The End of the Line
It had been 5 years, 134 Blacklisters, and a very large amount of blood spilt on both sides. And after all that, Liz, Donald, Harold, and Aram found themselves in a room, a man with one hand holding a gun on them, waiting for Red to show up.
"Berlin, you don't want to do this." Harold tried to reason with him.
"And why is that? I kill you all, and then Reddington, and my life's mission is complete."
"Because killing them and me allows the real bad guy to get away." Berline didn't even look away from the group to see Red enter the room with a gun pointed at him.
"Finally here, what took you so long?"
"A bit of business, I needed to confirm a suspicion that has just put all the pieces in place." Red then held up a picture, a picture of a young woman. "This is why we are here, isn't it, Vidlen." Now Berlin looked away.
"How did you know my name?"
"Because now I know the story, now I know what you think I did to you." Red then leveled his gun at Donald. "Don't even think about it Donald, I want to talk with him and we can't do that if he is unconscious."
Vidlen gave Donald a passing glance. And then he moved a chair and sat down with the gun pointed at Red. "Alright, talk; tell me why I shouldn't kill you"
Red then sat down opposite of him. "This is not one story, but many. The first is of a Soviet Cornel, a man whose daughter went to America to do Ballet, while there; she fell in love with an American navel officer. Their love was discovered, the girl sent to prison. Some time later the Cornel got in contact with the naval officer, thinking he was the dissadance, told him to be at a certain place at a particular time. The man lessened, and found the woman he loved there. He then used his resources in the navy to make an almost perfect new identity for the woman."
"Now we skip to the next story, a killer is paid to kill the navel officer's family because the man's father has information that could bring down an entire secret and powerful international organization, so he is given access to every scrap of information on the family, from his kindergarten report card, to every phone record of every call he's ever had. The killer goes and doses this, not realizing that the officer and his father are late getting home for Christmas because he forgot to stop for more gas. When they arrive, he finds his only child in a pool of her own blood, disfigured beyond recognition. His wife's body no where to be found.
One can only imagine the rage that comes forth out of him, he goes and, not lessening to his father who has told him to go home and burry this behind him, went and bought a tank of gas, found the man responsible after his father gave him a bit of direction in an otherwise blind endeavor, and after beating the man badly, forced him to drink some of the gas and poured the rest of it on him, and burned him."
"The man is very far gone, not realizing that inside, there was a daughter, after he sees her, in her bedroom window, he runs into the house, now engulfed in flames. He pulls her out, not even realizing how badly burnt he is. He gives the girl to a friend and then leaves." Red says, sparing Liz an unnoticeable glance.
"The father is visited sometime latter, he tells his enemy that his son has the information they want, and that the father has insured that his son knows what it is, how to use it, and how to insure that if the son's life is threatened, he knows how to make sure the information is released. And then they kill the father."
"But what about the Cornel, he has been being sent pieces of his daughter, because the American identity wasn't good enough to save her from the secret organization, a member of that group knew the Cornel, and knew that he could be manipulated to go after the man his daughter loved if he was told that he had been the one to kill her and send her back to him piece by piece."
"And here we are, because of a horrible night. The night Raymond Reddington, the navel officer being groomed for Admiral became Red Reddington, The Concierge of Crime. And Cornel Vidlen became Berlin, a masterful criminal whose only goal in life is to end mine."
Vidlen sat there, just looking at Red. "Assuming this is true, who ordered the attack?"
"I did." Came a Russian voice, and suddenly a group of heavily armed mercenaries came in to the room, led by a man with a rather large scar.
"Hello Jakub." Red said.
"Hello Red, Vidlen."
"I don't understand?" Vidlen looked very confused.
"Really, let me see if I can clear it up for you. I was the one that sent your daughter to prison, I was the one that helped allow your daughter to escape, and knowing your carrier would be destroyed and mine born out of your ashes. Then when Red's father became a problem, I commissioned the hit, knowing it would send Red running with the evidence against us. Then it was a simple matter of making you believe he was responsible, and you went after him. I'd kept an eye on you, hoping you would find his fail safe so I could destroy it, and then destroy you both after you had sufficiently destroyed one another." The man said smiling. "And now we are here, the two biggest thorns in our side will be gone, and we will never have to worry again about our safety." He then looked at the four F.B.I. agents. "Don't worry, it's been arranged that you will be named heroes, having tried to capture wanted fugitives but were killed, but not before killing them as well." He then looked back at Red. "You first I think any final words?"
Red laughed. "Yes, but they aren't mine." Red then slowly lifted his hands and took his hat off, and then he pulled out a recorder and hit play.
"Hello Jakub." It was Finch's voice moderately disguised so only Red and Jakub knew who it was. "I feel now is a good time to warn you of three things. One, the men you have with you are loyal to the Alliance, and have orders not to kill Red or Berlin. Two, when going up against Ray, I have found that assuming you have won to be a bad idea, he has convinced us to hand you over to him by having the task forces teck guy, Aram, arm a digital bomb that will upload his evidence against us at midnight tonight unless a password know only to him turns it off. And three, you should know that while going up against Ray was stupid, going against him and a man powerful and crafty enough to cause him discomfort was suicidal. So now, the men and the F.B.I. are going to leave quietly, and come back in five minuets, more then enough time for the two men you pissed off to knock you out and get you out the back door to a waiting car to take them to a fully outfitted safe house, complete with torture equipment. If you should be alive by the end of this, I will only assume it is because Ray and his friend died of old age before they grew sufficiently board lessening to you scream." And then the tape ended.
"I believe you heard the man." Red said, and then everyone left, some being coxed out of the room at gun point.
Five minuets latter they came back in, and the room was empty.
A week or two latter.
Liz had been very worried over the last few days, Red had not made any contact with her, and while she was sure he was fine, it was more the fact that she could guess how he was spending, what had grown to be called in the team, late father/son-in-law bonding.
Right now she was going to sit in her living area of her apartment, but when she walked in, there were two men in the room already. "Hello Lizzy." Red said, and Berlin nodded. "Won't you sit down?"
Liz sat. "It was you."
"Me what?"
"You were the one who pulled me out, saved me. All this time I thought it was my father, but it was you."
"Yes." Red said with no emotion. "Are you angry?"
"That you killed my father?" She more asked then said. "No. You saved me, after not meaning to put me in danger; you brought me to Sam, and then took him away." She looked thoughtful, and then sighed. "I think you've suffered enough for what happened that night."
"Thank you. I don't think you know how much that means to me."
"But I do want to know, you once said knowing who my father was would put me in danger, how dose my father being a gun for hire do that?"
"I didn't say he was just a gun for hire, I said he was commissioned to do the hit, and it was by a man who came to power in the Soviet Union. A man who was a member of an organization that is more powerful now then you can possibly imagine." He then looked hard at her. "Your father was much more then a simple gun for hire, I hope that information puts into perspective just how much more he would have to have gotten the job."
Liz looked thoughtful for a long time, and then asked. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you save me? Why not just let me burn?"
"Because I wasn't a killer back then. I was a father, which is the same reason I did this, I lost every bit of goodness in me that day, except for what you gave me. So when I turned myself in, it seemed fitting that my one redeeming selfless act would be what redeemed me now."
Liz laughed at that. "In an odd way, that might be one of the best compliments I've ever gotten." She laughed again, and then looked at Vidlen. "So, how was late father/son-in-law bonding?" She got a confused look. "It's what we decided to call what you two were probably doing at the safe house to Jakub."
"Well, part of him is in Egypt, another bit is in the Amazon, his tongue is in India, and well, you get the idea." Vidlen said smiling.
"Well, what do we do now? I don't suppose you have anything for me from the safe house gift shop?"
"No Lizzy, but I did bring you something." Red said smiling. "The next name on the Blacklist.
First Blacklist fic, please leave Review.