Chapter 11


Neal ran a hand down his face before pulling out his own badge. Not even a day with Chuck and Morgan tagging along and his identity was already being compromised.

"Bryce Larkin, CIA." He internally winced a little at the suspicious look Hughes shot him. He passed the man his badge and hoisted himself up into the van. "Did anyone contact Ruiz?"

"Ruiz?" Hughes sounded surprise. Really, this whole encounter was leaving him a little shell-shocked. Anything that brought in the CIA couldn't be good and he tried so hard to avoid getting involved in such situations.

"Yeah, Agent Ruiz came in," one of the agents responded, "I'll get him here for you."

"You do that," Neal responded, hopping out of the van.

"Ruiz?" Peter questioned, confused. Agent Ruiz disliked Neal, to the point that he wouldn't even let Neal into his crime scenes unless ordered to by the higher-ups.

"Yeah, he does me favours from time to time," Neal responded and then clarified, "me as Bryce Larkin, not Neal Caffrey. He pushes me around as Caffrey because he can and, frankly, I'm okay with it. I've caused him a few headaches."

"Where's my leniency when you cause me headaches?" Peter grumbled weakly. He was trying to keep in good spirits and, thankfully, Neal seemed to be helping with that. The fact that he seemed to be taking over the operation was helping, as it put Peter closer to the situation and saving his wife.

"Ruiz knows better than to mess with the CIA," Hughes pointed out in a tone that informed Peter that Hughes thought he was doing something risky, putting his faith in these CIA agents.

"You do what they ask and hope they go away," Ruiz commented flatly as he walked around the van. "Larkin."

"Agent Ruiz," Neal responded, "what can you tell me?"

"It's as you suspected," Ruiz reported, "As soon as I heard that Burke's wife and his team were in trouble I checked up on Agent Andrew Mounce. He's unaccounted for. I also found this in his desk."

Ruiz passed Neal a picture.

"Hey, I know him!" Peter took one glance at the picture and recognised the guy. He had been shown that picture back when he had the Intersect. "Codename Bluelips, killed a few notable characters as a teenager and vanished."

"What?" Neal gasped, "did you flash?" The worry in his voice was evident.

"Yes, but not here," Peter tried to explain. It had been one of the pictures shown to him back when the CIA tested him after he first got the Intersect.

"Then this 'Bluelips'," Ruiz thought it was a stupid name, "was really Mounce. I asked around, this picture's from his teenage years."

"Right then," Neal said, handing the picture back to Ruiz. "Chuck, I want you to scan the area. Check out everyone you can, tell Ruiz if you recognise anyone; especially if you have a 'flash' of insight or something. Peter, guard Chuck."

"I can do that!" Morgan insisted, puffing out his chest. "And what are you going to do anyway?"

"Ruiz, I'm going to need a harness and cable," Neal said. He did the double-finger point at the locked-down building and the building beside it. "There's a skylight in the roof which I can get to if I jump across. I'm going to try and get in and take Mounce out. Ruiz'll handle the arrest."

"Great," Ruiz said flatly as it was anything but.

"I'll get you some of June's coffee," Neal said, "It's the best, just ask Peter."

"Why are you having him handle the arrest?" Morgan demanded to know, "wouldn't it be better for the CIA to take him?"

"He's FBI," Neal responded, as if it was obvious, "I can't arrest him as it could cause an incident between the CIA and the FBI."

"The FBI likes to handle things internally," Peter realised. But, Peter also knew how hard it was to get an agent locked up. Did this mean that Mounce would get away with it?

"It'll be okay, Peter," Neal promised, "I'll explain when this is over."


Neal ran down the alley at side of the building next to the locked-down one. Thankfully, this was an old building and still had a metal fire escape running down the side. He pulled on the harness once he was out of sight and slung the cord around the end of the fire escape. He pulled the stairs down to him as far as they would go and jumped up them.

While running up, he heard someone's clamouring footsteps behind him.

"Morgan?" he questioned, seeing the bearded one a few levels below him. "You should have stayed with Chuck!"

"And let you run off to save the day?" Morgan questioned, "no way! I'm a member of Chuck's team so I can help!"

"No, you really can't!" Neal responded down to him, "this is dangerous!"

"I can do it!" Morgan insisted, not even slowing down. Neal could see that there was no arguing with him.

He increased his pace, heading towards the roof. He was sure Morgan wouldn't follow him across rooftops.

He leapt and landed like a cat, pleased that his skills hadn't faded during his time with the FBI.

The skylight sat there, a vulnerable entrance into the building below. It even had windows! Neal smiled to himself as his job had just been made easier. He could open the window instead of smashing through the glass.

A war-cry sounded as another body came smashing onto the roof.

"Ow," Morgan complained, "that's harder than the movies make it look."

Neal's jaw dropped open and his stomach plummeted to the ground. No wonder Peter kept insisting on sticking to plans and playing it safe if this was how he felt whenever Neal went off-script and used his own plan.


Peter was nervous, worried and still wound tighter than a spring. It didn't help that Neal had gone to help El while he stood here, uselessly.

"You okay?" he asked as he noticed Chuck rubbing the space between his eyes.

"Yeah," Chuck said in a breathless voice. He sounded tired. "Just some agents mentioned an 'Agent Berrigan' and I flashed on the name. A whole bunch of stuff about her and her father popped up along with it."

"Why did they mention her?" Peter asked, curiously. He recalled Ruiz saying something about his team.

"She's in there," Chuck responded, "along with a few other agents she works with. They were all taken hostage."

"What?" Peter's body went cold and his heart stopped.

"Agent Burke," one of the agents called out to him. Peter sighed and turned to face them, wondering what could possibly go wrong now. "Mounce wants to talk to you."

Chuck and Peter shared a panicked look.

"What does he want?" Peter asked, as he took the phone. The agent didn't know.

"How did he know we were here?" Chuck questioned, getting in behind Peter. From his position, he could just hear what was being said.

"Peter Burke," Mounce's calm voice rang through the phone. Peter recalled how he had been impressed at how the agent was able to remain calm in any situation, his voice always level. "I'm surprised that everyone knows who I am; who spilled the beans?" he said pleasantly, as if this was a regular office day.

Peter swallowed down his disgust and horror. El's in there. He has El. Chuck's hand pressed to his shoulder, in a comforting gesture, reminding him that he was not alone.

"What do you want?" Peter asked, ignoring Mounce's question.

"You, of course. I thought I picked the perfect subject for the Intersect. Someone ready and willing to serve the greater good, who would easily accept our offer and was the most likely able to handle the huge amounts of information contained in our copy of the Intersect computer."

"Well, you were wrong."

Mounce ignored him and kept speaking;

"It probably helped that I was going to get your job once you were gone. It's not like you were the only choice, just the best. I mean, I could have picked Caffrey!" he laughed like this was a joke. "Can you image it? A conman in charge of the Government's secrets? Besides, you would hunt Caffrey down if he vanished. But, I digress."

"What do you want?" Peter seethed.

"Well, I miscalculated. Congratulations, Peter, your wife and your agents are very loyal. So very loyal that they started investigating your disappearance and I couldn't have that. Their little nameless friend; Mozart, was it?, he managed to get a little too close to us. And then you escaped. So now, it's easier to just purge everything and start over."

"What?"

"I'm using your wife as bait, Peter. You come to the door, knock twice and I'll let you and that CIA agent with you in. But only you two. No guns or tricks."

"How did you know there's an agent with me?" Peter asked.

Mounce laughed.

"The CIA wouldn't let an asset go without a handler. You and your handler, at the door in under two minutes, or I'll start shooting. Agent Jones will be first."

Peter swore and moved.


Author's note: I forgot I didn't have this chapter up yet...here you go.