In Damascus

I.

"Black Horse Hostel, hmm? Sounds…err…interesting." Face commented. Hannibal grinned with a cigar between his teeth. They stood at a bus station, waiting for the bus to the old centre of Damascus. It wasn't that difficult to find the hostel. It was a famous place, for backpackers and other persons who opt out, to stay in Damascus.

Inside the hostel it was much fresher than outside. In the reception room some people were sitting on couches, watching TV.

Hannibal went to the counter. A young woman stood behind it.

"Hi, do you want to stay here tonight? We have doubles and dorms. Singles are full, sorry." she said and smiled.

"Oh no, we are searching somebody. Her name is Hanna Noak." Hannibal replied.

The woman examined him sceptically. "Who wants to know this?"

Face smiled his winning smile.

"My name is Templeton Peck and this is John Smith." He pointed at Hannibal.

"May Mrs. Noak know something about a very good friend of us. She is one of the kidnapped people. Her name is Amy Amanda Allen."

"Yeah, I've heard of the abduction. It's a pity. But Noak? Never heard of someone named Hanna Noak." she shrugged.

Hannibal gazed at her coolly.

"Don't make a fool of us, lady. We know for sure that Hanna Noak has a room here. She phoned with a friend of us in L.A. If you aren't willing to cooperate I will have a look at the guest list myself." he said forcefully.

Hannibal wasn't willing to show much patience.

"Oh, the reporter in L.A. is your friend?" she looked puzzled from Hannibal to Face. "What was her name? Tawnia Baker?"

"Ah… This is a good start. I see you know more than you told us." Hannibal smiled

"Sorry, I'm Hanna Noak. I can't trust everybody."

"No problem. As we said, we are friends of Amy. Tawnia said you worked together with Amy. May you know exactly what happend to her? I have to apologize for Hannibal. He is a kind man. He just didn't want to waste time, that's why he was that impatient." Face said politely.

"Hannibal?" Hanna looked puzzled at the silver haired man with the cigar and the kaki jacket.

"John Hannibal Smith, that's me. Just call me Hannibal. And this guy you can call Face. Guess you can see why he is called 'The Faceman'." Hannibal grinned and took his cigar out of his mouth.

"Ok, Hannibal, Face," she smiled at Face " I have to work, but in the evening you can come back. Then I'll answer your questions."

II.

When Hannibal and Face returned to the house of El Amid everybody in the house was exited. They could hear B.A. shouting.

"You suckers, you knocked my out! I was in an air plain! You'll pay for that!"

"Oh, oh. Sounds like B.A. is awake and he isn't in the best mood." Face said to Hannibal.

A woman came to Hannibal. She was dressed traditional with a scarf.

"You are the leader, the man with the cap said?"

"That's right. I'm Hannibal."

"Fine, I'm Sahar El Amid and you can tell your friend that I don't like such a behaviour in my house. He makes this noise since he woke up. This is a peaceful house you can tell him." The woman spoke politely and nearly without accent, but one could say that she was everything but pleased about the behaviour of his guest.

Hannibal went in direction of B.A., who aggressively stared at Murdock.

"And you crazy fool was in the cockpit? The whole time? Man, it's a wonder that we are all alive."

"B.A., I did my best to bring us here and everything you do is complaining." Murdock seemed to be disappointed. "Hannibal, tell him that's not fair."

"You are absolutely right, captain."

When B.A. saw the colonel he got even angrier. "I told you what would happen, didn't I?"

"Nah…c'mon B.A. You heard the lady, this is a peaceful house."

Hannibal and B.A. stood now nearly nose-to-nose and B.A. had drilled his ringed fist into Hannibal's breastbone.

"B.A., do nothing what you regret later."

"You are a damn idiot, Hannibal." With these words B.A. shoved Hannibal away. The sergeant had arms like trunks and Hannibal went back with a stagger and finally fell to the floor.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked while he rose to his feet.

"Ok, ok. While you guys bickered around Sahar told me that the man who kidnapped Amy where probably Palestinians." Face interfered.

"Palestinians you said? May they want to use the hostages to free some of their prisoners?" Murdock said.

"Good point Murdock." Hannibal said who rubbed his breastbone.

"But it's no use to speculate about it be for we haven't talk to Hanna Noak."

III.

The A-Team and Hanna Noak sat at the tearoom of the hostel around a desk.

The four man where listening to Hanna with great interest. They had learned that Hanna is from Germany. She was a kind of long time tourist. Now she worked at the reception of the Black Horse to get some money.

"Amy came to the Black Horse three weeks ago. I was working at the reception as always. She wished a single room, but as always all singles where full. She told my, that she just want to have some space where she can write without being disturbed. At this time I don't ask what she was writing, but I offered her to share a double room with me. I was tired of the dorms, but couldn't pay the whole rent for a double alone. She was content, because I told her I would be at work the whole day, so she could be alone in the room. Later I found out that she was a reporter. I helped her to find some people she wanted to interview. That's why she told me what she was working on. She found out that somebody who claimed to bring Palestinian refugees into the Gaza-Stripe used the poor people for forced labour. They told the people if they can't pay for the trip to Gaza they have to work for a month on a field. The refugees where content and gave themselves to these man. The problem is no one of these refugees ever reached Gaza."

"Hannibal this is slave trade of the worst kind." B.A. growled.

"Yes, but the problem is, that it didn't turn out right away, because it isn't very easy to get information out of Gaza these days. Just when some people wonder why their family and friends doesn't contact them from Gaza it turned out that they never arrived there."

"Ok, Mrs. Noak, but what has it to do with the abduction." Face asked politely. "We've heard that the kidnappers are Palestinians. That confuses me a bit."

Hanna smiled at Face and looked at the others.

"I would say Amy knows to much. I guess the others just where kidnapped for fake."

"Might be, but why kidnapping Amy. They could have killed her. That would be much easier for them." Hannibal thought loud. This was Hannibal the soldier who spoke, but John the human being was afraid that it wasn't just a tought, but reality. Hannibal knew that everyone of the Team hoped fervently that they'll find Amy healthy and alive. Of cause she was a close friend to the Team. So he had to be strong, not showing how worried he was.

"Might be." Hanna replied, "And it might be that it weren't Palestinians. It's possible that they just wore the uniforms of Palestinian soldiers to avert."

"Can we see the room where Amy lived?" Hannibal asked softly.

"Yes of course, follow me."

It seemed that Hanna was also very worried about Amy.

In the room stood a double bed and two lockers.

"Can't believe that Amy was living in such a place." Face murmured.

"This is Amy's locker." Hanna said and pointed at one.

Hannibal opened it and looked at the stuff inside. Besides her clothing he found some papers.

At the same time Murdock took a shit of paper that lay on the bed.

"It looks like an address. 13 Nablus Road, Hussein Quarak, Jerusalem Times", he read out loud.

"Ah…this is the address of the Jerusalem Times office. It's an independent Palestinian weekly, the only English newspaper in Palestine. Amy wrote the articles together with Mr. Quarak."

"Can we call him?" Hannibal asked who stood in front of the locker.

"Yeah, here is a phone number." Murdock said.

"We also can ask Mr. Bukhari." Hanna said, "He is the owner of this hostel and as far as I know a former Antifada-fighter. He also owns another hostel in Jerusalem, also called Black Horse."

"And where is Mr. Bukhari?" B.A. asked.

"Tonight he will come to the hostel to look that everything is fine here and to take the money and pay the people who work here."

It was late at night when Mr. Bukhari came to the hostel. After the financial things where done he had some time for the A-Team.

"You search your friend, the lovely young reporter?" he smiled sadly.

"Everything I can promise you is, that no Palestinian kidnapped her and the others. Believe me, I would know it. You can trust me. I know what Mrs. Allen was writing about. She interviewed me. One of my sons tried to go to Gaza, but my brother in Gaza-Town told me he never arrived." He sighed heavily.

"I told him not to go, but he said he can only live of Palestinian ground. Only than he feels at home. I can understand, but I saw the danger. Many other young men are trapped the same way, I would say. "

The whole time Hannibal was reading the papers he found in the locker.

"Hey guys, I guess I've found something. Amy has a date tomorrow morning with a certain Mr. Al-Shayeb. She suspects him to have something to do with the guys who do such things to the refugees. Kids, I would say we have a date in the morning."

Hannibal grinned expectant.

TO BE CONTINUED…