Disclaimer – Airwolf is not mine, I have just borrowed the characters.
Cody was bored and looked around the classroom for something to distract him. He spotted his girlfriend, Katy, sitting in the front row listening intently to the teacher. He folded a piece of paper into an air plane and aimed at her back. It was a perfect shot and she turned around to look for the culprit. When she saw Cody grinning, she grinned back and blew him a kiss.
"Cody, Katy, are you paying attention?" The teacher had spotted the interaction and wanted to put a stop to it immediately.
"Yes Miss," they replied in unison, trying hard not to smile.
Katy turned to face the front again and the teacher continued with what she had been saying.
Cody was bored again and couldn't pay attention but he knew that if he missed anything important Katy would lend him her notes. He let his mind drift back to the previous night. In the light of day he couldn't believe what he had seen and if Katy hadn't confirmed it he may have thought he had dreamt it. He was returned to reality by the sound of the bell. It was lunchtime.
He hurried to catch up with Katy in the corridor. She was putting her books in her locker and getting out her lunch. He collected his lunch and together they went to sit outside on one of the benches in the bright sunlight.
"So," said Katy, "I bet I know what you're going to write about."
"What are you talking about?" Cody asked, puzzled.
"The assignment, dummy. Weren't you listening?"
"No, I was thinking about last night."
"Well that's what I'm talking about. We have to write a short essay about something unusual or interesting that happened to us recently. The title has to start with Guess what I..."
"Uh? Oh I get it, like Guess what I saw last night"
"Yeah, so as I was saying, I bet I know what you're going to write about."
After last lesson, Cody hurried home, for once eager to do his homework. He was just finishing the essay when his older brother Josh walked into Cody's bedroom.
"Don't you ever knock?"
"Nah, little brother, just wanted to borrow a record. What are you doing here anyway, it's 7 o'clock, shouldn't you be watching TV or visiting that secret girlfriend of yours?"
"Shhh! Mum will hear you."
"Don't worry she's gone out. So, what are you doing? That looks like homework," Josh looked over his brother's shoulder at the paper on the desk.
"It is. We had to write an essay on something that happened to us, so guess what I wrote about."
"I don't think your teacher will want to read about that," his brother replied with a cheeky grin.
"Not that you idiot, the other thing that happened."
"Oh, you mean the helicopter in a cave," Josh sounded sceptical, he didn't believe his brother.
"Read it. I think I'll get a good grade, I know I desperately need one."
"Yeah you do and that reminds me, Mum and Dad got a letter from your teacher about your grades. They're going to see her after school tomorrow."
"Damn!"
"You said it, here give me the essay, I'll see if it needs any improving." Josh was the clever one, always getting good grades and tried to help his brother when he could. He read it quickly and handed it back.
"For once you've done good work, just a couple of spelling mistakes," he picked up a pencil and marked the mistakes lightly. "There you go, fix them and Mum and Dad will be happy."
"Thanks Josh. Can I borrow your bike again tonight? We're going back to that cave, if I can find it again."
"I guess so, just be careful and bring it back in one piece. I'll be stuck at home all evening working. Dad has given me some tests to do in preparation for my interview next week."
"I can't imagine you working for Dad, all that secrecy and spying and stuff. It's bad enough keeping secrets about what Dad does without you doing it too."
"Hey, you know we're not allowed to talk about his work, not even in the house in case it's been bugged."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Cody was fed up of being reminded.
An hour later Cody picked Katy up and they rode back to the Valley of the Gods, where the cave was that they had found the night before. Cody found that he could remember the way and as he approached the cave he turned off the headlight and continued slowly over the uneven terrain. He pulled up in front of the cave in the same place as before and Katy climbed off, shivering. They held hands and slowly walked towards the cave entrance. Katy tripped up in her high heels and Cody caught her arm to stop her falling.
"I told you to wear flat shoes, you had the same problem last night," he said quietly.
"They wouldn't go with my outfit," she replied peevishly, "and why are you whispering? There's no one here."
"There wasn't last night, but the helicopter didn't get in there all by itself, did it?" he explained with exaggerated patience. He'd been through this with her last night.
The moon suddenly came out from behind the clouds and a man appeared out of the shadows. He was holding a gun at them and looked dangerous. Katy screamed.
"What are you doing here?" the man demanded, menacingly.
Cody straightened his shoulders and said, defiantly, "We're not doing anything wrong."
Two more people emerged from the shadow of the cave. An older man wearing a red baseball cap and a pretty red haired woman. They were holding guns too and Katy moved closer to Cody in fear.
"Cover me, Dom. I'm going to search them." The younger man tucked his gun into his waistband and patted down Cody's clothes, looking for weapons. Cody was relieved he had only brought money and keys with him. The man then moved towards Katy, and Cody reacted.
"Don't touch her!" The man backed off and gestured for the woman to search Katy.
"OK, now we talk." The younger man pushed them into the cave and made them sit by the extinguished fire, "Right, start talking or I shoot." He took his gun from his waistband and Katy started crying.
"We've done nothing wrong," she sobbed, "we were just looking for somewhere to be alone and we found this cave."
"Come on Hawke, they're just kids," the pretty woman sounded kinder than the man, "tell us your names."
"I'm Katy and he's Cody."
Cody glared at her. If he had his way he wouldn't tell them anything. "Now you know our names, how about telling us yours," Cody asked, glancing at Katy, willing her to say no more.
"I'm Caitlin, he's Dom," she pointed to the man in the baseball cap, "and the mean guy is called Hawke. Now, tell us how you found this place."
"She told you the truth," Cody blurted out, "we were just riding around looking for somewhere quiet and warm to ...well you know," he looked at Hawke, too embarrassed to look at Caitlin, and hoped he would understand and would accept it as the truth.
"Let's go outside and have a chat, man to man," Hawke said to Cody, pulling him up.
Cody didn't want to be alone with this man but was relieved to be away from Katy. He was scared but didn't want her to know. He had never liked guns and violence and couldn't understand why his father, and now his brother wanted anything to do with them.
Outside Hawke stopped abruptly and took hold of Cody's shoulders.
"Right, now for the truth. What are you doing here and who have you told?"
Cody took a deep breath and tried to speak without his voice giving away his fear. He didn't quite succeed and his voice shook slightly.
"I told you. We rode around for a while. The moon was bright and it lit up the entrance to the cave. I stopped the bike and we went to have a look," his face suddenly lit up, "Is that your helicopter? It's awesome."
"Never mind that. Who have you told?"
"Only Josh, my brother and he didn't believe me."
"Why not?"
"He never believes what I tell him, he's the oldest and is good at everything. He thought I was just bragging because he's never done it in a cave," Cody sounded petulant.
"Done what in a cave?" Hawke looked puzzled and Cody wondered if he would have to spell it out for him.
"You know," Cody shuffled his feet and looked at the ground.
Realisation dawned and Hawke grinned and patted him on the shoulder, "In a cave, huh. Wouldn't be my first choice, a bit cold."
"Her parents hate me and they seem to know everyone in town so we have to go somewhere else," Cody paused and looked at Hawke with a shy grin, "it was a bit cold."
After a few more questions, they went back inside. Katy was looking a bit more relaxed and was relieved that Cody was unhurt.
"OK, we're going to let you go, but first we need your names and addresses."
Katy supplied the information and Dom wrote it down while the man called Hawke told them what would happen if they had lied or told anyone else what they had seen.
"No word of this shall pass my lips," Cody said seriously.
"Nor mine," said Katy, glancing at her boyfriend, wondering why he had used such odd words.
They ran back to the motorbike and Cody rode home as quickly as he dared, dropping Katy off near her house.
Inside his house his brother was still awake, listening to the record he had borrowed from Cody earlier.
"You're late little brother."
"Are Mum and Dad about?"
"No, they had a business dinner with Dad's boss."
"You mean the guy with one eye who always wears white. He gives me the creeps."
"He's OK. He's the one who will be interviewing me next week. I hope Dad puts in a good word for me."
"I don't know why you want to work for them. You'll have to carry a gun and maybe shoot people." Cody was still shaken up from his earlier encounter, but knew he couldn't tell Josh about it in case they came after him.
"It sounds exciting to me. Now go to bed and don't forget to hand in your homework tomorrow."
The next morning Cody slept late and had to run to school. He spotted Katy waiting for him by his locker.
"You're late," she scolded.
"I know, I had trouble sleeping."
"Me to. Mum was mad when I got in last night. I was covered in dust from sitting in that cave and she wanted to know where I'd been."
"You didn't tell her!" Cody sounded worried.
"No, but she knew I was with you. One of her nosy friends saw us. She's grounded me for a week."
"Well I'll see you next week then, I've got to go, I'm late for class." Cody rushed off leaving an annoyed Katy standing by the lockers. She had at least hoped for sympathy and for him to say he would miss her.
He didn't have his English class until the end of school and he fidgeted and yawned through all the other lessons. Finally it was time to hand in his essay and he held his breath as his teacher browsed through it at the end of the lesson. She had asked him to wait behind until his parents arrived and after a quick look at his essay she took the time to read it thoroughly.
"Is this all your own work?" she asked a nervous Cody.
"Josh helped me with a couple of words I couldn't spell but apart from that, yes."
"Well I am impressed. If you handed in work like this all the time I wouldn't need to see your parents."
"Yes Miss."
"I am putting all the best essays on the classroom wall for all the class and visiting parents to read. Yours will be among them."
Cody was pleased, normally his work was handed back to him to improve, he had never had any displayed before.
He had a moment of indecision as he thought back to the warning Hawke had given him the night before, but shrugged it off as he remembered his own words to the man, "No word of this shall pass my lips," and he grinned as he watched the teacher pin the essay on the noticeboard.