CHAPTER 8
"Great, now we have the police after us, Lexa, that wasn't really a help."
"At least we aren't being led away in hand cuffs," she retorted.
"Well we can't outrun them in this."
"Evasion isn't all about speed, although it helps and certainly makes things more interesting... In one of my recent episodes I had a Corvette but didn't top sixty until after I had lost them."
"Good to know, but I'd rather not be involved in the chase at all."
"I'll let you out if you want."
"You probably wouldn't stop before you threw me out, and I'd never see my jeep again."
"I'd slow down," Lexa returned, " but no promises on the returning condition of your vehicle; the police should get it back to you eventually though, if there's enough left to return."
"Somehow I don't find that particularly consoling."
"Suit yourself." She swung a hard right at the intersection heading for a usually quiet residential neighborhood. Three California Highway Patrol cars followed in pursuit, sirens blaring. Accelerating, Lexa directed them towards the woods behind the house at the end of the culdesac.
"Please tell me you're not about to do what I think you're going to do."
"Only if you're not thinking we're about to go off-roading through the woods."
"I'd like to end this with me in one piece."'
"If all goes well you will be."
"But if it doesn't..."
"Maybe a few cuts and bruises, perhaps a broken bone, or maybe there's a cliff with a six hundred foot drop on the other side of those trees and we'll both plunge to our deaths, how should I know? We'll find out when we get there."
"This, Hawke thought to himself, was exactly why he didn't like working with Lexa. She was reckless and she never thought anything through.
He pitched forward as the front wheels hit the curb, then back again as Lexa sped toward the trees. They swung around a large oak, nearly colliding with a smaller one in the process and ripping off a few smaller branches of the sapling to his left. Trees raced in a blur as Lexa would suddenly swerve to avoid a tree then be jarred back by a large rock or fallen branch. As abruptly as the chase had begun, Lexa slammed on the brakes just on the bank of a stream running through the heart of the cluster of trees.
"Looks like the end of the road to me."
"I think you passed that a while ago," Hawke remarked dryly.
"Alright, then I think it's time I high-tail if out of here, at least as fast as I can. If it's possible, I think I feel worse now than when that car actually hit me."
"How do you expect to make it the rest of the way back? Borrow someone else's car?"
"I'll figure something out. Are you coming with me or going to wait until the police show up? You might be able to claim car-jacking, but I don't think I'd be able to get away with that considering they've been chasing me all the way from Quebec City.
He hesitated briefly before throwing off the seat belt and climbing out of the car. It probably wasn't a smart idea, but somewhere along the way he had decided to help her and there was no way he could back down now. Car-jacking wouldn't work and he knew it; he would have to come up with something a lot better than that before the police caught up or do the only other semi-logical thing he could – make a run for it with Lexa, hope they could travel the last few miles without the cops realizing it, and hope Michael could sort out the rest.
"So you do still have the guts it takes to run from the cops," Lexa teased, "I'm proud of you Stringfellow. For a minute I had my doubts, but you came through."
"I would like to keep a halfway decent record so I can keep my job and custody of Le. You can view it as complete selfishness if you like, as long as we get out of here clean."
"That's what I like to hear."
\A/
Paperwork. Considering how much he disliked the mundane details that accompanied the position he held, Michael Coldsmith-Briggs wondered exactly how he had gotten drawn into it in the first place. It wasn't something he enjoyed and often put it off as long as possible, but, for one, he was almost completely caught up. Too bad it wouldn't stay that way. His motivation for getting it finished was knowing Lexa Cole was still out there somewhere and that when she came back, whether on her own or in handcuffs, there would inevitably be questions to be answered, reports to be filed, and changes to be made. To make matters worse, it appeared Stringfellow Hawke was now somehow involved in this mess. How or why Hawke had gotten drawn in he didn't know, didn't really care, but it was the last thing he needed. While it was no longer a complete secret, Airwolf wasn't something that needed to be talked about much and typically the less said the better. No one know how to handle it quite like Hawke though, and with him potentially looking at prison time, matters were much more complicated. Other people could fly it, or could be trained to, but he doubted any of them would be the same. To some extent, he might be able to keep him out of jail, at least shorten the sentence, but he couldn't assure anything, and he knew the Committee would be after him about it. It was only a matter of time until everything fell apart.
"Sir," Lauren addressed as she entered the office, "the local police found Hawke's jeep abandoned in the woods behind a residential neighborhood ten miles away. Neither one was found in the area, but...
"But we all know what it looks like," he finished. "Thank you, Lauren."
"Is there anything else I can do sir, to help?"
"At this point, the wisest thing you can do it stay out of the whole disaster so you don't go down with it. Other than that, just try to keep the media out of the loop as much as possible."
\A/
"I have to give it to you, Lexa, I never would have thought it would work, but we're here."
"We aren't in yet," she retorted, "but luckily I know a hole in the security, and it leads right to Michael's office."
"Lead on then."
She directed toward the western end.
"You do realize that's the research and development end don't you? The area with tighter security."
"Yeah, I know. Just follow my footsteps exactly and we'll be fine. Or, if you prefer, you can walk in the front door and take your chances with security there. They might let you by, or they might escort you straight to a holding cell."
"Fine, I get it."
"Good," she smirked, self-satisfied. "Then let's go."
She led around the building to a service entrance with a double lock and password recognition software. "In time I could pick the lock, but the password is changed daily. Since I haven't been in town for two weeks I really have no idea what it is. Fortunately for us, the service staff is lazy and usually leaves it open."
As if to prove her point, a middle-aged man carrying a mop, bucket, and a pack of cigarettes came out, leaving the door ajar. He dropped the bucket, sloshing water all over the ground, some of it inside the doorway, and let the mop handle clank against the building as he ambled leisurely away while rummaging his pockets for his lighter.
"He'll be gone for a while, so we can slip in unnoticed." Lexa led the way, stepping over the puddle and continuing up a steep staircase that ended somewhere in the halls of the research center above. "Be careful if you step through the water. These steps get slippery and it's embarrassing enough to fall on your butt, not to mention painful as you slide down the stairs, and I'm not going to come back down there and drag you up here."
"I don't doubt you for a minute."
"Shh."
"You can complain about wet stairs and me falling down them, I can at least-"
"Shh," she interrupted, this time more forcefully. "We're coming up on the hallway, and we don't want them to hear us. And, since I haven't developed x-ray vision yet, the only way we have of telling if there's anyone on the other side of the door is by listening to them."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Let's just get this done with. The sooner we can get this mess cleaned up the better, for both of us."
\A/
Gathering up the files on his desk, Michael stacked them into a briefcase to take home with him for further examination when he inevitably couldn't sleep. He obviously had nothing better to do.
He was just about to grab his cane and head out when the office door swung open, again. Irritated, he turned to see who the latest violator of his privacy was.
Lexa Cole and Stringfellow Hawke quickly entered then shut the door behind them.
"Good to see you Michael," Lexa greeted. "You're not leaving already are you? I was hoping you could help clear up a couple things for me."