Note: I have not given up on this story. ;)

Chapter Twenty-two

"I love this jet." Neal smiled as he settled into the leather seat near the mini bar. "I don't see why we should drive anywhere ever again."

"Fuel efficiency?" Peter suggested.

"Plus it's a bitch to park it on the street." Frost chuckled.

"What I don't understand is why a division of the CIA designed to raise money by finding lost art is basically burning a pile of taxpayer cash by flying their Agents in a private jet to visit a museum that is in a city with literally hundreds of choices for a commercial flight."

"Our division is not really about making money, Peter, it's about making sure the other guys don't make any and garnering favor from foreign agencies through recovery of lost history." Frost explained. "Besides the CIA doesn't waste as much taxpayer money as you may think even when we do opulent things like this, we are almost entirely self funded through our various operations. We wash it all through a handful of fake billionaires to make it appear like tax dollars, but that's just to keep up appearances. I mean you don't think Donald Trump is real do you?"

"The CIA is laundering money on a national scale?" Neal asked. "That's been one of Mozzie's top ten government conspiracy theories for the past three decades."

"The fact that it's still just a 'theory' is proof of just how good we are." Frost winked.

"So the CIA is America's greatest White Collar criminal?" Peter sighed.

"I've never thought about it that way, but…basically." Frost nodded thoughtfully.

"Although I bet the real award would actually go to Congress if we all whipped out our secret budgets out and put them on the table for measurement." Bryant added.

"Thank you for that disturbing imagery, Bryant." Frost rolled his good eye.

"Any time."

Neal smiled at the pair and stretched out in the leather chair as the jet reached cruising altitude. Peter had the same look of resigned defeat that he'd perfected over the past few years working with Neal, not entirely happy with his situation working with openly proud criminal types but also unwilling to just walk away.

Bringing his thoughts back to the Gardner case Neal focused on the Degas sketches that had been taken, trying to figure out what was so special about them. He was confident that much like the Fabergé eggs that if he could just hold them and inspect then he could discover their connection. The real problem was after all these years if whoever had initially paid to have them stolen hadn't figured it out already they may have destroyed the drawings to hide the evidence.

If the men who had broken in had only taken the five drawings like they had probably been hired to do the theft wouldn't have become the National News and held the interest of the FBI for so long. It could have just been a simple break in, not the Crime of the Century. The amount of heat alone brought on by making it the single largest private collection heist may have pushed the original backers to destroy it all. Thinking of the loss of the great works Neal sighed to himself.

"Neal, something wrong?" Frost asked.

"No. Just wondering if this art is still even out there."

"There's a good chance it isn't." Peter agreed.

"I'd be lying if I said Bryant and I weren't humoring you a little by looking into this." Frost admitted. "It would be historic to recover any of it, but all in all it's highly unlikely. I would think at this point if it was out there that someone would have tried to sell it."

"Probably too difficult to find a buyer." Peter noted. "All stolen art work is risky, but those pieces in particular would hold extra complications considering that even the slightest scent of it would draw the attention of the world."

"What if we tried to buy it?" Neal asked.

"What do you mean?" Frost gave Neal a confused look.

"How do you post a 'want' ad to the Ivory List? Has anyone ever put up a request for anything taken during the heist?"

"From time to time I've seen a fleeting listings for some of the larger works that were stolen," Frost shrugged "but that's not unusual, a lot of buyers on there want the impossible."

"What if we posted looking for just the Degas set and offer a significant amount for them, three or four times their worth."

"You think after all this time they'd be willing to part with them if they have them?"

"No." Neal shook his head. "However it would show that someone else out there either suspects or knows the secret held by the Degas. If whoever has them hasn't figured it out by now they must know that they aren't going to. We might be able to catch their interest if we offer the hope of a fresh lead."

"That's a serious long shot." Bryant said doubtfully.

"But a harmless one." Neal said. "We just have to post to the list, that's basically a risk free move."

"It really isn't." Frost said. "In order to gain access to the List you have to be invited to join by a current member and even if you get an invitation you then have to 'gift' a highly valuable black market item as collateral so that if you ever tried to turn on them they'd have easy access evidence against you."

"You're in the middle of trapping a member of the List right now with that painting I stole, aren't you? Why not just add extending an invitation to his 'deal'."

"That could work." Frost mused. "What about the stolen work? We don't keep any of the art we recover, it's all been returned, plus my boss has gone for a lot of stuff over the years but handing something truly valuable to the Ivory List would be a step too far."

"Didn't you tell me you have a copy of The Sea of Galilee that I allegedly did in your basement? I know it's just a forgery but…"

"…but it's a very good one." Frost finished thoughtfully.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Neal asked cheerfully.

"The worst? Well you'll have to present your forgery to the Ivory board personally and if they recognize it or you as a fake they will kill you."

"That's a risk I've taken every time I've gone under cover for the FBI or any time I've dealt with black market buyers."

"True."

"And luckily for me the alleged artist in this case is one of the best…or so I hear."

"You'd need a rock solid alias." Frost contemplated the details.

"You're the CIA and I'm in the FBI, surely between the two of us we can create a workable alias." Neal chuckled.

"We have specialists that spend all day farming identities and building various reputations for them around the world. We could easily pick one that fits you as well as the kind of person to want in on the Ivory List."

"Having someone on the inside of the List could be very useful beyond just this stab at the Gardner works." Bryant said. "If Neal is going in I'll go with him as his personal security, all these super rich guys keep body guards on hand at all times."

"Sounds perfect." Neal nodded.

"Being military and not art aficionados has been one of the main reasons we haven't really bothered to infiltrate the Ivory List itself. You'd be a perfect in for us." Frost said before looking to Peter. "Peter, you're being surprisingly quiet…what do you think?"

"Deep cover operations tend to be high risk, but also high reward. I'm not sure how far it would get us on the Gardner case, but it has a better chance at succeeding than anything else I can think of as well as having the added benefit of a closer look at the Ivory List inner workings."

"Sounds like you approve." Frost smiled. "That…really surprises me. This is going to be dangerous."

"I don't back down from the job when it's dangerous, I back down when it's flat out suicidal or when the 'means to the ends' bend the law to the point of breaking it. However, if anyone can con their way into the Ivory List inner circle it's Neal, and bringing down the Ivory List is well within the jurisdiction of the Art Crimes division."

"So you're in?" Neal asked hopefully.

"You're the lead Agent on this case Neal, it's your call."

"Let's do it."