Chapter 5
K.I.T.T.'s scream brought Carlee back to consciousness.
She was still tied to the chair, which still sat in front of K.I.T.T.
K.I.T.T.'s hood was open, and several cables snaked into his engine bay. Carlee followed the cables with her eyes, and saw that they lead to the computers.
Carlee didn't profess to know much about computers, so she had no idea what Dr. Stalov was doing to K.I.T.T., but she guessed it was nothing good.
K.I.T.T. screamed again, and the sound tore at Carlee's heart.
Carlee couldn't help it. The next time K.I.T.T. screamed, her voice joined his. Hers rose from a scream of torment to one of pure rage.
"Stop! Leave him alone!" Carlee screamed at Dr. Stalov, as K.I.T.T. screamed again. "You'll pay for this! I swear, you will pay!"
Dr. Stalov picked up a nearby phone and spoke into it, "Come get her out of here. She's distracting me."
Thing One and Thing Two came back in. Thing One pulled out a knife and cut the rope holding Carlee to the chair. Thing Two roughly grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. Her hands and feet tingled with returning sensation.
They each took hold of one of her arms and dragged her from the garage. Carlee twisted and struggled, even managing to step on the toes of Thing One, on her right, but it was no use. They were too strong for her.
Thing One and Thing Two marched her back down the hallways they had carried her through earlier. They stopped in front of a different door, though. Thing One let go of her right arm to fish out a set of keys and open the door.
Carlee took her chance. She grabbed the front of Thing Two's pants and squeezed. He instinctively released her left arm to protect himself.
Still holding him, she pulled. He reacted to the pressure by following where she lead. She swung him around into Thing One and pushed. Thing One and Thing Two fell in a tangle of arms and legs.
Carlee heard a sickening thud as the head of Thing One contacted with the floor. He was out cold.
Thing Two rolled off Thing One, and Carlee kicked at his face with all her might. His nose broke with a crunch, and blood spurted everywhere. He grabbed his nose, in too much pain to do anything else.
The door of the room stood open, the keys still in the lock. Carlee patted down Thing Two, finding a gun in a shoulder holster. She took the gun, then patted down Thing One. She motioned with the gun for Thing Two to drag Thing One into the room. She closed and locked the door, then headed back to the garage, the gun held at ready in front of her.
Dr. Stalov was oblivious to her presence, too absorbed in what he was doing.
Carlee pressed the cold barrel of the gun to the base of the doctor's skull. "If you so much as twitch a finger, I'll blow your head off!" she snarled.
She watched the computer screen over the doctor's shoulder for a moment. Lines of code swept past, too fast to read.
"Whatever you're doing, stop!" Carlee commanded.
"The test must finish, or you'll risk damaging the A.I."
"Oh, I think you've already got that one covered!" Carlee snapped.
Dr. Stalov tapped a key and the computer beeped.
"There, it's stopped," Dr. Stalov said, resting his hands to either side of the keyboard.
Carlee pulled the gun away and pistol whipped the doctor on the temple. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Only then did the silence in the room register. K.I.T.T. hadn't been screaming when she came in.
"K.I.T.T.?" Carlee asked, shoving the gun into her waistband so she could deal with the cables still trailing out of K.I.T.T.'s hood.
K.I.T.T. didn't respond. "I don't know if you can hear me, K.I.T.T., but we're getting out of here. It'll be okay!"
Carlee yanked the cables free and slammed the hood. Now she had to deal with the lift. She looked around and found the controls along the wall.
The lift lowered to the ground and Carlee opened the driver's side door.
She felt it the moment she was inside. The whole frame of the car was trembling. Carlee noticed that the red bars of K.I.T.T.'s voice modulator were in constant motion, but K.I.T.T. didn't seem to have a voice. She pushed the mute button, and the cabin was filled with K.I.T.T.'s scream.
"K.I.T.T.!" Carlee tried to make herself heard above K.I.T.T.'s terror. She had to fight the urge to either cover her ears or mute K.I.T.T. again. Instead, she started the engine and yelled, "We're getting out of here, K.I.T.T.! Hang on!"
Carlee shifted the car into reverse and floored the accelerator. The metal garage door disintegrated on impact, pieces flying in every direction. The powerful Trans Am was in no way hindered by the contact with the door.
K.I.T.T. was still screaming, an endless wail.
Tears streamed down Carlee's face at the sorrow and terror that were present in the scream.
Once they were clear of the garage door, Carlee turned the wheel, causing them to fishtail ninety degrees to face the street. She slammed the transmission into drive and floored the accelerator, eager to put as much distance as possible between them and the horror that had befallen them in the building they were leaving in their dust.
"Okay, K.I.T.T. I'm going to call Devon and Bonnie. Bonnie will know what to do!"
Carlee reached up and tapped a few buttons on the overhead controls.
In a moment, Devon's worry filled face was on the number one dash monitor.
"Carlee! Where have you been? We've been worried..." Devon stopped what he'd been about to say. "My God, what is that sound? Are you and K.I.T.T. all right?"
"Devon, that's K.I.T.T. He's screaming, and I can't get him to stop. Where's Bonnie? K.I.T.T. needs her!"
"What?" Devon's eyes widened in shock. "Bonnie's with the semi. She's been looking for you since yesterday afternoon. Turn the homing beacon back on and she'll go to you."
"Got it! Call her and tell her to hurry! K.I.T.T.'s in bad shape. He's not hearing me," Carlee's eyes were full of fear for her friend.
Devon cut off the transmission, and Carlee enabled K.I.T.T.'s homing beacon.
Carlee drove aimlessly for at least an hour. Afraid to stop, but knowing she needed to find a place to stop to make it easier for the semi to reach them.
K.I.T.T. seemed to finally realize that something had changed, as his screams had subsided to a keen.
Carlee finally pulled them into the back half of a busy department store parking lot.
Not knowing what else to do, Carlee began singing Michaela's favorite lullaby. One that K.I.T.T. had always enjoyed as well.
As she began singing the song a second time, Carlee heard a very soft, "Carlee?"
"K.I.T.T.?" Carlee breathed, overjoyed to hear her friend's voice again.
The keening had stopped, but K.I.T.T.'s voice was very small and terrified when he continued, "Please, don't stop singing?"
"Okay," Carlee said, then started singing again.
A few minutes later, the semi pulled past them. The back door of the trailer lowered, and Carlee drove K.I.T.T. up into the familiar, comforting confines of the truck.
Bonnie was standing in the front office area of the trailer. Carlee motioned for her to get in, not wanting to leave K.I.T.T.
"What happened? Where have you been? We've been worried sick!" Bonnie fired off in quick succession.
"Dr. Gill Stalov," Carlee said by way of explanation. She carefully studied Bonnie's face for her reaction to the name.
Bonnie flinched and cursed. "Oh, God! K.I.T.T.! I'm so sorry!"
"Bonnie?" K.I.T.T.'s voice was still small and fragile. "Why did he want to hurt me?" K.I.T.T.'s frame was trembling again.
Bonnie looked over at Carlee, her eyes widening. Her mouth moved, trying to form words, but for once, Bonnie Barstow was at a loss for words.