This part was a long, hard slog after a busy week, but it has finally arrived for your reading pleasure!
Don’t Forget Part Five
Rated: PG
MacGyver entered the rink and watched from the sidelines as the team practiced, racing around on the ice. Russ was conspicuously absent.
“Hey Mac!” One of them shouted when he noticed him, skating over to see him.
The rest of the team followed soon afterward, surrounding MacGyver as if they were a gaggle of admiring schoolchildren gawking at their favorite sports hero in the flesh, showing how much they obviously revered him as a formidable and experienced opponent on the ice. Concern showed in their expressions as they stared at him and at the bandage on his forehead, remembering how gory his head wound had looked.
“It’s good to see you among the living again,” another one of them said, clasping his hand. “How are you doing? You had us all worried.”
“Yeah, we thought you were a goner.”
“It’s okay, boys. I’m all right,” MacGyver said, smiling. “I have a few stitches and I suffered from a concussion, but I’m getting back to my normal self.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Do you want to lace up and play a game with us?”
“I’d love to, but I’m actually here for another reason,” MacGyver said. “I need to know what happened the day of the fight.”
“Why? I mean, you’re not mad at us, are you? Look, we’re really sorry that happened. We let things get out of hand.”
“It’s okay. I’m not mad at you guys. I just want to understand how it happened,” MacGyver said. “You see, I can’t remember the fight at all because of my concussion. I just need some of you who were involved in it to fill in the details, that’s all.”
“I don’t know why you would want to remember a stupid fight.”
“I know, but it’s important to me.”
The men involved looked at each other, a mixture of guilt and perplexity crossing their features. Eddy, the man who appeared to be their leader, shrugged.
“How does anything like that ever start?” He asked. “It wasn’t rational. We just got mad at each other and starting accusing each other of cheating, pushing against each other and making some illegal moves that in a professional game would have had us ejected to the penalty box. Before we knew it, the whole team was crawling all over each other, fists and sticks flying. It was all pretty disorganized and happened so quickly. Our tempers were raging, and pretty soon it was out of control. We couldn’t even remember why we were beating each other senselessly or why we were mad to begin with, but we just kept going. That’s when you tried to stop us and…whack! You took a pretty good shot to the forehead.”
MacGyver nodded, touching his bandaged forehead. “Did anything seem out of the ordinary about it?” He asked. “I mean, once you had a chance to cool down and reflect on it, did it seem strange to you in any way, as if it was forced somehow and not a real fight?”
“You think someone whipped us up on purpose? But why?” Eddy asked.
“I’m not sure, Eddy,” MacGyver said. “I do know it doesn’t seem to make much sense. In all the times I’ve played with you guys, I’ve never seen you break out into such a fight before. Sure, you’ve had your minor tussles and disagreements, but nothing like that.”
“Well, anytime you look back on a fight, it’s going to seem unreasonable and ridiculous,” another teammate said. “Who knows?”
MacGyver realized that in the chaos and turmoil of the fight, when heated passions raged beyond their control, it was probably just as difficult for them to remember the exact events as they unfolded as it was for him.
“What about Russ? How was he acting? I noticed he’s not here today for practice,” MacGyver said.
“I know. He said he was sick and couldn’t come. He’s been pretty shaken up lately, for some reason,” Eddy said. “Believe it or not, he was just as aggressive in the fight as the rest of us were, and you know how meek and shy he usually is.”
“But, was his behavior unusual in any way? Did he seem reluctant to join the fight or did he protest?”
“Not at all. In fact, he was probably the most enthusiastic about the whole thing,” another teammate said.
MacGyver considered what they were saying. Russ, behaving out of character, probably the most belligerent in the fight…it meant he either was part of the plan to get him out of the way or he knew something and was trying to protect him.
“All right. Thanks, guys,” he said.
“Are you sure you don’t need any other part of your memory refreshed?” Eddy asked. “I mean, we really want to know why this is so important to you. It was just a fight. An accident. Tempers flaring out of control. It happens all the time.”
“I know, it’s just that something about not knowing what happened was making me feel uncomfortable, that’s all,” MacGyver said, wishing he could reveal the truth. “You guys have helped me a lot, though. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it, MacGyver,” Eddy said, grinning.
“Have a great practice, all right? You might want to work extra hard because I’ll be back on that ice in no time,” MacGyver said, winking.
“Sure you will.”
“Nice to see you, Mac!”
After watching the team as they skated back onto the ice and practiced for awhile, he turned and began to leave. He didn’t get all the answers he wanted to, the fight still remaining ambiguous, but at least the picture was a little clearer than it had been before. He learned something else, as well. Russ wasn’t the only player on the team with something to hide.
***
Dialing Russ Finley’s number, MacGyver knew there was always a possibility that he had vanished completely and wouldn’t be available to answer. Still, he waited, each ring seeming to grow longer, extending the distance between them.
“Who is this?” The voice on the other end asked, sounding breathy and paranoid.
“It’s MacGyver.”
“Mac?”
“Yes Russ. Relax. What’s going on? Why are you hiding? I went to the rink today, and you weren’t there.”
“You…went to the rink today? Why?”
“I just wanted to ask the guys a few more questions about the fight and update them on my healing progress, that’s all.”
“Still trying to remember the fight, huh?” Russ asked, laughing nervously.
“Yes I am. Something about it still bothers me. I just want the truth. I would particularly like to hear it from you.”
“But, I already told you…”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I know something is going on with you. You’re not telling me something.”
Russ breathed heavily into the phone, once again revealing his high level of anxiety.
“It’s okay, Russ,” MacGyver said. “You can tell me.”
He heard a long pause on the other end, faint breathing noises the only indication that Russ was still there, pondering.
“All right…I’ll tell you,” he said at last, “but it will have to be someplace private. Can you meet me at the nearby park?”
“Of course.”
Once the meeting arrangements were made and MacGyver hung up, he found himself feeling just as anxious and excited as Russ was, wondering what it was he possibly knew.
***
The place Russ chose as a rendezvous point was remote, separated from the trails and surrounded by dense forest. Even in the daylight, the thick canopy of broad leaves shielded the sun, producing an eerie darkness on the ground below. Shadows teased the eye and sounds of movement among the brush created the sensation of being constantly watched and preyed upon, the forest closing in around him as if it was a living entity, preparing to swallow him into nonexistence. Although he was an experienced woodsman, MacGyver began to feel disoriented, not knowing in which direction to look for Russ, wondering when and where he would appear in that vast, seemingly endless labyrinth of trees and foliage.
“MacGyver, over here,” Russ said, whispering loudly.
His sudden greeting caused MacGyver to jump slightly, as if it were the trees that had whispered instead of a man. Turning towards him, he saw him standing there, looking paler and more uneasy than he had been the last time he had seen him, trembling. He approached him slowly, as if he were a creature from the wild he wanted to get a closer look at without startling it.
“Thanks for agreeing to see me again,” he said.
“Well, I just couldn’t keep it secret any longer,” Russ said, his eyes glinting.
“You do know something,” MacGyver said. “That’s why you’ve been acting so strangely.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“I…heard some men talking one night after practice. They…were going to blow up the building where you work.”
So it really did happen, MacGyver thought.
“When was this?”
“It…was the day before your concussion.”
“That’s why I couldn’t remember until now.”
“What?”
“Listen to me, Russ. I heard their plan, too. I didn’t remember it until recently, but I was there. That’s why I was asking so much about the fight and my head injury. I have a feeling someone, possibly on the team, is involved and used the fight as an excuse to get me out of the way. They figured that by inflicting an injury strong enough to cause a concussion, I would forget what I heard and they could still successfully carry out their plan.”
“Wow,” Russ said, looking around the forest as if once again trying to avoid eye contact with MacGyver.
“I’m sure there are still some things I don’t know, some details that have escaped me. Maybe you can tell me what you know.”
Russ looked at the ground, biting his quivering lower lip. “Only this,” he said, his voice shaking, tears in his eyes as he lifted them again, pulling out a gun with a silencer attached, pointing it unsteadily at MacGyver’s chest.
“Russ?” MacGyver asked, staring at him and the gun in shock. “That’s why you were behaving so strangely, isn’t it? You didn’t just hear the plot—you’re a part of it.” He remembered the hesitant, stuttering voice from his dream.
“I’m…sorry,” Russ muttered, sobbing. “I…I have to do this. I have to kill you. You’re in the way.”
“No you don’t,” MacGyver said, watching him carefully, seeing how clearly distraught his decision was making him. “Someone is ordering you to do this, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here with the gun in your hand right now.”
Russ furiously wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his sleeve, blinking rapidly, determined not to lose his focus, the gun in his hands shaking, his aim inconstant, sweat beading on his forehead.
“I…I have to…I have no choice,” he said, sniffing.
“Yes you do, Russ! I know you. We play on the same team together. You said yourself that you like and respect me. How can you murder someone you respect? You know you can’t, at least not willingly.”
“I…I…” his fingers fumbled with the trigger, struggling to make the shot but not succeeding, revealing the battle between his conscience and his body’s actions.
“Come on Russ,” MacGyver said, approaching him cautiously, his voice low and soothing. “I know you don’t want to kill me. Just give me the gun. It’ll be all right.”
Russ began bawling uncontrollably, losing complete control over the weapon, his grip on it weakening. “I can’t…” he said, gasping. “I can’t…” he almost dropped the gun from his limp fingers, but MacGyver reacted quickly and gently took it from him, replacing the safety.
“It’s all right now, Russ,” he said, embracing him, rubbing his back in a comforting gesture. “You don’t have to go through with this. I can protect you. Just tell me what you know.”
Russ pulled away from him, wiping his eyes again. “I…I’m sorry…” he said. “You’re right. I…I couldn’t kill you.”
“I know you couldn’t, Russ. I understand. I know that’s what you thought you needed to do, that it was your duty. But you have a new duty. You have to tell me what the people you work with have planned for The Phoenix Foundation building. When are they going to detonate the explosives? How will they try to deliver them? Come on, Russ. Please. Try to help me, here, as best as you can.”
Before Russ could open his mouth and utter another word, his expression changed to pain and shock, his eyes widening as the high-pitched whine of bullets exiting from a silencer struck him several times in the back, sending him crashing to the ground, lifeless and bloody, his eyes remaining open and glassy, staring blankly, unblinking. MacGyver looked up at the source of the deadly wounds only to meet the cold gray eyes of Eddy and the end of the gun.
“I knew he was too gutless to kill you,” he said. “At least now I know where his true loyalties lay. I should never have trusted him in the first place. He was too weak for our cause.”
“So, you’re in on this, too,” MacGyver said. “You and how many others?”
“Russ and I were going to blow the building, but don’t be fooled. We’re a highly organized network. There are many of us, operating in the shadows, waiting for our chance to reclaim the government as ours so that the citizens of this country won’t have to cower in fear from the despotic, tyrannical rule of our present system of government,” Eddy said.
“Oh, come on, where did you get that? From your propaganda manuals?” MacGyver asked. “Look, I know what you want. You want anarchy. You don’t want fairness. You want to spread more fear through terrorism. Tell me, how is blowing up a building going to accomplish anything for your cause?”
Eddy snorted. “You sound so naïve,” he said, “just like Russ. You don’t understand half of what is going on in this country…or maybe you do. After all, you work for the very organization our militia wishes to make an example out of as our first strike in this war. You wish to suppress us, and you managed to con Russ with your phony charm and your hockey tips, leading him to believe you were just a good pal with nothing sinister to hide. Well, I know you better, MacGyver. You’re the enemy, and you have to be eliminated.”
MacGyver looked at the gun, then back at Eddy, remaining calm. “You and Russ engineered the fight to get me out of the way,” he said.
Eddy smirked, looking down at the body of Russ, spitting at him contemptuously. “It was his idea, that damn traitor,” he said. “I should have known it was a stalling tactic. I wanted you dead, but he said with a powerful enough blow to the head you would forget—and you did, for a time. It was effective, and I was impressed. But then you couldn’t leave it alone, could you? You always have to know. You started to ask too many questions and got in the way. You started to remember, just as I knew you would. I’m afraid I can’t leave you alive this time.”
MacGyver looked at the gun again, trying to conceive of a way to knock it out of Eddy’s hands. “So, what…you’re just going to shoot me in the back like you did to Russ?” He asked.
Eddy grinned. “Well, that would be the quick, easy way to dispose of you,” he said, strengthening his aim and prepared to fire, his finger tapping on the trigger. He stopped, his gaze never leaving MacGyver. “I have a better idea for you, though,” he said.
To be continued…
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
--Henry David Thoreau
brains+brawn+beauty+personality=MacGyver
I'd love a Mac clone, and believe it or not, I was raised a vegetarian, so I actually like tofu, so that part wouldn't be too bad, either. 
Don't worry--you're not harassing me! It's nice to know someone enjoys my fiction enough that they can't wait for the next installment--I'm very flattered. Thanks for all your support! I am working on the sixth part now. 
