"That woman knew I was alive when they left," Jean told the four men later in the early morning when she'd been woken up and they'd all gathered in the living room to find out what was going on, "She said if I got away, if I managed to make my way back, she said if 'my colonel' was to find out anything that had happened, they would kill him, and I wasn't in any position at that time to do anything about it. I couldn't figure out what she meant by that, the only thing I could think of was they must know you and they must know that I'm with you guys."
"Why didn't you tell us that in the first place?" Hannibal wanted to know.
"This wasn't some idle threat, Hannibal," Jean told him, "This isn't like when somebody tells a kid that they'll kill their parents if they talk, just an empty threat to keep them scared…whoever these people are, they know how you work. By now everybody knows that Hannibal Smith comes in directly through the front door, they know your strategy, they've managed to anticipate any plan of attack you could come up with, and they know that if you found out what happened, you would go out to that cabin, just as you did anyway. That's why I had hoped I could get in the house without you discovering me, I really didn't get any impression that they wanted me dead, only to suffer, but you, I think they mean business."
"And you think they would have just left you alone if you managed to get loose and get out of there?" he asked.
She didn't answer that and said only, "Let them come here…this is my home turf, I know every inch of this place, so if they tried attacking me here they'd be the ones on uncharted territory, their only advantage would be the sneak attack."
"Sometimes," Hannibal calmly explained, "That's the only advantage you need." And Jean knew that he wasn't talking about the people who had threatened her.
She shrugged and said, "Maybe you're right, Hannibal…what can I say? I got worried, I didn't want to take a chance of something going wrong, we already risked you dying on us once, I wasn't eager to try it again and see if it stuck this time."
"Well, I appreciate your concern, but I do know how to take care of myself," he replied, "Now is there anything else that you haven't told us about?"
"When they were questioning me, they asked about what you knew, how much you knew."
"Knew about what?" Face asked.
"I don't know, the whole thing doesn't make any sense to me," Jean answered, "It's like whatever they are doing, they think Hannibal knows something about it."
"Well it would come in handy," Hannibal replied, "But they're getting a bit ahead of us there."
"So what do we do now?" Jean asked.
Hannibal thought about it, then got the idea that he was the center of attention, and looking around at the others he found his suspicions were correct, and he told them bluntly, "I'm thinking!"
Face smiled and said, "Well maybe while you're thinking, the rest of us can go back to sleep."
"Sounds good to me," Murdock agreed.
Hannibal nodded, "Nothing's going to be done tonight anyway, so let's get back to bed before it's time for breakfast."
Jean followed behind Hannibal and stopped him at the stairs and said, "Hey Hannibal, I'm sorry about all the trouble I caused."
Hannibal turned to her and didn't say anything for a minute. Jean waited for the reprimand she was sure she was going to get, but it never came. Hannibal put his arm around her and told her, "No problem, kid, we're just glad you're alright, you had us worried for a while."
Jean shook her head and said, "I was just trying to find a way to stall for time, to come up with a plan, I figured I could find a way to take care of the matter myself, so you wouldn't have to get involved."
"Well you ought to know us better than that," Hannibal told her, "But what was with the zombie act when we went back to the cabin?"
"Well we went over the place once so I knew they didn't booby trap it, so I figured if they were going to come back while we were there, if I was outside I'd be able to see them coming and I could warn you. They never came so I can't figure out what they must be thinking," Jean said.
Hannibal took a cigar out of his pocket and bit off the end of it, "Well, I have a few thoughts on the matter, but I'm going to sleep on them before I come to any conclusions. Goodnight, kid."
She stood at the foot of the stairs and watched Hannibal disappear up the stairway and she kept her gaze up to the second floor for a minute after he'd returned to his bedroom. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Murdock and Face standing alongside each other as though they'd been discussing something.
"Well I'm going back to bed," Face told them, "Goodnight."
Jean moved to let him pass and after he'd gone up the stairs, Jean turned to Murdock and told him, "You know, he's never liked me."
Murdock replied without missing a beat, "Aw, Facey's always liked you."
"Not really," Jean said, "He especially hasn't liked me since we got married."
"Aw Facey's just got a little touch of the green-eyed bug," Murdock told her, "He won't admit it but he's worried that by my being married, I won't have as much time to spend with him as I always did. Besides, there's something else to consider."
"What's that?" Jean asked.
"Oh it's no secret," Murdock said, "The Faceman has always had a natural charm with the ladies, it's actually very rare to find any woman that he can't work his magic on, and you are like hitting a brick wall at 120 miles an hour when it comes to that department."
"3 billion women in the world and he can't deal with the fact that one doesn't want him?" Jean asked.
"Well it's a little more than that now," Murdock told her, "You see when you told us about that woman, well..." he half shrugged and said, "You're right, we never thought about it before."
"If I was a man, Face wouldn't have half the problem with me that he does," Jean explained, "It's only because I'm a woman that he thinks I'm psychotic for doing what I do."
Murdock nodded and said, "He would have a marginally better grasp of that reality if you didn't remind him of every soft pretty thing he's ever gotten his hooks into. It's harder for him to believe because he's been with his fair share of women, and he wouldn't be able to picture any of them doing any of the things that you described."
"Yeah well something tells me he'd believe it if he saw that woman," Jean remarked, "Incidentally, why is it you believe it when he doesn't?"
"Ah," Murdock said haughtily, as though she had just stumbled onto the answer to the Rubik's cube, "Such is the advantage of being insane, you can afford to be very open minded towards ideas that everybody else shuns."
She smiled at him and told him, "I knew there was something about you that I liked."
Murdock returned the smile and said, "Besides, you've dealt Face a blow with this one because now he's realizing that there are a few more women in the world like you, instead of all the damsels in distress he has come to the aid of over the years. And he knows that could hurt his chances of working his magic the next time he encounters a pretty girl."
Jean rested her head on Murdock's shoulder and asked him, "You think Hannibal's got a plan for this one?"
"If he doesn't yet, he will," Murdock assured her, "The Colonel always has a plan, you can count on that."
Jean lifted her head up and nodded tiredly, "I guess it was pretty stupid thinking somebody could actually get the drop on him."
"Well," Murdock told her, "You know that Hannibal sees all of us through a father's eyes, it's perfectly natural for children to worry about their parents on occasion, even with the best intentions they can sometimes doubt their parents' abilities, it's all perfectly normal."
"I just don't want to see anything happen to him," she said.
"I know, none of us do," he said in agreement, "But Hannibal knows what he's doing, that's why he's the Colonel."
"Hmmmm," Jean turned away from him and seemed to be deep in thought.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Just had a thought," she answered, "Hannibal's a Colonel, Lynch was a Colonel, Decker's a Colonel, and Decker is sore that he never got to advance his rank due to the politics going on at the time in Vietnam, and even now he can't get promoted because of his own bad attitude. Murdock, what's the next rank after Colonel?"
"After that come the Generals: Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, and then General regular, like coffee," he said, "Why?"
She was scratching her head as she said, "I just wonder if it's possible to find out who Decker has to answer to at the end of the day when you guys get away."
Murdock opened the bedroom door and called in, "Face, you asleep?"
Face sighed and turned over in the bed and answered, "Not yet, what's up, Murdock?"
"Get up, I need you to settle something for us right now."
Face reluctantly kicked back the covers and stood up. The lights weren't turned on but he saw Murdock and Jean standing in the room.
"What's up, Murdock?" he asked as he went over to them.
"I want you to settle something right now," Murdock said, and pointing towards Jean he asked the lieutenant, "Do you like her?"
"Huh?" it was obvious Face wasn't expecting that.
"Do-you-like-me?" Jean asked in a resonating tone, "Or do you hate me?"
Even in the dark, they could see Face's wide-eyed response as he shook his head uncertainly and stammered, "N-no, I-I don't." He turned to Murdock and asked, "What's going on, Murdock?"
"It's a simple question, Faceman, do you like her or not?" Murdock asked, "I need to know, you're my best friend and she's my wife and I don't want there being any bad relations between any of us."
Face realized now was not the best time to remind Murdock that she wasn't going to be his wife for much longer, so he went around that point and said, "Sure, I like her." But he didn't sound convinced.
"Alright then," Murdock slowly nodded, and said, "Then I want you to come over here and I want you to give her a hug."
The breath that he'd just taken in left Face like air out of a deflating balloon, and Jean took a step back from both of them when Murdock said that.
"Is that really necessary?" Face asked.
"Yes," Murdock was relentless.
"Come on, Murdock," Jean said, "Don't be disgusting."
"No, I'm serious," Murdock put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a slight push over towards Face, "Face, you are my friend and if you are my friend then you will do this for me."
Face sighed and gave in, "Alright." He slowly moved to Jean as if he was expecting something to pop out and hit him along the way. He and Jean stood three inches apart from one another, and Face slowly put his arms around her, hesitating every inch of the way as if he was waiting for a booby trap to spring. When no bear traps latched onto his hand, he eased into the embrace a bit more and the rest came naturally. It was a good ten seconds before he realized that Jean was hugging him too, but for once it was without the intent of trying to choke him. He felt something else grab him and realized Murdock had latched an arm around both of them and he saw the satisfied grin on the pilot's face.
"Are ya happy now, Murdock?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"Good…can I go back to bed now?" Face asked.
"Sure, we all will," Murdock said.
Face picked up between the lines on that one, but he didn't say anything; he didn't mind, it certainly wasn't the first time the three of them had shared a bed before. He climbed back in on his side, Jean squeezed into the middle beside him, and Murdock piled in on the other end and pulled the covers up on them. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," the other two replied.
The next morning everybody was gathered in the living room again as Hannibal explained the idea that had come to him over the night.
"If what Jean said is true and this woman was never in the military, then from there we can probably assume that the rest of the outfit is a bunch of phonies as well."
"Then how'd they get the trucks?" Jean asked.
"Oh that would be very easy to do," Face said, "Especially if it happened to be at a time that nobody was looking, and even if they were, if they were in uniform they probably came with a con already in mind and sweet talked their way right out of there."
"Talking from experience I see," she commented.
Face rolled his eyes and decided to be quiet while Hannibal continued with his explanation.
"Alright, so if these people did just walk in and make off with official army transportation for their own purposes…what would that be?" Hannibal asked.
"Could be anything," Jean said.
"Uh…" Murdock latched onto a thought, "Maybe they're smuggling something."
"That's what I thought," Hannibal said, the pride in his tone easy to pick up, as though Murdock was a student that just solved a brilliant problem on the blackboard, "The next question is what, and what is it that they're using at least three trucks at a time for?"
"Again, it could be anything," Face said, "Who knows? Could be old weapons, drugs, bootleg whiskey, maybe even people, sell them in the black market slave rings or something."
"But we don't know where the trucks went, so how do we find out?" Jean asked.
"Uh…" Murdock raised his hand like a school kid who actually paid attention to the lesson and wanted to answer to show everybody what he knew.
"Yes, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.
"Face and I might have an idea of what happened to the car that the trucks were following yesterday," Murdock said, and he explained about their chase with the MP car that ended when he hit its windshield and it hit a fire hydrant.
"You can be sure," Face said, "There'll be some report of that somewhere, if it's not the real military police, then it'll at least be listed in the accident reports in the newspapers." He could see the look on Hannibal's face and saved him the trouble, "I'll check it out when I also look into who's currently inhabiting the cabin."
"Hey Hannibal," B.A. finally spoke up, "I don't like this, man, exactly how do we find out if it is or if it ain't the real thing we're dealing with?"
"Good point," Face said, "We can't very well call up Decker and ask him if somebody's stolen one of their cars and three trucks and see if he's interested in helping us find the impersonators responsible."
That seemed to set off a thought in Murdock's mind and he slapped Face on the knee repeatedly to get his attention, and started to whisper his idea in the lieutenant's ear.
"Something you'd care to share with the rest of us, Captain?" Hannibal asked.
He'd already told Face his idea, and Face pulled back and looked at him as if he'd lost his mind all over again. "Hannibal, you better sit down," he advised the colonel, "This one's a real lulu."
"Don't tell me," Hannibal said as he made himself comfortable in one of the chairs, "We call up Decker and ask him if he's interested in helping us?"
"Not exactly," Face replied, staring at Murdock in disbelief.
Murdock had a sheepish look on his face, as though now that he'd actually said what he was thinking, he wasn't sure it was a good idea.
"Well, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.
"Not Decker," he answered, "But somebody close to him."
"What?" B.A. asked.
"Of course, that captain that's always with him, Crane!" Jean said in sudden understanding, "He might be willing to put the politics aside and help us find out what's going on."
"Big maybe," Hannibal pointed out.
"On the other hand though," Face spoke up, "If we find out the guy's name on the lease of the cabin matches with somebody working in the military police, then that could at least point us in the right direction, and then if it doesn't match, then I'm sure they'd be interested to know there's somebody running around pretending to be the army at the expense of any authentic military equipment they can get their hands on." He could tell that the others weren't following, so he talked a bit faster, like he always did when he tried to assert his point into the middle of Hannibal's view, "You know, they've got all those computer systems that are so quick and efficient and can run a person's name or prints and come up with the desired results in a matter of minutes or maybe an hour, that's how they always find us so quick…much better than anything we could come up with on our own. Whatever is going on, it has to be something that would be of interest to the army instead of just continuously trying to bring our heads in on a platter."
Hannibal shook his head, "I doubt Crane would go for it."
"Oh, I don't know about that," Jean said, "You weren't there the last time we saw him, I got the idea that Murdock and I made a very lasting impression on him."
"Yeah, but do you really think he'd be willing to help us?" Face asked.
"I'm sure we could make the good captain see things our way," Jean said, "He's just one of those people you have to know how to talk to, say…with a grenade in one hand and the pin in the other."
Face choked on a laugh and said, "With that kind of opener, you could get Decker's attention and bypass Crane completely."
An idea occurred to Jean and she said to Hannibal, "There are only two reasons I can think of why somebody would need military transportation to smuggle anything anywhere…either passing themselves off as the military gives them the immunity to pass through a checkpoint with no questions asked…"
"Or?" Hannibal returned.
"Or it is the military, and it's back to the trafficking business as usual, because nobody is going to question the integrity of the men in uniform or their intentions."
"We should be able to find out soon either way," Hannibal told her, "As soon as Face can get us a name to check on."
Face rolled his eyes and got up from the couch, "Right, Hannibal, I'm on it."
Face left late in the morning to find the name on the cabin, and he came back early in the afternoon with a name for them to go on: James Pike. It wasn't anybody they had ever heard of, and it wasn't a name he had been able to find any information on, and he'd been gone long enough that they knew he had exhausted every possible search he could run on the name.
"Well," he said as he dropped on the couch beside Jean and Murdock, exhausted, "Is anybody else interested in giving up?"
"What about calling Amy?" Murdock asked, "Maybe she can find something about the guy."
"I tried," Face told him, "She's still not home yet and I checked down at the L.A. Courier Express, she's still out of town."
"Well isn't that convenient?" Jean asked.
"So the most likely explanation for that one is it's just an alias," Hannibal said, "He wants to make sure nobody can track him by his real identity."
"So now what do we do, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.
Face spoke up, "I did manage to find out that the 'accident' that occurred yesterday was published in the daily paper, written off as a one vehicle accident, and absolutely no mention about it being a MP car."
"Would they say if it was, though?" Jean asked.
"Well…I'm not sure, but I did notice that they didn't bother saying who was in the car," Face said, "So that says to me that somebody got it all hushed up."
"Sounds like the army to me," Murdock noted.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Jean said, "We're only going in circles."
"I know it," Face replied, "Got any ideas, Hannibal?"
"One," the colonel answered as he puffed on his cigar, "It didn't look like whoever was at the cabin had raided the place entirely…there is the possibility that whoever it is plans to return, and soon."
"Great, but how're you going to find out when?" Jean asked him.
"Well based on the food they had in the fridge there, I'd say whoever it is will be returning in a few days," Hannibal answered, "And when they do, we're going to be ready for them."
"Here we go again," Face murmured to Murdock with a roll of his eyes.
"What?" Jean asked.
Face leaned over to her and explained, "I get the idea that this is going to be another one of Hannibal's plans that I really don't like."
"Face, has Hannibal ever had a plan that you did like?" she asked.
Face turned to glare at her but was knocked back when he saw Murdock was staring at him in the same questioning way that she was, as if he was also waiting for the answer to that one.
Hannibal was right, James Pike, or whatever his real name was, did return to the cabin, three nights later, and when he came he brought back one of the trucks with him. It was after midnight when he pulled up outside, and he'd been there enough times that he didn't bother turning on the lights when he went in the front door. That proved to be his mistake because en route to the second room, he tripped over something just past the threshold. The lights came on and he saw four men with guns aimed on him, and he also saw a woman on the floor with another gun aimed at him.
"Always knew that sleeping on the floor would be good for something," Jean commented as she stood up.
"How bout it, Jean?" Hannibal asked, taking in the sight of the man who looked about 25 and was built slightly better than a gangly teenager. "Is this the guy?"
"Nah, Hannibal," she answered, "This isn't the one that messed with me, I recognize him, he's one of the drivers."
"Well that'll do," Hannibal said, and turned to the sergeant, "B.A."
"Get up here, sucker," B.A. said as he grabbed the man by his arm and jerked him to his feet.
"Your name James Pike?" Hannibal asked.
The man was groaning in pain because B.A. had his arm in a hydraulic press grip, squeezing it to a point the man was bent over backwards from the pain, but he managed to get out, "Yeah, yeah, that's me!"
"Hmmm, you haven't been a very easy man to find, Mr. Pike," Hannibal noted, "Are we to assume that you have another name?"
The man screamed in pain as B.A. squeezed his arm a little tighter and answered frantically, "Yeah, yeah, it's Corbin…" he was just about to pass out from the pain and begged Hannibal, "Get him off of me."
"Alright, B.A., I think that's enough for now," Hannibal told him.
B.A. grunted unsatisfactorily as he let go of the man. Hannibal had Jean come over to him and he asked Corbin, "You recognize her?"
It was obvious from the look on his face that he did, though he didn't say anything to confirm or deny it.
"Now," Hannibal told him, "Either you tell us what we want to know, or we're going to let you take your luck going ten rounds with our staff sergeant here, you got me?" He didn't wait for the man to answer and added, "We know you brought the truck, is it loaded up?"
"Yeah," Corbin answered.
"Fine," Hannibal grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and said, "Let's go take a look at the inventory, shall we?"
Face remained coy with the man as they headed outside and he said, "You know, I'm really glad you showed up when you did, we've taken the liberty of keeping the dust from settling around here for the last three days and to be honest I've had all of this communing with nature that I can take." He gestured back to Murdock and said, "Especially given my roommate of choice, or lack thereof."
It wasn't that Face minded bunking with Murdock, what he did mind were the 5 A.M. wakeup calls when Murdock decided to imitate the bird calls outside the window, his impressions always being screeched at the top of his lungs so the birds would be sure to hear him. That had been the first problem with bunking with Murdock; the second part was that Jean had stayed in the bedroom with them, and the first time Face shot up in bed screaming, he looked over and saw that while Murdock was howling like a dozen wild animals, Jean was in the second bed still peacefully asleep. He couldn't believe it and fell back against his own bed in disbelief. At first he thought she was just messing with him, but he picked up a paperweight off the nightstand and tossed it at Jean and managed to hit her with it, and that was when she shot up in bed demanding to know what was going on. He remembered rolling his eyes and asking her, "You really mean to tell me you can't hear that?"
She had turned to the window and saw Murdock jumping up and down screeching like a bird and she said, "Well I can now, what'd you wake me up for?"
"How can you sleep through that?" he asked her.
"Oh I can sleep through anything," she answered as she turned back over and closed her eyes, and she added, "I once slept through them blowing the tornado sirens, thankfully it was a false alarm."
Face couldn't help but wondering just how crazy a person had to be to be blessed with such heavy sleeping abilities.
They went out to the truck and Hannibal shone his flashlight in the back. "Hmmm…looks like Los Angeles is due for a snowstorm."
"What?!" Jean asked, then glaring at Corbin she added, "Oh-ho, so it is back to business as usual, eh?" She grabbed him and was about to ram her fist as far into his stomach as she could manage, but Face and Murdock managed to stop her.
Hannibal pulled out a large bag of white powder and said, "I doubt whoever the brains of this outfit is, is planning to open up a bakery. Face, take a look in there, how much would you wager they're moving?"
Face also looked in the back of the truck and said, "Looks like about a hundred bags, and if each bag is one kilo…uh yeah," he looked back to their prisoner and said, "That would be a lot of powdered sugar."
"Alright, Corbin," Hannibal went back to the man, "I've got a few more questions before I decide what we're going to do with you. First one I want to know, who's the woman who was here four days ago?"
"I don't know," he said, and when B.A. moved to grab him he jumped back and said, "I swear, I never knew her name."
"Did you know anybody who was here that day?" Face asked.
"Just the other drivers," he answered, "We got our orders and we came in."
"Orders from who?" Hannibal asked.
"From the Colonel," the young man said.
Murdock took a step closer to the man and had his gun aimed so Corbin would be shot in the guts if he failed to give them a satisfactory answer as he asked, "Alright, but what's any of this got to do with our colonel?"
Corbin looked at him like he knew Murdock's history so knew he was crazy and said, "What?"
"You were here during the inquisition," Jean told him, "You heard that bimbo say if I got out of here, that my Colonel would die…well there he is," she pointed at Hannibal, "How does he figure into any of this?"
The man looked at them as if they all were crazy and replied, "What're you talking about? That's not the colonel."
"It just gets better and better," Face dryly commented.
It took very little persuasion to get the ball rolling on the long, drawn out explanation. Apparently what was going on was that whoever Corbin was working for, which according to him, was divided into members of the army, and people who had not been enlisted so they weren't readily accessible on any files for identification, himself included there, were facing a competition problem from people in the other branches of the military. Their biggest problem was with a group that operated out of the Air Force since they could fly the goods out of the country and therefore ensure the fastest delivery.
"This is why I don't like the bad guys," Face cynically commented to the others, "Their greed consumes them and that's what makes it impossible for them to work together, they're doomed to fall apart in the end."
So now they had the answer for what had happened to Jean. The people at the cabin had seen her in an Air Force uniform and assumed she was out there spying to report back for the other side; Hannibal had never been the target of anybody's threats, which was one relief for everybody, but now they had a bigger problem to deal with.
"Alright, Corbin," Hannibal said, "This is your lucky day, because I'm inclined to believe you're telling us the truth. I'm even willing to believe that you really don't know the names of the people that you pick up and drop off the hauls for, since I could see this being a particularly large operation, probably with more members involved than a potato has eyes…but you do know who the man in charge is that's pulling all the strings, that's why you're in the middle of this in the first place."
"Yes."
"Alright, then you're going to tell us who it is," Hannibal said.
"If I tell you, they're going to kill me," Corbin told him.
"If you don't tell me, I'll kill you," Hannibal warned him.
"Alright, alright," he surrendered, "It's the Colonel, he's the one that oversees everything."
"Right, who is he?" Hannibal asked.
"Decker, the man's name is Decker!" Corbin told them.
Suddenly the outside became quiet enough that a pin would be heard dropping in the woods.
"I always knew Decker was a miserable excuse for a human being," Jean said to Murdock, still feeling in shock at this sudden revelation, "But I never took him for a drug dealer."
The two of them and Face and B.A. were all seated on the back of the truck as they watched Hannibal pace back and forth maniacally as he huffed and puffed on his cigar like he was the big bad wolf; and if he didn't stop it soon they were worried he might actually swallow it. After they got all the information they could out of Corbin, they took him, and one of the bags of heroin and personally escorted him to the police station; left him right outside the front door all tied up, gagged and, at Murdock's insistence, with a big bow on top of his head, and the usual sign tied to his chest explaining just why he was supposed to be locked up. They hadn't bothered with the rest of the merchandise because they realized this was bigger than any of them had realized and Hannibal needed time to come up with a plan before they could do anything more.
"No no no," Hannibal shook his head as he continued to smoke furiously, "Not Decker, there's something wrong here."
Jean laughed dryly and said, "Now I know you're not about to tell us that Decker is too upstanding a person to do such a thing."
"That he is," Hannibal replied, "Believe it or not."
"You can't be serious," she said.
"I don't know," Face broke in, "Decker's done a lot of detestable things but he was never known in 'Nam for having anything to do with the dealers…that's more like General Chow, remember that, Hannibal?"
Hannibal didn't seem to be paying any attention though. He kept moving back and forth and seemed focused on something else.
"Decker's problem was he was too overzealous in his work," Hannibal said, "He didn't serve in Vietnam just to kill, he was in it to annihilate, to obliterate, to leave nothing standing between him and the Viet-Cong and bring them to their knees. He's a bloodthirsty animal, I'll grant you that, but this…" he shook his head again, "Not his style, no way. Something has to be wrong."
"Corbin said the man giving the orders is Colonel Decker," Murdock said, "How many Colonel Deckers can there be in the army, Colonel?"
"I know, I know," Hannibal conceded, "It still doesn't make any sense."
"Hannibal, why do you think it can't be possible?" Jean asked.
"Because," Hannibal said over his cigar, "Decker may be a miserable excuse for a human being, but we are a lot more alike than either of us is willing to admit…you might say I know him too well to think he could be involved."
"You think Corbin lied then?" she asked.
"He's not smart enough for that," Hannibal said, "So we've got to find out what's going on."
"Right, but how?" Face asked.
Hannibal stopped in mid-stride and he did nearly swallow his cigar as he exclaimed, "I've got it!" He turned on his heel to face the others and commented, "Kind of ironic how those people weren't even talking about me, and yet they knew my style very well."
"Uh-oh, what've you got planned, Hannibal?" Face asked.
"What I do best," he answered, "We are going to go in through the front door on this one…Decker's front door."
"What!?" they asked.
B.A. looked over to Murdock and said in a concerned tone, "Man's actually lost his mind."
Even Murdock had to nod his head in agreement.
Author's note: Like it or hate it, I'm anxious to know what everybody thinks.
