Airwolf caused a stir but then she always did. The locals had also been taken aback by the sight of the team of agents working for Michael who had descended on the place within thirty minutes of Hawke calling for back-up. Saint John was ostensibly driving the search on the ground coordinating the agents, the local law enforcement and half the town of Gilly Pass that seemed to have turned up to help. They were using Herman's as a base. Hawke had stayed close to Chris, who'd cried himself to sleep on the sofa in the small staff locker room, and waited for Airwolf.

The sight of the original black helicopter descending in front of Herman's hangar made Hawke automatically feel a hundred times better. The sight of his wife climbing out of the commander's seat made him feel a hundred times better than that. He ducked under the rotors and hugged her.

'Do I get one of those?' Mike asked cheekily from the other side of the nose.

Hawke shot him a warning look.

Mike held up his hands in surrender even as Jo slapped him.

Hawke was relieved to see Michael climb out behind Mike. 'Michael.'

'Any news?' Michael asked.

'Nothing.' Hawke said. 'Saint John's got everyone doing a standard search pattern out from the hangar but we both think this guy is long gone.' He gestured at Airwolf. 'I want to take her up and scan the area.'

'Good idea.' Michael brushed his moustache with a finger. 'I'll head indoors and help your brother set up the rest of the operation.'

Hawke nodded.

'I'll go help Saint John too.' Jo said gesturing at the hangar. She tried to keep her unhappiness at the fact that he hadn't come out to greet her like Hawke had done with Caitlin from her expression and voice.

'He'll be pleased to see you.'

Hawke's gentle comment brought a flush to her cheeks as she realised she probably hadn't been as successful as she'd thought.

'I guess we're flying then.' Mike said throwing Hawke a uniform across the helicopter.

Hawke caught it with one arm. He kissed Caitlin. 'Set her up. I'll be right back.'

He showed Jo and Michael into the hangar before he quickly changed in the locker room.

'Are you going to find my Mom?' Chris's sleepy voice stopped him at the doorway and he made his way back to the sofa.

Hawke knelt down by the boy. 'I'm going to go try.' He ruffled Chris's hair. 'Get some sleep. I'll be back soon.'

Chris closed his eyes and Hawke rubbed at the ache in his chest. He stepped away and walked hurriedly back to Airwolf. He climbed into the vacant command seat and glanced over at Mike who was settled into the counter-measure specialist seat. A quick look behind him reassured him more; Caitlin sat in the engineer's console, her fingers flying nimbly over the keyboard. He could see from his monitor that she was having a conversation with Airwolf.

He pulled on the helmet and started up the engines. As soon as Caitlin confirmed the systems were good, Airwolf rose up into the night sky.

'Full set of scans.' Hawke ordered.

'Scanning.' Caitlin confirmed.

'So what's the story?' Mike asked his voice devoid of its usual humour as he focused on his monitor where the results of the scans were being transmitted.

'She was working late. We think she came back OK from her flight, locked up and put Chris in the car. Chris says she woke him up to tell him there was some problem with the car and she was going for help at Flybirds.'

'The service across the road from Herman's.' Mike noted.

Hawke was inwardly impressed at Mike's observant nature. 'Yeah.' He sighed. 'Chris woke up to see a man attacking his mother by the car.'

Caitlin frowned. 'You mean he fell back asleep?'

'I guess.' Hawke said glancing behind him. 'What are you thinking?'

'Well, if he fell asleep after she told him she was going for help, then there must have been some time between her going for help and going back to the car where she go attacked.' Caitlin said logically.

'Saint John had them bring all the pilots from Flybirds come to the hangar to be interviewed again. They say she never asked them for help. They're claiming they never saw her.' Hawke replied.

'You think they did.' Mike stated.

'I think they're lying about something.' Hawke muttered. 'I just don't know what.' He frowned at the monitor. 'Cait, are we getting anything back there?'

'We'll need to go through the data back on the ground frame by frame for analysis.' Caitlin said. 'There's nothing suspicious so far.'

The incoming communication signal sounded in the cockpit.

Mike hit the button to connect them and they found themselves staring at a picture of Michael. Somewhere in the short space of time that had passed, he'd changed out of his Airwolf uniform and into his usual all-white three piece suit.

'Michael, we're a little busy…' Hawke began.

'You need to come back.' Michael said firmly.

Hawke's eyes snapped to the video monitor. 'Why?'

'The DEA just turned up.' Michael explained. 'We have a situation.'

'On our way.' Hawke let Mike disconnect the call while he concentrated on taking Airwolf back down.

They all noticed the black sedans as they made their way into the hangar. Herman pointed them at the office silently. Hawke marched in without knocking interrupting the heated debate that was already in progress.

'We're not interrupting are we?' Mike said with mock innocence as he shut the door behind them.

Michael sighed. 'Agent DeMarco, this is Stringfellow Hawke, Mike Rivers and Caitlin.' He waved at the dark haired agent and his burly partner. 'This is Agent De Marco and his partner Agent Sander.'

'What's going on?' Hawke asked bluntly.

'It seems we've disturbed one of the DEA's ongoing investigations.' Michael said sitting down on the edge of the desk.

Saint John gestured from his position leaning up against the far wall by the boarded over broken window. 'They've had Flybirds under surveillance.'

Jo laid her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

'Your presence here just ruined months of work.' Sander blustered, his bulbous nose turning red.

'Our sister is missing.' Saint John said straightening as Hawke stiffened at the agent's tone.

'So is one of our agents.' DeMarco said. His manner was calmer than his partner's, more assured.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

'When did you lose contact?' Caitlin asked folding her arms as she levelled a no-nonsense stare at them.

'About the time the girl went missing.' DeMarco admitted.

'Maybe Sarah saw something.' Mike suggested.

'Maybe.' Hawke said rubbing his chin. 'We know those Flybirds boys were lying about something.'

Saint John conceded the point with a tilt of his head.

'OK, so there's no problem you turning jurisdiction over to us then, is there?' Sander said challengingly.

Saint John bristled but Hawke gave a sharp shake of his head indicating that he should let Michael respond.

'I think you'll find we have jurisdiction,' Michael's smile was feral, 'but we're more than happy to work together to achieve a successful outcome for both parties.' He concluded smoothly.

Sander puffed out his chest. 'Why don't we take this upstairs and let the big bosses decide?'

Michael raised an eyebrow at the agent. 'Of course. I'm sure the President will be only too happy to take time out of his schedule to explain to the Director of the DEA why one of his agents should be fired for interfering with my operation.'

Sander's nose went purple.

DeMarco grabbed Sander's arm. 'Working together sounds good.'

'Good.' Michael said. 'Let's start with a full explanation of what the DEA was doing.'

'We've suspected Flybirds has been smuggling drugs into the country for some time.' DeMarco said. 'About three months ago we assigned Agent Jody Willis to work undercover with Flybirds and gather evidence.'

'On his own without back-up?' Saint John queried.

'Loners drift into Gilly Pass all the time.' DeMarco said. 'A couple would have seemed out of place. There was a system of regular checks put in place and he had an emergency number he could have dialled any time for a retrieval team.'

'Three months is a long time to be undercover without finding enough evidence.' Mike noted. 'Are you sure these guys are drug smuggling?'

'We're sure.' Sander replied forcefully. 'And Willis did his best but they didn't trust him straight off. He was assigned the legal stuff, the stuff that helps maintain their image as a legitimate operation.'

'Two days ago we got a call from Willis confirming that they were finally letting him do one of the Mexico runs as a co-pilot.' DeMarco sighed and crossed his arms. He suddenly looked tired. 'Yesterday it came to our attention that the FBI was sniffing around the town.'

'They weren't informed of this operation?' Michael asked.

'No.' DeMarco said.

'Wow. You really know how to make friends, don't you guys?' Mike said leaning back on the door.

'It must have spooked them.' Caitlin thought out loud. 'Bad timing for your guy. Feds sniffing around just when they let him in on the secret…' She sighed. 'His cover got blown.'

'Maybe.' DeMarco agreed.

'No maybe about it.' Hawke said. He winked at Caitlin. 'She's very good at what she does.'

Caitlin gave a small smile. She gestured. 'You said your guy had them under surveillance. I'm guessing he had a camera or a wire?'

'You are good.' DeMarco allowed. 'He had both. He didn't want to wear the wire last night.'

'What about the camera?' Caitlin asked.

'He told me he hid it in the cockpit of the helicopter they used.' Sander admitted.

'We need that tape.' Hawke said. 'If it was recording…'

'It might have picked up on everything we need to know.' Caitlin agreed.

'One problem.' DeMarco said. 'If we walk over there and get the camera, then we're revealing the surveillance and if that camera didn't pick up a drugs run then we have no evidence and they'll walk.'

'Safety of a civilian comes first.' Michael interjected. 'That film may have valuable information about Sarah Hardy's whereabouts.'

'If your man got made last night,' Saint John added, 'it's all over anyway.'

'How do you want to do this?' DeMarco asked.

Hawke was about to reply when there was a furious knock on the office door. Mike spun around and snagged it open.

Dulles jerked his thumb back out towards the airstrip. 'Thought you federal boys might want to know Flybirds just took off.'