AN: At long last, here is my freakishly long tag to 3x20, No-Go + High Voltage + Rescue. Obviously, it goes AU. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!
And to think that Mac had been so scared of falling to his death only hours earlier, calling out for Jack in his mind, wishing his rock would be there when he opened his eyes to tell him that it was okay, that everything was going to be okay. Climbing that tower seemed like a cuddly puppy compared to the fear he felt now, but Mac couldn't stop himself from thinking those same thoughts about Jack. He was gagged, with his hands tied much too tightly behind his back, and his ankles tied together too, and was he in the back of a van, on his way with two others to some psycho who thought it was okay to own human beings. They'd taken his knife, and he lost his comms somewhere during the transfer from the farmhouse to the van. At least Desi and the others were going to be okay. Riley had probably been about to say that they were there to save them. This was absolutely not how the plan was supposed to go.
EARLIER THAT DAY
"You've got a black van headed your way," Matty said in Mac's ear. He immediately started looking around for escape routes, and noticed that Desi had her hand on her gun, doing the same.
"Don't move," came his dad's voice in the comms. "Your best plan is to let yourselves be captured, and have Riley and Bozer follow you back. So Agent Nguyen, get rid of your guns and don't resist. Don't fight them, Angus, only struggle enough to make it convincing."
Mac's eyes went wide. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We still don't know what they're taking these kids for." Who knew, it could be some human sacrifice ring and he and Desi were about to be viciously slaughtered. It was unlikely, but still.
"Stop arguing and do as you're told, Angus. This is the play," Oversight scolded, causing Mac to flinch. Still, he looked over at Desi and saw her tossing her guns, a frown on her face. She clearly didn't like plan either.
"I hope you're ready for this," Desi muttered under her breath as two guys in ski masks rounded a corner and began to approach them. Mac nodded, then did his best to look surprised at the men, scared even. He put his hands up and backed away a bit.
"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, playing dumb. Desi looked around with panicked eyes, playing the same. But Mac couldn't put away his instincts when he felt someone grab him from behind. He elbowed the guy and turned to fight, but everything was a blur. He and Desi held their own for a moment, but in order for Oversight's plan to work, they had to let themselves be caught. With a quick moment of eye contact, Mac and Desi let each other know that it was time to fake losing. Despite the panic it caused him, Mac let himself be held from behind, but he didn't have to act when he was tased.
The blinding pain disoriented him enough that he wasn't acting anymore when the man tossed him over his shoulder. It wasn't difficult at all to not fight back when that pain was still fading. But then he was being moved again and he was on the ground and his hands were being tied, then he was being dragged to his feet and pushed forward, and he still wasn't acting anymore. It took another few seconds for him to get his coordination back, and by that point, he and Desi were being shoved into the back of a van, then the blinding pain was back. Mac may have screamed at the second round of tasers, because the pain was just building and it was so intense and wow he really hated being tased. In his new disorientation, one of the men held him down while another slipped a gag over his mouth, preventing him from calling out. A quick glance at Desi showed that she was in the same situation. But this was okay, this was all part of the plan, right?
As he lay in the back of the van, Desi a few feet beside him, also struggling to get her breath back, Mac could hear Riley and Matty in his ear.
"We know you can't respond, but we're tracking you through your comm signal," Matty said. She didn't sound that concerned, but Riley did.
"You guys are doing great," came Riley's voice through comms. "Bozer and I are trying to tail, but there's too much traffic." She sounded slightly panicked, but like she was trying not to let it bleed through into her voice.
"We still have your comm signals, it's fine," his dad said, sounding annoyed. Honestly, Mac had forgotten that his dad was even in the war room with Matty. But he'd really been stepping it up recently, and it really seemed like he actually cared about Mac. It was true that he still hadn't actually apologized for anything, but did that really matter? Maybe Mac should just get over it. Everyone seemed to think he should get over it, his dad included, so maybe he was the one who was wrong and needed to just get over it. Besides, his dad bought him lunch and had been talking to him more, so maybe they were right. That's what dad's did, right?
"We can't get around this," Bozer said, sounded even more panicked than Riley. Mac tried to slow his breathing and keep himself calm. There was nothing he could do about any of that.
"At least I found out who owns that van. Derek Diresta is the proud owner of several creepy stalker vans," came Riley's concerned voice through comms. "I'm looking him up on the dark web now. I'll see if I can find any reason why he's been kidnapping backpackers." All Mac could do was try to keep his breathing steady while he waited for Riley to supply him and Desi with any relevant information on their captors. After another minute, she finally continued, saying, "the dark web encryptions are too strong to figure out where they came from, but Diresta recently received orders for some English speakers, scheduled to leave today. From what I've found, Diresta is a human trafficker, selling people for forced labor, domestic servitude, and exploitation all around the world. So Mac, Desi, whatever you do, don't speak any English. We don't want them to sell you guys before we get there, but this traffic is making it impossible, and there's not enough tech out here for me to hack my way around this."
Mac swore internally when he realized that it was too late, he had already spoken English in front of these guys. Maybe they would forget? All he could do was hope.
"He must be using the no-go challenge as a cover to abduct people who won't really be looked for," Matty added. "If everyone thinks that they just went missing doing stupid stuff, they won't even consider foul play like this." She was totally right, it was the perfect cover.
"You're gonna have to stand on your own for a few minutes," Bozer said. "A stupid semi-truck and a red light made us lose the tail, but we're still comin' for you!" He sounded scared, but like he didn't want Mac and Desi to know that. Bozer was always bad at hiding his emotions. Besides, like his dad said, they still had their comm signals, so they would be fine.
Only a few minutes later, the van came to a halt. Mac tried to keep up the act of the scared, abducted tourist, and not the highly trained operative surveying the premesis, while he and Desi were dragged out of the van and roughly pulled into an old farmhouse. From what Mac could see, there were no-go maps from several different continents all over one of the walls. He and Desi were quickly marched down to the basement, despite their fake struggles, where their already bound hands were further secured to the piping. During the process, Mac felt his comm loosen. He needed to move slowly, or else he might lose it entirely. Once Mac couldn't move at all, the traffickers finally decided it was time to search them. Mac tried not to flinch too much as rough hands moved all over his body, much more than they needed to, and removed his Swiss army knife. They did the same to Desi.
There were other kids in the basement too, including Ben and Isabelle, all around Mac's age, give or take a few years. Desi looked to be the oldest out of them all, and the youngest was probably in his early college years. They clearly came from all around the world, but they had one thing in common: they were all terrified.
Their gags were removed, but Mac wasn't stupid enough to speak in English after hearing what Riley said. Their comms were still active, and Mac thanked God for that.
"¿Qué quieres?" Mac asked the man who removed their gags - was this Diresta? Mac had no way of knowing - his voice shaking a bit. That wasn't entirely an act. Riley and Bozer wouldn't be able to get to them to for a while longer, and the traffickers were taking English speakers soon. He and Desi were in real danger if they found out that they were Americans - Mac ignored the voice in his head that told him it was too late, he already spoke perfect English to them in an American accent. He had to try, or he would be in even more trouble. Getting taken to the farmhouse was part of the plan, getting shipped off to some psychopath was not.
"English speakers," the man replied with a scowl, looking between him and Desi. They were found together, so it was a good thing that Desi spoke Spanish too, since that was the only language Mac knew that Desi could also pass for. There was a slim chance, but if they got lucky, maybe they could convince these people that Mac was from Spain and that Desi was actually Native American or something. Plenty of Natives got mistaken for Asians anyway, so maybe they could make it work.
"Déjanos ir!" Desi shouted at them, looking around in fear. All of the other kids around them looked just as terrified.
"The funny thing is," the man continued, as if Desi hadn't said anything, and clearly he knew at least the basics of the language, so he really was just ignoring her. "My men said that you did speak English." He crouched down right in front of Mac. "But maybe they were wrong. You know how we're gonna find out?" The man waited, as if he actually expected Mac to respond.
"No hablo ingles, por favor, déjame ir, por favor, por favor," Mac said, shaking his head and making his accent sound as Spanish as possible. The Spanish he was fluent in was a Mexican dialect, but hopefully the trafficker wasn't smart enough to know the difference.
"People always revert to their mother tongue..." the man trailed off, but quickly grabbed Mac's upper arm, which was already at an awkward angle from the way he was tied to the piping, and forced it to an even more awkard angle, dislocating it in the process. Mac let out a choked off scream at the sudden blinding, all encompassing pain. Then the man quickly popped his shoulder back into place, earning another scream from Mac, but causing him to swear too. In English. "...when they're in pain." The man gave Mac a sadistic smile, then released him. Mac just looked up at him with a glare as a he panted. "And it looks like your mother tongue, is English." The man turned and kicked Desi in the ribs, hard.
She groaned loudly, then said, "Địt con mẹ mày." She leveled a glare at him that rivaled one of Matty's, but at least the job was done. They didn't think she spoke English, and that was all that mattered. Mac breathed a sigh of relief. At least Desi was safe. The man shook, his head, but didn't seem too disappointed. He quickly repleaced both Mac and Desi's gags, then turned to the other captives.
"Hold on guys, we're almost there," Riley said into the comms. Even if his gag hadn't been replaced, Mac still wouldn't have been able to answer. He was still trying to breathe through the pain of his throbbing shoulder. It wouldn't take too long to heal, but it still hurt like hell. The fact that this guy was willing to dislocate his shoulder meant that Mac wasn't going to be sold for heavy manual labor - at least that wouldn't be his primary purpose. It took a dislocated shoulder months to fully heal, and at least a few weeks to rest without causing further damage. So clearly, Mac's purpose wouldn't be heavy labor, or perhaps who was going to be sold to just didn't care, and would force him to work through the pain. Mac couldn't decide which option was worse: the blinding pain of being forced to work with a healing shoulder, or likely being exploited for sex. But it didn't matter, because there was no way that his dad was going to let either of those things happen to him. His dad had this plan because he knew it would work, so Mac would be saved before he got shipped off to some psychopath, right?
"Soon, you'll all be placed in your new...situations, and I ask that you please make this transition as painless as possible. You've already seen what happens to those who don't do as we ask." The man turned to glare at Mac, and Mac just glared right on back. Two could play at that game. "You can't stop this, and no one is coming to save you, so why don't you try to make the best of it? All transactions are final, and all returns are discarded." Mac saw some of the other captives begin to cry at his words, but he tried to keep his face neutral. Everything was going to be fine, because his dad believed the plan would work, and his dad would never put Mac in a situation where he would actually be sold as a slave. So it would be fine. It had to be fine. His dad wouldn't let it not be fine. But no matter how many times Mac repeated this to himself, he still couldn't get himself to completely believe that it was true.
Several other men came down the stairs, and began untying the captives from the walls. Ben and Isabelle were released first, then literally dragged up the stairs, their muffled shouts and struggles completely ignored. A dark skinned girl and a redheaded boy were released from the piping next, and were then tossed over the shoulders of two of the main. They struggled a bit, but to no avail. Mac's eyes widened when one of the men approached him, and began to untie him from the pipes as well. He could only struggle so much with the searing pain in his shoulder, but he looked back at Desi in desperation. Her eyes were wide as she struggled fiercely against her bonds, but she couldn't get free either. This plan was going downhill fast, but at least there were four other kids left there with Desi.
But the man who was carrying him wasn't being very careful, and Mac's head hit the walls multiple times. It was never hard enough to truly hurt, but it was enough to knock his comm even looser. Mac could only watch in horror as his comm fell from his ear and landed on the step, and along with it, Riley's voice - she had just begun to speak - and his only way of being tracked. The man carrying him even stepped on it as he walked, completely oblivious to what had happened.
Mac renewed his struggles, any thought of sticking to his dad's plan gone. They couldn't track him anymore, so now he was in real danger, and he wouldn't go down without a fight. But with his shoulder throbbing the way it was, Mac was no match for the man, and quickly found himself being dumped into a black van with no back windows. The man tightened the ropes around Mac's wrists and ankles, and left him there, in pain. The dark skinned girl and the redheaded boy were there too, but not Ben and Isabelle. They looked just as scared as Mac felt. He would never admit it, but Mac was terrified. This was not what was supposed to happen.
Mac groaned in pain as his shoulder moved with a jolt when the van suddenly started moving. He could hear the girl crying a bit, and a quick glance showed that the boy was crying softly too. It took all of Mac's strength not to join them. He was going to be okay. Jack was going to find him, somehow. Jack always found him. So even though Jack was on the other side of the world hunting a terrorist, and had absolutely no idea that Mac was in trouble, Jack was still going to find him. He had too.
"We're on the outskirts of the location your comms are giving," Riley said. But then there was a high pitched noise in her ear that quickly faded. She and Bozer looked at each other in fear. They both knew that sound. It was the sound of a comm being destroyed. Riley quickly looked down at her laptop and saw that the signal from Mac's comm was no longer transmitting. It must have been his.
"What's going on in there?" Matty asked. "Mac's signal just dropped off the radar."
"If he dumped his comm again..." James trailed off in annoyance. Riley wanted to reply, but Oversight being annoyed at Mac was the least of their problems.
"I don't know," Riley said, choosing to focus on Matty's question. "We can see the farmhouse, and there's three vans outside. Two black, one white. The white van was the one that Mac and Desi were taken in, but- wait a second, the black vans are moving. What do we do? Desi's comm is still at the house." Riley would've been lying if she said she wasn't scared. She hated this plan the moment James said it, but he was their boss, and there was nothing she could do. But now she hated it even more. They knew Desi - at least her comm - was in the house, but they had no idea where Mac was. Two black vans were on the move, and they definitely couldn't follow both of them, and Riley had already checked sat feeds - a satellite wouldn't be in position for another twenty minutes, and that was twenty minutes too long. She and Bozer had to pick between three options: stay at the house and get Desi, follow van one, or follow van two. All three needed to be done, but only one was possible.
"Stay on the house, and get to Agent Nguyen," came James' firm voice over comms.
"But-"
"That's an order, Agent Davis, and I expect you to follow it. You too, Agent Bozer," James said, cutting Riley off.
"Yes, sir," she and Bozer both muttered simultaneously. Luckily, there was heavy enough foliage where Bozer had parked their van to keep them hidden from the two black vans that were now driving past them. Riley could only hope that there were only the bad guys inside them.
The moment the vans were gone, she and Bozer got out of their own van and carefully made their way over to the house. Riley had picked up Desi's guns from where she tossed them, and handed the smaller of the two to Bozer.
"Can you do this, if you need to?" she asked him. She had only killed once, and it had nearly killed her too, but sometimes, it had to be done. Bozer needed to be able to do it if that's what it came down to. With wide eyes, he nodded, and accepted the small gun from Riley's outstretched hand.
Both Riley and Bozer climbed through the gaps in the fence and stealthily made their way over to the house. Riley peeked through the window, and saw only one man. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could do this. Jack taught her everything, she could do this.
Slowly forcing the door open, Riley motioned for Bozer to stay back, and quietly crept into the room and behind the man. She lifted up her gun, and struck him over the head as hard as he could, sending him to the ground with a crash. Riley quickly knelt down and ziptied his hands behind him - because Mac had insisted that she always carry zipties - and put two fingers to his neck to check his pulse. She breathed out a sigh of relief. He was still alive. Human trafficker or not, she didn't want to kill anyone.
With that one man down, she motioned for Bozer to join her. They quickly cleared that floor, and stood together at the top of the basement steps. She could hear someone down there speaking in Portuguese. He was the only one speaking, despite long pauses in his speech.
"We've got one down, and one to go," she whispered, giving Matty and James an update before she and Bozer took out the last guy. "No sign of Diresta yet." She turned to Bozer and nodded. He did the same, and took a quick breath. "Let's do this."
With Riley taking the lead, the agents quickly made their way down the creaky stairs, taking the man - who was definitely Diresta - by surprise.
"Federal agents!" Riley shouted. "Show me your hands!" She had the gun leveled straight at the man, who looked at her with wide eyes. He was unarmed, but he quickly grabbed one of the captives and used her as a human shield. The girl shrieked through her gag.
"I don't think you want to do that," Diresta growled, holding the girl at an angle where he could very easily snap her neck. "Now here's what you're gonna do, you're gonna-" his words quickly turned into a cry of pain as a gunshot split the air. He fell to the ground clutching his leg, dropping the girl in the process. Riley turned to Bozer in surprise, who was holding the literal smoking gun. She quickly shoved her own into her belt and kicked Diresta over onto his stomach, ignoring his grunts as she ziptied his hands together too. The shot was a through and through. He would be fine.
"Way to go, double-o-Boze," she said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. She glanced back at Bozer, and saw that although he had put the gun down, his eyes were still wide.
"I just shot someone," he said in a monotone voice, his expression turning blank.
"Yes, you did, and you needed to. You did a great job," Riley said. Bozer really did do amazing, and he had every right to be shaken up by shooting someone for the first time, but sadly, they didn't have time for this. "And now I need you to help me untie these people and figure out where Mac is."
Desi immediately started screaming through her gag, which took Bozer out of his stupor, and caused him to run to her side. He quickly slid off her gag and got to work on getting the ropes off.
"They took him," she said. "They knew Mac spoke English so they took him and four others, including Ben and Isabelle."
"You do speak English, you bitch," Diresta growled. Desi only rolled her eyes. "But they're not all goin' to the same place. Two of them are going to a better place," he said, trailing off with a chuckle. Riley's eyes widened at his insinuation. Two of them were going to be killed. "Their faces were all over the news, they had to go."
The wheels started turning in Riley's brain. That Australian girl had fallen to her death at the electrical tower, but what if that wasn't really what happened? What if these people killed her and made it look like an accident? It was their only shot at finding Ben and Isabelle before it was too late.
"We need to get to the electrical tower, and fast," Riley said as she continued to untie the captives.
"There's a bike out front, that'll get me there fast enough," Desi said. She raced up the stairs, and Riley heard the engine start only seconds later.
"Okay, but what about Mac and the others?" Bozer asked. His eyes were wide with concern, but they turned to fury upon looking at Diresta. "Where the hell are they?" he practically growled at the man. Diresta only laughed and shook his head. Bozer leveled a swift kick to the man's bullet wound, causing Riley to flinch at the man's sudden cry of pain. "Where are you selling them to?" he shouted.
"You're already gonna put me away for life, there's no getting away from that, so why should I tell you?" Diresta growled in return, glaring up at Riley and Bozer. "Those kids are idiots who got what was coming to them, and that blond boy was a brat. He lied to us, so he deserves whatever fate the man who owns him now sees fit. I wonder if he'll scream when the whip comes down on his back, or when his master decides he wants that lithe, fit body of his." He laughed again, and Riley couldn't stand it anymore. She lashed out and kicked Diresta in the head, hard, causing his laughs to immediately cease as he fell unconscious.
"What do we do?" Riley asked, addressing both Matty and James, who probably hadn't heard what the disgusting man had said. "He won't tell us anything about where Mac and the others were sent to."
"First off," Matty gently replied. "Take a deep breath. Put the bad guys in the van, then look around upstairs, see if there's anything that would tell you who he sold Mac to. You know what to do, you're just panicking because you're worried about Mac, but he's gonna be okay. Keep your head on straight."
Riley did as she was told, and took a deep breath. "You're right, you're right," she said. "Let's get these guys to the van." She turned to Bozer and helped him to drag Diresta to the stairs, but she glanced back at the former captives. They were still staring at her with wide, scared eyes. "Do any of you speak English?" she asked. At their blank stares, she took that as a no. "¿Español?" she asked. Her Portuguese was nonexistant, but if enough of them spoke Spanish, they should be able to translate for each other. Several of them nodded. "Ustedes están seguros ahora. Estamos aquí a ayudar," she said, hoping her Spanish was good enough to get the point across. The kids were nodding, with some turning to others and speaking Portuguese.
Riley tried not to show it, but her heart was breaking. What if it was too late to find Mac? What if Mac was sold to some complete psychopath and they never saw him again? What if Mac spent the rest of his life being tortured and forced to work in heinous conditions and being used as an object for the pleasure of others? What was Riley supposed to do if her little brother was gone forever? Her breaking heart quickly turned to one filled with rage. This was all James' fault. It was his stupid plan that got Mac into this mess, and if James couldn't get him out of it safe and sound, then there was no force on earth that would stop Riley from walking away from Phoenix forever. She could never work for a man whose idiotic plan got the one she thought of as her little brother thrown into the slave trade. Never. She would devote the rest of her life to finding him, no matter the cost. She would not leave Mac to that fate, not if she still had breath in her body.
She and Bozer tore over the maps and everything else they could find in the house once the two men were safely restrained in the van, but to no avail. There was nothing that was telling them anything about where Mac and the others were taken. Matty had sent ambulances for the captives, as well as coordinates for exfil for the team, but that only panicked Riley more. She knew it was the wise thing to do, but it felt so wrong to be leaving that farmhouse without Mac. Desi was currently at the electrical tower with Ben and Isabelle, having narrowly saved them, and both the traffickers who took them were dead, so Riley counted that as a win.
Riley groaned in frustration. "Nothing here is telling me anything about where Mac is. Nothing," she said. None of the documents were even that incriminating. The most likely scenario is that everything was done online on the dark web in order to best avoid getting caught. Riley pulled her rig out of her backpack and pulled up Diresta's financials. She set it up to nofity her of any changes, then scoured through what she could of his dark web activity. The problem was that everything was so heavily encrypted, with signals bouncing all over the world. "It could take weeks to decrypt all this and get a buyer, or even a location," Riley said with a sigh.
"So if we can't get Diresta to talk, Mac might be gone?" Bozer asked, even though they both already knew the answer.
"Go pick up Desi, Ben, and Isabelle, then get to exfil," came Matty's voice over the comms. "If there's really nothing else you can do there, then head back to LA. We'll regroup and figure out what our next move is from home. Oversight's orders." She sounded disappointed, but also like she was barely holding back fury. Riley knew that tone was not one to mess with.
"Okay," Riley responded, in barely more than a whisper. She hated this plan. She'd hated it from the beginning. She hated any plan that ever even had the potential to put Mac in this kind of position. Riley took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. She didn't think she was crying, but just in case. They were gonna get him back. It was going to be okay, it really was. Maybe it was a good thing that Jack wasn't there. He would be a wreck, cursing Oversight and everything that stood in between him and his kid. Riley took another deep breath. They could do this. They were going to get him back. They had to, because Riley didn't know what she would do if they didn't.
This was insane. Matty had been against this plan from the beginning, and this was exactly the reason why. It took all of her self control not to lash out at James. Maybe he regretted this and was hurting now too. He had been awfully quiet ever since ordering the team back. Thanks to the speed of the Phoenix jet, they arrived back HQ only a few hours later, with Ben and Isabelle safely back with their parents, along with all the other kids. Mac, as well as the two other kids he was taken with, Sean Doyle of Ireland and Emily Desai of the United States, were still somewhere out there, scared and alone and possibly injured. From what Desi said, Mac's shoulder was dislocated then quickly popped back into place. No matter how skilled Diresta was at resetting his shoulder, Mac was in for a lot of pain for a while.
"What have we got?" Matty asked the moment the team walked into the war room. They wre exhausted, but that didn't matter as long as Mac was still out there.
"Diresta still won't talk, and nothing we got from the farmhouse tells us anything about his most recent sale," Desi said with a sigh. "MacGyver could be anywhere in the country, the continent, or hell, even the world now. I should've spoken English. This is all my fault," she said, her eyes downcast.
"You did what you had to do to save as many people as you could," Matty insisted. "This isn't your fault."
"But I should've been with him!" Desi shouted. "It's my job to protect him and now he's out there as someone's slave because I didn't do my job right! Jack never should've trusted me with him!"
"Calm down, Agent Nguyen," James said in an eerily calm voice that left no room for negotiation. "You did what you had to to best accomplish the mission, and that is more important than protecting Angus. He can look after himself."
Matty turned to look at him. Just earlier that day he'd said that getting Mac home safely was the most important thing to him, but he certainly wasn't acting like that now.
"I've got all my programs working to decode the messages between Diresta and whoever he sold Mac and the others to on the dark web, but they're some of the highest grade encryptions I've ever seen." Riley looked down at the floor, her arms crossed. "It's gonna take a while. Days at least, maybe even weeks." Matty's heart broke at how disheartened she sounded, but there was nothing she could do to help until they got Mac back.
"So that's it?" Bozer asked. "There's nothing else we can do to find him?" He stared at the others in disbelief. "This is Mac we're talking about. We can't just let this go cold! That's my best friend out there, our little brother, and we can't just sit around here on our asses while he's out there in danger!"
"Agent Bozer, I know that!" James shouted. "Don't forget that Angus is my son, but I've also been in the intelligence field long enough to know when there's nothing that can be done. If Diresta won't talk, then all we can do is wait for Agent Davis' programs to work. I will not waste Phoenix resources on a trail that won't get us anywhere, not even for Angus. In the meantime, go home and get some rest. You did well today," James said. He sighed and shook his head.
Matty turned to him in fury. "And you said the most important thing to you was getting him home safe, no matter the cost. You told those parents that Mac means everything to you. Everything," she seethed, her eyes blazing. She absolutely could not believe this man.
"I know what I said!" James shouted in response. "And saying that helped those parents, didn't it? And yes, my diagnosis has made me more conscious of my legacy. I want to leave behind a legacy that will live on past me, but not at the expense of the resources of this agency. Is that understood, Director Webber?"
"Yes, sir," she responded through clenched teeth.
"Good. You're all dismissed," James replied with a wave of his hand.
Her eyes still blazing, Matty turned and walked out the door. The team followed her, their expressions all mixtures of rage, confusion, and fear. But Matty didn't allow them to follow her into her office. She had a call she needed to make in private.
Matty dug through her desk drawer until she found the small box she was looking for. Inside that box was a burner phone, and on that phone there was only one programmed number. She clicked on it and put the phone up to her ear. The man answered on the first ring.
"Long time, no speak, Jack," she said, before he could say anything. "I'm afraid I need to repurpose your team."
Mac didn't know how long he'd been stuck in that van. It had to have been over a day, maybe two. He was so thirsty, and the gag wasn't helping. His muscles were so sore, and he'd never wished for a bathroom more in his life. His shoulder was throbbing more and more with every bump in the road. The two others with him looked just as uncomfortable. At first, Mac thought he would be saved within the hour, but as time passed, he realized that that wasn't going to happen. No one was coming to save him. But with the way he was tied up, he couldn't exactly save himself either. He'd gotten a few hours of restless sleep, fraught with nightmares of being sold to Murdoc, of being forced to do terrible things, to endure Murdoc's sick pleasures. Mac had to take a few deep breaths - well, as deep as he could with the gag - to remind himself that there was absolutely no way that Murdoc was the one who awaited them at their destination, that it was just a dream, and everything was going to be okay.
Finally, freaking finally, the van came to a halt, and both men got out. Until that point, only one had gotten out at a time. That must mean that this time, they had arrived. Mac couldn't stop his heart rate from skyrocketing, and his breathing from picking up. Try as he might to hide it, he was terrified. The others were too. The van doors finally opened, and Mac squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of light. It was so bright outside - or maybe he'd just been deprived of light for too long. One of the men grabbed Mac's bound ankles and dragged him out of the van, letting him fall unceremoniously to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The other two captives received the same treatment. Mac's feet and hands were untied, and his gag was removed. He tried to ignore the feeling of the dried blood the too-tight ropes had left behind, and instead immediately rose to his feet. Mac would've tried to fight, but he was too weak. The men who had driven the van grabbed him and held him still. Mac didn't even try to fight back. He knew he wouldn't be able to save himself and the other two, at least not in that moment, and there was no way that he was going to let those kids rot while he got away. The two were holding on to each other. They knew better than to try to run.
While he could, Mac looked around his new surroundings. He was on some kind of plantation. There was a large manor, surrounded by green plants that stretched on and on for acres. There appeared to be people working the fields too, and lots of men with big guns and cruel looking whips. His eyes were still adjusting, but they looked like coca plants. Coca plants. Cocaine. Drug cartels. Over a day of driving. He was in Colombia. There was a man in a white suit walking towards them all, but he wasn't Colombian. Mac could tell that this man was as white as the suit he was wearing.
"Stunning," the man said as he came to a stop a few feet in front of Mac. "Absolutely stunning. Diresta really outdid himself this time. They're young, healthy, and beautiful. They should last a bit longer than the last three did."
"And the payment?" one of the drivers asked.
"It's being wired to you as we speak," the man replied with a sadistic smile. "Now help me get them inside, so I can get them freshened up and ready to start tomorrow." He waved his hand towards the manor, then grabbed the girl.
"No, please," she said, digging her feet in and fighting back.
"Quiet!" the man said, effectively silencing her with a backhand that sent her to the ground. Mac flinched almost as much as the girl did. "I own you now. You will only speak when I say you can."
"Or what?" Mac growled. He knew it was stupid, but he had to get this man's attention off the girl. Anything this man did to him was better than him doing it to the others. The Phoenix sent him and his team down to South America to rescue kids, so that was exactly what he was going to do, never mind the fact that he was the same age as them and he was in the same position. He would take all the punishment if it meant that those kids didn't have to. It's what Jack would do.
The man turned to Mac with a glare that could rival one of Matty's, and stalked towards him. "Or I will make your existence pure hell," he growled right back. He grabbed Mac's hair and yanked his head back. Mac had to fight not to let out any sounds of pain. "And for you, pretty boy, it would be very fun to make you suffer." he threw Mac's head forward with a laugh.
"Slater, we have a schedule to keep," one of the drivers said.
"Apologies, let's get them inside." He picked the girl up again, and this time, she didn't fight back when he began to march her inside. The other boy was dragged in by one driver, and Mac by the other. Inside, there were still many more men with large guns. None of this was even a little bit good. Mac and the others were handed off to three of the men who didn't happen to have guns, and the drivers left. "Go get them cleaned up and fed, then put them where they belong. I'll be down later to explain the rules and what happens when those rules are broken. They start tomorrow." The man turned with a slight flourish, and walked away.
Mac and the others were dragged around a few corners and down a flight of stairs, then around more corners and through a reinforced door. Out of instinct, Mac began struggling again. He absolutely did not want to get locked in there. But one pull on his injured shoulder and Mac was gasping in pain, and all thoughts of fighting back were gone. The room was poorly lit, but Mac could make out chains on the walls, and mattresses on the floor, along with maybe some dirty blankets, or maybe they were clothes. He couldn't quite tell. They were dragged into an adjoining bathroom, and despite the embarrassment of being forced to do it in front of the other captives and these people holding them, Mac was grateful for the chance to be allowed to relieve himself. The others were too. But sadly, that wasn't where it ended. Mac especially felt terrible for the girl, being the only girl there, and still forced to strip and bathe herself in the sink. He and the other boy were forced to as well, but at least no one said anything. Mac wasn't even sure if the three men watching them spoke English. They looked to be native to Colombia.
As soon as the three men deemed them to be clean enough, they were given clothes that were basically rags, and were dragged back into the room with all the mattresses, then into another side room with only three mattresses in it. The door was just as heavily reinforced as the first door. Each of them were forced down onto a mattress, and had one arm chained to the wall. But at least they were each also given a can of cold soup, and a spoon. That had the corners of Mac's mouth perking up. He could definitely get somewhere with a spoon - maybe not as far as he could with a fork or knife, but it was something at least.
Mac gobbled up his soup as quickly as he could, relishing it despite the taste, then put the spoon to good use as a screwdriver, trying to get the screws out of the metal plate attaching the chain to the wall. The screws were too sunken in to be able to use his fingers, so it was a good thing that he had the spoon. It was a little big, but it would get the job done.
"What're you doin'?" the redheaded boy asked. He was Irish. Mac didn't know he was Irish.
"I'm getting us out of here. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to spend the rest of my life as a slave to a Colombian drug cartel," Mac responded. He was almost finished with the metal plate his chain was attached to.
"Shouldn't we just wait for someone to find us?" the girl asked. "There's no way we can get out of here, and that man is gonna kill us if we try."
Mac sighed, and stopped what he was doing for a second. He turned to look at them in the weak light, and asked, "did you see all of those other beds out there? And all those people working the fields?" They nodded. "I'd bet my life that they're slaves here too. And who knows how long they've been here. We can't just believe that someone is gonna save us. We're in Colombia, not America, and not Ireland. Things like this are much more common here, and we can't just sit here and wait for help. We have to take every opportunity we can, or we might be stuck here forever." Mac sighed again, thinking of Jack, and how much he wanted Jack to come save him. "I wanna believe that help is coming too, I really do, but I have to try to get myself out too."
"Okay," the girl replied with a shaky nod. "I'm Emily, by the way."
"Sean," the Irish guy said.
"Nice to finally know your names," Mac said with a smile. "I'm MacGyver." At the strange look he was given by Emily - but not Sean, he'd probably heard stranger Celtic names before - he continued. "Well, Angus MacGyver, but you can call me Mac if you want." That caused Emily to smile a bit, so Mac counted it as a win. "Now, I'm almost done here..." Mac trailed off as he finished prying out the last of the screwdrivers, freeing the metal plate from the wall. It would be obnoxious to carry around, but at least he was free. "Who's up next?" he asked with a smile.
A few minutes later, Mac and the others were all free, and Mac was staring at the door. It locked mechanically from the outside, and all Mac had with him was a three spoons, three mattresses, and three empty soup containers. He cocked his head and sighed. He wasn't sure if he could do this.
"What's your plan?" Sean asked, his eyes wide and eager.
"Honestly, our best course of action might be to just wait until someone opens the door, then tackle them," Mac said with a frown. Due to the completely mechanical nature of the locks, there really wasn't any way to get around them from the inside. They were heavily reinforced from the outside, barring anyone on the inside from any method of escaping. It was a very simple design, but basically infallable. There wasn't even a handle on the inside. "The metal of these plates isn't sharp enough to cut anything, but they could still be used as weapons. You could swing it as a flail, or wrap the chain around your arm and use the plate as much more ridiculous version of brass knuckles," he said with a smile. Sean and Emily looked at him in bafflement.
"You're not just a backpacker," Emily muttered, looking away.
"No," Mac replied with a small laugh. "I'm not really a backpacker at all, but that's not important." His smile fell the moment he heard someone outside. "Get ready," he said, holding his arm out in front of them, as if to be able to protect them. He had to try.
The moment the locks were undone, and the door was opened, Mac swung the chain towards where he knew someone's head was going to appear, and his aim was true. A quick pained cry echoed through the basement, but Mac didn't stop. He hit the man again, and again, but on his fourth strike, Slater managed to grab the chain, and quickly used it to swing Mac's arm back and around, immobilizing it. He pushed Mac against the wall, and every moment he tried to struggle, Slater just pulled the chain tighter. With his other shoulder still throbbing with every movement, there was nothing Mac could do.
"Don't even try it!" Slater yelled at Emily and Sean. A few more men came running into the room, and Mac let his head rest against the wall. Maybe it hadn't been his best plan, but now it was over before it ever truly began. "Now you," Slater growled into Mac's ear. "You, pretty boy, are in for a world of hurt tonight." He pressed him up against the wall even more. "I was going to start with the girl, but you've earned her spot in this first rotation, so she can thank you for sparing her body for a few more days." Slater quickly yanked on the chain and tossed Mac to the floor. Thanks to the way the chain was wrapped, he didn't have time to catch himself, and barely fought back a scream of pain as he could only attempt to catch himself with his bad arm.
Now that Mac had a chance to, he could see the damage he inflicted. There was a nasty cut on Slater's forehead, and his once pristine white suit was pristine no longer. The man was seething.
"I give you food, I let you clean yourselves, I even give you beds," he growled. "And this is how you thank me? You, blondie, will be taking the punishment for red and curly here for your unwise actions." Slater took a deep breath and shook out his shoulders. "Now, the reason I came down here was to explain to you the rules. I own you now. You belong to me. You are nothing more than property. I don't care who you were. Now, you only exist to serve me. During the day, you will be working the fields with the others, but every night, one of you will service me. I usually like to put you three on rotation to give you a chance to recover, but pretty boy decided to try to be a hero, and thus will be taking it all for the next three days. The punishments for stepping out of line are always either lashes or taking the full rotation. Whichever I'm in the mood for. There will be no heroes, no rescue, and no escape. This is your life now. Get used to it." With a glare, Slater finally turned away from them to address one of the guards. "Take pretty boy to my chambers. Tonight he gets what's coming to him."
Jack was seething in anger as he walked through the Phoenix halls, most of his team somewhere in the building as well. There wasn't a force on earth that would stop him from getting Mac back, but he shouldn't have to. James never should've gone with such an idiotic plan, and he definitely shouldn't have decided not to spend every available resource trying to get him back. Matty shouldn't have had to call him off his hunt for a terrorist to do this. Of course, Jack would've killed her if she didn't, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this never should've happened in the first place.
When Matty first told him what happened, Jack had honestly thought she was playing some kind of sick joke. Matty knew better than to joke about things like that happening to Mac, but even though Jack never liked James, it was hard for Jack to believe that the man could be so incredibly careless with his own son's life. But it was true. James' idiotic plan had gotten Mac sold to some maniac somewhere, and they didn't even know where. Jack had gotten back to Phoenix as quickly as he could, but it had still taken a few days. That was a few days that Mac was in the hands of some psycho who was doing who knew what to him, and Jack was not okay with that.
At first, James had told him to leave, to take his team and get back on the hunt for Kovac, and it had taken every ounce of Jack's self control not to sock the man in the face right then and there. Instead, Jack very firmly and clearly stated that Kovac could go and rule the world for all he cared. The only thing that mattered to him was Mac, and he would not leave until Mac was home safe, because that's what a real dad did. James had glared at him, but let the matter slide.
So far, Riley's programs had been able to decode enough of the messages between Diresta and whoever he was selling to to find out that Mac was still in South America, but that was about it. Riley hadn't been wrong when she said that it was going to take a while. All the girl could do was sit by her various rigs, staring at the screens. She refused to work another op until Mac was home safe. Even Jack's sudden appearance did little to cheer her up.
Desi had been beside herself with guilt at first, and then fear when Jack showed up. Jack did everything he could to convince her that it wasn't her fault, and that he didn't regret picking her for Mac's overwatch. Finally, she believed him - but she spent every spare moment of her time either in the gym or at the range, because when they finally did find Mac, she was going to take down every single bastard who hurt him.
Bozer kept trying to act like everything was fine, even though he knew it wasn't. He was trying to be the glue that held everybody together, but he just couldn't do it. Mac was the glue, and they all knew that. It was like Nigeria all over again, except this time, Mac didn't leave on his own accord. He spent even more time with Leanna, trying to convince her that it wasn't her fault either. She wasn't there, and kept blaming what happened on her not being there. Jack didn't know if it would be better or worse to tell her that her presence there wouldn't have changed anything.
Matty, obviously, had an agency to run, but Jack could see the cracks. He could see her yelling more, snapping more. It would only get worse until they got his kid back. When Matty thought she was alone, she would stare at a picture of herself and Mac, that Matty had insisted they take together on Mac's birthday the year before. Jack saw, but wisely didn't say anything.
James was the only one who was still acting as if it was business as usual. He went about as if literally nothing had changed. Jack could never believe that that man ever cared for his son, no matter what he said. His actions betrayed it all. No father would be acting so fine while his son was lost somewhere in the slave trade.
This continued on for another week, and Jack got more and more agitated with each passing day. James had been right when he said that there was no actionable intel, but that wasn't going to stop Jack. It had taken some time to covertly set up, because there was absolutely no way that anyone from Phoenix could know about it, but Jack was going to have a little chat with Diresta, and he would be coming out with actionable intel, one way, or another. There was no law Jack wasn't willing to break in order to get his kid back. Not one.
So when the time came to transfer Diresta from a Phoenix holding cell to a federal prison, it wasn't hard for Jack to slip the real driver a sleeping pill and take his place. Diresta was secured in the back, and Jack was on the way to USP Victorville, a high security federal prison outside of LA. No one knew that the real driver wasn't there, and that Jack would be making a pit stop in the desert. It wasn't even that far out of the way. It was pretty clear that Diresta knew something was up, but Jack wasn't about to entertain any of his questions.
Once he was far enough out in the desert, Jack stopped the transport vehicle and took a deep breath. He was doing this for Mac. He would do anything for Mac. Jack got out of the car, opened up the door for Diresta, and threw the man to the ground, ignoring his shouts.
"What are you doing? You can't do this," the man said, struggling to his feet with his hands and ankles still chained.
"I know, but for my kid I will do anything," Jack said, trying to keep his emotions in check. He'd never been a fan of torture, no matter which side of it he was on. But this man wasn't talking, and that meant that Mac was suffering, and that was unacceptable. So Jack had to make him talk. He didn't want to torture the man, he really didn't, but Diresta wasn't giving him much of a choice. Jack took a jagged knife out of his boot and held it up, making sure that Diresta could see the jagged edges.
Diresta's eyes went wide. "You're bluffing," he said, but his face betrayed his fear.
"No," Jack replied with a small sigh and a shake of his head. "I'm not. So you're gonna tell me who you sold my kid to, or I'm gonna cut you up like a fresh ham." Jack's tone was slightly sad, and he hoped that that would prove more convincing than a tone of anger.
"You're not gonna do it," Diresta seethed. Jack sighed, then grabbed the man and shoved him against the vehicle. He gripped the knife in his hand and stabbed it into Diresta's shoulder, cringing at the man's scream. It wasn't a deep wound, but it would hurt like hell.
"Yes, I will, and I will continue to do this until you give me a name." Jack dug the blade in a little more.
"You're a fed, you can't do this," Diresta insisted. Jack could see he was getting close to breaking. Cowards always were.
"It doesn't matter. All that matters now is that you sold my kid like he's cattle, and I will burn this earth to the ground to get him back," Jack growled in the man's ear. "You're not doing yourself any favors by holding on to that name. You're in prison for the rest of your life no matter what, so you may as well go with a clean conscience. Or am I gonna have to keep doing this?" Jack pushed the blade in more to emphasize his point.
"Fine! Fine! Okay! Tyler Slater, he's in Colombia, the boy is in Colombia," Diresta rushed out.
"Now was that so hard?" Jack asked, quickly withdrawing the knife. Diresta let out another shout, but Jack only struck him on the head, rendering him unconscious as he collapsed, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Jack dragged the man back into the vehicle then started driving again. Soon enough, he was only a few blocks away from USP Victorville. He ditched the transport in a place where it would be found in less than an hour, then started walking. He'd walked in worse conditions before, and he could call an Uber once he reached the diner about two miles away. Half a mile away, he ditched the old, jagged knife, after carefully wiping it down.
Two plates of pancakes and an Uber ride later, Jack was back at Phoenix. "Tyler Slater," he said the moment he walked into the server room. That's where Riley had been hiding out ever since getting back. She hoped the help of the servers would speed up the decryptions.
"Who?" Riley asked, slowly turning around. Jack could see how exhausted she was. Her hair was a mess, her usually perfectly manicured fingernails were chipped, and her style had become tee shirts and sweatpants. There wasn't a single piece of jewelry in sight, not even a single ring,
"He's the bastard who has Mac," Jack growled. Riley immediately turned back to her rig and started typing.
"How do you know?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the screen.
"You don't want to know," Jack muttered, looking away from his girl. He didn't want her to see that side of him. He didn't want anyone to see it.
But thankfully, Riley didn't press it, seeming to get Jack's hesitation. "Tyler Slater, a former drug runner who escaped from prison a few years ago. He was never found, but rumor has it he's living it up in Colombia and is a major player in the drug game down there, producing his own cocaine." She sighed. "It's no surprise that a guy like that runs his operation with slave labor."
Jack had to hold back a flinch at her words. Slave labor. It was horrendous enough that it still existed in many parts of the world, but to know that Mac was now a victim in it turned his stomach.
"Can we get a location?" Jack asked, trying to look at the positives. They now had some actionable intel.
"I think so," Riley replied. "By inputting Slater's name, I can probably speed up this decryption. It'll probably still take a few hours, maybe another day or two, but this is more than we've ever had."
"Good, I'm gonna go brief Matty." Jack squeezed Riley's shoulder, then walked out. If anyone would be able to get a better fix on Slater, it would be Matty.
Mac hurt all over. The only thing that helped him keep track of the days he'd been there was the rotation between him, Emily, and Sean each night, but due to his own actions, that was failing him. Slater had stayed true to his word, and had used Mac for the first three nights. Mac couldn't even think of any torture he'd ever been through that was worse than what Slater did to him, what he said to him. It left Mac nearly unable to walk, and in constant pain. But eventually, Emily and Sean experienced it too. Mac almost wished that Slater would only do it to him, just so he didn't have to watch the other kids suffer too. That was the worst of it. Because they were used by Slater every night, they were kept separate from the other slaves, who were mostly from the area and only served for manual labor in the coca fields.
But the three of them were forced to work the fields too, despite the constant pain Slater's roughness put them in, and the state of Mac's shoulder. It wasn't being allowed to heal properly, and the way that Slater held him down only ever made it worse. But when he slowed in the fields because of the pain, or tried to take a break, he got whipped. Mac's back was in bloody ribbons, scarred beyond recognition. But at least the lashes caused Slater to wait to use him again. The man didn't want to get blood from that on himself, so if Mac got a lot of lashes one day, that usually meant that he wouldn't be the one that got taken that night. Sadly, that meant he was dooming Emily or Sean to it. So he tried to stay in line, if only to protect them.
That night, Mac was leaning on his side against the wall, his arm chained up like it was every night. There were more lashes that had been added to his collection, and Mac knew he was getting weaker every day. He didn't even have the strength to try to talk to Emily or Sean. He usually tried to joke around each night, just to lift their spirits a bit, but he just didn't have it in him that night. Slater had been particularly rough with him the night before, and the new lashes certainly weren't helping.
He started at the sudden sound of the locks on the door being undone. Two guards walked in, talking to each other.
"Which one did Slater want tonight?" one asked.
"The pretty boy," the other responded. "I think blondie here is the boss' favorite."
Mac fought back as much as he could, which wasn't a lot. He couldn't take it again. Not so soon, and not after the lashes. But the sudden grip on his bad shoulder had him cooperating. There wasn't anything he could do. He let the guards drag him to Slater's chambers, and only put up a menial effort to fight back as they tied him down to the bed.
The moment the guards left, Mac rested his head, and let a few tears fall. He was never getting out of there. Every time he'd tried, he'd been caught, and that only served to make him suffer more. Jack wasn't coming to save him. No one was. It was time he just gave up.
But all thoughts of giving up left him the moment Slater walked into the room. No. He couldn't give up. Giving up would let this monster win, and that wasn't going to happen. So Mac bit his lip and held down as many of his screams as he could, he kicked out and tried to make contact with Slater, just to piss him off and show him that he hadn't broken Mac yet, that no matter how many times he had him whipped, no matter how many times he had his way with him, he wasn't going to break him. Mac could be emotional in private, but when Slater was there, he could never show that weakness.
By the time Slater was done with him that night, Mac was even more exhausted and hurting. Apparently fighting back as much as he did only spurred Slater on to be rougher.
"Why do you still fight?" Slater asked him with a sardonic smile. "You're never getting out of here, surely you know that by now. I must admit that you are my favorite, pretty boy. Your screams are the most dilectable, your body the most tight, your hair the best to pull." Slater sighed in contentment. "Curly is nice for her hair too, but no one takes it all better than you do."
"Just shut up," Mac growled. He knew he was on dangerous grounds by speaking when he hadn't been given explicit permission. "No matter what you do to me, I am always going to fight you. I will kick, and scream, and fight, and one day, I'm getting out of here. You don't own me. And you never will." Mac glared at him, thankful that he was able to reign in his tears from the pain of his treatment.
Slater only laughed. "That fighting spirit is something I love about you, blondie, but it will be even more fun to break it. Freckles and coco have already accepted it. If you don't want more needless pain, I suggest you do the same." Slater turned towards him with a glare. "And you should know better than to speak without being told to. So for that infraction, you get another round tonight, and you take the place of red and curly for the next week. I don't care how many lashes you have, I will make you scream every night, starting now."
And Slater stayed true to his word. He used Mac again, as roughly as he ever did. No matter how hard Mac tried to keep it in, he couldn't help but scream a bit. It just hurt so much and even though he was trying to hide it, he was just so scared all the time and he missed Jack more than anything in the world. Jack had to be coming for him, he had to, he just had to.
LINE BREAK
"How the hell did you come by this information?" James seethed. "Our top interrogators couldn't get Diresta to say a single word, and now you're telling me that he told you? Do you have any ideas how many laws you've broken, Agent Dalton?"
Riley was standing awkwardly to the side, along with the rest of the team, but Jack stood front and center, a smile on his face. Whatever Jack was about to say, it was going to cut deep.
"Well, sir, unlike some people, I'm actually willing to put everything on the line for my kids," Jack replied. "That is your son out there, and you couldn't be bothered to bend a single rule to try to get him back. So he might be your son, but he is my kid, and there is nothing on this earth that I wouldn't do for him. So I'm taking these teams to Colombia and I'll burn that damn country to the ground in order to find him, with or without your approval, sir," Jack finished with a mocking salute. He turned on his heel and walked out the door, his Kovac hunting team following him. Right as Riley and the others turned to do the same, she heard James inhale, as if he were about to say something.
"Just don't," Matty scolded. Riley couldn't hold back her smile. Not even five minutes later, she got a text from Matty asking to keep her updated on their progress.
The C-130 wasn't exactly as comfortable as the Phoenix jet Riley was used to, but she would walk to Colombia to get Mac back, so it was something. Jack's team was all tac-ed up and ready to go, and Riley and her own team were getting there. They didn't know how many coca plantations they would have to raid before they found Mac, so they needed to take precautions. The finished decryption still hadn't given a true location, but they did know that they were looking for a large coca plantation with a mansion on the property, somewhere in the southeastern quadrant of Colombia. That was as good as they were going to get.
Riley took a deep breath, trying to settle her nerves.
"We're gonna get him back, sweetheart," Jack said, coming to stand next to her. "I promise you that we're gonna find him, no matter what." He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in a bit.
"I know, but what if it's too late?" she asked him, her eyes wide. They'd done plenty of ops involving trafficking victims, so Riley knew that sometimes, it was too late for them, and they would never be the same.
"This is Mac we're talking about," Jack replied with a smile, but his breaking voice betrayed his true feelings. "He's gonna be just fine."
Instead of replying, Riley just leaned her head against Jack's shoulder. He had to be right. He just had to.
They raided a different compound each day, for four days straight, and they still didn't find Mac, or Slater. They'd managed to capture a lot of drug cartel members, and free a lot of their enslaved workers, but no one was talking. Slater was one of them at that point, and cartels didn't rat out their own.
With each passing day, Jack got more frustrated. He'd told Riley that they were going to find Mac, but what if it was too late? What if Mac had done something stupidly heroic and got himself killed? Jack couldn't bear to think of it.
But finally, it seemed that they were getting somewhere.
"You want Slater? That American pig?" the cartel lieutenant said. "If you give me a deal, I can tell you where his plantation is."
Jack reached for the bound man and wrapped his fingers around his neck, squeezing just a little bit. "Tell me, and I'll consider it," he growled through clenched teeth.
"Okay, okay," the man choked out. "He's outside Mitu, near Venezuela."
Finally. Freaking finally.
"Let's go get him back," Desi muttered. She turned away from the cartel and walked back towards their transport. Jack watched her go, then threw the lieutenant to the ground. He had a kid to save.
Not even twelve hours later, Jack and the others were outside the plantation. They'd seen the slaves working in the evening, seen some of them get whipped. Jack just hoped and prayed that Mac wasn't one of them. When nightfall arose, the team got into position. Jack would lead one half, and Desi the other half. Bozer and Leanna were with Desi, with Riley stayed with him. The rest of Jack's Kovac hunting team was evenly dispursed. Finally, they were getting his kid back.
The raid went off without a hitch. Jack had done so many of them in his life that they were practically second nature at that point. Cartel members were falling left and right, but Jack only focused on finding Slater. He broke down every door, and shot through the reinforced ones, but there was still no sign of him.
"Mac!" he called out, hoping against hope that his kid would hear him and be able to respond, but to no avail. Jack was in the west wing of the mansion, and broke down one reinforced door to be greeted by a sight that sent his heart both soaring and falling at the same time. Mac was in that room, but he was naked and kneeling against the foot of the bed, his hands tied to the post. His back was covered in horrific scars and open wounds that Jack knew could only have come from a whip. And of course, Slater was there too, using Mac as a human shield, and pressing the cold barrel of a gun against the kid's head. "You let him go, you monster," Jack growled out. He heard someone come up behind him, but he knew it was one of his own team members, and not the cartel, so he didn't turn to look.
"You interrupted a wonderful session with my favorite toy," Slater said, his eyes slits as he glared at Jack. "Pretty boy here is the best I've ever had, and I don't intend to give blondie up any time soon. He must enjoy it more than his screams and cries for me to stop say, because he's always doing something stupid that ends with him getting sent right back here," he sneered.
Jack could see tears in Mac's eyes, but he couldn't tell if they were from pain, humiliation, relief, or all three. So he just leveled his gun at Slater's head. He didn't have much of a shot, but there was absolutely no way that he was letting this monster kill his kid.
"This is your last chance," Jack said. "Let the kid go, and drop the gun, or I will kill you. You have five seconds, or you die."
Slater only laughed, and the moment those five seconds were up, Jack fired, barely missing Mac and getting Slater in the side of the head. Mac cried out in shock and fear at being so close to getting shot himself, but Slater wasn't laughing anymore.
"Oh, Mac," Jack said, letting his rifle fall and rushing towards his kid. "Oh, Mac, oh, kiddo," he repeated again and again. He pulled Mac close to him for a brief second before taking out his knife and cutting the ropes. "I've got you, kiddo. It's okay now, I'm here, it's all gonna be okay." Jack was crying now, and so was Mac. The kid let himself fall right into Jack's arms, and he hooked his fingers around Jack's tac vest like it was a lifeline.
"You came, you found me, Jack, Jack, Jack," he sobbed into Jack's chest. Jack just held him as tightly but gently as he could. The poor kid's back was in ribbons, so he held him around the top of his shoulders, and rested his other hand in Mac's hair, gently running his fingers through it.
"I'm here, I'm here and I'm never letting you go," Jack muttered. "You're safe now, it's all okay. It's all gonna be okay. Riley and Bozer and Leanna and Desi are here too, and Matty wishes she could be here." Jack couldn't stop more tears from falling, and neither could Mac.
"What about my dad?" Mac asked. "He said he would be able to find me, before his plan went so south at least."
Jack had to fight to not tremble with rage. Of course that bastard had made Mac go along with his idiotic plan by assuring him that he could find him again. Then the bastard didn't even look.
"He's at Phoenix, kiddo," was all Jack said in return. He didn't need to break Mac's heart, not after what the kid had clearly been through. "Do you want these?" Jack asked, reaching for the pair of raggedy shorts a foot away. He showed them to Mac, but the kid only dug his face into Jack's shoulder and shook his head as he cried more. Jack's heart was breaking for him. "Do you want my shirt then? I've got a team here protecting us, it's okay if I take it off."
"I can't, not with my- my back," Mac replied as he tried to take a deep breath to compose himself.
"I can wrap it around your waist if you want," Jack continued, still gently running his fingers through the kid's hair. After a moment, Mac nodded.
Jack carefully untangled Mac from himself, then slipped off his upper tac gear until he could get at his shirt. The moment it was off, he gave it to Mac, who clumsily wrapped it around his waist. Jack put the rest of his gear back on over his undershirt, ignoring how uncomfortable it was. It didn't matter.
"Can you walk, bud?" Jack gently asked.
"I think so," Mac replied with a nod. With Jack's help, he got to his feet, and stood on shaky legs. Jack wrapped Mac's arm around his shoulders, and helped him to walk outside. He could see Mac's face light up the moment he saw the team.
"Mac!" Riley shouted, nearly dropped her rig on the ground in her haste to get to him.
"Be gentle," Jack warned as Riley went in for a hug. But Mac didn't seem to care. He just wanted his family. Bozer and Leanna were next, each choked up. Even Desi gave him a hug.
"I'm so sorry, I failed you and I'm so sorry," she said.
"No," Mac said, stopping her. "It wasn't your fault. None of this was your fault. I'm glad you're okay." He reached up to give her another hug, which after a moment of hesitation, she accepted.
There was still a lot to take care of there, but Jack's priority was getting Mac home. The rest of his Kovac team would stay in Colombia, and he would join them later to help finish up, but his Phoenix team, along with Sean Doyle and Emily Desai, who were rescued as well, would be heading back to LA. From there, they would heal in a hospital, then be transported home.
Jack wanted to hold onto Mac the whole ride back on the C-130, but because of Mac's flayed back, he couldn't. But that's what Mac wanted to, so they had to figure something out. After finding Mac a new pair of pants, Jack noticed that the kid seemed to be having trouble keeping his eyes open.
"Do you wanna lay down?" he asked. Mac looked up at him hesitantly, then nodded. So Jack laid on his back, and patted his chest - now clad in a simple tee shirt. "Come 'ere, kiddo. I've got you," he said.
Mac's eyes filled with tears again, but this time Jack knew they weren't from pain or fear, they were from happiness and relief. The kid laid down on his side, his head resting on Jack's chest. It didn't look like he cared at all about who saw him, and Jack was okay with that.
"I've got you, kiddo," Jack whispered as he began to card his fingers through Mac's hair again. The kid may have a long recovery ahead of him, both physically and mentally, but Jack was going to be there. He wasn't going to leave again for Kovacs until he knew for sure that his kid was okay. Jack knew there would be nightmares, and horrific scars, both on his back and in his mind, that were left behind, but Mac was going to be okay. Mac was the strongest kid Jack had ever met. "I've got you," Jack repeated. "Everything is going to be okay."
From the way that Mac snuggled into Jack's arms even more, he believed it too.