A/N: The mystery continues and the search for Red is on.
Disclaimed, as always.
Chapter 14
Dembe thought that Red's mention of Hong Kong was just a quirk. How very like Red it was to impart the importance of quality java in a dying declaration.
He hoped though. He couldn't hide his hope from her.
She was now the one that refused to believe that Red was gone. They argued the entire way to the airport. Dembe thought she was going insane.
She bet Dembe half a million dollars and a life time of servitude that Red was alright. If it turned out that she wasn't, then Dembe gained a Girl Friday for the rest of his life.
They touched down in Hong Kong in the middle of the night. Dembe found the website for the café and the hours stated that they wouldn't be open for another 5 hours.
"Dembe, go ahead and get some shut-eye. I'll take first watch."
Dembe wanted to bring an army. Liz was barely successful in her argument that the Chinese would crawl all over them lie fire ants if they were caught. In fact, Dembe had to bribe an official at the small airport to even get in the country.
"I'm not going to sleep. I do not think that I even could if I tried, Elizabeth. You should try instead."
She just snorted what she thought of that. She was entirely too keyed up to even think about sleep.
They rented a hotel room a block away from the café, but it was the tiniest room she'd ever been in.
She was astonished to learn that it was roomier than most. And by roomy, there was a small space to walk next to the bed.
What the hell was Red doing in Hong Kong? This was definitely not his scene.
"Well, we could talk. What are you going to tell Red when you see him?"
He shook his head "If he is there, I am going to punch him, hug him, and then ask for a raise. Not necessarily in that order though. What about you? What are you going to say…if he is there?"
She stood and walked the two paces to the window, stared at the city lights all around them "I've thought about little else and I am still drawing a big fat blank. On one hand, I am ecstatic that he's possibly alive, but on the other I am filled with… a rage that he left me. He knew he could be hurt, killed, and he said nothing. Mostly I'm hurt though. I thought that we were partners. He made a life changing decision without me and I thought he respected me more than that."
Dembe, aware of how emotionally fragile Liz still was, stayed silent. He could add nothing that would make her feel better. He was feeling the same thing, but felt betrayed, even. There was no reason he had to be left behind when the danger was so low for Elizabeth.
"Oh, shit! Dembe, wake up! We overslept!" Dembe fell out of bed with two guns drawn and aimed at Liz "Whoa there, down boy. We have to go!"
Liz was stumbling and scrambling around, pulling her coat on and her hair up, not even concerned with brushing her teeth.
Dembe fumbled with his shoes, only pausing to tie the laces when Liz raised an eyebrow and said "Really? I think we can take the time for shoelaces."
They were armed to the teeth and out the door within minutes.
They walked down the crowded walkways to the café and entered slowly. It was very busy. Full of yuppie business men and women getting their fix before their morning commute.
Liz looked around, but could see no sign of Red.
She caught Dembe's eye and signaled to him that she was going to look in the back of the café.
She couldn't hide her tears, her disappointment when after looking through every room of the establishment, there was no Red.
She did meet the owner when she barged into her office and was almost certain that she wasn't yelling at her telling her what an awesome customer she was.
When she finally made her way back to Dembe and he shook his head, just as disheartened as she was.
A shout came from near the register and they snapped their attention to a young man running towards them. He pushed Liz and caused her to fall back and smack her head on the concrete floor. Dembe immediately helped her up "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm lucky I'm not wearing a wallet, though. That was a total brush pass. Little punk was going to rob me blind." She patted herself down for injuries, just to make sure. She felt fine, but when she ran her hand down the front of her jacket, she felt something in the pocket.
She pulled out a plain white piece of paper. On it was an address "Dembe! We have good news and bad news. The good news is we have an address. The bad news is that it's not even in this country. We're going to need the jet again."
Dembe was ecstatic. Convoluted cloak and dagger scavenger hunt had Raymond Reddington written all over it.
"Well, where are we going?"
She sighed, frustrated that they were being sent on this crazy journey. She would stick with it though. She would do anything to see Red again. "India"
Tbc…
A/N: Ok, so I know that it seems like it's taking forever, but this journey only has a couple more chapters.
Let me know what you think!