You can run, but you can't hide
Okay so this popped into my head just the other day and I decided to go ahead and type it. I looked and the fanfic for this show is slim but this story in my head is bugging me so if I don't write it I'll go crazy. So I really hope you enjoy this
Mac POV...
I walked out my front then locked it as and herd a car pull up. I turned and saw Jack zooming up the driveway honking his horn then stopped as I got close to the car, "Yes, yes! What up, braniac?" He asked me getting out and I saw Bozer's robot sitting in the passenger seat
"What up?" I asked and stood in front of Jack, "Bozer was right."
"Huh?" Jack asked me confused
"Sparky's gunning for my job."
"Uh, no, man. Nobody wants your job. It-it kind of sucks. I'm just robot-sitting for Bozer while he's on the mend. We just got back. Where you off to now?" He asked me indicating to my bag
"Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm gonna go find my dad."
"Sounds good, I got nothing going on anyway. Here, give me this." He says and grabbed my bag then threw it in the back of his car, "Not taking no for an answer, I'll drive. Get in the backseat, Tin Man." He tells the robot
"You are aware I cannot yet walk."
"You can take shotgun." Jack says to him
"You sure you want to take him?" I asked Jack
"Well, Sparky deserves a good road trip. I mean, he did save Bozer's life, with that annoying call for help. Besides, this whip doesn't have a GPS, and Robocop's pretty good at poker. For when we want to hit Vegas."
"Vegas is not on the way." I tell Jack
"Vegas is always on the way, dude." He says moving his seat forward for me, I sighed then got in the back, "What kind of road trip doesn't involve Vegas?"
"You might want to consider fastening your seat-belt, MacGyver. Safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to rear occupants by 45%." Sparky informed me
"There is an on/off switch on this thing, right?" Jack asked me
"Oh, yeah."
"Viva Las Vegas. Here we come." Jack says and our phones go off, "Ah come on man!" He groaned then I pulled out my phone reading the message from Matty.
"Calm down, she said it's just a quick meeting."
"Yeah well we both know that no meeting with Matty is ever quick." Jack said and put the car in reverse.
We get to the Phoenix Foundation and walked into the briefing room seeing Matty standing there with Riley and another girl who we didn't know, "Nice of you to finally join us you two." Matty says to us and Jack raised his hands up in question looking at me but I just shrugged, "Dalton, Macgyver this is Valarie Clarke," Matty introduced and the girl gave a small smile, "She is going to be joining our team."
"Wait joining? Like until Bozer gets back?" Jack asked Matty
"No Jack joining as in an additional member to the team." Matty says and I saw Valarie smile a little and I couldn't help but smirk as well, "She's a former Delta Ranger and transferred here from Homeland Security." Matty informed us and I looked at Valarie confused.
"Well um..welcome to the team." I tell her reaching my hand out and she took it shaking it but I when she touched my hand I felt something, like a spark or whatever. I brushed it off as we let go and Jack walked over to her.
"Yes nice to meet you, welcome. Now if you don't mind me asking, why go from Delta Ranger to Homeland Security to a private organization that nobody knows about?"
"Well to completely honest I got bored at Homeland just sitting at a desk and I want something where I can help make a difference and since the Rangers won't take me back Matty recruited me here." Valarie tells him and we all shared a look
"Why wouldn't the Rangers take you back?" I asked her
"That's a story for another time Blondie," Matty tells us and Valarie looked at her, "But for now, as promised you have some time off. So I suggest you go before I change my mind." Matty says and Valarie chuckled
"Alright Mac you hear the lady, let's go." Jack tells me and I give one last look to Valarie before walking out with him, "Can you believe that? Another team member?" Jack asked as we walked through the halls
"Yeah, it's crazy."
"I know. I was just getting used to Bozer." He says and I smiled as we walked out.
2 weeks later...
103 miles off the coast of Florida, there's an island that'll always hold - a special place in my heart. Now, everyone loves the landscape, the food, the music. But what I love most are the people. The Cubans learned how to make do with what they had. And maybe that simplicity of life is why everybody seems so happy here. Well, almost everybody.
The man that has me and Jack tied up punched me in the face...again and I leaned back a little holding in how much it hurt, "You keep punching on the kid, I'm gonna get jealous over here. Where's the love?" Jack asked him and the man moved behind me to him, "And you swing like a little girl." Jack says and I hear him get punched, "Oh! Yeah, that was more manly."
"Mira! Why are you looking for this man, huh?" The man asked and I can only assume he was holding up the picture we had of Murdoc. About 2 weeks ago we got word that Murdoc escaped and was on the run again.
"He's dating my sister." Jack tells him and I rolled my eyes as the man punched him, "Oh! - Oh, my cousin?" Jack asked and gets punched again, "Mi madre?" punched again, only Jack
"Okay, papa. Since you don't seem to know nothing, huh, perhaps I go back to your friend" The man tells him talking about me then as I see out the corner of my that the guy was getting near me I hear Jack start to laugh, "What's so funny, huh?" He asked Jack moving back over to him, "Jack! What's so funny, huh?" He asked again then Jack grabbed him and hit him in the face with his head and the guy falls down
"You know, you could've hit him with your fist." I tell Jack
"I know, but a headbutt sends a much clearer message. Besides, I was only taking all those punches to give your big, swollen brain enough time to figure this out." He says standing up and undoing my hands
"Which I did. You're welcome." I said taking the rope off and stood up
"Yeah, well, it took you long enough."
"Next time, you make a blade out of a button." I tell him holding up the broken button I used to cut his hands free
"Maybe I will." Jack says sarcastically then moved over to the guy, "Hey. Hey, cowboy. Wakey-wakey. Oy! My turn, sweetheart." He says and grabbed the picture, "Listen up, now. This lunatic tried to kill us, so we locked him up. So he sent another lunatic to trash our headquarters and stab our friend. You listening?" He asked smacking the picture on the guys head, "And then just when we thought we were done with this wannabe super-villain, he eats half of Paradise Lost to fake his own death and escape from supermax. So, as you can imagine, we'd like to have a little word with him about that."
"Hey," I said and knelt down next to Jack, "We know Murdoc was here. Where is he?"
"Buenas dias!" Jack yells after kicking the door in, "You Miguel?" He asked and the guy who then began to run away, "Hey, where you going? We just want to have a little chat." Jack yells and the guy got in a convertible and drove off as we ran over to him but he got away "Now what?" Jack asked and I looked at an old motorcycle sitting there with a side car
"This, right here." I tell him running over to it
"Oh, come on, man. What are we supposed to do with this?"
"Well, as long as it runs, right? Get it going." I said running over to a work bench grabbing a few tings then headed back over to the bike Jack was trying to start.
"Be honest. This is what your heaven looks like, isn't it?"
"This is Cuba, Jack. Everything's improvised." I tell him and the bike started
"Whoo!" I get in the side car while Jack climbs on the bike, "Say your prayers, Jack's driving." He says and takes off to follow the car, "Mueve tu trasero! Move! Out of the way! Move!" Jack tells the people on the streets as I began working with the items I gathered up. The car turns down a few streets and Jack follows until we get to a highway. I take the pipe, chain, road flare propellant and the steal rod I had and made a grappling hook then shot it at the car hooking onto it. Then I took the other end of the chain and put it around the wheel Axel of the side car bringing us closer to the car the guy was in then got up and climbed into it as the guy pulled out a gun to shoot me but I moved his hand and dodged it
"Hey! Jack! Hit the brakes!" I yell to him trying to hold back the guys arm
"What?"
"I said, hit the brakes!" I tell him again
"Brakes? What brakes?!"
"Ah, crap! This is gonna hurt!" I pointed out as we saw the side of the bridge getting closer but then suddenly the tires of the car popped and we skidded a little as Jack rolled off the bike then another car pulled up in front of us and Valarie got out pointing her gun at the driver of the car I was in.
"I leave you two alone for 5 minutes and you get into a car chase without me." She says with a smile and I chuckled a little as Jack walked over and grabbed the guy.
"Hey Valarie, not that I don't appreciate the whole "stopping us before we went overboard thing" but could you have made my landing a little softer?" He asked her holding onto the guy.
"Sorry Jack, next time I hot wire a car, steal some nails from a tool box on the back of a truck and pop the bad guys tires so that you don't plummet into the ocean I'll make sure there's a nice pile of feather pillows lined up for you." She says sarcastically and I smiled
"I'm just saying...that hurt a little."
"Oh man up Jack, that can't be the worse thing that's happened to you." She says to him and he looked between us.
"Did you tell her about Cairo?" Jack asked me and I looked at Val who was trying to hold back a smile.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I tell him and he looked back at her
"Ok, later we are having a discussion about this but for now, let's see what our friend here knows." Jack indicated to the guy leading him over to the side walk.
"You hot-wired a car?" I asked Val and she smiles, there was something about that smile that made my heart race.
"Eh, wasn't the first time." She tells me and walked over to Jack.
Val POV...
"Look who's better already." Mac says to Bozer as we walked over to him and Riley giving him a hug as Riley hugged Jack and I just stood there.
"Yeah. It'll take more than a knife-wielding psychopath to stop me. I mean, not much more, but."
"How was Cuba?" Riley asked us
"No bueno. I mean, our Intel was half-right. Miguel did help Murdoc get into the country, but he was just picking up some cash he had hidden, and then he disappeared again." Mac told her and I kind of shifted
"Minor setback aside, I did get to, uh, pick up a box of these bad boys." Jack says holding up a box, What do you say, hero cigar?" Jack asked Bozer
"Uh, thanks, Jack, but the last time I smoked a cigar, I nearly threw up. I'm good."
"Thank you." Riley says and grabbed one
"I knew I should have asked the girl first." Jack says and held the box up to me but I declined as Bozer smacked the box, "Oh, you're gonna end up back in that wheelchair, bubba."
"Mac, is that the watch?" Bozer asked him and I looked over Mac's shoulder from behind him in the back seat
"The watch?" I asked confused
"That watch changed Mac's life. It's the reason he fell in love with building stuff. It was his father's." Bozer tells me and I looked back at the watch.
"My first real memory of my dad, actually, was him popping this thing open. He used to explain all the little parts The cogs, the springs, the gears They all come together to make something greater."
"He didn't keister that thing, did he?" Jack asked and I rolled my eyes
"Jack" Riley warned
"That was a movie." I point out
"That was a good question." Jack says
"No, it wasn't." Bozer tells him
"Anyways, with this watch, my dad taught me that, with the right parts, you could make anything. Even time. And it was about the only thing he took with him when he left." Mac explained
"So you found his watch, but not him?" I asked him and he glanced back at me
"Well, we-we tracked him from his last known location to a hostel in Barcelona, then to a crash-pad in Kiev, which led to a cabin in Patagonia." Jack tells us
"Which is where we found this." Mac held up his hand with the watch on it
"Yeah, and then that's when Matty called us back in to deal with this pain in our ass, Murdoc." Jack says and I tensed a little
"Your dad loved that watch. It's hard to imagine him leaving it behind." Bozer pointed out
"Yeah, I know. When we just weren't talking, that was one thing. But now I mean, not knowing where he is, it's.."
"Yeah. My dad's not winning any "Father of the Year" awards either." Riley says in agreement, "But if he just disappeared, you think something happened to him?" She asked him
"I don't know. That's the worst part of it. It always has been. When I was a kid, I used to wish I would find out that he up and left, started a new family somewhere, so at least I'd have an answer. But now all I have are questions." Mac says and I looked out the window and heard Mac's phone chime, "Jack, turn the car around. Matty needs us."
"I know that everything we do here is highly classified, but what we're about to discuss does not leave this room." Matty says to us walking into the room with another woman following her, "Clear?"
"But-but isn't that what "highly classified" means?" Jack asked and I rolled my eyes
"Jack" Matty warned
"Okay, if we say yes, will you tell us who she is?" Jack asked her
"Samantha Cage, CIA." the woman tells us
"The accent says otherwise." Jack pointed out
"I was SAS 4-Squadron before the CIA offered me a job."
"4-Squadron? That's the covert ops unit of Australian Intelligence, yeah?" Mac asked her
"That's right."
"I'm impressed." Bozer says
"You don't even know what that is, Bozer." I tell him
"True. But it sounds secret agent-y."
"Agent Cage's specialty is intel extraction. What Riley can do to a computer, she can do to a suspect. Hack their hard drive." Matty tells us
"Oh, that's adorable. But yours truly is already well-trained at interrogating hostiles as well as this one over here," Jack says indicating to me, "If I need info out of somebody who's being stubborn, I can usually just rearrange their face."
"Oh, that's adorable, but, you see, I prefer methods that actually work."
"Such as?" I asked her
"Let's just say I can be your best friend or your worst nightmare." Cage says and I nod in approval
"I like her." I said and both her and Mac smiled at me. I glanced at him and gave a small one back, I didn't know what it was about him but whenever I saw him my heart raced a little.
"So why are you here?" Bozer asked her defensively and we all looked at him, "Hey, the last time Matty introduced us to a new face in the Phoenix, I wound up with 20 stitches. What's this about?"
"Two years ago, I sent a SEAL team on a classified mission to the Middle East. Mission went sideways, team was ambushed. Everyone got out, except one," Cage tells us and Matty brings up a picture on the screen, "Lieutenant J.G. Samuel Diaz's transport was hit by an RPG. His body was never found. He was considered K.I.A, until now. Ten days ago, Diaz's parents were contacted by a small terrorist cell claiming that their son is still alive, and demanding $5 million for his release."
"So, they had him for two years, and they're just now asking for ransom?" Riley asked her
"My superiors had the same question: why now? I think they've been moving Diaz from one spider hole to another to keep us from finding him. When the search died down, they decided they want to cash in."
"Maybe. But every agency in the Five Eyes has looked into this. Not one could find proof of life. The official position of the U.S. government is that this is a hoax. A terror cell looking to capitalize off of a dead SEAL." Matty adds
"But if they're wrong, then Diaz is still alive, and no one's coming to save him." Mac pointed out
"Nobody but us, right?" Jack asked
"When the CIA denied my official request to lead a rescue mission, I followed a few leads on my own, came up empty, and then decided to call an old friend. Even if this is a hoax, I need to see it through for Diaz's parents." Cage says
"They're so desperate for answers, they've set up an online funding page, hoping to raise the $5 million."
"...losing a child. Samuel needs our help now, all of our help, to bring him home safely." Mr. Diaz says on the video
"I want us to run the rescue mission that our government won't. Okay? But since this has already been refused through official channels.." Matty starts to say
"It's gonna have to be way off the books." Jack mentioned
"And you can't order us to help, so..." Riley adds
"So we all need to volunteer." Bozer finished
"Look, I..I know you guys just met me, and I'm aware that this is a lot to ask, but I wouldn't be here if I had anywhere else to turn." Cage tells us and I looked at the screen
"I hate asking for money but this is our son. And no matter what, I will never give up on my son." Mr. Diaz begged on the video and I see Mac stare at the video
"I'm in." He says
"Leave no man behind. Yeah, I'm down." Jack adds
"All right. I'm in." Riley agreed
"Yeah. I'm in too." Bozer says
"Let's bring this guy home." I tell her and Cage smiled at all of us
"Agent Cage, looks like you got yourself a team." Matty tells her
"Thank you. Thank you." She says to us
"Hooyah." Jack said
As me, Mac, Cage sat down on the jet I see Cage looking at Jack who was pacing back and forth looking nervous and Cage looked at Mac and I confused, "We're flying over Egypt. Jack hates Egypt. We had a thing in Cairo, and he's clearly still working on it." Mac told her
"Sounds like a story I should hear."
"No, no, sorry. No. We don't talk about Cairo. He knows that. We never talk about Cairo, especially not when we're flying directly over Cairo. Just shut up." Jack says standing next to the seat I was in
"You shut up." Mac says and I smirked at him
"I'll get it out of you eventually. People always tell me what I want to know." Cage pointed out
"Yeah, well, pack a sack lunch there, sweetheart. It's gonna take you a while. Listen. Hey, you know what, when we get back, we're gonna have to talk to Matty about designating that area a "no fly" zone." Jack tells Mac sitting down next to me
"What, the whole country?"
"Sure, why not? Tell you what, throw in the border countries, too, just to be safe." Jack said and looked out the window
"So, whose watch is that?" Cage asked Mac, "Old watch, new band, and every time you want to know the time, you're checking your phone."
"Matty's right. You're good." Mac pointed out to her
"Hey. As long as we're playing 20 questions there, missy, you sure are going through a lot of trouble to find a missing Navy SEAL. And there's not even proof he's even alive." Jack says to her
"I'm yet to hear a question buried in all that innuendo, Jack."
"Oh, I think you know what the question is." Jack says
"He's working his way up to asking if you and Diaz were together." I tell her and Jack pointed his thumb at me nodding in agreement
"So just because I want to save a man means I must have been sleeping with him. I don't fish in the company pond. I never get into relationships with men or women who I work with. Ever." She says and that shut him up
All of us lad underneath the hay in the back of a truck when suddenly it stopped and I hear rustling, just then the blade of a knife poked through luckily going in between my legs and I tried not to flinch then the truck moved again. After a short while it stopped and we all popped up out of the hay after the driver tells us something in Turkish, "This is as far as he'll take us." Cage informed us and I moved some of the hay off me and stood up seeing Mac's hand reach out to help me down which I took.
"That's fine by me this hay smells like the south end of a northbound mule. Plus, I'm getting eaten alive down here." Jack says as I did my best to get all the hay off of of me, "I forgot how much I hate the creepy-crawlies in Turkey."
"We almost got stabbed, and that's what you're worried about?" Mac asked him
"I didn't say I was worried. Dude, you're wearing a purse." Jack points out
"Guys, let's move we got to find another vehicle fast." I tell them
"Yay! More walking." Jack points out as Mac shut the hood to a car and moved on to another one, "So, uh, what's the story, Ms. Cage? If you and this Diaz kid weren't dating which you've made abundantly clear then, uh, why are you doing all this?" Jack asked her and I moved over to Mac as he looked at another car
"Diaz was part of the first SEAL team the CIA paired me with. 2013. He could tell I was new to the sandbox, and he had my back He saved my life more times than my ego would like to admit."
"Yeah. Samantha, you do realize that there's a chance that this ransom is a hoax? Two years is a very..." Mac started to tell her but she cut him off
"Yeah, it's a very long time. But either way, his parents will get the truth, and I'll get a chance to find the bastards trying to profit off his death, and break their bones."
"So, what's this look like?" Jack asked Mac indicating to the car we were at
"You know what, I think I actually can fix this."
"Yeah?" Jack asked
"Yeah."
"Looks kind of beyond repair." Cage brought up and I smiled
"Unless you got some bubble gum and a paper clip. Right, Mac?" I asked him
"Or an M-134." He says and moved over to the grass
"What?" Jack asked and Mac picked up an old machine gun that must have fallen off of a truck and took it apart then put some of the pieces into the engine of the car. He got in and tried starting it, after a couple more tries it worked.
"Yeah! Nice!" Jack says
"Where did you learn that? The Army?" Cage asked him
"A 12-year-old kid in Havana."
"Uh-oh. We got company, y'all." Jack tells us and we seeing a military truck start to drive by and i see Cage take her scarf and put it over her head
"Jack, give me your gun." She tells him
"Huh?"
"Give me your gun. Give me your gun." She says grabbing it then pointed it at us, "Get down." She tells us kicking Jack in the leg and he went down then me and Mac followed as the two men ran over to us. Cage tells them something in Turkish then they ran off, "Quick, let's go before they realize I speak in an accent." She said handing Jack back his gun
"That was one badass Jedi mind trick there, lady."
"Come on." She urged us
"Nice work." Mac says and she moved to the back of the car
"Drive!" She demanded and I got in the back seat behind Mac as Jack got in the driver's with Cage behind him.
"Hey, Matty, we got eyes on the compound that Riley tracked the terrorists to." Mac informed her over the radio
"Yeah, it's a two-story building with bars on every window, and what looks like heavy-gauge locks on every lower-level door." Jack adds
"All the security upgrades you'd want if you were holding a high-value American hostage." Matty pointed out
"So, how are we supposed to get in there?" I asked
"Yeah, and how are we getting in without them hearing? Breaching any of the windows and doors is gonna make a lot of noise." Cage mentioned
"I think I know how we're gonna do this." Mac says and I looked at him as he looked behind us, "Follow me." He said and we run over to the metal fence, "I need you three to grab the back of the pole so that you can anchor me."
"Anchor you for what?" Cage asked him
"I wouldn't ask that. Trust me. I've learned just to have blind faith. Maybe you should shut your eyes that'll help." Jack says and I rolled my eyes
"Jack.." I warned as him and Mac lifted up the metal pole of the fence and we walked back over to the building
"All right. All right, so, you guys are gonna walk the end of the pole away from the building, put as much pressure on it as you can, then run straight towards the building, pushing up." Mac informed us
"I'm gonna feel a whole lot more comfortable if I understood what we're actually doing, you know?" Cage mentioned
"Oh, uh, you guys are gonna help me overcome Earth's gravitational pull. So three forces to consider. Obviously, gravity, second one's friction..."
"Never mind. Let's just do this." Cage says then me, her and Jack bring the pole out and face one end to the building, "Here good?" She asked Mac
"Mm-hmm."
"Jack, Valarie you ready?" She asked us and I nodded my head as Mac held onto the far end of the pole, "Three, two, one." She tells us and we push the pole forward as Mac climbed up the wall and made his way onto the balcony. After a short bit Mac opened the door for us and I pulled out my gun.
"Let's clear the place." Jack says and I handed Cage my spare gun as we walked through the door, her and Jack went to a couple rooms on one end of the building while me and Mac went the other way.
"Clear." Cage says
"Yeah, we're clear down here." Jack adds and I looked into another room
"Clear here as well." I tell them then we headed up the stairs with Jack in front followed by Cage then me then Mac.
"Hands in the air!" Jack yells as we come up on a room and Cage yelled what I guessed as the same thing in Turkish at the people sitting around a table but as we got closer we noticed that the men sitting there were dead
"Well they definitely got the "don't move" part down." Mac pointed out
"And I think I know why." Jack says and pushed on of them forward with his gun, "Two shots, center mass. Each and every one. Look at that."
"They couldn't even get a shot off. Whoever did this was fast." Cage pointed out and I looked around
"Could've been three or four killers the way they got the jump on 'em. But notice what's missing?" I asked stating the obvious
"Shell casings." Cage answered
"Yeah, they picked them up. We're not dealing with rookies here, Mac. These guys are pros." I mentioned
"Yeah, but which pros? Foreign agents or a rival terrorist cell?" He asked walking over to an empty book shelf, "Hey." He whispers and we look at him, "There's a room behind here." He indicated then me, Jack and Cage make our way over raising our guns as Mac opened the door and Cage ran in first
"Diaz?" She asked but when we walked in we didn't see anyone but chains on the wall and a mattress
"Well, someone was here, but we can't be sure who." Mac pointed out
"Yeah, we can." Cage said and knelt down in front of the wall
"You sure about that?" Jack asked her
"331 was Diaz's BUD/S class. He was here."
"So now a new group of bad guys has our good guy, and we have no idea where they're taking him." I brought up
"Or what they plan on doing with him." Mac says
"So Diaz is alive, but the bad guys who had him are dead?" Riley asked over the radio
"Then who has him now?" Bozer asks as well
"Worse guys." Mac answered
"How'd they even know where Diaz was?" Jack asked
"It doesn't matter. What matters is we find him." Matty tells us
"Not that you guys can see, but from where I'm sitting, they left some big cyber footprints. Mac and Val's phones just did a digital handshake with a Wi-Fi router. And that same router just shook hands with four burner phones just over 23 hours ago." Riley informed us and Cage moved over to a computer then held up the router
"Well, can you trace those phones and find out where they are now?" Jack asked Riley
"It's a fortress. It's probably got a moat and a drawbridge. Look at that thing, man." Jack points out to Mac indicating to the building Riley traced the phone to.
"Actually, it's a hisar." Mac mentioned and we all looked at him confused, "It's one of the castles built by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between 1299 and 1453 A.D."
"Great."
"Did you just mansplain to him?" Cage asked
"It's not mansplaining if it's man to man it's just 'splaining. And don't worry, he's gonna do the same thing to you, trust me." Jack told her
"Not if he wants to keep all his fingers."
"Well, I'm not trying to, I just know a lot of stuff." Mac says and I smirked
"Okay, so, Jack might be wrong historically, but he's right tactically. Whatever this place used to be, it's a fortress now." I point out
"Well, I think you mean a hizzar." Jack says
"Hisar." Mac corrected
"And if we had proof Diaz was alive in there, we could call for reinforcements." I finished
"So we just need eyes on the inside." Mac told us and headed towards the little village in front of us and we followed
"Look." Jack tells him and we see a few kids kicking around a makeshift ball
"Ah, no, no, stay." Mac tells us and headed towards them
"Mac, what are.." Cage began to ask but Jack stopped her
"No, no, just let him be weird. Trust me." He said and we saw Mac give the ine kid some money then he came back over with the ball
"Okay, here. Jack, I need a cell phone."
"He needs a cell phone. Let's go." Jack says to Cage who reached into her pocket and grabbed her phone
"I'm not getting this back, am I?"
"Here you go." Jack says handing Mac the phone and he took it apart adjusting the camera then cut a slit into the ball stuffing the phone inside and closed it
"Now, we just need to get it into one of those windows." Mac says
"I can do that." Jack told him and grabbed the ball moving forward and Cage followed
"Uh, guys, guys." Mac calls after them, "Guys! Guys!" He says and we follow
"I played, uh, soccer from the time I was four all the way through college." Cage pointed out to Jack
"Yeah? Yeah? And I was the kicker for my middle school football team, okay? I once had six field goals in one game. That's a division record."
"Sweet." Cage says and took the ball, "You did say middle school, though, right?"
"Hey. Lady.." Jack said and Cage stopped
"Hey, you're drawing attention." I tell them but they ignored me
"Lady"?" Cage questioned and Jack walked over
"Settle this like adults, okay?" Mac says pulling Jack to the side
"Okay, fine." Jack held up his hand in a fist to do Rock, Paper, Scissors
"Not exactly what I had in mind." Mac mentioned and looked at me but I just shrugged shaking my head then Jack beat Cage so he grabbed the ball
"Give me that thing." He put it on the ground then backed up, he took a moment then went forward kicking it but missed, Cage and I tried to hold back a smile as he muttered then someone threw the bal back to him and he set it down
"You know what, Jack?" Mac says to him
"No, no, just one more."
"This is serious." Mac tells him and Cage moved forward
"My turn, Beckham."
"Be my guest." Jack told her and she ran forward kicking it and it went through the window. After a moment we see the door open and a man wearing a turban over his face walked out and said something to the kids then headed back inside.
"Okay, Riley, let's see if this video is good for something aside from making me nauseous." Matty says over the radio
"Hold on. I think I got something." Riley told us and we looked at Mac's phone seeing a prisoner tied to a chair
"That's him. Diaz. He's alive." Cage tells us and I put my hand on her shoulder
"What about the people holding him Can you help us I.D. them?" Matty asked Riley
"Yeah, most of them are wearing keffiyeh to hide their faces.."
"There's one." Bozer said cutting her off and we looked at the one guy on the video who's face wasn't covered, "Looks like he might be the guy in charge."
"That's the Ten of Spades." Jack pointed out
"Yeah, now is not the best time for card tricks, Jack." Riley told him
"No, it's not a card trick, Riley, okay? When they sent us to Iraq in '04, they gave us all decks of cards so we could memorize the faces of high-value targets. Iraqi Minister of Defense was the Eight of Hearts. Saddam was the Ace of Spades, and that barrel of monkeys right there, he was the Ten."
"Tahir Ali al-Tikriti: Acid Ali. A commander in the Iraqi Republican Guard and the last uncaptured war criminal of Saddam's regime. We've got everyone else in the deck, but the Ten of Spades was never found." Cage added
"If we play our cards right, we can get him right now." Mac mentioned
"Now that we have proof of life, I can get a SEAL team here in six hours." Cage brought up
"I don't think we have that long." Riley tells us, "I was able to stabilize a little more of the video. And I don't think our Ten of Spades is planning on demanding ransom."
"Guys, we don't have time to wait for the SEALs. He'll be dead in two hours." Matty says
"We have to rescue Diaz now. Before they kill him with the whole world watching." I point out
"Riley, we need a map of this place." Mac told her
"A map you can get on Wikipedia. I'm getting full schematics of all defensive upgrades since this hisar was built."
"How come everybody knows that but me?" Jack asked and I patted him on the back
"Okay, almost there."
"Almost? Do I need to remind you of the clock we're on right now, Riley?" Jack asked her
"No, Jack. Do I need to remind you I'm hacking the secured network of a foreign government in a language I don't speak?" She asked him
"No."
"But also I'm in." She says and we looked at Mac's phone
"Okay. So we're looking at a 6,000 square foot building, with two levels, not including the basement." Mac says
"And 13, 14, 15 rooms, which is bad because Diaz could be in any one of them." Bozer added
"There's a room in the center of the basement, no windows, one door." Riley mentioned
"Perfect place for a hostage." I mentioned
"Best way breach is gonna be to parachute under the cover of night." Jack says
"Except we don't have a parachute, a plane, or, you know..." Cage started to say but he cut her off
"Don't be negative, okay? I'm just spit-ballin', okay?"
"Hey, uh, Riley. My Turkish is a little rusty. Can you translate that text?" Mack asked her
"All right, it says, 'The foundation was repaired in 1998 using the beam and base underpinning method."
"Thank you, Bob Vila. How does that help us?" Jack asked
"Well, the Ottomans did build a lot of their castles on top of even older Roman ruins." Mac brought up
"Does he always give a history lesson?" Cage asked
"Yes, but that's a good thing, - because it always leads to him saying..." I started to explain
"I have an idea."
"And there it is." I tell her with a smile
"Beam and base underpinning is a method of foundation reinforcement, used when the ground beneath the building is unable to bear the load." Mac informed us, "Riley, switch the satellite to radar imagery." He told her and the image on Mac's phone switched
"Are those?" Bozer began to ask
"Tunnels." Riley says
"Catacombs," Me and Mac said at the same time and he smiled at me then finished,"..technically. The Romans built them everywhere. So instead of going in from above at night, I'm going in from below right now."
"The closest entry is three miles away. What's your plan? To just walk in and carry him out?" Cage asked him
"Oh, no. Walking would be too slow. I'm gonna have to swim. But I'm gonna need a big distraction up top to cover what I'm doing down below."
"We just touched down, Bozer's en route." Riley informed us over the radio as me and Cage walked back into the warehouse that Mac and Jack were in
"Copy that." Cage tells her
"We were able to get enough clothes for Jack, Bozer, Valarie and I from a local farmer. How's it going here?" Cage asked them
"Yeah, good. I'm just finishing up with this thing." Mac told her and I looked at what Jack was mixing together
"What is this?" Cage asked and I glanced over at them
"It's a, uh, diver propulsion vehicle. Well, it's my quick and dirty version of one. It's how I'm gonna get through the three miles of catacombs so quickly."
"But the catacombs aren't underwater." I mentioned
"No, they're not, not yet. Jack, how's it coming over there?" Mac asked him
"Oh, well, it stinks to high heaven, but it's getting really thick. Look at that."
"Well, you're not supposed to inhale the fumes, "A", and "B," thick is good. That means it's ready." Mac told him and grabbed the stick from him
"That looks like C4." Cage said
"Uh, it's not exactly C4, but it's not too far off, either. I couldn't find what I needed laying around, so I had to make do." Mac says and pured some out onto newspaper then wadded it up putting it into a can with a fuse, "Here you go." He handed it to Jack, "And Jack.."
"Don't agitate the explosive. Yeah, I got it."
"No. It's not shock sensitive. I was just gonna say, "hurry." Mac told him
"Oh."
"As in "hurry." Go. Go." Mac said and Jack ran out of the building then Mac poured the rest into another can
"Where exactly do you want me to put this thing again?" Jack asked over the phone
"Equidistant."
"Equi what?" Jack asked and I rolled my eyes as me, Mac and Cage made our way back to a sewer in the middle of the road.
"In the middle, between the two I-beams." I told him
"Yeah, yeah. Okay."
"Hey, Mac, wait." Cage says stopping him after we opened the sewer cover, "Uh Look, I-I dig your whole hero vibe. Really, I do. But you, Valarie and Jack have gone above and beyond and it really should be me going down there."
"I promised I'd get Diaz back, too. Besides, if this breaks down, I'm the only one who can fix it." Mac pointed out
"Okay. Your Campbell's Chunky Boom Boom's in place." Jack says running out of the woods towards us," What's next?"
"Uh, yeah, just help me get down here with all the stuff." Mac told him and he sits down with his feet hanging into the hole
"We've got 30 minutes till they live-stream Diaz's murder. You sure that's enough time?" Cage asked him
"It's gonna have to be. That shaped charge is gonna punch a hole in the dam and it's gonna flood the catacombs. Then after about 20 minutes, that pressure's gonna widen the hole."
"Then the whole damn dam comes down." I point out
"And if I'm not back by then, or if I'm wrong about any of this, Diaz and I both drown." He told her and I felt a sinking feeling in my gut, "See why it should be me?" He asked her then lowered himself into the catacomb, "Jack."
"Yeah, it's coming." Jack said and handed one of the items down to Mac and I dropped down the oxygen tank, "Mac? Good luck down there."
"All right. Front entrance has three guards, all armed. Two on the roof, two in the courtyard." Bozer informed us over the radio
"Copy that. Stay put and stay safe, Bozer. We don't need anybody else putting any more holes in you, man." Jack told him as we walked through the market and we come up on a guard.
"Pardon?" Cage asked but the guard yelled something at her in Turkish and she punched him as two others wnet for me and Jack. I grabbed the guards arm moving the gun away then hit him in the gut and pulled his gun out of his hands then hit him across the head with it knocking him out then gunshots went off so me and Cage ducked down returning fire.
"Well, that didn't go as planned." Jack pointed out joining up with us as we continued firing at the other guards, "But we got their attention, now let's keep it."
"Okay. Package is in hand." Mac informed us as me, Jack and Cage made our way into the building
"Yeah, copy that, Mac." Jack told him
"Ready for..." Mac started to say but we heard gunfire over the radio then heard nothing, I only hoped he was making his way back
"Mac has got the package, and he's heading for exfil." Riley informed us
"Hey, we're about to bail on this party, Cage. You ready?" I asked her
"Oh, yeah. Cover me." She said and we ran out across the hall shooting at the guards, Jack killed one and I went to return fire on the other one but he shot his gun and the bullet hit me in the shoulder.
"AHH!" I yelled falling down but then Cage and Jack quickly picked me up while Jack shot back killing him and Cage helped me to the room next to us while Jack went into a different room.
"Guys, let's go. We got to hurry." Jack told Mac and Diaz lowering his arms into the hole with Bozer and Cage holding his feet while I stood guard holding a rag to my shoulder. Just then Jack lifted Diaz out of the hole.
"Any chance you got a rope up there?" I hear Mac asked and Jack lowered himself in again
"Next best thing, bud. Meet me halfway. Come on!" Jack told him and after a moment Jack gets pulled back with Mac holding onto his arms and I sighed in relief
"You ok?" I asked him as we began to run but he stopped
"I'm fine but what happened to you?" He asked indicating to my shoulder.
"Target practice gone wrong." I joked and he looked at me, "I'm fine, it doesn't hurt that bad." I lied and he shook his head, "We gotta go though come on." I tell him and we ran to the others.
"Lieutenant Diaz is home with his family right now, and as far as I'm concerned, the four of you are heroes." Matty informed Jack, Cage, Mac and I as we stood in the briefing room, "But not everybody agrees with me. And those who don't feel that you four broke the rules and you need to be punished. Oversight has informed me that I need to officially warn you three about your role in this mission." She tells me, Mac and Jack
"An official warning? That's it? It's just an official warning?" Mac asked looking at me and Jack
"Dude, I got so many warnings on my record, I've lost count." Jack pointed out
"It'll go in your permanent file." Matty told him
"So what?"
"Not sure why you'd wear this as a badge of honor, Jack. But, yeah, you're right. It's a slap on the wrist for you three." Matty says
"Well, yeah. What about Cage?" I asked her
"Unfortunately, the penalty for Cage is more severe. The CIA is officially discharging you, effective immediately. You may be brought up on charges. Could mean jail time."
"Well, I knew that was a likely outcome." Cage mentioned
"But you went anyway." Mac pointed out to her
"Yeah. And I'd do it again."
"So now that you're unemployed, would you like a job?" Matty asked her
"What?" Jack asked in shock, "Hey, whoa. Now wait a second. That is a group decision. Okay, we're a team, need a big group dinner, maybe get around - a big table, with some..." He started to say but Mac hit him on the chest
"I like it. What do you say?" Mac asked her
"Well, a job wouldn't mean much if I'm in jail."
"Don't worry about that. I have a plan." Matty told her
"When do I start?"
"Right now." Matty says and I smiled at Cage
"That really hurt, though." Jack says to Mac as we walked out of the room
"Relax." Mac says and Jack walked away then Mac stopped me, "You sure you're okay?" He asked me indicating to my arm that was in a sling
"I'm fine," I tell him with a chuckle, "Why are you so worried?" I asked him with a smile and he shifted
"I just...don't like seeing you get hurt...or...well anyone really." He says and I smiled shaking my head
"I'm okay, trust me." I tell him and he nodded his head.
I get back to my apartment and shut the door then locked it, after I put my bag down I walked over to my fridge to grab a water but stopped when I saw a piece of paper sitting on my counter with my name on it. I looked around then walked over to it picking it up and my blood went cold.
You can run, but you can't hide.
I read then crumpled it up throwing it away then checked all my windows making sure they were locked then chained my door. I leaned against it panting as my heart raced with fear. It was happening again.