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River was going to kill Coe. If he was already going to go down for one murder then he might as well jump all the way off the cliff. As much as he kept repeating to Coe that Lamb would believe that they weren’t there for the Paint Incident, there was no way Lamb was actually going to believe them. River was going to lose his job and he was going to be the laughing stock of the whole service for the rest of his life. Who the fuck goes on an unsanctioned mission to save an assassination that ends with the target dead when he wasn’t even in danger? River was a hazard, Lamb was right. River groaned, arching his head back to stare at the roof of the car. His life was crumbling around him and he was stuck with Coe of all people. They needed to get to the bridge for the debrief. River turned the keys in the ignition, wincing again at the spitting sound of Coe and those damned cherries. The engine rumbled into life and River’s hands tightened around the wheel.
River knew the sound that a taser made quite intimately. He could still remember the feeling of the electricity causing his muscles to spasm and collapse. Which is why when the passenger door opened and he heard that crackle, River spun in his seat with his elbow raised. He spun in just enough time to see the taser press into the side of Coe’s neck. If he wasn’t that pissed off at Coe he would feel some sympathy as he tensed and twitched in his seat. The hands yanked Coe out and tossed him onto the floor.
“Drive!”
“… Harkness?” River’s jaw dropped as he watched Frank Harkness step over Coe’s twitching body and vault into the passenger seat. Cherry pulp coated the floor around the seat, the bag from the shop crinkling under Frank’s feet.
“Drive River!” Frank snapped. The door was slammed shut and he turned to face River fully with the taser still resting in his fingers.
And so River did the only thing he could think to … he drove.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” River yelled as soon as they were out of the alleyway and into regular traffic.
“You clearly needed my help,” Frank stated. His tone was so matter of fact that it has River thinking for just a second that did need rescuing from Coe. Before he remembered how completely insane this all was. River had been in a mostly fugue state when he found out that MI5 had been forced to let Frank go. It felt like that was always going to happen; of course the one vague sense of success that River had was ripped away from him, of course the universe would do that to him. But when nothing came of it and River was allowed to continue living in his cursed existence, his paranoia and hypervigilance had eased. He had thought he would never see Frank again. That worked out for him didn’t it?
“Like fuck did I?” River snapped. “This is a kidnapping.”
Frank scoffed, “seriously River if I was kidnapping you then you would not be the one driving the car.”
“I am doing so under duress,” River growled.
Frank frowned, and then looked down at the laser in his hands when River’s eyes flicked down to it. “This thing?” he raised it upwards and his scowl deepened when River flinched at the movement. “This was just to get rid of your little escort. I’m not going to hurt you River. You’re carrying on the family business. I’m proud.”
That was the limit. River had been having a really couple of days as it was. Louisa left him and told him not to call. Shirley and Coe had been the ones to discover the conspiracy not him. The one moment of lucidity he thought he had shared with his granddad was a lie. He had killed a guy. Somehow his dad’s pleased little smirk was what broke him.
“You’re fucking proud,” River growled with his eyebrows raised to his hair line, unable to believe that this was really happening to him. Was he cursed? Was that why the universe hated him so much?
“Of course. I thought I might have been able to turn you with your exile to Slough House. You are a much better operative than your station within MI5 allows,” Frank explained, turning in his seat to face River properly. River could feel the heat pooling in his chest as his heart fluttered. This was what he had been wanting for years, someone to sit down and tell him “good job River” without some backhanded jab at his ego. Why did it have to come from the poisonous tongue of Frank Harkness?
“But now I hear that the very same Slough House is neck deep in a destabilisation campaign …”
“How did you hear about that?” River interrupted. He tried to turn off the main road down a one way alley but Frank’s tut and nudge to turn the wheel back straight was an effective reminder of who was in charge here.
“I was contacted about facilitating Abottsfield. They wanted to use a contractor, cleaner than killing one of their own to cover their tracks but I had to decline, don’t have the manpower at the moment,” Frank shrugged. River’s grip around the steering wheel tightened. He did know what his dad did for a living; it had been impossible to avoid in the whole Harkness debacle. But that whole thing had felt personal. Frank had been coming after the Cartwrights and covering his tracks and the brutality had been in pursuit of that. Now it was properly sinking in that Frank was a criminal for hire, things like Abottsfield were his bread and butter. River wanted to throw up.
“Although I guess my son has aided their efforts so I should write up an invoice,” Frank curled.
“Can you just shut up!” River yelled, head thumping down onto the wheel as they waited at a red light.
“Oh come on River, grow up,” Frank snapped back. “You’ve just killed a mayoral candidate.”
“I didn’t mean to,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“As if you didn’t mean to,” Frank laughed. “You’ve got such good potential and they are just going to lock you away for this,” he tutted. River’s fears suddenly cascaded over him again. He was right when he panicked in front of Coe; this was it, this was the fuck up that ended his life. He was going to get fired at best.
“There is no point lying to me River. I’m offering you a job not trying to incriminate you.”
“I’m not lying. It was an accident,” River flushed an embarrassed red. He wished it was a lie; at this stage intentionally killing the human shitstain would have been more honourable. Coe fucked up and River was complicit in the fuck up and his life was over for what? They hadn’t even managed to stop the destabilisation campaign, they had furthered it.
Frank froze, his steely glare tearing through all of River’s defences. “How do you kill a political leader by accident?” he spat.
“There was a paint can and well …” River’s explanation faded away, “I don’t need to explain myself to you!”
“Well, even if it wasn’t on purpose,” Frank replied through gritted teeth, “your life here is over now.”
“I, it’s not,” River stammered, stepping on the accelerator much harder than he needed to for pulling away at the junction.
“Don’t be an idiot River. MI5 are not going to welcome you back with open arms. I am making you a good offer here,” Frank argued. “Come work with me. You’ll be well paid. Living a life of luxury and you’ll be useful, effective.”
River hated how easily Frank had got his number. That was what he wanted; River wanted to be appreciated, to show off, to be needed. He wanted that more than anything but could he kill for it? The shock had faded quickly after Gimbal’s sudden demise and River had broken down as soon as it had. He had thrown up after shooting off Betrand’s face. He had balked at the brutality of Hassan’s kidnappers. River wasn’t built to be an assassin. He was a spy, and he was a good spy despite what everyone had been telling him lately.
“I’ll never join you. We’re going to go to the Park and this time you won’t escape,” River spat, doing a U turn at the next junction. They had been driving around aimlessly but River knew where they were. He was about ten minutes drive away from the Park. River didn’t know how he was going to get them there but he was going to at least try. He wasn’t going to take the easy road out. He was going to win.
“River,” Frank sighed disappointedly. “Won’t you ever learn. You are not better than me.”
The crackling of the taser coming to life this time wasn’t enough of a warning. River didn’t even have time to open his mouth before the prongs were pressed into the side of his neck and River was spasming in place. So much for not using the taser on him.
River was conscious as Frank took control of the wheel. His body was stunned and his mind fuzzy and he couldn’t process what was happening. But he felt the collision. River flung forward. The seatbelt slammed into his chest, knocking all the air out of them and bruising up his whole sternum. The airbag popped open and when the force of it smacked into his head, that was when unconsciousness greeted him.
River came to slowly. The first thing he heard was the whirring of a saw next to his head. Automatically he tried to roll away from it but all that happened was a twtich of his arm and a pathetic whimper dragged through slack lips.
“Stay still sir!” an unfamiliar voice yelled through the haze and the whirring continued.
By the time it stopped, River managed to squeeze his eyes open around the pounding headache. There was no one in the car next to him; River was starting to think that Frank’s appearance might have been a trauma induced hallucination. He was hefted out of the car by two firemen and loaded straight onto a gurney. His car was totalled, wrapped around a lamppost that had seen better days.
“Dad?” River croaked up to one of the paramedics, desperately hoping for some confirmation that he hadn’t lost his mind and totalled his own car.
“Your dad is here River,” he smiled.
“Oh,” River whispered. His brain was firing on zero cylinders and he couldn’t work out what he should do with that information.
“Well, what have we got here then son.”
River groaned, looking up at the nights sky as he tried to regain some of his bearings. As he was lifted into the ambulance he couldn’t look away any longer. His eyes drifted sideways and caught a smug looking Jackson Lamb stood by the doors with Coe looming ominously behind him.
“Fuck.”