(Now New and Improved!)The Rainmakers
Ch 17, Chocolate From the control room a door led to an access chamber. Part of the ceiling had collapsed in front of it since Barbara and Dobbins had passed through, but it was nothing very heavy – just some ceiling tiles and a bit of dirt. MacGyver shifted the mess out of the way, and this time Barbara said nothing when he popped open the locked door. She did make a mental note to herself to make sure that deadbolts were installed in the next lab she worked in. Working with this man certainly had become an eye-opener as far as testing security measures.
Inside, there was round opening in the center of the floor, out of which a ladder protruded, suspended by sturdy cables.
MacGyver leaned over the opening and looked down. He sighed. “God, I hate heights.”
Barbara closed her eyes.
This was the man who had been sent to rescue her? This was who she was relying on for help in reaching Dr. Steubens? Her sigh echoed his.
But the man didn’t hesitate; he shifted his bag around to his back and started briskly down the ladder, his hands and feet sure and swift on the metal rungs. The ladder shook very slightly under his weight. Barbara followed.
After they had descended a few yards, Barbara finally spoke again; she had just realized that she was risking her life with someone she knew absolutely nothing about. “I know this is a stupid time to ask… but have you got a name?”
MacGyver raised his head just enough to see her feet as he answered her, “MacGyver.”
Barbara noticed that he did not look at her – though this would be an opportune moment for a guy to get a free shot up a lady’s dress. Obviously, this was no
ordinary guy. She half-chuckled as she said, “MacGyver. That’s a good name.”
MacGyver grinned as he climbed, in spite of the dizziness he felt when he peered into the gloomy depths.
Maybe the frost is melting a little, he thought. He knew he’s still have to go easy with Spencer – the dangers ahead were harder to face knowing that her safety would be at risk, too, if he made too many mistakes – but he felt lucky have such an intelligent and spirited companion.
The shaft grew darker the farther they climbed. By the time his foot reached the solid surface of the floor, MacGyver couldn’t have looked up Barbara’s skirt if he had wanted to. He could barely see his own hands before his face. He stood aside so that Barbara could reach the floor.
“Kinda dark in here, isn’t it?” he said. His voice echoed within the chamber. Barbara heard him sniffing the air.
“It wasn’t like this when we went up – there were lights in here. I don’t suppose you have a flashlight in that bag of yours?”
“Nope. Stay here.” MacGyver walked slowly forward, sliding his feet and reaching forward with his hands until he blindly came to a wall. From there, he circled until he found a door. “Is the Third level laid out the same as the Second?”
“This isn’t the Third level,” Barbara said. She was still standing beside the ladder. “We’re on a sublevel that leads to the Third. We’ve still got quite a ways to go. In the dark,” she added dryly.
“Not for long,” MacGyver said. The door was locked, but luckily the mechanism was on his side – this time. He opened the door; dim light spilled into the room and banished the gloom into shades of grey and taupe.
Barbara sighed softly with relief. She felt the same way about the dark as MacGyver felt about heights although she wasn’t about to admit it. “This is the way Dobbson and I came,” she confirmed. MacGyver held the door open as she approached him, but before she went through he stopped her and went out first. When he determined was sure that there were no immediate threats, he stood aside and let her pass.
“It really isn’t necessary, you know,” she said tentatively – she really was trying not to sound like a snipe; “this chivalry business. We’re in a dangerous situation… you don’t need to hold open doors for me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” MacGyver said respectfully. He stood and waited for her to lead the way, his small smile barely visible in the sparse light. Barbara realized he wasn’t going to change his behavior at that moment; she shook her head a little and shrugged. However, when she moved to lead the way, he stepped in beside her instead of walking behind.
“Maybe you could help me out, Barbara,” MacGyver began, as they walked down a dim corridor only lightly strewn with debris, “since you were down here when all this happened. Can you tell me where you were, and what you were doing?”
Barbara took a moment to answer. MacGyver recognized the look on her face; he’d spent enough time on covert operations, working with classified information and the people who handle such things, to tell when someone was trying to decide what to say and what not to. He waited patiently for what answers she was willing to give.
“I was on my way back to the lab from the commissary when the first explosion hit.” MacGyver made a circling gesture with his finger, a subtle coaxing motion for more information. “I had left Dr. Marlow with Dr. Steubens in his lab.”
“What were they doing at the time of the explosion?” MacGyver asked.
“I—ah, assume that they were doing… what they were doing when I left the lab,” she hedged. She didn’t want to tell MacGyver what Steubens and Marlow were doing. Even though it hardly qualified as classified information—with all the work and stress that had been going on in the KIVA since the time that the research data had been lost, it now seemed petty and negligent to Barbara that Steubens had insisted on setting aside work for a game of chess—the words caught in her throat, and she was appalled with herself for judging such a brilliant man.
MacGyver stopped her with a touch on the arm. He looked at her pointedly, waiting for the answers that Barbara did not want to give. “I don’t see what that has to do—” she began hotly.
“I need information, Spencer.” MacGyver used her surname instead of her more familiar name, hoping the distance would put her back at her ease. “I’m flying blind down here, and I need to know what happened. The people up on the surface… Charlie Burke and Andy Colsen… they’re just guessing about what happened down here. I'm assuming that Marlow came here to assist Steubens in the research that they've been working on together. Can you tell me what facet of the Rainmaker Project they were experimenting with?”
Barbara gaped at him. How did he know about Rainmaker? “That information is classified... h-how did you know about that?”
“I’ve been briefed, of course.” MacGyver sighed. “Do you really think I'm just some yokel that they hired in off of the street? Spencer, I would have bet that you were smarter than that.” Barbara flushed and lowered her eyes. “Tell me what you know,” MacGyver added gently, “I’m trying to help.”
“Well,
they weren’t responsible!” she spat, wrenching her arm away from him with unnecessary force. “Dr. Steubens and Dr. Marlow... they were—they were playing chess—
not building bombs!”
MacGyver merely looked at her and said mildly, “Nobody’s suggested that they were.” Barbara held her stare for a moment. MacGyver did not back down, nor did he look away. “But the explosion
did originate in Steuben’s lab… didn’t it?”
Barbara said nothing. She just stared at him, cheeks tinged with fire.
“Take that as a ‘yes’,” MacGyver muttered softly.
Barbara maintained her blank expression, refusing to admit or deny anything. Eventually they began walking again. The damage and debris became gradually worse the farther they went along the corridor.
MacGyver waited for the flush to fade from Barbara’s face before he asked his next question. “Any idea what set the blasts off?”
“No.” She sounded a little calmer, but MacGyver thought he could hear a note of doubt in her voice that had not been there before. “It was so sudden I barely had time to make it past the electronics lab before that exploded too.”
“Huh. Steubens’ lab – bio lab – electronics – seems like all the explosions were somehow connected to the labs.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible. They’re all independent of each other.”
MacGyver gestured ahead; they were coming upon a set of double doors with lock-releases. “Is this where you came up?”
Barbara stepped briskly forward to push the door open. “Yeah, it’s the stairway to – ”
Mac lunged forward and caught her arm. “Heya, hold it, hold it – ”
There were wisps of smoke leaching between the doors; Barbara had not noticed it in the dim light, but MacGyver had been expecting something like this, and had been looking for exactly such a detail. He had smelled the acrid odor of something burning as soon as they had reached this level. Years of experience dealing with explosives and fire had taught him what to look for, and what to fear.
MacGyver gently but firmly set Barbara behind him as he cautiously investigated the doors. Kicking through a pile of dirt, he came up with a round wooden dowel that had been half-buried. He pulled it free of the rubbish and, reaching forward cautiously with the stick, he touched the end of it against the metal mounting block of the door handle.
The wood immediately began to smoke and hiss, and then it burst into flames with a
whoosh that made Barbara gasp and flinch back.
MacGyver held up the burning dowel and watched the flames gnawing at the wood. It burned with an eerie blueish-green flame, telling him that the fire was being fed by an odd mixture of chemicals. He hoped that whatever fumes or vapors that were being produced weren’t dangerous when inhaled; there was an unpleasant list of things that burned odorlessly and could quite easily kill them.
He debated again whether or not he should allow Barbara to continue to accompany him. He just didn’t know enough about what was coming to be comfortable with her along. On the other hand, they were making excellent time, and if the fumes were dangerous, they would know it by now… they’d already be dead. Also, MacGyver chided himself, he’d known Missouri mules that were less stubborn than Barbara Spencer; he doubted that he could make her leave if he wanted to.
So… onward. “Got another way down?”
Barbara was watching MacGyver’s weird torch with a grimace on her face. With a note of uncertainty in her voice, she suggested, “The ‘Gas Chamber’?”
“What’s that?” MacGyver turned and thrust the dowel back into the pile of dirt to smother the flames.
“It’s a nickname we have round here for a series of airlocks around a common lab that works with sensitive gasses. This way,” she half-turned and gestured.
As he followed her, the radio on MacGyver’s hip crackled, and Gantner’s voice sounded through the tiny speaker. “Uh, you got three hours and twenty-seven minutes left, Mac. How’s Spencer holding up?”
“She likes m’name,” MacGyver grinned. “What more could I ask for?”
Pete, listening in on their talk, reflected silently on a list of things he could imagine that MacGyver could ask for – from oxygen equipment to heavy machinery to some kind of miracle – things that he wished he could provide, but couldn’t even if Mac had asked. The deeper he went into the KIVA, the less Pete could do to help him.
Barbara had turned a corner ahead. As MacGyver followed her, he saw that the floor was strewn with what had once been the contents of a snack-vending machine. Candy bars in a variety of flavors were scattered everywhere. As if answering his own rhetorical question, MacGyver muttered, “Chocolate.”
Barbara turned back toward him; she had picked her way daintily through the mess and was waiting for him to catch up. “You want one of these?” he asked her.
“No thanks,” Barbara said flatly. She turned away to continue, her stomach flipping at the thought of food.
Squatting down, MacGyver studied the offering spread before him. After a moment he picked through the pile, gathering together a handful of bars with identical labels.
Barbara was disgusted. She turned to face him and crossed her arms. “How can you think about eating candy at a time like this, when the chances of us getting out of here alive – ”
Even MacGyver had a limit to his patience. “I
know what the odds are. But I thought we might be able to store up on a little energy before we pressed on.” He stood up, with a gentle, “Let’s go.” He peeled the wrapper off of one of the bars, letting it flutter from his fingers as he walked past the remains of the toppled candy machine. The rest of the bars he slipped into his game bag.
Mac's Voice-Over:I shouldn't be so hard on Barbara; I know she's scared. I'm just not sure she's scared for the right reasons.
I know that there's something a lot more challenging down here than digging out survivors... there's a big honking tank of acid somewhere spilling out into the ground... and damming that river of poison is pretty high on my to-do list. I think that she may have forgotten about that little detail...
It won't serve any good purpose to bring it up again, now. She's just thinking about finding Steubens... that's why she came along. I'll worry about the acid leak. I don't know what she can do to help me with that problem, anyway.
At least my stomach won't be growling at me anymore... but I do wish that the KIVA had stocked yogurt-covered raisins. Much healthier.
Barbara turned down a new passage. The floors were barely littered; this part of the underground complex seemed to have been mostly spared by the explosions. However, as they approached a series of framed doorways in a long corridor, she grew a puzzled look on her face and her step faltered. “Strange,” she admitted aloud.
“Wha’s that?” MacGyver mumbled through a bite of chocolate.
“The airlocks along the corridor are designed to close in any emergency –“
As if triggered by her words, a red light began to flash out a warning, accompanied by a hooting klaxon. The framed doorways began to close one after the other, all down the hallway.
“MacGyver! Hurry!” she shouted.
But even as Barbara began to run, MacGyver was beside her, seizing her hand and pulling her swiftly beside him through the segmenting doorways. They breezed through them all until they reached the last door; a massive, opaque thing of ribbed steel. It was almost closed.
MacGyver spun Barbara through the narrow opening and tried to slip in after her, but the edge of the heavy steel-framed glass door slammed shut just as he went through, clipping his forehead. He grunted with the impact but made it through, his momentum carrying him abruptly into a wall. He pressed his face against it for a moment, out of breath. Barbara was beside him, panting.
“Ow,” MacGyver announced, wiping his face to see if it was sweat trickling out of his hair, or blood. His head hurt where the door had struck him.
Barbara wandered from his side, her eyes wide with distress. She approached a viewing port overlooking the lab that the corridor bypassed. Her lips moved, but no sound escaped; tears welled up in her eyes.
She must have made some small sound; no more than a whimper, perhaps. MacGyver came up silently behind her and looked over her shoulder at the ghastly tableau.
The room below was drowned in several feet of opaque smoke. Four figures – perhaps more were hidden in the deadly fog – were slumped and sprawled on the floor.
The death toll of the KIVA was still climbing, and MacGyver and Barbara were both reminded abruptly that their efforts to reach Steuben’s lab might have no better results that what they could see in front of them.
~~~
Link to Chapter 18
Everyone, sometimes, needs a camel.
Old troubleshooters never die...
They just wait til the last moment and then rescue themselves!
(Not that I'm biased or anything.) 
Do i have to offer to clean your house as well to get your gears moving? (I already offered to do so to MacsChick 
) 
