Chapter Text
MAC’S HOUSE
HE NEEDS SOME TIME TO HIMSELF…
Since the incident with the Nano-Trackers, Mac has been lost in his head. Even now, working on his broken air conditioner near the fire pit, something in him had changed. He flatlined in the hyperbaric chamber for only a minute, but it was enough for him to put something in perspective. During that minute, he experienced all of his memories at once, but one person kept appearing in his mind. Not his live-in girlfriend, Desi. Instead, it was his best friend, Riley.
Since Mexico City, Mac felt his dynamic with her shift. It was more uncertain for a while, but the Nano-Trackers brought back their old selves because they were the only ones who knew what they were going through. This put him in a tough spot with Desi. He was committed to her, but Riley gave him a sense of safety and intimacy he didn’t have with Desi and she knew it. Sadly, the distraction was enough for him to twerk the wrench the wrong way, slamming his hand into the air-con.
“Ah! Damn it!” His exclamation didn’t go unnoticed when his childhood friend, Bozer walked outside.
“Mac?” Bozer was worried. Mac could normally fix the unit with his eyes closed. “You alright?”
“No. The wrench slipped.” Bozer swiped a coke from the esky and sat down as his genius best friend continued to fix it.
“You want to talk about it?” Mac was unsure he’d understand, but he knew anything he’d say to Bozer would stay between them.
“Is it okay to stay committed to someone even though you don’t feel the same way?” His question caught Bozer off-guard, but he knew the situation enough to fill in the blanks.
“Desi?” Mac nodding was the confirmation he needed. “Look, props to you for seeing the situation for what it is, but I have to ask what brought all this on.”
“It’s just… she and I aren’t… close anymore. I mean, we argue, we fight and instead of talking about our problems, we end up having sex to forget it even happened.” Bozer didn’t need that information.
“Dude, TMI.” His reaction made Mac laugh. “Mac, I’m not going to tell you what to do in your relationship, but I will say this: avoiding your problems is not going to make them go away. I know you have a compulsion to fix what’s broken, but man, this sounds like a sinking ship and you don’t have the tools to fix it.”
“So, what should I do?”
“I think you already know the answer, but I’m not going to say it.” Both of their phones buzzed and saw the infamous ‘GET YOUR BUTTS TO WORK’ text from Matty, their boss. As they were leaving, Bozer thought of something he should say. “Mac, don’t do anything until you sort out what’s going on in your head first. Make sure this is something you want, not for the sake of someone else.” Bozer’s comment left Mac thinking as they headed for the Phoenix.
THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION
NEWLY INDEPENDENT
Mac and Bozer arrived in the War Room with Matty, Russ, Desi, Riley and Parker all waiting for them.
“Nice of you to join us, Blondie. Gear up. The clock’s ticking on this one.” The urgency in Matty’s voice got everyone’s attention. Parker showed them a picture of a blonde girl in a horse-riding outfit.
“This is Britney Patterson, the daughter of Congressman Cole Patterson. As of three hours ago, Britney was kidnapped by an unknown offender during her morning run.” Parker’s cool demeanour belied the urgency of the situation. “While her disappearance hasn’t made the news yet, her father reached out to us to rescue his daughter.”
“Why us and not the FBI?” Riley’s question was valid.
“The Congressman is an old friend of mine. He knows we can move faster than the Feds can.” Matty explanation made more sense to the team.
“So, do we have any leads? Has anyone been seen in the area?”
“The only indication that she has been abducted that her smartwatch comes equipped with a panic button should she ever find herself in danger.” Mac knew what that meant and before he said anything, Riley was already on her rig, typing at subsonic speeds.
“Activating the panic button… now.” Riley’s final keystroke brought up a map of an abandoned factory with a red dot.
“Looks like it’s in the financial district. One of the abandoned factories from the COVID lockdown.” Desi observation was spot on, but that was something that Russ noticed as well.
“Yes and, in regards to the political hot potato we are now holding, let’s not take any chances with this. The fact that Britney was kidnapped without leaving so much as a scuff mark tells me we might be dealing with pros. So, be careful.”
“Come on, Russ. We’re always careful.” Mac’s joke made Bozer and Riley smile as they left. They were, but nothing ever goes according to plan.
THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT
NOT CREEPY AT ALL, IS IT?
Mac, Riley, Desi and Russ all arrived at the factory; a mind-numbing maze of metal and pipes that would take way too long to find anyone in there.
“This place is a maze. We could be wandering around for days and we still couldn’t find her.” Desi’s comment soured the team’s disposition. Luckily, Bozer was listening.
“Don’t be so sure. By cross-checking the schematics and the signal the watch is emitting; she is in the northwest side of the factory.” Russ and Desi drew their weapons, both nodded and started moving. Mac lingered looking at Riley before they naturally followed their respective protectors.
Desi led while Mac followed behind. The atmosphere of the factory was thick with tension and Mac could feel it. Suddenly, voices ran through the factory and Mac and Desi split in opposite directions.
“Bozer, are you there?” The comms buzzed with static. “Bozer. Damn it.” Mac slowly made his way closer to the noises where he made a bunch of silhouettes in the distance. As he got closer, he heard the voices speaking Arabic, but he was too far away to make out what they were saying. But there was no sign of the girl. Then, the shadow yelled and readied a gun at Mac!
“Watch out!” A voice yelled as a fast-moving man tackled Mac behind cover as the bullets started flying. The ricochets rang as Mac took a good look at his saviour: he was stocky, wearing a red hoodie and had a military sling bag over his shoulder.
“Stay down!” Mac listened to the man’s instructions as he fired back. The second round of gunfire started, but neither of them heard the ricochets from the tank. Once they stopped, the man peeked to see no one was there.
“Mac?!” Desi yelled. The man turned back and Mac got a good look at his face. If it wasn’t for his short beard, Mac swore he looked like a teenager with his brown faded haircut and dark blue eyes. He helped up Mac, but as they turned, Desi drew her weapon on the saviour.
“Whoa, friendly!” He dropped his weapon quickly and didn’t resist. Whoever he was, they were on the same side. Russ and Riley raced to find them and their guest.
“Mac!” Riley raced up and hugged him. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Thanks to him.” Russ became curious about the new player and what he was doing here.
“Who are you?” Desi’s tone put off the new guy.
“Oh, I’m the Doctor. Hello!” Mac and Riley almost burst out laughing when they heard the impression. Russ, while impressed by the imitation, didn’t find it that funny.
“Very funny, but as a British man myself, please refrain from making those kinds of jokes.”
“Hey, it’s a great show, mate.” The man’s accent sounded familiar to Mac. He heard that drawl before, but he can’t remember where.
“Fair enough. Russ Taylor, head of the Phoenix Foundation.” The Phoenix struck a chord with the new guy.
“The Phoenix? Wait a minute, do you work with an Angus MacGyver?” Mac was surprised that the stranger would know his name.
“How do you know my name?” Mac’s question made the stranger’s eyes grow.
“You’re him? Oh, I’ve heard stories about you. Is it true that you used a casino vault to contain a suitcase nuke?” Mac remembered that mission, but it was a Phoenix op. No one else should know about it.
“Who are you?” Mac’s curiosity was now piqued, to which the stranger offered his hand out.
“ASIO Officer Logan Cage. I believe you know my sister, Sam.”
“CAGE?!” Riley and Mac couldn’t believe what they just heard. The man standing in front of them was Samantha Cage’s brother.
Once the place was clear, Matty and Bozer arrived with a full Tac team. Everyone was outside and Matty wanted to know what Cage’s brother was doing there.
“Matilda Webber?” Matty nodded at Logan’s question. “Nice to put a face to the name.”
“So, you’re Cage’s baby brother. I hope you don’t intend on bringing trouble here.”
“Trying to stop it. I’m part of a joint ASIO-JSOC task force tracking a high-value target who made his way to the states a few days ago.”
“Who is the target?” Unfortunately, someone else heard Russ’s question.
“I’m afraid that information is classified.” They all turned around to see an army general walking down towards them. “Private corporations aren’t privy to ongoing military operations.” By the way he was scowling, Russ knew him.
“General Morshower. Nice to see your promotion has brightened your usual disposition.”
“Mr Taylor. What exactly does a private contractor have to do with this operation? Oh, I remember. Nothing.”
“On the contrary. We were tracking Congressman Patterson’s daughter. She was kidnapped less than four hours ago.” Logan found that interesting enough to speak.
“Sounds like our cases have crossed.”
“Well, thank you very much for the intel, Mr Taylor. We’ll take it from here.”
“Whoa, sir. With all due respect, if half of the stories I heard about these guys are true, they are experts in their fields. They can help us.”
“Officer Cage, need I remind you that you were assigned to this Task Force for your medical expertise and your history with the target? Don’t ever speak out of turn with me again or you’ll find yourself back where I found you.” Logan snarled silently and Matty noticed his reaction to the General’s orders. “Move out now.”
“Sorry, guys. Duty calls.” Before he left, he shook Mac’s hand. “Thank you for saving my sister, Mac.” Mac felt something in the handshake and went along with it. As Cage left with the General, Mac and the other huddled around.
“Well, now what? I mean, he ain’t going to be too happy when he learns we’re still working on the case, right?” Bozer knew they were still working the case. Everyone’s faces said it.
“No, he won’t. The general is one of those men who prefer to catch the big fish themselves and run over anyone who gets in his way.” Russ’s assessment of the General was accurate enough for the other to get back into the cars. But once they were inside, Mac tapped on Riley’s shoulder.
“Riles. Here.” He passed her a USB drive.
“Where did you get this?” Riley’s question piqued Russ’s and Desi’s interest as well, but Mac did was look at Cage. Riley was the first to put two and two together. “Damn, he is a Cage.”
“Uh, guys, won’t this cost him his job?” Desi asked.
“Maybe, but he put his faith in us, so let’s not let it go to waste.” Russ’s encouragement was all Riley needed to hear. Once plugged in, the file of a middle-eastern man appeared on her screen. But the thing that caught everyone’s eye was his badly scarred right hand. Worse still, Mac recognised him from his army days.
“That’s DRH.” His grim tone echoed in the car, worrying his teammates.
“Devil’s Right Hand. Oh, bloody hell.”
“Guys, who is-” Riley didn’t finish her question before Mac explained it to her.
“That’s Khalid Al-Hessian, aka Devil’s Right Hand. A nickname he got from not his scarred hand, but also being one of the most prolific bomb makers in the Middle East.”
“Dude doesn’t look that scary.”
“That’s what he wants you to think. His MO is White Phosphorous which not only ignites when it hits the air, the smoke it produces renders most first responder units incapable of rescuing civilians or defending themselves from secondary blasts.” Riley started to feed the dread with Mac’s explanation. Suddenly, an alert came in over the tablet.
“Guys, we have a location on the girl! She’s at the Convention Centre!” Matty’s urgency kicked into high gear, but peeling away, Riley reviewed the footage to see she was wearing an oversized coat.
“Uh, oh. Mac? Does that look like she wearing a-”
“Yep.” Mac didn’t need to say it: The congressman’s daughter was wearing a bomb.
“Guys, I did some digging. This convention is hosting several high-ranking military officials to speak about the use of military drones in the Middle East.” Bozer’s find rang a bell with Russ.
“It’s a strategic target. Military officials were DRH’s target of choice.”
“Devil’s right hand is involved?” Matty questioned.
“Yes, and if we don’t find him soon, a lot of people are going to die.” Taylor’s urgency caused him to develop a sudden lead foot.
THE CONVENTION CENTRE
TIME TO DETONATION: TEN MINUTES
Mac and the others arrive at the convention centre, where hundreds of people swarmed the centre. Riley’s tablet got another alert and saw a different man with a glove on his right hand, but his iris scan matched DRH.
“Guys, he’s here. Hessian is here.”
“Where?” Russ asked as she typed and two screens appeared. One with DRH, the other with the daughter.
“The daughter is on the first floor, walking into the atrium now. DRH is still on the ground level.” Quickly, Russ came up with a plan.
“Mac, Riley, get after the daughter. Desi, you’re with me. Let’s get this bastard.” All three nodded and split up. Mac and Riley raced up the stairs and quickly started scanning faces to find the daughter. Finding the daughter in a maze of people was hard enough, but with a ticking clock, it made the search even harder.
“Mac!” Riley pointed to the farthest entrance and he just saw the daughter enter the convention. They raced after her and after two minutes of weaving through the crowd, they caught up to her.
“Britney!” Mac’s alertness scared her, but she stopped when she saw his face. “Stop! My name is Angus MacGyver. Your father sent us to rescue you.”
“Please, help me! They kidnapped me and-”
“We know, Britney. We know.” Riley calmed her down as Mac got a closer look at the bomb. A suicide vest with more wires than New York Switchboard linking into plastic containers. The style was crude; which was a good and bad thing. It makes it easier to disarm, but one false move and they’ll all be blown to kingdom come.
“Please, get this off of me!” Her panic wasn’t helping.
“Relax, Mac’s got this. He’s done this a hundred times.” The reassurance in Riley’s voice not only calmed Britney down but bolstered Mac’s confidence. He carefully traced each wire in his head to its primary source and figured out how to diffuse it. Pulling out his Swiss Army Knife, Mac slowly retraced the wires and started cutting them one by one.
“Mac! We don’t have DRH! We were chasing a decoy! Get out of there!” Russ’s message came in too late as the terrorist approached them, but Riley was quick enough to intercept him and relieve him of his gun.
“Riles?!” Mac asked in a panic.
“Keep going, Mac! I got this!” She kicked off the terrorist and forced him away from Mac and Britney. As Mac wanted to hurry to help Riley, his focus remained with the bomb. Slowly cutting each wire until it was disarmed and Mac slowly pulled the vest off of Britney and into a trash can. However, once that was done, he turned to see Riley and DRH go over the railing.
“RILEY!” He heard her crash into something on the way down and in a panic, he raced to her side. But the terrorist was getting up and running until a gunshot went off and he collapsed. Mac saw Logan with his gun being flanked by three soldiers, one of which was in bomb gear.
“Secure him now.” The soldiers followed his orders, but he saw Mac and Britney at the stairs. “Mac! Where’s the bomb?”
“Upstairs in a trash can! But, Riley-” He pointed to his fallen partner and the bomb tech ran upstairs. Mac and Cage raced to Riley’s side, flipping her carefully to see her unconscious. Logan quickly started examining her and noticed something was wrong.
“Her pulse is racing.” Logan slipped off his sling bag, opened it up and pulled out a stethoscope. He listened to her breathing and his face had Mac worried. “Diminished breathing on the right side. She has a Tension Pneumothorax. Get her shirt open.” Mac knew what Cage meant: Riley’s chest cavity was swelling like a balloon, putting pressure on her heart. Mac cut Riley’s shirt open and Logan pulled out various medical tools.
“Disinfect her right side.” Cage passed him a disinfectant wipe and once Mac was done, Cage readied a large needle in his hand. He started tracing his fingers from her clavicle and stopped a few centimetres down. He pushed the needle into her chest and slowly pulled the inside of the needle out, causing a hissing noise.
“Air escaping. That’s a good sign. Riley, can you hear me?”
“Riles!” Suddenly, she gasped for air and the two keep her down. “Whoa, Riley. Easy, we got you.”
“Call for an ambulance now!” The paramedics were quick to recover Riley and Mac didn’t wait for permission to go with them.
THE HOSPITAL
HOME OF LIFE SAVING DOCTORS AND BAD FOOD
Mac rode with Riley to the hospital until the doctors rolled her into surgery. He lost track of time, worrying about her and waiting for an update when his teammates, including Logan, found him in the waiting area.
“They haven’t told me anything yet. They wheeled her inside, but they did say if Logan didn’t intervene, she wouldn’t have made it here.” He shot an appreciative look at Logan, who nodded in response. Unfortunately, Bozer ruined the moment by noticing something about Logan.
“Uh, Cage, your foot looks a little funky.” Logan looked down noticing his foot was off centre, almost looking like a penguin.
“Bugger. Thanks, Bozer.” He sat down and rolled up his pant leg, revealing his prosthetic right foot. They looked in shock as Cage realigned it back into place. When he was done, everyone’s stares caught him off-guard until he saw why. “Oh. A parting gift from DRH.”
“Explaining your history with him.” Russ’s deduction was spot on, but not entirely accurate.
“I saved more of his bombing victims than anyone else in the Medical Corps. But the slimy bastard rigged a dead soldier’s body to blow to take me out. Unfortunately, he didn’t count on my best friend shielding me from the blast.” Logan’s story sounded way too familiar for Mac. He lost his CO to a trap as well.
“And you joined the General to stop him?”
“I owed it to Danny.” He got back up as the doctor exited the operating room. Everyone looking at her eagerly for answers.
“We were fortunate to get her here so quickly. She does a few bruised ribs from the impact, but had it not been for the medic who reinflated her lung, it would have been much worse.” A wave of relief washed over everyone. “We do need to keep her here overnight for observation, but you’ll be able to take her home tomorrow.”
“Thank you, doc. We appreciate it.” Mac started breathing easier knowing Riley was okay. He wouldn’t know what he to do if he lost Riley.
“Logan, we can’t thank you enough for saving Riley. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to call.” Matty’s offer did sound tempting to him, but he knew better.
“Nah, I owed you guys for saving my sister, but since we are on the subject, how about a new job? The General got pretty vindictive when he learned I leaked intel to you guys. No good deed, right?” They felt sympathetic to Logan. He saved lives today and he’s getting fired for it.
“I think we can arrange something like that. Right, Russ?”
“Absolutely. A man of your skill-set would be invaluable to Phoenix. Welcome to the family, Mr Cage.” Logan shook his hand, but during the moment, Mac noticed that the whole time they were talking, Desi wasn’t there.
MAC’S HOUSE
HE’S IN FOR A SHOCK
Mac didn’t want to leave Riley’s side, but she wouldn’t be up for several hours, so he drove home to get a change of clothes and grab Riley’s go-bag from her place. He needed to keep his mind occupied from worrying about Riley. Still, it wasn’t all bad: Logan was now a member of the team and someone with his expertise would be a big help.
However, when he rocked up to his home, something worried him again: Desi’s car was missing. First, she was a no-show at the hospital and now, her car was missing. He slowly entered the house, looking around to find nothing was disturbed, but a lot of Desi’s stuff was gone.
“Desi?” His call fell on deaf ears, but he noticed a note on the kitchen table. He swiped off and saw it was in Desi’s handwriting.
“Mac, if you found this note, I’m already gone. I didn’t want to face reality, but too many times it has been staring me in the face and couldn’t accept it. We don’t work anymore. It is clear to me now that we can’t trust each other with our problems and our first response is to hide them. Professionally, we are still friends and I will always have your back in the field. But I can’t live with someone who is in love with someone else. Goodbye, Mac. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
The letter soured Mac’s heart. This was a Dear John letter. He sat on his couch, but he felt guilty. Not because of his relationship collapsing, but because he didn’t feel anything. No anger, sadness, bitterness. Nothing. He wanted the same thing, but Desi beat him to the punch. But that one line cut him deeper than most.
“I can’t live with someone who is in love with someone else.” That one line. Desi knew about his feelings for Riley. He figured he couldn’t hide them anymore, but it still hurt him. Without Desi, Mac could nothing on dwell on his failed relationship… and his feelings for Riley…