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Three Nick looked up as Michael walked down stairs slowly. His long coat dragged on the edge of the steps. His head was bowed. He had a suitcase in his hand that he dropped to the floor when he got to the bottom step. Slowly, he reached up and removed his shades, reddened eyes blinking in the dim light of the warehouse. After a few moments of gathering himself, he walked to the covered TransAm and leaning down he hauled the edge of the tarpaulin up, uncovering the car for the first time since Nick had covered it on that fateful night. The grey tarp settled diagonally over the black body, fully exposing the hood, leaving the back end covered. Silently, Michael put his palm flat down onto the once warm skin of the car. It was cold now. He walked along the uncovered driver�s side, stroking his hand over the edge of the hood, up the gentle slope over the driver�s window and came to rest on the top. With tears in his eyes as there had been for almost forty-eight hours, he lowered his forehead to the car. �I love you, Kitt,� he whispered, �I always will.� Swallowing hard, he lifted his head and touched his lips to the black paint-work. �Goodbye, Partner.� With infinite care, he recovered the body. Nick watched, remaining silent. Michael picked up his
suitcase and was
about to put his shades back in place when he spoke
quietly, �Why is the
world still turning, Nick?�
* Dr Anton Sachias was frustrated. He�d had an almost constant headache since waking from the anaesthetic. There was a place in his mind, a dark foreboding place that wasn�t his own any longer. It was like sharing his innermost thoughts with a total stranger, one he�d never even laid eyes on. One that wasn�t very communicative. Anton was living on coffee and painkillers. **Kitt?** It was the millionth or so time in the last forty-eight hours that he�d tried to telepathically call to the AI supposedly connected to the chip in the back of his neck. He didn�t know for certain that the connection was working, he just had a feeling. He was being ignored. Anton didn�t like to be ignored. He pushed the stool back from the metal desk and stood, grabbing his mug of cold coffee. Gazing down at the polished surface he regarded his own distorted image. His short, wiry, dark hair had become tinted with grey over the last year. His soft features had started to betray his meagre forty years. He�d always been blessed with a handsome young face but the wrinkles were starting to show. His lab now occupied most of his suburban home. The bungalow had only one room left that didn�t contain desks of computer equipment and electronics. And he seldom spent long hours in the bathroom. He�d stripped the kitchen out first, leaving a microwave oven, a kettle and a refrigerator. Outside in the garage he kept a well-stocked chest freezer and a battered Ford that he very rarely used. His living room still contained his white leather couch and armchairs, but the suite was surrounded by workstations, PCs, laptops and powerful Indigo machines. Monitors topped with keyboards, some switched on, some left off, were the usual form of lighting. He had table top desk lamps dispersed between the computers, a couple of which were constantly shining. The room he�d spent most of the last two days inside was at the back of the house. It had once been his bedroom, but he habitually slept on the couch and had thrown his bed out many years ago. The electronics and computers in this room were all laid out carefully, each one with it�s own specific task to do. The centre of all this virtual activity was locked down on to a specially made table in one corner of the room. A black box, no bigger than a modern VCR. From the outside it was a solid, with no visible openings or cracks. A sealed CPU, designed that way so that the one trapped inside couldn�t find a means of escape, however hard it tried. There were external connections; wires snaking out from the base, soldered in place, that only data could travel down. And a single communications channel, invisible to the naked eye. Only sensors lining the ceiling, walls and floor and monitored by a nearby Sun workstation could pick up the activity through this channel. And without exception it had been one way since the link had stood two days ago. It was in front of this workstation�s 21-inch screen that Anton now stood, sipping his cold coffee, running his fingers through hair desperately in need of a wash, and staring at the readouts scrolling up through the terminal window. The small scar along the base of his scalp itched like crazy. The surgery had been more painful than he�d imagined and now it seemed that the one he�d chosen to be his constant companion didn�t even want to acknowledge his presence. Turning angrily from the screen, he moved around to
another computer
a couple of yards from the black box. A Windows PC
this time with
lots of strange icons placed on the desktop.
Dropping his hand to
the mouse, he moved the cursor over the Lightening Strike
icon and double
clicked it.
�Come on, Kitt,� he muttered, clicking the icon a second
time, �it doesn�t
have to be like this.�
Without warning, the electronic surge came again, momentarily splintering his presence within the CPU, slicing through him, ripping him apart. Kitt threw himself back into one corner of the unit, next to the link chip, whimpering as he tried to literally pull himself back together again. He was very frightened now. Wherever he was, he was beginning to doubt it was in friendly hands. He thought about Jennifer, about her hatred for him and her desperation to end his existence. Was this another of her experiments? How had he come to be here? Where was Michael? Was he alive? He glanced at the block over the link. Perhaps he should try to reach his partner again. Maybe Michael was unconscious and that was what he�d felt before. If that were the case then maybe there was something he could do about it. He waited for a few moments to see if another surge would come. When it didn�t, he found the courage to move out of the corner toward the link. He hesitated. What he�d experienced before had been horrible. He didn�t want to face that again, but if there was a possibility that Michael wasn�t dead, that he needed his partner�. Kitt took a virtual breath and removed the block. Instantly he was hit by the hard crimson presence on the other end. He shivered. It no longer felt anything like Michael. Even when something had happened to his partner there�d still been a quality of his presence that had warmed Kitt. This was different. This scared him more than the prison he appeared to have been trapped inside. Cautiously, he reached down the link. //Michael?//
Anton looked up suddenly, staring off into space.
**Kitt?**
Kitt screamed, falling back away from the chip. If he�d had a pulse rate it would have been racing. �Michael�, it was a whisper in to his own world. Hurriedly, terrified now, he sealed a block back over the link and retreated further away, pressing against the hard, cold walls of the unit, curling in on himself. �Michael� help.� * Nick opened his eyes, awake in a second. The sound of metal crashing against metal had woken him from the light sleep he�d finally managed to slip into after three sleepless nights. He reached for Karr only to find a block in place. �Dammit!� he cursed softly under his breath. Grabbing his robe from the bottom of the bed he slipped out from under the duvet. The sight that befell him brought a lump to his throat. The partially covered body of the Knight Two Thousand was resting against the far wall of the warehouse. Karr backed up, gunning the engine and running forward to ram into the side of it yet again. This time, he stopped, nose pressed hard against the front fender, the Stealth�s frame shaking madly. Reaching for Karr, Nick calmed his own emotions. He
knew that
if Karr allowed him close, there had to be a stable one;
and that was him.
Karr was far from stable right now.
Nick gathered his partner close, holding him, trying to
calm the storm
and when he found he couldn�t he was just as willing to
ride it out.
Karr was expressing what Nick himself was unable to;
sorrow, grief, anger,
hopelessness, loneliness. Nick simply let him rush
through these
emotions, not even trying to counter them. He stood
his ground against
the assault.
Slowly, unsure if Karr even realised he was physically near as well as mentally, Nick sat up on the hood of his car, shifting over close to where it was pressed up against the TransAm. He reached out to touch the other vehicle but hesitated, remembering Michael�s reverent goodbye. Pulling his hand back, he rested it on the Stealth�s warm skin. Karr shivered in his mind, wincing away as Nick tried to touch him again, and he left him alone. The brief episode of absolute break-down was quickly swallowed by the shields Karr was rebuilding. Nick understood the need to be strong; he had yet to openly let out his emotional upheaval himself. But it was hurting him to have Karr hurting. Neither of them could understand how this had happened, never mind why. They�d spent two days going over the TransAm, the CPU, reports of the shooting, the only two witness statements from people who had only heard Kitt�s crash into the parked Lexus and the shot that had been designed to distract Michael but, Nick was certain, not to kill him. He could only think of Jennifer and her obvious motive. But the key puzzle still remained. How did whoever did this get Kitt to stay still long enough to wipe him out? Karr shivered again, moaning inaudibly. Nick just touched the nearest shield, wordlessly whispering that he was there. He leaned against the obstacle between himself and his partner, feeling the irregular pulses behind it. Suddenly, it dropped. Karr reached for him and he simply accepted the silky, black spark into his embrace. There was the other question. Where did Stephen Grey disappear to? Because the house was empty when the police had arrived and had remained empty ever since. In his tight embrace, Karr quieted.
<Sorry> He sounded
rough and embarrassed.
His gaze wandered over the sleek TransAm. Michael�s pride and joy. His love for the car had been separate from the adoration and desire he had for Kitt, but he still loved it. It had a quiet beauty, power exonerated by grace. It had suited Kitt perfectly, complimented his personality. Michael had left without giving them any instructions as
to what to
do with it. Nick hadn�t made any kind of decision
about it.
He didn�t feel he had the right. He�d spoken to
Bonnie but she�d
been too upset to talk, and Devon� Devon hadn�t wanted to
talk.
Where they sat together, essences wrapped around one
another, Karr was
the first to pull back, doing the virtual equivalent of
wiping his eyes.
Nick watched him with quiet affection. <You
okay?>
The gentle AI had made such an incredible impact on their lives. He�d grown from a mainframe computer program, albeit a highly complex one, into a sentient life capable of love, anger, sadness, all the human emotions and some of his own. He�d even been capable of forgiveness, and he�d accepted his brother not only into his life but into his very self, into the private, personal world he�d once been alone inside, and had only ever shared with the one person he loved above all others. Nicholas had shared his own connection with Kitt. One that didn�t run as deep as the implant or the private channel, but instead was an understanding, a knowing. He�d felt it when Kitt had been housed in the android. They hadn�t really spoken but they hadn�t needed to. Once or twice he�d brushed over Kitt�s bright presence when he�d been in Karr�s CPU. It had been different, beautiful, but not Karr. Nick had been meant for Karr, just like Karr had somehow been created for Nick. They belonged together. As much as he had enjoyed touching Kitt, experiencing the other AI, he would never want anyone else at the other end of the link. He felt Karr brush a tendril of himself over him and
derailed his thoughts
immediately. But Karr was regarding him with deep
understanding.
<You cared for him>
He turned his head and his gaze fell once again on the TransAm and this time something caught his eye. Leaning forward, he peered in through the driver�s window through to the back seat. There was a brown file lying across the plush material. Unfolding his legs from under him, disturbing their presences in his mind, he slid down off the Stealth into the gap between his partner and the TransAm. He opened the driver�s door as far as Karr�s position would allow and with as much respect as he could, he leaned over to the back seat and plucked the file from its resting place. He closed the door as quietly as he could. Feeling Karr�s rolling, indefinable emotions in his mind,
he felt he
ought to explain his actions. �I have to know who
killed him.�
The sudden, overwhelming rage was there one second and
gone the next, a
sneak peak into Karr�s future state. Nick knew what
was to come.
He wouldn�t fight it. Maybe it would destroy
everything they had
built, but it
�We will find whoever did this, I promise. And we
will make them
pay.�
One line hit him hard. �Known Alias: Claris.
Born: Stephen
Grey�
He could feel Karr�s sudden hope flare in his mind.
Nick stared at the dead car in front of him. And for the first time he tired to second-guess the events of that night. Michael was in the garden watching the house. Kitt was parked up the road, out of sight. Michael had said that something had distracted the AI, and in the next second he was shot. He reached for Kitt but his partner had gone from his mind. �Karr� could someone have� taken Kitt out of the car
without taking
the CPU?� Nick�s voice echoed in the silent
warehouse. He could
feel Karr thinking, processing the inquiry, playing out
scenarios, sorting
through data and facts.
Nick was inside the Stealth in a second. �Locate Michael.� * Michael leaned over the railings of the bridge. It was very late at night, very quiet here. Every now and again a car would speed passed. No one had stopped and he was thankful for that. He looked down, watching the reflection of the city lights and the stars playing on the surface of the black water. He wasn�t about to throw himself over the railings to drown in the harsh river below. It sounded like a slow, frightening way to die. He played the Colt .45 between his hands, gazing at the weapon, feeling an odd separation from what he was about to do. The hole in his mind would slowly drive him insane anyway. Nick hadn�t even suggested he keep the wrist cuff on. Was he supposed to wear it for the rest of his life? But encroaching madness wasn�t the reason for his needing to end his existence on this planet. Nothing meant anything without Kitt to share it with. He�d been in love with his partner; he could no more deny that as he could admit it to anyone outside of his immediate colleagues. No one would ever be able to take Kitt�s place in his life. The AI had been a part of him, of his mind and of his heart. That was gone, and the idea of living without him wasn�t worth contemplating. A friend had once told him that suicide wasn�t an escape, it was a cowardly exit. The only people who suffered were those left behind. He knew that was true. He thought of Bonnie especially. She was alone in her grief. He would have been her comfort and strength if he�d been able to cope with his own feelings. But a small part of him was screaming. What did anyone else know about closeness? How could he help another over this loss when he could barely accept it himself? No one else knew how Kitt felt to touch, how warm and gentle his embraces were, what it felt like to have that soft presence nearby at all times. No one else knew the depth of his sensuality and passion, the incredible heights of his desire. Having had that, he knew nothing and no one would ever come close to it again. This wouldn't have been what Kitt had wanted. He�d have been devastated at Michael�s decision. But Kitt wouldn�t have gone on without him either. There was no way Kitt would have ever accepted another driver or another partner. He might have stayed for Karr�s sake, for a time, but in the end it couldn�t ever have been enough. He stroked his thumb along the thick barrel of the gun. One bullet straight through the brain, right to left, behind the metal plate that saved his life the first time around, when it had been Tanya pulling the trigger. It would end the ache in his head and the terrible agony in his heart. Someone had destroyed a miracle. Somewhere inside he knew he should be gunning for that someone. But he knew just as surely that Karr and Nick would hunt down the guilty one in his place and end their lives as certainly as they�d ended his and Kitt�s. He couldn�t remember ever feeling like this before. Maybe he�d never lost someone so important to him. He�d been depressed after the shooting that had lead Devon to contact Stevie. He�d been heartbroken when Stevie had died in his arms on their wedding day. But it hadn�t been anything like this devastation, this shattering of his heart, of his life. He couldn�t stop crying. The tears just seemed to fall of their own volition, as if his whole being, his very soul was mourning the loss of its mate. Absently, he flicked the safety catch off. He was
out here so
that no one would hear the shot and call for help.
Once he�d pulled
the trigger he didn�t ever want to wake up. If there
was a heaven,
he would join Kitt there he was certain of it. If
not, if this really
was the end, he wouldn�t ever be any the wiser. At
least the nightmare
would be over.
�Michael.� Nick stepped uncertainly up on to the
sidewalk.
Karr was parked a few yards away.
Michael caught his breath. �You think Kitt�s
alive?�
Nick watched his friend. Like Karr earlier, he knew
if that if
this lead nowhere, Michael would fall off the edge he�d
been teetering
on. There would be no stopping him from pulling the
trigger next
time. He motioned to the Stealth. �Come on.�
* Frustration was turning to anger. Kitt was blocking him, he was sure of that now. He�d answered the AI�s last call to his partner and had obviously scared him. He could understand Kitt�s reaction but he wanted to experience, and Kitt wasn�t letting him. �I will have you, Kitt,� he threatened abstractly. Clearing the papers from an otherwise empty desk, he lay
down across
it, letting his legs dangle off the end. Closing his
eyes, he relaxed.
Then he concentrated on the implant. He made his
presence in his
own mind into something big and black and strong.
And then he rammed
himself against the block at the other end of the link.
Kitt could feel the block vibrating, struggling to hold
against the
pressure being exerted upon it. He�d done it
himself, to blocks Karr
had put in place when he�d believed himself to be
protecting his brother.
He watched, and as it started to crack he added more to
it, making it stronger.
But the one on the other side didn�t let up and eventually
the stronger
block eventually started to fall. Panicking
slightly, Kitt added
more, but when cracks began to show through, he backed up,
whimpering in
the loneliness of the strange CPU.
The block fell. Anton threw himself forward, into the CPU. His mind struggled in the alien environment but he was determined. Taking deep breaths in the real world, he settled his virtual presence and looked around. He�d expected the CPU to be alive with Kitt�s presence, but it was dark and cold. He felt that venturing too far from where the link connected him to the CPU would be dangerous, but he had to find where the AI was. **Kitt?**
Kitt could no longer see the ruby presence of the
stranger. He
pushed himself between the disk stacks and the wall of the
unit, terrified,
making himself as small as he could.
Anton moved further from the link, despite sensing the
dangers.
His anger made his presence harsher, larger. He
moved around circuit
boards, memory chips, toward the disk stacks and he soon
found his prey.
Growling, he returned to the link, letting himself be pulled back into his own mind. Opening his eyes, he rubbed his head. It ached painfully. He sat up, leaning forward and grabbing the large bottle of painkillers, swallowing three, letting out a deep, calming breath. What the hell had happened? He�d never intended to hurt the AI. Yet he�d found himself� what? Doing what? He shuddered as he remembered the emotions that had overtaken him. Kitt�s touch had been like heaven, yet immediately he�d attempted to harm the young presence. To�. He didn�t want to admit the word but it flashed in his mind like laughter in his face. Rape. Violation. He�d wanted to pull that light apart and find out what made him what he was. This wasn�t like him. He�d wanted to meet the AI, be connected to him happily, have the type of partnership that the implant had been designed to help blossom. This was wrong. His head was pounding now. He left the room,
heading for the kitchen.
Kitt came out of his hiding place. The other presence had gone. He considered putting up another block, but it only seemed to provoke violence. �Michael, where are you?� Sliding against the wall of the unit, Kitt broke down, curling in upon himself in a way he hadn�t done since his suicide attempt two years ago. He was linked intimately to a stranger. He hadn�t been aware that the link between he and Michael could be� switched, but the change of his CPU now had him linked to someone else. He wished he knew how, and if Michael was still alive. He sat for an age, alone, thinking. His confusion
and fear slowly
burnt away until only the anger was left. Looking
over at the link,
he suddenly threw himself at it.
Anton doubled over in pain as Kitt hit his mind with the
impact of a
speeding car. He clawed his fingers into his hair,
clenching his
teeth as the blazing white heat soared in his mind,
touching his nerves,
scraping along the inside of his skull.
Sobbing wildly, Kitt dove for cover behind the disk stacks as the third surge swept passed him. Figuratively, he wrapped his arms up over his head and curled himself into a tight ball. If he�d cared, he might have noticed the dimming light of his presence, no longer white but tinged with grey. But he didn�t care. He doubted he would ever see his partner again. Whatever he�d done to deserve this, he hoped against hope that Michael was still out there, alive. * Karr pulled up along the curb outside the innocent
suburban home.
His engine didn�t cut out and Nick sensed something coming
from his side
of the link.
Michael nodded, reaching into his coat pocket and bringing out the Colt he�d intended on taking his own life with. Nick reassured him that he too was armed. �Don�t leave home without it,� he whispered softly. Michael managed a small smile that Nick acknowledged before disappearing around to the back of the house. Gun primed, Michael put his hand on the front door handle
and turned
it carefully. Whatever alarms might have sounded,
Karr caught and
disabled. He stepped into the hallway, looking
through to the living
room. The banks of computers and monitors were
astounding.
He heard a sound coming from a room on the corridor off to
his right and
moved cautiously toward it. Looking up, he saw Nick
at the back door,
making his own silent entrance.
Anton stared at the PC monitor in front of him. Through the astounding pain in his head he was furious, with Kitt and with himself. All he�d wanted to do was to find someone who wouldn�t and couldn�t walk out on him. He�d wanted to experience the miracle that had been of his own making but he wasn�t being allowed to. Reaching for the mouse he double-clicked a black circle icon in the top left-hand corner. Kitt looked up from his hiding place at the sound of an electric spark. He thought at first it was another power surge, but the feeling, the crackle of the atmosphere, wasn�t the same. And then it was coming toward him, not a surge, but a spike, a dark spike of power heading straight for him. He tried to dive out of its path but it followed him, homed in on him and he realised there was no escaping it. A moment later, it drilled into him, penetrating the core of his essence, driving all the way through him, tearing him apart. It hit the back wall of the unit behind him and dissipated. Kitt slid down that same wall, trembling dangerously, the hole in his core closing slowly. Never before had he felt like this. He was weakening, and his main processor was struggling with the overload of the spike. Anton smiled to himself. Revenge was sweet, he had
to admit.
Maybe he had selected the wrong AI. Maybe he should
end this, overload
Kitt until he ceased to exist, and then take another
AI. Karr.
Nicholas MacKenzie�s partner. He�d gone for Kitt
because the Karr
AI had had a reputation for being a vicious killer.
He hadn�t wanted
an AI linked to him that would immediately fight
back. But that was
exactly what Kitt had done and he�d survived.
Perhaps he could have
more fun with Karr, perhaps he would be stronger.
Outside, Karr had picked up the sudden spike, despite the
rest of the
electronics in the vicinity. Concentrating on that
area, he applied
the scan for Kitt�s e-sig.
As Karr watched, Kitt�s signature dropped suddenly in
intensity.
The spike vanished but his brother continued to
deteriorate. Panic
hit him. No! Not now. Please not now!
Michael followed Nick along the corridor wall, passed the first room, trusting it was empty as Karr had obviously informed his partner. When they got to the open door of the second room, Michael moved quickly across to the other side of the doorway, gun pointed to the ceiling. Nick peered inside. He could see Sachias standing with his back to them, hand hovering over a PC keyboard. As silent as a church mouse, Nick stepped into the room and had the tip of his gun up against of the back of the man�s head before he knew there was anyone there. �Lift your hands and bring them slowly around your back.�
Sachias� eyes widened. �I know who you are�.
You�re Michael
Knight.� He glanced at Nick. �Nicholas
MacKenzie. That
would explain how you got passed the alarms.�
Keeping a close eye on Kitt�s dwindling e-sig, Karr
started to pick
up something else. A link� an active implant that
didn�t match the
frequency of his and Nicholas� or Michael�s. He
found the link chip
inside the CPU where Kitt was housed. When he traced
the implant,
he felt vaguely sick. He touched the shield Nick had
automatically placed
around his mind. <Nick� he�s linked himself to
Kitt>
<Nick�.>
�The car�s on its way,� Nick told Michael softly.
He nodded.
Leaving Sachias in Nick�s hands for a minute, Michael
started to search
the room. He recognised a CPU when he saw one.
Immediately
he put his hand on to the black box, seeing no inputs, no
sensors, no way
to tell his partner he was here.
He found the keyboard and hit return, typing in his
partner�s name and
hitting return a second time.
Anton stared at him, and slowly he shook his head, side
to side.
�You won�t hurt me. Because if you do, I�ll make
sure Kitt feels
the full force of my pain. You�ll simply be
torturing him along side
me.� He smiled. �And I really don�t think he�s
strong enough
to survive it, because� he�s been through a lot recently.�
Opening his mind completely, reaching through the link, Anton let the sudden sting transmit through to the AI at the other end. Kitt barely felt it. * Grabbing control of the TransAm, Karr brought it to him as he turned the Stealth in a 180 degree turn and started back for Sachias� house, driving the TransAm at a speed that would ensure the car met up with him before they reached the suburbs. As soon as he was in range he picked up Kitt�s e-signature and found it weaker than it had been when he�d left. He�d been gone no more than four minutes. <Nick, we�re thirty seconds away.>
Karr searched the directories of both machines in
parallel. What
he found on the PC appalled him. <He has the
ability to send electrical
surges through the CPU> Nick winced at the rage
flowing from his
partner. <He�s a dead man>
�Karr�s ready.� Nick moved forward and replaced
Michael�s gun
with his own. �I don�t know what�s going to happen
so let me take
him.� To Anton, he said, �You�re going access the
implant and speak
to Kitt.�
Nick moved out of the way as Michael grabbed Sachias�
shoulder and spun
him hard, slamming him down against the PC monitor, left
cheek pressed
against the unforgiving case. �Do it.�
Letting out a deep breath, Nick stepped forward and
planted the barrel
of his gun against the scar at the back of Sachias�
neck. Michael
glanced at him, eyes wild. �What?�
Sachias� eyes narrowed and he stared at Michael, trying
to see in to
the man�s soul. �I�m sorry you didn�t get to say
goodbye.�
Swallowing his anger, trying to calm himself, Michael touched the implant and reached through the link between them. He moved into Kitt�s CPU, looking around. Last time he�d been in here it had been alive with Kitt�s presence, the bright white light that permeated every part of the unit. It was dark now. He moved further in and turned to his left. //Kitt�.// A dim, grey presence lay shimmering on the floor of the
unit between
the wall and a circuit board. Michael went to him,
dropping down,
gathering his partner�s vague, fading essence into him,
wrapping around
him, holding him tight. //Kitt, I�m here now,
please�. Hold
on, you�re safe now//
He sensed something else close and looked up.
Karr�s ebony presence
was hovering just out of reach. Michael could feel
the concern and
fear radiating from the other AI.
Careful not to disturb his unconscious partner, Michael
opened his eyes.
Nick was watching him. �How is he?�
Nick reached for Karr, touching his partner carefully. <Karr?> He received a distant acknowledgement. Karr was concentrating on Kitt and everything else was a distraction. Nick smiled briefly. They got out to the cars. The TransAm�s scanner was
still black,
and even though Kitt was back in his own CPU he was a long
way from having
control of the car. Nick grabbed Michael�s shoulder
as he opened
the car door. �You�re in no state to drive.�
His mental presence hadn�t moved from Kitt�s side, but
with his full
concentration he could intensify his presence to the point
where it was
almost real. Karr was still there, wrapped around
his brother.
<Karr, can you operate the communications, put me in
touch with Bonnie
or Devon>
Michael felt a shift in Kitt�s presence and loosened his
hold.
//Kitt?//
Karr could hear echoes of what was passing between Kitt
and his driver.
He knew what Kitt needed now. They had to get him on
what would essentially
be life-support. He was too weak. The electric
surges and the
spike that Sachias had forced over and through him had
drained him.
He needed energy, more than Karr could provide.
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