Ressler's moments of silence were broken by the door opening and a leather jacket's head poking in.
"It's time. Bring him to the camera room." Before answer could be give the head that popped through the door was gone.
"Up," ordered the giant. Ressler complied not like he could really fight at this point.
The giant walked him to the same room where he and Liz had filmed their hostage videos. The same room where Ressler had lost a significant battle with the wall. The same room where he had sealed his own fate. He walked in to see the camera set up still pointing at the center chair. The only difference this time was a clear sheet underneath the chair and another along the back wall. He knew what the plastic sheeting was for, an easy dead body cleanup.
It was becoming real. This was the end.
The giant sat him in the chair, and he looked straight ahead at the camera which was not yet rolling. He always suspected he'd reach his end in this line of duty. A common assumption and reality amongst most federal agents. They deal in daily dangers and apprehend the world's worst criminals. His life is put at risk every day he wears his badge. Hell, he sleeps with a gun. He's had an international terrorist stalking and taunting him. He knew this would happen eventually. He just wished it would happen in the line of duty and not on a live stream for millions to watch his failure.
A leather jacket entered the room and moved to operate the camera.
The cameraman picked up another scrap of cardboard with a new script on it. "When the red light goes on you will read. Do not deviate from what is written. You're going to be famous." He smiled an evil smile.
"Or what? You'll kill me?"
"Man's got jokes. Too bad that's probably you're last one."
The red light went on. Despite wanting to argue his fate, Ressler knew there was no point anymore.
Back at the FBI safehouse, Aram was stationed at his makeshift desk with the rest of the team nearby awaiting an answer from the men that had kidnapped Ressler. Gale was pacing and pissed. He had informed Director Cooper of their situation and they both agreed against paying the ransom as had their superiors. Ressler had gone rogue and they were not going to negotiate with criminals. Neither liked his chances, but that was protocol. Cooper and the team back at the Post Office received the same live feed stream Gale and the team in Austria did. A message from the kidnappers. They both opened the stream to see Agent Ressler tied up, beaten profusely, and sitting in a chair before them.
He spoke with tension in his voice and air of somberness, "My name is Agent Donald Ressler. I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have been captured and due to my country's incompetency to follow orders and comply with demands, I will be executed today. I have failed my country and my country has failed me. These are my last words."
Ressler finished his speech bowing his head understanding what came next. He hoped his mom and brother were not watching. There was really no one else in his life he wished he could have said goodbye to in another fashion. A deep regret in his life. He had no real friends outside the bureau and no girlfriend or wife would be destroyed by his death. No kids he would be leaving fatherless. To be honest, he was glad they were killing him instead of another agent who had lived more than he had. He had not lived, only worked. This job was his life, and he enjoyed his work, but sacrificed his love of work for a real life after the bureau.
The cameraman spoke to Ressler from behind the camera, "It's an unfortunate day for you, Agent Ressler. Obviously, the FBI is not going to pay you ransom. To prove our point and uphold our promise, you're going to die today. Lucky for us and unlucky for you, we will not be performing your execution."
Before Ressler could ask, the door opened. The other leather jacket walked in and stood near the door holding the gun that had left a remembrance on Ressler's cheek. Along with him, Liz walked in, too. She sported no hand ties and a devilish glint in her eyes.
"Meet your executioner," Ressler's jaw dropped. Unaware that the red light was still blinking, Ressler's shock was seen by all. What was off camera was unknown until it wasn't.
Elizabeth Keen sauntered in with a smile and eye for vengeance. The leather jacket by the door handed her the gun and she appeared on camera.
"You look surprised, Donald?" She toilingly asked.
"Was this your plan all along? To isolate me from my team and kill me?" Ressler could not contemplate this. Had she really planned this all? Luring him to Austria, making sure to be seen at the café, then paying the hostess to tell me where she was. Did she stage a fake kidnapping, pay goons to interrogate him about what he knew? All in an elaborate scheme to execute him after all with no FBI to save him? He did not buy it all. However, she was Raymond Reddington's daughter, the man with a plan for everything. If she had planned this all, he had to tip his hat to her, she was quite the actress. They spent a lot of alone time together. Why didn't she try to kill him in their cell? Or why did she share so much personal information with him? If she really wanted him dead, she could have allowed Red to kill him in the warehouse. No, he did not buy this. "I don't think this is really you. I think someone is pulling the strings. You're not this kind of person."
"Not this kind of person? I'm Raymond Reddington's daughter. This is who I am."
"But you're not like him."
"You're wrong. Any last words?
"Yes. With or without me the FBI will catch you and Red, count on it." Ressler was confident in his dying confession. Whether Liz was corrupt or not, the FBI would catch her and Red and finish Ressler's work.
Back at the safehouse, Aram gasped. He could not watch was going to happen next.
"Goodbye, Donald." Liz cocked the gun and pointed it at Ressler's head. Ressler closed his eyes and embraced for death.
Aram gasped again as Liz pulled the gun away from Ressler and fired three shots. Two at the leather jacket behind the camera and another at the leather jacket by the door. She turns around and fires another shot at the giant.
Ressler had ducked his head when the bullets started firing. Noticing he was still alive, and not the intended target of the bullets, he opened his eyes to watch Liz shoot the giant. The giant was not fazed by the same bullet and lunged at Liz tackling her to ground. The camera was knocked down in the bustle and the feed cut off.
Aram said, "No, wait. What happened?"
"Aram, get that video back." Gale ordered.
"I can't sir. It has gone offline."
"Can you trace it?"
The giant was wrestling Liz for the gun and winning with his size enveloping her underneath him.
Ressler jumped out of his chair and sat on the ground. He worked his tied hands down below his butt and wormed his hands up his legs. He struggled against the restraints but was able to get his hands around his feet and free to rest in front of him, still tied.
He saw the gun had wriggled free from the two wrestlers and made his move. He grabbed the gun and put two shots into the giant who stopped fighting laying still on the cement floor. Liz rolled on to her back pushing the dead weight off herself. She was able to take a breath again.
"Thanks Donald. Bet you weren't expecting that." She smiled.
"Get up." Ressler ordered aiming the goon's gun at her.
"What? I just saved your life and now you're holding me at gunpoint." Liz stood up hands raised.
"I don't trust you. I mean can you blame me after everything that just happened. How do I know which side you're on?"
"I was sitting in my room thinking about how Red was going to trade himself for me. I couldn't accept that. Then I asked myself, 'What would Red do?'"
"What would Red do?"
"You know him as good as I do, what do you think he would do?"
Ressler took a moment to think about what she was asking. He did know just about everything about Red and his life. He knew how he thought and how he justified his actions. He knew how careful he was and always had a pl—
"He always has a plan and a backup plan." Liz smiled pleasantly at his answer.
"Precisely. So, I created a plan. I figured the only way out of here would be by force and I needed to get my hands on a gun. How was I going to do that? I offered to execute you. After a decent enough argument, they literally handed it to me. And here we are. Now can we get out of here?" She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
He motioned for her to move with his gun. They exited the camera room with Ressler still holding the gun on her.
"You still don't trust me?"
"It's going to take more than an escape plan to convince me. You could've done all of that just to save yourself and I just happened to get to tag along."
"What if I were to tell you, I have a safehouse. A safehouse in which you can call in reinforcements. You can arrest me and burn one of Red's safehouses in the process. Hell, you could even wait around for him to show for the prisoner exchange."
"And why would you offer all that? You'd hand Red over to us?"
"At least with you, I know he will be kept alive. He knows too much to be killed."
She was right. She'd rather be alive and arrested than dead. And Red would be kept alive and interrogated for the rest of his life, but he wouldn't be dead. On the contrary, the federal government would put a lot of money into his safety for his intelligence.
"Fine. Where is this safehouse?" Liz began to lead the way out of the factory glad to be leaving that hell hole.
Once outside, Ressler realized he would have to conceal his weapon with so many bystanders on the streets. He placed his jacket over Liz once again wrapping his gun wielding arm around her back under the jacket. The gun rested on her right side concealed by his jacket.
"Put your arm around me and pretend to be happy. You know like you don't have a gun trained on your liver," he gave a quick smile and a wink. She complied and wrapped her arm around him placing her hand on his chest and leaning into him. A brief memory of last night flashed into Ressler's mind. They held each other all night whether for warmth or not, or if it was all part of a plan, though Ressler doubted that was part of her plan.
They walked down the street like an everyday couple. Two lovers, holding each other on the streets of Vienna, except for the gun and the fact that Ressler still looked like someone's punching bag and was turning heads at his appearance.
"Maybe we should take the side streets." Liz offered. Ressler nodded.
They turned the corner on to an empty side street away from gawkers. Liz told Ressler the safehouse wasn't far and they could take the back roads to get there. He was relieved for a moment, but only a moment. Liz turned them on to an alleyway leading down to the docks. Ressler immediately regretted trusting her once again as they walked right into an ambush. Awaiting their arrival were Red and his fully armed goons.
"You've got to be kidding me." Liz walked away freely mouthing 'I'm sorry.' "This, this is why I don't trust you."
Boz, Red's head of security, stepped forward from Red's side with a rifle trained on Ressler. He ordered him to drop his gun and get on his knees, hands behind his head. Ressler was so disappointed in himself for falling for this.
"I'm sorry, Don, but you didn't think I was just going to let you arrest me, did you?" Liz had reached Red's side of the alley.
Red came forward and Liz ran into his arms. They embraced while Boz threw some zip ties at Ressler and demanded he put them on. Red and Liz walked back to the now apprehended Agent Ressler.
"Thanks for bringing her back in one piece, Donald," Red said with his arm around his daughter. "Unfortunately, we will slip through your fingers once again. I have to ask, though, any reconsideration on my offer?"
Ressler could not believe this was where he stood, kneeled to be accurate. Tied up again, Red with the upper hand again being asked to corrupt his position at the FBI to team up with Reddington.
"Still no."
"Very well." Red smiled, turned, and motioned for Liz to follow him back to the car.
"Just a moment," she said to Red and turned back to Ressler. She walked up to his kneeling frame and placed his suit jacket back onto his shoulders. Then, lowering her lips to his ear, she whispered, "You were wrong before. There is no way the FBI could catch us without you." She kissed him on the cheek before following Red to the car.
Boz ordered Ressler to stand and walk forward without looking back. He does as ordered standing and counting his paces away from the fleeing criminals. Before he counts to twenty paces, Ressler turned around and they were gone.
Ressler walked himself back to the FBI safehouse turning more heads now given his hands were still bound with zip ties. He was greeted with hugs and amazement at his escape from capture. Aram cut him loose and wrapped his arms around him so joyous to have his friend back and safe. Meanwhile, Gale was fuming. After his welcome home, Gale escorted Ressler to a side room where he berated Ressler for his stupidity and carelessness to go after Keen alone. Gale suspended him and ordered him to relinquish his badge and gun informing him there will be an official review when the get back state side. Once back home, Ressler was sent to a hospital for necessary medical attention. The doctors discover several broken ribs, a fractured jaw and orbital bone, concussion, dislocated shoulder, fractured clavicle and a whole lot of sprains and swelling.
Ressler was sitting in his hospital bed on day 3 since arriving back from Vienna. Some of the swelling in his face has subsided, but not the pain. His whole body ached, and the pain medication only did so much. Being out of the life-or-death situation seemed to have turned off the natural adrenaline rushing through him which had dulled the pain, and now pain was all that surrounded him. Ressler's arm was in an extensive sling for his healing clavicle and shoulder. Bandages were wrapped around his torso to stabilize his ribs and his face had too many stitches to count sewing his face back together.
As he lay in bed wallowing in his recent suspension and yet another failure to apprehend Liz and Reddington, a nurse came in. Ressler closed his eyes a moment seeing what the nurse was holding. Another envelope.
"Excuse me, Agent Ressler, but this came for you." The nurse handed him the envelope and left.
The large yellow envelope was labeled:
Agent Donald Ressler
Washington Memorial Hospital
Room 1428
Ressler did not bother being careful and checking for evidence. He knew who it was from and that there would be no evidence to find. He opened the envelope and a single photo slide out. The photo inside was different for once, in that the photo was not taken with a sniper rifle's scope camera. Instead, it was a screen grab from the hostage video of his execution. Ressler was looking at himself tied to the chair with a dropped jaw when Liz shot the kidnappers instead of him. He turned it over to find the same handwriting scrawled on the back Wishing you a rapid recovery. And if you're keeping score on who saved who it's Liz: 2 Don: 1. -L
Well, at least she finally admitted it was her.