“Hey Mac, how’d it go?” Jack took his feet off MacGyver’s coffee table and brushed cake crumbs off himself and onto the floor.

“OK, I guess.” MacGyver limped over to the couch, still not trusting all his weight to his recently mended ankle. “Hospital says I’m just about mended and to take it easy for a bit, but I should be fine.”

“Well, that’s good. Isn’t it?” Jack frowned at MacGyver’s expression. “Why the long face, Kemosabe?”

“Yeah, it is.” MacGyver ran a hand through his hair. “But we’re real close to Atlas’s deadline, and we still don’t have enough to go on to take them down.” He sighed. “Jack, I can’t fail on this one. I can’t.” He shook his head.

“So, let me help.” Jack sat forward on the edge of the couch. “I’m kinda between jobs here at the moment ‘cause the plane is at a um… tricky stage and I’m waiting for Lenny the Wrench to -“ He frowned as MacGyver’s eyebrows shot towards his hairline. “What?”

“Your mechanic is called ‘Lenny the Wrench’? Nobody has a name like-“. MacGyver stopped and shook his head. “You know what? Never mind. Yes, Jack – I’ll take any help I can get, thank you.”

“OK, cool.” Jack grinned. “So, where are you at with Atlas? Last I heard, they definitely had the upper hand. Have the brainiacs at Phoenix got the lowdown on the lowlifes?” He rubbed his hands together, looking eager to help.

“Some of it.” MacGyver took the last slice of cake off Jack’s plate and propped his foot on the table. “We’re sure Atlas is headed up by a guy called Carmichael, a millionaire who’s masquerading as a philanthropist. Or he might actually be a philanthropist and we could be chasing his evil identical twin.” MacGyver glanced at Jack. “Because he does have an identical twin, and although we bugged them both, only one of the bugs is still working and we have no way to tell which.”

“Woah, amigo…” Jack took off his hat and scratched his head. “Really no way to tell them apart?”

“Nope.” MacGyver shifted his leg which was beginning to ache. “They’re creepy-identical. They sound the same, they use the same words and have the same mannerisms, and they both have offices here in L.A., though Troy Carmichael is based in New York. The other one, Tristan lives here in California.” He shook his head. “So, we can’t even track the location of the bug, because they have offices really close together and they’re both in the city at the moment.”

“Huh.” Jack reached for the cake plate, looking disappointed as MacGyver bit into the last slice. “So, where do we start?”

“I go back into Phoenix tomorrow morning and see if they’ve come up with anything new.” MacGyver shrugged. “I really hope they have…”

“Hi Helen,” MacGyver smiled back. “It’s good to be here. Is anyone else in yet?”

“Nikki just got in. Willis is out this morning and I haven’t seen Seeley yet.” Helen handed MacGyver a pile of files. “All yours!”

MacGyver took the files back to his office and put them on his desk. He stood in front of the notice board, staring at the photos pinned there. Since he’d last been there, there were some new notes in Seeley’s neat handwriting. Now Hawkins was linked to Camp Parks with an arrow marked ‘Wilkes bought parts through Hawkins’, and a note under the large letter C in the centre, reading ‘2xC – hate each other!’. MacGyver turned, hearing footsteps behind him.

“Morning, hop-along!” Seeley grinned at MacGyver. “You’re looking better. Have a good rest?”

“Kind of…” MacGyver grinned back. “I’m not sure how much resting I did, but I’m feeling much better, and ready to take on these guys!” He pointed at the noticeboard.

“Sounds good.” Seeley put his hands in his pockets and stared at the board too. “We’ve made some progress, as you see.”

“Yeah.” MacGyver shifted his weight off his bad ankle. “So, the Carmichael twins hate each other?”

“Oh, so much!” Seeley shook his head. “Whichever twin we’ve still got bugged has some very vitriolic things to say about the other!”

“Are they still in L.A.?” MacGyver folded his arms, staring at the board.

“Mm, as far as we can tell.” Seeley reached out and straightened a crooked photograph. “So, we still don’t know which one we have. My guess is Tristan – he lives in L.A. full time and in the conversations we’ve got, our mystery twin sounds very much at home.” He shrugged. “Nothing conclusive, just a hunch.”

“OK, so Hawkins links to CSM Wilkes, and Wilkes to the Carmichaels.” MacGyver traced the links with his finger. “Carmichael’s name was in Wilkes’ computer. Dr Gregory links to them because Carmichael funded Atlas’s superbug project at Wellforce.”

“Correct.” Seeley pointed to Gunther Schmidt. “Your reformed Nazi links to them because he was trying to bring down the new Atlas Project.”

“And Carmichael set Klaus Muller on me.” MacGyver frowned. “The sniper I caught – if only briefly – fitted the description for Olga Schneider too.”

Seeley nodded. “Yeah, they’re all definitely linked.”

“So that leaves Phoenix’s Marcus Davidson and Sundance’s mystery boss.” MacGyver leaned on the edge of the desk. “Davidson was at school with the Carmichael twins.”

Seeley reached behind himself, picked up a college yearbook and flipped through the pages. “Here.” A young Marcus Davidson smiled up off the page, his photo near to those of the Carmichael twins, sporting identical braces and slicked-back haircuts.

“They were in the same fraternity too.” MacGyver touched the information printed under the image.

“So they were,” Seeley turned his head to read. “Looks more and more like Tristan’s our guy.”

“Maybe.” MacGyver frowned. “It does make it more likely that Davidson was feeding information to one or both of them about projects at Phoenix they might want to back.” He stared at the yearbook. “Do we know which one he was friends with? If they hated each other back then too, I don’t reckon he would have been friends with both.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Seeley flipped through the book. “Davidson overlaps with both of them as far as clubs and societies go, but more so with Tristan.” He shut the book. “My money’s on Tristan being the man.”

“So that just leaves Sundance’s boss.” MacGyver got off the desk and paced the length of the room. “How does he fit in?”

“You got me.” Seeley shook his head. “Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe we’re reading too much into a two-bit gangster trying to talk a good fight.”

“I dunno.” MacGyver shoved his hands into his pockets. “I don’t like loose ends, and I reckon he’s linked in somehow…” He shook his head. “I’m just not sure how. Yet.” He turned and headed for the door. “I’m going to go and see how Willis is doing.”

“Hey Willis, looks interesting…” MacGyver crouched down, his eyes level with the bubbling flask.

“Yeah, it is. I’m analysing some mystery goop one of our teams pulled out of the –“ He broke off, pressing a hand to his headphones, then spinning around and hurrying back to the computer. “Never mind that – I think we’re finally going to find out which Carmichael twin we’ve been listening to!”