Chapter 2: Sykes

It took an hour or so to get to Angelino Heights. BA switched the radio on. The news about the escaped prisoners had already made the headlines. This prompted Hannibal to randomly ring Kami during the journey, but there was still no reply from her, making them all feel equally nervous.

Finally they reached her house. The spring flowers which had so prettily adorned the garden when they first met the Wilsons, were replaced with summer marigolds, pansies and blooming roses. The place had a warm, welcome look about it and each member of the team felt like this was somewhere they could always call home.

As BA drove up the drive, they noticed that there was already a car parked, slightly skewwhiff, outside the house.

"That's not Kami's car, is it?" asked Hannibal, frowning slightly as he tried to recall the model of her car.

"I don't think so," answered Face. "But whoever it is, they sure seemed to be in a hurry to park up." He was making reference to the rather abandoned way the car had been left.

The team got out of the van, Hannibal instinctively arming himself with his Smith and Wesson. As they walked up the drive a man came wandering out of the house, stopping abruptly when he saw the four men approaching, a startled expression spreading over his face.

"Hello friend," said Hannibal, eyeing him up warily. There was certainly something very shifty-looking about him.

The man grunted a hello back, fiddling uncomfortably with his shirt collar, which looked at least two sizes too small for him.

"You here to visit Kami?" asked Murdock, also feeling rather uneasy about the way the man was behaving.

The man just stared back at Murdock, a slight trace of panic appearing in his eyes. BA shook his fist at him, impatiently.

"The man asked you a question, sucker!" he barked out irritably.

The man suddenly tried to make a dash back into the house, but he wasn't going to get away from BA, who caught him easily and then floored him with one single punch. Hannibal stood over him and pulled him up by his shirt.

The man cried out in pain. Hannibal noticed that there was blood seeping through a very badly-dressed bandage, staining his shirt. It looked like he had a nasty chest wound. Hannibal pulled out his gun and pointed it directly at the man.

"You better start talking fast!" he growled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Look, I didn't want get involved in this shit," stammered the man. "I didn't know he was going to come here to ….… he said she was his girlfriend and that she would help us."

Hannibal and BA looked at the man in shock, as they realised he must be one of the escaped prisoners. Face and Murdock were already running towards the house. BA hauled the man along with him, following Face and Murdock, with Hannibal close behind.

Murdock got to the house first and hurled himself at the door with some urgency. Luckily, the door was only half-closed and burst open behind Murdock's weight. He and Face rushed into the hall and heard screams coming from the living room.

They sprinted quickly into the room to find Kami wrestling with Sykes. He had pinned her down on the sofa and was desperately trying to overpower her as she thrashed wildly back at him, frantically trying to ward off his advances.

They must have been struggling for quite some time. Sykes had scratch marks down the side of his face and a bloody nose. Kami's lip was bleeding and her blouse was torn where Sykes had tried to rip it open.

He was shaking her violently in an attempt to stop her from retaliating. He then started to tug at her skirt, trying to pull it down past her hips. He looked up impulsively when he heard the unexpected arrival of footsteps coming into the room. The surprised look on his face quickly changed to anger when he saw his former enemies approaching. Hannibal stepped forward and pointed his gun at him.

"Give it up, Sykes!" he yelled.

But Sykes was in no mood to give up that easily. He jumped up from the sofa, dragging Kami up in front of him, at the same time picking up what looked like a kitchen knife from the nearby coffee table. He positioned it dangerously close to Kami's throat.

"Don't think I won't do it, Smith!" he threatened, his eyes darting madly back and forth around the room.

Hannibal hesitated and the rest of the team froze on the spot. Sykes continued to hold the knife at Kami's throat.

"Get the gun, Travis," ordered Sykes to the other prisoner. Travis was still being held by BA, who reluctantly let him go. Travis quickly disarmed Hannibal and told the team to get back and sit down by the wall. They did as they were told, not wanting Kami to get hurt if they didn't comply.

Travis began to back-track towards the living room door, cautiously keeping the team in sight.

"Come on Sykes," he said. "Let's get out of here." He was panting slightly as he put his hand over his chest. Hannibal guessed his injury was probably a result of getting caught up in the gas explosion and was clearly causing him some discomfort.

Sykes gave Hannibal an ugly smirk. "I think we better take some insurance with us," he said, running his free hand down over the curves of Kami's body.

The team looked on in horror as they watched Sykes dragging Kami along with him. He was still holding the knife at her throat and she had no choice but to go with him. She stumbled over her feet as Sykes pulled her along and he gave her some slack by lowering the knife slightly away from her throat.

Now that the pressure of having the knife directed at her throat was gone, Kami knew this was probably the only chance she would have to escape. She stopped in her tracks, causing Sykes to unexpectedly bump into her and then she forcibly pushed her weight against him so that the two of them fell backwards on to the floor, crashing heavily against the wall unit.

They both put their hands up to cover their heads as some of the contents on the shelves fell down on top of them. Kami took her chance and stood up quickly, ready to make a run for it. But Sykes was also surprising quick to get back on his feet and lunged at Kami with the knife. The blade just caught the top of her right shoulder, cutting through her skin, making her scream loudly in pain.

Hannibal made a move to leap forward and help Kami, but Travis immediately shot a couple of well-placed bullets at his feet as a warning not to move. He then started to back out of the room, yelling at Sykes in exasperation.

"You can do what you want, Sykes," he said. "But I'm getting out of here - now!"

Sykes had caught Kami up, but looked back at Travis nervously when he realised he was going to leave him if he didn't come. He didn't fancy his chances of being left alone with the A-Team without any shooting power. He twirled Kami around so she was facing him, bringing his face right up to her's in a menacing manner.

"This ain't over yet, Pretty Lady!" he sneered. And with that he slammed Kami roughly against the wall and then pushed her away from him, causing her to tumble to the floor. She rolled over a couple of times and then came to a stop, remaining motionless where she lay.