Part Four
"I
remember the first time I held you."
Leaning up on his elbow, teasing the hair at Kitt's
temple, one arm
around his shoulders, Michael gazed with sated adoration
into his lover's eyes. "All�
sharp edges and pointy
corners." Strong fingers dug
into
his ribcage and he yelped, reaching to grab Kitt's hand.
"Michael�
do you think we'd be here, now, like this if I was a
female?"
He
signed
softly to himself. He'd known
the
question was coming; he'd been able to feel it at the back
of his mind as
they'd made love. "No, I
don't. Come on Kitt, you know
my track record with
women! Knowing me, I'd have
chatted you
up, dated you for a couple of weeks then dumped you for a
corvette."
Kitt's
smile was dazzling, but there was a hint of irony in it. "Seriously�."
"Seriously,
Kitt. It wouldn't have
worked, we
wouldn't have had the friendship we had and we certainly
wouldn't have the
relationship we have now."
"But
being a female�."
"Will you quit it?!" Touching
his mouth to Kitt's, he kissed him, sneaking his tongue
passed smiling lips to
taste him. "You're a work
of
art," he murmured, lips still touching.
"I wouldn't change a single thing about you. You're not a computer, not an
android, not a
male. You're my partner, my
life. Didn't I say once, it
wasn't what you looked
like that was important, it was who you are?
How many times do I have to say it?"
"I
understand
your attachment to me," he replied quietly, a little
self-consciously. "I feel the
same
way about you, you know that. But
I
still find it difficult sometimes to understand why you'd
sleep with me, with
what I am."
"Kitt�
I came to terms with you, with my feelings for you, a long
time
ago�." He struggled to
explain why
what, under any other circumstance, would seem unnatural,
what - he had to
admit - must still seem that way for everyone around him,
Nick and Karr
included, although they had a better understanding than
most. "Look at it this way. I loved you almost from the
start. I fell in love with
you after the implant
activated, after I knew what it was to really know you, to
feel you up
here," he tapped his head. "So
do
you really believe that I could have you around like this,
in a form I can
finally touch you, hold you, and not do so?
All your life you've proved to me again and again
what you feel, how
much you care. Now I can do
the same for
you."
"There's
a difference between holding me and what we just did."
Kitt's
blush was a figment of Michael's own imagination, he
knew, and maybe it was him
turning red. He shrugged,
leaning closer
in to Kitt where they lay on the bed.
"It's just a small step. For
you
and me, it's natural progression.
And, by the way, I don't want to have this
conversation every time I put
my hand on your dick."
Sometimes
it
was too easy, making Kitt laugh.
~
Nick and
Karr were back within a matter of hours.
//Karr's
grumbling//
//at
least
he's still around to grumble//
Michael
jogged down the metal stairs to greet them while Kitt
stayed put on the
mezzanine. He could get the
information
he wanted from his brother in a fraction of the time it
would take Nick to
explain it in words, which he started to the moment his
head was out of the
car.
"You
know those times you get yourself completely psyched up
for something and it
turns out to be a dud?"
"Uhhu." Michael
had a sinking feeling, one which was
mirrored by Kitt, who apparently already knew what had
happened.
"Doctor
Francis Clay is alive and well and working as a consultant
for a cybernetics
corporation. She's as sane as
you and I�
maybe that's not such a great comparison� but she's
definitely not linked to
any AI. There's no implant in
her head
according to Karr, and never has been.
We
had a coffee and a chat. She
told me
that Garth put her in touch with Quinn Campbell, and that
a price of a quarter
of a million dollars was agreed."
Michael
whistled. "That's a lot of
cash."
//two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. is
that
how much I'm worth?//
There was
some humour in the question, but he definitely didn't
want to get in to that
age-old argument right now.
//when
you
were a baby, Kitt. just
imagine how much
you're worth now!//
Nick
continued, unaware of the aside from Kitt.
"She worked with the AI for around six months,
training it, modifying
it for military purposes. Then
about a
month before Garth's death she was moved to a different
project. She didn't hear
anything more after that,
except that everything that survived the� destruction of
the King Military
facility was moved to a secure data storage unit at a
facility just outside Las
Vegas."
The
spark
of a notion ignited in Michael's head, but for now at
least it didn't mean
anything he could get a grasp of.
"Where outside Las
Vegas?"
"Henderson.
There's something else."
Nick reached inside the Stealth's cabin and
grabbed something from the
passenger seat.
When
Michael set eyes on it, he couldn't believe what he was
looking at. "Nick, for God's
sake�."
"It's
not what you think." He
held the
wrist cuff up. "It's a
jammer, like
the ones that are online here, now.
It
won't block the implant, won't block Kitt's link to
Karr, and it can be
configured to allow any access points you want open. It means you and Kitt can
leave the building,
if you feel the urge, without drawing another attack." He found Kitt on the mezzanine
and beckoned
him down. Michael waited,
watched Nick
fasten the black cuff around his partner's wrist and
pressed what he assumed
was the 'on' button - a finger-tip sized black circle
now on the inside of
Kitt's arm. The link stood
firm and
bright, not a moment of change in its quality.
He
smiled. "Thank you."
"I
knew Bear had one around somewhere and I wasn't sure how
long I could stop you
from going out there, so�." Nick
shrugged. "If you and Kitt
want to
check out the facility at Henderson, I want
to confirm a couple of
details from Doctor Clay's story before we dismiss her
as the bad guy
here."
Michael
nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Partner?"
"Absolutely."
Neither of them liked Nick and Karr going out
to save their butts.
~
Whatever
they were hoping to find at the Henderson facility
they quickly realised
they weren't going to get lucky. As
Kitt
turned the Knight Two-Thousand onto the modern business
park they saw the
blackened, gutted shell of what had been Bishop Data
Storage. The damage looked
at most a day old. There
were fire investigators still working
on the site, and finding the least busy of the officers
Michael flashed his
FLAG ID.
"I
think you're wasting your time just as much as we are," he
was told in a
rather bored tone. "The
owners
insisted it was done on purpose, which is why we're still
here looking closely at
every piece of burnt wiring we can find which, as you can
imagine, is a lot. One of the
on-duty technicians is claiming
they heard a bang before the fire started.
And one of the guards at the gate is saying they
saw a bright
flash. Bomb, they're
thinking. Talk about
over-inflated sense of importance. It's
a data warehouse for Christ's sake! You
mark my words. The most
suspicious thing we'll find in this
mess is a dodgy plug. It was
an
electrical fire and nothing more�."
"Sir?" It
was a call from someone not far from them.
They
both
looked up, and Michael saw Kitt crouching down in the
debris with one of the
investigators who was waving them over.
It amazed him sometimes. Michael
used
his FLAG ID, Kitt just talked people into telling him,
showing him,
whatever he wanted to know or see. His
partner
certainly did have some kinda charm.
He
followed the officer he'd been speaking with over. "What is it?"
"At a
guess, Sir, I would say it's the fuse from a large
incendiary device."
Michael
stared down into the smoke damage and saw just a glint
of copper wire. "A bomb?"
The
investigator nodded. "Yes,
Sir, a
bomb."
They
dropped into the car, Michael's head back against the
headrest, closing his
eyes for a moment. "I feel
like I'm
losing the plot on this one, Kitt."
"I'm
not sure we ever actually had it. Do
you
want to tell Karr and Nick or shall I?"
As he
spoke, Michael's cell phone started to vibrate in his
inside jacket
pocket. He read Nick's name
on the car's
LCD navigation screen and touched it to accept the call
through the internal
speakers. "Nick?"
"Mike!" To say he sounded wired was an
understatement. "Clay left
something out of her little
story! She wasn't just
working for
Garth, she was his lover."
"Oh,
God�." Michael thought he
could
suddenly see that elusive plot stretching out in front
of him, pieces slotting
together.
"There's
just one huge piece missing," Kitt pointed out.
And Nick
agreed with him, "The link."
Michael
nodded. "Nick, you're sure
Clay was
never linked?"
"Karr
scanned her. No implant, no
scar to say
an implant has been removed."
"Listen,
we're here and the Henderson facility
was bombed around
twenty-four hours ago. There's
nothing
left."
"Well,
I think we can guarantee the AI wasn't destroyed in the
explosion."
"Yeah�." Michael rubbed his face with his
hands. All his puzzle pieces
were falling out of
place again. "Do you think
it's
worth talking to Clay again, or is she just going to clam
up?"
"We're
on our way to try, but don't hold your breath.
Mike, is there a disaster recovery team on site?"
Michael
glanced at Kitt. Personally
he didn't
have a clue what one of those would look like.
His experience of disaster recovery was a
low-loader, a technician, a
mechanic and a cybernetics expert. But
Kitt
slipped out of the car, stood up and looked around,
leaning back inside to
answer, "Yes. There
are five Semi's here, in the car park
of the building opposite. Rook
Recovery. I'll do a
background
check." He dropped back into
the
car while Michael peered out to see what Kitt had seen.
"Okay,
but I think you'll have as much luck with that as we did
with Bishop Data
Storage. They have nothing to
do with
King Military as far as Karr can tell."
"Disaster
recovery of this sort isn't right anyway," Kitt
continued. "Karr and I saw
the blocked link - not
just the executable and the protocols but the physical
hardware, covered over
by the application of blocks. The
AI's
CPU has to have that chip built into it, just like ours
do. This kind of recovery
is just programmes and
data."
"So�
maybe the bomb covered up a burglary."
Michael
felt he was back on familiar ground.
"Seems a bit over the top."
"Maybe,"
Nick's voice cracked for a moment - a tunnel or just an
area of bad reception
he and Karr were driving through. "Or
maybe
whoever did this wasn't thinking straight.
Maybe they have a blocked implant in their
head. Look, do me a favour? Go speak to the disaster
recovery team and
see if there are any of Bishop Data Storage's staff
around, ask if they know
anything about a break in, or about King or Garth. It's a long-shot but you never
know."
"No
problem. And let us know if
Clay gives
you anything more."
"Deal."
~
Kitt sat
tucked into the passenger seat, one leg folder under him,
as Michael turned the
Knight Two-Thousand on to the interstate and pressed his
foot gently down on
the accelerator. The speedo
jumped from
thirty to sixty in a heartbeat, climbing through to
ninety. The local police
recognised the car now, never
bothered to try to catch them or slow them down. The only worry they had was
other jokers
trying it on. Michael didn't
seem to care
at that moment. They'd earned
this
privilege as far as he was concerned and he enjoyed the
speed, he always had
done.
Kitt felt
his brother prod him.
<_What's
up?
<_Did
you find anything?
<_No. There were a couple of members
of staff
around but they didn't know anything about a break-in. Michael spoke to the
investigators who said
if someone had stolen something and set the bomb to cover
it up, there was very
little chance of finding out who or what.
Clay?
<_Vanished.
According to her manager, she went home sick
just after we'd left. She
is not at her
home and is not answering her cell
<_We're
out
of leads
<_I
know. What do you have in
mind?
Kitt
smiled to himself. Karr knew
him too
well.
<_We could
talk to the AI
<_Kitt,
that
would be very dangerous
<_There's
no other way
<_I
doubt she can tell us anything of worth
<_She
could tell us who she was linked to
There
was
a distinct pause.
<_Perhaps.
Have you spoken to Michael Knight about this?
<_No
<_He
would not approve
<_You're
telling
me?
<_Yes
Kitt
sighed softly.
<_Get
ready
<_Should
we
at least wait until you return to the warehouse?
<_Why. Are
you on the road?
<_No. We arrived four minutes and thirty-two seconds
ago
<_Michael's
driving. Here or there, there
isn't a
difference
<_She
could attack you again
<_And
why would it make a difference if I was at the warehouse?
Karr
didn't have an answer to that.
<_If
she attacks and we're unable to stop it, I'll simply press
the button on the
jammer and shut her out
<_Tell
your driv- tell Michael Knight what you are about to do
Sometimes
the
fact that everyone around him seemed to be out to protect
and mollycoddle
him was something he could put down to them caring for
him. And sometimes it drove
him crazy. He was an AI, more
intelligent at least than
Michael and Nick put together, able to communicate with
any computer system
around the globe as long as he could find a way in, with a
skeletal structure
countless times stronger than human bone and the ability
to live without oxygen,
food or water. But all this
seemed to
have completely passed them by over the years.
They were
turning off the interstate again when Kitt rested his
left wrist on his left
thigh and laid his fingers over the button.
"What
do you think you're doing?!"
His head
shot up and he suddenly felt incredibly guilty.
They were stopped at a set of traffic lights, and
Michael was staring at
him, mouth set hard, eyes like sapphires, and a command
through the link so
absolutely adamant that it froze him in place.
"Karr
and I�."
The lights
turned green and Michael sped off, only to pull up hard
in a lay-by at the side
of the two-lane road. Switching
off the
engine, he turned in his seat to face Kitt, who hadn't
bothered to complete the
explanation. Who was he
kidding? Michael already
knew.
"Think
the link's a one-way thing? You
can feel
my intentions but I can't feel yours?"
"Mind-reading
isn't supposed�"
"Mind-reading
isn't
required! Guilt, sneakery�"
"Sneakery?"
"Kitt,
for fuck's sake�! She's out
to hurt
you. Not Karr, not me. You.
Have you considered that Clay might have programmed
her to do this to
you, in revenge for Garth's death?"
Michael's words struck hard. Kitt's
hand
dropped from his wrist and he pulled his other leg up,
bending the knee,
wrapping his arms around his calf.
"I'm sorry, Beauty, but it's a possibility."
Closing
his eyes, he sent a brief message to Karr.
Then he felt a warm hand against his cheek, a
rough thumb tracing the
shell of his ear.
"Michael�
this
could be the only way."
"So
we do it under controlled conditions, okay?
She attacks you and you might not have the
capability to press that
button and lock her back out. We'll
go
back to the warehouse, and we'll do this right."
Raising
one hand, Kitt covered Michael's against his face. "Sorry."
"I don't doubt your abilities, Kitt, I
never have. You're much, much
stronger
than I am in more ways than one. But
you
don't have to do this alone. Try
to
remember that." |