I'm sorry it took me awhile to post this part--I was busy today. I guess my inspiration for this story came somewhat from Brainwashed. I wanted to see what a "programmed" Mac would do, and even though Jack was a threat in that episode, I still think that a "programmed" Mac would be a heck of a lot scarier and more dangerous!
Anyway, on with the story!
Programmed Part Six
Rated: R
Pete and Nikki were in the dark, cavernous space of level one of The Phoenix Foundation’s parking garage, surrounded by an invisible network of security teams, waiting.
“You know we’re taking a terrible risk,” Nikki said. She shivered, and although there was a damp chill inside the concrete structure, it was not from the cold.
“If anything happens, our men have been instructed to take control of the situation and subdue him, peacefully,” Pete said.
“What if something goes wrong? I mean, you heard the latest reports from the psychiatric hospital. They found that guard knocked unconscious, his uniform and gun missing.”
“I know.” He looked at her, deep concern in his eyes.
“You still think we can talk to him, don’t you? Convince him not to do this?”
Pete nodded. “That’s why we’re doing this. You know he’ll come here eventually. Nikki, we have to try,” he said. His radio crackled to life with a hiss of static. “Thornton here,” he said quietly.
“Mr. Thornton, this is Dickerson, head of security,” the voice on the other end of the radio said.
Pete and Nikki exchanged looks, knowing what he was about to report.
“Go ahead,” Pete said.
“My men have spotted MacGyver. He is dressed in a security guard uniform and is headed for this direction.”
“All right. Remember, do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Understand?”
“I read you, Mr. Thornton. Over.”
The transmission ended, and Pete turned down the radio. “He’s coming,” he said, his body tensing. “Be prepared.”
Nikki nodded, also uptight, her chest tightening, barely able to breathe. They were about to face MacGyver—not as the friend and colleague they knew—but as a vicious killer who was capable of anything. They listened as his footsteps approached, and soon they saw his silhouetted form enter the garage. He paused, seeming to stare at them, although they couldn’t see him fully in the dim lighting of the garage.
“MacGyver,” Pete said. “MacGyver, can you hear me?”
MacGyver did not respond. Pete glanced at Nikki anxiously.
“Let me try,” she said. “MacGyver, you have to listen to us! You don’t know what you’re doing! Someone is controlling you, making you do this. You don’t have to go through with it. I know you don’t want to. You have to stop!”
“This is the perfect opportunity,” the voice whispered. “Shoot them now.” Without thinking or questioning, MacGyver mechanically pulled out the gun he had taken from the fallen security guard at the psychiatric hospital, aimed, and fired. The blast from the gunshot roared and echoed, the bullet piercing Pete in the left arm, causing him to cry out in pain, stumbling backwards.
“Pete!” Nikki shouted, running over to examine his wound.
“Nikki, take cover!” Pete shouted, rolling and ducking behind a car.
MacGyver fired again, this time missing, the bullet shattering the glass of a nearby car. Nikki screamed and did as Pete said, ducking with him behind the car. They huddled together, and Nikki was able to get a clearer look at the wound MacGyver had inflicted on Pete. It looked severe, bleeding profusely. Pete groaned and clutched at it, trying to stop the bleeding.
“Are you all right?” Nikki asked.
“I think so,” Pete said, grunting. His face was pale and sweat beaded on his forehead. “The bullet went in pretty deep. I can feel it.”
“Try to stay still.”
Pete’s radio came to life again. “Thornton,” he said, his voice a miserable wail as he struggled to cope with the excruciating pain of his wound.
“Mr. Thornton, are you all right?” Dickerson asked.
“Yeah…he hit me in the arm.”
“Should we attempt to contain him?”
“Not yet…”
“But Mr. Thornton—
“Not until I give the order, understood?” Pete growled, gruff from his pain and his determination to help his friend.
“Yes sir. We’ll stand by.”
The radio ceased its transmission again, and an eerie silence filled the garage, the final reverberations of the shots MacGyver had fired dying. They heard his footsteps approaching.
“Pete, this is insane,” Nikki said. “We have to stop him! He’s already shot you once, and he’s programmed to kill! We can’t talk him out of this! Let Dickerson and his men handle the situation!”
“No…not yet,” Pete said, wincing. “Just…let’s try…”
MacGyver’s footsteps came closer.
“They’re hiding, but you saw where they went. They can’t hide for long. Now is the time to finish this…” He found Pete and Nikki crouching behind the car and pointed his gun at them again. They were able to get a better look at him and they saw that his face was a stony, unemotional mask, his dark eyes empty voids. He was terrifying to behold, and almost unrecognizable as the man they knew.
“Shoot now. Shoot to kill.” They heard the gun click, the trigger about to fire.
“Run, Nikki!” Pete shouted.
They ran and darted behind another car just in time, the bullet striking and ricocheting off the body of one of the other cars nearby.
“What are we going to do?” Nikki asked, panting from their latest run to safety. “We can’t keep outrunning him! There is no way either of us can talk any sense or reason in him in this state! Dickerson is going to have to take charge, here!”
“No,” Pete said, moaning in pain and holding his bleeding arm again. He was beginning to feel dizzy and weak. “I still say we have to try to communicate with him.”
“Pete, you know I care for MacGyver as much as you do and want to see this resolved and have him returned to us as he was, but this is beyond our control at this point. We have to do something.”
Pete nodded, holding his head as another wave of dizziness hit him, making him feel groggy and woozy. “All right,” he said. Taking out his radio, he called Dickerson again. “You have my permission to approach him,” he said, “but proceed with caution and try to apprehend and disarm him without incident.”
“Yes sir,” Dickerson said. He turned to his men. “All right, let’s move in.”
“Something about this isn’t right,” the voice said. “Something about it is too perfect. Someone is watching you. They want to stop you. You can’t let them do it. Use any means necessary to stop them. You cannot allow your mission to fail again.” MacGyver heard the footsteps of the men approaching, emerging from the shadows, their guns drawn, pointing at him.
“Take control of the situation now and remain in control. Do not let them stop you.” Remembering where Nikki and Pete had last hidden, he reacted quickly, finding them and grabbing Nikki, yanking her up by the arm and pressing the gun against her temple.
“Nikki!” Pete shouted.
“MacGyver, no! Stop! Oh God…” Nikki said, sobbing and whimpering. “MacGyver, please don’t do this!”
MacGyver dragged her away from Pete and out towards the middle of the parking garage, oblivious to her pleas, glaring defiantly at the security team.
“He has a hostage!” Dickerson shouted at his men. “Hold and do not fire! I repeat—hold and do not fire!”
“Good. Now you are in control. Shoot her now. Kill her. End this.” MacGyver’s finger danced uneasily on the trigger. Even though he felt he had to do what the voice told him, a part of him couldn’t comply, the gun feeling strange and wrong in his hand. He couldn’t understand why.
“Now! Shoot her now!” MacGyver squeezed the trigger harder.
“MacGyver!” Pete shouted, staggering to his feet, fighting more waves of dizziness and nausea, grimacing in pain as he held his injured arm. He stumbled out completely in the open, standing directly in front of him, only a few feet away.
“Mr. Thornton, what are you doing?” Dickerson asked angrily.
“MacGyver, listen to me,” Pete said, ignoring Dickerson. He took a step towards him. “I know you think you have to do this. I know you think you’re in control right now, but you’re not. You’re a hostage, just like Nikki. Your mind has been imprisoned. You have to free yourself, do you understand? You have to fight it!”
“Don’t let El Diablo win,” Dr. Ladd said, his voice intruding upon MacGyver’s programmed thoughts. “Don’t let him beat you into submission. You are no longer his captive. You must learn to take control of your life again…” “Shut up! Shut up! You have to do this! You have to kill them now!” “MacGyver,” Pete said, taking another step closer, his voice gentle and soothing. “You don’t want to do this. We’re your friends. Can’t you see? Whoever programmed you knew that! They knew we were close, so they planned on you destroying us and destroying our relationship! Don’t let them do it, Mac. Don’t let them do that to us. Please…”
A sharp, stabbing pain filled MacGyver’s head. He groaned and rubbed his forehead with his free hand, still keeping the hand with the gun pointed firmly at Nikki’s temple. He could barely hear her cries, as if they were in a distant room, removed from him. Pete’s words were also faint, but he could hear them as well.
“I can’t do this, I can’t,” he said to the voice.“Yes you can, and you will. You have no choice. Do it!” Pete took another step closer. He kept approaching MacGyver until he was only inches away. With his arms still wrapped tightly around Nikki, he removed the gun from her temple and pointed it directly at Pete’s chest.
“MacGyver, no!” Nikki said.
“Give me the gun, MacGyver,” Pete said as calmly as possible, reaching out his hand. “You don’t want to do this. Whoever is controlling you wants you to. You have to fight it. You have to. Do you hear me? You can beat this! I know you can! I know it’s a powerful urge that is forcing you to do these things, but you have to resist! You have to fight back!”
“I want you to try to resist them, if you can, argue with them, anything you can think of. Try to see if you can stop yourself before they force you to act. Try to refuse and overpower them. You can do it…” Dr. Ladd said.“You can’t win. You can’t overpower me. This mission will not fail…” “Yes it will…yes it will…I-I can’t! I can’t do this! I won’t!” “Give it up, MacGyver. Your friends are dead. No more hesitation. You will do it. You will fire your remaining bullets into their bodies. You will kill them.” “NO!” MacGyver screamed, holding his head again. “NO!”
“It’s okay, that’s right,” Pete said. “Tell them no. Tell them you won’t do this. That’s right. It’s going to be fine. You can do this…”
His grip on the weapon became looser, and soon Pete was able to take it from him, replacing the safety. MacGyver released Nikki soon afterward and collapsed to the floor, sobbing.
“MacGyver,” Nikki said, embracing him. “It’s all right now, it’s over.”
“I…I don’t want to…I can’t…I don’t want to k-kill…” MacGyver said, gasping between broken sobs, his eyes tightly closed, tears leaking from them.
“It’s okay, we know,” Nikki said. “We’re here for you. MacGyver? Can you hear me?”
“Don’t want to…can’t do it…no…no…NO!”
Nikki looked at Pete in dismay. “I think he’s still lost and confused,” she said. “He seems to be unaware of where he is. I don’t think he’ll even remember this happened.”
“Which means he could still relapse,” Pete said. “He’s still programmed. We have to get him back to Dr. Ladd.”
“I know, but at least he’s made progress. He stopped them, Pete. We knew he could, and he did.” She looked at him and smiled, embracing him again. “You did it, Mac,” she said. “We’re going to get you back now, just as you were before.” She held him close to her, stroking his hair.
Dickerson and his men ran towards them, surveying the scene. He looked at Pete’s wound. “We need to get you to a hospital immediately,” he said. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“I…I know,” Pete said, leaning against his security man, trying to prevent himself from passing out. “At least now we know that MacGyver is okay and we’ll get him back.”
Dickerson looked down at him, crumpled on the floor and sobbing pitifully, Nikki holding and rocking him, comforting him even though he seemed unaware of her presence.
“I’m not sure I completely understand what happened here,” he said. “A moment ago, he was dangerous and violent, shooting at you with the intent to kill. Now…”
“He was programmed, Thomas,” Pete said.
“I know. You gave us that intelligence. But…how…”
“He fought back,” Pete said, smiling proudly, his lip quivering as he suppressed tears, remembering MacGyver’s tenacity and strong will to live, even when he returned from his captivity and torture severely beaten and starved. “He fought back, just as he always does. Now, he’s coming home.”
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
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