Well, after watching Ma Dalton, I came up with this story. It's like The Odd Triple--with a twist!
I'm planning on having a lot of romance and action in this one, plus it features Jack Dalton, so how can you not have fun with it? Enjoy!
Sunset in Tuscany Part One
Rated: PG
MacGyver stumbled down the spiral staircase in his house boat, rubbing the back of his tousled head, barely awake. All he wanted was to quench his thirst, his mouth dry from hours of sleeping, and then he wanted to collapse back into several more hours of sleep. As he headed toward his kitchen tap, dimly lit from the waning moonlight and the emerging dawn outside, he heard something beeping and stopped. Yawning and forcing his eyes open more fully, he looked around for the source of the beeping, wondering if he left an alarm clock on or one of his appliances was operating that he had forgotten to shut off completely. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Shrugging it off as nothing, he approached his sink and pulled out a glass from one of his cabinets. As he was about to pour himself a glass of water, he heard the beeping again. The source of it seemed to be coming from nearby, on his countertop. He focused his bleary, sleepy eyes on it, and found himself staring directly at a bomb.
The explosive device was small, which would explain why he missed it the first time. It sat on his counter, encased in a neat, shiny, compact black box. The countdown timer glowed bright red in the faint early morning light, and as MacGyver got closer to it to examine it, he noticed it was counting down from two minutes.
“Oh man,” he muttered.
Carefully, he picked it up, looking around to see if whoever planted the device was still inside his house. All he heard was the constant beeping of the timer. Figuring that the bomber was probably long gone, hiding somewhere and awaiting the deadly results of his device, MacGyver decided to concentrate on trying to defuse it. Turning on his kitchen light to get a closer, more detailed look at it, he saw that it didn’t appear to have any booby traps around the outside of the case, meaning that he could open it without suffering from some explosive consequences. Gently, he placed it back on the counter and lifted the lid, peering inside. The device looked simple enough, connected by a few wires and circuitry. Relieved, he felt he could easily try to defuse it, seeing similar bombs before. As he began to tug at one of the wires, he heard the beeping increase in speed. Looking at the timer, he noticed that it was suddenly counting down from ten seconds, quickly approaching one second as he still held it in his hands.
“Oh, no!” He said, his eyes widening.
He tossed it across the room and ducked behind the kitchen counter, curled in a tight, protective ball and waiting for the explosion to demolish half of his house and perhaps himself. He closed his eyes tightly, preparing himself. When nothing happened and the beeping stopped, MacGyver slowly stood and walked over to the small device, looking down at it. The timer was at zero, but there had been no explosion. Crouching down, he picked it up again and took a closer look at it. Except for the wiring, it felt hollow. Sighing and deciding to risk his life one more time, he began to carefully pull apart the pieces of the bomb, finding no explosive inside it, and no trigger. It was a fake, cleverly designed to look like a real bomb. He frowned at it, turning it over in his hands, wondering who would do something like that. Obviously, it was used to get his attention, and judging from his sweaty palms and his shaky, adrenaline filled body, it had worked. But who would place it in his house?
As his mind turned over the possible long list of suspects and enemies from his past, MacGyver heard a scuffle outside, sounding like hurried footsteps. Setting down the fake bomb and turning off his kitchen light, he quietly crept outside, looking around and seeing nothing. The marina was completely dark and silent. He watched and waited, still seeing nothing, not even a shadow. After waiting a few more minutes, he turned and decided to go back inside his house. Maybe whoever was outside was waiting to appear when he went inside, so he decided to lure them back into the open that way. Before he could reach his door, someone grabbed him from behind and slammed him against the side of his house boat, quickly handcuffing him. He felt a gun press hard against the back of his skull, and he could feel the man’s hot breath on the back of his neck.
“Going somewhere, slick?” The man holding him asked, and then he laughed loudly.
MacGyver recognized the voice and the laugh. Turning his head slightly, he could vaguely make out the outline of the man’s features in the semi-darkness.
“Jesse? Jesse Colton?” He asked.
“No, your grandma,” Jesse said, laughing again. “Of course it’s me, Mac!” He dropped his gun and spun MacGyver around to face him. “You should see the look on your face! You look completely freaked, man!”
“Yeah, well being ambushed in the dark will do that to me,” MacGyver said, wriggling against the handcuffs. “What are you doing here?”
“Surprise!” Jack Dalton shouted, jumping out from around the corner, a huge grin on his face.
“Jack?” MacGyver asked. He looked at both men as they stood in front of him, a look of confusion on his face. “What are both of you doing here?”
Jack and Jesse exchanged amused glances. “Mac, you remember Jesse Colton from that little mess with my mother awhile back,” Jack said.
“Of course,” MacGyver said, still struggling against the handcuffs. “That doesn’t answer my question, though. What are you two doing here?”
“Shh! Keep your voice down, Mac! Jeez!” Jack said.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on…and you release me from these handcuffs!”
“Well now, I thought you could get out of those yourself, slick,” Jesse said, grinning.
“Yeah, I don’t know if we should release you just yet. We need a captive audience to hear our plan,” Jack said, looking at Jesse and winking.
“Let me out of them now!” MacGyver shouted, glaring at them.
“All right,” Jesse said, pulling out the key to the cuffs and unlocking them.
“Thank you,” MacGyver said angrily, rubbing his wrists. “You two set this whole thing up, didn’t you? You made the fake bomb to lure me out here and listen to your latest scheme, didn’t you Jack?”
“Me?” Jack asked, an innocent expression on his face. “What about Jesse, here? He helped me.”
“Yeah, and what I can’t figure out is why! How did you end up roping him in on this?”
“Because this time it isn’t my idea,” Jack said.
“What are you talking about?”
Jack looked at Jesse. “Jesse had the lead. I just decided to follow. We’re going to be rich, Mac! Finally! Wait ‘till you hear what he has in store for us!” He said, clapping his hands together.
“I don’t understand,” MacGyver said. “Jesse, you usually work alone. Why on earth would you want someone like Jack tagging along with you?”
“Hey!” Jack said, looking hurt.
“Believe me, I usually don’t need any help,” Jesse said, glancing at Jack, “but this time, I think I could use both of you.”
“For what?” MacGyver asked.
“There is an international fugitive out there named Lucien, nationality supposedly French because of the dude’s name,” Jesse said. “Anyway, he’s wanted in several countries including the U.S. for a number of crimes including money laundering, theft of high end goods, and murder. Nobody’s been able to bring him in, but there is a fat reward for anyone who does.”
“And Jesse thinks he knows where he is,” Jack said.
“That’s right,” Jesse said, grinning. “I got a hot tip.”
“If we get him, Jesse has agreed to split his bounty with us!” Jack said, grinning like a maniacal five-year-old. “Isn’t that great?”
“Whoa! Slow down just a minute,” MacGyver said. “You think you know where this…Lucien character is?”
“That’s right,” Jesse said.
“Where is he?”
“Tuscany.”
“Oh, man,” MacGyver said, sliding against the side of his house boat and slumping to the ground, covering his face with his hands and shaking his head. He bent his knees up to his chest and buried his head.
“Mac, what’s wrong?” Jack asked.
MacGyver popped his head back up, looking at the two men standing over him. “You two are crazy, do you know that?” He asked. “Chasing after some international criminal who could be dangerous? And all for what? Money?”
Jesse shrugged. “Hey, it’s my business,” he said.
“I’d like it to be mine, too,” Jack said. “Maybe I can become a bounty hunter, too!”
MacGyver groaned. “I can’t believe this,” he said. “This has to be the stupidest, craziest idea you’ve ever had, Jack!”
“Hey, it was my idea, too,” Jesse said.
“Yeah, but you do it for a living!” MacGyver said. “Jack’s just trying to tag along, and once again he’s tried to drag me into it, too! No, okay? The answer is NO! I won’t do it!”
“But Jesse needs us, Mac,” Jack said.
“Why?”
“Well, I figured with your international connections at The Phoenix Foundation, you could help me navigate through Italy to find this guy,” Jesse said.
“What do you need Jack for, then? He’s useless!”
“Hey, I resent that, Mac! How could you say that?” Jack asked.
MacGyver sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Jack’s going to fly us there,” Jesse said.
MacGyver shook his head and stood. “Uh uh,” he said. “No way. I won’t fly with him again! What, do you want to get killed?”
“That’s a fine thing to say after I bailed you and Pete out of South America,” Jack said. “Jeesh!”
“No, I won’t do it,” MacGyver said, “no chance in hell.”
“Mac, come on,” Jesse said. “If you help us, we’ll be putting away a bad man.”
“And making a big profit in the process, right? Thanks but no thanks,” MacGyver said.
“Mac, it’s what I do for a living,” Jesse said. “And just because we’ll make money off it doesn’t mean we still won’t be getting rid of one bad dude. Come on, Mac, what do you say?”
“Ah, he’s appealing to his sense of justice and hoping to break through his cynicism! I love it!” Jack said.
MacGyver glared at him.
“Come on, Mac, think about it!” Jack continued, not threatened by his friend’s irritated, angry glare. “Tuscany! Italy! Romance! What do you say?”
MacGyver looked at both Jesse and Jack. The sun was beginning to rise, casting a soft glow over the men’s heads as if they were angels when he knew they were anything but. They smiled pleasantly at him, as if all they wanted was a friendly chat, not a favor to go to Italy and bag a wanted international criminal for reward money.
“Well, with friends like you,” he said, “how could I say no?” He closed his eyes tightly. “I’ll do it. I’ll help you. I just know I’m going to regret this.”
“Yes! All right! Thank you, Mac!” Jack said, hugging MacGyver and knocking him slightly off balance with his enthusiasm. “This is great! Where do we start?”
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
