Locke wandered out to the Lair entrance and tried hard not to ignore the wave of resentment that coursed through him at the sight of Archangel leaning nonchalantly on the rock. He hesitated and then walked over.

'I beginning to think that file you gave me was only half the story.' Locke commented.

Michael glanced over at him. 'Any intelligence file is usually half the story.'

Locke shook his head. 'To exclude mention of a third pilot and that Hawke was married? It was a serious security breech.'

'Actually it was a security measure.' Michael said dryly.

'How do you work that out?' Locke said astounded.

Michael tapped his cane on the ground. 'Caitlin was enough of a target as a known associate of Hawke's; as a known third pilot or as his wife she would have been an even larger target. I didn't see any reason to…'

'To report the truth on your friends?' Locke suggested.

'I've worked with them for a long time, Locke. You've worked with your team for what? Less than six months?' Michael pointed out. 'I see the mission reports. You can't tell me that they detail everything that happens.'

Locke accepted the point with a graceful incline of his head. 'Maybe not, but my missions are authorised. Nobody on my team is flying a stolen aircraft.'

Michael regarded him with a serious expression. 'Is that what this is about? You think Hawke stole Airwolf?'

'Archangel, he did steal Airwolf.'

'He made an agreement to recover Airwolf if we found his brother. He was merely keeping her until we held up to our side of the bargain.' Michael frowned. 'To be frank, if he hadn't kept her, we wouldn't have been able to use her.'

'Why defend him?' Locke demanded. 'You don't owe him anything.'

'I owe him my life,' Michael corrected him, 'and on more than one occasion.'

'Is that why you have him working on your new project?' Locke asked.

'Nice try.' Michael smiled. 'You don't have the clearance to even bring my project up in conversation.'

Locke frowned. 'I still think my team could have handled this mission. We would have found a way around the Thor system.'

'Hawke said the same thing when I told him that the director had asked us to take over.' Michael smiled at Locke's surprise. 'Don't worry, Locke. As soon as this mission is over, Airwolf will be all yours again.' He pushed away from the rock and headed inside.

Locke sighed and thrust his hands into his trouser pockets. He wondered at the loyalty Archangel showed for Hawke; he guessed he could understand it. His team was bonding closely even after a few months, if they continued to work together over a period of years…of course, they had to get Airwolf back from this mission first.

'How are you doing?'

He glanced over his shoulder at Jo. 'I'm not sure.' He admitted.

'I'm sorry, Jason.' Jo came to stand next to him. 'I should have told you about Caitlin.'

'You did what you thought was best, Jo.' Locke said. 'I understand that.' He sighed. 'I even understand why Saint John pretended Hawke was dead.' He noticed her disgruntled expression. 'I guess you're still a little sore about that.'

'Yeah.' Jo agreed. 'A little. Saint John was always incredibly protective of String especially after their parents died.' She sighed. 'I just wish he'd trusted me.'

'We seem to have issues with trust.' Locke murmured. 'Unlike the original Airwolf team.'

'It takes time to build trust, Jason,' Jo commented, 'and they've worked together for a while. I'm sure they had to work through issues too.'

'You could be right.' Locke sighed. 'I just hope we get the other members of our team back so we can work through ours.'

'String won't do anything to endanger Caitlin or Saint John.' Jo noted. 'But given this is probably a trap…I just hope they're OK.'

'I hope so too.' Locke put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.