CHAPTER 15
Knightsbridge
The Following Morning
7:45 am
Maria sat at the big desk recording the details of the Airwolf crew's progress and calculating the approximate time they should should come in for debriefing and medical attention for Hawke soon after arriving, and she estimated within the day, most likely by about one o'clock at the latest. Everything was going as close to planned for as could be hoped.
"Good morning," Marella greeted as she walked across, casting an inconspicuous glance at the junior aid and entered Michael's office. During his absence she had taken over most of his duties, including the ones she wasn't supposed to be doing like maintaining contact with Airwolf and preparing for their arrival.
"Morning check in," Hawke radioed in.
"Keep it quick and quiet," Marella instructed. "Michael has already gotten suspended for this, and I have a feeling that something else is wrong."
"We should make it back to the hangar in about forty minutes. Do you want us to come in right after that or…"
"With Michael being suspended I'd say not worry about it until later," Marella answered, "but-"
Her sentence was cut short by a security breach alarm then an irritating, shrill whine came over the lone and the connection was lost.
\A/
She's not in any condition for this," Dom warned, the safe operating temperatures for the turbines well exceeded long ago. "You're tearing her apart."
"She'll hold together."
"And what if she doesn't?"
"Then we have a problem."
"A problem? Then we would have a problem. Archangel was right about your facility for understatement."
He shrugged, unsuccessfully trying to let out some of the tension in his shoulders from the long, and fast, flight. For doing mach one, it sure seemed to be taking an awfully long time; of course the breaks that they kept having to take to let her cool off had nothing to do with that. Speaking of which, they were overdue for a break,way overdue according to Dom's reading, but they couldn't stop now. They hadn't been able to get a hold of Marella since the interference and the alarms sounding in the background probably weren't a good thing.
Coming up on the runway, Hawke lowered the landing gear and cut the engines, gliding closer and closer to the ground until at last the wheels came into contact with the ground.
\A/
Stiletto heels clicked quickly along the tile floor as Marella headed for the archive room where the security breach had been, but no one was in sight. Every file and paper looked to be exactly as it should be. But why? For someone to go to as much trouble as to break in and risk getting caught there had to be some reason.
Behind her the door clicked shut and then suddenly she knew the reason. The archives never were the main target but merely a diversion and she had been foolish enough to fall for it.
She was the only one in the wing, everyone else evacuated and security obviously not planning on coming; she was on her own with this one, but she was damned is she was going to let them, whoever it was, walk away with information or articles that could prove to be fatal to some agents or civilians if they were to make it into the wrong hands.
\A/
Airwolf now safely secured inside the hangar, Dominic and Lexa were already in the jeep and ready to go, Hawke and Caitlin jogging up to join them.
Stumbling just ahead of her, Caitlin realized just how bad Hawke looked. The last thing he needed to doing right now was going into another mess, possibly gunfight.
"Hawke," Caitlin sighed.
"No Cait," he told her adamantly, shaking away the sudden dizziness that overcame him. It was all or nothing, and now the time to prove what he was really made of.
"String, stay," she said, more of an order than a request. "We'll handle it."
"I'm coming," he retorted defiantly, no need for further explanations. For better or for worse he was in it now. Situating himself inside the jeep in the last available seat, they were off to find out what havoc reined at Knightsbridge.
\A/
Hearing the audible 'clink' as the locking mechanisms slid over, Marella dropped the bobby pin to the ground and pushed the door open, dashing down the hall the moment it was open.
The constantly growing closer noise of heels clicking against the floor in the distance echoed through her head, fingers flying deftly over the key code and opening the door to the secured file room. She was at the top now.
Moving straight to the 'A' section, Maria fingered through the folders until she found the one she wanted - A-56-7W. Four more to go. Using the neat organization of the file room to her advantage, she picked through the manila folders until she found the ones she wanted on Stringfellow Hawke, Dominic Santini, Caitlin O'Shaunessey, and "Archangel" Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III. And just for good measure she threw in one for Saint John Hawke. Sliding the last drawer back into place, she stuck the stack of file under her arm and disappeared from the room, leaving to evidence she had ever been there in the first place.