edited... many thanx to MacBeth!

The Rainmakers, ch 9
Dressing for Danger 101

Mac’s Voice-Over:
And now for a lesson from Professor MacGyver in Dressing for Danger 101: Start out with a long-sleeved shirt of a light but strong material, preferably cotton, and a pair of sturdy pants. I like the cargo pockets…gives me lots of places to put useful things that a guy might need. Add a flannel over-shirt—I’ve lived in California for several years now, but I still haven’t shaken the habit of layering… blame it on Minnesota!

Let’s see… I’ll need a good pair of shoes… no telling what I’m going to have to walk through or climb over. And a jacket—it’ll be warm enough in New Mexico, but I can expect a drafty ride in some military helicopter before I get there.

Now the pockets: let’s take some matches… duct tape in the back pocket—you never know when that will be useful—oh, and don’t forget the trusty old Swiss Army pocket knife. Now I feel ready for anything!

Time is of the essence, but it only takes one more moment to look around for something else that might be useful. I spot my game bag hanging on the closet doorknob, so I grab it up and sling it over my shoulder. Something heavy bumps into my spine as I dash up the stairs, and I realize that my binoculars are still in there from my last mission… but that’s okay; no time to unpack them now; there are people who need help and Gant is waiting in the ‘copter.

Ed Gantner was indeed waiting, anxiously shifting from one foot to the other in the shadow of the Space Monument. His wristwatch told him that MacGyver had only been inside for ten minutes, but it seemed more like an hour, and when he did appear—walking swiftly across the springy lawn in front of the Observatory—it seemed as if his every move was in slow motion.

Gantner was trying to resist the urge to pace. He was trained to handle emergencies like this, but the incidents at the KIVA were pushing to the limit his ability to remain detached; a multimillion dollar lab facility chock-full of government research projects damaged or destroyed… an unknown number of lives lost… TWO Nobel Prize-nominated scientists missing and possibly dead—one of them a visitor to the US for whose safety Gantner was personally responsible – it was all adding up to make Ed Gantner one very unhappy and nervous person.

But it wasn’t really his career that Gantner was worried about now; it was MacGyver that concerned him the most. He had just been ordered to ask a friend to dive into the middle of all this… and he knew MacGyver well enough to know that he would try to help no matter how the odds were stacked against him.

Gantner had known MacGyver for a few years; they had met during a joint mission between the State Department and the DXS, not long after Mac had been recruited. Gantner had expected MacGyver to just get in the way, like any other raw recruit. But MacGyver wound up saving the day—and Gantner had wound up owing him his life.

He hated to put MacGyver in this kind of danger; it seemed a poor way to repay the debt that he felt existed between them—but his superiors had ordered him to enlist Mac’s help. During the brainstorming at the State Department, with everyone trying to figure out how to save the scientists’ lives-not to mention the research that had const so many millions of taxpayer dollars—General So-and-So from the Pentagon had said something about MacGyver’s work in Asia, and that had convinced everyone that he was the only man who could possibly help.

But MacGyver was more than an agent or an operative to Ed Gantner… he was a friend.

MacGyver seemed to read something of Gantner’s concern in his expression; he slapped him on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. "Come on, Gant! Let’s do this thing!" He sounded as jaunty and cheerful as if he was on his way to a hockey scrimmage.

"Mac, are you sure you want to…?" but MacGyver was already climbing into the chopper, shouting a greeting to the pilots over the sound of the idling rotors, a look of boyish excitement lighting his face. Gantner followed him numbly.

The helicopter lifted and turned, cutting the air like an arrow toward a nearby private airstrip.

⌂

The flight was over in a matter of minutes and when they landed, there was a young officer waiting beside the landing pad. She saluted the two men sharply and handed a shipping tube to Gantner, then pointed to a Cessna corporate jet that was waiting on the tarmac.

“General Hawkins’ compliments, gentlemen! Our pilot has orders to bring you to Holloman AFB, where you will be taken by transport helicopter to the site. Those are the documents which you requested, sir.” She hustled both men toward the plane.

“Thank you.” Gantner passed the tube to MacGyver, “You might find these useful, Mac.”

MacGyver looked at the ‘Top Secret: Eyes Only’ seal on the tube and said, “Good thinking, Gant… good to have Friends in High Places!”

Gantner frowned. “It’s the least we can do… considering what you’re about to risk…”

MacGyver seemed not to hear the pessimism in Gantner’s voice. As soon as they were aboard the jet, he settled into a seat next to a sturdy table. Ignoring both the opulence of the décor and the fully-stocked wet bar, he buckled himself in and unrolled the blueprints and schematic graphs of the KIVA Laboratory.

Once the jet was airborne, Gantner got up and went to the bar. He poured two glasses of iced ginger ale, resisting an urge to lace his own with something stronger. He set one of the glasses beside Mac, and then spent half an hour watching the ice melt as his friend pored over the graphs and made notes in the margins with a pencil.

“Exactly what kinds of research do they do at this place?” MacGyver asked suddenly, startling Gantner out of an unscheduled doze.

Gantner blinked guiltily; he hadn’t meant to sleep. “I-I can’t tell you, Mac.”

Mac raised an eyebrow and frowned. “Can’t… or won’t?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Gantner said. “It’s top-top secret stuff. All I can say for sure is that the Army and the Air Force both have close ties with this facility, as well as the British Foundation for Energy Research. That’s where Sidney Marlow works. And he is the reason that I was able to get these graphs… you wouldn’t believe the kind of strings I had to pull!” Gantner shook his head.

“Yes I would,” MacGyver said wryly. “They don’t happen to be serving lunch on this flight, are they?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“Sorry, Mac! There’s only the bar… no food. I might be able to find some peanuts or something…”

“Never mind… this’ll have to do,” Mac said, and he drank down the ginger ale. He dried his hands carefully before he continued to handle the papers.

⌂

Pete sighed as he lit another cigarette; it was easy to forget that he had quit smoking—especially under the stressful conditions of the ruined KIVA. He began to reread all the data that he’d received, trying to make heads or tails of the confused tangle of code that the limping computers were finally coughing out. He was interrupted when Burke appeared in the doorway, looking more harassed than ever.

Before Pete could even formulate a question, Burke said, “Bad news, Colsen. They had to stop drilling.”

“Why? There could be survivors that we haven’t contacted! Steubens and Marlow are still…”

“They hit acid,” Burke said bitterly, kicking the bottom of a cabinet lightly to vent his frustration; an unusual demonstration of temper for Burke. “Hydrochloric acid… probably the explosion ruptured the big tank we have down on Three…” Burke stopped speaking and closed his eyes. Pete recognized that he was trying to get his emotions in check; he waited patiently for Burke to continue.

After a moment, Burke spoke again as if he had not paused. “If the acid is leaking out, then we have to make getting control of that our top priority. I don’t want to abandon the people who are trapped below… but we have to be realistic and consider that acid as a potential risk for the environmental health of the area… hundreds of people may be harmed.”

Pete wasn’t sure what to say; this was grim news indeed. Burke spared him the need to compose a statement by saying firmly, “Andy, I need you to stay on top of things in here. We’ve got to do everything to try to get Marlow and Steubens out.”

“How?” Pete asked, unable to keep the sound of his own frustration out of his voice.

“The State Department has found some lunatic who has volunteered to try to get into the lower levels and effect a rescue attempt, and they are flying him in now. I want you to find a way to get him inside. Go over every detail of the schematics! You’ll have to know every vent, access tunnel, air shaft, nook, cranny, and rat hole in this complex--whoever this screwball is, he’s going to need every ounce of help we can provide!

"I’ve got to go supervise the removal of the KIVA’s central processing data before we loose it all… and try to get Marlow back on the intercom.”

“What about the acid?” Pete asked.

Burke shook his head. “The Army’s working on that question… and I’m sure we’re not going to like the answer.”

~~~Link to Chapter 10