Hawke recognised the sound of the helicopters before he saw them. He raised the flare gun and lowered it peering through the binoculars. He frowned. The choppers were heading for the area where he believed the other plane had crashed and they were heavily armed. He lowered the binoculars thoughtfully and retreated back into the cave.

'Hey.' Caitlin greeted him. 'What's going on?' She hoped they were getting rescued soon because if she had to stay looking at the walls of the cave for very much longer…it was beyond boring.

'I've seen a couple of choppers.' He gestured behind him.

'Great.' Caitlin's smile fell away as she caught the unease in his expression. 'What's wrong?'

'I don't think they're here to rescue us.' Hawke admitted thrusting a hand through his hair. He gestured again. 'They're armed; looks like they're carrying a small team each. Black fatigues. They reminded me of some of the CIA task teams I've seen in the past.'

'The CIA?' Caitlin repeated. 'Oh, come on Hawke. Why would they be involved?'

'I'm not sure.'

'But you have a theory.' Caitlin stated.

Hawke nodded slowly and rubbed his chin. 'I think that other plane was dogging us today, trying to fool the White Sands radar.'

Caitlin sighed as the implication hit her. 'They were trying some kind of attack?'

'I think so.' He sat down next to her. 'I think the pilot got too close, panicked he was going to hit us and lost control.'

'So if they crashed and survived like we did, they might still be attempting to complete their attack.' Caitlin concluded.

'That's not the really bad news.'

'No.' Caitlin agreed. 'The really bad news is that the CIA is after these guys and they're not bothered about rescuing us.'

Hawke hesitated for a second and subsided into silence. Caitlin didn't need to know that it was likely the CIA wasn't planning on leaving anyone alive on the ground.

Caitlin's eyes narrowed on his face. 'What else?'

'Nothing.' Hawke shook his head and avoided her eyes.

'There's something else isn't there?' Caitlin frowned. 'Something you're not telling me.'

Hawke sighed but remained silent.

'I'm not a child and I don't need protecting. Whatever it is I can deal with it.' Caitlin argued. 'Now what is it? What are you not telling me?'

He regarded her serious face for a long moment. 'I think they're on a shoot to kill mission.' He admitted. 'Leave no-one alive.'

Caitlin's eyes shot to his. She tried to retain her bravado and failed. 'Great.' She muttered.

Hawke glanced across at her pale white face and sighed heavily. He reached over and took her hand, entangling their fingers. 'We'll get out of this, Cait. I promise.'

Caitlin squeezed his fingers. 'You have a plan?'

'Maybe.' He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'I'm going to head back to the plane and remove the sign we left saying what direction we took.'

'Good plan.' Caitlin agreed.

'We're not in a bad position, we could hide for quite a while here and it's defensible but I think we should leave as soon as we can.' He gestured. 'But I think Dom's here. I thought I heard Airwolf earlier before the attack helicopters showed.'

'You probably did.' Caitlin said. 'He would have brought her as soon as he found out.'

'We're going to have to find someway of letting him know we're here.' Hawke said.

'But without alerting the bad guys or the CIA.' Caitlin murmured.

Hawke nodded. 'If he can pinpoint our location, he can swoop in and pick us up before they can react.'

'Maybe…' Caitlin bit her lip, a frown of concentration wrinkling her nose. 'Maybe, we could use the radio.' She gestured. 'I mean, not to talk to him but if we used Airwolf's emergency frequency and sent a message with a series of clicks…'

'It's not a bad idea,' Hawke said, 'but someone could pick up Morse code.'

'Maybe.' Caitlin admitted. 'But it has to be a worth try.'

Hawke raised an eyebrow. 'It's a long shot.'

'You have a better idea?'

Hawke made a face and handed her the radio and the gun. 'Take this. If anybody tries to enter shoot them. We'll try your idea when I get back.'

'You should take the gun.' Caitlin said.

'Caitlin.'

She rolled her eyes but she took the gun. 'I'll get started on working out that code.'

Hawke reached over and kissed her lightly on the lips before he got to his feet and made for the entrance.

'Be careful.' She said as he stepped out onto the mountain. He glanced back at her and nodded before disappearing from view.

Hawke made his way back to the wreckage of their plane swiftly. He moved silently across the terrain, keeping vigilant for any sign of the CIA helicopters or any other movement. He had destroyed the makeshift arrow and was about to head back when he heard voices. It took one quick scan to realise the only hiding place was underneath a blackened rock near to the wreckage. He barely slid behind the boulder when two men entered the clearing. He peeked around the corner. One of the men was about his age, blond haired, blue eyed and built like a body-builder with a gash on the right side of his head; the other was small and dark with a neat beard and a moustache. Both were wearing smoke smudged, dirty, sweaty clothes and carrying two large suitcases. Hawke stayed still and listened.

'Hey, Billy, it looks like this is where the other plane went down.' The blond gestured at the burned wreck. 'You think they got out?'

'If you're that interested Gerry, Check the plane.' Billy put his suitcase on the ground and sat on it. He pulled a dirty handkerchief from his coat pocket and mopped at his brow.

'I'm not checking the plane.' Gerry shook his head. 'What if they're burned like a couple of crispy critters? There's no way I'm seeing that.'

'Fine. Then don't check the plane. I don't care.' Billy stood up. 'Come on. We need to get some more distance between us and these crash sites.'

'Billy, man. Can't we rest a bit longer?'

'No.' Billy hefted his suitcase. 'This bomb needs to be in a precise location and thanks to your idiot cousin's flying we've had to walk with the damn thing.'

'Yeah, Vince never could fly worth a damn.' Gerry took the other suitcase. 'Well, guess that'll not be a problem anymore.' He chuckled.

'Come on, will ya?' Billy took a couple of steps down the incline heading away, Hawke realised with relief, from the direction of the cave.

'I don't see what your hurry is.'

'Cal's bringing in a chopper to come pick us up in another twenty minutes.' Billy shouted over his shoulder. 'We'll detonate the bomb remotely when we're in the air.'

'I just don't see how this small bomb is going to make anyone give a damn, Billy.' Gerry picked up his suitcase and lumbered after his friend.

'Because when it explodes it's going to poison the soil with radiation deep into the water basin.'

'But I don't see how that's going to make the government give us money, Billy.'

'You just carry the case, Gerry and leave the thinking to me.'

Hawke remained motionless until he was convinced the men were too far away to hear him move. He started back to the cave and paused. His head cocked to one side; the CIA attack choppers were closing. He quickly made his way back to the cave.

Caitlin greeted him with a smile of relief. 'I was getting worried.'

'I'm OK.' He assured her. 'But we have to get to Airwolf fast.' He filled her in on what he'd overheard.

'God, Hawke, if they set off a nuclear bomb…'

'I know.' Hawke gestured impatiently. 'Are you ready to try this?'

Caitlin took the radio and switched it on, checked the frequency. 'Here goes nothing.' She started her signalling.

'SOS?' Hawke asked curious.

'SOS.' Caitlin said continuing to keep track of the code in her head, her eyes pinned to the radio. 'OK. It's sent.' She met his serious blue gaze. 'We should know in a minute if they got it.'

Hawke hoisted the rucksack onto his shoulder and helped her to her feet. He provided a support for her as she limped out of the cave and took a seat on a nearby rock. Hawke scanned the sky anxiously.

'Come on, Dom.' He muttered under his breath. His head turned at a faint sound…

It was one of the attack helicopters.

Hawke pulled Caitlin onto the floor and covered her with his own body as the chopper unleashed a barrage of gunfire. Bullets impacted the ground around them, ricocheted off the rock. Hawke lifted his head…

A howl echoed through the sky and Airwolf shot past the side of the mountain in a screaming run, unsettling the helicopter which spun and lurched in the sky, the pilot fighting for control.

Dom's lips pressed together tightly as he swung Airwolf back around to pick up Hawke and Caitlin. He hovered as close as he could as the couple got to their feet. He frowned as Hawke picked Caitlin up and helped her into the helicopter. Jo reached forward to help Caitlin into the back and smiled apologetically as the redhead stared at her in shock.

Hawke flung himself into the front seat and gestured at Dom to move. Dom hit the button that fired the turbos, sent them straight to mach speed just as the helicopter fired a missile into the side of the mountain where they had been. Hawke reached back for his helmet and did a double-take at Jo. She smiled weakly. His eyes moved deliberately to Dom.

'I can explain…' The older pilot began.

'Later.' Hawke interrupted. He turned to the back. 'Jo, swap places with Cait. Dom, give me the controls, we have to stop those guys from detonating the bomb.'

'Sure.' Dom waited until Hawke had adjusted his helmet before he relinquished the stick.

'Cait, run a scan for helicopters in the area. Those guys were going to set off the bomb when they got airborne.'

'On it.' Caitlin's hands were already moving competently over the console. Jo watched her a little wistfully. 'We have a Jet Ranger leaving coordinates just South of here; it's been heavily modified. I'm reading sidewinders.' Her eyes widened. 'Hawke, that bomb is on the ground and it's active.'

'Jam the frequencies, Cait.' Dom advised his face creased with worry.

'Jamming.'

'That should buy us a little time.' Dom said.

'Yeah.' Hawke adjusted their course took them on an intercept vector to the Jet Ranger.

'Hawke, we have two attack helicopters closing.' Caitlin frowned. 'They're targeting us.'

'Ignore them.' Hawke ordered. 'Give me a redeye.'

'Missile ready.' Caitlin said punching the button to load it into the ADF pods. She sent a chaff after a missile the CIA threw at them.

Hawke had caught up with the Jet Ranger and he angled Airwolf into a dive that shrieked by the chopper's rotors. It still managed to fire a missile and Hawke barely registered that Caitlin dealt with it with another chaff before he pressed the trigger. The redeye flew from the pods, locked on the Ranger and impacted into the metal with a huge explosion.

Airwolf was already flying away, ascending into the sky to an altitude the CIA helicopters could not reach.

Hawke flicked the radio on. 'Give it up, guys. You have better things to do.'

'Yeah,' Dom agreed laughing, 'like defusing that bomb, huh?'

Hawke flicked the radio back off and headed for home.