Chapter 2.
Washington DC

A young Naval Lieutenant had met Michael and Marella at the entrance and escorted them to a bank of elevators on the far side of the lobby. They headed down, lower than the B that marked the Basement level. As the doors opened a second Naval Lieutenant stepped forward to escort them down a long corridor and through a series of doors that opened and closed behind them, till they reached a steel door.

The sailor opened the door and they proceeded into the room, the steel door closing firmly behind them. The room was not overly large, but sported a large conference table in the centre with seating around it. Most of the seats were occupied by severall men wearing Navy Whites and 2 men in Airforce uniforms. Marella glanced around the room taking note of the men's ranks. Of the Air Force officers, one bore the rank of Major General and the other Lieutenant Colonel. The Naval personal were made up of 2 petty officers, 1 senior chief, 4 Lieutenant's, 1 commander, 1 captain, and 3 full-grade admirals. Most of which were either active duty Seals or former Seals.

Whatever this meeting was about, Marella new it was serious. They had been summouned here, that in itself was unusual. The FIRM rarely worked with the military and only did so when they had need of their services. To the best of Marella's knowledge they had never before been summoned to work with the Military.

One of the full-grade Admirals looked up as they entered the room."Mr Coldsmith-Briggs, thank you for joining us. I was under the impression that Mr Hawke and his team would be joining us?" Admiral Robinson said as both Marella and himself took a seat.

"Hawke will be here shortly." Michael said. "They had a few arrangements to take care of first. Unfortunately Hawke prefers to do things on his own scedule, as he is not in the employ of the Firm directly, I'm afraid ordering him to be in a set place on a set time is shall we say unwise."

The Admiral chuckled, "You mean you don't like to piss him off."

"Exactly." Michael pondered his next words carefully, "Hawke and his people are exceptional at what they do, I have found that giving him a certain leeway, usually gets the best results. If he requires backup or assistance he will ask for it."

"His being late?" he asked

"He was on his way across the border when we called." Marella informed.

"He's on Vacation?" asked the Admiral at the side of Robinson. His tone was gruff, and his was face set in an expression of disgust.

"No sir." replied Marella.

Michael spoke up. " He was doing a last minute border hop, when we called. As I said Gentlemen, Hawke and his people are not in the employ of the Firm. We do quite often have to plan missions around there schedules."

"Your telling us he has a job, besides working for you!" the admiral growled again.

"Yes." Michael pushed his glassses back up his nose. "As I said Hawke and his team do not work for the Firm. Hawke has the right to refuse any mission I ask him to undertake. Although I have found that going straight to the end section of National security negates the refusal. Dominic Santini runs a very successful Air charter service out of Van Nuys, California. They provide border hops, charter services, flight lessons and pretty much have the monoploy on stunt pilot work with the movie studios. It has also been an extremly good cover for some missions. If they have a contract with one of the studios, then we do have to work round it."

"Do I have to be conserned about them fufilling any contracts within the next couple of weeks." Robinson asked. He had a mission, one which could not be put of for long.

"No. Dominic keeps us up to date with there schedules. Same if there going out of the country, they always clear there foreign travel plans with us." Michael said, then added when Robinson looked at him. "Hawke is not a very popular man in certain countries. He has made quite a few enemies."

"Santini Air doesn't have any studio work lined up for the rest of the month, other than several charter flights, and some flight lessons, there schedules are clear." Marella added. Anything else that she would of added was cut of as the door opened, and Hawke, Dominic and Caitlin entered.

Caitlin was the first to enter, and was stunned when she saw the number of people in the room. She glanced around, noticing Michael and Marella were already in the room and made her way to them. Michael stood pulling out a chair for her, tipping his head in acknowledgement of her smile. String seated himself by her side as Dom took the chair on Strings other side.

"I take it the lady is out of sight." Michael asked.

"No, we thought we'd park it on the front lawn of the white house, " Dom said sarcasticlly.

"She's in a safe place Michael." String said, saying no more.

The sour faced Admiral glanced at the new comers in disgust. All three of them were dressed in Jeans and shirts, the younger two both had leather flights jackets while the older man wore a blue satin jacket and ball cap. They didn't look like anything special and he was wondering what the older man was really needed for. He couldn't understand why Jake Robinson had invited them here.

"Mr Hawke, I appreciate you and your team being able to join us today." Robinson said.

String merely nodded his head, but didn't reply. He was a bit pissed with Michael over this one. The spy hadn't given him any information, said he han't had any given to him in the first place. If he was to believe what Micheal had said, then the request had come directly from the President and the Navy. The Government may have backed off after the whole missile incident a year earlier but Hawke had still been surprised at the request.

The Admiral that had addressed him, spoke up again introducing the Naval personel and the two Airforce officers that were present in the room. Michael then took over the introductions for Marella, himself and the Air Wolf crew.

An aid was passing through the room handing out briefing packs to each person seated around the table. String glanced to his side where Cait was quickly thumbing through the document. He knew she was checking for maps and coordinates, to see if they had a location. He heard her gasp, and turned to look at her as she softly spoke his name.

"String." she turned to show him the photo that had caught her attention.

He was completely lost for words, his breath hissed out, but still he didn't speak. Dom had noticed the silence as had every other person in the room. Michael was quickly thumbing through the document to see what had caused the reaction from Hawke, as Dominic looked over at the photo that had caught Strings attention, gasping himself as he saw the man in the picture.

"Sinjin" was all Dom could get out.

"You know who this is?" Robinson asked. They'd checked through records, but hadn't been able to come up with a name.

String swallowed, looking up from the photo. "Yeah, my brother." was all he said.

"We have gone through every record dating back the last 10 years and there is no mention of anyone matching his description that's gone missing in Cambodia." Robinson said.

"That's cause you were looking in the wrong place. He's been MIA for the past 14 years. He went down during a mission in kato province in 1972. " String told him.

"Vietnam vet?" Robinson asked.

String just nodded his head. "Michael did you know about this?" He said looking at the man.

"No, I was as in the dark about this as you were. Had I known, I would of notified you before we had arrived in Washington."

"Mr Hawke, perhaps you would fill us in on a few details about him. We have information on the other men, but not your brother."

"Sure. Saint John Hawke, Major, 1st air Cav. He was on his first tour. During a mission into Kato province we were met with heavy fire, Sinjin's chopper took a hit to the tail rota, and he had to set her down. Both choppers were just over half full with men, I'd gone back as soon as I'd seen the chopper going down. They were pinned down, but a number of men had managed to get to the ropes. Sinjin wasn't one of them, he ordered me to leave the area. By the time I'd got back to base refuelled and returned, there was no sign of any of the men we'd left behind. Best guess with all the intel we had, was they had been taken by the VC." String paused, sucking in a deep breath as he steadied himself. He hated talking about loosing his brother, the words making him relive the guilt at not being able to save Sinjin.

One of the Admirals spoke up questioning. "Why were you both in the same unit, that's against regulations."

"We had a special wavier." String told him with a slight shrug not going into the details of why. He felt Cait place her hand on his thigh and squeeze gently, reassuring him with her presence. taking another breath he moved on with his story." I signed up for a further 2 tours, searching for any clue on his whereabouts. Every scrap of information that came in, If any prisoners were brought in, I requested to be present during the interrogation. I never managed to turn up anything of use though."

Michael spoke up at last filling in the current information regarding the search." The firm have been assisting Hawke with his search for the past 3 years. Unfortunately upto this point we haven't been able to turn up anything of use either. We have had a few claims of information about Saint John, all of which have been plots to get there hands on Airwolf, or in one case to smuggle Cocaine into the US in a casket supposedly containing Saint John's remains."

"You said Cambodia? What's the mission?" String asked.

...

The Seal team stood waiting on the tarmac at Andrews Air base, waiting for Hawke and his people to fly in. The large C17 stood behind them, Air Force personel milling round the mamoth plane. A load master was supervising the safe loading of the aircraft, while it's fight crew walked round the bird, doing a pre fight check.

Admiral Robinson had filled them in on the mission, it was a fairly straightforward rescue mission. The plan was for Hawke and his team to do a recon flight first, scanning for anything satellite imagery may have missed. Then they would provide air support while the SEALS went in and liberated the camp. Once the SEALS and the prisoners were clear of the camp, Hawke was tasked with blowing it up. What was puzzling the SEALS was how in gods name was he supposed to do all that with just a helicopter, sure they knew it was most likely a gunship so air support and destroying the camp they could get behind. What was puzzling them most was how they'd do scan's without AWAC tecnowledgy.

They all watched as a white stretch limo drove towards the plane, pulling to a stop just under the planes large wing. The 2 people from the FIRM stepped out and walked towards the personel gathered at the side of the plane.

Admiral Robinson glanced at the white suit spy as he spoke. "I trust Hawke is on his way?"

"Yes, I've just spoke to him, he should be here momentarily." replied Michael, just as a growl was heard over head. "Ahh... he's hear now."

Everyone looked up as a large black helicopter came into view. It circled the airfield before setting down on the tarmac at the back of the C-17. They watched as it's pilot powered down the craft, before the doors opened on either side and the 4 people disembarked. A young Amercasian boy and the three person team they had met earlier. The three adults were all dressed in light grey flight suits and black boots, a belt at there waists held a small firearm. There were no name patches on there uniforms, just a shoulder patch with a wolfs head surrounded by a sheep's fleece.

They watched as the older man opened a storage locker and began extracting tools, the woman climbed onto the wing of the craft and held her hand as some tools were passed up to her. They watched as she began working on the Rotors. Hawke placed his hand on the back of the boys shoulder and steered him in the direction of the plane and the group of Firm and Naval personal.

Michael noticed the Admirals curiosity with Le. "The boy is Hawke's nephew, Le." Michael shared.

"Does Hawke often bring his nephew along on missions?" He asked with some curiosity.

"No. The boy's Aunt was killed a few months ago, Hawke now has legal custody of him." Michael informed him.

"Problems?" asked the Admiral as Hawke reached the group.

"No, we just have to imobilise a few system for transport. The rotors need to be fixed to prevent movement during the flight. Cait and Dom will have it done in about 10 minuets, then we can get her loaded." String turned towards Michael. "You sure your ok whatching Le?"

"Yes. Marella will be dropping and collecting him from school, so you needn't worry."

"Just checking. Make sure he does his home work, before he does anything else." String added. "And thanks for whatching him."

"Your welcome." Michael said. He was humbled that Hawke felt he could trust the boy in his care.

String turned to the boy smiling at him as he ruffled his hair. "You behave yourself for Michael. Ok"

"I will." He said, bitting his lip and looking uncertainly at String. "Uncle String, what will happen if he's not really my dad." His voice was quiet, but String heard the fear behind the words.

"That won't matter in the slightest Le. If it turns out that the SinJin isn't your real dad, then what I said stands, I'll be your Dad. Dom, Cait and myself kinda like having you around, you've become one of the family." String told the worried boy with smile.

"But we wouldn't be related." Le said, still in a quiet voice.

He pulled Le towards him, briefly hugging him as he once again ruffled the boys hair. "Hey Dom wasn't related to me and Sinjin when our parents died, but that didn't stop him raising us both as his own. Cait isn't related to us either, but we still consider her as family. We will deal with the what if's when we have all the facts, not before." He said gently.

Le returned the hug, moving over towards Cait who had finished her work with Airwolf and had joined them by the limo. He gave her a quick hug, and moved to watch Dom supervising the loading of the Lady.

"We all set," Hawke asked her, taking his flight jacket from her out stretched hand.

"Yeah, Dom's supervising the Load Master. Said he wanted to make sure the Lady was settled down real good for the flight. We've imobilised her systems and her rotors are fixed for transport. Just seems Kinda strange travelling this way, ya know." She said as she slipped her arms into her own flight jacket.

String just grinned at her, Cait loved flying as much as he did, and he knew she had a real thing for the speed they got from Airwolf. This was going to be a completely differnt type of flying for them, they were being flown across the globe in the back of a Air force C-17 transport carrier with the SEAL team.

"Le ok?" she asked watching the boy.

"Yeah." he said, then when she raised her eyebrow, he added. "He's doing some some second guessing on the what if's."

"Well it won't matter one way or the other to Dom and me either. " She stated. "Looks like Dom's finished with the Lady."

He turned around to see that Dom had completed getting the Lady loaded and settled. At some point he'd donned his blue Santini Air jacket, and red baseball cap. He was affectionately patting the side of the craft, as he talked to her. String noticed a few of the SEALS were watching Dom's interaction with Airwolf.

...