Okay, I'm baaaack!

"No, no! This ain't working!" Alex gasped, they had only made it a couple of yards but Alex had turned a worrisome shade of white.

"How do you guys do it when you're out on assignments and one of you gets hurt real bad?" Jack asked as he motioned for them to head over to a table standing under an old painting.

"Usually it's not that big of a problem…"

"Oh yeah? Remember, I've seen a few of your scars… I know you guys must be holding some kind of record in that department."

"Well, usually it doesn't hurt this bad!"

"What would Kim do now?"

"I don't know…"

"Aw, come on! You know your twin well enough to make an educated guess!"

"He would probably carry me… Against my will…"

"Well, he's a bit bigger and stronger than me I guess…"

"Bigger, yes. Stronger? Guess we can blame that on your shoulder, buddy…"

"I'm not joking." Jack locked eyes with Alex, "I know Kim is stronger than me. I can tell that by only looking at you guys, you're built like human tanks…"

"You're exaggerating…" Alex noted with his eyes squeezed shut. "We're well-built, I know that… But we're not some super-sized hulk-dudes…"

"If I ever meet your mother, I have to ask her what she was feeding you two… Cause you are indeed massive."

"Are you going to stand there and rattle on about my size, or are you going to find a solution to our problem?"

"Why can't you find a solution?"

"Honestly, my leg hurts so much I can't think straight!"

"OH…"

Alex nodded.

"An office chair? Would that do?"

Alex shook his head. "You saw what my leg did when you helped me off the floor less than a minute ago… How do you think it will go if I sit down without support under my damn leg?"

"Right…" Jack grimaced as he tried to figure out something that would work. "You've got your gun? Right?"

"Yup…"

"Still a couple of bullets left?"

"Two short of a full clip…"

"Okay, stay here. Shoot anyone except me… You got it?"

Alex nodded again.

"Now, this building used to be public. Have you ever seen a place that offers paid tours and don't have wheelchairs standing around?"

"Yeah…"

"You have?"

Alex nodded.

"Was that in this country?"

Alex seemed to be sorting through his memories, before he shook his head.

"Now unless those have been thrown out recently, they should still be here somewhere. My guess is somewhere near the main entrance."

Alex grimaced, but nodded. "You could be right…"

"How about you Dick?" Jack looked at the dictator, "Have you thrown away the wheelchairs?"

"My name is not Dick… It's"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?" Jack barked back, "I'm going to call you dick, cause you're a dictator! It's fitting! Now, about the wheelchairs…"

"Why would I tell you? I'm not on your team!"

"Kid, whatever pain you feel for administering him… Go for it!" Jack looked at Alex and pointed to the dictator.

"My pleasure, Jack!" Alex bit out, cracking his knuckles in a threatening way while looking at the dictator.

"Be right back…"

MACGYVERxLAB

"If you let me go, I can pay you a couple of billion dollars…" the dictator offered with an almost toothless smile.

"Look, Mr. Numbskull… Money is not why I do what I do…" Alex replied, rolling his eyes.

"I bet it will be more money that you've ever seen…"

Alex took a deep breath and exhaled in a controlled manner. "That might be so… But I've already got enough money to last me a lifetime. At least considering the life expectancy of people in my line of work…"

"Aw, come on… You could live like a king…"

"Look, I grew up poor. I know how to get by on a budget… And frankly, I don't need to be able to have someone cook me lobsters every day…"

"But it would be fun? Wouldn't it?"

"Not really my thing…"

"Now, what is your 'thing'?"

"My thing is…" Alex paused to overcome another jolt of pain shooting up his leg. "My thing is packing my bag, hiking into the woods and lighting up a bonfire. Snowboarding when there's snow and hills around and climbing in the summer. I don't need more money for that…"

"But with my money you could visit Whistler and Breckenridge anytime you'd want…"

"I'm more into the small resorts with a little soul… You know, the places that hasn't changed since the 70's… But the absolute best is off piste, couple of friends steep terrain and a snowmobile as the lift."

"Okay, but your medical bills must be off the charts… You could probably use my money for that…"

"Nope…"

"Nope, what do you mean nope?"

"I mean, the agency I work for cover all medical expenses. Even if I get the injury outside of work…"

The dictator's face fell a little.

"Don't you wanna be rich?"

Alex shrugged, "I'm more of the eternal adventurer… And I've already got more money than I need…"

"But you could travel the world!"

"I already do that…"

"Without getting shot at."

"Tempting… But I guess that's all a part of the adventure…" Alex almost smirked, it was amusing to see the dictator grabbing at the grass, trying to get a good handhold.

"There must be something!"

"Not anything money can solve…" Alex replied stiffening a grimace.

"Okay… Okay… You're crazy… You know that?"

"I've been made aware of it a couple of times…" Alex agreed.

"What is it you want most in life?"

"Right now?" Alex asked, "Think the winner is a good dose of morphine… And after that, waffles…"

"And how may I bribe you?"

"Can't you just realize that it's impossible?"

"It's never impossible to bribe people… Or threaten them…"

"That's correct, but you do need to know what they want or need… Or what they are most afraid of…" Alex bounced back.

"You, you're probably afraid of more pain right now… I could kick your knee…" the dictator lisped past his missing teeth, "I won't if you set me free…"

"And I won't break every single bone in your arms if you stay away from my knee…" Alex shot back calmly, his eyes daring the dictator to say something. "Now, that's 30 bones in each arm… I'm not counting past the upper arm… Just so you know that…"

The dictator swallowed and looked down. "Okay, I won't do that…"

"I think that's the first smart move you've made in a decade…"

MACGYVERxLAB

There weren't any wheelchairs where he hoped there would be. In fact, he saw a sign for rentable wheelchairs, but there weren't any in sight. That plan was a bust.

There had to be some other way to make this work. Preferably rather quickly. Alex was in a lot of pain, and they didn't know how much time they had before the dictator's guards made another appearance. If everything had gone according to the plan, they would have been out of there almost half an hour ago.

He looked around. At first he couldn't see anything that would help them out of this tight spot, but then he spotted it.

A neat, good sized, serving trolley covered with wood to make it blend in with the rest of the furniture better.

He grabbed the trolley and ran back towards Alex and the dictator.

MACGYVERxLAB

"I didn't find a wheelchair, but I think this'll work!" Jack declared and patted the upper tray.

"Yeah, looks good." Alex smiled, "Might need some help to get on it though…"

"Guess that old man over there won't be able to help you with that…"

"I figure he's not strong enough…" Alex nodded.

"I was afraid you would say that…" Jack frowned, "Any plans on how to do this?"

Alex waved Jack closer and wrapped his right arm around Jack's back and his left over Jack's good shoulder.

"Now, how much can you squat?"

"Repeatedly?"

"Heavy single…"

"300 lbs… 235 when I do reps…"

"Now if I hook my good leg behind my right leg, and you squat down and grab a hold behind my knees. This should work…"

"You sure? Cause my shoulder…"

"Your shoulder is taken out of the equation. This is going to rely on your other arm and the strength in your legs…"

Jack nodded and bent down to grab a hold of Alex's legs.

"Okay, on three?"

"Yup…" Alex agreed.

"One. Two. Three!" Jack let out a guttural growl as he lifted Alex off the ground and onto the trolley. "Dude, you seriously need to lose some weight…"

"Trust me… I won't do anything about it…" Alex declared as he released his grip around Jack's neck. "I look sick if I drop below 220 lbs…"

"You're kidding now?"

"Kidding just as much as that guy who just entered the hallway!" Alex called reaching for his gun as Jack spun around to use his last bullets.

MACGYVERxLAB

Alex watched in horror as Jack went down with a yelp in front of him.

Alex recovered quickly enough to put a bullet through the guard's neck. It wasn't a precision shot, but it did the job, quickly.

"Jack?" Alex asked weakly, afraid of not getting an answer. "You alive big guy?"

A growl from the floor answered him, and made him relax a lot more.

"Yeah… Yup…" the older man's voice suddenly seemed hoarse, but it could be because of the pain. "I'm good…"

"Then why are you on the floor? Did you catch a bunch of lead?"

"WHAT? Yeah, I caught a bullet!" Jack growled as he pushed to his feet, his right hand clamped over a wet red stain on his left upper arm.

"You need a tourniquet to slow that bleeding…" Alex ordered and shrugged off his own sweater. "Come over here…"

"Let's just get outta here…"

"After we do something about that leak you've got going on your arm…"

"Okay, just…"

"Hurry?"

"Yeah…"

Okay, so… Hope you enjoyed this chapter.