"KITT, I'd like to you meet Alicia Drake."
The upbeat tone of Devon's voice was forced, according to KITT's voice stress analyzer, and KITT privately shared the man's lack of enthusiasm. Alicia Drake - age thirty-two and a police detective, according to the file Bonnie had uploaded, one hundred sixty two centimeters and fifty-six kilograms, according to his scanners - was the seventh candidate he'd endured in the past thirteen days; five of her predecessors hadn't even lasted through the brief tour of the surrounding countryside which Bonnie designed as a means of introducing them to KITT's capabilities.
"Hi, KITT." Alicia looked directly at him when she spoke, and didn't seem to be embarrassed to be talking to a car, which put her ahead of a full sixty-six point seven percent of the previous candidates. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. My friends call me Ali."
"I am pleased to meet you, Ms. Drake."
She was clearly taken aback by his reaction, and Devon said quickly, "Ah, yes, KITT's sense of propriety does take a bit of getting used to, I'm afraid." He touched her shoulder, turning her back toward the door as he continued, "Now, let me go over the course you'll be taking. It covers quite a wide variety of terrain, so you can get a sense of the full range of KITT's abilities."
Bonnie remained behind while they left. Her pulse and blood pressure were elevated, and as soon as the door closed she snapped, "That was uncalled for, KITT."
"What was?" Having Bonnie angry at him was a nearly unheard-of situation, even considering the kind of strain she and Devon had been under lately.
"Don't play games with me. You're better with people than that, and we both know it."
"You heard her, Bonnie; she said that's what her friends call her. I just met the woman. We're barely acquaintances."
It was a weak defense, and Bonnie ignored it. "Eventually, you have to give one of these people a chance."
"I've given them each a chance."
"Three of them you traumatized so badly during the introductory course that they refused to be in the same building with you..."
"Which means they certainly weren't cut out to make it through an actual mission."
"...one you left on the side of the road..."
"He asked to be let out."
"...one you ejected..."
"I told you at the beginning I was absolutely not going to put up with Charles calling me 'little buddy' again."
"...and the one assignment you did go on, you abandoned your partner before the mission was even over!"
"That's not true. The mission ended when we apprehended our target. I merely chose not to return to the Foundation in Mr. Takashi's company."
"You left him at a motel in Victorville." Bonnie sighed, rubbing at her forehead. "KITT, Michael isn't going to walk through the door and fix things this time. You have to choose someone."
KITT was silent for a moment, analyzing Bonnie's anger, Devon's clear displeasure with him, and coming to the only logical conclusion. "This is the last candidate, isn't it?"
"No. But the two who are left barely made the list. She's the best chance you have left, KITT. At least promise me you'll try to get along?"
"I make no promises of my success, Bonnie, but I will try."
***
"...and I can assure you that, whatever you heard from the other candidates, the preservation of human life is paramount in KITT's programming," Devon was saying when he and Alicia returned.
"Then I guess the only thing left is to see whether I have the right stuff."
Devon smiled with obvious relief. "I shall leave you in KITT's capable hands, then."
Knowing a cue when he heard one, KITT opened his driver's side door. "Welcome aboard, Ms. Drake."
"We'll see you two in a few hours," Devon said as Alicia settled into the driver's seat. KITT closed the door for her, and Devon added under his breath, "Do try to come back with this one, KITT."
"In approximately three point five seven hours," KITT assured him, shifting into reverse.
Unlike Michael, none of the candidates KITT had met over the past weeks had insisted upon driving for themselves, leaving him free to be a bit generous in his interpretation of Bonnie's instructions. He kept to surface streets longer than strictly necessary, weaving effortlessly between slower cars, before taking the freeway away from the city and increasing speed. He'd lost one candidate - the one he'd left by the side of the road - when the speedometer reached one hundred thirty-six miles per hour; like most of the others, Alicia made it past this milestone with relatively little disruption in her vital signs.
Without warning, KITT turned off the pavement onto a rough gravel road, slowing by necessity. A few miles, far enough that he didn't need to worry about being seen from the highway, the road was washed out. He could tell when Alicia saw the problem by her sharp inhalation and the brief spike in her heart rate, but while her hands tightened on the steering wheel she didn't, unlike two of her predecessors, try to take control away from him.
"Brace yourself," he said, and turbo boosted over the gully with a bit more force than was necessary. Bonnie might disagree, but there was really no point in displaying his capabilities if he didn't display them to their fullest, after all.
"Damn!" Alicia exploded when he jolted back to earth. "That was... Your technical specs don't really do you justice."
"Thank you." Takashi had been the only other candidate to give any indication of familiarity with KITT's technical specifications, and KITT had gotten the strong impression that the man considered him nothing more than that collection of data. They had gone through their entire mission together with no more conversation than information requests and the occasional command. KITT hadn't realized just how much he missed having someone to talk to on the road, and he asked, "Shall I show you something not on the official tour?"
She settled back into her seat with a little laugh. "Show me what you got."
KITT picked up speed again, faster than what he'd normally attempt on a road in this condition, sensors and processor working overtime to detect and avoid the numerous ruts and potholes. He was not - precisely - showing off, he reasoned as he fishtailed around a corner; he and Michael had been forced, more than once, into far more foolhardy behavior. He was simply doing his best to give Alicia a chance, as Bonnie had requested, while still being sure he was making the best possible choice.
And she had asked to see what he could do.
His sensors picked up his goal before it was visible; a low concrete building by the side of the road, long abandoned and in such disrepair that going through it should be no effort at all. It was not a part of the official introduction, and KITT was fairly sure it was why three of the candidates refused to come near him afterwards. All three had panicked until he turned aside; Takashi had, at least, had the presence of mind to hit the manual override.
Alicia sat up straighter when the building came into view and he angled toward it, her grip tightening on his steering wheel. He waited for her to try to wrest control from him, surprised that he would actually regret not getting to work with her.
"You sure about this?" she asked.
"Trust me."
She didn't relax her grip, but she didn't fight him, either. KITT hit turbo boost again, striking cleanly midway up the building's wall; as he had expected, the concrete was already on the verge of crumbling, and barely slowed his momentum, allowing him to go out the other side.
He locked his wheels when he landed, spinning neatly one hundred eighty degrees to observe the building collapsing in on itself. Certainly, this was a far more impressive finale than anything Bonnie had planned for him.
To his disappointment, Alicia didn't say anything. He waited a few more moments, then depressed the accelerator and turned back toward the road.
"KITT, stop."
He obeyed, wondering if she was going to insist on walking back rather than ride with him when she got out. It was a pleasant surprise when she walked in front of him and ran her hand over his unblemished shell.
"There's not a mark on you," she breathed. "There's barely even dust."
"In addition to being virtually indestructible, my molecular bonded shell tends to repel foreign particles."
"Amazing." Her fingers rubbed the area above his sensor light, as if she still couldn't believe the evidence of her own eyes, then she reluctantly circled back to the open door. "Absolutely amazing."
"Thank you. I like to think so."
"You aren't even modest about it."
"In this case, modesty would require denial of the facts. I'm not..." Abruptly, the exchange was so familiar that it hurt, and he faltered before finishing. "...not programmed for such a deception."
"KITT? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Would you care to drive back?"
"What's the point of having a car who can drive himself, if you don't take advantage of it?"
The sense of familiarity vanished, easing the pain; in this, at least, she couldn't be more different from Michael. "Actually, my ability to self-navigate has any number of uses, particularly in undercover situations."
"Good, you can list them while you drive us back to FLAG."
***
"Ah, you've returned. And together; that is progress."
Devon's obsession with the miniscule number of times KITT had returned without his driver was giving KITT a new appreciation of the phrase beat a dead horse.
"KITT hasn't scared you off, I hope," Devon finished.
"Quite the contrary, I couldn't be more impressed." Alicia stepped out, standing in the vee of his open door and his body. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm yours if KITT will have me."
"Really?" KITT didn't think Bonnie needed to sound so surprised, either; he had promised to give Alicia a chance.
"Oh, absolutely. I mean, smashing into buildings is going to take some getting used to, if that sort of thing is a regular occurrence, but..."
"Smashing into buildings?" Bonnie gave KITT a look which was, he suspected, best described by the colloquialism busted. "I don't remember anything like..."
"Devon," he said, before she could pursue the subject, "as I recall, one of the reasons for our urgency in selecting my new partner was a growing backlog of cases requiring Foundation attention. I believe it is safe to say Alicia and I are ready to be briefed on our first mission."
"Brief away," Alicia agreed.
Devon looked startled - really, did the man have no faith in him? - but said, "Of course. Let me get my notes, and our briefing can commence in ten minutes. Bonnie, if you would make certain KITT is ready to go?"
"I'm on it." As Bonnie passed on KITT's passenger side, she leaned down to whisper, "Don't think you're getting away with this, buster."
"The objective was for me to select someone with whom I could work, and who was capable of doing the job," KITT pointed out. "From experience, I knew that certain aspects of the job weren't included in your course plan. So I improvised."
"Mmm-hmm." Bonnie shook her head. "I guess the important thing is that you're back on the job."
"Yes," KITT said quietly, "I suppose it is."