Neal Caffrey, Suspect at Large

Chapter 7

Neal was sitting at the dining room table in Grace Topen's apartment. Looking around, he had to admit that Agent had good taste.

He was taking a closer look at the file she had given him, but it was late and the words were swimming around the page.

Finally giving up, Neal picked up his phone. Now seemed like a good time to call Peter. No doubt, he would have gotten a call from the Marshals by now. His finger hesitated over the cell button. Agent Topen had warned him multiple times not to contact anyone, but this was Peter.

He was just about to press the call button when the phone was slapped out of his hand.

"Are you crazy!"

Grace Topen must have returned and he hadn't noticed, to absorbed in his head.

She had snatched the phone and was strolling through his call history. Finally she looked up and glared at him.

"What are you thinking? The only way this whole thing can work is if we work completely alone!"

Frankly, Neal was annoyed. He had hardly slept, some strange woman had broken into his apartment, he had gone from a criminal informant to a fugitive in one night.

"This is Peter! I trust him with my life!"

"It doesn't matter! He will try to talk you out of this, or worse try to help!" she yelled. "He will call in favors, ask for help. The more people who know about this, the more people who get hurt!"

She was waving the phone around, trying to emphasize her point. The sound of glass shattering and the phone exploding shot through apartment. Agent Topen and Neal ducked behind the island as bullets rained down on them. Glass was shattering, wood was splintering, it was chaos.

Agent Topen had her hand clutched to her chest in pain. There were several pieces of the broken phone embedded in her hand.

"Sniper." she hissed through clinched teeth.

Neal cautiously poked his head out to see if they had a way out. When a bullet whizzed by his ear he hurriedly pulled himself back behind the island and pressed his back against it.

"You got a fire escape?" Neal turned towards Grace.

"Down the hall, second door on the left."

Neal sat up on his haunches.

"You ready?" he asked.

The agent nodded and got in a position to make a break for it.

Taking a breath, Neal launched himself out from behind the island, Grace not far behind him. They ran as fast as they could. A bullet hit the door frame just in front of Neal's face. The exploding wood grazed his forehead and left a gash just below his hairline. He would have skidded to a stop if Agent Topen hadn't shoved him from behind.

They finally made it to the fire escape. Neal barely registered the fact that this must be Agent Topen's room before they were hurriedly climbing down into the alleyway.

They hailed a cab and rode it to the nearest bus stop. From there they snuck on to a bus going god knows where.