Part 8
The black limousine screeched to a halt in the dock. At gunpoint, Face and Amy were forced out of the limo. Both their hands were bound tightly in front of them at their wrists. As Face stood at the very edge of the dock, one of the men chained what looked like an anchor around his legs, attaching the chains to the belt loops of his jeans. He really didn't like where this was leading. But smiled his usual nervous smile at the guy.
"Templeton Peck, this is the end of the road for you. If you don't tell me where my money is, your pretty little girlfriend here, is going to watch you die." Johnson said angrily pulling Amy away from Face and digging a gun into her side.
"I'm telling you, I don't know where your money is! Ask Greg here! He was the last one to see that key? Wasn't he?"
"Mr Peck, don't waste my time! If you won't help me, I'll hand your girlfriend over to Greg! Maybe he'll get her to talk!" Johnson pushed Amy towards Greg who took hold of her, with a smile. "For some reason he wants her kept alive. I can't imagine what he wants to do with her, can you?"
"If you hurt her!" Face looked at Greg angrily, struggling with the chains that were around his legs.
"Just tell me where the money is," Johnson laughed at Face's pathetic attempt to free his self. "And maybe, I might let you both live!"
"Well as I can't tell you that, so you're probably going to have to kill me. I don't suppose I get one last cigar before I go, do I?" Face asked nervously. How many times had he asked for one last cigar trying to buy some more time? 'Come on Hannibal' Face secretly thought to himself.
Amy stood there nervously looking at Face. The situation wasn't looking very good. 'Where was Hannibal?' she also thought.
"You're always full of the wise cracks, Peck," Johnson replied. "Give him a bloody cigar!"
Poking a cigar in Face's mouth and lighting it, Greg had a smug smile on his face.
"Looks like I won the girl, after all, Peck!" Greg gloated arrogantly at Face.
"Thanks, Creep!" Face puffed at the cigar, ignoring Greg's comment about Amy, trying not to rise to it. As he did so, a black GMC van, with its windows covered in sheet metal with two little viewing slats, came screeching into the dock; Hannibal and BA opened the doors with rifles aiming at Johnson and his men.
"Hey, Slim ball, this what you looking for?" Hannibal said, waving some money in his hand. "It took me a bit longer to work out who you were, as you had Miss Allen. She's usually the one on our team that's good at digging the dirt on someone. But I knew I'd seen you somewhere! Sitting at that table with Gregory boy there!"
Amy glanced at Johnson, yes, that's where she recognised his face too, at the restaurant.
"Anyway, two years ago your case got thrown out of court coz they couldn't pin ya to some drug bust, right? The cops couldn't find the drugs or the money could they? Because you'd got your chum here," Hannibal pointed at Greg, "you're lawyer friend, at the company you used to run your dirty little operation under, to make it disappear! What's your cut Greg? Huh? Is that why you had to run and hide too, in New York maybe?" Hannibal directed his questions to Greg.
Greg fidgeted with the truth being told; as he held Amy she turned to face him. He could see the anger and rage in her face. She pulled away her arm that he was holding, as if he burnt her with his touch. She couldn't bear to be near him.
"Very clever…"
"The name's Smith, Hannibal Smith!"
"Very clever, Mr Smith! Johnson gave a smirk to Hannibal.
"So, now the dust has settled, you've come back to reclaim what's yours! Take yourself on vacation somewhere huh?"
"That's right, I've got a flight to catch, so if you don't mind, I'll have my money!"
"These slim balls never learn," Hannibal said under his breath so that only BA heard. BA smiled at Hannibal's comment in agreement.
"As I can see you no longer need my friends, I'll trade the bag," Hannibal raised the bag from inside the van. "Oh, there's gotta be 20 million in here, in drugs and cash, I think that's a fair trade, the bag for Miss Allen and Peck!"
Johnson laughed at this suggestion.
"No deal, Smith!" Johnson replied as him and his men open fired their guns.
Hannibal looked as another van screeched into the dock; the driver from the limo having apparently called for some assistance. It was probably the van that had been sitting outside Amy's apartment Hannibal thought to himself and a couple of men jumped out of the van, but Hannibal as usual had something up his sleeve. Murdock appeared from the rear of the van, throwing the back doors open revealing a rather large machine gun device on a stand. BA got back into the drivers seat, to start up the van. Hannibal ran for cover, and the team sprang into action.
With all of the commotion and gun fire, Johnson and his men had taken cover behind the limo to return fire, but before Greg was about to join them, he sneered at Face as he pushed the anchor weight that was connected to Face into the water, the chains following into the water and with them dragging Face. Amy watched in horror. She couldn't get there in time to grab him, Greg holding her back. Face spat out the cigar and breathed his last lungful of air before going under the water.
"Face!" Amy shouted as she watched him plunge into the water and be dragged to the bottom of the dock. She looked over to the guys, they were in no situation to help and frantically she tried undoing the ropes around her wrists.
"Face was right all along! You're a creep, Greg, untie me!" Amy shouted spitefully, but he just smiled at her with satisfaction. "He's done nothing to you, nothing! Creep!" She didn't have much time; she frantically elbowed him as hard as she could to get him out of the way and with her bound hands she carelessly took off her boots and dived into the water after Face. Greg winded by the blow, cowardly took for cover behind the limo.
She could see Face struggling at the bottom; sand and bubbles whirled around him. There was about four feet of chains to the anchor, which now lay on the seabed, the rest of the chains were wound around him. Luckily the tide must have been out or they were in a shallow part of the dock, she thought, as his head was about 5 feet below water, which meant she didn't have too far to dive. She went back up for air and then swam back towards him, as fast as her bound wrists would allow. With his arms similarly bound he put them round her neck and using all of their strength, the pair of them, struggled to swim to the top. They both gasped for air as they hit the top of the water.
"Its no good, it's too heavy!" Face gasped quickly. "You're gonna have to undo…" but he'd gone beneath the water again and was being dragged back to the bottom of the sea, taking Amy with him as he still had his arms around her neck.
She broke free, swam back to the top, took another large gulp of air, gun fire and explosions still could be heard above her.
"Hannibal! Murdock! BA! Help me!" She screamed helplessly as hard as her lungs would allow her, hoping her cries might be heard and then dived back down to Face, where he was struggling and running out of air, starting to lose consciousness. She placed her mouth over his and breathed out to give him more air. Relieved of the air she'd just given him, he regained consciousness and in some crazed desperation tried free himself.
Amy went back up to get air for herself, breathed deeply a couple of times and then dived back down, once again placing her mouth over Face's to give him air. She swam back up, gasped for air again and this time with her air, she decided to she'd try to free Face from the chains that held him at the bottom of the dock. With difficulty, as the chains seemed rather tight and her wrists bound so little movement was allowed with her hands, she undone his belt. She'd noticed Face had managed to slip his shoes off, so his jeans should come off easier. She pulled at his jeans so that they started to come down and then with Face's arms back around her neck, tried desperately to swim to the top again.
Luckily the weight of the chains kept his jeans where they were and Face was freed from the weight. They swam desperately to the top of the water and gasped for air again, both coughing and spluttering the water from their lungs.
With Face's arms around her neck, they struggled to the edge of the dock. There was some layered corrugated iron, giving a kind of ledge, which Face was able to grab onto on the side of the dock. Amy struggled to tread water and started to go back under.
"Put your arms over my neck, kid," Face gasped.
She now wrapped her arms over Face's neck, as her hands were tied too, she used his shoulders for support. They both were silent regaining their strength and taking in gratefully the air.
"You OK. Can you hold us both?" Amy finally asked still breathing quite heavily.
"Yeah, I'm fine" Face puffed. Again silence fell between them as they both tried to get the breath back and recollect on what had just happened.
"Amy, you just saved my life!" Face said gratefully, once he felt he was able to talk.
"Hey, you guys saved me a long time ago. It's the least I could do" she smiled and winked at him.
Again there was brief silence between them as they both tried to catch their breath.
"I owe you an apology, Face." Amy said apologetically, " you were right, Greg was a creep."
"Apology accepted." Face replied back still breathing rather heavily.
Face looked at Amy and flashed his smile. He was starring into the eyes of a very beautiful woman. A woman who'd just saved his life. He hesitated at first, but then moved towards her and placed his lips on hers and kissed her. Pulling her towards him the best he could, so that her body tightly was against his. He was still holding on the edge of the dock with both his hands, bound at the wrists, to keep them both afloat. Their tongues gently touched and caressed one another. And then he withdrew.
"Boy!" Amy said a little dumbfounded, "now I know," impressed by Face's kiss.
"Now you know what?" he asked intrigued, raising his eyebrow. He still held her tight to his body; he wasn't ready to let her go.
"Why you're so successful with the ladies!" she teased.
He smiled back at her, his smile and tried to kiss her again. That kiss had felt so good. But this time she moved her head away. His smile didn't always work on Amy.
"No, Face, no" she whispered. "You know you can't give me what I'd really want…I think the pair of us have just drunk a bit too much of the salt water. Let's not ruin a good thing between us, hey?"
Face gave a little groan. "Yeah, I know. I just…" really wanted to kiss her again. "What do you mean, I can't give you…?"
"I don't want to jeopardise my position on the team, Face." Amy interrupted him; she shouldn't have said the first bit and really didn't want to explain herself.
"Yeah, you're right. Sorry." Face moaned coming back to his senses. "I got a bit carried away with the whole you just saved my life thing." Face smiled at her. There was silence between them briefly. 'How was he ever going to thank her', he thought to himself.
"Look, Face, over there, is that a ladder or something, so we can climb out of the dock?" Amy, some what trying to change the subject, had spotted a ladder to the left of her, that obviously fishermen and alike must use when mooring their boats to get out of the dock, when the tide was low.
"It's a bit of a swim, you think you can do it?"
"Yeah, I think so."
They both swam as fast as they could towards the ladder, with their hands still tied; it was easier to swim on their backs. They got to the ladder, which enabled them to both hold on easier, as they were able to get a better grip on one of the rungs, resting their feet also on the rungs below in the water. Though to climb the ladder safely they were going to need to undo the ropes that were tied around their wrists. They got their breath back and then decided to try and untie the ropes.
"Here, I'll try to untie you first," Face said, taking Amy's arms and trying to undo the bounds. They were both starting to shiver, their lips were turning blue with the cold and their hands were cold and wrinkled which didn't give much grip, but within minutes Amy's arms were untied. She rubbed at her wrists and then slowly untied Face's hands, finding it easier to manoeuvre with her untied hands. Face tossed the ropes aside into the water.
"You climb up first and I'll be right behind you. Just be careful when you get to the top, OK?"
"OK." Amy nodded.
Amy started to climb up the narrow metal ladder first. Her wet clothes, dripped onto Face. He glanced up before starting to climb the ladder and looked up to see right up Amy's short white skirt. He quickly turned away but he'd caught sight of her pretty white knickers covering her beautifully firm bottom and from them were her slender toned thighs.
Face shook his head and gave a little groan to himself thinking 'oh boy' and tried to put his thoughts to the back of his head. This was Amy after all, he thought.
He climbed up behind her, but tried to raise himself to her waist height, to save Amy's dignity and his own sanity.
Amy finally reached the top and slowly poked her head over the top to view the dock.
"Be careful Amy!" Face muttered below her trying to climb up as high as he could so he was on hand if needs be, to pull a bad guy into the water.
"Hey, Sweetheart, fancy meeting you here?"
It was Murdock; he held out his hand and helped her on to the dock. He had a blanket ready and wrapped it around her.
Murdock had been frantically scouting the water's surface as soon as he could safely do so, once Johnson's men were under control, to search for Amy and Face. He'd seen them both go into the water as the gunfire had started. He was relieved to see them swimming towards the ladder and had gone to fetch blankets from the van, ready for their arrival at the top of the dock.
"Thanks, Murdock."
"Hey, quite a fright, you two gave us there!"
At gunpoint, Hannibal and BA had Johnson and his men tied up and against the limo. In fact the way the guys were tied, they weren't able to escape from the limo. The ropes went through the opened windows of the back doors of the limo, tying one gunman one side, to another gunman opposite. They weren't going anywhere in a hurry, unless someone could climb through the window quick enough. Hannibal didn't want them to escape that limo.
Checking that BA had everything under control, Hannibal came running over, slinging his rifle over his shoulder and helped Face out on to the dock.
Face was standing there in his shirt, underwear and socks, dripping wet. Hannibal grabbed the other blanket, which was waiting on the ground and wrapped it around Face.
"You OK, kid? I'm sorry, we just couldn't get over to you!"
"Yeah! Yeah! I know! I lost some mighty fine jeans behind though" Face joked, looking at his bare legs and then moaned noticing his socks "Oh an my Gucci shoes!"
"Hey, you can always replace the pants and shoes, Face, but we can't replace you!"
"Hannibal, Amy, she saved my life. The kid saved my life!" Face started to sound a little emotional about his near death experience. "I wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for her!"
"Amy did what she had to do. She's part of the team, kid."
"Yeah, but Hannibal. I was a goner this time. It was close!" Face still sounded quite emotional. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay her!"
Hannibal looked over to check BA was all right on his own. Of course, BA had everything under control. The men were too afraid to move.
"She won't expect you to repay her, kid. She knows what being part of the team is about." Hannibal put his arm around him and gave him a manly hug but kept his arm there to give Face some support.
As Amy and Murdock walked towards the van, Amy's anger started to return. She'd seen Greg by the limo and rage swelled within her at such a rate; she lost complete control of her actions. Murdock was muttering something about her saving Face. How they were grateful and seen him go in, but just couldn't get over to that side of the dock but she'd switched her focus on to one thing and one thing only, revenge!
She dropped her blanket and started to run towards Greg, half stumbling with exhaustion; she got inches from him about to swipe out.
"You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" she shouted with such rage in her voice. None of the team had ever seen her like it.
Murdock eventually realising that Amy was no longer by his side, had caught up with her and grabbed her by the waist, turning and lifting her away from Greg, just in the nick of time, to get her back towards the van.
"Murdock! Put me down! I want him dead!" she screamed with the full capacity of her lungs. Anger releasing from within her.
"Amy, sweetheart, calm down! He's not worth it!"
Hannibal started to run over to Amy and Murdock, seeing Murdock's struggle with her, leaving Face behind. Face had decided he didn't have the energy to try and calm her. He could appreciate her anger, but he'd been involved enough for one day. He felt confident Murdock and Hannibal could handle the situation.
"Murdock! Let me go!" Amy wasn't calming, her legs and arms flaying everywhere, she struggled but her senses told her she didn't want to hurt Murdock in her struggle for freedom, so she eventually gave in to him. Tears stated to fall from her face.
"I just want to kill him!" she cried to Murdock, thumping her fists onto his chest.
"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, BA gave him a good pounding!" Murdock tried to reassure her, drawing her close and wrapping his arms around her. "Look, his nose is all bloody!" He pointed over to Greg.
"Yeah, BA took great pleasure in it!" Hannibal confirmed. He'd just got to them as Murdock had calmed her down.
Amy smiled slightly; looking over to Greg's bruised and battered face. His nose was bloody and he looked like he had a black eye already forming.
"Come on, let's get you in the van." Murdock put his arm around her and walked her towards the van. Amy wiped her face clean of her tears.
"Kid, Greg will be going to the slammer, for a long time. That's probably worse than the death sentence you just wanted to give him." Hannibal reassured her, walking the other side of her, wrapping the blanket back around her and putting his hand on her shoulder.
Sirens could be heard in the distance.
"About time!" Hannibal grinned.
BA left his post and jumped into the driver's seat of the van, Amy sat in Murdock's seat, whilst he sat in the middle of the van. Face stumbled in his own seat, with his blanket huddled round his damp body and Hannibal got into his seat, but turned it to face the team, with a grin on his face.
"Colonel? What have you done with the bag?" Murdock asked.
"Oh I've put it in the limo, with a nice little note in it, so the cops don't have to think too hard. With a nice bit at the bottom reading, courtesy of the A Team," Hannibal chuckled. "Move it BA, we don't need to be about when the cops arrive!"
BA started the ignition of the van and drove out of the dock bay, leaving the smell of burning rubber behind them.
They weren't far down the road when Face spoke, still thinking of the events that had just happened, playing them over again in his mind.
"Amy, you saved my life! I don't know how I'll ever repay you."
"Face, honestly, I would have done it if it was anyone of you. As I said in the water, you saved me along time ago". Amy placed a hand on his knee. She could see he was still quite shook up by the whole event.
"I owe you dinner or something, anywhere you want to go, any restaurant!"
"Oh, No. Not dinner! No way!"
"Huh?" Face was confused but her negative outburst.
"Um, look where the last time you took me out for dinner, ended up?" She said a little sarcastically, gesturing to how wet they still were.
"Huh? How many ex-boyfriends you got?" Face asked a little worriedly.
Murdock, Hannibal and BA turned to Amy also a little anxious to what she might answer.
Amy seeing their nervous expressions on the there faces and gave a little laugh.
"Luckily for you guys, only the one!"
END
