"Just—bring Dolly back to me." The man took a deep calming breath before continuing, "And destroy that counterfeit money. If they start using that cash, the whole city's money system will be dramatically changed! Forever!"
"Alright, alright, cool it. We get that the city is in danger."
"I just can't stress to you how important it is that you destroy that money, there is no way we can le—"
At an exasperated look from his leader, Face put his hand firmly on the middle-aged man's shoulder to stop him once more before stating, "Don't worry, Doctor Parton. We won't let the money get out into the city, and we will find your wife. You hired the right people. Now follow us in your car, and we'll take you to a more secure location so we can figure out how to help you." Giving the man a reassuring smile, he turned back to his team.
"This guy is not someone you wanna tangle with, Hannibal." Amy was stating matter-of-factly, and cut the oldest man in the parking garage off with a hand before continuing, "I know I said that last time with Gianni Christian, but this time I really mean it! This guy, Vito Castellano—gah, his name even sounds like a mob bosses—he's a whole level above Gianni Christian!"
"Amy. It never mattered how big the opposition was in 'Nam, and it doesn't matter how big it is now, we aren't going to let how extensive this slimeball's operation is scare us off." Hannibal silenced any further complaints with a stern glance before signaling for everyone to get in the van.
Amy didn't seem very satisfied with that answer, but before Face could go to comfort her, Murdock's arm swung around her shoulder as they walked to their ride, "Don't you worry, Triple A, it doesn't matter how much money or guns these guys have, 'cause underneath, they're all the same: Just a bunch 'o big, ugly mudsuckers-" He winked and pointed a thumb in their driver's direction as he opened the door for her, "and we deal with one of those all the time!" She cracked a genuine smile at that, and slipped into the van, Face and his crazy companion following suit.
Thinking back over the Doctor's briefing, Templeton Peck considered the struggle before them. They had been hired to rescue a scientist and to destroy a huge stockpile of counterfeit money that a mob boss, Vito Castellano, had hidden away. Simple enough. The problem was where this stockpile was being kept. Castellano owned the biggest casino in LA, and it was widely known that underneath it somewhere he had the most secure safe room that money could buy.
Probably even more secure, Face couldn't help but grimace slightly as they pulled up in front of the Doctor's car in a large hotel parking lot. As they got out of the van, he, Hannibal, and Amy ignored BA and Murdock's latest argument in favor of leading Doctor Parton to their room (Face's first class room from a recent con) on the second floor. Hannibal gestured lazily to a chair and the doctor sat down in it nervously, setting a brown briefcase on the ground next to him.
The team all made themselves comfortable around the room, and Hannibal plunged right in: "So you want us to break into Castellano's saferoom, rescue your wife, and blow up his stash of counterfeits?" The man nodded, pushing forward his briefcase.
"Yes. My fellow scientists and I managed to scrounge up $50,000. I hope it's enough."
"There's one thing I don't understand, Doctor." Face spoke as he and Murdock checked to see if the cash was good, "How did a bunch of mechanical scientists like you get tangled up with a guy like Castellano?"
Parton's gaze dropped down to his lap. "I—well, It's my—my wife." After a moment of silence he let out a shaky sigh, and plunged into his explanation.
"Dolly and I—and the rest of the scientists at the studio—we all have our separate inventions that we work on. It's really nice, actually, because we get paid to tinker with things all day long—" The man stopped himself in the middle of his tangent and continued, "Well, Dolly was working on a digital program that lets you design something down to even the millionth of an inch—which is really genius of her, we at work all started calling it the D-Machine, D for Design and for Dolly, too—" He stopped himself again. "Well, it was such a great invention that she got an article written about it and her picture in the paper and everything, which was great publicity for all of us, because it spurred us all to work harder than ever to create something great, which—"
"Cut to the chase, please, Parton, or we'll never get anything done." Hannibal spoke around his cigar and the Doctor's words.
"Right." The doctor's slightly Dackotan accent got thicker as he reminded himself of the gravity of the situation. "So one night out of nowhere these horrible guys in masks came and took—took the D-Machine and—" Parton swallowed hard. "And Dolly."
"Because they aren't smart enough to figure out how to work it without her." Amy grimaced.
"Well as soon as it was over, I called up all our friends from work, and we got together late in the night to try to think of what to do. We put two and two together and discovered after some research that it was Vito Castellano who had taken Dolly and her invention, and after more digging we figured out that he was using the D-Machine to make counterfeit cash," He rubbed the bridge of his nose and eyes with his hand, "which will basically collapse the whole city's economy. We knew we couldn't handle a situation like this on our own, and David—one of the scientists—told us about how one of his cousins had gotten out of a real pickle because he hired some special forces team, and so I've been everywhere looking for you guys, and that Mr. Lee told me to go to the garage, and—and—now I'm here."
Quiet followed Doctor Parton's anxious explanation as each of the 5 members of The A-Team looked at one another and came to a silent decision. Face closed the briefcase with finality and stood up from his kneeling position with it and a smile as Hannibal reached out a hand towards Parton. He grinned around his cigar as they shook and stated to the room,
"Looks like we're going gambling tonight, guys!"
Parton's face lit up, and he let out a sigh of relief as he shook Hannibal's hand. "The other Doctors and I have done some research already on Castellano's casino. We have some things that we think might be able to help you. It's all at the lab, and so are they. I promised I'd bring you back with me—if I actually managed to find you."
"We'll follow you, Doctor." And with that, the 6 of them were back on the road. As BA followed Doctor Parton through the maze of roads that LA was, Hannibal sat in silence.
Probably already thinking up some ridiculously crazy plan to get us into that safe room. Rolling his eyes, Face turned his attention to Murdock and Amy, who were sitting in the back with him.
"So, Murdock, what kind of character do you think you're going to end up being today?" Amy smiled wanly at the crazy man, who startled her by putting a finger to her lips as he warily assessed everyone in the car. Face exchanged a look with Amy that said, You just had to ask, didn't you? and her smile returned as Murdock leaned in close to the both of them, whispering in a deeply Russian accent,
"Shhh… we must be wery quiet, they may haf bugged de car, or any one of us." He glanced untrustingly up to the front of the van and then at Face, who raised his eyebrows and mimed zipping his lips shut, nodding gravely in sync with Murdock. Amy raised her own eyebrows at him to communicate, And you just have to go along with it?
Face shrugged as Murdock continued, "Our mission cannot be compromised, de fate of de world rests on us. Eef we do not blow thees man's money up, he weill conquer de world and we weill all be plunged into darkness. I am special agent Kuryakin, and you must help me to destroy thees great evil." He glanced up suspiciously as the van rolled to a stop, "We weill continue thees conversation later. Stay on your toes, comrades." And with that, he jumped past them out of the van.
Face exchanged one last look with Amy, and they followed their friends out and into a large building and onto an elevator. As Doctor Parton pressed the button for the basement, Murdock eyed everything suspiciously and BA eyed Murdock angrily.
The door to the elevator opened up to a large workroom full of tables haphazardly scattered with computers, tools, papers, and all sorts of weird looking contraptions. At their entrance, several men and women looked up from their work to greet their friend, gathering around them.
"Mark! You found them!" An old and kind-faced man approached first.
"Yes! And they agreed to help, so we need to share everything we found out with them." Parton turned to them and gestured for them to follow him. "My workspace is just over here."
As they reached a large table Face saw that a portion of it had been cleaned off and covered with a makeshift map of the casino that apparently, as Face observed over Hannibal's shoulder, was located on the coast right next to the ocean on the upper side of LA. BA seemed to notice too, and he pointed it out,
"Hannibal, if this is where the saferoom is, then I bet there's a pipeline leadin' around to the outside of it." Baracus pointed to the map. "We could explore off the coast and find any openin's."
"Yeah, BA, that might work." Hannibal nodded, and turned to address Parton, "Did you have anything specific on our friend Vito that you wanted to tell us?" The doctor shook his head as he said,
"No, but we do have some things that we think might help you get into the safe… 'cause, I think a few of our own inventions that we've been working on could help you." After a moments silence, Hannibal broke into a wide grin,
"Great. Let's see these inventions! While we're planning down here, Face, go get Amy some nice clothes, will you?" Face shared a look with his leader and nodded,
"My pleasure. Come with me, Miss Allen, if you would." He held out a hand towards Amy, and she graciously took it, knowing better than to ask what was going on. As the two of them hopped back into the elevator, She finally voiced her query.
"Where exactly are we going, Face?"
"Ah, just like Hannibal said, to get you some nice clothes."
"And, why, exactly, are we getting me some nice clothes?"
"I'd assume it's because Hannibal wants you to do some gambling for us. Unless you don't think you can handle that." Face raised his eyebrow and smirked at her.
"If I can handle flying to Borneo and jumping out of a plane to save all of your butts with Murdock as my only companion, then I think I can handle a little gambling." She smiled back at him, and he relented with a chuckle,
"Alright, alright, fair enough." She gave him a playful push and then the two of them went on their way to buy some nice clothes with their newfound money.