Missiles

Flyte persuades Roddy to telephone Tara. He still wants to believe she was forced into betraying him, and Flyte allows that belief to make cooperation possible. Roddy attempts to warn Tara before ending the call, but the trace has already worked. The system needs less time than he expects. His technical confidence once again overlooks something that other people know and he does not.

Lamb reaches Tara’s address ahead of the Dogs. She has already left, but her taxi journey offers another trail. He discovers that she has gone to Roddy’s flat, choosing a place whose owner is currently in custody. Flyte reluctantly accepts his help. When Tara flees from the flat, Lamb is waiting on the route out and catches her with his car door. He gains the chance to attend her questioning by supplying the result the Park needs.

Whelan visits Dennis and Dodie Gimball after learning that Dodie intends to expose his encounter with an escort. He does not arrive to apologise. MI5’s files have given him damaging information about both of them, and he uses it to threaten their public reputations. The people trying to intimidate him now have reasons to be afraid themselves. His position supplies the leverage his ordinary manner fails to advertise.

At Jaffrey’s rally, Shirley notices boots she associates with the earlier attack on Roddy. Their wearer enters as a maintenance worker, claiming there is a problem with the lights in the women’s toilets. Later, the working lights expose the excuse. Catherine sees movement near the position from which the man can shoot the mayor. She throws a bottle towards the stage, prompting security to move Jaffrey before the gunman can fire effectively. Shirley attacks the man, but he escapes to the waiting van.

River and Coe are watching Gimball at the other venue. Coe seeks a vantage point while River finds the politician arguing with Tyson Bowman, Jaffrey’s aide. Tyson has come to ask him not to exploit Irfan’s involvement in the sabotage. Gimball responds with abuse, and the exchange becomes a fight. River intervenes on the assumption that he is protecting his assigned target. He drives Tyson away, but cannot stop the scene taking another turn.

As Coe comes down from the scaffolding, a tin of paint falls onto Gimball’s head. The injury kills him. What began as protection has ended with the death their wider assignment was supposed to prevent. River and Coe find the politician’s dictaphone, which has recorded the encounter, and leave with it. Their colleagues have stopped an assassination elsewhere, but they now carry evidence of a disaster with no safe explanation.