Chapter Four: Meet the Agents

Reddington paused, and he bit his lower lip. He sighed and lowered the weapon. "I can't do it."

Zim breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not because I lack the ability," Reddington said. "Nothing would please me more than sending whatever lives in your head out the back of it. But for good or ill, I read those files. For all I know, the bullet will ricochet off that idiotic head of yours back at me. Or maybe my gun will explode in my hand. I'm stuck with you."

"Cool. Then we're good for Taco Bell?"

"No." Reddington went back to Dembe's jacket and this time came up with a cell phone. He almost tossed it to Zim but then seemed to think better. Very deliberately, he walked to Zim and put it in his hand. "For good or ill, you are my new Dembe. Get us an Uber."

Zim hit the center button and looked for the Uber app. "Uh, is a Lyft okay?"

Reddington blinked rapidly at him.

"Okay, okay." Zim hit the Lyft app, and it took a moment for a driver to accept his request since they were out in the middle of nowhere. Finally he got one. "The driver will be here in a half an hour."

Reddington sighed. When Zim tried to hand the phone back, Reddington didn't take it. "You're Dembe now. You keep it."

Zim put the dead man's phone in his pocket, and they waited in a very uncomfortable silence. Zim wondered if maybe they should do something about Dembe's corpse, but he thought maybe now was not the best time to mention it.

Nearly an hour passed before a pickup with an extended cab bounced over the grassy hills and came to a stop by them. Zim opened the door and started to get in when Reddington pulled him back. He got into the spacious front seat. Zim scowled looking at the small space he'd have to sit in. But he got in.

"What the fuck?" the driver said. "No fucking way."

Zim looked over to see the driver wore a baseball hat with a Confederate flag on it. The face below the brim was, however, even worse.

It was D-Dolla'.

"Oh shit," Zim said.

"You must know each other," Reddington said. "That is unfortunate, but we are in a hurry."

Zim looked into the back of the pickup. He saw several bales of hay strapped down. "I heard you'd gone farmer on us."

"Yep," D-Dolla' said. "I got tired of city living. Too many assholes and liars."

Zim, so full of his own shit that he often couldn't see others' shit, felt flabbergasted at this steaming pile D-Dolla' had just said.

"Just drive," Reddington said.

D-Dolla' did just that. And he kept talking. And talking. And talking. Zim wished Reddington would give him the gun so he could shoot D-Dolla'. Then he remembered who was driving and let out a tremendous sigh.

They arrived at some kind of airfield that was so far off the map Reddington had to give directions. By the time they pulled up to a helicopter, a man approached them. "Reddington. You're late. We were starting to think you weren't going to show."

"Harold," Reddington said. "I ran into problems. I'm also going to need security clearance for my companion. His name is Cris Zim."

"Uh, hi," Zim said.

"And me," D-Dolla' said. "You have to. My president is your boss."

Inspiration suddenly struck Zim. D-Dolla' was such a ridiculous person that it would take almost all of the attention off of himself. "Yeah. He goes with us."

Reddington sighed. "Fine. I think that's D-Dolla' with an apostrophe at the end."

"Damn right."

Harold Cooper looked bewildered, but he got on the radio and gave someone orders to have security passes for Zim and D-Dolla'. Soon they jumped into the helicopter and had bags placed over their heads to protect the secret location of the black site. When they landed, the hoods were removed, and they took an elevator ride down several levels.

The doors opened, and the first person they saw was one of the most shockingly beautiful women Zim had ever seen. She could have been a supermodel. He immediately gave himself a once over to make sure he looked cool. He practiced his cool face until he thought it was just right. She would have to find him irresistible. He felt confident that he was going to score.

"Reddington," she said. "You're not your usual chipper self."

"Agent Keen," Reddington said. "You are about to meet the most horrible people in the world not on my Blacklist. In fact I'm coming up with a new list. The Lacklist. These two are at the top."

"Hey," Zim said. He nodded his head at her and hoped he sounded cool.

She glanced at him, then at D-Dolla'. Then at D-Dolla's hat. She grimaced. Good. That meant D-Dolla' had no chance. Zim was going to score!

"Speaking of," Keen said, "who is our next target?"

"Come," Reddington said. "Let's get these two idiots introduced so we can move on and I never have to repeat their insipid names ever again."

There were a couple of people at the same computer station talking to each other. Reddington interrupted them to gesture toward Zim and D-Dolla' and utter their names. He pointed to a sturdy looking man who didn't look like he had much of a sense of humor. "This is Donald Ressler." He pointed to the man sitting at the station. "This is Agent Mojtabai."

Mojtabai smiled. "You can call me Aram. That's cool."

"Agent Mojtabai," Reddington said. "I feel I must warn you that you are treading in very dangerous waters. I would stay as far away from these two as I could get. You have no idea what they're capable of, especially this one." He pointed to Zim.

Aram smiled uncertainly. "Uh, we also have a couple of new recruits that have been assigned to our team. They're sitting over there at that dual station."

Zim looked over, and in unison both chairs swiveled around.

It was Fitz and Brandon.

No.

NO.

They did the Fitz whistle in unison. "Hey Zim!" Brandon said in a goofy voice. "How's it going?"

"Fuck this place," Zim muttered. "Please tell me Bruni doesn't work here."

"No," Fitz said. "We do have FBJ on retainer, though."

"Keep him there."

Brandon laughed. "The team's back together!"

TO BE CONTINUED!