Chapter 11 – The New Plan and a Few Surprises

B.A. drops Face and Murdock one more time and heads back to his garage for a few other important tools he might need. Face calls Det. Johnson and lets him in on what they know so far. It isn't much, but they feel they need to keep him ready and available when the time comes. They may need some help and the police can get there, where ever there is, a lot quicker than most people.

"Face, you think we should go to Hannibal's place and pick up some more fire power?"

"No Murdock, I don't think we need a bunch of weapons dragging us down. This is going to have to be done with subtlety, so we don't tip our hand and they blow the bomb."

"Subtlety? Okay, I have a few ideas. Let's get what we need and get going? When is B.A. going to be back. We need to move before they pull out and get a jump on us."

"Depending on traffic? Maybe an hour. Murdock let's get into some different clothes and I have a few other props that we can use to make us look more, shall we say, scholarly."

"Man, Face, I never thought about being a teacher. Maybe I missed my true calling."

"Are you serious? I think you followed just the right career path. You could have never stood being cooped up in a classroom. Not out there in the wild blue, flying planes and helicopters, and crates and anything else you could put a motor on. A school teacher? Right!"

"Yeah. You're right. I would have lasted about a semester and then I would have went stir crazy."

Face doesn't say what he is thinking, "stir crazy? Is that any different than regular crazy?" He just agrees and keeps working.

They're ready to go when B.A. calls them. He doesn't come up to get them. He just phones, and they head down. Face is thinking what a difference cell phones have made in their lives. Before they had those bulky radios and the car phone, which cost them a fortune, and they didn't always work. However, with a bomb in the mix, they will have to refrain from using their phones, because the electronic signal could set the bomb off prematurely, and they sure don't want that!

Back to San Pedro and the warehouse area. Maybe we should have gotten a different vehicle. This one is distinctive and we've been down here several times, Face is thinking. Murdock must have read his thoughts because he voices the same thought the next minute.

"Faceman, do you think we should have gotten a different vehicle to come down here in? I mean what if they spotted us the last time?"

"I don't know Murdock, but all of our equipment is set up in this one and it would take B.A. too long to reset up in a different one."

"Right. Good thinking. We just don't have that kind of time, so I guess we will have to risk it."

"Slow down B.A. Now that we know which building it is, we shouldn't have to get so close."

Face has B.A. park three buildings down and into a small space where one building is a little shorter than the other. This way they are behind the building, yet they can still get the equipment to pick up voices from the crooks. They set up surveillance again, and wait. It doesn't seem like anyone is in the building.

"Are you pickin' up anythin'?"

"No, nothing. Maybe they aren't here right now, or maybe they went to set up the bomb. If so, that's not good. If we could get them before they moved the bomb then we wouldn't have to put the whole school in trouble. It's pretty isolated down here. If it goes off, the damage would be minimal compared to a college campus and surrounding neighborhoods."

"Yeah accept for us, only a few dock workers and maybe a few cars on the freeway." Murdock says it very nonchalantly like "who cares if we are killed", and Face doesn't like the sound of that.

"Murdock, did you have to put it that way. It's not really the way I pictured myself dying."

B.A. chimes in, "Aw Face, you won't even know what happened. Just here one second and gone the next."

"Thanks B.A. that makes me feel so much better. Okay, I'm not hearing anything. Do you think we should go have another look see to find out if they have gone or not?"

"Well, I got in once. I guess I can do it again."

Murdock slides open the van door, and shuts it as noiselessly as he can. He then moves across the open area between the buildings and heads to the back. He goes along the back of the buildings until he comes to the one he is looking for. He starts to pull out his lock picks, but then decides to just try the handle. Maybe they haven't relocked the door from the last time. He is in luck and the handle turns, so he opens the door and steps quietly inside. Again, let the eyes adjust. Then he moves toward the front to take a look. No one is here as far as he can tell, so he once again goes to the work area. The papers are still on the table. He quickly looks through them, but still can't find a location. Wait a minute, what's this. He finds a parking permit that says Englewood College on it. This is what they need. Now, is the bomb here, or have they already moved it? He looks to the left and sees a small office that he had not noticed before. He moves quickly and quietly over to the door. He peeks around the corner, but sees no one inside. There is an open locker/safe with nothing in it. There is also a desk, telephone and very little else. It looks like maybe they have cleared out of here, whoever they are. He backs out of the office, gives one more, quick glance around and decides to get out of here before they come back, if they are coming back. He doesn't think Face will want to start another fire to give him a chance to sneak out the back. He steps outside the warehouse door, moves down behind the buildings once again, then turns toward the front and the waiting van. Just as he reaches the front of the warehouse and starts to go across the open area once more, he hears the garage rising again down the way. He looks around the building's edge to see the suburban going through the door. Once the door is closed, he runs across and gets back into the van.

"Well?" B.A. asks.

"It looked like they were gone, but apparently they're back. I think they have already moved the bomb, so stopping them here won't be happening. I did find one piece of good news, the college is Englewood College."
B.A. interrupts, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. They have a parking sticker with that college's name on it lying on the table. I mean, that is the best info we have at this time. Face, do you think we should listen in for a little while, to see if they for sure moved the bomb already, or not? Otherwise, we are going to have to go in there and take the place now, before they leave again."

"Let's give it a try for a few minutes, but if they have moved the bomb, I don't want to waste time here. We need to go find it fast. If it is already in place at that school, we have got to get moving."

B.A. turns the system on, Face puts on the headset, and Murdock holds up the receiver aiming it toward the building where the bad guys are located. Face picks up the conversation quickly.

"Well, Douglas has most of the bomb assembled now. I sure am glad he did it over there and we didn't have to transport it."

"Me, too. Let's get ready to go. They want us over there in about two hours and you know traffic, we don't want to be late."

"Yeah, let's clean up and get outta here. Remember, wipe all the surfaces and make sure you get door handles and light switches."

"Hey, I wasn't born yesterday. I know the drill. You just get your part done, so we can go!"

"I hope this goes according to plan, cause Thompson scares me and I don't want his wrath turned on me."

"Me neither."

Little do they know, Thompson plans on getting rid of them as soon as he has his money.