The U-Boat Con

In The Nocturne in Black and Gold, the White Collar team devises a double-pronged sting to ensnare their two archenemies, Adler and Azathoth. They call it the U-Boat con. For readers who would like to refresh their memory on the significance of the U-boat, this is a review of the key elements.

Warning for minor spoilers for the Caffrey Conversation series

Vincent Adler's quest for a U-boat filled with Nazi plunder was one of the main themes in White Collar. The arc spanned the first three seasons of the TV series. U-boats have also been lurking in our AU. Penna initiated the thread in Caffrey Flashback when Jones discovered that Adler was suspected of backing Wilhelm Salvage, a company dedicated to searching for sunken ships and dropped cargo. Wilhelm is the name of Adler's father. For most of his career, he worked at a company that built submarine parts. Jones connected the dots to speculate that Adler had information from his father about a sunken U-boat filled with looted treasure. I picked up the thread in The Queen's Jewels. At White Collar, Jones has taken some flak for his steadfast conviction that Adler is searching for a U-boat. He found an unlikely ally in Mozzie, who has long been fascinated by theories of Hitler clones. A mysterious U-boat filled with art seems very plausible to our conspiracy theory specialist.

In Nocturne in Black and Gold, Kate confirmed to Henry when he was held prisoner in Argentina that Adler believes a U-boat filled with art exists. He's found a letter written by Anton Bergmann which references the Braque painting Violin and Candlestick. In the letter, Bergmann tells his wife that the violin is the key to the art's location. Bergmann worked for the Nazi group in charge of confiscating art in Paris so would have known about art shipments. Adler speculates that Bergmann knew about the U-boat even though he didn't mention it in the letter.

Adler's father Wilhelm was not the only one who'd heard about the U-boat. Wilhelm had a childhood friend named Franz Huber who served under Bergmann during the war. Huber's son Karl now works for the criminal organization Ydrus. Neal had broken into Huber's house on Long Island last February (The Mirror) and had examined the contents of his safe. He found a partial shipping manifest that lists several paintings currently listed as missing since World War II as well as a war journal and a sheet of fractal equations. Henry was able to uncover the connection between Franz Huber and Wilhelm Adler in June (Echoes of a Violin). The team speculates that Franz Huber found out about the U-boat. Since Wilhelm worked at a U-boat construction yard, Franz likely consulted with his buddy about the possible significance of the fractal equations. At that time fractals were being used experimentally in antennas. Had one been used on the U-boat to broadcast its location?

Although the elder Huber and Adler were friends, there is no evidence to suggest that the sons know about each other. Vincent Adler is being aided by Neal's former girlfriend Kate Moreau, the ex-FBI agent Garrett Fowler, and Agent Joseph Ruiz who is leaking information to Adler. Huber is believed to be working in league with Ydrus to recover the art. Also working for Ydrus are the master art thief Klaus Mansfeld and his cybergenius brother Rolf. The White Collar team believes if they can snare Huber, they'll be able to eventually catch those elusive villains as well.

For the con, Jones and Mozzie decided to invent the story that Neal and Henry found the U-boat. Jones suggested that they pretend Mozzie used the sheet of fractal equations to pinpoint the antenna signal. Henry has a better idea. He tells Jones that Neal should paint a forgery of the Braque in order to trick Adler into believing he'd stolen the original. In the con, Neal and Henry will act as if they found a hidden message in the painting which they then used to trace the U-boat's location. Only Henry and Mozzie know that Neal actually did steal the painting. In the parameters of the con, the U-boat will be discovered off the coast of Cape May and will be hauled to Brooklyn. Once the sub is discovered, Neal will sell the forgery of the Braque to Adler to provide funds. Diana will feed lies and rumors to Ruiz to sell the con.

In the con against Huber, the team will lead him to believe that Adler is helping Neal and Henry. Wilhelm Salvage will supposedly be the company used to bring the U-boat to Brooklyn. Sara will play a role in misleading Huber. Still to be worked out is exactly how she'll accomplish that task. The team intends to stock a warehouse with fake crates to simulate the recovered plunder and use it as the mousetrap.

In creating the con, I enjoyed playing some of the canon elements, such as the fractal antenna. In the TV series, there actually was a fractal antenna, and Adler transported the U-boat to a shipyard in Brooklyn. In our series is there a U-boat to be discovered? Is there a hoard of missing paintings on the bottom of the ocean? If not there, are the paintings hidden somewhere else? The con has just begun. It will continue through the next story in the series, Harlequin's Shadow.

Nocturne in Black and Gold on Archive of Our Own
Nocturne in Black and Gold on FanFiction