"These creeps are going to fill your jail cells up a bit," Hannibal said to Ted while the two of them tied up three men they had just knocked out, after dropping onto them from a catwalk.

The overcrowding would be temporary of course. They wouldn't leave Ted with this lot on his hands. Hannibal planned to have BA weld together a holding cell in the Chicago's cargo bay. A steel cage of doom for Kyle and his men, which the team could just drop right off at a military base and let the MPs take it from there. The ship would need to make a very fast escape of course, but Hannibal lived for those.

Ted opened his mouth to answer and then shut it again and raised a hand for silence. They heard voices and ducked into cover, waiting in ambush. As they waited, Hannibal fretted that he didn't know exactly how many people were actually here at the base. He needed to find the control room, and use the scanners and the occasional cameras they'd been carefully avoiding, to confirm the size of the opposing force.

The owners of the voices, two men, hurried past Hannibal and Ted's position. The colonel and the sheriff pounced in unison and quickly flattened the men. Hannibal nodded his approval at Ted.

"Considering you're out of practice, Sheriff, you're doing well."

"Some things you never forget."

They bound, gagged and concealed their latest victims and moved on through the dim corridors. Hannibal looked around at the metal plating lining the walls and ceiling and deck. It had a well-worn look, scratched and scuffed. This base had been here for some time. And it was big. Hannibal wondered if Kyle could really have paid for all this himself. If not then who was his backer?

Time to think about that later. Concentrate on picking these guys off one at a time now, quiet and discreet, until...

The alarm started to scream.

"Damn."

-o-O-o-

A sound behind them, a door opening, made Murdock and BA spin around to see Maggie emerging from a room, ten yards behind them. All three froze and stared, until Murdock snapped out of it and shouted. "Grab her!"

She gasped and ran, and though Murdock and BA sprinted after her, she had too much of a head start. She made it through a door and turned to slap a switch to close it behind her. The door started to roll down from the ceiling. Murdock dived and slid, but the space between the door and the deck closed too fast and he slammed hard into the foot of the door.

"Okay, that hurt," he muttered, picking himself up as BA came pounding up behind him.

"We gotta get her," BA said. "'fore she -"

A screaming klaxon interrupted him. Murdock raised his eyebrows at BA and shouted over the noise.

"Before she sets off the alarm?"

-o-O-o-

All alone in the control room, Face put a foot against the wall and heaved on the chain with every bit of his strength. He'd been working on the wall bracket whenever he'd been left alone in the room and hoped the tremors from the attack might have loosened it a little more.

Since the alarm started ringing a couple of minutes ago he'd become determined to break away from this wall. He had no clue why it had started ringing, though he could guess that Hannibal had something to do with it and he wanted to be ready for the next development.

He felt sure he could detect some movement from the bracket, just a tiny bit, like that first small wobble of a milk tooth. Now if he could just apply enough weight, maybe the bolts securing it would finally tear out. Perhaps he should put both feet on the wall, he thought. Of course, if he did and the bolts did give out he'd end up flat on his back and maybe get hurt. And he'd never hear the last of that one from the guys.

"C'mon," he muttered, clenching his jaw. If he got free, he'd get at the console. He could open the landing bay doors and let the ship in. He could use the base's anti-intruder measures against Kyle's people.

And if he could find himself a weapon, then he could go after Kyle.

"Dammit come on!" He yelled in frustration. BA could do it. BA would rip it out like a flash. Pretend you're BA, he told himself. "Break, fool!" Face yelled at the bracket as sweat broke out across his forehead, arms and chest. His foot on the wall slipped and Face dropped back to sit on the floor, panting. Who did he think he was kidding? That bracket wasn't coming loose. It seemed he'd have to wait to be freed by the guys after all and he'd have to listen as they cracked off a few stinging one-liners while they released him.

The door opened and Face looked up, with the wild hope that he'd see one of the team come in. They could tease him all they liked, he decided, if they just got him out of this damn chain.

Instead, Maggie ran into the room. She wore a jacket and carried a bag, like a woman on her way out. Face frowned as she ran up and knelt down by him and then stared when she held up a key.

"I'm setting you loose. You should hide somewhere Doug can't find you."

He didn't answer, just offered her his wrists to let her unlock the cuffs. His eyes flickered, for a second, less than that, to the pistol she carried in a holster on her right hip.

"Get out of sight. Doug will want to take you as a hostage, but if he can't find you --"

"Hannibal's inside isn't he?" Face said. She looked back at him, and then nodded.

"Yes." The cuffs fell away from his wrists, and Maggie stood up. "Tell John I'm sorry it turned out this way." She started to turn to go.

Face rose like a rocket and grabbed her right wrist. With his other hand he slapped one of the cuffs around the wrist, locked it in place.

"Hey!" She tried to reach her gun with her left hand, but he got there first, flipped open the holster and drew the gun. He backed away from her fast and she ran after him until the chain brought her up short. Face grinned.

"Now you can tell Hannibal yourself that you're sorry."

"Let me go!" She demanded, furious now.

"Sorry, lady. The colonel wants a conversation with you. So why don't you just sit down and relax. I'm sure he'll join us very soon now."

She didn't relax, she yelled at him, mostly on the lines of what Kyle would do to Face if he came in here before Hannibal did. Well Face now had the chance to see that didn't happen. He sat down at the console and put the gun down in easy reach. Maggie went on yelling, but he ignored her. Lacing his fingers, pushing his hands away from him, palms out, he cracked his knuckles like a pianist warming up.

"Now then. Let's see where everybody is."

-o-O-o-

Hannibal and Ted ran down a corridor. Hannibal had started to work out the layout of this place from taking scans and he felt sure the next door led to a corridor through to the landing bay. He planned to leave Ted on guard there to prevent anyone getting through to try to escape on Kyle's ship. The Chicago still hovered outside keeping them bottled up of course, but someone might try their luck anyway.

As they ran the alarm cut off, which made Hannibal much happier. Intruder alarms really got on his nerves. They ran towards the door at the end of the corridor, expecting it to slide open as they approached, but only at the last second spotted a red light showing on the panel beside it

"Locked!"

Hannibal's shouted warning gave them just enough time to turn as they skidded to a halt, meaning they slammed into the locked door with their shoulders rather than their noses.

"Damn," Ted muttered, rubbing his arm. "Now what?"

"We either get this open or it's the air vents." Hannibal said. He could tell by Ted's look that he didn't fancy the air vent option. Neither did Hannibal. His shoulders might not be as bulky as Ted's but he wasn't a small man either. "Let's see what I can do with the door."

-o-O-o-

"Miss Allen," Calvin said. "We're being hailed, from the base."

"Is it Kyle?" Amy asked, surprised.

"Perhaps he wants to surrender," Joy said grinning.

"I hope so. I have some conditions for him," Calvin said, looking around at Amy.

"Answer the hail," Amy said, realising he was waiting for her to order it. Being the only A-Team member aboard made Amy technically captain of the ship and both Joy and Calvin kept reporting to her and asking her permission to do things, which unnerved her somewhat. She knew it was just their military training, their concern for protocol. In the event of any trouble, they'd act without waiting for any orders or permission from her.

Calvin turned back to his console and opened the channel. A voice sounded over the speakers.

"Chicago, this is Face, please respond."

"Face!" Amy and Joy both cried, sounding equally delighted.

"Amy? And is that you, Joy?" Face laughed. "Well now, that's my dream come true, being rescued by the ladies. I'm told Hannibal is already inside."

"Of course," Amy said. "With BA, Murdock and the sheriff. Face where are you?"

"The control room," Face said, and then went on in his coolest tone. "Which I secured while taking a prisoner. I've already locked every door on the base. Give me the frequencies the colonel is using, I'll contact the guys and we'll get this little game finished up."

"Face, you are amazing!" Amy couldn't help exclaiming. She heard him laughing.

"Save that for when we all get back together, I'd like the colonel to hear it. Okay, you hold position, in case anybody manages to get through to the landing bay. As soon as we've secured all the creeps, I'll open the doors for you to come in. See you soon. Out."

"Okay, Face. I mean, wilco. Out." She transmitted the frequency for the team's communicators and Calvin closed the channel.

"Gotta love it," Joy said, chuckling. "We come to rescue him and he's already in control of the base." She shook her head. "What a guy."

"You don't know the half of it!" Amy said, laughing too.

"I'd like --" Joy stopped suddenly and gave Calvin a glare. "And if you don't stop rolling your eyes like that I'll pop 'em out and use 'em as marbles."

-o-O-o-

Hannibal's communicator buzzed and he scowled. What happened to radio silence? He flipped it open and the voice that came through amazed him.

"Guys, you there?" Face said. "I've secured the control room. If you give me your positions I can direct you to where I've got Kyle's people locked up and you can secure them."

"Face!" Hannibal heard Murdock call over the open channel. "I'm with the big guy at --"

"Stop, Murdock!" Hannibal snapped. When Ted frowned at him, Hannibal went on. "We don't know for sure that's really Face." Murdock went silent.

"Of course it's me!" Face's voice protested. "What the hell do you mean not really Face?"

"Long story," Hannibal said. "You'll need to prove it." Hannibal thought for a second and came up with a question. "Tell me how many Tequila shots Murdock drank at his thirtieth birthday party."

"Forty seven of course!" Face snapped. "Listen, Hannibal, we don't have time for this nonsense, Kyle's boss is on his way, could arrive any second. We have to secure this place first."

"Kyle's boss?" Hannibal grinned fiercely. And here he'd been worrying about how they'd get that information out of Kyle

"Okay, Lieutenant, I'm in section thirty one, beside door..." He glanced up at a crudely painted number. "Door nineteen."

"Right, go back the way you came, find door seventeen, there's three guys in a room, just begging to be clonked on the head. Murdock..."

Hannibal and Ted set off back the way they came, pieces on Face's puzzle board, Hannibal thought, smiling.

"Murdock drank forty seven tequilas?" Ted said as they jogged along.

"Yes."

"Why isn't he dead?"

"We've never been able to figure that out."