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The way to Bethesda went down smoothly which she was glad about after the trouble she had had in the last hours. Red was snoring quietly in the backseat; a sound she found to be comforting. She had dialed Samar soon after she was out of the city and asked for help since the Iranian agent worked for Red.
She had picked her up at a gas station close to his apartment. It was too dangerous to tell her the address via phone since she suspected that every phone call was bugged by the government. Samar slid into the vehicle and quickly glanced to Red before shifting her gaze to Liz. "Is he okay? He doesn't look hurt."
"I don't know. They performed a new therapy on him and Dembe; apparently they altered their memories."
"Why would they do that?", Samar asked irritated.
"It'd do the Cabal a favor if they have Reddington and Dembe working for them."
"Do you believe that?"
"No. There's more but I don't know what they have planned. We must find Dembe before something happens and I thought your connections to Mossad could be helpful for that."
"We can try but I can't promise anything. I've worked years for Mossad and I've never heard of a organization that is called Cabal." Samar turned as Red released a groan behind them, only to find him still asleep. Liz sighted and parked the car a few feet away from the entrance. The street was illuminated but thankfully empty which gave her the slight feeling of relief. "I probably need to warn Ressler and Aram. If the Director altered their memories every person who has further Intel about their life is possibly in danger." , she suggested with a frown.
"Reddington is a fugitive for over two decades. The position he's supposed to work in can't be official since the world knows who he is. I don't get what they want to achieve." Agent Navabi looked around the parking lot before rotating her head back to Liz. "Let Ressler and Aram be my problem. I'll reach out to them as soon as we know more about Reddington's condition."
Liz nodded in agreement and exited the vehicle, opening the backdoor and watching Red's form. He looked almost boyish, young and innocent in his state and not like his usual confident self. It felt like she was thrown into a parallel universe.
It all felt wrong.
"Hey, could you give me a hand? We have to drag him to the second floor.", she said and pulled his body so that he was sitting upright.
When they had finally carried him upstairs. Red had given her a key to his apartment when they used it for a safe house in the first month they were on the run. They laid him onto his bed, panting from the way up the stairs but they were safe for now. Taking the seat next to his bed, she released a breath and pulled out another burner phone. A groan that sounded nearly anxious ripped from his throat and caused her to look up. Red's brow was cringed in despair and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Now that was how she imagined him in his sleep; afraid and fighting his demons he refused to talk about but she knew that he was not always collected. He was still under and she felt how the adrenaline left her body, and her eyes grew more heavy by every passing second.
Samar went to the kitchen after she found Reddington and Liz in his bedroom and contacted Levi, hoping that he could be helpful in tracking down Dembe. He was a friend and trustworthy, moreover immune to become a traitor unlike other people she had encountered in her through her phone, she came across Red's cavalry. She was under his payroll after all and Aram as well as Ressler and Cooper needed backup. Even if she didn't work for the Task Force, she wanted them to be safe. Betraying Ressler by helping Liz wasn't something she was ashamed of. Reddington is her boss, she was loyal and moreover she knew how much this man meant to Liz in whatever relationship they had been. It wasn't intimate but, to her, it seemed to be more than just that. It was build on trust and loyalty.
Taking out her phone she called Aram when Liz suddenly entered the kitchen, her eyes widened in horror. "We have to leave! Somebody has been here before.", she said as she stood on the other end of the counter.
"Liz, wait, wait, wait!", Samar interrupted and raised her hands defensively.
Liz pointed to the walls in the living room and mantelpiece. "There; there have been several pictures of my graduation and one of me and my mother. It's all gone!", she explained horrified.
"Where do you want to go? If someone came here, they must know about Reddington's other hideouts, too!"
"How far away is your place?"
"About 30 minutes; top. Is he still under?"
Liz nodded, already on her way to get Red. "Yes, though it seems he's slowly waking up."
Samar followed closely behind and stopped after Liz opened the door to the bedroom. Red was very much awake and stood by the bed, a gun pointed at the two women who raised their hands in surrender instinctively, though they weren't sure whether he would really fire at them. Liz was shaken as she observed Red's gaze. First, she believed he had mistaken them with a thread that, of course, Samar and her weren't, and when he didn't change his posture she realized that he felt threatened by her but his eyes held another emotion as well, something she had not seen in them before. Confusion and fear. "Red, please put down your gun!"
He clenched his jaw, his gaze hardening further. "Where am I?"
The two women exchanged a quick glance before Liz opened her mouth to reply. "This is your apartment. You've been abducted and the Cabal performed and memory alteration on you and Dembe. Do you remember any of that?", she asked carefully.
"Neither do I know a man with the name Dembe, nor do I remember ever meeting you and the other lady you're with. Who are you?"
It felt like her life was falling into pieces which was ridiculous given that she was framed for a crime she didn't commit and she didn't had the feeling back then. She took one step backwards and collided with Samars shoulder. "My name is Elizabeth Keen and this is Samar Navabi. She's working for you."
"I work for the director of the PFPA. If there was a woman with this name I would know and I do not know either of you. That brings me back to my original question. Why did you bring me here?", he asked in a dangerously low voice.
"That is a lie.", she said cautiously and lowered her hands. The tone he used made her skin crawl but she couldn't let him go which was difficult now that he didn't trust her. She had to prove him wrong somehow and the only person who could was Aram since he had access to his file. "Red, you are a wanted fugitive and used to work in naval intelligence until 1990 where you left your family on Christmas. I am the daughter of two foreign agents; my mother was a KGB agent known as Katarina Rostova, the name of my biological father I don't know. You've had my memories blocked so that I wouldn't remember shooting my dad when I was 4. We both survived a fire the night I killed him in 1989." She lifted her right hand and showed him the scar on her wrist.
His eyes narrowed to tiny slits while he watched the marred skin and while he understood what she was telling him, his brain failed to remember this particular event. He should though, but he couldn't. "Interesting story but you made one fatal mistake. I don't have a family; never had.", he clarified. "And if I had, the last thing I would consider is abandoning them to become a fugitive."
"You sold classified documents to foreign countries, Reddington. You are a traitor and an enemy to the people you think you're working for.", Samar stepped in gently. "You hired me to keep an eye on the task force and Liz."
"You surrendered to the FBI in September 2013, the day I started on my job as a profiler. You would only talk to me. I swear Red, we know each other, you know me.", Liz said, getting more desperate to the end.
"Enough!", he nearly yelled and fired a shot to the wall next to where Liz and Samar stood who flinched at the sound of both his voice and gun. Whoever this was, it was not the Reddington they were used to. "Get the hell out of my way, or the next one goes straight to your leg!"
He would. He absolutely would shoot so Liz stepped aside so that he could leave. It had been her who shoved a pen into his carotid after he made the 'presumptuous' assumption that her husband wasn't who he pretended to be.
She didn't believe him so why should he?
Her back hit the wall after he closed the door with a loud bang. To gather her further move, she took a moment to release a trembling breath, her hands balling into fists whereas her right one stroked over the broken skin on her wrist, something she had not done for a long time. Red's own words echoed in her head, over and over again:
"I can only lead you to the truth but I can't make you believe it."
They were, mentally, miles away from one another and yet she understood him better than ever before. How could she convince him? In the end she discovered the truth all for herself by Tom's mistake in leaving that damn Mr Flippo in his trashcan.
"Liz?" The Mossad agent kneeled down next to her, giving her a cell. "I guess he wants to talk to you."
Holding the device between her parted knees, she answered, "Ressler?"
"Keen are you alright?"
He sounded out of breath and absolutely terrified. "Yeah.", she answered weakly. "I'm okay. Why are you asking me this?"
"Someone breached the Post Office while I was in Maryland. They stole every file we've had on you and Reddington, as well as every Blacklister."
So The Cabal was cleaning up. She jumped back up to her feet and reached for her jacket. "That doesn't surprise me. Was anyone harmed?"
"Yeah it is -", his voice broke, causing her to stop and furrow her brows. Samar watched her skeptical from the entrance. "17 dead and 8 hurt."
"How's Aram?"
"He's been shot and in surgery. We don't know if he's gonna make it through this night."
She worried her lip, trying to ignore the shudder that drove through her. This was planned. The Cabal knew that she would try to save Red and would ask the Task Force to locate Red. They wanted as many people away from the PO as possible and she helped them with that. "Where are you, Ressler?"
"At the hospital, waiting for news."
Both women were on their way back to the car. Liz debriefed Samar while Ressler talked to a doctor. They agreed that all of this was orchestrated by the Director and also that every person who had contact to Red and her was in grave danger. This included Ressler so they had to keep him safe somehow. Samar sat behind the wheel, driving without having a goal in mind. Her place wasn't safe, no place was safe. Liz scribbled an address on a post it note. This was outside DC somewhere in the woods.
"Keen? Where are you?", Ressler asked.
"Samar and I are on our way to you. You've to come with us."
"What? No -"
"No, you'll come with us. Listen, all of this was meticulously planned and they erased or altered my file and Reddington's to their favor. You know who Reddington is but he does not so you're a thread and someone the Director wants dead. Do you understand?", she asked sharply.
He was silent on the other end, sighting and shuffling around, at least this is what it sounded like. "Ressler?"
"To be honest I have not the slightest clue what is happening since Reddington surrendered but I know that something is wrong here so yeah I understand what you're saying, Keen. I make sure Aram will be safe until you get here."
"We'll be there in 10." With that she hung up and risked a short glance in the rear view mirror. No one followed them this time, and she thought of Red and if he was alright and whether he felt, at least, a little doubtful or not. Her head rested against the window and another phrase of him recalled itself in her mind.
"Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, if you are in need I will be there."
And she needed him, because she couldn't do this alone. She will fail without him.
Tbc... So yeah, sorry for that and it will get worse before it gets better. Thanks for your reviews on the previous chapter. Glad you people liked it.
Feel free to leave a review! :)