After getting my food I woke KnIFE back up and let him drive while I ate my food. This was the first time I had eaten anything substantial while sitting inside of him. I almost didn't want to do it again but I knew I probably would end up doing so. KnIFE was very anal about me dropping any crumbs over his interior. It was worse than my father making sure I had picked up every crumb so that we didn't have animals climbing around our campsites when I was younger.

We got to a location with a vantage point over the area that the message had been sent to. I told KnIFE to keep an eye out and then I let myself fall asleep. I don't know how long I was asleep for but I was awoken to KnIFE starting his engine.

"Lisa, I have found the entrance to the hideout. The other car just entered through it. Do you want to go now while they are expecting someone or wait until they have relaxed?"

"Ehh, Lets go now. I want to make an entrance."

KnIFE took off before I could take the steering wheel.

"Hey do you think you could have given me some warning? I might have liked to drive just then?"

"I watched the other car's movements going into the opening. It seems that it would be better suited for me to drive because the timing seems to be precise."

I leaned back and watched as we ran through a closing barricade that was a hanger bay door. I didn't expect to see a wall towards the back of the hanger bay start to open though and I started to grit my teeth as KnIFE ran right through the wall and down a ramp.

"How far underground is this place again?"

"We are currently at about five stories underground. The tunnel still has a ways to drop."

As he said that the tunnel levelled off and KnIFE stopped. Surprisingly a computer scanned us and let us through. Even if the rest of F.L.A.G didn't know we existed the computers did.

Again the tunnel dropped off and KnIFE went rolling down until we got to another level. I heard a voice tell me that decontamination was complete. I then saw a set of doors ahead that we were moving towards but they hadn't opened yet.

Just as I feared we were going to crash the doors, they opened up and I heard KnIFE make a sound that almost seemed to mock me.

"Did you really think I would let us crash?"

"I don't know what to think anymore."

"I have told you before I am programmed to protect the life of my driver as well as any other living being that I may encounter that has sentience."

"Well that doesn't make me feel any better!"

I looked up to see that KnIFE was driving me into a ring that was lined up with the doors. There was the black mustang from earlier or rather it was probably yesterday by now. Standing in the room before me were four very confused and irate people. I recognized Mike standing there with a gun aimed right beside the car. He was anticipating me getting out of the car and shooting back at them.

"KnIFE this doesn't look good. If they try to separate us I will immediately order you to shut down is that clear?"

"That would be the wise solution; I was only programmed to respond to two handprints, yours and Charles Graiman. Charles Graiman is dead so that would leave you as the only one who can reactivate me."

"So basically they need me alive in order to operate you."

I grinned as I picked up the gun and put it in my hand.

"Taking a gun out there would not be the most logical situation available. They are armed and aiming at your door."

"I have a plan, and anyways I just recalculated his aim and I would have time to duck before he realized but he is estimating that I will be taller than I am. You can double check if you want."

I pulled on the lever and opened the door but before I stood up, dropped the gun under the door, and pushed it towards them. I was hoping they would take the move as a friendly one, showing that I didn't want to hurt them. At least that is what they always did in the movies. I didn't have much outside my training as to real life examples in this business.

I stood up with my arms raised not really feeling very confident because the gun was now pointed right at my head.

"Please don't shoot!"

Oh now that sounded pathetic coming from my lips. I definitely had watched too many movies. I stepped back and shut KnIFE's door.

"I was sent by a friend, I come in peace."

"How did you get in without tripping any of our alarms?"

I looked at who had said that and locked my eyes on the pretty white girl standing next to Mike. She had to be Sarah Graiman; unless Charles daughter was adopted from an eastern country I doubted she was the shorter Asian girl.

"My car is called KnIFE, Knight Industries Field Experiment. It was designed by Charles Graiman in the early days of this reboot project. Before you even had this base, he saved my life and told me that when I finished school I was to bring KnIFE to you. He didn't want the FBI to get their hands on it."

"How do we know you're not lying?"

I looked at the shorter guy next to Mike and stared for a few minutes.

"I am not lying and I can show it to you. KnIFE, can you change into a black Mustang please."

I watched out of the corner of my eye as KnIFE's shape moved around to take on the identical look of the other car.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

I looked at Mike with a smile on my face and cocked my head to the side.

"Well I certainly am not a Charlotte or a Charlie so I don't know; do you know me from somewhere?"

"Am I missing something here?"

I looked at the Asian girl that I didn't think was Sarah completely intrigued as to what would be said next.

"Yesterday afternoon while KITT was down during that standoff I had a girl claiming to be Charlotte West gave me some assistance until I could get a clear shot at the person's head. He was quite cocky even though he had just stolen some top grade military jamming software and was using it on KITT."

"AH Man! KITT you can't go down again, we miss the good stuff when you go off line."

"Don't worry Billy; if I had been online I would have been able to see through this child's lie. Charlotte West may be a private eye in the vicinity of the standoff however she is a fifty year old black woman."

"I never said my cover was a good one, I just said the name on my ID badge!"

I laughed, smiled, and tried to use my charm on them.

"So can you like drop that gun and just welcome me to the fold? I did tell you where I was from, didn't I?"

Mike and the Asian girl came forward, took me by the arms, and dragged me across the room.

"Ok, I really don't think this is how you treat welcome guests! KnIFE, shut down!"

I heard Knife power down. It was the eeriest thing to hear it from the outside because all of a sudden all his controls switched off and he became a manual drive vehicle. I knew that was going to happen but I just hadn't prepared myself for the sound of everything clicking and changing as it happened. Once it was done, I let them take me willingly. I knew that now they would need me and that they would have to accept me. They couldn't just get to throw me out on the street and keep my car. KnIFE was worthless to them unless they let me go and trusted me. I tried to remember the word that Charles Graiman had told me was a code word to gain their trust but I was drawing a blank.

I was taken to a room where they left me behind a locked door. I sighed as I looked around; at least there was a bed attached to the wall and it looked comfortable unlike usual prison cells. They must like me enough to give me a decent room.

Guiltily I fell asleep and dreamed that I was back in "N's" circle. I dreamed that I was still stealing cars for him. Was that what my life would have been like if Charles Graiman hadn't intervened? Was that all I had to look forward to if they took KnIFE away from me. (?) I had guarantee that they would need me to reactivate KnIFE but nothing told me that they would have to keep me. Would I just wear out my purpose as I had the day they found out that I had tipped the cops off about N?