The following morning, Red arrived at the Post Office feeling sprightly and full of energy. As the elevator doors opened to give him a view of the bull pen, he stepped out and walked towards the main banks of desks. A new photograph on the wall caught his eye and he stopped to peruse it, quickly establishing that it was a recent picture of Malcolm Simmons, whose name he had recently passed onto the team as a target on his list. He had been making waves in the last few months and Red had surmised that he was attempting to muscle in on some of his business in the buying and selling of stolen art. The difference between him and Red being that Simmons also traded in people. He was a truly foul individual, utterly deviant in his ways and ruthless. Cooper and the team were happy to learn of his existence and had been working hard the last week or so trying to find out where he was currently.
Red turned his head to the side and glanced over towards where he could see Lizzy sitting, looking over something on the computer with Aram. As he watched, she reached up and gathered her hair, fixing it into a ponytail. As she did this, her slender neck was revealed and Red stared at it, transfixed. His heart stopped with the beauty of it and with the sudden hunger he felt within himself. Without realising what he was doing he started walking towards her, his eyes never moving from her neck. As he drew closer, he could actually see her pulse beating there and just as he was about to reach out to touch that magical spot, thankfully his reverie was broken by Ressler calling out to him.
'Hey, Reddington. You come to help us with this Blacklister of yours at last?'
Red's head whipped around to face the younger man, a near snarl on his face. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, his hand quickly moving back to his side, away from Lizzy. Thankfully Ressler hadn't waited for an answer from Red and had turned back to Cooper, continuing the conversation they'd been having.
'Hey Red, you just get here?'
He turned back towards Lizzy and saw her looking up at him inquisitively, a small smile on her face.
'Yes, Elizabeth, just now'
She patted a chair next to her and indicated he should sit down, 'You should see what Aram has found concerning this Simmons creep. We think we know where he is'.
Red, his composure now restored and his mask back in place, beamed at Aram and sat down next to Lizzy, automatically moving his chair a little closer so he could see the screen. At least that's what he hoped it would seem like.
Over the next half an hour or so Lizzy and Aram excitedly told Red all about how they'd tracked Simmons into the country and how they'd worked out where he was almost certainly planning to be making some deals. Once this briefing was finished, the whole team gathered to thrash out some ideas as to exactly how to catch their target, preferably with enough evidence to put him away forever. The only issue remained that Simmons appeared to have four different deals going down that afternoon, all at the same time. This puzzled the team but Red seemed nonplussed.
'It's a good way to help ensure he isn't captured or taken out by rivals. He's done it before. Nobody knows which of the meetings he'll frequent so it helps his chances of not being found. Plus if he's only in the country one day, this way he can get a lot of business done and be gone like that', Red finished, clicking his fingers.
'So what you're saying is that we have no way of knowing which of these deals he's likely to attend?'
'I'm afraid not, Harold'
'How many men does he normally have with him?'
'Not many. Often just himself and a couple of goons to lug the items from truck to truck. He likes to be in and out quickly and unobtrusively'.
'Okay, here's the plan then. We'll go in 4 teams with armed backup. Ressler, Navabi, Keen and myself will lead the teams. Reddington, I'm assuming you'll want to ride along with Keen?'
Red merely smiled back at Cooper, no vocal answer necessary. Lizzy glanced at him, feeling much more confident he'd be there to have her back. If anyone could sniff out trouble before others could, it was Red.
'Okay, I'll organise for some men to travel with us. We leave in an hour'.
With that, Cooper and the other agents started to busy themselves readying for their missions. Lizzy headed into her office and Red followed, close on her heels. She hadn't heard him come in after her so when she turned back from her desk to head towards her locker, she gasped when she found herself just a foot away from him.
Red smirked knowingly at her before seating himself in Ressler's chair. In an attempt to reassert her authority, Lizzy perched on the edge of the desk, looking down at Red. However, he just smiled back up at her beatifically. She sighed inwardly. She should've known better than to think the simple psychological ploy of 'taking the higher ground' was going to faze Red in any way whatsoever.
'It's not like you to dirty your hands along with the team, Red. I thought you liked to do most of your work in the shadows?'
Red laughed one of his signature single bark laughs, finding her scepticism amusing. That and the fact she'd come closer than she'd ever know with that statement when it came to the truth of his double life.
'Ordinarily, yes, my dear. But I have nothing in the diary for today'.
Liz frowned at him, his glib nature not fooling her at all.
'And, yes…. This one is personal. I have always suspected he had some part in the selling of Dembe when he was a child. I want him gone. And I want to be there when he goes down. One way or another…'
'We're not going to be trying to kill him, Red', Liz replied, not unkindly. She was fond of Dembe and could only imagine how much Red wanted the man dead who had murdered his friend's family and ripped him from his prior life.
'Of course not, sweetheart. But one can never predict the outcome of any mission, wouldn't you agree?'
She didn't reply, merely sliding off the desk and heading for her equipment locker. She quickly found all the things she'd need for their outing and started packing them into her go-bag. Having done that, she sat back down at her desk and started reading through some more notes on Simmons and what they knew of his previous dealings. Glancing up at Red, she caught him staring at her, a far-away expression on his face.
'Rather than trying to read my mind, do you think you could maybe go get me a coffee? Seeing as I'm busy and you're just, you know, sitting there….'
Red stood at once and mock bowed to Lizzy, turning sharply on his heel and out the door, 'Anything for you, Elizabeth. Especially as you asked so sweetly'.
Lizzy couldn't help but smile. Red was in a much better mood today than he had been the day before. She'd almost felt afraid of him, his eyes blazing with anger and irritation no matter what anyone had said to him or done for him. For a man, he really seemed to suffer from mood swings, she smirked to herself.
The first of the two black SUVs they were travelling in pulled to a halt around the side of the scrapyard in which they suspected Simmons or his goons would be meeting. The cars were nicely camouflaged from sight by the piles of other, wrecked motors scattered about the place. Red, Dembe and Liz disembarked and went into the warehouse, followed by six men in SWAT gear. Finding a perch from which they could see where the deal was going to go down, Lizzy looked out through a gap in the wooden slats.
'Okay, you four', she said, pointing to the four SWAT members nearest her, 'You head on over to that shack on the far side. You two stay here with me and my assets'.
The SWAT members were all too aware just who they were there with today. They were part of a few elite members of the FBI's SWAT teams who knew of Reddington's deal with the FBI and were sworn to secrecy. His being there didn't occupy their minds at all.
Once everyone was in position, all they had to do was wait. And it didn't take long. A small black truck pulled into the yard about half an hour later, stopping about 50ft away from them. Five minutes after that, a similarly sized blue truck pulled up and two men got out from each vehicle. Lizzy got on her radio and told the other team not to move until the items were on show and she gave the order.
A briefcase was handed from the black truck men to the blue truck men and it was opened and checked through. Then the blue truck men headed to the back of their vehicle and opened up the doors, jumping in and then coming back out again, struggling with the weight of a large wooden crate.
As soon as she saw this, Lizzy gave the order and she and her eight colleagues all ran out from their vantage points, shouting loudly for the men to drop what they were holding and put their hands up. They all complied immediately. However, just as Lizzy had holstered her weapon and started to reach for her handcuffs, suddenly all hell broke loose.
The back doors of the black truck burst open and men started streaming out, shooting at what seemed to be everyone there, other than their own companions. Some gunfire was returned but within a minute every single member of Lizzy's team was down injured or dead, except her and Red. The two men from the blue truck were also down.
She looked at Red, dumbfounded. What had just happened? However, Red was trying to turn Dembe over to see how he was, his efforts quickly thwarted by a blow to the temple from one of their assailants. Just as Lizzy was about to run toward Red, she too felt a hard knock on the back of her head and the world turned black.