Thank you everyone for the amazing reviews/favorites/follows and all of the love, if I could reply to your review- I did. If I couldn't- please know I appreciate your comments just as much! The Blacklist came back with a vengeance or at least Red did. Obviously this story is not canon but do I get credit for Tom interviewing for a job in Nebraska?
Ok enough about that on with the show!
"Director Cooper!" Aram shouted lifting his laptop off the stand and rushing towards the AD's office. Pushing past Donald and Meera he moved to Coopers desk setting his laptop down.
"What the hell are you doing Aram? We are in the middle of a meeting!" Cooper's irritation at the interruption and intrusion to his office and personal space was blatantly obvious.
Aram paused only long enough to glance at the other two agents before opening the laptop. "Sir, we just received a coded transmission titled 'Agent Keen' I assumed it was a contact from Mr. Reddington to Agent Keen but she isn't here and I thought you'd want to see it first."
Cooper nodded, "Do you have recording capabilities so we can analyze the transmission for location details depending on what the message contains?"
Nodding, he pulled up two programs on his laptop pointing to them one at a time, "I have two programs currently running in the background - one is a tracer program to lock down the location of the transmission and the other is recording with output to a secured server."
Gesturing for the other two field agents to gather around he nodded for Aram to click on the link provided. Short moments later, the screen came to life showing a large empty room and a hook hanging in the center of the room.
"What the hell is this? Why can't we see or hear anything?" Ressler was the first to verbalize what the small group was thinking.
Leaning in close, Aram checked some settings on his computer, "We are connected and my sound is turned all the way up. It appears to be a live feed, I am assuming the sound is muted on the other end. Perhaps a safe house he is in?"
Meera chimed in, "Then what the hell is that for?" She pointed to the large hook hanging in the middle of the room.
Aram shrugged, "Maybe it's symbolic? Proof it's really him from our last confirmed location of him... You know after Garrick?"
"I don't think so," Donald replied pointing to the upper right corner of the screen where two men entered dragging-what appeared to be- an unconscious person.
Between the two men they strung the unconscious woman up on the large hook and moved off screen again. The room fell silent as they watched the body sway slightly and the identity of the person was easily observed. Only Aram sucked in a breath and whispered, "That's Agent Keen..."
Time stretched on without another word being spoken as everyone attempted to come to grips with the reality of the situation.
"Can you trace the feed?" Harold asked quietly, his eyes never leaving the screen.
Aram moved slowly to sit at Cooper's desk, moving the screen to the side he brought up his tracer program. "Wait.. This isn't right?"
"What is the problem, you can't get a pinpointed location?" Harold asked.
"Quite the opposite actually it's pinging, every couple seconds it just jumps to another random coordinate?" Aram was typing quickly, concentrating on the current signal before it jumped again. "Damn it!"
Meera leaned in closer, "Based on the previous coordinates, can you triangulate it's next jump to get ahead of it?"
Before Aram even began to write the code, the location jumped again."I'm going to need a few different algorithms and access to a few more systems to get ahead of this." He replied confidently. "It won't be easy or quick."
"Someone just moved into view by Keen." Ressler directed their attention to the feed, causing Aram to quickly maximize it back to full view.
"Ah she's finally coming around. Come on love! Rise and Shine sweetheart! It's show time!"
A man moved beside Agent Keen and took slow appreciative glances up and down her body.
"Alright then let's get down to business- you have something I want and as you can see we have Agent Keen. Something I've been told you really want Raymond... A little worse for wear but still alive- for how long is entirely up to you."
"The feed that you are watching is live but please don't insult me by trying to trace it. The signal is cycled every 11.5 seconds- even your best cannot narrow down the signal before is resets."
Suddenly another body appeared on screen, a mountain of a man moved closer to Liz and set down a car battery. He laid something beside it on the floor as he put on a pair of thick gloves.
"What the hell is he going to do with that?" Aram asked leaning closer to the screen.
Meera didn't hesitate to respond, she'd seen this tactic used many times. "See the water..." She pointed to the now wet Liz, "what happens when water and electricity mix?"
Aram paled considerably glancing at the two men who had impassive expressions on their face.
"But let me give you some incentive to try."
With the flick of his hand they watched the man before her pick up the two sponge covered jumper contacts and press them to Liz's midsection.
The room went silent save for Liz's screams.
The man raised his hand once again to signal the other man to stop. "Each day brings new rounds of very archaic torture methods that I'm not sure Agent Keen will be able to survive. I will be expecting Raymond's call regarding exchange terms. Tick Tock Red."
The man turned away from the camera and smiled at Keen, "You are a pretty little thing aren't you, I can understand his interest in you."
"You're...wasting yo...your time." She took a few more deep breaths before continuing, "Reddington has be...been in... the wind for...8 months."
"You think we don't know that?" He asked her incredulously, "That's why you're here! Live Bait." With that he turned and nodded to the other man, "Just don't kill her."
Hitting the mute button on the laptop, Harold was the first to speak amongst the group. "I want this feed on the primary displays in the war room. Aram, use whatever resources you need to lock that signal down ASAP! Malik, reach out to the CIA for help on facial recognition and as much background as possible, we need to know who we are dealing with! Ressler, contact and interview Agent Keen's husband about her last known whereabouts. I want a timeline from the minute she walked out this door until this arrived."
The group quickly dispersed heading to their designated tasks, leaving Harold in his office alone. Looking out his office window he saw Aram confiscating the screens in the war room, Ressler was heading for the exit and Meera was already on the phone. Slowly picking up his office phone, he hit the speed dial to Diane's office. After two rings she picked up and he offered only a few words before hanging up, "It's a go."
In the war room
Meera hung up the phone with her CIA contact as she approached Aram, handing him a flash drive she started to list off what she needed. "I'm going to need photos from all angles of the perp, a copy of the audio track and full video thus far and the coordinates of the previous jump locations."
Aram plugged the flash drive into his laptop and started writing her list down as Meera picked up her phone again. Hitting the speed dial button, she waited for someone to answer as she added, "I'd also like a copy of the link itself to see if we can analyze the origin based on the links creation.."
He was about to say something when someone on the other line picked up and she held her finger up to pause him for a moment, "Yes, may I speak with Mr. Kaplan please? Ok, thank you."
As soon as Agent Malik hit the end button, Aram nodded. "I can get you everything in 20 minutes."
"Thank you, I'll be in my office." She replied leaving him to his work.
Lucian's hideout
Liz could hear something in the hazy fog filling her subconscious. A type of sing song pulling her from the darkness back towards the harsh white light blinding her through the lids of her closed eyes. A decidedly male voice, she did not recognize, was calling her name.
"Agent Keen... " The voice repeated twice. When she didn't seem to respond the voice switched tactics, "Elizabeth...Lizzie!"
The fluttering of her eye lids betrayed her rousing from unconsciousness.
Watching her head roll from side to side the man moved to lean over her prone body, now strapped to a metal table. He physically opened her eyes one at a time with his rough fingers. "I was beginning to think you'd never wake...thought we were a bit too rough and lost our leverage."
Liz was still groggy and having a hard time following exactly what was going on around her. Fighting through the searing pain in her midsection and shoulder area, Liz forced herself to open her eyes and glance around at her surroundings.
Out of no where another man joined him diverting his attention from her to engage in a hushed conversation. She was only able to make out a few words such as -husband- Dembe- FBI and logged in. At the last words the man seemed to smile and clapped the man on the back, thanking him before sending him away.
Moving back to the table he leaned over her, "Let's not play games huh, let us get straight down to the brass tax of it all. You are Agent Elizabeth Keen FBI profiler and I am Lucian. This may mean next to nothing to you as of right now but if Red were here I'm sure he would tell you I am close to #1 on his so called Blacklist he has you chasing."
At the mention of Red, Liz glared at the man lunging up at him only to quickly realize she was strapped to the table. Lying back due to her soreness and inability to move, she held eye contact with the man.
"Good! You look at me. You realize it's important to know the enemy." Lucian moved to sit on the table beside her. Crossing his arms over his chest he tapped his lip as they started each other down. "You're well trained. Even now, even here, you're trying to find an edge against me. What do you see?" He asked standing up quickly and spreading his arms wide. "Tell me. What will soften my heart? Tears? Courage?"
Liz tried to keep her breathing even, attempting not to betray the immense amount of fear coursing through her. "You do realize that either the FBI or Reddington himself will be searching for and will find me." Pausing to let him process exactly what she was saying she continued, "I hope, for your sake, that it is the FBI that gets here first. The last person who tried to harm me ended up fitting in a milk jug by the time Red was done with him."
Lucian started laughing as he reached into his pocket and removed what appeared to be a cellphone. "They didn't mention a sense of humor in your file, if you live through this they need to update that. You see I have your file...Right here in my hand is everything that the FBI knows about you. See here- Says you are strong-willed. They consider that both your greatest strength and your personal flaw. Doesn't always follow orders, thinks for herself."
Liz choose to stay silent and let him talk. The more he talked the better profile she could create and hopefully the less he tortured her.
Moving to sit beside her again Lucian leaned close to her causing Liz to lean away from him glancing around the room for any sign of life or escape. Keeping his voice hushed he spoke, "I highly doubt anyone will find you. We have removed all tracers from your body- including the wedding ring that your husband so nicely set up for us. So even if they figure out how we took you, there is nothing to track."
Liz's entire body froze as the mention of her husband, she couldn't believe that Tom would have anything to do with this let alone placing a tracker in her wedding ring! Though if she were to think of it logically it made perfect sense now. Why Red was so sure that he was hiding something, the link to Gina. It was like she had been punched in the chest when she realized that Red had been right about Tom.
"I'm guessing right now you're just kicking yourself for not believing Reddington and digging deeper into who your husband really is was- gun for hire. Just like me!" He smiled devilishly at her, running his finger up and down her arm.
Fighting back tears of anger and betrayal she struggled aggressively against her restraints trying to get away from his touch. "What do you want?!" She screamed at him, letting her emotions get the best of her.
"What do I want? It's not what I want, it is what I'm being paid to retrieve from Reddington."Lucian replied as Liz continued in vain to struggle. Tiring of her fruitless antics, he grabbed a handful of hair and bounced her head off the table twice to stout her actions.
Liz immediately felt nauseated and stopped struggling but she refused to look at him anymore.
Lucian grabbed her chin and forced her gaze back to him, "Look at me!" He screamed until he got her attention, "Good, now I am aware that he has gone off the grid so far that even Dembe has been unable to reach him but I am sure given the current circumstances that he shall come running back as soon as information of your husband's murder is reported by every news station."
The sting of fresh tears prickled at her eyes but Liz refused to let them fall. "Never mind Red or the FBI..." She bit out then paused for the effect of it before her next statement, "I'm gonna kill you myself."
"I'd like to see you try-" Lucian replied mere meters from her face. Standing tall, he whistled into the large open room and waited while two men began lumbering in carrying some type of basin between them. "But until that time comes, what do you know about water boarding?"
AN:From this point on please knoe that whatever occurs to Liz is now being viewed by the FBI since they have the link.
Hope you have enjoyed the newest installment. I promise I'm not purposefully keeping Red from you but we needed to lay the ground work to draw him in. As always leave love or hate just let me know people are reading this.
Thank you again!
Lady