"Andrew Anthony Conklin, retired after thirty two years at the C.I.A. as an analyst." Diana said.
Peter's eyebrows went up, "OK, what else do you have?"
"Let's see. He's not allowed to leave the country without permission. Here's his address, or at least what is in the system and about everything else is redacted." Diana handed a single sheet of paper to Peter. It was all blacked out.
"The next guy..." Diana looked at the next page, "...is Don Bayer, former C.I.A. and former N.S.A. I can't even get an address on him." She handed Peter the page, but it was a waste of paper, it had a picture and the one line Diana read.
"The other two are not coming up." Diana finished.
"I guess I'll go to Hughes with these and see if we can get some help." Peter said looking at the two pages.
Neal watched Diana and Peter talking by Peter's office as he walked back to his desk. Neal pulled his phone from his pocket at the first hint of a ring.
"Hey, Moz."
"He's a ghost, Neal, a snoop, a spook, a spotter. He's a spy, Neal. Conklin is a spy, C.I.A." Mozzie was falling back into his paranoia. "A spy."
Neal caught the third 'spy' reference, "Is the OCD taking over?"
"We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them" Mozzie quoted Titus Livius, "No. It's not."
"Aaah" Neal took in Mozzie's paranoia, "He's after me, Moz."
"And I helped you, I made the call, he's after me too, he just doesn't know it yet." Mozzie added.
"OK"
"Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness." Mozzie quoted Philo Gant this time.
"What else have you found out?" Neal asked.
"Come meet me downstairs."
Mozzie had more info than Diana. Conklin had an apartment as well as the home, Bayer had worked with Conklin in their former life. Metzger and Erickson were burnt spies for hire.
"That was fast, Moz, thanks."
Mozzie turned and bee lined his way away from Neal. Neal smiled and shook his head at Mozzie.
"Peter" Neal called, "I have some information." He held up a handful of papers. Peter waved him up to the office.
"Mozzie got some info for us." Neal said as he lay down the different pieces of paper, each in it's own space on Peters desk.
"Conklin has a house..."
"We know that." Peter said.
"..and an apartment..."
"What?" Peter pulled the paper towards him, "How'd you get this?"
"Mozzie got it. Conklin and Bayer worked together, but these two, Jason Metzger and Ian Erickson are local guys for hire."
"Diana, get in here." Peter called out.
Peter made Neal go through this again for Diana.
"With names I should be able to find some more on these guys." Diana said and took off to plug their names into the computer.
Peter and Jones pulled up to an old warehouse and knocked on a door. "Jason, I'm Peter Burke, FBI, open the door."
"Show me your badge." Came a voice from inside. Peter pulled his badge out and held it in front of the peep hole on the door. The door opened.
"What can I do for you?" Jason Metzger asked.
"We understand you and a friend helped out Conklin this morning, give us what we want and we'll let the kidnapping charges slide."
Metzger opened his door, "Then come inside and let me talk until you're content."
Jones stood by the door and looked the place over. One large room, a very large studio apartment had it been in an apartment building.
"Conklin knocked on my door last night, gave me a thousand bucks to watch Caffrey's place. Once I saw him, I was to call Conklin and wait on instructions. We did, and he said bring him to me, told me where and said to leave once Caffrey sat down. It was easy, Caffrey didn't fight, we never touched him, though Ian played the tough guy and flashed his gun."
"Ian Erickson"
"Yes, Ian Erickson."
Peter asked, "What kind of car did he have?"
"Never saw a car. Must have parked 'round the corner." Metzger answered.
"What sense did you get from him?" Peter asked.
"He seemed like a smart guy, but he was out of his element."
"What do you mean?" Peter asked.
"I worked for the Agency, as did Erickson, we had heard his name. We were framed for stuff we didn't do and Conklin is either the guy that will clear us or the bastard that ruined us."
I'd guess the latter." Peter said.
"Well, I have to wait for proof, but like I said he was out of his element, he didn't do field ops, he pushed paper and now's he's trying to cover both. He's making mistakes."
"Do you know what he did, when he was working?" Peter asked.
"East Germany and Russia," Metzger said "is all I had heard of."
Jones jumped in, "The Amber Room was built in Prussia, the Czar liked it and the King of Prussia gave it to him."
"What's that?" Metzger asked.
"Sorry, East Germany and Russia, the area of Prussia and Russia and the music box, it all ties in." Jones felt excited to have tied things together. Peter gave Jones a look.
"Thank you for you time, and the answers we needed." Peter said, "No more kidnapping, OK?"
"I swear." Metzger held up his hand.
Peter and Jones left and walked to the car. Peter opened his cell phone and dialed, "Diana, bring Neal to Conklin's apartment."
"The apartment is close enough to the Ladies' Pavillion and to Metzger's place. He walked to both." Peter said to Jones on the ride to the apartment.
Diana pulled up and she and Neal jumped out, "Stay here, Neal." Diana said. She walked a little, still in sight of Neal, to check out the side of the building, then came back.
Peter and Jones pulled up. "Jones, Diana, check out the back entrance and meet us up there." Peter ordered.
Neal and Peter were at the door first, it was unlatched. They knocked and the door moved slightly further open.
Jones and Diana came up, "No sign of him." Diana offered.
"Conklin, FBI, come out."
A neighbor opened her door. An elderly lady leaned out, "He left, maybe thirty minutes ago, yellin' at the guy with him. I asked him to hold it down and he cursed at me."
"Thank you, please go back inside." Diana said while holding her badge up for the lady to see.
Neal used the toe of his shoe pivoting his foot to open the door wider.
Peter justified it to himself, "The door is open and we believe he is fleeing..."
Diana, Jones, and Peter went about clearing the apartment following FBI procedure, each calling 'clear' when a room was found empty.
Neal looked at the place as a thief would. Looking behind paintings and photos on the wall until he found the safe with an unusual access panel.
The three agents were all behind him, "What do you think is in there?" Peter asked.
"Only one way to find out." Neal said.
The safe had a computer like screen, no key or combination dial, Neal touched the screen and waited.
Dots filled the screen like a fireworks explosion and then cleared and then the equal sign and the number fifteen, '= 15'. A three by three grid of numbers like a touch tone phone briefly drew on the screen, each in it's own box and then lined up at the top of the screen leaving the boxed grid empty. There was a countdown started, sixty seconds.
Jones and Diana and Peter were all talking at once, "What does that mean?" , "Do we need to add a few up to fifteen?" "What happens after the countdown?"
Neal touched the five and dragged it to the center square, "Each row has to equal fifteen, and each column has to equal fifteen as well as diagonal."
"Can that be done?" Jones asked.
"I'm doing it now."
Neal took just a second to figure it out, after the five he pulled the four to the upper left corner and the six to the lower right corner. Two to the upper right corner and the eight to the lower left corner.
"I thought the diagonals would be tougher, but it wasn't bad." Neal said.
Neal then filled in the top row with a nine and the bottom with the one, then dragged the three to the first column middle square and the seven to the last opening.
The counter still had thirty seconds. A click and then door popped open.
Neal opened it, "Wait" Peter said.
Too late, Neal had a folder in his hands.
Neal turned around to get more light. Peter looked over Neal's shoulder and Diana and Jones looked to Neal and then to the safe and then to the folder.
"It's Mentor" Neal said almost to himself, "It's just like the one Fowler gave me. Oh, this is different." He gave Peter a page.
"Doesn't include Kate." Peter noticed.
Neal paged through the document, "Names... Fowler, Appleton, Conklin, Bayer. That's new. Doesn't really say why though."
Neal got to the last page, he read it and shook his head. "Look at this." He handed the page to Peter.
Peter read it, "Ah crap."
"What's it say?" Jones asked as Diana tried to look at the page.
Peter handed Jones the page and he shared it so Diana could read it at the same time.
It read, "You're good Caffrey, but now I'm gone. Good bye."
"He expected you to open the safe and find this." Diana said still staring at the page.
"Gone, but for how long" Jones added.
Peter put the file pages back in order and closed the file, tucked it under his arm. "Hughes will want to see this, maybe he can get some answers from his friends at the C.I.A."
They left the building and got into their cars. Neal has his window down and Peter yelled across to Diana and Jones, "Go out to his house and see what you can find, I don't expect much.
A small glint on top of the next building flashed and Neal looked up but didn't see anything.
Bayer still dressed in black squatted away from the edge and said into his phone, "They have the file and they're leaving."