Even the open warehouse access felt vaguely dark and creepy. Mac knew it wasn't but the feeling was almost suffocating. Jack squeezed his shoulder before they opened the doors to go into the interior, his question as to whether or not Mac could follow through with his plan to be part of this evident in his dark brown eyes, currently sharp and probing for all their warmth and concern.
Jack knew Mac would say he was fine. Fine was what Mac always said. Those eyes said they were searching for the barest indication that he wasn't. And the brain behind them was trying to decide what to do if he decided that was true that wouldn't set Mac off and make a bad situation worse.
Mac just turned on his flashlight and started moving forward, which sent Jack from worrying about how Mac was feeling to worrying about how to stay in front of him. Tactical was claiming the building was clear left and right, and Mac was pretty sure it was.
His skin wasn't just actively crawling in the way it seemed to whenever Murdoc was anywhere near. It had been happening in that … room … even before Murdoc's next level creepy whistle had announced his presence. Maybe he had what Jack would call a spidey sense when it came to Murdoc. Not that he believed in things like that, just … Well, it would be damned useful.
When they got into the enclosed part of the warehouse, Mac could see what was pretty obviously Murdoc's work station. Nope, he was not quite ready to look at that. Instead he followed one of the Tac squads toward the door he recognized as his first avenue of escape. He really planned to go down the stairs and have a good look around, but after taking a few steps down, he just let his flashlight play around the room, nodded to the squad leader and walked back out, swallowing hard.
The lock that he'd broken with his improvised hydraulic jackhammer was on the floor, and he knelt down to examine it as though it was an important piece of evidence. He just needed a minute. And, if he was honest, he kind of wanted to see how much damage he'd done to the deadbolt.
Then Riley had made it impossible to avoid Murdoc's work table any further. The team started converging on it. Mac forced his feet to move toward it. He could see, even from across the dark room, various tools, a blowtorch, and then upon closer approach, medical, even surgical, and dental tools and implements, and drugs, so many drugs, pills, syringes … Mac could feel his breathing picking up again as he got closer.
He tried not to take it in quite as deeply as he did, but some of those labels were easy to read. There were definitely sedatives there, anesthetics even. But there were also stimulants, amphetamines; the stuff that made sure you couldn't pass out no matter what someone was doing to you and that kept you alive deep into shock. He swayed on his feet for a just a second, feeling a little like he might just need to sit down on the floor. He got on top of it, but it wasn't easy. He'd never wanted to hug Bozer quite so hard as when his friend called them over to look at Murdoc's latest love note.
The note was easy to deal with. Creepy cryptic notes were part of Murdoc's MO. Mac was almost used to them by now. When Matty ordered the rest of the team to tear the place apart, he moved off to do just that, but Matty called him back over to where she was standing. "Where are you going, Blondie?"
"With Jack," he answered as it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I thought you might be able to shed some light on what some of this stuff might have been for," Matty said, indicating Murdoc's gruesome display of torture. Mac's eyes swept the table, and he quickly looked away. "No, I don't think so. Other than the standard tool box stuff … I got a C in biology, Matty, and I only go to Medical when you order me there. One of the Medics would probably be a lot more help."
Then he spun on his heel before Matty could say much else, "Hey, Jack, wait up!" and he jogged off after his partner, wanting to head out into one of the more open areas, even if it was just for a few minutes. He stuck pretty close to Jack after that, for a few minutes at least.
Tactical was sweeping the corners, trying to sift through the evidence in … the torture room … there was probably a better technical word for it, but that was all Mac's usually eloquent brain could come up with at the moment for him. Then he glanced around and realized he didn't see Cage anywhere. His eyes swept the teams more carefully.
She was dressed in her civvies like the rest of the team, having eschewed tactical gear for mobility and she wasn't with any of the visible units. Damn it. No longer quite so reluctant on his own behalf, Mac leaned in the door way of the torture room to see if she'd made her way down there. Nothing. Son of a bitch.
He broke away from the main group and started looking around. He glanced over his shoulder at Jack, who clearly hadn't noticed him adventuring off on this own. Good. He didn't need Jack getting all protective right now. Another team member had gone MIA with Murdoc in the wind. He felt slightly panicked at the idea of the killer grabbing any of them.
He took off at a trot, trying to figure out where she could have gotten to, hoping he'd find more than an empty room somewhere or a cell phone with a cryptic message waiting for him. He didn't know Cage well, or even particularly trust her yet. But she was on the team, and that meant she was one of his, just like it had with the rest of his squad the first damned day of Basic.
Then he heard the gunshot and a pained scream. He took off at a sprint in the direction of the sound, hearing the footsteps of some of the Tac team following, hoping he wouldn't find a body instead of just an injured teammate. He thundered, "Cage," when he saw her lying on the floor, and his run became a sprint.
She was conscious when he got there only seconds later, much to his relief, and she wasn't swimming in a pool of her blood, but sometimes, that didn't mean anything in the first few seconds. Sometimes it meant the heart wasn't pumping the way it should.
When he tore her shirt away he sighed with immediate relief. Cage was a practice what she preached kind of agent. Underneath her seemingly casual button up, was one of the flexible tactical vests. Still her breathing was ragged. He called for a medic and moved her out of the windowed warehouse area before Murdoc could have more fun. Cage was right, he hadn't left her alive by accident. What was his game?
0-0-0
Mac got Cage to the medic, the caught up with the Tax team Jack had taken point on to give them a quick brief on his mental calculations on bullet trajectory and likely points of origin of the shot. Refining them slightly when he pried the slug out of Cage's vest and got a better look at the caliber and the condition it was in.
He knew some of it was guesswork here, especially because he didn't have specs for the new vests in front of him, but here a guess was better than a blind search, as his mathematical approximation of where'd he'd been held in captivity had proven. Then he attempted to follow them in their search.
He'd thought if anything would have kept him from it, it would have been Jack getting over protective. The looks his partner kept giving him said he wasn't buying Mac's 'I'm fine' façade 100%. And Mac figured that was fair since it was at least 50% bullshit. However, it turned out compassion was the thing that kept him just offering support and suggestions via video call and radio. Cage was a lot more shaken than he expected her to be. She was better once she was out of the vest and the medic had reassured her he didn't think she'd broken anything, but her eyes kept flicking to Mac, so he just stayed nearby.
He didn't think that was terribly supportive, but it was the best he could do without feeling massively awkward and he knew sometimes, just knowing someone who cared whether or not you lived or died, and whether or not you were miserable nearby made all the difference. It surely had for him a few hours ago when Jack had been sticking to him like glue at Medical.
However, Mac had had about enough of playing supportive teammate. He also didn't like the way the medic kept looking at him like maybe Matty or Jack had told him he needed an eye kept on him. So, when Jack and the Tac team came back in, Mac joined them for their report and was determined to go back out with them. If for no other reason than to get the hell out of this building and breathe free air again for a few minutes.
Jack could see exactly where Mac was at. And honestly, he hadn't liked leaving him here. Besides, having each other's backs was what they did. And he felt better in the field when Mac was with him. But Matty put the brakes on Mac going out. Since she hadn't come down on them for Mac leaving Medical to come out here, Jack decided not to argue. He saw Mac's eyeroll, but noticed he wisely decided to stay quiet and just comply, too.
Mac didn't really mind being asked to stick around and do something more in line with his skill set than supporting Tactical, but he wished Matty had set up shop somewhere other than right by Murdoc's … work table. He felt his eyes carefully avoiding the bench, and he tried to force himself to look, to end its power over him, but found he wasn't there yet, wasn't anywhere near there yet.
Mac was also trying not to notice how protective Matty's tone had gotten around him, and he couldn't quite meet Riley's eye because clearly she had noticed it, too. When she ordered the medic out to get his portable x-ray rig, she sounded like a parent yelling at an older sibling for hoarding a preferred toy.
Of course, Riley had also noticed how carefully Mac wasn't looking left or right as he moved through the room. He wanted to solve this and get out so he could stop thinking about what happened to him. She would do what she could to make that happen as fast as she could for him. She thought it was pretty badass that he was here at all, but he looked like he wanted to puke or pass out at least every third time she looked at him. And that was way out of character for Mac.
"I, uh, I can't believe I'm about to say this," Mac stammered, trying to sound light and unconcerned. "But I need to go back into the room Murdoc planned to kill me in, and turn out all the lights."
The rest of the team follow, both glad Jack wasn't there to freak out about it, and sort of wishing he was because if it messed with Mac's head half as much as they thought it would, Jack would be who Mac would want around. Fortunately the x-ray emitter worked perfectly, and Mac was pretty sure the exposure was minimal.
There was a moment of elation when the identified the intended target of Murdoc's next hit, followed quickly by confusion when they realized the guy was a school teacher.
Mac was the one to raise Jack on the radio. "Hey Jack, come on back in, we're moving on some actionable intel asap and I know if I go without you," he paused.
"You're grounded?"
"Jackass." Mac laughed. "You'd be pissed. So, shag your ass back here. We're moving out in five. Wait until you see who Murdoc's after next."
"President, embassy staff, Justin Timberlake?" Jack guessed trying to be funny.
"A fifth-grade teacher, dude."
"That's just weird enough to worry me," Jack quipped.
"Me, too. Hurry up."
