Author's Note: I named Mac's Little Brother 'Reggie', because at the end of the show when they are playing basketball, that is what he calls himself--whether that is his real name or one of the members of his favourite basketball team, I don't know, but it's his name NOW.
Complaints may be written down in Swahili and mailed to a concerned bystander if I can find one. 
The Rainmakers
Chapter Three: Puzzles and Clues Mac's Voice-Over:Something is bugging me. I’m sitting here in the back of this plane, rattling around with the buckles and cargo harnesses, hoping that I get home in time to pick up my Little Brother Reggie, and I just can’t stop thinking…
I'm a Big Brother to a really great kid named Reggie, and I had made arrangements for him to come up to my place for a very special occasion that normally I'd really be looking forward to…but now I'm having a hard time concentrating. You know the feeling—you can’t get your mind flowing in the direction you want it to go and you start missing details pertaining to the things going on around you as you start remembering the things that you should have noticed before. It was like my brain couldn’t catch up with me.
That computer guidance system that the Pentagon was so eager for me to recover—eager to the degree that they’d left out the part about the pilot being held captive… and don’t tell me they didn’t know, ‘cause satellite photos aren’t that selective! If they could tell me about how many Merry Mongols I could expect and where the missile would be (more or less) they could’ve mentioned something about Taylor !
The more I think about that—the angrier I get.
Anyway, that isn’t exactly what’s eating me now. That guidance system had been special—top secret—and the missile it was in had been modified to carry an experimental package (with a charming self-destruction option!) instead of the usual ordnance. That in itself isn’t uncommon, but the configuration for the dispersal—there had been something wrong with that. So wrong that the thing nearly went off in my face! I’d had to jury-rig a connection… and if you think my brief but well-spent life didn’t flash before my eyes as those last fourteen seconds counted down, you’d be wrong!
Oh, yeah, that reminds me—I need to send a ‘Thank You’ note to that paper clip company.
I should have asked about these things when I was talking to the boys at the Pentagon... but asking questions around that place was a little bit like rowing a boat with a pitchfork; no matter how much effort you put into it, you’re not gonna get anywhere.
So I'm sitting here, rattling and wondering as the plane slowly decelerates toward the landing strip and we are getting buffeted by the hot Red Winds coming out of the desert, and I keep turning this problem over and over in my mind like one of those crazy puzzles with all the colored squares.
I’ve got a little time before I need to pick up Reggie, so I plan to grab a cab as soon as I’m on the ground and go to the one place where I can find some answers: DXS Headquarters, Los Angeles.
I know my buddy Pete won’t let me down. ⌂
MacGyver couldn't believe his ears. “Did you say that Pete’s not here?”
Disappointment was so evident in MacGyver’s manner that Helen felt a pang of sympathy for the young man. “I’m sorry…” she glanced toward the Deputy Director’s office and then back toward Mac.
She didn’t say anything else; Helen was scrupulous about not gossiping and especially about not leaking information, so she couldn’t tell MacGyver where his friend was or when he’d be back; only the Deputy Director could do that, and he would
only do that if he felt that MacGyver had a 'need to know’. Colonel Barnard was a fair but serious man and Helen knew that he wouldn’t regard a simple friendship as ‘need to know’.
As MacGyver turned to march into the Deputy Director's office and ask questions that he would probably not get answers for, Helen suddenly remembered Pete's last words to her.
“Wait! Mr. Thornton did leave you a message...” She leaned down and retrieved something from beneath her desk. “I didn’t understand at the time, but he said that I was to give you this when you came in.”
MacGyver accepted the umbrella from her. He examined it all over, opening and closing it, but found no note or any other thing which resembled a message. MacGyver decided that the umbrella itself must be the message… but meaning what?
Helen watched him frowning at the thing, thinking hard. “Maybe he thought it was going to rain?” she suggested, trying to be helpful.
“In Los Angeles during the Santa Anas? I doubt it... but thanks anyway, Helen." He glanced at his watch and groaned slightly when he saw that he was going to be late. "Sheesh! I gotta go. ”
Backpedaling out of the room, Mac gave Helen a parting smile that she felt on her face like sunlight. She sighed as she returned to her work.
Field agents just get younger and better-looking every day...⌂
Pete was grateful that he'd had so much time to prepare for this assignment. Everything he had learned on the long drive through the New Mexico desert was serving him well; memorizing the layout of the Kiva Laboratory had helped support his cover immensely, and now he was managing to direct safety inspections while he carried out his own covert investigation of the accident.
He knew that Burke wasn't going to cause any trouble for him because on his second day on the job, he had been handed a promotion to temporary Director of Operations and Syndrex Corporation had been handed their scapegoat, in the form of the former Director of Operations, who was asked to hand in his badge and his access card and was escorted from the premises.
Pete didn't feel good about that decision—and Burke was livid—but now more than ever someone was needed in that position... someone who could help the Kiva get back on its feet. To Burke, ‘Andy Colsen’ had proven in just one day that he was efficient and trustworthy; Burke didn’t hesitate to hand him a keycard with full security clearances.
That had made all the facets of Pete's job easier!
Pete lit a cigarette and let it smoke in his fingers, puffing on it just enough to make it look good. The thing tasted awful—he must have had that pack sitting in the bottom of his drawer for months—they were dry and stale. Still, a well-used prop was worth a thousand profiles, as his old DXS mentor used to say. He knocked ash into the small glass tray on his desk and busied himself reading what files had not been destroyed regarding Dr. Steuben's research.
~~~
Link to Chapter 4
Everyone, sometimes, needs a camel.
Old troubleshooters never die...
They just wait til the last moment and then rescue themselves!
Smart aleck! 
