Slight of Mind, ch 4
Nothing up My Sleeve

Mac's Voice-over:
There's nothing I wanted more than to run straight out of Pete's office and find Starkoss… but I didn't know where to look. The vague feeling I had—that might or might not be accurate—didn't come with compass points and certainly didn't provide a zip code. Besides, I still wasn't prepared to take out stock in ESP… not even if it is my brain that's doing the perceiving!

It made sense to start where I'd last seen him… on that country lane outside of Munich. He'd waved at me and Nikki one last time and then disappeared into a copse of trees. That had been a couple of years ago.

Starkoss didn't want to live like a freak in a zoo anymore… a subject for study and tests, doctors staring and people poking at him… that's what he'd told me. At the time I thought I had understood. Now… now, I understood exactly what he had meant. He didn't want to be found and he wouldn't be easy to follow.

If I was going to find that wily old man, I was going to need help.

⌂

"The news isn't good, Mac," Pete confessed as his friend stepped into his office. It was late; most of the staff at the Phoenix Foundation had already departed for their homes. All was dim and quiet in the corridors of the great building, apart from one office on the eighth floor. Light blazed out between the vertical blinds of the office of the Director of Operations.

Pete had set aside much of his work to help MacGyver look for Starkoss. He wasn't sure what to believe concerning the events of the past few days. Mac seemed to be able to pick the thoughts out of his mind before he could voice them. Not just his own, either.

The morning after Mac's surprising revelation about John Kelly's involvement with the Organization, Pete's secretary Helen had come into the office with aspirin and a glass of water. She had handed them to MacGyver, her face a study in matriarchal concern, and patted him gently on the arm.

Mac had given her a grateful look and said, "Thanks, Helen." And then he got a strange expression on his face and added suddenly, "Buy the blue one."

"The blue what?" Helen asked gently, wondering if MacGyver had got hit on the head again.

"Your god-daughter is going to have a boy. Buy the blue onesy… and get a size two. He's going to be a big boy."

Helen raised her eyebrows in surprise. She patted Mac again and then turned and slowly walked out of the office. She paused in the doorway to whisper to Pete as he was coming back in, "How did he know about my god-daughter? I just found out that she was expecting!"

"Er… he must have seen the magazine on your desk," Pete had answered, thinking fast. He had seen her leafing through a baby catalogue during her coffee break.

Helen had agreed, but Pete could tell she wasn't completely convinced. He was glad that he could rely on Helen's discretion; he wasn't sure he wanted this gossiped about around the water cooler. He looked at Mac in wonder. Had Mac seen the catalogue or overheard Helen talking about the baby… or was it something else?

If Pete hadn't suspected that Mac had ESP that morning, he was convinced of it by that evening. They'd been going over a report that had been filed right after the GX-1 incident, and Mac had been reading something on the computer screen over Pete's shoulder. Pete had felt that weird static electricity feeling on his neck, and he was just about to suggest calmly that Mac not touch the computer when his friend spoke softly into his ear.

"I know, Pete… I can feel it too. It seems to build up and increase if I concentrate too hard on something. I think I better go and have a sit-down across the room for a while. Let me know if you find anything." He left Pete's side and went and sat down on the couch in the corner of the office. He got back up immediately and went over to the bookshelf.

On one of the shelves, Mac found three beanbags with which he had once tried to teach Pete to juggle. He began tossing them to himself deftly, gradually speeding up and performing simple tricks. When he noticed Pete watching him, Mac offered a grin and said jokingly, "I do birthday parties and bar mitzvahs, too!" In a softer, more serious tone he added, "It takes just enough of my attention to keep my mind busy."

"Ah… okay, Mac," Pete had no idea what else to say, so he went dutifully back to work.

⌂

"The news isn't good." Pete could tell that Mac already knew. He sighed as he watched Mac settle dejectedly into a chair. "I wish I had something to give you... even a weak lead… but there's been nothing…"

"I know, Pete," Mac rubbed his forehead absently. "I've been down at Records, reading—did you know that Dennis and Veronica are planning a wedding? I thought that boy was never going to propose to her…"

Mac saw Pete's uneasy glance and added in answer to Pete's unasked question, "He told me… he asked me to be Best Man."

"Um, good… that's great." Pete shook his head. "Did you find any answers in Records?"

"No… just piles of unconfirmed incidents and photos of fake UFOs. I didn't know whether to just throw them all away or call Mulder." At Pete's blank look, Mac added, "It's a TV show… on the Fox network… it's called 'The X-Files'… never mind." He gently pounded his fist on the arm of the chair. "Back to square one, I guess."

"Maybe there is something to this extra sensory perception, Mac," Pete suggested hesitantly. When Mac rounded a glare at him, he added, "You do seem to know certain things… well, maybe you've seen things or heard things that didn't register at the time and your brain is just now processing the information… but still," Pete chose his next words very carefully, "maybe we could try something… else."

"What 'something else'?" Mac asked.

"Well, I was going over that old recording of Starkoss that we have… the one that had been smuggled out of the Petroski Institute that I showed to you and Nikki, remember? And it gave me an idea…" Pete rose and crossed the room, taking down a roll of maps that he had lying along one of the book shelves. He unrolled it across the clear half of his desk, selecting one of the several and laying it on top. It was a world map, with the countries delineated in various colors. Pete anchored down the curling edges with his coffee cup and a stapler.

Pete glanced at Mac before he spoke, trying to gauge his friend's mood. Mac was wearing an expression that lived somewhere between curiosity and disgust. "Look, I know how you feel about this… but what will it hurt to try?"

"I… I don't know what to do," Mac said. His hands felt cold; he crossed his arms and tucked his fingers under, unconsciously placing a barrier between him and the maps.

"Some people who claim to have the ability can look at a map and figure out where something is."

"Just by looking at it?" Mac said, incredulous.

"Or by touching it… and concentrating on what they want to find. This is how Starkoss found where the GX-1 crashed."

Mac looked at Pete with a tilt to his head and a wry smile. "I find it strange that you're the one suggesting that we try this… this parlor trick… I'm usually the one trying to talk you into trying crazy things!"

Pete nodded. "You have talked me into some pretty strange things… remember Carrie Lindon, the teacher at the school for the deaf children? You were willing then to suspend your disbelief in unexplainable phenomena… when you were trying to help her understand her nightmares."

"Yeah, well… it wasn't happening to me… then," Mac grumbled. After a moment, he sighed. "Okay, I can see that I'm being a little hypocritical, here. I'll give it a go… but I still don't know what I'm doing."

"Just try. Let's see what happens."

Mac leaned over the map, feeling foolish. Okay… so I'm looking. What's supposed to happen? Is one of the little ink-etched countries supposed to glow or something? Mac sighed and reached out and swept his hand across the map to smooth the curling paper.

The texture of the sheet felt odd… both smooth and tacky, like something sticky had been spilled upon it and then dried. He ran his hands over it again.

Pete's voice was barely more than a whisper, "What is it, Mac?"

Mac didn't answer, afraid that the sensation would go away if he stopped looking. He moved his fingers slowly across the sheet until suddenly they stopped. It felt to him as if a portion of the map was covered with sandpaper. He opened his eyes that he hadn't realized that he had closed, and looked at where his hands had stopped.

His thumbs and forefingers lay like a frame around the north-eastern portion of the United States. Hastily, Mac swept the map aside and sorted through the others that Pete had brought him, until he found an enlarged map of New England. The state of Maine had the same, strange gritty texture.

Mac raised his head and looked at Pete in amazement. "I think… I think this means he is here… in the U.S." He felt twitchy all over suddenly; he ran his fingers through his hair and static crackled. He realized that he was charged all over with electricity. "Um… Pete? I don't think this was such a good idea to try …"

A brilliant flash of blue-white erupted in the room, and suddenly the lights blinked out in the office. From outside on the street, passers-by saw the tall, glass building of the Phoenix Foundation suddenly go dark floor by floor. In a matter of minutes, the entire building was blacked out.

"… Indoors." Mac finished his sentence, then added in matter-of-fact voice, " Uh… Pete? Is it very dark in here… or did I just go blind?"

"It's dark in here."

"Good. I mean… sorry…"

"Well!" Pete said as he felt around in his desk drawer for a candle, "I wanted you to try… so don't blame yourself. That didn't happen when Starkoss did it!"