Chapter Nine: Trust

He wasn't sure Liz had been as lucky, but Tom had managed to snag a couple hours' sleep before the call came in that had them rushing to the Post Office. He was halfway through his second cup of coffee by the time they arrived and he tossed the disposable cup in a bin as he made his way towards the other holding cell after securing Gina. Somehow Ressler had managed to get his hands on the man that had attacked Liz, and while Aram said that they could only find aliases on the man so far, Tom was confident that he knew the man's name.

Tall, dark haired, and arrogant as hell, he smirked as Tom entered. "Jakey Phelps. It's been a while."

Tom didn't let his mask of indifference slip. "Justin Masterson. Ten years or so."

"Still hate that, huh? The nickname. You're working so hard to make sure it looks like you don't. That's your tell, you know. That blank look you get."

Tom snorted and circled the table. Masterson tugged at his restraints, the cuff's chains clanging against the metal table. "Met the wife."

That finally brought a slow, almost lazy smirk that quirked his lips up at the corners. "That's gonna scar, you know," he said, motioning to the side of his face still caked in dried blood.

"Assholes wouldn't let me clean up." He waited a beat. "Or was that you?"

"You pissed Ressler off. He gets like that sometimes. He's got a protective streak."

"That why he let you in? To do what he can't?"

"He doesn't know I'm here."

Masterson flashed a toothy grin. "Even better." He settled back. "So what does the wifey think about you sticking your neck out for the ex? Does she know, or is that a secret too?"

The smirk returned and Tom pulled the chair out opposite of Masterson and took a seat. "Look," he started, pulling the other man's attention fully around, "you and I never liked each other, but we did respect each other."

"Is this where you tell me you're going to do me a favour, Jakey?"

"You're still alive after attacking my wife. That's more than most get." He tilted his head, watching the other man carefully.

"And now you want something in return," Masterson said slowly, the amusement easing just a little from his posture.

Tom leaned back in his chair, never breaking eye contact. "That is how this works."

Gina Zanetakos sat in the interrogation room alone in the Post Office. She was calm, despite the deep bruising that highlighted her cheek and her split lip that was beginning to swell. Solomon had given her that just before she had arrived. Liz never thought she would have found herself wanting to thank the man for anything, but there she was.

There they all were. She heaved a tired sigh, one hand reaching up to tug the band loose from her thick hair, letting it fall against her shoulders. Agnes was sleeping in her office and she had barely stirred on the drive over. At least she was getting some rest. A cranky four-year-old was the last thing she needed.

"She starting to sweat yet?"

Liz turned at the sound of the voice behind her and found Nez Rowan paused at the entrance to the small room. She came to stand next to her in front of the one-way window. "Not yet. She doesn't like cages though."

Nez hummed softly. "Probably trying to decide if she's in one or not. When is your boss due in?"

It took a moment for Liz to register that Nez was referring to Ressler. "He stopped off to check on Ellie. She wasn't thrilled when I dropped her off at her pace last night."

"You'd mentioned," Nez said with an amused look dancing in her pale eyes before she turned her attention back to Gina. "Tom's convinced she had nothing to do with the attack on you guys or on Agnes."

There was a skepticism in Nez's voice Liz wasn't sure she'd heard yet. "You think he's wrong?"

"I think that your apartment building has really good security and she was able to slip it once," Nez answered, her eyes narrowing.

Liz hummed a soft response and saw Nez turn to look at her out of the corner of her eye. "How's the search into your grandfather going?"

That pulled a laugh from her. "It's been at a standstill. I've been trying to get my badge back so I could have Tom's back in this. I did, by the way. Get it back."

"Congrats. You now have to conform to the Bureau's rules and regs." Nez flashed her a smile. "Could have come to work for Halcyon."

"I'm where I need to be."

"If you say so." The other woman paused. "However it happened, it'll be good to have you on this one."

The door behind them opened and Aram stuck his head in. "Agent Ressler's here."

The two woman exchanged a look before starting out without another word. The sooner this was wrapped, the better.

Bill McCready had spent a good chunk of his life in Army Intelligence, finding and cultivating the contacts that eventually allowed him to create what became the St Regis program. Its earliest incarnations had been created in the last years of the Cold War, but Tom - Jacob Phelps then - had been picked up years later. Less than a year after he arrived Gina Zanetakos had been recruited, and the two of them had risen in the organization. At one time they had been on track McCready's heirs apparent, with Gina set to take over the operations and Jacob to take over the education portion of the school. That had all been blown to hell when Tom had chosen Liz over St Regis.

Gina hadn't been able to give them anything about St Regis' past than Tom hadn't already given, but she was able - and willing, mostly - to give them current information. Tom had been right. The organization was drowning. New operatives weren't performing up to standard and they were losing old business faster than they could replace it with new. The whispers had started some time before, but Gina had buckled down, determined not to lose control. She had been convinced that her place in McCready's lineup would give her a layer of protection others might not have had. It was a hope that had landed her beaten into the ground and running to the only person she seemed to trust.

If she really did trust him - or if Gina was trustworthy in any sense at all - still remained to be seen.

"How was Ellie?"

Ressler was pulled from his thoughts by Tom's voice. The man had been nowhere to be seen when he'd arrived, and when Liz had told him that she'd let her husband in with her so-far unidentified attacker from St Regis, it had been all Ressler could do to not rush the room. Liz had promised he would behave and Ressler needed to extend the same trust to the Halcyon CEO that he was giving on letting them in on an immensely personal case. Tom might want to add to the bruises Liz had left in him, but he had a responsibility to keep things above board now. Well, more above board than he used to. Halcyon was still an intelligence company with plenty of secrets.

"Ress?"

The older man cleared his throat. "Yeah, she's… well, not happy. She did make sure to tell me you owe her a really nice bottle of wine and a meal?"

Tom choked on what sounded like a real laugh. "Yeah. And then some." He shrugged. "We used to have her over all the time. She likes my cooking."

"I keep hearing about it."

"You've got a standing invite. Both of you. It'd be fun."

Ressler smirked and turned his attention back to the screen where Aram and Dumont were working on positioning the Artax Network over the coordinates Tom and Gina had provided for the physical school. "Is my perp still in one piece?"

"I didn't lay a finger on him. We just had a chat."

"Get anything useful from him?"

He wasn't sure he liked the expression that flickered across Tom's face. It was part amused, part offended, and part calculating. "I'm gonna need you to trust me on something."

Now he was certain he didn't like that look.

"Uh, Agent Ressler?" Ressler turned to where Aram was. "We've got it."

The two men turned together and saw the satellite view of a compound. It was laid out just like both Tom and Gina had said separately. The school itself spanned several acres, a collection of building bundled in close while others were scattered. Ressler wasn't sure what he'd really expected, but it looked like a high-end private boarding school. The kind that only the ultra rich would send their kids off to, not a spy training school that turned out some of the most dangerous killers the world didn't even know about.

Tom stepped towards the screen, motioning as he spoke. "So you have the main academic center there. Classes, training course, sparring gym. Offices there, dorms on the other side. For the staff that lives on campus, they're housed there." He pointed to what looked like it could have been a set of apartments.

"What about security?" Samar asked.

"Housed on campus," Tom confirmed. "Most are former students that couldn't pass the undercover portion of the training. They tend to be, uh…" Ressler watched him tilt his head, his expression closing off "Little rougher?"

"They don't polish up to hide their darker tendencies in the field, huh?" Solomon chuckled from his place. "Those tend to be the mean ones."

Tom shrugged a little. "Yeah."

"There's no overpowering the compound is there?" Ressler asked, his gaze shifting over as a guard led Gina Zanetakos into the War Room, still cuffed.

"Not if you want to survive it," she answered.

"You're here to give us a way into that," Liz said testily, her expression hard.

Gina shrugged. "Jacob and I can tell you every entrance, every protocol, but I guarantee they changed them the moment I was gone."

Nez Rowan quirked a skeptical eyebrow. "Exactly what are you bringing to the table then?"

Gina shot her an amused look.

"And that brings us around to trusting me," Tom followed up and Ressler frowned. "We have three contenders for heading up St Regis."

"Michel Geffroy, who heads up the deep-cover training, Anton Tallert, martial arts, and Victor Franks."

"What does he cover?" Aram asked, his voice hesitant like he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Advanced interrogation," Tom answered. "They'll be united until they take Gina out."

"You too now. Sorry."

He shot her a look and she smirked.

"Let's get back to the trusting you part," Ressler prompted.

"Right," Tom huffed, turning to look at him briefly. "We're not getting into the compound while they're united. We can't wait to take them out."

"So we lure them out," Liz said, giving Ressler his first definitive clue that her husband had pitched this idea to her first. He wasn't sure if that was god or bad yet.

"How?" the ginger agent prompted.

"Masterson."

"Who?"

"Sorry," Tom chuckled. "The guy you have in holding. He came into St Regis right before me."

"He hates you," Gina said, her tone more amused than it should have been.

"He thinks he can predict me. That's his problem. We can use that."

"Still not sure where the trust is coming in."

Tom stopped, meeting Ressler's gaze and holding it. "I need you to let him go."

"He won't buy that," Gina argued.

"He will if he thinks he's escaping. We just had a chat in his holding cell and I offered to transfer him to Halcyon, away from the feds, if he was willing to spill on what he knows. He said he'd take the deal, but it's just to get out. We need to orchestrate the transfer, but let him think he's breaking out. Won't be too hard. You know what he thinks of the feds."

"He's not wrong."

Tom shrugged noncommittally.

Ressler snorted. "So you want me to let him go to do…. what exactly?"

"Bring them outside of their stronghold," Tom answered and a quick glance at Liz showed that even if they'd discussed it, she wasn't thrilled with this part.

"The moment it's confirmed that I'm helping Gina it ups the ante," Tom continued. "It'll pull them out and that's our best chance of getting to them."

"By using you as bait?" Aram asked uncomfortably. He looked to Liz. "You can't be okay with this."

Liz loosed a breath. "No, but they're coming if we want them to or not. We always knew it could happen," she added a little sadly, glancing at Tom.

He offered a thin smile and reached out. She took his hand as he spoke. "This way we control the situation instead of waiting for it to come down around us."

A long silence followed, no one daring to breathe in it, much less speak. Ressler didn't like it, but he could see the warped logic behind the play. It was a gamble, but a calculated one, even if it did require a fair amount of trust from the FBI's side of things.

The heavy silence was broken as an alarm screamed from Dumont's phone. He leaned over, checking it, before turning back to Tom. "Looks like the Hargraves are back. Got a couple of someones in holding too."

Tom's expression darkened. "In DC?"

"Outside town, yeah. You want me to radio the 'copter?"

"Yeah. I'll meet Mike on the helipad." He looked back around like he'd forgotten he wasn't alone.

His swiveling gaze paused on Liz and she offered a tight smile. "Don't kill your parents," she murmured as she leaned up a kissed him briefly. "Ressler and I have it here. Don't we, Ress?"

He snorted. "Not much of a choice," he grumbled. "We'll put something together and if you're not back, I'll contact you."

Tom nodded and extended a hand. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Trusting me."

Ressler took his hand, a thin chuckle escaping as he shook it. "Don't make me regret it, Keen."

There was an air of calm that surrounded Tom as the elevator plummeted down to the bunker below the hills outside of DC. He knew where they'd been and, at least in a general sense, why they'd been there. They just wouldn't drop it. No matter how many times he asked them, how many ways he tried to get them on board with what mattered right then, Scottie and Howard remained stuck in the past.

The doors opened, emptying him out into the base. Scottie was standing just in front of the large, glass doors that led into the conference area. She looked over, cutting her conversation with the guard she had been speaking to short with a smile. "Thank you," she said by way of dismissal and turned her attention on her approaching son.

He didn't match her smile. "Where's Howard?"

"In the interrogation room with Frank and Eva Phelps."

Tom blinked hard, the substance of what she said overwhelming the fact that she'd chosen to be honest about it. "Frank and Eva Phelps," he related. "Dammit, Scottie…."

A frown tugged at her lips. "Listen-"

"No, you listen. I get that this means something to you guys. I get that, but it's done. It's over. Davis is going to rot in prison till the end of his life on espionage charges if you connect him to my kidnapping or not, and even if you do it won't change what happened. There's no point."

"Tom -"

"No," he snapped, cutting her off and he could feel his control slipping. He was exhausted and, even if he wouldn't admit it, a little terrified of what they were facing. "It's done. I'm here, and I need you here, Mom. I need to be able to trust that you're here. There isn't anything bigger than that. There isn't anything that could possibly be -"

"We know why you don't remember."

Tom stopped, blinking hard, and he swallowed the rest of his outburst down as best as he could. "I was four, Scottie," he said roughly.

"And you've told both Howard and me that you can't recall anything prior to, what? Five? Somewhere around there? Long after the adoption went through. Long after they told you your name was Jacob."

"It doesn't matter," Tom croaked out, and he couldn't help the fear that gnawed at him, no matter how hard he pushed at it.

Scottie reached forward, her hand against his face. "They altered your memories. There was something that you saw or something that you heard or…. We don't know, but they didn't just take you from us, they took us from you. You've told me that you thought we abandoned you, that you lived your life believing that. They did that to you. They made you think that. Everything… Tom, that's why it's important."

Tom tried to pull in a steadying breath and found that he just… couldn't. It felt like his throat was closing and his lungs rebelling. He pulled away from her grip. "I need some air," he managed and turned before she could stop him. It was too much, and for the first time in years, Tom found himself running.

TBC

Notes: Thank you so much for your patience on this chapter! I hope it was worth the wait. It's kind of a birthday gift to myself today to get to post this. I've been so busy and fighting so hard with this story that I was really pleased when ch10 flowed a bit better than the others have been.

For anyone that's been reading my Blacklist stories a while, did you recognize a character that's popped up here and there? ;)

If you feel so inclined, I'd love a review on what you're thinking about the story so far :D

Next Time: Liz and Gina have a chat, Tom does his best to process the new information that his parents have brought home, and St Regis makes their own plans.