I don't own MacGyver or Harry Potter... XD
Also, not quite sure about how I feel about Matty & Patty once the team leaves...to me it kinda seemed OOC, but I felt like they needed to talk? I dunno...
"Okay, I'm confused," Matty said as the small team gathered around the Phoenix bed Thornton was laying on. "Agent Berkhoff is alive?"
"Agent Berkhoff, the same agent who was shot down during exfil in Syria, is still out there, and you didn't tell anyone?" Jack asked as well, staring at Patricia with slightly narrowed eyes.
"I couldn't tell anyone," Thornton insisted. Her old team, along with Matty, stared at the woman with skepticism. "Look," Thornton said. "Berkhoff stumbled onto information regarding the mole during his mission. He contacted me, and we both knew that whoever the mole was knew he had found something. We also knew that there was no way they were going to let him live. So we didn't actually put him on the chopper," Thornton explained.
"There was a rumour that the Syrian terrorist cell he was after had stolen his body, and that's why it was never recovered," Jack said, realization dawning on his face.
"There were never any Syrian terrorists," Thornton said, shaking her head slightly. "Or, there were, but they were nothing to be worried about. There were only a small number of them, and they were easily subdued."
"This is some freaky Peter Petergrew stuff right here," Jack commented.
"Um, I think you're thinking Peter Pettigrew, if you're referring to the character from Harry Potter," Mac corrected.
"Meh," Jack replied, waving off his partner's correction.
"Anyways," Matty interrupted, giving Jack the stink-eye. "Does Berkhoff have the name of the mole?" she asked. Thornton shook her head again.
"No," she replied. "If he did, don't you think I would have called him in the minute I was arrested?"
"Fair point," Matty conceded. "So what information did he find that put him in the crosshairs of The Organization?"
"He was the first one, at least to my knowledge, to find out that there was a mole; he brought it to my attention, and we silently started looking into everyone once he was safe. Even with our best intentions to stay quiet though, I think we made more noise than we intended, and The Organization found out about our investigation. That's when they started putting together the evidence to frame me. The Organization is just wanting to get rid of all loose ends," she said. "I'm assuming they were going to interrogate me until I told them where Berkhoff was, and if I did, they would probably have kept me alive to make sure I'd given them the right information, gone to get him, brought him back, and killed both of us at the same time," she explained.
"So...where is Berkhoff?" Riley asked after a minute. Thornton looked at the people surrounding her, knowing she could trust them completely.
"Canon City, Colorado," she finally replied. "I'll give you the new identity he was given, but I need you to promise me that you'll bring him back alive," she insisted.
"'Course, Patty," Jack assured her.
"While we're at it, I thought you guys said you found evidence proving Thornton's innocence?" Matty asked.
"Yeah, but most of it is with Thornton's-"
"Thornton's guy," Matty finished, sounding slightly exasperated. "Wait, most of it?" she asked as she realized what Mac had said.
"Well," Riley replied. "I did a bit of digging, and while I don't have as much as Conway, I was able to find something."
"It's all just a bunch of techno hooey mumbo-jumbo," Jack supplied helpfully as Riley pulled out her tablet and handed it to her boss. Riley glared at the older man.
"It's actually a little more sophisticated than that," she said sarcastically, tapping a few things on the screen. "I went back and was able to find the conversation that Nikki had with Chrysalis. Y'know, back in the hotel."
"What about it?" Matty asked.
"I read through the messages and didn't find anything useful there; it was basically just what Mac said it was. Nikki telling Chrysalis that she had copies of what had been in the lock box and was willing to sell them. Nothing helpful," she said. "But when I started looking at where the messages had been sent from, I found that there was a scrambler code for the IP address, mixing up the IP numbers and making it difficult to track down where Chrysalis was actually messaging from."
"Which was?"
"After applying an algorithm I've been working on to descramble the numbers and put them back into place, it looks like it was coming from a location somewhere in La Jolla, which Thornton was nowhere near that night," Riley explained. "It's not enough to prove she's innocent, but I'm thinking that this, plus the evidence Thornton's guy gathered may be enough to have Oversight take another look at everything."
Matty nodded thoughtfully as she looked through the information Riley had just handed her.
"Where is Conway?" Thornton asked as she realized that she hadn't seen him anywhere, even though she was assuming Mac had gotten ahold of him.
"When we left to get you, he was at my house," Mac replied, looking to Riley and Bozer for a more helpful answer.
"Yeah, but after you and Jack ran out the door, he kinda up and left, saying it was safer for him if we didn't stick with him," Bozer added. "He didn't want the only copy of the evidence he'd gathered for Thornton to fall into the wrong hands," he explained as everyone looked at him in confusion.
"Well I still have yet to meet this 'guy' or see the supposed evidence he's gathered, so for now, Patricia, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to keep you in custody until I can see the evidence that Blondie and Jack say they've found," she said, actually sounding apologetic.
"I understand," Thornton said tiredly. "Mac, do you still have Conway's number?"
"Yeah," he said, pulling the crumpled piece of paper out of his back pocket. "Want me to call him?"
Thornton nodded. "He won't want to come here though," she added. "Someone is going to need to go somewhere to meet him and get the information," she explained.
"Riley, you and Bozer go get the information from Thornton's man," Matty instructed. "Mac, Jack, you two are going to Colorado to find Agent Berkhoff and bring him back here," she continued.
"Yes ma'am," everyone replied simultaneously. MacGyver handed Riley the piece of paper with Conway's number on it, then he and Jack walked out the door, followed soon after by Riley and Bozer. Matty walked over and sat in one of the chairs next to the bed Thornton was on.
"Matilda Webber," Thornton said in a contemplative voice after a few moments of silence. Matty looked at Thornton, quirking her eyebrow up a little.
"Patricia Thornton," she replied in the same tone.
"You've got quite the reputation among government agencies," Thornton commented.
"I could say the same about you," Matty said. "Before you were arrested, I mean," she clarified. Thornton's mouth twitched upwards in a ghost of a smile as she thought about the rumors that must be flying around about her now.
"I hope you understand that this is all protocol?" Matty asked after a few more moments, gesturing to the restraints securing Thornton to the bed.
"I understand," Thornton assured Matty. "I'd do the same thing if our roles were reversed." Another few moments of slightly awkward silence passed before Patricia spoke again. "I'm glad you're the one who replaced me," she admitted. "You've got an amazing background experience, and the team seems to be doing just fine."
"It's been quite the journey," Matty agreed. "And while I don't agree with everything that Mac or Jack do, they are quite honestly the best team the Phoenix has; my guess is they wouldn't have gotten there without you."
Thornton didn't say anything to that; she simply looked out the door where her-where Matty's team had disappeared through. Matty stared at the brunette for a minute, a thoughtful look on her face. She couldn't help but think to herself that if Thornton was the mole, she did an amazing job of pretending like she actually cared about her team. Matty had only heard about Thornton through reputation before, but being with her now made the new Phoenix director wonder if Thornton really could have pulled off caring for her team as much as she seemed to. Matty understood that Patricia Thornton was one of the best spies in the country, but it would have been hard for even her to pull off the real emotion she was showing on her face at the moment.
Matty didn't say anything else. She simply let the silence grow louder and louder while they waited for any word from any of the team. Finally, Thornton's eyes drifted shut; Matty had had the doctors give her more painkillers, and it seemed like they finally kicked in. After Thornton drifted off to sleep, Matty simply continued to sit there, wondering what was going to happen. She wasn't planning on leaving Thornton alone anytime soon. Even if she really was the mole, she deserved to be in prison, not dead. The more and more Matty thought about it though, the more she began to think MacGyver was right, and that they had all been played.
0-0-0
MacGyver and Jack settled down in the plane's seats, and as soon as they felt the plane take off, they both relaxed slightly. Mac's eyes began drooping, and while he knew that he and Jack should probably talk about what their plan was once they touched down in Colorado, he had been up for over thirty-six hours, with maybe thirty minutes of sleep throughout the entire time. He was exhausted, and he could tell Jack was too. Soon, Mac's eyes shut all the way, and he drifted off to sleep.
0-0-0
"Mac? Mac!" a distorted voice sounded above him. Mac opened his eyes swiftly, sitting up and staring around him with a slightly confused expression, until he remembered where he was. "Sorry to wake ya up, but I figured we should probably go over our game plan," Jack said as he looked at his partner apologetically. He knew how draining the last few days had been for his partner, both emotionally and physically.
"How long was I out?" Mac asked, moving his tongue around his mouth to get the taste of sleep out.
"A little more than two hours," Jack replied, checking his watch. "We've only got about fifteen more minutes before we land," he added. "You got our dude's information?" he asked. Matty had instructed them not to use Berkhoff's name at all, even in front of other Phoenix Agents, just because they didn't know if anyone else was a mole and working for The Organization.
"Yeah," Mac said, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of his eyes and sitting up further. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper, on which Thornton had written the alias and address for Berkhoff. He handed it over to Jack, who examined the writing on the paper.
"Peter Winkler," he read quietly, looking around to make sure he and his partner were alone. "So what're we gonna do when we get there?" he asked. "Walk right up to him and say 'Hey, listen, we think your life's in danger, so we need you to come back with us to the Phoenix Foundation'?"
"First of all, he won't know what the Phoenix Foundation is," Mac pointed out. "Not unless Thornton told him about the rebuild. He...disappeared while we were still DXS," he reminded his partner. "But we do need to make him realize that his life really is in danger and get him back on the plane; once he's safe, we can do a bit more explaining."
"Are you saying we kidnap him?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow at his partner.
"No," Mac replied, shaking his head with a chuckle. "We want him to trust us, remember? Kidnapping him won't really help with that."
"It kinda worked with Anja," Jack pointed out, referring to the first time they met their Russian friend.
"No, she was terrified of you," Mac argued. "It was only after I told you to put her down that she started to trust us!"
"So let's do the same thing with Berkhoff!" Jack proposed, only partially kidding. Mac rolled his eyes at his partner, making it clear that they were NOT going to fake kidnap Berkhoff just to get him to trust them.
"I think your logic is a little twisted," Mac snarked at his partner.
"Your...face is...twisted," Jack shot back, struggling to come up with a good retort. Mac raised his eyebrows at his partner in amusement. "Okay then," Jack said, throwing up his hands in mock exasperation. "Use that big brain of yours to come up with another genius idea!"
"Actually, I think your idea of walking up to him and telling him straight up that he's in danger is probably our best approach," Mac said with a shrug. "It's honest, and honesty is probably the best thing we have to work with right now."
Jack perked up a little, and he looked at Mac. "Are you saying that my idea is the best one?" he asked.
"That's what I just said, isn't it? Besides, out of the two ideas that we've had, which have both been yours, the other idea was that we kidnap him. Talking seems like the more logical solution out of the two ideas," Mac answered drily.
"Yeah, but I wanna hear you actually say it," Jack pressed.
"Not sayin' what's already been said, Jack," MacGyver said, shrugging his shoulders and smirking at his partner.
"Dude," Jack griped.
"Oh look, we're starting the descent," Mac said, steering the conversation in a different direction. "It looks like his address is only about thirty minutes away from where we're landing," Mac added, pulling up the map on his phone. Jack leaned over and looked at the route on the map, nodding as he looked it over.
A few minutes later, the plane touched down, and Mac and Jack stood up, waiting for the plane to taxi to a stop. Once the side door was opened, the two of them hurried off the plane. They spotted a car waiting for them at the end of the airstrip, and they quickly made their way over. Jack grabbed the keys from the top of the visor once he and Mac were both in the car, and he turned the car on. He glanced over at the map Mac still had pulled up on his phone before driving onto the streets of Colorado. They merged into traffic, neither of them noticing the inconspicuous blue Honda that pulled into traffic several cars behind them.
Ok! Guesses? Thoughts? Yes, I'm very much taking creative license with a lot of technological things in this story, I know XD
So did you guys think Matty & Patty were OOC? Probably?
Lemme know what you guys think!
