VI
Hannibal counted in his head, giving the team time to get into position.
He had Frankie and BA cover the exits, while Face, Murdock and himself made there way towards the room that contained the file.
As they knew there would be a lot of guards to get through, Hannibal decided that they needed a more subdued approach.
He had Face and Murdock covering two separate ways to the room, insuring that if they did run into trouble there would be more than one escape route.
He made his way down one of the halls, carefully taking out any guards he found along the way. In fact, things were going pretty well, until the radio came to life.
"Hannibal, help!" It was Face, his voice tight.
He made his way towards where he knew Face would be.
He took out his own radio, calling Murdock to make sure he was on his way to Face as well.
When there was no answer from him either, he called in BA and Frankie.
This mission was supposed to be one of the easier ones, but so far, that luxury had alluded them nicely.
The team were supposed to be going in and out discreetly, taking the file and leaving, no one the wiser until the guards they'd knocked out finally had woken.
What was supposed to be a silent retreat was turning into a day at the shooting gallery.
Hannibal's voice came out through the radio. "Mission complete. Get moving!"
It wasn't until they re-grouped outside that they realised just how bad things had all gone wrong. They'd all gone separate ways, it being a matter of having too because of the chaos.
Face had a bullet skim his arm although it wasn't serious. Murdock had hurt his back after meeting one incredibly strong guard who'd just flung him forcefully into a wall and then to the ground and Hannibal had a broken finger, just to top it all off.
So, they were returning home, all a little worse for wear and all a little grumpy.
It was true enough that missions rarely went smoothly for the team- something always came up. But this time there had been a number of things come up which had resulted in the general shambles their mission had ended in.
Hannibal was silently thankful they weren't working for clients any more, they'd loose business if they weren't able to handle a few goons like today.
The thing was, he wasn't sure why they weren't working any more.
He'd acknowledged the problems between Face and Murdock and things between them seemed a little less tense than they had before. Murdock canceling the double date he'd had with Face hadn't helped much, but that was the whole reason for him leaving the two of them alone before they had left to carry out the mission.
He was certain that these problems weren't all coming just from those two. Maybe he was partly to blame.
How could he ask the team to respect and listen to his orders when he let them work for Stockwell, a fact that none of them were pleased with.
He'd added a new member to the team, one that, in truth, they didn't need.
Hannibal liked Frankie, he was a good guy, but the fact was he could be a serious liability on a case always was predominant in his thoughts. If they were ever caught during a really dangerous mission and they thought Frankie knew information they'd do whatever they could to get that knowledge from him. Of course, Frankie would crack and Hannibal would probably end up making a call to Mr Santana Snr. telling the man that his son had died 'an honorable death'.
As for the rest of the team, Hannibal knew that they all hated working for Stockwell.
BA always hated not seeing his mother and being in Virginia just made it much more worse. Stockwell didn't allow them time off to visit family.
Face hated Stockwell. If it wasn't evident enough when he walked out on the team he'd been showing signs of his displeasure long before that. He'd spoken to Hannibal privately before hand, telling him he wanted them to go it alone again which Hannibal had always dismissed.
Murdock seemed to adjust pretty well to the whole movement. Hannibal had initially been worried about Murdock's mental health, getting out of the VA so quickly and the stress he'd been through with the teams supposed execution, so much so that he'd taken time out and visited Richter, making sure that Murdock's release was above board.
The Doctor assured him it was all legal and as far as he was concerned Murdock's mental state had probably been 'sane' for some time now.
He'd obviously played on the crazy thing for his own comfort, it was helpful for the team to know where Murdock was all the time and have him away from the MP's at the same time.
With that fear out of the way, Hannibal was able to relax more, but he noticed a strange thing between Murdock and Stockwell.
For whatever reason Stockwell did not want Murdock to be with the team all the time, making sure he stayed away from their place and only having him there for either missions and occasionally giving permission for him to be there for holidays and such.
But there seemed to be more to them than that. Maybe Hannibal was a little paranoid about the whole thing, but they seemed like they had a hate that ran a lot deeper. Face hated Stockwell because he kept the team where they were and he undermined Hannibal's authority, he knew that, Face had told him so. Murdock wouldn't let those things bother him so much. If he hated Stockwell for the same reason he'd have said so.
There was more to it than that. But Murdock wasn't one to discuss such things, anything on a personal nature to Murdock would stay private unless it was vital for the others to know.
Hannibal let out a sigh. He wasn't sure how to make the team work like they did before, but he knew it would take more than a few training sessions.