"I don't like this, Hannibal," B.A. said as he drove them to the hospital in an ambulance that Face had managed to scam for them.
"Don't like what, B.A.?" Hannibal asked as he straightened out his wig and made sure his mustache was straight.
"Why did I have to be the one coming out here with you?"
"Because they already saw Face, they'd know something was up if he came back," Hannibal answered, "I told you that already."
"I know, but I ain't no actor," B.A. told him, "You and Faceman are good at conning people, you know what to say to them."
"Don't worry," Hannibal replied, "If all goes according to plan, you shouldn't have to do more than just standing around and being your usual charming self."
B.A. turned his head slowly to glare at Hannibal and growled at him.
"That's the look," Hannibal said with a smirk as he bit down on his cigar.
"So what'chu think's going on?" B.A. asked.
"That we won't know until we get there," Hannibal said, "Now you just man the gurney and let me do all the talking."
"What do you think I was planning on doing?" B.A. responded.
Hannibal stuck his head out the passenger window and looked up at the dark sky. Those clouds that had moved in earlier in the morning looked like they were settled in place now, and they spanned out as far as the eye could see. He also noticed how some of them had a greenish tint to them and appeared to be lumpy like a bunch of marshmallows. Hail clouds, he noted. He also noticed the chill in the air now as the wind blew hard, and he told B.A., "Storm's coming."
"That's what Murdock said back at the house," B.A. glared over at him again and asked, "You two reading each other's minds now?"
"I don't have to, I can feel it," Hannibal told him as he pulled his head back in through the window, "Let's see if we can get in and get out with Mr. Murdock before the storm hits. I've got a feeling it's going to be a bad one."
B.A. slowly nodded and kept his eyes on the road ahead. As they neared the V.A., he told Hannibal, "I don't like this. Something about this place…"
"Oh come now, B.A., you've been out here before," Hannibal told him, "Even though it usually is Face making the trip to bust Murdock out."
B.A. shook his head, "Ain't so bad when it's daylight and the sun's out, then the place looks normal, for a crazy hospital, but like this…don't like it, Hannibal, don't like it one bit."
Hannibal looked up ahead and agreed, "Yeah I know what you mean…kind of like entering a cemetery." He couldn't explain what it was, but there was something about the place that under the right circumstances, when the atmosphere was just right, it set a bad feeling in his bones to come out here. He knew that other mental hospitals had cemeteries in the back to bury their patients that nobody claimed, but as far as he knew, everybody who was at the V.A. had somebody to collect upon expiration. He'd been in the back yard of the hospital and knew, or at least thought since he never saw any tombstones, that nobody was buried there, not this decade anyway. Still he wondered, and he also wondered if Murdock ever had the same thoughts; his were probably worse because he actually lived there, and would have a better idea what actually happened to the patients who left the hospital carried out. He pushed the thought from his mind for the time being, and he looked over at the sergeant and joked, "Guess it's a good thing we didn't bring Murdock with us, he'd probably start rambling on about zombies coming out of the ground and eating us."
"Don't start, Hannibal," B.A. warned him.
Hannibal chuckled lightly as he clamped down on his cigar again.
Hannibal pushed through the front doors of the hospital and entered with an air of authority about him as he stood tall and intimidating to the staff who saw him; like Rambo just out of medical school. He was dressed in a doctor's coat with a mask hanging around his neck and short surgical gloves on his hands, his bushy wig was almost pitch dark, as was his mustache, his skin had been touched up to a shade tanner than he was, but instead of looking like he'd been bronzing himself in the sun, he looked like a tumbleweed. Behind him, B.A. stepped heavily, his size 14 clod hoppers practically leaving dents in the floor, he was dressed in an extra large set of green scrubs including a cap covering his Mohawk, and a white mask pulled up over his nose and mouth.
Hannibal was able to recognize the dragon nurse from Face's description and he strode over to her and just as soon as she was able to ask who he was and what he wanted, he stared her down and demanded to know, "Where is he? Where is M.D. Murdock?"
"Who are you?" the nurse repeated.
"My name is Doctor Streiner, I'm here on official government business, I demand to know where M.D. Murdock is."
"Whatever for?" she asked.
Hannibal didn't wait for her to show him the way and instead stomped off towards the direction of the psychiatric wing, with B.A. following behind him and the nurse running alongside him.
"Our colleague Dr. Wilcox got in touch with us this morning, he was here this morning wasn't he? He told you to keep Mr. Murdock in a private room until further notice?"
"Yes he did, but I still don't understand what this is all about," she told him.
"This goes beyond National Security, lady," Hannibal told her, "We are talking about an epidemic that will make the Spanish Flu of '18 look like a head cold."
"What!?" she asked.
Hannibal stopped in the middle of the otherwise empty hallway and quietly explained to the woman, "If word of this leaks out to anybody, if the government finds out about this error, then within a week there will be no record of any of us ever having existed, do you understand? Now Mr. Murdock was exposed to a new strain of disease before he was transferred here, a manmade strain that is being developed to up our nation's idea of biological germ warfare when it comes time for our country to enter war with the foreign nations again. When it is perfected, one infected person will be able to spread it to and effectively kill off 500,000 people within a week's time." He watched the shocked look on the woman's face and understood perfectly the pleasure Face got out of running these people through this wringer every few weeks, "Now, we don't know yet that Mr. Murdock has been infected, if he has then we have to study his vitals and find a way to cure it before anybody in Uncle Sam's quarters finds out about this mishap. If he has not, then once we finish running our tests we will gladly return him to you, but we must act fast, so where is he?"
"Right down here, Doctor," the nurse said as she ran on ahead of him.
"What condition is he currently in?" Hannibal asked.
The nurse opened the door and he stepped in and saw the young man laying on the cot bed, all but unconscious but still through some unspoken will he was still rambling on, though less coherently now.
"Is this man in shock?" Hannibal asked as he pulled the patient up into a sitting position and lifted his eyelids.
"No, Doctor, he's sedated," the nurse answered.
"SEDATED!?" Hannibal exploded as he turned back towards her, "Good Lord you sedated this man?"
"Yes!" she answered sharply, "He hadn't slept in a week!"
"Well of course he hadn't!" Hannibal told her, "This new disease that our patriots down in Washington have conjured up attacks the body during its rest cycle, the only way to survive and fight it off is to stay awake." He pushed one eyelid up again and said directly into the man's ear, "Mr. Murdock, can you hear me? My name is Doctor Streiner, my assistant and I are going to relocate you to our laboratory, if you can hear me, make some signal that you understand."
B.A. backed out of the room and rushed back in pushing a gurney. Hannibal continued to yell into the man's ear as he pulled him up and got him to his feet long enough to move him over to the gurney where he and B.A. got him on and strapped down and then wheeled him out of the room, down the hall, out to the entrance lobby, and out the automatic doors to the ambulance in the parking lot.
"Mr. Murdock, can you hear me?" he repeated as they got him in the ambulance. Still no response, though he wasn't totally unconscious yet. Hannibal got in the back with him and closed the door, B.A. went around to the front, started it up and got them out of there.
"Have to admit, Hannibal, that was one of your craziest plans yet," B.A. told him.
"What's the matter?" Hannibal asked as he peeled off his disguise, "You don't think the government could come up with a disease like that?" He forced one of the man's eyelids open again and said to him, "Mr. Murdock, if you can hear me, you're out of danger now."
The young man let out an exhausted groan and collapsed against the gurney, now he was unconscious.
"Got any ideas about it, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.
"Not yet," Hannibal shook his head, "Hopefully when our friend wakes up he'll be able to answer some of our questions, but if what they said is right and he hasn't slept in a week…"
"Why would he do that, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.
Hannibal thought back and said, "Face said he kept muttering something about 'they' were going to kill him, but who's 'they'?"
A disturbing thought came to B.A.'s mind and he said, "Maybe the lobotomy was just a cover…if he suddenly turned up dead couldn't they just say something went wrong during surgery?"
Hannibal thought about it and slowly nodded, "It's definitely possible."
The colonel felt every muscle in his body tense when he heard the BOOM overhead. He looked up, feeling a pins and needles sensation in the back of his neck, and he told B.A., "Storm's here."
B.A. turned the windshield wipers on as a sudden downpour bombarded the ambulance, and he just continued to shake his head and said, "Don't like it, Hannibal, I don't like it."
Murdock stood by the window and watched the rain pour down and he asked the lieutenant behind him on the couch, "Face, you think Hannibal and the big guy are gonna be alright?"
"Come on, Murdock, B.A.'s driven in worse weather than this, he can drive in anything, he can drive anything," Face told him, "He's to vehicles like you are to airplanes."
Murdock shook his head and said, "Naw, I don't mean that, Facey, I mean you think they got out of the hospital alright? You don't think they had any problems, do you? I mean they've been gone a long time."
"Hannibal knows what he's doing, Murdock," Face tried to be reassuring, "Just calm down."
Murdock shook his head and said, "I don't know, Face, I got a bad feeling about this."
"Murdock," Face said, "You know what they say about a watched pot never boiling? Well staring out that window isn't going to get Hannibal and B.A. back here any faster, so why don't you just sit down and relax? They'll be here soon enough."
Murdock nervously clasped his hands together and nodded as he turned away from the window, one particularly large clap of thunder shook the house and sent Murdock sprinting right behind the couch, practically knocking Face off of it in the process.
"Murdock, are you alright?" Face asked.
Murdock popped his head up over the back cushions, but only from the nose up like a dog, and said, "Sure, Face, why do you ask?"
"Oh…no reason," Face responded.
Of course he could imagine why Murdock was acting so jittery. His only saving grace was that Hannibal had wanted the pilot around for a little down time together. Of course Face imagined Murdock would've telephoned and told them what was going on after he'd been informed about the next day's surgery, if he'd been able to. As wild as he was acting, Face knew if he hadn't stepped in, if they had caught Murdock, they probably would've sedated him too and then nobody would've known what was going on. He was starting to get that stabbing feeling of anxiety in the base of his skull all the way down his back too. That was one hell of a close call, what if Hannibal hadn't…no, no, he pushed that thought from his mind. What mattered was that Hannibal had said to get him, he had gone, he had gotten Murdock out of there, and now he was safe.
"Murdock," Face said, feeling the catch in his throat as he spoke, "Why don't you come around here and sit down?"
Murdock inched his face up higher and detected the uneasiness in the lieutenant's voice and said, "Sure, Face…what's the matter, are you nervous?"
"Uh…yeah…a little I guess," Face said.
"Okay," Murdock swung his legs over the back and dropped right down on the cushion next to Face and sympathetically patted his shoulder, "That better, Facey?"
Face sucked in a shallow breath and said, "Yeah, thanks, Murdock."
Murdock sensed that Face was wound up tight about something and though he didn't know what it was, he reached over and draped his arm over Face's shoulders to let the lieutenant know that he was there, and that between the two of them they could work out a solution.
"Anything good on TV?" Murdock asked as he picked up the remote and flipped through the channels.
"Not really."
"You want to get lunch?" Murdock asked as he turned the TV off and tossed the remote down.
"We already had lunch," Face reminded him.
Murdock thought again and said, "How about we get dinner then?"
Face turned to him with that familiar small, on-the-edge-of-cracking smile whenever he tried his damnedest to maintain a straight face at Murdocks' antics, but always failing miserably, "We just ate," he reminded the pilot.
Murdock huffed and swung one foot back and forth like a clock pendulum at his last idea being shot down.
"Well Hannibal and B.A. better get back soon or this is going to be a very boring afternoon," Murdock told him.
A short while later, they saw the ambulance pull up out front and they ran out to see what was going on. They got out in time to see Hannibal carrying M.D. Murdock slung over his shoulder as he often did with B.A. when they were getting ready to board a plane. By now they had both discarded their hospital garb and were back to looking like perfectly normal lowlifes of downtown L.A, and as well as they could with Hannibal carrying the man, hurrying to get in out of the rain.
"How'd it go, Colonel?" Murdock asked.
"What happened?" was Face's question.
"Everything's fine, everything went according to plan," Hannibal grunted as he got in the front door with his passenger in tow, "Aside from the fact that they took the courtesy to sedate our friend before we had a chance to talk with him. Murdock, the nurse says he hasn't slept in a week, are you sure you've never seen this guy before?"
Murdock shook his head, "I never even heard about a new arrival."
"Well two weeks there, how new can he really be?" Face asked as they followed Hannibal into the living room as he dumped their guest on the couch. Hannibal looked down at the unconscious man and grabbed the blanket off the couch's top and draped it over him.
"Alright, now just wait a minute," B.A. said, now that he had everybody's attention, "Murdock knows every inch of that crazy hospital, so how is it he's never seen this other guy before?"
Hannibal and Face looked at each other and considered the possibilities.
"Isolation?" Face asked.
"Maybe he was a regular patient initially and only recently got transferred to the psychiatric wing," Hannibal guessed, and he told the others, "I examined him on the way here, he's got some old bruising, looks like somebody beat him up a while back."
Murdock dropped down on his knees next to the couch and looked at the young man who was blissfully unconscious and oblivious to his new surroundings.
"He doesn't look like you, Murdock," Face told him.
Murdock made a face at him and said, "You really know how to hurt a guy." He stroked his hand over the man's forehead and smoothed back his hair and said, "You never know, he could be a distant cousin of mine."
"Ain't distant enough," B.A. told him, "He still found you, fool."
Murdock took one of M.D.'s clammy hands in his and rubbed over the cool flesh and told the unconscious man, "Don't you pay no 'tention to him, cous, he just likes being an angry mudsucker."
B.A. growled at him, but Hannibal quickly put an end to that and told the others, "I don't know how long our new friend is going to be asleep, but right now I'd say it's vital that he gets as much rest as is possible, and that means everybody be quiet and don't disturb him."
Murdock nodded slightly and said quietly, "Got it, Colonel," and zipped his lips.
Hannibal turned to Face and B.A. and told them, "You too."
Face also made a gesture of zipping his mouth shut and putting the key in his pocket, B.A. just looked at Hannibal with his usual 'why me?' scowl every time he thought one of Hannibal's plans was crazy. Hannibal looked down at their new houseguest and said quietly, "Well Mr. Murdock, you just bought yourself a stay of execution, now it's just a matter of seeing what we can do with it."