Five miles away, Phil grinned as he hung up. It had been easy posing as an FBI agent… easier than he had expected. It wouldn’t take long for MacGyver and Thornton to figure out something was fishy, and come rushing to Stacey’s aid. And now, MacGyver at least would be walking right into a trap. As for Stacey, well, she was already in the trap: she was the bait. With their informant in position, the rest of this should be easy. Both Stacey and MacGyver would die soon, and if they were lucky, they would take Thornton out at the same time. Three for three…how nice. Actually, Phil thought as his grin widened, make that four for four. MacGyver, Thornton, Stacey… and the Phoenix Foundation.

Later, Stacey would look back at the incident like a horrible nightmare, except she knew it was real. She and Judy were sitting inside, sharing a bowl of popcorn and watching the end of Kiss of Death, on a quiet Monday morning. They had both woken up early, and unable to go back to sleep, had put in the movie. Nothing was really happening; it was Martin Luther King Day. The last two days had been tense, but nothing else had happened since the phone calls on Saturday.
“Wow, but that was good.” Judy stood up and took the empty popcorn bowl over to the sink, as the credits rolled. “David Caruso, Nicholas Cage, Helen Hunt, and Samuel L. Jackson. What a great cast. Of course, I was mostly watching Caruso. He is damn hot.”
“No kidding. I’ve been a Caruso fan for awhile, myself. I loved him on ‘NYPD Blue.’ And of course, I like Nicholas Cage. He plays one heck of a bad guy.”
“Yeah, Cage’s characters are always a little whacked in the head, and he’s…” The phone rang. Judy picked it up. “Phoenix Foundation.” Her face went white, and she hurriedly hung up.
“Stacey, I want you to head for the saferoom, now. One of us will be along as soon as we can.”
“What’s wrong?” Stacey felt her pulse quicken, and her stomach started to churn.
“We’ll explain as soon as we join you. Go,” commanded Judy as she dialed Pete Thornton’s number.
Stacey made her way to the wall where the saferoom door was. She ran her fingers over it to find the catch, and pressed. The door swung out from the wall, and she flipped the switch for the emergency lighting. Stepping inside, she pulled the door shut behind her, and headed down the stairs.
Suddenly, light flooded the passageway. Stacey felt something hard come down on her head, and the lights went out.

Up above, Carl stood with his friend, Nick. Nick had been the inside guy on this project. He was incredibly smooth… he had managed to kill Jeff Backstrom on his way to his first day of work a week earlier, taken on his identity, and had been feeding the militia inside information ever since. Now, they stood together over the still bodies of Stacey and Judy.
“You want me to take care of Stacey?” asked Nick.
“Sure. You know where to take her. I’ll stay here and wait for MacGyver. As soon as he shows up, I’ll bring him along too, and then it’ll just be a matter of time before Thornton comes along, too. Three easy catches, Nick. The Commander will be proud.”
“Actually, Thornton is just where we want him. You sure you want to go through the hassle of luring him out here, and then dragging him all the way back? He’s a bit of a handful, you know.”
“True. Well, we’ve got a team headed for the Foundation as we speak, anyway. Maybe we’ll get lucky and only MacGyver will take the bait.”
“And what about the blond bitch? She’s not a target. Maybe we should dump her somewhere.” Nick looked a bit nervous.
“She’s security, you idiot. If she comes to, and…” Carl stopped. “Oh, I get it. Dump her. Yeah, good idea.” He pulled out his pistol, but Nick stopped him.
“No, not here!”
“Why not? It’s as good a place as any, and it’ll send a message. We already took care of the rest of them.”
Indeed, the other three members of the on-duty security team had been shot and left for dead.
Before the two could argue any more, the sound of sirens broke the silence.
“Let’s get out of here. Leave her. We can deal with her later. Right now, we’ve got to get Stacey back to the Foundation, before anyone else shows up.”
“What about MacGyver, though?”
“He’s almost sure to come after Stacey. That won’t be too hard. And for all we know, he may still be at the Foundation. If not, he’ll just be led right back there. It’s kind of a waste of time, but it’s worth it, so we can do to Stacey what we want.”

Nearby, Judy lay bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest. She had been running outside to stop the intruders when she had been hit. She was still conscious, and had heard everything. She listened as the two men got in their car and sped off, spurting gravel. Less than thirty seconds later, two police cars pulled up.
MacGyver leaped out of one of the cars and ran to Judy.
“Judy!” He knelt beside her. “Judy, can you hear me?”
She opened her violet eyes and looked up at him. “Mac. They’ve got Stacey. The others were shot, too. Inside. Don’t know if they’re…” Her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s all right, Judy. We’ll get all of you to the hospital. Did you hear them say anything about where they may have taken Stacey?”
Judy frowned. “Something about… ‘fish run.’ That’s all I heard.”
Mac’s dark eyes widened. “The abandoned fish hatchery on Old Steelhead Road. That’s got to be it.” He turned to the police officers, as the paramedics pulled up, lights flashing. “I think I have an idea where Stacey’s been taken. Tell Pete Thornton I’ll call him later.”
“MacGyver.”
“What is it, Judy?”
“It’s Jeff…he’s…” Her voice faded away.
“It’s OK, Judy. We’ll have time to talk about it later.”
Little did MacGyver know that the mention of the fish hatchery had been a diversion, deliberately dropped by Carl for Judy to overhear. The fish hatchery was out of town, nearly ten miles from the Phoenix Foundation. If Mac was kept on a wild goose chase out to the hatchery, he would be out of the way when it came time for Stacey and Pete to die… and a trap had been set up for him, as well. The fish hatchery was dangerous, rife with pieces of old equipment to trip over, and there was a hidden cave there, as well. It was easy to fall into the cave and kill yourself, unless you knew exactly where it was, and Mac was barely familiar with the area at all. If he fell victim to the cave, it would be almost the perfect murder, made to look like an innocent accident. Many people, mostly adventurous kids, had died out at the fish hatchery cave over the years. If MacGyver hadn’t been so determined to find Stacey, he might have realized this, but he was blinded by his deep concern for the young woman.

Meantime, Stacey was waking up. Her head was aching again, and her elbow hurt, too. Oh, God. Not again. It was dark, and she was moving, fast. She realized she was in a car trunk.
Her hands and feet were bound with duct tape, but there was no gag around her mouth. Surprising. Well, they must know that no one would hear me anyway.
All right, Stacey. Think. There’s got to be a way out of this. But as hard as she racked her brains, she couldn’t see an escape.
“In any situation, your most valuable tool isn’t your Swiss Army knife or your duct tape. It’s your wits. Always keep them about you.” MacGyver’s voice rang in her head, surprising her. That had been one of the last things he had told her the last time she had seen him. Smart guy, and very good advice. But I can’t see a way! Help, Mac!
In a last-ditch attempt, she started feeling around the trunk. Her hands, sensitive from loading guns, often in the dark, landed on a bag. She found that it was opened, held closed only by a twist-tie. Thrusting her hand inside, she felt something rough, and pulling out a handful, sniffed. Rock salt. Baffled for a moment, she realized that she was probably in the trunk of a car belonging to a WAPLA member, and that they had likely forgotten that this bag of salt was in here.
Stacey started to get the glimmer of an idea. Maybe she couldn’t get out of this one, but she could leave some clues for MacGyver. She just hoped he had figured out what was going on, and that he was coming.

Mac had an odd feeling as he sped down the country road that led to the old fish hatchery. Something wasn’t right here, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
He stopped the car, and climbed out. The area was quiet, and under a cloudy sky, the light was bad. He wasn’t sure he wanted to wander around this area in these conditions. Mac knew there was a hidden cave somewhere here, and had heard the news reports over the years about kids being killed when they had fallen inside.
Taking a few steps away from the car, he called Stacey’s name. There was no answer. He pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Pete’s number.
“Thornton.”
“It’s me, Pete. I’m out at the fish hatchery, and I don’t see any sign of Stacey. It looks like it’s about to rain; the light’s really bad, and I don’t want to wander around an area I barely know.”
He heard his friend sigh. “OK, Mac, why don’t you…” Suddenly, there were sounds of a struggle on the other end. “Pete? Pete! What’s going on there?”
The phone was picked up. “Your friend’s going to die, MacGyver, within six hours. The little bitch, too. And you can kiss the Phoenix Foundation goodbye.” Click. The line was dead.
Mac leaped into his truck and sped back towards town.

At the Phoenix Foundation, Pete and Stacey were being marched towards the basement at gunpoint. Stacey was conscious, but dizzy, and Pete was doing his best to support her as they moved quickly down the stairs. Both of them had already fallen numerous times. Pete had twisted his ankle, and Stacey’s injuries were flaring up. But Stacey’s hands, unbeknownst to their captors, were full of rock salt, and she was dropping it on the floor, a few crystals at a time, as they moved forward.
“Move!” The man who had hold of Stacey pushed her forward. “Move, Stacey, you little traitor.”
“Phil, what the hell are you…? How did you find me?” The young woman looked over her shoulder at him. Frantically, she was trying to keep him occupied, so he wouldn’t notice the sound of the rock salt falling on the floor. I sure hope Mac carries a flashlight on him!
Phil smirked. “It wasn’t hard. Carl and Ed figured out where MacGyver’s houseboat was, and we’ve had a spy on the inside of the Foundation for months. Nick has been quite helpful, indeed.”
“Who?” Pete was baffled. “I don’t believe it. How did you get him past our screening process?”
“We didn’t have to, Thornton. He took out Jeff Backstrom on his way to his first day of work, and has been posing as Jeff ever since. Clever, or what?” He laughed nastily.
“Stacey, are you…?” Pete looked at her.
“No, Pete! I was telling you the truth, all along! You have to believe me!” Stacey nearly panicked at the thought of Pete thinking she was a spy, too. He and MacGyver had been so good to her, and she couldn’t bear the thought of them suspecting her.
“She is telling the truth, Thornton. She ran from us, back in October, and stole some of our most secret documents and a tape that we had made, for historical purposes. As soon as we found her missing, and the documents and tape, a death warrant was issued for her.”
“A death warrant? You people are sick, you know that?”
“On the contrary, Thornton. We are the sane ones, the only ones who know the truth about the Jewish conspiracy. You, and MacGyver, and all the other people here, are the sick, blind ones. We are going to save this country, so it can be what God meant it to be: a white haven, free of Jews, mud people, towelheads, and other demons.” He grinned. “And we’re not going to stop with America. Once we’ve taken over here, we’ll move on and make the entire world white and Christian.”
“You’re no Christian, Phil! You’re the devil you claim to be fighting,” Stacey spat at him.
He slapped her, and Pete cringed at the sound. “You little bitch! You’ve been brainwashed, just like most white people. We tried to save you, you know that?”
Pete stared at him. “Save her? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Save her from the coming race war, Thornton. We set up her parents to die. Her mother died because of a well-planted car bomb, and we took out her uncle, too, just to be safe. Her father died of ricin poisoning. It’s an old Soviet regime trick. Nearly impossible to detect, unless the toxicologist knows what to look for. But just to be safe, we stole her father’s death certificate from the county courthouse in Minneapolis. And we changed the times of death on her mother’s and uncle’s death certificates just for fun, and to throw off any investigators.”
“But…but why?” Stacey’s eyes filled with tears. “Why me?”
“Look at you. You’re the perfect Aryan specimen. Blond, green-eyed, gorgeous, if I may say so. We tried to recruit you, you know. But you and your parents were just too blind to see what we were trying to do for you. Your parents were a threat to us, anyway. They were on our hit list, and would have died, sooner or later.”
“What do you mean, you tried to recruit me? I don’t remember anyone saying anything to me about you animals.”
“Ah, Stacey. What a short memory you have. Don’t you remember those kids down the street who tried to interest you in White Power music? Maybe not. That was quite awhile ago.”
Faintly, Stacey did recall it. Nearly three years before, a family had moved in down the street, with two boys about her own age. They had played some White Power rock for her, but she had been disgusted by it, and told them she wanted nothing more to do with either of them.
“They found you, Stacey,” Phil was saying. “The older one…I forget his name now…was in love with you, and wanted to save you from the coming race war. He had contacts with us, and told us about you. He disappeared awhile ago; we don’t know what happened to him. But we found you, and were watching you for quite some time. As soon as we figured out what your mom did for a living, and what your dad was involved in for his pastime, well, we had to do what we did.
“Then,” he went on, “we arranged through a friend of ours who we had planted in the child welfare department to have your stepparents adopt you. We were planning to get you sucked in, little by little, and indoctrinate you. But,” he added with a disgusted look, “they got carried away breaking you down, and you were too stupid to see the light. You still are. And now that you’ve gone off and betrayed us, we don’t have a choice. You know what happens to traitors, Stacey.” He shook his head, sadly. “I’m sorry, kid. I really do like you, you know. You could have been one hell of a warrior, and saved your own life, if you hadn’t been so thickheaded.”
Pete was speechless. The only thing he could think now was I sure hope Mac gets here soon.
Phil laughed again. “We sent MacGyver on a nice wild goose chase, out to the old fish hatchery. He may get back here, he may not. For all we know, he’s fallen into that cave and broken his neck. If not, he’s walking right into this trap.” Pete shivered. Be careful, Mac! Please, please be careful. You don’t know what you’re walking into.
Stacey spoke again. “Why are you dragging MacGyver and Pete into this, Phil? This is between me and the militia.”
Phil shook his head. “I didn’t drag them into it, Stacey, you did. You dragged them into it when you went up on MacGyver’s houseboat. Not that it matters. They would have died, anyway.”