Mac walked into the main office of the Phoenix Foundation. His latest assignment had been in Iraq field testing bomb detecting equipment for use by the ground troops to attempt to cut down on the effectiveness of IEDs. All too often he had seen the effects of those devices when they were not found in time. People maimed and killed, soldiers and civilians alike. Working with and for the military was his least favorite assignment, but he knew this one was important, and it wasn’t a potential weapon like all too many of his past military assignments had been. He actually liked working with the soldiers. Most of them were just kids, younger than his own son even, caught in a war zone, scared and just trying the best they could to do the job given to them with so few resources. Basic things like language skills, translators were extremely hard to come by. Most American kids didn’t speak Arabic, and few Iraqi spoke English. It had been hot dusty and dangerous. In the small amount of downtime Mac had, he went to visit his son who was on a news assignment. Mac wasn’t thrilled that Sam was in such a dangerous area, but he had no room for complaints since he was also working a similar assignment himself. Sam was good at what he did and nearly as good as his father at getting himself out of tough situations. Still it was a father’s prerogative to worry, which Mac did in silence.
Mac yawned as he went through security. He was still tired from the trip home, having only gotten in at midnight last night. The flights had been arduous leaving little chance for sleeping en route. The only flight available to get him out of Iraq was a medevac flight from Baghdad to Ramstein AFB in Germany. He could tell that most of the crew resented his presence. He wasn’t badly injured, and he had little medical training, in their opinion useless. He had gotten some minor injuries while in the field, a few bruises and a cast on his right arm, but nothing compared to what some of the soldiers in the beds were suffering from.
From Germany, he was put on a transport to Dover ABF in Delaware. He didn’t like to think of that flight too much. In all of his time using military transports, he had never ridden in one transporting fallen soldiers home.
Ground transportation was waiting for him in Delaware. He expected to be taken to a commercial airport to continue his journey to the west coast. Instead, he found himself at the Pentagon where several military officials were waiting for a preliminary report on his findings in Iraq. MacGyver had not been ready for this. He was able to give a very basic report; they wanted him back within a week with more detailed findings.
Thankfully, he was able to arrange a nonstop flight back home. Unfortunately, it was from BWI instead of Dulles, after making these arrangements and nearly being asleep on his feet, a young airman took pity on him and arranged a driver to the airport.
He had been traveling for the better part of three days. At times, the trip was emotionally as well as physically exhausting. When he arrived back at his home, he called Pete to let him know that he had gotten back and that he would be in to the Foundation in a few days.
He always called Pete, even though the older man was no longer the director of the Foundation. Pete was still involved in most of the day to day activities of the Foundation. Unfortunately, in this case, Pete was out of the loop.
Craig Bannister, the current director called Mac back 20 minutes later just as he was drifting off to sleep. Craig insisted that Mac had to be into the office first thing in the morning at 8:00 AM. He said that there was a security breach and that Mac was desperately needed. He gave no further info, and Mac was concerned about the nature of the leak.
So here he was 7:45 AM going through security at the main LA offices of the Phoenix Foundation. He was tired, irritable and at the same time worried about the security leak.
If it was bad enough for Craig to bring him in then, it was definitely something that Mac was worried about.
Chapter End Notes:
This chapter is a departure for this story. Eventually the OC Mel Kendall will obtain a job at the Phoenix Foundation. This is tightly interwoven with future storylines. I am starting the part of the story which she eventually obtains the job here. I am finally introducing MacGyver into the storyline.