Chapter 11: Hawk's holding a three of a kind
Hawk hung up the phone just as Kerry walked back into the office. He looked from his daughter to his brother-in-law, fear and worry etched into his handsome, youthful features.
"Dad? Is everything okay?" Kerry was visibly concerned, had something happened to her mother?
"Doc just called, your mother is in the infirmary." Hawk answered his daughter.
"Did he say why?" Kerry was worried, her mother rarely became ill and with a baby in it's last trimester of development, it couldn't be good.
"No, but, I'm sure she's fine." Hawk reached over and squeezed his daughter's shoulder in reassurance. I'm going to leave shortly."
"Do you want me to go with you?" Kerry asked.
"No sweetheart. If it's serious, I'll send for you." He squeezed her shoulder in reassurance again. "You stay here and learn. You need to be prepared when you come onto the team full-time."
"You sure, Dad?"
"I'm sure." He kissed his daughter on her forehead. "Pete, take care of my girl. Keep her out of trouble."
"Daddy! Really!" Kerry protested.
"Pumpkin, I love you. But, you are in trouble more often than not." Hawk kissed his daughter on top of her head again.
"Daddy!" She protested again.
"You don't mean to get in trouble, but, honey, you do it all the time. Just look at today. The only reason you aren't being court martialled for striking a superior officer is because that Captain was further out of line." Hawk pointed out. "He violated more regulations. Now, stay out of trouble, sweetheart." Hawk pulled her to him, kissing her on the head again. "Love you!"
"Love you too, daddy. And I promise." Kerry hugged her father.
Hawk stepped out of the room, calling for Ace.
Across town.
"Could this be the place?" Flint asked as they stopped in front of an empty storefront that looked faintly like it could have been a restaurant. Scrapes of painted dotted the windows, tables and chairs were upturned haphazardly inside.
"Possible. It looks like they left in a hurry" Duke mused. "So, now, I gotta wonder if it was a front for something."
"Not something, somebody, Cobra!" Flint ground out.
"Ve are not involved in this." A lilting Eastern European feminine voice said from behind them. "Ve are tryink to figure out vat is happening too."
"Baroness! Destro!" Duke ground out as the other three reached for their pistols.
"Must you do that every time you see us?" Destro mused.
"You are the enemy." Lady Jaye reminded the chrome-plated arms dealer.
"Right now, we are trying to solve a riddle. Much as I presume, you are also doing?" Destro mused.
"And just what would that riddle be, Destro?" Scarlett asked through slitted, suspicious eyes.
"I suspect the same one you are trying to solve. How two of you wound up married." Destro replied. "And I suspect it is not Flint and Lady Jaye who are the newlyweds, as we all would expect. Is it?"
"And just what business of yours is it? Destro?" Duke asked, voice tinged with anger and suspicion. The two terrorists never went anywhere, did anything without an agenda.
"Because you two never do anything without an agenda." Scarlett answered for Duke.
"And you work for Cobra." Lady Jaye spat out.
"Dat is troo, but, for now, ve are on ze zame zide. Zeems, Destro and I are married too. And ve can't remember ven, ver or how?"
"Pardon us for not really caring." Lady Jaye spat out.
"Ve underztand. But, ve have the zame questions dyu do." The baroness said.
"So, what do you propose?" Scarlett asked as she was met with expressions of pain at the choice of words.
"Ve team up to find out who or vat is behind this." The Baroness put forth.
"What've we got to lose. We're hitting dead ends now anyway." Duke mused aloud. "But, once we find out what is going on..."
"Our partnership, ends." Destro ground out.
"Deal". Duke said.
Back at The Pit:
Hawk strode into the infirmary after what he swore was the fastest flight a dragonfly copter could ever have. Wild Bill must've flown that thing wide open after he'd been dispatched by Ace to fly the general back to base.
"What is going on, Doc? How is she?" Hawk asked without so much as a a howdy do to the medic.
"She's fine. And so are your daughters."
"My daughter. I have a girl?" Hawk asked, his eyes alight with excitement followed by confusion. "Daughters? Plural?"
"Yep, two so far. And a third on the way. They look identical too." Doc replied followed by "Gurney!" as he watched his commander slump to the floor in a faint. As the medical staff placed the man on the stretcher, he laughed. The man could face down Cobra without batting an eye, but, finding out he had triplet daughters, that caused the man to swoon like a young girl on her first date.
/div