Second Chances Part 1 - A Second Chance

Second Chances Part 1 by Bethhawke

Chapter 7

True to his word, Hawke woke early and nudged Beth awake so they could watch the sunrise together. Before they went inside, he held her close and looked into her eyes, suddenly serious.
“I promise I'll be back to watch the sunset with you.” He gripped the back of her neck and pulled her face close to kiss her hard.
They walked back to the cabin arm in arm. Everyone else was still asleep so they claimed the bathroom first, and after a shower woke Michael and Marella so they could get their clothes from the bedroom. Beth had been right, Michael had given Marella the bed while he slept in a chair close to the bedroom fire.
When they were all up and dressed Hawke gathered them around the table for breakfast and a quick briefing.
“You all know what you need to do. Are there any questions?”
There were no questions so it was time for goodbyes. Beth and Marella stayed in the cabin, they were to track Hunter's position using Michael's pager. Hawke, Caitlin, Michael and Dominic all left in the Jet Ranger to fly to Santini Air where two white helicopters were waiting on the tarmac. Michael and Caitlin made there way towards one. The pilot climbed out and greeted her boss, then left in the second chopper. Hawke and Dominic left for the Lair in the Jeep.
Caitlin had been thrilled when Michael had asked her to fly his helicopter. He usually used his own pilots, Marella mostly, but thought Caitlin would like to be in on this one. He knew she was more than competent; any pilot Hawke trusted had to be good.
“We'll be using the 'Angel One' call sign,” he had informed her.
On the way to the Lair, Dominic was unusually quiet and Hawke noticed.
“You got something to say?” he asked the older pilot.
Dominic looked embarrassed. “I think I owe you an apology kid.”
Hawke raised his eyebrow and waited.
“Caitlin told me what Beth has been through. Why didn't you say something?” Hawke just shrugged, “I shouldn't have said those things the other day,” he raised his hand as Hawke was about to interrupt, “don't get me wrong, I don't approve of some of the things she's done but she obviously cares about you and it's really none of my business.”
Hawke sighed in relief, he hadn't been looking forward to possibly having to choose between the two of them. “Apology accepted,” he turned his head to look his closest friend and continued awkwardly, “You know, sometimes I do want to talk but....well.....it's not what I do best, and sometimes I'm not sure if you're going to respond as a friend or as a father.”
“Oh String, you could always ask you know.”
The obvious sorrow in the older man's voice had Hawke turning to look at him again, “I never thought of that,” and knowing that he needed to lighten the atmosphere before the mission got under way, he added with a grin, “I guess you are older and wiser then I am.”
He knew his words had had the desired effect as Dom chuckled, muttering something that sounded like 'cheeky young tyke'.
They arrived at the lair and after a careful inspection to make sure there was no one about they changed into their flight suits.
Once they were clear of the Lair Hawke called for turbos and they raced towards their destination. Dominic was navigating from the back seat and at exactly 0900 hours he radioed Archangel.
“Have Zebra Squad meet us 5 miles north of the area Marella has located the pager to. I'm transferring coordinates now.”
Archangel replied, “Received. We have two fully armed Zebra Squad choppers on the way as well as a ground attack force.”
“Good work. Have Marella on standby to page Hunter on String's command. Airwolf out.”
Airwolf arrived at the meeting place first and radioed the others.
“Airwolf to Angel One.”
“Angel One here,” Cait's voice replied, “Go ahead Hawke.”
“Landing site is free of bandits, you are clear to land. Airwolf out.”
He sent the same message to Zebras 1 and 2 in the air and Zebra 3 on the ground.
Hawke climbed out of Airwolf and stood leaning on her nose. His pose looked casual but anyone who knew him would see the tell tale signs that said he was far from relaxed. Five minutes later the three helicopters had arrived and they were just waiting for Zebra 3. Archangel was walking over to Hawke as the Zebra 1 leader approached and greeted him with a salute.
“Captain Hawke is in charge of this one,” Archangel informed him
The man turned to Hawke and stood to attention, “Commander Lewis reporting Sir.”
Hawke had to hide a grin at this man calling him sir but was glad that he had been accepted as the leader. “At ease,” he said. They shook hands.
“You have your instructions Commander. If we can take them alive we will, but Airwolf will take the lead and Hunter is mine unless I give the order for the Squad to take over. Understood?”
Lewis glanced at Archangel, puzzled. Usually when they were called in the kill was certain and his men were eager to terminate Hunter for his betrayal to the Firm, the Squad and more importantly for hurting Marella.
“This one's personal,”Archangel replied, “it was Hawke's lady friend who Hunter kidnapped and raped.”
“Understood. If there is nothing more I will brief Zebra 2 and I believe Zebra 3 is just arriving,” he said, glancing over Hawke's shoulder where a white van could be seen in the distance.
“Dismissed Commander,” Hawke looked concerned.
“He's the best Hawke, he will follow your orders to the letter,” Archangel reassured him.
“Yeah, and I bet you thought that about Hunter when he was on the Squad,” Hawke replied darkly, walking back to Airwolf.
As soon as Commander lewis had briefed all his men, Hawke radioed the cabin.
“Time to send that page to Hunter,” he told Marella, then he paused, “Is Beth there?”
“I'm here String,” she tried to keep her voice cheerful but was pretty sure she hadn't fooled him.
“See you at sunset,” he replied, his voice gruff, “Hawke out.”
Marella used Michael's pager to contact Hunter.
“The message will say it's from Archangel,” she informed Beth, then she read out loud what she had written. 'hunter-12 hours before we send zebra squad-save yourself-we can deal'
“Do you think he'll fall for it?” Beth asked her.
“Not a chance, at least not the deal part. All we can hope is that he believes the 12 hour part.”
“What are the chances of that?”
“Pretty slim, but no harm in trying. We're just trying to surprise them and there's a chance that he may send a message back which would confirm that we aren't on a wild goose chase. For all we know he could have ditched the pager somewhere. All we can do now is wait.”
At the landing site everyone was poised and ready to move on Hawke's command. Fifteen minutes after Marella sent the page, Zebra 3 was instructed to begin their journey and exactly fifteen minutes after that Hawke lifted Airwolf into the air. Dominic contacted Marella again to check the location of the pager hadn't changed and she confirmed that it hadn't.
During the briefing the night before, Archangel had taken Hawke to one side to discuss Hunter's involvement. He didn't want to discuss it in front of Beth and Marella. They had come to the conclusion that Hunter was out of his depth; to Michael's knowledge he had little or no information on Airwolf, and if he had known that Hawke was the pilot he would have come after him and not Marella. He had proved to be dangerous, a kidnapper, rapist, traitor and possibly terrorist depending on what they intended to do with Airwolf once they had her. He also had too much inside information on the Firm. The final decision was that he had to be terminated and they didn't want the women to know that they were actually planning to kill the man; knowing afterwards that he had died was one thing but living with the knowledge that they were part of the reason why he had to die was another.
They flew in convoy until Hawke had a visual of their destination. It was close to the place where Marella had been taken, and similar terrain, lots of caves and mines. The whole of the surrounding area had been used for mining in the past and there were enough hiding places to make Hawke nervous. On approach they separated, one chopper covering each point on the compass, giving their ambushers more targets to contend with. Zebra 3 could be seen bouncing along a dirt track towards them.
“Ambush time,” Hawke said sourly, “Dom, radio the others and tell them to keep this channel open.”
When Zebra 3 was in position on the ground at Airwolf's compass point, Hawke circled Airwolf above the area.
“Let's give 'em a demonstration! Guns Dom.”
“You got 'em!”
Hawke fired the guns along a clear patch of grass towards the largest cave he could see. When the dust and dirt started to clear he heard a voice he didn't recognise over the radio.
“Airwolf, you have bandits on the ground at your 6 o'clock.”
“Acknowledged,” Hawke turned Airwolf around, “I have a visual.”
As he spoke a rocket was fired from the ground, heading towards Airwolf.
“Rocket fired,” Don stated unnecessarily.
“Taking evasive action. Zebra 3, the rocket is now heading in your direction.”
They watched in horror as the rocket landed close to the white van, causing it to lift slightly, then tip over onto its side.
“Zebra 3 report,” Archangel's voice shouted over the radio. “Zebra 3 come in!”
“Zebra 3 reporting sir, we're all OK. Fully armed and continuing on foot.”
Archangel sighed in relief, but his relief was short lived as Caitlin turned the chopper sharply to avoid guns fired in their direction.
Hawke's voice sounded over the radio, “Fire back at will, they may try to pick you off one by one, I'll cover your backs.”
With that Airwolf screeched through the air, firing at anything on the ground. He realised that Zebra 3 were vulnerable now with no vehicle cover and hoped that they still had radio contact.
“Zebra 3 withdraw, I repeat, withdraw. I can't tell the good guys from the bad from up here.”
“Zebra 3. Acknowledged, withdrawing to cover of damaged vehicle.”
Hawke was beginning to regret his decision to have Zebra Squad involved. He was used to working alone and not having to worry about anyone else. Dominic seemed to read his mind.
“Don't worry about them String, they can look after themselves... oh, another rocket fired, heading our way.”
Hawke evaded the rocket but it was a close call. He knew he needed to take out the terrorists' weapons or one of the choppers was going to get unlucky.
“We go to plan Alpha on my command. Acknowledge.”
All team leaders acknowledged the command and waited for Hawke's signal.
When he gave the signal the three choppers fired simultaneously. The resulting explosion was enough to temporarily blind and deafen the terrorists, giving the choppers time to retreat to a safe distance out of their view. When smoke and debris cleared the terrorists were nowhere to be seen and Hawke hoped they had been driven into the nearest, and largest, of the caves which he suspected held their arms.
He was in luck. After hovering above the clearing for a couple of minutes, six men emerged from the cave, four with guns and two with hand held rocket launchers. As two rockets were fired simultaneously, Hawke turned Airwolf and headed towards a nearby hill, the rockets close behind.
“Impact in 5 seconds,” Dominic's voice announced over the radio, “4, 3, 2....”
As they disappeared behind the hill there was a massive explosion. And then silence.
Even though the whole team knew what Hawke had planned, the radio was silent while they held their breath waiting for Airwolf to report. Twenty seconds must have passed, which felt more like twenty minutes, before the radio crackled and Hawke's voice was heard. Caitlin let out a whoop, while Michael allowed himself a smile as Hawke confirmed that the plan had succeeded.
“Dom is checking the systems, we took a bit of a buffeting landing that close to the explosions, but I don't think anything major was damaged.”
“Confirmed, we used a lot of our missiles making that explosion but we have enough left,” replied Dom, “Let's go get 'em.” He laughed, breaking the tension.
“They're all yours, Captain,” Commander Lewis said from Zebra 1. “Good luck.”
“Who needs luck with a team like this,” laughed Dominic.
Hawke turned his head and glared at him, “Scan the area Dom, I need to know if Hunter is there.”
He slowly took Airwolf into the air, rising above the hill and turning her nose to point towards the large cave. He smiled as he heard several gasps over the radio; he knew what an awesome sight she made. Dominic was scanning the area and zoomed in to identify the men who were standing by the cave entrance, staring in horror at the helicopter they thought they had just destroyed.
“String, I see Hunter, Fedoseev, Ivanov and a couple more who I recognise from Michael's file.”
“Are they surrendering?”
“No chance, they look real worried and are still carrying weapons.”
“Shame,” Hawke drawled as he aimed the guns and churned up the ground around the six men. His thumb hovered over the missile firing button, waiting to see if they surrendered. One man raised the rocket launcher and Hawke's thumb instantly pressed his firing button and he watched as the men and cave disappeared in a mass of smoke and rubble. He fired two more missiles, aiming at the top of the cave and was rewarded with a massive explosion as he hit the weapons hidden inside.
His thumb was still hovering over the fire button and Dominic felt himself taken back in time to when Hawke blew up Moffett for killing his girlfriend, Gabrielle. That time String had continued to press the button long after the they had run out of ammunition and Dominic gave a sigh of relief as he saw String's hand relax.
“Check for life signs Dom,” Hawke's voice broke through his memories.
“No life signs,” Dominic confirmed, “but we don't know if there are men alive in the caves.”
“Not in that cave,” Michael interrupted enthusiastically, “you obliterated it! Good work Hawke.”
“Zebra 3, check the surrounding area,” Hawke ordered, “Zebras 1 and 2 arrange clean-up, and transport for Zebra 3.”
“Acknowledged,” replied Lewis, “and nice working with you Captain.”
“You too Commander. Hawke out.”