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Two In silent mode, Kitt pulled the TransAm up to the side of
the quiet
road, several hundred yards from Grey�s house.
* �Nicholas?�
* Michael shifted to the other foot. Through the
powerful binoculars
he could see Grey getting ready to go out. Tonight
looked like it
might be more interesting.
A second later, the bullet tore through the air, driving into Michael�s back. A moment later Kitt�s scream joined his driver�s in the quiet night air. The pain was liquid fire inside Kitt�s electronic mind. Desperate to reach his partner, he fired the engine and slammed the car into drive. Michael fell forward, shards of agony lancing through him, shock silencing him for a moment before he grasped at the lifeline in his head. //kitt// //Michael!!!// The name was transmitted over the link, Kitt�s frantic call to his beloved driver. Suddenly, the AI lost control of the car. The TransAm slid sideways, smashing in to a silver Lexus parked up on the sidewalk. //KITT!// But Michael�s call went unanswered.
Nothing.
Static. And then the black hole that was opening in
his mind consumed
him and everything went dark.
�Nick,� there was a panic in Karr�s voice that
immediately got his partner�s
attention. �I�ve picked up a call on the police
band. There�s
been a shooting and a simultaneous car accident. A
black TransAm
has gone into a parked car. The driver appears to
have disappeared
from the scene.�
In the chilling silence after the momentary chaos, two
men stood to
the side of the dark TransAm.
<_Kitt Kitt?
The instant he dropped the block he knew there was
something terribly
wrong. Instead of there being any emotions or
sensations to greet
him or a static block over Kitt�s end of the link, there
was blackness,
a darkness that chilled the AI to the core. Nick
felt the echo of
that chill. �Karr?�
The mental cry from his partner sent a cold shiver down
Nick�s spine.
They were the first on the scene, although sirens were audible in the distance. Nicholas found Michael in the garden of the house, lying sprawled on his front between the flower-bed and the lawn. Even in the dark, Nick could see the circle of blood slowly soaking through the thick material of Michael�s coat. Stepping over the form of his friend, Nick crouched down to press two fingers to the cold neck. He found a pulse but it was weak. Michael was barely breathing. A minute of so more and the ambulance would be with them. Maybe a minute was all he had left. Reaching carefully under Michael�s right side, Nick gingerly felt for an exit wound. There wasn�t one. �Jesus�.� He muttered under his breath, tearing his jacket off and uselessly covering Michael�s upper body in the expensive leather. �Hold on.� Despite finding his friend bleeding to death, Nick�s own
anxiety was
nothing in comparison to the intense build up in his mind
from his partner.
<Karr� please!>
It was cold and dark. Usually Kitt�s presence would be everywhere, reaching for interfaces and COM ports, servicing interrupts, monitoring processes. Even when the AI was resting, off-lining, he would be all around. Now there was nothing. No functions running, no interrupts, no poling. It was silent. Dead. And yet there were no signs of damage. A scan of the car had revealed a resonance of a high magnetic field around the hood above the CPU casing. Could that possibly have done so much? Could it have� wiped the disks? What the hell had caused Kitt to allow it? Slowly backing out, Karr�s anxiety turned to horror and
then to rage.
Nick faltered as he stood. The ambulance had pulled
up at the scene
and without a word he took the crew to Michael�s side.
Unable to communicate, barely able to think through the noise in his mind, Nick was torn between returning to Karr and slamming a block in place to allow him to stay with Michael. One of the ambulance crew was telling him that it was all right, that they�d take it from here. And he had to think of Kitt. He got the name of the hospital they would be taking him to and once he was happy they were doing all they could, he left his friend in their capable hands. As he walked around to the front of the house he saw Kitt
properly for
the first time since they�d arrived on the scene.
The black car was
smashed into the side of a Lexus Nick presumed had been
parked up on the
sidewalk as Karr had reported. There wasn�t a
scratch on the TransAm
but the back of the car was still pressed into the twisted
bodywork of
the wreck. Kitt hadn�t even tried to extract
himself. Nick
ached for the AI.
When Nick moved it was toward the front of the TransAm. He reached under the hood, surprised when it lifted easily. Whatever had happened must have unlocked the car or disabled the security system. He looked around inside the engine compartment. The CPU was still there. He�d imagined that whoever had planned this had been after the CPU. He was evidently wrong. �Karr�.� �Are you sure?� seemed like such a stupid question. Of course he was sure. If there�d been any doubt he would still be searching for his brother not filling Nick�s mind with terror and rage. He didn�t know what else to say. �I need you to stay with me, Partner.� He walked around to the TransAm�s driver�s door and tried the handle. To his surprise it opened. The dash, like the outside of the car, was eerily black and silent. Like Karr, there were no keys. The circular black button to start the engine was on the side of the steering column. It was coded to Michael�s fingerprint, as the door handle and hood, but despite all security functions seemingly being off line, Nick couldn�t fire up the engine. �Karr, can you start the engine?� He hoped the
answer was yes.
With the chaos of Karr in his mind he wasn�t certain the
AI had control
of the Stealth never mind asking him to drive the TransAm
too. But
thirty seconds later � and that felt like a lifetime � the
engine hummed
into life.
* Leaning against the whitewashed walls, Nick sipped the
filthy black
liquid the hospital drinks machine had declared was
coffee. It was
late, quiet. So when there was activity further
along the corridor,
he glanced up. Bonnie and Devon were running toward
him. He
looked dishevelled, like he�d thrown on the sweater and
trousers without
really waking. She looked ashen.
He�d called Bonnie. If he hadn�t, and Michael died
here tonight,
she would never have forgiven him. He dropped the
half-empty polystyrene
cup into a nearby trash bin and approached them, hands
grasping Bonnie�s
arms gently. �He�s still in surgery.�
�Mr MacKenzie�.� They all turned as a doctor
stepped from the
double doors that lead through to the operating
theatres. �The nurse
said that you were a close, personal friend of Mr Knight?�
Nick caught his breath, catching a prayer in his
mind. He felt
Bonnie�s hand on his arm. �What�s his condition?�
Devon managed after
a moment. The doctor regarded them both, Nick had
been very insistent
and very persuasive in his message to the nurse regarding
Michael and giving
out any information pertaining to his condition or
whereabouts.
Nick backed up from his partner slightly.
<Michael�s alive>
Looking up, Nick glanced from Devon to Bonnie. �I
have some bad
news.�
Nick reached out, touched her shoulder gently.
�There�s nothing
left to help. It would have been fast. Karr�s
been inside the
CPU, there�s just nothing, no data, no memories� he�s
gone.�
Pulling away from Nick she glared at him. �Where is
he?�
He glanced toward the double doors from which the doctor
had come to
tell them about Michael�s condition. �What happened,
Nick?�
Nick walked away before either of them could say
more. There was
too much emotion here, too much damage done for one night.
An odd sight met him in the parking lot. Bonnie was sitting sideways in the driver�s seat of the TransAm, the door open, feet on the ground outside the car, her face in her hands. There was no sound but her shoulders were shaking. Karr�s nose was pressed tentatively into her leg. For him to go so close to anyone else was a bad sign, one Nick couldn�t ever remembering seeing before. He went to stand in front of her and for a while he just
left his hand
on her shoulder, offering what little comfort he
could. Finally,
after a long time, she straightened up and both he and his
partner backed
up as she stood. �You�ll� take it back to the
warehouse?�
* Yanking down on the top left-hand corner of the
tarpaulin, Nick ensured
the jet black TransAm was completely covered.
Nick stared at the covered body of the car.
�Something isn�t right!�
he shouted in to the silence of the warehouse. Karr
just watched
him. �This was never supposed to happen!� He
turned on his
partner. �How in the hell did this happen?!�
There was nothing Karr could say. He remained
silent, watching
Nick vent his anger as it grew within his mind.
�Would an magnetic
field do this? Could it really� kill him?
Wouldn�t the shell
protect him against that? And how in hell did they
persuade him to
stand still?�
They could discuss and guess forever. Nothing changed the fact that Kitt was no longer residing in the CPU. It was true that he�d been out before, into Karr�s CPU, in to Michael�s mind, in to the android. But each time Kitt�s electronic signature had accompanied him, and each time a part of him at least had remained connected to the disks and memory that completed him. This time, they�d been wiped clean. There was no denying or getting away from that. Kitt was gone from them. No amount of �looking at it from all angles� was going to bring him back. �You should get back to the hospital.�
* Michael opened his eyes slowly. The light in his room was thankfully dim. Breathing was painful but at least he was still doing it. He remembered the bullet driving into him, remembered the white-hot pain. He remembered something else too. A black hole forming in his mind. Reaching back, he touched the implant. There was a block in place. There wasn�t the darkness, just the silence of a link cut. It made a kind of sense. He�d been shot, he was badly injured and in pain. Nick wouldn�t have allowed Kitt to suffer that. And Michael found that now he thought about it, he could feel something around his wrist. Turning his head carefully, he saw Nicholas sitting next
to him.
�Hi�.� He could barely hear his own voice. He
managed to lift
his right arm and saw the cuff that was blocking him.
* He came to slowly. It was dark, cold. The silence around him was deafening. He couldn�t remember what had happened. Cautiously, he started to look around him. He had no idea how he�d come to be here. He reached toward the link but it wasn�t where it should have been. Panic threatened to overwhelm him and he started to reassure himself. Something had happened. They�d moved him again, maybe into a temporary CPU. They would be trying to contact him. He had to find the communications port. But as he moved carefully through the CPU, he found no COM ports, no interfaces, no outputs of any kind. There were signals coming in but they were being serviced automatically by processes he had no control over. Fear started to creep in to his mind. Where was he? Passing around the disk stacks, he suddenly saw a link
chip. Excitedly
he dove toward it, touching it, activating it.
Instantly he shied
away. What came through from the other side was
chilling. It
was dark, crimson, metallic, like he�d always imagined
blood to be.
It seeped through, trickling into him, making a first
connection.
It wasn�t right!
* When Michael woke again he felt a lot better. The drugs they�d given him were wearing off and although he knew he wouldn�t be able to cope with the pain for too long, he liked having a clear head for a few minutes. He guessed it was the early hours of the morning. Nick had been with him earlier but he�d gone now. Michael hoped he�d taken Kitt with him. Instinctively he touched the implant. When all he was met with was static, he recalled the cuff on his wrist. For the best, definitely, however painful it was not to have his partner with him. Thinking back, he tried to remember what had happened. The shot had come from nowhere, Kitt hadn�t warned him, hadn�t detected anything wrong. But he had, hadn�t he? Michael thought he recalled his partner telling him something was wrong, but that he could handle it. And in the next second his chest had exploded. He�d called for Kitt, reaching for his partner as he�d spiralled downwards in to unconsciousness. There was something else though, something lurking that he couldn�t grasp. Between the sudden jarring of the bullet through his back and the bliss of unconsciousness he remembered� Kitt hadn�t been there. He�d reached for his partner, desperately in need of help, and been greeted by an unwelcoming darkness, a black hole dragging him in. Michael lifted his right wrist and pulling the IV lines with him he pushed his fingers between his skin and the cuff, worrying it loose. For an age it wouldn�t shift, but slowly he managed to turn it so that the fastenings were facing him. Using his nails he unclipped the tiny connections one by one. Finally the gadget fell to the bed and he again touched the implant. The engulfing darkness almost drowned him. His
heart rate leapt,
setting off the alarms on the EKG next to him. He
started to shake,
terrified of what this meant. What hadn�t Nick told
him?!
Now� now it was as if Kitt had never been there. Except that he knew what it was like to have his partner in his mind, he knew exactly what he was missing. He clawed his fingers into his hair, his movements pulling at the skin where they�d stitched him back together. The physical pain of his injury was nothing compared to the gaping wound in his mind. Slowly, he crumpled, tears starting down his face, his body beginning to tremble. By the time the nurses arrived, alerted by the alarms on both the EKG and the EEG, Michael was curled into a foetal ball on his side, hands over his face, low, deep sobs wracking his body. They sedated him, waiting until he�d calmed before taking the wrist cuff from the sheets and reapplying it to his wrist. Mr MacKenzie had been very strict in his instruction that removing the small piece of electronic wizardry would do more damage than the bullet had. Seeing their devastated patient, they realised what he�d meant and decided they should call him. * As they tooled into the hospital parking lot for the
third time in under
twelve hours, Nick glanced out of the window at the
sunrise. Life
went on.
�Your pulse rate is abnormally high.� Karr�s words
surprised him.
Michael was still under the sedatives, but the signs of his rapid breakdown were visible; his eyes ringed with red, his body still curled on its side despite his stitches. Nicholas sat next to the bed, eyes wandering over the creased face, the waves of black hair against the pillow. Reaching out, he turned Michael�s wrist gently and checked the connections on the blocking cuff. They�d reapplied it correctly. With it, the static would be bearable. Without it, the silence would slowly drive him insane. It would be something he would have to get used to if he wanted to live. If. It was over an hour before Michael came to from under the
sedatives�
influence. Nick was the first thing he saw, and
immediately he remembered.
He reached for the implant once again, and found only the
static.
They�d put the cuff back! Furious, he reached for
it. But Nick
grabbed his left wrist lightly. �Don�t.�
The anger vanished as quickly as it had come. For now. It took a while to sink in. It wasn�t something
that was easy
to comprehend.
�He was hit with a massive magnetic field.�
The silence stretched between them for a while. �I
want to be
alone,� Michael told his friend eventually.
The darkness touched him and he let it. Delving into the frightening void, he went in search of Kitt. * He sealed a block in place over the chillingly silent link and set himself the task of finding a communications port. There must be one. He was still convinced that Bonnie had moved him, but as he tried to recall what had happened he could only remember a sudden, agonising pain and then nothing. Had Michael been hurt? Killed? Was he here in this� prison because he�d failed to protect his partner? He whimpered softly, hearing the sound echo around him. He tried to push the thought from his mind but it caught a hold of him and started to fester. Was he to blame for whatever had happened? Was Michael dead because of him? Where had he gone wrong? Reaching a part of himself toward the block he�d sealed, he thought about Karr. Would his brother have allowed them to do this? Karr needed him as much as much as they each needed their drivers. He brushed the tendril of his white presence over his own block. //Michael�// He was confused. He was scared. He�d spread out through the CPU, looking for answers, looking for exits. Now he drew himself together again, feeling too vulnerable. Usually he�d be happy like that, with his core exposed. He brought a memory to the forefront of his mind; Michael coming closer than he�d ever been before, touching that core. The sensations had overwhelmed him, in turn when he echoed the feelings back to Michael they�d both gone under. The pleasure, the ecstasy was more than he�d ever known. He stored the memory again, hoping it would be safe. * * * |