Agenda

by Macx

sequel to Nemesis and Echoes (those should be read first to understand this one)

Quick word from the author: the story idea was given to me by my beta reader and friend Patricia 'Vulcana' Wright. I made a few changes to it, but basically, she kicked me long enough until the foot stuck and I started to write. If you have to know: the story idea arrived in my mail box on January 25th 2000, and I started writing almost eight months later..... *embarrassed cough*
I hope you like the outcome of it all :)

Agenda
idea by Patricia Wright
written by Birgit Staebler

It was one of those little townhouses, built with brick and wood, out of the old time when the people who had lived here had built to stay. The outside looked well-kept, the bricks shining a deep, fresh red with a touch of brownish weathering. The roof was a dark brown with no signs of leakage or decay. The wooden beams shining through were almost black, and the windows were small and segmented. Curtains barred any passer-bye's view into the rather expensive little house. Three stone steps led up to the large, green front door with the brass knocker in shape of a gargoyle's head. A metal railing, painted black, was on both sides of the steps. A tiny mailbox had been attached to the wall left of the door, but it was rarely used.
The house was in a peaceful, cobblestone paved street that had long since been blocked off the tour busses' route so that the disgustingly wealthy owners had their peace and quiet every day. Trees spread their old branches over the street, bathing it in shadowy twilight. A few cars parked outside the houses that lined the street, all of them rather mediocre models. The really expensive ones were kept in well-guarded garages.
Except for one car.
It was black, a late-model TransAm, and possibly the single most expensive car this side of the Pacific. It parked outside the small house with the green door, waiting for its owner to return.
Michael Knight sat in the living room of the townhouse, an old-fashioned mug in front of him, studying the checker patterns on the simple table cloth. The whole place didn't look mightily uppity-scale. More like a normal house, with a wooden floor with a few throw rugs, an old style taste in furniture, and a sweet old lady baking pies. The sweet old lady was really here, and she did a mean apple pie, but she wasn't the average old woman. Her name was Quinn Campbell, member of the Board of Directors of FLAG, but no longer active. She was in an advisory position, but that didn't mean she couldn't throw several monkey wrenches into a plan the new Board cooked up and show them she was someone to be reckoned with.
Michael liked her. A lot. She appeared like a frail old woman, but she was made of steel. He had experienced her cut-glass comments and no-nonsense decisions before and he knew that the Board took her seriously. He didn't know how old she was, but they would have to remove her from the Board with a crowbar. She had made a lot possible for him and Kitt in the past and he owed her more than he ever could repay. He owed her his sanity, his life, Kitt's life.... everything.
"Michael, I know we rarely talk nowadays," Quinn now said, stirring her tea. She smiled at him and he automatically smiled back. "I have followed your project, the Team Knight Rider, with interest and sometimes deep regret that nothing had been done about a lot of things sooner. It had to take another major crisis to show the Board that you know what you are talking about."
Another smile. Michael sipped at the strong, almond-flavored coffee and found he liked it.
"My request for your presence here has nothing to do with FLAG or the Board directly. It is a personal request and I wouldn't make it if you weren't already aware of the situation."
He raised an eyebrow but kept his silence.
"You know of my granddaughter-in-law, Joanne?"
Michael smiled. "Yes. We have worked together for the last months. Her project is closely involved with my work and I actually asked her to work on it."
"I know the project, Michael." Quinn gave him a humorless smile. "I keep myself up to date with FLAG matters, whatever disgusting little report it is. Jo is a good girl. She does incredible work. I read your files about the encounter with Mobius, her abduction, and what he did to her."
Michael was silent for a moment. "We are trying to reverse it, Quinn," he then said calmly.
"And Jo is not happy about it. I know."
"You read it."
She smirked. "Jo is a headstrong woman and will do whatever is necessary to insure her patient's recovery. She is like that about everything. When Paul, my grandson, met her for the first time, he told me he had never encountered anyone like her before. Paul was heir to his father's money, which is a lot. He moved in the best circles and he had a lot of women courting him." Another smirk.
Michael chuckled.
"Jo was a student. She was at the top of her classes, working on her finals when they met, and she told him rather brusquely that she had no time for men unless he knew about cybernetics and robotic technologies, helping her with her studies. Paul had no idea about any of it, but he came to me and asked about it. He wanted to get to know Jo and that was through science files he couldn't even pronounce most of the words in."
Michael grinned. He knew the problem. Even through his link to Kitt he rarely had an idea what Bonnie was talking about when she went into 'tech mode'.
"Well, Jo saw right through it, called him a goof and went out with him to dinner. You know yourself that she passed her finals with flying colors, did her doctorate and later married my grandson," Quinn went on. "But you have to know that I love Jo like my own grandchild. She is a strong, but sweet woman. She is intelligent, self-aware and knows exactly what to expect from whom. When Paul died, her world collapsed. I was there for her, helped her as she helped me with my grief, and we both became stronger." She played with a biscuit, lost in her memories. "I'm sorry, Michael. I seem to be turning into one of those old, talkative ladies who knit in front of the fireplace." She chuckled.
He smiled. "I don't think that's possible."
Quinn smiled more. "Well, I can knit, in case you wondered, but it's not exactly what keeps me busy." The smile disappeared. "I have called you here for a specific reason, my friend. I know that neither you or Kitt are on the active agent list, but this is something I'd rather not turn over to any of the new agents or TKR. It's too.... sensitive."
Michael frowned, suddenly very attentive.
Quinn sighed and reached for a letter she had placed next to her cup. "Several weeks ago, I started receiving letters. An old friend of mine contacted me, telling me disturbing rumors and half-truths." She pushed the envelope toward Michael, who took it slowly. "Three weeks ago, a former friend of mine died. A very old friend. His name was Robert Chen. He was a founding member of FLAG, hired by Wilton Knight and later made one of the earliest Board members. Back at that time, long before either the KITT project or you had come into the game, the Foundation was into pure research. The human mind, cybernetics, robotic technologies. Wilton had an interest in many fields and his interest required knowledgeable people. Robert was a human biologist, a microbiologist, to be precise. His special field was the human brain. He was mainly responsible for the tests made with the neuro implants."
Michael was slightly confused. He had read about the implant and its development. Chen had never been mentioned.
Quinn smiled. "I know you haven't heard of him. His project was a well-kept secret, not only because of worries concerning rival companies. Chen's partner in this project was Peter West. Wilton hired him and made him his chief researcher into the implant project because of his immaculate background. No one ever thought of digging deeper than the surface. He had too many good credentials. But he wasn't the white hat scientist we all believed. He had shady projects and when they surfaced, Wilton kicked him out."
"What shady projects?" Michael didn't feel real good right now. Something like foreboding threatened to overcome his mind. Kitt radiated confusion.
"He tested the first chips on animals, but when those no longer were enough, he went for volunteers." Quinn studied the worn table top. "I'm not talking about Nicholas. He was the first to receive the complete implant. The one we thought safe."
"West did human experiments?" Michael exclaimed.
The implant files, those he had managed to unearth from inside the vaults, had never mentioned human test subjects before him. Then again, they had failed to inform about Nick as well. To Michael's knowledge, the chip had been constructed, computer tested, then gone through endless trial runs inside a virtual human being, a simulated brain that mirrored all functions of the real brain.
The old woman nodded slowly. "The volunteer's name was Cox. Christopher Cox. He was a young man, a former Navy SEAL, very idealistic, willing to do everything for his country, and West told him lies over lies about how this would serve a greater good. Cox had been injured while on duty and would have had to resign as a SEAL, so he grabbed the chance to become something more. I don't know all the details of what West told him, but Cox was gung-ho about the project."
"What happened?" Michael asked, mouth dry.
"The implant didn't work. At least not as predicted. Cox's neuro transmitter sat in a different place than yours and emitted much stronger signals." Quinn briefly closed her eyes. "He went crazy. That was when the experiment became public knowledge among the Board and West was fired. All of us had no idea what exactly he had done, but we all saw the result. Cox went mad. Whenever he came into contact with something electronic, his mind went into overdrive. He was no longer himself; he turned... insane."
Kitt's shock rushed through Michael and Michael himself had no idea what to say. Nick had been the first experiment, which hadn't worked immediately; then there had been Michael himself, but the chip also hadn't worked immediately. That there had been a previous human being who had been 'blessed' with this technology.....
"All files about him were destroyed or placed behind heavy locks and barriers," Quinn continued, still not meeting his eyes. "Chris himself..... he had to be away from electronic emissions. His mind was burning up and removing the chip would have surely killed him."
"Where?" Michael only asked.
"First in the Nevada desert. He was shipped from Indian reserve to natural reserves and so on. But there was always a TV set or a cell phone to drive him over the edge. Wilton set a team of technicians on the task to develop some kind of buffer. I don't know the results. Chris disappeared from one day to the next and was never seen again."
Michael was silent; waiting. Quinn gazed out of the window, then finally looked at him.
"Robert Chen was murdered in his estate, which is surrounded by the best surveillance. All had been taken out without any sign of tempering. Everything simply failed. He died through electrocution. Two days later, the head of the lab where Cox had had his surgery, was killed as well. He was riding one of the new cable cars when a power failure crashed the vehicle and killed him, as well as two other people, and injured many more."
"I heard about that," Michael commented softly, mind working in leaps.
She nodded. "Yesterday, a private jet crashed as it prepared to land on a small airport. Aboard was Peter West. Apparently, false data had been put into the computer, telling the machine to cut engines, retract the landing gear and take a head-dive into the concrete." Quinn pointed at the letter. "I received this yesterday."
Michael opened the envelope and read over the printed letter, the frown deepening. It was a simple message.
'You took what was mine. I will take what is yours. I have avenged my death, but I want life again. You have what it takes to make me whole. I will have it. You cannot stop me.'
"You think it is Cox?"
"Either him or someone who wants to be him, wants us to think he is back. Everyone who died was actively involved in West's black project. Those who were still alive."
"You want us to find him," he then said slowly.
Another nod. "You and Kitt are the best-suited to find him, Michael. I don't want to publish the facts about what you and Kitt share. If I entrust this to anyone else, they will eventually find out."
"Kyle knows," Michael argued for the sake of an argument.
Quinn smiled sadly. "And they are still in Bolivia."
That much was true.
"What is he after? What could he possibly want from FLAG? He says that you have what it takes to make him whole....."
"Cox had been destined to be part of a machine-human team. It failed. He disappeared and now people start dying. People involved in this unauthorized experiment." Quinn shrugged. "He could be after anything and anybody."
"Like Kitt..... the TKR AIs.... the FLAG mainframe." Michael's brows dipped in thought. "Who sent you this letter?"
Quinn smiled. "A trusted friend. Someone I've known for a very long time and who has never failed me."
Okay, he had to work with that. "Kitt is well-protected against intrusions, as are the TKR AIs. Nick and Karr are working with Jo, so she is protected as well."
"I trust Nicholas can keep my granddaughter safe, but I want you, and him, to know about the threat. If this is Cox, and if he has managed to control the pain and insanity, he is more dangerous than everything you have ever seen. Whatever happens, I want to rest assured that Jo is safe."
Michael nodded. "I'll inform Nick, then I'll see what I find out about these accidents."
"Thank you." Quinn drank some of her tea. "How is Nick by the way?" she abruptly changed topics.
Michael caught himself and smiled openly. "I'd like to say the same old, which he would love to hear, but he's good and has changed slightly. But never let him hear it."
"Nick has always had two personalities, the one he shows, and the one no one but the most trusted get to see."
Michael didn't even try to hide the smile forming on his lips. Quinn Campbell was one of the few people alive who knew more about Nick than the former government agent was comfortable with, and most of it she had gathered from just watching and talking to him.
The next hour was spent talking about old times, about friends, Quinn asking about Bonnie and Kitt, even about Karr, and Michael found time flew by. When he left, he again promised to look out for Jo. There was always an AI around her that would protect her fiercely. Kro wouldn't let anyone touch her the wrong way, Michael knew. The young AI was incredibly protective.
No, Jo had two very good bodyguards, three if you counted Karr.
But they were facing someone with an implant that had driven him insane in the past; someone looking for a ... partner?.... host?..... victim....?.
//Do you think it's possible?// Kitt asked, sounding disturbed.
//That Cox is alive and able to do what Quinn claims was him?//
//Yes//
Michael slid into the driver's seat. "I don't know," he said out loud. "Still, there are more things between heaven and earth...... I won't just discard it as fiction. In the last years we've had some weird cases. I'll treat it as such: a case. I have the access key codes to the Cox files, so we might want to snoop around there and see what we get."
A smile answered him, one only felt through the neuro implant. "I like snooping."
Michael chuckled. "Then let's go, pal."
"By the way, you also have a Board meeting this afternoon about the MBS shielding progress and bills."
Michael sighed and rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. I'll handle it, you get to work on digging up some information. Get me whatever you can get about the accidents and deaths of the former project members around Cox. Get me his file, everything."
"You'll have it when you get back," Kitt promised.
"Thanks, pal. Now for the Board....."

* * *

In another city, several hundred miles away from Quinn Campbell's townhouse, another member of the Campbell family lived. The house wasn't owned by her, it was FLAG property, but it had all the looks of a normal family home. It stood in a row of similar looking houses in a quiet neighborhood. A small garden front touched the street, just large enough to grow a few rose bushes and place a mailbox with a fake name. Stone steps led up to the door while next to the steps, a ramp snaked down to the garage. The house had two stories and a fully renovated basement that was a multi-functional area. The basement housed a lab and doubled as the garage for the only vehicle to park there, a silver sports car. The first floor was mainly a living room and kitchen, and stairs led to the bedroom on the second floor.
One of the two empty rooms on the second floor had been converted into guest quarters, though the 'guest' of the house rarely spent more than his sleeping hours in there. The second room was still completely empty.
The lab was in use most of the time. Dr. Jo Campbell had lost her research lab to a terrorist attack over six months ago, throughout which she had been abducted as well, and she did her work here now. It was both her home and work place, strange as it sometimes felt. Her own apartment was still hers, though FLAG paid the rent as long as she worked on this project, and she hadn't been there in ages. Michael Knight had accompanied her there when she had picked up some of her belongings, but after that, never again. She knew that someone had moved in to take care of the place, but that was about it.
Jo Campbell was an almost petite woman with long, dark brown hair, bound back into a pony tail, and dark eyes. She was a scientist, a robotics and cybernetic experts. She had been working for the Foundation for Law and Government for almost three years now, and she was mainly evaluating the data the engineers and technicians gave her on the AIs working in the field.
She rolled her shoulders and straightened from her work at the powerful computer she used to do most of her reports on. The computer was constantly online to FLAGNet, heavily secured, and she had a direct link to both Michael and Kitt if she wanted to. Sometimes, Kitt came to 'visit', and it was a pleasure to talk to him each time, she thought. She liked the AI and he was more human than some people she knew.
A grimace passed over her otherwise pleasant features and she chased the thoughts about a certain someone, where she doubted he was human at all, away. She had her work to concentrate on. That particular work was a project she alone worked on. It concerned the removal of foreign matrix material from a more recently activated AI. She had had a lot of success so far, but she also had no illusions about her future success rate. She was slowly coming to a point where she couldn't risk further 'surgery' any more. If she cut too deeply she'd risk erasing part of the original AI.
"Everything still okay?" she asked out aloud as she hit the enter key.
"I'm perfectly fine," a warm voice replied.
The status report said the same. She typed a few commands and 'KRO integrity 100%' appeared.
"Good. I'll continue with section 89 next. The moment you feel unwell, tell me, Kro."
"Of course."
Kro had come a long way, had made incredible progress, but she knew he would never be who he had been before the Jantzen matrix had been introduced into the system. The innocent little AI had died that day and all Jo Campbell could do was undo as much as possible. Jantzen had warped Kro and Kro hadn't even seen or felt it. He had been programmed for his driver and Marland Industries had believed in the matrix project, had wanted to merge a part of the driver with the AI to make them a better team. It had made them into better psychopaths, Jo thought darkly. Kro had faithfully trusted his driver while Jantzen had gone over the edge, taking the AI with him.
Still, today's Kro, the one she had treated for nearly a year now, was no more of a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer than the other AIs in FLAGs reservoir. He was more balanced, much more stable, and he didn't display any notions of wanting to go on a rampage against TKR. They both had had their encounters with the infamous Team Knight Rider, and instead of attacking, Kro had almost cowered. It wasn't what she had expected either, but he was vulnerable and frightened, and he was very much aware of it.
Jo's presence was one of the stabilizing factors, though Mobius had made sure that this presence was now forever present: Jo had been implanted. It had all started when KRO had been brought to her lab, a catatonic AI from a mutilated body shell, and whose driver was dead. She had worked with the silent CPU for weeks until she had finally received a reply. From then on, things had turned a tad more positive, until something almost catastrophic had happened: someone calling himself Mobius had stolen the AI and forced Kro to work for him. Mobius had used Jo to get the AI to cooperate, implanting a strange device into her head. Jo had not understood it back then, but now a lot of time had passed and Michael had told her what the things in the back of her neck, as well as in her ears, were. They connected her to Kro on an almost intimate level.
Two little scars had remained from the experience and several specialists at FLAG had told her the same thing: it was risky removing the nervous connectors. All they could do was switch them off or dampen them if they couldn't achieve a complete shut-down. But the metal would remain inside her. In the beginning, she had had nightmares, but now she managed. Especially since she had discovered just how much of her emotional energy transmitted into Kro.
A sudden beeping noise drew her out of her thoughts and she blinked owlishly at the com.
"You asked me to remind me of the appointment we have," Kro said.
"Appoi..... oh, damn, not the training again!" Jo muttered in disgust. Kro sent a wave of amusement through the implant and she glared at him. "I know you like it, but I hate it!
"Why?"
It was an innocent question and Jo's brows furrowed.
"Why? Because of his attitude! Kro, the man has no emotions, no social skills and he thinks he's god's gift to the neuro-implanted!"
There was a soft chuckle and Jo gave the AI a black look. "He is our teacher, Jo."
"Well, he could show some more compassion! And I'm not going to that race course today! No way!"
"It's part of our training, Jo," Kro explained reasonably.
She snorted. Yeah, right. Training. Training as what? She didn't even know why they were required to do half the things they did!
Michael had sent Nicholas MacKenzie as their teacher, apparently because MacKenzie had some idea about this strange device. She didn't know why and how, but he did. She had to grant him that: he knew what he was talking about and he had helped them understand the transmission and emissions, but he was a cold, unemotional fish in Jo's eyes. She didn't know how to take him and even though Kro told her to trust him, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Nick MacKenzie made her feel edgy.
That Kro actually trusted him was a small riddle that she had tried to solve, but the AI was strangely evasive when it came to that. All the more reason not to trust him!
"It's not part of our training to race," she now muttered.
"You have to get a feel for my car body. And I have to get a feel for it as well. Except for a few small city tours, I haven't tested the maximum of my abilities yet."
Jo sighed and shook her head. "I don't like it, okay? I just don't like it."
"You don't like Mr. MacKenzie," Kro corrected her. She glared at him, but as always, he wasn't fazed. "What he does helps us."
And what he is doesn't help my blood pressure, Jo thought darkly. Throughout her abduction by Mobius, Nicholas MacKenzie had played a helpful part in getting her back alive, but she had talked little with him later. She hadn't even seen much of him until Michael had announced he would be their teacher when it came to the transmitter in her head. Her first impression had been that MacKenzie could be handsome if he would just lose the emotionlessness in his eyes; her second had been that he was truly made of ice. While Jo had worked with all kinds of different people in the past, she couldn't find the right approach to working with him. Whatever she tried, he didn't move an emotional muscle. He was just... there. It was like he was trying to shut life out from his perception, be done with the job, and then move on to the next.
Whoever he was, Jo felt something inside of her sit on edge whenever he was around.
"He isn't human, is what he is," she said "And what he does.... I don't intend to be an agent. I want to live my life in the peaceful, quiet lab environment I'm used to."
"Nothing against that," a new voice said, making Jo nearly jump out of her skin. "But if this peaceful and quiet lab is invaded by the enemy, you have to know how to handle yourself."
Jo positively glared daggers at the approaching figure. Nick MacKenzie gave her his typical half-smile that was devoid of any real humor. Hard, blue eyes studied her like she would a lab specimen. She had never seen warmth in them, at least not directed at her. There had been strange moments throughout the last weeks when he had reacted to something, but she had never had a chance to find out what it was.
"I'm not an agent," she repeated.
"No, but you are someone who could be valuable to the other side. You are bonded to an AI that is even more valuable. Michael asked me to teach you how to protect yourself, as well as train the connection between you and Kro. And it also means learning how to really drive this car. Not just for shopping trips."
She glared again.
"And now..... we have an appointment to keep," he added pleasantly.

*

Kro looked lost and alone standing beside the old race track. The sun was already rather high in the sky, but it wasn't very warm. There were no other cars visible and judging from the weed and the appearance of the building, this race track had seen better times. The spectator seats had been disassembled and left lying in an untidy heap near the office building. At least Jo thought this was an office building. It had all the right looks.
"You sure we are at the right spot?" she asked for the third time.
"Very much so. I checked it the last two times you asked, Jo. We are where we are supposed to be."
She huffed and pushed her shades further up her nose. Who would have thought her life could take this turn? Not she, that was for certain. Almost right on the second, the black car MacKenzie called his own arrived and their 'teacher' got out. He gave Jo a smile, but she couldn't see much of humor or warmth in it. It was a pleasantry, nothing more.
"Ready?" he asked.
Jo felt her temper boil up, but she squelched it. "No. I won't race around some old track, MacKenzie."
Another smile. "I thought we had an agreement. I'm here to teach you and Kro how to work together, and that also means smoothing out your driving skills."
"I drive just fine. I have my license, never had an accident, never got a ticket."
An eyebrow rose. "You never got kidnapped, never got shot at, and were never linked to an artificial intelligence," MacKenzie countered.
Jo glared at him. "I didn't choose this life!"
"And I didn't choose to be here, Dr. Campbell. Now..... would you please get into your car and drive?"
Jo fought her temper and finally climbed into Kro, slamming the door shut.
"Ouch," Kro said softly and it drew a smile out of her.
"The guy is not human!"
"All my initial scans prove otherwise. He is very much human."
"Very funny. Ha-ha." But Jo actually smiled. She ignited the engine and eased Kro onto the track.
Jo was familiar with Kro's shell and how to drive it, but there was a difference between driving on the streets in a normal manner and driving like a maniac. She made the first few rounds on the race track getting used to the curves.
"Okay, Doctor, time to drive," MacKenzie's voice suddenly rang over the loudspeaker system inside Kro.
She flinched but refrained from rising to the challenge. The black car left the pit and went onto the track, picking up considerable speed, joining her. Jo couldn't make out MacKenzie, but she knew he was there.
"Show me what you got," the dark-haired man simply said.
She clenched her teeth and accelerated. Her pulse and adrenaline level accelerated as well. The black car passed her by and all she saw was dust for a moment, then she caught sight of the brake lights and she cursed, throwing Kro around, feeling him slide sideways. Jo heard a gasp and she knew it was her.
Kro briefly took over and rightened himself, still driving at a high speed. "Jo?"
"I'm okay," she managed. "Shit."
The black car came by again, trailing a cloud of dust, flashing its lights challengingly.
"Bastard," Jo muttered.
"He's challenging us," Kro said, suddenly excited.
"Challenge my grandmother. I'm not going to play chase!"
"It's a way to test our abilities."
"Kro, I'm not planning on being an agent. I'm quite happy being a lab head and a shrink."
"And you are good," the AI replied with conviction.
Jo chuckled, her eyes still on the black car she was chasing. Huh, she was actually chasing it. MacKenzie was probably having a field day.
"Your turn again," the hated voice now told her through the com system. "Try to get past me."
Jo muttered something uncomplimentary. "Okay, Mister, you want to see us drive? You get to see us! Kro, let's show the guy what we are made of!"
The next minutes were filled with wild maneuvers, Jo's soft curses and Kro trying to outmaneuver the black car. MacKenzie was rather good, she confessed, blinking sweat out of her eyes. She was gripping the steering wheel tightly, her legs hurt from the tension and her whole body was protesting the wild maneuvers.
Suddenly something exploded left of her. Jo screamed out of fear and surprise and twisted the wheel around. The car was spinning out of control over the curbs. It slithered toward the wall, trailing smoke and dust, twisting and turning. Jo heard herself scream more, then something threw them around, avoiding the wall by mere inches, and they came to rest on the side strip.
Everything was silent.
The silence was penetrated by pinging sounds. The engine was cooling.
And harsh breathing.
Her breathing.
Jo blinked, trying to get her racing heart and her panting back under control.
"What.... what... happened?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't detect any explosives."
"You mean a bomb went off?" Jo stared at the dash, then felt anger rise inside her. Shaking hands felt for the door release and found it. She almost fell out of the car.
The black car was parked not far from her position and she discovered MacKenzie walking toward her. Jo stormed toward him, almost seeing red.
"What the heck did you think you were doing out there?" she yelled. "You blew up a bomb next to us!"
There was an eerie calm on the man's face and she was infuriated by it even more. "I told you it was a test run."
"It was a bomb! You set off a bomb next to me!"
"Yes, and you handled yourself well until you panicked."
MacKenzie delivered the words so calmly, so.... neutrally. As if he didn't even care!
"You are insane, Mister!" Jo snapped. "You are completely out of this world! I'm going to talk to Michael about these training methods!"
"They are the standard methods for FLAG personnel with an AI partner," was the calm reply and MacKenzie even smiled. "You did well for someone who claims she doesn't know how to race drive."
"You... you....." Jo threw up her hands. "Hopeless."
"By the way, there is a second round to this test."
Jo thought she had a hearing problem. Behind her, Kro's engine came to life and the silver car rolled forward.
"You won't endanger her again!" the AI declared.
Nick stood his ground, giving the remodeled TransAm a curious glance. "I won't?"
Kro's engine growled again and he made a little lurch forward. Jo was confused, feeling something like anger course through her. It came from Kro, but in a way it felt like her own emotions, reflected back at her.
"Jo is not an agent!" the AI hissed. "She doesn't need to be trained like one. She is a doctor and she is supposed to help me, not be injured!"
"Dr. Campbell is perfectly safe inside the MBS shell, Kro," MacKenzie replied, still not moving. Jo decided he either had no idea what he was facing or he had nerves of steel. "Whatever blows up around you, she cannot be harmed."
"I'm not talking physical wounds, MacKenzie. This stops now!"
"And you have come to that conclusion how?"
"Because I say so!"
"Not good enough, Kro."
Before Jo had even time to interpret the signals coming through, Kro's engine howled and he shot forward. What came next happened very fast. The black car moved, sliding between Kro and MacKenzie. Kro collided with the driver's side at a low speed, but was stopped abruptly.
The engine of the black car rumbled and it sounded like a warning to Jo's ears. MacKenzie wasn't fazed at all. He had come within an inch of seeing Kro's underbelly, though Jo doubted her AI friend would really have run the man over. Still, he had been attacked by a formerly homicidal computer, but all that took a backseat as she stared at the other car, her jaw working to get out some words.
"You have one as well?" she finally breathed, not sure whether it was really a question or a statement.
MacKenzie didn't reply. He stared at Kro, then turned and walked over to the black car, opening the door.
"We are done here," he told her flatly and got in.
Jo flailed for words. "Wait!"
"We are going back home," MacKenzie added, not even acknowledging her words.
Jo stared at him, bewildered, feeling something she couldn't interpret coming from Kro.
"We should do as he says," the AI said, voice small and unsure.
"He has an AI in his car!" she exclaimed, gesturing at the now turning black vehicle.
"Yes."
More bewilderment hit her. "You knew?"
"Jo, please. Let's just go home. I think... I did enough damage for today."
Kro sounded so meek, so very insecure, that she forgot about her earlier anger and climbed into the driver's cabin, worry creasing her features. "Are you okay?"
Something flooded her and it felt like rage, though only directed at one person: Kro. "I attacked a human being, Jo! I don't call that okay. I call it K.R.O."
She sighed and ran her hands over the black steering wheel. "You reacted to a perceived threat. I felt threatened from MacKenzie and the emotions jumped over to you. It was my fault. I overreacted in my behavior and didn't think of you being at the receiving end."
Kro was silent for a while. "It is what Mr. MacKenzie was training us for. We failed."
She knew he was right. He had relentlessly pounded those lessons into her skull and his CPU. Control. It was all about control. If one lost it and forgot the other part, something terrible could happen. And it had today. Kro would have run over their 'teacher' if not for.... the other car.
"You knew about the other one," she now said softly, easing Kro off the track and leaving the race track compound. MacKenzie was behind them like a shadow. For once, she ignored him completely.
"Jo, please."
"Who is it?"
Kro shut up. Jo was unsure why and she listened to what was coming through the link, but there was nothing. What a time to actually work on shielding!
The journey home was done in silence, each wrapped in his or her own thoughts, and when she parked Kro in the garage, she felt the undeniable urge to walk up to MacKenzie and throttle the truth out of him. Something about the other car made Kro shut up about the AI inside. And she was sure there was an AI inside. Even a remote control wouldn't have activated the circuits that quickly.
As always, MacKenzie parked outside and walked inside. Jo was angry and hurt, and scared she confessed, and it didn't help that there were secrets kept. She tried to get her rampaging emotions under control. What had happened to the balanced scientist from a year ago? The answer was easy: she had been profoundly changed. She had been abducted, operated on, used as a hostage and nearly been killed. She had been drawn into a world she had never known that intimately before. She had always worked behind the scenes, had loved her work, but now she was in the spotlight and it was unraveling her nerves. On top of that, the continuing tension she felt, there was Nicholas MacKenzie. She wondered what had bitten Michael to ask him to train them.
Stomping up into the living room, she set her mind on the priorities: call Michael. She nearly bumped into MacKenzie, who had come out of the small kitchen, carrying a plastic water bottle. She flashed him an annoyed look, which he answered neutrally, then Jo continued upstairs to the 'office'. It was a large work area with a computer, a desk, several filing cabinets, and some general office stuff. She dialed Michael's number, but to her dismay there was only the answering machine.
Frustrated, Jo leaned against the desk, trying to sort through her emotions. Many came from Kro, she realized. There was this subdued fear she had known for most of their time together. Fear of dying; fear of being shut down for good; panic. Now, after this loss of restraint, he was close to it again. She sighed and rubbed her neck. It wasn't really a headache that crept up her skull. It was a soft drumming feeling, emitting from the neuro transmitter. Sometimes she thought she should be better at reading these signals, but Michael had told her that what she had was a very crude version of the real thing.
What real thing?
"Headache?" a voice asked and Jo nearly jumped out of her skin.
She whirled around and stared at MacKenzie, who was leaning against the door frame, smiling slightly. A part of her registered the almost genuine smile, the other thought it was mocking her.
"No," she answered brusquely and pushed past him.
She had to talk to Michael. She couldn't work with this guy. He was supposed to help her, but every time their trained, Jo felt on edge. Something ticked her off; badly. He wasn't social, he wasn't human! And he had an AI in his car.
"You should get some rest, Dr. Campbell," she heard him say behind her. "You need to relax."
Not with you around, she thought angrily. Without a word, she walked away.

*

Nick watched Jo leave and sighed softly. That had gone well. Not. A part of him understood the woman. She wasn't born to be an agent, had never wanted this life, and Mobius had forced her into a bond with a being that wasn't even human. Nick had known part of what he had gotten himself into when he had agreed to let FLAG fiddle with his brain. Michael hadn't, but he had known Kitt by the time they had bonded quite well. Jo was an outsider.
He smiled slightly to himself. His behavior aside, he liked Jo Campbell, her attitude, her stamina when it came to training, and her strong persona. He had read the file about her, had studied the reports on the link, and he knew what he was dealing with. The link wasn't as finely tuned as the neuro implants inside him and Michael would have allowed. Jo could hear Kro in her head and he received emotional energy through the neck connection. She couldn't send her thoughts and neither could Kro, but the connection existed and it gave an agent an advantage when on a mission.
Whether Michael really had her in mind for an agent was secondary for Nick. He had been sent her to train this woman and the AI to work together without hurting each other unintentionally. It meant both mental and physical training. Jo had the mental discipline to work the implant, but she wasn't very much interested in the self-defense or the driving program.
Nick sighed. Well, he could be as stubborn as she was.
You don't say> Karr remarked.
Nick got himself something to drink out of the fridge and pushed the door shut. This assignment had turned out to be more than just baby-sitting a robotics expert and teaching her a thing or two about neuro implants. She didn't have the abilities he or Michael had. She barely even managed to send signals on purpose, but what she did subconsciously was a lot. Kro was on a constant feed of her emotional energy and she could receive him just as clearly. In the beginning, Nick had severely doubted he could teach them shields. Kro was too impulsive and Jo was plain stubborn, but after the first backlash had literally lifted her off her feet, Jo had at least confessed that a shield might be a good idea.
Nick had his own room in the house, though he rarely used it. Karr usually parked outside, refusing to be trapped in the basement garage. Jo did her regular work, which was trying to undo the damage the Jantzen matrix had inflicted on the KRO programming. The neuro implants helped her, but they also hindered progress now and then. In the last weeks, Nick had seen Jo go from calm to angry within seconds, without a reason so to speak, and every time he knew he saw a flash of the old Kro. As much as the AI wanted to work with his 'doctor', there was only so much she could still do. The rest was up to Kro. If he wanted to get these flashes under control, he had to work on it himself.
Like Karr.
Nick smiled humorlessly. Yes, Kro was a bit like Karr, though Karr had never had the 'pleasure' of being mind-melted to a human being, a human who had gone insane before even meeting the AI.
No, I got teamed up with a CIA reject assassin> Karr rumbled good-naturedly. Who has an attitude problem>
Nick laughed softly. Talk about yourself>
Are you thinking on stopping the training?>
"No," Nick sighed out loud and twirled the plastic water bottle between his hands. "No, she will have to suffer through this, however long it takes. But we have to talk to her. Openly."
Nick hadn't thought it to be a good idea to mention just who the AI in his car was. Karr, or at least KARR, was well-known in FLAG circles and it might have scared Jo. Or made her cautious. Well, more cautious than she already was. Kro had no liking for Karr, which was more or less mutual, so the young AI wouldn't have spilled a word ever. But he had attacked Nick and Karr had revealed himself.
Michael is calling> Karr suddenly remarked and Nick's eyebrows rose.
Put him through on the com> "Hello, Michael," he greeted his friend over the communicator set into the laptop.
"Nick," was the reply and there was a strange tension in his voice. It wasn't enough to alarm Nick, but he was immediately alert anyway. "How is Jo doing?"
Now the alarm bells started ringing anyway. Michael received all the reports from him and Karr. "As expected from someone who hasn't had agent experience before," he said carefully. "She is quick on the uptake with the implants, but she refuses to work with me on other subjects." He let a smile worm into his words.
Michael chuckled, but it sounded strained. "Nick, I talked to Quinn Campbell this morning."
Okay, large alarm bells.
"She is concerned about her granddaughter's safety."
"Karr hasn't bitten her yet," Nick replied, sounding good-humored, and Karr gave a low rumble.
A bit of laughter answered him. "I figured as much. Listen, I'm investigating into a few sudden deaths of former or current FLAG researchers and doctors. Quinn thinks that whatever killed them might be after something FLAG made; something like an AI....."
"And because she is connected to Kro, Dr. Campbell is supposed to be a target?"
"Someone warned her to look into the matter."
Nick frowned slightly. "Someone?" he asked. "Someone who?"
"I don't know Nick. She gives me the same answer you so readily come up with when I ask you about your contacts," Michael answered with a grin.
Nick gave a snort of laughter. "Okay, okay. So Quinn wants me to keep an extra eye on her?"
"Something like it. But don't tell her. Or Kro. We don't need her unnecessarily worked up."
Now Nick really laughed. "More worked up? Oh, I think right now that's hardly possible."
Michael chuckled. "You know what I mean." There was still this strange undercurrent to his voice.
Nick was silent for a moment, then asked, "And the rest?" All humor was out of his voice.
Michael didn't say anything for a while, then sighed. "I'm not sure yet. Quinn told me some very disturbing things. I'll have Kitt transmit the data we have so far. He's still researching through old files to give me a better picture."
"Michael...." Nick said warningly. He hated it when his friend was so evasive.
A sigh. "Apparently this has something to do with the neuro implant development and experiment. Something gone horribly wrong through an unauthorized implantation and experimentation on a human being."
Nick felt his blood freeze. "Who?"
"It was before you were implanted. His name was Christopher Cox, a volunteer. He went insane because of information overload through whatever electrical current he was exposed to. Weeks ago, the only still living members of this project started dying like flies. Quinn received a letter that indirectly tells us he wants Kro. I'm not sure this is what it seems, but I take it seriously." Michael's voice was rather flat as he told the facts. "Everything you need to know, everything I know, is in the transferred files. Quinn gave me the key to the old records and Kitt is wading through them. It's not pretty."
"Give me the key."
"Nick....."
"Give. Me. The. Key," MacKenzie said coldly.
Michael was silent again. Then, "Okay. Kitt is sending it through the link with Karr. We can't have anyone else know it. Whatever you find, let me know. This is not a personal thing, Nick. It's about Jo's safety, as well as Kro's. If the killer is Cox, he is more dangerous than anyone we've ever encountered. He could be after anyone of us, you, me, our partners....."
"Acknowledged," Nick answered, voice cold.
"Nick...."
"Keep me updated," was all he answered, then flicked off the switch, terminating the connection.
Another experiment?> Karr asked, radiating darkness in waves.
Apparently. Do you have the key?>
Yes>
Transfer it to the laptop>
Karr did as ordered and the former agent sat down on the couch, playing with his half empty water bottle as he booted the laptop's Net programs.

* * *

Michael had spent the last six hours running through all the routines to keep FLAG on its toes, like talking to the staff that was responsible for FLAG's mainframe security, as well as the FLAGNet. The five men and women had given him a quick run through the usual security measures, then had agreed, after hearing of the possible threat -- without details --, to fortify all webguards. Then he had gone on to checking the data Kitt had pulled out of the archives, the police reports and whatever else his partner had been able to find.
First, Michael had studied the police reports. It was something he always did with ease, due to his former occupation, and because he was rather familiar with them from his days as an active agent. There had been nothing special about either investigation. The death of Robert Chen, 62, had been declared an accident. Electrical failure in several incidents, leading up to an unfortunate accident where the victim had touched a life wire. The coroner's report went along the same lines. Death through massive electrical discharge in the body. Peter Senobian, 49, had been on the new cable car when the car had experienced a sudden power failure and had crashed head first into the end station. Ten people critically injured, two with severe injuries, three dead. Senobian had died en route to the hospital. Trauma to the chest and head, major organ failure. Peter West, 59, had only been found in pieces. The private jet he had been on, flying from New York to Boston, had crashed because of a computer failure. The pilot and co-pilot, as well as a secretary and a steward, had died as well. The investigation was still ongoing because of possible short-comings of the company that had constructed and installed the auto-pilot and all related systems.
Michael drummed his fingers on the files. Were those really accidents or had Cox been part of it? All looked perfectly well like any other accident. Planes crashed, people died in traffic accidents, power failures happened..... Still, all had been part of the same research project, all had been involved in West's black operation.
Checking the time, he then rose and grabbed his black duster. He had an appointment to keep. Maybe it would shed some more light.

* * *

Jo had slammed the door after her, pacing the length of the generously spaced room. It was decorated in light colors, giving it a sunny appearance. She had little personal details in here. Jo didn't think she'd really spend much more time in this house. And after this argument, she knew she had to talk to Michael. It didn't work and it wouldn't work in the future.
::Jo?::
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Her anger had reflected back on Kro and he was carefully trying to contact her. The light tingle in the back of her neck told her stories.
"Sorry," she replied. "I didn't want to have you experience it as well."
::Well, I did. And it's me who has to apologize. I ruined everything because I had no control of my temper::
Jo shook her head and played with a pen as she paced around the room. "You had no control over it. I flooded you and you only reacted."
::If we could control the shields, it wouldn't have happened::
There. She was reminded again why MacKenzie was here, but the man was so infuriating, she couldn't concentrate on actually training what he tried to teach her. If he at least showed some humanity! But no, he was the Iceman.
She had to get out of her. Badly. Now! She tried to calm herself, but the more she tried, the worse it got. She needed some distance, some space, had to be somewhere MacKenzie wasn't. Jo grabbed her jacket and stormed back into the basement where Kro was waiting.
"Where are we going?" the AI asked, slightly surprised.
"Out. Somewhere." She slammed the door shut with more force than was necessary as the garage doors opened.
"We are running away?"
She smiled. "No, not really. I just want... some breathing space."
"Because of Mr. MacKenzie." It wasn't a question.
Jo sighed deeply. "Yes, because of MacKenzie. The man's not human and there is no grasping him. I can't work with him! Whenever he's around I feel so.... edgy."
Kro was silent. "I understand," he finally said.
You do? Jo thought, then concentrated on driving through the late afternoon rush hour traffic.

* * *

It looked like a hospital room. It was clean, kept in light gray and white, and there was a single bed surrounded by complicated machinery. Sunlight streamed through the window, muted because of the semi-transparent yellow curtains. The machines were silent as they went after their duty, monitoring, adjusting, keeping silent watch. The bed was a hospital issue contraption, with rails to keep the patient from accidentally getting out and hurting himself. It was occupied by a silent body.
The man was looking almost frail, though he had been broad-shouldered in his youth, the bone structure still showing how he might have looked. Now the bones were covered by leathery, whitish skin that hadn't seen sunlight in over a decade. It was wrinkled and flecked with brown spots. The man was gray-haired, looking almost like eighty years or older, even though his records said he was fifty-five. He was balding. The eyes in the withered face were open and moving, but rather erratically. The man was attached to a breather that filled his lungs with oxygen, as well as an intravenous feed that ran into a vein on his neck instead of the arm. His head was encased by a strange contraption that was also connected to a machine. It wasn't a medical device; not in the sense of the word. It helped him, but it was also his curse.
The door to the room opened and a young, blond man entered. He was dressed in street clothes and his bespectacled eyes narrowed as the sun blinded him briefly.
"Sheesh! You should have blinds instead of curtains. This is friggin' bright!"
"I like the sun," a voice whispered, sounding electronic but more human than one would expect. "I haven't felt it for so long."
"You aren't feeling it now either."
Electronic laughter. "I can imagine feeling it, Curt."
The blond snorted and checked on the monitors. His name was Dr. Curt Peerson, an icon in his field of molecular biology, a former FLAG employee and now working only for his own interests. One of those interests was the body on the bed.
"Did you find it?" the voice now asked.
"Yeah, I did. And if you hadn't insisted on warning them, I would have grabbed the girl immediately."
A chuckle. "I am fair."
"You made it harder for me to accomplish my goal."
"It's called a challenge."
Curt snorted and looked around the room. "We have to move you as well. The lab's almost done, so we can start with the transfer. The moment we have the CPU and body shell, we have a green light."
"Good. Now get her!"
Curt grimaced, aware than the wasted, frail body on the bed was completely aware of every move and gesture he made. "Yeah, yeah."
He departed from the sunny room and closed the door, leaving the man on the bed alone.

* * *

"Elaine Rabenbruck?"
The mid-fortyish woman looked up from her work and blinked owlishly at Michael. She was rather heavy-set, her blonde hair graying in patches, and the thick glasses gave her a slightly bug-eyed look. She took off the glasses and set them aside. Clearly lab goggles then.
"Yes, I am Dr. Rabenbruck. And you might be....?"
"Michael Knight, Foundation for Law and Government."
Rabenbruck's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the company's name. "FLAG? Haven't heard from you guys in a long time. Not since I quit five years ago." She walked over to him, brushing over her lab coat. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm here because of Christopher Cox."
Elaine stopped, her face taking on a strange expression. "Cox died fifteen years ago."
Michael gave her a tight smile. "Not to my knowledge. He disappeared, his body was never found. You were on the team that had been selected to try and help him back then. I need information."
She frowned. "First of all, yes, he vanished. He died, Mr. Knight. A body can disappear in the desert and never be seen again. Second, whatever we tried and failed with, it's all in the records. Read them."
"I did, Dr. Rabenbruck. I read all the records and know that your treatment failed. I also know that a lot of things never end up in the records. You were the leading doctor in this team. You were in constant contact with the patient." Michael studied the woman's pale face. "Tell me about Cox. Tell me about his abilities."
Rabenbruck turned around and walked back to her table where several pieces of metal lay. "He had no abilities. He was a wasting corpse, a mind trapped inside a paralyzed body. And this mind was insane."
"I'd call jumping into electrical systems at random an ability."
She flinched. "Wha..... what?"
"Dr. Rabenbruck, people died because of this already. I know Cox is alive, or his heritage is. Tell me what happened back then!"
The woman sank back into a chair, sighing deeply. "Cox died," she said almost to herself. "He was already dead when he arrived at the facility, but his mind... I can't say it was his consciousness or his self... something kept working inside his skull. He would access our laptops, not changing anything, but he was there. We knew it and we kept electrical appliances and devices away from him, but he was like a bloodhound and leech combined. He would find something electronic and jump. It grew worse every day."
"You never recorded any data on this."
Rabenbruck shook her head. "It was too fantastic. Like the Twilight Zone. Dr. Peerson, my assistant, said it wouldn't get us anywhere to write down these occurrences. We'd be called crazy."
Michael had read about Peerson. The man had quit soon after Cox had disappeared. He had worked for several other companies and then settled down as a neuro surgeon outside Las Vegas.
"What else isn't on the record, Doctor?" he asked. "About Cox and maybe his disappearance?"
Elaine interlaced her hands. "Most of it is in the files, Mr. Knight. Everything we refused to write down was too crazy to accept."
"Like....?" he prodded.
"I think there was a presence in our mainframe, the one we had shielded against emissions of any kind as best as possible. It was always there and in the last days before Cox disappeared, we all felt watched. I knew it was impossible for Cox to access the mainframe because of the shields. He did random jumps, he wasn't coherent anymore. Most of it was instinctive. Still..." She shook herself. "It was weird."
"You never tested Cox when he jumped?"
"Oh, we did. What we read was a weak electrical discharge, his brain fluctuating, then it was over. There was never anything permanent."
Michael frowned, thinking. "The shielding around the mainframe, what kind was it?"
"It was developed by FLAG engineers. I think it was used for AI CPU protection at the time and probably still is." Elaine shrugged.
"Thank you for your time, Dr. Rabenbruck," Michael suddenly said. "It was most helpful."
Elaine looked slightly confused, but she shook his outstretched hand. "You're welcome, Mr. Knight."

Michael slipped into the driver's seat of the late model TransAm and Kitt left the small lab parking lot.
"What's on your mind?" the AI asked gently as they drove back to the city.
Michael chuckled. "You have to ask?"
"Talking helps," Kitt answered.
Yes, it did.
"You think Cox was in the mainframe, that he breached the security without them knowing it," he went on. "You believe that he mastered this ability."
"Something like it, yes. He kept them occupied with those little tricks while he scoured the mainframe for information. Still, he must have had a helper to move. He was a dead weight in the bed, even if his mind was quite agile."
Michael drummed the steering wheel thoughtfully.
"It also scares me to think what he was able to do: enter a highly protected CPU. If he could do it then... what can he do now?"
Kitt was silent, thoughtful. "He could enter my CPU," he then answered slowly.
"Exactly. And Karr's....." Michael added, equally thoughtful. "Though an AI core is more protected than a simple mainframe."
"The shields and blocks we have erected because of the link add to that as well," Kitt told him. "Breaching my most inner core would be a large enterprise: almost impossible, I dare say."
"Almost, pal. I'm afraid what would happen if he succeeded."
"He's not after me or Karr, Michael," Kitt said calmly.
Michael nodded, gaze slightly unfocused as he drove through the traffic. Kitt took over to insure they arrived without violating any traffic laws, but Michael didn't even register it.
"FLAG then? He might try to get into the main computer and destroy the Foundation. He wants revenge."
"It's possible," Kitt conceded.
Michael sighed. But why wasn't he convinced?

* * *

The day had turned into evening and the light was already turning a shade more orange-gray. It played over the simple but stylish furniture in the silent house, touching the large potted plants and bathing the opposite wall into weird patterns of light. The silence was only broken by the soft clicking sound of fingers touching a keyboard and the creak of leather as the user shifted on the comfortable couch.
Nicholas MacKenzie had spent the last six hours hacking his way through various files and records, into nets and systems that were sometimes familiar but mostly foreign ground, and he had found things. The key code Michael had given him opened a new world to Nick, a world that was frightening and fascinating in one. He knew all there was about his own implant features, about the surgery, and whatever was connected to the procedure. Reading about earlier experiments made his hair stand on end.
'File Cox-967335' suddenly appeared on his screen, the translation of a formerly encrypted data record. Nick allowed himself a smile and began to access the records.
Patient Name: Cox, Christopher
Age: 29
Medical History of previous injuries, conditions and medications:
Nick read over Cox's medical history and nodded to himself. The young soldier had been injured in the line of duty, which had rendered him unfit for further duty as a SEAL. He would have been able to serve as a regular, but SEAL duty was something special; no one wanted to be degraded like that. So he had taken the offer when West had asked him whether he would want to participate in his experiment.
There was a whole page concerning his condition upon admission, the initial diagnostic of his injury, and the lab studies. Blood cell count, electrolytes, aerial blood gases, an electrocardiogram and radiological studies. It was nothing new to Nick. His own file contained the same amount of information. Then came the treatment concerning medications given, amount and time, intravenous fluids, type and amount, as well as everything else. No news there either, though Nick frowned slightly as he discovered the amount of stimulant given to the brain, the high dose of anesthetics, as well as the various other drugs that kept the nervous system in top working order while subduing the conscious mind.
One of the doctors, West, had written his notes and then the surgical diagnosis. Finally, Nick came to the post-surgical care. That was where the trouble started. There had been hemorrhaging in the brain, a pocket of blood from a ruptured vein. The vein had been intact, but the stress had apparently taken it out while the patient was still in an artificial coma.
The frown deepened. The implant had started to function without a machine connected to it! Nick's had been dependent on Karr's side of activation. As long as Karr didn't respond to the signals, nothing would happen. For Cox, some other machine had been the activator. A note added later on suggested that any type of machinery could have started the fatal chain-reaction.
Once activated, the implant began to supply the brain with information it couldn't process. New areas 'awakened' and the stress on the still unconscious Cox grew. When he was roused out of the coma, he had woken to an insane flow of information, one he couldn't understand. Further notes told Nick that he had been subdued and put once more into a coma. West had ordered Cox into surgery once more to repair the apparently damaged implant, but he made a mistake and when Cox woke this time, he was almost immediately flooded with electrical stimuli, a raving madman who couldn't be around machines or anything electrical.
Nick shuddered.
The position of the implant was much deeper in the actual brain mass, not like Nick's near the base of the skull and closer to the spinal cord. The later implants had been placed away from the actual brain mass and only a few fine wires extended into the neuro center. The implant as such wasn't even close. Cox had been the guinea pig.
Inhaling deeply, Nick went on reading. Cox had been brought to a remote desert location where everything had been on the most primitive standards. He had learned to tolerate slight amounts of electricity, like a generator-powered lamp, but a radio or a cell phone was still too much. He was unable to communicate, learning to talk and move again, just like a little kid. The brain functions had been higher than before, but his bodily control was failing. Even after months, there was no progress. His body was abandoning him more and more while his brain was growing more and more active.
The next step had been to move the stricken man into an environment that had been shielded against every possible, electronic emission that came from all the devices around him. It had had less than the desired success.
And then Cox had disappeared.
There were reports from security and 'regular' agents of FLAG, but no one could find a trace. Christopher Cox had simply vanished, though he shouldn't have been able to even lift a finger without help!
'He had a helper', Nick thought, leaning back and gazing thoughtfully at the small laptop screen. Cox had been unable to even coordinate his movements, let alone get up without help, he wouldn't have acquired that skill overnight and walked away. Somebody had helped. That meant someone from the staff or security personnel, most likely.
Nick stretched and heard something in the back of his neck crack. He grimaced. He had been sitting in this bent-over position for the last hours and his muscles were all cramped.
"Karr, get me a list of the personnel that worked with Cox," he told the silent AI as he got off the couch, stretching his legs as well, and walked over to the kitchen.
"You think it was one of them?" Karr asked through the com line.
"Most likely. Question is, why did someone help in that early stage? Back then, Cox was nothing but a lump of flesh with an implant in his brain that was driving him insane."
And it was the question the list of employees might answer. Nick closed the fridge and poured himself come orange juice.
"Nick, you have a call," Karr informed him and there was a strange undercurrent in his voice.
"Who is it?"
"Dr. Christopher."
A smile flew over Nick's lips, a very genuine smile that most people believed he wasn't even capable of. He walked over to the portable phone and punched the 'connect' button.
"Hey, Alex," he greeted the caller, warmth in his voice.
Jo would have fainted if she had heard him.
"You sound busy," Alex replied. "New case?"
"Kind of. Still the same with a twist." It was all he wanted to say.
"Listen, I'm in the neighborhood tomorrow. You free?"
Alex Christopher had worked as a Ranger for the last eight years and had then been offered a research position with the Canadian Wildlife Research company, a government installation with major funding. While she still spent most of the year in the wilds, studying fauna and flora, she was now also traveling all over North America to talk with colleagues or hold seminars.
Nick made a few quick calculations. "I can be. When can you be here?"
"Around three or four. Got a free room for the night?"
He laughed softly. "I see what I can do. See you, Lex." Nick hung up.
Well, Dr. Campbell would be surprised, to say the least, if she wasn't burying herself in lab work again. Which reminded him.....
Dr. Campbell.
He hadn't seen her or heard anything of her in hours. It was unusual for her to stay up in her room for a prolonged time, sulking or angrily staring at the wall. She hadn't come past him either. Even when totally absorbed in something, Nick's guard was up and he heard faint footsteps around the house.
"Karr? Check on Kro," he said into the empty air as he drank some of the juice.
"Kro has left the building," came the answer a second later.
Nick closed his eyes and shook his head. "Dr. Campbell, you cost me nerves," he muttered. "Karr, why didn't you tell me?"
He expected an answer along the lines of 'You didn't tell me', but there was a tad of hesitation. Nick frowned.
"I had shut offmy scanners to run a self-diagnostic," Karr finally replied neutraly. "I didn't expect Kro to... run off."
MacKenzie sighed. "Get a get a scan going. I want to know where he is."
He put the glass into the sink, then unhurriedly left the house and climbed into the Stealth. Just one more annoyance when you had to play bodyguard.

* * *

Shopping.
It calmed nerves. Not so much the spending of money, which Jo usually did less freely than other women, than the simple fact that she was moving through a crowded mall, looking at all the displays. Ice cream, coffee and greasy fast food; expensive shops and book stores to lose a lot of time in; small shops with all kinds of toys and tidbits; large toystores. It was simply good to be normal, to be human, to do what everyone else did as well. She forgot about the lab, about FLAG, about MacKenzie -- especially about him -- and even about the metal in her head and neck. She was simply Joanne Campbell.
Carrying a small shopping bag that contained a new jeans and some ridiculously expensive shirts she had felt the need to buy, Jo made her way down the food court plaza where she had just sat and eaten some very unhealthy food. She wanted to check out some more stores, especially the Discovery Store and the Nature Shop. She loved to play with their little games and gimmicks.
Kro was parked in the covered parking lot and he had grumbled about having to sit here while she had fun. Jo smiled to herself as the escalator carried her to the second level. Kro had liked the training, she knew. He had wanted to drive the car body to the full extent, had wanted to show off, but when Jo had been scared out of her wits because of the bomb, he had tuned into her emotions and felt the same. Anger and fear.
They really had to work on that. Definitely. With MacKenzie. Jo groaned silently. Why him? She hadn't been able to reach Michael and she had suddenly felt stupid leaving a message. She didn't want him alarmed. She just needed to talk.
And then there was the black car.
Karr.
Kro had finally talked to her when they had cruised the highways, Jo clueless as to what to do until the sign of the Meadow Mall had drawn her attention. Joanne knew about the KARR project. It had been in her briefing when she had started to work on Kro. It had also been in her briefing when she had helped out with the other AIs she had assisted in developing. But KARR was dead, right? She had always believed in its destruction. Now it was supposed to be in that black car, driven by MacKenzie, and working for FLAG?
Her mind was wondering about those facts even now. Sitting down on a bench overlooking the center of the mall where the food plaza was visible two stories below, she placed her bags on the ground and watched people walk around her. The mall was nice, very light, with a large clear-plastic dome overhead that allowed sunlight inside. Fake plants had been hung on the white metal poles and everything was generally kept in white or clear colors.
"Kro?" she asked, her voice barely loud enough to be heard if someone had been next to her.
::Yes, Jo?:: Kro answered through the implant in her ear.
"Tell me about Karr."
Silence.
"Is it a classified project?"
::No::
"Top secret?"
::No::
"Then tell me. Who is he? Who is MacKenzie? What does he have to do with FLAG?"
Kro sighed softly. ::You ask me to tell you something even I have trouble understanding, Jo::
"Maybe, if you tell me, we understand together?" she asked with a smile.
Hesitation met her request.
"Kro?"
::Yes?::
"Do you trust me?"
A flood of emotions followed, but all led to one answer. ::You know I do::
"And I trust you to tell me the truth. MacKenzie is driving an old AI, the very first FLAG created; one that is registered in the records as 'discontinued'. Now this discontinued AI is in a car, driven by a man with an attitude problem, and he is teaching us about neuro implants. Kro, please."
Another sigh. ::Okay::
Jo settled back on the bench, eyes wandering to the skylight, the murmur of voices drifting around her, people passing her by, but she saw none of it. Her whole attention was on the voice inside her head that told her what Kro knew about Nicholas MacKenzie and Karr. Actually, most was about Karr. Nick was as much a mystery to her 'patient' and friend as he was to her.
::His files are protected. Heavily protected:: the AI told her. ::I asked Kitt about him once and he was rather cryptic. I think Kitt and Michael have known him for a long time now::
"It doesn't answer the question as to why he was chosen to teach us how to work with this implant."
::No:: Kro agreed.
Jo sighed. This was getting her nowhere. All she knew now was that Nicholas MacKenzie was Karr's driver, that the old AI was still very much alive and functional, and that no one really had a clue as to who he was.
::I remember that I confronted Karr before:: Kro said softly in her inner ear. ::I attacked him and Mr. MacKenzie because Martin wanted me to::
Not Martin again, she thought desperately. But then again, that part of Kro's past could never be completely removed from his CPU. She had cleared out almost all foreign matrix pieces, except for those that would mean destroying part of Kro's mind in the process. Fifteen percent were still there. Two or three she might still be able to remove, but everything else would always remain.
::That was before we met:: the AI added, rather unnecessarily, sounding apologetic.
Jo smiled anyway. "Before we started to work on healing you."
So MacKenzie had a past with FLAG, he was linked to Karr, and she wanted to know what it was. Michael would probably not answer her questions; then again, she could try.
Jo sighed and drew herself up from the bench, grabbing her bags. Half a year ago she hadn't even dreamed about being involved in the spy business. Now she was, not actively, but indirectly. She had been drawn into the spotlight out of the backstage area where people like her usually worked because some creep called Mobius had thought it to be fun to give her an implant. She had worked with electrodes attached to her head before, and it had been good work, but now she was forever connected to Kro.
Passing by several stores, Jo sighed softly. Not that is was bad, but it was so final, so completely out of her control. She hated things out of control.
Finally she stepped into an electronics store. She browsed through the walkman and discman offers, then passed into the CD and DVD section. Maybe if she bought something to watch or listen to, it would calm her nerves. She flipped through the new releases of movies.
"Armageddon might be good entertainment fun," a voice behind her suddenly said.
Jo could barely squelch a squeak. She whirled around and discovered none other than Nicholas MacKenzie. The man was leaning against a rack of older CDs, smiling.
"What are you doing here?!" she hissed.
"The question is, what are you doing here, Dr. Campbell?"
"I'm shopping, MacKenzie, if you couldn't follow the clues! It's called 'normal life!'. You are not my 'round the clock baby-sitter, mister!"
"That's your interpretation."
She frowned. "What?"
Nick pushed himself away from the rack. "I'm responsible for you. Dr. Campbell. It means I have to know where you are. Leaving like that doesn't help exactly."
Jo grimaced. "What happened? I'm suddenly royalty or what?" She shook her head. "Listen, I'm just shopping, so leave me alone!"
"That wasn't part of the deal."
"We never made a deal!"
"I didn't mean you and me, Doctor."
Jo stared at him, trying to read the unreadable face, then gave up. "Hopeless," she muttered.
As she walked aimlessly along the aisles, MacKenzie followed, keeping a respectful distance, but in a way she felt crowded. Finally she left the store, without buying anything, and walked along the window front. She didn't watch where she went and finally ended up in a part of the mall that was under renovation. Jo snorted in disgust and turned, glaring at her shadow.
"Why can't you leave me alone?" she muttered, not expecting an answer. She didn't get one.
As she pushed past him, Jo suddenly stopped. Two men had appeared behind them and something inside of her, something that was highly paranoid, didn't like their looks. MacKenzie apparently had the same paranoia working for him because he tensed and she was pushed behind him without a word.
And everything started to move very fast from there.

* * *

In the covered parking garage, Kro felt waves from Jo's transmitters come in. As always, part of him analyzed them, interpreted them, tried to find a way to immediately see what she was feeling. Human emotions were so complex, it dazzled his CPU. He had had great difficulties in the past and the training MacKenzie had given them had barely just begun. The training helped him, but he was still reeling when it came to the waves overloading his circuits. Some would trigger similar waves inside him and then the misinterpretations started. Because of such a misinterpretation, Kro had attacked Nick. He had seen him as a threat because of Jo's emotional rampage. A human might be able to stand the energies this created, but not an AI so young and inexperienced as Kro.
He relied on Jo. She was his stability, the balancing factor, the catalyst. If she went unstable, so did he --only on a much larger scale. It was just that the moment he lost it, the old matrix was triggered in turn and he overreacted in the worst way. There was this dark spot inside of him, out of his reach, out of his conscious mind most of the time, but there. It existed, it was him, but he was afraid of that part. This part, this little percentage of his mind, was where his old memories were still alive, where he hated those who had made him into what he had been. It was where Martin resided, where his voice whispered to him.
Kro shivered and shut down the receivers. He didn't like to shield, but it had been MacKenzie's first lesson: shields saved lives. They had to shield or live with the threat of creeping insanity. Right now, he didn't want the whispers to reach Jo. He knew it had happened before. At night, when he was alone, when she slept and her presence was nothing but a quiet pulse. Then the shadowy existence of his evil twin rose and would try to touch him.
Jo had explained to him that she was almost done with her treatment of his CPU. He knew that not all of what had tainted him could be removed and he accepted the fact, even if the now cured part shivered away from the very thought of this shadow remaining. But he had to endure it, he had to be stronger than this part, and he would live. Jo would make sure of it, had already in a way; she was part of him. Not as intricately and intimately as Michael was with Kitt, but she was there.
And she would always be there.

* * *

Nick couldn't say he was angry with Dr. Campbell, only annoyed, but he didn't show it. She was a civilian who had been thrown into a game that was slightly off scale for her. But she had to learn the rules and one was, never evade your bodyguard. There was no excuse for sneaking off and going shopping without him knowing where she was.
Now, as the four men circled them, he knew he only had a slim chance to begin with, but even slim chances were chances; and he had survived against much worse odds. His blows and kicks hit the four attackers and he did a sizable amount of damage, even though they landed some hits as well. They were good, he had to confess. Heavily built, hard muscles protecting their bodies, and they moved faster than expected. They had had training, he realized, and even though he had never let his own training slack off, Nick knew he would be tiring in time; easy prey. There was also no hope for help from the outside. They were in a remote corner of the mall, hidden from view by the construction and advertisement boards. A perfect trap.
A blow to his left temple let him stagger and he was thrown against the wooden wall that announced the opening of a new shoe store soon. He retaliated and the opponent went down, only to be replaced by another attacker. The huge man grinned, brandishing his brass knuckles. Nick ducked and the blow hit the wall behind him, splintering the wood. He rammed an elbow into the man's side and was rewarded with a snarled grunt. But the triumph was short-lived as the other two converged on him, each eager to be the first to strike.
Karr was present in his mind, handicapped by the fact that he couldn't exactly blast through the mall. Well, he could, but Karr had learned a few lessons in the last fifteen years, one was restraint even when under severe pressure, as he was now.
Another blow threw the ex-agent back and a kick into the ribs made him double over. Nick gritted his teeth, pain shooting through him. Somewhere someone screamed.
Jo Campbell.
He delivered a roundhouse kick and heard a satisfying crunching sound as bone broke under the impact. One man was permanently down, one was injured, and he had only two more goons to take out.
What he didn't count on was a fifth man, even though he should have. The fifth man appeared out of his line of sight, but Nick caught a glance of him as he whirled in his fighting dance between the remaining attackers.
The man had a gun.
It pointed at him.
And something struck toward him; something that wasn't a bullet. It was a small needle that struck him in throat. Nick immediately batted it away, but it was too late. The drug had already entered his bloodstream and it worked fast. He fell to his knees, dark veils dancing around him. Dizziness hit him badly and he briefly lost all sense of direction.
Nick gasped as he was lifted by large hand that held him by his shirt and slammed into the wall again. Stars exploded in front of his eyes. In a super-human effort, Nick brought his hands up and rammed them into the man's face, hearing a sickening crunch as the nose broke. Blood gushed over his opponent's face and he yelled, dropping MacKenzie. Nick was still somewhat aware of what was going on, hearing muffled voices, footsteps, then he was grabbed roughly and lifted. His head swam and nausea rushed through him.
"You lost," one of the men snarled.
And Nick fell into a dark pit, the light just a pinpoint at the end of the tunnel, and then it winked out. His awareness slipped and he finally slid into unconsciousness.

*

It was only because of a decade of training and self-control that Karr didn't smash through the walls. The black Stealth was completely still, not a single tremor racing through the powerful body, but in the CPU, Karr screamed in shared pain, frustration and the inability to act. Nick had a standing order not to intercept at the risk of a) human lives and b) discovery of who he was. This order was honored and it was currently getting in the way!
_Karr?
Kitt. Who else? His rage must have transmitted through the link and all the blocks usually present.
_Karr, what's wrong? Kitt asked, worry in his voice.
Karr couldn't deal with that right now. If he started to talk to Kitt, he would lose. Kitt would try to help in his gentle way and it would destroy Karr's concentration. Right now he monitored Nick, his position, and slowly eased himself out of the parking lot. He darkened the car's windows, so he wouldn't arouse suspicion, and left the covered parking.
_Karr? Answer me!
_Not now! he snapped and inserted another block.
Confusion leaked through and he felt both annoyed and pained by his own reaction. But it had to be.
The van. It was gray, featureless, with grimy windows in the back, and it just pulled away from the back entrance where delivery usually stopped. Karr followed, but in great distance, keeping contact through the homing signal Nick usually wore.
And then the homing beacon winked out. He snarled angrily to himself and inched closer to the van as it took a corner and drove through the narrow side street. He concentrated on the implant, but it was much harder this way.
The implant was a part of Nick, sitting deep inside his skull, unremovable by normal surgery, and it sent out weak impulses even when the wearer was asleep. Or in this case, unconscious. It was what Karr felt all the time, the gentle pulsing sensation of another presence close to him.
And then that went out as well.
Completely.
Karr stopped right in the middle of the alley, his insides turning as cold as a glacier, and for a full minute he had trouble thinking straight. There was nothing there, not even the slightest vibration, and if he had been human, he would have gasped for air. He felt like drowning, everything around him constricted, and a high-pitched noise escaped him, bouncing around his CPU, accelerating, growing worse. The darkness inside him grew, covering everything in cold ice, and he was fighting back a panic attack.
No!
NICK!>
Gone. He couldn't be.... gone...... No, impossible!
The missing signals only meant one thing and that was..... no.... no, no, no! If they had killed him...... the implant would have continued functioning. It was an electronic device. So.... why was the signal gone. So abruptly as well.
Karr tried to draw himself out of the ever-larger growing swamp of despair with the cold calculations, the facts, the knowledge he had of the small device in Nick's head that connected them.
A block.
He clung to that explanation. Someone had blocked them. It had happened before and it could happen again.
The engine started and Karr became slowly aware of where he was. Smack in the middle of a paper-and-garbage littered alley. He got his bearings, locked his emotions away, and left the alley.
_Karr??
Kitt's voice almost blasted his internal audio and he winced. His younger brother could be quite insistent.....
_I said not now! he shot back sharply.
_Yes, now. Something happened. Are you all right? Is Nick all right?
Karr snarled something rude and cut the link. He couldn't deal with this right now. He just couldn't. Maybe he would have answered Kitt if the link hadn't suddenly disappeared, if Nick had been simply abducted and was now lying in a van, unconscious. But the pain Karr felt from the separation, the slowly creeping madness of sitting alone in the darkness of his CPU, it was something he didn't want Kitt to feel. He had to get a grip on his emotional reaction, had to deal with the frightening coldness alone. When he was sure that nothing of it all could leak, he would contact Kitt.
When......

* * *

"Package secured."
The words echoed through the room and a figure dressed in light clothes swiveled a chair to face the screen that occupied most of the forward wall.
"Good," the man said, smiling an unnatural smile. It looked like painted, completely unreal. "Get the package to the base. We will be ready to receive it."
"What about the excess baggage?"
There was a short, thoughtful pause. "Take it along. It might come in handy," an electronic voice then whispered.
"Understood."
The speaker clicked off the com. "You sure you want him here?" he asked.
"Yes. His presence has its uses," Cox answered.
There was a sigh. "As you wish."
The man stood from the seat and left the room.

* * *

Kitt was worried; deeply worried. Karr rarely behaved hostile toward him; and if he did, it was because something very personal had hit him. There was nothing more personal than.... Nick. Almost frightened by his own imagination, Kitt tried again to get Karr to answer, but all he received was a wall into his virtual face. There were no cracks, no way to snake a tentacle of himself through, it was even more frightening than a mere dismissal with a wave of rage washing along the words.
Something was terribly wrong.
"Michael?"
His driver, busy reading material Kitt had pulled out of the files, answered immediately. "Yes, Pal?"
"Something's wrong with Nick and Karr," Kitt blurted.
The reaction came through the implant. It was a surge of emotions. //What?//
//He's refusing contact, telling me it's personal. Michael, he's.... cold... distant. It's like.... when Nick was disconnected from him after the accident//
Michael's mind whirled. Kitt waited as his partner and friend tried to contact Nick through various means, but he never got a reply. The com line into the safehouse was open, but no one picked up the phone. Michael even tried to call Kro, but he likewise didn't receive an answer.
//Where's Karr?// he finally asked.
//He refuses to give a location//
//We need to know what happened!//
Kitt sighed softly. He knew that as well. //I'll try// he then answered.
//Thanks, Pal//

Michael gazed out of the window of his office room, massaging his neck, the gray sky outside reflecting the emotions inside of him. Nick wasn't the person to go out of contact without a reason, but for Karr to slam back Kitt, to behave this hostile, there had to be a reason. In the beginning, when the first AI-human team had gone on a case, Karr had blocked Kitt because he didn't want his brother to come along, witness the 'transformation' when Karr grew colder, more into a machine. That had changed a long time ago and Karr rarely shut out Kitt.
Now he had actively refused to even let him touch, erecting a shield. That meant something was going on and Nick had no part in it. It was Karr's doing. So something had happened to his driver and he refused to cooperate with Nick's friends.
Michael sighed. He didn't need that right now! He just hoped that Kitt could get through.
As for what to do next, he had a call to make. This case had just gone from simple to complicated.

* * *

Karr sat silently in his equally silent world. No noise penetrated from the real world into that of his CPU and no noise was audible in the CPU itself. Normally there would be a soft, pulsing throb, something warm and .... alive. It would sometimes fluctuate, reach out, brush near him or even touch him. Not now. Now there was nothing but silence. Dark, cold silence.
Nick was gone.
Karr shivered and briefly turned to look at the place where the other end of the link usually was. It was like staring down a long tunnel where the lights had been knocked out and the emergency lighting was flickering, dying..... partly already dead. As he gazed down that tunnel, he became aware of the wall between them. Something had separated the link and it had nothing to do with Nick being dead. Nick was alive and hopefully well, but he couldn't breach the wall.
Running a smooth touch over the featureless wall, Karr shivered. The obstacle was cold as ice, freezing him as he brushed over it, and it hurt. Somewhere behind this was his driver, his partner, the person eternally bound to him, and he couldn't reach that special person. Years ago, this would have driven him mad. Now it only severely disturbed him, the madness hanging over him like a Damocles Sword, but it wasn't reaching for him yet. Nick was alive. That meant there was something worth living for.
A soft touch alerted him to Kitt's presence and Karr reluctantly drew away from the block.
_Yes? he asked neutrally.
_Karr, what is going on? Kitt asked, worry most prominent in his voice. _Is Nick okay?
A very good question. Nick had to be alive, but that didn't count for 'okay' if he was hurt. Karr had no idea what had happened to his driver, except that someone had taken him, abducted him, and then cut the most intimate connection there was: the neuro link.
_Nick was kidnapped together with Dr. Campbell, Karr finally said.
Shock brushed over him, then Kitt reached out. Karr evaded the touch. He wanted to be alone. It was currently the only way he could deal with his emotions.
_Don't, he warned the younger AI.
Kitt retreated, though there was now confusion permeating the worry. _Can you tell me what happened?
Karr hesitated, then sent a string of data containing what he had gathered from the brief time he and Nick had been closely connected, up until the moment the link had been blocked.
_Michael and I will help, Kitt promised. _Where are you?
Karr ran a scan on his location, not really surprised that he was parked in another alley. He had driven around the city for hours, trying to find a trace of Nick, then he had simply parked somewhere no one would immediately fall over the sports car, and he had gone into his CPU, cutting everything off. He was playing it dangerous, he knew. He should at least have left the emergency surveillance on, but he had wanted to look for Nick. He had found nothing.
_Are you coming home? Kitt asked.
A simple question he had no answer to.

* * *

San Francisco International Airport was a busy place and passenger planes took off and landed every other minutes. Outside the take-off and landing strips, next to a large hangar that was barely long and tall enough to hide the massive body, sat a gigantic plane. It was a C-5, a military transporter, one of the largest planes ever built. It was colored in subdued gray colors and had no specific markings on its belly or wings. A part of the belly platings had been taken off and wires and tubes snaked out, connecting to a dozen or more machines rolled underneath the plane. The back ramp had been lowered and people were driving boxes and crates in or out of the massive belly. Two large tubes had been connected to the fuel tanks.
The plane's name was Sky One, the mobile home of TKR, the Team Knight Rider. Currently it was being checked and restocked after a lengthy mission.
Kyle Stewart, leader of the team, stepped out from under the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist. His dark blond hair stood up in all directions and dripping slightly. He used a smaller towel to rub it dry. The sound of the com ringing broke the silence of his quarters. He sighed silently and punched the 'connect' button, but he left the vid screen off. No need for any official to see the team leader mostly naked.
"Stewart," he acknowledged.
"Kyle, it's Michael," the caller answered.
Kyle grabbed a pair of sweats and pulled them on, then sat down on his chair. He flicked on the vid screen. "Hello, Michael."
Michael's face held a serious expression, one Kyle knew only too well. A new case was waiting, one that wasn't too pleasant to start with.
"I know you just came back from a mission, Kyle, but this is urgent."
"Fire away."
Yes, they had just returned from Bolivia, their latest excursion onto foreign territory ending with some shaken AIs, a few dents and scrapes, as well as Trek demanding a vacation -- which he had gotten -- but all in all Kyle was satisfied with TKR's performance. Erika, most of all, had shown surprising streaks of team work. Without her, Kyle doubted they could have pulled off the scam they had thought up to get their mission objective.
"Three hours ago, Dr. Joanna Campbell was kidnapped," Michael began.
Kyle nearly exclaimed 'again?', but he held himself in check.
"I don't know by who exactly, but there is a suspect. Kro has disappeared, apparently to search for Jo, but he most likely was called by the kidnapper. We have lost contact with him."
"Who is the suspect?" Kyle asked matter-of-factly.
"I'd like you to come in for a meeting, Kyle," Michael evaded a direct answer. "I don't want to discuss this over a com line."
Stewart frowned, but he nodded nevertheless. "I'll be there ASAP."
"Thank you."
With that the connection was terminated, leaving a thoughtful TKR leader in his otherwise silent room.
"Something is strange," a British voice disturbed the silence and Kyle smiled.
"You are eavesdropping again, Dante. And yes, something's up." Kyle smoothed his damp hair, which still stuck out into every direction. "I'll be down in a few minutes. Fire up the engine, we'll be off as soon as I'm packed."
"Affirmative," was the, as usual, slightly stiff reply.
Kyle tossed the towel into the laundry basket and then searched for some regular clothes.
Half an hour later he and Dante were on the road to meet with Michael Knight.

* * *

Michael had to force himself not to pace. He sat in front of his computer screen, rereading the data sent by Karr over and over again. Jo had been kidnapped right from under their noses! Whoever had snatched her out of the mall, he or they had also taken out Nick in the process, which told Michael more than he would have liked to hear. To get past Nick.... you either had to be in a group or use stealth methods. Michael had had some hand-to-hand combat with Nick in the training room. He knew what the man was capable of.
Karr had reported a cut link, which created a cold hole inside Michael. Karr was cut off from his driver, though he appeared to be rather controlled, but that could change. Within a second. Karr was very dependent on Nick's continued health and living presence; without him.... No, let's not go there, he thought with a sigh.
He had called for Kyle Stewart because it was the next logical choice. He was under no illusions that he could continue this case alone. That had been a past fancy; his 'teenage years' as a FLAG agent. He had grown up and he knew that there were times when one man who could make a difference needed some back-up.
"Kitt?"
"Yes, Michael?"
"Anything on your search for more data about Cox?"
"Not really, no. Before he shut me out completely, Karr told me that Nick asked him to run a search for personnel employed to take care of Christopher Cox after the incident. I checked the list and nothing really specific came up. I have about twenty personnel files if you want to read them."
Michael shook his head, massaging his neck. "No. Look for anomalies in the perfection, pal. Get me anything to work with."
"Will do, Michael."

* * *

Kyle looked around the tastefully arranged office, his gaze finally fixed on the large floor-to-ceiling window pane that allowed an uninterrupted view over the large property stretching out behind the house. Somewhere behind those trees he knew was the ocean. He had been here often enough to know his way around the home of Michael Knight and the unofficial headquarters of TKR-based operations of FLAG. Dante was parked outside in the sunny afternoon.
"That's.... a lot, but still very little," he finally said, not turning around.
Michael Knight, seated behind his office desk, cleared his throat. "Yes, but it's all we can go on right now. We know Jo was kidnapped by unknown assailants, though I have a pretty good idea who's behind it. Kro disappeared as well, most likely following his doctor and adopted driver. Karr is currently incommunicado due to Nick's disappearance, but at least Kitt is getting a positive feed back from him. The moment we get the show on the road, Kitt can openly contact Karr and ask for his position."
"And you think he'll give it to us?" Kyle turned, looking doubtful.
Michael smiled. "Positive."
Kyle chewed on his lower lip. "If this guy Cox can do what you think he can, we are at a clear disadvantage. Our vehicles will be vulnerable to his infiltration."
The older man nodded. "I know. Which is why I can't accept that any of them accompanies whoever you chose to be the strike team. We have to rely on ourselves as human beings. The AIs can only assist to a certain point. After that, it's just us."
Kyle's eyes narrowed. "You are coming along?"
"Yes," Michael answered him. "We don't know if Cox has influence over the neuro link implant. He cut Nick off from Karr, but we don't know how." A dark shadow crossed Michael's face. "And that he was able to capture Nick in the first place tells me he knows more about us than we do about him."
Kyle understood. He had gotten to know MacKenzie some time back and he knew it would take a whole squad to neutralize the man. If Cox had managed to kidnap him as well, he had some aces up his sleeve.
"I have to talk with the team about this, see if I can get some more input. Trek and Erika aren't with us at the moment. I can recall them on a moment's notice, though."
Michael nodded. "The team selection is up to you. I'd like to meet back here in four hours. We have to move fast. Whatever is going on, it's not going to be good."
"I agree." Kyle raised his wrist com. "Dante, get a call through to Sky One. I want the team to assemble here in two hours. Inform Trek and Erika that they are on stand-by for a possible emergency."
"Understood," came the calm reply.
Kyle looked at Michael. "I think it's best if you get us the complete files on Cox. Might come in handy."
Michael slowly inclined his head. "All of you will get the fullest briefing possible."

* * *

Jo sat on the neat medical bed, eyes on the door, body tense. She had been kidnapped. Again. This was getting repetitive. If this was Mobius once more, she wondered what he wanted now. Kro again? Most likely. If this was someone else, why had she been the target?
Kro.
It all came down to that. Jo herself was no one special. Robotics experts were a dime a dozen. There were also FLAG employees more 'valuable' than her. It was Kro.
Jo sighed. Why her? She had only done her job when she had started with the removal of the foreign matrix. It had been a job like any other; nothing special. Of course, she had been proud when Kro had come out of his shell, when he had started to communicate, when he had shown signs of healing. But she had been aware that it was only a temporary assignment. Sooner or later she would be done and the next project awaited. She hadn't planned on being in the middle of a terrorist attack, of being kidnapped and implanted with some basic link to Kro. And she had never wanted to be 'trained' on how to use it, though she had convinced herself that there was no other way. It was either accept the training or endanger the AI she had so badly worked on keeping sane.
Another sigh. She wondered how MacKenzie was. He had fought hard to get her to safety, he had yelled at her to move, but she had been frozen to the spot. When she had finally moved, it had been too late. Now he was unconscious, beaten or worse, and it had been for nothing. Jo felt bad, but she couldn't allow herself to wallow in misery. She had to find a way out of here.
Her captors had thrown her into the back of a van, next to a tightly bound and blind-folded Nick MacKenzie, who had been completely out the whole time. She had watched his lifeless body bounce on the van's floor, wincing slightly. The kidnappers had finally stopped somewhere and she had been roughly pushed out of the van. It had been the last time she had seen her bodyguard.
Jo had tried to contact Kro throughout their ride, using the link to whisper his name whenever there was a loud noise from outside so the men in the van wouldn't hear her.
No response. None at all.
Dejected, feeling angry and terrified in one, she now sat in her cell, waiting for whatever was to come.
After what seemed like hours, the door opened and one of her kidnappers gestured at her to get up and follow him. Jo did so reluctantly, but she had no other choice anyway. The man led her through a corridor, then down a hall-like room, and finally she stood in a strangely furnished room. It was plated with a grayish-black material that had a dull gleam, and her steps sounded muted. In a way it was like standing on polished glass. There were two chairs and a table, both made of the same material. The table was set with dinner plates, glasses, and a basket of fruits. Her guard left her alone and she frowned.
When nothing happened for a full minute, Jo walked around, looking at what seemed to be dark windows set into the walls. The windows turned out to be holographic pictures of landscapes. Nice but in her eyes not something she would have liked in her apartment.
"Welcome, Dr. Campbell."
The voice startled her and she whirled around, looking for the owner. But she was alone. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Excuse my manners," the voice replied and suddenly the air in front of her seemed to shiver. Something materialized. It was a semi-transparent human form, a man dressed in a gray suit.
Hologram, she thought, impressed despite her situation. Not a very solid one, but detailed. She saw every little line in the pleasant features, could distinguish the hair of his eyebrows from the skin texture, and there were creases in the suit, as if he had been wearing it for some time now.
"Allow me to introduce myself. Christopher Cox." He even made a little bow. "I hope you are hungry, Doctor."
As if on cue, the door opened and an armed man, not her guard this time, walked in, setting a plate onto the table. He left again. Jo looked at the food. It looked tasty.
Cox made an inviting gesture and she decided to play along. She sat down on the chair and he did the same, though the hologram passed through the chair and then imitated a sitting position. The food turned out to be duck l'orange and it was very good, but Jo ate carefully, wondering whether it had really been such a good idea. What if it was poisoned or drugged?
"What do you want?" she now asked.
"Ah, I expected that question." Cox folded his fingers, smiling. "First of all I apologize for kidnapping you, Dr. Campbell. I'm well aware that it wasn't a pleasant experience. Second I'd like to reassure you that you are in no danger."
Jo frowned, disbelief obvious in her eyes. Cox chuckled.
"Why?" she repeated her former question.
"Because I need you as bait."
The food was forgotten. Her throat felt constricted and she wished she hadn't eaten anything at all.
Kro. It had to be Kro, she thought. Who else would come for her?
"I see it in your eyes; you know why," Cox continued. "Yes, I need the KRO CPU."
"Why?"
The hologram smiled. "The reason is quite simple actually. A new mind to live. My body is dead, Dr. Campbell. My mind isn't. But soon, it has to follow the lead of the physical shell and I will die. What I want is what should have been from the start: an infinite mind. The CPU is what I need. It's the only one of the three available minds that has the necessary outside input link to allow the transfer and hasn't been attached to a human mind for too long. The other AIs wouldn't be able to go through with my plans."
"You.... you want to overwrite his matrix with yours?" Jo asked, stunned.
"Yes. Incorporating what useful features he has. It will take time, which is why the links are so important." Cox smiled. "Because of you, he will be here soon. And because of you, he will surrender."
She shook her head, unable to find the right words. "It's murder!" she finally whispered.
"No, it's evolution. I was meant to be more. I never had the chance. Now I'll take my chance, and thanks to the Foundation's equipment, I can finally leave this wasting body behind!" Cox looked at her, the blue eyes penetrating. "Do you know what it is like to live inside your own mind? Your body unable to move? This is what FLAG did to me!"
Jo was confused. "FLAG?"
Cox laughed. "You are so naive. I know who you are, Dr. Campbell. You sit in your lab, you work with theories and possibilities, but you have never seen the real world. You only work for them to create better computers, not to create humane working conditions." He rose and approached her, and Jo tried not to flinch back. "Come, I'll show you what your employer so graciously gave me!"
Reluctantly she followed the man's lead and the doors swished open as she passed through several corridors. Finally they arrived in what seemed to be a hospital room. Cox stopped next to an occupied bed, the only bed, sadness in his eyes.
"This is me. What the Foundation made of me."
Jo felt her throat constrict at the sight of the wasting body, the leathery skin stretching over the bones, the empty face, the tubes and infusion needles.
"They gave me what you have as well: an implant. I was the prototype. I failed, but I survived," the now almost feverish sounding voice whispered. "I lived despite the madness, I learned how to control the energies racing through me. But my body paid the price. The ultimate price. All I want is my life back!"
"At the expense of another life," she said softly.
"The AI is faulty," Cox dismissed her argument. "It was never meant to be treated as you did. It is dangerous, volatile, a bomb ready to explode. I'm actually doing FLAG a favor."
Anger boiled up inside of her. "You're talking about extinguishing a life! I don't care whether you see Kro is dangerous or not, he has a right to live!"
Cox laughed. "Such energy, such conviction. Ah, I wish I had known you before, Dr. Campbell. But your arguments cannot save him. Kro's CPU is what I need and he will be mine soon."
She clenched her hands into fists. "What did you do with Mr. MacKenzie?" she finally asked, trying to focus on something else.
"Oh, don't worry. No one has touched him."
Why am I not reassured? Jo thought.
"But I if you want to, I can show you to his cell."
The door opened once more and a guard walked in, face expressionless as he gestured at her to follow. Jo glared at the hologram, then followed the armed man.

* * *

He felt something cold and hard against his face and for a moment he thought that a truck had been parked on his head. He wanted to yell at someone to park the blasted thing somewhere else, but he couldn't. Where the heck had it come from anyway? His head pounded mercilessly. He felt nauseous, but fought it down, concentrating on opening his eyes. Finally, he was able to crack the right eye. It took a few moments for the scenery to come into focus and for him to realize what it was. Stone floor. He moved, and the truck was joined by his twin brother. This was going to take some time, but he didn't have time. He tried twisting around, moving just his head to see what was happening, but there was an extremely painful lump on the back of it that made movement difficult. But he had to get up!
Nick felt consciousness creep upon him, slowly, painfully, but it was coming back. And with consciousness, memories came. His eyes snapped open once more and he forced himself to focus, to move his body, painful as it was. Getting into a sitting position was like moving through a swamp, each movement slow and hindered by lack of cooperation from his muscles.
Tranq.
They had shot him with a tranquilizer, and whatever it had been, it must have been enough to knock out an elephant -- which had then fallen on him.
Damn.
Sitting with his back against the wall, collecting his strength, Nick looked around the empty room. There was nothing there, not even a bed or a sink. It was completely featureless, gray slabs of stone, one door, no window. The light came from overhead lamps that were safely hidden behind plastic covers that had no visible screws or opening mechanisms. He smiled wryly. Someone had done his homework, it seemed.
As his body came back 'on-line', Nick became aware of something else. Something around his neck..... His fingers touched a metal contraption that had been wrapped around his neck like some kind of jewelry. A collar. What for? He ran his fingertips lightly over the cool metal that was slowly adapting to his skin temperature. It must have been fixed around his neck just recently, maybe just before he had woken.
It was smooth, it had no apparent opening mechanism, and he guessed it was removed by remote signal. It wouldn't be surprising if it was triggered to go up if someone opened it without the right access code. But what did it do?
Keep him here? Make him cooperate? Tame him?
Another wry smile.
Well, time to get his brain going and contact his partner. Karr would most likely have homed in on the implant's signal and was somewhere close by.
Karr?> he sent.
The pain slammed into him like a sledge hammer. It was as if someone was splitting his skull open, ripping his brain out strand by strand, setting it on fire. He was dimly aware of his body hitting the floor and then there was only the cold sensation of the collar against his skin. Breath come in gasps, he willed his heart to slow down, forced his eyes to open, and the world swam into a blurry vision in front of his eyes.
Shit, what had that been?
One moment he was.... trying to reach Karr..... the next.....
"Welcome to my humble home, brother," a voice whispered and Nick tensed, though he remained sitting. "I apologize for the treatment, but you interfered."
"I feel strongly about kidnapping a charge of mine," Nick answered levelly. "And being collared."
Electronic laughter answered him. "A charge. How quaint. Yes, I read that you were her bodyguard. Don't worry. Your charge won't be harmed and I will set her free soon. As for the collar, it is necessary. You are too dangerous without it."
Nick slowly pushed himself up into a standing position, smiling coldly. "Allow me to make my own decisions as to what to worry about and what not. Who are you, if I may ask?" he wanted to know, voice very polite.
"Ah, I apologize again. My name is Christopher Cox."
"I know about you, Mr. Cox."
"So you read my file. Good. We are on equal terms then."
Nick frowned and Cox laughed.
"Yes, I know about you, Nicholas, my brother. You were created by Wilton Knight, as I should have been. Your mind accepted the implant, mine rejected it."
"Where is Dr. Campbell?" Nick asked coldly.
"She is fine, don't worry."
"I want to convince myself of her 'health'."
Another laugh. "You are too dangerous, Nicholas. I won't risk my project by letting you run free." Cox sounded amiable. "I know who you are, I know of your abilities. I know how to take care of you."
Nick felt the pressure in his mind rise all of a sudden.
"I control electronics, Nicholas," Cox's voice reached his ear. "I also have access to your implant through that nice, stylish collar. Don't try reaching your partner again. It will only result in more pain. I don't want to hurt you any more, brother. You will be free when this is over. We are so alike, both created to serve, but I will rise above that. I will leave this body behind!"
Insane, Nick thought. What else was new?
Suddenly he heard the door open. He opened his eyes and winced. The light hurt his eyes and he closed them again, feeling his head throb in rhythm with his heartbeat. Then he heard a voice calling his name. It sounded familiar and his mind sluggishly tried to remember more. He opened his eyes, carefully this time, not to be blinded again.

Jo was led into the cell, and it was nothing but a cell, and nearly stopped right in the doorway. She was given a shove by her guard and stumbled a few steps forward. The door closed after her with a soft, snapping sound. She didn't really register it. All she saw was the man on the ground, curled up, eyes partially closed. Nick MacKenzie looked pale, face drawn, and there were lines of pain around his eyes and mouth. A bruise was stretching over one cheek.
"Mr. MacKenzie?" she asked and carefully went down on her knees beside him.
Blue eyes cracked open and she thought she recognized pain in them. It was the first time Jo saw anything in them anyway; anything but the distant, calculating look.
"Are you alone?" MacKenzie asked, voice so soft she nearly didn't hear him.
"Yes. What happened to you?"
"Cox happened." He closed his eyes again and she heard him inhale deeply.
Jo cautiously touched one shoulder and to her shock felt brief tremors race through the tensed muscles. "Where are you hurt?"
"Nowhere you could help with first aid," was the answer. "Cox gave me a little insight into what he can do with his powers."
MacKenzie tried to sit up and Jo helped him, watching him swallow repeatedly as if he was trying not to throw up. He managed to lean against the wall and buried his head in his hands, fingers massaging his neck and temples. When he looked up, Jo gazed into two eyes that gave her a brief window into the soul of her trainer. Whatever Cox had done, it had rattled the man, shaken him severely, and it had hurt like hell.
"How are you?" he now wanted to know.
"Fine. Scared like nothing else, but fine. Looks like I could write a book on how to get kidnapped," she joked weakly.
MacKenzie gave her a wry, tired smile. Jo found it was the first real smile she had ever seen on his face.
"Do you know why you are here?"
She bit her lower lip. "I... talked to him."
"Cox?" Suddenly there was an alertness in his eyes that surprised Jo. How could the man switch back and forth between emotional states like that? One moment he was approaching a state of humanity, then the next he was cold and calculating again.
"Yes," she answered. "Well, I talked to a hologram of the guy."
The blue eyes narrowed and Jo would have tried to get some distance between herself and the man if she didn't at least know him a bit. MacKenzie's expression looked less and less human.
"Hologram?" he echoed.
And Jo relayed her conversation with Cox to her 'bodyguard'. She told him about his plans, about the frail body in the medical bed, and his claims that FLAG had done this to him. MacKenzie gave a snort of laughter.
"What's so funny?" she wanted to know.
"FLAG didn't force him to undergo surgery," he told her, voice hard. "He volunteered."
"You know about him?!"
"Yes." Nothing else was forthcoming.
Jo gave him a hard look. "Why? How?"
Silence.
Finally, just before Jo would have gone on an angry rant, MacKenzie said, "Quinn Campbell informed Michael of a possible threat coming from Cox. I was informed through Michael in turn."
"Grandma?" she exclaimed.
"Your grandmother had received warning that you might be a target, though at the time I didn't see a connection between you and him. Cox killed the people involved in the project, but neither you nor your grandmother have anything to do with it. I failed to see the possible connection to Kro."
"You knew and I wasn't told?"
He smiled that half-smile she had come to hate because of its patronizing infliction. "What would it have changed, except to increase your paranoia?"
"I'm not paranoid, just pissed off at you most of the time!" Jo snarled.
He chuckled. "I noticed."
She sat back, arms crossed in front of her chest. "So you knew, but you decided I'm better off not knowing. Cute. Okay, MacKenzie, spill it: who is he and what does he have to do with FLAG?"
"Christopher Cox was the unlucky guy who happened to volunteer for an experiment the Foundation hadn't sanctioned. He believed he would be the first human with a chip implanted in his head that would allow him access to an artificial intelligence. He wasn't drafted, he wasn't forced. He did this knowingly. Sadly enough, the guy who operated him had circumvented the board and Cox was the first human guinea pig. The whole operation went wrong and the chip turned him into an electromagnet wave conduit; Cox was suddenly tuning into even the slightest electronic equipment. His mind went into overdrive. He turned insane."
Jo swallowed. "A human experiment?"
MacKenzie nodded. "He had a prototype in his head that wasn't in the right place in his brain, that wasn't sophisticated enough, and which hadn't been tested. But say what you want, he had signed his own fate. He had volunteered for something life-changing without checking the background facts. Cox was...."
The rest was lost in a scream. MacKenzie grabbed his head and sank to the ground, yelling in pain.

The pain sliced through his skull like a hot knife through butter. Nick couldn't suppress the anguished cry it brought with it. He grabbed his head in his hands and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. The shields that had come with the resistance against Karr's repeated, past attacks were nothing against it, weakening and threatening to break under the onslaught. Cox's attack was like a current dragging him under, hot and cold in one, dominating him, showing its power, and whatever sanity he seemed to possess, was slowly drowning.
And then it was over. The agony disappeared so quickly, Nick was afraid he'd pass out from the relief it brought. He was aware of his harsh breathing, apparently the only sound in the room, and the frantic beating of his pulse. His head throbbed in rhythm with his heartbeat and he couldn't move, his limbs leaden weights. Someone touched him, but even though his instincts screamed against the unknown touch, he couldn't fight it.
After a long time, almost eternity, he became more aware of his surroundings. They hadn't changed, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the increasing awareness and the lessening pressure in his mind. The touch had stayed for the whole time and now Nick was able to tell that his position was a bit awkward. He lay with his head and shoulders on Jo's lap, her finger brushing over his hair, gentle and reassuring. He rolled his eyes and met the wide eyes of his 'student'. There was bottomless fear in them, fear and horror and panic, all mixing into an unhealthy whirlwind of emotions.
Nick swallowed down the nausea that rose as he tried to sit up and Jo helped him wordlessly. Her gaze rested quietly on him.
"How do you feel?" she finally asked.
"As bad as I probably look," he answered, voice thankfully stable though hoarse.
"You never told me."
Nick took a second to really understand what she meant. Then he frowned. At least as much as the throbbing allowed. "Cox told you," he then stated.
Jo nodded. "He laughed about it as he tortured you, called it your blessing and your curse. You never mentioned the implant."
"You never asked."
She snorted and gave him a half-hearted glare. "So you have the same implant as I do? That's why you know so much about it, how to train the shields....."
Nick sighed and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes. "No, I don't have the same one you do. Mine's older and quite different."
Jo was silent. "Better for the worse or better for the best?"
"A bit of both," Nick answered honestly, too exhausted to shut her out. "It's sophisticated enough that it doesn't turn me into a walking nutcase like Cox, but it's not a dream come true."
"You volunteered as well?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
He gave a snort of laughter and turned his head to look at the smaller woman. "It was a job, Dr. Campbell. That came with the job."
"You took on a job that required an implant in the middle of your brain?" She shook her head. "Why am I not surprised."
Nick smiled slightly.
"So..... Cox was the prototype and then there was you?"
He raised an eyebrow.
Jo frowned in thought. "And you were intended for.... Karr?"
The same expression remained.
"But Karr's file never mentioned you. I read every record about it when I started my work for FLAG. Karr was discontinued soon after the first activation and there never was a driver."
"Implant didn't work," Nick told her, closing his eyes again. The light in the room hurt them. "It's a long story."
"Apparently." Jo fell silent. "You should have told me," she finally said.
"And it would have changed what?" Nick asked.
She sighed. "Probably nothing, but at least I wouldn't have felt like I was the only one."
"Concerning the grade of this implant, you are."
"Oh, thank you, MacKenzie. I feel like some first generation reject!"
He smiled and Jo leaned against the wall as well, chuckling to herself. They sat together in companionable silence and Nick felt the headache recede. It was getting more bearable, but the attack had opened old wounds, as well as made him aware of the fact how vulnerable he was. Cox had him under control; he hated the fact. And he had Jo in his power as well. Nick doubted that they would be released after Cox had his will, after he had Kro in his power.
"Are you married?"
His eyes flew open and he stared at the smaller woman in undisguised surprise.
Jo grinned. "Gotcha. Got a human reaction."
Nick blinked, slightly off balance by the question. There was little people could fire at him in terms of questions or accusations that would get more than maybe a simple, raised eyebrow. That question had rocked him.
"Come again?"
"You heard me. Are you married?" Jo smiled at him. "Though I have to say that I don't think you are."
Nick gave her his patented smile. "I see."
"So.... correct me if I'm wrong....?"
"Not really, no."
"What kind fo an answer is 'not really'?" the scientist asked, shaking her head. "It's either yes or no."
"As of now, there is also a third option," Nick told her with a slightly more real smile.
"Okay, not married, but in a relationship?"
"Is this leading somewhere?"
Jo shrugged. "Small talk."
"I'm not much into small talk."
"I figured."
Nick rolled his eyes to look at her from the side. Jo cracked a smile.
"Nothing much to do else," she added almost defensively. "And since I know squat about the person who's made my life hell in the last weeks, I'd like to take the opportunity to pester you."
MacKenzie laughed softly, his headache still present but receding.
Jo licked the tip of her index finger and mimed a 'score'. "Two to nothing, MacKenzie. You are losing your touch."
Nick closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. "And you are too nosey, Dr. Campbell."
Nick's mind was working feverishly on the project of how to get a message through to his partner, circumventing the implant. He had to try and contact Karr, even if it would result in more pain. Karr had to know where he was and if he timed it well, he could do it.
A plan began to form in Nick's head, a plan with only one, very agonizing outcome, but at least it gave him something to do. Jo's presence was both a distraction and, he had to confess, a comfort, but she was also a liability. He had to protect her.
This was not going to be easy.

* * *

"Your new mind has arrived."
Curt Peerson regarded the silver sports car with scientific detachment.
"Looks like it is in good shape, though only a thorough check will allow a complete analysis and confirmation oft his guess."
"Good. Kro has been instructed to cooperate fully, Curt. If he gives you any trouble, let me know."
Peerson smiled coldly, eyes still on the car. "I expect none. Now," he walked around the car, "let's start by disconnecting the mind from the body. Kro, the hood if you please."
There was a moment's hesitation, then the hood popped open with a soft 'click'. Peerson smiled more and lifted the warm metal. His gloved hands trailed over the sleek curves of the car's nose. Someone joined him wordlessly and he held out a hand to his assistant. The woman knew exactly what he wanted. They had worked together too often over the past decade for her not to.
Slowly, delicately, and ever-so carefully, Dr. Curt Peerson started to remove the CPU from the body shell.

*

Kro sat in the small world of his CPU, trembling with fear. He had nothing with which to fight back, no way of protecting himself, and even if he had, one attempt and it would cost Jo her life. She was the reason he existed, why he still functioned, she had given everything for him. Now it was his turn to repay her, even if it meant his life.
And his life was a hoax anyway. A joke. He knew he wasn't the AI from years before anymore. He had been tainted, corrupted, and he had killed. Those memories had come back, they resided painfully in the dark hole he barely dared to look at, and they were him. Another Kro. A life time ago.
Even if Jo would one day declare him finished, when there was nothing more for her to do, FLAG would never reinstate him as an operative's car. He would forever be caught in this nightmare, unable to prove himself, unable to change their opinion about him. No driver would trust him and Jo, the only person who had ever shown complete faith in him, was no operative. So when she was finished, he would be mothballed.
Kro shivered and withdrew more from the cold instruments he could feel around his perceptors. Why not sacrifice himself so the only person who had ever given him a break, a chance, could live?

* * *

Michael Knight looked around the meeting room, waiting for the last to sit down. TKR had arrived on the hour and Kyle, Duke and Jenny had simply filed into the house, the latter two curious but not asking any questions. Mission briefings usually happened aboard Sky One. For Michael to call them out to his house, there had to be something special.
"Thank you for coming," Michael said, rather superfluously he knew, because his orders were followed. "What I'm about to tell you falls under strict security, highest clearance only. Up until a few days ago, even I didn't know most of the background information."
Duke frowned but refrained from asking.
"Twelve hours ago, Dr. Joanne Campbell was taken by hostile forces and abducted," Michael continued, noting the surprised looks. "We believe the reason has to be the Kro AI."
"Figures," Duke muttered.
"What aggravates the situation is that Nicholas MacKenzie, her neuro transmitter teacher and protector, was abducted as well."
Michael laid out the facts about Christopher Cox, the unsanctioned experiments, Cox's apparent demise, and what else he had been able to find out. The three operatives gazed at him, disbelief in their eyes.
"Kro has disappeared," he finished. "But before his homing beacon went completely off-line, the last position was transmitted."
A map appeared. It showed mostly empty, industrial space. A former business mall, one that had apparently been abandoned a while ago because it was nothing but a gray blob with 'OmniFair' printed on it.
"You think that's where he is?" Jenny wanted to know.
"This is the area we lost the signal in. It fits Cox's profile. Remote location, no traffic."
"Any confirmation?"
Michael shook his head. "No, not yet."
Suddenly he flinched. He caught himself on the desk and briefly closed his eyes. Kitt's presence was suddenly omni-present, radiating relief, worry and slight hope.
"Michael?" Kyle's worried voice reached his ear.
//Kitt?//
//Karr says he had contact with Nick!//
//What?!//
He opened his eyes, gazing past his team, disbelief most prominent in them.
"Michael, what's wrong?" Kyle asked.
"Kitt says that Karr had contact with Nick....." Michael managed before going for the door.

* * *

Beast sat in the evening sun, scanners fixed on the black Stealth. Karr was silent, not twitching a wheel, and Beast felt temptation rise.
"So, lost your driver, eh?" he addressed the older AI.
No reaction.
"No idea where to find him, right?"
More silence.
"Figures. Comes with age. A museum piece like you shouldn't be allowed to function in public."
"Beast," Dante cut in, sounding a weary warning.
"Hey, it's true, Dan. He's a danger to whoever drives him. He loses his drivers." Beast added a little snicker to the last words. "Then again, no great loss either. MacKenzie is just as freaky as the car he drives."
Now a rumble came from the Stealth.
"Got anything to say, freak?" Beast asked loudly.
"Beast, leave it," Dante interrupted. "This is getting us nowhere."
"Oh, I'm getting somewhere," the black truck chuckled. "And I don't lose my driver. I'm responsible."
Domino started to laugh. "Since when?"
Beast growled. "I at least don't lose my driver to some other freak."
Karr gave an almost inaudible hiss, but didn't react in any other way.
"Got anything to say, oldtimer?"
There was nothing but silence.
Suddenly an odd noise came from Karr and Kitt's scanner missed a few beats. The younger of the two first-generation AIs had been silent throughout the taunting, but now he appeared rather disturbed. Two minutes later, running footsteps could be heard.

* * *

He had lost track of the time they had spent in here already and when Nick looked over to where Dr. Campbell had curled up on the couch, he found her asleep. A brief smile flitted over his features, then he wiped it off his lips.
He had finally arrived at a decision, and a plan, and Nick knew he would get only one chance at this and it would have repercussions. Cox would immediately strike back, but even a nanosecond was enough to send condensed information toward Karr. He knew his partner's CPU inside out, he knew the link, and he could walk the fine connecting lines blindfolded. This was only a matter of timing. Very precise timing.
Sitting back against the wall, he closed his eyes, getting a feel for the collar. It was like a dark cloud hovering above him, a hungry predator ready to strike. One false step in the wrong direction and he would be prey. Well, he was about to make that step. Nick inhaled deeply, preparing himself, though there would be. no preparing for what was to come
Okay..... let's see how fast you are.....
And it was fast.
The pain hit him like an eighteen-wheeler right between the eyes. Nick had no concept of up or down any more, he simply screamed, curling in on himself; the world around him seemed to rush by at the speed of light, a dizzying sensation that made him want to throw up. He was barely aware of the real world he was back in, the voice calling his name, the hands holding him down.
Then, mercifully, there was only darkness.

* * *

_He's alive!
The dark, slightly rough voice jolted Kitt out of his racing thoughts which were going nowhere at all. It was a small success that Karr was talking again, but it was frightening how empty and cold his brother felt. All the warmth that was inside the darker AI was bottled up, stowed away, not for anyone to touch.
Kitt had watched Karr for a while now, patiently sitting outside the block, giving him a chance to reach out, but up until now, there had been nothing. Then the tremor had raged through the other AI.
Karr had returned to the mansion on his own, parking next to Kitt, a black hole of silence. He hadn't moved, he hadn't spoke, and everyone had left him alone. That he had come back on his own, not searching for Nick alone, told Kitt more than he wanted to know. Without any lead, Karr was helpless. The dark AI hated being helpless, but he had admitted to it by coming home.
_He's alive, Karr repeated, voice cold and inflectionless. Machine-like.
Kitt shivered. Karr was back to his old self and the darkness was almost oppressive.
_Karr, the neuro transmitter signals are gone, Kitt said softly. _You cannot feel him.....
_I don't care about the signals! Karr snapped, anger swamping his voice. _He's alive, I felt him!
Kitt shook his virtual head. He had expected Karr to go haywire because of the missing transmissions, but he had lost it because of something he had supposedly felt from Nick. Phantom pain?
_What did you feel?
Instead of a verbal response, Kitt felt a sharp, cold spike bury itself in his CPU. He winced as the ice melted into a myriad of information bits, freezing him. He felt the same Karr had felt, a brief, weak signal, but it was nothing he really recognized. Kitt had touched Nick in the past, but only through Karr, and then he had felt different.
_I have his location, Karr went on.
_Karr......
_It was him! the older AI snapped.
That was the moment Michael stormed into the garage, trailing three TKR agents. "Karr, what is going on?" he demanded.
Karr felt anger rise inside him, but he reigned it in. He had trusted Michael Knight for over a decade now, trusted and accepted him.
"Nick was in brief contact with me," he said levelly. "I have his location. The contact was interrupted by artificial means."
"Artificial.... what happened?"
"I don't know."
Michael briefly looked annoyed, then turned to Kitt. "Confirmation?"
"It was a contact, Michael," Kitt answered out loud for the benefit of their guests. "But... vague. I couldn't say precisely who....."
"It was Nick!" Karr answered, voice eerily emotionless. "I received no information, only..... pain."
Michael's face was a mask of worry and equal pain. Kitt knew his friend was currently trying to decide whether to trust the only one actually able to receive signals from Nick's implant, or to call this off as a phantom reaction.
//Kitt?//
//He felt something, Michael, and it came through the neuro transmitters//
//Is he in any shape to interpret those incoming signals correctly?//
Kitt sighed softly. //He didn't go insane or over the edge. He didn't tear over the property and mow down whatever stepped in his way// he then said carefully.
Michael understood. Karr had come a long way concerning restraint and control.
"Where?" he only asked.

* * *

"OmniFair," Kyle said almost to himself, eyes riveted to the building in front of them.
OmniFair was an abandoned compound that consisted of several large fair halls, some smaller side buildings, and a lot of open space between them. Fifteen years ago, this ground had been the center point of every large fair in North America, from technology to exhibits to simple fun fairs. The endless, empty concrete parking lots were proof of that, as were the abandoned Ferris wheels and supply stores farther outside the immediate center. Five years ago, a new fairground had been built, better equipped, very modern, easier to reach by bus and rail, in the immediate vicinity of an airport. OmniFair had closed completely after a valiant struggle to attract customers with a year-round fun fair.
"Dante, anything?"
"No, Kyle. But then my sensors are blocked from most of the buildings."
Kyle frowned. Okay, not good. "Duke?"
"Beast got the same."
"Domino too," Jenny added.
He got out of the silver SUV and regarded the high buildings thoughtfully. Everything was silent, except for a few gulls circling overhead. The river wasn't far from here. Michael had joined them, silently walking over to the group of three. Kitt remained with the vehicles, scanner tracking slowly back and forth.
"So where in there is he?" Duke asked, not really expecting an answer.
Kyle gave him a grim look. "That's what we have to find out. Due to Cox's abilities, we can't rely on outside contact to any of our partners. Coms will remain here. I don't want to take any chances. We have to rely on our own instincts and training."
Kyle removed the watch, regarding it thoughtfully. Then he tossed it onto Dante's seats. The others did the same, looking slightly uncomfortable. As much as they sometimes complained about their partners, about working with AIs, each relied on Dante, Beast and Domino being there when push came to shove.
"Michael, what about the implant?" Kyle asked.
"The moment something feels funny, I'm out of there," Michael answered. "We don't know where his abilities begin and where they stop. If Cox can truly influence whatever is made of electronic parts, I'll know soon enough. If he can only jump into wire-linked electronics, then I'm okay."
Kyle nodded. Good enough. He didn't have to like risking that much, but he wouldn't argue either.
"We split up. Four buildings, four of us." He pulled out a piece of folded paper from his back pocket. "We all have plans of the fairground. We meet back at the old information center every hour. If one fails to make it, the others will remain ten minutes longer, then head for the building the missing person had been searching."
All nodded, then they headed out.
The four vehicles remained behind, watching their partners go, unable to follow because of the threat to their CPUs. And none of them liked it.

* * *

"They are here."
The leader of the carefully chosen men and women that made up the guard for the fairground buildings stood to attention as the bodiless voice echoed through the room.
"Keep them occupied," Cox ordered, smiling to himself in his electronic world as his camera eyes surveyed the fighting force.
"Yes, sir!" the leader said sharply, almost snapping a salute.
Cox smiled more. All six of these people were completely loyal, bound either by word of honor or money, though money was always the higher success factor. Gus Crown, former elite military commando, now a highly paid mercenary, also saw it as his honor to serve those who paid him well. He had chosen the other five. They were loyal. Completely.
Now they moved out and took their positions while Cox retreated from this part of the electronic net. He couldn't divert his attention too much. Soon he would be called to move into his new body and he knew the AI would put up a fight, though he expected only a little. Kro was young, he was vulnerable because of the recent treatments, and he was afraid Cox might hurt his precious doctor.
Christopher Cox had no intention of killing either of the two hostages, or any of the operatives rallying to free them. He wasn't a murderer. Those killed in the last couple of weeks had deserved it. They had hurt him, had made him what he was today, though he should be thankful for that, he mused. Because of them, he was now living a superior existence. The moment he was in the stable environment of this CPU, he would be free. He didn't plan on world domination or amassing riches. He wanted to live a live free of the wasting body, free of worrying about death. Peerson had hired a group of hackers who had set up a virtual world for him that would be downloaded into the CPU. He would exist there, forever free.
The smile grew more wistful. Yes, he should thank those butchers who had ruined his life. But he would never be able to forget the pain they had put him through, the years of threatening insanity. Part of that still lingered. No, he had taken his revenge, now it was time to move on. Jo Campbell would live to work on other AIs in need, though Kro would most likely perish. No big loss. He was tainted, weak, too young. Nicholas MacKenzie, yes, there was a brother in him. They were the same, made by Wilton Knight, abandoned to deal with the pain alone. MacKenzie had survived against similar odds as Cox, and he had bonded to an AI. Cox sighed. It had been his dream, a dream that had been shattered, but now he would move into his own artificial home. Maybe that was preferable to linking to a machine and dying in a human body.
Sliding along the electronic links he finally hovered in the lab, watching Peerson work.
Soon.

* * *

Karr had remained back at Michael Knight's house. A part of him was screaming to go tearing through the suspected location where Nick was being held, another coolly informed him that it wouldn't help his driver one single bit. He could be at OmniFair quite quickly, disregarding every single traffic regulation ever made, but for now, he had another task to master. The block between him and Nick was secretly worrying him. Someone was keeping them apart, though it didn't feel like the cuff from years ago. It was colder to the touch, more alive if he had to define it, and it seeped into his CPU. It was a slight seepage, but it worried him. He had to break this barrier from his side of the link and get to Nick; it was his job.
That Christopher Cox could apparently invade machines was another reason why coming too close to him was dangerous. Karr was still very much running along the lines of self-preservation, and this would most likely be suicide.
Feeling his way along the almost smooth block, he let his mind wander. It was a success that he was still as sane as he was now, that he wasn't breaking down, and he knew he owed it not only to a growing self-control but also to what he had been taught through his contact with Kitt. Reluctant as he would be to admit it out loud, he owed Kitt more than he could ever repay, though Kitt had mentioned something like it as well, just the other way around. Both had been vital to the other's sanity and survival, and without one, the other would be gone today. Dead or erased or shut down. Take you pick.
Karr smiled slightly, then frowned as he encountered a little irregularity in the wall. Not so smooth then. It was a start. He could work with that. Worming his way into the indenture, he wondered about their opponent. Christopher Cox had an incredible, though also very dangerous, ability. Every form of electronic life, aware or blissfully ignorant like a simple work machine, was in danger. He could ride satellite uplinks, could influence calculation processes, and he could kill. Cox was still human, but he existed in another world, a world the implant had catapulted him into and a world he had nearly not survived.
Karr stopped, virtual frown deepening.
Cox existed in a cyberworld. He was both connected to a human mind which he wanted to leave behind, and he resided in what Karr and every other AI was perfectly acquainted with. A virtual world. The world of machines. A human in a virtual world.
Karr never stopped his work of digging through the block, but part of him reached back to where his link with Kitt was, whizzing through the space at top speed.
Kitt sent a warm wave, a greeting that had an underlying tone of worry.
_I'm fine, Karr said, cutting his younger brother off before he could say anything.
Kitt blinked, slightly confused.
_I might have an idea how to fight our enemy, the other AI then said. _But it will be risky.
_Risky for who? Kitt wanted to know, tilting his head.
_Only for me and Nick.
Kitt shook his head. _I can't accept it.
_Kitt, it might be the only way. If this works, you and Michael can immediately communicate, you can get Dr. Campbell and Kro out of there. Nick can occupy Cox long enough for this rescue attempt.
_How?
Karr sent a burst of information. Conversation among AIs was a business of seconds, sometimes minutes if more had to be talked about, but what usually took an hour for humans to bring across was an amount of ten seconds max for Karr.
Kitt sat back, stunned. _This isn't just risky, it's.... insane! Karr, Nick has no experience....
_He has.
_How? No human has ever walked AI cyberspace. Virtual reality is one thing to play with, but he would fight an opponent who knows the territory.
Karr gave him a dark, slightly rueful smile. _He has it. It might be a bit rusty, but he has.
Kitt was silent for a moment, then swallowed. He had made the right connection. Back in the beginning, when Karr had not accepted the 'weak' human mind as an equal, he had fought Nick with everything he could muster. The fight had taken place in Nick's mind or Karr's CPU. It had been in cyberspace.
_Still, it's too risky, Kitt said softly.
_It's the only way I can see to beat our enemy, or at least distract him long enough for the others to get Kro and Dr. Campbell. The moment those two are safe, we can attack as well.
Yes, the moment Cox no longer had any hostages, Kitt move into cyberspace as well, helping Nick and Karr. The AIs were in no danger of being possessed by the human because of their links.
_Will you need help? Kitt finally asked, resigned to the idea that Karr and Nick would most likely try this experiment whether he agreed or not.
_I would appreciate back-up, was the reply.
Kitt nodded, smiling tightly.
Karr went back to his task of drilling a hole into the barrier.

* * *

Duke DePalma carefully opened the door leading to Hall 14, the huge numbers painted on the former fairground hall, the paint now flaking. The hall as such was huge, twice the size of Sky One's hangar, and it had large windows on the ground floor. They were all grimy, so he was unable to sneak a look inside. Duke had opted for the door at the outmost part of the hall. To his surprise it wasn't locked, but it just gave him more reason to be careful. As if a raving lunatic kidnapper wasn't enough already, he thought wryly.
Feeling naked without his com watch, unable to contact his partner, he eased himself into the semi-dark building, letting his eyes travel around. The hall must have been some kind of food pavilion once. There were several small booths at one end, tables and chairs lined up in a wide area around them. Colorful ribbons had been woven around the wood and steel constructions, some of them badly bleached through time. The other half of the hall was a giant playground for kids. Or had been. There was a large indoor sandbox, several wooden animals fixed on large, sturdy steel springs, for kids to ride on, and assorted other, old playground stuff. Signs telling the visitors where the restrooms where and which door led to what building outside hung precariously on their rusty nails.
Duke remained next to the door, very, very careful of walking into a trap. His gaze traveled to all the places where cameras might be hidden, but he found nothing. He walked almost soundlessly over to the booths and checked them. He didn't want to have any nasty surprised in case someone jumped out at him. There was no one. All was quiet.
Leaving the booths, Duke made his way over to the children's playground, feet sinking into the soft sand. There was barely any litter around, just the dust covering of the grainy ground. Suddenly he stopped, eyes narrowing. The playground was mostly a sandbox with upturned timbers, some old roots, and the wooden animals on springs. It had been created in a gently sloping pattern, small mounts of sand here or there..... and the mounts were what disturbed him.
Before Duke had any chance to think any further, sand exploded left of him and something jumped him.

* * *

Jenny Andrews had been given the assorted small side buildings that must have served as storage or personnel rooms when the fairgrounds had still been in use. There were shower rooms, now dry and defunct, the tiles already dropping off the walls; empty rooms, rooms where a lot of equipment had been shoved into, all of them covered in dust; and the locker room, which connected two buildings. The locker room was a long rectangle, endless rows of metal lockers standing in neat lines, and the small overhead windows bathing everything in a weird light. Dust and grime had blinded the windows over the last decade.
She carefully picked her way along one row. Most of the lockers were closed, but some stood open and she peeked inside. Nothing. Smiley faces laughed at her from other locker doors, and one open door had a halfway ripped off pin-up girl from an old calendar glued to it. She grimaced. There was no sound except her own, light steps as she finished the row without any interruption.
The door to the next building was unlocked and she pushed it open, standing in another shower room. Just great. There was no one here. Sighing, she turned around and made her way back the other row, leaving the building. She briefly got her bearings, then headed over to the next.

* * *

Nick woke to a splitting headache and he heard someone groan. Had to be him. His head hurt. It hurt abominably. This was almost like back when he had first connected to Karr for real, when he had been kicked out so violently that he had been out like a light. Then again, this felt worse. If that was possible. Back then, he had managed to shake off the effects after maybe two hours, with only a few lingering side effects. This felt like it was going to last for a day.
"Nick?"
Go away, he thought. Go away and let me suffer in peace.
A small part of him told him that this had to be Dr. Campbell. And Jo had to be worried. With another groan he forced his eyes to open. How long had he been out? Minutes? Hours? Or had he maybe missed an entire day?
Highly unlikely in the company they were forced to keep.
And then he frowned. He was no longer in the empty cell he had first woken in. This was vastly different. It was an expensively furnished room, the carpet so thick it most likely swallowed every step, the walls plastered with old paintings, and a fake panorama view on one wall.
"Where are we?" Nick asked, voice sounding dry and rough to his ears, trying to sit up. He was lying on a sofa.
Jo gave him a weak smile. "Back from the dead, eh? Well, after you blacked out, several guards came and brought us here."
Damn headache. He was barely able to catch a coherent thought. Nick blinked, leaning back against the cushions.
"Did it work?" Jo asked, voice tight with emotions
"I hope." He was a bit fuzzy about the details. He remembered touching Karr, an achingly familiar presence, for a fraction of a second, then he had met hell. There had been only pain.
Nick carefully touched the collar and winced. It was still there. No fun.
"It was a stupid thing to do, you know," the electronic voice of Christopher Cox suddenly said.
Jo flinched, but Nick remained perfectly calm. He actually smiled. "It was worth a try."
"You tax my patience, Nicholas. I thought you would see the need of my undertaking."
"I see that you have abducted an innocent and that you are keeping me prisoner. I wouldn't call that very 'brotherly'."
Cox laughed. It sounded tinny. "Ah, yes. But I told you that it is necessary, and it already gave birth to my success. Watch."
The fake panorama seemed to melt away and the large screen it had been on now displayed a lab facility. It was a sterile room with a few instruments, several doors leading to other rooms, and no windows. The floor and the walls were tiled with what looked like silvery-gray rubber plates. In the middle of the rubber room sat,
"Kro!" Jo breathed, taking two steps toward the screen. "No....."
"Yes, Dr. Campbell. Your charge has come here, just like I asked him." Cox sounded rather self-satisfied. "You have done a good job taming him. He will listen to your every word." His voice suddenly changed. "And he won't contradict his friend," the new voice said, sounding in every detail like Jo. "Even if I tell him that I cannot use the link because the bad Mr. Cox will hurt me if I do or if he tries to do it."
"No!" she screamed. "How dare you!"
Cox laughed, using his old voice again which sounded oddly less human than the imitated one. "I explained it to you, Dr. Campbell. It's a necessity. And in case you want to try and talk to him through the rather crude link between the two of, don't even bother. My scientists have already disconnected that particular path inside his CPU."
Jo seethed with anger. Nick stepped forward and put a hand on her arm. She snapped her head around, about to say something, but his expression let her waver, then remain silent.
"Oh, and for your entertainment while you are here," Cox went on, "I can show you your friends' rescue attempts. Looks like your little display of mutiny led them here, Nicholas. Not that they can do anything, but well, it's entertaining nevertheless."
The screen changed and split into four separate rectangles. Each showed a different building, each had a different encounter. Duke DePalma was fighting two men in camouflage clothes in what looked like a desert ground setting; Jenny Andrews was trying to climb up a stack of crates as she kicked at three rather nasty looking dogs; Kyle Stewart was trapped in a tank of water; and Michael was carefully sneaking around in a building.
"If you will excuse me now, I have an appointment with a new mind," Cox laughed and then he was gone.
"Oh my god...." Jo whispered. "No... he will kill Kro. He will kill them all!"
Nick's eyes were riveted to the scenes on the screen. "Yes, he will kill Kro, but I doubt he plans to kill the others," he said levelly.
Jo hugged herself, tears in her eyes.
Nick watched her, pity in his eyes, though she couldn't see him, and then looked back at the screens. Suddenly he felt a slight poke in his head, something so feather-light that he nearly missed it because of the still residing headache. He blinked once, then concentrated inward, to where his implant sat, but without actually activating it.
There.
Again.
A minute pressure; not from the collar but from.....
He barely even dared to think it, his breath almost hitching once.
The touch came again, a fine, almost invisible line reaching out toward him and he risk touching it. It was like a small sizzling jolt, then the familiar presence he had known for the last fifteen years was there. Very weak, almost a ghost of itself, but it was there.
Karr had... broken through the shielding!
Working from the other side, that's not a great problem> the cool, dark voice of his partner informed him. Cox never thought of cutting you off from both sides. The block only keeps you where you are>
Karr's voice was completely level, very cool and as if this had been clear right from the start.
But you can travel> Nick whispered, expecting a retaliation from the collar, but there was none.
I control the transmission now> Karr said, sounding almost smug. It might be a weak connection, but we have one>
Nick wanted to laugh in joy, which would have probably shocked Dr. Campbell into a dead faint. He reached for his partner and touched the silky darkness that was Karr's presence inside his head. Currently, it was just a tiny fraction of the real thing and he briefly yearned to feel it all, then he slammed a lid on his emotions.
The others are in trouble> he said. Cox is keeping them busy until he is done with Kro>
I understand> There was a short pause. I informed Kitt, but the others cannot risk their integrity by charging onto the fairground. Cox controls electronics. Kitt believes that whatever has even a slight uplink anywhere can be threatened by him. The block is created by a device that is uplinked to a powerful transmitter, almost like a satellite receiver>
He put a collar on me> Nick told his partner.
But there is one way to stand up against Cox on equal terms> Karr went on, sounding careful and not very enthusiastic.
Nick tilted his virtual head and sent a question.
Karr sighed. Kitt and I went through the possibilities and he believes it's risky>
And you?>
Highly risky. For you. But it has a fifty-two point seven two success rate>
Good enough for me. Spill it>
Cyberspace>
Nick was silent for a moment. Cyberspace. Virtual reality. The only ground Cox lived on, the realm where electronic impulses were transformed into a kind of matter. A space where Cox was as real as Nick was in this world.
You could get me there?>
Yes. If you want to do it, we have to act right away. Cox is preoccupied with his transfer and the guards are kept busy by TKR and Michael Knight>
Nick knew the risk of virtual reality. Whatever happened to him in this surreal surrounding, it would, in a translated sense, happen to his real body as well.
Do it> he then simply said.
Karr smiled slightly, never having doubted his decision. He snaked the tendril further through the minuscule opening, connecting to Nick, preparing to boost him into a world normally only AIs walked in.
Ready>
It wasn't a question.
This is gonna hurt, was all Nick thought as his consciousness was ripped out of his mind and flung across an artificial neural network connection. His body would simply collapse like a puppet without strings and he briefly regretted having to put Dr. Campbell through this, then he smashed into Cyberspace.

* * *

Duke sat on the ground, covered in sand, the tiny particles everywhere he didn't really want them to be, breathing hard. His heart was hammering in his chest and his adrenaline level was through the roof. Around him, two unconscious men in sandy-brown colored camouflage suits lay. A trickle of blood dripped into his right eye and he almost unconsciously wiped it away, more sand sticking to his face. The last ten or so minutes were a total blur to him. He only remembered two figures exploding out of the ground, camouflaged under the sand with their suits, charging him. Then he had simply hung on for his life, fighting them every possible way. He had won.....
"Wow," Duke muttered and tried to get to his feet.
He managed, but he swayed more or less, vision dancing in front of his eyes.
"Wow....."
The two men had been professionals, but they had apparently not expected him to fight down and dirty. He had kicked, actually bitten one, and thrown all his experience into this battle.
Duke stumbled over to the nearest of them and checked for anything he might be able to use. He discarded whatever looked like a com device and picked up their weapons. He kept a knife and two guns, the rest he packed into a bundle and decided to hide them somewhere those two couldn't reach them. If they ever managed to free themselves.
He quickly bound and gagged the men and then slowly made his way out of the fair hall. He was careful, very, very careful, but nothing else happened.

* * *

Kyle coughed up water and briefly closed his eyes. He was wet from head to toe, his lungs ached, and he felt like he had torn a muscle or two. He lay on the cold concrete, water running in small rivers around him, disappearing in the cracks. He shivered slightly. This had been close. He had broken through the floor when he had searched the building, landing in a giant vat full of stale water. He suspected it had been either a tank for fish or some kind of science project. Whatever, it had been huge, there had been a fan beneath is that had tried to suck him down, and the top had slid shut.
A trap.
What else?
Coughing some more water, Kyle finally drew himself up on his feet, though he swayed dangerously. It had been a lot of luck that he had escaped the tank. Then again, Cox might have planned the traps to be non-lethal. Kyle shook water out of his ear. If that was the case, this had been designed to keep him occupied. The others might not be better off, he thought wryly.
Leaving the building, he was hit by a cold gust of wind and he shivered. He was soaking wet and the weather didn't help either. He'd end up with a cold by the time this was over. Angrily glaring at a hapless piece of old wrapping paper that happened to float past, he went off toward their meeting point, hoping Duke, Michael and Jenny hadn't been equally unlucky with their search areas.

* * *

Jo had given a little yelp when MacKenzie had simply collapsed. She quickly checked his pulse and breathing, relieved that he was not in a kind of shock. But he was completely unresponsive, the face lax, the pupils reacting, though there was no sign of consciousness. Jo wondered whether Cox was responsible for it, but she refrained from calling out.
For a moment she wondered whether or not to try and contact Kro, then she just crossed her legs and sat next to MacKenzie. Waiting. It was all she could do anyway.
Wait and hope.

* * *

Michael dusted off his jacket, grimacing as his fingers caught in a slashed hole. The knife of his attacker had made short work of the new jeans jacket and he hated to have to explain this to Bonnie. It had been a Christmas gift, something they had bought together, and she had made him promise not to damage it anytime in the near future on some wild chase. Well, he hadn't damaged it, he thought wryly. The other guy had. Michael had sent him flying for it, and he was currently bound and unconscious, but the damage remained.
With a sigh, he made his way to the meeting point, wondering how the others had fared. The building he had searched had been a total failure. It was simply a completely empty warehouse. He still wondered where the attacker might have hidden in this empty space, but right now, he was just lucky to be still in one piece.
The former information center came into sight and Michael nearly stopped in mid-stride as he discovered the three TKR agents already present. Well, he had been a bit delayed, but he was still in the ten minutes timeframe. Kyle was wet from head to toe, his expression somewhat black, and he was trying to wring the water out of his jacket. Duke looked like he had had a major role in a revival of Dune the Movie, and Jenny's pants had seen better days. She was also nursing one hand.
"Dog nipped me," she told him when he asked. She raised an eyebrow at the ripped jacket.
"Knife," he explained. "Didn't cut me, though."
"Any success?" Kyle wanted to know, giving up on the jacket and resigning himself to dripping steadily.
"None."
"So what now?" Duke asked practically.
There was a little twitch along the neuro implant pathways and then Kitt's familiar presence touched him. Michael was startled.
//We have a little time window// the AI explained quickly without a greeting. //Nick's keeping Cox occupied in cyberspace and Karr is backing him up. The installation is underground. Entrance ways are in each building. You have to hurry. Neither can last very long!//
Michael blinked at the rush of information, then shock settled in. Nick and Karr were doing what?!

* * *

In an instant, the world had gone mad.
First there had been nothing but blackness and Nick briefly wondered if he had been blinded, then the lights came back, rushing by like some kind of simulator game, streaks of blue, white and red, merging, twisting, spiraling. Little yellow and green bubbles and stars popped up, exploding, spraying grains of light, then dying again.
Images appeared around him. First nothing but space, unknown planets rotating lazily beneath his feet, asteroids streaking by, the twin suns blazing cold heat. The space image faded and Nick almost imagined setting down with a little thud as the new landscape unfolded around him. It was incredible, awe-inspiring, and he had never thought he would see anything remotely like it. True, he had been in a kind of cyberspace years before, when he had fought off Karr, but back then, it had been nothing but vast, empty plains, maelstroms of darkness, pain and desperation, hatred and agony. Now... it was almost peaceful.
Nick took an experimental step forward, his brain rallying to work in this new environment. He was standing on some kind of platform, a walkway just in front of him. There were similar walkways all around him, as well as fantastic bridges that stretched over endless rows of buildings or snaked between towering spires. The buildings were gigantic, larger than life, and clearly made up from someone's imaging system. Nothing like this could be real. Tiny windows dotted the structures, some illuminated, but most of them dark. Nothing moved in this strange landscape.
In the distance, a mountainrange rose to meet the orange-brown sky, the peaks strangely greenish yellow. The colors here were completely off. Nick walked over the first bridge and carefully scanned for any sign of trouble. Underneath him, broad, watery bands of light flowed. They had different colors and there seemed to be something inside the water, but it was hard to determine what it was. All the rivers flowed into the same direction, some faster, some slower. Nick knew where he was, how he had gotten here, and he knew that Cox had to be here somewhere.
Passing by a reflective surface he stopped, shock racing through him. He didn't know what he had expected himself to look like in cyberspace; people usually chose their own looks when playing in virtual realities. This was unexpected, but somehow fitting. His general appearance was human, with two arms and legs and a head. The body wasn't really flesh and blood anymore. It looked smoother, without clothes but not naked in any sense, and dully reflecting the light around him. The basic color was black. If Nick had to choose a description, he would have said 'metal', but when he ran a hand over his face, it didn't feel like metal. Still, he had a robotic, metallic look. His face was no longer a real face as such either. He had two eyes, intense blue in color, but he was missing all other features. No lips, no nose, nothing. It was like someone had wrapped his lower face in a black bandage. There was no hair either, just a helmet-like addition to his head.
He still had five fingers, but they ended in sharp tips with no apparent nail structure. Just a conical shape. The weirdest part was the apparent aura around him. It was as if his shape was blurring around the edges, though when he looked at himself, he saw his sharply defined shape.
Weird.
Too weird for words.
Something touched him and his breath caught . Karr?
Yes, the presence answered and the aura rippled.
Shivering slightly, Nick continued his path. Karr was with him, bonded to this body... making him more into a hybrid Nick-Karr than Nick alone.
Probably, the Karr part told him.
Unlike in a real world, Nick seemed to cover great distances with just a few steps and from one second to the next, he was standing in front of a chasm. It was deep, completely black, and seemed to stretch endlessly from left to right, cutting a deep wound into the otherwise smooth landscape. The city was suddenly far behind him, nothing but a skyline against the strange sky. There was a single bridge leading over the abyss.
And at the ornate gate that decorated this side of the bridge, stood a person. Nick focused on the man and wasn't really surprised when he discovered that the image was almost a copy of the file picture he had seen in Cox's records. Cox stood perfectly still, looking at the mountain range, eyes traveling over the sturdy bridge, and Nick discovered that the gate was closed on this side, as well as on the other, where a similar gate sat.
"You are too late, brother," a voice suddenly startled him.
Nick's eyes narrowed and he came carefully closer to the single person. Cox looked remarkably human, except that the hair was off, too artificial, and the eyes missed the pupils.
"Though I have to congratulate you on this little maneuver. I didn't think it possible for an AI-human partnership to go these lengths. A normal mind usually balks at what it meets in cyberspace. Or when it sees itself."
A smile ran over the artificial lips, giving Cox the look of a dress mannequin come to life.
"Experience is the key word here," Nick said slowly.
"Ah, I understand. Of course, I read your file." Cox ran a hand over the metal gate and the structure seemed to melt away. "And I'm sure you understand me. This is all I have." He made an all-encompassing gesture. "A strange world, so much like nothing you could ever find outside these boundaries. But I grow weary of the limits I have in here, the danger of being purged. Over there," he pointed at the mountains, "is what I have always dreamed of. This is freedom."
"It will be murder," Nick told him levelly.
"That is your interpretation. Tell me, Nicholas, what would Kro have to expect from humankind? Distrust, hatred, possible shut-down, reformatting of his CPU...... death. I will give him an honorable death and the chance to be part of my world, merge with me, give himself up to me." Cox smiled benignly.
Nick shook his head, feeling a ripple across his mental planes. Something very familiar touched him and he smiled, though there was no visible mimicry on his face.
"I won't let it happen," he then said out loud.
"You want to stop me? Challenge me? Nick, I am far superior in here. I know this place like nothing else. This is my territory. You of all people should know never to challenge an adversary on his own grounds." Cox tsked.
Nick gave him a cold, calculating look. "And you should know that what is printed in files can never be the whole truth." He raised one hand and watched the ripples along his skin.
Cox's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say a thing. Suddenly he lashed out, his arm elongating, hands turning into claws, ripping at Nick's throat.
Nick jumped back, an easy maneuver, leg muscles propelling him up in the air and cushioning his descent. Here, in this place, only the imagination was the limit. Despite beliefs to the contrary, Nicholas MacKenzie had quite an imagination, and the abilities to match it. He felt Karr flow around him, anchor himself in the Nick part of their union. He smiled darkly.
Nick-Karr counter-attacked.

* * *

He felt disoriented and in pain, a pain spreading through every molecule of his circuitry. He couldn't move and he couldn't scream, only exist, motionless, as if paralyzed, waiting for the pain to stop. His mind reached for the other presence he knew had to be within him. But all he encountered was emptiness. Frightening, all-encompassing emptiness.
What was happening to him?
Why did he feel this pain?
Where was he?
Who was he?
Kro shivered in his CPU, aware of the other alien, dark presence that crept upon him, separated only by a thin barrier that would prove to be no obstacle at all.
::Jo?::
"Scanning pattern," a cold, inflectionless voice suddenly said.
Kro cried out in protest as something brushed over his CPU.
"Pattern recognized."
He gasped as something tore into him. The pain of before stopped and there was suddenly the feeling of getting stretched.....
"Proceeding."
"No!" Kro screamed as he recognized what was happening. Cox had hacked into him, had done this, and he was now accessing his files and starting to overwrite them.
"No, you can't do this!" he protested, a weak voice inside a torrent of streams of energy.
"Watch me," a cold, inhuman voice whispered.
And then there was only nothing.

* * *

Airvents. It had to be the airvents. Michael smiled to himself as he squeezed his tall frame through the narrow metal tunnel, following Kyle who was in the lead. Jenny was behind him and Duke brought up the read. They had entered through the building where Duke had had his sandbox adventure and had gone down the large airvent grill Jenny had discovered underneath some fake plants. The first few dozen feet it had gone straight down, then the shaft had leveled off and finally they had arrived here. The opening Kyle had found was leading directly into an empty room.
The four FLAG agents slipped silently out of the vent system, Duke and Kyle securing the door as Michael helped Jenny out.
"Clear," Duke whispered.
The corridor was stretching into two directions and Michael nodded at Kyle. They had to split up.
"Duke, you are with me," Michael decided. "We take the right side. Kyle, Jenny, cover the left. Take out whoever gets in the way. No-kill order."
They nodded and the two teams went off down the corridor.
Strangely enough, no one met them or tried to stop them. Michael and Duke arrived without further problems at a set of doors. They weren't locked and Michael briefly nodded at Duke, who readied himself. He pushed the doors open and both men moved inside.

*

A dead end.
"Figures," Jenny sighed and turned to Kyle, who simply shrugged.
They turned and went back down the corridor, continuing the way Michael and Duke had gone. From up ahead, Jenny could hear muffled sounds of fighting, then suddenly the double doors a few feet ahead exploded outward. A man in a white lab coat came flying through, connecting hard with the opposite wall. The two TKR members exchanged a look, then carefully walked into the room.
What they found was a large hangar-like area, covered in a strange padding that looked almost like dark gray rubber. It was fixed to the floor, ceiling and walls. A lot of computer equipment lined around a work station and cables and assorted tubes ran toward the center of the room, where a familiar car had been parked.
Kro.
Kro's hood had been popped open and about a dozen cables spilled out of the engine compartment. There was a visible hole in the compartment where the CPU normally sat. The car as such looked like someone had used it for spare parts. It was more or less the skeleton of the former proud sports vehicle. The microprocessor itself sat outside the car, in the middle of a knot of more wires. To Jenny, this looked like when Trek was doing one of his experiments down in the hangar.
Michael and Duke were currently busy rounding up a group of four very dazed looking individuals, all in lab coats, some wearing gloves. Using duct tape, they bound the their hands. Leaving Duke to the task, Michael walked over to Kyle and Jenny. He was carrying a gun, probably confiscated from the scientists.
"Looks like we found Kro," he remarked, "though that's not exactly what I had wished to see."
"What is it?" Jenny wanted to know, carefully looking over the high-tech equipment. She had no idea what could be used for what. It wasn't her field of expertise or even her hobby. She left everything concerning AIs to the professionals back at Sky One.
"I can only guess from my own experience," Michael answered, massaging his right hand. "But I know someone who can tell us."
He walked past the two agents and out the door, seconds later dragging the man who had taken a flying leap out of the lab, back inside.
"Dr. Curt Peerson," he introduced the dazed looking blond. "Former FLAG employee. He worked on the first neuro transmitter project."
Peerson wiped blood off his lower lip and winced. "Whatever you do now, you are too late," he told them, voice slightly accented. "Cox is already inside."
Kyle frowned. "Inside? Where?"
The blond laughed slightly and nodded at the lonely CPU. "Where he belongs."
"Where is Dr. Campbell?" Michael demanded.
"Oh, nothing happened to the woman. She was only bait."
"Where is she?" Michael repeated.
Peerson pointed at a door leading out of the lab at the far end of the hangar. Michael pushed Peerson into Duke's waiting hands.
"Take care of him. Jenny, get back to Domino and patch a call through to Sky One. We need a tech crew."
She nodded and hurried out of the lab.
Michael looked at Duke. "Can you handle them alone?"
Duke gave him a nasty looking grin. "Sure, no problem." He shoved Peerson over to his colleagues, who were so tightly bound, they couldn't move a finger.
"Kyle?"
The TKR leader nodded and both men walked over to the door.
Michael had his gun ready as he stepped into the room, Kyle covering his back. He was surprised by the sheer contrast between the sterile outside and plush, expensive decoration inside. The carpet let him sink in and his steps were swallowed completely, and the indirect light created a warm atmosphere. The warmth was erased when he discovered the two people inside. Jo had jumped to her feet, and now relief rushed over her drawn feature.
"Michael!" she breathed.
"Hey, Jo," greeted her, summoning a smile.
She appeared to be unharmed, though she was pale and looked shaky, and her hair hung in a mess around her face. What worried Michael more right now was the immobile, totally still man lying on the floor. Nick's features were slack, without life, and he appeared pale.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Aside from the kidnapping?" Jo asked, valiantly trying to strike a light tone. "I don't know. He was fine one minute, then he suddenly collapsed. He's fine, as far as I can tell, but he just won't wake."
Cyberspace. Nick was completely immersed in this virtual world, unable to feel or hear or see anything in this one.
"Kyle, check the room and then get Jo out of here," he told the TKR leader.
Kyle nodded and smiled at Jo. "Dr. Campbell....."
She hesitated. "What about Kro?"
"That is what Nick and Karr are currently fighting for," Michael told her. "Cox is preoccupied with them, so we have to get you out of here now. Jenny is calling help from Sky One to take care of Kro, but with Cox already in the system, we have to wait and see."
She swallowed. "Okay. Can I.... can I see Kro?"
"He's in the other room, but unresponsive. Kyle?"
Kyle took her gently by one arm and led her out of the room. Michael knelt down beside the still form of his long-time friend. He checked the pulse and breathing, then sat back.
//Kitt?//
//Yes, Michael?// was the immediate reply.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief. At least Kitt considered the link still safe. //Anything about Nick or Karr?//
//No, not really. I get flashes from Karr. Looks like they are fighting//
He swallowed. //Any bets on who's winning?//
Kitt was mute for a moment. //It doesn't look good// he then confessed. //Nick's good, but Cox has lived in this world for years//
Michael briefly closed his eyes, then opened them and looked around the room. His gaze came to rest on the large view screen that showed nothing but white.
//Kitt?//
//Yes?//
//Karr was the one who catapulted Nick into the virtual space, right?//
//Yes. He used his own uplink to cyberspace and drew Nick in. It's not without risk//
Michael nodded to himself. //Could you do the same?//
There was second of shocked silence. //Michael.... it's too dangerous!//
//But you could do it, right?//
//Yes// was the slow answer. //But only under protest//
//Protest noted. Kitt, we have to help them. If Cox wins this fight, we not only lose Kro, but also Karr and Nick. If I can help, I will//
Kitt sighed softly. //You have never done it before. Nick has, sort of. He knows how to fight back in this world//
//I'm a quick study. Kitt, please?//
Another sigh. //Okay//
//Tell Dante what is going on. He has to inform Kyle//
//Understood//
Michael lay down on the soft carpet and closed his eyes. //Do it//
And the world around him blanked out.

* * *

The Nick part knew he was losing, but Nick-Karr would take part of Cox with him when he went. The fight they were in had nothing of anything he had ever fought outside the cyberspace world. It was surreal, completely outside the laws of physics, gravity-defying, and it was deadly. Nursing several deep gashes already, none of them really bleeding, though some kind of liquid had seeped out, Nick-Karr watched his opponent as Cox limped away. He had hit him good, but Cox's regenerative powers were immense.
Karr's presence was more pronounced now, his darkness all-encompassing, and Nick knew that if he went, Karr would go with him. It was a risk they both had accepted.
"You will lose, brother," Cox now said. "Is that what you want? Die in here? Your body will still be technically alive, but your consciousness will be erased. You will die an empty shell in a few years. Is that really what you want?"
Nick-Karr perched on a little outcropping of rocks like a medieval gargoyle, tense and ready to defend himself the moment Cox made his move. The aura flared behind him like two large, hazy wings.
"If I have to die in here to stop you, I will."
Cox laughed softly. "You are so naive. Can't you see that what I'm doing is nothing but what every single one of us experiments would do? The need to survive is the strongest instinct in any creature alive, be it man or machine. This world is what insures that for me." He smiled and straightened his wounded leg, the injury healing. "It's what you would do, Nick. You are me, like it or not. You fight to survive, have always done so ever since you were born. You will step over dead bodies to insure that no one harms either you or the AI bonded to you." He moved forward, but keeping himself out of range of Nick-Karr's claws. "What will happen if you die? Karr will be alone, he will go through separation, he will revert to what he was, and he will be hunted down and killed."
Nick-Karr growled softly, but otherwise remained perfectly still.
"In here, you two could continue to live. Forever! Don't tell me you have never felt the temptation, Nicholas. Because when you eventually die, Karr will die as well. This beautiful machine will be lost to the world. This place would not allow it. You would be one forever!"
"You are insane, Cox," Nick-Karr declared calmly. "I might be a survivor, but killing Kro is not what I would call surviving. It's murder."
"It's survival," the other snarled. "You know what it means to kill."
Nick-Karr smiled, though it wasn't visible due to a lack of a mouth. "Yes, I know. I have quite some experience. I never killed for my own survival like you, though."
Cox laughed. "Oh, please!" He started to circle Nick. "You killed too often to count and you killed to survive. You are like me, Nicholas, my brother. We are the same."
And he jumped, claws reaching for Nick-Karr, who was barely fast enough to evade. Slashing, kicking, jumping, hissing, the two circled more, attacking, deflecting, defending, and Nick was more and amore aware of his -- their -- dwindling strength. Karr's presence was fully cloaking him, permeating his essence, the two individuals bound together, forming one entity. Karr's darkness was their shield, Nick's experience their speed, and their joined minds were the weapons. One of Cox's talons ripped into his side and Nick heard Karr echo his own yell of pain.
"It doesn't have to end this way, Nicholas," Cox said, voice soothing as he lay on the ground, panting. "Let me finish what I have begun and you will live."
"You know I can't do that," Nick-Karr whispered.
One of his opponent's arms formed a long spike and it descended toward the fallen man, impaling him through the shoulder. The pain spread like wildfire and Karr screamed while Nick barely managed to hold on to consciousness. He was pinned to the ground, part of Cox buried in his shoulder.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join?" a new voice suddenly asked.
Cox's head snapped up and his eyes widened almost comically as he discovered the new player in this game. "What... how.... you!"
Nick-Karr's blurring vision suddenly focused on a wire-model human with the distinctive features of.... Michael Knight? The wire-model moved lithely, almost predatory, and a smile played over the strange lips.
"You can't win!" Cox snarled, but his voice was slightly unsteady now. Insecurity?
He withdrew the spike from Nick-Karr's shoulder and charged without another word. Nick-Karr rolled around, aware of how much pain he was in, but he ignored it.
Karr?> the Nick part contacted his partner for the first time directly.
....yes...> was the laborious sounding answer.
How?>
Kitt... helped....> Karr broke off, too wasted to even use the link.
Nick watched the fight, amazed at how good Michael was, aware of how tired Cox was from fighting Nick, and he knew that there was only one chance left.
Think you can give me one last boost?>
A smile touched his mind and the silky blackness around his cyberspace body flowed, rippling with power. It felt cool to the touch, it was what had always been at the other side of the neuro transmitter.
Nick-Karr lifted his hands and inhaled deeply, though this body had no need for air. He watched as the black talons turned into razor-sharp blades, each able to slice apart a molecule.
One last time.
It had to work.

* * *

The world slammed back into sound, touch and smell without a transitory phase. One moment he had been in virtual reality, the next he was.... lying on his back in a vaguely familiar room. Michael did the first thing his body apparently wanted: he gasped. Then he looked around, eyes coming to rest on a familiar face.
"Kyle?" he managed.
Kyle Stewart gave him a relieved smile. "Good to see you made it back," he said, sounding even more relieved than he looked, if that was at all possible. "Dante was screaming hell at 'human stupidity' when he got Kitt's message."
"Kitt!" //Kitt?!//
//I'm here, Michael. I'm fine. We did well//
Michael briefly closed his eyes. "Thank god....." Then he opened them again, sitting up with some help. He looked to where he had last seen Nick and felt dread rise inside of him when he discovered that his friend was still out cold. "Damn, no...."
//Kitt? Anything from Karr?//
//Very weakly, yes. They were both severely hurt. Karr has withdrawn to regenerate and Nick is unconscious//
But that meant he was back. Michael felt a weight drop from his soul. After the attack Nick had launched on Cox, who had been busy fighting off Michael-Kitt, Michael hadn't been too sure. It had been a viscous last struggle, Nick-Karr slashing at their opponent, Michael-Kitt keeping him from moving away. Nick-Karr had been severely injured, his virtual body almost torn apart, but the fire in those blue eyes..... it had been less than human at that time. Michael shivered briefly. It had been pure instinct, pure survival. The need to end this.
"How long was I out?" he then asked aloud.
"No more than ten minutes."
"Felt like days," he muttered, ruefully rubbing his throbbing head. "We have to call an ambulance. Nick's out, but he's back."
"Dante already arranged that. He called the moment he heard what was going on from Kitt." Kyle smiled tightly.
Michael chuckled and got to his feet, swaying slightly. "We'll get a clean-up crew here. I want this whole place taken apart. Where is Kro?"
"The car is a wreck, as Duke told me. Engine block's scrap and all they left standing is a skeletal framwork. I have no idea where the parts are. Dr. Campbell is with the CPU. We left it where it was. It's still connected to what looks like the mainframe of this place." Kyle gave him a questioning look.
"Cox won't bother us again," Michael simply answered. "The clean-up crew will take care of the CPU disconnection." He eyed Kyle's still rather damp appearance. "You and the others should get back to Sky One and get some rest. I'll delay the debriefing until after you had a good night's sleep."
Kyle nodded. "Thanks. Will you need help concerning Karr or Nick?"
Michael shook his head. "No. I'll handle it. Thanks for the offer."
Kyle left and he was alone in the silent room. Michael rubbed his eyes, feeling exhausted, and his head was throbbing with a headache. Out of a whim he looked at his hands, expecting to see them as a kind of wire-model or even a glass construction, but they were flesh and blood. His own hands. Human hands. He drew a shaky breath.
Virtual reality.
It had been so completely different from this world, real but still surreal. Nothing had been like the outside. In there, he and Kitt had been one entity, sharing a body while the minds were different. He still felt Kitt's blanketing presence: not just inside his mind but all around him. His security, his shield and strength. And he remembered Nick's incarnation, the barely even human appearance, except for the bright blue eyes.
Cyberworlds.
Michael sat down on the next chair, clasping his hands, chin resting on them. He had been in there for ten minutes real time, but the battle had lasted for hours. He, they, had won, but at what cost? Cox had already started to invade Kro and there was no telling what the damage would be. Nick had been almost dead at the end of this encounter, his body shredded in places, and Michael recalled all too vividly the screams of an entity neither human nor pure machine. He shivered.
//They'll be fine// Kitt soothed him.
He nodded carefully as not to aggravate the headache. Yes, they would be fine, but this wasn't a recovery from physical wounds.
//Nick recovered before. He will so again. This time, Karr won't be on the opposite side. And this time, we will be there//
Michael sent a smile and a hug.
Cox was gone, destroyed down to the very last molecule. Kro was safe, Jo hadn't been hurt, Nick and Michael himself were alive, as were Kitt and Karr. All in all, there was just the cleaning up to do. Still, it wasn't simply over.
Not by a long shot.

* * *

Jo Campbell waited for the water to boil and when it had reached the correct temperature, the boiler switched off automatically. She poured it over her tea bag and watched the clear liquid take on a greenish-yellow hue. Feeling a yawn rise inside her, she smothered it and took the mug over to the kitchen table.
Just yesterday she had been in the hands of a madman, today she was free. Somehow she had expected to sleep with nightmares or rather bad dreams, but she had collapsed into her bed and then woken around five a.m. Since then, she had been up, pacing the house, trying to think of anything she could do. Kro was still in the hermetically sealed lab and was being examined by a crew of experts. They were looking for any traces of Cox, she had been told. The moment it was safe for her to work with the young AI, she was back on the project. If not for the possibility that Kro might switch on the implants and flood her with whatever he felt, she would have been among the specialist crew. As it was, they kept the part that linked them broken.
Peerson and his helpers had been arrested and the OmniFair grounds were currently being swept by FLAG and police personnel. FLAG wasn't too clear on how Peerson had managed to get Cox out of the treatment facility all those years ago, but he had been the accomplice. It was up to the police to determine what had gone on, and FLAG investigators would support their work. Nicholas MacKenzie, who hadn't woken since he had broken down, was at the hospital and under observation. The doctors had been informed about his condition and a FLAG medic had been flown in to treat him. Jo couldn't even grasp the beginning of what MacKenzie had done, but it had saved them. From the initial diagnostics she had heard that Nick was very exhausted, his body drained, and that all he needed was rest.
She sighed and dangled the tea bag between her fingers. She hoped to be able to talk to Kro soon. She needed to make sure he was okay, had to tell him that it was over. As it was, the AI had erected a lot of shields and barriers, cutting himself off from the outside. The implants could be reactivated later on. He had to know everything was fine first.
Jo had stayed aboard Sky One for a few hours after the initial rush was over, and she had been checked and rechecked, the implants had been run through a test phase, and she had endured it all. Michael had then told her that she was welcome to spend the night or the next few days at his house till Nick was back on his own two feet. It was the underlying message that MacKenzie was still assigned as her bodyguard, though there had been a strange expression in Michael's eyes. It was almost as if he was giving her a choice to say no.
Steps alerted her to someone entering the kitchen. Jo looked up, expecting Michael or Bonnie, but to her surprise it was a stranger. The woman was in her mid to late thirties, tall, with long, almost black hair, dark eyes, and a bronze-colored skin. She was dressed in casual clothes and looked like she had had a rough night.
"Oh, hello," the woman greeted the surprised scientist. "I didn't think anyone else was up at this ungodly hour."
"Uh, hello," Jo managed.
"Alexandra Christopher," the other introduced herself.
"Joanne Campbell."
"Thought as much." Alexandra took a mug for herself and piled some instant cappuccino in it. "We didn't get to meet when you came here yesterday. Michael told me what has been happening these last few days. Not a boring time, hm?"
Jo found herself smiling. "Kinda," she confessed. "Could have done without it."
"Tell me about it. Are you okay?"
Surprised by the question, Jo blinked at the probably slightly older woman. "Guess so."
"I'm planning on trying out a family recipe for apple pie this afternoon, so if you are still around....?" She let the suggestion hanging, smiling openly.
"Well, I'm not planning on leaving," Jo said with a smile of her own, finding Alexandra a rather pleasant person.
"See you later then. I want to be at the hospital this morning to pick up Nick before he gets stupid ideas about driving himself." Alex grinned. "Or letting Karr do the driving."
"Nick MacKenzie...?" Jo blurted, brain kicking into gear.
"The very same. I know you two didn't really start out well, but let me tell you, he's rather likable when you get to know him. Well.... you might have to invest a few years, though." The grin widened.
Brain working overtime, Jo could only stare. She remembered something MacKenzie had said while they had been making 'small talk'. Kinda married....? Was she....?
"We'll talk later, okay?" Alex said as she emptied her mug. "I have to run. Karr might be fast, but even he can't beat rush hour."
"Uh, okay...." That reminded Jo that she wanted to check with FLAG labs anyway. "See you."
Still puzzled about Alexandra Christopher, her mind reeling from the possibility of MacKenzie actually having a girl-friend, she walked over to the phone.

* * *

Bonnie's lab looked like any other FLAG facility, though this one was only for one AI and never had more than maybe two or three people working in it. It was in the basement of the mansion, occupying most of the space, and there was a ramp leading down, so that Kitt could easily drive inside. Since Bonnie wasn't using any of the facilities right now, Jo had been able to move completely into the lab. All instruments were at her disposal.
Kro's CPU sat in a shock-absorbent cage on her work table. A new car body had been driven into the lab by Justin Turner. Jo had never met the mechanic before, but she found him to be a likable, easily accessible person. Currently he was running checks on the car, buried deep inside the engine compartment. The car was a silver Ford Probe, different from the former car, but still a sports vehicle. It was up to her to work with Kro, as Michael had promised. If she needed assistance, Bonnie had offered to help, but she had worked on Kro alone before.
"Okay, let's go," Jo said softly and set up her sensor net.
She might as well have to start out from scratch if her fears proved to be correct. She hoped not, but it was a possibility.
Jo was scared. Scared silly. The implant had been quiet ever since the abduction and she missed the gentle impulses of Kro's presence. She had never taken them for granted, but in a way, she had grown used to this energy flowing through her. Compared to what MacKenzie had and what Cox had had, hers were incredibly crude and basic, but they were more than she had ever thought possible. And they were Kro's stability. He had been cut off from her, invaded, nearly erased.... what had it done to him?
A team of cyberrobotics experts had already determined the CPU integrity, as well as the performance rate of the hardware as such, but she had refused to let anyone hook Kro up to the lab's net. The initial tests had shown that the AI was still active, but he had withdrawn from all his outer sensors and he refused to react to the electronic commands given to him.
Like months ago when she had first seen the neutral, black casing.
Jo sighed softly, then inhaled once, and switched on the sensor net, tensing, waiting. Nothing happened. Disappointment rushed through her, then she banished those feelings and sat down in front of the computer.
SYSTEM UPLINK COMPLETE, flashed on the screen. ACCESSING K.R.O.
Data scrolled over her screen.
K.R.O. ACCESSED.
SYSTEM INTEGRITY 100%
AUDIO UPLINK TO SENSORNET COMPLETE
VIDEO UPLINK TO SENSORNET COMPLETE
"Looks good," the Justin commented, peeking over her shoulder, wiping his hands on a rug.
She had to agree. Jo typed several more commands to check on the AI she knew so well, then accessed the next level. This had only been the outer shell. Kro was buried deep inside his own systems and she had to get to him.
Hours passed. Justin had started to remove the whole engine block, checked every valve, nook and cranny. The Probe had been readied months ago by the FLAG engineers, but it had never been used. A complete overhaul was needed. Justin was the man to do the mechanic overhaul while Bonnie had volunteered to do the technical checks later on. Jo sometimes stopped to watch the blond man, marveling at his sure, unhurried pace. They had talked now and then, and she had found out a few things about him. Like that he had been one of Kitt's mechanics, then had switched over to Nick's employment when FLAG had started to change, and that he was responsible for Karr's mechanic well-being.
Jo had popped in a few CDs as background music, something she had always done while working with Kro. She hoped he would recognize her as the one accessing the system when he finally connected audio. Around four in the afternoon, Jo decided to take a break to get herself a coffee. Justin joined her for a coke. He unburied some sandwiches from the fridge and she felt her stomach rumble.
They were both getting somewhere, but not as well as she had thought. Kro was in much better shape than when she had seen him for the very first time, but he was still injured through the experience. Stirring her coffee, Jo wondered what she could do to tell the AI that he was safe.
And then it happened.
First there was nothing, then she felt a tingle down her spine, coming from the implant at the back of her neck. Next, something rushed through her and she was faintly aware of her knees buckling. Someone called her name.
"I'm okay," she breathed in a rush. "I'm fine, Justin.... the transmitters just kicked back in." Jo knew she had a completely silly smile on her face, but she didn't care.
"The neuro link activated?" Justin blurted.
The silly grin grew. "Yes. Kro?"
Another rush, this time not as powerful, more like a gentle embrace. ::Jo?::
She whooped in joy at the soft, hesitant voice in her ear. "Yes!"
Justin gave her a smile. "He's online?"
She nodded eagerly. Justin helped her back on her feet and Jo made it over to the computer, falling into the chair.
>Hello
The simple word blinked on her screen. It said more than any lengthy explanation. Jo felt tears gather in her eyes. Maybe she was overreacting, maybe it was too soon to be really sure everything was okay, but she felt it was all right. Even if there was trouble later on, Kro was back, he was responding, and his responses were strong and reassuring.
"Kro, you are in a safe place. We had to keep the CPU out of the car because of system checks," she explained, feeling the rush of emotions quiet down. Still, the soft pulsing sensation stayed. She was almost delirious with happiness. "I have to check each of your core programs," she continued with a steady voice. "I have a friend here who is currently checking your body. Can I have your complete cooperation?"
"Of course, Jo," Kro replied through the audio net. "It's good to be home."
She smiled. "I know."
She turned to Justin, who gave her a thumbs up, then both set to work.

* * *

They had sat in companionable silence for most of the day. There had been brief pulses or little waves, but no verbal communication. Kitt was watching Karr from far away, giving his brother the space he needed to recover. There was something about Karr that suggested that he didn't want to be touched or talked to. While he had easily recovered from the cyberworld fight, Nick was still suffering from the aftereffects, and it reflected back on Karr.
Feeling a shift, Kitt listened up.
"Thank you."
The voice, darker than Kitt's and always with a slightly cold edge, drifted across the peaceful, silent space. Kitt smiled.
"That's what family is for," he answered, perfectly aware what this was about.
Karr's presence rippled again.
"How is Nick?"
"Healing," was the brisk answering. It was more than any lengthy explanation.
"And you?"
Karr was silent for a while, another, more pronounced, ripple visible in the blackness. "I've been thinking."
Kitt tilted his head. "About what?"
"What Cox said. About the future, Nick's mortality....." Karr broke off.
"I understand." And Kitt did. He had thought about this too many times in the past and he had decided not to ponder it too often or too long. It was depressing. "And?"
A soft, almost inaudible sigh. "I'm still thinking."
Kitt smiled gently. "There is no solution for us now, Karr. We have to wait and see what the future brings."
"I understand."
The older AI lapsed into silence again and Kitt did the same.

* * *

The sun was out, a brilliant warmth on a clear autumn day. The trees were shedding their colorful leaves, brown, yellow, red and sometimes green dotting the ground. A slight breeze was ruffling grass, bushes and branches, sometimes showering the ground in more leaves. It was October and soon the trees would be bare, the cold would be more permanent and the sun unable to warm the air enough to sit outside. Right now, it was a perfect day.
Nicholas MacKenzie sat on a bench, eyes closed, face turned toward the sun. Shades guarded his currently too sensitive eyes. He was dressed in jeans, jogging shoes, a simple black pullover, and wearing a sleeveless jacket. He had his legs stretched out in front of him, simply soaking up the sun. It had been seventy-two hours since the encounter with Christopher Cox and Nick was only now regaining most of his balance. His inner balance. Outside, he appeared his usual self, but inside, he was fighting against memories from the cyberspace experience. Karr was always with him, a soothing, silky black presence that held no menace for him. It was his anchor, his lifeline, and a quiet companion who understood. They had fought this battle together, both had been injured, but only Nick was having problems with the transition back into the real world. His world.
Soft steps announced a visitor and Nick cracked one eye open. He gave the approaching figure a smile and was rewarded with one as well.
"Ice tea?" Alexandra Christopher asked, holding out a glass.
Nick sat up and took it. "Thanks."
Alex sat down next to him. "I thought I'd find you here. Karr was some help as well," she added with a smile.
Nick smiled briefly as well. "I thought you and Bonnie had decided to try out a recipe from your grandmother."
Alex huffed and chuckled. "Yeah, until Michael decided to make fun of us and we had to catapult him out of the kitchen, at which time our creation had burned to a crisp and we had to take our revenge." A smirk crossed over her lips. "He started the food fight and Bonnie declared he has to clean the mess."
Nick raised an eyebrow. "I knew why I came here," he then stated.
"Right." She gave him a close look over the rim of her glass. "Still thinking?"
Nick smiled once more. "Kind of." He played with the slice of lemon in the tea. Coffee was off his usual list of basic food groups for now.
Alex pulled up her legs, watching leaves fall in the breeze. "I talked to Karr," the Ranger then said. "He told me you are getting better."
Nick laughed. "Well, then I guess I am."
Alex chuckled. "I can tell as well. You have regained use of your lips."
He blinked, then smiled.
"Exactly," she lauded. "You do that way too rarely. Jo asked me if you even had an idea how to do it."
Nick blinked. "Ah."
She gave him a gentle elbow in the ribs and then leaned against him. "If you want to get away from here, I think I could arrange some time off work."
It was an offer. Nick was very tempted to take it. They both saw each other way too rarely anyway. He visited and stayed as long as possible each time, but when a new case was on, he had no time at all. Alex accepted it, it was what defined their relationship. They had been together for the past ten years and Nick had never regretted it. Neither had Alex, she had told him once. Each had his or her own life, but they belonged together.
Now he placed an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. "Thanks," was all he said.
Alex smiled. "So, are you going to continue Jo's training?"
Nick leaned against her shoulder, perfectly comfortable where he sat. "I'm not sure, Lex. We didn't get off on the right foot and this episode didn't help."
Alex chuckled. "You never get off on the right foot with anyone."
"Why, thank you, Dr. Christopher. I'll keep that in mind," he growled.
"Only the truth, Nicky."
He winced at the name and shot Alex a dark look. She just chuckled more.
They sat in silence for some more time, until the sun was too low to be warm anymore.

* * *

Michael sat in the living room, feet up on the table, the printed reports all around him. But he didn't really have a head for reading them right now. His thoughts kept drifting back to the minutes inside the cyberworld space, the virtual reality, and every time, a slight shiver coursed through him. Not because of the fight, which had been vicious enough on its own, but by the mere fact of his existence in an electronic environment. Michael had read a few articles about holo-worlds and cyberspace, that new developments were made every day, but mostly in the gaming sector. FLAG itself was barely even touching the fact that real people could enter an electronic world. And if they did, it was only briefly. Michael's stay had been like half a lifetime.
And his virtual body had been too strange for words. A wire-model of himself, covered by an almost translucent skin that wasn't his own. He had become a hybrid, formed of his mind and Kitt's. He hadn't felt unwell, but the remnants were there, troubling him.
//It will pass// Kitt's soft voice in his head told him. //Your mind isn't used to it. You just have to grow accustom to it//
Michael sighed and dropped the report he had been staring at for ten minutes without reading a word. Yes, he would adjust. The human mind was incredibly flexible. It helped that he was used to having an electronic mind linked to his. That left him wondering about Nick. His friend had been unconscious for more than twenty hours and after waking up, Michael had been worried about his state of mind. Karr was rather 'normal', as Kitt had told him, but Nick seemed more withdrawn. More than was normal.
The tall man rose from the couch and walked over to the window that gave him a nice view of the large property behind the mansion. Nick had taken to wandering around the garden or jogging along the beach for the last few days. He had come out of his shell now and then, but he was brooding, plain and simple. He also wasn't someone to talk about what was troubling him, so Michael hoped that when he was ready, he would come to him. He had been in the cyberworld as well. He knew.
Alex's presence was a great benefit to Nick's peace of mind, and she would stay as long as she could. Bonnie had offered to listen to Michael if he wanted to talk and he had told her a few things of what had gone on inside the electronic world. She had not been able to understand all, but she had listened. It was the best anyone could do: listen.
Michael sighed and turned away from the window. There was one more problem to solve or to at least move into the right direction: Kro.
The AI was back on line, he was rather balanced and Jo had found only a few damaged data strings so far, but she wasn't done yet. In addition, she had reported that part of the inseparably meshed programs of the Jantzen matrix and Kro had been purged. The Kro part was still there, the Jantzen part had been erased. There was little irreparable damage, though Kro might have to live with three or four incapacitated subroutines. None were vital or required immediate replacement. Apparently, Cox had done this during his hostile takeover.
The only good thing to come out of it, Michael thought wryly.
Nick had told Michael that he would continue Jo's training, if she wanted to. The choice he was giving her surprised Knight, but then again, he knew Jo had had her difficulties with him. He would have to talk to her about it. If she agreed, the training would continue the moment Nick was back from Vancouver.
But it still left him with the problem of Kro and his future with the Foundation. Could he risk giving him an operative? Could he risk sending this AI out into the field? And would he work with a stranger since he was linked with Jo?
Michael regarded the file on his desk that concerned itself only with Kro. Nick had been right when he had said that problem would come sooner than Michael thought. Here it was, and he had no solution.
Another sigh left his lips.
He was considering placing Jo aboard Sky One for a while. She was a robotics expert and her experience with AIs was valuable. It would profit the team. It would also profit Kro, who would be going on field missions and still be around the stabilizing balance of Jo.
Michael frowned. Jo had made it clear she didn't want to be an operative, and Nick had told him months back that it wouldn't be the best idea, but Jo might agree to handle Kro throughout the tests. It was just another form of treatment on his way to a complete recovery.
Well, it was worth thinking about. He had to talk to Kyle and the rest of the team, tell them what the idea behind it was. He needed their cooperation and he needed Jo to understand what was going on. Maybe then, one day, Kro would accept a new driver. He had a few candidates in mind if this was a success.
Michael rubbed the back of his head. So much to think about, a lot of Board meetings still to come, and he knew he would run against opposition every step of the way. But he was experienced in Board matters, he had Quinn Campbell as back-up, and he was confident he would see success.
"Michael, this is your reminder that you have an appointment this afternoon," Kitt's pleasant voice came through the comlink.
He smiled. "Thanks, pal."
"And as it happens, Mr. Reeves has just pulled up in front of the house."
Michael laughed. "Gotcha."

* * *

Quinn Campbell got out of the car and carefully smoothed her brown and beige costume. Her silvery white hair was moving slightly in the wind, cut short and styled in a rather modern fashion. She hated nothing more than piling it up and looking like an old lady. Age was a matter of the mind, she believed, and she didn't feel old.
"Thank you for the nice ride, Kitt," she addressed the black TransAm and the red scanner at the prow seemed to laugh.
"It was my pleasure, Mrs. Campbell."
Quinn's eyes sparkled as she looked at her driver. Michael was smiling amiably. "He never learns, does he?" she asked rhetorically. She had asked Kitt to call her 'Quinn' numerous times, but the AI apparently insisted on the formality.
"He was raised polite," Michael answered with a little chuckle.
They walked up the short, paved walkway to the house and Quinn briefly looked over to the low garage building that was also the visible half of the lab. She had been here before, and she had seen the lab as well.
"Is Nick still here?"
Michael shook his head as he pushed open the door and led his guest into the light gray-tiled entrance hall. Nothing in the house reminded them of the old FLAG mansion, the huge castle-like house Wilton Knight had owned. Michael's house was dominated by floor-to-ceiling windows, white walls, parqueted floors and lots of plants.
"No, he and Alex left for the week. He needs to unwind, really unwind, and she dragged him for a national park tour. I think they are planning to hike through Bryce, Zion and Arches."
Quinn smiled. "And here I thought Nick's definition of unwinding was dangling from a rope and breaking into a high security facility."
Michael laughed. "You know him well."
The older woman just smiled more.
"What does he think about your idea?" she then asked, sitting down on the offered chair.
Michael ran a hand through his short hair. "Well, he says Jo has the potential, but we can't expect her to be either very amused about it or to perform like clockwork. I don't want her to be an agent like Kyle, Duke or even Nick. Working for FLAG doesn't automatically mean gun-toting bombers and close combat scenarios around every corner. We have enough agents who have never seen any action like that."
Quinn nodded and took an offered cup of tea. "I know only too well, Michael. I'm not completely out of the circle."
He smiled at her. "No, you aren't."
"So, what did Jo say?"
"She wants to think about it. She realizes that Kro has just two choices left: work for FLAG or be retired. It would be too expensive to simply hand him over to a private person. Basic maintenance alone costs a fortune. I don't want to see her work going to waste. She has achieved a lot with the AI and I firmly believe that with guidance, he can perform as we had always wanted him to."
"With Jo as his partner?"
"Yes and no. I have a likely candidate for Kro. Mika Reeves."
Quinn's forehead wrinkled in thought.
"He was employed by FLAG about a year and a half ago. He's been on several cases already and I think he'd make a good addition to this new kind of team."
"I take your word for it. You want him and Kro out in the field, and Jo in the background?"
Michael nodded. "Exactly. She would be in constant contact if needed, she can help them out, study Kro's performance, be the catalyst in case of problems." He smiled. "It's worth a try and the Board has already signaled their approval of this experiment."
"So this would be a three man team, one AI and two humans. One out on the field with the car, the other helping out in the background but not taking part in the actual case as such. Sounds reasonable," Quinn agreed.
"Thanks." Michael smiled briefly.
"I suspect my granddaughter is in the lab?" she then changed the subject.
Michael nodded. "Justin finished work on the car and declared it ready for the streets. Jo and Bonnie installed the CPU yesterday and I think Kro is ready for a test drive the moment Nick gets back."
"She has accepted him as a trainer now?" There was a twinkle in Quinn's eyes.
"Looks like it." The twinkle was reflected in Michael's. "Nick has agreed and if all goes well, Jo and Kro will finally get the link under control."
"Well, since I've come all the way here, I think I'll spend some time with my granddaughter," Quinn decided and rose. She held up a hand as Michael was about to follow. "I know how to get into the lab. Don't worry."
He nodded and she left, walking down the hallway to the concealed stairs to the lower level.
//You haven't told her much about Mika// Kitt suddenly said.
Michael smiled. //All in good time, pal, all in good time//
And for that team, they needed time. When they would be ready, nobody could tell, but if Reeves and Kro hit it off, FLAG would soon have a new pair of operatives with a unique feature.
One could only wait and see.

* * *

Quinn Campbell stepped into the lab and her eyes were immediately drawn to the silver car. She had read the technical files, as well as the psychological profiles that had been written by both Jo and her predecessor, Dr. Carl McLaughlin, who had been the robotics expert to help adjust Martin Jantzen's matrix to Kro's core. McLaughlin had assessed Kro as a perfectly performing, flawless machine, a work of art, now joined with his driver to form an unbeatable team. Jo had noted the damage done to the fragile and vulnerable AI, how much work had been destroyed by this thoughtless experiment, and how careful everyone had to be while rebuilding Kro's mind.
Well, the AI had gone through fire and hell in the last few months and he was still sane, she thought. Kro was stronger than anyone would have guessed and even Jo had been taken by surprise. Now he had barely survived an attack on his mind once more, but he had neither turned insane, nor had he retreated into his prior catatonic state. He was back and he was stable.
Jo stood next to the computer station, frowning at the screen that was turned away from Quinn's line of view, her forehead a mass of wrinkles. She was wearing neither a lab coat nor any special overall. She was dressed in simple street clothes.
"I give up," she sighed.
"Not your style, my dear," Quinn said, startling the younger woman.
"Quinn!" she called, a smile flying over her features. "What are you doing here?"
She chuckled and walked over to her only grand-daughter. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by," she answered with a twinkle in her eyes.
Jo hugged her, the smile all over her face. "You were curious as always," she corrected.
"And that as well. So this is your latest patient?"
Jo nodded and Quinn could catch a quick glimpse of a game of cards on the screen before Jo led her over to the silver sports car. "Quinn, this is Kro. Kro, my grandmother-in-law, Quinn Campbell."
"A pleasure to meet you," Kro answered in a calm voice.
She looked at the car, aware she was most likely scanned and watched. "I heard a lot about you, Kro," Quinn went on.
She thought she heard something like an electronic sigh, but it could have been one of the instruments around the car. "I see," the AI answered, sounding neutral.
"I never listen to hearsay. I like to get my own impression of people," the former council member went on, aware of Jo's eyes on her as well now. "And what is past is past. You have left quite an impression with some of my friends on the Board. They were rather surprised."
There was a short silence. "Surprised that I still function?"
"Kro....." Jo started, but Quinn held up a hand.
"Yes, that as well. But they were also surprised about the changes in you. They have started to realize that what you did was closely related to what they had ordered to be done to you."
"Ah."
It was a non-committal sound and Quinn refrained from chuckling. Kro was very different from Kitt in that regard. While Kitt had politely made small talk with her when she had first encountered him -- after he had been paired with Michael -- Kro was almost waiting for the other shoe to drop, as if whatever he said was measured and placed on a scale.
"I would like to see you back among the others," she went on. "Out in the field and helping people in need."
"I would very much like to do that," Kro told her, voice carefully modulated. He was almost skittish.
"I hear Michael is planning to assign a driver."
Jo looked neither happy nor angry. There was a neutral expression in her eyes that Quinn knew only too well. She had shown that face whenever Paul had messed up and was trying to bribe her into forgiving him.
"Yes," was all she answered.
"Don't damn him before you have met him, my dear."
"I'm not damning him and you know it." But her voice said something else.
Quinn smiled. "I'm just saying that you shouldn't be so negative. This will be the chance you have been working for. Kro needs a field operative or the Board will shut the project down. He has to show he's worth the money they put into him."
"I understand it completely, Mrs. Campbell," Kro said calmly. "I'm already looking forward to meeting the agent in question."
Quinn smiled at the car. "I'm sure you are." She turned to her still rather neutral looking granddaughter. "So, I heard they have a rather good restaurant somewhere around here. How about I invite you out for something or would you prefer to wither away in this lab? Only, of course, if Kro is able to drive us there."
"I'm perfectly functional," the AI said, sounding almost piqued by the mere thought of not being able to perform this simple task.
Jo smiled. "Invitation accepted."

The Probe left the premises not much later and Michael leaned against the window frame, smiling to himself.