Chapter Thirty-Two

His options had dwindled considerably when he saw Edward marched out with a gun pressed to the small of his back. He could have left him, of course, but he believed in loyalty above all else. Edward had proven himself abundantly loyal over the years and, while Reddington wasn't fool enough to ignore the fact that he'd give nearly anything to protect Elizabeth, Edward wasn't what Bauer truly wanted. No. He knew what he wanted, and offering it up would allow them all a chance to escape.

Promises recalled and understandings hanging heavily in the air, Reddington stepped from the SUV, arms outstretched to show that he came in peace. He looked past Edward to the man who was pulling the strings. He was old now. His hair was thinner, more salt than pepper for what was left of it. His skin was darkened in spots, but his eyes were still sharp and cold. He looked out with that icy expression that recalled memories long suppressed, his shoulders squared and back ramrod straight. Reddington had hoped he would die before this reunion reared its head again. Bauer - Alexei - or himself. Whichever came first, though they did say only the good die young.

Yet here they were. Some events were inevitable.

Bauer caught his gaze, but if there was a flicker of recognition or he was projecting, Reddington couldn't be sure until the only man spoke. "Raymond Reddington. The Concierge of Crime. Katarina sent you to do her dirty work."

"I'm here to negotiate."

"Aren't you always?" Bauer chuckled. "Unless you're willing to deliver her to me, I'm not interested. Katarina should have come herself."

"You want her to get to him. Nicholai." He waited, the name hanging between them. "I can reunite you with your son."

"In exchange for what?"

"Their release. The pilot, the others."

There was a moment in which Reddington thought perhaps his reputation as a deal maker hadn't preceded him in this case, but finally Bauer motioned and Edward was released. Red turned to the vehicle and motioned for them to make their move. He hoped Elizabeth might forgive him one day.

Bauer made his way down the steps of the aircraft and circled the waiting town car as Reddington was patted down - his revolver removed from the holster along with the cell phone he had carried - and ushered in behind him. He could hear shouting from behind until the door closed, sealing him in with the man he'd avoided for so long.

"I had heard some time ago that you had worked your way into the organization by exploiting Laurel Hitchin."

"It was business, nothing more," Reddington answered evenly.

"A prudent one, though longer than I would have expected after you stole the Fulcrum."

"Opportunities present themselves. Forcing them into play almost guarantees failure," he answered, his gaze flickering to the plane as Tom ushered Elizabeth up the steps. He'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but he needed to buy her time.

The airplane door shut and Bauer tapped the back of the driver's seat, one of his two lackeys shifting the vehicle into drive. "Time to pay the piper, Reddington. Your pets are on their way. Where is my son?"

Reddington pulled in a deep breath, the vehicle picking up speed. "I knew a man once. Still a boy in so many ways, but a broken home and struggling existence had driven him towards a life of greatness. Something more than he'd known." He could feel that icy blue gaze on him and Reddington closed his eyes, conjuring a mental image of a face that had haunted him for a long time. "He escaped that life and had just been accepted into the Naval Academy. He was… ecstatic. Hopeful, and why shouldn't he be with his whole life laid out before him? He was going to serve his country, to work his way to Admiral. All those hopes and dreams, snuffed out by a stray bullet that wasn't even meant for him."

They turned onto a busy road and Reddington opened his eyes to see an old anger he recognized from his youth. "You told me you could deliver him. I'm sure you know enough about me to understand that a grave is not fulfilling that promise."

"Nicholai isn't dead," Reddington confirmed softly, "but Raymond Reddington is. He was. And he…. I may not have pulled the trigger on the gun that killed him, but the man that did was aiming for me. Some hired hand looking to cash in on a bounty Alexei Yahontov had offered for the return of his son, but Ray gave me his name, his life, and the first hope I'd had in years that I could truly escape. No. I'm well aware a grave wouldn't satisfy you. There's already a stone with the name I was born under etched into it, but even that wasn't enough."

"You." The single word was filled with distrust. Perhaps he thought it had come too easily, but as Reddington met his gaze, all he could recall was the life's struggle trying to free himself had been. For him and everyone he loved.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you don't recognize me."

Bauer did, his gaze drifting up and down as if he were seeing Red for the first time. Then, something darkened there. "Katarina's girl."

"What of her?"

"After all of this, there must be something more if you're willing to throw it all away for her safety." He tapped the back of the driver's seat. "Take us to the airport."

"We have a deal," Reddington said tightly. "Nicholai for their safety. I'm here. You have me."

"So I do, but what kind of family reunion would it be without my granddaughter?"


If it weren't a scientific impossibility, Howard could have sworn that Katarina's approach had caused the temperature to drop several degrees around them. Her footsteps were silent and she didn't speak immediately, but he knew she was there. There was no mistaking it. Not that he'd give her the time of day. No, she enjoyed commanding a room in such a way that every eye turned to her when she wanted them to. He wouldn't give her that. His fingers moved along the keys, another line of code flashing across the screen. There. That's what he needed. A door cracked open. All it needed was a nudge, a push, and he could -

"You do enjoy making people wait, don't you?"

"Not particularly," Howard answered, never breaking eye contact with the computer in front of him. "Not if they're useful."

"And I'm not?" Katarina all but purred and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

"If experience has taught me anything, I shouldn't trust a thing that comes from you."

"Yet here you are." She moved so that he could see her out of his peripheral vision. She leaned against the wall, crossed her arms, and chuckled softly. "Though we both know you're not doing it for me."

"Not doing it for her either," he muttered and tapped the enter button, initiating an old protocol that sent code scrolling up the screen.

"You forget that without her, you couldn't have had him."

He finally broke his steady gaze to turn to look at her. "Is there a point somewhere in there, Katarina?"

"You're blaming her. You shouldn't."

"Why? Because she was doing her job? Because it wasn't personal? You and Red might have that understanding, but you knew who each other were. Scottie hid who she was so she could use me."

"She protected you."

"She stole my tech."

"She used your technology to shield you."

"She tried to have me kicked out of my own company to cover her tracks -"

"Oh sure, because you've always been a shining example of mental stability."

" - and then when that didn't work she tried to have me killed."

"You don't really think she was responsible for the plane, do you?"

Howard clenched his jaw, forcing his voice to remain calm. "She is the reason Christopher was taken. She's the reason that bastard got ahold of him and destroyed his childhood. Her, you, the whole mess the two of you made…. And here you are after everything needing my help in a desperate attempt to save Red from taking a fall for your decision. Go away, Katarina. I have work to do." He turned back to the screen and he heard the redheaded woman push a long breath out in the form of a frustrated sigh.

"I've known her a long time. I saw her fall for you and I couldn't stop it. Yes, your son was taken because of the people she worked for, but because they needed a way to keep her in line. Her devotion shifted to you. It's the reason that, out of all of the options she had at her fingertips, she chose technology that no one else in your company could come close to understanding, much less use. They needed to keep you alive if they wanted to access the information. No matter what happened, they couldn't kill you."

He didn't dare look at her. Didn't dare risk a crack in his carefully neutral mask.

"Scottie hates Raymond, but they're not so different. They were both put in impossible situations for the people that they loved and the children they adored."

"What do you want from me, Katarina?"

"Immediately, for you to break the Archive open so that we can rescue Raymond and protect the children. But Scottie…. The world is more dangerous with you two at odds."

It was Howard's turn to give an indignant snort, but the computer chimed an alert that it needed his input to get through the next layer of security. He focused on it, and while he didn't hear Katarina's retreating footsteps, he was certain that the air around him warmed a little as she left.


Tom had tried to speak to her as the plane climbed into the sky, but Liz had gone painfully silent. It was clear she didn't want to hear anything else or to indulge in the possibility that he'd made the right call in the moment. He wished she would, because as the hours dragged on he couldn't help but question if it had been the right call. Reddington had told him to do whatever was necessary to protect her and the older man had chosen his own path, but that didn't mean that there hadn't been another way. There was always another way.

But no. He'd gone with Reddington's plan, and Reddington had given himself up to a father that had been hunting him down for decades now. What Bauer would do when he realized who Reddington was was anybody's best guess, but even if they cracked the Archive, there was a possibility that it wouldn't be soon enough to save Red. A possibility that Tom had helped to sign his death warrant just after Liz had finally received the truth. There was always another way, but even as he turned it over again and again in his mind, he wasn't sure what that would have been.

The bench seat he had settled on gave very slightly and Tom cracked his eyes open to find the woman he loved taking a seat next to him. She still looked a little shell shocked, her gaze distant and her lips tugged down at the corners into a pained expression that just wouldn't let go. She pulled in a deep breath, not turning to look at him as she spoke. "One of the biggest problems in our marriage - no matter which one - that we've run up against is you trying to make decisions for us both."

"It wasn't like we really had time for a debate," Tom offered softly.

"No, but you pushed me into the plane. You took my choice to fight for him away from me."

"What about his?"

"His what?"

"Choice. To protect you."

He found her looking at him now, those clear blue eyes focused so intently on him that it felt like they might cut through to his soul to lay it bare.

Tom sucked in a deep and what he hoped was a steadying breath. "I'm not saying it was fair. It wasn't. It isn't, but we didn't know what we were up against going in. We tried to get you guys out without leaving anyone behind, but that's not always how things work out."

"We could have fought for him," Liz murmured, but her tone was hollow.

"We could have all died there too. At least now we have a fighting chance. For us, for him…. That psychopath is your grandfather. If he's been looking for Reddington for decades, you think he's going to stop just because he got him? He'll piece together who you and Agnes are pretty fast."

He watched the words sink in. "He'd come for Agnes."

"Now we at least have a fighting chance. For her, for us, and yeah… even for Reddington."

Tears stood in her eyes and her voice broke as she said, "You hate him."

"Yeah, pretty much," Tom chuckled and risked reaching an arm around so that he could pull her close. She didn't fight him on it. "But I love you, so if you want me to, I'll fight to help you get him back."

"I can't lose him, Tom." She buried her face into the crook of his shoulder and he held on.

"You keep saying you can't lose people, but you keep proving yourself to be the strongest woman I've ever met. You'd survive it, but you deserve better. I'll do my best to help you get that."

He heard a soft, broken laugh from her and she wrapped an arm around his middle and he pressed a kiss against her dark hair. "I love you," she whispered.

"Love you too. Get some sleep. We've got a few more hours to go."

"Stay?"

A small smile tugged at his lips and he settled a little lower in the seat. "Always."


The Post Office buzzed below where Scottie Hargrave stood on the catwalk just outside of Cooper's office. She'd spent hours locked away with him to pour over the details that would, eventually, help authenticate the Sikorsky Archive. She had hoped to avoid putting her name to it, but even with Katarina being willing to sign a statement declaring her part in it - an action Scottie hadn't been willing to bank on until the ink was dry - they needed to push the process through the channels quickly. If they didn't, Bauer would slip through their fingers and they might never have a chance like this again. He knew who they were, knew where to find them, and if they didn't bury him now they would never be safe.

The catch was that her name would be the final straw for the Board at Halcyon. With Howard's mental health still in question and his sentence unfulfilled, they wouldn't want a second blotch on their record. A professed spy who had worked for an organization that wasn't aligned with their government couldn't stay in as the CEO of a private intelligence firm. They would see the risk as too great, despite all the success she had had there. Even so, if losing it all would protect her son and his family, any price was worth it. If it came to it, she would sign her name right next to Katarina's.

Footsteps echoed against the metal as Donald Ressler appeared at the top of the stairs. He looked startled for half a moment at finding her there, but then motioned to Cooper's door that she was blocking.

Scottie flattened herself against the railing and watched him as he slipped by. "Have you heard anything from Tom?"

"I'm surprised your spy hasn't given you an update," the ginger fed answered testily.

"I sent her in to find out more on Bauer, not to spy on our own people. What happened?"

"Nothing on that front. Your husband had a breakthrough." He knocked on the door and followed the command to enter through it, leaving Scottie to process the words.

She was moving before she gave herself permission to. Down the stairs and past a curious set of federal agents towards the central area that she had heard them refer to as the War Room. Aram Mojtabai stood with Howard, his dark eyes wide, and Katarina was sitting on a desk nearby. Howard's computer screen was lit up with a thousand pictures and files, flying so fast that even as she approached Scottie couldn't make individual ones out. Along the bottom of the screen was a status bar that moved at a snail's speed. "You did it," she breathed.

"There was a day you had more faith in me," Howard answered, and he was distracted enough that there was a hint of amusement in his voice. It felt oddly familiar.

"I knew you could, but I'm grateful that you did."

He broke eye contact with the screen to turn and look at her. "It's for Tom," he huffed and she felt the barest of smiles turn her lips upward.

"I know."

"How long will it take to download to the FBI servers?" Katarina asked from her perch.

"Oh, it's not downloading to the FBI servers," Aram answered. "If the Fulcrum was anything to go by, the FBI and any other government agency has people that are compromised by the Cabal in it. There's no way to keep it out of their hands if we actually put it on our servers."

Scottie quirked an eyebrow as she heard Cooper and Ressler making their way down the stairs behind them. "So where is it going?"

"We're downloading it locally." Aram turned to another screen. "From there we can run an algorithm to compare it to federal databases so that we know who to approach with it."

"We've had some experience with situations like this," Cooper offered.

Katarina snorted. "That doesn't answer the central question: how long?"

Scottie's dark eyes flickered back to see the progress bar moving at a quicker pace than she had anticipated. Whatever Howard and Aram had set up was transferring the data fast.

"Hour, tops," Howard answered.

"Good." Katarina reached into her pocket and pulled a burner phone out and dialed.

"Who are you calling?" Aram asked nervously and turned, his gaze sweeping across anyone he hoped might be able to answer him. "Who's she calling?"

"The kids are out of the way. She's making a play for Reddington."

"We're not giving this thing to this Bauer," Cooper said firmly, his voice low, but even so Katarina hopped off of the desk and moved a little further away.

Scottie offered a small shrug. "We all know that, but he doesn't. You'd be surprised how well Katarina plays the desperate soul."

"Put him on," Katarina instructed and Cooper motioned at her. She frowned, but hit the speaker option on the phone as she said, "You know who this is. Put him on or he's going to lose the one chance he has at-"

"Katarina," a voice echoed through the War Room and everyone was deathly quiet. "It's been some time. You daughter is as charming as you have always proven yourself to be."

"I do hope she left you with a new scar."

"She may have," the man on the other end of the phone chuckled. "You wouldn't contact me unless you had it in your possession."

"I do, and I'm open to a trade."

"You may be, but I'm not."

Katarina's perfect mask slipped for the briefest of moments and Scottie saw confusion etched into her face.

"Did you think, after searching for my son as long as I have, that I would simply hand him over to you?"

"Son?" Donald Ressler breathed at Scottie's shoulder and she shot him a warning look. It was interesting information, certainly, and not something that would be overlooked forever, but there was a time and a place. The personal connection only upped the stakes. Bauer had been looking for his son and had inadvertently found his granddaughter. He likely knew that by now, and that put Tom's wife and child in danger.

"I know you, Alexei. I've known you for a long time. You helped build this and you finally clawed your way to the top. No Fitch to get in your way, no Kotsiopulos to screw it up. Just me and you've never been able to get rid of me." Her grip tightened around the phone, her tony icy and her gaze fixed on the small screen. "And if you hurt him, if you don't take this deal, I will burn you to the ground."

"You're good. You always have been, Katarina, but you and Nicholai share a fatal flaw: you assume that you are the most clever players on the board. You should never assume that unless it's true."

"And yet here I am with the Archive and there you are, risking everything."

A rough chuckle echoed across the line. "No, my dear, you are. You picked the wrong fight."

"What the hell?"

Scottie spun to where Howard's voice had broken the understood silence, but she saw immediately why. A warning sign flashed across his computer screen. Corrupted data. A virus or something. They'd been had.

"You have nothing to threaten me with, nothing to bargain me with, and soon, your hubris will be dealt with."

"Mr Cooper, sir," Aram called as quietly as he was able to from his desk. "We have a major problem."


She was standing on a sandy beach. It was dark, the breeze tugging at her loose hair and the waves licking at her bare toes. She could hear Agnes's laughter somewhere in the distance, but it was Reddington that stood with her, his gaze fixed above the dark expanse of the water on a star shining brighter than the others. Polaris. The North Star. "Red," she breathed, turning to look at him and he offered a sad smile. Liz swallowed hard, steadying herself. "I'm going to find you. I'm going to help you get home."

His lips parted as if he were going to answer her, but the scene was snapped away to be replaced with the cabin of Reddington's personal jet. She was horizontal, curled up on the bench and her head laid in a lap. Tom's lap. Right. She must have fallen asleep.

"Hey," her husband's voice was soft, and she felt his long fingers run through her hair. "Lizzie?"

"It's been forever since you called me that," she said sleepily and she sat up. As she did, she spotted the reason he'd woken her. Dembe sat in the chair across from them, a tablet in hand and his dark gaze fixed on her.

"Things went sideways," Tom murmured. "We heard from Scottie on a secure line. They got to the Archive but there was… some sort of trojan horse or something. It deleted everything they had. Howard thinks he can recover it…"

"But?" she prompted, straightening in her seat.

Dembe handed over the tablet. "Bauer was prepared."

Liz drew in a deep breath and looked at the data on the tablet. They appeared to be alerts and arrest warrants sent out to federal and local agencies alike. She didn't bother asking Dembe how he'd managed to get ahold of something like that as she flipped through it, charges piled one atop another.

Katarina Rostova. First degree murder, theft, espionage…

Harold Cooper. Aiding and abetting, espionage, evidence tampering….

Donald Ressler. Drug charges, murder, aiding and abetting….

Aram Mojtabai. Cyber crimes, breaking and entering, aiding and abetting...

Alina Park. Bribery charges, assault, aiding and abetting…

Susan Hargrave. Espionage, first degree murder, kidnapping…

Howard Hargrave. Espionage, cyber crimes, kidnapping…

Thomas Keen. Espionage, first degree murder, identity theft…

There were aliases, last known locations, photos, relationships. The truly terrifying thing was how much information the Cabal had on all of them and had never released. Not just that, but they'd been able to fabricate authentic looking documents that would put a bullseye on everyone involved in a matter of hours.

"The Bonn faction," Nez said quietly from her seat. "Solomon didn't say a lot about his time with them, but even he acknowledged how brutal they were. Meticulous and dangerous. They were able to kill him the same day he let the information leak."

"They have to have access to a network of some kind," Tom murmured.

Liz snorted. "If they had a way to insert a trojan horse into the download of the Archive, there's a good chance they had the information. Could be why Bauer was more worried about finding Reddington than he was finding and protecting the Archive. He knew the cards he had to play." An alert caught her eye and she felt instantly sick.

Agnes' face stared up at her from the file, noting Scottie and Howard as the last people to be seen with her. Kidnapping charges. Right.

"You know Scottie'd do whatever it takes to protect your kid, right?" Nez asked, pulling Liz out of the horrified trance. She looked over to Tom and saw his expression darkened and dangerous.

"So will we."

She reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his, holding on tight. She looked down and a realization slammed into her like a physical blow. "I'm not in here."

"Which means he knows," Dembe said tightly. "He will come for you."

"He's coming for all of us, just in different ways."

"Do you understand now?" She shot him a questioning look and Reddington's most loyal companion pursed his lips together. "Alexei - Bauer - was always a few steps behind. There was no reason for him to suspect Raymond was once Nicholai unless Raymond's identity came into question. It was a thread he hoped would never be pulled."

"Until me. I did this."

"You had a part, but he also stepped back into your life. I don't think he felt he had a choice."

"I never would have hurt her," Tom said and Liz tightened her grip.

Dembe shook his head. "Not you. Her. He loved Katarina, but you, Elizabeth, were everything."

His way home.

She felt the knot in her chest climb into her throat and threaten to choke her as her vision blurred. "We're going to save him."

The man that she had come to think of as a brother gave a silent, stiff nod that he didn't look like he believed. It was okay. He didn't have to. She did, and she was determined to make it true.


TBC

Notes: Just when they thought they'd escaped... Red taken captive, the Archive rendered useless, and the Cabal making good on Tom Connolly's threat from years before. As if life hadn't been hard before, it's about to get really rough.

Next Time: Park gets a surprise visit in the hospital, Samar jumps all the way in, and the Keens stage a rescue attempt for the newly-arrested Donald Ressler.