Michael was sat next to Hawke on the floor with their backs to the wall. His legs were stretched out in front of him while Hawke had his right knee bent; his arm draped lazily over it. With the bow tie draped loose around Hawke's neck and the top buttons of his white dress shirt unbuttoned, the pilot could be mistaken for posing for a gentleman's magazine, Michael mused, until someone looked at his eyes. The ice blue gaze had been constantly scanning the room since the hostage situation had begun; assessing and weighing options.

'What are you thinking, Hawke?' Michael whispered.

'Have you noticed how organised this guys are?' Hawke said.

Michael nodded. 'I was thinking military training.'

Hawke silently agreed. He gestured. 'There's a guard at the three exits; two men to cover. The room is in a good defendable position, has its own cloakroom. It's well-thought out.' He murmured. His blue eyes never shifted from the leader who had picked up the phone again. 'Almost like they planned it.'

'But they didn't show any signs of taking us hostage until the police arrived?' Michael frowned.

'Yeah, how did the police turn up so quickly?' Hawke asked quietly. 'I've been going through the timing in my head, Michael, something's off.' His finger pointed swiftly at the leader on the phone before it dropped down again. 'He's taken two calls from the outside.'

'From the police.' Michael whispered.

'The first one, maybe. He was happy for us all to hear his demands.' Hawke conceded. 'The second one.' He shook his head slightly. 'I don't think so. He asked if everything was in place.'

Michael took a moment to marvel at Hawke's hearing before he let the implications of Hawke's observations sink in. 'This was all about taking us hostage.'

'I think so.' Hawke murmured.

Michael's frown deepened. 'But why the elaborate ruse of a robbery gone wrong? What would they hope to achieve by that?'

'I think they're protecting whoever it is they've got on the outside.' Hawke said.

Michael's good eye flew to Hawke. 'Hawke, Marella and Caitlin are likely outside with the police! They could be in danger.'

'I know, Michael.' Hawke allowed his eyes to finally shift from the gang leader, meeting his friend's worried gaze. 'I know.' His eyes moved back to his original target as his mind drifted to his wife…

o-O-o

Outside, the object of his thoughts was stood staring at the taped off crime scene at the bottom of the drive. The sun had set and the team had erected large artificial lights over the area. Caitlin shifted her weight and crossed her arms as she ignored the milling forensic team and took her own observations.

'Can I help you?'

The caustic tone of Detective Strickland behind her had her rolling her eyes. 'I'm just taking a look, Detective.'

'You're messing up my crime scene.' He growled.

'I'm nowhere near your crime scene.' She retorted.

'What are you doing down here anyway?' Strickland stuffed his hands in his pockets and glared at her.

'I'm waiting for the pizzas to take them up to the house.' Caitlin said easily.

'We shouldn't be giving them anything.' Strickland muttered.

Caitlin frowned irritated with the detective and turned to move away.

'So, what do you think went down?' Strickland called after her.

Caitlin stopped and turned back to him. 'You really want to know?'

'Let's just say I could do with a good laugh.'

Caitlin squared her shoulders and met Strickland's gaze challengingly. 'The guard was in on it.' She started to walk away again.

Strickland scowled and caught up with her. 'Why do you think that?'

'The location and position of the body, the likely trajectory of the shot and the fact he's still wearing his gun.' Caitlin said continuing to walk to the entrance and the approaching pizza delivery van.

'He would have been held at gun-point.' Strickland pointed out. 'He was probably moved away from the guard-hut to prevent him from pressing the alarm.'

'Without being told to remove his weapon?' Caitlin asked. 'I find that hard to believe and besides if he was moved away from the hut to stop him from pressing the alarm, how did he manage to press it?'

'He pressed it before they moved him not realising that he'd already set it off.' Strickland said defensively.

'Why not shoot him in the hut if that's what you're going to do?' Caitlin countered. She stopped for a second and whirled to face him. 'Look, this is your investigation, Detective. You think what you want but have you actually checked when the alarm got triggered at the gate?'

Strickland's blank expression gave her his answer.

'I didn't think so.' Caitlin muttered. She headed over to the pizza delivery boy and took the stack of pizzas from him before she headed back to her car to take them up to the house.

The front of the club house was filled with police officers and Caitlin threaded her way through to where the Chief was stood talking with Marella.

'Hey.' She lifted the pizza boxes. 'Pizza's arrived.'

The Chief nodded and gestured at one of his men. 'Call them.'

The officer dutifully dialled the garden room and nodded when they picked up. He handed the receiver to his superior.

'We got your pizzas.' Sumni confirmed without preamble.

'Send them in with one of your officers.' John instructed.

'If I'm giving you pizza, I want something in return.' Sumni stated forcefully. 'I'm sending in ten pizzas here, how about you send out ten hostages?'

'I'm a reasonable man,' John replied, 'you can have five hostages but your officer stays with us.'

'No way!'

'In that case, no deal.' John hung up.

Sumni slammed the phone down. 'I can't give him a police officer.' He muttered angrily.

'What about me?' Marella said.

'Marella…' Caitlin broke in. 'I don't think that's a good idea.'

'Your friend's right, Marella.' Sumni said swiping his brow with a handkerchief. 'I can't allow it.'

'Tell him he can keep your officer but you get your ten hostages.' Marella argued. 'I'm trained for these situations. Let me do this.'

'Marella.' Caitlin stepped in before Sumni could reply. 'Could I have a word?' She didn't wait for an acceptance but dragged the other woman clear across the room to where they could talk without being overheard. 'What are you doing?' She hissed.

'Caitlin, this is the perfect opportunity for us to get inside.' Marella said. 'I can wear a wire and some surveillance equipment. We could see the layout and…'

'And Michael would kill us both.' Caitlin said firmly.

'You know I'm right.' Marella said stubbornly. 'I'm Hawaiian. They don't know who I am.'

'Marella,' Caitlin sighed and leaned a bit closer, 'I've been checking out the homicide of the gate guard and I think he was in on it.'

'So?'

'So if he alerted the police so they would arrive during the robbery and that was planned, this was always what they wanted; a hostage situation.' Caitlin pointed out. 'I don't think this is the gang that was operating on Oahu.'

'You think they heard about the robberies, heard about the party and took advantage of both?' Marella surmised.

'I don't know what to think right now.' Caitlin said quietly. 'It could even be Cordelli and if it is, it's likely that someone else is in on this besides the men inside.' Her blue-green eyes flickered around the packed room. 'It could be anybody.'

Marella sighed and brushed her hair back over her shoulder. 'Even if you're right, this is still our best opportunity to get more information about what's going on inside; you know that.'

Caitlin met Marella's serious dark gaze. 'I'm not going to talk you out of this, am I?'

Marella shook her head.

'OK,' Caitlin said, 'but we keep the surveillance stuff to ourselves for now. Airwolf should be arriving any minute so I can track the feed from inside her.'

'Agreed.' Marella said. 'Can you organise that with Ellie outside?' She asked referring to the agent she had called to the site to assist them. 'I'll get Sumni to agree the terms with the gang.'

'Marella,' Caitlin caught her arm, 'for the record, I think this is a bad idea.'

'It'll be OK.' Marella assured her.

Caitlin watched her walk away for a moment before she headed outside to the white limo. 'I hope you're right.' She muttered under her breath.