CHAPTER 1

It was a warm clear afternoon, people chatting outside downtown Zurich buildings, totally unaware of the events about to occur. The wind blew softly, rustling the leaves of the ivy growing up the brick walls of a particular brick building that a dark clothed figure casually walked towards. No one took much notice of him, and why should they have? After all, it was just another tourist coming to see the magnificent paintings housed inside the E.G. Buhrle Collection.

Three o'clock in the afternoon, on what seemed to be a perfect afternoon, the dark clothed person ran out of the building and disappeared around a corner. No one would have taken any specific notice to him, except for the fact that he left with a Monet that obviously wasn't his.

"Stop that man!" one bystander yelled even as two others pounded after him.

Both careened around the corner expecting to see the art thief, but only saw the typical Swiss residents going on with their daily lives like nothing had ever happened, only they were now a priceless painting short and there wasn't a single clue as to where it or the bold young thief had disappeared to.

\A/

Three months later…

Archangel sat at his desk, looking at the picture of the missing artwork that had only recently been recovered and taken residence again at the art museum in Zurich.

The painting, "Poppies near Ventheuil," had been completely unharmed, but even after thorough examination didn't bring any clues about its theft of who the mysterious thief was. Three months and still nothing.

Michael sighed and closed the file, pushing it aside. That one wasn't his problem; surely there was something that desperately needed his attention, there always was, but that one wasn't it.

Figuring out what to do about Airwolf should be one of his priorities, finding someone to replace Hawke. He shook his head in disbelief again. No one could replace Stringfellow Hawke. He and Airwolf made an almost indestructible and dynamic team. Logically, Saint John and Mike Rivers could take care of most of it, and even Dominic didn't seem quite ready to fully retire from the missions either, but neither were they Stringfellow Hawke either. It wasn't even just the flying, all three other men were more than competent pilots. The only problem was - they weren't Hawke, and without him...well. Airwolf wouldn't be quite the weapon she'd always been.

Hawke had made it very clear he was done though; he wasn't going to risk having his family hurt physically or getting himself hurt or killed on a mission. A normal life, he'd said. They were going to live a normal life and Airwolf was most definitely not part of that kind of life.

It was a shame; he didn't begrudge Hawke his family and some semblance of a normal life, but he wondered could you ever really and truly get out of this kind of business? No doubt, it would be safer most of the time, but somewhere someone might try to take advantage of his knowledge and now his lack of connections and resources to get a hold of Airwolf in a more roundabout way. Nobody else had the strong link that Hawke and Airwolf shared either - something he'd always seemed to want and always had.

In the beginning of the Airwolf project there had been something about that somber, quiet, Vietnam veteran that had given him the determination and ability to beat out all his competition to fly her. Ultimately, Hawke had left anyway due to some major disagreement with Moffet, but Archangel could still remember the regret in his eyes that morning when he had officially resigned from the project; and even then it hadn't been the end. It was two more years before they even saw each other again, but Stringfellow Hawke had still been dragged in again. This time it was his undying persistence that his MIA brother was alive and that he would bring him back to the states and the Firm's desperation to retrieve one deadly, and out of control mach one helicopter.

Now things were different; his determination was to protect his family, no matter what it cost him personally, but just what were the conditions of that? the spy wondered, wearily rubbing the bridge of his nose. What would it ultimately cost them all?

\A/

Michael tried to return to the tasks at hand. Mike and Saint John had returned early yesterday afternoon from a simple routine maintenance flight; other than that to his knowledge the Lady hadn't logged any airtime in the last two months since the younger Hawke brother had quit. It was his life and his choice, but Michael couldn't help but wonder how much safer they would really be now that the whole family was involved or had been involved at some point.

"Stop worrying about it," he told himself. When Hawke made up his mind there wasn't much anyone could do to change it, and there wasn't really much point in even bothering to try. If he was ever to return to the Airwolf program he would return under his own terms and on his own timetable - that was just part of working with him and only time would only time would tell for sure of he would ever end up doing anymore Airwolf related mission, but right now he seemed pretty adamant about his intentions.