Slight of Mind, Chapter 3
Painful Insights

By the time that Mac finally walked through the door to his office, Pete had been ready to send out every off-duty field operative to look for him. "You're kind of late, aren't you?" Pete asked sharply. He regretted it the instant he saw how tired and worn his friend looked. His voice softened as he said, "I was about to send the Mounties after you!"

"I've been busy," Mac's response was weary but glib. "Doc Beatty has a new hobby… collecting samples of all my bodily fluids and looking at them through every kind of microscope known to man." He flopped onto the sofa in the corner of the room, but he managed to summon enough energy to smile at his friend. "She finally let me go when she tried to draw some more blood and all she got was air!"

"She had you down there for two whole days," Pete said. "What did she find?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing! How could she find nothing?"

"That's why she took so long to look, I guess."

Mac had decided he wasn't going to mention the real reason for the delays unless he had to, but Pete wasn't going to let him off that easy.

"I heard that there was a little difficulty with the EKG machine."

"Yeah," Mac admitted reluctantly, not meeting Pete's eyes, "…a little."

"'A little'… Mac, you blew it up!"

"Not on purpose!" Mac exclaimed defensively. "Okay… okay! Doc Beatty found something… but it doesn't mean anything…"

"She seems to think it does," Pete said, picking up a file from his desk and waving it as evidence.

Mac sulked, "Pete… you've worked in Intelligence for too long!"

Pete ignored him, flipping open the file. "It says here that your body chemistry is abnormal…"

"Not dangerously so," Mac said petulantly.

"… and that until they can get a good look at your brain—the MRI machine seems to be malfunctioning, too—there's no way to tell what's happening. She recommends that I take you off of active duty…"

"Why?" Mac protested, "… so I can go stir-crazy, too? There's nothing wrong with me… other than some vivid dreams and a slight case of static electricity! All I need is some peace and quiet and a better brand of fabric softener! Come on, Pete! I know that you know what it means to need to work!"

Pete regarded his friend in silence for a few moments before he said, "Yes… I guess I do. Alright… we can at least work on the cases that we have open." He sat down at his desk and pulled a stack of folders toward himself. "We still have one problem that hasn't been solved, you know."

Mac stood up and came around the desk to look over Pete's shoulder. "Oh, yes… the Kellys. Has there been any new information about Mrs. Kelly and John Jr.?"

"No. And Mr. Kelly calls three times a day to see if we've learned anything new. The poor man is getting desperate." Pete chuckled as he shuffled the papers aside, "You know… I had a strange phone call awhile ago from one of our sources in the Organization, claiming that he knew something about Kelly through his Underworld channels. I think he was just trying to shake us down; Kelly doesn't strike me as that type of man…"

Mac reached past Pete to pick up a small slip of paper; the same piece of paper that had sent him flying toward Hawaii convinced that he could find the missing woman and her child. It was a receipt for airline tickets, paid for by Mrs. Kelly's credit card. He carried it with him over to one of two chairs that were angled in front of Pete's desk, where he sat down. "I was so sure that this was the answer, Pete."

"So did I!" Pete said, "but there wasn't a trace of them—Mac! What's wrong?"

Mac had been sitting and holding the receipt in his fingers. Then suddenly he had bolted to his feet, sending his chair tumbling backward onto the floor from the force of his movement.

Pete stared at his friend, alarmed by the expression on MacGyver's face. He had gone pale beneath his tan and his eyes had become dark as pools of ink. But what was more, he had a look of surprised comprehension on his face… a terrifying clarity of awareness.

He whispered a sentence that Pete almost couldn't hear, "They pulled a switch on us!"

"Mac? Mac, what is it?" Pete hastened around the large desk to stand near Mac, in case he collapsed again. "Are you alright?"

"I know where they are, Pete," Mac said calmly. "They're safe."

"What are you talking about, Mac?" Pete asked, confused. "You flew out to Hawaii yourself and couldn't find them! We've gone over the reports and video surveillance from the airport where they bought their tickets... we know from the airline manifest that their tickets were used, but Catherine Kelly and John Jr. were not seen boarding or exiting the plane. How can you know where they are?"

"I just know, Pete." Mac's voice was low and full of wonder. "It's all so clear to me now... it all makes sense… I—I should have seen it before…" There was a hint of doubt in his voice now; doubt that was rapidly turning over in Mac's mind to fear.

"What makes sense?" Pete asked desperately. "What did you see on that paper that can explain all this?" He reached out to take the receipt from Mac's fingers.

As Pete's hand came close to MacGyver's, a bright arc of electricity leapt from Mac's body and touched Pete's hand. He jumped back with a hiss. "Ah! Ouch!"

Mac didn't seem to notice. He reached blindly forward until he felt the top of the desk, and then he eased himself down until he was sitting on the edge, unmindful of the stacks of paperwork that covered the surface. "I hadn't even considered the possibility..." Mac's voice was as distant as his gaze, "... and it's so simple! So completely obvious..."

"Mac? What was that? What is happening to you?" Pete cradled his burned hand, torn between wanting to help his friend and caution. He walked around the desk and stood in front of Mac, placing himself so that his friend could not fail to see him without turning his head away. "Mac!"

At first, Mac didn't seem to recognize him. Then he blinked as if waking up from a dream and his strange dark eyes focused on Pete. "Don't you see it now? She used a credit card to buy tickets… but not for her and her son. They must have met someone in the airport... someone they knew or got to know while they were there... and talked them into trading tickets with them. They gave up their tickets to Hawaii for tickets that couldn't be traced to them!"

"My God... if that's true—they could be anywhere!" Pete shook his head, forgetting for a moment about his stinging fingers. "Well, we can find out what other tickets were purchased in pairs that day... John Jr. would be old enough to pass with an adult ticket... we might find them yet--"

"You don't understand, Pete..." Mac said, a strange smile overcoming his pale face, "None of that is necessary... I know where they are!"

"How? How can you know?" Pete insisted.

Mac hesitated; a flash of uncertainty crossed his face. "I... just do. It's as if I can see them... I know that they're safe and that they're staying... where they're at," Mac ended lamely.

"Where? Tell me where, Mac!"

"I will, Pete... but you can't tell anyone else! Or write it down anywhere! If there's a leak here in the Foundation... they mustn't be found! Especially by John Kelly."

"But Mac," Pete said, "her husband is desperate to know where she and their son are! He came to us to find them..."

"Because he's the one they're hiding from! They know something, Pete... something that he doesn't want to get out," Mac said grimly. The color was returning to his face now, though his eyes were still bright and dark at once. "They witnessed something and he is hunting them down to keep them silent."

"What? Just exactly how did you deduce all that from one airline receipt? Are you saying that the rumors of Kelly's involvement with organized crime might be true?"

"What I'm saying, Pete, is that--" Mac started to say more but suddenly he swayed, reaching out with one hand for balance. Pete took his arm by reflex and prevented him from falling. Mac leaned forward as if stricken with a terrible headache.

Pete righted the chair and eased him into it, letting his friend bend forward with his head resting on his knees "Mac? Are you alright?" Pete asked again. "I'm going to call Doc Beatty..."

"No, Pete." Mac's voice was muffled because he had buried his face in his hands. "I'm fine... I just have a bit of a headache. Do you have any aspirin around here?"

"I'll get you some... just stay right there." Pete gave him one last worried glance before he hurried out of the office, shouting for Helen.

After he heard the door to the office close, Mac sat up in the chair and lowered his hands. There was a trickle of blood leaking from the corners of each of his eyes-- eyes that now were once again as brown as they had been all of his life. He reached into a pocket and drew out a handkerchief to clean the stains from his hands and his face.

Mac's Voice-over:
I don't know why I didn't want Pete to know about this... I guess I didn't want to worry him over something he couldn't do anything about. I knew he'd insist on more doctors and more tests... and that didn't fall into my plans. I didn't know what was happening to me. I did know that nobody at Phoenix could help me.

There was only one man I could think of that might be able to help. I'd said goodbye to him a long time ago... on a lonely country road somewhere outside the border of East Germany as I was standing amid the collapse of a home-made hot air balloon.

I knew that I had to find Starkoss... somehow... and I didn't know how much time I had.

I was beginning to hurt.