Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to Jeff Eastin, USA Network et al. This is for fun, no copyright infringement is intended.
Company Man
"There are more important things in life than a nice view. Like having people in your life you care about. I don't want to imagine the man I would be without those people." Peter Burke, White Collar 2.08 - Company Man
The view from the spacious office was breathtaking yet the man standing at the huge windows was paying no attention to the rooftops of Manhattan spread out in front of him. He was tall, still of powerful build, wearing the expensive, tailor-made suit with the unconscious disregard born of daily routine. Hardly a muscle twitched in his angular face as he stared blindly ahead; slowly, mechanically rotating the nearly empty cup of espresso in his fingers, the rest of the dark, strong liquid swirling soundlessly along the smooth round of white porcelain.
For true insiders of the business Peter Burke was a legend, among enemies and admirers aptly nicknamed The Enforcer. A self-made man, father a construction worker, he studied advanced math and accounting on a scholarship then went corporate after college, following the advice of people around him though it meant giving up other dreams. From that moment on his only way was up; hard work, a razor-sharp mind and absolute loyalty to the companies he worked for finally leading him to be the second mightiest man of Novice Systems, a giant among tech firms, answering only to the CEO and founder Wesley Kent himself. Employees envied and feared him, knew him as hard but fair as long as you gave the best for your corporation but may God have mercy on you if you did anything to damage it because Burke would not. He was the man who got things done, kept people in line, brought his company through any audit though his face almost never appeared in any headlines; his lifestyle – while not exactly modest with a penthouse suite, stables in the Hamptons and a collection of cars to die for, not to forget a taste for exquisite and expensive coffee – was still far from extravagant … which might have been mostly due to a decided lack of a Mrs Burke. But his rise in business had come at a price.
Someone politely clearing his throat at the door prompted Burke to finally still his restless twisting of the cup and turn around.
"Mr Burke," Wesley Kent's new personal assistant of only a few days said with a smile of just the right degree, not too intimate but not too distant either, "Mr Kent asks if you would join him for lunch, today."
If he felt uncomfortable under the long, unreadable gaze of the mightier man, he didn't show it. His smooth features remained a picture of attentiveness, readiness for any reply in his brilliant blue eyes.
"My apology to Wesley, Nick," Burke answered at last, "But I already have an appointment I can't cancel."
The young man bowed his head respectfully and walked away, and only the lightning-fast, assessing glance he shot back over his shoulder didn't quite correspond with his usual facade of the perfect assistant.
Burke did not miss the quick appraisal but contrary to any other day he didn't bother making mental note of it. Moving over to the enormous yet elegant designer desk he set the cup down then finally looked at the leather briefcase placed on the polished wood. His chest silently rose and fell with a deep breath.
Yes. He had paid a price to reach the position he held.
Loneliness was one part of it. To swim with sharks you had to be a shark, and since he was no man for games and pretense he had learned to guard himself well even if it meant drifting away from former friends and family. Another part was … loosing your innocence about the ways of the world.
Oh, not that he had ever dirtied his hands with something illegal. Or at least with nothing extraordinary. There were just the little tricks and schemes, the little white lies and tweaking of numbers, more a goal-oriented interpretation, really. If everybody did it, it could not be wrong, right? Competition was brutal, after all, you played by its rules or you drowned and there was always someone waiting to take your place. It was life, it was how things worked and as long as it was for the good of the company paying your check it was acceptable; a clean business with its own code of honor, at least for him. Only suddenly it wasn't that easy any more.
Abruptly Burke took up the briefcase and walked out his office, walked out of Novice Systems, never hesitating another second.
Because no, now it wasn't that easy any more. Not since he was the only man besides Wesley Kent who knew the allegedly stolen prototype of Novice Systems's quantum microprocessor did not work. The only man besides Kent who knew it would never work in time to win the competition for the defense contract. The only man to whom Kent had practically confessed that he had killed Josef Hayes because he threatened to expose his intentions of selling their knowledge to a foreign government. Not since he suddenly looked at himself in the mirror and could no longer live with what he saw.
And that was why this lunch break Peter Burke walked into the FBI with a briefcase full of incriminating evidence against his company, knowing full well that over this he might go to prison too.
It was one of life's little ironies that when the FBI raided the Novice Systems's building they accidentally also netted the infamous Neal Caffrey, who just happened to run a con in it.