Three - In Need of a White Christmas
Fund-raisers.
Michael hated them. But this time he felt, after everything Devon had
done for Kitt and he over the past few days, that he owed it to his boss
to at least put in an appearance. Bonnie loved them because they gave
her what were usually her only chances to dress up, and this time she
hoped to get a dance from her handsome prince. Ella had never been to
anything like it. She and Bonnie spent the whole morning before in the
city, finding her a dress, because however hard she tried, Ella could
not squeeze in to Bonnie's size 12s.
Bonnie and Ella shopped for three hours, ate lunch, and then started
again. It had been a long time since either of them had enjoyed close
female company. And as Ella told Bonnie, as they sat down in the most
expensive restaurant they could find, she had forgotten how much fun
shopping could be. After they had visited every dress shop in the town,
Ella found the one she loved just after lunch. Bonnie bought a red ball
gown in the same store, because she thought Michael might appreciate its
low cut front and non-existent back. The assistant told them that
Ella's full length dark blue ball gown, with a fitted bodice and full
skirt, looked stunning on her. Bonnie told her that Kitt would love
it. Ella merely smiled.
This particular fund-raiser was an annual affair held by the
Foundation. It was partly to raise money and partly to keep up the high
profile of the Foundation's PR department, the group within the
association that kept the public's eyes away from other projects.
Early on in the evening, Michael and Bonnie pulled up with Kitt, the
valet not even bothering to step forward to offer. Kitt pulled away
from the curb and found himself a quiet area of the hotel parking lot.
Devon accompanied Ella in a stretch Limo behind them. She could not
keep the smile off her face, and her enjoyment was infectious. Devon
escorted her from the car, and into the ballroom. Ella felt like a
princess. She only wished her prince could be on her arm.
The champagne flowed freely, and Ella watched Devon work the room like
a master. She chatted to a few men, only barely noting their interest
in her. Her thoughts were elsewhere. Her distraction was fairly
obvious to a trained eye, and an hour or so into the evening, Bonnie
cornered her. "You could have any man in the room." She whispered.
Ella turned her head and smiled. "Charlie's nice, Dave is very good
looking, and Jerez is an excellent dancer. But...."
"But nothing special."
"No." A passing waiter offered them champagne and both accepted. "You
lot really know how to throw a party."
"Thank you." Bonnie smiled knowingly. "I'm amazed we got Michael
here. You wouldn't believe the excuses he and Kitt have come up with in
the past to keep away from these evenings. I've no idea how he gets
Kitt to cover for him either. I never taught him to lie."
Ella grinned at her. "You sound like a worried mother."
"I know."
Ella spotted Michael looking bored as hell against the far wall. She
nudged Bonnie. "I think you should go and talk to the father."
The lights of the hotel spilled into the spacious parking lot behind.
Ella spotted Kitt sitting away from the other cars, the lights playing
on his perfect body. She approached him quietly, reaching out when she
got close enough to touch him. "Hello, Ella."
"Hi, Kitt." He opened the driver's door and she sat down, legs out of
the car, settling back into the leather seat.
"You look beautiful." Kitt's voice was quiet.
"Funny, I was just thinking the same about you." There was a pause.
From somewhere within the folds of her dress, Ella recovered a single
menthol cigarette. "Do you mind?"
"Of course not." Kitt heated the seldom-used lighter, and lit the
indicating diode. Ella thanked him as she lit the cigarette and leaned
her head back against the rest.
"Aren't you enjoying the party?"
"It's not that, Kitt. I just wanted to come out here and say hello.
You must get so bored sitting in parking lots while Michael partys."
"I am his car, it's what I was created for." Ella let out a deep
breath; it seemed to be an argument she could not win. "To be truthful,
this is one of the very few Foundation fund-raisers that we have
attended."
"Yeah, Bonnie mentioned that your excuses were becoming more
imaginative each time."
"Michael does not enjoy this type of social event."
"I'm not really sure I blame him. Although I like the Limo treatment."
"You like expensive cars?"
Ella was about to say yes, when she stopped and thought about the
question for a moment. "That's not what this is about Kitt," she told
him gently.
"Then what is it about?"
Ella turned and let herself lie back across the seats. The material of
her skirt fell neatly across the edge of the driver's seat, and for a
moment the sensation distracted Kitt. She keyed open the sunroof and
watched the thin curl of smoke reach up into the night sky. "This is
about you." She answered him finally.
Finally Kitt could sense a break in the strange tension between them.
"How can this be about me? I'm a computer, Ella." There was a quiet,
barely disguised desperation in his voice that pulled at Ella's heart,
because she was feeling it too.
"No, Kitt. If you were just a computer I wouldn't be feeling this
way."
"How do you feel?" She could hear the hope that laced that sensual
voice.
"The truth? I think I'm falling in love with you."
"Ella...." Kitt hesitated. "I've never been in love, I honestly never
believed I could feel that strength of emotion. But I've never been
this confused before either. I'm afraid I'm not very good with strange
feelings. I get comfortable with my environment and if something
changes it I tend to be slow to accept that. Having said that, I've
never felt like this before, for anyone. This is all new to me." He
finished almost desperately, finding it difficult to say what he wanted
to say, painfully aware that he was leaving himself open to ridicule.
Ella dropped the finished cigarette to the ground and sat up, her eyes
settling on the columned voice panel. "I really do care for you. I
understand that you've seen a great many horrors, and been through many
bad times as well as good. I know this latest attack wasn't the first.
Bonnie's told me about Adrienne Margot, and about the incident with the
industrial acid, about Michael losing his memory. You've been through
so much, and you've come out of it, still with your gentle humanity
intact." She smiled gently. "It's one of the things that's so
attractive about you."
"No one's ever said these things to me. I never imagined that anyone
ever would."
"But you need to hear them as much as any of us, don't you?" There was
silence. "It's okay to need these things, Kitt. Like it's okay to need
reassurance from Michael about your partnership and your future. It's
very human...."
Kitt felt the heat in his circuits increase. "I don't understand how
you can possibly find me attractive. I'm a machine, a computer, you
write software for things like me."
Ella smiled. "You don't have any idea do you?"
"About what?"
"About the effect you have on women; your voice, your mannerisms, your
charisma... your sensuality...." She smiled gently, "I'd be willing to
bet that there have been a lot of women interested in you, but you just
haven't noticed."
"I very much doubt it, Ella."
"Come on Kitt, you can turn on the charm as easily as Michael can."
"That's just who I am... and possibly Michael's habits rubbing off on
me." He felt Ella's fingers wrap around the steering wheel. "I'm just
not sure that there's even one aspect of the human relationship that I
could realistically participate in."
Ella moved her fingers slowly up the side of the steering wheel, coming
to rest at the top before dropping her palm softly down onto the
perceptor. Instantly Kitt amplified the input coming from the device,
feeling Ella's touch.
"I like being with you, Kitt. I enjoy talking to you. You have a
unique perspective. I've known a lot of men, and none of them match up
to you."
"Flattery will get you everywhere."
Ella laughed. "One of Michael's phrases?"
"No, actually." Kitt let the humour filter through his voice, at the
same time revelling in the warmth of Ella's fingers playing on the
perceptor, tracing slow patterns that were making it more and more
difficult to concentrate on talking to her. "That's extremely
distracting, Ella," he told her softly.
Just as softly she replied, "It's supposed to be."
A slow, hot silence fell between them. Ella realized that the
temperature in the car had risen, but she knew it was just one more
thing she would have to get used to interpreting. Kitt was never going
to be able to express himself in the way a human would; she was going to
have to learn to read his gestures. And to talk in his language.
"Close your eyes, Kitt."
The request surprised him. "Ella...?"
"Trust me. Just let everything else go, just for a minute.
Concentrate on my touch."
Kitt took a virtual breath and started to pause all his other major
functions; scanner, Michael's comlink input, internal sensors.
Everything. Until all that was left were Ella's fingertips on the
perceptor. A low, quiet hum escaped his voice box. "Ella...." The
word was no more than a breath, yet it pierced her soul as she realized
Kitt had trusted her enough to do as she had asked him.
Never before had there been such little input that had taken so much
processing. Kitt concentrated every bite on the perceptor data, reading
only one lone signal for the first time in his short life. It was the
most amazing thing he had ever felt, like gentle fire playing across his
circuits. His entire CPU sang with Ella's touch, his whole being seemed
to lock with her pulse, and beat in the same rhythm. It was the most
intoxicating moment he had ever known. Somehow the energy had to be
released, and Kitt let it go as waves across his voice modulator, hums
of absolute contentment that swept through the silence in the car.
"God, Kitt...." Ella closed her own eyes, wanting more than anything
in the world to be able to kiss him. Just one of many sensations she
was never going to feel. She kept her fingertips tracing those patterns
that seemed so enticing to Kitt. He felt alive under her skin. Her
mind otherwise blank, she let the soft sounds emanating from him play
across her nerves, soothing and exciting at the same time. She could
feel her body responding. This felt so natural she could almost believe
that it would work between them.
Slowly, Ella could sense the change, and she knew Kitt was trying,
maybe struggling, to bring other functions back on line. Sighing
softly, she sat forward and without thinking she placed her lips
momentarily against the voice panel. She was aware of everything
stopping. And for a moment she imagined his breath against hers. And
then she pulled back, and ceased the movement of her fingers, although
she held them steady over that sensitive area.
She spoke quietly. "Kitt, are you okay?"
"Ella... I'm speechless. I've never felt anything like that."
"I wish I could do more...."
"I'm not sure my circuits could cope with any more."
Ella smiled, slowly leaning back in the seat. She looked up out of the
windshield, to the hotel. The thought of going back to the party did
not enthuse her. "I don't suppose there's any way we can get out of
here?"
"I'm sorry Ella." Kitt gauged her reaction. "This is going to be a
problem, isn't it? One of many...."
"Nothing that we can't work around Kitt, don't worry."
Michael placed a kiss on Bonnie's cheek. "I'm outta here."
She smiled knowingly. "I'm impressed you've stayed this long."
"This party does have its attractions."
"Not enough of them obviously."
Michael's eyes danced. "You know what you do to me. I can't take it
in this stuffy atmosphere."
Bonnie closed the gap between them and touched her lips to his. The
kiss lasted only a moment, before she whispered, "I'll see you later
on." She thought he was going to skip out of the hotel.
He exited the building gracefully, but did nearly brake into a run when
he saw the driver's side door of his car hanging open. As he closed on
Kitt, he quickly recognized Ella's dress spilling out, and snippets of
conversation floated through the warm night air.
"...do you really mean that?" His partner's voice, so full of
gentleness and awe, that it stopped Michael in his tracks.
"Yes, and I need you to believe me."
"I don't know what to say..."
Michael wondered whether he should intrude. He had gotten completely
fed up with trying to make small talk with Devon's guests. Even the
couple of dances he had managed to get with Bonnie were not making up
for the fact he was in a dinner jacket, it was gorgeous outside, and the
night was still young in some parts of town. He had wanted to take Kitt
and hit the road, maybe find some deserted beach to race down, scare a
few fish. Now though, he was not so sure that Kitt did not have plans
of his own.
Ella saw Michael watching them and leaned forward. "I better go."
Kitt knew already what she was talking about, and for one, brief moment
of utter confusion within his circuitry, he tried to figure out some way
of asking her not to leave. But he could not.
Somehow, Ella could sense his sudden distress. "I meant it, Kitt. If
there's a way, we'll find it." She gently patted the dash. "I'll see
you tomorrow."
"Thank you for making this a truly memorable evening."
"It was a pleasure."
**
Michael was content to listen to music for just over an hour, as he
drove the car at exhilaratingly high speeds across the dark California
highways. But as the final song on the album faded, he knew there was
something wrong. Kitt had not spoken a word since they left the hotel,
and the least he would have usually done would be to complain about the
music. "Kitt?"
"Yes."
Michael smiled. "Well at least you're still there."
"Of course."
The computer lapsed back into silence, when his usual reaction would
have been to find some conversation starter. Michael started to become
concerned. He thought that they had sorted out any problems Kitt had.
He knew that Ella had had a long talk with his partner, and she seemed
to have solved the last of them. The moment he really thought about it,
he knew what this was about. "So," he began, "you and Ella have an
interesting chat tonight?"
The voice panel remained darkened. Michael slowed his speed to
something vaguely close to the limit; they were closing in on the
beach. Soon, Michael stopped the car at the edge of the water, and got
out. Not long ago he had finally gotten around to seeing the film
'Waynes World', and the scene with the two of them lying on the hood of
their car, watching the planes fly overhead, had captured his
imagination. Kitt opened the windows and the sunroof as Michael made
himself comfortable on the warm hood, head rested on his arms as he
leant back against the windshield. He waited, wanting Kitt to talk to
him of his own accord, having learnt a long time before that pressuring
his partner was not always the best plan.
So sure was he that Kitt was going to start talking, it surprised him
when soft music started playing in the car. It was a quiet piece; a
sultry, lone trumpet and a woman's voice. Nothing more. It was not
anything like Michael had ever heard before, and it definitely was not
Kitt's usual choice. Michael closed his eyes and listened to the music,
letting his thoughts wonder to Bonnie, and to the way she had looked in
that dress tonight.
Kitt did not want to talk, and he did not want to think. He had found
the music on one of the late night radio stations, and decided on that,
rather than leaving Michael totally without an answer to his question.
Kitt tried to let the music soothe him, attempted to let it settle into
his circuitry as Ella's touch had so easily done. But he was finding it
difficult to concentrate on anything but Ella. He was not sure whether
what they had shared that night had meant anything to her, or whether
they had actually shared anything at all. After all, there was no way
he could ever return her gesture. But he knew beyond any doubt that it
had meant something very particular to him. The first time. The first
time a woman had touched him with anything other than natural action.
The first time he had felt one sensation so intensely that it had
blotted out anything else and left its echo burning in his memory.
He had meant what he had said to Michael a few days before; that he
could not see any way that this could end happily. But still he found
he did not want to ask Ella to stop. The knowledge that he was going
towards something that scared him was almost a paradox. And maybe for
that reason it was not something he wished to think about. He
registered Michael's weight on his hood, and found himself wishing that
it was Ella he was feeling there. The revelation shocked him.
"Michael?"
Michael opened his eyes. "Yeah, Kitt."
"I don't want to feel this way any longer."
Michael strove to ensure his tone stayed neutral, trying to keep the
parental edge out. "Why don't you talk to me?"
"I... I was just thinking how good it would feel to have Ella lying
there, instead of you."
Kitt waited anxiously for Michael's hurt retort, but instead he heard a
chuckle. "Well, Kitt, I guess that makes us even, because I was just
imagining how good it would be to be lying here with Bonnie."
"You're not upset?"
That startled him. "Why should I be upset?"
"I'm yours, Michael, I should be content with having _you_ here."
Michael turned, shifting onto his side to gaze in through the
windshield. "Kitt, you're not mine. I don't own you. Maybe... maybe
the car's in my name, but you're your own person. And why should you be
content with just having me around all the time?" His voice softened.
"You've fallen in love, Pal. It's going to be some time before you
manage to think about much else."
Kitt processed Michael's words over again. "Ella told me tonight that
she thought she was falling in love with me."
It was Michael's turn for silence. He knew it was coming with Kitt,
knew how his partner felt for the young programmer. But he really had
not thought that Kitt's feelings would be reciprocated. He was an
expert in recognizing that deep emotional feelings for the advanced
computer were possible, and in his life they were commonplace. But Ella
was a stranger to all this, she had not grown with Kitt as the rest of
them had. She had met a complicated mix of wires and chips, and had
fallen for him? He wondered why he was starting to feel angry at her,
then he realized that he did not want to see Kitt get hurt. And that
was what was going to happen because his partner had said it himself,
there was no where for this to go.
"Kitt... are you sure you... understood her correctly?" The moment the
words were out, and he heard how bad it sounded, he regretted it. Once
there had been a time when Kitt would have taken the question at face
value, and simply reassured Michael that he had heard her right. But
that time was long passed. Now Kitt could be hurt with questions like
that.
"You don't think it's possible for her to love me?"
Michael cringed at the barely disguised pain in that usually warm
voice. "No, I'm sorry Kitt, that came out wrong. It's just...."
"I know," Kitt finished for him, "you don't have to tell me. I'm a
computer in a car and she is a beautiful, bright woman. She could have
anyone. Why on earth would she show any interest in me."
Michael dropped his forehead to the glass. "That wasn't what I was
going to say." He had known that this would not be all that easy, but
he had not really been fully prepared for how difficult it was proving
to be. "Don't put yourself down. You're intelligent, sensitive, you've
got a wonderful sense of humour, now, and you're a charmer when you want
to be. Don't think I haven't noticed. People respond to you. That
lady who gave you that sculpture she'd done of you because she said that
you'd moved her? That French woman Devon somehow knows, the one that
adores you cause you speak her language fluently? Bonnie's friend Jacq
who can't keep her hands off you? You entice people. There's no reason
Ella shouldn't be caught up in that too."
"But Ella's different, Ella responds to _me_. She talks to _me_, not
because I'm there, or because it's different, or curious, or polite, she
goes out of her way to talk to me, and when she's with me, it's so
natural. Her body language, everything about her... it's as if she's
keyed in to me. She talks to me the way most people talk to you."
Michael took in Kitt's point. And when he thought about it, he
realized how true it was. A great many people did still see Kitt as a
curiosity, especially when they first met him. But Ella had gone
straight to him, accepted him instantly without question, exactly the
way he was.
"Don't you want me to see her?" Kitt asked finally, quietly.
"Kitt, it's not that. I really am happy that you've found each other.
I just don't want to see you get hurt, because I've been there and to
tell you the truth, I was quite glad that it was something I thought you
weren't ever going to have to experience." He took a deep breath,
knowing Kitt deserved the truth. He lowered his voice. "It would feel
a little bit odd... sharing you with someone. You've always been here
for me and me only. It's addictive almost, a feeling of uniqueness
because I have someone like you. But Kitt, I'd get used to you seeing
Ella, I don't want you to worry about that."
"I'll always be here for you, Michael," Kitt told him softly, touched
by his partner's words. "Never think that I won't be."
Michael smiled, and twisted around until he was on his back again.
After a while, he began to speak. "'Empathy, humanity, love; these
qualities are resident within a man's soul, no matter where that soul
resides.'"
"Isaac Asimov."
"I always wondered what he meant by that, until I met you. There are
times when I think we ought to have you christened. This is the reason
why they would never build another car like you, you have almost every
human trait, and no way to deal with at least half of them."
"Does it bother you that I am so human, as you put it?"
"No, it doesn't. In fact, the more you develop, the easier you are to
get on with. But don't you find that the more you develop, the harder
certain things are to cope with?"
"Yes. The longer we're together the harder it is to imagine being
without you. I remember a time when I would have accepted a replacement
driver if you had left the Foundation, now, I don't think I could."
"At least that's something we know you're not gonna have to worry about
now. Kitt, if I leave, you come with me."
"Not that you're going to."
"Not that I'm going to." Michael smiled. "We've been here before."
"I know, I was just checking."
"You were changing the subject." There was mock-accusation in
Michael's tone, and he believed he could sense Kitt blushing.
"If I was, it's a habit I picked up from you."
"Oh, I see. Blame me, do you? Is that what you tell Bonnie when she
discovers you've learnt a new skill?"
"It depends on the skill, if it's a function that is useful and
productive, I tell her I programmed it myself."
Michael shook his head, astounded. "And Devon still claims you're not
human."
"I'm not!"
"Sometimes, Kitt, you really could fool me."
**
The moment Ella rejoined the party, Bonnie noticed a change in her.
She was quieter, even more preoccupied, and it did not take Sherlock
Holmes to work out why. Whatever had been building between Ella and
Kitt for days, something had obviously happened out there. Ella
politely declined offers of dances until Bonnie decided that they should
both get out of there. For the first time in a long, long while, Bonnie
rang for a cab, told Devon they would meet him back at the house, found
Ella and they left.
After some discussion they went back to the estate. Ella chose a
bottle of wine from the cellar, and they started a log fire in the
lounge, more for atmosphere than warmth. More photos adorned the walls,
some of Wilton Knight, a few of the staff at the Foundation, of Bonnie,
Devon and Michael. There was a shot of a group of technicians, all
sitting and standing around Kitt. Ella recognized Pete, and most of the
others, they were a friendly bunch who obviously took good care of Kitt,
and she felt drawn to them because of that. But there was one face she
did not recognize. A woman, short blond hair, pretty face, leaning
quite possessively over the driver's side of Kitt's sunroof. Ella could
not believe the wave of jealousy that swept over her.
Bonnie finally found the wineglasses and the corkscrew and joined Ella
in the lounge, too intoxicated already to worry whether or not they were
about to drink one of Devon's prized vintages. She padded up to stand
next to Ella in front of the photo. "Who's the woman?"
Bonnie looked closer, then pulled back. "That's Avril. She was
employed as one of Kitt's technicians, a few years ago." Ella could
hear the anger creep into Bonnie's voice.
"What happened?"
"She... betrayed us. She'd been here, working very closely with Kitt,
for about seven months. Then one day she overrode Kitt's control and
took off with the car. She drove out to Las Vegas, tried to sell it,
and when a guy wouldn't give her what she wanted, she killed him. She
ran him over."
"Using Kitt?"
Bonnie nodded. "We tracked her down within a matter of hours, and she
tried to use Kitt to kill Michael. They stood there, face to face, and
Kitt suddenly went for him. He stopped just in front of Michael's
knees. He'd overridden her, broken through his own programming to come
to his own conclusion. I was so proud of him, but I'll tell you, that
moment when he started towards Michael, was the worst moment of my
entire life."
Bonnie sat down on the rug in front of the fire, and opened the wine.
Finally Ella joined her, but she was still having trouble taking in what
Bonnie had said. "She used Kitt to kill a man?"
"She ran him over. She could have used any car."
"But she used Kitt."
"Yes." Bonnie looked up at her sadly. "And he does remember. He
refused to go back on the road for weeks. He kept asking us to
deactivate him. And even when Michael had talked him round, reassured
him that none of it had been his fault, Kitt still seemed devastated by
the whole episode. It took a long time for him to learn to trust
again." Bonnie handed her a glass of wine.
"It must have been a difficult time for you."
"It was a difficult time for all of us, especially for Kitt. They put
him through a myriad of tests afterwards. But we got through it, like
we get through everything else."
Ella nodded slightly, letting her attention wonder to the flames in the
grate. "How could anyone do that to him?" She asked quietly. "How
could anyone know him, and work with him, and then force him to go
through something like that?"
Bonnie smiled. "Not everyone cares for him like you do."
"But even so...." Ella could feel the anger building within her. She
knew she had to let it go, there was nothing she could do to change what
that woman had done.
Eventually Bonnie decided to change the subject, and her curiosity was
starting to get the better of her. "I gather you didn't leave the party
to go and feed the ducks?"
"I just wanted to see him, to talk to him." Ella pushed her fingers
through her hair. "Bonnie, I don't know what's happening. I used to
think that I had complete control of my life. I was totally content
with my job, my friends, working late hours, spending nights on the
Internet, weekends away at various people's houses. I've been out with
a few guys but nothing ever seems to work, and I always felt more
comfortable when I wasn't seeing anyone."
"But...?"
"But Kitt is making me think that maybe I'm missing something." She
took a sip of the wine, and reached over for the bottle. "I'm not sure
we should be drinking this Bonnie."
Bonnie frowned, tasting the fine liquid. "What makes you say that?"
"This bottle says 1953."
"Shit!" She took another sip. " It's very nice though. There are so
many bottles down there, he'll never notice."
Ella nodded, gazing up around her. The firelight was the only
illumination in the room, playing with shadows on the walls. She felt
happy and secure here, the place felt like it was full of love. "Do you
all stay here for Christmas?"
"Usually. We have a meal on Christmas day, Devon's daughter and her
family sometimes join us. Michael and Kitt tend to take a vacation
between Christmas and New Year." She met Ella's eyes with her own and
smiled. "I'm not so sure they'll be doing that this year though."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because I think Kitt will plant his tires in the gravel and refuse to
move." She gazed into her glass. "And maybe Michael will feel like
relaxing around here for a few days. You're very welcome to join us, if
you haven't got any other plans."
"Thank you." Ella's gaze was drawn to the play of light in her own
wineglass. "I don't often see my family anymore. My parents don't
really get on that well, and my brother's always telling me that I
should act more like a woman."
Bonnie frowned, and her expression told Ella that it was a line she too
was familiar with. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure. Put on a skirt, go to a club and pull some drunken hunk
I guess. I never asked him exactly what he thought I should be doing.
His opinion never meant that much to me. Don't get me wrong, I have a
lot of friends, and they're all wonderful. I would never have described
myself as lonely. I just never felt the urge to go out every night and
pull a different guy. I was actually starting to think that maybe I
was a lesbian and just hadn't worked it out yet."
"Until you met Kitt."
Bonnie had expected some sort of reaction, but Ella just nodded.
"Until I met Kitt." She sighed. "Honestly, Bonnie, I don't know what
I'm doing."
"I wish I could offer you some advice. I've felt a little of what
you're feeling, but I never let it go beyond late night musings."
"Why?"
"Because I helped create Kitt, I helped build him, I nurtured him. I
have a place in his life which no one could ever fill if I left. I
don't ever want to jeopardize what I have here. And I was always
attracted to Michael I guess. Kitt's the most important person in the
world to me, I wouldn't ever want to risk hurting him."
Ella finished off her wine, staring away into the bottom of her glass.
"He makes me feel... like no one else ever has. I don't quite
understand how, or why. I know it's crazy."
"It's not crazy. There's a side to him that people don't see because
he doesn't show it very often. He's a romantic at heart, craving love
and affection and closeness as much as the rest of us do. But I think
that he believed love wasn't something he was ever going to experience,
until you came along."
"Look, Bonnie, I'd be the first to admit that Kitt's not just a
machine. But he is what he is. He is Michael's car."
"Yes, he is. But he's also as close to sentient as a computer has ever
become. He's unique, and the normal rules just don't apply any more."
Bonnie filled their glasses. "I can make a suggestion." She said
quietly.
"Go for it."
"Just for tonight, just while we're sitting here with a real fire, and
drinking some of the most expensive wine only influence can buy, why
don't we just accept that Kitt is someone you love, who loves you back,
and pretend that everything's going to work out, happily ever after."
Ella carefully clinked her glass with Bonnie's.
"To fairytales."
**
The sun was starting to rise as Michael piloted Kitt home. The car
seemed edgy, excited almost, and although Michael was used to feeling
the potential power under the hood, this time it seemed to be more like
Kitt badgering Michael to go faster. Eventually, he gave in. "Would
you like to drive?"
There was no hesitation. "Yes."
Michael shook his head, prepared to let it go for now - he knew Kitt's
emotions were messed up; the computer had a lot to deal with at the
moment, and he understood that. "Ready?"
"Anytime."
"3 2 1...."
In the usual swap-over procedure, Michael released the wheel at the end
of the countdown and Kitt took over smoothly. It was a method they
usually used when Michael was taking over from Kitt at high speeds, but
it seemed easier to use it both ways.
The moment Kitt had control, their speed shot up from 120 to 200 in a
matter of two or three seconds. Michael sat back, unconcerned with the
roadside drops of several hundreds of feet that Kitt was toying with.
He trusted Kitt with his life, always had and always would. It always
touched him, the feelings of safety and belonging that he felt when he
was with Kitt. Even after the attack, he still felt like nothing and no
one could touch them.
"In a hurry, are we partner?"
"I'm merely enjoying exercising my considerable speed capabilities."
"Liar."
"Well, it was worth a try."
Michael laughed. "I remember a time when you wouldn't even have
considered fibbing. For any reason."
"As you say, I have developed, helped along by your example."
"Thank you, I'm sure Devon really appreciates what I've done to you.
Anyway Kitt, Ella's probably in bed by now."
"Thank you for reminding me."
Michael's curiosity was piqued by his partner's reply. "Kitt, could I
ask you... a personal question?"
"Of course."
"Does being with Ella... excite you? Do you feel that find of thing?"
Michael felt like a voyeur, but at the same time he was interested. He
had always wanted to learn more about Kitt's environment, about how his
partner perceived things; what he heard, what detail he saw. During one
of the long nights following Avril's betrayal, Kitt had asked Michael if
he realized what it was like to see a world surrounding him, but to know
he would never really be a true part of it. When he took Kitt's mental
state, at the time, out of the question, Michael drew the conclusion
that they were both seeing the same surroundings, but perceiving them in
a slightly different way. And the closer Michael became to Kitt, the
more he found he wanted to understand about Kitt's world.
Kitt did not answer at first, but it was more out of an inability to do
so, rather than an unwillingness, or embarrassment over sharing the
information with Michael. "Could you define the phrase 'excite me'?
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to."
Michael started to wish that he had not asked. "Well, you know, excite
you, arouse you." He waved his hands around in the air, as if that
would help.
"Arouse me?" There was a note of disbelief in Kitt's voice.
"Yeah. You know," he lowered his voice for no reason. "Sexually."
"Sexually?!" This time the disbelief was definite. "Michael, what are
you talking about? Do you see any genitalia around here?!"
Michael could feel himself blushing, and wished Kitt at least had the
common decency to be a little embarrassed about the subject. "Well,
obviously you haven't got the parts..."
"Then how... why would I feel sexual arousal? Not that I'd know it if
I did feel it." He added, somewhat puzzled by this whole conversation.
"Oh, you'd know it, Kitt, believe me."
Silence fell between them as Michael tried to think of some way out of
this one. Then suddenly Kitt asked, "Michael you don't think that Ella
thinks...."
"No." He stopped Kitt hurriedly. "I don't think that at all."
He felt the car slow considerably, and sat up. "Kitt, what's wrong?"
"It's never going to work is it?" Kitt asked him miserably. "There's
no way. There are too many differences. It would be like that film -
'The Man With Two Brains' - when all he wanted was to get the brain into
a female body so that he could have sex with her."
Michael frowned at the bizarre interpretation of the Steve Martin
comedy. "I didn't mean...." He shook his head, all too aware that what
Kitt was trying to say was the truth of the situation. "I'm sorry,
Pal."
They travelled the rest of the distance in silence; Michael still not
completely sure that Kitt had answered his original question, Kitt
knowing that he had not answered the question, and no longer sure that
he wanted to. Maybe that night was all he was going to have to remember
Ella by - all that would ever happen between the two of them that was
theirs only. It made him sad to think about it.
**
Michael's eyes drank in Bonnie's lithe form as she strode over to the
garage. He stood in the window of the breakfast room drinking coffee
and wondering if Kitt was feeling any happier. He had spent the rest of
the night again curled in the front seat, like a worried father. Kitt
had assured him that he was fine, but had been something in the
synthesized tone that had had Michael concerned, and he had stayed
anyway.
He was pulled from his train of thoughts by the door opening, and Ella
walking gingerly across to the coffeepot. She poured herself a mug
full, and then perched herself on the end of the table, looking out at
the garage where she knew Kitt was parked. Michael waited until she was
settled. "Heavy night?"
Ella looked at him as if she had not realized that he was there.
"Yeah, Bonnie and I came back early and raided Devon's cellar." She
forced herself to swallow a mouthful of the strong blend. "You two left
even earlier."
"I'm sure Bonnie told you how much I hate those things."
"Kitt certainly is much better company."
Michael took that as his cue. He turned, not wanting to say anything
out of order, but remembering Kitt's misery the night before. "You're
confusing him, Ella."
"He's confusing me." She shot back. "It feels like I've finally met
the man I'm supposed to be with for the rest of my life, but it turns
out he's a computer."
"But you knew what he was when you got into this."
"I know," she sounded as frustrated and confused as Kitt had. And
Michael started to think that maybe neither of them were to blame here.
Maybe the blame lay in an idea had by a dying man many years ago. "I
thought... I don't know. It's like virtual dating isn't it? Thousands
of people have relationships over the Internet, chatting each other up,
spending time together, having virtual sex, all with words, no physical
contact, some never see each other."
"But you always know that it's a human being on the other side, you
always know that there's a person typing those words. You can ask for a
photo."
"But it doesn't matter. You never know for certain. Kitt could do it,
no one would ever know that he wasn't a human being."
"But you know. And you're the one he's interested in. He doesn't go
surfing the Internet. He doesn't go searching for women, he isn't...
like that. You're very special to him, Ella. You're the first and
you're very likely to be the last, however this ends."
"What are trying to say? Do you really think I'd be doing this if I
didn't feel very strongly for Kitt? Michael, you have to believe that
he's very special to me. I haven't been with a guy in at least two
years. I haven't wanted to be involved with anyone. I wouldn't be...
going after Kitt if I wasn't very attracted to him." She stood, walking
over to the window. "I feel alive when I'm with him," she dropped her
voice. "I feel as if he would love me forever and never hurt me."
"But the real question is, could you love him as unquestioningly as he
would love you?"
Michael watched Bonnie cross the driveway, seemingly in a hurry, as he
waited for Ella's answer. She never gave him one.
Bonnie appeared in the doorway, making them both turn.
"Michael," she said quietly, "turn your comlink off."
**
Once Devon had shown Michael the folder Detective Carlson had dropped
on to his desk, Michael was desperate to hit the road. But Kitt was not
so desperate. Only the idle threat of taking Devon's beloved
Convertible shifted Kitt into the driveway.
Kitt had not said very much to neither Ella nor Michael since that
morning, and Michael knew he was in trouble the moment they left the
estate. He pushed in a tape, and Kitt switched it off.
"You owe me an apology."
"I know. I am sorry, Kitt."
There was a pause, and the tape started. It was all Kitt said for the
first part of the journey.
Michael was starting to desperately miss his partner's banter as the
car ate up the freeway at a considerable speed. It was strange to be
continually looking down at the columned panel and seeing it dark and
silent, usually it was all he could do to shut Kitt up for long enough
to listen to the news on the radio. After about 200 miles, Michael came
to a decision. Firstly he tried just taking his hands off the wheel,
but Kitt simply took control, until Michael stabbed the Manual Cruise
button in frustration. So he decided on a different tactic. He took a
deep breath, and slammed his foot down, knocking the accelerator to the
floor. The car shot forward like a bullet, and the digits on the
speedometer began to rise rapidly. Kitt still did not say a word, and
Michael kept his foot on the pedal, pushing their speed upwards of
150mph. Neither partner gave in until the car was moving at 170mph.
"Michael, please...." It was not a plea, more a sigh of defeat.
"Stop sulking and I'll slow down."
"All right."
"Good." Michael eased back off the gas, and let the car slow down
naturally until they were cruising at 120. "Talk to me! I'm going
insane here!"
"I was just thinking about what Ella said to you this morning."
"Which bit?"
"She told you that she felt that she had met the man she was supposed
to spend the rest of her life with."
"You've spent the passed two hundred miles thinking about that? Kitt,
women say that all the time!"
"You only have this negative attitude towards relationships because you
have so many of them."
Michael smiled at Kitt's prissy tone. This was more like it. "So
you're the expert now are you?"
"Michael, I've decided that there's nothing I can do to change what's
happening. And I don't want to. So while Ella feels this way, I'm
going to enjoy it." Kitt sounded distinctly uncertain. But Michael
recognized this as a start. "And we'll deal with the fallout later."
Kitt finished.
"Oh, we'll deal with it will we?" But there was warm affection lacing
Michael's voice.
"Yes."
"Kitt, that's fine with me." He settled himself back down. "So, now
we're talking again, is there any chance of your plotting a route to Mr.
Clay's residence."
The four small monitors lit up, displaying the required maps and
overlaid route. "Thank you."
"Michael, I've been studying this man's file, and I can't see anything
that would connect him to the attack on us, or with the destruction of
the lab. William Clay is a very respected collector of automobiles. He
has one of the largest collections in the country."
"I know. It doesn't make sense to me either, but neither does his
fingerprints turning up at the lab. He has never had anything to do
with the Foundation, there's no reason for his prints to be there."
Seven and a half hours later, with the sun having set beside them, Kitt
and Michael finally pulled into the driveway of the Clay estate. It was
vast. Stretching into the distance were a number of large hanger-size
warehouses. The driveway itself was circular, with an island of tall
trees and shrubs in the centre, in front of the house. Long, wide,
shallow steps lead up to the front door, giving the place a stately
feel, despite the building's lack of exterior decoration. As Michael
cut the engine, it started to rain, a few drops sliding down Kitt's
windshield.
Michael looked around him, reluctant to leave the safety of Kitt's
cabin until he was relatively sure he was not walking into a similar
trap they had faced the previous week. "Scan the hangers, Pal."
"Each structure contains up to eight cars. Michael, he has a limited
edition Ferrari Escrit. And there's a white, unfinished Pontiac
Firebird."
"You sound impressed."
"I am impressed. The cars are in immaculate condition."
Michael reached for the door handle. "Listen, Kitt, if this guy was
behind the attack... just try to keep your mind on the scanners, okay?"
Kitt ignored the remark. "Michael, if he was behind the attack, you'll
be in danger too."
"I'm convinced he was after you, Partner. Just be careful, contact me
if anything happens, and get away if you have to. I don't want to lose
you again."
"I'll be watching out for both of us."
Michael found the doorbell and rang it. When the large white door was
finally opened, he found himself greeted by a middle-aged man in formal
wear. "May I help you, Sir?"
"I'm looking for William Clay." Michael glanced at his watch. "I
realize it's late...."
"Please, Sir, step inside. He is still up, despite the late hour. Who
shall I say wishes to see him?"
"Michael Knight." The butler waited for more, but when more was
forthcoming, he politely bowed his head and turned, heading back down
the corridor and finally disappearing through a doorway. A moment
later, a distinguished gentleman came out of the same doorway and strode
up to Michael smiling openly.
"Mr. Knight?"
"Yes, I work for the Foundation for Law and Government." He took
Clay's outstretched hand.
"Ah yes, Wilton Knight's little association." Michael hid his surprise
that Clay had heard of FLAG. He remained silent as he was led through
into a small informal office just to their right. There was a large bay
window that looked out into the driveway, and as they walked into the
room, Michael saw Clay glance outside. He noted the glint in the man's
eyes when he spotted Kitt, but said nothing.
"Please, sit down and tell me what I can do for you."
Michael seated himself on the edge of the two-seater sofa. "We had a
break-in, to one of our labs, just over a week ago. We found your
fingerprints, and because we prefer to do our own investigations, I'm
here to ask you if you have any knowledge of how your prints may have
got there."
Clay's expression remained genial. He was a good-looking man in his
early 50s, Michael guessed, with a very kind face, if that was not too
much of a cliche.
"Well, Mr. Knight, it looks as though you've found me out." His
response took Michael by surprise. "You see, my daughter used to work
for Knight Industries. I'm afraid she showed me around one night. I
asked to take a peek at the car - the Knight Industries Two Thousand.
She let me take a look into the garage. I swear I didn't touch
anything, but I may have leaned on one of the work-tops somewhere." He
looked guilty enough. "May I ask, is that the car outside? It is
beautiful... I'm a collector you know."
Michael tried to take everything in. It was not what he had been
expecting. "What's your daughter's name?"
"Avril. Avril Stone. She divorced some years ago, but she kept her
married name because she is very well known in the computing industry."
Clay stopped talking.
Michael was trying his best to hide the anger that had surfaced the
moment he had heard Avril's name. "Mr. Clay, are you aware of what your
daughter did to us?"
It was Clay's turn to be surprised. "She told me she left to take a
job with better pay."
Michael sunk his teeth into his bottom lip. This man sounded so proud
of his daughter; did he really need to destroy that for his own
satisfaction? Finally he stood, and Clay followed his lead.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Clay. I'm sorry to have bothered you."
"Anytime, and there's anything else I can help you with...."
Michael had a thought. "Well, I wonder if I could ask for a tour...
I'm quite a lover of cars myself."
Clay's face lit up. "Of course, it would be a pleasure. Please, let
me go and fetch the keys."
There were eleven hangers that Michael could count, and he guessed
there may be more elsewhere on the sprawling estate. Clay had a genuine
Rolls Royce, an original Aston Martin, one of the first Porsche 911s, a
sparkling yellow Lamborghini. BMW, Ferrari, Pontiac, Lotus and TVR were
all represented. There was a Mercedes that had been left in the hands
of Baramus for too long, souped up to almost match Kitt's top speed.
All were in immaculate condition, as Kitt had pointed out earlier, and
Michael was impressed. Clay was an open, friendly man.
As they walked and talked, Michael found himself liking Clay more and
more. The 'please call me William' phrase had actually slipped into the
conversation naturally, and Michael found himself on first name terms
with their prime suspect within half an hour of meeting him. Clay was
more than proud of his collection, he approached each one like it was a
unique, priceless gem. Michael was beginning to think that he might
actually trust Clay with his own car. When the tour ended, in what were
rapidly becoming the small hours of the morning, Michael apologized
sincerely for disturbing William late at night. They approached Kitt,
and Michael opened the driver's door.
"You really should keep a car like that more secure."
"Oh, no need. It has a fingerprint scanner under the handle."
William smiled. "Standard equipment, I suppose."
Michael frowned. "Not too standard." He smiled, accepting William's
out-stretched hand. "Thank you for not throwing me out."
"It's been a pleasure Mr. Knight. And if this beauty is ever for
sale...."
"That's not likely, I'm afraid."
Clay nodded, and when he spoke, Michael noted the odd quality to his
voice. "I thought you might say that."
Michael leaned back in the driver's seat, closing the door behind him
as he watched William disappear inside.
"Did you find out anything, Michael?"
"I don't know, Kitt. He's a car collector; he loves cars. You should
see them. It looks like he spends hours every day taking care of each
one."
Michael leant against the steering wheel. "I honestly don't know." He
sighed. "Have you scanned the whole estate?"
"Of course."
"Find anything?"
"Nothing suspicious. Cars." He took a scan of Michael's vitals.
"You're upset."
"Nah, Kitt, not upset. A little frustrated. When I meet someone we're
going after I usually take an instant dislike to them. But I like
William. He seems like an honest guy."
"I trust your instincts, Michael." Kitt fell silent for a moment, then
asked. "Could he explain how his fingerprints got into the lab?"
"Sort of." Michael shifted uneasily in the seat. "Do you have any...
memory of the attack?"
"Bits. Much of my immediate memory was lost. Ella couldn't recover
what hadn't been sent to the backup storage."
"But you have memories of the moments before the attack?"
"I have sketchy memories of the minutes before the first missile
penetrated."
"Were any of these cars around?"
Reluctantly, Kitt went back to that fateful afternoon and scanned the
images for cars. "Michael, the only match is a white Lotus Esprit.
There was one stopped a mile or so from the attack site. There's also
one at the back of the estate, but I can't get the plates from what I
have from the attack. It isn't a rare car, but I'm not sure it's a
coincidence either."
Michael started the engine and tooled out of the driveway. The rain
was coming down in earnest now.
"Michael, you seem very distressed. Was it something that William Clay
said?"
Michael sighed deeply, long gone were the days when he could hide his
feelings from his partner.
"Kitt, there's something you need to know." He gazed down at the voice
panel, obediently silent, waiting for the information. "William Clay is
Avril Stone's father."
Through the years, spending so much time with Kitt, Michael had learnt
how to compensate, how to read Kitt's expressions from the lengths and
quality of silences. As this silence lengthened, Michael knew his
partner was as shaken by the news as he himself had been. Finally, Kitt
found some words. "Wouldn't that give Clay the perfect motive for the
attack?"
"He didn't seem to know about what she did. She told him that she left
Knight Industries to take a job that paid better."
"But she's in jail, isn't she?"
"I don't know. You'd better check on that."
"Right away, Michael." There was a pause, and then he added, "It's
late, maybe you should let me drive."
"In a little while, Pal, let's get you settled back down, okay?"
"I'm all right, Michael. It was... unexpected, that's all. I've
linked into the Arizona justice department's computer, according to
their records, Avril Stone was paroled last year."
Michael closed his eyes for a moment, taking in Kitt's words. "I'm
sorry," he whispered gently.
"She killed a man, Michael." Kitt sounded almost shocked. "How could
she get out so quickly?"
"I don't understand either, Partner. But it strikes me as strange that
she could fool her father for so many years."
"It is possible, Michael. A telephone call can be made from anywhere."
Michael frowned at the dash. "Why are you all for Clay? I thought
you'd be searching for evidence against him."
"Just because his daughter is a cold-blooded murderer, it doesn't mean
he is like her. Besides, I still can't believe that a man so obviously
fond of automobiles would try to destroy one, he seemed so genuine when
you were both outside with me."
Michael slipped back into thought, leaving his partner to watch the
road and wallow in his own memories. Within seconds Kitt started to
regret thinking about Avril at all. "Michael?"
He came back to the here and now. "Yeah, Kitt?"
"Nothing, I just needed to reach out and touch someone."
"Too many memories, eh, Partner?"
"Far too many."
"Need something to take your mind off it?"
"It would help."
"Wanna drive?" Michael imagined he could feel Kitt's smile. "In
three, two, one..."
**
Clay waited for the computer to boot, and telnetted to the chat server,
logging in. He moved into a private room, and waited, knowing she would
be along soon. After a ten-minute wait, on line, she finally turned up.
_What do you want, Testa?
I've just had a visit from your old friend
_Is he still with you?
No, they left half an hour ago
_I need access
That's your business, you're the expert
_I need you to hit him again
What will that accomplish?
_I've found out how they saved his life, I can get access as the backup
program executes
They came here because they found my prints as the lab, they're
already suspicious
_Just once more Testa, then you can have your prize
When?
_Can you do it tonight?
I suppose so
_I'll be waiting
Clay logged out and shutdown his machine. Then he walked into the
hall, took his coat from the stand, and grabbed his car keys and
mobile. From the car, he called his associates and arranged a
rendezvous point on the only route from Phoenix to Reno. As he drove,
he thought about the young man who had come to visit him earlier, and
found himself glad that he would not be badly hurt, he had liked Michael
Knight.
**
"When will they be back?"
Bonnie smiled and sat down next to Ella on the patio. "You're missing
him already?"
Ella looked up at the moon. "I was thinking... about leaving." Her
words were spoken quietly, Bonnie could hear the choked tears in her
throat.
"Why?" she asked gently.
"This morning, Michael asked me if I could love Kitt as unquestioningly
as he would love me. I couldn't answer that."
Bonnie reached out and touched Ella's arm. "Believe me, Kitt does
nothing unquestioningly." That got a smile in response. "If you want
to leave because you want to go home, that's okay. But please don't
leave because of Kitt. He may be falling in love with you, I know
you're in love with him. Please don't run away from that." She watched
Ella wipe tears from her eyes, aching in sympathy.
"It's not easy, that's all. Knowing I'll never be able to hold him,
never feel him holding me. Last night I was so desperate to be able to
kiss him.... I'm just not sure how long I can on like that without
going insane, as much as I love him."
"I'm sorry... I'm not sure I can work that particular miracle. As for
what Michael said to you, he's just being protective. He knows that if
Kitt gets hurt, his life would become very complicated for some time."
Bonnie was smiling as she spoke. "Seriously; you know how he feels
about Kitt. He doesn't want to see him hurt. But I think Kitt knows,
as well as you do, that sometimes the most risky paths are also the most
rewarding."
Ella nodded. "I don't want to leave, Bonnie. I know I'd miss him
terribly."
Bonnie looked out over the grounds. "I'm afraid all I can offer is a
hot chocolate?" She ended in a question, and Ella turned and nodded.
"You never know, they say chocolate is the universal solution."
*
Michael woke as their speed dropped rapidly.
"Kitt, what's wrong?"
"It may be nothing, but I've picked up a white Lotus Esprit on the road
ahead."
"Which direction is it travelling?"
"It's stationary, and there's a truck with a very odd configuration
about two miles ahead of it."
"What do you mean by 'odd configuration'?" Michael peered out of the
windshield into the rain. By now, Kitt had brought the car to a
complete stop, and visibility was very low. Kitt tended to run with
only the spots on, giving sufficient warning to other drivers without
dazzling them with the high powered headlamps, and he had no need for
windshield wipers.
"My sensors are picking up unusually high radiation levels."
"Weapons?"
"Maybe.... After what we've been through I thought it best to be
careful."
"You did the right thing by slowing. How far off are we?"
"Twenty miles."
"We need another route."
Kitt searched the maps until he found an alternative way home. "I'm
not saying that it'll be as comfortable as the highway," he warned.
"Doesn't matter, just get us around the car and the truck with a safe
margin."
Kitt turned the car in a 180-degree arc, and drove back to the narrow
turning several miles in the direction they had just come. "Michael,
are we running away?"
Kitt's question surprised him. "Probably." He thought for a moment,
then grabbed the wheel and stabbed the Manual Cruise button, turning the
car in an arc a lot less graceful than the one Kitt had executed only a
minute before.
"Michael?"
"Sorry, Kitt, but I just had an idea."
"Feel like sharing?"
Michael glanced down at the dash, smiling at his partner's phrase. It
sounded like something he had picked up from Ella. "I was just thinking
that if that white Lotus is Clay's..."
"Then it won't be at the estate."
"Very good."
"Michael, how the hell did he get ahead of us?"
Michael shrugged, frowning and looking down at the speedometer. They
had been travelling at their usual speed. "I dunno. Maybe he knows
shortcuts we don't."
"In a Lotus?"
"Maybe."
"I honestly thought he'd have more respect." At least that brought a
smile to Michael's lips.
Michael's hunch was right. The Lotus Esprit was gone from the back of
Clay's house. They sat in the driveway as Michael tried to figure out
where he had gone wrong. "So they're back out there, waiting for us."
"He can't really believe that we would fall for the same trap twice?"
Michael thought about that, Clay had seemed like an intelligent man.
"No, Kitt, he can't have. Did the readings from the truck out there
match readings from the truck at the attack?"
"I don't know."
"Could you find out?" Kitt hesitated, and Michael realized that this
was the second time he had asked his partner to delve into the painful
memories of that afternoon. "I'm sorry, Kitt, but I need to know."
"I understand that.... The truck on the road tonight is different from
the first one. Having analyzed the radiation levels from this new
truck, I would take a guess that there are missiles present inside."
"Same as before?"
"...Yes."
Michael could hear the worry in Kitt's tone. "It's okay, Pal, we're
one step ahead of them this time."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait. Clay won't stay out there indefinitely. He'll figure we
went a different route and he'll come home. And then we'll have another
chat with Mr. Geniality."
It was an hour later when the ivory brow of Clay's Lotus appeared in
the driveway. "Michael, please be careful."
"Don't worry, Kitt, I'll tell him I dropped my keys."
Michael got out of his car as Clay came around the front of the house.
"Mr. Knight, I... I had to step out for a while, did you forget to ask
me something?" Michael approached Clay, reaching him before he
succeeded in getting his key in the door.
"I know you were out there tonight, waiting for us."
He expected Clay to deny it, but instead he took a step back and pulled
a gun from his jacket. It was an unexpected move by a man who Michael
had originally thought could not have had anything to do with the
attack. Michael was not ready for it, and was caught, startled, in the
line of fire. Instantly Kitt's engine started, and the car rolled
forward, wary. Clay turned, addressing Kitt directly. "You just stay
where you are, and I won't hurt him."
"What do you want, Clay?"
"Sadly, the truth is, I don't want anything. But a friend of mine has
a somewhat disturbing obsession with your car."
Michael's mind was racing. They were both quickly getting soaked in
the downpour and he felt that this really was not how Clay had wanted it
to happen. "Shooting me isn't going to help."
"I'm well aware of that. And if you could just release external access
to the Knight Industries computer inside the car, I will let you go, you
have my word."
"No. Absolutely not."
Kitt sat with the engine running, an angry growl mixing with the hum of
the turbines. But his voice was laced with uncertainty. "Michael..."
"No, Kitt, don't even think about it."
Clay cocked the safety back, raising the barrel hesitantly to Michael's
head. "Do it."
"Kitt, no."
"Michael, I have to...."
"No!" But he knew that his partner would do it, despite everything
that they had said in the days gone by, Kitt would always sacrifice
himself to save his partner's life. In desperation, Michael did the
first thing that leapt to mind. He brought his knee up, catching Clay's
thigh and knocking him off-balance. In the same moment, Michael ducked
the gun and rolled. Clay brought the weapon back up, but Kitt had
already got two wheels up onto the steps, shielding his driver from the
enemy. Michael crawled up into the passenger side and heard the door
close behind him. Clay fired at the windscreen, but only once. Kitt
moved forward, climbing the steps using a mixture of traction and sheer
power, managing to pin Clay against the closed door. "Drop the gun."
Clay followed Kitt's order with a resigned reluctance, letting the gun
clatter down over the dark, rain covered hood. Michael scrambled out of
the car and punched Clay across the jaw, watching as he fell against the
bumper that still pinned him against his own front door, the red glow
from the scanner track tracing a line back and forth across his knees.
"That was for what you did to Kitt, you bastard." Clay stayed quiet,
except to sniff up the blood in his nose. "Now tell me who your friend
is and where I can find him."
Clay shook his head. "I can't."
"I think you'll find that you can."
"You don't understand, I don't know. We talk on a chat server."
Michael frowned, "A what?"
"It's an electronic system, Michael," Kitt informed him, "like email,
but in real time."
"You must still have a name? Where did you two meet?"
"On the server, I swear, I've never met him."
"So why do all this?"
"He... he said I could have the car, once the computer was dead."
Once again, Michael felt the anger surging through him. "So you're
telling me, you don't even know a name?"
"He logs on as 'A', just a letter."
"Which chat server?" Kitt started to ask the questions he knew Michael
would not know to ask.
"Foothills."
"What's the name of the room?"
Clay hesitated, and Kitt nudged forward. "Those missiles were very
uncomfortable," he said quietly.
Clay felt the pressure on his legs increasing. He looked to Michael
who just shrugged. "I would say he had just cause. Wouldn't you?"
"I can't tell you!"
Kitt nudged again. "Tell us."
"Please, I can't...."
Kitt had had enough, it had been a long day. He decided on a different
tactic. "Do you know what your daughter did to me?" Clay looked
straight at the windshield this time.
"I don't know what you're talking about...."
Michael glanced down. "Kitt, I didn't tell him."
"Well then, I will." There was real hatred in Kitt's tone, and Michael
stepped back warily.
"Kitt... come on, let's not make this personal."
But Kitt was angry - this man had attacked them, nearly killed him,
placed him in a position where his only option had been to hurt
Michael. And then he had tried again. And Kitt really hated it when
people held guns to his partner's head; there was very little he could
do in those situations and it scared him. "It's already personal,
Michael. You daughter killed a man, Mr. Clay." Kitt stated. "She took
control of this car and ran a man down. I know what his body felt like
as it collided with the hood. I know how it crumpled as it bounced off
the glass, I know how it felt as she crushed him under my wheels. And I
will remember his screams for the rest of my existence." He pushed
forward into Clay, ignoring the man's obvious shock. "Some people
blamed me for what she made me do. They hurt me trying to ensure I
wouldn't do it again. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't take
something from her like she took from me."
Michael was almost too stunned to hear what Clay said, but he knew he
must have answered because Kitt's demand changed. "Now I want your
login and password."
"Please, don't make me...." He was silenced by the spike of pain that
suddenly shot from his knees. "All right, my login is Testa, T E S T
A. Password is E S 4 C R 1 T."
"Thank you." Kitt finally backed off, descended the steps and sat
idling threateningly in the driveway. Michael had a moment of
indecision, but decided that Clay had enough to think about.
"Who are the guys with the missiles?" There was enough anger and shock
in his voice to ensure Clay did not think twice about answering.
"They're old associates."
"I never want to see them again, is that clear?" Clay nodded, but
Michael wanted to make absolutely sure. "If we have any more trouble
from you, I'll let Kitt loose in a couple of your hangers here. And
believe me when I say that my car would come out without a single dent."
Clay swallowed nervously, and nodded once more. "You won't see them
again."
"Good. Kitt, disable any computer in the building. I'm sorry you had
to hear about Avril that way," he added to Clay. "But as you heard, she
hurt Kitt very badly."
Michael slowly walked around the car and opened the driver's side
door. "Let's go home, partner."
A great many miles went by before Kitt spoke again. "I'm sorry,
Michael."
"Kitt... why haven't you talked to me about this?"
"I don't think about it very often. It just... he scared me,
threatening you like that.... I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing. You didn't hurt him. You scared him, and you
probably destroyed every dream he's ever had for his daughter. But you
had your reasons, and you got us what we needed. What chat room did he
say?"
"Carroll."
"Carroll? Strange. Does it mean anything to you?"
"It's just a word. If I was to list all possible associated words it
would take a very long time."
"That's okay." Michael turned into the road that started them on
Kitt's alternative route. "Did you mean what you said to Clay, about
what you remember?"
"Yes."
"Kitt... I never realized.... If you'd have told me, we could have
done something."
"Like what?"
"Get you some counselling. Let you talk to someone."
"Michael, I appreciate this, but it was a long time ago."
"I wish you'd told me. I thought... I thought you'd gone off-line or
something..."
Kitt's voice softened. "I had to keep the homing signal running,
without her knowing it. I had to stay on-line."
Michael could feel his heart breaking. After it had all happened, he
had spent days with Kitt, reassuring his partner, ensuring no one hurt
him. But not once had Kitt mentioned the terrible recollections that he
had thrown at Clay. "I wish you would talk to me about things like
that."
"In future, you'll be the first to know."
Kitt's tone definitely said 'end of conversation'. Michael would have
liked to delve into it some more, but he dropped it, they had both had a
very long day. He stared at the road in front of him, and Kitt's words
came back to him, as clearly as if he were speaking them now. 'Some
people blamed me for what she made me do. They hurt me trying to ensure
I wouldn't do it again.' He knew what Kitt had been talking about.
They had run a test program through his systems time and time again
until he had snapped. He had destroyed most of the garage he was being
kept in and finally buried himself under a pile of boxes in one corner,
terrified, asking over and over to be deactivated.
(Bonnie opened the door to the large garage, and showed Michael
inside. In the dim light, he could see the scene of destruction about
the floor below him. It looked as if a rampaging herd had entered the
garage and become confused. Boxes, electronics, equipment, cylinders of
God-knew what were all strewn about the floor. Amongst the wreckage,
Michael could make out spilt tins of red and yellow paint.
"Where the hell did the paint come from?" he asked quietly.
"No one's really sure, Devon thinks it was being stored here for some
reason."
"There's loads of it!"
"I know.... And it's not all on the floor." She took a step back,
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"He won't hurt me."
"I don't know, Michael. Look at this place. We're just not sure
anymore."
"I am."
Bonnie reluctantly closed the door behind her, leaving Michael standing
at the top of the metal steps down. He looked around him, letting his
eyes adjust to the light. As they did, he realized that the pile of
devastated boxes in the far corner was covering something. He made his
way slowly down the steps, and as he came to the base he could clearly
see a single, small red light, flashing on and off madly, partly hidden
by the boxes. He walked silently to the centre of the devastation, and
sat down, cross-legged on the floor, avoiding the paint as best he
could. Then he started to talk.
"I can't possibly imagine what you're going through Kitt. But I want
to help." He took in the destruction around him, and imagined the force
that would have been needed to cause so much damage. "I'm here now, and
you're going to be okay. I won't let anyone hurt you."
From the pile of boxes, a distressed voice answered him. "It hurt so
much."
A tear formed in Michael's eye. "I'm sorry," he choked. "I tried to
stop them. I tried but they insisted."
"I don't understand. Avril had the controls. She killed that man, not
me. Why are they doing this to me?"
"I'm sorry...."
"I would never, ever hurt you."
"Kitt, I know...."
"I can't take any more, please, Michael, deactivate me. Please."
Michael bit his lip, tears streaming down his face as Kitt's despairing
tone pulled at his heart. "Kitt, Avril hurt us all. I'm not gonna
pretend that I know how you're feeling, or what you went through in her
hands. But you can't ask me to deactivate you. One thing I do know is
how much I would miss you if I lost you. I am not going to let her be
the cause of your death."
"Michael... you have to stop them doing this to me... please."
Michael was about to reassure his partner that no more test programs
would be forced upon him, when he heard Devon's voice. "It's over,
Kitt. They've gone."
Michael looked to see Devon walking down the steps towards him.
"How...?"
Devon same to stand by Michael's side, laying a gentle hand on his
shoulder. "Bonnie... persuaded the young woman that she wanted to
leave, and the gentleman went with her."
Michael looked up at him, smiling through his tears.
"You hear that, Pal? No more tests, Kitt, I promise. You can't ask me
to ask Bonnie to deactivate you." He saw the horror cross Devon's face
and wordlessly nodded. Then he turned his head again to address his
distressed friend. "Please come back to me."
In the corner of the garage, the pile of boxes started to move.
Michael could hear the turbine hum of Kitt's engine, and slowly the
black prow emerged nervously from its hiding place. Michael did not
know whether to laugh or cry as he saw his car, covered in dust, and
paint, pulling out from under a collapsing mass of cardboard boxes.
Kitt came towards him slowly, stopping inches from Michael's still
sitting form.
"I would never hurt you." He repeated, pleading for Michael's belief
in him.
Michael shifted across the floor, leaning against the car and gently
reaching up to touch the side of the hood. "I know, Pal." He sighed,
closing his eyes and stroking the side of the hood reassuringly.
"You're the best, Kitt.")
Michael yanked himself back to the present, out of bad memories.
"Kitt, could you take over, I need to change out of these clothes, I'm
freezing."
"Of course." Kitt took the controls, leaving Michael free to dig out
his overnight bag from the back of the car. He always felt a little
odd, stripping in the car, even though Kitt always promised him privacy,
it was almost like stripping in front of another person. Someone who
did not have everything that Michael had. He took off his jacket, shirt
and jeans and towel-dried his hair before pulling on fresh, warm
clothing.
"So how do we connect to this chat server?"
"I can do it from here. I can log in using Clay's name and password.
That way I should be able to gain entrance to the Carroll room and find
the list of names permitted into that room. Although, I would assume
the person logging in as 'A' would be the only other name. I could be
wrong. I would simply wait until someone else turned up."
"Is it safe?"
"Yes."
"Great, do it. Wake me when you get company."
"Good night, Michael."
Kitt connected to the chat server and logged in. He could feel the
other connections, could have traced each one back to source. But he
simply sat in the entrance room for a while, listening to the chat
around him. He had never had the inclination to join one of these
groups, although he had often thought about the benefits to him. He
would be able to interact in a group of people as simply another person,
to communicate with so many other people on the same level, without them
staring and questioning what he was. Although he had always enjoyed the
sense that he was unique - one of a kind as Michael liked to put it - it
could sometimes be a lonely existence, and he had considered chat rooms
as a way to have company when no one else was around.
He had email, mailing many people regularly on specific subjects that
he could help with - but his friends were usually scientists or research
fellows. He had a good friend at MIT who was always asking to meet him,
but Kitt declined each time. Maybe one day, he would tell what he was,
he doubted this particular person would ever change his attitude or his
friendship. But Kitt sometimes liked the idea of just being another
person, maybe overly intelligent, but not too different.
He liked the Internet, loved the freedom email gave him, ensuring there
was always someone to talk to. It allowed him to stay in touch with
some of the people he and Michael had helped. Sally Flynn contacted him
regularly, kept him up to date with her college studies and her
continuing work with the family trucking business. But chat rooms had
never really been something he had wanted to get involved with. It was
too impersonal, he had imagined.
But the people around him now were chatting like they had known each
other all their lives. Personal details were being exchanged, and
suddenly Kitt felt very exposed. He moved into the Carroll room,
expecting a long wait. But immediately he was greeted.
_Where the fuck have you been Testa?
He reacted quickly.
There were problems
_What kind of problems?
Kitt found himself unable to answer. The function he had executed to
trace 'A''s location and machine had come back with its data. Kitt had
instantly processed it and the information was now sitting at the
forefront of his CPU. As soon as he could think again, he dropped the
connection with the chat server, too scared to stay any longer. He
recognized the machine address that the trace had provided. He knew who
'A' was, and Clay had been wrong. It was not a 'he'.
**
Ella wanted to throw her arms around Kitt the moment she saw his
sparkling form appear in the driveway. It was well into the afternoon,
and they were a lot later arriving back than they should have been
thanks to their confrontation with Clay. Bonnie immediately wanted to
check Kitt's systems, but he asked her for some time with Ella, and she
agreed, instead deciding to run a quick check on Michael's systems.
Ella waited until Michael had met up with Devon and followed him inside
before climbing into the driver's seat. "So, how was Phoenix?"
But Kitt was in no mood for small talk. He had spent the entire
journey back trying to figure out what he had done to make a total
stranger hate him with such passion. Although he had managed to get a
hold on his fear, he was still worried. "Ella, I need to talk to you."
She recognized the tone immediately. "I'm here, Kitt."
"Can we go somewhere... private?"
"Sure, any suggestions?"
It was slightly unnerving when the engine started up by itself, and the
car turned, heading up a track further into the grounds. But by the
time they reached the hunter's lodge that acted as guest quarters for
the mansion, Ella was used to Kitt driving. It almost seemed natural.
And he was the smoothest driver she had ever known. He pulled the car
to a stop with his brow at an gentle angle to the steps into the lodge,
and shut the engine off. They were left with only the sounds of nature
around them.
"What's wrong, Love?"
Kitt hesitated, but he knew he had to tell someone, and he knew that
Ella was the right person because of what she already knew. "William
Clay was behind the attack on us. It turns out that his daughter is
Avril Stone, she was a technician...."
"It's okay, Kitt, Bonnie told me about her. You don't need to
explain."
Kitt felt inexplicably glad about that. "I'm not sure whether what she
did had anything to do with what Clay did. He told us that he was
working with someone he had met on a chat server. He gave us the name
of the server, the room, along with his password and login name."
"Which server?"
"Foothills."
Ella smiled. "I know the guy who wrote that...." She hesitated.
"He's wonderful."
Kitt was momentarily distracted by an odd sensation he had not
previously encountered. Whatever it was, he found himself disliking it
immensely, and he was not sure how to proceed. Ella seemed to realize,
because she reached out and gently covered the nearby perceptor with her
palm. "It's okay, Kitt. He's not even living in this country."
That helped. Kitt forced himself back to what he had to tell her, and
the more familiar feeling of dread returned. "I logged in on the way
back, using Clay's name and password. I entered the room and his friend
was already in there. I set a trace to find the machine address of that
person."
Ella got there before Kitt. She had recognized his tone from when she
had approached him after his exit from the garage just after their
return here. She allowed the sinking feeling to take her guess
further. "What was the name of the room?"
"Carroll."
"Oh no...."
"It's her, Ella. It's Alice."
Ella closed her eyes and leant forward, dropping her forehead to the
steering wheel and pressing down harder on the perceptor, trying to
reassure Kitt that she was here to help.
"You have to tell Michael."
"I can't...."
"Please, Kitt.... She may have lost her accomplice but if she's gone
to these lengths, she isn't going to stop now."
"But without Clay there's nothing she can do, my systems have too much
security now. There's no way in."
"There's always a way in."
"Yes, with usual computers. But, Ella, I'm not your usual computer. I
have security the Government is unaware of. Every interface that I make
with another computer is transient, they can't be used to get back into
my systems. There is no way in."
"There is one way. The CEEPS backup. If she'd worked out somehow that
the emergency backup isn't secured... maybe that's why she'd told Clay
to hit you again."
Kitt thought about that. "But we've removed Clay from the equation,
and I only make a mistake once."
Kitt's tone was growing more and more desperate. Ella knew that he
just wanted all this to go away. But it was not going to, Alice was not
simply going to disappear. "Are you happy, knowing she's out there?"
"Of course not. But even if we do find her, what then? She hasn't
done anything wrong."
Ella took her hands off the wheel, anger feeding her. "She raped you,
Kitt!"
"It's not possible to rape a computer Ella," he hesitated, distressed,
"however right you may be."
Ella sighed, she knew she was just agitating Kitt more. "You can't let
her scare you. I know that you see her as powerful, in your own way,
but you're not a usual victim, you can fight back. I understand that
your neural nets link certain events to certain feelings in the same way
that a the human brain does. We experience something terrible and
things that were linked to that experience at the time, remain linked
unless we do something to break them. It's not so different for you.
You have paths between what Alice did to you, her presence within your
systems, and the way it made you feel. When you saw her machine address
last night, those pathways were activated, they swamped you with the
feelings of horror and fear that you experienced when she was attacking
you. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can sever those pathways
and build new ones. You can link her with feelings of strength and
victory, you can beat her Kitt. You're a million times better at this
than she is, you have the experience, you know you're the best. Prove
it to her."
"Why do you understand me so well?"
"Because I love you, Kitt. I'm still learning about you, and
everything new that I discover amazes me. I know what you've been
through with Alice. But you have to believe me when I tell you that you
can take control of this situation. I'm not gonna let that bitch hurt
you any more."
Kitt was touched. "Ella.... I can't tell Michael. I know that he's
going to want me to tell him who Clay's friend is, but the only way I
found to explain it to you was to show you the picture. I don't want
Michael seeing that."
"It's okay, I'll tell them."
Kitt paused before asking, "Devon knows, doesn't he?"
Ella stared at the voice panel. "How do you know that?"
"At the time, just after I destroyed Alice's computer, I could sense
something different with Devon, almost distrust, for quite some time. I
had taken data from her machine before I wiped the disks, she had the
foundation's email address listed, along with Devon's personal address.
I put two and two together, and figured that she must have mailed Devon
and told him, maybe bragged about what she had done. I imagine she sent
him a sample of what she'd been placing in my memory."
Ella nodded silently. "He didn't mean anything... he knows he reacted
badly."
"He told you he knew?"
"Yeah, he must have overheard us that night I wiped it from the
backup."
"Did he tell anyone else?"
"No."
A quiet fell, broken only by the faint wind in the branches of the bare
trees. "Ella, why me?"
"Kitt, I don't know... maybe she envies you...."
"No, not Alice, you. Why did you chose me?"
Ella leaned back in the seat, eyes moving from the voice panel to the
scenery outside the windshield. She knew Kitt was not after compliments
or flattery, it was a different question when he asked it. "I'm not
sure there is an answer to that. These things... just happen."
"I meet a great many women, mostly through Michael. None of them come
close to you. It's difficult to describe my feelings in a way that
would make any sense to you, and still get over to you how I actually
perceive those feelings. It's like... like every system running in
total harmony, a peace within my self that I haven't experienced
before."
"Is it a good experience?"
"It's perfect."
Ella sat forward, finding the perceptor once more with her fingers of
her left hand, while those of her right stroked gently across the voice
panel.
"I don't know what's going to happen to us, Kitt."
"Me neither, and in a way, it's more frightening than anything Alice
could do to me."
"I think... I think that's love."
Kitt had no reply to that.
**
Ella felt a little like Agatha Christie's 'Poirot'. She sat atop
Devon's desk, looking into the shocked expressions of Bonnie and Michael
as they sat in large, uncomfortable armchairs in front of her. Behind
her a subdued Devon was staring at the top of his desk. Ella could
hardly bare to see the look on Michael's face. For some reason, she had
assumed that Bonnie would be the one to react worst. Bonnie simply
looked sad. Michael looked as if his world had been turned upside down.
"Why didn't he tell me? Why won't he talk to me about these things?"
Ella ached for him, sympathy and understanding shining clear in her
eyes. She remembered how she had felt when Kitt had first told her, and
she had only known him a matter of days. These people were his family,
the closest people in the world to him.
"He didn't know how to explain what she was doing without showing you
the images, and he wanted to spare you from that." Michael stood
suddenly, frustrated, he started to pace the room. "Please don't put
him through any more," Ella begged him.
Michael stopped several feet in front of her. "I don't want to put him
through any more. I want him to start trusting me enough to talk to
me! Everything we've been through...." He moved over to the window,
and something irrational within him wanted to smash it. Ella was still
watching him intently, and now, so was Bonnie. "I don't understand why
he can't talk to me after seven years." There was a catch in his voice,
and Ella knew that he was crying. She felt a little like crying
herself. "What's the point in us being together if he can't confide in
me? I tell him everything!" He turned to Ella, pleading in his
tear-filled eyes. "How come he can tell you all this? He's know you a
couple of weeks!"
Bonnie stood slowly. "Maybe that's why, Michael. Maybe sometimes he
needs to talk to someone who isn't as involved as we are."
"But this isn't the only thing! He still remembers every detail of
what Avril Stone did to him, yet in all this time he hadn't said
anything. Doesn't he think I'd understand? Is that it? Does he
imagine that I don't expect him to hurt like the rest of us?"
"Of course not." Ella moved next to him. "You know him better than
anyone."
"That's what I don't understand! He knows... he knows what I think
about him, he can tell me anything."
In the silence that followed, Devon finally lifted his head. "I can
show you why." Ella turned quickly.
"Devon...."
"I have a copy of one of images Alice sent to Kitt."
Ella bit down on her denial. She did not really want Devon showing
Michael what Kitt had suffered to protect him from. But then again, in
Michael's state all he was going to do was upset Kitt even more. Maybe
showing him was the only way to stop the unique relationship from being
harmed.
Devon was looking to her for agreement, and slightly reluctantly, she
nodded. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk with a key, and reached
under some folders, pulling out a single piece of A4 paper. Michael
closed in on the desk, reaching out a shaking hand to take the colour
printout from his boss's fingers.
His tears fell steadily as he focused on the image. "Oh Kitt...." He
sat down in the nearest chair, unable to close his eyes against the
horror of what was in front of him. "He could have told me." But there
was no accusation in his tone anymore.
Bonnie stayed away, not wanting to ever know. She had heard of Alice
through her friends at MIT, and her anger was directed towards herself.
How could they have not known that Kitt was going through this? How
could he have kept something so terrible from them for three months?
Her eyes fell on Michael, and on Ella crouched in front of him. In
seven years, she had only seen him cry three times, and two of those
times had been in the last three weeks. They had to end this, or it was
going to tear them all apart.
Ella stood, backing off as she saw Devon coming towards them. Very
quietly, he said to her, "We need some time." She nodded, and glancing
at Bonnie, the two women left the room. Devon sat down in the chair
next to Michael's. Silently, he reached over and covered his friend's
shaking hand, still gripping the paper, with his own. The
uncharacteristic gesture took Michael by surprise, and he lifted his
head.
"He told you?" he asked incredulously.
"No. I've never to spoken to Kitt about this. Alice sent that to me,
just after Kitt destroyed her computer."
Michael took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I haven't had much sleep, and
these past few weeks...."
"There's no need for apologies. I should be the one saying sorry.
Maybe, if I'd have told you at the time, or had the courage to talk to
Kitt myself, we wouldn't be going through this right now."
Michael nodded, looking back down at the picture. "You remember that
trouble we had, with Zachary?"
Devon nodded, "Yes, I do."
"When they had Kitt in the truck, and they ordered me to shut him down,
I felt like... like they asking me to kill him. I couldn't do it, I had
to tell Kitt to do it - I had to order him to do it. I never felt so
hateful, or so lonely in my whole life. I watched the scanner die and I
wanted to scream. Afterwards, he told me that deactivation was like
being in a cold room, blind, deaf and dumb. Being aware, but unable to
move or speak, or feel.... He sounded really scared as he described it
to me. It was the first time I'd heard him sound that way. He asked
me if KARR had been kept in that state, and I told him I honestly didn't
know. He made me swear to him, that if it ever came to his being...
permanently deactivated, that I would ensure his CPU was blown, that I
would make sure that he didn't spend eternity in that state of
suspension." He let the picture fall between his knees, out of sight
yet still clasped in the fingers of the hand still covered by Devon's.
He stared blankly at the wrinkled skin against his own. "It was the
first time that I truly realized how deeply he did feel. I guess, up
until that point I still saw him as a machine, of sorts. But at that
moment, when he made me make that promise to him, I knew just how
responsible I was going to be for him, for the rest of my life. And I
felt... I felt like I would never be lonely again. I felt like a new
parent."
In a voice that was barely a whisper, Devon asked, "What are you
feeling now?"
"I feel like someone has violated my child, and I want to kill her."
"I think that's how we're all feeling. But dear boy, that's not what
Kitt needs." Michael looked up at that, straight into Devon's caring
eyes. "He needs your strength now, to get him through this. I can make
sure Alice is charged with _something_, but you and Kitt need to find
her. He needs you with him, he needs your blind optimism that together,
you could take on the world. You've always given that to him, don't
stop now."
Michael nodded, and Devon sat back, moving his hand from Michael's,
only to have Michael stop him. "Thank you, for everything."
The older man nodded, smiling. "I'll always look after you, Michael,
you should know that by now."
Fund-raisers.
Michael hated them. But this time he felt, after everything Devon had
done for Kitt and he over the past few days, that he owed it to his boss
to at least put in an appearance. Bonnie loved them because they gave
her what were usually her only chances to dress up, and this time she
hoped to get a dance from her handsome prince. Ella had never been to
anything like it. She and Bonnie spent the whole morning before in the
city, finding her a dress, because however hard she tried, Ella could
not squeeze in to Bonnie's size 12s.
Bonnie and Ella shopped for three hours, ate lunch, and then started
again. It had been a long time since either of them had enjoyed close
female company. And as Ella told Bonnie, as they sat down in the most
expensive restaurant they could find, she had forgotten how much fun
shopping could be. After they had visited every dress shop in the town,
Ella found the one she loved just after lunch. Bonnie bought a red ball
gown in the same store, because she thought Michael might appreciate its
low cut front and non-existent back. The assistant told them that
Ella's full length dark blue ball gown, with a fitted bodice and full
skirt, looked stunning on her. Bonnie told her that Kitt would love
it. Ella merely smiled.
This particular fund-raiser was an annual affair held by the
Foundation. It was partly to raise money and partly to keep up the high
profile of the Foundation's PR department, the group within the
association that kept the public's eyes away from other projects.
Early on in the evening, Michael and Bonnie pulled up with Kitt, the
valet not even bothering to step forward to offer. Kitt pulled away
from the curb and found himself a quiet area of the hotel parking lot.
Devon accompanied Ella in a stretch Limo behind them. She could not
keep the smile off her face, and her enjoyment was infectious. Devon
escorted her from the car, and into the ballroom. Ella felt like a
princess. She only wished her prince could be on her arm.
The champagne flowed freely, and Ella watched Devon work the room like
a master. She chatted to a few men, only barely noting their interest
in her. Her thoughts were elsewhere. Her distraction was fairly
obvious to a trained eye, and an hour or so into the evening, Bonnie
cornered her. "You could have any man in the room." She whispered.
Ella turned her head and smiled. "Charlie's nice, Dave is very good
looking, and Jerez is an excellent dancer. But...."
"But nothing special."
"No." A passing waiter offered them champagne and both accepted. "You
lot really know how to throw a party."
"Thank you." Bonnie smiled knowingly. "I'm amazed we got Michael
here. You wouldn't believe the excuses he and Kitt have come up with in
the past to keep away from these evenings. I've no idea how he gets
Kitt to cover for him either. I never taught him to lie."
Ella grinned at her. "You sound like a worried mother."
"I know."
Ella spotted Michael looking bored as hell against the far wall. She
nudged Bonnie. "I think you should go and talk to the father."
The lights of the hotel spilled into the spacious parking lot behind.
Ella spotted Kitt sitting away from the other cars, the lights playing
on his perfect body. She approached him quietly, reaching out when she
got close enough to touch him. "Hello, Ella."
"Hi, Kitt." He opened the driver's door and she sat down, legs out of
the car, settling back into the leather seat.
"You look beautiful." Kitt's voice was quiet.
"Funny, I was just thinking the same about you." There was a pause.
From somewhere within the folds of her dress, Ella recovered a single
menthol cigarette. "Do you mind?"
"Of course not." Kitt heated the seldom-used lighter, and lit the
indicating diode. Ella thanked him as she lit the cigarette and leaned
her head back against the rest.
"Aren't you enjoying the party?"
"It's not that, Kitt. I just wanted to come out here and say hello.
You must get so bored sitting in parking lots while Michael partys."
"I am his car, it's what I was created for." Ella let out a deep
breath; it seemed to be an argument she could not win. "To be truthful,
this is one of the very few Foundation fund-raisers that we have
attended."
"Yeah, Bonnie mentioned that your excuses were becoming more
imaginative each time."
"Michael does not enjoy this type of social event."
"I'm not really sure I blame him. Although I like the Limo treatment."
"You like expensive cars?"
Ella was about to say yes, when she stopped and thought about the
question for a moment. "That's not what this is about Kitt," she told
him gently.
"Then what is it about?"
Ella turned and let herself lie back across the seats. The material of
her skirt fell neatly across the edge of the driver's seat, and for a
moment the sensation distracted Kitt. She keyed open the sunroof and
watched the thin curl of smoke reach up into the night sky. "This is
about you." She answered him finally.
Finally Kitt could sense a break in the strange tension between them.
"How can this be about me? I'm a computer, Ella." There was a quiet,
barely disguised desperation in his voice that pulled at Ella's heart,
because she was feeling it too.
"No, Kitt. If you were just a computer I wouldn't be feeling this
way."
"How do you feel?" She could hear the hope that laced that sensual
voice.
"The truth? I think I'm falling in love with you."
"Ella...." Kitt hesitated. "I've never been in love, I honestly never
believed I could feel that strength of emotion. But I've never been
this confused before either. I'm afraid I'm not very good with strange
feelings. I get comfortable with my environment and if something
changes it I tend to be slow to accept that. Having said that, I've
never felt like this before, for anyone. This is all new to me." He
finished almost desperately, finding it difficult to say what he wanted
to say, painfully aware that he was leaving himself open to ridicule.
Ella dropped the finished cigarette to the ground and sat up, her eyes
settling on the columned voice panel. "I really do care for you. I
understand that you've seen a great many horrors, and been through many
bad times as well as good. I know this latest attack wasn't the first.
Bonnie's told me about Adrienne Margot, and about the incident with the
industrial acid, about Michael losing his memory. You've been through
so much, and you've come out of it, still with your gentle humanity
intact." She smiled gently. "It's one of the things that's so
attractive about you."
"No one's ever said these things to me. I never imagined that anyone
ever would."
"But you need to hear them as much as any of us, don't you?" There was
silence. "It's okay to need these things, Kitt. Like it's okay to need
reassurance from Michael about your partnership and your future. It's
very human...."
Kitt felt the heat in his circuits increase. "I don't understand how
you can possibly find me attractive. I'm a machine, a computer, you
write software for things like me."
Ella smiled. "You don't have any idea do you?"
"About what?"
"About the effect you have on women; your voice, your mannerisms, your
charisma... your sensuality...." She smiled gently, "I'd be willing to
bet that there have been a lot of women interested in you, but you just
haven't noticed."
"I very much doubt it, Ella."
"Come on Kitt, you can turn on the charm as easily as Michael can."
"That's just who I am... and possibly Michael's habits rubbing off on
me." He felt Ella's fingers wrap around the steering wheel. "I'm just
not sure that there's even one aspect of the human relationship that I
could realistically participate in."
Ella moved her fingers slowly up the side of the steering wheel, coming
to rest at the top before dropping her palm softly down onto the
perceptor. Instantly Kitt amplified the input coming from the device,
feeling Ella's touch.
"I like being with you, Kitt. I enjoy talking to you. You have a
unique perspective. I've known a lot of men, and none of them match up
to you."
"Flattery will get you everywhere."
Ella laughed. "One of Michael's phrases?"
"No, actually." Kitt let the humour filter through his voice, at the
same time revelling in the warmth of Ella's fingers playing on the
perceptor, tracing slow patterns that were making it more and more
difficult to concentrate on talking to her. "That's extremely
distracting, Ella," he told her softly.
Just as softly she replied, "It's supposed to be."
A slow, hot silence fell between them. Ella realized that the
temperature in the car had risen, but she knew it was just one more
thing she would have to get used to interpreting. Kitt was never going
to be able to express himself in the way a human would; she was going to
have to learn to read his gestures. And to talk in his language.
"Close your eyes, Kitt."
The request surprised him. "Ella...?"
"Trust me. Just let everything else go, just for a minute.
Concentrate on my touch."
Kitt took a virtual breath and started to pause all his other major
functions; scanner, Michael's comlink input, internal sensors.
Everything. Until all that was left were Ella's fingertips on the
perceptor. A low, quiet hum escaped his voice box. "Ella...." The
word was no more than a breath, yet it pierced her soul as she realized
Kitt had trusted her enough to do as she had asked him.
Never before had there been such little input that had taken so much
processing. Kitt concentrated every bite on the perceptor data, reading
only one lone signal for the first time in his short life. It was the
most amazing thing he had ever felt, like gentle fire playing across his
circuits. His entire CPU sang with Ella's touch, his whole being seemed
to lock with her pulse, and beat in the same rhythm. It was the most
intoxicating moment he had ever known. Somehow the energy had to be
released, and Kitt let it go as waves across his voice modulator, hums
of absolute contentment that swept through the silence in the car.
"God, Kitt...." Ella closed her own eyes, wanting more than anything
in the world to be able to kiss him. Just one of many sensations she
was never going to feel. She kept her fingertips tracing those patterns
that seemed so enticing to Kitt. He felt alive under her skin. Her
mind otherwise blank, she let the soft sounds emanating from him play
across her nerves, soothing and exciting at the same time. She could
feel her body responding. This felt so natural she could almost believe
that it would work between them.
Slowly, Ella could sense the change, and she knew Kitt was trying,
maybe struggling, to bring other functions back on line. Sighing
softly, she sat forward and without thinking she placed her lips
momentarily against the voice panel. She was aware of everything
stopping. And for a moment she imagined his breath against hers. And
then she pulled back, and ceased the movement of her fingers, although
she held them steady over that sensitive area.
She spoke quietly. "Kitt, are you okay?"
"Ella... I'm speechless. I've never felt anything like that."
"I wish I could do more...."
"I'm not sure my circuits could cope with any more."
Ella smiled, slowly leaning back in the seat. She looked up out of the
windshield, to the hotel. The thought of going back to the party did
not enthuse her. "I don't suppose there's any way we can get out of
here?"
"I'm sorry Ella." Kitt gauged her reaction. "This is going to be a
problem, isn't it? One of many...."
"Nothing that we can't work around Kitt, don't worry."
Michael placed a kiss on Bonnie's cheek. "I'm outta here."
She smiled knowingly. "I'm impressed you've stayed this long."
"This party does have its attractions."
"Not enough of them obviously."
Michael's eyes danced. "You know what you do to me. I can't take it
in this stuffy atmosphere."
Bonnie closed the gap between them and touched her lips to his. The
kiss lasted only a moment, before she whispered, "I'll see you later
on." She thought he was going to skip out of the hotel.
He exited the building gracefully, but did nearly brake into a run when
he saw the driver's side door of his car hanging open. As he closed on
Kitt, he quickly recognized Ella's dress spilling out, and snippets of
conversation floated through the warm night air.
"...do you really mean that?" His partner's voice, so full of
gentleness and awe, that it stopped Michael in his tracks.
"Yes, and I need you to believe me."
"I don't know what to say..."
Michael wondered whether he should intrude. He had gotten completely
fed up with trying to make small talk with Devon's guests. Even the
couple of dances he had managed to get with Bonnie were not making up
for the fact he was in a dinner jacket, it was gorgeous outside, and the
night was still young in some parts of town. He had wanted to take Kitt
and hit the road, maybe find some deserted beach to race down, scare a
few fish. Now though, he was not so sure that Kitt did not have plans
of his own.
Ella saw Michael watching them and leaned forward. "I better go."
Kitt knew already what she was talking about, and for one, brief moment
of utter confusion within his circuitry, he tried to figure out some way
of asking her not to leave. But he could not.
Somehow, Ella could sense his sudden distress. "I meant it, Kitt. If
there's a way, we'll find it." She gently patted the dash. "I'll see
you tomorrow."
"Thank you for making this a truly memorable evening."
"It was a pleasure."
**
Michael was content to listen to music for just over an hour, as he
drove the car at exhilaratingly high speeds across the dark California
highways. But as the final song on the album faded, he knew there was
something wrong. Kitt had not spoken a word since they left the hotel,
and the least he would have usually done would be to complain about the
music. "Kitt?"
"Yes."
Michael smiled. "Well at least you're still there."
"Of course."
The computer lapsed back into silence, when his usual reaction would
have been to find some conversation starter. Michael started to become
concerned. He thought that they had sorted out any problems Kitt had.
He knew that Ella had had a long talk with his partner, and she seemed
to have solved the last of them. The moment he really thought about it,
he knew what this was about. "So," he began, "you and Ella have an
interesting chat tonight?"
The voice panel remained darkened. Michael slowed his speed to
something vaguely close to the limit; they were closing in on the
beach. Soon, Michael stopped the car at the edge of the water, and got
out. Not long ago he had finally gotten around to seeing the film
'Waynes World', and the scene with the two of them lying on the hood of
their car, watching the planes fly overhead, had captured his
imagination. Kitt opened the windows and the sunroof as Michael made
himself comfortable on the warm hood, head rested on his arms as he
leant back against the windshield. He waited, wanting Kitt to talk to
him of his own accord, having learnt a long time before that pressuring
his partner was not always the best plan.
So sure was he that Kitt was going to start talking, it surprised him
when soft music started playing in the car. It was a quiet piece; a
sultry, lone trumpet and a woman's voice. Nothing more. It was not
anything like Michael had ever heard before, and it definitely was not
Kitt's usual choice. Michael closed his eyes and listened to the music,
letting his thoughts wonder to Bonnie, and to the way she had looked in
that dress tonight.
Kitt did not want to talk, and he did not want to think. He had found
the music on one of the late night radio stations, and decided on that,
rather than leaving Michael totally without an answer to his question.
Kitt tried to let the music soothe him, attempted to let it settle into
his circuitry as Ella's touch had so easily done. But he was finding it
difficult to concentrate on anything but Ella. He was not sure whether
what they had shared that night had meant anything to her, or whether
they had actually shared anything at all. After all, there was no way
he could ever return her gesture. But he knew beyond any doubt that it
had meant something very particular to him. The first time. The first
time a woman had touched him with anything other than natural action.
The first time he had felt one sensation so intensely that it had
blotted out anything else and left its echo burning in his memory.
He had meant what he had said to Michael a few days before; that he
could not see any way that this could end happily. But still he found
he did not want to ask Ella to stop. The knowledge that he was going
towards something that scared him was almost a paradox. And maybe for
that reason it was not something he wished to think about. He
registered Michael's weight on his hood, and found himself wishing that
it was Ella he was feeling there. The revelation shocked him.
"Michael?"
Michael opened his eyes. "Yeah, Kitt."
"I don't want to feel this way any longer."
Michael strove to ensure his tone stayed neutral, trying to keep the
parental edge out. "Why don't you talk to me?"
"I... I was just thinking how good it would feel to have Ella lying
there, instead of you."
Kitt waited anxiously for Michael's hurt retort, but instead he heard a
chuckle. "Well, Kitt, I guess that makes us even, because I was just
imagining how good it would be to be lying here with Bonnie."
"You're not upset?"
That startled him. "Why should I be upset?"
"I'm yours, Michael, I should be content with having _you_ here."
Michael turned, shifting onto his side to gaze in through the
windshield. "Kitt, you're not mine. I don't own you. Maybe... maybe
the car's in my name, but you're your own person. And why should you be
content with just having me around all the time?" His voice softened.
"You've fallen in love, Pal. It's going to be some time before you
manage to think about much else."
Kitt processed Michael's words over again. "Ella told me tonight that
she thought she was falling in love with me."
It was Michael's turn for silence. He knew it was coming with Kitt,
knew how his partner felt for the young programmer. But he really had
not thought that Kitt's feelings would be reciprocated. He was an
expert in recognizing that deep emotional feelings for the advanced
computer were possible, and in his life they were commonplace. But Ella
was a stranger to all this, she had not grown with Kitt as the rest of
them had. She had met a complicated mix of wires and chips, and had
fallen for him? He wondered why he was starting to feel angry at her,
then he realized that he did not want to see Kitt get hurt. And that
was what was going to happen because his partner had said it himself,
there was no where for this to go.
"Kitt... are you sure you... understood her correctly?" The moment the
words were out, and he heard how bad it sounded, he regretted it. Once
there had been a time when Kitt would have taken the question at face
value, and simply reassured Michael that he had heard her right. But
that time was long passed. Now Kitt could be hurt with questions like
that.
"You don't think it's possible for her to love me?"
Michael cringed at the barely disguised pain in that usually warm
voice. "No, I'm sorry Kitt, that came out wrong. It's just...."
"I know," Kitt finished for him, "you don't have to tell me. I'm a
computer in a car and she is a beautiful, bright woman. She could have
anyone. Why on earth would she show any interest in me."
Michael dropped his forehead to the glass. "That wasn't what I was
going to say." He had known that this would not be all that easy, but
he had not really been fully prepared for how difficult it was proving
to be. "Don't put yourself down. You're intelligent, sensitive, you've
got a wonderful sense of humour, now, and you're a charmer when you want
to be. Don't think I haven't noticed. People respond to you. That
lady who gave you that sculpture she'd done of you because she said that
you'd moved her? That French woman Devon somehow knows, the one that
adores you cause you speak her language fluently? Bonnie's friend Jacq
who can't keep her hands off you? You entice people. There's no reason
Ella shouldn't be caught up in that too."
"But Ella's different, Ella responds to _me_. She talks to _me_, not
because I'm there, or because it's different, or curious, or polite, she
goes out of her way to talk to me, and when she's with me, it's so
natural. Her body language, everything about her... it's as if she's
keyed in to me. She talks to me the way most people talk to you."
Michael took in Kitt's point. And when he thought about it, he
realized how true it was. A great many people did still see Kitt as a
curiosity, especially when they first met him. But Ella had gone
straight to him, accepted him instantly without question, exactly the
way he was.
"Don't you want me to see her?" Kitt asked finally, quietly.
"Kitt, it's not that. I really am happy that you've found each other.
I just don't want to see you get hurt, because I've been there and to
tell you the truth, I was quite glad that it was something I thought you
weren't ever going to have to experience." He took a deep breath,
knowing Kitt deserved the truth. He lowered his voice. "It would feel
a little bit odd... sharing you with someone. You've always been here
for me and me only. It's addictive almost, a feeling of uniqueness
because I have someone like you. But Kitt, I'd get used to you seeing
Ella, I don't want you to worry about that."
"I'll always be here for you, Michael," Kitt told him softly, touched
by his partner's words. "Never think that I won't be."
Michael smiled, and twisted around until he was on his back again.
After a while, he began to speak. "'Empathy, humanity, love; these
qualities are resident within a man's soul, no matter where that soul
resides.'"
"Isaac Asimov."
"I always wondered what he meant by that, until I met you. There are
times when I think we ought to have you christened. This is the reason
why they would never build another car like you, you have almost every
human trait, and no way to deal with at least half of them."
"Does it bother you that I am so human, as you put it?"
"No, it doesn't. In fact, the more you develop, the easier you are to
get on with. But don't you find that the more you develop, the harder
certain things are to cope with?"
"Yes. The longer we're together the harder it is to imagine being
without you. I remember a time when I would have accepted a replacement
driver if you had left the Foundation, now, I don't think I could."
"At least that's something we know you're not gonna have to worry about
now. Kitt, if I leave, you come with me."
"Not that you're going to."
"Not that I'm going to." Michael smiled. "We've been here before."
"I know, I was just checking."
"You were changing the subject." There was mock-accusation in
Michael's tone, and he believed he could sense Kitt blushing.
"If I was, it's a habit I picked up from you."
"Oh, I see. Blame me, do you? Is that what you tell Bonnie when she
discovers you've learnt a new skill?"
"It depends on the skill, if it's a function that is useful and
productive, I tell her I programmed it myself."
Michael shook his head, astounded. "And Devon still claims you're not
human."
"I'm not!"
"Sometimes, Kitt, you really could fool me."
**
The moment Ella rejoined the party, Bonnie noticed a change in her.
She was quieter, even more preoccupied, and it did not take Sherlock
Holmes to work out why. Whatever had been building between Ella and
Kitt for days, something had obviously happened out there. Ella
politely declined offers of dances until Bonnie decided that they should
both get out of there. For the first time in a long, long while, Bonnie
rang for a cab, told Devon they would meet him back at the house, found
Ella and they left.
After some discussion they went back to the estate. Ella chose a
bottle of wine from the cellar, and they started a log fire in the
lounge, more for atmosphere than warmth. More photos adorned the walls,
some of Wilton Knight, a few of the staff at the Foundation, of Bonnie,
Devon and Michael. There was a shot of a group of technicians, all
sitting and standing around Kitt. Ella recognized Pete, and most of the
others, they were a friendly bunch who obviously took good care of Kitt,
and she felt drawn to them because of that. But there was one face she
did not recognize. A woman, short blond hair, pretty face, leaning
quite possessively over the driver's side of Kitt's sunroof. Ella could
not believe the wave of jealousy that swept over her.
Bonnie finally found the wineglasses and the corkscrew and joined Ella
in the lounge, too intoxicated already to worry whether or not they were
about to drink one of Devon's prized vintages. She padded up to stand
next to Ella in front of the photo. "Who's the woman?"
Bonnie looked closer, then pulled back. "That's Avril. She was
employed as one of Kitt's technicians, a few years ago." Ella could
hear the anger creep into Bonnie's voice.
"What happened?"
"She... betrayed us. She'd been here, working very closely with Kitt,
for about seven months. Then one day she overrode Kitt's control and
took off with the car. She drove out to Las Vegas, tried to sell it,
and when a guy wouldn't give her what she wanted, she killed him. She
ran him over."
"Using Kitt?"
Bonnie nodded. "We tracked her down within a matter of hours, and she
tried to use Kitt to kill Michael. They stood there, face to face, and
Kitt suddenly went for him. He stopped just in front of Michael's
knees. He'd overridden her, broken through his own programming to come
to his own conclusion. I was so proud of him, but I'll tell you, that
moment when he started towards Michael, was the worst moment of my
entire life."
Bonnie sat down on the rug in front of the fire, and opened the wine.
Finally Ella joined her, but she was still having trouble taking in what
Bonnie had said. "She used Kitt to kill a man?"
"She ran him over. She could have used any car."
"But she used Kitt."
"Yes." Bonnie looked up at her sadly. "And he does remember. He
refused to go back on the road for weeks. He kept asking us to
deactivate him. And even when Michael had talked him round, reassured
him that none of it had been his fault, Kitt still seemed devastated by
the whole episode. It took a long time for him to learn to trust
again." Bonnie handed her a glass of wine.
"It must have been a difficult time for you."
"It was a difficult time for all of us, especially for Kitt. They put
him through a myriad of tests afterwards. But we got through it, like
we get through everything else."
Ella nodded slightly, letting her attention wonder to the flames in the
grate. "How could anyone do that to him?" She asked quietly. "How
could anyone know him, and work with him, and then force him to go
through something like that?"
Bonnie smiled. "Not everyone cares for him like you do."
"But even so...." Ella could feel the anger building within her. She
knew she had to let it go, there was nothing she could do to change what
that woman had done.
Eventually Bonnie decided to change the subject, and her curiosity was
starting to get the better of her. "I gather you didn't leave the party
to go and feed the ducks?"
"I just wanted to see him, to talk to him." Ella pushed her fingers
through her hair. "Bonnie, I don't know what's happening. I used to
think that I had complete control of my life. I was totally content
with my job, my friends, working late hours, spending nights on the
Internet, weekends away at various people's houses. I've been out with
a few guys but nothing ever seems to work, and I always felt more
comfortable when I wasn't seeing anyone."
"But...?"
"But Kitt is making me think that maybe I'm missing something." She
took a sip of the wine, and reached over for the bottle. "I'm not sure
we should be drinking this Bonnie."
Bonnie frowned, tasting the fine liquid. "What makes you say that?"
"This bottle says 1953."
"Shit!" She took another sip. " It's very nice though. There are so
many bottles down there, he'll never notice."
Ella nodded, gazing up around her. The firelight was the only
illumination in the room, playing with shadows on the walls. She felt
happy and secure here, the place felt like it was full of love. "Do you
all stay here for Christmas?"
"Usually. We have a meal on Christmas day, Devon's daughter and her
family sometimes join us. Michael and Kitt tend to take a vacation
between Christmas and New Year." She met Ella's eyes with her own and
smiled. "I'm not so sure they'll be doing that this year though."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because I think Kitt will plant his tires in the gravel and refuse to
move." She gazed into her glass. "And maybe Michael will feel like
relaxing around here for a few days. You're very welcome to join us, if
you haven't got any other plans."
"Thank you." Ella's gaze was drawn to the play of light in her own
wineglass. "I don't often see my family anymore. My parents don't
really get on that well, and my brother's always telling me that I
should act more like a woman."
Bonnie frowned, and her expression told Ella that it was a line she too
was familiar with. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure. Put on a skirt, go to a club and pull some drunken hunk
I guess. I never asked him exactly what he thought I should be doing.
His opinion never meant that much to me. Don't get me wrong, I have a
lot of friends, and they're all wonderful. I would never have described
myself as lonely. I just never felt the urge to go out every night and
pull a different guy. I was actually starting to think that maybe I
was a lesbian and just hadn't worked it out yet."
"Until you met Kitt."
Bonnie had expected some sort of reaction, but Ella just nodded.
"Until I met Kitt." She sighed. "Honestly, Bonnie, I don't know what
I'm doing."
"I wish I could offer you some advice. I've felt a little of what
you're feeling, but I never let it go beyond late night musings."
"Why?"
"Because I helped create Kitt, I helped build him, I nurtured him. I
have a place in his life which no one could ever fill if I left. I
don't ever want to jeopardize what I have here. And I was always
attracted to Michael I guess. Kitt's the most important person in the
world to me, I wouldn't ever want to risk hurting him."
Ella finished off her wine, staring away into the bottom of her glass.
"He makes me feel... like no one else ever has. I don't quite
understand how, or why. I know it's crazy."
"It's not crazy. There's a side to him that people don't see because
he doesn't show it very often. He's a romantic at heart, craving love
and affection and closeness as much as the rest of us do. But I think
that he believed love wasn't something he was ever going to experience,
until you came along."
"Look, Bonnie, I'd be the first to admit that Kitt's not just a
machine. But he is what he is. He is Michael's car."
"Yes, he is. But he's also as close to sentient as a computer has ever
become. He's unique, and the normal rules just don't apply any more."
Bonnie filled their glasses. "I can make a suggestion." She said
quietly.
"Go for it."
"Just for tonight, just while we're sitting here with a real fire, and
drinking some of the most expensive wine only influence can buy, why
don't we just accept that Kitt is someone you love, who loves you back,
and pretend that everything's going to work out, happily ever after."
Ella carefully clinked her glass with Bonnie's.
"To fairytales."
**
The sun was starting to rise as Michael piloted Kitt home. The car
seemed edgy, excited almost, and although Michael was used to feeling
the potential power under the hood, this time it seemed to be more like
Kitt badgering Michael to go faster. Eventually, he gave in. "Would
you like to drive?"
There was no hesitation. "Yes."
Michael shook his head, prepared to let it go for now - he knew Kitt's
emotions were messed up; the computer had a lot to deal with at the
moment, and he understood that. "Ready?"
"Anytime."
"3 2 1...."
In the usual swap-over procedure, Michael released the wheel at the end
of the countdown and Kitt took over smoothly. It was a method they
usually used when Michael was taking over from Kitt at high speeds, but
it seemed easier to use it both ways.
The moment Kitt had control, their speed shot up from 120 to 200 in a
matter of two or three seconds. Michael sat back, unconcerned with the
roadside drops of several hundreds of feet that Kitt was toying with.
He trusted Kitt with his life, always had and always would. It always
touched him, the feelings of safety and belonging that he felt when he
was with Kitt. Even after the attack, he still felt like nothing and no
one could touch them.
"In a hurry, are we partner?"
"I'm merely enjoying exercising my considerable speed capabilities."
"Liar."
"Well, it was worth a try."
Michael laughed. "I remember a time when you wouldn't even have
considered fibbing. For any reason."
"As you say, I have developed, helped along by your example."
"Thank you, I'm sure Devon really appreciates what I've done to you.
Anyway Kitt, Ella's probably in bed by now."
"Thank you for reminding me."
Michael's curiosity was piqued by his partner's reply. "Kitt, could I
ask you... a personal question?"
"Of course."
"Does being with Ella... excite you? Do you feel that find of thing?"
Michael felt like a voyeur, but at the same time he was interested. He
had always wanted to learn more about Kitt's environment, about how his
partner perceived things; what he heard, what detail he saw. During one
of the long nights following Avril's betrayal, Kitt had asked Michael if
he realized what it was like to see a world surrounding him, but to know
he would never really be a true part of it. When he took Kitt's mental
state, at the time, out of the question, Michael drew the conclusion
that they were both seeing the same surroundings, but perceiving them in
a slightly different way. And the closer Michael became to Kitt, the
more he found he wanted to understand about Kitt's world.
Kitt did not answer at first, but it was more out of an inability to do
so, rather than an unwillingness, or embarrassment over sharing the
information with Michael. "Could you define the phrase 'excite me'?
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to."
Michael started to wish that he had not asked. "Well, you know, excite
you, arouse you." He waved his hands around in the air, as if that
would help.
"Arouse me?" There was a note of disbelief in Kitt's voice.
"Yeah. You know," he lowered his voice for no reason. "Sexually."
"Sexually?!" This time the disbelief was definite. "Michael, what are
you talking about? Do you see any genitalia around here?!"
Michael could feel himself blushing, and wished Kitt at least had the
common decency to be a little embarrassed about the subject. "Well,
obviously you haven't got the parts..."
"Then how... why would I feel sexual arousal? Not that I'd know it if
I did feel it." He added, somewhat puzzled by this whole conversation.
"Oh, you'd know it, Kitt, believe me."
Silence fell between them as Michael tried to think of some way out of
this one. Then suddenly Kitt asked, "Michael you don't think that Ella
thinks...."
"No." He stopped Kitt hurriedly. "I don't think that at all."
He felt the car slow considerably, and sat up. "Kitt, what's wrong?"
"It's never going to work is it?" Kitt asked him miserably. "There's
no way. There are too many differences. It would be like that film -
'The Man With Two Brains' - when all he wanted was to get the brain into
a female body so that he could have sex with her."
Michael frowned at the bizarre interpretation of the Steve Martin
comedy. "I didn't mean...." He shook his head, all too aware that what
Kitt was trying to say was the truth of the situation. "I'm sorry,
Pal."
They travelled the rest of the distance in silence; Michael still not
completely sure that Kitt had answered his original question, Kitt
knowing that he had not answered the question, and no longer sure that
he wanted to. Maybe that night was all he was going to have to remember
Ella by - all that would ever happen between the two of them that was
theirs only. It made him sad to think about it.
**
Michael's eyes drank in Bonnie's lithe form as she strode over to the
garage. He stood in the window of the breakfast room drinking coffee
and wondering if Kitt was feeling any happier. He had spent the rest of
the night again curled in the front seat, like a worried father. Kitt
had assured him that he was fine, but had been something in the
synthesized tone that had had Michael concerned, and he had stayed
anyway.
He was pulled from his train of thoughts by the door opening, and Ella
walking gingerly across to the coffeepot. She poured herself a mug
full, and then perched herself on the end of the table, looking out at
the garage where she knew Kitt was parked. Michael waited until she was
settled. "Heavy night?"
Ella looked at him as if she had not realized that he was there.
"Yeah, Bonnie and I came back early and raided Devon's cellar." She
forced herself to swallow a mouthful of the strong blend. "You two left
even earlier."
"I'm sure Bonnie told you how much I hate those things."
"Kitt certainly is much better company."
Michael took that as his cue. He turned, not wanting to say anything
out of order, but remembering Kitt's misery the night before. "You're
confusing him, Ella."
"He's confusing me." She shot back. "It feels like I've finally met
the man I'm supposed to be with for the rest of my life, but it turns
out he's a computer."
"But you knew what he was when you got into this."
"I know," she sounded as frustrated and confused as Kitt had. And
Michael started to think that maybe neither of them were to blame here.
Maybe the blame lay in an idea had by a dying man many years ago. "I
thought... I don't know. It's like virtual dating isn't it? Thousands
of people have relationships over the Internet, chatting each other up,
spending time together, having virtual sex, all with words, no physical
contact, some never see each other."
"But you always know that it's a human being on the other side, you
always know that there's a person typing those words. You can ask for a
photo."
"But it doesn't matter. You never know for certain. Kitt could do it,
no one would ever know that he wasn't a human being."
"But you know. And you're the one he's interested in. He doesn't go
surfing the Internet. He doesn't go searching for women, he isn't...
like that. You're very special to him, Ella. You're the first and
you're very likely to be the last, however this ends."
"What are trying to say? Do you really think I'd be doing this if I
didn't feel very strongly for Kitt? Michael, you have to believe that
he's very special to me. I haven't been with a guy in at least two
years. I haven't wanted to be involved with anyone. I wouldn't be...
going after Kitt if I wasn't very attracted to him." She stood, walking
over to the window. "I feel alive when I'm with him," she dropped her
voice. "I feel as if he would love me forever and never hurt me."
"But the real question is, could you love him as unquestioningly as he
would love you?"
Michael watched Bonnie cross the driveway, seemingly in a hurry, as he
waited for Ella's answer. She never gave him one.
Bonnie appeared in the doorway, making them both turn.
"Michael," she said quietly, "turn your comlink off."
**
Once Devon had shown Michael the folder Detective Carlson had dropped
on to his desk, Michael was desperate to hit the road. But Kitt was not
so desperate. Only the idle threat of taking Devon's beloved
Convertible shifted Kitt into the driveway.
Kitt had not said very much to neither Ella nor Michael since that
morning, and Michael knew he was in trouble the moment they left the
estate. He pushed in a tape, and Kitt switched it off.
"You owe me an apology."
"I know. I am sorry, Kitt."
There was a pause, and the tape started. It was all Kitt said for the
first part of the journey.
Michael was starting to desperately miss his partner's banter as the
car ate up the freeway at a considerable speed. It was strange to be
continually looking down at the columned panel and seeing it dark and
silent, usually it was all he could do to shut Kitt up for long enough
to listen to the news on the radio. After about 200 miles, Michael came
to a decision. Firstly he tried just taking his hands off the wheel,
but Kitt simply took control, until Michael stabbed the Manual Cruise
button in frustration. So he decided on a different tactic. He took a
deep breath, and slammed his foot down, knocking the accelerator to the
floor. The car shot forward like a bullet, and the digits on the
speedometer began to rise rapidly. Kitt still did not say a word, and
Michael kept his foot on the pedal, pushing their speed upwards of
150mph. Neither partner gave in until the car was moving at 170mph.
"Michael, please...." It was not a plea, more a sigh of defeat.
"Stop sulking and I'll slow down."
"All right."
"Good." Michael eased back off the gas, and let the car slow down
naturally until they were cruising at 120. "Talk to me! I'm going
insane here!"
"I was just thinking about what Ella said to you this morning."
"Which bit?"
"She told you that she felt that she had met the man she was supposed
to spend the rest of her life with."
"You've spent the passed two hundred miles thinking about that? Kitt,
women say that all the time!"
"You only have this negative attitude towards relationships because you
have so many of them."
Michael smiled at Kitt's prissy tone. This was more like it. "So
you're the expert now are you?"
"Michael, I've decided that there's nothing I can do to change what's
happening. And I don't want to. So while Ella feels this way, I'm
going to enjoy it." Kitt sounded distinctly uncertain. But Michael
recognized this as a start. "And we'll deal with the fallout later."
Kitt finished.
"Oh, we'll deal with it will we?" But there was warm affection lacing
Michael's voice.
"Yes."
"Kitt, that's fine with me." He settled himself back down. "So, now
we're talking again, is there any chance of your plotting a route to Mr.
Clay's residence."
The four small monitors lit up, displaying the required maps and
overlaid route. "Thank you."
"Michael, I've been studying this man's file, and I can't see anything
that would connect him to the attack on us, or with the destruction of
the lab. William Clay is a very respected collector of automobiles. He
has one of the largest collections in the country."
"I know. It doesn't make sense to me either, but neither does his
fingerprints turning up at the lab. He has never had anything to do
with the Foundation, there's no reason for his prints to be there."
Seven and a half hours later, with the sun having set beside them, Kitt
and Michael finally pulled into the driveway of the Clay estate. It was
vast. Stretching into the distance were a number of large hanger-size
warehouses. The driveway itself was circular, with an island of tall
trees and shrubs in the centre, in front of the house. Long, wide,
shallow steps lead up to the front door, giving the place a stately
feel, despite the building's lack of exterior decoration. As Michael
cut the engine, it started to rain, a few drops sliding down Kitt's
windshield.
Michael looked around him, reluctant to leave the safety of Kitt's
cabin until he was relatively sure he was not walking into a similar
trap they had faced the previous week. "Scan the hangers, Pal."
"Each structure contains up to eight cars. Michael, he has a limited
edition Ferrari Escrit. And there's a white, unfinished Pontiac
Firebird."
"You sound impressed."
"I am impressed. The cars are in immaculate condition."
Michael reached for the door handle. "Listen, Kitt, if this guy was
behind the attack... just try to keep your mind on the scanners, okay?"
Kitt ignored the remark. "Michael, if he was behind the attack, you'll
be in danger too."
"I'm convinced he was after you, Partner. Just be careful, contact me
if anything happens, and get away if you have to. I don't want to lose
you again."
"I'll be watching out for both of us."
Michael found the doorbell and rang it. When the large white door was
finally opened, he found himself greeted by a middle-aged man in formal
wear. "May I help you, Sir?"
"I'm looking for William Clay." Michael glanced at his watch. "I
realize it's late...."
"Please, Sir, step inside. He is still up, despite the late hour. Who
shall I say wishes to see him?"
"Michael Knight." The butler waited for more, but when more was
forthcoming, he politely bowed his head and turned, heading back down
the corridor and finally disappearing through a doorway. A moment
later, a distinguished gentleman came out of the same doorway and strode
up to Michael smiling openly.
"Mr. Knight?"
"Yes, I work for the Foundation for Law and Government." He took
Clay's outstretched hand.
"Ah yes, Wilton Knight's little association." Michael hid his surprise
that Clay had heard of FLAG. He remained silent as he was led through
into a small informal office just to their right. There was a large bay
window that looked out into the driveway, and as they walked into the
room, Michael saw Clay glance outside. He noted the glint in the man's
eyes when he spotted Kitt, but said nothing.
"Please, sit down and tell me what I can do for you."
Michael seated himself on the edge of the two-seater sofa. "We had a
break-in, to one of our labs, just over a week ago. We found your
fingerprints, and because we prefer to do our own investigations, I'm
here to ask you if you have any knowledge of how your prints may have
got there."
Clay's expression remained genial. He was a good-looking man in his
early 50s, Michael guessed, with a very kind face, if that was not too
much of a cliche.
"Well, Mr. Knight, it looks as though you've found me out." His
response took Michael by surprise. "You see, my daughter used to work
for Knight Industries. I'm afraid she showed me around one night. I
asked to take a peek at the car - the Knight Industries Two Thousand.
She let me take a look into the garage. I swear I didn't touch
anything, but I may have leaned on one of the work-tops somewhere." He
looked guilty enough. "May I ask, is that the car outside? It is
beautiful... I'm a collector you know."
Michael tried to take everything in. It was not what he had been
expecting. "What's your daughter's name?"
"Avril. Avril Stone. She divorced some years ago, but she kept her
married name because she is very well known in the computing industry."
Clay stopped talking.
Michael was trying his best to hide the anger that had surfaced the
moment he had heard Avril's name. "Mr. Clay, are you aware of what your
daughter did to us?"
It was Clay's turn to be surprised. "She told me she left to take a
job with better pay."
Michael sunk his teeth into his bottom lip. This man sounded so proud
of his daughter; did he really need to destroy that for his own
satisfaction? Finally he stood, and Clay followed his lead.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Clay. I'm sorry to have bothered you."
"Anytime, and there's anything else I can help you with...."
Michael had a thought. "Well, I wonder if I could ask for a tour...
I'm quite a lover of cars myself."
Clay's face lit up. "Of course, it would be a pleasure. Please, let
me go and fetch the keys."
There were eleven hangers that Michael could count, and he guessed
there may be more elsewhere on the sprawling estate. Clay had a genuine
Rolls Royce, an original Aston Martin, one of the first Porsche 911s, a
sparkling yellow Lamborghini. BMW, Ferrari, Pontiac, Lotus and TVR were
all represented. There was a Mercedes that had been left in the hands
of Baramus for too long, souped up to almost match Kitt's top speed.
All were in immaculate condition, as Kitt had pointed out earlier, and
Michael was impressed. Clay was an open, friendly man.
As they walked and talked, Michael found himself liking Clay more and
more. The 'please call me William' phrase had actually slipped into the
conversation naturally, and Michael found himself on first name terms
with their prime suspect within half an hour of meeting him. Clay was
more than proud of his collection, he approached each one like it was a
unique, priceless gem. Michael was beginning to think that he might
actually trust Clay with his own car. When the tour ended, in what were
rapidly becoming the small hours of the morning, Michael apologized
sincerely for disturbing William late at night. They approached Kitt,
and Michael opened the driver's door.
"You really should keep a car like that more secure."
"Oh, no need. It has a fingerprint scanner under the handle."
William smiled. "Standard equipment, I suppose."
Michael frowned. "Not too standard." He smiled, accepting William's
out-stretched hand. "Thank you for not throwing me out."
"It's been a pleasure Mr. Knight. And if this beauty is ever for
sale...."
"That's not likely, I'm afraid."
Clay nodded, and when he spoke, Michael noted the odd quality to his
voice. "I thought you might say that."
Michael leaned back in the driver's seat, closing the door behind him
as he watched William disappear inside.
"Did you find out anything, Michael?"
"I don't know, Kitt. He's a car collector; he loves cars. You should
see them. It looks like he spends hours every day taking care of each
one."
Michael leant against the steering wheel. "I honestly don't know." He
sighed. "Have you scanned the whole estate?"
"Of course."
"Find anything?"
"Nothing suspicious. Cars." He took a scan of Michael's vitals.
"You're upset."
"Nah, Kitt, not upset. A little frustrated. When I meet someone we're
going after I usually take an instant dislike to them. But I like
William. He seems like an honest guy."
"I trust your instincts, Michael." Kitt fell silent for a moment, then
asked. "Could he explain how his fingerprints got into the lab?"
"Sort of." Michael shifted uneasily in the seat. "Do you have any...
memory of the attack?"
"Bits. Much of my immediate memory was lost. Ella couldn't recover
what hadn't been sent to the backup storage."
"But you have memories of the moments before the attack?"
"I have sketchy memories of the minutes before the first missile
penetrated."
"Were any of these cars around?"
Reluctantly, Kitt went back to that fateful afternoon and scanned the
images for cars. "Michael, the only match is a white Lotus Esprit.
There was one stopped a mile or so from the attack site. There's also
one at the back of the estate, but I can't get the plates from what I
have from the attack. It isn't a rare car, but I'm not sure it's a
coincidence either."
Michael started the engine and tooled out of the driveway. The rain
was coming down in earnest now.
"Michael, you seem very distressed. Was it something that William Clay
said?"
Michael sighed deeply, long gone were the days when he could hide his
feelings from his partner.
"Kitt, there's something you need to know." He gazed down at the voice
panel, obediently silent, waiting for the information. "William Clay is
Avril Stone's father."
Through the years, spending so much time with Kitt, Michael had learnt
how to compensate, how to read Kitt's expressions from the lengths and
quality of silences. As this silence lengthened, Michael knew his
partner was as shaken by the news as he himself had been. Finally, Kitt
found some words. "Wouldn't that give Clay the perfect motive for the
attack?"
"He didn't seem to know about what she did. She told him that she left
Knight Industries to take a job that paid better."
"But she's in jail, isn't she?"
"I don't know. You'd better check on that."
"Right away, Michael." There was a pause, and then he added, "It's
late, maybe you should let me drive."
"In a little while, Pal, let's get you settled back down, okay?"
"I'm all right, Michael. It was... unexpected, that's all. I've
linked into the Arizona justice department's computer, according to
their records, Avril Stone was paroled last year."
Michael closed his eyes for a moment, taking in Kitt's words. "I'm
sorry," he whispered gently.
"She killed a man, Michael." Kitt sounded almost shocked. "How could
she get out so quickly?"
"I don't understand either, Partner. But it strikes me as strange that
she could fool her father for so many years."
"It is possible, Michael. A telephone call can be made from anywhere."
Michael frowned at the dash. "Why are you all for Clay? I thought
you'd be searching for evidence against him."
"Just because his daughter is a cold-blooded murderer, it doesn't mean
he is like her. Besides, I still can't believe that a man so obviously
fond of automobiles would try to destroy one, he seemed so genuine when
you were both outside with me."
Michael slipped back into thought, leaving his partner to watch the
road and wallow in his own memories. Within seconds Kitt started to
regret thinking about Avril at all. "Michael?"
He came back to the here and now. "Yeah, Kitt?"
"Nothing, I just needed to reach out and touch someone."
"Too many memories, eh, Partner?"
"Far too many."
"Need something to take your mind off it?"
"It would help."
"Wanna drive?" Michael imagined he could feel Kitt's smile. "In
three, two, one..."
**
Clay waited for the computer to boot, and telnetted to the chat server,
logging in. He moved into a private room, and waited, knowing she would
be along soon. After a ten-minute wait, on line, she finally turned up.
_What do you want, Testa?
I've just had a visit from your old friend
_Is he still with you?
No, they left half an hour ago
_I need access
That's your business, you're the expert
_I need you to hit him again
What will that accomplish?
_I've found out how they saved his life, I can get access as the backup
program executes
They came here because they found my prints as the lab, they're
already suspicious
_Just once more Testa, then you can have your prize
When?
_Can you do it tonight?
I suppose so
_I'll be waiting
Clay logged out and shutdown his machine. Then he walked into the
hall, took his coat from the stand, and grabbed his car keys and
mobile. From the car, he called his associates and arranged a
rendezvous point on the only route from Phoenix to Reno. As he drove,
he thought about the young man who had come to visit him earlier, and
found himself glad that he would not be badly hurt, he had liked Michael
Knight.
**
"When will they be back?"
Bonnie smiled and sat down next to Ella on the patio. "You're missing
him already?"
Ella looked up at the moon. "I was thinking... about leaving." Her
words were spoken quietly, Bonnie could hear the choked tears in her
throat.
"Why?" she asked gently.
"This morning, Michael asked me if I could love Kitt as unquestioningly
as he would love me. I couldn't answer that."
Bonnie reached out and touched Ella's arm. "Believe me, Kitt does
nothing unquestioningly." That got a smile in response. "If you want
to leave because you want to go home, that's okay. But please don't
leave because of Kitt. He may be falling in love with you, I know
you're in love with him. Please don't run away from that." She watched
Ella wipe tears from her eyes, aching in sympathy.
"It's not easy, that's all. Knowing I'll never be able to hold him,
never feel him holding me. Last night I was so desperate to be able to
kiss him.... I'm just not sure how long I can on like that without
going insane, as much as I love him."
"I'm sorry... I'm not sure I can work that particular miracle. As for
what Michael said to you, he's just being protective. He knows that if
Kitt gets hurt, his life would become very complicated for some time."
Bonnie was smiling as she spoke. "Seriously; you know how he feels
about Kitt. He doesn't want to see him hurt. But I think Kitt knows,
as well as you do, that sometimes the most risky paths are also the most
rewarding."
Ella nodded. "I don't want to leave, Bonnie. I know I'd miss him
terribly."
Bonnie looked out over the grounds. "I'm afraid all I can offer is a
hot chocolate?" She ended in a question, and Ella turned and nodded.
"You never know, they say chocolate is the universal solution."
*
Michael woke as their speed dropped rapidly.
"Kitt, what's wrong?"
"It may be nothing, but I've picked up a white Lotus Esprit on the road
ahead."
"Which direction is it travelling?"
"It's stationary, and there's a truck with a very odd configuration
about two miles ahead of it."
"What do you mean by 'odd configuration'?" Michael peered out of the
windshield into the rain. By now, Kitt had brought the car to a
complete stop, and visibility was very low. Kitt tended to run with
only the spots on, giving sufficient warning to other drivers without
dazzling them with the high powered headlamps, and he had no need for
windshield wipers.
"My sensors are picking up unusually high radiation levels."
"Weapons?"
"Maybe.... After what we've been through I thought it best to be
careful."
"You did the right thing by slowing. How far off are we?"
"Twenty miles."
"We need another route."
Kitt searched the maps until he found an alternative way home. "I'm
not saying that it'll be as comfortable as the highway," he warned.
"Doesn't matter, just get us around the car and the truck with a safe
margin."
Kitt turned the car in a 180-degree arc, and drove back to the narrow
turning several miles in the direction they had just come. "Michael,
are we running away?"
Kitt's question surprised him. "Probably." He thought for a moment,
then grabbed the wheel and stabbed the Manual Cruise button, turning the
car in an arc a lot less graceful than the one Kitt had executed only a
minute before.
"Michael?"
"Sorry, Kitt, but I just had an idea."
"Feel like sharing?"
Michael glanced down at the dash, smiling at his partner's phrase. It
sounded like something he had picked up from Ella. "I was just thinking
that if that white Lotus is Clay's..."
"Then it won't be at the estate."
"Very good."
"Michael, how the hell did he get ahead of us?"
Michael shrugged, frowning and looking down at the speedometer. They
had been travelling at their usual speed. "I dunno. Maybe he knows
shortcuts we don't."
"In a Lotus?"
"Maybe."
"I honestly thought he'd have more respect." At least that brought a
smile to Michael's lips.
Michael's hunch was right. The Lotus Esprit was gone from the back of
Clay's house. They sat in the driveway as Michael tried to figure out
where he had gone wrong. "So they're back out there, waiting for us."
"He can't really believe that we would fall for the same trap twice?"
Michael thought about that, Clay had seemed like an intelligent man.
"No, Kitt, he can't have. Did the readings from the truck out there
match readings from the truck at the attack?"
"I don't know."
"Could you find out?" Kitt hesitated, and Michael realized that this
was the second time he had asked his partner to delve into the painful
memories of that afternoon. "I'm sorry, Kitt, but I need to know."
"I understand that.... The truck on the road tonight is different from
the first one. Having analyzed the radiation levels from this new
truck, I would take a guess that there are missiles present inside."
"Same as before?"
"...Yes."
Michael could hear the worry in Kitt's tone. "It's okay, Pal, we're
one step ahead of them this time."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait. Clay won't stay out there indefinitely. He'll figure we
went a different route and he'll come home. And then we'll have another
chat with Mr. Geniality."
It was an hour later when the ivory brow of Clay's Lotus appeared in
the driveway. "Michael, please be careful."
"Don't worry, Kitt, I'll tell him I dropped my keys."
Michael got out of his car as Clay came around the front of the house.
"Mr. Knight, I... I had to step out for a while, did you forget to ask
me something?" Michael approached Clay, reaching him before he
succeeded in getting his key in the door.
"I know you were out there tonight, waiting for us."
He expected Clay to deny it, but instead he took a step back and pulled
a gun from his jacket. It was an unexpected move by a man who Michael
had originally thought could not have had anything to do with the
attack. Michael was not ready for it, and was caught, startled, in the
line of fire. Instantly Kitt's engine started, and the car rolled
forward, wary. Clay turned, addressing Kitt directly. "You just stay
where you are, and I won't hurt him."
"What do you want, Clay?"
"Sadly, the truth is, I don't want anything. But a friend of mine has
a somewhat disturbing obsession with your car."
Michael's mind was racing. They were both quickly getting soaked in
the downpour and he felt that this really was not how Clay had wanted it
to happen. "Shooting me isn't going to help."
"I'm well aware of that. And if you could just release external access
to the Knight Industries computer inside the car, I will let you go, you
have my word."
"No. Absolutely not."
Kitt sat with the engine running, an angry growl mixing with the hum of
the turbines. But his voice was laced with uncertainty. "Michael..."
"No, Kitt, don't even think about it."
Clay cocked the safety back, raising the barrel hesitantly to Michael's
head. "Do it."
"Kitt, no."
"Michael, I have to...."
"No!" But he knew that his partner would do it, despite everything
that they had said in the days gone by, Kitt would always sacrifice
himself to save his partner's life. In desperation, Michael did the
first thing that leapt to mind. He brought his knee up, catching Clay's
thigh and knocking him off-balance. In the same moment, Michael ducked
the gun and rolled. Clay brought the weapon back up, but Kitt had
already got two wheels up onto the steps, shielding his driver from the
enemy. Michael crawled up into the passenger side and heard the door
close behind him. Clay fired at the windscreen, but only once. Kitt
moved forward, climbing the steps using a mixture of traction and sheer
power, managing to pin Clay against the closed door. "Drop the gun."
Clay followed Kitt's order with a resigned reluctance, letting the gun
clatter down over the dark, rain covered hood. Michael scrambled out of
the car and punched Clay across the jaw, watching as he fell against the
bumper that still pinned him against his own front door, the red glow
from the scanner track tracing a line back and forth across his knees.
"That was for what you did to Kitt, you bastard." Clay stayed quiet,
except to sniff up the blood in his nose. "Now tell me who your friend
is and where I can find him."
Clay shook his head. "I can't."
"I think you'll find that you can."
"You don't understand, I don't know. We talk on a chat server."
Michael frowned, "A what?"
"It's an electronic system, Michael," Kitt informed him, "like email,
but in real time."
"You must still have a name? Where did you two meet?"
"On the server, I swear, I've never met him."
"So why do all this?"
"He... he said I could have the car, once the computer was dead."
Once again, Michael felt the anger surging through him. "So you're
telling me, you don't even know a name?"
"He logs on as 'A', just a letter."
"Which chat server?" Kitt started to ask the questions he knew Michael
would not know to ask.
"Foothills."
"What's the name of the room?"
Clay hesitated, and Kitt nudged forward. "Those missiles were very
uncomfortable," he said quietly.
Clay felt the pressure on his legs increasing. He looked to Michael
who just shrugged. "I would say he had just cause. Wouldn't you?"
"I can't tell you!"
Kitt nudged again. "Tell us."
"Please, I can't...."
Kitt had had enough, it had been a long day. He decided on a different
tactic. "Do you know what your daughter did to me?" Clay looked
straight at the windshield this time.
"I don't know what you're talking about...."
Michael glanced down. "Kitt, I didn't tell him."
"Well then, I will." There was real hatred in Kitt's tone, and Michael
stepped back warily.
"Kitt... come on, let's not make this personal."
But Kitt was angry - this man had attacked them, nearly killed him,
placed him in a position where his only option had been to hurt
Michael. And then he had tried again. And Kitt really hated it when
people held guns to his partner's head; there was very little he could
do in those situations and it scared him. "It's already personal,
Michael. You daughter killed a man, Mr. Clay." Kitt stated. "She took
control of this car and ran a man down. I know what his body felt like
as it collided with the hood. I know how it crumpled as it bounced off
the glass, I know how it felt as she crushed him under my wheels. And I
will remember his screams for the rest of my existence." He pushed
forward into Clay, ignoring the man's obvious shock. "Some people
blamed me for what she made me do. They hurt me trying to ensure I
wouldn't do it again. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't take
something from her like she took from me."
Michael was almost too stunned to hear what Clay said, but he knew he
must have answered because Kitt's demand changed. "Now I want your
login and password."
"Please, don't make me...." He was silenced by the spike of pain that
suddenly shot from his knees. "All right, my login is Testa, T E S T
A. Password is E S 4 C R 1 T."
"Thank you." Kitt finally backed off, descended the steps and sat
idling threateningly in the driveway. Michael had a moment of
indecision, but decided that Clay had enough to think about.
"Who are the guys with the missiles?" There was enough anger and shock
in his voice to ensure Clay did not think twice about answering.
"They're old associates."
"I never want to see them again, is that clear?" Clay nodded, but
Michael wanted to make absolutely sure. "If we have any more trouble
from you, I'll let Kitt loose in a couple of your hangers here. And
believe me when I say that my car would come out without a single dent."
Clay swallowed nervously, and nodded once more. "You won't see them
again."
"Good. Kitt, disable any computer in the building. I'm sorry you had
to hear about Avril that way," he added to Clay. "But as you heard, she
hurt Kitt very badly."
Michael slowly walked around the car and opened the driver's side
door. "Let's go home, partner."
A great many miles went by before Kitt spoke again. "I'm sorry,
Michael."
"Kitt... why haven't you talked to me about this?"
"I don't think about it very often. It just... he scared me,
threatening you like that.... I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing. You didn't hurt him. You scared him, and you
probably destroyed every dream he's ever had for his daughter. But you
had your reasons, and you got us what we needed. What chat room did he
say?"
"Carroll."
"Carroll? Strange. Does it mean anything to you?"
"It's just a word. If I was to list all possible associated words it
would take a very long time."
"That's okay." Michael turned into the road that started them on
Kitt's alternative route. "Did you mean what you said to Clay, about
what you remember?"
"Yes."
"Kitt... I never realized.... If you'd have told me, we could have
done something."
"Like what?"
"Get you some counselling. Let you talk to someone."
"Michael, I appreciate this, but it was a long time ago."
"I wish you'd told me. I thought... I thought you'd gone off-line or
something..."
Kitt's voice softened. "I had to keep the homing signal running,
without her knowing it. I had to stay on-line."
Michael could feel his heart breaking. After it had all happened, he
had spent days with Kitt, reassuring his partner, ensuring no one hurt
him. But not once had Kitt mentioned the terrible recollections that he
had thrown at Clay. "I wish you would talk to me about things like
that."
"In future, you'll be the first to know."
Kitt's tone definitely said 'end of conversation'. Michael would have
liked to delve into it some more, but he dropped it, they had both had a
very long day. He stared at the road in front of him, and Kitt's words
came back to him, as clearly as if he were speaking them now. 'Some
people blamed me for what she made me do. They hurt me trying to ensure
I wouldn't do it again.' He knew what Kitt had been talking about.
They had run a test program through his systems time and time again
until he had snapped. He had destroyed most of the garage he was being
kept in and finally buried himself under a pile of boxes in one corner,
terrified, asking over and over to be deactivated.
(Bonnie opened the door to the large garage, and showed Michael
inside. In the dim light, he could see the scene of destruction about
the floor below him. It looked as if a rampaging herd had entered the
garage and become confused. Boxes, electronics, equipment, cylinders of
God-knew what were all strewn about the floor. Amongst the wreckage,
Michael could make out spilt tins of red and yellow paint.
"Where the hell did the paint come from?" he asked quietly.
"No one's really sure, Devon thinks it was being stored here for some
reason."
"There's loads of it!"
"I know.... And it's not all on the floor." She took a step back,
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"He won't hurt me."
"I don't know, Michael. Look at this place. We're just not sure
anymore."
"I am."
Bonnie reluctantly closed the door behind her, leaving Michael standing
at the top of the metal steps down. He looked around him, letting his
eyes adjust to the light. As they did, he realized that the pile of
devastated boxes in the far corner was covering something. He made his
way slowly down the steps, and as he came to the base he could clearly
see a single, small red light, flashing on and off madly, partly hidden
by the boxes. He walked silently to the centre of the devastation, and
sat down, cross-legged on the floor, avoiding the paint as best he
could. Then he started to talk.
"I can't possibly imagine what you're going through Kitt. But I want
to help." He took in the destruction around him, and imagined the force
that would have been needed to cause so much damage. "I'm here now, and
you're going to be okay. I won't let anyone hurt you."
From the pile of boxes, a distressed voice answered him. "It hurt so
much."
A tear formed in Michael's eye. "I'm sorry," he choked. "I tried to
stop them. I tried but they insisted."
"I don't understand. Avril had the controls. She killed that man, not
me. Why are they doing this to me?"
"I'm sorry...."
"I would never, ever hurt you."
"Kitt, I know...."
"I can't take any more, please, Michael, deactivate me. Please."
Michael bit his lip, tears streaming down his face as Kitt's despairing
tone pulled at his heart. "Kitt, Avril hurt us all. I'm not gonna
pretend that I know how you're feeling, or what you went through in her
hands. But you can't ask me to deactivate you. One thing I do know is
how much I would miss you if I lost you. I am not going to let her be
the cause of your death."
"Michael... you have to stop them doing this to me... please."
Michael was about to reassure his partner that no more test programs
would be forced upon him, when he heard Devon's voice. "It's over,
Kitt. They've gone."
Michael looked to see Devon walking down the steps towards him.
"How...?"
Devon same to stand by Michael's side, laying a gentle hand on his
shoulder. "Bonnie... persuaded the young woman that she wanted to
leave, and the gentleman went with her."
Michael looked up at him, smiling through his tears.
"You hear that, Pal? No more tests, Kitt, I promise. You can't ask me
to ask Bonnie to deactivate you." He saw the horror cross Devon's face
and wordlessly nodded. Then he turned his head again to address his
distressed friend. "Please come back to me."
In the corner of the garage, the pile of boxes started to move.
Michael could hear the turbine hum of Kitt's engine, and slowly the
black prow emerged nervously from its hiding place. Michael did not
know whether to laugh or cry as he saw his car, covered in dust, and
paint, pulling out from under a collapsing mass of cardboard boxes.
Kitt came towards him slowly, stopping inches from Michael's still
sitting form.
"I would never hurt you." He repeated, pleading for Michael's belief
in him.
Michael shifted across the floor, leaning against the car and gently
reaching up to touch the side of the hood. "I know, Pal." He sighed,
closing his eyes and stroking the side of the hood reassuringly.
"You're the best, Kitt.")
Michael yanked himself back to the present, out of bad memories.
"Kitt, could you take over, I need to change out of these clothes, I'm
freezing."
"Of course." Kitt took the controls, leaving Michael free to dig out
his overnight bag from the back of the car. He always felt a little
odd, stripping in the car, even though Kitt always promised him privacy,
it was almost like stripping in front of another person. Someone who
did not have everything that Michael had. He took off his jacket, shirt
and jeans and towel-dried his hair before pulling on fresh, warm
clothing.
"So how do we connect to this chat server?"
"I can do it from here. I can log in using Clay's name and password.
That way I should be able to gain entrance to the Carroll room and find
the list of names permitted into that room. Although, I would assume
the person logging in as 'A' would be the only other name. I could be
wrong. I would simply wait until someone else turned up."
"Is it safe?"
"Yes."
"Great, do it. Wake me when you get company."
"Good night, Michael."
Kitt connected to the chat server and logged in. He could feel the
other connections, could have traced each one back to source. But he
simply sat in the entrance room for a while, listening to the chat
around him. He had never had the inclination to join one of these
groups, although he had often thought about the benefits to him. He
would be able to interact in a group of people as simply another person,
to communicate with so many other people on the same level, without them
staring and questioning what he was. Although he had always enjoyed the
sense that he was unique - one of a kind as Michael liked to put it - it
could sometimes be a lonely existence, and he had considered chat rooms
as a way to have company when no one else was around.
He had email, mailing many people regularly on specific subjects that
he could help with - but his friends were usually scientists or research
fellows. He had a good friend at MIT who was always asking to meet him,
but Kitt declined each time. Maybe one day, he would tell what he was,
he doubted this particular person would ever change his attitude or his
friendship. But Kitt sometimes liked the idea of just being another
person, maybe overly intelligent, but not too different.
He liked the Internet, loved the freedom email gave him, ensuring there
was always someone to talk to. It allowed him to stay in touch with
some of the people he and Michael had helped. Sally Flynn contacted him
regularly, kept him up to date with her college studies and her
continuing work with the family trucking business. But chat rooms had
never really been something he had wanted to get involved with. It was
too impersonal, he had imagined.
But the people around him now were chatting like they had known each
other all their lives. Personal details were being exchanged, and
suddenly Kitt felt very exposed. He moved into the Carroll room,
expecting a long wait. But immediately he was greeted.
_Where the fuck have you been Testa?
He reacted quickly.
There were problems
_What kind of problems?
Kitt found himself unable to answer. The function he had executed to
trace 'A''s location and machine had come back with its data. Kitt had
instantly processed it and the information was now sitting at the
forefront of his CPU. As soon as he could think again, he dropped the
connection with the chat server, too scared to stay any longer. He
recognized the machine address that the trace had provided. He knew who
'A' was, and Clay had been wrong. It was not a 'he'.
**
Ella wanted to throw her arms around Kitt the moment she saw his
sparkling form appear in the driveway. It was well into the afternoon,
and they were a lot later arriving back than they should have been
thanks to their confrontation with Clay. Bonnie immediately wanted to
check Kitt's systems, but he asked her for some time with Ella, and she
agreed, instead deciding to run a quick check on Michael's systems.
Ella waited until Michael had met up with Devon and followed him inside
before climbing into the driver's seat. "So, how was Phoenix?"
But Kitt was in no mood for small talk. He had spent the entire
journey back trying to figure out what he had done to make a total
stranger hate him with such passion. Although he had managed to get a
hold on his fear, he was still worried. "Ella, I need to talk to you."
She recognized the tone immediately. "I'm here, Kitt."
"Can we go somewhere... private?"
"Sure, any suggestions?"
It was slightly unnerving when the engine started up by itself, and the
car turned, heading up a track further into the grounds. But by the
time they reached the hunter's lodge that acted as guest quarters for
the mansion, Ella was used to Kitt driving. It almost seemed natural.
And he was the smoothest driver she had ever known. He pulled the car
to a stop with his brow at an gentle angle to the steps into the lodge,
and shut the engine off. They were left with only the sounds of nature
around them.
"What's wrong, Love?"
Kitt hesitated, but he knew he had to tell someone, and he knew that
Ella was the right person because of what she already knew. "William
Clay was behind the attack on us. It turns out that his daughter is
Avril Stone, she was a technician...."
"It's okay, Kitt, Bonnie told me about her. You don't need to
explain."
Kitt felt inexplicably glad about that. "I'm not sure whether what she
did had anything to do with what Clay did. He told us that he was
working with someone he had met on a chat server. He gave us the name
of the server, the room, along with his password and login name."
"Which server?"
"Foothills."
Ella smiled. "I know the guy who wrote that...." She hesitated.
"He's wonderful."
Kitt was momentarily distracted by an odd sensation he had not
previously encountered. Whatever it was, he found himself disliking it
immensely, and he was not sure how to proceed. Ella seemed to realize,
because she reached out and gently covered the nearby perceptor with her
palm. "It's okay, Kitt. He's not even living in this country."
That helped. Kitt forced himself back to what he had to tell her, and
the more familiar feeling of dread returned. "I logged in on the way
back, using Clay's name and password. I entered the room and his friend
was already in there. I set a trace to find the machine address of that
person."
Ella got there before Kitt. She had recognized his tone from when she
had approached him after his exit from the garage just after their
return here. She allowed the sinking feeling to take her guess
further. "What was the name of the room?"
"Carroll."
"Oh no...."
"It's her, Ella. It's Alice."
Ella closed her eyes and leant forward, dropping her forehead to the
steering wheel and pressing down harder on the perceptor, trying to
reassure Kitt that she was here to help.
"You have to tell Michael."
"I can't...."
"Please, Kitt.... She may have lost her accomplice but if she's gone
to these lengths, she isn't going to stop now."
"But without Clay there's nothing she can do, my systems have too much
security now. There's no way in."
"There's always a way in."
"Yes, with usual computers. But, Ella, I'm not your usual computer. I
have security the Government is unaware of. Every interface that I make
with another computer is transient, they can't be used to get back into
my systems. There is no way in."
"There is one way. The CEEPS backup. If she'd worked out somehow that
the emergency backup isn't secured... maybe that's why she'd told Clay
to hit you again."
Kitt thought about that. "But we've removed Clay from the equation,
and I only make a mistake once."
Kitt's tone was growing more and more desperate. Ella knew that he
just wanted all this to go away. But it was not going to, Alice was not
simply going to disappear. "Are you happy, knowing she's out there?"
"Of course not. But even if we do find her, what then? She hasn't
done anything wrong."
Ella took her hands off the wheel, anger feeding her. "She raped you,
Kitt!"
"It's not possible to rape a computer Ella," he hesitated, distressed,
"however right you may be."
Ella sighed, she knew she was just agitating Kitt more. "You can't let
her scare you. I know that you see her as powerful, in your own way,
but you're not a usual victim, you can fight back. I understand that
your neural nets link certain events to certain feelings in the same way
that a the human brain does. We experience something terrible and
things that were linked to that experience at the time, remain linked
unless we do something to break them. It's not so different for you.
You have paths between what Alice did to you, her presence within your
systems, and the way it made you feel. When you saw her machine address
last night, those pathways were activated, they swamped you with the
feelings of horror and fear that you experienced when she was attacking
you. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can sever those pathways
and build new ones. You can link her with feelings of strength and
victory, you can beat her Kitt. You're a million times better at this
than she is, you have the experience, you know you're the best. Prove
it to her."
"Why do you understand me so well?"
"Because I love you, Kitt. I'm still learning about you, and
everything new that I discover amazes me. I know what you've been
through with Alice. But you have to believe me when I tell you that you
can take control of this situation. I'm not gonna let that bitch hurt
you any more."
Kitt was touched. "Ella.... I can't tell Michael. I know that he's
going to want me to tell him who Clay's friend is, but the only way I
found to explain it to you was to show you the picture. I don't want
Michael seeing that."
"It's okay, I'll tell them."
Kitt paused before asking, "Devon knows, doesn't he?"
Ella stared at the voice panel. "How do you know that?"
"At the time, just after I destroyed Alice's computer, I could sense
something different with Devon, almost distrust, for quite some time. I
had taken data from her machine before I wiped the disks, she had the
foundation's email address listed, along with Devon's personal address.
I put two and two together, and figured that she must have mailed Devon
and told him, maybe bragged about what she had done. I imagine she sent
him a sample of what she'd been placing in my memory."
Ella nodded silently. "He didn't mean anything... he knows he reacted
badly."
"He told you he knew?"
"Yeah, he must have overheard us that night I wiped it from the
backup."
"Did he tell anyone else?"
"No."
A quiet fell, broken only by the faint wind in the branches of the bare
trees. "Ella, why me?"
"Kitt, I don't know... maybe she envies you...."
"No, not Alice, you. Why did you chose me?"
Ella leaned back in the seat, eyes moving from the voice panel to the
scenery outside the windshield. She knew Kitt was not after compliments
or flattery, it was a different question when he asked it. "I'm not
sure there is an answer to that. These things... just happen."
"I meet a great many women, mostly through Michael. None of them come
close to you. It's difficult to describe my feelings in a way that
would make any sense to you, and still get over to you how I actually
perceive those feelings. It's like... like every system running in
total harmony, a peace within my self that I haven't experienced
before."
"Is it a good experience?"
"It's perfect."
Ella sat forward, finding the perceptor once more with her fingers of
her left hand, while those of her right stroked gently across the voice
panel.
"I don't know what's going to happen to us, Kitt."
"Me neither, and in a way, it's more frightening than anything Alice
could do to me."
"I think... I think that's love."
Kitt had no reply to that.
**
Ella felt a little like Agatha Christie's 'Poirot'. She sat atop
Devon's desk, looking into the shocked expressions of Bonnie and Michael
as they sat in large, uncomfortable armchairs in front of her. Behind
her a subdued Devon was staring at the top of his desk. Ella could
hardly bare to see the look on Michael's face. For some reason, she had
assumed that Bonnie would be the one to react worst. Bonnie simply
looked sad. Michael looked as if his world had been turned upside down.
"Why didn't he tell me? Why won't he talk to me about these things?"
Ella ached for him, sympathy and understanding shining clear in her
eyes. She remembered how she had felt when Kitt had first told her, and
she had only known him a matter of days. These people were his family,
the closest people in the world to him.
"He didn't know how to explain what she was doing without showing you
the images, and he wanted to spare you from that." Michael stood
suddenly, frustrated, he started to pace the room. "Please don't put
him through any more," Ella begged him.
Michael stopped several feet in front of her. "I don't want to put him
through any more. I want him to start trusting me enough to talk to
me! Everything we've been through...." He moved over to the window,
and something irrational within him wanted to smash it. Ella was still
watching him intently, and now, so was Bonnie. "I don't understand why
he can't talk to me after seven years." There was a catch in his voice,
and Ella knew that he was crying. She felt a little like crying
herself. "What's the point in us being together if he can't confide in
me? I tell him everything!" He turned to Ella, pleading in his
tear-filled eyes. "How come he can tell you all this? He's know you a
couple of weeks!"
Bonnie stood slowly. "Maybe that's why, Michael. Maybe sometimes he
needs to talk to someone who isn't as involved as we are."
"But this isn't the only thing! He still remembers every detail of
what Avril Stone did to him, yet in all this time he hadn't said
anything. Doesn't he think I'd understand? Is that it? Does he
imagine that I don't expect him to hurt like the rest of us?"
"Of course not." Ella moved next to him. "You know him better than
anyone."
"That's what I don't understand! He knows... he knows what I think
about him, he can tell me anything."
In the silence that followed, Devon finally lifted his head. "I can
show you why." Ella turned quickly.
"Devon...."
"I have a copy of one of images Alice sent to Kitt."
Ella bit down on her denial. She did not really want Devon showing
Michael what Kitt had suffered to protect him from. But then again, in
Michael's state all he was going to do was upset Kitt even more. Maybe
showing him was the only way to stop the unique relationship from being
harmed.
Devon was looking to her for agreement, and slightly reluctantly, she
nodded. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk with a key, and reached
under some folders, pulling out a single piece of A4 paper. Michael
closed in on the desk, reaching out a shaking hand to take the colour
printout from his boss's fingers.
His tears fell steadily as he focused on the image. "Oh Kitt...." He
sat down in the nearest chair, unable to close his eyes against the
horror of what was in front of him. "He could have told me." But there
was no accusation in his tone anymore.
Bonnie stayed away, not wanting to ever know. She had heard of Alice
through her friends at MIT, and her anger was directed towards herself.
How could they have not known that Kitt was going through this? How
could he have kept something so terrible from them for three months?
Her eyes fell on Michael, and on Ella crouched in front of him. In
seven years, she had only seen him cry three times, and two of those
times had been in the last three weeks. They had to end this, or it was
going to tear them all apart.
Ella stood, backing off as she saw Devon coming towards them. Very
quietly, he said to her, "We need some time." She nodded, and glancing
at Bonnie, the two women left the room. Devon sat down in the chair
next to Michael's. Silently, he reached over and covered his friend's
shaking hand, still gripping the paper, with his own. The
uncharacteristic gesture took Michael by surprise, and he lifted his
head.
"He told you?" he asked incredulously.
"No. I've never to spoken to Kitt about this. Alice sent that to me,
just after Kitt destroyed her computer."
Michael took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I haven't had much sleep, and
these past few weeks...."
"There's no need for apologies. I should be the one saying sorry.
Maybe, if I'd have told you at the time, or had the courage to talk to
Kitt myself, we wouldn't be going through this right now."
Michael nodded, looking back down at the picture. "You remember that
trouble we had, with Zachary?"
Devon nodded, "Yes, I do."
"When they had Kitt in the truck, and they ordered me to shut him down,
I felt like... like they asking me to kill him. I couldn't do it, I had
to tell Kitt to do it - I had to order him to do it. I never felt so
hateful, or so lonely in my whole life. I watched the scanner die and I
wanted to scream. Afterwards, he told me that deactivation was like
being in a cold room, blind, deaf and dumb. Being aware, but unable to
move or speak, or feel.... He sounded really scared as he described it
to me. It was the first time I'd heard him sound that way. He asked
me if KARR had been kept in that state, and I told him I honestly didn't
know. He made me swear to him, that if it ever came to his being...
permanently deactivated, that I would ensure his CPU was blown, that I
would make sure that he didn't spend eternity in that state of
suspension." He let the picture fall between his knees, out of sight
yet still clasped in the fingers of the hand still covered by Devon's.
He stared blankly at the wrinkled skin against his own. "It was the
first time that I truly realized how deeply he did feel. I guess, up
until that point I still saw him as a machine, of sorts. But at that
moment, when he made me make that promise to him, I knew just how
responsible I was going to be for him, for the rest of my life. And I
felt... I felt like I would never be lonely again. I felt like a new
parent."
In a voice that was barely a whisper, Devon asked, "What are you
feeling now?"
"I feel like someone has violated my child, and I want to kill her."
"I think that's how we're all feeling. But dear boy, that's not what
Kitt needs." Michael looked up at that, straight into Devon's caring
eyes. "He needs your strength now, to get him through this. I can make
sure Alice is charged with _something_, but you and Kitt need to find
her. He needs you with him, he needs your blind optimism that together,
you could take on the world. You've always given that to him, don't
stop now."
Michael nodded, and Devon sat back, moving his hand from Michael's,
only to have Michael stop him. "Thank you, for everything."
The older man nodded, smiling. "I'll always look after you, Michael,
you should know that by now."