Freaks Chapter 9: Revolting

Chapter 9: Revolting

"See, your mistake was, Zeke, you got too close."

Hannibal grinned down at Zeke and Aaron who were lying untidily on the ground in the movie theatre parking lot. Zeke had wandered a little too close to BA who had knocked down and disarmed him in two seconds flat. Aaron had turned to go to his brother's aid and Face had taken him out with a lightning fast kick. Aaron was now lying huddled in a ball of misery, rubbing unmentionable parts of himself. Or possibly, thought Hannibal, not rubbing but counting.

"Always stay at least arms length away." Hannibal went on. "Just a little tip there." He cocked his handgun and pointed it at Zeke. "Now where's your brother hiding?"

"He's with your man and the kid, I ain't telling you where."

"You'll tell us," Mike said. "Now, you bastard!" He was pale and furious.

"What you gonna do?" Zeke sneered, "Head butt me in the knee?"

"You're already on the ground, Zeke. I can kick you in the head no trouble."

"Easy, Mike." Hannibal said, putting a hand on the man's shoulder. "I know you're worried about David, but try to keep a cool head. And we can find them. Remember the bug."

Mike calmed himself. Hannibal had explained he had pinned a bug under the collar of David's jacket, as extra security. And thankfully the night was cool enough that the boy had worn the jacket when he sneaked out earlier.

"Okay, cuff these clowns and put them in the van," Hannibal ordered. Face and BA quickly obeyed. Zeke and Aaron were soon restrained in the back. Face covered them while Hannibal used the receiver to get a fix on the bug again. "Turn left out of here, BA."

It was soon clear where they were heading. Up the opposite side of the valley from the hotel, towards a large old-fashioned house.

"Oh, really classy, boys," Hannibal said, looking at the brothers. "You've got them hidden at your mother's place? You know that makes her an accessory, don't you? You know she could do federal time for that?"

"And I don't think they serve chamomile tea in jail." Face said.

Zeke and Aaron looked at each other, shook their heads a little.

"An accessory?" Zeke said. "Shit, you guys really are as dumb as you look."

"I am so going to have to take up yoga." Murdock muttered as he contorted himself painfully in order to try and bring his bound hands from behind his back to in front of him. "Ow, ow, ow, ow." The soles of his shoes scraped at the skin of his wrists. He gave a final wrench and fell down on his back, but with his hands now in front of him. "Like to see the mudsucker manage that," he said, grinning. Of course, he thought, BA would probably just snap the ropes, but that was cheating. He lay for a moment. His head was still very painful where Zeke had expressed his impatience. Then he took a deep breath and struggled up to his feet. The ropes were very securely tied around his wrists. Jed knew his knots. Must have been a boy scout. Either that or he had a lot of experience tying people up, which was a thought Murdock didn't want to dwell on too much.

He was in the dark, the air smelt musty. He guessed he was in a cellar, could remembered being dragged semi-conscious down some steps and through a door. Moving cautiously he found the wall with his outstretched hands. He followed it around, feeling his way. A couple of times he bumped into things and cursed. He found what felt like a door. Sweeping his hands around the wall on each side of the door Murdock found what he'd been searching for. The light switch. He flicked it and closed his eyes for a moment, dazzled. When he opened them again he found his speculation was correct, he was in a cellar. The door he'd just found was locked. He guessed it was the one he'd come through, as this room had no stairs up into the house. There were cardboard boxes stacked against the walls and in a corner three suitcases. More promisingly there was a hatch that looked as if it led to the outside.

The hatch was too high to reach though. He checked the cardboard cartons, to see if they were strong enough to be stacked up for him to stand on. They were dry, despite the dampness of the cellar. They were standing on a sheet of plastic. Murdock guessed they hadn't been there for long. He examined them curiously. Some of them were still sealed and according to the boxes, were paper. He wrestled one open. Yes, reams of blank white paper. Others were unsealed though, or resealed with tape. Murdock opened one of those. They also contained paper, but it wasn't blank. It was made into small booklets. The first one Murdock picked up had an illustration on the front that made him feel a little queasy. He flicked through it and what he read made him feel a lot queasier.

"Mama," Jed said, "Mama…" He hesitated. "I can't… I can't let you do this." He flinched as his mother whipped around to face him.

"What did you say?" Grace snapped.

"Mama, he's… he's just a kid. You can't."

"You know what he is," she said, in a cold voice. Then her voice became mocking. "You want Harper in the family I suppose? You've seen the gypsy brat looking at Deborah. How long do you think it will be before it's more than looking? His sort start breeding early you know. What will you do when the midget comes around for Thanksgiving dinner? Seat him at the children's table?"

Jed shook his head, impatient. "I didn't say I wanted the kid to marry Debbie. Please just listen to me."

"I've listened to enough of your pathetic whining." She turned back to the tray she had on the kitchen bench in front of her. She poured sugar into a jug of lemonade. "What's wrong with you, Jedediah? Your father raised you to be strong. You've gone soft." There was contempt in her voice. Jed hung his head.

" I try to be strong, Mama, I really do. But, I don’t know how dad could do it. Just do it and never feel it. Never have a moment of regret."

"Are you going to start whining about that dentist again?" Grace finished stirring in the sugar and then reached into her pocket and took out a small brown bottle. She dripped a little of its contents into the jug then carefully stopped it again and put it back into her pocket. She opened a cupboard, put a glass onto the tray. Then she opened a drawer and took out a pistol. She handed it to her son.

"I will deal with the boy. You will dispose of the man you put in the cellar." Jed's eyes went wide. Grace made her voice a little softer. "I'll help you clean up afterwards." She reached up and touched his face gently. "Can you do this for me, darling?"

"Mama…" He looked down at the gun in his hand. "I'll try."

She patted his face, and then picked a piece of fluff off his lapel. "Good boy." Jed went out of the room. Grace picked up the tray and left through the other door.

Murdock had stacked boxes up to allow him to reach the hatch. He could have used the suitcases too, but now he had examined them and knew who they had belonged to he felt it was disrespectful to touch them. Climbing up the boxes he wondered how he was actually going to get the doors open. He muttered, "Why can't I just say 'open sesame'?" The hatch doors opened and Murdock fell back down off the boxes, landing on his behind. He stared up at Face's relieved smile.

"What you doing on the floor, fool?" BA's voice came from behind Face and made Murdock grin.

"'Open sesame' actually works. Who knew?" Murdock said, getting up as the others climbed down.

"Where's David?" Mike asked at once.

"David?" Murdock said. "They got the kid? Oh man! I'm sorry; I haven't seen him."

Hannibal climbed into the cellar. "Report, Captain."

"They sneaked up on me at the roadhouse, Colonel," Murdock said, as BA got him untied, his strong hands making short work of the ropes. "I'm sorry, they must have spotted me and came at me from a back door."

"Okay. Anything useful here?"

Murdock pointed over at the suitcases in the corner. "Those are Alan Chen's clothes and other belongings. I didn't mess with them too much, hopefully they have the sheriffs fingerprints all over them."

"You don't suppose Dr Chen is…" Face pointed down at the ground. The five men looked down then simultaneously took a step backwards towards the walls. Then Hannibal pulled himself together. "If he is the FBI will find him. Anything else, Murdock?"

"Oh, yes." Murdock said. He reached into one of the boxes handed Hannibal a booklet and watched his face go hard as he looked at it. "These boxes are full of that kind of thing, anti-Semitism, eugenics, racial purity, all that crap. It's really nasty stuff, Hannibal." He waved a hand at the boxes. "I think this lot was just waiting for dispatch. I'll bet they've got a printing press around here somewhere. These guys aren’t just small town bigots, they're in the bigotry business."

"Hate on an industrial scale." Face said. He picked a pamphlet out of a box, scanned it and quickly dropped it back in and unconsciously wiped his hand on his jacket. BA didn't look at any of the material. He could guess what it was like.

"The FBI are gonna love these guys' mailing list." Murdock said. "We're talking full on white supremacists."

"Don't call them that." Hannibal said. His voice was quiet. And very very cold. "That’s what they call themselves. They think it makes them sound like something original. There's nothing original here. So there's no need to use a new term. We know what these people are." He looked at the booklet he held. It had a swastika on the front. "Nazis."

David jumped as he heard the door of the windowless room he was trapped in being unlocked. He grabbed at the nearest thing that came to hand, a vase. But it was not Jed coming in as he'd expected. Instead it was Grace Heinemann. She put down the tray she was carrying and looked out of the door, then closed and locked it again.

"Mrs Heinemann!" David cried, putting down the vase. "You have to let me out of here! Your sons kidnapped me!"

"Shh!" She said, sounding panicked. "I know, I know. I'm so sorry. Did they hurt you?"

David rubbed his shoulder, which had been wrenched a little when the men had grabbed him. "Not really, I'm okay. But you have to let me out!" He saw her put the key of the door into her pocket. She was a tiny woman, he knew he could probably take it from her, but was reluctant to frighten the old lady.

"No, David, it's too dangerous. My sons are in the house. But you're safe in here now. I have the only key." She patted her pocket. "I've called your father. He and his friends are coming here now." She wrung her hands. "I hope there won’t be too much trouble when they get here. I don’t want my boys hurt, but what else could I do?" David didn't like he idea of his father being involved in a fight, but he was sure the A-Team would take care of everything. His knees sagged a little with relief and he sat down on a sofa.

"We'll be safe in here. We just have to wait." Grace said. David was still pretty agitated and he got to his feet again, paced about. "Please, David, my dear, sit down, you make me nervous. Oh…" She said brightly, "I made some lemonade for you, are you thirsty?"

"I… yes, actually," David said. His mind was hardly on lemonade right now, but fear was making his mouth dry.

"Here," she went to the table where she had put down the tray and poured a glass of lemonade, held it out to him. "I hope there's enough sugar in it." David took the glass began to raise it.

The door smashed open, half off its hinges. Jed leapt into the room, ran straight at David and dashed the glass from his hand. He grabbed the boy by the arm and started to drag him out of the room. David yelled and struggled wildly.

"Shut up!" Jed snarled.

"No! No! Jed, what are you doing?" Grace cried, running after them.

"It's not happening, Mama, it's… Ow! Don't you bite me, you little bastard!" Jed, dragging David towards the front door, cuffed the struggling boy across the head. "I'm trying to save you, you stupid brat!" Grace had followed, but then turned and ran back.

Jed had almost reached the front door when to his left the door to the cellar opened. He expected Murdock to emerge. Instead Face came through, quickly followed by the rest of the team. Face took in the scene at a glance and moved fast. He saw Jed was reaching for the gun he had tucked into his waistband and ran at him, locked his hands together and gave Jed a double handed punch on the jaw with all his weight behind it. Jed went down like a bag of rocks. Face pulled David away; shoving the boy behind himself, then bent down and disarmed Jed. He turned back to the others who were watching him, impressed.

"Nice, Face." Hannibal said.

"Davie!" Mike, who Hannibal had told to hang back, emerged from the cellar and ran to his son. David dropped to his knees and hugged his father.

"Dad!" He let the use of 'Davie' go this time.

"Tie Jed up, Face." Hannibal ordered, "Murdock, find the old lady."

"Are you hurt?" Mike said, breaking the hug after a moment, checking David over.

"No, I'm fine."

"BA, get the civilians out of here," Hannibal said. "Take them to the van." BA was about to obey when Murdock reappeared, walking backwards.

"Er, Colonel, we have a small problem," he said. Grace followed him down the hall, holding a handgun on him.

"All of you, put your weapons on the ground." She said.

"Lady," Hannibal said. "That only works if we really believe you'll shoot us."

"You don’t believe I'll kill you?" Grace arched an eyebrow.

"Believe her." It was Jed's voice. He was still on the floor and tied up now. "She'll do it."

"Be quiet, you." Grace snapped. "You are no longer my son." She turned to Hannibal. "Where are Ezekiel and Aaron?"

"Safe." Hannibal said. They were handcuffed to a telephone pole about a half-mile down the road, with no pants on, but he didn't feel the need to go into that much detail. "Come on, Mrs Heinemann, put the gun down, it's all over."

"He's right, Mama," Jed said, unexpectedly backing up Hannibal. "It can be over now, please let it be over." She stared down at him. All her attention was on him and Hannibal caught BA's eye, gave a tiny nod. BA began to edge to the left.

"You want it to be over, Jedediah?" Grace asked. "Very well, don't let it be said I don’t give my boys what they want."

She fired. Hannibal saw it coming, saw her change the angle of the gun. He grabbed Jed's shoulder and pulled him to one side. The bullet passed so close that Jed felt its passage, before it buried itself in the floorboards.

Grace staggered back, knocked off balance by the recoil. BA leapt, knocked the gun from her hand and grabbed her around the waist, picking her up bodily. She began to scream and curse. BA blushed at the profanities that came from the mouth of the fragile looking woman. Then he stopped blushing and flushed with anger instead as she yelled at Hannibal, "Get this nigger's hands off me!"

Hannibal ignored her, turned away, knew BA could handle her. He needed to get Mike and David back to safety, he needed to get Jed and Grace secured and he needed to get outside authorities in here. He was trying to decide how to arrange all this, when Grace's screaming abruptly stopped. Hannibal was grateful for that for a second, before he heard BA call his name in a tone he very rarely heard from the sergeant. Fear.

"Hannibal!" BA called again, as the colonel turned. BA had dropped Grace. She was scrambling to her feet. Hannibal saw a glint of steel in her hand. BA was clutching his side. Bright red blood spilled over his fingers. As Grace ran BA fell to his knees then pitched forward onto his face.

Chapter 10