The Blacklist

Chapter 400: Tom's Action and Old Lei's Painting Grab
The situation in the Russian town is so strange that Admiral Felix, director of the DIS, wants to find out the secret even more. He increases the investment and asks Halcyon Shield to find a way to send people into the town to go undercover and get first-hand intelligence.

After hesitating for a while, Susan finally accepted the order, but it would require some careful planning if it was to be completed!
In order to accomplish this, there are two difficulties: one is that there must be someone operating internally to send the person in; the other is that there must be a suitable undercover candidate.

Susan believes that Tom is the most suitable candidate in the company, but the problem is that the strong Carrie does not allow him to participate in this action, which gives her a headache!
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That night, after Tom left Halcyon, Howard Halcyon appeared again.

When he saw Howard, Tom worriedly advised him to either show up officially and show that he was not dead, or hide well and not take risks again. Because he knew from the company's president's assistant that Susan was reviewing every contract and every account signed by Howard, and he was worried that Susan would track down his whereabouts.

However, Howard was not willing to talk about these things at all. Instead, he was extremely concerned about "Operation Polaris" and asked Tom to go to Independence Town to investigate in person because he was not confident in letting others go.

Tom was helpless about this, and felt that after finding his biological parents, he became even more troubled!
The next morning, Tom went back to the post office to see Carrie and told her about the situation...

After listening, Carrie asked, "Tom, do you want to participate in this 'Operation Polaris'?"

"Yes, Boss!" Tom said, "Howard urged me to go to this town to investigate. I think he must have some deep reasons, so I want to go!"

Kerry was speechless. He knew what secrets the town had and didn't want his people to get involved. But when he saw Tom's serious expression, he thought about it and said, "Okay, go if you want! But be careful."

"Don't worry, boss, I'll be careful!" Tom said happily.
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Susan was very happy to learn that Tom could go on this mission, and she also found someone who could help arrange an undercover agent into the town - Vadim, an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service. Susan had a big handle on him, and she had never had the opportunity to use him before, but she would use him this time.

After contacting Vadim through secret channels, he found out that he didn't know about the special town, but he knew that there was a long-term agent selection program within the Security Bureau. The requirements for background and experience were not high. They only required certain agent skills and knowledge of English. However, because the agents who were selected and sent away had no news, everyone privately rumored that they were sent out to perform suicide missions, so if they had other jobs, they would not participate in the selection!
When he heard that Susan was asking him to help recommend two people into the selection program, he only asked for better background information and agreed immediately.
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Next, Carrie did not pay attention to what was happening on Tom's side, but was helping this guy Reddington to "clean up his ass" - in order to celebrate his 60th birthday, old Ray personally planned and carried out a robbery of the Dover City Bank in Maryland on Sunday afternoon!
On October 10, after receiving an unhappy call from Carrie, Reddington ran to the post office carrying a metal box to explain the matter. Perhaps because he was afraid that Carrie would get angry, he specifically called Elizabeth up.

Before Carrie could ask, Reddington said, "Lee, don't get angry. There is a reason for this - I'm doing good things!"

Tsk! If Carrie hadn't respected the old man's age, she would have raised her middle finger to show her contempt for him! "Lee, I have to say that you are very well-mannered now. You haven't even cursed yet!" Reddington laughed, "But this time I'm telling the truth!" As he said that, he put the metal box in his hand on the desk, "Be careful with this, there are rare treasures in it! Lee, Liz, Gina, come and take a look, you will never guess what it is?"

Out of curiosity, Elizabeth, who was following behind him, and Gina, who was sitting behind the desk, came forward to see what was in the box. However, Carrie, who was sitting on the sofa on the other side, remained unmoved. She just looked at a science fiction novel in her hand without even raising her head!
Reddington opened the box carefully, took out a rolled-up oil painting, slowly opened it, and said in a boastful tone: "Lee doesn't understand art at all. Liz, Gina, look, what is this?"

Gina looked at it carefully, and was stunned at first, then her eyes widened, and she said in surprise: "Lao Lei, is this the "Poppy Flowers" by Van Gogh?!"

Elizabeth next to him was also looking at the painting in shock, but her first reaction was that Lao Lei was up to something again!

"You have good taste!" Reddington praised, opening the entire painting in his hand. "This painting 'Poppy' was originally the treasure of the Al-Khalil Museum in Cairo. It was stolen twice in 1977 and 2010. It has since been passed through the hands of many people. The last collector kept it in safe deposit box 604 of Dover City Bank. I took it out this time!"

Elizabeth admired the painting, but she didn't see what was good about it. She just thought it was colorful and a bit like the real thing. She was more concerned about how big a commotion this would cause - a Van Gogh painting was snatched by Reddington, and I'm afraid that the immunity document wouldn't be able to save him! This made her start to worry.

While admiring the painting in his hand, Reddington sighed, "This painting has had a rough life, so I rescued it from the safe deep in the bank just before its 60th birthday! I had already thought about entrusting SLR and Liz to return it to the Khalil Museum and let it go home!"

Hearing this, Gina and Elizabeth looked at each other, but Carrie chuckled and said, "Okay, Lei, you've done a good deed! But don't do it again next time. You should do less things like this that expose you to surveillance. Just prove that you are still the 'gatekeeper of the criminal world'. Don't play with fire!"

Reddington laughed and handed the painting to Elizabeth. He walked over to the sofa and sat down, saying, "I knew you would know what I was thinking. You were right!"

Gina and Elizabeth were stunned for a moment, they had never expected that Reddington had such a purpose, which made them curl their lips at scheming men like Reddington and Carrie. Taking "Poppy" out to coordinate the matter, this was really not a small matter, and once it was known by the press, it would definitely be big news!

(End of this chapter)