The Blacklist

Chapter 184: Exchange of Interests is Everywhere
On Wednesday, June 6, two days after the secret society incident dominated the headlines, the top leaders finally came up with a solution.

First, Hawkins announced on behalf of the Senate Intelligence Committee that a special investigation committee would be established to investigate the activities of the secret society in the United States...

Then the White House announced: Former National Security Advisor Laurel Hitchen committed suicide in her apartment the day before due to excessive mental stress... The President decided to formally appoint former DOJ Deputy Secretary Raven Wright as the new National Security Advisor.

The DOJ then announced: At the suggestion of former Deputy Minister Wright and with the consent of the Attorney General, Harold Cooper, former Deputy Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, was appointed as Deputy Minister.

After Cooper took office, he was still in charge of SER and made it clear that the FBI headquarters no longer had jurisdiction over SER. He then signed an order: Donald was promoted to special agent, the word "acting" was removed, and he officially took office as the head of SER, with his rank clearly defined as deputy director. He promoted Elizabeth, Mira, Alam, and Nawabi to senior agents (level three).

There are also good things on Kerry's side. Although few people outside know about his role in this operation, with the care of the new National Security Advisor Wright, DOJ Deputy Secretary Cooper and new ally Senator Hawkins, he was promoted one level to become a special auditor (level 4 authority) and was clearly designated as a director.

After getting promoted, of course, she couldn't forget her subordinates. Carrie submitted a promotion report to the IRS, promoting her three key subordinates, Gina, Corissa, and Katie, to senior auditors (level three), and Abby, Jeffrey, Elise, and Tom to level two auditors. All the trainee auditors who had participated in the operation were converted to regular employees, and the level one auditors who were not promoted were given great credit. The bonuses of all SLR employees were doubled this month, and everyone was happy.

That night, Reddington brought Dembe to SLR to congratulate Carrie on his promotion, and brought a box of 12 bottles of 92 Mouton red wine and a refrigerated box of kilograms of Wagyu beef.

Dembe knew that Carrie liked his cooking skills, so he took the beef to the restaurant and fried the steak himself; the two chefs cooked Chinese and Western food respectively. Today was indeed worth celebrating and everyone benefited!
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In addition to congratulations, Reddington came here for other reasons, of course, and that is his current relationship with the secret society.

Alan Fitch is in a very difficult situation now. Although his competitor Hitchin within the organization has been eliminated, and he has become the actual leader of the secret society together with Jasper, another director who was killed before, he still has two opponents, Shaquille Hall, the director in charge of oil and the Middle East, and Moriguchi Makuyuki, the director in charge of Japan and Southeast Asia. Now the two are clamoring for revenge!
Fitch asked that the matter end here. He was responsible for suppressing the unrest within the secret society, and Reddington was responsible for persuading Carrie to stop.

What Reddington meant was: the secret society is now severely damaged and has become a target of public condemnation. They can certainly beat the fallen dog, but they also have to pay a corresponding price, just like this time, Elizabeth was almost successfully designed and became a murderer!

Carrey remained noncommittal; he was also thinking about the pros and cons.

Seeing his expression, Reddington knew that Fitch's offer was not enough, so he said, "Richard, Fitch is willing to hand over some sensitive information in exchange for you not pursuing the other members of the secret society..." Sensitive information? Carrie became a little interested and gestured, "Old Ray, tell me, can you impress me?"

What Reddington said was a bit scary: "Richard, Fitch said that the secret society is just one of the secret organizations in this world. There are at least five organizations of the same size and level as the secret society, and at least two organizations of a higher level..."
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The dinner party that night was very lively. The core members of SLR and SER had a great time and were noisy until late at night. They all rested for the night in the guest room on the ninth floor.

The next day, Reddington reached an agreement with Fitch with Carrie's conditions. The Secret Society would no longer exist, and the remaining forces would be transformed into purely economic organizations. They would no longer engage in illegal and criminal activities. If there were any violations, they would deserve to be hit by SLR and SER, and others would not be allowed to retaliate.

Both sides also understand that this "no longer exists" is just a statement, and the original secret society will continue to operate under a new guise. Once the previous incidents are revealed, if new evidence is caught, that will be another matter.

Fitch was prepared for this outcome. With his current political status, he would not be willing to intervene in criminal cases unless it threatened his own survival. It would be better to be an official! Therefore, he also decided that if anyone else in the organization wanted to take action against Carrie and Reddington and cause trouble, he would not mind helping them to eliminate these unstable factors.

As for Carrie, although he wanted to wipe out the secret society, he was shocked after receiving the information handed over by Fitch and changed his attitude - this world is far more complicated than he thought. The secret society is hateful, but there are so many equally or even more hateful organizations!

He agreed to let the secret society go temporarily, and the other condition was to get more intelligence to deal with other criminal organizations! In his mind, he understood that the secret society's current approach was in line with Reddington's strategy - this guy took the initiative to show up before, prompting the FBI to set up the SER special operations team, on the one hand to help Elizabeth take the position, on the other hand to fight against competitors, and the results were remarkable.
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From the last week of June to the whole of July, public opinion gradually began to shift to other focuses. This is an extremely normal thing in today's society. Nothing can always occupy the top spot in public opinion!

However, this period of time was enough. Without the knowledge of the general public, hundreds of people were purged from various government departments, and a large number of them held important positions! In general, these can be regarded as the achievements of the newly established Senate Special Investigation Team; in particular, they can be attributed to Senator Hawkins, Counsel Wright, Deputy Minister Cooper, and the two special departments of SER and SLR.

In fact, SLR and SER basically had no involvement in these things - they had made enough of a splash before, so it’s time to let other law enforcement agencies come forward and make contributions!
After the previous events, the relationship between the SLR, which is affiliated with the IRS, and the SER, which is basically independent of the FBI, and the CIA has been greatly improved. In particular, the Overseas Intelligence Office, which has gained actual benefits, has directly listed the two departments as friendly forces. Whenever problems arise in the future, helping each other is just a matter of a word.

The newly appointed Wright and Cooper both had great contributions to their name. They both quickly took control of the situation and had high prestige. Senator Hawkins even became the Democratic Senate Whip (the second-in-command of the parliamentary caucus), and his career reached a new high!
(End of this chapter)