CHAPTER 10

"Does she fly?" Saint John asked his younger brother?

"Not yet. If you'll help me up onto the winglet, I think I can rig it long enough to make it back home."

"I'll do it, you don't need to be standing up there, just tell me what to do."

"I don't know."

"If you don't know how are you expecting to fix it when I get you up there?"

"I just will, I can't explain it."

"Let me take a look at it fist. I'm not totally helicopter inept, you know."

"Never said you were."

Saint John climbed up onto the outside of the stubby wing and removed the covering next to the rotors and stared into the wild tangle of wire before him. With a disaster like this he wondered how in the world String had ever gotten Airwolf this far.

\A/

"Any more news?" Dom question after the agent's visit.

"She lost contact with Saint John, but plans to get back there as soon as possible to offer any assistance she can."

"What kind of assistance?

"Like I said, we don't know yet, but she already told them to stay away from hospitals and like places as that is probably one of the likely places Sanjar would have people waiting for them at."

"What if they need medical help though?"

"That is why she is trying to catch the next flight out, she'll be able to handle it, I know."

"How? How do you know? I doubt they've been wining and dining him there, you should understand that."

"I do. Delbar has a pharmaceutical and medical doctorate as well as a psychological one, and specializes with trauma victims and rehabilitation, along with other things. He'll handle it, Dominic. I understand your concern for them, but they'll be in good hands."

\A/

Saint John stood behind his brother steadying his weak stance and alert for the slightest hint of his brother's collapsing or passing out knowing it was inevitable. Personally, he felt ready to collapse and he hadn't been through near the same events recently.

"You doing ok up there?"

"Almost done," he grunted in reply.

They'd been out here for practically an eternity just trying to get Airwolf off the ground and still without success. Sanjar's men could be showing up any minute, it being a miracle they hadn't shown up yet. They were coming, he had no doubt about that, how they were going to be stopped was yet to be seen.

"Finished," the younger Hawke breathed. "Try it now."

As String climbed down, Saint John climbed into the cockpit and started both engines. Soon the rotors were up to normal speed and slicing through the air easily.

"I've gotta hand it to you, I don't know how you did it, but you did."

"Yeah. The turbos won't work though and neither will most of the weapons though, so we had better stay out of trouble."

"Us? Stay out of trouble? Ha ha, you're funny. I think it must run it our blood or something."

"We've got another problem," String said seriously.

"What?"

"We'll need to schedule a refueling between here and home and the long distance radio is still out."

"No problem, I'll take care of that one."

\A/

Delbar walked up to the door, unlocking it and surprised to find an unfamiliar man comfortably sleeping on her sofa.

Instinctively, she drew up her gun, all the while wondering why the intruder had decided to come sleep of all things. What kind of agent are you? She self scolded. You can't second guess yourself like that. Do what has to be done and ask questions later. But just before she pulled the trigger, she recognized another man sleeping closer to the front door that she'd obviously walked directly past - Saint John Hawke. So this was the brother he was after she mused. Quite a looker in her opinion, not that it really mattered. After this she'd probably never see him again; she'd be in a new home in a new country, with a new identity and background. Who would she be this time? She wondered. She'd been a dancer, a pilot, a lawyer, even a doctor and a waitress. She'd tried to have a family, to finally settle down with someone and have a semi normal life, but she was in the wrong business for that. All it had gotten her was a dead son, divorced husband, and a brother she hardly ever talked to. These poor souls probably had similar stories - a life filled with dead ends, dead bodies, war and pain, guilt and shame, and ending up with nothing to show for it, yet unable to leave the past behind and start over.

Letting out a long breath, she figured that once they were awake they might need a little food and care then they would be off, going back home, wherever that might currently be.