Uninvited
Guest
By
Rocket
Episode
8.16: Part Three
“So
let me get this straight” MacGyver pulled up a chair
and sat next to Willis at the computer, “You were
in here, getting a disk, you looked up and you saw the
Alien on the ceiling…”
“NO! Well, for a moment I thought I did,”
Willis blushed, “I looked around and I saw the airshaft
move, it dipped down just there and just went straight
again, that’s when I went to find Randy.”
“Okay,” MacGyver reached forwards and tapped
a key, advancing the security footage in slow motion,
“If there was anyone in here, they should be showing
up right about…Now.”
They watched in silence as the camera panned right and
left, juddering at the left hand end of each pass.
“What is up with that camera anyway? It should go
further round than that – the whole of the far corner
is missing from the sweep.” MacGyver blinked at
the screen, he dragged his chair across the room and stood
on it, examining the camera. He pulled out a wire and
an alarm shrilled, “DAMN.” MacGyver plugged
the wire back In, but the alarm continued to sound.
Behind him, Willis shook his head and picked up the telephone.
“Yeah, Carl, it’s Willis, in the server room.”
He listened and nodded, “Yeah, MacGyver unplugged
the camera…” He looked over at MacGyver who
shrugged, mouthing the word “Sorry” from his
perch.
Willis turned back to the phone, “I know, right?
Do you think you could isolate this camera from the system?
We want to check it out.” He listened again and
smiled, “That’d be great, thanks.” He
spun around on this chair, “We got half an hour,
they don’t want it off any longer than that, apparently
it makes them glitchy.” He shrugged.
“Glitchy, Right…” MacGyver reached up
and unplugged the camera again, he took out his swiss
army knife to loosen the cameras screws and paused, squinting
at the back of the camera, “Willis? Either the security
guys are getting really sloppy, or someone’s been
messing with this camera.” He removed the camera
from the bracket, hopped off the chair and turned the
camera in his hands, looking at a bright new scratch on
the casing. He opened his swiss army knife and tested
the screwdriver against the scratch, frowning at the fit.
“I think we should have a proper look at this, if
someone has tampered with the camera, chances are they’ve
tampered with the footage as well.”
MacGyver’s face was grim as he put the camera down
next to Willis and then went to tell Pete.
* * * *
.
7716BB3, carrying a stack of files, walked unnoticed through
Phoenix’s upper levels. It was amazing how far a
white coat and confidence could get you, he thought. He
nodded his thanks as another tech held the door open for
him and walked briskly down the length of the lab. As
soon as the door swung closed behind him, he put the files
on the bench and headed for the chemical storage room,
scooping up a lighter and a couple of pens as he went.
Mind
racing, he weighed up the choices available to him.
Inducing a heart
attack and making it look natural was a delicate business,
even when you have the right chemicals.
This
situation, with the resources available to him and the
last minute change to his original plans, was far from
ideal.
7716BB3 thought hard and then made his choice.
* * * *
“So that’s it.” MacGyver ran a hand
through his hair and sighed in frustration, “Willis
is pretty sure he saw something, but the camera footage
checks out, and we couldn’t find anything wrong
when we swept the building last night. The server room
camera’s damaged, but it could just be heavy handed
maintenance, there’s nothing that definitely indicates
sabotage. Willis is going through the footage again, just
in case it’s been tampered with, but really, coffee
fuelled paranoia is the most convincing theory right now.”
“Hmmm,” Pete drummed his fingers on the desk,
“While I’d really like it to be coffee fuelled
paranoia, because that would mean there wasn’t a
problem, let’s be on the safe side.” Pete
reached for his own coffee and took a sip, “Check
the logs on every computer, get everyone to take inventory,
just in case your drawings aren’t the only things
that are missing, and get me the results in an hour, Okay?”
“Okay Pete,” MacGyver nodded and headed for
the door.
* * * *
7716BB3 locked himself into a bathroom on the top floor
of the Phoenix Building and unloaded his pockets on to
the toilet lid. He mixed and measured chemicals, added
a small quantity of disinfectant and held his concoction
up to the light. He knew that Thornton liked his coffee
strong and hoped it would hide the smell of the poison
he’d made. Leaving his labcoat hidden in the bin
and flushing the leftover chemicals away, he pocketed
the vial of poison and walked back out into the corridor.
* * * *
“Mac, we’ve got a problem,” Willis skidded
to a halt in front of MacGyver’s desk, “Someone
HAS been here, they looped the camera footage and they’ve
been all over in the computer files.” He swore and
spun away to pace the small room.
“How did we not see this? How did we not realise
we’d been hacked?” MacGyver glanced down as
his computer beeped, showing the department heads’
results of the building-wide inventory arriving in his
email.
“Because this hacker is really, really good,”
Willis looked down as he realised the depth of the problems
they were having. “They’ve got into the security
cameras, the email, the lights...” He tailed off,
shaking his head.
“Could they still be in the building?” MacGyver
watched as Willis shrugged.
“I dunno, maybe, If we can’t trust the security
footage, how would we know if they’ve left?”
He buried his head in his hands, “What a mess.”
“Right,” MacGyver reached out and opened the
email, “Go and tell Pete, we’ll need to lock
the building down straight away, I’ll see if our
uninvited guest has had his hands on anything else.”
* * * *
The trick to getting away with anything was looking as
if you were meant to be there. The “Lab Tech”
walked into the break room and helped himself to a mug
of coffee. He slid the vial out of his pocket and added
the contents to the mug, pushed the vial well down into
the bin and walked out with his deadly brew in hand without
arousing the suspicion of the lone employee in the corner.
* * * *
MacGyver
frowned at the list on his screen, some electrical components
were missing along with his technical drawings, some office
supplies and some bottles from the chemicals store. He
sat back, deep in thought. The computer system had been
extensively hacked and the hacker was indeed very clever,
able to hide exactly what they had been doing. They’d
been in the email and the security cameras too.
MacGyver’s
eyes flicked back to the list, what would someone want
with the missing items?
What could MacGyver do with them…?
He read through the list of chemicals again, then his
eyes widened and he leapt up, overturning his chair as
he raced out of the office.
* * * *
“Your coffee, Mr Thornton,” The voice was
quiet, unfamiliar.
“Thank you,” Pete got up to close his door,
a little on his guard at the voice. Light footsteps and
a movement in the air told him his visitor was leaving.
He reached out, grabbing an arm and a soft handful of
fabric, but the visitor pulled out of his grasp and was
gone, “HELEN!” Pete shouted through the open
door, hearing the light steps walking away fast, “HELEN!”
.
But the outer office was empty, his secretary busy at
the photocopier…
“COMING THROUGH!” MacGyver pounded up the
steps. Phoenix employees flattened themselves against
the wall as he came racing along the corridor. MacGyver
collided with a slim Chinese man as he rounded the corner,
not pausing in his rush. He skidded into Pete’s
office just as Pete stepped into the doorway.
“MacGyver, just the person, I think…”
Pete stopped abruptly as MacGyver grabbed him by both
shoulders.
“Pete, tell me you haven’t eaten or drunk
anything from here today…” MacGyver asked.
“I…No, but I think I just met our spy…
He was just here, I didn’t recognise the voice,
and I know everyone who works here,” Pete nodded.
“Pete, what was he doing here…” MacGyver
looked around the room, “How long was he in here…?”
“Only a minute, MacGyver, the building is on lockdown,
he’s not going anywhere,” Pete straightened
his jacket as MacGyver let go, “He brought me a
coffee, but I didn’t drink any, I was suspicious
the moment I heard his voice.”
“Good…” MacGyver picked up the mug and
sniffed, pulling a face at the smell, “Don’t
- we’re missing some chemicals and I think I just
found them.”
“Damn…” Pete felt his way around his
desk and sat down, “What would have happened if
I’d drunk it…?”
“Nothing good, “MacGyver set the mug down
on a cupboard, “Probably a heart attack, there’s
nasty stuff in there. He’s clever, whoever he is,
resourceful too.”
“It’s like we’re up against the evil
version of you,” Pete shuddered, “Now that’s
a very scary idea.”
“What do we know about him,“ MacGyver crossed
to the window, “We know he’s a good hacker
and a chemist, that he’s good at staying undetected
and he’s reporting to someone else.”
“How do we know that…?” Pete turned
to follow MacGyver’s voice.
“Because he sent a couple of emails. We don’t
know what was in them, he’s deleted them so it’ll
take a while to recover the content, but he’s definitely
sent something.” MacGyver frowned, “Now we
also know that he’s okay with murder, so he’s
likely armed.”
Pete sat back, his face mirroring MacGyver’s frown,
“At least we have a description of him, of sorts
anyhow.”
“We do?” MacGyver looked interested, “How?”
“Well, while being blind has some very definite
disadvantages,” Pete smiled thinly, “It has
taught me to pay attention in other ways. For example,
our spy is a man who speaks English with a Chinese accent,
he’s slender - his arm was narrow where I grabbed
him, he’s about my height - his elbow was at the
same height as mine, and he’s wearing a loose fitting
wool sweater.”
“Pete, you’re a wonder!” MacGyver’s
grin quickly turned to a frown, “I might literally
have just bumped into him just now, I ran right into a
guy who fits that description on the way up here.”
“Okay! Now we just need a plan to catch him.”
Pete rubbed his hands together.
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