Chapter 2

LAS ANGELES

MacGyver read a dossier as he walked through the halls. He glanced up when Riley trotted up and slowed to a walk next to him. She didn't say anything, even when he offered a smile, just stare at him. He knew she had something on her mind and waited for her to tell him. After a few minutes he realized she was waiting for him to offer to hear her out, and he had a good idea why that was.

"What's up, Riley?" he finally asked.

"When you gonna talk to Jack?"

MacGyver looked back at the dossier. "Stay out of this, Riley."

She stopped in front of him and pulled the dossier away. "You two have either been at each other's throats or leaving the room when the other shows up for four days now. You two need to talk this out. This morning, he and Thornton were at each other's throats, again. She was so mad she ordered him to work with the janitors for the rest of today. He needs your help, Mac. Just… Just hear him out. You know, listen to him and stuff."

"If he wants to talk, I will listen, but that's on him." He took the dossier back.

"He is too proud and hurt to do that. You have to cave first."

"No." MacGyver walked around her. She kept up with him. "I am done enabling his gambling addiction and get rich schemes. When he realizes he needs my help – which he always does – I'll listen then."

"He's going to get himself fired because he's mad at you and taking it out on Thornton."

"That's his problem. I am not bailing him out."

"Look, Mac, I'm not asking you to bail him out. I'm asking you to just talk to him. Come on. You two are best friends. This fight is killing the team vibe. I work better when we have our easy-going vibe, and Jack thinks he's funny, and you're suave."

"You think I think I'm suave?"

"Yes!" She smiled.

He recognized her trap. "Flattery is not getting you what you want. He made this mess, he can clean it up."

They turned down the short hall leading to the 'war room' (Riley's new name for their meeting room), and she stopped in front of him. "Sometimes best friends can be the hardest to keep helping, but if you leave them when they need you the most, you risk losing them forever."

He tilted his head. "Sounds like you have some experience here."

She bobbed her head side to side, then said. "I've been the person that friends bailed on when I needed them most. I think that, you know, if you don't at least let him know that this doesn't change your friendship, you might regret it later. Obviously, he needs you to at least hear him out, to listen, because if I've pegged Thornton right, she's not going to put up with his behavior for much longer. And how will you feel if you didn't at least listen to him and that might have been all it took to keep him from getting fired?"

MacGyver stared at her. They both looked at the door when it opened.

Thornton stepped into the hall. "Are you two coming?" she asked.

"Be right there," MacGyver answered.

She went back inside. MacGyver looked at Riley.

"When we get back, I will talk to him."

"Promise?"

"Yes. I promise."

She smiled and gave him a playful slug to the shoulder. "Softy!" She pirouetted on her toe and headed into the meeting room.

MacGyver smiled and followed her. But his smile faded when he entered the meeting room. Jack and Thornton weren't talking, but if looks could kill, Thornton would be dead from the glare Jack was shooting at her. To most people, she looked calm, but MacGyver had known her long enough to know she was furious. They didn't seem to notice Riley or MacGyver until Riley cleared her throat. Thornton turned to the multiple screens on the wall. Jack leaned against one of the window metal frames and moved his glare to the screens.

Riley took a seat on the couch and MacGyver slowly walked over to the bowl of paperclips.

"This is Tomek Betzalel," Thornton began. She flicked something off the tablet she was holding and an image of a man appeared. "He's the third generation owner of the Catacoph diamond mine near Musina in South Africa. Last week, a shipment of diamonds was stolen while in route from his mine to his office in Antwerp."

"You want us to some guy's blood diamonds?" Jack asked. There was a snarky tone that he didn't attempt to hide.

She didn't look at him. "No. None of his are conflict diamonds, and his mine exceeds safety and health standards."

"Oh. So a supervisor who listens to his employees, huh? Wonder what that feels like."

Riley slowly looked up at Jack, then turned her head to look at MacGyver. He was unusually focused on folding the paperclip. She slowly looked up at Thornton. She was glaring at Jack. She tentatively cleared her throat, attracting everyone's attention.

"Dry throat," Riley lied to them.

Thornton focused on the screen and changed the image to a clothing storefront. "We were able to track the thieves to this clothing store. It appears to be a seven-man ring of thieves who have hit numerous other gem shipments over the years. We believe their using it as a front and using it to launder the money they get for their thefts." Thornton turned to the three. "Our intel says that they have a buyer coming in four days, you'll be there in two. You get in, get the jewels, and get out."

"Shouldn't we be, I dunno, taking them down instead of getting just a few diamonds back?" Riley asked.

"We're getting the diamonds back so INTERPOL has evidence to legally shut them down," Thornton explained to her.

"What's the security like?" MacGyver asked.

"As far as we could tell security is low, but there is a vault at the back, and we were not able to obtain specs for it. A thermal scan showed it is at least five by six, so it's safe to say there will be a reinforced door."

MacGyver looked up from his paperclip art. "Sounds straightforward. Riley and I could probably take this one."

"Riley and you?" Jack asked. "You want me to sit this one out?"

"It's a storefront with low security and a vault, and she needs the field experience."

"That's all your saying?"

"Yes. That's all I'm saying."

"Are you sure?"

"What else would I be saying?"

"Maybe how you think I'm too incompetent for a simple heist? You know, like I am with my bank account."

MacGyver turned to Thornton for support on his suggestion.

Which he did not get when she told them, "I do not know what is going on with this team or why you're being so insubordinate Jack, but this will end. The three of you need to pull it together because you are all going on this mission, and you leave in an hour. We are done!" She stormed out of the room.

"I'm part of this team, like or not, Mac," Jack snarled as he walked out of the room.

MacGyver turned to Riley. "Was it wrong to suggest you get some field experience with just one of us?"

She shrugged.

"Would you have minded if it had just been the two of us?"

She shook her head.

"He is being completely ridiculous!" MacGyver tossed his paperclip art on a table and left the room.

Riley looked down at the paperclip. MacGyver had bent it into a sword. It was not a comforting sign.

She told the room, "Oh this is going to be just a fantastic mission."

/*/

MacGyver parked his Jeep and climbed out. He grabbed his bag from the back and headed for the private jet waiting on the tarmac. He trotted up the stairs and into the jet. Inside he found Riley sitting in a chair near the door with her laptop on her lap. She and the pilot were the only people on the plane.

"Where's Jack?"

"Beats me. Oh! Maybe he's getting more of his ass handed to him," she joked.

While she was amused by her own joke, MacGyver was not. He sat down in the seat across from her so he could see outside. Thornton was pacing just inside the hanger with her phone pressed to her ear. She stopped to tap her phone, tap it again, push it against her ear, and began pacing again.

"How long has she been trying to call him?"

"How do you know she's trying to call Jack?"

"Because he's late. He's always here before we are."

"I'm telling you, it's because he got his ass handed to him again."

MacGyver frowned at her. "This isn't funny, Riley. He has a problem."

"I use humor in intense situations and right now, working with the two of you has gotten absurdly intense."

MacGyver looked out as Jack pulled his car into the spot next to MacGyver's Jeep. He got out and grabbed a duffle bag from the trunk of his vehicle. When he turned, MacGyver shook his head. He had fresh cuts and bruises, and his knuckles were raw from a fist fight. He was holding an already bloody napkin to his nose. Jack marched up behind Thornton. She turned quickly and stared. Jack started in on her, which immediately exploded into a heated fight.

"He's going to be in a great mood this trip, isn't he?" Riley asked.

"Yeah."

Jack suddenly made a 'fine' signal with his hands and walked away. Thornton kept yelling at him, and MacGyver could read his lips saying, 'Whatever you say, boss lady!'

With sharp, angry, steps, Thornton disappeared into the hanger.

Jack entered the jet and turned to shut the door. "We're ready. Let's go!" he barked at the pilot, then muttered something incoherent.

He walked past the two and fell into a seat at the back, dropping his bag on the floor at his feet.

MacGyver and Riley stared at each other. She motioned at Jack with her head, trying to encourage MacGyver to talk to him. MacGyver shook his head. She motioned again. MacGyver more insistently shook his head. She frowned at him but didn't press. She put her earbuds in her ears and went back to work on her laptop.

The jet started moving and the trio were on their way to Antwerp on a mission MacGyver would have really liked to not be on.