White Collar : The Eye of Sita

Chapter Thirty-one

"Daniel what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, Neal?"

Daniel continued to root through the boxes of art supplies that had been left for Neal. He tossed the tools that he deemed too flimsy on the ground unceremoniously. When he came across a large pallet knife he gripped the handle and gave it a few experimental swipes through the air.

"Daniel, these are not weapons."

Snapping around with terrifying speed Daniel lashed out and grabbed the front of Neal's shirt. Jerking Neal violently closer Daniel pressed the edge of the pallet knife against Neal's throat. Putting his hands on Daniel's chest Neal tried to push away, but Daniel kept his deadly grip.

"Why do you do that?" Neal hissed when Daniel didn't release him.

"Do what?"

"Pin me down. You've always felt the need to constantly prove you're stronger than I am."

"And you've always felt the need to constantly prove you're smarter than I am."

"Can we not have this argument right now?" Neal sighed.

"Fine by me."

Daniel pushed Neal away hard enough to cause him to stumble back a few steps. Neal narrowed his eyes and barely resisted the urge to point out that the shoving was exactly what he was talking about. Flipping the pallet knife over in his hand so that the blade faced down in his palm Daniel headed for the door. The grip he had on the handle with the blade pointing down would give him greater leverage to use the art tool as a deadly weapon.

"Daniel, no. Wait."

"I don't have time to argue morals with you. So we are going to do the short version: it's us or them."

"I don't believe anything is that black and white, Daniel."

"Yeah, well not all of us are lucky enough to live in your charmed little world where everything works out so perfectly so easily."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means...never mind." Daniel growled as he knocked on the door to get the guard to open it.

"Dani..."

Neal had reached his hand out and put it on Daniel's shoulder to keep him from attacking the guards when they opened the door. In no mood to be stopped Daniel whipped around and slipped one foot behind Neal's before shoving him hard in the chest. Thrown off balance and unable to take a step back Neal fell and landed hard. The hip that held the tracking device protested with a sharp lance of pain as he hit the floor. Before he could even reorient himself the men opened the door.

By the time Neal was able to get back to his feet Daniel had both guards down on the ground. There had been no time for gun fire, no time for them to even cry out. Daniel had lashed out at one man with the pallet knife, it was still embedded in his throat. The other looked like his neck had been snapped. Daniel grabbed both of the dead men by the collars of their shirts and dragged them into the room.

"What did you do?" Neal asked in horror.

"What I had to."

Daniel made it clear that he was not interested in an argument with a deadly glare. Neal sighed and backed off. Daniel turned his attention back to the men he'd taken down and searched them for weapons. Each man had a 9mm Beretta, Daniel took one and stood up to offer the other one to Neal. Neal refused the weapon and took a step back.

"Take it." Daniel held out the gun.

"No."

"Neal..."

"I don't need a gun, Daniel."

"You know, Neal, you think you keep your hands clean but you have always carried a gun." Daniel hissed angrily.

"What?"

"Me, Keller, Wilkes, Peter...you always keep a partner close to use lethal force for you so you don't have to. For crying out loud, even Sara has a gun!"

"It's never loaded."

"Cowboy up, Neal!" Daniel demanded as he reverted to his thick Texas drawl. "And protect yourself for once!"

Daniel pressed the gun against Neal's chest forcibly. Fearing Daniel more than the weapon Neal agreed to take it. He quickly checked the chamber to make sure it was loaded. The round in the chamber had a strange blue color to it, but he didn't think anything of it. Daniel took the lead and looked out into the hall before motioning for Neal to follow him.

"How did you know Sara has a gun?" Neal asked as they made their way through the empty hallway.

"It's registered."

"You do background checks on all my girlfriends?" Neal demanded with irritation.

"Pretty much." Daniel shrugged. "I never did like Kate by the way."

"You weren't the one who..."

"No. I had nothing to do with Kate's death, if I was going to kill her I wouldn't have done it in front of you."

"Thanks...I think." Neal said uncomfortably. "Still, you know way too much about my life, Daniel. It's a little creepy, actually it's a lot creepy."

"Michelle says you're an obsession of mine." Daniel chuckled.

"She's not wrong." Neal agreed.

"She's none too fond of you."

"Imagine that."

Daniel and Neal came to the stairwell door. Looking through the small glass window Daniel ensured that no one was waiting to stop them on the far side. With the stair well clear he pushed the door open. There were several stories above them, and two down before the stairs lead into the basement. When they got to the ground level they reached an emergency exit.

"This has been too easy." Daniel complained.

"We weren't very well guarded." Neal agreed.

"I don't like it. They may not have expected you to try and over power the guards, but they certainly know I'm capable."

"We're not out yet."

"True, and maybe we're just looking a gift horse in the mouth...whatever that means."

"You tell a horse's age by his teeth."

"What?"

"You determine what a horse is worth by looking in his mouth and seeing how good his teeth are. When you get a horse as a gift it's rude to check its worth."

"This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about before." Daniel sighed.

"Just move out of my way so I can disable the alarm."

Neal tucked the Beretta into the back of his waistband as he inspected the mechanism on the emergency exit. Pushing the door open would set off the fire alarm, however it was not designed to resist tampering. In fact with a little inspection Neal found the hidden switch that turned the alarm off for maintenance. Neal opened the door cautiously and looked out. It was late afternoon and the sun was filtering down through the trees on the Indian influenced garden that surrounded the Embassy.

"Okay, all clear." Neal announced. "We're good to go."

"Correction: you're good to go."

"Daniel, this is an Embassy you can't go exacting your revenge here. You've already laid the ground work for an international incident by murdering those two guards."

"I'm not going for revenge. I'm going for the Hope."

"You think the Hope is here?"

"I can't imagine anywhere else it would be. Neal, I'm not welcome home if I don't have that stone. If I can bring the Hope Diamond back to the NSA I might just be able to get their forgiveness. If I leave now I'll just be hunted down and shot."

"Okay," Neal nodded "then let's go find the Hope."

"You can't come with me. You need to get back to Peter."

"I'm not leaving you here."

"Nea..."

"No arguing, if you're going after the Hope I'm coming with you." Neal said firmly.

"You just want a chance to touch it." Daniel smiled. "Remember how we used to fantasize different ways to steal it? We came up with some crazy schemes. I wonder why Caffrey never let us go to DC to see it."

"How did you get it?"

"It was much easier to get in New York while the setting was being changed, they didn't have half the security that the Smithsonian has. The actual theft was a little anti-climatic, a straight forward robbery. It helped that the safe it was in was one that base off one of Caffrey's designs."

"Is it as amazing to hold in your hand as we as we always dreamed?" Neal asked with a bright glitter in his eyes.

"Words can't describe the feeling."

"If it is here we need to steal it back."

"Can you resist the temptation to keep it?" Daniel teased. "Can you really hold one of the world's most amazing diamonds in your palm and just let it go?"

"Let's find out."

"Hundred bucks says you physically drool when you see it."

"Did you?"

"Yes I did."