Part 2
"Nurse, I've come to check on H M Murdock. Apparently he's got some kind of flu virus."
"Flu virus?"
"Yes, yes, highly contagious strain of it apparently." Face was dressed in his white coat, clipboard in hand and flashing his usual charming smile at the young nurse. Luckily, he always managed to pick a pretty nurse to scam his way through the hospital.
"Well, Doctor, he seemed alright this morning, when I gave him his meds." The nurse replied a little confused.
"Well, it also appears quickly." Face rapidly responded. "If I could just take a look at him, it might be that he needs to be quarantined." How many times had he used this scam?
"Quarantine?"
"Yes, yes," Face said more urgently. He grabbed a wheelchair that was in the corridor unused and ushered the nurse gradually towards Murdock's room. He knew where he was going of course. "Look, you might need this." And gave her a white mask to put over her mouth and nose. The nurse looked at Face rather puzzled. "Highly contagious remember? Do you want to be off work for weeks?"
The nurse quickly put on her mask, as did Face.
"Right, I'll go in." He mumbled under the mask. "You wait out here!"
Murdock was as usual sitting playing one of his arcade games.
"Murdock!" Face rushed over to him. "You've got the flu, highly contagious!" As he ripped the joystick from his hand and lead him to the wheelchair.
"Faceman, I was winning then!"
"Come on, we don't have much time!" Face was getting a little impatient.
Murdock started coughing and spluttering aggressively as Face wheeled him out of the room.
"Yes, yes, definitely a contagious form. Very serious too. I'll have to put him in quarantine." He mumbled still under the mask to the nurse. "If you could just sign this." Face handed her a clipboard with some fake release papers on it. "I'll get him back to you as soon as he's free of the virus".
"But surely you need a doctor…" the nurse protested slightly.
"Nurse, your signature will be quite adequate, or do you want me to wait in the middle of the corridor for Murdock to contaminate the whole hospital, whilst you go find a busy doctor?"
The nurse didn't argue as the doctor stood in front of her was making total sense, besides she remembered he had a trusting smile and signed the form.
"Thank you, he'll be back soon, I promise." Face smiled, but it was wasted as he still had the mask on. He wheeled Murdock into the elevator, who was still coughing and sneezing. The elevator door closed behind them.
"You can knock it off now, Murdock!"
…
Tina had driven her car to a small diner; she needed some breakfast and lots of hot coffee. She parked her car and looked at the bag that sat on the passenger seat. It was a similar bag to the one she'd handed over to the A Team. Placing the bag on her lap, she looked at its contents, smiling to herself and then zipped the bag back up. She got out of her car and placed the bag in the trunk.
After making sure the whole car was locked up she walked towards the diner. There was something she had to do first though, before she could have her breakfast.
There was a payphone just outside the diner that she could use. Tina dialled the number she had been given and it answered almost immediately.
"Felton?"
"Yes."
"It's Tina."
"Ah, Christina. Did it go well?" The man had a Texas accent.
"Yes, I've been on a darn goose chase the whole week."
"I thought as much, they'd want to make sure you were legitimate. Did they take the bait though?"
"Yes, they've taken the cash. They are on their way. They said something about springing Murdock?"
"Good." Felton seemed pleased on the other end of the phone.
"But the girl, Amy, she's not going. Hannibal said it would be too dangerous."
"Well, we'll have to see about that. Good job, Christina. I hope the money I gave you is satisfactory?"
"Yes, fine, thank you." Tina nervously looked over to where her car was parked. All of a sudden she didn't like the idea of being too far away from all that cash, until it was secure in a bank account or something.
"And I'm sorry about your eye."
"You bastard. Why did you have to hit me?"
"Because, it would pull on the old heart strings and make your story more believable sweetheart!" He put the phone down, before she could say anymore. He had all the information he required. He had a smug smile on his face.
Tina put down the handset and looked over to her car again. She walked into the diner and placed herself by the window, so that she could keep an eye on her car. Over breakfast she would decide which city to visit first and how she would spend her money. This was a new start for her. She'd done what Felton had paid her to do, with the story he'd given her, she'd hired the A Team.
…
BA and Hannibal had dropped off Amy at her office. In the van, she'd still tried to persuade Hannibal that she should go on the case but to no avail.
"Amy, what I have in mind, is going to be a military operation. You're just not trained for it. It'll be too dangerous, for you and the rest of the team."
"OK, OK, I'll see what I can dig up on Felton for you, instead."
She'd reluctantly agreed, knowing that Hannibal was probably right and headed up to her office to be greeted by a mountain of work. Maybe she could use this time to catch up with her real job she thought to herself. She looked at her word-processor, a note was stuck to it, written in Zachary's handwriting; it read:
'Colonel Decker called again.'
She picked up the note and irritably threw it in the bin. Does he ever give up?
Around 10.30am her stomach had started to rumble, with the early start meeting Tina, she'd only managed to drink coffee and her stomach was now telling her it needed something more substantial. She grabbed her purse and headed out of the office, shouting at Zachary on the way.
"Zach, I'm going to get some lunch, take a message if anyone calls! Except Decker, tell him I've left the country!"
"OK," Zachary chuckled at Amy's comment.
"Do you want anything, while I'm down there?"
"Erm… no, I'm fine, thanks."
Amy headed to her usual coffee shop that was just across the street from the LA Courier-Express building.
"Good Morning, Miss Allen, you're a little early today."
"Yeah, I was up and about early today and haven't managed to have breakfast yet. I'll have my usual please, Tom, oh and a doughnut." She smiled over to the old guy behind the counter. "Oh and make the coffee strong, please, I think I could do with the caffeine."
Minutes later, Tom handed her the order and took the cash from her.
"Have a nice day, Miss Allen."
"Thanks, with the workload I have, I'm not sure it's going to be nice though."
Amy wandered back across the street to her office building, sipping her strong hot coffee. She was about only a couple of yards from the entrance to the building when a blue sedan pulled up along side her.
"Excuse me, lady!" A voice called out from the car in a Texas accent. Amy turned and pointed to herself as if to ask 'are you talking to me?'
"Yeah, sorry, could you give me directions?" The man got out of the back of the car, which Amy thought was a little strange, usually the driver would be asking directions. "I'm a bit lost." The man, rather tall with strawberry blonde hair wearing a cowboy hat, brown checked shirt, sleeveless brown jacket and jeans, was now within feet of her. Before she realised what was happening, he had a firm grip of one of her arms and a gun digging into her side.
"Get in the car, Miss Allen, and I won't hurt you."
She was about to throw her coffee with her free arm into his face, but another guy had got out of the car and already had this arm in his grip. She was forced to drop her coffee and lunch on the pavement, she struggled to break free but the two men were too strong for her, and dragged her into the car quickly so that passer-by's didn't really notice the struggle. Both men sat either side of her. As soon as they took their seats and shut the doors, the car sped off.
"Who are you?" Amy asked angrily still struggling in the back of the car, with the two men.
"Charlie Felton. Pleased to meet you." The man with the cowboy hat, who'd originally got out of the car, grinned at her. "Gosh, you are darn pretty aren't you?" Staring into her deep brown eyes, he tried to stroke her hair off her face but she pulled away, shuddering at the thought of his touch. "How those four boys keep their hands off you, I'll never know!" He leaned into her neck to try and kiss it; he could smell her sweet perfume. Amy pulled her head away from Felton, knocking into the guy next to her, who also grabbed her and with her right foot she stamped on Felton's left foot hard with the heel of her boot and simultaneously pushed him away with her hands.
"Get off me you pig!" Amy was scared now, really scared. What were this man's intentions?
"Ouch! You bitch!" And he smacked her across the face with the back of his hand. Amy put her hand to her face; it was her lip that hurt most but she had a slight feeling she'd be wearing a similar black eye to Tina by the end of the car journey, if this struggle continued.
…