AN: Welcome to chapter two of my first ever multi-chapter fic! This is a momentous occasion for me so I hope you're all proud. For now, the updating schedule should work like this: I publish one chapter of this, then two follow ups to my tags that were requested, then another chapter of this, and so on. I'm not sure how often I'll be publishing anything, but it should be a few times per week. However, don't expect them quite as often as I whipped out those episode tags. This chapter is a little boring, but it's necessary. The next chapter will pick back up with Mac, I promise. I got the names for the robbers by combining the names given on IMDb with the names of the actors. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!
Jack kept the pedal pressed down as far as he dared. He needed to get to Mac before the robbers escaped the island. There was no telling what they would do to the kid once they escaped, because it wasn't as if they would just let him go. The most likely scenario is that they would kill him, which was the worst scenario in Jack's book.
"Up there!" Riley shouted, pointing out at the marina. From the road at the top of the hill, they could see the robbers on a small yacht, and Jack caught a brief glimpse of Mac before they pulled the kid below deck.
"I see 'em," Jack growled, bringing the car down the hill as quickly as he dared, and swerving into the marina. The gunfire started before he was even out of the car. "Take cover!" he shouted to Riley and Bozer, hoping the two would take his warning and duck. He, meanwhile, got out of the car and started to return fire. The men managed to get several shots on the car, hitting the windshield, but they were likely running out of ammo with how often they were firing. Jack hoped he could bide his time and shoot once they were out.
"Jack!" came Mac's shout from the yacht. Jack heard him fall to the floor - or, more likely, be tackled to the floor - and got out from behind his cover.
"Mac!" he shouted back, glad to hear that his partner was still alive, at least for the time being. He shouted the kid's name again when he saw the yacht start to pull away from the marina. Jack let out a barrage of bullets into the yacht, but it didn't slow it down. It was pulling away, and taking Mac along with it. "Mac!" he shouted again, hoping to hear his partner's voice again, but to no avail. All Jack could do was watch in panic as the yacht pulled away. He swore loudly and kicked the ground, dropping his gun and running his hands through his sparse hair. The robbers were gone, and they took his kid with them.
Jack picked up his gun and holstered it, pulling out his phone instead. He quickly found Matty's name called her. She answered on the first ring.
"Tell me you've got our boy back," she demanded.
"They took him, Matty. The robbers are gone and they took Mac with them. They stole a small yacht and are already halfway to the horizon. We need choppers out there now, to follow them," Jack said without any hesitation.
He heard a sharp intake of breath from his boss before she answered, "you know we can't get a chopper out there, or even a plane or a boat. Not in time to find them at least. They chose Puerto Rico because they knew resources were scarce."
"Then how the hell are we supposed to find him? I'm not leaving my kid out there alone again, there's no way in hell we just abandon him. That poor kid's been abandoned too many times in his life, and I'm not gonna add to that, Matty. I won't do it."
"You can have Riley try to track the yacht, but that's about all we can do. I'm sorry, Jack. I want to get him back too, but we need to be realistic. I'll brief Oversight on the situation and get back to you," Matty said, her voice thick with emotion. She hung up without so much as a goodbye.
"Riley, how we comin' on tracin' that boat?" Jack asked, spinning around to face the truck. Both Riley and Bozer had gotten out once the gunfire stopped. Riley rested her rig on the hood while Bozer rested his hand on her shoulder.
Riley looked up at him with fear in her eyes before answering, "it's a yacht in the middle of the ocean. Not that easy to track, and there aren't any satellites overhead. I can, however, find out who's yacht they stole and find all the specs on it. Then, we can put out a BOLO on it and hopefully, find it as soon as it makes port." Riley broke eye contact, sighing. "That's all I can do in terms of tracing it."
Jack let out a deep breath and nodded. He knew it wasn't Riley's fault, and he didn't want his anger at Mac's kidnapping to come out at her. She was trying her best. They all wanted Mac home safe and sound.
"What about the robbers?" Bozer asked. "What can we find out about them? If we can figure out who they are, maybe we can figure out where they might be headed." Bozer looked at Jack with a bit of hope in his eyes. They could still find those bastards who took Mac. Yeah, this wasn't their normal gig - running a criminal investigation that is - but it's not as if they were just going to sit back and let the Puerto Rican feds handle it. They already knew that if they did that, Mac was as good as dead.
"Good thinkin', Boze. Now, let's get back to base camp and get their pics runnin' through facial rec. Once we know who they are, we can find out where they've been, and just maybe, where they're going."
Jack hopped back into the driver's seat and leaned forward. He took his gun out and pistol whipped the windshield, effectively shattering the rest of it and breaking it off. It would have been too difficult to see through if he had left it up. Once all the glass was thrown out, Riley and Bozer climbed back in. Luckily, the the car would still run.
Quickly enough - but not in Jack's opinion - they were back at the police HQ where they would run the investigation from. Jack, Riley, and Bozer quickly commandeered an empty conference room and turned it into a makeshift war room. Riley's rig had a place on the long table, and cork boards and a flatscreen tv lined the walls. It wasn't much, but it was all they were going to get in Puerto Rico. It wasn't as if they could go back to Phoenix HQ in LA. Yeah, the island they were on was the one place they were sure Mac wasn't, but it was still closer to him than LA.
"Facial rec is running on all four robbers. We should have IDs in a few minutes. Wait, the first one's back now." Jack and Bozer crowded around Riley and her laptop, looking at the screen. On it was a picture of a man with unkempt brown hair and a short beard. "This is Ash Jenkins. He's been arrested for petty theft twice, and he's from Detroit. He dropped out of college, and there's no employment records or address listed," Riley said with a frown. Still, this was better than nothing. At least they had a name, and they would soon get more.
A minute later, Riley called them back over with more info on the other robbers.
"I have the rest of them. The ringleader seems to be Marc Booth, who has armed robbery and attempted murder on his rap sheet. He's been a fugitive for the past two years..." Riley trailed off, looking at Jack in worry. He nodded morosely and motioned for her to continue her search. There were no records of him since he fell off the map two years ago. "The guy with the buzz cut is Michael Pike. He doesn't have a record, but he has been wanted in connection to illegal dark web activity. No one was ever able to make anything stick on him. It says he used to work in IT before he quit six months ago, and he disappeared once the lease on his apartment was up. The last guy is Dean Baird. He has several petty theft charges, but nothing big. He's also from Detroit, and seems to have followed the same path as Jenkins." Riley let out a small breath when she finished. Jack rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed in an attempt to give her just a little bit of comfort.
"Nice job, Riles, way to go. That's a lot more intel than we had five minutes ago, and I'm sure we can use it to help us find Mac," Jack said with a small smile.
All he cared about was finding that kid. He couldn't care less about the $2 million. He just needed his kid back, safe and sound. Who knows what they were doing with Mac, or even if he was even alive. No, Jack couldn't think like that. Of course Mac was still alive, he was Mac. He would find a way to escape and get back to them. He always did.
Jack began pouring through all the information they could find on the robbers while Bozer made sure a BOLO got out on the yacht. They were able to identify it and make sure the surrounding islands were all aware. The moment it pulled into a marina, they would be alerted.
The silence in the room was broken by Jack's phone. It was Matty.
"Please, give me some good news," Jack pleaded the moment he answered.
"Sadly, it's not that good," Matty said. "I spoke with Oversight and made sure he was completely aware of the entire situation. He said that he would not give up valuable resources for the life of one agent who he believes is likely already beyond saving. I'm sorry, Jack," Matty said in a small voice, for once, sounding unsure.
"Damn it, Matty, he's not just an agent, he's Mac!"
"Trust me, Oversight knows that better than most, but since none of this happened on a mission anyway, he will not use Phoenix resources to try to find him. I promise I will do everything I can, but it's up to you guys. If you can't find him, I'm afraid MacGyver is gone."
Jack took a breath before answering. If he could, he would have some very choice words for this Oversight. Clearly the man had no idea what it was like to have his kid taken from him.
"We're gonna find him. I swear on my father's grave that I will bring that boy home." With that, Jack hung up. Closing his eyes and taking another breath, Jack went back to pouring through files on the robbers, looking for anything that might help them. Mac needed them, and Jack was not about to let him down.