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The computer beeped. "Thank god." Bonnie pulled away from Michael's embrace, and despite the situation, Michael smiled. It was a good thing any romantic inclination he'd had toward her had faded to friendship years before, because otherwise, he would probably have been really jealous of KITT. "The homing beacon is back on, but none of his other systems appear to be active." Relief warred with worry in Bonnie's tone.
"He's moving?"
"Not under his own power, but yes." Bonnie pulled out her cell phone, and after a few moments it was echoing the soft beeping from her computer. "Come on, we can track him on the move."
"Bonnie, neither one of us has had any sleep to speak of in days. This is not the time to go after him."
"Then when is the time?" Bonnie snapped. "We don't know what just happened, and we don't know who has him. I'm not waiting for things to get worse." Her shoulders slumped. "They're bad enough already."
"I'm just saying..." Michael sighed. "One of us should sleep while the other drives."
***
KITT waited just inside the massive double entry doors to the SSC while the Trans Am was unhooked, then returned to his default form and moved out of the way. The other car's dimensions were all wrong for the gimbal, but they rolled it into place anyway; Lisa and Katie were modifying the gimbal to hold the smaller car in place. Zoe and Michael were occupied with the physical aspects of the car, while Sarah and Billy monitored the computers.
KITT monitored their captive, as well. The Knight Two Thousand showed no signs of coming back online, and he analyzed the data he had on the other car, running lightning-fast simulations.
The continued lack of response was troubling, given what he knew.
Later, with the Trans Am fully restrained, and connected to the computers via an array of cables, the humans took a break.
KITT rolled closer to the gimbal, and continued monitoring.
***
"KITT's stopped," Bonnie muttered groggily from the passenger seat.
"I thought you were sleeping."
"I was."
"And tracking KITT at the same time."
She shot him a dirty look, and turned her attention to her phone. "That's strange."
"What is?"
"He's stopped in the middle of nowhere."
"The middle of nowhere isn't always the middle of nowhere, if you get what I mean."
"I know. That's what worries me."
They were approaching one of the little towns that dotted the desert, scattered along the highways connecting California to the rest of the southwestern states. "You want coffee?"
She nodded, still intent on whatever she was doing.
Michael spotted a Starbucks sign and took the corresponding off ramp. The place was surprisingly crowded, given that there were only a dozen other businesses in this town, if that, and he half expected Bonnie to take off with the car before he got back outside. Instead, she was sitting quietly, and the look she gave him when he got in made him feel a little sick.
"What's wrong?" he asked, fully expecting her to report that KITT had vanished again.
"The middle of nowhere is somewhere, all right. An abandoned research lab."
"Okay. At least it's not a military base, right?"
"It's owned by Knight Research and Development."
Michael stared at her while the pieces clicked into place. Then he laughed.
"What?"
"Bonnie," he said, unable to stop grinning, "I think I know what was chasing KITT last night."
"What?" she asked, more insistently.
"KITT."
She scowled at him. "Michael, have you lost..."
"The Knight Industries Three Thousand."
The scowl turned to something colder, harder. "Three Thousand. They built another car?"
Michael's good humor fled. "Yeah."
"And you didn't think it was important to tell me about it?"
"In case you haven't noticed, we've been a little preoccupied lately!" And he hadn't thought of it. Hadn't wanted to think about it, honestly, since seeing the look in his son's eyes.
"Who was behind it?"
"A lot of good people were involved."
"Michael!"
"It was built by Knight Research and Development," Michael said, "but with oversight by the FBI and NSA." She opened her mouth to say something, and he continued, "But I don't think they're the ones behind what's been happening with KITT."
"That doesn't matter if they're the ones who have him now!"
"The project was shut down months ago." He tried not to consider the timing too carefully; he didn't want to know if KITT's reappearance coincided with the shutdown. "Whoever took him to that lab probably doesn't have government backing."
"I hope to hell you're right." Bonnie dropped her gaze, playing with the phone in her hands.
"Does it really make a difference?" Michael started the car. "I mean, we're going after KITT no matter what, right?"
Bonnie shot him a defiant look. "Just try to stop me. Especially now."
***
"Man, now is one of those times I really wish we had KITT," Michael said, studying the fence surrounding the Knight Research building.
"If we had KITT, we wouldn't need to be here," Bonnie said dryly. She looked better after having slept for most of the drive, but still tired, the kind of tired Michael felt bone-deep in himself.
They had to get KITT back.
"Good point."
"It looks like it really is abandoned."
"It does. Only there aren't enough locks." Michael pointed to the main gate. "If they really wanted to keep people out, they'd have a padlock and chain on that, rather than relying on the opener's locking mechanism." He grinned at her. "I can't imagine it'd be too hard to override that."
"And what do we do when we trip the inevitable alarm?"
"We hope the place is as abandoned as it looks."
Bonnie shook her head. "Is this how you always operated? No wonder KITT always came back from missions in such awful shape."
"Now hold on a minute, KITT was the indestructible one. I was the one who kept jacking up the Foundation's insurance rates."
"Okay, okay." Bonnie actually looked at him with a faint gleam of humor. "Where do we start?"
Michael could think of a dozen places to start - scanning the building's occupants, analyzing the alarms, checking for hidden weapons and cameras all at the top of the list - if he had KITT. Instead, he reached into the back seat for his toolbox. "I'll be right back."
***
"What if we power it up manually?" Billy asked, still munching on a muffin.
Zoe raised her eyebrows at him. "Without seeing what kind of damage the EMP caused?"
"We aren't doing anything until we figure out why the system hasn't rebooted on its own," Sarah called from inside the Trans Am.
Mike settled on KITT's hood, watching the others argue. "What do you think?"
"I think the Knight Two Thousand should have resumed operation three point five eight hours ago. My scans indicate no damage which would have prevented him from doing so."
"You did say it was old when we were chasing it. Maybe we just broke it."
"If we had 'broken' him, I would be detecting damage. I am not."
"Okay, okay. Didn't mean to insult your dad."
"Michael, as I have repeatedly explained..."
"Mike, get back over here," Sarah's voice interrupted, "we need an extra pair of hands."
With a rolling shrug, and a strictly under the breath "saved by the bell," Mike returned to the group. Within seconds, he was as deeply embroiled in what was being done as the three who actually understood their tasks.
They were all so intent on the car sitting dormant that none of them noticed the blinking light on the base's security display. KITT left them to what they were doing, accessing the relevant cameras.
Two humans were attempting to enter the base. It did not appear to be a planned assault; they were unarmed, dressed in civilian clothing, and working with no more than common mechanic's tools. KITT zoomed in on them and ran his image analyzer to identify them.
A moment later, the gate slid open, and the blinking light on the security panel went dark.
***
He came online with a rush, engine revving before his sensors came back online, struggling to regain the speed he had, somehow, lost. It was part of his primary program, the imperative that he not be caught, not give up any of the General's secrets.
He had no traction. His tires spun, uselessly.
Turbo boost. If he could just...
There was no response. A hasty diagnostic revealed it had been disabled, but when? There were systems which had never been deemed important enough for repair, but turbo boost was not one of them; the General would never send him out with such a vital function offline.
He had lost time as well as speed, he realized, been shut down without ever knowing what hit him. As systems came back online, he realized he had no traction because he was suspended, helpless, clamps holding his frame tight.
His engine revved again, despite the futility. He could not be caught. He could not give up any of the General's secrets. That programming was beyond his conscious control; indeed, the need to flee nearly overwhelmed any conscious thought.
With an effort, he focused past his useless struggles and scanned the area. A large indoor area, filled with electronics, but with only a handful of humans. Cables snaking into his systems...
They were passively collecting data from him, and he hadn't even noticed.
He shut that down, locked all of his systems tight against intrusion. If they wanted information, they would have to fight him for it.
He wondered which of their systems controlled the clamps holding him in place. His microwave jammer was still online; he could use that to disrupt their computers, and hopefully, free himself.
One of them was trying to hack past the defenses he had put in place. They were good, and he couldn't fight back; damage reports began streaming in as he tried. What had they done to him?
His tires howled as they spun against air, the need to escape gaining a new imperative. He let the flight subroutine have its way, shut down most of his sensors, and focused on keeping the intruders out.
He could not give up any of the General's secrets. He could not give up any of the General's secrets. He could not give up any of the General's secrets.
***
"He's fighting back hard," Billy said.
Mike rolled his eyes a little at Captain Obvious, since the Trans Am was all but vibrating its way free of the gimbal. "You guys can override it though, right? I mean, this car's almost thirty years old."
"The defense protocols are amazing." Sarah sounded impressed.
"The whole car's amazing." Zoe had gone beyond impressed to awed, or possibly turned on. "He's got tricks even KITT doesn't know."
"So are you saying we chased it down for nothing?" Well, not for nothing, he guessed, since at least it wasn't out on the streets killing people, but he hadn't gone after it just so they could shut it down and store it in the basement.
"Oh, we'll get through, don't worry. It just might take a little longer than we..."
A recorded voice interrupted Sarah. "Tunnel doors opening."
"What the hell?" Billy shifted his attention from the car to the security system. "Damn it! We have two intruders in the tunnel."
"How could they have gotten in without setting off the alarms?" Sarah abandoned her workstation to join Billy at his.
"Someone shut them off."
"Guys," Zoe broke in, "did anyone notice the car has an active homing device?"
"You have got to be kidding me."
"So we've been broadcasting our location for hours now?" Billy's voice held an edge of hysteria.
Mike looked at KITT, who was notably not putting in his two cents worth, then left the buzz of activity to join the car. "KITT," he chided, "do you know anything about this?"
"The perimeter alarms activated while the rest of you were otherwise occupied," the car replied calmly. "I determined there was no threat and deactivated them."
"Tunnel doors opening," the recorded alert repeated, and this time it was accompanied by the unmistakeable sound of hte massive doors beginning to slide apart.
"Can't we override whatever they've done?" Sarah demanded from behind him.
"Too much of the system is occupied with the Knight Two Thousand!"
"Our guests did nothing to gain entry," KITT said. "I transmitted the code to permit them to enter the tunnel doors."
Mike slammed a fist on KITT's hood. "Damn it, KITT, you can't just go letting random people into the base!"
"I assure you, Michael, this was not random, and there is no reason to believe our guests are a threat. In fact, I believe they may prove to be quite helpful."
"KITT, have you forgotten just how much 'help' we've already gotten? We don't need strangers..."
"One of them," KITT interrupted, "is not a stranger."
"KITT, there's only one person who could walk through that door and not piss me off, and he's dead. So whoever you're letting in here..."
Mike broke off as the harsher light from the tunnel cut through the cool light of the control room. Two figures stood silhouetted against the light for a moment, then continued far enough into the room that he could see their faces.
The woman, he didn't know. As for the man...
"Well, fuck."
***
Michael winced as Mike's voice carried clearly across the space between them. Not that he had really hoped for anything else; not that he had the right to hope for anything else. His mistakes might have been made with the best of intentions, but they hadn't hurt Mike any the less for it, and one awkward conversation couldn't make up for that.
He wondered if a lifetime would be enough to make up for it.
He tried to put it out of his mind. His relationship - or lack of one - with Mike was what it was, and it wouldn't be fixed quickly or easily. In the meantime, KITT needed him.
He swallowed hard, his gaze moving past Mike and the menacing-looking car he leaned against, to the car suspended behind them. A fine coating of dust dulled KITT's shell and darkened his windows, but aside from that he looked perfect, his sleek lines exactly as Michael remembered. He had been immobilized on a device clearly meant for the bulkier form of the Knight Industries Three Thousand, and while Michael knew enough about the project to know exactly what the gimbal was for, it still looked, to his eyes, like some sort of medieval torture device.
Or like KITT was a science project ready for dissection.
Michael circled slowly, aware that the whine he heard wasn't from KITT's turbine engine, but was rather the sound of his tires spinning uselessly, unable to gain purchase on empty air. KITT was being held at an angle, so that his sensor light was at Michael's chest level when he finally finished circling and came a stop.
"Would either of you like to tell us what you're doing here?" Sarah demanded.
Thank god Bonnie took over with the introductions and explanations, because Michael only had eyes for KITT.
"Hey, pal," he said softly, his hand stroking the hood directly above the red sensor light. With the dust wiped away, KITT gleamed like new. "Bet you never expected to see me again, huh?" No answer, no sign that KITT had even heard him, and he pressed, "Come on, I know I took my sweet time finding you, and I know you can hold a grudge like nobody's business, but you have to at least give me a chance to explain what happened."
Nothing. Nothing but the frantic sound of KITT's engine, the desperate spinning of his wheels.
On top of it, there was something - something beyond the entire situation - bothering Michael, but he was distracted by the conversation behind him, as Bonnie and Sarah conferred. He found himself brushing away the dust, as if restoring KITT's exterior would somehow help them regain him.
Finally, Bonnie joined him, standing close enough that their arms touched. "KITT," she said, in a voice that shook only a little. "Identify yourself."
"I am the voice of the microprocessor of the Knight Industries Two Thousand. K-I-T-T. KITT, if you prefer," the car responded, the familiar voice - even if it was merely speaking a pre-programmed identification - making Michael's throat close with the shear normalcy of it. "Property of the United States Armed Forces."
Property. That made Michael's throat close for an entirely different reason.
Bonnie must have had the same problem, because it was several moments before she asked, "And can you identify me?"
The scanner kept up its slow, steady sweep, and finally Michael identified the final piece of what was bothering him. To those who knew him well, KITT's scanner had always been a barometer of his mood. His tires were still spinning as he fought helplessly for freedom; his engine was snarling with effort; the scanner should have been whipping back and forth like the tail of an angry cat, not sluggishly crawling from side to side.
"Dr. Barstow, Bonnie," KITT replied after a moment. He began listing Bonnie's various degrees and awards, working back from the present day, then - again in reverse chronological order - her jobs. His voice slowed as he said, "Employed: Knight Industries, 1979-1982. Employed: Foundation..." His voice faltered. "Foundation for..."
"Continue." Michael didn't think he'd ever heard Bonnie use that tone - detached, commanding - with KITT, and wondered just how scared she was. How scared he should be.
The scanner finally sped up, revealing KITT's agitation.
"Employed: Foundation for Law and Government, 1982-1983, 1984-1991," he finally managed.
"And what was my job, KITT?" Bonnie pressed.
"Assignment: Head technician..." The scanner flared, lit nearly from end to end. Behind him, Michael could hear Sarah issuing orders, muttered comments tossed back and forth. He suspected if he were willing to turn around, he'd see Sarah and the two techs he didn't know all hard at work at the computers KITT was connected to.
He wasn't willing to turn.
"Assignment: Head technician for the Knight Industries Tw..."
KITT's voice stopped mid-word; the scanner flared again, then froze, faded, a single point of light pulsing slowly in place like a heartbeat.
Bonnie made a noise and pushed away from Michael, turning toward the activity he could hear behind him. He still didn't look, but he could easily picture her taking over, fingers flying across a keyboard faster than he could follow. It was something he'd seen far too many times over the past months.
He kept his gaze on that pulsing, flickering light, and while Bonnie did what she was best at, he did the only thing he could do.
"KITT?" He stepped closer, planting his hands on KITT's hood, one on either side of the frozen sensor, close enough that he couldn't see the light, just its reflection against his chest. The whine was fading as KITT's tires slowed; he wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "Hey, pal, since when can't you answer a simple question, huh?" His voice dropped. "I know you remember us. Somewhere, under all the crap they did to you, you remember."
The light pulsed, reflecting off his white shirt like blood.
"It's going to be okay, buddy. You just hang in there. Bonnie's still the best."
The tires finally ran down their momentum; the faint vibration they'd been sending through the car stopped.
The bloody reflection on his shirt was fading to pink.
Behind him, Bonnie swore, the kind of language he would never have believed she knew if he hadn't seen KITT threatened before. He didn't understand the conversation going on, rapid fire, between her and the others, but when he raised his eyes, he understood the look in his son's, meeting his gaze with the two most advanced cars in the world between them.
"Come on, KITT," he muttered, dropping his gaze again. "KITT? KITT!"
The pink reflection on his shirt was gone. He stared numbly for a minute, then whirled to search for Bonnie.
She was white faced and intent on the computer in front of her, surrounded by people working just as feverishly, as if they'd done this a thousand times instead of just this once.
"Got it!" Not Bonnie, but the Asian woman whose name he'd never caught.
"Transfer it to..." Bonnie didn't even have to finish the sentence.
"Power's stabilizing; system's coming back online," the man said, a trace of nerves in his voice.
"Monitor it." Sarah and Bonnie, in stereo.
Behind him, Michael heard a sound. He turned, half afraid it had been his imagination.
KITT's scanner tracked with painful slowness from one side to the other.
"KITT?"
An agonizing moment of silence. Then...
"Michael?"