as to where the clean up squad would find the body, and then prepared to go back to the Grid.  Harry would be furious, but in the struggle for the knife, Lucas had been so intent on preventing Sargsyan stabbing him that he had abandoned any restraint with fatal consequences.  Lucas shrugged.  The chances were this would just bring forward Harry’s plan by a couple of days.