A few minutes later, the team arrived outside Maggie's house. Going back in there induced a certain sick feeling in Hannibal, but instinct told him to do it.

"BA, get that door open."

"Hannibal!" Amy said as BA at once shoulder charged the door. It made a crunching sound, but didn't open. "If you're going to search shouldn't you have the sheriff here? You could mess up the whole chain of evidence."

"She plays lawyer for a couple of hours and thinks she's passed the bar," Murdock said, grinning at Amy, who frowned at him.

BA hit the door a second time and it still failed to open. He growled with annoyance, backed up further this time.

"We are official deputies," Hannibal said as BA rushed past him and hit the door for the third time. It shattered and he fell inside after it.

"He wears a badge for a couple of days and he thinks he's a real cop," Amy muttered. When Hannibal looked at her she quickly said, "Why was her door locked anyway? Most people around here leave them open."

"She's probably got drugs in here," Hannibal said as he stepped inside. "For emergencies." He glanced at BA who was climbing to his feet now, shedding bits of door and rearranging his gold. He wore an 'I meant to do that' expression, so Hannibal didn't mention anything. Instead, he looked around. Amy had made a fair point about the evidence. No sense in making Ted's job harder.

"Kitchen," Hannibal said. "Don't touch anything else."

The four of them found the neat and very clean kitchen. It smelled of disinfectant.

"Like a hospital," Murdock said, with a small shudder. "So, what are we looking for, Colonel?"

"I don't know. Just search. We'll know when we find it."

They spread out, opening drawers and cabinets. Murdock, who had little experience of kitchens or cooking, found the cutlery drawer and at once became distracted by the wonders he found there.

"What's this?"

"It's an egg whisk," Hannibal said, glancing over and then opening a wall-mounted cabinet that held cups and glasses. He rummaged about. A small stack of saucers for the cups sat in one corner and he checked between each one, finding nothing.

"What about this?"

"It's a garlic press, fool."

"Neat!"

Hannibal tipped each cup to look inside it and as he found each one empty he had to wonder if he'd started grasping at straws, unwilling to admit to being so completely wrong, being fooled. He closed the cabinet.

"Now this just looks like something completely evil."

Hannibal scowled, wanting to snap at Murdock to concentrate, but the reprimand died unspoken as he opened the next cabinet, where he found a stack of white dinner plates and at once saw what they had come here to find. What Maggie had wanted him to find. He lifted out the top plate from the stack, staring at it.

"Er, guys." Hannibal turned to face the others, holding up the plate, showing them the numbers written on its white surface in black marker pen.

"I think we just found the exact coordinates of Kyle's base."

-o-O-o-

Face woke from a doze on the cold floor to find himself alone in the control room. He looked around, wondering what had woken him and heard a buzzing sound coming from the control console. Someone trying to establish contact.

"Hope you left your answering service on, Kyle." Face wished the buzzing would stop so he could get some sleep. Then to his surprise, the big wall mounted screen came to life with an image of the same darkened figure who had spoken to Kyle before. He sat closer to the camera this time, though still in shadow.

"Incoming message from the big giant head," Face muttered. Impressive though, he thought, forcing a connection like that.

"Mr Kyle, are you there?"

"He stepped out," Face called. He almost added a smart-alec remark about Kyle having an urgent appointment to torture some puppies, when he thought better of it. There's an opportunity to learn something here, he thought.

"Who's that?" The voice sounded suspicious. "Why can't I see you?"

"You can't see me?" Face put a puzzled tone in his voice. "Are you picking up the wrong feed? Is there something I can pass on to Mr Kyle for you?"

The man went silent for a while and then Face stared, as the camera mounted on top of the console started to move around, sweeping the room. How the hell did this guy just take control of Kyle's systems like that? When the camera pointed at Face, it stopped moving and he almost flinched, not much liking being seen without knowing just who sat at the other end of the connection watching him. Nevertheless, he pasted on a defiant smile.

"Hi. Yeah, I'm a guy chained to the wall. Every evil megalomaniac has one this season, it's the in thing in bunker décor."

"I see." The shadowy man paused. "You're a prisoner?"

"Hell no. Kyle just has a kink for chaining cute blond guys to the wall."

"You're a prisoner." Not a question this time.

"Okay, you got me. And if you're Kyle's boss I want to register a complaint."

"What's your name?"

"Well, let's not get personal," Face said, quite happy to hold off on identifying himself as a wanted fugitive. "Just call me a dissatisfied customer."

"I will deal with your situation when I arrive." The screen went dark again. Face thought he heard the man sigh impatiently before the sound cut off.

"Oh good, I feel so much better now." Face leaned back against the wall. He knew he should get some rest, save his strength for when the trouble kicked off. But inaction frustrated him, so he went back to something he'd been doing earlier, grabbed the bracket that secured his chain to the wall and started pushing and pulling on it. He felt sure he detected a tiny amount of movement, though perhaps only imagined the tiny grains of stone dust floating in the air around it.

Could he possibly hope to loosen the bracket enough to pull it free? If he had enough time, maybe. But just how much time did he have? He felt sure Maggie's presence at the base signalled the start of the end game. Hannibal would be here soon. The question is whether he would arrive before... Face glanced at the screen, before the big giant head.

-o-O-o-

Hannibal had stood up to pour some coffee when the wall console intercom buzzed. He walked over and thumbed the answer button.

"Yeah?"

"Colonel, it's the sheriff. I'm right outside. Permission to come aboard?"

The rest of the team looked up from the table they sat around in the Chicago's recreation area. Hannibal raised his eyebrows at them.

"Okay. Hang on there one second."

A few minutes later Hannibal brought Ted into the room.

"So this is where you're hiding," Ted said, nodding to them all.

"Council meeting over?" Murdock asked.

"For an hour's break, then we're reconvening. We've never dealt with anything like this before." He shook his head. "Maggie, well, she's the doc, everybody knows her. She's like family."

"We still don't know the full story," Hannibal said, glancing at the dinner plate with the coordinates on it, which would allow them to go straight for the base, rather than have to search an area that Calvin's data had pegged as being the location, but that still covered several hundred square miles.

Ted nodded. "And there's only one place we'll find out that story. When do we attack, Colonel?"

Hannibal looked at him. Another one saying "we."

"Colonel," Ted said, putting his hands on the back of an empty chair. "You wouldn't be about to say anything foolish about me not coming, would you?"

"You wouldn't be about to do anything foolish like trying to pull rank on me, would you?" Hannibal heard the hush in the room as he reached up and unclipped the star shaped badge he wore. He held out his hand, the badge lying in his palm, the engraved word 'Deputy' catching the light. "Because I can give you this back right now and then you can try again to make me give up my gun."

Now the hush smothered the room.

"No," Ted said, breaking the silence. "Please, keep it." He raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "Look, it has taken me a while to understand that you came here as reinforcements, not rivals. Now I want to return the favour. You're a man short." He put his hands down, rested them once again on the back of the empty chair. "For this mission, let me take his position and help you bring him back."

"We are taking Joy along," Amy pointed out, when Hannibal opened his mouth to argue.

"Not into the fight," Hannibal said quickly.

"Well you can take me into the fight," Ted said, still looking right at Hannibal. "I don't go around shouting about it, but I was triple S in the war. I can deal with anything you guys can."

"Britcorp Special Forces, huh?" Hannibal said.

"The original and still the best." Ted recited the slogan used to sell the services of his old unit.

"Well that's a debate for another day," Hannibal said resisting the urge to get into that argument. No time for it now.

"Aw, let him come, Hannibal." Murdock grinned at Ted. "He's a big guy. Between him and BA think of all the extra cover that gives us."

BA glared at Murdock. "You try and use me for cover and I'll pin a target to your back."

Hannibal thought about it for a moment. He couldn't argue with the fact they were a man short. And this man knew his business if he'd been triple S.

"Okay, Ted, you're on the mission. Sit down. We attack at midnight. Let me show you the plans."

Ted pulled out the chair, Face's chair, spun it around and sat astride it.

"You have another volunteer too. Mr Calvin requested a place on the mission."

"Nope," Hannibal said at once. "Too old."

"Hannibal, he's only a few years older than you," Murdock pointed out, earning a glare from Hannibal.

Ted smiled. "He said that since Kyle destroyed his home he's feeling vengeful and wants to give him a taste of his own medicine."

"He could keep Joy and Amy company," Murdock said. Amy gave him a glare that Hannibal knew had nothing to do with Calvin and more to do with Amy's role in the attack, which she didn't consider nearly exciting enough. Murdock grinned. "Hey, he could bring his cat and throw her at Kyle. That'd finish the bastard off!"

"I'll think about it," Hannibal said. When Murdock laughed, he added. "I meant Calvin, not the cat."

It could be useful, he thought, to have an extra pair of experienced hands on the ship. He knew he'd easily get volunteers. Matthew for one, who'd hired them after all, and was an experienced pilot. But he didn't think he could do that to Caithlin. The war was still too close for her.

"So, what's the plan?" Ted asked.

Hannibal grinned. "Don't ever let it be said that Hannibal Smith isn't willing to learn, even from his enemies. Now, Ted, we'll need to talk to Mr Lambert. He's the largest mine owner around here, right? We're going to borrow some equipment."