Chapter 2

BA stamped back to the table where the rest of the team were waiting. The tray he carried was piled high with food. Eight double cheeseburgers, four large fries and four milk shakes. He scowled and banged the tray down on the table. Then he sat down and started to eat. He didn't give any of the food to the others. They looked at each other, and then Murdock gave a shrug and went off to the counter to get some food for the rest of them.

When he got back to the table BA was talking.

"You guys are dead."

"We're really sorry, BA." Face said, smiling in a conciliatory manner.

BA wasn't conciliated. "When I'm done eating and we get outta this airport I'm gonna turn you guys into dog meat."

"C'mon, BA." Hannibal said, "Don't tell me you really believed we were going to cruise over here. That would have taken two weeks! I still can't believe you fell for it."

"That’s a good point, Hannibal." Murdock said. "Why did he fall for it? With all he knows about what we've done to him in the past? The way I see it is that BA always knows that we're going to try to knock him out and get him onto a plane; but subconsciously he knows it's necessary and therefore allows it to happen. All that shouting and struggling is just psychological self-defence, so he doesn't have to admit that he lets himself be fooled."

"That's a very interesting analysis, Murdock." Face said. Murdock looked smug.

"I don’t know about subconscious," BA said, "but if you don't quit with your nut house jibber-jabber you'll be unconscious."

They all finished eating and headed out of the airport. BA continued to make threats. Hannibal let his attention wander as BA explained how after he killed the three of them he would only need to pay for one funeral, since there would only be enough bits left for one box.

"Shall we get a taxi or the Tube?" Hannibal asked.

"Oh, the Tube, please, Hannibal." Murdock said. "I used to love riding the Tube. You meet some real characters on there. "

"Tube it is," Hannibal said, privately thinking that they were unlikely to meet any 'characters' stranger or more conspicuous that his little group. They unloaded the baggage trolley they had been pushing around the airport. BA, still in a very un-cooperative mood let Face and Murdock take the heaviest cases, smirking, as they got sweaty and red faced.

"Hannibal," Face said as he dropped the cases with relief and sank down onto a seat in the tube train. "Can we go check into a hotel first and drop off the luggage?"

"Client's expecting us, Face." Hannibal said. He studied the tube map above the window. "Okay, we stay on this one till we get to Leicester Square, then we change onto the Northern Line and head for a station called Finchley Central. Then…" he checked the notes he'd made. "We get a bus…"

"Taxi." Face interrupted.

"Okay, taxi, but that's coming out of your pocket." He looked around at the team. "Might as well relax, fellas. It's a long way." He sat back in his seat, stretching his legs out. "BA, tell us some more about what you're going to do to us for putting you on that plane." He closed his eyes as the soothingly familiar sound of BA's litany of never acted on threats washed over him.

"I thought England was supposed to be a cold, rainy place." Face complained as they struggled out of Finchley Central Underground station with their luggage; which seemed to be getting heavier by the moment. "I'm sweating like a pig here."

"It can get warm." Murdock's three months in London twenty years earlier was apparently making him the team expert on all things British. "And it is July, Face." Hannibal hailed a taxi and they piled in.

"Ferncroft Avenue, please." Hannibal instructed the driver. He sat back in his seat. He noticed Murdock was looking a little nervous now, smiled at that. The Saturday afternoon traffic was quite heavy, but they soon reached the address they'd been given. Face paid off the taxi driver and they hauled their cases up to the door of the house.

"Murdock?" Hannibal stood aside to let the Captain push the doorbell. But as Murdock raised his hand the door opened and a short, brown-haired woman in a nurse's uniform smiled delightedly at them.

"Murdock!" She said.

"Hi, Jen." Murdock endeavoured to be cool, which lasted about two seconds, until she hugged him. He had to bend down to return the hug, since he was nearly a foot taller than her.

"Come in, all of you, come in." Jenny said, enthusiastically. "It’s so good to see you. It's been such a long time." They heaved their cases into the rather narrow hallway.

"What a lot of luggage you have." Jenny said, surprised.

"It's sort of a long story," Face said. "We, um," he cast a nervous glance at BA. "We had to appear to be going on a longer trip than we actually were." BA glared back at him.

"Oh. Well just drop everything here and come through. You all look shattered, let me make you some tea." They went through into a spacious living room. Jenny bustled about picking things up. "Sorry, I just got home from work, not had time to tidy up. I told the kids not to make a mess." Her arms full of books and comics she smiled. "I can't believe you're actually here. The A-Team. In Finchley."

"We've been to stranger places." Hannibal said.

"Chris should be here in a few minutes. He's taking the children over to my mother's for the evening. Make yourselves at home, I'll make some tea." She left the room and the team sat down.

"Is that iced tea she's bringing?" Face wondered, still feeling hot and sticky.

"Doubt it, the British like their tea hot, strong and with milk in it," Hannibal said. "Isn't that right Murdock?"

"Hmm?" Murdock looked at him, somewhat distractedly. "Oh, yes."

Hannibal smiled. "Nice to see her again then, Murdock?" He asked quietly.

"Sure," Murdock said, also quietly. He looked in the direction Jenny had gone. He wasn't totally blind to the fact that fifteen years had gone by since he'd watched her leave for Saigon with twenty injured and orphaned Vietnamese children in her charge. He also wasn't blind to the changes those fifteen years had wrought. There was grey in her hair, and having two children had not done much for her figure. But she still had that sweet smile that he'd seen work a kind of magic on G.I.s and frightened children alike. I was always a sucker for a good smile, Murdock thought to himself, glancing over at Face.

Face got up and wandered over to the mantelpiece, looking at the family photographs there.

"Cute kids," he said, of the boy and girl in their school uniforms smiling at the camera. He picked up another photo, a wedding picture. "Husband looks like a nice guy." He glanced at Murdock, who nodded.

"Yeah." Murdock said. He spotted a comic book Jenny had missed in her quick sweep of the room and picked it up. "Ooh, 2000AD, I don’t often get to see these." He was quickly engrossed and Face replaced the photograph.

In a few minutes Jenny brought in the tea and a plate piled high with cookies.

"Here we are. I thought you might like some biscuits too." She poured the tea, handed around the food.

"BA, you can't still be hungry." Face said, as BA loaded up his plate. "You should have seen what he ate when we arrived at Heathrow, I think the burger bar had to close right after, they ran out of food."

BA just glared at him and bit a chocolate digestive.

"Oh here's Chris." Jenny said, hearing the front door opening. There was some bumping and mild cursing from the hallway as someone negotiated the obstacle course of the team's luggage. Then they stood up as a man came into the room. He was tall and slender, with dark hair. He looked taken aback for a second at the appearance of the men in his living room, his reaction to BA being pretty much the same as most people. But then he gave them a friendly smile and held out his hand to shake each of theirs in turn, starting with Hannibal.

"So, you're the famous A-Team," he said. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Good to meet you, Mr Stewart." Hannibal said, "I hear you're having a little problem with your business."

"Straight to the point, I see. Jen said you don't mess about, Mr Smith." They all sat down.

"Yes, I am having a problem, someone is trying to put me out of business and I don’t even understand why. Thank you dear." He said as Jenny passed him some tea.

"What kind of business are you in, Mr Stewart? Murdock said something about collectibles."

"Please, call me Chris. Yes, I deal in British memorabilia, mostly related to London and mainly street furniture. You know pillar-boxes; ah that’s a mailbox to you, telephone boxes, street signs. Things like that."

"People collect that stuff?" BA said.

Chris smiled. "Mr Baracus, whatever you can think of someone, somewhere collects it."

"And you started having trouble a few weeks ago?" Murdock said.

"Yes. I have a storage warehouse and workshop facility out near Tonbridge. That’s south east of London. A few weeks ago two men turned up and offered to buy the place, there and then. They literally had a briefcase full of cash. I've never seen anything quite like it."

"You didn't want to sell?" Hannibal said.

"No, it’s a good location, handy for the docks at Dover and for Gatwick airport. Lots of the pieces I sell get shipped abroad. And the staff all live locally, the workshop is just right." He shook his head. "And anyway, I just wasn't sure about these men. They didn't seem like businessmen. Briefcases full of cash isn’t the way business is usually conducted in this country, you know."

"Right." Hannibal said. "And I'll bet you started having a run of bad luck after that?"

Chris nodded. "There were a couple of break-ins at the warehouse. Nothing taken, but things moved around, as if they wanted us to know they'd been there. And then several of my staff decided they didn’t want to work for me any more, and wouldn't say why. Even the temporary craftsmen I sometimes bring in for a few days, to work on something that needs specialist restoration, were all suddenly too busy. Too busy…" he shook his head. "Most of them are retired. They're usually grateful for a few days work, but now none of them will return my calls."

It was all familiar enough to Hannibal and the rest of the team.

"And the men with the briefcase full of cash keep showing up?" Face asked.

"Yes. They didn't want to take no for an answer. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have anything to go to the police with, but I knew something was going on, something… well I don't know exactly what, but something criminal. I know that."

Hannibal nodded. "I'd agree. Sounds like you could use our help. If you want it." He'd sensed a little ambivalence in Chris, perhaps from the way he'd looked at them when he came into the room.

"Yes, I do. I was dubious at first. When Jen wrote to Murdock asking for his advice, knowing he knew you, was maybe still in contact, and then when Murdock called to say you were coming over here I started to wonder if things were getting a little out of hand. But then I got this." He passed Hannibal an envelope; it was addressed to this house. Hannibal took out the note inside it. It was written in crude block letters. He glanced at Jenny, and then he read it out.

"Sell now or you regret it. We know where your kids go to school." Jenny gasped and Chris took her hand. BA's scowl deepened by a factor of at least ten.

"It came this morning, after you left for work." Chris said to Jenny. He turned to Hannibal, looking him in the eye, said very earnestly. "So yes, Mr Smith, I really do want your help." Hannibal stood up and the others followed him. He held out his hand and Chris took it.

"Chris, Jenny. You just hired the A-Team." He smiled at Jenny, trying to reassure her. Since he'd read out the note she'd started to look very frightened. "Now could I have some more of that tea?"