"I understand you have taken over gun instruction."

Lyons nodded again.

"Do you also want the post of unarmed combat instructor? You seem to have proven your ability in that department as well."

"Depends," Lyons answered.

"On what?"

"On two things. What does it pay? And what are you going to do about my suggestion that you get more intelligence before you act. It was bad enough when I was worried about my own neck. But if I'm responsible for training these people, I don't want them thrown away."

It was a good speech. The others in the dojo felt that Lyons was looking out for them. He was winning their minds from Jishin. She was no fool. She could see that clearly.

"Salary is something to be discussed in private," she answered. "But your other point does you credit. Just the fact that you are willing to speak up in defense of those who have been put in your charge, makes you much more valuable to me. Exactly what do you suggest we do?"

Lyons was surprised by her political adroitness. She moved to the side of protecting the troops without appearing to have moved at all.

"I suggest someone go to Elwood Industries and find out whether this Lao Ti is there."

"Then do it. We will continue this meeting when you get back."

Lyons turned to go.

"Take your partner," Jishin told him. "We always use the buddy system when scouting."

Lyons kept the disappointment off his face, nodded to Deborah, and stalked to the door.

Just as Lyons turned to bow to the dojo, Jishin spoke again. "You had better bring your partner back in good health, and she had better be able to account for every second of your time. Otherwise you are dead.''

Lyons nodded, bowed and left.

Jishin watched the pair leave. She then turned her glance to Nogi. She was glad to see his body there. He had caused her to lose more face than necessary in her fight with Dr. Lao. She signaled to three of the black belts. They were longtime terrorists who knew better than to indulge in false heroics. When they gathered around her, she spoke to them in a voice too low for the others to hear.

"Follow those two. If they do what they are sent to do, we'll kill them during the raid. If they try to run, or to contact another person, kill them."

The three nodded and ran to change into street clothes. They were confident that they would be ready before the man and woman.

8

July 12, 2047 hours, Santa Clara, California

During the afternoon only one person poked his head inside of the office where Ti, Gadgets and Politician waited.

"Setting up?" he had asked.

"Waiting for the movers," Ti replied, and he had gone away.

It was almost a quarter to nine in the evening when there was a loud rapping on the door. Pol and Gadgets slid against the wall behind the door, leaving Ti to handle whoever was there. If someone forced their way into the room, it would be easy to spot the Able Team warriors, but there was nowhere else to hide.

Ti saw a solid, smoothly muscled woman who stood five-foot ten. She had fine blond hair, cut short. Behind Babette stood two brawny individuals. One had his hand around the woman's elbow.

"Babette!" Ti shrilled. "It's so good of you to come and keep me company."

Ti threw herself into the strange woman's arms.

Babette's left arm tore free of the goon's grip and wrapped itself around Lao Ti.

"No problem. How long do you figure you'll have to wait?"

Lao, who had no idea how Babette would react, breathed a sigh of relief before answering. "The boss says that if the moving truck isn't here by ten, I might as well lock up."

"You girls going to be here until ten?" one of the HIT men asked.

"Don't get any ideas," Babette said coldly.

"Aw, nah. Nothing like that. We'll keep an eye open for you, that's all," the man answered.

"Thank you," Babette said in a cold voice. "I'm sure we can manage."

She stepped inside, turned and closed the door. Immediately she saw Pol and Gadgets hiding against the wall.

Ti put her ear to the door to hear if the two men were moving away. Soon she heard the elevator and risked opening the door. They were gone. She looked back to report, but found Babette and Gadgets in a tight clinch.

"Is it best out of three falls, or can anyone take on the winner?" Ti asked.

Gadgets and Babette, close friends since Able Team's last mission, started laughing.

Ti took a long, up-and-down look at Babette. "How can anyone so large do what you need?" she asked.

Babette laughed. "Don't you know? Large women are more fun."

"Wasn't quite what she had in mind," Gadgets told Babette. "We have some bodies to get rid of. We're hoping you can walk a small ledge to a window."

Babette immediately got down to business. "Show me," she said.

Gadgets took her to the window and showed her the ledge.

"We need to get a rope in the other window," he explained.

Babette pulled her head inside. "It's no problem," she said. "Just a matter of keeping my center of gravity within five inches of the building. Do we start now?"

"Let's wait until it gets a shade darker," Pol suggested. "I bought some good nylon line, and pitons to drive into the mortar..."

Half an hour later, Schwarz and Blancanales carefully lowered Babette two floors. The rope was tied under her arms about the center of its length. She kept the excess coiled over her shoulder. As she descended she kept her arms and legs out to keep from spinning on the end of the rope.

When Babette's heels hit the ledge at the fourth floor, she seized the rope and brought her arms straight in front of her, forcing her body back, flat against the building. Slowly and cautiously she resettled her feet so that her heels were tight against the building face. Then she signaled for slack in the rope.

Pol and Gadgets played out the rope with smooth teamwork. Never was more than one of the four hands off the thin nylon line. Ti stood by the office door, prepared to deal with unwelcome visitors.

Babette kept her knees slightly flexed to keep her weight as far back as possible. She slid her left leg out eight inches and then brought her right leg in eight inches. She looked as if her spine was held to the building by a strong magnet.

When she reached the window she carefully removed a mirror from the front pocket of her slacks. She held this so she could inspect the interior of the computer room. After carefully scanning the inside of the room, Babette began the process of moving back along the ledge. When under the window where Pol and Gadgets waited, she signaled to be hoisted up.

Once back inside the office, Babette reported. "My two friends who escorted me up here are sitting in the computer room. They seem to be alone, but they have a walkie-talkie nearby. I would guess that they're waiting for us to leave before they start to search the building."

"We have to get them out of there before they lose patience," Politician pointed out.

"How?" Ti asked.

"The perfect solution is to distract them while the bodies go in the window, and then just leave," Pol said after a moment's silence. "Let themexplain how the bodies got into the computer installation they were guarding."

There was another long silence.

Babette suddenly brightened. "If I secure the hook in the window, can you three move the bodies down? And if I unhook the window from the inside, can you move quietly enough to hide the bodies?"

"I can handle that," Ti said.

Babette turned to Gadgets. "I need a portable tape recorder and some slow sexy music."

Gadgets looked at his watch. "There's still time to get that from the corner store."

"I'll go," Ti volunteered.

"Okay," Babette said, "get those. When you get back I will go down to the goons' office and distract those two. You'll stash your garbage and get back out. Make sure you get me a tape player with lots of volume."