Part XII
Nothing else happened in the way of sleep that night as the A-Team, finally united again, pooled their talents. Annie kept sandwiches ready and a pot of coffee going. She also gave them the key to the small workshop that used to be her brother's with permission to use anything they wanted. B.A.'s eyes had practically glittered at the sight of what he had to work with. He really wished he'd met Jimmy then - he seemed like a man after his own heart.
Murdock was still limited with what he was able to do, but he and Dawn were practically giggling in one corner as they worked on the project the Colonel had given them. Face and Hannibal made multiple quiet trips down to the road and back, making little changes to the jeeps parked there as well as rigging Decker's car with the gear that B.A. was putting together for them as quickly as he could. This plan was, like all of Hannibal's plans, a bit out there. It was also going to be all or nothing. Face gave a small smile that he kept hidden when he saw Annie give B.A a kiss for luck.
It was an hour before dawn and Decker's squad was getting prepared to get in formation to move toward the house when a shout startled them all.
"Alright, men! Let's light up this place."
"Smith!"
The name had barely gotten out of Decker's mouth when a pair of explosions went off. One took put a section of fencing and another took out one of the squad jeeps. Men dove for cover in the confusion as a loud rumbling started.
It was hard to see exactly what the machine was in the little light that was present, but it looked like some cobbled combination of farm tractor and bulldozer. It broke through the area when the explosives had mangled the fencing and began to head down the road.
Pursuit quickly proved not to be an option as small charges went off on the remaining vehicles, exploding the tire. Decker's screaming was near incoherant by this point. Captain Crane had out his field glasses, trying to focus on the moving vehicle in the dim light.
"I can't make out faces, Colonel, but there are four men with that vehicle."
"Fire on it! Don't let them get away!"
Before Captain Crane could speak up to remind him about Murdock, several automatic weapons opened fire and ripped into the Frankensteinish contraption. The explosion that ripped through the early morning quiet shocked them all as it erupted into a fireball.
Facing the fire and moving up a little closer to it, Decker's face was a look of near contentment - for about 30 seconds. Then he wheeled around and screamed at Crane.
"Dammit, Crane! Why didn't you remind me that we needed to extract Captain Murdock first?"
