White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 2

Buying gold

Neal sat on a chair in the studio waiting for Alisha Teagen. He had told them he had a huge scope about a cover-up in Iraq and everyone seemed eager to get Alisha there as soon as possible. Finally, she walked in, just as stressed and unprepared as Neal and Peter had hoped for.

"We're rolling?" she asked the crew. Oh, yes, they were rolling. She saw Neal. "Oh, hi. Hi. Alisha Teagen."

They shook hands, and he gave her a nervous grin.

"Good to meet you. I'm a huge fan."

"Thank you."

"You look better in person," Neal added to appear to adore her.

"Well, thank you. Okay, you're all miked up," she noted. Neal had given her no chance to come prepared. "All right. Let's get started." She sat down. "Your name?"

"Oh, we'll get to that."

"Just relax. Take a deep breath," Alisha advised him. He was after all supposed to reveal something sensitive. "So why don't we... Why don't we start at the beginning?"

"Okay. Yeah," Neal agreed. "Once upon a time in Iraq, there were two people. One was greedy and a thief. The other was pretty and opportunistic. Together they found a great deal of treasure."

Alisha understood where this was going.

"This is something we should be discussing off-camera," she smiled at him. She probably thought he wanted to blackmail her.

"Wait, no. That's the prologue. I'm getting to the setup. They smuggled that treasure here, went off without a hitch. But they needed a fall guy. Somebody to take the heat off them so they could sell the treasure without interference. That fall guy is a soldier you know. John Mitchell."

If eyes could kill, Neal would be dead. But they could not and he met Alisha's blue steel blue eyes without fear.

"Well. Unfortunately, your story is missing something very important. Proof."

"Oh, I got proof," he claimed and took the coin out of his pocket. "Here. Recognize this?"

She did. No camera could miss that.

"What this story is missing is an ending," Neal continued. "I'm not sure what happens to Mitchell. The outcome of his life it may as well be decided on the toss of a coin."

Neal flipped the coin up in the air and caught it on its way down and put it on the top of his other hand, covering it. "You wanna call it for me?"

"Turn off the cameras," Alisha hissed. Nothing happened. "Turn off the cameras!"

Peter turned up beside Neal and held up his badge.

"Alisha Teagen, you're under arrest," Peter declared. Neal saw Jones and Lauren behind him. Alisha became pale as a ghost. Her eyes darted around the studio. All eyes were on her. Neal felt no pity for someone who framed an innocent man. If her career were over, Neal would not feel ashamed to be the one exposing the reason.

Peter wandered around in the conference room, passing behind Alisha Teagan's back, while he pretended to read from a file. He wanted to make sure she knew she had no power, no cards to play but information. Her hands fiddled nervously.

"I want immunity," she declared, with a surprisingly steady voice. Peter looked up from the file and stared at her as if he became aware of her presence. He grinned all over his face.

"You're funny."

Her pose shrunk and her eyes when to the table. Peter closed the file and sat down.