Round Two
Furious, MacGyver went to find Hines, who'd watched the end of the fight from across the mats.
"Hines!" MacGyver gripped his sleeve. "That was wrong and everyone here knows it! You saw it too – we have to do something!"
"Right." Hines nodded, his face grim. "This time I agree – we can't let that stand!"
MacGyver waited impatiently while Hines explained the cheating that had gone on during the last fight. The official listened, then shook his head.
"All our referees are trained and approved by the American Karate Association, Mr. Hines, as you well know. You can register a complaint with the head office if you feel that strongly about it, but today's results will stand." He gathered his papers and stood up to leave. When Hines and MacGyver didn't move, he put his briefcase down again. "Was there something else?"
"You saw that, right?" MacGyver stepped forward, ignoring Hines' hand on his arm. "You watched it and you think it was judged fairly? How?!"
"Ah." The official turned to MacGyver. "I represent the American Karate Association, but I'm not a match referee. But all our referees are trained –"
"And approved. Right." MacGyver shook his head in disgust and turned away from the table. Behind him, the official picked up his briefcase and left.
"Hines? This stinks." MacGyver shoved his hands into his pockets and followed Hines back to the Challengers Club kids. "Hey, what?!" He looked up to see the cheating referee, now wearing jeans and t-shirt instead of his Karate Association shirt, chatting with the Hunter's Point club coach.
"Mac, wait! Dammit!" Hines put out a hand but MacGyver shook off his grip, striding across the hall to the Hunter's Point club. "Wait here, OK?" Hines left the Challengers kids waiting together and set off after MacGyver.
"Hey!" MacGyver stopped at the edge of the Hunter's Point group. Some of the older kids gave him unfriendly looks, but they moved out of his way.
"Can I help you?" The Hunter's Point coach stepped forwards and the referee moved back, starting a conversation with a green-haired kid and avoiding meeting MacGyver's eye.
"Yeah, your pet referee there is a cheat!" MacGyver pointed to the referee. Behind him, Hines swore quietly.
"Is that right?" The coach came to the front of the group, spotting Hines behind MacGyver. "Challengers, yes?"
"Yes." MacGyver folded his arms. "Your man there allowed foul hits from your girl and disallowed perfectly good hits from ours.!
"I see." The coach nodded. "Sounds a lot like sour grapes to me. Sound like it to you, Mike?" He glanced over his shoulder at the referee.
"Sure does, Tom." The referee stepped up behind the coach, frowning.
"Well, let's see. The judges have no problem with the result. The other clubs have no problem with the result." Tom ticked off the points on his fingers. "And the kids here have no problem with the result. Only you and Rutherford here." He grinned at Hines, who frowned but didn't comment. Tom turned back to MacGyver. "Maybe our kids are just better than yours. Hell, they're certainly trained better!" He laughed at Hines' scowl. "Nothing to say, Rutherford?"
"Yeah, I got something to say." Hines shouldered his way past MacGyver and stood toe to toe with the coach. "You train your kids that violence and dirty fighting are the right things to do. You train IN exactly what I train OUT of my kids. I train discipline and self-control, not aggression and arrogance!"
"That's fighting talk, Rutherford." Tom's voice was quiet. "You looking to fight me?" Behind him, the kids and Mike moved closer. Sensing movement behind him, MacGyver turned to see that the Challengers kids had walked quietly across the hall to join them, and were now staring down the Hunter's Point club.
"Rematch!" The word was out before MacGyver had finished thinking it. The Challengers kids cheered and Tom smiled, all teeth and no humour.
"What do you say, Rutherford?" Tom's grin grew broader. "You and your cheerleader there –" He flicked his fingers at MacGyver, "- and your best kids against me, Mike and our best kids."
Hines took a breath, aware that the hall had grown silent and that the other youth groups were all listening.
"Make it a fundraiser!" One of the spectators stood up.
"Yeah, winner gets the ticket money to buy new sports equipment for their club!" Another spectator stood up and started clapping. The applause grew, and Tom's grin grew with it.
"Ticket money and a public apology from the loser." Tom held out his hand towards Hines, but MacGyver seized it and shook.
"Agreed!" He glanced across at Hines, but Hines was still staring at Tom. Tom turned and shepherded his kids out, leaving Hines glaring at an empty doorway.
"Tourist, you and me are going to get these kids home, and then I'm going to explain to you exactly how much trouble you and your excitable conscience have just landed us in." Without looking at MacGyver, Hines turned and strode away.
Phoenix Foundation
"So what do we do?" Nikki sat down in Pete's office.
"Beats me." Willis took off his glasses and cleaned them on his lab coat. "He left the note and just… went. Took off on the motorcycle and hasn't been seen since."
"I tried getting hold of Sam, but he's in Guatemala covering a story." Pete located the note and passed it to Nikki to read. "He's out of contact for at least another week, according to his office."
"Pete, how much truth is there in this?" Nikki frowned as she read MacGyver's letter.
"More than I'd like." Pete sighed. "I'm fighting it – I have a board meeting today, actually, and I hope to convince everyone that they're choosing the wrong path."
"Good luck!" Willis shook his head. "I really hope you do it – the more I think about it, the more I agree with Mac. I don't think I want to be the puppet of some giant, sleazy corporation either!"
"OK." Nikki put her hands flat on her knees. "Assume that Pete talks the board into seeing sense. We still have to find Mac and tell him that Phoenix is still the good guy after all. Where else do we look? I mean, what if he just doesn't come back?"
"He's got to come back." Willis got to his feet. "Phoenix isn't Phoenix without him." He paused in the doorway. "He's got to come back, right?"
San Francisco
"See, here's the thing." Hines held up the focus mitts for MacGyver to practise punching. "Tom Counter and Mike McKay have been thorns in a lot of sides ever since they opened their youth club. Put your weight into it." He circled, holding out the mitts one at a time to test MacGyver's reaction speed. "Sports is pretty much all they do, but it keeps the kids off the streets and so most of the time, I got no problem with them. Watch your footing, there."
"But they train their kids to cheat!" MacGyver shook his hair out of his eyes.
"They see it as training for the real world." Hines swept the mitt over MacGyver's head, nodding approval when he ducked in time. "Unfortunately, it spills over into competitions too."
"And the cheating referee? Is that training for the real world too?" MacGyver circled, keeping his guard up.
"I've never seen it that bad. Mike's always been on the sketchy edge of refereeing, favours the kids who show aggression more than skill, but it's always been minor stuff." Hines took off the mitts and picked up a kick shield.
"So why now?" MacGyver kicked at the pad, earning a disgusted look from Hines. "What did I do wrong?"
"Let's just say you're better at punching." Hines took a firmer grip on the kick shield. "Try again. I think 'why now' is because me and Tom crossed swords at the last competition over his kids using excessive force, and he's been looking for a way to get back at me ever since. No, not like that!" Hines put down the shield and demonstrated the kick slowly for MacGyver. Then he turned and faced MacGyver, hands on his hips.
"What's got into you anyway, Tourist? What happened to Mr. Peaceful? You're the last person I would have expected to lose it and go picking a fight like that!" He picked up the kick shield. "Well?"
"I guess I'm just tired of seeing the good guys get stomped by people who think they're above the law." MacGyver sighed, moving into his kicking stance again. "There seems to be too much of it about just recently!"
"Well, amen to that." Hines rocked back as MacGyver kicked the pad much harder. "Better! There's more fight in you than I thought!"
"Sometimes I wonder." MacGyver blinked sweat out of his eyes and kicked again, driving Hines further across the mat each time he kicked.
"Hey – you don't get to give up! We're the good guys, remember?" Hines grinned over the top of the kick shield. "Again, faster this time."
Over the next week, Hines and MacGyver practised whenever they could. Coaching the kids helped MacGyver to improve too, finding out the limits of his own knowledge through explaining it to someone else. They practised in Hines' apartment and in the local park in the evenings, went running early in the mornings and talked fight tactics in the breaks between classes at the Challengers Club.
MacGyver found his attention totally focussed on the upcoming competition, his concerns over Phoenix fading into the background. Only at night, lying awake on Hines' couch, did he think about Atlas, and Phoenix, and his friends and family back in Los Angeles. Hines' words kept running through his head: We're the good guys. We don't get to give up.
The day before the competition dawned clear and bright. Hines and MacGyver got back from their run early, their shirts already sticking to their backs from the heat. The run up and down San Francisco's rollercoaster streets didn't seem to take very long, and MacGyver was surprised to find he wasn't out of breath at the end.
"Good time, Tourist!" Hines stopped the timer on his digital watch and grinned.
"Thank you, Captain!" MacGyver grinned back. His kicks and punches had improved, his strength and stamina had grown and he was sure he had a good grasp of the competition rules.
"You ready to hear about your opponent now?" Hines was pleased with MacGyver's progress, but felt it was only fair to warn him who he was up against.
"You betcha." MacGyver stood aside as Hines unlocked his door, then followed him up the stairs.
"Here." Hines handed MacGyver some photocopied newspaper articles. "Michael Peter McKay of San Francisco, California." He pointed to the top article. "Three times county Karate champion, twice won the state championships. A few years ago, but he was good. He ain't just a referee, Mac."
"Uh-huh." MacGyver glanced through the articles and then gave them back to Hines. He reached into his rucksack and pulled out a similar sheaf of articles. "Michael Peter McKay, also disqualified from two high-level competitions and who collected the most warnings of anyone three years running. I know who he is." He grinned at Hines' stunned expression. "I went to the library as soon as I knew I had to fight him."
"You didn't know who he was when you picked the fight, though." Hines shook his head.
"No, I didn't." MacGyver sat down on the couch to unlace his sneakers. "But I knew that if you had to fight Tom Counter, I couldn't let McKay be chosen as the referee. Easiest way to take him off the list of referees was to get him on the list of competitors instead. That way you get a fair fight."
"And you get your ass kicked!" Hines dropped the papers on the table and faced MacGyver. "It's not that I'm ungrateful, but you don't have any idea of what kind of fight you're in for here!"
"So, show me." MacGyver leaned forwards, his elbows on his knees. "Show me all the dirty tricks he pulls, show me how to counter them." He frowned, thinking of the way Atlas were acting, the dirty tricks they were pulling on Phoenix to make the directors do the wrong thing. "We're the good guys, Hines. We don't cheat, we win fair and we don't get to quit!"