White Collar –Burden of Proof

Chapter 3

Thanks to Peter's temporary demotion to the FBI Evidence Warehouse both Neal and Mozzie were familiar with how it worked and where the weaknesses in its security lay. Their first job was to get hold of Peter's gun from there. When breaking into a Federal evidence building to steal evidence was the easiest part of your plan it wasn't a good sign, Mozzie thought as they snuck toward 'the Cave' as the evidence warehouse was known within the FBI. Mozzie had snuck in before posing as an FBI agent in order to help Peter but they couldn't afford to be caught either in person or on camera this time. They were currently sat down the road in one of Mozzie's cars preparing for the first part of the plan.

"Are you sure you know where all the camera blind spots are?" Mozzie asked anxiously as he handed Neal a communication earpiece so they could stay in touch.

"I met Peter here for lunch every day for two week's Mozz." Neal assured him.

Mozzie opened his laptop and hacked into the security system to allow Neal to break in without setting off the alarms. He realised Neal was still there.

"What are you waiting for? Go! The security will only be offline for 20 minutes." Mozzie told him anxiously. Neal nodded, seeming totally relaxed and darted off.

The building should have been called the box, rather than the Cave Neal thought as he quickly hopped over the 12 foot fence carefully avoiding the barbwire at the top and down the other side. From the outside it was just a large square building made out of what looked like steel corrugated walls. There was a door on two sides, but heavily guarded, which left two other obvious access points. The roof, or the windows circling the top of the building. Neal had decided a window would be quickest and easiest way in so he chose one of the door-less sides, making sure the security patrol was not around first he approached the wall and looked up at the window. There were no handholds, nothing to grip onto. Despite himself Neal smiled at the challenge. This would be fun. He pulled out his 'sticky gloves' and 'socks' and slipped them on. Neal had mocked Mozzie for wasting money on them when he ordered them, but he had to admit they were going to pay for themselves now. They were made up of thousands of tiny sticky filaments that were only sticky one way, meaning Neal was able to 'unstick' one limb at a time as he made his way up the wall. It was tricky, he wished he had more change to practice with them as he glanced down at the drop.

"This is your 15 minute warning. How's it going?" Mozzie asked in his ear suddenly, causing Neal to jump and one of his hands and his feet to unstuck and the weight on one hand caused him to slide down the wall a good five feet before he managed to stop himself. Luckily he didn't get totally unstuck.

"I need radio silence for a minute Mozz" he told him patiently taking a shaky breath and continuing his climb up.

He got to the window and quickly popped the frame using more sticky pads to keep the window suspended. He would simply put it back when he left, leaving no evidence of his visit. That was the plan anyway. He pulled himself halfway in the window and paused to see if popping the frame had attracted any unwanted attention. It all seemed quiet.

"I'm in." his whispered to Mozzie.

"12 minutes left" Mozzie told him. Neal quickly hopped inside and made his way down the wall, simply un-sticking himself towards the bottom and dropping the last 10 feet or so to speed things up.

They already had a good idea of where the gun would be thanks to Mozzie's time logging mobile phones onto the system for Peter. Mozzie had finished the job with time to spare and taken the opportunity to have a little look around the filing system. He had been disappointed to find no evidence of alien cover ups but decided they must keep them at another facility.

Neal ducked out of sight as a guard came by. He was just part of the regular patrol Neal thought; they hadn't noticed his unexpected arrival. He found a terminal in the area they wanted and quickly found the number of Peter's case and tracked down the gun. He pulled out the evidence bag he had brought containing a similar gun in it and swapped them over, but not before carefully copying the logging numbers on the front of the real bag onto his copy. The idea was to make it look like the case fell apart thanks to evidence screw ups by the FBI. They didn't want it to look like there was any cover up that might trigger lengthy investigations.

As Neal knew from his own past, as well as from working with Peter at the FBI, no evidence meant no case to answer. It might not solve everything but hopefully it would at least keep Peter out of prison. The thought of Peter behind bars because of Neal, however indirectly made Neal's stomach clench in anxiety.

He took a deep breath as Mozzie gave him the 8 minutes warning. He was going to move faster on the way out. He darted back through the warehouse and quickly scaled the cabinets closest to the wall. At the top he peered across the gap, it was probably about fifteen foot across. He tried not think about the fact it was over twenty feet down if he missed. He heard footsteps and ducked out of sight as a guard came by again. Neal was conscious of the seconds ticking by as the guard slowly made his way down the aisle and out of sight. Despite the urge to move as soon as the guard turned the corner, he waited another 30 seconds. This next part wasn't going to be silent. "6 Minutes Neal, are you out yet?" Mozzie asked in his ear, he was starting to sound worried.

Neal put on the gloves and stepping back as far as he could on to the far edge of the cabinet to give him a short run up, he threw himself across the gap to the wall praying the gloves were strong enough to support him and he didn't end up doing a comedy slide down the wall. He hit the wall with a muffled thump which wasn't as loud as Neal feared, then there was a second when he slid down a foot or so but then he stuck. He made his way up the wall, much faster than on the way in, he had the knack for this now. He hopped over the window sill, pushed the frame back in and made his way back to the fence.

"2 Minutes." Mozzie was definitely sounding panicked now.

"I'm at the fence." Neal reassured him before taking another deep breath and quickly scaling his way to the top. He caught himself on the barbed wire at the top, ripping his trouser leg. He quickly wiped the blood off the wire as best he could and made his way down the other side, darting back to join Mozzie in the waiting car.

"All okay?" Mozzie asked as Neal got into the passenger seat. Neal pulled out the evidence bag with Peter's gun and put it and the gloves in his satchel and tossed it onto the back seat.

"The gloves were great." Neal told him appreciatively.

"Is that blood?" Mozzie asked worried as he spotted the tear in Neal's trousers.

"It's just a scratch." Neal told him dismissively.

"Neal, you can't leave evidence behind! If they find your DNA they can place you here. No to mention clone you." Mozzie told him anxiously, his voice rising in pitch and volume. Neal gave him what Mozzie thought of as his 'really?' look.

"Clones?" He asked and then decided to ignore that part of Mozzie's outburst, as he knew from experience that following up would be following Mozzie down the rabbit hole. It's fine it was the barbed wire on top the fence, and they aren't going to have any reason to check the fences, once it rains, the evidence will be gone. Now let's go." He told him reassuringly. "We aren't done yet." He says grimly.