"Has Brimley gotten anything yet?" Jacob's eyes popped open, the sound of his adoptive father's voice bringing him into immediate awareness. Reddington hadn't been due to arrive until 6pm...which a glance at his watch told him it was. He stretched, sore from his power nap. Sleeping in a metal chair wasn't exactly comfortable. Who knew?

"Not yet, but I can't imagine it will be much longer." Brimley had been at work on the operative for 28 hours. The longest Jacob had ever seen anyone hold out against the master torturer was 30 hours. He'd been on standby since the old man arrived, responsible for fetching various items from the local hardware store, pet store, and deli. The sandwiches he presumed were for the man's meals, but with Brimley you never really knew.

"Hello, Dearie." Jacob's head swiveled to the door of the warehouse, where a petite bird-like woman was walking through. A smile rose to his lips.

"Kate. I guess this is going to be even messier than I realized."

He grinned at the woman who'd been like a favorite aunt to him for half his life. She gave him a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, only to be interrupted by Reddington.

"Does Hartwell have any updates?" Jacob shifted his focus back to his boss.

"Korpal woke up this afternoon. The doctors are cautiously optimistic that he'll make a full recovery." Jacob knew that was probably a good thing, all things considered. At the very least Liz wouldn't have to grieve the cheating bastard. Still, Jacob couldn't exactly make himself leap for joy.

"And Dembe?" Glen had come through this morning with the location of what had turned out to the operative watchpost. Naturally it had taken ten minutes of listening to the tracker's bullshit, but in the end he had coughed up the address.

"Called a few hours ago from the operative's base. Thinks he has a name. Berlin."

"The canary's ready to sing." Brimley had emerged from the room where he had been doing his work, dragging his oxygen tank. "I'm going to use the can." With that announcement the torturer shuffled down the hallway, presumably to find the nearest bathroom.

"Perfect timing." Reddington marched forward, leaving Jacob and Kate to trail after him. The operative looked relatively unharmed for a man who'd been tortured for over a day. That was the strange genius of Brimley. Physically, the damage was minimal. It was only their expressions that revealed his subjects to be broken.

"Who is Berlin?" No foreplay? No charming anecdote? How very un-Reddington. The concierge of crime must have been in a greater hurry than Jacob realised.

"Someone who hates you." And there they'd been thinking the man attacking Raymond's business just wanted to be friends. Jacob fought to keep from rolling his eyes.

"Tragically that doesn't narrow things down much." True, but if you weren't making enemies in this business, you were clearly doing something wrong.

"I don't have any more information regarding his identity. His check cleared and that was all I needed to know."

Jacob couldn't imagine working that way, with no concept of his employer. This business was dangerous enough without the added issue of not being able to rely on your boss. Berlin, whoever he was, didn't give a damn about his contractor. When they killed him, there would be no retribution, no protection for loved ones left behind. Not that he imagined this man had any loved ones to speak of.

One of the more important lessons he'd absorbed from Reddington was how to manage an empire. Treat your employees well and they will, for the most part, reciprocate. It wasn't guaranteed of course, how could it be in a consortium of criminals? That was why there was the second piece of the lesson. Disloyalty deserved no mercy. Offer none and deter those not swayed by gratitude to be influenced by fear.

"Were you working alone?" Jacob told himself either way the man answered was fine. Hartwell was sticking close to Liz, so she was protected.

"Yes." Jacob released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He thought he'd been quiet, but he felt Kate's eyes flick towards him. Not good. Kate was always very perceptive. Jacob ignored her, keeping the expression neutral and his attention on the operative.

"What exactly were you hired to do?"

"Get close to Elizabeth Scott and determine your connection to her and the strength of that relationship." If that had been his mission, it wouldn't have turned up anything. Liz had no clue who Reddington was, at least outside of him being on the most wanted list.

"How were you planning on achieving that end?"

"Befriend Nik Korpal. Kill him and posthumously frame him for being unfaithful. Pursue a relationship-"

"What do you mean 'frame'? He was having an affair. Or planning to."

Jacob had interjected before he could stop himself, causing Reddington to turn to him a somewhat incredulous expression on his face. He could understand his boss' surprise. Jacob frequently expressed his opinions and was even encouraged to do so in an appropriate venue. This was not that.

"That had been my initial thought when he reached out to the ex-girlfriend. Would have made things easier. But no, it turns out she's a jeweler and he wanted his grandmother's ring resized."

There was a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of Jacob's stomach. Korpal hadn't been cheating. He was planning on proposing. That should have pleased Jacob. He'd been angry when he thought the doctor had been unfaithful. But he wasn't pleased he was...something he couldn't quite identify.

Reddington paused, sending Jacob a look that demanded his silence. Jacob inclined his head in assent. His adoptive father turned back to their captive.

"Why does your employer suspect Elizabeth Scott is connected to me?" That was the question. Elizabeth was only tangentially connected to Reddington through her adoptive father. Even then Raymond only saw Sam one or twice a year. It was one of the reasons Jacob had been initially surprised Raymond had felt the need to hire someone to watch Liz, let alone a St. Regis operative.

"He found out you'd done a deep dive on Nik Korpal five months ago. Tracing your known movement backwards, he found no indication your life had ever intersected with the doctor's. There was however evidence that in 2007 you were in Baltimore on the day of his girlfriend's graduation ceremony. And the two years later you were in New York when she was awarded her Masters from the University of Columbia."

Jacob had known about the trips. Reddington had wanted to catch up with an old friend in a more inconspicuous location that Nowheresvillle Nebraska. They've even conducted business while they were in both cities. It was just bad luck this 'Berlin' assumed it meant more than it did.

"Thin." The operative acknowledged Reddington's comment with a small shrug.

"Perhaps. But that fact that you're here, now, tells me the suspicion must have had some foundation. Ironically if you just allowed me to do my job, Elizabeth Scott would have been far safer than she is now. I trust you realize that through your intervention, you have marked her for a slow and excruciating death." There it was again, the pounding of blood through his veins, only this time it was ten times worse than what he'd felt towards Korpal.

"I'd be much more concerned about yours, if I was you." Jacob smiled at Reddington's threat. He could hear the anger in the older man's voice that perfectly echoed Jacob's sentiments. Reddington could shoot men with whom he'd been chatting in a convivial manner moments before. This though, Jacob recognized as the truly dangerous tone of Raymond Reddington's rage. If the operative had hoped for a quick and merciful death, he'd certainly ruined his chances with that little comment.

The operative didn't seem at all concerned about Raymond's threat. In fact it brought a smile to the man's face. It was then that Jacob heard the crunch. Seconds later the assassin was convulsing, foam issuing from his mouth. Shit.

"Kate?!" Jacob turned to Mr. Kaplan hopefully, but she was shaking her head.

"Sorry Dearie, I don't carry Sodium Nitrate around in my purse. He'll be gone in a minute or two." Raymond turned to Jacob, dismissing the man still jerking in the chair.

"You didn't check his teeth?" Was Reddington kidding? Like that was some standard procedure Jacob had overlooked, like not patting the man down for concealed weapons.

"For a fucking cyanide capsule? No. Who the hell puts something in their mouths that could kill them if they bite into a walnut the wrong way?! What is this, 1960s Soviet Russia?" Raymond was active during the cold war when suicide pills had been fairly common, but this was a 21st operative. Jacob had had no indication the man would be so...old school.

"Raymond, I need to speak to you. Privately." Reddington's eyes swung to Jacob's expectantly. He was being sent to his room so Mommy and Daddy could have a grown-up talk. That hadn't happened in quite a few years. He swallowed his objections and headed for the door.

"Yeah. I should call Hartwell." Jacob left the room, leaving the door ever so slightly ajar behind him. It wasn't that he planned on eavesdropping exactly. Kind of like he hadn't been exactly ordered to leave. If, however, some of the conversation happened to reach his ears, well that wasn't his fault, was it?

Stop just outside the doorway to retrieve his cell phone and sure enough voices drifted towards him.

"I know what you're thinking Raymond. Remember our agreement." What agreement did Kate mean? And for that matter, why was Kate here in the first place? This was a single contained kill in an easily secured location. Nothing that Jacob couldn't handle on his own. It was Reddington bringing a Bazooka to kill a squirrel. Serious overkill.

"We may not have a choice. Katarina's ghosts are circling." Katarina? Who the hell was that? Jacob leaned closer to the crack to hear Kate's reply.

"You have no proof this has anything to do with her mother." Her mother? Whose mother? Liz's? That didn't make sense. This was about Sam, about Sam's friendship with Reddington. Besides, Liz's mother wasn't named Katarina. It was Amanda. Amanda Scott. That much he knew. That much was on the file tab when it had been passed to Liz all those years ago.

Jacob thought back to that day. He remembered the small office exactly, from the stained blue carpet to the ridiculous inspirational posters hanging on the walls. Mostly what he remembered though was the fear in the civil servants eyes, fear he had attributed at the time as an overreaction to accepting Jacob's bribe and breaking policy.

What if it hadn't been that though? What if something else had caused that fear. Someone else.

Suddenly Jacob realized he did not want to hear any more of this conversation. He moved far away from the door and rang Hartwell.

"Any change?" A part of him hoped there was a problem of some kind that he'd need to go a deal with. He needed something to focus on beside the suspicion that had just formed in his mind.

"Scott and Korpal got engaged." The sentence landed like a sucker punch. This must be what people meant when they said 'Be careful what you wish for.' Jacob breathed through his nose and reminded himself it was none of his business.

"Anything else?"

"You don't sound pleased." What was she expecting him to do? Toast the happy couple? Who Jacob was convinced would be unimaginably miserable if their marital plans came to fruition. Not that was it his concern. If Liz wanted to ruin her life, that was her prerogative.

"Maybe because I was hoping you had something actually relevant to share." There was a long pause on the other end of the line, as though Hartwell was weighing the cost/benefit of her next comment.

"I don't know if you'd consider this relevant, but Scott got a call from a Special Agent Worth. Apparently the hunch she got last night about the torture being customized to the victim panned out. Funny, how she came to that conclusion the same night that you did."

Jacob suddenly understood the hesitation. She was making an accusation, possibly an indirect threat to tattle to Reddington. He considered his own response. He had been short with her over the past few days. The situation with Liz hadn't put him in his most congenial frame of mind. Perhaps her push-back was justified.

"As they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut, now and then. I'll contact you if there's a change in your orders." He'd struck the right note with his reply, light and playful. Not an apology exactly, but enough of a change to make her aware their spat, for lack of a better word, was over, at least on his end.

"In person, I hope." He noted the flirtatious element had re-emerged in her voice. It seemed she was receptive to his implied overture. It probably wouldn't be a terrible idea to take her up on what she was offering. If he was lucky, it might help him get the Liz thing out of his system.

"Count on it." Reddington and Kate picked that moment to emerge into the main warehouse. "I've gotta go." Jacob hung up before Hartwell could respond and waited at attention for his boss to reach him.

"I need a dossier on whoever is responsible for admissions to Quantico Academy." Jacob blinked. That was unexpected, to say the least. Why would he need...Liz.

"You want to make her a full agent?" Working for the mobile psych unit was one thing. That was working with the FBI. This would make her FBI. It would place both her feet firmly in the enemy camp.

"Any training, even Federal Agent training, is better than none at all. In any case putting her on campus will make her harder to reach." Jacob supposed that was true, but every instinct he had resisted the idea.

"Also harder for Hartwell to look after her." Reddington's eyebrows rose and Jacob was reminded that he'd already spoken out of turn once today. If he kept questioning, Raymond was going to start wondering why.

"I'll find someone on campus. Meanwhile Hartwell can watch Korpal, assuming Elizabeth accepts his marriage proposal." Jacob nodded, not quite being able to acknowledge that had already come to pass.

"What happens when the training is over?" This was a delaying tactic, but it didn't solve the underlying problem.

"That remains to be seen." Jacob nodded again, hearing the dismissal in Raymond's voice.

"Kate, always a delight." He moved in to kiss her check in farewell. Her smile was far more genuine this time as she regarded him.

"Be good, Dearie." He winked at her.

"Am I ever?" Jacob spun away and headed toward the warehouse's entrance. Reddington was right, there was no point in speculating on the future. In six months they may well have solved the Berlin issue and Elizabeth Scott would no longer be his concern in any conceivable respect. For now he had work to do.