Not by blood, but by fire and water

Chapter 14

The gunfire was deafening inside the warehouse, "Down!" Jack shouted, diving for cover. Mac quickly followed, not needing any persuasion.

Jack army crawled forward a few feet to peer between two crates. Mac grimaced at the streaky trail of blood he left behind.

The former Delta spotted his target looking around nervously, he drew a bead on him, took a deep breath and exhaled, then squeezed the trigger. The bad guy dropped with a thud.

It never ceased to amaze him how Jack could always pull off the shot he needed to make, even on the verge of losing consciousness, and he made it look effortless. He hadn't yet figured out if it was the training Jack received becoming a Delta or if it was just his built in tenacity.

Mac watched and waited for movement. He also inventoried everything in his immediate surroundings. A crate of M-16's, grenades, and landmines were all within arms reach.

There was no way of knowing if the other bad guy had found another weapon during the short lived gunfight.

Jack struggled to stand, beside his partner. Mac heard his grunt and bent to help pull him upright.

Just then he heard the truck door open. Sinclairs man was sliding into the passenger's side door, Mac quickly ran all the possible scenarios through his mind, if he let him escape he could bring backup and lower Jack's chances of survival to zero, if he disabled the truck they would have to rely on finding a phone or radio to call for exfil.

Mac hated ifs especially when those ifs meant the life or death of his best friend, he wanted to know all the variables so he could make the best educated decisions.

Jack fired at the man, shattering the back glass of the truck, he cried out and pitched forward.

"I just winged em', Mac. I couldn't get a clear shot." He said breathlessly.

Mac had to stop him from leaving, he couldn't risk this guy bringing backup.

Mac grabbed one of the grenades and pulled the pin. He threw it sidearm and it rolled to a stop underneath the front end of the truck, in the same moment the engine roared to life.

Jack's eyes widened, then they both ducked bringing their arms to cover their heads.

The grenade rolled directly under the engine just as the driver had put it in drive. The blast lifted the front end of the truck off the ground and blew out both of the front tires. The engine whined and came to a stop and everything was quiet.

Mac jumped to his feet and ran to the truck. He opened the driver side door and pulled the unconscious driver out, laying him on the floor. Mac looked around for something to restrain Sinclairs man.

Jack struggled to get back to his feet and used the crates next to him to pull himself up he had to watch out for Mac. He took a couple steps before he fell back to his knees. He couldn't catch his breath, it felt like he was running a marathon.

Mac found some crate ties and used them to restrain the still unconscious bad guy. With the last threat neutralized, Mac had one thing on his mind and that was to find a phone. Jack needed help fast!

Jack managed to pull himself up again, taking several steps before his legs gave out again.

Mac checked the pockets of the unconscious man and found no phone. He ran to the guy Jack shot and went through his pockets, desperately praying that this guy had a phone. Jack's life depended on it.

Mac hit pay dirt, he finally found a phone, he frantically typed the number for the Phoenix's secure line.

Jill came into the war room to tell Matty she had Macgyver on the line. "Put him through." Relief surged through her, but she kept a straight face. 'Thank God.'

Riley and Bozer stood and made their way to Matty. They both had been going crazy trying to find Mac and Jack. They anxiously waited to hear from their friends and unconsciously held their breath as Jill put Mac through.

Matty tapped the speakerphone icon so both Riley and Bozer could hear from their friend.

"Matty we need an exfil fast with a medic on board and a few bags of O negative. Jack has lost a lot of blood, he is hurt pretty bad."

Riley gasped and brought her hand over her mouth. Bozer put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Mac do you know where you are?" Matty asked, concern in her voice. She may give Jack a hard time, but she loved him like family,

"Riley, can you trace this phone to find out where we are.?" "On it, Mac." She replied already on her laptop, her fingers flying over the keys."

"I've got your location Mac, you're in the northern tip of Batman, Turkey."

Mac started making his way back to his partner.

"How long until exfil, Matty?"

"I'm working on it Mac."

"Hey man, can you tell us what happened? Bozer requested.

"Well in short, we procured the hard drive, stashed it, got ambushed at the airport, taken to the arms dealers compound, tortured, Jack was shot, killed the arms dealer and his goons, and took out another bad guy in the warehouse and have another tied up and unconscious."

"Damn" Bozer said in disbelief. They had all begun to fear the worst when they hadn't heard anything from the agents in three days. He was so relieved to hear from his best friend.

"Okay Mac I've got a chopper headed to you with a medic, they should be there in a hour."

"Alright Matty." Mac answered, wishing that they didn't have to wait an hour to get help for Jack.

He turned at the end of the aisle and picked up his pace, he heard his partner's moans and grunts.

He found Jack leaning on a crate with his head resting on top.

"How ya doing buddy?" "Peachy." Jack weakly replied.

"We've got exfil coming within the hour, hang in there, alright?" Jack nodded his affirmative.

"I'm going to leave the phone with you, while I make a comfortable place for you to lay down and rest.

"Hey Jack how are you doing?" Riley asked, concern thick in her tone.

"I've been better Ri... but I'm gonna... be okay."

Riley's heart clenched, she had never heard Jack sound so weak before, it was unsettling, Riley had seen Jack get hurt before, but he always brushed it off like it was nothing. It scared her to think she might lose him. "You make sure you make it home, okay?" She hated that her voice trembled. "Sure thing, kiddo."

Riley heard movement on the phone and then what sounded like a thud followed by a groan from Jack. "Jack! Jack please answer me! Jack!"

To be continued...