CHAPTER 3

"Are you sure this will work?" Aleo asked hesitantly. "If it doesn't we could have the US's most advanced military aircraft after us, and I don't want to end up dead."

"It will work, my son. We will be assured of that."

"How?"

"Undoubtedly, Mr. Hawke and Mr. Santini's families will come after them, but they don't even know where to look. We have all the time we need," Derrick Desner replied.

"But how will we know that he will do as you programmed him to do?"

"Believe me, we will know."

\A/

He couldn't tear himself away, yet he couldn't bear to watch either. Le turned away, only to turn back a moment later to shout at the men who were getting far too much enjoyment out of his uncle's pain. Something they had injected him with had cause violent shaking and shivering, uncontrollable incoherent babbling, and intense screams of agonizing pain. And they were stuck in the room right next to it all, able to see and hear every moment of it and unable to do anything to stop it.

Josh was terrified and Chance wouldn't stop screaming. He wasn't any less scared, but someone had to be in charge whether he wanted to be or not. He could have sworn he'd even seen Dom at some point, but there wasn't much he could be sure of at moment.

"Get that little brat to shut up, or so help me I'll shoot him," one of the guards growled irritably.

"He might not be screaming if you weren't torturing his father right in front of him," Le retorted angrily. "He's only three."

"Only three, huh? Well, I can tell you this - he won't be making it to four, and if you don't keep him quiet he won't make it through the night."

\A/

"Still nothing. What do you say we call off the search long enough to get the Lady? With her scanners we might be able to pick up something we missed. Besides, Dom should be up at the hangar by now; maybe he'll have some idea what happened to them."

"Alright," Caitlin agreed. She really didn't want to have to call off the search even briefly, but it was obvious they weren't finding them this way, and they did have a much better chance using Airwolf's resources to their advantage.

"I'll drop you off at the hangar so you can tell Dom while I get the Lady."

\A/

Leaning heavily against the cold wall, Le savored the silence, the first they had had since they had been brought here. Whatever they had given String appeared to have mostly worn off, but he wasn't far from comatose and not near and condition to be mounting an escape plan. It looked like it was up to him to come up with one, but how? The three of them were locked up with nowhere to go.

He was tired and the only thing that really appealed was to be back home in his own bed. No, he told himself, sleep would have to wait. Then the wailing began again. Chance started full fledged screaming louder then even before as two men, both now wearing perfectly tailored black suits, reentered the holding cell Hawke was captive in.

Drearily, he raised his head, barely registering their presence, but a presence he didn't want nevertheless. He went to swing at the first one as he approached, but missed, the multitude of blurry images making it hard to pick out which were real and which weren't.

"Hold still, this'll only hurt for a minute," Derrick mocked, preparing a full syringe of an oddly colored pink substance.

"Oh don't lie to him," Aleo chided half seriously, "he may not physically be able to do anything to us, but he isn't stupid."

"It's pretty potent stuff, and he's so drugged already I doubt he can remember his name by this point."

"St-ring-f-fell-ow," the pilot slurred, an unmistakable defiant glint in his eyes despite the bleak circumstances.