AN: Okay, got myself some sleep. Sleep is very good. I don't know if starting a chapter at 7:30 is much better than at nine, but, hey, I thought about not doing one at all today, so guess better late than never. If I can keep up the pace I've been writing these at, around ten a week, I'll be done with this a lot sooner than I ever thought I would be. I realized, yesterday I think, that these Authors Notes will be very strange, as I'm writing them weeks, or even months before the chapter will be posted, but I guess they give a glimpse into my thoughts (and mental state, but we'll just ignore that part) at the time. So, they're… interesting, I guess? Anyway, enough blathering, onto the story.
Outside the Russian Embassy
Masha was having trouble comprehending the events going on around her, things were simply moving too fast. So, it took her longer than it usually would to understand what has happing when she heard Sergei yell, "Contact!" Looking up and out the windshield, she saw a man standing in the road a hundred meters or so away, with some kind of weapon leveled at them. It wasn't until he fired and she saw the rocket coming towards them, did it dawn on her what was happening, but the man riding shotgun beat her to it, "Shit! RPG!" Sergei looked at her, "Hold on, Ms. Rostova!" She tried to secure herself as best as possible as Sergei tried to swerve out of the way of the oncoming projectile.
It almost worked, the rocket clipped the side of their Humvee and exploded, sending the vehicle flying. The last thing Masha saw was the ground rushing to meet her, then the world went dark.
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Ressler wasn't sure exactly what was happening, he'd just heard someone from the front Humvee shout, "Contact," but couldn't see anyone. The next thing he heard stopped him cold, "Shit! RPG!" as he watched the front vehicle try to avoid it, and theirs follow suit, the only thing he could think was, 'Of course they have an RPG.' Then the Humvee in front of them exploded.
"No!" He yelled, watching in slow motion as the Humvee flipped in the air, before smashing into the ground. He watched as it slid on the road for a couple meters before stopping. He let out a breath as he saw a door open, and a man start to get out, only for his head to explode.
The man driving their Humvee started barking orders in Russian, then turned to Ressler, "My men are going to be covering you and the others in the downed vehicle. You are not as well equipped or trained as us. Your job is to get Ms. Rostova out of the vehicle and back here, keeping her safe at all costs, is this understood?" Ressler nodded, and took a breath, preparing to run into no man's land.
The men opened the doors, and one instantly shot into a building, shouting something that sounded like it had to do with snipers. Ressler heard the quick snap of automatic fire, and then bullets pinging off surfaces around them. The men with him started to fire, allowing the men in the other Humvee the chance to get out, which they did, taking up cover and starting to return fire themselves.
One of the men looked at him, "Go, now! We'll cover you!"
Ressler nodded, and took one last deep breath, before letting it out and beginning the terrifying 25-meter run. He did his best not to think about the fact that at any moment he was likely to feel a bullet slam into him, that at any moment any half decent marksman would have a prime shot at him. He tried not to think that at any moment the world could go black, and that would be it. Instead, he tried not to think at all, focusing on the Humvee in front of him. He felt the world slow, he heard each breath as it passed his lips, felt every labored beat of his heart as he pushed it as far as it would go, barely registered the pavement exploding around him with the impacts of bullets. He felt something slam into his shoulder, forcing it back, but ignored it, focused only on getting to the vehicle in front of him.
Before he knew it, he was at the downed Humvee. Almost everyone had gotten out by now, except for the man who had gotten shot by the sniper. Ducking behind the fallen vehicle, he waited for the man next to him to stop shooting and come back behind cover before getting his attention, "Where's Keen?" He shouted. The man pointed in the Humvee, "Still inside, think she's unconscious!" The man shouted back, before exiting cover to shoot back once again.
Hoping against hope, Ressler tried the rear door, but it wouldn't move. Cursing his luck, he waited for the man to duck back before yelling, "Cover me, I'm going to get her!" He nodded, and shouted something in Russian.
Getting a nod, Ressler sprinted to the open door and hauled himself in, ignoring the bullets pinging off the other side of the door. He saw Keen hanging limply from her seatbelt, and a red puddle forming under her head. Ressler attempted to release the seatbelt, but it wouldn't budge. Cursing, he hauled himself back up to the door, making sure to keep his head behind it, he yelled out, "I need a knife!" Suddenly, a hand was there, offering him the handle. He grabbed it and made his way back to crouching in front of Keen. Cutting her loose, he caught her before she could fall to the ground.
He checked her pulse, it was sluggish, but there. He then patted her cheek, "Keen! Keen! Wake up, Keen!" She groaned, and Ressler felt a surge of relief flow through him. Her eyelids fluttered open, weakly she moaned, "Head hurts." Ressler couldn't help himself, he laughed. She did her best to glare at him, "S'not funny." He put on a straight face, "Of course it's not, Keen, I'm sorry." She weakly shook her head, "No, you're not." He smiled at her, "Fine, I'm not. Now, can you walk?" She shook her head again, "No, sleepy. Carry me." Ressler looked at her, surprised, but she had already closed her eyes again. Worried, he shook her, "Keen? Keen, get up, we have to go," He got no response, but her breathing, while shallow, was constant. Sighing, he stood up, and called out, "She's not conscious, someone help me get her out," Seeing a hand pop up, he hoisted her up and out, trusting they would get her safely behind cover. Getting himself out, he quickly made his way to cover behind the vehicle. Seeing Elizabeth's body leaning against the back of the Humvee, he nodded. Pausing only to wait for the nearest man to stop firing, he yelled out, "I'll carry her back, cover us!" The man nodded, and shouted something in Russian. Picking up Elizabeth, he waited until the men were arrayed around him, and together they made the deadly trek through no man's land. Unlike before when there were only intermittent bursts of fire from their side, now the chatter of machine gun fire was almost constant as they did their best to make sure they weren't giving the enemy a chance to take shots at them.
Ressler didn't look back, he was focused on making his way back to the Humvee. Eventually, they made it, and Ressler got Elizabeth safely inside the armoured vehicle. Chancing a look back, he saw a couple bodies lying still in the middle of the road, but the majority of the men had made it. He made to leave, but Elizabeth grabbed him in a sleepy, but surprisingly strong embrace, "No, don't go. Stay." Seeing the men starting to pile in, he tried to make them as small as possible to make room for the extra men. Even squeezing, it was a very tight fit with all the gear they were wearing, and in the end, two men couldn't fit. They just popped the trunk, and sat in the back, guns at the ready.
The vehicle lurched into movement, avoiding the debris strewn around, and started down the road. From the open back, Ressler could hear the distant wail of police sirens. He hoped for their sakes that the Russians had killed all the cabal's fighters, or that any left alive had no interest in trading fire with the police. Suddenly, the world started to fade, and Ressler had time to look down at his suddenly throbbing shoulder and say, "Well, shit." Before slumping unconscious.
Line Break
Unknown Location
Ressler groaned as he clawed his way back to consciousness. At first, the different stimuli his brain was registering didn't make sense, but then his head cleared a bit and he realized he was on a plane. Putting aside the 'why' for now, he cracked open his eyes. He looked around, "Where am I?" He heard someone say something in Russian, then there was raucous laughter. He saw one of the men stand up and speak in a heavy accent, "You are on plane. You were shot, fainted from blood loss." Ressler look down and saw he was shirtless, his clothes lying in a bloody pile, and his shoulder tightly bandaged. "How long have I been out?" He asked, "Two hours, maybe little longer. We still have long flight to go." Ressler nodded, then shot up, ignoring the flash of pain and the sudden throbbing in his shoulder, "Keen? Where is she, how is she, she had a head wound…" He was cut off by the loud laughter again, the man Ressler had talked to before everything went to hell spoke, "Ms. Rostova is fine, Agent Ressler, she's concussed, and had a pretty long gash in her head, but that was about it, Alexi here fixed her up, and she's sleeping now. However, she's sure to wake up with a very bad headache."
Ressler looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was Keen, lying across three seats, her head covered in bandages, sleeping peacefully.
He looked back at the man, "Where are we going?" "Moscow, of course. Ms. Rostova will be warmly welcomed by those of us who remember the glory days of the Republic, her mother was a legend. She will be safe there."
That reminded Ressler, "Those men, do you know who they were?" The man shook his head, "I do not, I only knew we are to protect Masha Rostova. And for that, we had to be prepared for anything. We are the best of the best, skilled in just about any field, and that includes knowledge of different factions that we may come up against in completing our task, but I didn't recognize those men wearing any affiliation that I am aware of. Do you know who these men were?"
Ressler nodded, "I think I have a pretty good idea… uh, I actually don't know your name." The man looked surprised, "Ah, of course, my name is Sergei Petrov." Ressler nodded again, "Right, well, as I was saying, I have a pretty good idea, tell me, Mr. Petrov," He interrupted, "Sergei, please, Mr. Petrov makes me think my father is lurking around somewhere." Ressler nodded, "Sergei, then. Do you know of a group called the cabal?" Sergei shook his head, "I am unfamiliar with any group called that, that have access to military hardware like that."
Ressler nodded, "I would have been surprised if you had. Its not much, but I'll tell you what I know."
And for the next couple hours Ressler told the man everything he knew, not just about the cabal, but about Reddington, how he was against the cabal, the blacklist, everything. He knew he was breaking an untold number of laws by doing so, but he knew Elizabeth would have done it anyway. Besides, he had a pretty strong suspicion that the cabal would be branding him as a traitor as well, now that he helped Elizabeth get out of the country. One thing he did notice when talking to Sergei, was a minute, almost imperceptible reaction when he was talking about Reddington. Filing it away for later, the two men kept talking until Elizabeth started to wake up.
Line Break
Masha blinked her eyes open. Without moving her head, she let her eyes flit about, taking in information about where she was. She saw the men who had taken her from the embassy spread out, some talking, some sleeping, but it was a shirtless, bandaged Ressler talking with the man she recognized as Sergei Petrov that really caught her interest. Mindful of the pounding in her head, she weakly called out, "Ressler…" He whipped his head around so fat she was sure he was going to hurt himself. "Keen!" He called out, she winced, and he hurried over, concerned, "What's wrong, Keen?" She weakly shook her head, "Too loud … head hurts." He immediately quieted down, "I'm sorry, Keen, how's your head feeling?" She glared weakly at him, "Hurts. Headache." He nodded, "I guessed that much, I meant the nice gash you've got." Her eyes widened, "Huh? What gash?" Trying to check her head, he quickly grabbed her arms, "No, don't mess with it, Keen, one of Sergei's men fixed it up for you. Says you'll probably have a nice scar, and a new hair style for a while, but otherwise, it's all good."
She looked at him, "What happened, the last thing I remember was talking to you, then… nothing." Ressler nodded, "Sergei's man did say you had a pretty nasty concussion, so not remembering is natural. We were…" "Wait, why are you here, Ressler, I would have thought you'd be back at The Post Office by now?" She interrupted. He rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I wasn't exactly given a choice in the matter." She gasped, "What! They kidnapped you?" He quickly shook his head, then had a thought, "Well, technically speaking, you kidnapped me." She looked him, "I feel like I would have remembered kidnapping you, Ressler, you wouldn't make it easy." He smirked, "Well, you didn't do it directly, but you had some of your mother's goons over there do it."
She slapped his chest, "Stop playing around, Ressler! Seriously, why are you here? You know what the cabal will make of it. They'll brand you a traitor, you'll be hunted down, just like me." He laughed a little, "Keen, I was telling the truth, you did have those guys grab me. What I didn't mention was that someone had just shot at you." She gasped, and he spent the next little while filling her in on what she didn't remember. He did decide to leave out the things she had said while she was delirious, deciding it'd make great teasing material later.
Line Break
Sergei looked over at the two people conversing in English. He smiled. One of his men came over, "Permission to start a betting pool, sir." He looked at him, "What's the bet?" the man smirked, and gestured to the two people, "How long it takes them to get together." Sergei laughed, "Granted." The man started to walk away, but Sergei stopped him, "Put me down for 10000 rubles and six months." The man laughed, "That's a long time, sir. Sure you don't want to reconsider?" He just shook his head, "I'm fine with my bet, are you sure you men are okay with loosing so much money?" The man laughed and walked away.
Line Break
Unknown Location, code name: The Post Office, 2 Hours 37 Minutes Earlier
Samar Navabi stalked into the building. Glaring at anyone who got in her path, she made her way over to Aram, who was typing away on his computer. When she was standing next to him, she said, "Aram, pull up camera feeds from around the Russian Embassy." Aram started, then looked at her confused, "Um, why are we looking at the Russian Embassy?" She ground her teeth, "Because, Aram, Ressler is being a stubborn ass." Aram looked even more confused at this, but pulled up the camera feeds. They watched as two black armoured Humvees entered the embassy, and a few minutes later, they saw the men who had exited the vehicles come back outside, plus one, who was much smaller than the rest. "That must be Keen," Samar muttered, Aram looked at her, "That's Agent Keen? Why was she in the Russian Embassy?" Samar waved away his question, watching as Ressler approached the vehicles and stopped them. When he started talking, Samar looked at Aram, "I don't suppose we can get audio?" Aram shook his head, "No, these are traffic cameras, they don't have microphones. And trying to find a different view to read his lips would be useless as the Humvee would block the camera's view." Suddenly, cracks appeared in the rear window of the first vehicle, and they started to move out. The door opened on the second one and Ressler was yanked in. "What the hell?" Samar muttered. Aram followed the Humvees until one suddenly swerved then exploded. They watched as men got out and started shooting, then saw Ressler run towards the downed Humvee. He disappeared into the vehicle and a minute or so later they saw Keen's body emerge. They watched the men group up, and make their way back to the functional Humvee, losing two of their number as they went, before they all got into it, and it sped off. Aram followed it until it left the city, and he couldn't find any more cameras.
Samar didn't know what to think. At first, it had seemed like Ressler had been kidnapped, but he had seemed very willing to help get Keen. "Aram, find out where they went. Check with the FAA, see if anyone has left filing flight plans for Russia or the surrounding areas. I want them found. They are guilty of harboring a terrorist and kidnapping a federal agent." Aram looked conflicted, "Now, Aram!" He nodded and picked up the phone.
AN: Alright, and that's chapter nine! I want to address something that I caught. I noticed that if I have English speaking characters with Sergei's men, I'm more likely to make them speak in English, even though they have no logical reason to. I know I do it and I'm just going to play the 'It's for plot reasons' card, and leave it at that. Now that that's cleared up, we should only have a chapter or two until the next arc begins, and though I know vaguely what I want to be the overarching premise, as with when I started this arc, I've no idea what I'm going to do for the smaller plot points.
Okay, so I stopped there, and took a couple days break, just so I don't burn out on this story, as I really want to complete it. I think I proofread it when I stopped, but I'm not sure, so if there are more mistakes than normal, my bad, but I'm just going to go into writing chapter 10.
