FLAG Today: When the Law is Above the Law

Chapter Eight: What a Tangled Web We Weave

KITT and KELI headed east the next morning. The plan was for them to arrive in the Washington, D.C. area approximately 20 hours later and start a close surveillance on Senator Sylvester. That left the final investigation of Passionata Edinia and whoever her contacts with the Koravalinkov's were, because I was sure that this was the missing link. Both Bernardino and his son knew that the only way for their "family business", AKA, Denislova, to compete globally was to have a strong military and an equally strong military-industrial complex. And we knew that they would have to steal the technology from somewhere to do it.

That meant that I was going to actually get out of the office and be an active part of the investigation. I was so pumped. Unfortunately, Bonnie wasn't, and not just because she hated to see me risking myself on a case; I needed her presence with me to pull off the next part of the case.

Just like a lot of people thought Devon Miles was well-off because of his manner and eye for a good tailor, (even though he wasn't the least bit rich), most people would expect that my family and I are also pretty wealthy. It's true that Bonnie and I both make decent salaries, and we live for free in the Foundation's mansion, but we've put two kids through college and graduate school, set up retirement plans for us and trust funds for the boys and actually have some outside interests. Well, at least I do. Bonnie's interests are her family, which includes KITT and KELI, so if she's not building or making something for one of us, she doing it for someone else. When I need to let go and relax, you can find me rebuilding an old muscle car or at the beach. You could say we live pretty simply and within our means, but there are times when we have to shine ourselves up and represent the Foundation for Law And Government and/or Knight Industries at some fancy social gathering. Thank god that for me that means one clean tuxedo, but Bonnie needs a few high-fashion outfits. It was the perfect excuse for us to see Passionata in her offices.

All we had to do was ask for an appointment with her and she immediately cleared her calendar for the next afternoon. Passionata's avant garde style isn't Bonnie's thing, but that wasn't the point here. There we were, sitting on a minimalist leather couch, sipping cold champagne, and explaining to the designer what we were looking for.

"I usually dress on the conservative side," Bonnie started, "but it's getting kind of boring."

"Of course, Dr. Barstow! What woman doesn't want to be noticed? And you obviously can't be if you wear what everyone else wears."

"However…" Bonnie was playing this perfectly, "I am a little uncomfortable stepping too far out of my comfort zone."

"Naturally, darling," Passionata responded. She looked rather motherly, actually. She'd been in the business for well over 45 years and so was no kitten anymore. She looked like a mother hen, actually, but I didn't take that at face value. I don't think Bonnie did either. "However, I think I have something that will look exciting on you but not pull you too far out of what you rely on to work for you. You're 5'8"?" She was disappointed when Bonnie told her that she was an inch shorter than that, then waived it off. "Never mind, we will have to do alterations anyway."

She ran out but returned quickly with a dress in her arms. When she hung it up we could see that it was a dark burgundy red, shading into brown with gold piping. I think that would have made a very pretty dress, just not the one that she had created. The neckline angled one way, the waist another and the skirt was slit on each side up to the thigh and the hems also went in different directions. I can't describe the arms although I know there is a name for the type of sleeves. It's enough to know that one arm had a "right-side-up V-slit" opening at the wrist, while the other had a slit that went in the opposite direction. If you ask me, it was a waste of good material and thread. I looked over at Bon and she was doing her best to hide her own shock at the ridiculousness of the gown.

"Here, my dear. Why don't you try this on? You can use this room over here," Passionata said, nodding her head in one direction while holding the dress out to my wife to take. "It was designed to be cocktail length, but on you it will hit lower. It might be interesting at that length. We'll see. Go on, now. Get changed."

Bonnie took the dress as if Passionata had handed over a good-sized boa constrictor, which probably would have made a prettier dress, but she knew what her role was. And that was to take as much time as possible getting into the dress.

In the meantime, Passionata poured more champagne and offered me a finger sandwich which had miraculously appeared on her desk. I'm not the kind of guy that really goes for that sort of thing, but I put a cucumber sandwich on my plate and put the champagne flute down next to it on the small table in front of me. The designer ignored the sandwiches but did take a sip from her glass. "So, Ms. Edinia,"

"Darling! It's 'Passionata'. Whenever I hear 'Mrs. Edinia', I look around for my mother!"

She laughed lightly and I smiled back. "So Passionata, you know we came to you because your friend, and our supporter, Aldean Sylvester, recommended you so highly."

"Ah, darling-dear Aldean! She is such a great friend! We go back forever, you know. When we were both starting out. We were the most beautiful women in Europe back then and the men were throwing themselves at our feet! What a time….."

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It was a long drive, and the interstates were mostly straight and mostly boring. KITT and KELI had chatted for a while and then lapsed into silence, both involved in a variety of functions besides the driving.

"KITT?"

"Yes, what is it KELI?"

"I've been correlating the IP addresses that you obtained in the offices of Passionata, Inc., and the addresses that the cyber-attack on us used. There is approximately a 3.45% commonality between them."

"Where did the common addresses originate, KELI? Is there a pattern?"

"I believe they all originated in the province of Soval, in Denislova, however..."

"Not at all unexpected, my dear. However, I'm glad we can document the connection."

"There's more, KITT. There are IP addresses that are registered in Washington, D.C. Of course, there were a lot of intermediary servers, 157 to be exact, but all of the Washington addresses also were in the Passionata file, and one was involved in our attack as well. I am trying to determine which address was the originating one, but the programmer has inserted loops into the query system so that every time I try to get that information, it activates a bypass to another address, who will send me to another address when I query it. And I don't have to ask about the cyberattack, Passionata, Inc., or even Denislova. Any query sends me to another address. I have literally been around the world electronically on this quest."

"Well, well, well! Do you think that Senator Sylvester or someone involved with her is working with Denislova?"

"It has been a leading hypothesis, KITT. But as you know, ownership of an IP address does not mean that it has been used for nefarious purposes by its owner. It is all too easy fake, disguise and modify by routing and re-routing."

"Hmmmmm," KITT replied. It seemed like the web was not untangling just yet.

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"…and that's how you know the Koravalnikov family, through your father?" I asked. However, before Passionata could do more than nod "yes" over her cover-story, Bonnie finally came out of the dressing room. I could tell that she was uncomfortable in the dress, both literally and figuratively. Still, I have to hand it to her, despite continually shrugging her shoulders to settle the odd dress better, she made it look as good as it possibly could. Now for the "good cop/bad cop" routine.

I stood and took two strides to her side. I kissed her cheek while she squeezed my hands pretty hard. "I am the luckiest guy in the world. You look beautiful!"

She grimaced slightly, just enough for Passionata to notice. "Thank you, Michael. I just don't think this really is 'me'. It's very sophisticated, very European."

Passionata glided up to us and pinched, pulled, and tugged parts of the dress this way and that. "Darling, it's just that it's so new to you! Your husband is quite correct; you look stunning in that dress." She took a step back and looked at the hemline. "Although I think for you, it would look best if it were ankle-length."

"I'm really not sure," Bonnie said, looking very doubtful. "It's the sort of thing that makes you look like an international spy." She turned to me playfully, walking her fingers up my arm, which would have melted me if I hadn't been prepared. In a whispery voice she continued, "For a million and a half, I could tell you all about the latest Artificial Intelligence Knight Industries is working on."

Passionata laughed, in an uncomfortable sort of way. Time to do my part.

"Can't we make it a million and a quarter since I'm such a good friend? And since I have a pretty good idea already about its offensive capabilities as well?"

Passionata's eyes would have fallen out of their sockets if they weren't attached.

"Hah! You don't know everything. Why just this morning, a courier dropped off a package from Washington…from our friends..."

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It was 6 o'clock and the morning sun was rising, turning all the monuments and historic buildings in the U.S. capital a gold-pink glow. It was almost time to arrive at their destination, but KITT and KELI detoured slightly to see some of the impressive architecture. KITT had been to Washington often, but he always was impressed with the monuments on the Mall. They came to a stop by the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. "Michael was there when he was Michael Long. He was severely injured there, you know. His name could very easily be engraved on that wall."

"I never contemplated that, KITT. I'm very glad that he is alive and well and with us, even if his identity had to be eventually changed. I like him very much and I know you love him."

KITT didn't answer. He didn't have to, so they resumed their drive and shortly parked in front of an elegantly restored apartment building.

KELI's processors were microseconds faster than KITT's and her scan of the apartments finished before his, so her yelp caught him unawares. "There are two people in the kitchen of the penthouse apartment and the larger one has a gun with a silencer pointed at the smaller person."

KITT jumped out of the driver's seat. "Keep scanning and inform the police", he directed her.

The oak front doors were no match for his titanium skeleton and before the police department could even respond to KELI's report, KITT was bounding down the hallway on the main floor toward the stairs at the back, and taking them two at a time, quickly emerged at the top of the building where the two bio-signs emanated from. Bursting in again, this time through the apartment's front door, he stopped at the kitchen door and began an internal recording of the conversation that his audio pick-up was receiving.

"Toby, you don't need to do this." The voice was female and under extreme duress, naturally. "You know as well as I do of my support of 'our friends'. Why are you threatening me like this? I'm only waiting for a safe moment to transmit the info to Passionata."

"It's more than espionage and money for me. Although, like you, I do like the money. No, I've been waiting all my life for this; money and revenge."

"I don't understand what revenge you want Toby. I've taken care of you for as long as I've known about you."

"Have you? Have you really, Mother? You gave me up and I ended up in a family that could have been in a Dickens novel. Did I ever tell you how they collected kids? Their own, their adoptees, their fosters? Did I ever tell you what chaos that house was? How the brother I was closest with died from appendicitis because they were too overwhelmed with a dozen kids to notice he was sick before it was too late?"

"Toby, I couldn't have known that. I researched and picked a good agency. They told me that you would go to a good family that could care for you better than I could. I was barely more than a child myself, and if I'd kept you, we'd both be living in poverty now. Once you came to me and made yourself known, didn't I put you in an important position on my staff? Haven't I made sure that your political career thrived?"

"Yes, and it gave me all these wonderful international connections. Connections, I might add, that have allowed you to live in the grand lifestyle that you've made for yourself, eh Senator? Well, my dear Mother, I'm going to insure my own life now. The information that you got is mine now, and I will enjoy a new life in Denislova. And you will be…dead."

As KITT burst through the door, he recorded the infinitesimal sound of the spring of the gun's trigger being retracted. Before it could be fired, he knocked it from Anselmo's hand.

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Six weeks after the capture of Aldean Sylvester, Toby Anslemo and Passionata Edinia, the entire family (and that includes KITT and KELI, of course) gathered for a picnic on the Foundations extensive park-like grounds. We had a picnic table on the grass where KELI could pull up at one end, I was grilling burgers and chicken, with Devie trying to convince me of a better way to do it, Wilt and Bonnie were putting the salads, sodas and beer on the table and our daughter-in-law, Lauren was talking with KITT while burping four-month-old Gianna. After the baby let out a satisfyingly loud burp, KITT took her from her mother and began to walk around with her. Too bad he can't have children of his own. He's prime father material.

He walked over to Devie and me, still "arguing" at the grill. "He's right, Michael. Put the chicken on the hottest part of the grill. They need longer to cook. The hamburgers will cook more slowly on the rim, be juicier and be done closer to when the chicken is."

"Hey, KITT," Devie said with a smile as he tickled Gianna's cheek, "we never did go get that ice cream. We gotta plan it."

"As I remember it, young man, you originally wanted to go out for a beer," KITT said in his arch way. "We have beer here now. I'll have one with you when we sit down. Right now, I have something else to do."

"Okay, you're on, KITT."

With that, KITT and Gianna made their way to KELI who opened her doors for them, but KITT made a detour to the driver's side front fender.

"I know that humans are programmed, so it were, to find infants pleasing so that they will take care of them when they are so vulnerable and needy. Why then do I have the same reaction to the baby?" KELI asked.

"I have pondered the same question myself, since I've always enjoyed interacting with children," KITT replied. "Perhaps it is because we were programmed ourselves by humans, who could not help but transfer this deep-seated imperative to us."

"That is a logical conclusion," she replied. "Can you put the baby down on my hood, please? I'd like to experience 'holding' her."

KITT placed the squirming child gently on the red hood, guarding her so that she did not roll off. "What does that feel like to you, KELI?" he asked.

"It is…" Just then Gianna turned her head toward the downward slope of KELI's hood and vomited. The formula slid downward and over the orange scanner.

"Gianna!" KITT scolded gently.

KELI giggled. "I guess I've just been baptized as a Knight."

The End