Fire: In the beginning, according to scientists there was a big explosion, everything was burning and new. According to the bible, God said let there be light. What else is fire but a light? The sun is fire, the earth is still cooling fire. Children were passed through the fire to worship Moloch, witches were burned at the stake, Hell is a lake of fire, fire is at the last judgement...all things are cleansed through fire. I see you coming to me, we are ready for you. He is coming, my Golden Child. At last there is one worthy to pass through you and bring us into your eternal embrace.
Riley followed the trio of men taking MacGyver. One of the huge bodyguards, Riley decided to call him Thing #1 because he seemed to rank higher in whatever organization was behind all this. He's the one that saved Mac and had the Boss on speed dial. Thing #2 was the stereotypical flunky, only quieter and looking much more bored. They stopped by a maids cleaning cart and Thing #1 grabbed a huge stack of towels and a roll of wide orange tape. Riley was somewhat reassured by this. They would hopefully use that to bandage MacGyver when they get to where they're going.
They turned onto smaller hallways that led to a back door to the hotel. They didn't seem real concerned about security in the hotel seeing them, but appeared to not want guests to freak out. Riley wondered who owned the hotel. She ducked down behind the maid's cart when Thing #2 turned back to scan the hallway before they exited the building. Once they were out of sight, Riley ran to the glass door and cracked it. She was just in time to see Mac loaded into a gold stretch limo with the plate "DERICK."
Her mind turned over possibilities but could find no way to stop the car from leaving. She smiled, she might be able to stop it, or at least slow it down. She pulled out her laptop and crouched. It took about two minutes to crack the Seattle police network and put out a BOLO for the limo. That would slow them down. She then hacked the DMV. To her surprise, Derick did not own the limo. Someone named Henry Traver's did. Mac had mentioned something about Derick's dad being a nutcase or something. She googled him and found out he was the leader of a small church community, The Church of the Eternal Flame. The CEF, as it called itself, was a congregation that lived in a ghost town in the Canadian Northern Territories. Riley frowned. They had ghost towns?
Further quick googling found that Haven, the compound they lived in was a cluster of bungalows and quonset huts in a round canyon sided on three sides by cliffs and one side by water polluted by mine runoff, cyanide and mercury. The city had died when the nearby mines failed, and everyone left when the water became deadly. The Traver's owned Haven. Riley frowned. There was a forest fire up in the area. According to the article, the group had been ordered to leave the small settlement because it had been condemned as bad for health of its residents. No kidding, she thought. The massive forest fire was grinding through miles of Boreal forest heading inevitably in the direction of Haven. Riley chewed on her lip. She found a footnote link and clicked. The Canadian mounties had sent several agents to investigate accusation against Henry Travers, they had never returned. Riley scowled. It seemed pretty easy to connect the dots. For some reason the Trever's really wanted Mac, except Derick. He seemed like he's much more interested in killing Mac. Riley took a deep breath. There was no way she'd let that happen.
It was a safe bet they had a plane of some sort. She found the registration for a Pilatus PC-12 under the church's name. She found a private airfield owned by the CEF. Riley stowed her laptop. She scanned around her. Traffic had been a mess with the National STEM fair. She needed something that can move through traffic easier than a car. She smiled. Across the parking lot was a small huddle of perky blondes surrounding a fat man in a dirty t-shirt that said Germ in what looked like bedazzled plastic gems. He had green spiky hair and everything she could see was pierced. She closed out the image of where else he might be pierced with a shudder.
Riley knew the kind of guy he was. He was trying to desperately get adoration. Riley would have easily dismissed him if not for the very beautiful Suzuki behind him. Riley threw her hair back and strutted up to the man. She winced. Evidently his name actually was Germ. That'd get you noticed, but probably not the way he wanted to be. She walked out, as expected the beady eyes in the man's fat face slid to her. The bubble blondes, Riley really had no idea why they were cooing over him. Germ? Seriously? Maybe he had money. Riley grinned and looked down at the ground coyly.
"Nice bike." She said as sultry as she could manage. Germ stared at her, his mouth literally hanging open. Riley walked over to the bike and gently stroked it. She was thrilled to see the keys were in it. "I bet it goes really fast?" Riley made her voice pouty.
"Y...yeah. Do you want a ride?" He asked in a nasal whine. Riley smiled.
"Oh yes." She gushed. She casually put her leg over the seat. She smiled sweetly at Germ, turned the key and sped out of the parking lot leaving a good sized tread mark. Riley leaned forward grinning. She was use to Harley's, but hey, thieves cant be choosy.
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Bozer spit out water. He looked over his shoulder. The panther literally was looking at him and licking her lips. Bozer did a desperate dog paddle through the brisk current to the other side of the small river. He looked over his shoulder and didn't realize how close to the stones on the other side he was until a hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Bozer shrieked and whirled. A smiling Jack Dalton was reaching out a hand. Bozer glared up at him. And refused to come closer. Jack shook his head.
"C'mon, man." Jack said. Bozer shook his head.
"How do I know you won't psych me out and throw me over the waterfall?" Jack's eyebrows rose.
"Really dude? Why would I do that?"
"I don't know, Jack, you seem to have a very deep need to make my life hell and get me killed! You left me to wander out in the wilderness alone, no food, no water, and damn panthers…"
"Bozer, I had you in sight the whole time, I wouldn't have let anything happen to you, Mac would kill me." Jack said calmly.
"You didn't save me from Mama kitty over there!" Jack rolled his eyes.
"I didn't have time, you saved yourself. It was actually pretty badass." Jack said. Bozer found himself smiling.
"Really?"
"Hell yeah!" Bozer glanced back over at the family of panthers. The kits were walking away, the mom was watching over them with a very nasty, very hungry glare at Bozer. Bozer's eyes widened. He turned around and reached up to take Jack's hand.
"Jack, get me the hell out of here, she's looking at me like a porkchop!" Jack chuckled as he hauled Bozer to dry land. Bozer knelt on all fours breathing heavy. He looked down at the stone and frowned. What looked like huge soggy snowflakes were falling all around him. He looked up at Jack who was helping take off his wet sleeping bag. He studied it and whistled. He turned it. Bozer paled. Across the back of the vinyl was a very clear, very deep series of tears, from a big cats claws.
"I don't feel so good." Bozer said. He started to feel dizzy. Jack knelt and put his arm on Bozer's shoulder.
"Just breathe, Bud. Deep breaths...that's it…"
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Matty sat at her desk filing a month's worth of reports. She had several teams in the field but without Mac and his team things were so much quieter. Matty wasn't sure if that was because they always got the hardest assignments or because they were just high maintenance in general. She took a sip of tea from her thermos. Matty did admit that she was closer to Mac's team than the other teams. They were the only ones who got to call her Matty. Matty considered them friends, she smiled, even Jack-although she would never him that. He has enough problems with a swelled head.
Matty looked up at a tentative knock on the open door. She saw one of her operations coordinators. They were the ones that got the teams to where they needed to be with what they needed to complete their mission. This was a tall, gangly man recruited his senior year at Northwest. Not the smartest cookie, but brilliant at organization.
"Yes?" Matty asked. He pushed thick black glasses higher on his nose.
"Ma'am we have a phone call from MacGyver coming in." Matty looked at her phone it hadn't rung and no messages were left. She frowned.
"It came in through the public Think Tank line. And there was no call or counter sign." Matty felt her stomach drop. Mac calling on his vacation? On an unsecure line without proving his ID? No way this was a good thing. Matty lifted her nonsecure landline. The kid stood staring at her wide eyed. She raised an eyebrow, he nodded, pivoted and dashed down the hallway. Matty rolled her eyes and connected the call. In her best impression of a secretary she answered pleasantly,
"The Phoenix Foundation." She was surprised to hear the hesitant voice of a little girl on the other end.
"I'm calling about MacGyver." The girl said softly. Matty frowned.
"Who are you, honey?"
"I'm Valerie Lawson." Matty sat up straight.
"Why didn't Mac call me?" She asked with trepidation.
"I don't know." The girl's voice wavered, but she wasn't crying. Tough cookie, Matty thought. "There was a fire drill, we went outside when we came back in Riley and Mac were gone. We checked everywhere. I found his phone and saw the think tank number and called. I'm really worried." Matty took a deep breath.
"Ok, I'll take care of it. Is your father with you?"
"Yes, he's out checking the nearby restaurants just to make sure."
"Ok, you stay with him at the hotel and I'll have Jack and Bozer meet you, you remember them?"
"Yes, thank you."
"OK, if you need anything else or hear anything call me back at the same number and ask for Matty."
"Ok." Matty sat back. She could not come up with any good reason for Mac and Riley to be gone without his phone. She leaned forward and hit Riley's speed dial. It went to voice mail three times. Matty dialed the cabin's emergency number near where Bozer and Jack were training. Nothing. Matty stood up and went into the war room to track down her agents.
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Riley parked the bike and crept closer to the airfield. A thick wall of grasses as high as her shoulders hid her from sight. She crept closer and found a curled up opening in the fence. She pushed her back pack through then crept through following it. She winced as her hair caught on a sharp edge of the cut fence.
The airfield was in surprisingly good shape for its abandoned status. Evidently no one other than the CEF came out here. She pulled a small pair of fold up binoculars out of her bag. She could see the nose of a silver shiny plane. Since there were no other planes that had to be it. She didn't see any signs of the limo. Riley pushed herself to a low crouch and sprinted forward. She didn't see anyone in the hangar. She actually reached the rear wheel of the plane before two people came into the hangar. Crouched low she couldn't see their faces, but one was in a white captain's uniform and the other was a woman wearing blue pantsuit. Riley perked up her ears, they were arguing, or venting.
"That idiot wants us to fly right over that damned forest fire." The captain said.
"Can we do that?" The woman asked.
"We can fly around it, the heat and smoke...it's insane." They were interrupted by a phone ringtone. "Yes sir." Riley smiled from disgruntled employee to ass kisser in under twenty seconds. The smile vanished. Henry Travers must be something to inspire this fear. She put her fear aside and listened.
"Yes sir, we will be ready for lift off in fifteen minutes. Yes sir. Very good sir...I gotta go get preflight done, the boss will be here any minute."
"Wonderful." The woman said. The Captain moved over to the wall of the hangar which had several clipboards thick with paper fluttering in the breeze. The woman went up the short gang plank into the plane. It was now or never. Riley dashed toward the plane keeping an eye on the Captain who was bent over a clip board. She ran up the gang plank then stopped just inside the door. The cabin was big and ornate. Everything looked to be red leather and gold, probably actually brass-Riley amended. The woman was in the main cabin setting out a bottle of wine and several trays of snacks. Riley felt her mouth water, but shoved her hunger aside.
She looked across the aisle. Across from her was a tiny foot wide door. At the rear of the cabin was the door to the main bathroom. As big as Derick, Thing #1 and #2 where they would have to use that one. The tiny one Riley saw could only be for the crew. One last glance at the woman then Riley scooted across the red carpeted aisle and slid open the folding door. She slid in, pulling in her bag last. She shut the door and had to sit on the toilet as there wasn't any other space available.
Riley felt nauseous. The chemicals were strong and she couldn't put on the light to the tiny room. She was worried it would be indicated somewhere, the only light she had was the tiny crack at the bottom of the door and along the side of the door. She closed her eyes and dug through her pockets and bags turning off all of the notification alarms and ringers. She held onto her cell phone. She opened the flip door just enough to stick her hand out and pointed her camera at the main cabin. She could just make out a long couch with a swivel chair and two recliners across from it. Voices and steps were coming up the gangplank. Riley ducked back. Through the crack she could see Derek and the Thing brothers awkwardly carry Mac across the cabin. Riley bit her lip to keep from making a sound.
Mac looked terrible, and she had never seen that much blood outside of a living body before. They had taped a wad of towels to his side, but they were leaking through. Riley stuck out her phone. She hit record. They laid out the towels then dumped Mac on them with his bloody side up. Mac groaned and Riley could see a slight flash of blue eyes before they slid shut again and he was out. Riley ducked back and shut the door. She tapped in a quick message and sent the short movie, info about the CEF and info about where she thought they were going to Matty and Jack, she paused then shrugged, and sent it to Bozer too. She sat back and closed her eyes trying to ignore the cramped claustrophobic. She thought about leaving her phone lit, but suspected this was going to be a long, long ride. She needed to conserve its energy.
She heard the thud of the gangplank being pulled up, the engines whine louder than the rocking motion of take off. She was thrown against the side of the small space. She held her breath. The distant hum of conversation didn't die down so she leaned back and let out a long sigh. She frowned and held her head in her hands. She felt sick. Riley just thought about Mac bleeding out less than twenty feet from her and shook her head. Time to suck it up buttercup! As Matty normally would say. She felt the phone vibrate and looked at it with relief. It was a message from Matty. She went to open it, but it disappeared. The screen said that they were out of range for service. Riley frowned. She was on her own.