Burn Notice: Season 3, Episode 5 - ProjectFreeTV

3 - 5: Signals and Codes

Michael, knowing that going through proper channels will be useless, begins the process of tracking down a spy in the field in Miami. The aim is to use the spy to make contact with Michael's former superiors at the CIA and try and properly plead his case, set the record straight and get his job back. After painstakingly long hours of surveillance at the airport, Michael and Sam locate a flight not registered, but possessing clearance. Knowing it can only be a spy plane, Michael steals information on the front company owning it and delivers it to Barry, asking him to do research. After unwinding at a local shooting range, Michael is approached by a paranoid mathematician with a history of schizophrenia, Spencer Wachowski (Michael Weston), who has discovered his identity and explains (somewhat) that he needs his help. Spencer is an expert in identifying patterns, and has determined certain people are dying when information is being transmitted out of the defense firm he works at. Michael and Sam eventually realize Spencer's claims that "aliens" are involved isn't entirely false - the people being killed are American spies (one of which was a friend of Sam's who he had thought previously to have died in a climbing accident), and government secrets are being sold by one of the firm's vice-presidents and head of the department that developed the coding used to protect the secrets (and which is also being sold to reveal them); Shannon Park. Spencer is afraid for his life, as a friend of his, Brad Wilkins, was killed in a suspicious explosion in his house when it seemed he was investigating him (really Spencer, who used Brad's machine at work). Michael settles in as a mysterious high-ranking employee at the firm who becomes an ally to Shannon in supposedly sealing the security leak, all the while trying to get the evidence needed to get her busted. After saving Spencer from an assassination attempt, Michael successfully bluffs Shannon into giving him the proof, only to be captured and left for the FBI to arrest (though isn't giving the death penalty - Shannon testifies against the thug she hired to kill Brad and try and kill Spencer in exchange for a lesser sentence). Meanwhile, Michael approaches the front company - which itself supplies weapons and launders money for the intelligence community, and approaches the manager - Diego Garza: who recognizes and readily reveals he's the spy he's been looking for and, while having nothing against Michael, even to the point of respecting him for his reputation of being a "really, really good" operative, Diego does not wish to lose the easy assignment he earned after 20 years of hard work at the CIA. Michael responds by secretly informing Diego's superiors that he and Michael have made contact, and so they respond by assigning Diego as Michael's point-of-contact to the CIA in Miami. Michael is given two messages by the CIA - they are not interested in his services (at this time) but they will review Michael's file.