Chapter 9: New Treds and Bad Guys Revealed

SKYWALKER AIR FORCE RANGE
INSIDE SKY ONE
5:23 P.M. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2065

Keri listened tentatively as a technician pointed out various components and parts of Kitt's engine and explained their purpose and function. She had already learned everything else about the car and was now going over the motor.

"What's this?" asked the technician.

Keri looked at what he was pointing at. "Oh, that's a hologram projector I installed."

"What is it supposed to do for him?" he asked, scratching his head.

Keri stood up straight and crossed her arms, smirking she remarked, "Why don't you show the man what it does, Kitt?"

Beside the driver's side door of the car, it appeared as though the background was wavering, then the form of a man took shape. He looked at the technician and gave him a "what do you think of that?" look.

"Incredible!" the technician gushed. "I've never seen the like! A completely interactive, fully detailed,... " he walked over and poked at Kitt's slight muscle, "and solid holographic projection!" The man turned to Keri, "How did you do it?!"

"Easy," she blew on her fingernails and buffed them on her T-shirt sleeve, "I invented it."

Trek, who had heard the whole conversation while doing some modifications to Plato, jogged over.

"You invented this?" he asked, pointing to Kitt.

"Yep."

"Listen, if we had similar projectors installed into our cars, then they could help us out in tight situations. Please, tell me how you did it, and say we can use your technology?"

Keri put a finger to her lip and rolled her eyes upward, "Wee-eelll... I don't know. I usually don't give out my designs to everyone I meet. But... you have an honest face. Tell ya what I'm gonna do... " she said slowly, "I'll give you my designs if you fix Kitt up good, I mean real good. Deal?"

"Deal," Trek said quickly. And they shook hands on the agreement.

Within hours they had five more of the projectors made, and were installing them into the cars. Attack Beast was finished first.

"Go ahead, Beast, try it out," Trek said.

He activated the device and a very handsome, rugged man appeared in front of the grill of the truck. He had brownish-blonde hair, dark green eyes, and was skinny but muscular at the same time. He was wearing a tight fitting gray T-shirt and regular jeans with plain brown boots. The hologram looked down at himself and gasped.

"Hey! What did you do to me?! I'm... I'm human!!" he exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Keri said as she slapped Beast on the back, "You'll get used to it, besides, there are a lot of advantages to being human. In the mean time, it's not permanent, you're just a hologram."

"And a cute one at that," Domino, Jenny's red Mustang Convertible purred.

Beast walked over and looked in a mirror.

"Hey, you're right. I can't wait until Jenny sees me. She won't be able to resist me now."

Keri walked over to Domino and connected more wires to her projector.

"He'll never notice me," Domino said sadly.

"Don't be so sure," Keri said as she connected the last wire. "Go for it. Hey Beast, look here!"

Beast looked over just as Domino's holographic form appeared. She was sleek and slender with light brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. All of her hair was tucked behind her ears except two long strands that hung down on each side. She wore a form fitting, light blue T-shirt and jeans. She gave herself a quick once over, then meekly looked at Beast.

Keri could swear she saw hearts floating in the air above his head.

"I never thought I'd see the day when those two cars fell in love," Trek said. "But look at 'em."

Across the room, Beast held out his hand and a holographic bouquet of roses appeared in it. He handed them to Domino who ripped them out of his hand, smelled them gratefully, and jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Too bad I don't have luck like that," Keri said.

"How did you make their appearances?" Trek asked, changing the subject.

"Well, I just listened to their voices and thought of an image to match the voice. And I have to tell you something, making an image for Plato was the hardest."

"I can imagine. Let's finish installing the projectors, I'm hungry," Trek said.

Soon all the holographic projectors were installed, and they were all being tested. Five holograms walked around touching equipment, jumping around, and doing just about everything they could not do before.

Kyle walked into the large garage and watched the chaos for a moment. When he realized something was severely different about something, he walked over to Keri.

"Hi. Uh... who are they?" he asked.

"Don't you know your own cars when you see them?" she asked. "You're Kyle, right?"

He nodded, "Yes, that's me. What do you mean, 'my own cars'?"

"Trek and I installed holographic projectors in all the cars. Those five people are holograms coming from the them."

"Amazing, where did you get them?"

"I made them."

"You're pretty handy with a screwdriver, I'd bet."

"You'd be surprised," she said, raising an eyebrow. "So, what am I doing here in this big plane, anyway?"

Kyle cleared his throat, "Well, first of all I'd like to thank you for bringing Kitt back to us. We really needed him."

"So I've been hearing. But what I'd like to know is why do you need him?"

"Well, we usually make it a rule not to divulge information to outsiders, but since you own Kitt now, I guess you have the right to know." He paused a moment. "The prototype for Kitt's CPU has been stolen from one of our warehouses. It has a major program error in it, and if it is reconnected to any vehicle, it could be a threat to the whole nation."

"A computer that can dominate the whole country? I doubt it," she said, unbelieving.

Kyle crossed his arms, "Believe what you will, but if that thing is in the wrong hands, we're all in big trouble."

Kitt walked over to the two and listened for a moment. Suddenly he realized just who they were talking about.

"Karr. I haven't heard that name in years. I never thought I'd see him again. I destroyed him almost a century ago. What is he doing back?" the hologram said more to himself than anyone else.

"Revenge?" Keri pointed out.

"Mmm..." Kitt hummed, thoughtfully.

From across the room a voice called out, "Kyle? I've got something."

Kyle looked away from Keri and saw his teammate, Jenny, entering the room and walking up to his supped-up light gray Ford Expedition. He walked over and leaned against the door.

"What have you got, Jenny?" he asked.

Jenny smirked, "First, let's talk about the payroll. I think Dante and I are getting paid too little for the work we do. Have you ever tried to find one person in a whole data bank full of people? It's not easy, is it, Dante?"

A distinguished man in his mid-thirty's walked up to them. He wore a white turtle neck and khakis. His thick blonde hair was combed neatly and his light blue eyes seemed to give him wisdom beyond his years.

"No. You should really try it sometime, Kyle. Perhaps you'd see our situation and raise our salary just a tad," the hologram said.

Jenny stared wide eyed at him.

Kyle touched his forehead and sighed, "Look guys, we've gone over this before. Jenny, I expected something like this from Erica, but you? You know about the budget cuts due to lack of funding, and Dante? You don't even need money, you're a computer!"

"Sorry, Kyle. Jenny asked me to put up a fight for her," Dante said, gracefully pronouncing each word with his slightly deep British accent.

"Mmm," Kyle hummed, looking at Jenny. "Please give up on the pay checks for now and tell me what you've found. And please note, Dante, that I'm taking this whole hologram thing quite well at the moment, but I can't tell you how I'll be in a few hours."

"Um... you take this one, Dante," Jenny said.

"Thank you so much, Jenny," he said sarcastically. To Kyle he said, "We searched all the files in the foundation and found this person... " A display screen in the cab of the Expedition flickered with life and the picture of a brown-haired man with light gray eyes and a square-set jaw appeared. To the right and below his picture was a long record of his history.

"His name is Damien Steele. Only son to Harold and Marci Steele. Age: 45. Height: 5' 10". Weight: 185 pounds. He worked for the Foundation until he was fired for unnecessary torture of the people he was assigned to bring down. His favorite tactics were to use anything that was handy, preferably something mechanical. He especially liked... "

Kyle waved his hand, "Uh, that's okay, Dante, I don't need the details. Tell me why he's such a good suspect."

"He's not just a suspect, he is the suspect. His record reports that he is a mechanical genius. He can repair, build, or manipulate anything from a toaster to all the computers that control the New York Stock Exchange. That is a lot. It also states that he was very interested in the prototype CPU code named K.A.R.R. He wanted to get his hands on it to get it operational again, but the Foundation wouldn't hear of it.

"When they found all the evidence of his evildoings they needed, the Knight Foundation imprisoned him for five consecutive life terms. He was never heard from again."

"Until now?" asked Kyle.

"Yes. Police reports show he's recently escaped from San Quentin Penitentiary. And now the prototype is gone. Coincidence? I don't think so," Dante finally finished.

"Good work, Jenny, Dante. You just might get that raise after all. Do you know where he's hiding out?" said Kyle, placing his hands together.

"We have reports of a stolen credit card registered to one BJ Karns being used in various Radio Shacks, Electronics Boutiques, and Auto Zones throughout the state of California. Mostly in the lower region. We've pinpointed a town where a rather large number of purchases was made. It's the small town of Dinuba."

"Hmm... " Kyle thought aloud, "A small town in the middle of nowhere. The perfect hiding place. Yet he's flashing that card around everywhere. Why would he try to give himself away like that?"

"Maybe he wants us to find him. He may be feeling very proud of himself right now, and he feels confident that he could defeat us if it came to it," reasoned Jenny. Kyle looked at her. "Well, wouldn't you?" He raised his eyebrow and nodded.

"All right you two, very good work," he complimented. "Let's relocate to California. From there we'll be able to track down Steele."

From across the room, Plato yelled, "Let's kick the tires, and light the fires, big daddy!" He got strange looks all around. All the brown haired, teenaged-like man could do was shrug his shoulders and continue doing his cartwheels.

Kyle called the captain and made arrangements to fly to Fresno, California, just thirty miles from Dinuba. When he was done, he glanced over to Keri, who was receiving operating instructions from the technician again. He inhaled sharply and walked over to them.

"Uh, Keri? Can I talk to you for a second?" he said running his hand through his short blond hair.

"What?" she asked, not looking up from Kitt's engine.

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but we're relocating to Fresno, California." Keri looked up from a turbine. "I'd understand if you didn't want to go. You're welcome to stay and catch a commuter flight back to Edgewood. But I'm asking you to come with us. We need Kitt as well as you. You are the only one who knows how to operate him now, and we can't send Ray here out into the field, can we, Ray?"

The technician looked up and gave a small laugh. "I don't get paid enough, sir."

Kyle smiled and looked back to Keri, "See? We need you. Please... come with us?" He looked like he was begging.

Keri looked at him and could not help but smile.

Why not? she thought. I'm still on vacation, and this might prove to be exciting. She waited a moment to watch the tension build up in Kyle, then said, "Okay. I guess I could go. Say, uh, do I get a pay check for this?"

Kyle quickly searched his mind for an answer.

"Um, sorry, you're doing volunteer work," he said rapidly, then ran off to locate Duke and the Beast.

Keri smiled, shook her head, and returned to Kitt's engine.