Chapter 9

The next morning, Archangel came to Santini Air to meet with Dom who was beside himself with worry over his friends.

"It's about time you got here," he said. "What took you so long?"

"Easy Santini," replied Michael. "Coming up with two million dollars isn't something that can be done that quickly."

"I still don't know why you think handing over the money is going to work," said Dom. "What makes you think they won't just take the money and never tell us where String and Cait are?"

Michael sat down in the chair behind the office desk. "My operative believes strongly that they will give up their location," he replied. "These people deal in information trading only. They don't want blood on their hands."

"What are you talking about?" ask Dom. "String was nearly blown to bits by these people and Caitlin was shot. How can that not be considered getting blood on their hands?"

"Apparently a few of their men had gone rogue," replied Michael. "My operative said they were forced to leave the country. Whoever they are working with apparently pays bonuses for non-violence."

Dom gave Michael a puzzled look. "That's a first," he said. "Who is this guy?"

Michael sighed. "I wish we knew," he replied. "That's why I'm limiting the information I give you on this one. We've been working on this for two years now and we are still no closer to finding the main source of the operation."

"Whoever they are," replied Dom. "I sure hope they call soon. I don't like the idea of Cait and String out there somewhere with no food or water."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA

As the sun began to shine through the window of the room that Caitlin and Hawke were being held, the temperature slowly began to rise.

Hawke felt stiff from sleeping in a sitting position with his arm around Caitlin. He shifted his position slightly and tried to shake the cobwebs from his head. Still wearing his glasses, his surroundings suddenly looked odd. He removed them and slowly the room came into view.

"I can see!" he yelled. "Caitlin, I can see."

It was only then that Hawke realized that Caitlin was shivering although the room temperature was becoming quite warm.

"Caitlin?" he said. "Caitlin, can you hear me?"

"Hawke," she whispered. "I'm so cold."

Concerned, Hawke lifted the sleeve of her shirt to look at her gunshot wound. "Damn, it's infected," he said.

String felt Caitlin's forehead and found that she had a fever that was causing the chills she was suffering. He also knew that she had to be dehydrated. "It's my fault," he said to himself. "If I hadn't made her leave so quickly she would have at least had something to eat and drink at breakfast. It's been too long since she's had any fluids."

Hawke got up from the cot and helped Caitlin lay fully down on the bed.

Caitlin continued to shiver and String realized she was becoming delirious. She began saying things that didn't make any sense. He tried to calm her. He sat on the side of the bed and gently pushed the hair from her face that was stuck there due to the sweat. He knew her temperature had to be pretty high. "Here I am," he thought. "I have my eyesight back and I still can't help her. Dom where are you?"

Hawke got up and explored the room. He hoped that maybe Caitlin missed something and that there was some way they could get out of there. "Where're we going to go if we do get out?" he thought. "If this is the middle of the desert, we have nowhere to go."

"Hawke," Caitlin called out to him. "What's wrong with me?"

"Shhh, take it easy," he replied. "Your arm has become badly infected. It's causing you to have a high fever. Just rest now."

Caitlin closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep. A few moments later, Hawke heard the sound that took his breath away. "Airwolf!" he yelled. "Cait, Dom's hear baby, it's going to be okay."

Dom approached the old abandoned compound and did a thermal scan on the buildings. He located Hawke and Caitlin and then called out to his friends.

"String, Caitlin," he said. "Stay on the east side of the room. I'm going to blow a hole on the west side."

Hawke picked Caitlin up from the cot and moved her to the other side of the room. He turned his back to the opposite side and covered Caitlin with his body for protection. Dom checked the scan to make sure they had moved and proceeded to blow a hole for them to escape. Once the wall was gone, String picked up Caitlin and carried her outside. Dom landed Airwolf several feet away and watched as Hawke ran out of the building. He jumped out to greet him.

"String, you can see?" he asked "What happened to Caitlin?"

Hawke answered him as the two put Caitlin inside of Airwolf. "Yes," he replied. "Her gunshot wound has become badly infected. How in the hell did you find us?"

"You can thank Michael for that," replied Dom. "He paid two million dollars to these people to get your location."

Hawke was shocked. "I can't believe they actually told you where we were. I guess there's no way to trace anything back to them. We were left out here alone," he said.

"I'm just thankful we found you," Dom said as he and Hawke climbed into Airwolf.

Dom handed Hawke a canister of water. He helped Caitlin drink a little and then took a long gulp himself. "We need to get her to a hospital quick," he said. "She's pretty bad off."

"Turbos?" asked Dom.

"Turbos," replied Hawke.