Hell Sibling (MacGyver FF) HS1 UNDER REVISION

Part 6-Firebird Part 2

A/N: Another kind of short chapter, I promise that the next one will be longer.

Riley

"Mac seems so...tense...that's not like him at all." The thought crossed Riley's mind as she followed Mac back to the War Room, where Matty would be waiting on their report.

"Mac?" She said in a cautious tone.

Mac stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"You know you can always talk to me right?" she told him, offering the same words he'd given her time and time again.

He nodded in response. "I know."

"So why all the tension?"

They paused outside the War Room door, and Mac dropped his head in a sheepish manner before looking at her, his eyes dark and vulnerable. "I feel responsible for all the people she hurt. After all, it was all in my name."

Riley's heart lurched for her friend. She should have known. Mac was, in short, a bleeding heart, and the way he experienced emotions, she knew, was like no other. This was one of those moments when he played with his tendency to take on the burdens that others bore.

"That doesn't make it your fault though." She tried.

Mac shrugged. "That's what Cage said as well. But I can't help feeling guilty."

Riley nodded in understanding. She was no stranger to those feelings either. "I get that. When Jack left, I blamed myself for it. My mom told me I had nothing to do with it, but I always felt as though a part of it was my fault."

"I'm glad at least someone understands." He said, flashing her a friendly smile.

She returned the expression, before entering the open space.

"She wouldn't give us anything." Riley answered Matty's questioning stare.

The sharp-eyed woman sighed. "She's a stubborn one. But regardless, if we don't find these people, we're in real trouble. Riley, is there anything you can do?"

Before the request was even out of her mouth, Riley was already typing away. "I'm already on it."

Trying every key and code she knew, the young analyst searched and searched, but came up empty handed. "Nothing."

An annoyed look passed over Matty's features, causing Riley to bite her lip out of nervous tendency. She wracked her brain for even the slightest scrap of an idea before one came to her brain.

"Wait. You still have her cell phone right?"

Mac nodded. "Yeah."

"I might be able to use that to get something."

"Riley you're a genius, why didn't we think of this earlier?" He asked, handing her the small device.

"I guess you're just not as cool as I am." She countered, plugging the device into her laptop.

Hitting a few keys, the phone screen appeared on her desktop.

Riley clicked through a few things until she reached Sofia's messages.

"It seems like the last message she sent was...19-15-19."

"19-15-19?" Matty sounded intrigued, yet utterly confused.

"The hell does that mean?" Jack carried on.

Riley watched Mac's brows furrow together as he did the math.

"19-15-19." He started. "It's an odd combination, but it sounds to me like a numeric letter combination."

"Mac, English please." Jack reasoned.

"Numeric alphabetic code. It seems so simple, that it's easily overlooked. Think of it this way, you replace each letter in the alphabet with its respective number of order instead."

Mac hadn't even gotten to his point yet, but Riley could see Cage's face beginning to pale as if she knew the answer.

"SOS." She breathed.

Jack shook his head. "I'm not following how you came to that conclusion."

Riley's eyes widened with realization as to what Cage was implying, and immediately she began searching for the time the message had been sent.

2:05.

Panicking now, she glanced down at her watch.

2:07.

"They're coming for her."

Sofia

Sofia lifted her head at the sound of the door reopening.

The dark haired woman, Riley, reappeared along with Samantha. RIley looked furious, while Samanthat just seemed frightened.

Sofia leaned back in her chair. "So you finally figured me out did you?"

Riley growled at her, "Listen closely. You've caused enough trouble for one day. Tell us where it is, or my friend's fist is going to have a nice chat with your face!"

"Where what is?" Sofia batted her eyelashes like an innocent twelve-year-old

The older gripped the edge of the table as if to keep herself from flying across it. "You know very well what I'm talking about."

Sofia decided that she quite enjoyed making Riley tick. "I'll never tell."

Rolling her eyes, Riley rounded the table and searched Sofia herself, finally discovering what she'd failed to before.

Passing it off to Samantha, she shot her one last glare, and the two women exited in a hurry.

Sofia leaned back and smiled. All there was left to do, was wait.

End of Part 6