A/N I would like to apologize to everyone for taking so long to post this update. It really isn't a good excuse but I was so irate when Knight Rider was cancelled that I threw a very immature, childish temper tantrum! I even refused(and still do!) to even go to that horrid channel to watch a single thing that they show! I haven't even watched a single episode of Knight Rider since then! I know immature! But like I said I was MAD! Since then I've calmed down and am feeling very guilty for my long hiatus. Plus I have to admit that I would of posted sooner but about 3 weeks ago I fell, and fell hard! In love with Twilight, so I've been on a Twilight binge! However, that being said I have promised that I will finish this story and I do intend too! My brain has had it's fun with Edward, so I know with a little encouragement, and a couple of episodes of Knight Rider! I will be able to get Mike firmly back in my totally over active mind and write some more!

So without any more rambling! :)

You know I don't own Knight Rider, cause if I did I WOULD NEVER OF CANCELLED IT!!!!!!!

Switching Places

Chapter 11

With an effort Mike opened his eyes he had lost count of the number of times he had blacked out, his body over riding his will power as he tried to outlast the pain that was being inflicted upon his body. Slowly he lifted his head to look at Sarah and he could see the unshed tears she fought to control. He tried to smile at her, to let her know he would be okay but the slight widening of her eyes told him that he hadn't quite pulled it off.

A thought was trying to push its way through the haze in his mind, with an effort he concentrated on it until like a splash of cold water, it broke through. Sarah and him were alone in the tent. Looking around he noticed the empty chair and the vacant control box where the electricity that had coursed through his body had come from.

He wanted to say something to Sarah but he wasn't sure if he could force any sound past the thick roll of cotton that was supposed to be his tongue. To say that he was thirsty would be an understatement. It was as if the electricity burned all the moisture out of his body, which wasn't far from the truth when he remembered all the sweat that had poured off his body.

Biting and chewing on his tongue he forced his saliva glands to give up a few drops of precious moisture. He rolled the spit around in his mouth until his tongue wasn't as dry or thick then he swallowed and proceeded to cough as the spit seemed to dry up on the way down his parched throat. But he had succeeded, he could now move his tongue enough to force out something close to speech.

"Sa'rah" He croaked. "You al'wight?"

Sarah nodded her head she had been trying to rub the tape that was covering her mouth off ever since the guerilla's had left but she didn't quite have it off yet. Doubling her efforts she was able to break the tapes hold on her chin and free her lower lip from the tape.

"Mike! Oh god, are you okay?" Sarah whispered, as she looked at him his hair was still damp from sweat and there were ugly red marks around the leads that were stuck to his skin.

Mike nodded his head, he'd be just fine after he got a drink. "Ye'ah" he croaked back.

**

The red lights on the prow of the Shelby tracked restlessly back and forth as the AI reviewed for the eight hundred sixty seven thousand nine hundred ninety third, time every scenario to go find Sarah since he had lost contact with her eleven hours thirty eight minutes twenty seven seconds ago. He had his order to stay, and he hadn't come up with a single course of action that could fulfill that order and help Sarah. He had also tried countless times to access the communications-jamming device but as of yet he had been unsuccessful. No guards had returned to the tent since Sarah had been taken away, but he couldn't be certain whether or not there were guards stationed outside of the tent as the jamming device was still affecting his long-range scanners.

It was only after a great deal of research through his vast data banks that KITT came to realize that what he was feeling, was helplessness.

With a desire to do something, anything the AI activated his nano shield, and with a slight sizzle, that no one was around to hear the Shelby's exterior was once again sleek and shiny the light from the morning sun creeping under the sides of the tent glinting off of it.

**

Murphy ran an irritated hand through his short hair as he waited by the small clearing that they used to land helicopters. He hated being sent on these errands, but he surmised someone had to come get Mr. Smith. The Colonel didn't want the city slicker getting lost on his way to camp.

He watched as the helicopter landed and a tall well dressed man got out carrying a briefcase. As the helicopter powered down Mr. Smith hurried towards him hunched over.

"This way Mr. Smith," Murphy called and led the way through the bushes to a waiting dune buggy. Once there he handed a blindfold to Mr. Smith and made sure it was in place before he started the dune buggy's engine.

As he drove back towards camp Murphy couldn't help but wonder if the briefcase Mr. Smith was holding tightly held the millions of dollars for the prototype missiles the guerilla's had hijacked.

The camp was well hidden from any road and few people knew of the small box canyon, and fewer still knew about the game trail that Murphy was now following. He had helped clear and widen the trail in a couple of places to allow the dune buggy to maneuver through the rough terrain, and descend down the side of mountain to the camp. Along with the interference that the jamming device created Murphy was certain their camp would remain hidden.

Stopping beside the Colonel's tent he escorted Mr. Smith to his commanding officer.

"Colonel, sir!" Murphy said as he snapped a smart salute to his commanding officer, before turning and leaving the tent, knowing he wasn't allowed to stay.

**

An hour later Mr. Smith and Colonel Hancock closed the door to the semi-trailer.

Mr. Smith nodded to the Colonel and said, "Yes, Hancock you have done well. You can have your dozen missiles, minus the one you fired at the Knight Industries Three Thousand, as soon as the shipment makes it safely over the Mexican border." Smith knew that the Colonel wouldn't be impressed with the dig he just gave about the missing missile, but he knew the Colonel would never argue with him about it. He was the Colonel's golden goose, without him the Colonel's little army would quickly run out of money and weapons. He didn't need the man's friendship only his obedience, and he had ways of assuring that the self-appointed Colonel remembered that.

"Would you like to see the car? I had the Graiman woman fix it for you…" The Colonel began, he hated his dependency on this pompous ass, but it took a lot of money to keep his band of freedom fighters together. Plus the state of the art technology that he was able to get from the man made it worth putting up with his highhanded attitude, for now.

"You What!" Smith yelled before he was able to control the shot of panic that had sliced through him at Hancock's unassuming statement.

The Colonel looked sharply at the man walking beside him, but Smith quickly recovered.

"I… Well I didn't think that you would be able to convince Graiman to do the repairs, she can be quite headstrong at times." Smith said he didn't want the guerilla's to know any more about the Knight Three Thousand then they already did. That they just thought it was an armored car was fine with him, and it didn't hurt that Hancock was greedy not just for money but weaponry. Smith had been able to 'buy' the Shelby for a couple missiles and some cold cash.

"Yes, well we have a way of getting females to do what we want here. Women have their place and they do well around here to remember it." The Colonel said with a self-satisfied smile.

"Yes well, I would very much like to see the car, you are keeping it under guard I hope." Smith replied suppressing his desire to roll his eyes at the antiquated views of the man beside him. He was much more interested in how the guerillas were holding the Knight Three Thousand if indeed Graiman had fixed the car.

Smith guessed he shouldn't have been all that surprised that no one was standing guard over the car, what did surprise him though was that the Shelby was sitting passively in the tent without a single flaw in the shinny mirror like surface of the car.

"Huh, Murphy must 'a polished her up" Hancock muttered as he looked over the car.

Smith smiled as he noticed the chain wrapped over the Shelby's front tire, the chain attached to one of the prototype missiles. So that was why the Knight Three Thousand was still sitting here, impressive. He would never of dreamed that the Colonel would think of something like that, or as Smith thought more about it, he couldn't believe that Hancock had gotten so lucky!

Walking slowly around the Knight Industries Three Thousand, Smith was again impressed with the unassuming look of the car. Only the red lights tracking back and forth just above the grill gave any indication of the artificial intelligence inside. He smiled to himself, in a matter of hours he would be the new controller of this magnificent car, and with it under his control there would be no stopping him.

His hand tightened on his briefcase, and he said, "I believe you and I have some business to finish up, right Hancock?"

The Colonel nodded and led the way out of the tent.

**

KITT's scanners had only just picked up the two approaching men as they paused out side the tent to open the flap before coming in. He still couldn't adjust his scanners to compensate for the interference from the communications jamming device.

Colonel Hancock, he recognized right away, but he wasn't able to match the other man in the business suit carrying a brief case with any of the guerilla's in the camp or any known person in his memory banks.

The AI watched as the man in the business suit walked all the way around him, but it wasn't until he spoke that KITT recognized him. After running the voice through his voice analyzer software three times KITT was certain beyond a doubt, this was the mystery voice he had heard speaking to Alex Torres about shutting FLAG down.

**

Sarah watched Mike as he sat dozing in the chair the even rise and fall of his chest reassuring Sarah that he was alive. It must have been several hours since they had spoken, Sarah could track the time by the changing position of the sunlight peeking under the tent flap. She had rubbed her wrists raw trying to free them from the handcuffs, but she just couldn't pull her hand out through. Her arms had gone numb from holding her hands above her head and her legs were aching from standing in one place for so long.

A breeze shifted the side of the tent and Sarah could see something glinting in the dirt, it was a broken light bulb. Glancing at the tent flap, she slipped her foot out of her shoe and with her toes reached for the broken bulb. Gritting her teeth she crushed the remaining glass away from the filament then she dragged the broken light bulb, minus the glass, over to where she was standing. Carefully standing on the filament with her shoe, she worked the base of the light bulb back and forth with her toes until she had broken the filament free.

She glanced at the tent flap once more, there were voice's approaching. Quickly she wrapped her toes around the filament and dropping it into her shoe first, she shoved her shoe back on. She just had time to kick the base of the light bulb back over under the canvas of the tent before two men entered.

Sarah felt her heart start to pound and her jaw clamp tight as she recognized Colonel Hancock, she had come to hate him for torturing Mike like he had. The man in the business suit she didn't recognize.

"As we agreed I caught Traceur, the woman and the car, now I expect you to uphold your end of the deal and pay up. As you can see they are not going anywhere." Colonel Hancock said as he stopped in front of Mike.

Sarah was appalled when the Colonel drew his hand back and slapped Mike across the face to wake him up. Leaving an ugly red handprint behind.

"Wake up Traceur, we can't have you sleeping all day! What would your C.O. think?" The Colonel said sarcastically.

Sarah could see the anger that colored Mike's face and the dangerous flash in his eyes but when he opened his mouth to say something all that came out was an unrecognizable croak.

"What's that there Traceur I didn't quite catch that, maybe what you need is a little drink of water?" The Colonel taunted before picking up a gallon jug off of the ground and pouring the water over Mike's face.

Mike tried to drink as much of the water as he could but because it was pouring over his whole face he wasn't able to draw a breath of air between swallows and he was soon sputtering and twisting his head around so that he could breathe.

"Why don't you just leave him alone!" Sarah yelled unable to watch this new form of torture any more. "Why are you doing this?"

Hancock turned away from Mike and set the empty jug down before walking over to stand in front of Sarah.

"You would be wise to keep your mouth closed." The Colonel reached up suddenly and pulled the tape the rest of the way off of Sarah's face. "You are my prisoner-of-war, I can do with you whatever I please, and you'd be smart to stay on my good side." The Colonel lifted his hand back up and stroked the side of Sarah's face with his fingers.

Sarah wasn't able to stop herself from pulling away from the Colonel's hand even though she had decided to show him no fear.

A cruel smile stretched across the scared face, distorting it grotesquely.

Suddenly the Colonel's hand made contact with Sarah's face with a resounding crack, the force of which sent her reeling backwards, the post her hands were chained to was the only thing that saved her from falling down.

"AARRGGHH!" Mike roared as he struggled in vain to get loose from the chair he was tied to. "Leave Her Alone! I'll Kill You! You Sonofabitch!"

Sarah's face stung from the blow and she could feel tears prickling in her eyes, she blinked rapidly to force them away. As the tears receded, anger took its place.

"As much as I would like to stay " Mr. Smith began causing the three others in the tent to look at him in surprise. " and watch this little display of dominance I have things that I must do. Hancock I believe you and I have some unfinished business?"

Sarah watched as the Colonel turned back towards her a look of pure venom on his face. She was unable to stop herself from flinching as the Colonel's hand came up again, but this time he unlocked the padlock that secured her handcuffs to the post.

"Let's just see if a little time apart might be just the spice this 'relationship' needs." Hancock sneered as he turned around with the chain attached to Sarah's handcuffs in his hand.

"So help me if you hurt her, there will be no place on this earth, or in hell, that you will be able to hide from me." Mike snarled as his eyes flashed dangerously.

The hairs on Sarah's neck stood up at the acidic tone of Mike's voice. She had never heard him speak with such animosity. She almost felt sorry for the man holding her chain tether.

"Traceur your empty threats do not scare me." Laughed the Colonel, but Sarah couldn't help but notice the laugh sounded a bit hollow as if he too was a bit unnerved by Mike's tone.

"Mike, I'll be fine." Sarah said automatically, knowing as she said it that she had no way of knowing if that would be true or not.

Mike glanced at Sarah, and the look in his eyes was fierce, almost feral. As their eyes meet though Mike's eyes darkened and a whole range of emotions played briefly in them fear, doubt, anguish and for the briefest moment Sarah could of sworn she saw love.

"Yeah Traceur, she'll be fine. As long as she does exactly as I say." Colonel Hancock sneered as he pulled on the chain attached to Sarah's handcuffs leading her out of the tent.

Mike watched as Sarah was lead away from him and he was helpless to stop it. A feeling of total despair settled heavily on his shoulders and a traitorous thought slipped unbidden into his mind.

What if that was the last time he ever saw Sarah?

**

KITT had been trying unsuccessfully to reach Sarah, even boosting his signal strength to it's maximum he wasn't able to penetrate past the interference from the jamming device. To say the AI was frustrated would be an understatement.

He had run every scenario he could come up with, he had even calculated and recalculated his chances of ramming the missile, or reversing at high speed activating the triggering device, he had even run turbo boosting away from the missile through his mainframe. They all ended the same way with the Shelby being blown apart and everything within a fifty-foot radius as well.

That was a chance the AI just wasn't willing to take not when he didn't know the location of Sarah or Michael, if he was indeed here too.

The AI just had to resign himself to the fact that he was stuck here until a human came along and removed the chain that kept him anchored to the missile.

The fact that there was a man here that KITT identified as talking to Torres about shutting down FLAG only made the AI feel more helpless.

Everything that the AI had been able to gather so far about this situation didn't set well with the AI's very advanced algorithms. All these stolen prototype missiles along with all the classified schematics, and the communications jamming device all from Knight Industries Research and Development laboratories. The scared man, Colonel Hancock, from the warehouse where Michael was injured plus at least three more of these men where there. Also he had identified another guerilla that had been at Sarah and his first mission together in Canada. Then there was the man with the voice that had talked to Torres, the Shelby didn't believe that he was here by coincidence.

What did it all mean? The AI wasn't sure but until he received some more information he was just pardon the pun, spinning his wheels.

The AI suddenly picked up a faint signal but even as he tried to narrow his scanners coverage area the signal was gone.

The sudden appearance of the guerilla computer tech on the opposite side of the tent actually startled the AI.

KITT watched as the incompetent man did something on one of the computers, out of pure boredom the AI linked with the computer and watched the tech delete the game he had been playing earlier on the computer. It wasn't until the tech finished deleting the game and reached behind him and picking up a USB cable and plugged it into the computer that KITT was able to finally locate the communication-jamming device.

**

As Sarah followed the Colonel she was quite certain she passed right by the tent in which KITT was sitting and she wondered not for the first time if the AI was all right. Over the past couple of months she had grown used to constantly being in communication with the AI and while at times she had to admit it was annoying, she was eternally grateful that she'd been able to communicate with him after she'd been captured.

With a tug the Colonel lead her into another tent and taking another padlock out of his pocket he fastened her chain tether to the front bumper of an old army jeep sitting in the tent.

"This 'otta hold you until Mr. Smith and I complete our business, then I'll be back. And you and I will have a little chat." The Colonel said as he smiled down at Sarah, a predatory gleam in his eye. "All right Sweet Cheeks?

A shiver of fear snaked down Sarah's back as she watched the Colonel and the man in the business suite walk out of the tent. With a trembling hand she ran her fingers gingerly over her left cheek where the hand print from the Colonel was still smarting, a fear unlike any she had felt before coiled into the pit of her stomach, threatening to paralyze her.

Taking deep calming breaths she forced her mind into action. Mike was not going to be able to come charging to her rescue, and neither was KITT. She worried her bottom lip as she thought about all that had happened since she had started this mission.

Working on a problem even a seemingly unsolvable one always helped to calm her fears and she was able to start planning a course of action, instead of sitting here like some helpless female waiting to be rescued.

Sitting down on the ground Sarah removed her shoe and removed the filament she had taken from the light bulb. She wasn't sure if she could pick the lock on her handcuffs, but she was sure willing to give it a try.

With a faint click the second lock on the handcuff sprang open, and the first smile in almost 48 hours spread across Sarah's face as she messaged her free wrists. It was with a growing sense of freedom Sarah thanked god that had grown up trailing after Mike, because lock picking was just one of the many skills she had learned on her summer vacations hanging around with him.

A/N Well there it is! I hope you aren't too mad at me! I know my excuses are unexcuseable! (And No I can't spell today! :) I know I don't deserve a review but you

would really make my day if you did! Plus it will help motivate me! :) :) I really am sorry for taking so long to update!

Well until next time! (it won't be as long a wait), a very guilty feeling, cytpotter.