Chapter 6

They'd been on the road for hours. It was now nearly three a.m. K.A.I.S.Y. had argued several times that they should go back to the mansion for the night and resume the search in the morning.

Each time, Michaela had flat out refused.

Now, they were down to the last three warehouses on the list.

The warehouse they were checking into now was surrounded on all sides by vacant lots. Michaela had pulled K.A.I.S.Y. up beside a deserted warehouse down the street.

"What are you picking up on your scanners, K.A.I.S.Y.?"

"This is the place. I'm picking up K.I.T.T.'s unique engine signature. I'm also picking up three people."

"That must be my mom and the two Stalovs. Try contacting K.I.T.T."

"I have already tried. He responded, but he seemed different, somehow. I closed the link. He doesn't seem to know we're near," K.A.I.S.Y.'s voice conveyed his agitation.

"What do you mean by different?" Michaela asked.

"Not the gentle being I've come to know over the last two years. I think he's been reprogrammed."

"Okay. We need to get back to the mansion, then, and talk to Bonnie."

"We'll go back to the mansion, but you won't talk to Bonnie until you've eaten and had a good night's sleep."

"Yes, mother," Michaela replied sarcastically.

"Ah, sarcasm," K.A.I.S.Y. responded, pleased with himself.

"Yup!"

* * *

Bonnie sat down heavily in her chair, a stricken look on her face. "So, he's finally managed to accomplish what he set out to do all those years ago."

Casey broke into Bonnie's thoughts, "The question is how and why?"

"The how is much easier than the why," Bonnie responded, turning to her computer and beginning to type on the keyboard. "K.I.T.T. has undergone numerous CPU upgrades and programming changes in the twelve years since Stalov first tried to get K.I.T.T. to override his preservation of human life directive. He's impervious to viruses, that just leaves introducing new programming through a new chip. That's easily remedied by removing that chip and running a program to purge all programs introduced from it."

"But why would Stalov do this? K.I.T.T. always believed Stalov wanted to do it just to see if he could, and to see how K.I.T.T. would react," Casey mused.

"Stalov wants Mom and K.I.T.T. to kill..." Michaela gasped, the realization bringing her near physical pain.

"Cascade failure..." Bonnie's hand flew to her mouth, as if she were going to be sick.

"What?" Michaela asked in confusion.

Casey seemed to understand just from those two words and a quick glance at Bonnie's computer monitor. "The directive to preserve human life is hard wired into both our CPUs. It can't be erased or over written. That directive is still in K.I.T.T., no matter what they've done to him. If he even attempts to take a life, the conflict of his prime directive with whatever program Stalov introduced will cause a cascade failure. All of his systems, including his CPU, will fail. He'll die."

All of the blood drained out of Michaela's face and she swayed. Casey reached out to steady her and Michaela gratefully leaned into him. "We can't let that happen!" she said after she'd regained her composure.

Michaela's face took on a fierce and determined look, causing Bonnie to smile sadly.

"What?" Michaela asked, startled by the look.

"Just thinking about how much you look like your father, and how like him you are," Bonnie replied.

"Oh," Michaela said, not sure how to respond.

"Have you ever talked to K.I.T.T. about him?" Bonnie asked.

"No. Why?"

"They were partners, you know. Closer to each other than anyone else, at least until your mom came along."

"I'll do that!" Michaela exclaimed, no trace of any doubt on her face now. They would find Carlee and K.I.T.T., before the Stalovs managed to commit murder.