and quickly pulls her out and is relieved when she comes to. Fiona's brother tells Michael that Fiona, now associated with a foreign intelligence operative, will almost certainly be killed if she returns to Ireland, though he tells Michael that he is proud to know his sister chose well. This incident strengthens their bond again, and soon thereafter they have sex at a hotel. Michael and Fiona experience tensions afterwards while he continues to focus on his burn notice with the CIA. As a covert operative, Michael is incredibly resourceful and holds an extensive knowledge of topics including bushcraft, post-traumatic stress disorder, escapology, chemistry, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, medicine, surgery, and criminal psychology, despite a remark by a client and former friend that he "vanished before high school graduation". During the second season finale in a car chase, Michael is able to fashion a quick explosive out of chemicals found in his glove compartment. As a covert operative, Michael is also a keen bluffer, once being able to bluff an arms dealer to believe that he transferred $200 000 into his account (a ruse that would have been found out by a bank manager in Zurich in a few minutes) or making a bank robber believe that he was a doctor. Known by his professional reputation, Michael is regarded with fear by people associated with the intelligence community. A Spetsnaz wet work operative remarked that "everyone in Russian Special Forces has heard of the name Michael Westen. He is a myth like the bogeyman." He was also personally offered a job by the Head of the Libyan Secret Police, who stated that their intelligence services were not known for being gentle. In one episode, Larry once quipped, "Where is the old Michael Westen I knew? The one who would have left behind a bloodbath with a smile on his face?" Despite being professionally regarded as a cold killer, Michael is hesitant to kill anyone unless he had to, once needing Victor to tell him that he had to do it in order to sell the story to Management. That is not to say that Michael would not kill, where during the third season finale he might have killed Simon and only stopped when Management asked him not to, and murders Strickler, a spy broker, in his home earlier in the season after learning he passed information about Fiona's whereabouts to