CHAPTER 11

Airwolf came around the hillside for a landing, much to Caitlin's relief. Hawke was about to drive himself crazy not being able to do anything to help until Dom arrived.

They climbed aboard and were soon brought up to speed on what had been going on.

"And we've only been out of the loop for an hour? You'd think at least a day."

"There's still another matter that had to be prevented. The guy we were following for Archangel was supposed to be at a business convention tonight in Sacramento, but his intelligence reports say otherwise."

"Where?"

"Well, I can give you a hint, it's not one of your favorite countries."

"I can think of about five countries that applies to off hand."

"Only five?" Caitlin teased.

"No, actually I think I wasn't to Limbabwe and Libya to the list. Which one of them is it?"

"Southeastern Asia."

"`Nam."

"You got it."

He let out a deep breath. "Do I get to know why?"

"Vietnam is his home country, and evidently Tommy and Nhu aren't the only things he has on his mind. His business isn't quite as on the level as it appeared either, and he has been taking hostages as leverage to get intelligence information and military secrets to take back to his home country, use what he wants, then sell it to the highest bidder. It looks pretty probably he's planning a trip home."

"And we have to stop him before he gets away or anyone else finds out about what's going on."

"Unless you want to spend another couple of tours there, we do."

\A/

"What's going on?" Nhu demanded. "I thought you said you had the ones who did this in custody. Why can't I go home? I just want it to be over, so Tommy and I can go back to living a halfway normal life. None of you seem to understand how hard it this is. My husband, Tommy's father, is gone sometimes for months at a time, and even when he is home he can't even talk about what he had been doing. It's hard on all of us, but we've made it this far. I'd like to get back to at least that the sooner the better, and I'm getting really tired of all the secretism and purposefully keeping me out of everything. I can handle it. Now, either tell me what I want to know or just quit interfering with our lives," she continued, on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry I asked for any favors. I won't ask anymore; I'll do what I can to repay them, but let us go home. Please," she pleaded desperately, "please."

Lydia took pity on the distraught woman, identifying with how difficult it could be, but also knowing the importance of not telling her absolutely everything they knew for their own safety as well as hers. Silently signaling to her boss that she would to what she could to calm her down, he nodded and left the room to give the two of them more privacy and to see about getting an update on Airwolf's position.

The door snicked closed quietly behind him and Lydia took a seat beside the Vietnamese woman and her son.

"Believe it or not, the people here have a far better idea of what you're going through than you might guess. Hawke has a brother who's MIA, doesn't even know for sure whether he's alive or not. He served three tours in Vietnam and has done enough intelligence work to know that, hard as it sometimes on family and relationships, often it is safer the less they know. Archangel has worked with the FIRM for over twenty years, working his way up the chain of command, and he too knows far too well the dangers involved with this line of work. Take a look at the cane and eye patch if you don't believe me. I take chances just coming to work every day and I'm only a junior aid, and I have a fiancé. Some days he'll ask how work went and I can't tell him. Yes, it's difficult. No, it doesn't get much easier, but people make those sacrifices everyday to help keep our country safe and hopefully keep things like this from ever touching most of the public."

\A/

"Inside the building straight ahead is where he's supposed to be," Dom said even as Hawke powered down the helo.

The trio set off towards the costly estate at a steady clip, careful to stay out of the paths of the security guards.

Despite the outward appearance of casual everyday routine, inside there was constant hustling about, preparing to leave, and many quick conversations in Vietnamese.

"Why can't we have enemies that at least speak English?" Caitlin murmured.

Hawke held up a hand, signaling them to be quiet as the two Asian men finished their conversation and each departed their separate ways.

"They're leaving soon, not sure exactly how soon though. I think by plane, and plan to meet up with someone in Nghe An," he translated as best as he could.

"Not bad, Hawke," another said from behind him. "And we were planning on leaving within the hour, just to clear that up."

"Quan Van Dao."

"So you do remember me."

"I won't ever forget."

"Actually, if you remember, back in Vietnam where we'll be going it would be Dao Van Quan, but it's nice to know I'm not easily forgotten; I haven't forgotten how big of a pain you can be either so when I found out I would likely get the chance to deal with you again I had my men prepare something extra special." He now turned to his henchman who was awaiting orders. "Take them away. Oh, but before you go, Hawke, I will give you this - you are, or at least you were, a lot stronger than your brother. You wouldn't believe how easy he was to break, took all the fun out of it."

"Don't you ever talk about my brother like that, and you're right, I don't believe it."