Matty was pissed. She was keeping a really tight lid on it, but Mac had gotten pretty good at reading her. He'd been a lot more vigilant about observing her behavior, facial expressions, moods, since he found out for sure that she knew something about his father. Thing was, Mac didn't think she was pissed at him and Jack. It seemed more internalized than that.

Still, Mac felt responsible for the situation they were in. He knew he could be impulsive sometimes, but Jack making a bad decision when there were women involved wasn't exactly new. Hell, he'd practically broken his neck on a mission two weeks after Mac had met him years ago because he was trying to pick up some random rock he thought would look nice on the desk of some woman he knew back home. Mac should have just said no to those drinks days ago.

If he had, they'd be home in LA enjoying the end of a long weekend after a successful, uneventful mission, instead of nursing injuries that had been more triaged than treated, and trying to come up with any useful memories through a haze of low level concussion and the aftereffects of some drug they didn't even have a tox panel to identify.

"Matty," he interrupted her latest stream of questions. "I'm so sorry."

"You still don't remember anything? Because I thought the line of questioning might help." She frowned her concern.

"Not that. I mean, I don't remember … But I meant more generally that we're in this mess. Should have just stayed in the hotel room until exfil was available and …"

"Good grief, Blondie, you were in Dublin on Saint Patrick's Day. Of course you wanted to go out. I'm actually happy you did. You need to loosen up a little or you're going to burn out."

Jack took a break from alternating between rubbing at his temples and itching his recently patched up chest to give Matty a little grin. He was always saying something similar to Mac. However, he knew how his partner's brain worked, so he added. "Besides Mac, if anything it was my fault. I spent a lotta time chatting with Ailbe before I came and gotcha. I shoulda known somethin' was off."

Matty actually gave Jack a very understanding look. "Nobody's blaming you either, Jack."

"You sure, Matty? Cuz ya sound kinda upset."

"Of course I'm upset, Jack!" she glared. "Murdoc knew where you were, almost got a couple of locals to hand you over, and texted me to gloat about it on my personal cell phone!" Her expression softened. "I'm not particularly thrilled that I wasn't the first call you two made either."

"Matty, I …"

"Can it, Blondie." She paused, glancing at Riley. "What have you got on the video from Belfast? Anything new?"

Riley frowned, but didn't answer. That was an expression they didn't see very often. Everyone leaned forward a little in their seats. Finally, Jack asked very quietly, "Ri, honey, what've you got?"

"Um … I've got nothing new except more static. However, your buddy … Invisigoth … Like who makes up a name like that?"

"Um, I don't know … Artemis …" Mac managed a grin.

She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue, breaking the tension in the room a little, before spinning the laptop around so they could see it. "Yeah well, your friend …"

"Her name's Emily if that makes you feel better," Mac interjected.

This time Ri actually smiled. "It does, actually. Anyway, she might be crap at encryption, but decryption is apparently her jam."

They watched as the video Matty had shown them earlier came back up, but this time, Riley was able to back it up. The women, Ailbe and Saiorse ran out of the bunker first, followed almost a full two minutes later by Mac and Jack. Then the explosion that threw them to the ground.

The satellite image dissolved into static again. Jack was about to say that wasn't much in the way of new information when the static cleared again.

This time, a tall slender man strode into the frame. There was no mistaking the carefully chosen dark turtleneck and slacks, heavy black boots, or billowing black leather coat and gloves.

Jack noted the way Mac shifted uncomfortably and frowned. It was his default reaction to even the mention of Murdoc's name these days, but this seemed more distressed.

Then Jack saw why.

Mac was anticipating what came next.

Murdoc looked up, like he knew he was being watched, and he grinned his huge sharks grin, and waved like he was in an old home movie. Then Murdoc tipped a sarcastic two-fingered salute and walked casually out of the frame.

Everyone heard the click of Mac swallowing.

"He let us go. He let us go and followed us to see what we did. Whatever it was that happened, he set up all of it ... Again," Mac finished, practically growling.

Jack nodded slowly, unconsciously flexing his hands in and out of fists. "And he wants us to know, pretty clearly."

Matty shook her head. "Maybe not. Maybe that video was for someone who's footing the bills. Your other hacker friend sent it to us … and it's partially degraded so …"

"No," Mac interrupted, with an almost stern finality. "He's playing a game again. And we're the pieces." He stood in frustration and started pacing the small hotel room again. "But what's the game? It's all moves and countermoves with him. But it's like playing intergalactic 3-D chess with a Wookie. We don't know the rules, the other pieces have a mind of their own, and anything we do is just as likely to get our arms torn off as anything else."

He ran both hands through his hair in frustration, wincing at the pull on his many bruises. What he wanted was his bed at home, about half a bottle of Advil, several of whatever over-proofed IPA Jack had brought to their last cookout, and a freezer full of ice packs. What he had was a puzzle he didn't even know how to begin solving, and a headache vying for at least thirty percent of his attention.

"And since we can't really remember anything that happened, we don't even really have a place to start to figure it out!" he concluded with a frustrated sigh.

Jack gave a little answering sigh of his own. "I'm probably gonna regret saying this out loud." Everyone turned and looked at him. "But if they drugged us to make us forget … Isn't there … I don't know … some kinda drug that would make us remember?"

Mac shook his head, and hurried to explain, mostly because he was thinking that even if such a thing existed, he was not going to put himself at Matty's mercy in any kind of altered state. He wanted to trust her, he really did. But he was certain she knew something about his father, and was even more certain she was up to something. He was going to remain reserved until he knew what. He also had an overwhelming urge to protect Jack from whatever that was, too.

"There's barely good treatments for Alzheimers and other conditions that affect recall, Jack. Psychopharmacology just hasn't bothered much with that sort of research. It's mostly focused on how to induce amnesia for things like surgery, short term, and the long term stuff has mostly been focused on memories associated with various forms of PTSD … As far as I know anyway."

He looked at Matty then. Enhanced interrogation was one of the things she was more well versed in than anyone here. She probably had more knowledge of it than he'd be entirely comfortable hearing about, as a matter of fact.

Matty nodded and gave Jack as half amused smirk. "As much as I'd love to have access to a drug that could a) solve your memory problems here and b) make you remember and apologize for all the ways you've pissed me off over the years, Mac is right. No such drugs exist. Well …"

"Well, what?" Jack asked, suddenly wishing he really hadn't said it out loud because now Matty was raising her eyebrows in a wouldn't it be fun to turn Jack into a lab rat kind of expression.

"There is some research being done into intravenous memory enhancing compounds for the purposes of interrogation," she paused, letting Jack flinch at the very idea. "But … they're still in an extremely experimental stage … And are nothing I would want to see two friends subjected to. Especially not two friends who have pasts like you do."

She and Mac shared a small smile at Jack's look of relief. Mac didn't meet her eyes for long though. She noticed, but didn't comment. "But … and I have a feeling Mac is going to laugh at me now …"

"What?" Mac asked. She hesitated. "Matty, I'm a skeptic, sure, but I'm also a scientist. Being open minded is kind of a requirement."

"If I thought it would help, would you be willing to try hypnosis?"

"Hey, yeah, like a show in Vegas!" Jack grinned. Somebody dangling a pocket watch in front of him was a hell of a lot more attractive than somebody poking him full of holes and screwing with his brain that way.

Mac just frowned.

"Mac?" Matty prompted.

He walked over to the window. Opening himself up like that … to Matty of all people … Not his first choice. He also had a sneaking suspicion that given his frequent inability to relax unless he'd run ten hard miles uphill, he was probably a poor candidate. But Jack wasn't, because that was how he'd quit smoking when he'd gotten back from Afghanistan. He resolved that if Jack couldn't give them enough, he'd do it.

"Yeah … I guess," he finally said with a little hesitation.

"I'll go first," Jack said, reading his partner like a comic book. Then he grinned at Matty. "So long as our fearless leader promises not to make me cluck like a chicken."

Matty looked between the two agents, wondering exactly what was going on that she didn't know for certain about, and thinking, probably too predictably, that this might be a chance to find out. "No promises, Dalton."