In the heart of London – Surveillance at a glance…

Emma and Jake leaned against the hallway wall outside the debriefing room, the metallic taste of adrenaline finally receding. They’d secured Vance, but the greater threat—the SVR’s reaction—loomed large.

The SVR’s Immediate Response
They quickly settled on two likely scenarios for the SVR’s immediate response, both driven by Moscow Centre’s need for swift damage control and plausible deniability: Extraction and Blame.

Scenario 1: Immediate Extraction (The Scramble)
“Thorne and Solovyanova are compromised,” Jake stated, tapping a pen against a list of possible transport routes. “Moscow won’t risk them getting caught and singing. They know we have to be close, even if they don’t know how close. The priority will be getting them out of London, probably out of the country, within the next twelve hours.”

Logic: The SVR cannot afford to lose two HUMINT handlers who are familiar with the full scope of Operation Soft Strike, including the recruitment targets and the methods employed. If caught, Thorne and Solovyanova would be disastrous intelligence losses.

The Route: They wouldn’t use standard flights. Jake predicted a clandestine journey—likely an overnight ferry from an obscure port like Harwich or Dover, or perhaps a private charter from a small regional airfield, disguised as a business trip. “They’ll be trying to reach a neutral country with a strong SVR presence, like Switzerland or Austria, to wait out the fallout,” Emma added.

Scenario 2: Public Blame and Counter-Vulnerability (The Smoke Screen)
“Moscow needs a narrative for the failed recruitment attempt,” Emma mused. “They can’t admit their top recruiter was spooked by an ‘internal audit.’ They’ll try to regain control and shift the blame, which means exploiting a new vulnerability or creating a diversion.”

The Diversion: The most immediate way to divert MI5’s attention would be a rapid, reckless move. They might attempt a quick smash-and-grab on a lower-security target—something obvious but low-value, like breaking into an embassy attaché’s vehicle or stealing unclassified files from a government department. This would create chaos and force MI5 to split resources.

The Blame: More dangerously, the SVR might try to leak a distorted version of Peter Vance’s story to the press. A news story about a “disgruntled, indebted MI5 analyst” selling secrets would damage the agency’s credibility and distract from the actual SVR recruitment cell. “The narrative would be: ‘MI5 agents are corruptible,’ not ‘SVR is actively targeting MI5, ‘” Emma summarised.

The Decision: Extraction Priority
Jake and Emma agreed that the Extraction Scenario posed the most significant long-term threat. Allowing Thorne and Solovyanova to escape meant allowing the SVR to retain the full playbook for Soft Strike.

“We have to stop the extraction,” Emma concluded, slapping the table. “If we catch them now, we get the whole cell. If we chase a fake diversion, they’re gone.”

Jake was already on his phone, contacting their surveillance teams. “We focus all assets on ports and small airfields associated with Thorne’s known shell companies. We’re looking for a last-minute travel itinerary—the one piece of panic they can’t entirely hide.”

Their next move was clear: a desperate, high-speed scramble across the country to intercept Thorne and Solovyanova before they could leave British soil.