CHAPTER 10

The terrible smelling cloth came over her nose and mouth out of nowhere, giving her a nauseating sick feeling and sleepy at the same time. She reached for the radio beside her, desperately trying not to inhale the repulsive odor, but she was only human and she had to breathe. Trying to fight off her sudden enemy and call for help at the same time, she became oblivious to the car she was supposed to be trailing as it pulled away. Then another scent filled the air. Her vision grayed as she forced to take another breath of the sickening smell, finally she could feel the cloth being tied as a gag and blackness enveloped her completely.

\A/

"Stay on the scopes; I've got to make sure there isn't anyone still in the tunnel."

"I'm not getting any human heat signatures and those flames will be all the way through any moment if they aren't already.

"I've just got a really bad feeling about this whole thing."

"Dom sighed. "Be careful, String."

"Yeah."

The tunnel was dark and narrow on this end, but flames engulfed the other end. What was even in here to burn though? Something had to fuel the fire. Then suddenly it hit him. He ran towards the flames as fast as he could, fearing it wouldn't be enough. It had to be enough, he didn't have anything else he could do, and he couldn't go through that all over again, not without losing all semblance of sanity he had left. She had to be here, somewhere. There. Just in the distance he could see Caitlin's car, the orange tongues reaching for it, threatening to swallow it before he could get there. The heat wave was stifling, every force of nature seeming to be against him, but he refused to give in now.

"Cait!"

He heard no reply from her, only the crackling roar of the flames as it took hold and started to eat through the body of the car. He pulled on the door, wrenching it open and having her limp form fall on him because of it.

"Caitlin, talk to me."

He almost had her out, but the fire was getting too close and her foot was hung. He tried to work it free, but the more he tried, the worse it got.

"Cait, a little help would be nice," he murmured, knowing it wouldn't do him any good. The flames would reach the gas tank any second, he had to get out of here. If he could have just another minute…

"Go Hawke, the ropes are full."

"That's my brother."

"Got on, String, go on. Git."

"I thought about you and the eagle…"

"Just hang on."

"No, not again. I can't do it again."

"Be careful, String."

"Thought I'd never see you again."

"Maybe you won't."

The radio beside Caitlin crackled to life with Dom's warning. "Our target is getting pretty far off, and you need to get out of there. Now. Airwolf is giving off danger warnings like you won't believe."

He reached across Caitlin's prone form for the radio. "Dom, It's String. Go on after Nhu. You can come by and pick me up on the way back."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, now go."

He tucked the radio into his waistband and went back to trying to free Caitlin, knowing it could be the death of him; after all, no good deed goes unpunished.

The smoke trapped inside the tunnel made breathing even more difficult, but at last he had her free.

Caitlin half draped over his shoulder, half in his arms, he loped away from the sight, still catching the last bit of the explosion as the fire made it to the gas tank and the car erupted into a mass of burning wreckage.

He was alive though, he just hoped he could say the same for Cait.

\A/

"I got Nhu and the kid too."

"Excellent. I was beginning to wonder if you ever would."

"It wasn't easy. I think she had some help toward the end."

"Why do you say that?" the, as always, impeccably dressed white clad spy asked as he stepped from the shadows, gun drawn.

\A/

"String?" Caitlin coughed, beginning to come to.

"I'm here," he answered, setting aside the radio he had unsuccessful fully been trying to reach Dom with. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. What exactly happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"I-I don't know. Was following Nhu when they entered the tunnel, but I lost them and it was so dark… there was this terrible smell and next thing I remembered I was here. Wait, one more thing. Burning. I smelled something burning." The blaring of sirens in the distance and the smoke filled air making it easier to fit the pieces together. "They planned to set the car on fire, didn't they?" she said aloud, almost more a statement than question. "And you rescued me, risked your own life to get me out," she murmured in realization to just how closely they had both tangled with death.

"I was in the right place at the right time."

"Yeah." Something like that," she thought. "I'm sure there wasn't anything else to do with it."

\A/

"Archangel to Airwolf," Michael radioed.

"Airwolf, Dominic confirmed.

"We've got them all in custody, and the girl is safe."

"You couldn't have."

"And why not?"

"Because I just caught up with the other car."

"Other car?"

"There were two cars I've been following for the last hour and I'm still tailing one of them."

"Caitlin is still following by ground though, right?"

"Actually I dropped Sting off about ten minutes ago to find out what happened when we lost her going through a tunnel."

"Damn," he cursed, seemed there was a bit of truth in all the lies they had told after all. "Is she alright?"

"I assumed so. String radioed back and told me to keep after the girl, and could pick him back up on the way back."

"Can you get me a make and model or license plate number?"

"It's black with a red stripe detail on the side," Dominic answered and continued with reading off the license number, year and model."

"Are you sure you read the license number correctly?"

"That's what it said. Why?"

"That one belongs to Quan Van Dao originally also from Vietnam. He's been living in the states, quite successfully I might add, for nearly twelve years as an entrepreneur and businessman. It wasn't in Airwolf's computer system because it's a one of a kind custom car. I just can't believe he would risk everything he's gained here to capture a Vietnamese girl and her Amerasian son, it just isn't logical. He has allegedly had a questionable background though … I can track him down from here. Give me your current location and go ahead and pick of Hawke. I'll take it from here."

\A/

"Marella, I need a location on that car and where it's going, and get everything we have on Quan Van Dao ."

"Yes sir."

"Samantha!" he yelled, already walking back to his desk and preparing to leave.

"Sir?"

"Ready the helicopter, my limo, and alert Zebra Squad we'll be moving within ten minutes."

"Yes sir, anything else?"

He shook his head and reached for his coat and hat, only able to hope he wasn't too late.

Marella reentered the office, papers in hand. "I can give you the rest of the briefing on the way, but I think you should know something about Quan."