2 WEEKS, 6 DAYS
Riley didn't hear the room door open and close. She was focused on what she was doing on her laptop.
"Riley," Matty said from behind her.
Riley didn't respond.
"Riley, you've been down here for three days. You need to eat and sleep."
"I can't. He's going to need his life back when he comes back. I will put it back together as many times as whoever is on the other side deletes it. They will not erase MacGyver."
Matty walked over to her elbow. "Riley, you're no help to him or us if you wear yourself out."
"Do you think whoever took him is giving him the luxury of sleeping or eating?"
"I don't know, you know that, but I do know—"
"Then I'm not stopping. People do not just drop off the planet like this."
"They do, you know that."
"Our people don't."
"They have."
"Mac isn't going to be one of them! He was just going for a two-week camping trip, Matty. Here. In the United States, practically his back yard. And whoever kidnapped him keeps trying to scrub him from existence. They cleaned out his bank accounts, his 401k. They even accessed his lockbox and stole whatever he had in that too. They even tried to sell his house! It's not enough to kidnap him, but to try stealing him and everything he owns too?"
"I know. I've been here too."
"It's gotta be someone out to get him."
"I thought you said the code didn't look familiar?"
"It doesn't. This is someone new."
"Then you don't know it was someone out to get him."
"And you don't know it wasn't."
Matty sighed. "Riley."
"I have to find him!" Riley bellowed, stopping to look at Matty.
The two stared at each other.
Quieter, Riley told her, "I have to find him, Matty."
Matty looked away with a tired sigh.
"Why are you giving up on him?" Riley asked.
Matty looked at her with open disbelief. "I haven't given up on him but killing myself looking for him isn't going to help him. And it won't help you either."
Matty walked away.
"Matty," Riley said before she had left the room.
Matty turned back. Riley turned, revealing she was crying.
"I'm afraid we won't find him. I'm scared for him. And when I try to sleep, I just lay there thinking about that."
To that Matty nodded. "Have you tried searching for his Jeep?"
Riley sniffed, wiping the tears off her face. "This person deleted all his DMV records. I need the VIN number to search for it."
"We have it in his personnel file."
That made Riley perk up. "We do?"
Matty nodded. "I'll send it to you. And maybe start running a face recognition search off one of the archive servers. We can afford to take one offline for that for a little while."
"Thank you, Matty."
Matty nodded before leaving.
/_\
Bozer panted behind Desi, struggling to keep up with her. She stopped and waited for him.
"Let's take a break," she said, sitting down on a large rock.
"Great… Idea," Bozer panted.
He sat down next to her and hastily shrugged out of his pack. Desi watched him as she pulled her pack off and pulled her water bottle out. He pulled his water bottle out and uncapped it. She grabbed the bottle before he could drink from it.
"Do not drink it all, Bozer. This has to last you until we get up to the radio tower, and that's another two hours."
He stared at her. "Two hours. Right. Okay."
She let go and watched him gulp down half the bottle. She sipped her water, looking back down the mountain. The two hadn't spoken much since they started hiking. There wasn't much to say. They both knew what was at stake with this hike.
"We have to find him," Bozer said under his breath.
"We will."
"What?" Bozer asked.
"We will find him."
"I didn't…"
Desi looked back at him. Bozer had his head ducked down, hiding his face with the brim of his cap. She saw a tear fall to the ground. She reached over and rubbed his shoulder.
"We'll find him," she repeated
Bozer nodded but didn't speak again.
#
The sun had begun setting by the time they came to the clearing under the radio tower. When they reached the gate, Bozer leaned against the fence, panting as he caught his breath. Desi looked over the lock.
"What… What are you looking for?"
"I don't know. A clue. Anything," Desi told him.
She dug a key from her jeans pocket – a man from Phoenix had barely caught them before taking off from Los Angeles to give it to her. She unlocked the gate and hung the chain and lock on the fence. The two walked into the area, looking around.
"Hold on…" Bozer said, then more excitedly. "A MacGyverism!"
Desi watched him jog over to the radio tower, touching the string of cut-up tin. The metal tinkled, a clear sound in the silence of the forest.
"What is it?" Desi asked, joining him.
Bozer looked it over. "He used fishing string, so he probably wanted it to be hard to see." Bozer followed the string back to the gate and could see where it had been tied. He pulled the gate shut and held the end up. The string was long enough to tie onto the gate. Desi walked over, staring at the end.
"He made an alarm system." Bozer looked up at him. "There's only one reason he would have made an alarm system."
"He wanted to know if anyone came in here." Desi nodded. "Okay, let's set up camp around the corner. We can't look around in the dark and we're almost out of light."
"But he could be out there." Bozer looked out at the trees.
"Yeah. And we won't be able to help him with broken ankles, or worse. We'll go at first light."
Bozer didn't move. Desi walked away, leaving him at the gate. He'd follow eventually, but he needed time to process. Finding a MacGyver alarm was a good sign – he had been here – and a bad sign – someone had him spooked enough to build it.