Jack pulled up half a block from Lionel Bolan's house. It was a simple white bungalow with burgundy shutters beside every window. Not that the shutters were necessary. Every window was covered by crinkled aluminum. Behind the house was a tall antenna with a large dish on it. Behind the house was a large shed that matched the house for color and aluminum foil in the windows.
"That's not suspicious at all," Riley commented.
"The foil blocks laser audio devices," Matty said.
"And that huge ass antenna looks like one from a TV or radio station." Jack scanned the house. There were no signs of movement. He turned to the back seat where Riley and Bozer sat.
"You two go in the front door, try to distract anybody that's in there." Jack pulled out his beretta and glanced at Matty who already had her sig ready. She nodded.
Bozer walked up the sidewalk trying to be cool, but his glancing around only made it more obvious that he was nervous.
"Will you stop looking around!" Riley hissed. Bozer snapped his head forward.
"Sorry, I'm just nervous."
"No, kidding," Riley said softly as they walked up a perfectly manicured lawn to the front door that was painted to match the shutters. There was no doorbell button or knocker. Bozer walked up to the door and was about to bang on the door when Riley stopped him and pushed him over to the side of the door. Bozer looked at her confused.
"Just in case." She whispered. His eyes widened and he nodded. Riley banged on the door hard, like a policeman. She leaned forward and could hear footsteps pound on the other side of the door. "We got movement, more than one." She said softly to the coms.
"Copy." Jack's voice bounced back immediately. Riley went to pound on the door again when it was opened and Lionel Bolan answered the door. Riley went to say something and froze as she looked down the black-eyed double barrel of a shotgun.
"Hello, you don't need that shotgun." She said softly. When there was no reply from Jack or Matty, Riley's heart began to thump loudly.
"What do you want?" The old man said. He stank of old cigarettes and his nails were long and yellow. His clothes were dingy and his white hair sagged under layers of grease.
"We would like to talk to you about this man," Riley said pulling out the picture that she had made of the man who had died in Afghanistan. The man took the picture, his face grew angry. He canted the shotgun on his shoulder after flicking the safety on.
" Kirby Dent, that's the son of a bitch that got my wife killed." Bozer and Riley shared a confused look.
"Can we come in?" Riley asked. The man's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you with? DEA, CIA, FBI?"
"We aren't with any of those," Bozer said. Riley sighed with exasperation as Bozer just implicitly confirmed they came from the government. Riley stepped in hoping to do some damage control.
"We're from a think tank and we are investigating the same human right's violations that Mr. Dent was." The man stared at them then laughed as if they had just told the best joke in the world.
"Human rights?" The man smiled a broken toothed yellow smile. "You really don't have a clue, do you?" Riley and Bozer didn't say anything and waited. The man shook his head and tilted it toward the interior of his house. They put their hands over their noses as they entered. There were containers of old food, some with green fuzzy growth on their contents. Bottles of brackish liquids, dirty clothes, and hundreds of shopping bags were spread everywhere. There were half collapsed piles of broken toys, broken bikes, and stacks and stacks of papers. The walls were covered with shelves of books with spines announcing Alien Attacks, The Truth of Area 51, Mind-Control and it seemed every nutcase government conspiracy ever written about.
"Come on back to the office," Lionel said. Bozer wrinkled his nose. Riley agreed but managed to keep her face neutral. They followed the man down a goat path through a narrow hallway past a bathroom that almost made Riley puke, professional or not. She refused to look in, she looked instead at the room across the hall which had a portion of a grimy bed covered with obvious crumbs and bits of food. The rest of the room was full of scraps of paper of every size and shape with unreadable scratches of writing covering every inch of surfaces. Riley thought of the Unabomber and felt tension tighten in her shoulders.
"I see a rat and I am out of here," Bozer whispered. Riley smiled but didn't say anything.
"Hey, you two ok in there?" Matty asked over the coms.
"Yeah, if you think being in the house of a conspiracy lunatic hoarder is fine," Riley said under her breath.
"We'll be in in just a few minutes," Jack said. Riley frowned. From the sound of it, Jack was fighting someone. "Son of a bitch! That's my new shirt!" Riley heard the sound of fist hitting flesh several times. Jack let out a breath. "Ok we're coming in the back," He said.
"There's a back door?" Bozer asked softly. Before anyone could answer Lionel opened a door at the end of the hall and turned on a light. Riley's eyes went up. Along one wall was a stack of huge ancient tvs all showing some different pattern of static. Across from that stacked from floor to ceiling was miscellaneous audio gear for sending and receiving messages. The far wall was covered with what Riley considered a typical "nutcase" scrapbook. Paper clippings, photos, maps all connected with different strands of yarn. The final wall was a shrine to every computer before the year 1995. Amazingly the haphazard stack of monitors had pictures and various video's running. The cacophony of voices blending with the static was as overwhelming as the stink of the rest of the house.
The floor was made of old dirty boards that were stained with grease, and other things Riley didn't want to think about. The most interesting thing about it was the obvious trap door taking up half of the room. As she studied it there was a loud banging from under it. Lionel turned and pointed the shotgun at Bozer and Riley his face morphing into a sinister mask.
"Make up your mind already," Bozer muttered.
"Ok, come up boys I got them. We can…" Lionel broke off as the trap door swung open and Jack popped up and shot him in the leg. The shotgun blasted into the ceiling knocking down plaster and sending out a shower of sparks from a light fixture. Jack climbed out.
"Oh, what a stink!" He muttered. He looked at Riley and Bozer. "You guys ok?"
"Yeah, where'd you come from?" Bozer asked.
"A lame excuse for a redneck bunker," Matty said as she took Jack's hand and stepped out of the trap door.
"More like a lot of canned goods, drugs, and guns," Jack said. He rolled Bolan over and put plastic cuffs on his wrists.
"I'll call Phoenix and get...son of a bitch!" Matty growled. The others looked at her puzzled. Matty pursed her lips. "That little…" She huffed and looked up at Jack. "Mac stole my phone."
"He what!" Jack ground his teeth together. He should have known Mac was up to something! Actually, Jack told himself, he had known. He took out his phone and dialed a number he'd learned by heart over the past week.
"Maternity." A flustered voice said. Jack recognized it.
"Heather, this is Jack…"
"Oh, thank God!" The woman breathed. "MacGyver is missing."
"He's what?" The others watched Jack's face pale and shared worried expressions.
"Just after you left, I went back to give him his meds and he was gone. We've paged and searched the entire hospital and nobody's seen anything. The Police are looking at security footage now, but so far nothing."
"I'll be there in 30 minutes," Jack said. He pushed the button as hard as if he were slamming down a phone. He relayed what he knew.
"Do you think he went off on his own, got taken, or…" Riley trailed off. Jack scowled. Had Mac done something, or lost himself in a flashback? He shook his head.
"I'll find out."
"Go," Matty said. She looked at Bozer and held out her hand. Bozer handed her his phone. "We're going to rip this place apart." Jack nodded from half way down the hall.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mac's world was a kaleidoscope of pain, memory, and panic. The agony of his feet was a railroad spike driven from his heel to his knee as he was dragged down steep concrete stairs. He tried to fight, to think, but his body had betrayed him again, and his brain was lost in pain in his chest, memories searing across his eyes and mixing with his present. The two larger men, twins would stop and beat him when he fell to his knees or blacked out. At least they hadn't used the drugs again. Then the late afternoon sun exploded painfully through his skull. Then the light was gone and Mac was thrown painfully in the back of a van. Mac curled over trying to shake away the cobwebs and forcing his shaking body to respond.
He wasn't sure how he'd managed it but he'd kept hold of Matty's phone. He had shoved it up the sleeve of his sweatshirt. He rolled over and slid his hand under the driver's seat of the van and managed to pull it out and leave it there before he was dragged to sitting against the side of the van. Everything swirled around him. He closed his eyes. A bone grating punch across his already sore jaw knocked him back to the floor of the van. He was picked up by his hair and his head bent back forcing him to look into the eyes of a face that would haunt him for years to come, assuming he survived.
"Took us awhile to find you, MacGyver. Did you miss us?" The man holding his hair painfully asked. Mac could feel blood trickling from his scalp and tears flooded his eyes. He shook so hard he couldn't have formed words even if he wanted to. The other twin knelt in front of Mac and lifted one of his feet and looked at the bottom.
"Not bad, put you back together didn't they." He ran his index finger from Mac's heel to his toes. Mac lashed out with a fist and winced as a sizeable chunk of hair was pulled out when he scored a hit. Mac had a moment of triumph watching the man's nose spurt with blood. But the other man dug his thumb deep into the ball of Mac's left foot. Mac screamed trying to pull away. He saw a glance of the kid who would have been a cute cupid looking child except for the malevolent smile on his lips and crowbar in his fist. Mac tried to go with the blow taking away some of the momentum of the kid's downswing. If it had been one of the men swinging Mac's skull would have been caved in. As it was, he smacked the black rubber of the van's floor and faded into nothing.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Matty stared down at the pale-faced Lionel Bolan like a pissed off vulture.
"You have to get me to the hospital." The man weakly asserted. Matty smiled and leaned over the man.
"The only thing I have to do is turn you over to my men then you'll have the wonderful medical care of Gitmo, or another equally nice dark government location." The man's eyes darted around the room, but there was no way to escape Matty's looming presence.
"What do you want to know?"
"Kirby Dent."
"He's the son of a bitch who got my wife killed!" Lionel said flames entering his eyes.
"Tell me." Matty gritted. The man huffed and sank back.
"We met that loser in the compound of the Real American Patriot Militia in Oregon. That son of a bitch came in and ruined everything. He took control, he took the compound, then he took my Amanda. I hope he burns in hell I've been keeping track of all the goings-on up there." Lionel grinned and waved at the mass of electrics around the Matty had to take a step back from the man's breath. "It came back on him though didn't it? Him and that whore."
"Less gossip more facts." Matty snarled.
"Look Kirby, Amanda and the boys were brokers over in Afghanistan."
"Dent worked for the UN," Matty interjected. Lionel laughed.
"Yeah, sorta I guess. He got hooked up as an envoy, but it was a cover. He could get anything for anybody. He got guns, drugs, hell even women for soldiers, Afghani insurgents or higher ups, if you know what I mean." Lionel was starting to sweat. Matty frowned she didn't have much longer before the man passed out. "When they were out in Fallujah they decided to back stab the wrong people and got themselves blown up." The man's eyes actually brimmed with tears. "I brought my girl home, but they couldn't separate them out, so I ended up burying that bastard too!"
"Who are Dent's boys?" Matty redirected.
"He had twins from another woman he knocked up-Daven and Trevil, I think. And he had a little one with Amanda, Keiden, at least she said it was his…" Lionel's eyes started fluttering closed. Matty frowned, leaned out of the electronic room and waved at one of the Phoenix agents. They carted the man out to a waiting ambulance. Matty shook her head glad for the info but worried hoping that her plan didn't ultimately bite her in the ass in a big way, or get Mac killed. Matty rubbed her tired eyes.
It had taken a lot to talk Jack into taking all four of them into coming, but everyone had to believe that they had left Mac alone. Matty had four teams of undercover agents watching the hospital. They were there to protect Mac, but also to catch those after Mac. It had been a risk, one she hoped Mac would survive. Matty did not look forward to facing the hellfire that Jack was going to unleash on her when he figured it out, and he would, but Matty had to take more than Mac's health into consideration. There had been enough breaches at Phoenix to last a lifetime and Matty had to know if it was an inside job or an external threat. Matty just hoped Mac hadn't gone off to do something stupid and slipped the protective net. Matty sighed walking over to Riley who was clicking through the ancient computers trying to drag out some semblance of information. Bozer knelt in front of the sound equipment. He turned a knob and a loud blare of whining static blurted across the room. Before Matty could yell at Bozer, a voice came through on one of the speakers.
"Lincoln, this is Jefferson what's your status? Over."
"Jefferson, 13 is up and ready, over." Riley, Bozer, and Matty shared a look.
"Acknowledged, Lincoln, initiate when the package is delivered. Over." Matty frowned not liking that last part.
"Affirmative, Jefferson, package is in route will begin on time, over and out."
"That can't be good," Bozer said turning down the volume. Matty brought her phone up to her ear and began barking orders. Bozer frowned watching her. Riley caught his look and glanced at Matty.
"What's wrong?" Riley asked. Bozer shook his head.
"I know I'm new at this spy thing, but does something seem fishy to you?"
"Fishy?" Riley asked.
"Yeah, like boss lady knows more than she's letting on." Riley leaned back to the computers.
"Matty always more than she lets on." She muttered. "At least we know Mac was right about this 13 whatever maybe that 31 had nothing to do with him." Bozer sighed.
"I don't know what means what anymore. Do you think he…"Bozer swallowed the dry lump in his throat sopping up any words. Riley glanced at him and put a hand on his forearm. She knew that he was picturing a pale Mac staring down seven stories looking weak, pale, and broken.
"No, Bozer I don't think, and neither should you. He was doing better today remember?" Bozer looked at her with tragic eyes.
"Yeah but that's before he went and stole the boss's phone so he could see that damned hellhole again to get all his memories back. We don't know how he was after that do we?" Riley nodded unable to refute what he said. Matty turned to face them.
"Riley, what are the coordinates where we found Mac?" Riley rattled them off by memory. Matty repeated them into the phone then stood listening. She smiled coldly. "Green light given, full tactical I want them taken down." She hung up and pocketed Bozer's phone. Bozer opened his mouth to complain but one glare from Matty shut his mouth with a click of teeth. "We just traced that to a compound outside of Ojeda, Oregon." Bozer grinned.
"So we got them!" Matty grinned back and nodded. Riley frowned. Bozer looked at her losing his smile.
"Why aren't you smiling?" He asked.
"I don't know if the Dent family sickos were operating out of there, why would they have come to Nor-Cal to set up the torture dungeon at a half-abandoned VA?"
"It was close to where they got Mac? You saw where his Jeep was found." Matty frowned in thought, she trusted her entire team's instincts.
"Maybe." Riley sighed obviously not convinced.
"Well getting them taken out is a good first step to figuring out what the hell happened to Mac," Matty said.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Jack stormed through the elevators onto the maternity ward like a cannonball. He stalked into Mac's room, empty. He paced down to the nurse's station. Connie ran up to intercept him.
"Have you heard anything?" She asked worried desperation thick in her voice. Jack breathed out a little of his fury and shook his head. "The police have cleared the hospital they are now checking the city." A man in a hospital security uniform came up to them. He scowled at Jack. Jack scowled back. The man had been one of the men who tried to keep Mac under control with a police baton.
"Did you find anything on video?" Jack asked, his eyes cold.
"The only cameras we have up here are at the elevators and there is no footage of Mr. MacGyver coming or going on them." Jack took a step back closing his eyes. That meant Mac could not have left on his own. He would not have gotten far without a wheelchair.
"Any sign of his wheelchair?" Jack asked rubbing his face. The security officer scoffed at him.
"It'd be with him." Jack forced himself to take a deep breath. He rubbed his eyes and forced his voice to be calm.
"And how would he get it out of here if he didn't go out the elevator?" The guy's mouth dropped open. Obviously, he hadn't thought of that.
"I saw a little boy on the elevator with a wheelchair." Connie said horror in her face, "It never occurred to me that little boy…" Jack put a hand on her shoulder.
"It's ok, no one would have thought of a kid like that, you didn't know. Was he blonde, curly hair?" Connie nodded. Jack pivoted pulling out his phone.
"Matty? He's been taken by the same guys who had him before, get Riley...yeah I'll wait." Jack pressed the button to the elevator and paced.
"Jack, I traced Matty's phone…"Riley came back on the line. "It's there."
"What's here?" Jack said confused.
"It's at the hospital, or at least outside the hospital by the back loading dock…" Jack hung up the phone interrupting Riley. He leaped into the elevator and when it stopped at the basement he flashed down the hallways coming out on the loading dock with his gun drawn. He found himself facing several guns pointing back at him.
After a second of confused recognition, they all limbered their guns. Jack stormed over to the Phoenix agent in charge.
"What are you doing here?" Jack growled. The man looked down and Jack could see he really didn't want to be facing Jack's wrath alone.
"Protection detail…" Jack studied him a long minute then leaned back whirling.
"Son of a bitch!" He snarled. His hands balled into fists. Matty, he should have known something was up, why would they ever have left Mac alone? And protection detail, my ass. Jack thought. Matty would have used a tac squad for that, which is what Jack wanted to do. "She used him as bait!" Jack roared turning back to the man. The man stepped back and Jack forced his rage under control with difficulty, he would save that for Matty.
"So what have we got?" Jack gritted. The man pointed. Jack could see a black van parked on the side of the road. His stomach dropped. His feet were running. Hands tried to hold him back he easily shoved them away. Jack breathed out, no dead Mac. Unfortunately, no living Mac either. Then Jack looked at the rubber floor and saw the pond of blood. He stepped back and leaned against the side of the van. This cannot be happening again!
