See Chapter 1 for disclaimers. Also, the technical information about lasers came from Sam's Laser FAQ website.


Bonnie was just in the process of shutting down her computer and unplugging Kitt from the charging rack when Michael appeared in the garage.

"Hey, Bonnie, how are you?" he asked, giving her a quick hug.

"Good. How was your vacation?" She had to admit that it had been a little bit quiet around the Foundation without the two of them. She'd put the time to good use – working on some unfinished components for Kitt – but she was glad they were back.

"I survived. Tough job, but someone has to do it," he said with mock seriousness.

Bonnie grinned despite herself. "Speaking of which, you had Kitt a whole two weeks and there's no appreciable damage. I'm impressed."

It had the intended effect. Michael rolled his eyes and scoffed at her. "It usually takes rocket launchers or explosives to damage him. We try to avoid those on vacation."

"Good to know that you do actually try to avoid them on special occasions," she snarked.

"Very funny," Michael groaned, and then leaned against the nearest work bench. "Devon said that you programmed Kitt with information for the new case?"

Kitt answered that one. "Yes, Michael. I'm now an expert on Electro-Optic Enterprises and their lasers. It's really fascinating, Michael. Did you know that the output power of a CO2 laser can be as high as 30 kilowatts?"

"Ah, no, but I trust you're going to tell me all about it on the drive out there," he said, laughing.

"Why do I get the impression that you just don't appreciate me, Michael?"

"Must be your suspicious nature, pal." Michael turned back to Bonnie. "I do have a question, though. I thought Knight Industries built the laser that was used on Karr."

"We did. Or at least we assembled it. We built the laser, which needs a liquid dye to operate. Electro-Optic Enterprises designed the dye for us. We provided them with a list of specifications and requirements and they came up with the right chemicals. We also built the electronics that controlled the firing mechanism," she explained.

"Okay, so what do you think about this case? Does Devon have reason to be concerned?"

She shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure. If I were out to harm Kitt, I wouldn't bother with the laser we used. We had to go with a dye laser at the time because it was the only way to get the frequency and power we needed. Dye lasers are tunable. But there have been a lot of advancements in the technology since then. They could steal something a lot more powerful now." Bonnie gave him a little smile. "Besides, that laser won't work on Kitt anymore."

Michael was obviously caught off guard. "What do you mean?"

"After your second encounter with Karr, I designed some filters to protect his scanner."

"What kind of filters?" Michael asked.

"The scanner can't be covered with the MBS because it needs to be able to take in information from the outside world. It needs a way to 'see' for lack of a better word. But the laser contains a specific wavelength of light. There's now a treated glass filter in front of the scanner that blocks that wavelength."

"Okay, why not make a filter that protects him from all lasers."

"Because of the filter, Kitt can't see any information at that wavelength. I figured it was a reasonable trade off for the one laser that we knew could hurt him. But lasers come in wavelengths from UV to visible to IR. It would defeat the purpose of the scanner to filter everything out."

"Okay. It's good to hear that he's protected from the design that was stolen anyway. But the sooner we start investigating, the sooner we'll know if there's really anything to worry about. Catch you later," he said, squeezing her shoulder as he headed over to Kitt.

Bonnie tried not to roll her eyes as he backed up sharply, locked the wheels, and spun the car around just outside the garage. She wondered if that man ever did a conventional three point turn.


Electro-Optic Enterprises, EOE, was a lot smaller than Michael expected. It was tucked away in a suburban industrial complex of single story brick buildings. He waited in a tiny vestibule, bare except for a potted plant, for the receptionist to buzz him in. Devon had already called with the Foundation's concerns so he was immediately introduced to the head of the company -- a button down type with a white shirt and red tie.

"I'm Paul Carter," he said, shaking Michael's hand briskly.

"Michael Knight. I was hoping I could talk to you about the theft."

"Of course. Devon Miles said you'd be investigating." Carter led the way to an office in the corner of the building. As they passed by cubicles and desks, Michael was surprised at how normal everything looked. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it hadn't been a standard office building.

"What can I do to help?" Carter asked.

"You could start out by telling me what exactly was taken." Michael glanced around the spacious office. It looked as though EOE was doing well - the computer on Carter's desk looked new, and there was a framed magazine with a cover story about the company hanging on the wall behind him.

"The thieves got most of our high powered laser designs and a few pieces of actual hardware. Clearly they knew what they were after. The designs for several laser dyes were taken, two CO2 prototypes are missing, and three experimental solid state lasers are gone as well."

"How dangerous are they?"

"They're lasers, not weapons, Mr. Knight. The prototypes stolen were all Class IV lasers so they'll do significant eye damage, can cause skin burns, and could start fires. But this isn't Star Trek. They're mostly used for metal cutting, range finding, and other industrial applications."

Despite this man's reassurances, Michael wondered what would be needed to turn them into weapons. Even if they weren't particularly useful against people, Kitt was still vulnerable and he'd been attacked by a laser before. "Would you mind showing me where you stored the prototypes?"

"Of course. We keep everything in the lab."

Carter led the way through the office area and pushed open a door. Michael immediately realized just how misleading the rest of the office was. The lab was an entirely different world. This was obviously the guts of the operation. There were mirrors and lenses bolted down to a very heavy metal-topped table that was taking up the bulk of the room. "Our optics bench," the man said. "This is where we do most of our testing and where the stolen prototypes were."

"Do you have a production floor where you make your lasers?"

"Oh, we don't produce them. We're strictly a research company. Normally we work with other companies who actually plan to build the lasers. We do the development and testing, and then sell the rights for production."

He led Michael through another door which still had the remnants of policed tape on the edges. The room was crowded with tanks of chemicals and enough beakers, bottles, and pipettes to make Michael feel like he was back in high school chemistry.

"This is where we test out dye prototypes." Carter paused and then pointed to a set of file cabinets in the back. "We keep all the results of our testing along with the chemical formulas in these cabinets. Whoever did this knew what they were looking for. They obviously knew how to interpret results and only took the successful dyes."

Michael thought about that a moment. "Devon said that you were given a set of requirements for the dye that you developed for the Foundation."

"Yes. If I remember correctly, you had some very unique frequency and power specifications."

"Were those requirements stolen as well as the dye design?"

Carter eyed him a moment and then pulled opened a drawer in the nearest file cabinet. Michael noticed that the lock had been mangled. After a minute or two of flipping through the folders, he pulled one out and displayed the empty contents for Michael. "It appears so."

"How about some of the other designs? Were the specifications for those designs stolen as well?"

Carter scoured through the files a bit more. "Yes, it looks like everything in those folders was taken. Which makes sense -- if whoever stole the designs is hoping to sell them or use them, they'll want as much information as possible."

Michael nodded absentmindedly. "You said the thieves knew what to take. Have you had any problems with disgruntled employees, or rival companies?"

"There's turnover here of course, but as far as I know, no one left angry." Carter shook his head. "It's possible that someone stole the designs to either get into the business or get a leg up on us, but I don't know of anyone in particular who would resort to out and out theft. It would be a lot less risky to buy a design from us and reverse engineer it."

"Okay. Anything else you can think of?"

"I'm sorry. Like I told the police, I really don't know who could have done this."

"Okay. Thank you for your time."

Michael shook Carter's hand and followed him back out into the office. He left the building with a lingering unease. There was nothing that pointed to anything other than industrial espionage, but something felt off about this case.