| Scuffing his hand against the DNA reader,
Nick pushed open the front door of the barn conversion. Michael was sitting at his desk next to the ceiling-high windows, feet up, wide, flat monitor displaying nothing but a colourful screen saver of Mandelbrots fractals. He was reading from a file of loose papers, scanning one before turning back a couple of leaves. He smiled up at Nick when he dropped into the deep leather couch. "It had been a while," Nick told him by way of explaining his presence. "Six days." Nick nodded, not interested in the fact his alibi didn't hold water for a second. "Kitt around?" It was a pointless question - Karr had already answered it as they'd pulled into the sweeping driveway and the black Ferrari belonging to the AI was nowhere to be seen. Michael smiled knowingly. "Let me guess, he's giving Karr the silent treatment and you were both worried." "Something like that." "He's not around. Left about... four days ago, hasn't been back." "This doesn't worry you?" The question was largely redundant. If Michael wasn't worried, Nick had absolutely no reason to question it. "You know it doesn't. Maybe, in the past, but not now. He needs some space, we both do." "And the link?" The other man frowned. "It's like... when you switch the television off but only to Stand-By instead of turning off the power. He's there, he's just not... switched on." Raising his eyebrows but satisfied with the explanation even if Karr wasn't, Nick pushed his hands deeper into the pockets of his long coat and looked around the tasteful, comfortable if spartan decor of the barn conversion. "So where is he?" "I have absolutely no idea." ~ Dropping his pen to the metal worktop, Kitt tipped back in his chair and closed his eyes. An entirely human gesture. He didn't need to vent his frustration but he'd picked up bad habits along the way. He sat on the outside of four long metal tables arranged in a square in the centre of the warehouse, the large, impersonal space otherwise empty except for two cars and a truck. In the far corner, the jet-black Ferrari waited, silent and deadly. In front of where Kitt sat, a silver car - its smooth curves and chunky build in contrast to the sleek Italian - hummed impatiently. It was this car at which he levelled his annoyed gaze. And the car glared back, wide headlights tapering in arcs to points just above the gaping grille. "Staring at it won't help." The female voice came from the back of the truck. "It's not working." Swan rolled her eyes. "Of course it's working. It moves doesn't it? You can control it...." The roar of a powerful engine filled the vacuum of the quiet warehouse without warning and the Ferrari leapt forward, stopping with a no-less dramatic sqeual of brakes, its nose pressed into Kitt's palm from behind. He hadn't moved, hadn't turned around, hadn't taken his eyes from the silver car in front of him. But the black nose now rested against sythetic skin, engine once again silent. "I have a remote control car," Kitt told her, "I don't want another mindless vehicle." She sat up in the truck, arms crossed on the low panel. "You're trying to create life, Kitt." With a single thought he sent the Ferrari into reverse, parking it neatly back in the corner. "I was created by Wilton and Bonnie amongst others. People have children. Why shouldn't I be able to recreate myself?" It was an ethical minefield Swan wasn't about to step into. "I must have missed something." She went back to Playstation she had set up, grabbing the console and blasting the hell out of some defenceless cuboids. She was there primarily to fetch parts from various distant stores and for company, although Kitt had been so involved in his little project he'd barely spoken he her except to vent. Despite that, she wasn't about to leave. She was having fun. And she had a feeling that sooner or later she'd witness the birth of an AI as unique as Kitt himself. It was worth hanging around for. |