Chapter 7

MacGyver felt a deep shivering sensation running down his spine when pronouncing his old enemy's name.

"Who's this Murdock?"

"Someone I've been trying to forget for a long time."

"Then not a friend of yours, I presume." she snapped, with a trace of wicked irony in her voice.

"Not really."

"So, who is he?"

"An international hitman."

"What?"

"He belonged to a crime organization and ... let's say that our paths have crossed too many times over the years."

"And I guess he tried to kill you, right?" she asked, not really sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Yes. He was good, extremely good at his job." he said very calmly.

"Obviously, not so good, you're still alive."

"Yeah, it made him mad, because I always managed to escape his maniac plans."

"What do you mean maniac?"

"He used to kidnap his victims and set up some theatrical set up." MacGyver frowned and looked around. "Somehow, I'm not even sure he's responsible for this. Something's missing."

"Like what?"

"Cameras."

"Huh? I don't get it."

"He used to film his victims. He also used to talk to them, telling them what would happen next. So far, he hasn't shown up, either way."

Tanya walked to the bed, but didn't sit. Instead, she let her body glide against it and ended up on the floor, her knees folded against her chest, as a protective armor. She started to cry, silently.

"Why me, then?" she sobbed.

MacGyver sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. The tears were now falling free down her cheeks.

"I... er... I guess he used you as a bait to get to me," he felt his heart filling with a nasty guilty feeling. "I'm so sorry, Tanya. I'll get you outa here safe. Trust me. I've always found a way."

"I don't wanna die here, because some nutcase seeks revenge on you!" She stood up and walked away from him. "I wish I'd never come here. I wish I'd never met YOU!"

MacGyver stood up and tried not to look at her. It was indeed his fault if they were here, trapped with no exit solution ... yet. He hadn't heard from Murdock in a long time, though. Two different feelings were fighting in his mind: Murdock might as well be responsible for this mascarade, yet he hadn't made contact, and this was the element which convinced MacGyver something was very wrong about the whole situation.

Tanya was pacing along the room and each time she was passing by him, she tried to ignore his apologizing expression. After several rounds in the small room, she finally stopped in front of him, breathing heavily.

"What do you plan to get us out of this nightmare?" she asked more brutally than she actually meant.

MacGyver only gave her another sorry look and felt a wave of heat reach his forehead again. He felt a drop of sweat running down his temple. He felt his shirt wet on his back. For the first time, he felt helpless. Am I getting old, all of a sudden? C'mon, Mac, use your brains, that's what your're good at! You've been trapped in worse situations than this. What if she gets hurt in the process? What if the one who got us in here has the worst intentions ever? How can I protect her? I can't face it again. I don't wanna see her die in front of me like...Nicky. Oh man, when am I gonna get rid of this image in my head? I wish it never happened. There is no way I can let this happen to Tanya? Not again! C'mon, Mac, snap out of it and be ready. The lady here needs you, and she needs you NOW!

"Hey, are you gonna find a way out or not?" she asked again, willing to sound more relaxed than she was.

"I... I don't know," he finally admitted.

"You don't know! Swell. Let me tell you something, Mister, you got me into this. Now you get me out. Do you hear me? I don't..."

She stopped, as she saw him close his eyes and raised his hands to his temples. Her heart seemed to skip a beat. She walked to him.

"Are you... all right?" she asked more kindly as she saw he was obviously in pain.

"I wish I... never mind. I'll think of a way out," he said as he closed his eyes again and breathed deeply.

She looked at him as he was trying to find a comfortable position on the lumpy bed. She then thought of the options they had tried. The door was impossible to unlock. There was no way through the window. Apart from that, there seemed there was no alternative. How the heck did we get stuck in this place? Who is this Murdock? I sure don't wanna die here. Look at him, he seems so exhausted. Is it just the fever? Or the water? But if it's the water, how come I'm not as sick as he is. Maybe it's the flu. Maybe I didn't drink as much as he did. Maybe... Of shit, what the hell! Just look at him. He genuinely seems sorry about all this. But I saw something in his eyes, something he's holding back. C'mon Tanya, try to rest your mind. Dad used to say "when in trouble, breathe, clear your mind and figure out a positive solution in your mind, it will come sooner or later". Okay, Dad, sooner would be better, because I don't know how much more I can take.

She was so thirsty! But it was now obvious that their only water supply was no good at all. And she was starving too. She looked through the window. The only thing she could see was the forest behind the house. The trees were dripping after the last rain. She could only see a piece of sky, rather dark. She turned and saw that MacGyver was staring at her. She wanted to smile but inside she felt so angry and afraid at the same time that she preferred not to meet his eyes. She started to pace nervously again across the room, stopping to the door, up to the wall in front of her and back. When she had walked several times back and forth, she stopped in front of the bed.

"I want to get out. I hate this!" she shouted as she started stomping with her valid foot.

"Wait!" MacGyver reacted suddenly, raising from the bed.

"What? Why should we wait? I need to get out of here!"

He came close to her and hit the floor several times with his foot.

"What are you doing?" she asked, quite surprised.

"Did you hear that?" he asked as he hit the ground again.

"What am I supposed to hear?"

"The sound is different, like it's hollow."

He took his Swiss army knife from his pocket and tried to insert the larger blade between two wooden planks. After several unsuccessful attempts, he managed to brake a piece of wood, which enabled him to put two fingers in the open space and tried to pull one plank. Tanya located the hook he had made with her bra's amatures and gave it to Mac.

"Would this help?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Finally the first plank gave up and broke in two. He removed two more.

"Look at this!"

She came close and looked below. There was a stone staircase going down.

"Where do you think this leads?"

"There's only one way to find out," he replied, as he started to walk down. As she was on his heels, he stopped and turned to face her.

"I think you should stay here while I check what's down there."

"No way! I've had enough of this place and ... I prefer to stay with you."

"Stay close to me then and be careful."

They progressed slowly, one step at a time, it was dark. MacGyver had taken a match from his jacket pocket and used a piece of plank as a pitiful torch. The wood was burning slow and the light emanating from it was almost too faint for them to make their way down.

When they reached the last step, MacGyver stopped, his mouth open in amazement.

"Would you look at this!"

They seemed to have ended up in what looked like a laboratory. There were shelves everywhere and on some of them, there were lots of bottles, some empty, some half full. MacGyver quickly found an old oil lamp which he carefully lit. Suddenly the cave looked like a wonders cavern to him.

"Christmas!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Tanya looked at him with wide eyes.

"I bet we'll find something here to help us escape."

"I'm not sure about this. The window is electrified and the door seems too ..."

"Shhh!" he gently ordered her, putting a hand on her arm.

"What now?"

"Can you feel it?"

She remained motionless. And felt it. A weak draught was coming from the other side of the lab. Some fresh air.

"Yeah, I can feel it," she said, her voice suddenly full of hope, and started to walk to the back door.

"Be careful, there might be another trap there too," he warned her, walking ahead of her.

He slowly opened the door. He saw a tunnel and a faint light at the end of it. They progressed carefully and stopped in front of a large wrought iron gate. MacGyver tried to open it. It was locked. He looked all around, I search of a key. None, of course.

"Swell!" he groused. He found a metal bar on the floor and tried to use it as a crawbar. After several attempts, he gave up, the metal was just too hard to break.

Tanya sighed.

"Don't worry," MacGyver said, smiling at her, "I'll think of something. Back there I guess I can find all I need to open it, let's go back," he said with an encouraging tone.

He turned and headed back to the lab.

"I'm not sure you'll find the key in there."

"I was not thinking of a key," he said with a wink.

They walked back. When they almost reached the lab, they both stopped, alerted by a strange smell. There was a bit of smoke in the stairs leading to the ground floor.

"What the heck?" He rushed to the stairs to check where the smoke was coming from and closed the door in a rush. The heat up there was propagating down already.

"What?" cried Tanya.

"Fire!"

"What do you mean, fire?" She looked more than frightened.

"The ground floor is on fire."

"How..."

"Someone must have started it when we came here."

"You mean, that Murdock?"

"I don't know... and right now, I don't care, we've got to get out of here. And the only exit is the gate, we don't have a choice now. We're trapped."

(TBC)