10

"Colonel, how we gonna find where they're holdin' Amy and her brother?" Murdock asked as they left the house.

"Gavin's got to be holding them somewhere on his property," Hannibal said. "It shouldn't take us too long to search it."

"What's the plan, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.

Hannibal gave a devious grin. "I have a little scheme in mind…But we have to find them first."

Murdock was staring out at the driveway. "Hey, Colonel, am I the only one who sees that horse comin' towards us?"

The others followed Murdock's gaze and saw Samson, saddled and bridled, cantering up the driveway. Murdock jogged over to meet him. "Hey, buddy, how'dja get out of the barn?" He looked at Hannibal. "D'you think maybe Amy could've ridden him over to Gavin's place?"

"It's a definite possibility," Hannibal said.

Murdock looked excited. "Colonel, d'you think he could take us to where Amy is?"

"You gotta be kiddin', Murdock," B.A. said. "A horse can't take us to where they're keepin' Amy. He's just a dumb horse!"

"Horses are very intelligent," Murdock said stiffly, rubbing Samson's nose. "He knew how to find his way home, didn't he?" He looked imploringly at Hannibal. "C'mon, Colonel, I know it'll work. I can ride Samson and you follow us."

Hannibal looked hesitant, but intrigued. Finally he said, "All right, Murdock. We'll get the guns and follow you on foot." Lighting a cigar, he said, "Let's get going, guys."

Murdock grinned and climbed into the saddle. "This is gonna be great. Samson and I make great partners. Just you wait, Colonel, he'll take us to Amy in a jiffy."

B.A. grumbled something about Murdock being a mudsucker on the jazz, but Hannibal was getting the machine guns and didn't hear him, and Face was so distracted he was only half-listening. He was too busy worrying about Amy. If she'd been hurt…

Hannibal tossed each of them a gun. "Move out, men. Lead the way, Captain."

Murdock gave a shout and touched his heels to Samson's side. "Let's go, boy!"

Samson began trotted slowly down the driveway, the others following him. Face gripped the barrel of his gun tensely. He was eager to get his hands on Gavin, and even more eager to get his hands on Jonas and Sickle. Just hang on, Amy, he thought. I'm coming.

Amy sat in the corner with Nicky on her lap. She tried to keep Nicky from looking at her bleeding nose and split lip – Sickle had given her a good working over, but she didn't want Nicky worrying about her. Anyway, she'd gotten quite a few good shots in herself. Sickle would be walking sore for a week after what she'd done with her knee, and he had double black-eyes forming on either side of his face.

"Amy, what're they gonna do to us?" Nicky whispered.

"Hey, don't worry, honey," Amy whispered back. "The A-Team is going to come get us, I promise."

"How will they know where we are?"

"They were in the army, Nicky, they know how to find people," Amy said with more conviction than she felt. She honestly didn't know how the Team would find them, but she had confidence that they would.

Jonas, Sickle, and a couple other goons were at the table playing poker, while Gavin sat in an easy chair in the corner, smoking a cigarette. He looked quite pleased with himself.

Suddenly the sound of machine guns came from outside. Everyone in the cabin jumped to their feet. "What the…?" Gavin went to the window. "What the hell is that?"

"We'll go check it out, boss," Jonas said as he and Sickle grabbed their pistols. "Probably those clowns who crashed into Lloyd's today."

Amy smiled to herself.

"Well, take care of them. If they don't leave we'll start roughing up their little pals here." He pulled a stool up to where Amy was sitting and took a switchblade out of his pocket. Amy instinctively positioned herself between Nicky and Gavin.

Yelling and gunshots came from outside. Sickle's voice, shouting something unintelligible. More gunshots.

After several minutes of this, it became apparent that the guys weren't leaving. Gavin exhaled impatiently and stood up. "Looks like they need some visual motivation," he said. "Come on, missie. You and your brother are coming outside with me."

Knife pressed to Amy's neck, he dragged them out of the hut. "All right, you bozos!" he yelled. "Drop your guns now or your lady friend here starts bleeding."

Amy saw Hannibal, B.A., and Face standing at the edge of the trees. Murdock was conspicuously absent. She tried to appear unafraid – she didn't want them knowing how scared she was – but it was hard to act confident with a knife against her neck.

"Drop 'em!"

Hannibal and B.A. complied. Face appeared to have completely frozen – even from a distance, Amy could see every muscle in his body tense. His face was rigid, his gun clutched tightly in his hands.

Gavin's grip on the knife tightened, and Amy felt the tip just start to pierce her skin. She pulled backwards, and that visual cue was enough to make Face drop his gun.

"You okay, kid?" Hannibal called.

"Never been better," Amy said, voice shaking a little. "What brings you guys here?"

"Shut up," Gavin said. He looked at the Team. "I know you guys heard what I told Allen. Why didn't you leave town?"

"We don't leave team members behind," Hannibal said.

"Pretty stupid of you, I'd say. But I'll let it slide if you leave right this second."

There was a tense moment of silence, as Hannibal considered their options. As he was about to give in, the sound of hoofbeats came from somewhere nearby.

A second later, Murdock, riding Samson and singing the William Tell overture, came bursting out through the trees, gun in hand. "The cavalry has arrived!" he yelled, firing a volley of shots at the ground in front of Jonas and Sickle's feet.

Samson reared up on his hind legs and kicked Gavin square in the face. Gavin stumbled backwards, dropping the knife. Amy grabbed it and said, "Nicky, get out of here."

The boy looked reluctant, but nodded and took off through the woods. Amy zeroed in on Sickle – after the beating she'd gotten, she was eager to pay him back in full. Tossing the knife aside, she propelled herself at the thug and landed a right hook square on his jaw.

"Why you little…" Sickle got to his feet and threw a wild blow in the direction of Amy's face, but she dodged easily. Sickle was about to launch his fist against when someone grabbed him from behind, spun him around, and landed a barrage of blows on his stomach.

Face.

As Sickle doubled over in pain, Face went immediately to Amy. "Are you okay?" he asked, his blue eyes searching hers. "Did any of them hurt you?"

"Nothing I can't handle – you guys taught me well." She looked over Face's shoulder. "Look, someone else wants to play."

Sickle was still down for the count, but Jonas was running at Face and waving a large tree branch over his head. Ducking, Face ran forward, head-butting Jonas and following up with a blow to the face.

Sickle started to get up, and Amy launched her foot at his stomach. "How does it feel when someone does it to you?" she spat.

"You're gonna pay for this, girlie," Sickle hissed, getting unsteadily to his feet. Amy smiled sweetly at him as she dodged the punch he threw at her, then grabbed the branch that Jonas had dropped and bashed Sickle over the head with it.

That put him out for good. He fell onto his back with a dazed look on his face before passing out.

Amy looked over just in time to see Face finishing up with Jonas. Beyond him, Hannibal, B.A., and Murdock had neatly taken care of the rest of Gavin and the rest of his goons.

Face looked at Sickle's unconscious form. "Not bad."

"I learned from the best." Amy went to him and embraced him tightly. "I knew you guys would show up – how did you find us?"

"Samson and Murdock," Face said into her hair.

"Samson?"

"Yeah, he came back to the farm, and Murdock got the idea to follow him back here. Gotta admit, it worked."

"What took him so long to get here?"

"Gunshots spooked Samson and he took off before Murdock could stop him."

"Well, I hadn't gotten around to the gunshot-toleration phase of his training yet."

Face laughed, but he tightened his hold on her. "I was so worried about you. Why on Earth did you come out here?"

"Came after my brother. I knew you'd stop me so I snuck out."

"You bet I would've stopped you." He placed his hands on either side of her face and said solemnly, "Don't ever scare me like that again, okay? If anything happened to you, I'd die."

"It's a promise." She smiled and kissed him lightly.

As their lips met, they heard Murdock exclaim, "B.A.! You owe me five bucks!"