In “Burn Notice,” Season 5, Episode 15, “Acceptable Loss,” Michael and Fi infiltrate a law firm that Anson has been using. They don’t find anything on Anson specifically, but they do find something on someone else.
Spoilers follow.
That person is Vaughn, whom Michael helped put into a lifetime stay at Gitmo. He has to use a little fast talking to get Vaughn transferred to a lockup in Tampa so that they can have a little chat. Could Vaughn help Michael out with the interpretation of some of the coded material in the file?
Meanwhile, Jesse has an old State Department friend, Ian, who has been suborned by an Indian diplomat, Yash, into helping him smuggle conflict diamonds in the diplomatic pouch. Could Michael and company help him take the fellow down? They will give it a good try.
Jesse poses as a potential buyer, which requires a bit of fast footwork showing Yash a diamond cutting operation that Jesse does not actually own or operate. The first gambit, which is to take out Yash with the goods through a breach in a wall falls through as the wall was steel reinforced.
Plan B turns out to be rather horrific. Ian agrees to pretend to be out to kill Jesse and Yash to take all the money and diamonds. The plan is for Yash to kill Ian in such a way that the police will see it and his diplomatic immunity will be waived. Ian is going to die anyway from pancreatic cancer, a nastier way to go than from a gunshot wound.
This plan goes well. Ian gets to go out in a blaze of glory and Yash is going to prison, his diamond smuggling days over.
Meanwhile, Michael and Vaughn negotiate a deal. At first Vaughn demands immunity. That is not going to happen. But then Michael arranges through Pearce to have a couple of Vaughn’s old friends transferred to the same Tampa prison. The prospect of getting shanked in the exercise yard motivates Vaughn to talk. It looks like that Anson, likely using the Cayman money from the last episode, is trying to rebuild the organization that burned Michael. Michael walks off, not having promised Vaughn that he will be shielded from his two old friends. One good back stab deserves another.
Michael comes clean to Pearce about Anson, with a little fast talk about wanting to protect her from suffering Max’s fate. It had the virtue of even being a little sincere.