Airwolf And I, Vice Versa

Chapter Thirteen

Kristien was sat down in the air condidtioned room at the FIRMs hidden base in Algeria. She was leaning up against the wall with her laptop on her outstretched legs busy typing into it.
Hawke was still unconscious and laid on the bed. Kristien was listening to the two algerians outside the door to their conversation in French. They had discussed various subjects from watching Dallas and Dynasty to the weather to now their girlfriends although one of them sounded like he really liked men better. Kristien thought they were the worlds most weirdiest misfit agents she had ever come across. There were four cctv cameras that she could see and was sure there were a couple more hidden ones. Food and drinks had been put on the table although she hadn’t eaten for nearly twenty four hours she still could not eat. Kristien had drank some water but really not enough for the heat and felt a little dehydrated to say the least.

Hawke stirred and came to. His first reaction was to look for Kristien. He tried to get up and fell to the floor, dizzy and full of nausea. Kristien pulled herself up and walked over to him slumped on the floor holding his head. She leaned up against the bed and started to guide him towards her.

“Well that wasn’t the best idea you have had now was it.” She carressed his cheek. He rolled on the floor and Kristien guided him back to lean on her. She held his head to her chest. “Don’t get up just yet.”

“Kristie?” Hawke was still very dazed. “Who jumped me? What happened? Where are we? Where’s the lady?” He held his head with the pain that just his voice had generated.

“The blackwolf co pilot. We were downed by the laser. You picked the wrong fight. In Algeria and she’s outside.” Kristien answered all of his questions.

“What?” Hawke could not comprehend what he had just heard above the pounding in his head and the pain.

“SShhh.” Kristien whispered to him. “Rest now and get your bearings.”

Hawke tried to fight to keep conscious but listening to Kristien’s relaxing heart beat allowed him to drift off back to some badly needed healing time.

An hour later a tall and very muscular US Marine walked in with the two agents that had been discussing their love lives and comparing them to the TV. He looked directly at String who was resting in Kristien’s arms. She had put the blood soaked towels to one side and had stitched up his head with the medical kit that had been given to her.

“I am sorry I do not know how to address you Ma’am, forgive me. I am Colonel Peter Murphy, Archangel has sent me to find you.” Peter told her. “Is Hawke alright? That’s a lot of blood……Oh God its not from you is it?” He knelt down to Kristien to get a closer look.

“No just a head wound on String. I am fine.” Kristien told him. “And please just call me Kristien anything else just drives me nuts.”

“Really? Are you sure?” The colonel replied.

“Honestly that’s my name nothing else.” Kristien smiled knowing that probably Carsten had yet again hijacked the transmission from Archangel to the Marines and probably blurted out Kristien’s real royal status of being a Princess, hence the Marines insecurity at how to address her.

“Will he be able to fly the helicopter?” The colonel asked now very concerned about the whole situation.

“Just open the door and put him in the pilots seat. He will fly.” Kristien tried to make light of the situation. “This is one of his disguises you know.”

The Colonel smiled at Kristien and admired how calm she was.

Hawke came to and he was laid back on the bed. Several hours had passed. This time when he sat up he did not feel like he was going to pass out, throw up maybe, but not pass out. He blinked several times to get his eyes to focus. He could not see Kristien anywhere. He slowly got up and went to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. He looked into the mirror and saw that the cut on his head which had bled badly earlier had been stitched with six neat stitches. He washed out all the dried blood from his hair colouring the water bright red. He saw the medical kit at the side with a used syringe. Whatever Kristien had given him it had worked, he did not feel in pain as such, but did not feel like doing cartwheels either.

He walked to the window where the balcony door was open allowing the late cool evening air in. He saw Airwolf down below and Kristien sat with the port door open working away on the laptop with a US Marine stood guard over her with an P-90. He looked over at the balcony and saw some stone steps down. He walked over to them.

Kristien looked up from the laptop and saw Hawke walking over towards her.

“Are you alright?” He asked her touching her shoulder.

“Me? I am fine.” She replied. “This is one of Archangel’s places. We were lucky it was them who found us first.” Kristien did not want to even think about the ‘what if’s’. “This is Colonel Peter Murphy.”

Hawke outstretched his hand to shake the Colonels. “Pleased to meet you and thank’s for looking after Kristien.”

“Glad to see you up Hawke.” The colonel shook Hawke’s hand. “And it certainly is an honour.”

Hawke looked back at Airwolf. The tail rotor was back in place. “How’s the lady doing?”

“Well the tail rotor is repaired, but she really needs a new one. That laser is pretty powerful you know so you can’t keep her still for one nano-second for them to do another shot like that.” Kristien explained. “We will be downed in an instant with another direct hit like that, we have no passive deflectors and they are fresh out at the local hypermarket.” Kristien had already prepared Airwolf for a rematch and had got herself busy with it once Hawke was out of danger from his injuries.

“What else do you think they have under their hoods then?” He asked remembering the battle and how he was caught by the laser and quicker their Airwolf seemed to be against Hawke’s. That was one hell of a pilot in there if the Airwolves were matched.

“Well, the blackwolf appears to be more manoeuvrable.” Kristien explained. “I would think this is down to materials possibly kelvar or some other alloy, rather than pilot. Making their blackwolf lighter by a couple of tons. That would give them a serious advantage, around 75% above yours. Speeds too, taking off a couple of tons could in theory get it to Mach 3 if they could compensate for the weight trade to the designs of the lifting body.” Kristien continued. “Hockley-Matthews also let it slip that the black colouring is something to do with a by product of a polymer from the alloys that they use.”

Hawke smiled at Kristien with her perfect explanation of how the blackwolf had beaten them rather than it was a better pilot at the controls. “It’s times like these that I can really appreciate how good you really are.” Hawke complimented her. “Hang on?” Something just dawned on Hawke. “The gun shot? The co pilot?” Hawke looked Kristien up and down, she did not appear to have any injuries.

“The co pilot met a firing squad after decking you.” Kristien told him not looking up from the laptop. Hawke looked at Kristien knowing that she had shot the co pilot dead for attacking him. So that’s where her rage went. Hawke made a mental note to himself, never to piss Kristien off when she was holding a gun, she was deadly.

“So you have Hockley-Matthews here in custody then?” Hawke asked as he started to remember things. “Where’s the Blackwolf?”

“Had to let him take Blackwolf to take out a TU-36 dodger that was in the neighbourhood, as I didn’t want to be a guinea pig testing my P-90 against a gunship.” Kristien replied. “Call me old fashioned but I really could have written the test answers before the experiment had started on that one.”

“Do you know who this Hockley-Matthews is?” Hawke asked, hoping Kristien had searched all her own brain synapses and found something on top of what she was doing with the laptop as well as being a medical doctor to him as well. “And what did you talk about?”

“He has doctorate of some sorts maybe engineering, possibly metallurgy . We just talked really about trading his for yours that’s all.” Kristien replied remembering about the alloys that he could have developed. “The only Hockley-Matthews I know are down in Oxford, I think his father was a Dean there.” Kristien continued. “I remember a Doctor Hockley-Matthews developing some alloys for the Royal Air Force but I think the project was cancelled due to some weaknesses.”

“Why would he want ours?” Hawke asked rhetorically and looked down at what Kristien was doing. “So what are you doing here then?” He said pointing at the laptop.

Kristien looked at him. “Just changing EDCC so she is on a modulating frequency so I don’t have to do it manually then I won’t get those unusual readings and I will know exactly where blackwolf is. Well that’s my theory, I haven’t got any computers to run simulations.” Kristien desperately wanted a very powerful computer to see if her theories were right. “I have a couple of other things up my sleeve too if need be. We have already reloaded weapons and fuel. So we will be ready in a couple of hours.” She confirmed. “Question is are you?”

Hawke’s head had died down to a dull pounding, and his right side with the two broken ribs were not too bad as long as he did not breathe too deeply, perhaps what ever Kristien had given him was starting to wear off. Whether or not he could stand up to the G forces in Airwolf was another matter. He walked around Airwolf and sat down in the pilot’s seat looking over Kristien’s shoulder at the laptop. The screen was black with hundreds of lines of codes in white.

“I thought I was fine until I saw that!” He exclaimed. “How the hell do you understand that?” He pointed at the laptop.

Airwolf’s scrambler made electronic noises and Kristien typed in the code. Archangel appeared.

“Glad to see you up and about Hawke.” Archangel told him. “We traced the name you gave Kristien to a Dean of one of the Oxford universities.” Archangel paused.

“And?” Hawke said already knowing that information from his own brilliant source of information.

Archangel paused again really not wanting to give the information over.

“It’s Moffet’s Son.” Archangel said and waited for the backlash.

“How the hell?” Hawke could not believe what he had just heard. Hawke looked over at Kristien who did not look surprised at all.

“It seems the Dean’s wife may have had a brief affair with Moffet a young student before the second world war back then and then ended it, but was already pregnant with Moffet’s child. Certainly the Dean of the University did not know it wasn’t his child as they brought him up as their own.” Archangel explained. “The blood sample you uploaded confirmed all of this.”

Hawke looked at Kristien. “Blood sample? You said he just talked. What the hell did you when I was unconscious? A medical?”

Kristien ignored Hawke. “Michael, can you contact the RAF as Dr Hockley-Matthews did a lot of work on Alloy’s, I would think they are highly confidential as a by product of the alloy’s was a polymer and my guess is that the Blackwolf is totally impenetrable.”

“Nothing is impenetrable.” Hawke commented.

“That black shiny stuff on their Airwolf is neither paint nor a good wax job.” Kristien replied her thoughts deep within her own memory banks reading through the thousands of thesis that she had read over the years trying to recall the information she was searching for. “I am sure that the RAF was working on some kind of impenetrable armour.”

“Well, we are going down to Oxford today to speak to Mrs Hockley-Matthews.” Archangel said.

“Also get those RAF files and see if there are any files at Oxford, even the early formulas will be fine.” Kristien reminded him.

“Will do.” Archangel replied. “How are the Marines looking after you?”

“Very well thank you.” Kristien replied looking Colonel Murphy up again with his rippling muscles. “Much better than the secret service any day.” Kristien replied knowing that Carsten was probably just out of camera shot. “It must be the uniform or the muscles.” Kristien let out a long breath. Colonel Murphy smiled at the generous compliment given and if he wasn’t married he certainly would have been very happy to show Kristien the extent of his muscles in the privacy of his quarters.

“You two keep safe okay?” Archangel smiled as he heard Carsten behind him mutter something inaudible and signed off.

“Kristie.” String said looking at the black screen where Archangel had just been.

“Yes?” Kristien replied softly expecting Hawke now to send her back or to stay with the US Marine Colonel that stood next to her, barely keeping his rippling muscles in his uniform. Carsten never looked that good on protection detail.

“I want a laser!” He looked at her.

“You never had a ray gun when you were a kid?” Kristien asked.

“Saint John and I had bows and arrows.” Hawke replied remembering the westerns he and Saint John used to watch. “And a cowboy gun.” He proudly remembered those days running around the mountains around the cabin with Saint John, not having a care in the world. The games of the Lone Ranger and Tonto were played out around Eagle Lake sometimes days at a time.

“Yes you seemed to have missed the whole generation of Star Wars and light sabres.” Kristien replied quite forgetting that Hawke was nearly 13 years her senior and that she was only 13 when Star Wars came out albeit she was at MIT finishing her 4th PhD. “I can design you a laser for Airwolf if you want one. Not sure where we would put it though although….”Her brain clicked into gear. “Could mount 3 lasers each from the wing sponsons and ADF pod triangulating a laser to be 15 times more powerful than anything that is already out there.” She replied. “Leave it with me I will work on it. I can also redesign parts of her with Kevlar if you like to reduce her weight.”

Hawke looked at her admiring her ability to just design things in her head.