19 Revenge for the Scorpion

by Cindy Combs

  Ian sniffed. "I wanna go with you."

  "I know, Buddy." Sam ruffled the blond curls. "But I've got to go look for Uncle Blair."

  "I wanna help."

  Sam thought fast. "You are helping. Someone's got to stay with Miss Amanda, just in case Uncle Blair calls her."

  "Unca Bear call?"

  Seeing the confusion on the small face, Amanda knelt down. "I know, Sweetie. I'd like to help your Daddy search, too. But your Uncle Blair will be hungry when they find him. Would you like to help me bake some cookies for him?"

  Ian's eyes brightened. "Cookies?"

  Seeing Amanda knew the way to his son's heart, Sam stood up just in time to spot the rented Taurus speed away from the curb. "What the...?"

  "Sam?" Amanda had stood up, holding Ian's hand.

  "That looked like Dad in the rental car. Where's he going?"

  "Meeting the kidnapper." Cory skidded to a stop next to them, out of breath.

  "WHAT?" Sam declared.

  "She called him at the airport and told him to go alone."

  Sam was about to swear, but then remembered the little ears next to him. "Do you know where?"

  "Vague idea, but it doesn't matter." Cory was unzipping a pocket in his laptop case.

  "What do you mean, it doesn't matter?" Sam asked, voice rising with his mounting panic.

  "I thought he might pull something like this, so I planted a tracker on your Dad at the airport."

  "You did what!" Sam exclaimed. Then he paused. Calmer, he added, "Cool. Why didn't I think of that?"

  "You're not as sneaky as I am," Cory replied as he turned on a hand-held device. Soft blips filled the air. "I've got him, but we've got to move fast."

  "But Dad took the car."

  "Here." Amanda held out her keys. "Go after him."

  "Thanks, Amanda!" Sam grabbed the keys and raced for the driver's door.

  "Tell Jim we'll contact him once we're on the road," Cory threw back at her as he hopped in the passenger's side, his eyes never leaving the screen.

  Amanda watched them drive away, still holding Ian's hand. She looked down at the toddler. "Something tells me that keeping up with your family will be a challenge." She pulled out her cell to call Jim.

  * * *

  Cascade National Forest

  Getting out of the handcuffs was easy. Getting out of the cabin was a whole different ball game.

  The door had three solid deadbolts in place, plus the pins holding the door were on the other side. Not that it mattered. While Blair was drugged, Diana had taken his Swiss Army knife along with his gun, watch, keys, jacket and badge. While Blair didn't feel naked without the gun like his partner would, he really missed the knife and its various blades and tools.

  That didn't prevent him from finding a way to pull off one of the wooden slats on the window's shutter. That only gave him a first hand view of the iron bars across the window. Blair next felt along the walls, looking for any weakness. That method also came up empty.

  Blair dropped to the bed, shaking some feeling back into his cramped hands. There had to be another way out of here. He had to get out before Dad fell into his evil girlfriend's trap. Man, that sounded like a comic book plotline. How did his family get into these situations?

  As he sat, he tried to force his mind to 'think of all his options', as Mac would say. The only thing his tired mind could visualize was the log wall. Sighing, his eyes landed on the closet. With a shrug, he decided to give it a closer look.

  He examined the walls, still not finding anything of use. Then he glanced at the shelf above him. Stepping back, Blair craned his neck to view the shelf, then the space above it. Suddenly, he noticed the thin outline of a trap door. A smile lit his features. He finally found a break.

  * * *

  Kum 'N Go, Highway 5

  MacGyver had found the intersection and the phone directory with four minutes to spare. He debated about bagging the whole book for the Cascade PD forensics, then decided his priority was to reach Blair, not help Jim convict the abductor.

  It was a topographic map of the area, with a route into the back country marked in blue. The meet was going to be isolated. Mac's gut tightened. The last encounter with Deborah had been in an isolated area. He still could remember it clearly. Deborah's eyes had been so sad when she'd held her gun on him, trying to explain why she had to kill him. Later, they were determined when she slashed him. He had been scrambling for some leverage to pull her to safety, only to look back in time to see the knife. He had jerked so that only his arm had been cut, yet in doing so he had lost his hold on Deborah. He could still hear her scream echo off the cliffs. Mac shook the images out of his head. This woman was not Deborah. He could do this.

  One step at a time, Bud. One step at a time.

  Somehow, he doubted Harry had ever been in this position. It was still good advice, though.

  Taking a deep breath, Mac forced himself to walk casually back to the car, searching the pockets of his leather jacket for the keys. He found his cell phone instead. He looked at it a moment. He should call Jim. The sentinel was sure to have missed him by now, and already worried about Blair. After a moment of thought, he put the phone back in his pocket. Calling Jim would bring Sam as well, and he had to keep the rest of his family safe. Taking off the jacket, Mac dug for the keys then tossed the garment into the passenger's seat. He sat a moment, took a deep breath, then started the car.

  After driving over the ever-increasingly bad road, Mac came to a stop at a packed dirt spot marked on the map. It was a trailhead, though it appeared not to be used heavily. He took another deep breath as he searched the area with his eyes. "Show time," he softly whispered to himself.

  He stepped out of the car. The late afternoon sun was warm on his skin. He immediately spied a dark blue canvas jacket laying on a rock. The rock sat at the intersection of three trails. He slowly approached it, noting that the arm of the jacket was pointing up a path that was more of a deer trail than anything else. Cautiously, he picked it up. He had given it to Blair for his last birthday, to replace one that had been torn up by a perp. Mac squeezed it a moment, praying his boy was okay. Then he followed the path.

  * * *

  "It looks like he's already hit the phone booth..."

  Sam took his eyes off the rough road to spare his partner a glance. He was so glad Cory was talking with Jim. The older sentinel had to be pissed.

  "You know Mac; when he's in that father protector mode, he's going to do what he damn well pleases, no matter what else anyone thinks. Trust me, Sam does the same thing." Sam sent his partner a glare.

  "...I gave him a chance to tell me she called. When he blew it off, I knew the best shot was the tracker... Do you honestly think that Mac wouldn't have found a way to give us the slip if he set his mind to it?"

  Sam sighed to himself. Cory was right. Dad would have found a way, especially if he thought that was the only way to get Blair back safe. He just had to trust that his father would find a way to stay alive.

  "Yes, Jim, I promise next time to give you a head's up, if there's time... Okay, I'll give you a heads up, period." Suddenly, all of Cory's attention focused on the tracker. "Stop!"

  Sam slammed on the brakes, heart in his throat. Good thing the road was deserted. "What?"

  "He must have turned somewhere around here. He's no longer on the highway."

  Sam glanced around. "A back road?"

  "A really back road. It's not even listed on the tracker's map."

  Heart beating in the right spot again, Sam pulled a U-turn. "It can't be too bad if Dad drove the rental on it."

  "Do you honestly think a bad road's going to stop your Dad from reaching Blair?"

  "Damn. We better start looking."

  * * *

  Blair dropped to the ground with a roll, finishing up on his feet. Swiftly, he ran to the edge of the clearing. It wasn't until he was behind the brush that he paused, searching the area for any sign of Diana. There was none.

&nbs
p; Blair allowed himself a sigh of relief. The trap door in the closet had led to the rafters of the cabin. It had taken him a while to find another trap door that led outside, then another few precious minutes to figure out how to climb down. He had been scared that Diana would return before he got out.

  Where was she? She'd been gone an awfully long time. Surely his dad hadn't gotten here from Colorado yet. However, the sun was getting rather low in the sky; Blair had no accurate way of measuring how long he'd been drugged, and only a rough estimate of time since leaving the Cobra. The uncertainty urged the young detective to get the hell out of the area while the getting was good. Blair smiled to himself. Sounds like something Dad would claim Harry had said.

  Problem was, he didn't know which way to go. Chances were too good that he'd meet Diana on the trail they'd taken to the cabin. With both her gun and his, the odds were in Diana's favor that she'd retake him. So which way did he go? "Where's a former Ranger sentinel when you need him?" Blair muttered under his breath.

  So Blair did what he did best. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and picked a direction.

  * * *

  Mac had quite a collection. At each twist of the path, an item of Blair's had been left in plain sight. So far, that included Blair's police badge, watch, Swiss Army knife, and keys. Mac just hoped he didn't start finding more of Blair's clothes. He didn't like the idea of his son tied up in the middle of nowhere, naked, as night approached. He didn't like Blair being under her control, period.

  Of course, he hadn't been simply following the track. He always believed in options. Or in this case, little surprises. It should slow her down if the worst happened.

  Slowing, Mac spotted a cell phone, antenna pointing up a dirt path over some rocks. Had to be Blair's. Following the procedure that was becoming routine, Mac cautiously approached as his eyes searched for any signs of traps. Seeing none, he carefully lifted the device. Mac considered turning it on, knowing that Jim's people would be trying to trace it. However, the battery was gone, so that idea was out. He should have brought his, but it was still in his jacket pocket back in the car. He tucked it into Blair's jacket along with the rest, and climbed up the steep slope.

  Once on top, Mac paused. A sweeping vista stretched before him, with not just a little deja vu. He knew without looking that he was on the edge of a cliff. This was it. He felt it in his gut.

  "So you're the great MacGyver."

  Mac turned, the drop-off to his back. "I don't know about great, but the name's MacGyver." The woman before him did look a lot like Deborah. She was slightly shorter, but she had the same curly hair and facial features. The biggest difference was the eyes. While he'd seen Deborah's eyes turn cold, this young woman's were harder, meaner. She hated. The gun in her hands didn't look too promising, either. "Where's Blair?"

  "Oh, he's tucked away." A sly smile slipped across her face. "I was hoping to get some good sex out of him. I can tell he'd be fun in bed. But I'm afraid he's not going to like me much after I finish Deborah's business with you."

  "And what would that be?"

  "Killing you, you stupid bastard." Mac held his breath as she continued to aim the gun at him.

  Then she paused. "You know, after all this, you're a bit of a disappointment. I can't see why Deborah didn't just off you as soon as she got out of prison."

  Standing still, watching the gun and the eyes, Mac softly replied, "Actually, I asked her the same thing."

  "Oh, really? I'm surprised she'd even take the time to talk to you. I can't see how you'd be so worthy of her attention."

  "Do you want to know why?"

  "I know why! She hated you because you put her in prison!"

  "No, that wasn't it. In fact, she told me that I was her only assignment she couldn't find anything to hate."

  "Couldn't find anything to hate? Nothing? She must not have looked very deep."

  "Yes, she did. In some ways, she knew me better than I knew myself. She knew I'd fall in love with her. She just didn't expect to have feelings for me in return. She said she had to find out if she could feel those emotions, and still kill me."

  "So why did you push her over the cliff? Because she wasn't who you thought she was?"

  "I didn't push her. She tripped during the struggle for the gun and fell over. I tried to save her, but I couldn't." For the first time, Mac truly believed he couldn't have saved Deborah. The question was what to do about her look-a-like.

  "I don't believe you!"

  A voice from the right quietly stated, "I do."

  "You got out?" the woman gasped. Unfortunately, she only shifted position slightly, still holding the gun steady on Mac.

  Mac spared a quick glance. It was Blair. His face was slightly pale, and bits of his hair had managed to escape its leather tie and curl around his face, but otherwise his son looked fine. Mac wanted to hug him, but there was still the matter of the woman with the gun.

  "Oh yeah. Took me a while, but I finally managed it. Guess you could say I'm like my Dad that way." Blair eased forward a step. "You don't have to do this, Diana. Let it die here."

  "The only thing that's going to die here," Diana growled, "is your father!"

  "Come on, Diana." Blair took another step closer, placing himself roughly equal distance between his father and the woman. "Let it go. Leave now, and we'll call it even."

  "Even?" Diana echoed. Her hand slipped into her pocket. "My sister is dead because of him. How could it ever be 'even'? It won't be even until he dies!"

  Blair suddenly stared at her hand. Mac could see he had made a connection that Mac hadn't yet. "DAD! Move!"

  As Blair threw himself at Mac, a small rumble shook the ground beneath them. Rocks crumbled under his feet as Blair reached him. They both fell.

  * * *

  Jim parked his truck next to Amanda's SUV. There was barely enough room for the three vehicles. He didn't know where the rest of the rescue team, ten minutes behind him, were going to park. He really didn't care. His partner and Mac were what mattered.

  With Jack O'Neill close behind, Jim walked up to where Sam and Cory were studying a large rock at the trail intersection. "Anything?" Jack asked.

  "Looks like something was laying on this rock," Sam pointed out. "And that looks like Dad's boots."

  "What about the tracker?" Jim asked.

  Cory held up Mac's jacket. "I put it on the collar. Mac must have gotten too warm or something, because we found it in the car."

  "With his cell phone," Sam grumbled. Jim could see his fear rising with each moment, much like Jim's own.

  "So let's follow the boot prints," Jack declared.

  Jim lifted up his hand as he sniffed the air like a hunting hound. The other three looked at him curiously. "We don't need to follow the prints. I smell Stinky Diana's perfume."

  "Perfume?" Jack questioned, sniffing the air himself.

  Cory's eyebrows wrinkled along with his nose. "That's perfume?"

  "Yep. And it'll lead us right to her." Jim started walking, following the scent.

  Cory fell in step behind him. "You mean, she wants to smell like that?"

  Sam patted his shoulder as he slipped between the two sentinels. "I don't care what she smells like, as long as we can find her."

  They quietly walked single file, senses alert for any danger. Jim and Cory suddenly stopped, staring at each other. "Was that an explosion?" Cory asked, worried.

  "Maybe," Jim replied. "Let's pick up the pace." They walked another quarter mile when Cory softly called a halt. "Jim, do you hear that?"

  "Sounds like a woman in trouble."

  Sam smirked, "Or maybe a woman who's discovered Dad can be nearly as sneaky as Cory."

  Following the noise, Jim led them to a spot in the trees. A woman was swinging upside down, two feet above the ground, ankle caught in a vine. Sam's grin had a nasty edge to it. "Definitely Dad's handiwork." Then he shouted, "Where's MacGyver?"

  "Go... To... Hell!" She screamed back as she swung.


  "Where's Blair!" Jim shouted.

  "Hell, where you should be!"

  Suddenly, she fell to the ground hard. Before she could sit up, Jack was there, pointing his gun at her head. "They asked, rather nicely, where are Blair and MacGyver?"

  She glared at him.

  Jack calmly shot. The bullet flew by her ear as Jack re-aimed at her head. "I'm not going to ask again."

  Hazel eyes stared at the cold brown ones. Diana gulped. "At the bottom of Morry Point. Up there." She waved her hand up the path.

  Sam felt his stomach fall out. "Oh God, no." He raced towards the cliff, Jim and Cory on his heels.

  Jack stared hard at the woman, fighting his own despair. "They better be alive, or you won't live long enough to see the inside of a jail."

  * * *

  Blair stirred, then opened his eyes to see the river far, far below. He nearly had a heart attack. Shutting his eyes tight, he cautiously lifted his head enough to turn it the other direction. The view wasn't much better.

  Miraculously, they had fallen several feet to a small ledge. Mac was lying against a thick rock on the cusp, his legs entangled with Blair's. Gingerly, Blair pulled himself away from the drop-off and into a sitting position, checking for any sharp pain signaling a potentially serious injury. Finding only scrapes and bruises, Blair slid over to his father. "Dad?"

  Mac's eyes blinked open, then shut again as a deep moan escaped him.

  "Dad, where are you hurt?"

  "Collarbone," Mac hoarsely replied. "Probably broke."

  Blair quietly swore. That meant Mac was not only in a lot of pain, but any movement would be difficult. He looked up. The broken rocks above them displayed the recent violence, the face nearly vertical. The only reason they survived was the ledge and that Blair had pushed them out of the path of falling rocks. A good rock climber could probably make it up. Unfortunately, Blair was too scared of heights to try any rock climbing.