Opera Buffa, Opera Seria
AN: This is the last opera piece and it is meant to bookend the middle four chapters. I hope you enjoy it. Look up Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" on You Tube. You can either watch the "Apocalypse Now" version or the opera itself. I recommend the movie version and the New York Metropolitan Opera version as it appeared on Deutsche Grammophon.
Disclaimer: I do not own The A Team movie or television series or any of the delightful characters found on The A Team.
Part 6. Heroic Opera
Pa-ping!
Another bullet struck metal framing and ricocheted.
Pinned down behind an overturned school minibus, Face and Hannibal continued to fire. Their opponents were a small group of terrorists who had stationed themselves behind boulders and trees lining the country road. To their left, ahead of the bus and blasted into the pavement was a crater three yards in diameter. It was the means the armed men used to force the bus into the ditch where it landed on its side.
"Remind me again why it was a good idea to send Murdock with our only means of escape back to town to get help." Face glared at his CO before firing another round. His shot made one of the camouflaged men duck back behind a rock for cover.
Hannibal shook his head and moved his lit cigar to the side of his mouth. His eyes had an almost manic cheerfulness to them as he answered. "Now, Face. What part of this don't you like? We kept those schoolkids from being kidnapped and held for ransom, Murdock's getting them to a place that's safer than this and the bad guys aren't going anywhere but jail if he gets back here soon. What's not to like, kid?"
The smirk on his face caused his Lieutenant to groan. "Maybe getting killed by these guys? Being arrested along with them by whoever Murdock brings back here?"
B. A. crouched beside Hannibal and scowled at the con man. "Colonel's right. When we found out they was gonna do this, we had ta stop 'em. Wasn't time ta tell anybody what was goin' on. We saved those kids, didn't we?"
"Any signs of Murdock or the cops, B. A.?" Hannibal asked even though he knew it would have taken the pilot time to drive the black van full of six frightened kids and one injured driver back to the nearest town.
The Sergeant shook his head and took aim at one of the armed men edging his way from tree to tree to their right. His shot splintered tree bark inches above the terrorist's head and forced him to hunker down. "Fool better make sure he don't do nothin' ta my ride."
Hannibal and Face exchanged amused glances. They both knew B. A. was more concerned that Murdock and those in his charge were not detained by these terrorists than he was about what happened to his van.
The amount of gunfire from the opposite side of the road escalated. Hannibal gritted his teeth. "They're laying down fire so they can flank us. Face, cover the left. B. A., you've got the right."
"Good thing is, to cross the road, they're gonna hafta be in the open. Bad thing is I ain' got any more than one more clip and then I'm out, Hannibal." The Sergeant kept his pistol trained on the road to his right.
"Same here. Now what were you saying about this being a good idea, Colonel?" Face muttered as he watched the left flank of their position.
Minutes passed. "Down to my last clip, Hannibal." Face cast a worried look at the older man. "Time for Plan B?"
"I'm working on it." He took a deep puff from the cigar he was half-smoking, half-chewing and squinted at the con man. "Just keep them from breaching the road, Lieutenant. I don't intend on surrendering until it can't be helped." Hannibal stole a quick look at his wrist watch. "Murdock's been gone for about a half hour."
"That ain' enough time ta explain anythin' ta the cops. I don't know, Hannibal. Fool can't possibly get back here in time 'less he flies." B. A. removed the cartridge from his pistol and replaced it. He shook his head. "There's the last of it."
The Colonel glanced at both of his men. "Don't fire unless you see them make a move. Hold out on your ammo as long as you can."
They could see the terrorists more clearly now. As their own volleys decreased, the armed men on the other side of the road became bolder. Five minutes later one of the men was in position to dart across and try to approach them from behind.
Face grimaced as he aimed and heard a click. "I'm out." He quickly changed places with the Colonel and sat with his back to the undercarriage of the bus. "How's that plan coming, Hannibal?"
Hannibal squinted and fired. "Hate to tell you this, kid . . ."
Face sighed in exasperation. "But you're still working on it."
"Shhh." The Colonel put a gloved finger to his lips and tilted his head toward the sky. "Listen!"
From somewhere in the distance came a rhythmic thump-thump.
"That's a police chopper," B. A. said, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead as soon as the aircraft came into view. A new sound started, that of orchestral strings playing a series of ascending four-note runs ending in trills.
The dramatic music grew in volume even as the helicopter drew closer. Brass instruments joined the strings in the warlike strains being broadcast over the public address loudspeaker mounted on the underside.
"What in the world?" Face stared at the approaching aircraft.
"We aren't the only ones wondering that, Lieutenant. Look." Hannibal gestured at the terrorists who peered into the sky from their hiding places. He grinned and flicked ash from his cigar during the lull in the action.
After almost a minute and a half of orchestral music a baritone voice joined a soprano in singing, "Hoyotoho! Hoyotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha!" The soprano's song soared with a high note. They all heard the baritone try but fail to reach the note. He coughed, then cursed. "Aw hell!"
From the pilot's open door, a small canister of some kind dropped, trailing orange smoke. It fell to the ditch across the road from the team and immediately began to create a kind of foggy haze that hid the combatants from each other. A second one dropped and with it came a jubilant "Yahoooo!" blending in with singing women and orchestral strains. This canister emitted red smoke and covered even more area. The terrorists fired a few shots into the air but seemed unable to locate exactly where the helicopter was among all the ground-level smoke.
B. A. shook his head and muttered to no one in particular, "The man's crazy."
"But effective," Hannibal added, placing one hand on the black man's shoulder.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
"I believe that's our cue to get out of here." The Colonel grinned.
"I ain' goin' up in the air, Hannibal." B. A. scowled at the white-haired leader and clenched his hands into fists.
As the chopper passed overhead and circled, an excited "yi-yi-yi-yi-yi" drifted down to them.
"I do believe he's having fun with this." The Colonel squinted up at the chopper to get a glimpse of Murdock but couldn't clearly see through the drifting smoke.
"I said I ain' goin' up in the air." B. A. followed Hannibal's gaze and grimaced as another "yahooo" sounded from above.
The pilot dropped another two canisters of blue and green before hovering over the minibus and lowering a rung ladder. The music over the loudspeaker was building to a dramatic conclusion.
"I ain' gonna keep this sweet li'l lady waitin' all day for you guys t' get on up here," the pilot yelled. "Tell th' ugly mudsucker if he don' wanna ride with th' rest o' ya, he can hang on t' th' ladder. But . . . we . . . hafta . . . go . . . now!" Murdock emphasized each word of the last sentence. The urgency in his voice prompted Face to scramble up the rungs to the chopper.
"Sergeant. As your commanding officer, I'm ordering you up that ladder." The flashing lights were coming closer. "Now, B. A.!"
The black man climbed up four rungs and Hannibal stepped up behind him. Within seconds Murdock had the chopper up in the sky and high enough above the trees so that Hannibal and B. A. would not be injured.
"Start climbing, Sergeant. I'm not going to hang here all day." Hannibal sharpened his tone. It was the only way he knew to get through to the petrified man.
Little by little, B. A. crept up the ladder and finally heaved himself onto the floor just as the music reached its climax. Hannibal moved past him and close to the pilot's seat.
With a sigh, Murdock shut off the cassette player he had placed close to the loudspeaker microphone. "Nothin' like a li'l Wagner t' make an escape by. Been in contact with th' owners o' this li'l birdie 'n' they kinda want it back." The pilot adjusted his headset and gave the Colonel a lopsided grin. "Well, actually they wanna get hol' o' me 'n' let me stay in their jail courtesy o' th' county." He shrugged.
"I bet." Hannibal smirked around his cigar. "By the way, Captain. Nice choice of music."
"Oh, it wasn' somethin' I came up with, Colonel. Ya ever see that movie 'Apocalypse Now'?"
Face frowned. He wasn't sure where this topic was headed. He had heard of the movie and had personally decided not to see it. "What are they doing letting you see that movie in the VA hospital?"
"Oh, they didn'. They wouldn'. I went 'n' saw it on my own. Snuck out one night back in 79 jus' 'cause I heard so much 'bout it." Murdock's expression grew more serious. "Wouldn' recommend it. Had a couple weeks o' nightmares 'n' flashbacks 'cause of it."
The three men were silent for a few minutes. Neither Hannibal nor Face knew how to respond. Like a kid staying up way past his bedtime to watch monster movies that gave him bad dreams, Murdock did little rebellious things like this sometimes. The damage was done and Murdock had moved on. Face couldn't help but wonder if it had helped or hurt his best friend to see the images of the Vietnam War again as represented by that movie.
"So this Wagner stuff was part of that movie?" B. A.'s voice came from where he lay on the floor of the chopper.
"Oh yeah. Buncha shit that. Th' PSYOP teams played somethin' called 'The Wanderin' Soul' t' rattle th' NVA 'n' VC, not Wagner. Played on their superstitions 'bout ghosts 'n' th' afterlife. It's nickname was 'Ghost Tape Number 10.'" Murdock snorted at the memory of the village bombing run in the movie and reflected for a few silent moments.
Hannibal and Face couldn't begin to know how Murdock knew about psychological warfare methods. The Lieutenant touched his friend on the arm and the pilot startled out of his meditations. "But I knew it a'ready from some ol' opera records my Gramma 'n' Grampa owned. It's called 'The Ride o' the Valkyries'. Those women singin' were s'posed t' be daughters o' Wotan the war god. They were collectin' up th' bodies o' fallen soldiers t' haul 'em off t' a place called Valhalla. Well, I ain' one o' them but I thought it'd make th' bad guys sit up 'n' take notice." He paused and glanced at each of his team mates. "Sure am glad I wasn' havin' t' collect up yer bodies."
"We are too, Captain."
"B'sides, you heard me. I can't hit th' high notes."
Murdock was joking around but his three team mates thought about what he said about the movie. Face wondered what kind of nightmares and flashbacks his use of Wagner's music to rescue them would bring.
Before they could say anything more, the pilot had moved on to a new subject. "Look, I'm gonna land this bird in a field not very far 'way from th' hospital where I took th' bus driver. Should be able t' get t' the van from there. Sound good?"
"Sounds good, Captain." Hannibal gave Face a hard look. They would take turns making sure at least one of them stayed awake with him through the next few nights. He would not be alone.