Part 7
"I need that chopper! It's an emergency!" Face was in the process of scamming the pilot, who was just about to get into the pilot's prized possession. "My name is Pete Freeman, I work for a local news company, our chopper's gone down and I've got to get over to a story that's just broken out, otherwise CNN will get there before me."
"I don't care!" The pilot responded angrily.
Murdock was already clambering into the cockpit of the helicopter in question, even though the pilot was disagreeing with Face. He'd tucked a bag in behind him, which contained their ammunition and automatic rifles.
"I'm sorry, sir, but this isn't really my chopper." The pilot continued his argument. "It's owned privately and my boss is not going to be happy, if I don't turn up to collect him. Hell, I could lose my job!"
"And I could lose my job, if I don't borrow this chopper!" Face still tried to convince the man.
Murdock had started to fire up the bird. Its rotors started to whirl around above Face, making it very windy and very loud. The pilot did not look pleased at Face; his chopper was being stolen right from under him.
"Look, who's your boss?" Face shouted over the noise of the chopper and also trying on his old Faceman charm.
"His name is Felton, Mr Charlie Felton, and he'll kill me! I'm suppose to be going out to get him now!" The pilot still protested.
Face grinned when he heard that name.
"Give him this card," Face luckily had a card with the appropriate details on it for this particular scam. "And tell him we'll be mentioning his kind donation of this chopper in our news report. Trust me," Face lied. "We'll have it back to you in no time. He'll understand." Face wasn't going to take no for an answer, had no guilt now, scamming the chopper from this pilot. This guy was probably on his way out to give Felton air support in his hunt for the team.
Face clambered into the chopper and as he sat himself in his seat next to Murdock, the helicopter lifted into the sky. Face put his headset on so that he could communicate to Murdock, whilst Murdock waved at the disgruntled and angry pilot, who was standing on the airfield watching his helicopter be stolen from him.
"You are never going to believe who this helicopter belongs to," Face grinned at Murdock.
"Not Felton?"
"You got it in one, Murdock!"
"Means they'll be expecting to see it in the air too." Murdock smiled smugly back. "Boy, will they be surprised!"
"Hey, but Murdock, lets keep it in one piece while we're in it, huh?" Face looked a little worried at the twinkle in Murdock's eye.
"Hey Faceman, this is a perfectly good chopper, there is no reason why it shouldn't stay in one piece," Murdock winked. "Unless we get shot at, of course!" Murdock grinned at Face who now had a worried expression on his face. "Let's go catch us some bad guys! I've got one or two bones to pick with Felton."
Face looked even more concerned at Murdock's last words.
"Faceman, maybe you wanna let Hannibal know we're on our way."
"Yeah, we're gonna pick up Simmons on the way. I want all those slimeballs together for when we put the lid on this."
Hannibal and BA drove along the same road that they'd driven earlier that morning, in the blue pickup truck.
"I'm starting to get the feeling of deja vu!" Hannibal grinned, coolly puffing on his cigar.
When they came across their van and the other vehicles, they pulled over and hauled Simmons out of the trunk of the blue sedan. By the look of him, still tied up but hot and sweaty, he'd been banging on the inside of the trunk hoping to get heard, to no avail.
"You're coming with us sucker!" BA grabbed the man and threw him roughly into the back of the pickup truck. Hannibal grinned; he could see fear in the man's eyes as he sat in the back of the pickup truck with him, with his rifle trained on him.
"We're gonna have a little hunting party of our own, slimeball."
BA jumped back into the cab of the pickup truck and carried on in the direction they were heading.
"Face, come in, have you got a location? We've just picked up Simmons." Hannibal talked into his radio, still with his rifle pointing at Simmons.
"Yeah, Colonel, they're just where we want them. At the barn." Face replied.
"Nice."
"We can see you coming along the road, we'll wait for your arrival until we land this thing."
Hannibal tapped on the window to the cab and shouted as loud as he could so BA could hear him. "They're at the barn! Face and Murdock are gonna follow us by air."
BA nodded to confirm he understood.
Murdock and Face followed the blue pickup truck by air, but Murdock brought the chopper in low, so it went along the wide main road to be hidden by the tall trees of the wood. The road was quiet and didn't give too many problems to the chopper with on coming vehicles.
Eventually the pickup truck and helicopter came to the opening of the gravel road on their right. Murdock had worked out that this would be wide enough for them to land the chopper in safely. BA pulled the pickup truck in first. Luckily, the gravel road was long enough that Felton and his men wouldn't realise they had arrived.
When the truck came to stop, Hannibal gagged Simmons, so that he couldn't make a noise and made sure his bindings were secure, so that he could not escape the pickup truck.
Hannibal grinned at Simmons, "I don't want you taking a walk, slimeball!" Hannibal then jumped out of the back of the pickup truck.
At the same time, BA jumped out of the drivers seat, automatic rifle in hand and Hannibal signalled for BA to take cover in the woods. Hannibal's plan was that they were going to go in from roughly four angles and surround these guys.
Murdock quickly landed the chopper; he took the keys from it, as he didn't want anyone stealing his already stolen helicopter. 'It could be a useful means of escape for either party', he thought to himself.
With the blades of the chopper whirling above them, starting to slow, Face and Murdock both jumped out and did as Hannibal silently instructed. All four of them took cover behind the trees, their automatic rifles to hand and they sneaked up on foot towards the barn. The A Team were going to do their own bit of hunting.
…
"Damn it, where'd that chopper go?" Felton had been anxiously searching the skies again, in search of his chopper; he'd briefly spotted it. He was getting frustrated that he hadn't caught up with the team yet; he should have nailed them by now. Coming across this barn had meant they were totally off course for the hospital, he smiled at that thought, 'they'll be begging for that antidote by now'.
Felton could still hear the chopper, so it was close by. He hoped that Simmons had been able to make contact with it, 'maybe the chopper was picking him up first', Felton thought to himself.
As Felton searched the sky, his four men approached the barn. Two of the men opened the barn doors as the two other men walked in, their rifles ready in their hands for anything unexpected.
"Sir, I think they were in side the barn at some point." One of the men called out, just about to enter the barn, looking at the evidence in the barn. "And it looks like there may have been a vehicle or something in here."
Felton's smug smile fell from his face at that point and watched as the man who'd called out entered the barn. As the man entered, he tripped on a wire he hadn't seen and a large heavy barrel headed towards him knocking him off his feet. He cried in pain as it had hit him right in the gut, winding him.
"Perry!" Felton shook his head as he watched one of his men fall to the ground. "Be more careful you fool!"
The other man, who'd also entered the barn had turned to watch Perry be knocked off his feet by the large barrel, but continued to walk backwards, also tripping another wire. Before he knew what had hit him, a large oil can, full of dirty black oil came rushing towards him with such force he didn't have time to get out of the way and was hit square in the face, pouring oil all over him.
"Those bastards!" The man cursed.
"You alright, Jack?" Perry asked still winded from his own incident.
The two other men that had opened the barn doors chuckled loudly at Jack and Perry's misfortunes.
"You think it's funny do you?" A voice shouted from the woods. "Drop your weapons and put your hands up! You're surrounded." Hannibal ordered sternly.
All five men looked around them, unable to see anyone. Hannibal let off a round of gunfire by their feet.
"Next time, it'll be you! I said drop your weapons!"
The four men did as they were told, but Felton refused. Murdock decided to send a warning shot of a line of bullets in front of Felton's feet. Felton also dropped his weapon and put his hands up.
"All of you, come out, in front of the barn!"
The five men, including the two men dazed in the barn, did as they were told and walked out in front of the barn a good ten feet with their hands in the air. All four members of the A Team walked out from the cover of the woods in different directions, with their automatic rifles pointing at Felton and his men, covering every angle. Felton and his men were surrounded.
"Face, tie these bozos up!" Hannibal ordered.
Face slung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed a rope from inside the barn. Knowing that both traps had been set off, he was able to walk in confidently, not having to search for the wires he'd set earlier. He grabbed some rope that was hung up on a rusty old hook on the inside of the barn and then approach the five men.
"Where's your pretty little lady?" Felton asked arrogantly. "You sure you don't need this." Felton pointed to the antidote that was still inside his jacket.
All four members of the team were suddenly angered by the arrogance of his comments, reminding them that Amy was seriously ill in hospital but it angered Murdock the most, who was closest to Felton. Murdock lost his concentration momentarily. He dropped his rifle slightly so it was no longer a threat and stepped towards Felton, mumbling threats. Felton seeing Murdock off guard took a gamble and this opportunity to make a run for it, pushing Murdock out of the way as he did so. Murdock quickly came back to his senses, realising his mistake and could have quite easily shot him, but he wasn't a murderer. Instead he was going to take great pleasure in beating the crap out of him and so ran after him.
With the distraction, the other four men took their opportunity. Face got punched first and fell to the ground. Hannibal and BA ran after the four escaping men. Face gathered his senses and was back on his feet, chasing one of the men down. When he was at a confident distance he launched himself at the man and landed on his back, pushing him to the ground. He angrily turned the man over and punched him hard, until he was out cold.
"That's for the one to my eye!"
Murdock caught up with Felton as he was the faster runner and was determined not to let this creep escape. He too cut off Felton by anticipating his route and launched himself at the man, knocking Felton off his feet.
"This is for Amy!" Murdock punched Felton hard in the face, but Felton, maybe not as tall as Murdock was stockier and therefore strong, got to his feet and rushed at Murdock. Throwing punches at each other, Murdock got one in the gut. He was briefly winded but the anger inside of him, fed his adrenalin that kept him going.
"How is that pretty little lady?" Felton jibed as he took a swing at Murdock.
"Why you ugly mudsucker!" Murdock bit at Felton's taunt and angrily punched back.
BA easily knocked out his first man with one punch, and chased down the second. This man was taller than BA and quite stocky, BA was going to have his work cut out. BA also remembered this man was the one who'd shot out his tyres on his van, because he was still dressed in a cops uniform. He was going to keep his promise; this man was going to pay!
Hannibal stood throwing punches at his man, Perry, the two of them at equal odds, until Face turned up, smiling, with a large piece of wood he'd grabbed from the barn and wacked the man hard around the back, knocking him off his feet. Hannibal smiled at Face with gratitude and pounced on the man, quickly turning him over and knocked him out cold with one punch. Hannibal then dragged Perry back to where he'd wanted them originally. Face and BA dragged their men making a pile of four men, all moaning and groaning in pain as they came to. BA began to tie them up as Face spied Murdock still grappling with Felton. Face shot a concerned glance at Hannibal who gave an anxious look back to him, as if to say deal with it Lieutenant. Face ran over to Murdock with urgency in his pace.
Murdock had Felton lying on the ground; he was kneeling over him, punching him in the face and shouting at the man.
"If she's not pulled through this!" With every sentence Murdock punched him in the face. "I'll swear I'll come back and poison you myself!" Punch.
"If she's suffered any pain!" Face grabbed Murdock's hand, as he was about to give another blow to Felton's already bloody face.
Felton gasped through a broken bloody nose, pleading to Face, "Get this guy off me, he's nuts!"
"Murdock, Murdock!" Face had to shout to get through to him, pulling him off Felton. "You've beaten him. Leave it. Come on. I think he's got the message." And he pulled him off of Felton and patted him on the back. "Amy's going to be OK. I'm sure of it."
Face walked Murdock away from Felton.
"I hope so Faceman, I hope so!" the anger in Murdock's eyes still showing.
Face turned towards Felton with an equal threatening look. "He'll pay Murdock, if she isn't, I promise you that much."
Felton lay motionless on the ground, groaning in pain. Hannibal came along and roughly pulled him to his feet and walked him to his other men; all of them were already tied.
BA had gone back to the pickup truck up the gravel road and fetched Simmons out of the back of the pickup. BA grabbed him by his collar. "You're coming with me sucker!"
Simmons walked wearily to the barn. BA was behind him, pointing a rifle in his back and shoving him occasionally to make him walk slightly faster. Once they got back to the barn, BA slung him too with the other men.
All of the men were tied together, just inside the barn. BA, Face and Murdock had their weapons trained on the men. They were not going to move this time. Hannibal had been able to write a brief note, painted with some oil and a large piece of cardboard from an old box in the barn:
"These men poisoned Miss Allen, are known murderers in these parts, hunting men for sport. Send them to jail."
Hannibal chuckled as he placed the note in front of Felton and his men. He took out a cigar from his pocket; Face was quick to supply a light for it, also grinning quite smugly at Felton and his men.
"Felton, I hope you've learnt from this. Never pick a fight with the A Team. We're harder targets than you think!" Hannibal grinned victoriously and turned to his three team mates, "I love it when a plan comes together!"
As all four men walked away from the barn, back towards the pickup truck and chopper, they could hear sirens in the distance.
"Decker?" Face worried.
"Nice. Look at that for timing!"
"Er, Hannibal, how we going to get out of here?"
"The chopper of course!"
"I ain't flying!"
"Of course not BA, you get the pickup!" As Hannibal said his words, Face passed Hannibal the large piece of wood that he had used earlier on one of the men and Hannibal hit BA over the back of the head, knocking him out cold.
"Hannibal, couldn't you have done that a bit closer to the chopper?" Face groaned as he and Murdock caught BA, before he hit the ground.