"I wonder what the others are up to," River sighed as he, Lamb and Georgie sat in Lamb's car across the street from Peter Judd's house, accompanying Taverner and her Dogs on a brief nighttime visit.

"Could've called them if Lamb hadn't thrown away Min and Louisa's phones," Georgie muttered from the back seat, shuffling to get comfy in the rigid fabric of Spider's shirt that she'd acquired earlier.

"Should probably let them know they're not being hunted anymore in case they're halfway through some dodgy backstreet plastic surgery," River added, glancing at Lamb who was fast asleep beside him in the driver's seat.

"Imagine Min with a nose job," Georgie chuckled to herself in the backseat.

"Now that we know they aren't trying to pin this on us, I can see it through if you want to go home to Nellie," River told her, and Georgie was touched by the gesture, and she had considered it, but she knew that Nellie was safe and blissfully unaware of the night's events, and Alex would find a way to reach her if he needed to.

"I know what it's like to be a mum and worry about your child when they aren't in your care, but I can't imagine what Hassan's parents are feeling as every minute passes," Georgie replied as she gazed out the window at Judd's house, much like the one she'd grown up in, "I can't not see this through, River, for them."

"I get it, I mean, I think I do," River nodded, keeping his eyes on the street ahead of them, figuring that it was easier than looking Georgie in the eye, "When I saw Nellie, my first instinct wasn't to be angry at you for keeping her from me, it was this weight of responsibility that I don't think I've ever felt before, knowing there's a person out there that's half of me and half of you."

"I felt that the first time they placed her in my arms," Georgie replied, "Just this instant feeling of certainty that I'd do anything for her."

"I can imagine," River sighed, glancing over his shoulder at Georgie's who's gaze seemed as hazy as his own, filled with the same feeling, despite not even knowing the little girl, "You should get some rest, I'll keep an eye on things."

It didn't take much persuading to do as River said, resting her head against the car window and closing her eyes with the hope of nodding off to sleep. She could've sworn she'd only just shut her eyes when she was startled from her sleep by a gentle tapping against the window.

She opened her eyes to see Roddy and Standish on either side of the car, as River rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"How the fuck did you find us?" Lamb remarked, winding down his window as Roddy crouched down beside the car, retrieving a tracking device that he'd seemingly attached at some point, "Well, put it back, it'll come in handy if it gets nicked."

"They haven't cuffed us, you must have the photographs," Catherine whispered as she crouched beside River's side of the car.

"Yeah, we checkmated Taverner," River told her.

"Were you planning on telling us?" Roddy asked with a frown.

"No, I was enjoying not seeing you," Lamb sighed.

"Where's Min and Louisa?" Georgie yawned, wiping her tired eyes.

"Ho worked out a way to track the kidnappers, Min and Louisa are chasing after them," Catherine explained as River glanced over his shoulder, shooting Georgie a frown of concern.

"My orders were pretty clear, do fuck all," Lamb remarked, "You've let two Slow Horses tear off in a doomed attempt to try and not make things worse."

"I didn't let them, Jackson," Catherine was quick to reply, "They're autonomous beings."

"I just hope they only get themselves killed and don't set an orphanage on fire," Lamb sighed, "Keep tracking that van, let me know if it so much as changes lanes."

"There comes here Majesty," Georgie nodded towards Judd's house, the rest of the Slow Horses following her gaze to see Taverner exiting the house, Lamb put his foot down on the accelerator, pulling up alongside the pavement where Taverner stood.

"They're heading to Harwich," Lamb told her.

"How did you know?" Taverner remarked, once again thinking little of the Slow Horses' integrity.

"Black used an old legend to hire a van, Ho accessed the van's theft locator, they're on the A12, nearest port is Harwich," Lamb replied, "Standish and Ho will give you all the various, I'm off for a kip."

Without another word, Lamb pulled away from the curb, driving down the deserted street towards the main road as River glanced from Georgie to Lamb, "You're not actually going to bed, are you?"

"Not till the fat lady sings," Georgie muttered, gazing out of the back window as River turned to her with a dumbfounded frown. 

"What fat lady?" River asked.

"I pity you for thinking this one was a good option for a husband," Lamb sighed, glancing at Georgie in the mirror, "Probably did you a favour not showing up on your wedding day."

"Not helpful," River huffed.

"It's an opera thing," Georgie replied, "Just means it's not over till it's over, so no, he's not going to sleep."

"See, Knightly here was cultured as a child, her parents took her to opera and shit," Lamb smirked at River.

"I'd rather poke my eyes out."

Given that she'd had her phone dropped down a drain earlier that night, Georgie wasn't entirely sure where they were as her eyes fluttered open, met with an early morning sky, her head resting against the window of Lamb's car.

"Van's twenty miles ahead of you," She heard Roddy's voice from the phone in River's hand as she laid eyes on signs for Harwich and Clacton-on-sea.

"Min and Louisa?" Lamb asked.

"Ten miles," Roddy answered.

"How long was I out for?" Georgie mumbled.

"I don't know, you looked like you needed it so I didn't want to wake you," River smiled tentatively over his shoulder.

"Are you into the Park's feed?" Lamb asked.

"Was nearly there when you called," Ho answered.

"Then stop talking!" Lamb exclaimed.

"Wait, wait, Roddy," River rambled, needing peace of mind on Sid's health for his own peace of mind as much as Georgie's, "When you get a sec, can you get into the hospital's system and find out how Sid is-"

Before River could continue his sentence, Lamb took the phone from his hand and tossed it into the back seat, just about missing Georgie, "Watch it!" She quipped.

"What the fuck?" River remarked.

"You two need to hear this from me, not an insensitive prick like him," Lamb told them as he kept his eyes on the road, because he knew enough about Georgie's life before Slough House to know that Sid was and would always be more than just a colleague.

"What, she's gone?" River replied as Georgie's body trembled in realisation, as she covered her mouth with her hand, fearing the sons that might escape her lips if she let herself consider what it meant to never see Sid again.

"Yeah," Lamb nodded as a silent stream of tears rolled down Georgie's cheeks.

River didn't need to see Georgie's face to know that losing Sid would hurt her, he'd been there since the two girls became inseparable as new recruits, Sid had been in Georgie's life longer than he had. He slipped his hand backwards, gently patting her knee, letting her know without words that he was there for her in whichever way she needed him. She took his hand in his, squeezing it gently, supposing that uttering so much as a 'thank you' would render her a senseless emotional wreck.

"Count yourselves lucky," Lamb sighed as he glanced between the pair.

"Jesus Chri-" River scoffed in disbelief, "Yeah, lucky us, yeah."

"From my end of the telescope, surviving's the short straw, by the time I was your age, I'd lost a baker's dozen," Lamb told them both as Georgie kept her eyes on the continuous grass verge that lined the edge of the motorway, "It was bad enough when the Wall was up, but once they reduced it to bricks and rubble, everything went to shit, whole networks of joes rounded up, blown, I haven't forgotten any of them, and I won't forget Sid...besides, she was the only one of you-"

"Who wasn't complete shit," River nodded, "Yeah, yeah, you said that."

"Anyway, the moral of the story is, get used to death, cause you're both gonna see a lot more of it, and if that scares you, then open the door and roll out now," Lamb told them, and as much as those words pained Georgie, she knew they were true, that she needed to be strong, but she also knew that there was strength in allowing herself to grieve Sid too.

Georgie hadn't said much since the revelation about Sid's fate, and she appreciated that River and Lamb had both thought better than to ask her meaningless questions that she'd inevitably answer with one word responses.

She wasn't sure how near to Harwich they were, but she hoped that they wouldn't be greeted with the sight of another death on their arrival. As she gazed out of the window she spotted a silver car which Lamb sped past as Georgie caught sight of Min and Louisa who both desperately flagged down Lamb's car.

"You're not gonna stop?" River asked.

"We're ten minutes from Harwich," Lamb reminded him, "Dogs, bad guys, guns, you want to miss the show?"

It wasn't long after that when Roddy called them with updates on the Dogs' extraction mission, "Van got to Harwich, Dogs shredded a kidnapper, pretty wild, I got some head cam footage, Taverner's not taking any prisoners," He told them as Georgie leant forward, resting against the back of River's seat, listening for a mention of Hassan.

"Roddy, Roddy, Hassan?" Georgie spoke up.

"No sign of him or the other kidnappers," Roddy told them as Georgie rested her forehead against the back of River's headrest in despair.

"Where did the van last stop?" Lamb asked.

"Lay by, five miles behind you," Roddy replied.

"Shit," Lamb hissed, turning the wheel in a sharp U-turn as Georgie clung to the handle above her head while Lamb accelerated at great speed in the direction they'd just driven from.

Within minutes they'd reached the point where they'd previously passed Min and Louisa, leant against the bonnet of Min's car. With little enthusiasm, Lamb slowed down alongside them, concluding that there was a world in which a car full of Slow Horses was a good excuse for a cavalry.

"Come on, get in then!" River shouted as the pair piled into the car, sitting either side of Georgie as she found herself squashed into the car's middle seat begrudgingly.

"We forgot to get petrol," Min muttered sheepishly.

"We?" Louisa raised her eyebrows at him across Georgie as Lamb sped back towards the lay-by.

It didn't take them long to reach the lay-by, Lamb pulled up and removed the key from the ignition as the five colleagues piled out of the car.

"Are you sure this is right?" Min asked as he clung to the phone.

"You are at the right location," Roddy replied bluntly, "I've done my bit, over to you."

"Right, Ho, there's no 'I' in 'team,' but there is a big 'fuck you' in fuck you," Min quipped in frustration.

"I can't help but respect that," Georgie smiled, patting Min on the shoulder as watched Lamb edge closer to the tree line.

"Roddy, Roddy, there's nothing here, look again," River told him.

"That is where they stopped," Roddy told him firmly.

"This is the place," Lamb declared as Georgie joined his side, her eyes widening at the sight of a dead man sprawled across the dirt, blood covering his face, she'd seen enough death in the past day to last a lifetime, it was as though she'd become numb to it now, "Three men came into the woods, one came out, I'm assuming the one who took the van to Harwich."

"How do you know?" River asked as he approached the pair, keeping his eyes on Georgie.

"Reading the signs of the earth." Lamb remarked. 

"What, like snapped branches, trampled grass?" Min asked as he and Louisa joined the rest of the group.

"No, you dozy sod, the dead body over there," Lamb gestured towards the dead man sprawled across the flattened grass.

"Fuck me," River exhaled as he and Louisa approached the lifeless man in disbelief.

Without a word, River approached Lamb, holding his hand out with a glance that spoke a dozen words. Lamb nodded, pulling a gun from his pocket and handing to River before turning to Georgie.

"Go with him, make sure he doesn't fuck this up on a Stansted scale," Lamb told her with a nod of assurance that she hoped meant that he trusted her to extract Hassan successfully and keep River alive.

River headed off into the woods without a word as Georgie walked a few paces behind him while Min and Louisa hurried after them as 'unarmed backup' she supposed.

"So, what's the plan?" Georgie asked as she ran alongside River through the trodden forest.

"Haven't exactly thought that far ahead," River muttered.

"I mean it kind of pays to think ahead," Georgie reminded him, just as she had the first time they were paired up for a training exercise as fresh faced new recruits.

"When we don't know what we're walking into?" River raised his eyebrows as they sped through the woods, "Surely, it's best to except the unexpected."

"With all due respect, River, it's been a while since you were on a live op," Georgie replied, ignoring the pain searing through her arm, "And that was-"

"Stansted, yeah, I know," River huffed as they reached a clearing, running alongside the edge of the forest as Georgie laid eyes on a folly, she'd seen one similar before near the countryside cottage her parents owned on the South Coast.

"What do you reckon?" Georgie exhaled as she came to a stop, River joining her side as she gestured towards the folly at the top of the gradual hill.

"I reckon that could be it," River nodded as the pair hurried up the hill.

As they neared the folly, both River and Georgie ducked at the sound of gunfire, keeping their heads down as they neared the edge of the ruins, both aware that the element of surprise was what remained on their side in that moment.

"I'm going to need you to hang back and take cover till I know the threat is neutralised," River whispered as they ducked down, taking cover at the edge of the hill, maintaining eyes on the kidnapper and Hassan.

"Like that's going to happen," Georgie scoffed.

"You're unarmed, Georgie," River reminded her, "Just hang back."

Before Georgie could argue against him, River stepped out from where they had taken cover, taking shots into the folly in the assailant's direction. Georgie watched as River positioned himself within the overgrown grass, as clear a shot as any of the folly.

Georgie glanced into the folly just as Hassan threw a rock at the back of the kinapper's head. The kidnapper fell to the floor as Hassan stood over him while River closed in with the gun in his hands as she promptly joined his side to see Hassan yielding an axe over the kidnapper.

"Hassan, Hassan!" Georgie shouted as she stood beside River while he did his best to block her body with his own, she knew that what Hassan wanted to do wasn't going to punish the kidnapper, if anything it would end his misery and leave Hassan with a lifetime of pain and memories he'd rather forget, "Hassan, stop!"

"Who are you with?" Hassan replied bitterly, his hands shaking as he clung to the heavy axe.

"We're with MI5," River interjected.

"You're safe, you're safe now," Georgie assured him as she tentatively stepped closer while River kept his eyes on her, "Look, put it down, just give me the axe."

"You're gonna stop me killing him?" Hassan retorted, clearly fueled by adrenaline, fear and anger triggered by whatever those men had put him through in the last twenty four hours.

"You don't want to kill him," Georgie insisted as she took a tentative step closer, "It will ruin your life...he's done, finished-"

"Like fuck I don't!" Hassan exclaimed.

"Hassan, look at me, Hassan, no, no, no," Georgie pleaded as Hassan's grip on the axe wavered, she watched as he swept the axe towards the kidnapper as River pulled her several steps back, "No, Hassan, Hassan!"

Georgie looked down at the kidnapper to see the axe wedged in the ground beside the kidnapper's head as a wave of relief poured over her body. She let a gasp of relief escape her lips as she clung to River's side.

"You make me ashamed to be British," Hassan spat as he hovered over the kidnapper while Rover and Georgie shared a brief glance of concern.

"Alright, come on, let's step away, back up, back up, good man," Georgie soothed as she joined Hassan's side, tentatively guiding him away from the kidnapper, "Why don't we go just over there, yeah?"

Georgie turned to River briefly, offering him a quick nod as he came to his knees beside the kidnapper, using his own belt to restrain him as Georgie guided Hassan to the edge of the Folly. Despite the pain throbbing through Georgie's arm from her stitched up bullet wound, she practically hauled Hassan away from his kidnapper, his body weakening in shock.

"Okay, let's just sit down, just here," Georgie guided him to the ground slowly as his breathing became erratic as she helped him remove his coat, "There you are...my name's Georgie, let's just breathe together, alright? You're okay, just breathe with me."

Georgie guided Hassan with slow breaths in and out, which seemed to help him, just as River joined them both, "I'm going to have to stop the bleeding on that arm," He remarked, crouching beside Georgie as he pulled the belt from the jacket he was wearing, tying it firmly around Hassan's arm, just above his wound.

"That's it, that's it," River reassured him as Hassan cried out in pain, "Good man."

"Can you ring my parents?" Hassan asked innocently.

"We don't really have phones at the moment, sorry," River smiled reassuringly.

"What kind of spies are you?" Hassan frowned.

"Hard to tell, really," River sighed as he and Georgie looked over their shoulders at the sound of a helicopter, just as Louisa and Min entered the folly. 

"Are they gonna kill him?" Hassan asked as the chopper circled over the folly, "He should go on trial!"

Without warning, Min shoved past Louisa and ran towards the kidnapper as she shouted after him, "Min, what are you doing?"

Min stood between the target and the chopper, raising a middle finger as he shouted, "He's unarmed!" As Louisa joined his side.

River glanced at Georgie and Hassan, then back at Min and Louisa, "Go, I've got him," Georgie assured him as she remained knelt beside Hassan on the grass, "They need you, River."

River and Min hauled the kidnapper to his feet and dragged him to a nearby archway in the perimeter of the folly as Louisa followed close behind.

"Come on," Georgie nodded reassuringly to Hassan, helping him up off the ground and guiding him towards her colleagues, out of view from the Dogs in their helicopter.

"Thank you," Hassan exhaled as the helicopter abandoned them, concluding that they'd fail to get a clear shot at the target.