The suspense heightens!
After Deborah Part Seven
Rated: PG
The room MacGyver was confined in didn’t hold much promise. It was completely bare, stripped of all furniture and fixtures. It was just four blank walls and a locked door, like a closet. He certainly didn’t have much to work with, and it didn’t help that there were about five bulky men with bodies like professional wrestlers waiting on the other side of the door to take him down if he tried anything. Li didn’t skimp on his security detail, especially when his captive was as prized as MacGyver. He knew he’d have to focus and try to find some way out of the empty room, but first he decided to tend to the serious wound on his finger from the saw. It was still bleeding profusely, so he tore off a long shred of his clothing and used it as a bandage, wrapping it tightly around the finger and trying to slow the bleeding with pressure. He winced as the pressure increased the pain, but he had no alternative. He had to stop the blood loss somehow. Combined with his other injuries, the shock was causing the room to spin. He leaned against one of the room’s walls, bracing himself, trying to think.
***
“I think you will be quite pleased with my latest offering,” Li said, showing Nikki several components to the bomb. “It will be my most technologically advanced device yet. It has tamper-proof timers and, once my supplier comes through, nuclear capabilities.”
“Yes, that it quite impressive, Mr. Li,” Nikki said, continuing her disguised accent and demeanor. “Your reputation has convinced me that you are the one who can fulfill my needs. But are you quite certain that this nuclear material will become available to you?”
Li smiled. “It’s guaranteed,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be nuclear, however. The device can also be fitted with biological material. You know, viruses, bacteria…whatever suits your needs best.”
Nikki grinned. “That is excellent news, Mr. Li,” she said. Beneath her sunglasses, her eyes scanned the makeshift laboratory for any sign of MacGyver. Thoughts of him prompted her to ask Li her next question. “I trust you have found someone who can help you build these devices,” she said.
“I have the best man available,” Li said. “Unfortunately, he has been a little reluctant.”
Nikki shuddered when he said this. Li was known to brutally torture anyone who didn’t comply with his demands. Her eyes followed the direction Li was pointing in, revealing a bloodied saw. She did her best to suppress her initial gasp in shock, and then her anger and her desire to lash out and strike this evil man. What had he done to MacGyver? She hoped she wasn’t too late. As much as she wanted to act now, she knew she had to be patient.
“Are you certain you can get this man to build your devices?” She asked.
Li smiled. It was a vicious, chilling smile that frightened Nikki just to look at it. “He’ll cooperate,” he said, “soon.”
***
Pete Thornton and his teams assembled secretly around the perimeter of the compound, hiding in unassuming vehicles that inside housed weapons and high-tech listening equipment, following Nikki’s every move.
“I don’t have to tell you people this, but this is an important operation,” Pete said. “Not only are we close to capturing one of the world’s greatest menaces thanks to new intelligence—we are also rescuing one of our own.” He paused and thought of MacGyver, hoping his friend was still alive. “We must act slowly but efficiently,” he continued. “We cannot allow our mission to be compromised. Understood?” The silence Pete received communicated all he needed to know about the commitment of these men. “All right,” he said. “Let’s move out.”
The agents began exiting the vehicles, stealthily moving around the compound, their weapons concealed but prepared to fire.
***
MacGyver had escaped a building through the ventilation system before. He supposed he could do it again, especially since he had no choice. As bare as the room was, he clearly saw a large vent in the ceiling, covered by a grate. He was tall enough that it wasn’t completely out of his reach, but he needed something to pull himself up to it or to pull it off. Smiling, he thought about how cautious Li had been, making sure to take his knife and locking him in a room without the obvious tools necessary to facilitate an escape, guarded by several body builders. Still, he hadn’t managed to take everything away. MacGyver still had his shoelaces and his clothing. Li had made escaping more of a challenge, but it wasn’t an impossibility.
A fresh wave of pain pulsed through his finger, which was still bleeding through the thick cloth he had tied around it. He knew extremities bled for a long time, but at least his bandage had slowed it somewhat. Weakened by the blood loss and shivering from the cold associated with shock, MacGyver tried to regain his strength to do what needed to be done. Carefully, watching his bandaged finger, he removed his shoes and his jeans as well as his belt. He didn’t realize how sore he was, but the aftermath of the beatings he’d received became apparent when he bent over. Biting his lip and trying to ignore his pain, he continued to work, tying his shoelaces and jeans together, creating a rope ladder to reach the vent on the ceiling. Since he didn’t have access to a chair, it was the best he could think of to reach the vent.
The vent came to a point, and suddenly MacGyver had a different idea. He didn’t think the vent grate itself would be capable of holding his weight. First, he’d have to pull the grate off and see what was behind it. He added his belt to the length of cloth and reattached one of his shoelaces to his sneaker, planning on lassoing the point and using the shoe as a grappling hook of sorts. Stepping away from the grate, MacGyver hoped his summer working on a ranch had paid off and that his lassoing technique wasn’t too rusty. He winced as he felt how sore his body felt when he began rotating his arm, but he continued, aiming the length of cloth at the point. Once he was sure he could throw a decent length around the point, he threw his handmade lasso with all his strength, watching as the shoe, along with the belt and some of his jeans, twisted around the point of the vent grate. Relieved, he pulled it taut. Glancing at the door and knowing that he couldn’t make much noise or else he’d alert the guards outside, he took his time yanking on the vent grate. It creaked and slowly gave way, opening.
MacGyver stepped under the now open grate, looking up to see what was inside. It looked like a typical ventilation system for a building, with long shafts running across the ceiling. Some pipes were nearby, and they looked sturdy enough to at least temporarily hold him as he used his rope ladder to climb. The now tilted vent grate was close enough to MacGyver that he was able to reach it, standing slightly on his toes to undo the lasso knot around the point. He gathered the rope of clothing and prepared to throw it again, this time at one of the thicker pipes within the tunnels above. Once again, the weight of the shoe propelled enough of the clothing ladder over that he could secure it. He pulled on it several times, testing his weight. The pipe groaned slightly in protest, so MacGyver knew he’d have to climb quickly. Sighing and checking his bleeding finger, he began to climb up to the ceiling.
***
Pete’s men were closing in on the laboratory. Nikki could sense it. The moment she recognized one of the agents moving quietly in the background and heard the first sounds of gunfire, she pulled the gun concealed in her coat and pointed it at Li before he could react.
“Don’t move,” she said in her normal voice.
Li lunged at her, twisting her arm behind her back and disarming her. He took the gun and pointed it at her head, waiting as the sounds of gunshots and fighting grew closer. Agents were now flooding the area, overtaking Li’s men and arresting them. Pete ran in with them, overseeing the operation, his own weapon drawn. When he saw that Nikki was being held hostage by Li himself, he stopped.
“I’ll kill her, unless your men withdraw,” Li said calmly. He grinned and looked at Nikki, who was struggling in his grip, trying to fight him. “I should’ve known this was one of your classic sting operations, Thornton.” His finger danced on the trigger, tempted to shoot Nikki immediately. “The problem with the classics is, they grow tired. They’ve been done before.”
He was about to pull the trigger when a shot rang out behind him. Pete watched, stunned as Li collapsed to the floor, a surprised look on his face, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He wasn’t dead yet. He was still breathing shallowly, but Pete knew he was seriously wounded. He glanced up and saw one of his agents standing there, still pointing the weapon in the air. Pete nodded at him, silently communicating his thanks and his congratulations for being such a crack shot. The man nodded back and ran off to join the rest of the team in rounding up the other suspects. Nikki quickly pushed the body of Li off of her, staggering as she tried to stand, slightly shaken by the experience.
“Do you need some help?” Pete asked her, offering his hand.
“No Pete, I’m fine,” Nikki said, shrugging off her shock. She glanced down at Li, who had closed his eyes. He was dead. “I’m just glad you came when you did. You guys cut it a little close.”
“I know, but we couldn’t afford being discovered by Li’s men before we were ready,” Pete said. He looked around the laboratory. Some of the agents were collecting the bomb making materials as evidence. He shook his head. “Can you believe what Li was about to do? He would’ve sold these things to anyone willing and angry enough to detonate them and poison entire cities. It’s just unthinkable.”
“I know,” Nikki said. “And he was trying to force MacGyver into making them for him.”
“Do you know where MacGyver is? Did you see any trace of him?”
Nikki nodded sadly and pointed at the bloody saw. Pete stared at it.
“My God,” he said.
“Pete, I’m sure they’ll find him somewhere, if he’s still alive,” Nikki said. “They’re scouring this place.”
“Well, we’d better join them,” Pete said. He knew MacGyver could never be coerced into doing anything against the safety of his country or other countries around the world, even if it meant death as punishment for failure to follow such commands. He just hoped that death hadn’t been the end result this time.
***
MacGyver was about to begin his journey through the exhaust system when he heard the first gunshots and the shouting. Something was happening, and he couldn’t be sure what it was. He didn’t think anybody knew where he was, and experience taught him not to rely on the cavalry riding in at the last minute to save him. He was the best at what he did precisely because he improvised and trusted his own instincts, not the instincts of others. Still, the commotion surrounding the building made him wonder. He paused, listening. Eventually, the shouts and the gunfire began to die down, and he heard the voices of several men giving orders to search the area. Someone had come after all, penetrating Li’s security. Carefully, he crawled back to where he had entered the tunnels and peered down through the hole where the vent had been. The room was still empty and the door was still locked. MacGyver thought about climbing back down into the room and banging on the door for help, but someone beat him to it, kicking the door down.
“MacGyver, are you in here?” Someone asked, shouting. MacGyver recognized the voice as Pete’s.
“Yes Pete,” he said, smiling to himself.
Pete entered the blank room and looked around, confused. “Where? I don’t see you,” he said.
“Look up,” MacGyver said.
He saw Nikki appear, also standing beneath the hole in the ceiling. Both of them looked up and saw him. Relief washed over Nikki’s usually hardened features, and Pete managed a slight smile. MacGyver was certainly a sight, hiding up there, his pants gone.
“MacGyver, what are you doing up there?” Pete asked.
“Oh, you know,” MacGyver said, grinning lopsidedly. “Just taking the scenic route.”
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
Great story, really good! 
