A/N: Here's the obligatory A-Team scene where they escape from the bad guys in an extremely inventive manner... Hope you enjoy, and please do review!

If Hannibal and the others were worried by the machine guns pointed at their heads, they didn't show it. Horatio kept his own face carefully expressionless and decided to go along with whatever they came up with. If they came up with anything. Looking at the snarling, rage-filled faces of the Noches, Horatio had to admit that this didn't look good. This time, his instincts might have let him down, and it might be one time too many. Still, he pretended a calm he didn't feel, and hoped that Calleigh and Frank had got away. Maybe they could fetch help.

"Hey, Hannibal?" Face said, his voice perfectly steady. "Hannibal, d'you think this lot are stupid enough to shoot us without asking permission?"

"This lot are stupid enough for anything Face." Like his colleague, Hannibal's voice was perfectly normal, with no sign of strain or tension. "But I don't think they're going to be that dumb. After all, I'm sure that their leaders are going to want to talk to us first. And to Lieutenant Caine, of course. I imagine he knows all sorts of juicy details that they'd like to hear." Horatio blinked, but kept his face expressionless. Now they were offering him up to be tortured? What sort of plan was this?

The Noches looked wary now. Face smiled brightly. "You know what? I reckon that shooting us could be the biggest mistake they ever make."

Now the Noches were definitely looking uneasy. One of them seemed to be in charge, and it was him that spoke. "You are not so very important. Why should we keep you alive?"

"Your call, of course," Hannibal said innocently. "You're the ones with the guns. But I'd be pretty angry if my guys had shot you without my say-so, if the position was reversed." That seemed to decide matters, and still looking decidedly unhappy about the situation, Horatio and the others were shepherded into a warehouse, after being thoroughly frisked and all cell phones removed, with the door locked firmly behind them.

Horatio looked around at the half-empty warehouse. The windows were too high to be of use as an escape route and the only door was the one that had been locked behind them. No way out. He turned back to the A-Team, who were all looking rather pleased with themselves. "This was your plan?" he asked, his voice filled with biting sarcasm. "This was the great plan? We are locked in a warehouse waiting for some gangsters to show up and shoot us. How, exactly, is this a good plan?"

Hannibal smiled. "Look around Lieutenant. What do you see?"

Horatio stared at him, and then glanced around their prison. "A lot of junk," he replied.

"It's not junk, Lieutenant. It's our escape route." Hannibal clapped the CSI on the shoulder. "I love it when a plan comes together."

Calleigh was fighting back tears as Frank drove, sirens and lights blaring, screeching through the Miami streets. OK, so Horatio wasn't dead. Not yet anyway, but it could only be a matter of time. She didn't understand why the Noches had locked them in a warehouse, but it gave her some precious time to come up with a plan to help Horatio. SWAT would be bound to help, as long as no one asked any awkward questions. Like what Horatio was doing meeting with the A-Team in the first place. Or what she and Frank had been doing helping him. Still, if it ruined her career, anything was worth it as long as Horatio made it out alive.

Decker was pacing around the lab when they rushed in, surrounded by Eric, Ryan and Alexx, and he glared at them. "What the hell is going on? I've got reports of a pitched battle taking place in the docks, and I'll bet Smith is behind it somehow. Where's Caine?"

"You explain this to him, Delko and the others, and I'll go get SWAT," Frank said, giving her a one-armed hug as he left. Calleigh gave herself a mental shake and held her head high. There had to be a way through this.

"Cal? What is there to explain?" Eric was looking confused.

"Horatio's been captured by the Noches." It seemed like everyone started shouting at once when she said that.

Alexx was the only one who kept her head. "Hey!" The ME's shout did nothing to quiet down the group so she calmly picked up a glass beaker from the work bench and threw it hard on to the floor. It shattered, and the room fell silent. "Thank you. Now, we all need to stay calm. Calleigh honey, tell us exactly what happened."

Aware she was lying to her friends, and just as aware that she had little choice, Calleigh said, "Horatio got a tip-off that the A-Team would be down at the docks, and went down there. Frank and I went with him, because we were the only ones he could find at short notice. I think he said he tried to contact you Colonel Decker, but that he couldn't find you. Anyway, he bumped into Hannibal and the others, but then the Noches came out of nowhere and started shooting. They captured the A-Team and Horatio and locked them in warehouse." Decker looked suspicious, but it was the best story she could come up with. "Please, you've got to help him!"

Decker hesitated for the longest second of Calleigh's life before he nodded. "The A-Team are ours though. When we get them out, they belong to us. You got that?"

"Of course."

"Good, then let's get SWAT and get a plan."

Horatio watched in awe as the A-Team went to work. BA found an old JCB lurking at the back of the warehouse and was soon immersed in fixing the engine. Murdoch and Face unearthed several vats of fertiliser and Hannibal found plenty of plastic tubing. Leaving BA to his engine, Hannibal called them all over to explain the latest plan. Despite his scepticism, Horatio couldn't help but be impressed.

"Lieutenant, I heard a wild rumour that you used to be Bomb Squad." Hannibal was grinning again, the cigar glowing brightly. "What do you think?"

Looking at the fertiliser and tubing, Horatio had an idea of where this was going. "I think you're going to need something to provide the spark."

"Then take a look around. Murdoch, go help BA. I want that thing armoured."

"Sure thing Colonel." Murdoch winked at Horatio as he walked past. "Isn't this fun? Don't you wish you were a permanent member of the team?"

Hannibal and Face smiled at each other as Horatio completely failed to turn down the offer. Instead, he started searching for some wiring that could provide the spark they needed for their homemade fertiliser grenades. Face leaned in to speak quietly to Hannibal. "Murdoch has a point. The guy's got style."

"I know. Did you see some of the shots he made? Better than you." Face looked affronted at that, but Hannibal grinned. "And I think he understands about the jazz. If he comes up with the goods for the grenades, and if only he wasn't a cop, I'd be making him a job offer."

"Shame really. That gold badge is holding him back from a lucrative career in crime." The mercenaries grinned again and went back to work.