Burn Notice

Michael: (voice-over) If you can't get through a door without attracting attention, the next best thing is to attract a lot of attention. Once everyone is looking at the door wondering what's going on, you can pop in a flash grenade, and they won't see anything for a while.

Michael: (voice-over) Running a double agent is a relationship; there's a give and take. Mostly take, but sometimes you have to give.

Michael: (voice-over) GPS devices are becoming more and more common these days. Mostly they are for nervous parents tracking their children. But they are perfectly good for other uses.

Michael: (voice-over) From Karachi to Bogotá, every kidnapper's favorite resource is a corrupt employee. An employee can handle alarms, police, you can get financial information, bank accounts, you've even got a fall guy, if anything goes wrong. To a professional kidnapper, a good man on the inside is worth a lot...and a bad man on the inside is worth even more.

Michael: (voice-over) A kidnapping is a business deal. The bad guys have negotiating power, since they are selling the life of a loved one. But then again, they have a market of one, so they have to work with you.

Michael: (voice-over) About 40% of kidnapping victims are released safely. These statistics are affected by a number of factors, including the nationality of the kidnappers, the age of the victim and whether a hostage negotiator is employed. The odds go down sharply if no-one has any money to pay the ransom.

(Clarke is strangling Michael) Michael: Wow, you're pretty good. Perry Clarke: Let go, it'll be less painful for you. It'll looked like you hanged your self. No surprise really, no work, no money. (Michael knocks Clarke on his back) This would have been easier if you'd kept our appointment in Fort Lauderdale. I had some things arranged. Oh well. Michael: Sorry to inconvenience you.

Michael: (voice-over) The longer you've been in the game, the more you have to be careful about underestimating an opponent. Say you don't think much of bureaucrats, don't think they're worth your time or attention. Then a bureaucrat is the perfect person to send to kill you.

Fiona: I'm not excited about you seeing Reyes by yourself. Michael: Someone needs to stall him in case you need more time. Sam: Mike, no one's got your back. This goes bad and Reyes could get tipped off. Michael: The only other option for backup is Nick. You guys like that idea?

Michael: (voice-over) Rescuing a hostage isn't about battering rams and guns. Charge through a door with a gun, and chances are the person you're trying to save will be the first one lying on the floor dying of acute lead poisoning. So you come up with alternatives; ingredients from the local pharmacy, mixed with aluminum foil, powdered in a coffee grinder, will make a serviceable flash grenade that would stun anyone for a good 20 feet. Thermite is another handy tool; with a surface temperature of 1000 degrees, it's used to weld together railroad ties. It would make pretty short works of most locks too.

Fiona: They don't have a water front like this in Afghanistan. Michael: It doesn't rain as much either there. There are pleasant parts of Afghanistan, the mountains are nice.

(Sitting in car) Michael: So you understand? You pick up the package and walk away. Got it? Nick: Yeah. Michael: You don't look at us, you don't talk to us, you just walk out with the video. Fiona and I will be watching to see if the kidnappers have someone there, and Sam will follow in the car if he sees anyone leave. Nick: Ok. So I walk to the car. Michael: No Nick, focus. You just walk away. Fiona: You pick up the package, and you leave like we're not even there. Nick: But wait, you will be there, right? Michael: Yes, we will be there. Ok, go ahead. (Nick tries to get out) Unlock it first.

(Having just seen a video of Nick's fiancée) Nick: Jesus! Aw, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry. Michael: Ok, stop saying it. Nick: Aww, God. I screwed everything up, bro. Michael: Seriously, stop talking. Stop moaning now. The moaning, it's the...Nick, stop moaning!

Michael: Nick, I'm not saying I'm happy with how things went down today either. But this can still work out, in some ways we're better off. Nick: How? How are we better off, dude? We got some kidnapper tied up some place, they got Dawn. Oh wait. Ohhh, I get it, your gonna trade Dawn for the dude. Michael: No.

Reyes: Ok, so give me a number, a counteroffer. Michael: I think I close it at a million. Reyes: One million? That's 20 percent of my price! Michael: Hmm, you are good with numbers.

Michael: (voice-over) Once a kidnapper knows that you're on to him, he'll try to contact his partners to have the hostage killed, at that point you have a choice. (Pause) You can start choosing wreaths for the hostage's funeral or take a hostage of your own.

Michael: (voice-over) The thing about doubling anyone is that the more they do for you, the deeper they get. The deeper they get, the more you can make them do. Great, if you're running them, but hard on the source. The suicide rate is above average.

Michael: (voice-over) It's always easier to turn someone who works for a criminal gang into a double agent. The more secretive and ruthless their side is the better. You work on their fear of any hint of disloyalty will get them killed by their own people.

Michael: (voice-over) Working with untrained amateurs introduces an element of risk. It's a risk you have to live with in a lot of operations, although you often found yourself wishing that everybody went through Green Beret training in high school.

Michael: (voice-over) Work around spies for awhile and you learn to be careful when it looks like you're getting what you want. That's when you tend to let your guard down, get careless. Calling the cops on someone can teach you a lot, a foreign agent would run, so might an armed assassin, a bureaucrat is going to act like a bureaucrat.

Nick: (agitated) So, what? I'm supposed to just sit here? Michael: (calmly) No, you're going to get me the Yellow Pages and tell me where the nearest pharmacy and gardening store is. I have to pick up a few things. Nick: (incredulously) Yellow Pages? Bro, I have a computer.

Reyes: (the kidnapper, to Michael, posing as the hostage negotiator) If I take 20 percent of my price, I give you 20 percent of the girl. Michael: (nonchalantly) Hostage negotiators hear that one a lot, it's funny the first few times.

Fiona: It's my birthday in a few days. Did you get me anything yet? Michael: Ya, I got you something. Fiona: You know, for someone who's worked as a professional liar for most of his career, you're not terribly good at it when it counts.

Michael: (to Lucio) Sam's pretty good with a computer. Sam: Well thanks, Mike -- it's just Photoshop.

(Fiona is threatening Lucio with a taser) Michael: (voice-over) The art of turning someone into a double agent is delicate. The target has to be put into a fragile psychological state. Lucio: Get this crazy bitch away from me! Michael: (voice-over) Fortunately, fragile psychological states are a specialty of Fiona's.

Sam: That's a job? House sitter? Nick: Yeah. These people are only here a few weeks out of the year. Sam: Ok, so do you need an application for that?

Sam: He heard that she had a boyfriend who could help. Michael: He heard that she had a boyfriend that could help? Sam: I was vague. I said I was a freelance superhero Robin Hood kinda guy. Michael: That's vague.