Hi fam. I hope you like this story. Chapter two coming soon (probably). Please leave a review with your feedback or just random thoughts you had while reading this story. Standard disclaimers apply and enjoy!

Desi stretched out on her porch chair, enjoying the one day a year they had off. Cairo day. She hadn't been involved in Cairo day, but Jack had warned her that Cairo day was cursed and never explained why. Whenever she asked, Jack only said, "We don't talk about Cairo day." Desi didn't mind. It was a day off.

She had spoken to Mac about Cairo day while they were installing a good security system for his house, and actually got a bit of information from him. From the bits and pieces he told her, she concluded that it was a mission that went real bad, real fast. Mac had also said that the last time they worked on Cairo day, the Phoenix had been attacked and Riley had killed someone for the first time, from which she never fully recovered.

A ping from her phone interrupted her calm silence. Desi groaned and picked it up. She had received a text from an unknown number. Desi opened the message, which said, "I have Angus. If you want to keep him alive, you will do as I say."

Desi instantly screenshotted the message, but before she could send it to the Phoenix, another message came through. "Don't you even think about sending that screenshot to dear Matilda."

Desi typed back, "Who are you? And what do you want?" A message came back almost immediately. "I just wanted to meet the new blood of the team in person. You know, the team and I go way back. But I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet, Dez."

"So you know who I am, but I don't know who you are." Desi sent. "So why don't you introduce yourself to me?"

"By now, I think you know who I am." said another text.

Desi suddenly realized who the unknown number was. "Murdoc."

"The one and only," Murdoc sent jauntily.

"How do I know that you aren't lying about having Mac?"

"We both know that I wouldn't lie about something like that. But just to convince you…" attached to the message was a picture of Mac, staring blankly at the camera with hopeless, almost dead eyes. His bruised arms were barely visible in the headshot, but the colors that marked him rivaled even the most colorful of rainbows. The picture made Desi shudder. Never had she seen Mac that lifeless.

"What do you want," Desi sent.

"I am holding Angus in a warehouse in LA. If you don't find him before midnight tonight, I will finally fulfill my dream of murdering him. Then after that, I will kill each and every one of you Phoenix agents until there is no one left of your agency." Even though Desi had never met Murdoc, she had read his dossier and could practically hear him crooning the words.

"Why are you doing this?" Desi asked.

"I was bored, so I decided to come up with a fun little game for all of you. Plus, I haven't killed anyone for a while. If you even think about involving anyone else, Macgyver goes boom." Murdoc sent. Then he sent a sinister looking wide smiling emoji.

Desi texted frantically, "Where is Mac?" but Murdoc only replied with, "Tick tock tick tock."

Desi shut off her phone, her mind swirling with thoughts. Should she risk getting Phoenix involved? Should she even play Murdoc's game? What if it was a trap? Knowing Murdoc, it probably was a trap.

Desi checked her phone. It was ten AM, giving her fourteen hours to find Mac. "What would Jack do in this situation?" she asked herself. "He'd probably grumble something like, "'Cairo day, man!' Okay, Dez, that's not helping right now. Think. What would Mac do if you were kidnapped? Probably go looking you as soon as he got the first message." Without even realizing she was doing it, she began humming the song her mother sang to her when she was young, the way she always did when she was stressed or upset.

Desi opened up her laptop and searched every empty warehouse in LA. She was no Riley, but soon she managed to narrow the search down to five warehouses, all an hour's drive away from each other. She immediately hopped in her car, loaded with three guns and tons of ammo, and began booking it to the nearest warehouse.

Desi quietly opened the door of the warehouse, holding a gun in each hand. She cleared the entire building with no sign of Mac or Murdoc. Desi quickly jumped back in her car and sped to the next warehouse.

Desi silently entered the warehouse and immediately spotted a small cinder block room in the center of the warehouse. Desi crept towards it slowly, recognizing it as the same room that Murdoc had kept Nasha in a few months ago. She hadn't been there, but she had read the mission reports.

She opened the door to the room and spotted Mac facing away from her, slumped over the armrest of his chair. Bruises and cuts ran up and down his arms and there was a massive gash on the back of his neck.

"Mac?" Desi whispered. Mac barely stirred and let out a faint grunt. Desi rushed to his side. She lifted his sweaty mop of hair from his face and wiped some of the blood away.

Suddenly, before Desi could react, Murdoc shot out of the chair, wrapped his hands around Desi's neck, turned her around, and cuffed her to the chair. Instinctively, Desi dropped her guns and tried to pry Murdoc's hands off her throat. Murdoc kicked the guns away and let go of her.

Murdoc pulled the sweaty blond wig off and wiped the fake blood off his face. "Whew! That was fun! I didn't expect you to drop your guns so soon, but I guess you'll do anything for the love of your life."

Desi widened her eyes. How did he know? Reading her expression, Murdoc said, "Oh, I know about your little crush on Macgyver. I also know that he has a crush on you."

"What?" Desi asked, surprised.

"You didn't know? Man, I must be getting soft! A psycho like me picked up on human love before you? But then again, I do know a lot about Macgyver. I've been watching him, you see, for a while now." said Murdoc.

"Where is Mac?" Desi said angrily.

Murdoc pulled out a phone with a live feed of Mac's house. "According to the cameras I set up, Macgyver is safely at home, doing who knows what with some electronic devices." Murdoc showed Desi the proof and returned the phone to his pocket. Desi exhaled in relief. At least Mac was safe for now.

"So you're basically stalking him." Desi said.

"I like to think of it as keeping a close eye on one of my besties." Murdoc replied.

"Why, then?" Desi asked.

"Why what?" Murdoc asked back.

"Why did you go through the trouble of setting up cameras around his house just to kidnap me?" Desi elaborated.

"Well, I would have kidnapped him, but you decided to put your stupid little security system in before I had the chance." Murdoc said sourly. "That completely messed up my plans. I didn't have time to figure out how to get past his security system, so I photoshopped a picture, sent it to you, and now here you are! The perfect bait."

"So you're basically going to do the same thing to Mac that you did to me," Desi said.

"Yes! And once I have him here with you, I will lure in the rest of your dear Phoenix team, one by one, until I can execute all of you and fulfill my lifelong dream." Murdoc said, almost dreamily, the way a little girl would talk about being a princess. "And don't worry, Dez, I'll make sure to kill you last, so you can watch what your love for Macgyver did to your team." Desi gasped in horror.

"Now, I need to make the picture I send to Macgyver look believable." Murdoc snapped on a pair of black leather gloves and wheeled in a cart full of weird tools Desi had never seen before.

"Impressive, right?" Murdoc exclaimed, admiring his torture tools. "I made all of these myself. I was very inspired by Macgyver so I decided to become like him. Minus the whole "good person do what's right act." Bleaugh. Let's begin." As Murdoc picked up the first tool, Desi closed her eyes and began humming her mother's song again.

She hoped Mac and the others wouldn't make the same mistake she did. It wasn't entirely her fault, though. She and Murdoc had a past, and that past was why she owed Jack and why she was now working for the Phoenix.