Old Friends...Usual Trouble
A/N: I don't own any of the characters that appear in Hogan's Heroes or MacGyver. The story and any other characters are mine.
Chapter 1:
25 October, 1943
Angus MacGyver made his way up the stairs towards his new apartment. He had just returned from an assignment given to him by his friend (and boss) Peter Thornton, the new head of operations at the Phoenix Foundation. His latest assignment had been to gather as much information on the newly created anti-aircraft defences in Messina, Italy. He had come very close to being caught a number of times during his trip but, as luck would have it, he had managed to get away relatively unharmed. Opening the door to his apartment, he picked up the mail that had been shoved under the door and dumped his bag beside the door as he looked around his relatively new place.
Boxes were stacked on top of each other; half still hadn't been opened since he had moved in two months ago. Throwing the mail down on the bench beside the phone, he headed into the bathroom to have a much needed shower and change of clothes. The steam from the hot water clouded the bathroom mirror by the time he turned the water off and changed into his favourite pair of old jeans. Opening the window to let out the steam, he went into the lounge room and collapsed onto the couch.
"Pete!!" MacGyver called again and again as he wandered around the empty building of the Phoenix Foundation. He and Pete were going to meet up with an old friend, Jack Dalton, for drink to celebrate Jack's birthday. MacGyver had gone to get the gift he had left in Pete's office and when he made it back to the lobby, Pete had disappeared. No-one else was in the building, except the security guard and he was nowhere to be seen either. "Pete, knock it off...Where are ya? We're gonna be late enough as it is." He continued to call out as he started to search the third level of the building. The first two levels held no sign of him anywhere.
Time seemed to be passing by faster than normal as he searched every corner of each level – twice. Pete was nowhere to be found. Deciding to call Jack and ask if Pete had gone on ahead without him, MacGyver headed back downstairs to the lobby, this time taking the newly installed elevator. He ran along the hallway and taking another quick look around the room just to be sure, he went around the front desk to the phone and tried to dial the number to Jacks' house. There was no dial tone. He hung up and tried again, still no tone. Frowning he hung up the phone and checked to see if the phone was still plugged in at the switch. Everything was plugged in and in a reasonably good condition – he couldn't see any reason why the phone shouldn't be working. After one last attempt to dial out, he headed for the car. When he was half way across the room, the phone rang loudly. Confused he turned back to the desk and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" He said; He held the phone away from his ear. It was still ringing. "What the...?"
*ring ring*
*ring ring*
He looked around, searching for another phone, there wasn't any other, this was the only phone in the lobby. The other phones were on the other level of the building, but you wouldn't be able to hear them from the lobby.
MacGyver jerked awake and it took a second to realise he had fallen asleep on the lounge and that it was his phone that continued to ring. He rolled off the couch, stumbled as he got to his feet, and went to answer the phone. "Hello??" He asked, trying not to yawn as he answered.
"MacGyver? It's Jennie Hammond." A voice answered; relief evident in her voice.
"Hi Jennie, Is everything alright? What's...?" MacGyver started to ask, concerned at the tone of Jennie's voice on the other end of the line.
"MacGyver, that's why I'm calling." Jennie interrupted him. "It's 12:30pm. When you didn't show up at the office we got worried." He checked his watch, she was right and he was supposed to be at the office 2 hours ago.
"Damn it!" He cursed himself under his breath. "Sorry Jennie, I must have been more tired than I thought. I'll be there soon." He hung up the phone and went to find his shoes and keys. Not an easy thing when you had stuff all over your apartment with hardly any room to move around.
A round of applause alerted Peter Thornton to the appearance of MacGyver returning to the office. He looked up from the latest decoded information that had passed through the Phoenix Foundation. He saw MacGyver as the crowed parted and he made his way towards the office that was now his. MacGyver was in his old jeans, light blue t-shirt and the brown jacket that was rarely out of his reach. Relief flooded through him – accompanied by a slight annoyance. He closed the folder and got up to break up the party before MacGyver was overrun by his colleagues.
"Okay, give him some room to breathe people. We all have work to do, so get to it." He called from his door way. They all groaned but went back to respective jobs without complaint. MacGyver grinned as he entered the office and closed the door behind him. "So how did it go in Italy?" Pete asked. There was no point in arguing about how late it was, MacGyver was here and that's what counted.
"Nice to nice see you to Pete" MacGyver joked.
"You know I'm happy to see you alive and safe MacGyver; that goes without saying." He defended himself
"Yeah, I know."
"So, how did it go? Pete asked again.
"Dangerously." MacGyver pulled out a small, round container from his pocket and handed it over. "I nearly got captured more than once, if it hadn't been for Major Bonacelli; I'd never have gotton out of there."
"What happened? I thought it was supposed to be a simple operation? Go in, find out what you can and get out? No one knew you were there." MacGyver sat down on the chair opposite him.
"I'm not so sure about that Pete. As soon as I got there, it was like I was being followed. And no." He added when Pete looked as though he was going to interrupt. "I'm not being paranoid. Someone knew why I was there." MacGyver looked behind him and out into the office he had just walked through. Everyone seemed to be going about their work.
"Well, whoever it was, they didn't get what they wanted." Pete got up and walked over to the cabinet next to the window and poured himself and MacGyver a drink. The past few weeks had seemed to go on forever and he was glad that it was almost over. London would have the information they needed and everything would settle down just a little bit and go back to being relatively normal. "I'll get this sent to London within the hour. They seemed to want this pretty badly. Did you get a good look at them?" MacGyver took his drink and Pete sat back down, his drink untouched.
"Yeah, but it wasn't easy." MacGyver sighed; leaning back in the chair. "If London decides to make a raid that area, they won't get far without losing a lot of planes. Unless they get that information"
There was a knock on the door and a woman walked inside. She was wearing a light blue blouse and a black knee length skirt. Her light brown hair was tied up into a pony tail. She looked like she was in her late twenties. "Sorry to interrupt." She said apologetically, looking at MacGyver as she spoke. She was holding a manila folder which she quickly handed to Pete. "These just came for you and General Williams is on the phone; He says it's important."
"Thanks Jennie." Pete smiled as Jennie left the room, closing the door behind her with a snap. "Wonder what could be so important that Williams would need to call us..." Pete started to ask MacGyver as the phone rang. Williams was a good friend of Pete's and had been for since college. Although since the war started, they had lost contact and only ever spoke over the phone on the rare occasion that Williams was in the States and needed help.
"Pete Thornton." He said as he picked up the phone. General Williams was in charge of the intelligence operations in London.
"Hi Pete." Williams' voice sounded loud and clear over the phone. "I need your help. We can't leave it to any of our men here because it wasn't exactly official. I'm on my way to back to London, but I need you and MacGyver to come back with me. Do you have time?"
"Where will we meet you?" Pete asked. MacGyver leaned over and automatically past him the pen and paper that he was searching for. "Uh huh...We'll see you soon." Pete hung the phone and looked across the desk at his friend and colleague. "You up for another assignment?"
MacGyver followed Williams and Pete into the Fieldstone air base in London. They had landed ten minutes ago and had only just arrived at the main building where Williams' office was located. They walked through a dozen different corridors. The walls and ceilings were painted in a light gray which did nothing to lift the mood of the people working there. As they were walking through the different areas, he told them what each section was – intelligence, communications, etc. – keeping it simple as possible and not giving any information other than what they needed to know. It took another five minutes before they came to a stop in front of a large brown door with Williams' name on it. Inside, the room was brightly lit and it gave the room a more open feeling – though there was only a small window which overlooked the runway and the planes below.
"I'm sorry I had to drag you both out here on such short notice." Williams said as he closed the door and walked across the room towards the desk. "Not only did I have no other option but I thought that you would want to be involved."
"What's going on?" Pete asked, worried.
"It's Jack Dalton. His plane was shot down the other night and he's been captured by the Gestapo."
MacGyver looked from Williams to Pete and back again, not sure whether he had heard correctly. He knew Jack could get himself into trouble but he never thought that Jack would be able to get into that much trouble so quickly. He had only left America to join the Air Force a month ago. "Come again?" He said.
"He is alive, we know that for certain." Williams quickly assured them both. "We have a contact within the Gestapo and he's assured us that Jack is holding out for the time being."
"What can we do?" Pete asked before MacGyver could even get his thoughts together.
"We need you to go in and get him out." Williams handed each of them a folder and continued. "Those folders have everything we know about where he is being held. You'll need to know as much as possible if you're going in to get him out of there."
MacGyver looked over the first page of information. The location and a rough map of the area surrounding building took up roughly three quarters of the page. Underneath was the officer responsible for Jack's capture: Major Wolfgang Hochstetter. Recently reinstated after an investigation. "When do we leave?" He asked closing the folder and looking up again.
"First thing tomorrow morning." Williams opened a drawer and pulled out a small box. He opened it and held out two sets of dog tags; one for Pete and the other for MacGyver. "You'll need these and uniforms as well. Your cover will be that you're both American Pilots that were on a standard recon mission."
"Trouble just never lets up, does it?" MacGyver joked as he held up the tags that he had been handed.
MacGyver and Pete – dressed in their new American uniforms; MacGyver as a major and Pete as a Lieutenant – walked quickly down the hall. They had been up since dawn, going over the plan again and again, making sure they knew every detail by heart. This was one assignment they wouldn't risk taking a chance on. Jack Dalton had been MacGyvers' friend since the beginning of college. They headed for the doors that led out to the hanger where they were meeting Williams. They were leaving in less than an hour. MacGyver help open the door and Pete stepped through and after looking around, headed over towards the plane Williams was standing next to.
"Morning." Williams said when he saw them walking in his direction. The weather had eased considerably since they woke up five hours ago. "Everything is ready for you. Are you sure you want to go alone? I can arrange an escort for you..."
"Thanks." Pete smirked. The two sergeants who had been working on the plane had now moved away and started to check the other B-17s, which had just arrived after a mission, for any repairs that were necessary. "But its better that we go alone, no-one else can get hurt that way."
"Is there any point in arguing about this?" Williams said. He knew that Pete was right in saying that the less people involved, the better it would be for everyone. "I guess there's nothing left to say except for good luck and stay as safe as possible." They shook hands with Williams and MacGyver climbed into the back of the B-17 while Pete took the pilot seat. Flying always made MacGyver nervous – especially lately.
Pete started up the engines as Williams backed away from the plane and watched from a safe distance. MacGyver pulled out a map and looked for the location of the field where they had arranged to land and meet with the underground agent who had agreed to help. Pete slowly guided the plane out of the hanger and onto the run way. As they gathered speed, MacGyver felt the plane begin to leave the ground and he took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.
MacGyver studied the map as the time passed and they got ever closer to their target. They had been in the air for just over an hour. Every now and then Pete would call out to him and check their heading according to their position on the map; occasionally changing their heading by a few degrees. It was almost time to start the descent over Hamburg // with any luck at all, this will be over in a day or so. // "Okay Pete, time to think about landing." He called, checking his watch.
The plane steadily descended and eventually MacGyver could see the field and heard the sound of the wheels lowering for the landing. Ten minutes later, they touched down on the open field without any trouble. MacGyver hid the maps safely out of sight while Pete turned everything off and awkwardly made his way to the back of the plane to where MacGyver sat waiting for him. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." MacGyver said frowning as he looked around. "Yeah, just a weird feeling I can't seem to shake. That's all." He shook his head, trying to clear it and concentrate on the reason they were there.
MacGyver led the way out of the plane and they both quickly made their way to the cover of the trees at the edge of the field. No one seemed to be near the area at the moment. They couldn't hear any footsteps, voices or anything at all that would indicate another person in the immediate area. "I think I'm getting the same feeling. I thought there was supposed to be someone here to meet us?" Pete said as he looked through the trees and into the woods. As soon as Pete spoke, MacGyver heard something snap.
MacGyver turned around, the sound was faint but it was definitely coming from behind him. He searched for the source until he saw an officer in his early thirties. His black uniform stood out against the green of the trees behind him. MacGyver raised his hands when he saw the rifle pointed at him. "Pete, did ya have to say that" He caught Pete's attention.
"Pete Thornton?" The Gestapo captain asked.
"Depends." Pete said as he glanced at MacGyver. "Who wants to know?"
"I am your contact. Blue Sparrow." He lowered his rifle and stepped forward. MacGyver and Pete both lowered their hands but stood their ground. "My name real name is Hans Schneider. We don't have much time. The Gestapo are right behind me, it will only take minutes for them to catch up to us. Please, you must trust me and go with whatever I say next."
MacGyver heard footsteps and knew that they didn't have a choice but to trust him. Pete, following MacGyver's lead, lifted his hands in the air again just as the others came out of the trees and raised their rifles towards them. // So much for this being over quickly. // MacGyver thought as he looked at the other soldiers that had surrounded himself and Pete. There was nothing they could do now but wait to see if Schneider was really there to help them.
