A soft conversation pulled Mac from deep sleep. He rolled over and yawned. Jack stepped into the room carrying two boxes. From the smell, it was food, good food. Mac's mouth watered. Jack looked over at him and smiled.
"Look who's finally awake, how do you feel?" Jack smiled. Mac's hair was a wild corona of hair spiking in every direction. Mac sat up and stretched.
"I feel fine," Mac grinned, "Great in fact!"
"You're not gonna lick my ear again are you?" Mac scowled at him.
"What?" Jack chuckled.
"Never mind, here this smells good." Jack handed Mac one of the boxes. Mac pulled off the lid. The meal was baked chicken with teriyaki smelling sauce. A pile of rice and seasoned green beans filled the plate. Jack handed Mac a tall glass. Mac sniffed it.
"Green tea?"
"Doctor Wang said you needed it to flush out your liver."
"Doctor who?" Mac pulled out the chopsticks and dove in closing his eyes in bliss.
"You don't remember Wang? The fancy xray thingy?" Mac narrowed his eyes and shook his head. Jack sighed and sat on the bed opposite Mac.
"Then I suppose you don't remember running for three or four hours and collapsing." Mac stared at Jack.
"I remember going out for a run."
"Yeah, a hell of a run. You passed out in my arms, scared the crap out of me by the way." Mac looked down and ate in silence. Jack watched him eat before he dug into his own meal. Jack pondered how to broach the subject. When Mac put his plate aside, it was bone clean. Mac stared at it as if he were tempted to start chewing the plate. Jack set aside his meal and leaned forward. Mac looked over the rim of his tea and eyed Jack warily.
"Mac, we need to talk."
"About what?" Jack smiled.
"Stop stalling, you know exactly what." Mac rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his wild hair.
"I don't…" Mac's shoulders fell and he let out a long sad sigh, "What do you want?" Mac's tone was flat; his voice soft. Jack decided to approach softly.
"Tell me about the bar." Mac looked up surprised. He let out a relieved breath.
"The last mission...it took me places…" Mac rubbed his face, "I needed...I don't know what. I was driving around aimlessly. I was passing Giovanni's and stopped. I don't know why...I just needed to not feel for awhile." Mac met Jack's eyes. Jack nodded giving Mac his full attention.
"I don't remember how much I drank, but I felt like my skin was crawling like it was too tight or something. A big dude came over. I don't remember what he said to me. I must have thought he insulted me because I grabbed the empty bottle and smashed it over his head. Everything became a blur after that. I don't really remember anything until I woke up at your place." Jack nodded. About what he expected. He leaned forward and gentled his voice.
"What happened on the last op?" Mac's jaw clenched. He stood up and started to pace.
"I had to embed myself with white supremacist militia to get info…" Mac trailed off. He stared at the dark waters outside their window. They could see shadows of fish circling. Jack thought he saw a shark. Mac stared at his reflection in the glass.
"Mac-"
"They captured a man." Mac's voice was barely audible. He put his hand on the glass following the movement of seaweed, "They beat the crap out of him, they humiliated him and were going to kill him." Mac again trailed off. His hand dropped and he turned to face Jack. Mac's eyes looked desolate.
"You could feel the hatred, Jack. The chants, the heat, the...I puked. I set the building on fire and carried him out and got him away from the compound...I'm not sure what happened, but I ended up falling down this hill and slamming into a tree." Jack watched as Mac absently rubbed his right side. So that's how he got the bruised liver.
"When they found me, the number two of the group throttled me guessing I was a traitor. He wanted to kill me…" Mac turned back to the tank again rubbing his throat. Mac shrugged.
"The Colonel pulled him off. He thought I fell trying to stop the guy from escaping…" Mac trailed off. He started pacing and his arms moved as he ran his hands through his hair, pulled at his shirt, crossed his chest. Jack could feel Mac's tension across the room. Jack stood up and stopped Mac with a hand on his shoulder. Mac shook his head.
"I'm sorry…" He murmured before he pushed past Jack and strode out of the room. Jack let him go.
"Dammit." He growled. What now? Jack finished his meal. He piled the dishes back into one of the boxes and strolled to the cafeteria. He handed the pile to the cafeteria lady. The scowl she gave him was identical to the one he got from his high school's cafeteria lady. Jack wondered if they all had to learn that as part of their job. Jack smiled.
"Thank you, sweet heart." The old lady looked him up and down and gave him a seductive smirk.
"Thank you, hunka burning love." She laughed then disappeared. Jack blushed and looked around the room. He was happy to find him alone. He shuddered. Her and Laura, the oldest nurse back at Phoenix...damn. Jack found himself preening and swaggering a little as he left.
As he neared the main lab, Jack paused at the doors of the smaller labs. Most of the experiments, equipment and variety of languages he heard were well beyond his understanding. He froze at the doorway of the last one. This one he understood. Jack ducked back a step out of ready view.
Rows of weapons lined the walls ranging from pistols to grenades covered every wall he could see. A long bench covered with metal working equipment, vices, sanders and hand tools ran the length of the room. The room was bustling with people working at the benches and checking the weapons. Jack's gut roiled. They were all in black TAC clothes missing only the gear.
"See anything you like?" Jack whirled his hand almost reaching the Baretta. Hiro chuckled. She looked completely different. Gone was the style and sparkle. Her hair was pulled back in some sort of complicated braid. She wore identical black suits like the men in the lab. She held no weapon, although if she was the person Jack thought she was she wouldn't really need one. Her body was easy, so Jack forced himself to relax.
"You part of that party in there?" Jack pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. She smiled.
"I am head of security, would you like to come in?" Jack's eyes gleamed. Screw the nerd stuff, this was his disneyland. Jack nodded. Hiro grinned and led the way into the room. It was bigger than Jack thought. Jack rubbed his hands together and sniffed the glorious perfume of gun oil and steel. He moved to one bench and whistled at a stubby rifle. He leaned closer.
"This looks like a Seekins Precision NXP 8, but the barrel and grip are different, and that scope." Jack ran his hand along the weapon, "It's not metal?"
"It's a metal polycarbonate we're testing. We've had good results so far. Would you like to try it?"
"Yes please." Hiro laughed and nodded at the gun. Jack scooped it up and began to inspect it up close and personal. Hiro led him back to a gun range. Jack lost himself to weapon firing and information for the next two and a half hours. By the end he felt a kinship with Hiro. There weren't many people who knew and loved guns that weren't Texan, but he found one. When he stowed the last pistol and removed his ear protection he felt relaxed and calm. All the stress and grime that gathered inside his spirit over the past few weeks was gone.
"Thank you, that was awesome!" Hiro grinned.
"No, thank you. Many of the people who build and design these weapons are scientists." Jack made an ugly face. Hiro laughed.
"Exactly, no one appreciates weapons like we do."
"Hazard of the job, I imagine." Jack said with a sigh. Hiro's smiled disappeared.
"Yes." She led the way out of the range.
"So this is all for security?"
"Most of it, some is to experiment and improve our weaponry." Jack pursed his lips. He wondered who "our" referred to. Jack glanced at the weapons around him. For the first time he wondered who was behind this Pod. Who was bankrolling all of this? Who would get the improved weapons? Jack knew they were just past the contested ocean boundary of China-international waters, but looking around him he saw all of the security personnel appeared to be Chinese. Maybe a couple Japanese and Vietnamese, but most Chinese. Most of the signage was in Chinese and English.
"Where is your friend?" Jack kicked himself. Mac, damn. He glanced at his watch. Holy shit!
"He's probably taken apart the air conditioning or something by now." Jack grumbled. Hiro laughed and turned back into the room. Jack strode out of the gun lab and ran the twenty feet to the main lab. Jack stopped and let out a relieved breath. He shook his head not at all surprised by what he found.
A herd of scientists gathered around Mac as the kid worked under some sort of fancy table with all kinds of tech bulging off it.
"...see that capacitor? If we just-" The lights dimmed then snapped back up. The machine roared into life and all of the scientists cheered. Mac backed out from the electronic guts of the thing his face stained with grease. He folded his Swiss army knife and stood. Jack didn't like the pallor on the kid's face or the slight stumble as he rose. Mac held a hand over his side but grinned as the herd of scientists bombarded him with back slaps, excitement and a million technical questions Jack didn't understand. Mac looked worn out, but happy. Jem broke off when she saw Jack. She grinned.
"I can't believe him!" She said. Jack grinned back. He loved it when others saw what he saw everyday in his best friend.
"Has he fixed everything in the whole complex yet?" Jem laughed.
"No, but he bounced a few research projects ahead a few decades. Do you know he increased our sonar range by three with a paperclip?" Jack laughed louder.
"I'm not surprised. I've seen him pull off miracle's no one even thought of." Jem sighed. She gave Jack a thoughtful gaze.
"Is there anyway we could talk your think tank-"
"Nope, he's ours and we're keeping him." Jack watched as Mac joined Leonard over the lit keyboard their heads close together. Leonard pointed at the screen.
"Always," Jack said his voice conveying his affection, "We're never letting him go." Jem nodded and patted Jack on the shoulder.
"I don't blame you." She turned and left the lab. Jack strolled through the elated chattering herd of nerds nodding when one grabbed him and babbled excitement in a language Jack didn't recognize. A couple patted him on the back as if he'd been there helping Mac the whole time. Jack shook his head. Whatever else happened during this vacation, this was worth all the time and effort. He reached Mac's side and put a hand on Mac's shoulder. Jack was surprised by the flinch he felt under his hand. Mac relaxed when he saw it was Jack.
"Where've you been?" Mac asked. His voice held a tiny note of unease only Jack would recognize. Jack felt a pang of guilt.
"Did you not see the gunroom down the hall?" Mac rolled his eyes and glanced at Leonard. Leonard nodded and pulled a dollar out of his pocket handing it to Mac.
"What's that? You bet on me?"
"Of course, I always bet on you." Mac said. Jack felt his heart glow. Mac's tone told Jack he meant more than whatever bet he had with Leonard.
"Seems like you're the rockstar around here." Jack said waving at a few scientist stragglers gaping at Mac. They turned and scurried back to their own part of the domed open area. Mac waved off the praise, of course.
"I just helped with a couple things."
"A couple things? Are you kidding me?" Leonard said his eyes wide. He looked at Jack, "He tripled the power of our sonar-"
"I heard."
"With a paperclip!"
"Yeah."
"A PAPERCLIP!" Jack laughed. Mac looked down at his feet as he shuffled. A slight blush colored his cheeks. Jack squeezed his shoulder a little.
"You should see what my boy can do with duct tape and gum."
"Really?" Mac cleared his throat to end the conversation.
"Shouldn't we align the beam before we lose the keyhole." Leonard jumped as if he'd forgotten his bride on his wedding day. Looking at his rumpled hair and wide eyes, Jack could actually see that happening although he didn't think Hiro would stand by and be ignored.
"Right, ok." He bent over the touch keyboard. Mac stared at the flat screen. It showed some sort of staticky blob moving. There were a series of beeps a rainbow of colors sparked across the screen then there was a perfect outline of the ancient city. Jack could see dozens of divers going in and out of the ruin. The image was green like night vision goggles but a whole lot clearer. Jack could almost see the bubbles following each diver.
"That is cool." Jack said awe in his voice. And it was. Giant oriental style dragons, lions and flowers seemed to float in the waters. Fish of all sorts crossed the arches that royalty once crossed. Jack couldn't imagine anyone but royalty living in the richly decorated small gathering of buildings. In the center of the small town a half broken tower pagoda stood. Divers zipped in and out of the giant opening.
"This is the first time we can see inside an undisturbed perfectly preserved Tang temple," Leonard said quivering with excitement. Mac frowned and ducked under the table. Jack stepped back and watched Mac work off a panel. His long nimble fingers wiggled a few wires and twisted a couple of brackets. Jack thought about all the times he'd seen Mac do the same thing with explosives. A shudder ran through him.
"What are you doing?" Leonard asked when the image smeared as if it were have trouble buffering.
"I'm increasing the infrared...clear up that...corner." Jack lost half of what Mac said as Mac dug farther into the machine. Jack frowned and leaned closer to the screen. Leonard bent down.
"What?" He demanded. His voice was sharp with alarm. He'd only wanted to see the city so he could examine it with an archeologist eye. Mac had seen something else. Jack frowned and narrowed his eyes at the blurry image. For a second it cleared. Jack saw a slight blur at the corner of the screen. He pointed at it. Leonard leaned forward.
"What's that?"
"I don't know. We've never been able to see this clearly at this depth before." Leonard said. There were a series of blips, then the picture again snapped into focus, this time in tints of red. Jack felt his gut dive to his feet.
"Son of a bitch." He growled. With the adjustments, Jack could clearly see a stockpile of barrels. Jack was no scientist, but the ways the barrels lit up the screen could only mean one thing.
"Nuclear waste." Leonard whispered behind him in horror.
"Yeah. Shit." Jack hissed. There goes their vacation.