The Choice
A/N: I do not own Airwolf or any of the characters portrayed in the television show. Only the original characters and twisted plot bunnies are my own. I do not profit from this story in any way, it is meant for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 4
Undisclosed location, Tuesday, 5:45 pm
"Is she ready?" the white haired man asked his younger counterpart.
"Yes, the girl has been moved to a secure location, the blindfold and gag have been removed and the signal scramblers have been set up on the phones," the younger man advised.
"Good. And you're sure that she knows nothing about the brother, St. John?"
"Yes. Even my men aren't aware of the other half of this plan so there's no way that she suspects anything."
"Excellent, Connor," the older man said with a grin. "This way when Stringfellow Hawke chooses his brother over her, as I suspect he eventually will, she'll believe that he didn't come after her solely because her life wasn't worth giving up Airwolf for. She'll die thinking he didn't care and he'll go crazy having to let her die. It's perfect, don't you think?"
"Sure, C.H. but is it really worth all of this trouble? Hawke would turn over Airwolf right now for either one of them, why all the extra time and hassle?"
"Because Stringfellow Hawke is going to pay for what he did to my brother!" the older man stated with a flash of intense of anger. "I'm going to make sure that he loses everything that's most important to him. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," the man named Connor answered weakly. He had seen that look in the older man's eyes, as well the man's brother, before and he knew when it was time to ask stopping questions if you knew what was good for your health.
AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW
Santini Air hangar, Tuesday, 5:50 pm
"String!" Dom said with relief as he saw the pilot walking into the hangar. "I was worried you weren't going to make it back in time. You okay?"
"No." String answered matter-of-factly . "But I'm here."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, kid," Dom said softly as he put his hand on Hawke's shoulder. "I don't think any of us are going to be okay until this is all over and we have Cait and Sinjin back home where they both belong."
Simply nodding his head, String walked with Dom into the office. "Michael," he addressed the spy who was already there waiting for them. "Did you come up with anything?"
"Not a thing," the spy answered with a quick shake of his head. "Just as we suspected the only prints on the tags or the photo were ours and I've had the forensics boys going over the tape of Caitlin with a fine-tooth comb and there's just nothing there to give us a clue to her location. I'm sorry, Hawke."
"Well sorry's not going to cut it this time, Michael!" Hawke said as his steel-blue eyes flashed with anger.
"And just what the hell do you expect me to do, Hawke?" Michael returned irately .
"Mamma Mia!" Dom intervened as he stepped between the two men. "C'mon guys, we can't do this. We've got to keep it together or we're going to lose both of them. We've been in tough situations before and we've gotten out of them by working together. Right?" Dom tried to reason as he looked back and forth between them.
After a few seconds of an icy stare, Hawke acquiesced. "You're right, Dom. Sorry, Michael."
Adjusting his glasses, the spy softened his stance as well. "It's alright, Hawke. We're all on edge right now. Let's get through this phone call and maybe it'll give us something to work with."
"Yeah," Hawke agreed with a grunt.
As if on cue, the phone on Dom's desk began to ring. Archangel held up one finger to signal Hawke to wait to pick up as he turned to an electronic device behind him that had evidently been set up in Hawke's absence and pushed a button causing a green light to come on. Once that was done, he looked at Hawke and said, "Okay".
Hawke picked up the receiver as Dom leaned in closer so he could listen in. "Yeah," was all the younger pilot said as he answered the call.
"Hawke?" Caitlin's frightened voice came over the phone.
"Caitlin!" he said, relief flooding over him as he heard her voice. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so," she answered. "My head's a little fuzzy, kind of feels like being in a cone of confusion. And it's as cold as heavy metal in here!" she continued with a heavy texas twang coming into her voice.
Dom and Hawke exchanged knowing glances at Cait's statement as Michael looked on with a look of compete befuddlement. "That's my girl," Hawke thought as he smiled slightly.
"Just hang on, Cait, it's going to be okay. I promise!" Hawke said as he heard Cait protest as the phone was evidently being taken away from her.
"Really, Mr. Hawke," an electronically distorted voice said, taking the place of Cait's. "You shouldn't make promises you may not be able to keep. Unless you've made a decision, we'll call you back in four hours. But let me warn you, every four hours you wait, the worse for wear your co-worker will be." Hawke started to ask what the caller meant but the words stuck in his throat when he heard what sounded like flesh hitting against flesh and a loud yelp of pain that came from Cait in the background. "Take her away!" Hawke heard the distorted voice telling someone off the phone as he heard what sounded like Cait struggling against her captors as she was evidently being dragged out of the room.
"You bastard!" Hawke yelled into the phone. "That wasn't part of the deal. You gave me 24 hours!"
"And you still have it, Mr. Hawke. But this is my game and I make the rules. If you don't like it, we can make the exchange right now and you can end the lady's discomfort. Of course, you can just go ahead and choose your brother instead and end Ms. O'Shannessy's pain all together if you like. It's up to you."
"Sinjin...I want to talk to him. How do I even know he's really alive and this isn't all some elaborate hoax?" Hawke demanded, trying to buy some time for Michael to get a trace on the call.
"No, Mr. Hawke...I've given you enough for now. I can see you're not ready to make this decision. I'll call you back at 10 pm. Maybe by then you'll be thinking clearer."
"Wait.." Hawke started to say but was too late as he heard the click of the phone line echo in his ear.
"Dammit!" he cursed as he slammed the phone down on his end. Looking to Michael, he grimaced as the spy just shook his head indicating that he'd been unable to obtain a trace.
"I did get a recording of the whole conversation, though," the spy advised. "I'll get it to the lab at The Firm and maybe they can extract something from the electronic voice. Now, are either of you going to tell me what in the world Caitlin was talking about and what was up with that exaggerated accent?"
Dom chuckled. "Clues, Archangel. She was giving us clues as to where she was. I'm telling you that girl is one smart cookie!" he exclaimed with pride.
"I still don't get it..." the spy said in frustration as he absently brushed his mustache.
"Its simple, Michael," Hawke explained. "She was using terminology used mainly by pilots and airport personnel. Heavy metal usually refers to large airplanes like passenger jets. The Cone of Confusion is sometimes used by pilots to describe the area around the control tower where there's a lot of radio traffic and congestion. I think Cait was trying to tell us she's being held at or near a major airport. Not sure about the accent but my guess is that she was trying to make her comments sound like local Texas colloquialisms to throw off anyone who might be suspicious. It seemed to work since she didn't get any immediate reaction from her captors."
"Damn, you're right, Dominic," Michael agreed with admiration. "If Hawke's right in his assumptions, that's one smart girl. I'll get this tape back to the lab and I'll get our best teams working on a search of local airports that can handle large aircraft. However, you both know that's a lot of ground to cover. There must be thousands of places to hide someone at any airport. This isn't going to be easy."
"It's more to go on than we had 15 minutes ago, Michael." Dominic, ever the eternal optimist, pointed out.
"Michael, if she is at an airport, I have to assume that whoever has her has access to some behind the scenes or restricted zones. Start by checking airport personnel. Maybe there's something in someone's background that would raise a red flag, " Hawke instructed.
"I'll get our people started on it, Hawke, but that's still a mighty tall order. There's got to be thousands of employees at any airport. I'll have Marella try to narrow it down some and see what we can do. I'll be back in touch before the next scheduled call," Michael informed the two pilots as he turned to leave. Stopping as he got to the door, he turned back and looked at Hawke. "I promise you, String...I'll do everything in my power to get her back safe and sound. Sinjin, too."
"I know, Michael...I know." Hawke said with a weary sigh. "I just hope you understand if I don't just sit here and wait for The Firm to come up with something. I've got a few ideas to follow up on myself."
"Anything you care to share?" the spy asked as Dom glanced at Hawke with a surprised look of his own.
"No, not now. If something comes of it, I'll let you know, " Hawke said as Michael nodded in acceptance and headed out towards his waiting white limo.
"And me?" Dom asked Hawke as soon as Archangel was out of earshot. "Are you going to let me in on this or are you going to be your usual pig-headed, stubborn self and lock me out, too?"
Dom could tell by the look on the younger man's face that that was exactly what Hawke had planned to do but something in the tone of Dom's voice must have changed his mind. "No, Dom...c'mon, let's go get The Lady and I'll fill you in on the way. We don't have much time before the next phone call."
TBC...
