Chapter 8
The trip back to the warehouse began in tense silence.
Michaela was humming under her breath, so low she didn't think K.A.I.S.Y. would pick up on it.
He did. "What's that song you're humming?" he asked curiously.
"Just a lullaby my mom used to sing to me. When I was little, she told me that if I sang it while she was on a case, it would keep her safe. I know better than that now, but I still do it."
"I think K.I.T.T. finds comfort in it, as well. I've heard him hum it to himself late at night. I've asked him about it, but he won't tell me."
Michaela pulled up to the curb a couple of blocks away from the warehouse.
"Anybody home, K.A.I.S.Y.?"
K.A.I.S.Y. scanned the warehouse and sighed a human sounding sigh. "It's deserted at the moment."
"Well, let's go in and look around, then."
The summer sun had set hours ago, but it was still very hot out. Michaela broke out in sweat almost as soon as she got out of the cool interior of the Canyon.
Casey was already standing on the sidewalk, waiting for her. "I don't suppose I could convince you to wait here, could I?"
"Not a chance," Michaela practically growled.
She set off at a brisk pace, Casey falling in beside her.
They were a block into their journey, crossing an alleyway entrance, when four men stepped out of the alley. Two took up positions in front of Michaela and Casey, the other two behind.
The four men all appeared to be in their late teens to mid twenties. One held a crowbar, another a chain, and a third a switch blade knife. The fourth seemed confident in his associates and his own bare hands.
"Well, well! You two lost, or something?" the one without a weapon asked.
"Or something," Michaela replied, not at all frightened. "You'd best let us pass. You'll find we're more trouble than we're worth!"
"You think you're a Jedi from those movies? You trying some kind of mind trick on me?"
"Just stating a simple truth," Michaela replied.
Casey had taken up a position at her back, ready to deal with the crowbar and chain thugs.
"A simple truth, huh? This little girl thinks she's funny, boys."
All four thugs laughed.
"Oh, we're a laugh a minute, just you wait," Michaela replied.
"Do you really think your boyfriend there can handle all four of us?" the leader scoffed.
"Hmm... Probably, but I'm going to help him out, nonetheless." Now Michaela slid easily into a fighting stance. Casey emulated her. "I'm tired of talking, let's get this over with," Michaela said. "Come and get me, boys!"
The man with the switch blade lunged at her. Michaela side stepped, and brought her right hand down in a chopping motion on the man's wrist. His knife fell to the ground from suddenly nerveless fingers.
She then spun and used her left hand to chop at his neck, over the carotid artery. The leader stared at her in shock as the first of his minions dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Clearing his face of the shock, the lead thug moved in toward Michaela.
Michaela swung with her right fist, but the thug blocked it and grabbed her arm. He pulled her around so her right arm was pushed painfully up her back.
Her left arm was still free, though. She brought her elbow into his ribs with all her might.
The thug's breath went out with a whoosh and he released her.
Casey's two decided to attack him simultaneously.
The one with the chain whipped it out at Casey. Casey allowed it to wrap around his arm, then he grabbed it and yanked, pulling this opponent off balance toward him.
The thug with the crowbar swung it at Casey at the same time chain boy had swung the chain.
Casey allowed the crowbar to hit his side. Instead of deflecting it, as his nanites could have, he allowed it to sink into his side, then locked it in place.
Crowbar thug let go of the crowbar and stared in shock. After a couple of seconds, he turned and fled.
Chain thug released the chain and fell to the ground on his backside. He picked himself up in a hurry and fled as well.
Casey turned toward the leader, pulling the crowbar out of his side as he did so.
By now, the leader had regained his breath. His eyes were as big as saucers, and he didn't even stay to check on the thug Michaela had knocked out.
Casey dragged the unconscious man back into the alley, where later he would come-to with a slight headache later. By unspoken agreement, they didn't want to draw attention to themselves in this area by bringing in the police.
The whole encounter had taken less than three minutes, start to finish.
Michaela and Casey continued on their way.
At the edge of the vacant lot, Michaela looked at Casey. "Is the warehouse still deserted?"
A moment passed in silence as Casey accessed his scanners. "All clear."
Michaela took a breath, then sprinted the last few yards to a personnel door in the side of the warehouse. Casey was close on her heals.
At the door, Casey worked a little electronic magic on the lock and it clicked open. They slipped inside and closed the door.
It was pitch black inside. Casey switched to night vision and infrared. Taking Michaela's hand, he whispered, "Follow me."
"What do you see?" Michaela whispered back.
"The warehouse floor is a pretty big empty space. There's a couple of diagnostic computers along one wall. Offices are upstairs. More computers up there, too," he whispered as he guided her across the floor to the stairs.
Michaela cautiously followed Casey up the stairs. Once in the first office, Michaela heard the door close. Then Casey turned on the overhead light. There were no windows in the office, so no one would know they were here.
Looking around, Michaela saw little of interest aside from a computer sitting on a desk and a four drawer filing cabinet.
Casey switched on the computer and gave it a chance to boot up. He then put his hand on top of the CPU, allowing a few nanites to infiltrate the processor's hard drives.
Leaving the computer to Casey's tender mercies, Michaela turned her own to the filing cabinet.
Not surprisingly, it was locked. Reaching into her pocket, Michaela pulled out a small, worn, black leather pouch. Unzipping it, she revealed a lock pick set.
Choosing her tools, she pulled them out and moved in on the lock. It clicked and popped open before she could touch it, though.
"All you had to do was ask," Casey said, sounding a touch dejected.
"You were busy. I didn't want to disturb you," Michaela replied, glancing back to see Casey looking straight at her.
"I'm a multimillion dollar, highly advanced A.I. capable of concentrating on numerous tasks at one time. I think I can handle a simple lock while cracking a computer," Michaela could have sworn he sounded hurt.
"Sorry," she replied, blushing in embarrassment.
"No problem," Casey shot her a smile, causing her heart to skip a beat.
For a moment, Michaela wondered who had chosen Casey's appearance. Thinking, he's gorgeous! She shook her head and turned back to the filing cabinet.
An hour later, Michaela slammed the bottom drawer with a sigh.
"Well, everything in there appears to have been left behind by the prior tenants. Junk! All junk!"
"I think I may have found something," Casey motioned Michaela over so she could look at the computer screen.
A wireframe schematic was spinning lazily on the monitor.
"What is it?" Michaela asked.
"A very powerful portable laser. It's capable of punching through just about anything."
"Anything? Does that include your M.B.S.?" Michaela asked worriedly.
"That would be the just about part. K.I.T.T. and I are impervious. But it looks like the design has been modified to be mounted in K.I.T.T.'s engine compartment"
"Have they already outfitted him with it?"
"That's the thing. They don't have it yet. These schematics say they're D.O.D. property. They must be planning to steal the laser from the D.O.D.," Casey replied.
"Anything else in that computer? If not, we probably better get out of here. We've been here too long."
"Some account numbers linked to off shore accounts. Both accounts show no balance," Casey switched off the computer and pulled his hand away.
A surprised look crossed Casey's face, and he swung to face the door.
"Damn! We've got company. K.I.T.T. somehow slipped by. He's pulling into the warehouse!"
Casey thought for a moment, "I'll create a diversion. K.A.I.S.Y. will be waiting right outside for you," Casey whispered in Michaela's ear.
"Casey, no!" Michaela whispered urgently back.
"This is our chance to deliver the program Bonnie created to purge K.I.T.T.!"
"Be careful, then!"
"Hey, it's me!" Casey replied, a crooked grin on his face. Turning off the lights, Casey silently opened the door and moved out on the landing.
The room was flooded with light from the main warehouse.
* * *
The landing was two stories off the warehouse floor. The thought of jumping that distance didn't bother Casey in the slightest.
K.I.T.T. was in the middle of the warehouse space, and Casey calculated that he would fall short of him by at least four feet.
Taking a running start across the landing, Casey leapt over the railing. He somersaulted in mid air, then landed on the concrete floor. He landed so heavily, the cement cracked and splintered under him, the sound echoing sharply in the empty warehouse.
Straightening from the crouch he'd landed in, he found himself face to face with K.I.T.T.'s avatar, Kitt.
When K.I.T.T. had been given the chance to have a human-analog avatar, he'd been given his choice of looks.
He'd chosen a slight resemblance to Michael Knight. The resemblance was just enough that he could have been Michael's brother.
He now seemed to resemble Garth Knight more than Michael Knight. Kitt's usual smirk of mischief had been replaced by an evil grin.
Without a word, Kitt lunged at Casey. Casey allowed himself to be pushed backward. Even so, his feet carved furrows in the concrete. The contact had been made. Kitt would carry Bonnie's program in his own nanites and K.I.T.T. would hopefully be purged.
Casey had to make the fight look good, and give Michaela a chance to escape the building. Then he could facilitate his own exit plan.
Finally digging in his heals, Casey brought them both to a halt near the stairs.
With all his strength, Casey shoved Kitt. Kitt flew backwards, impacting the side of the Corvette.
Pulling himself away from the car, which now should have been crawling with purging nanites, Kitt shook himself. A look of confusion crossed his face for a moment, before being engulfed once more by the Garth-like look.
Casey's hopes fell. Could the purging program not be working? Or was Bonnie right about the length of time it might take to purge K.I.T.T.'s systems?
* * *
Casey was having a full on fist fight with Kitt. Michaela had never thought she'd see anything like this.
"Michaela, I'm outside. Get out here while Kitt's distracted," K.A.I.S.Y.'s voice in her ear startled her.
"Okay, on my way," Michaela hissed back.
Slipping out of the office, Michaela sprinted to the stairs. Keeping a wary eye on the warring avatars, Michaela rapidly descended the stairs.
Without a second thought, or a backwards glance, Michaela ran full tilt to the door she and Casey had entered through.
She connected with the push bar on the door at full speed. The door swung outward with a bang. Michaela was already through the door and running for the open driver door of the Canyon, as it swung back closed.
Michaela was pulling her door closed when the warehouse door dented and flew off its hinges. Casey plowed straight through, and launched himself at the Canyon. He merged with the truck on contact.
The truck's tires spun, then caught traction and leapt forward.
K.I.T.T. came screeching after them, his own tires smoking on the asphalt.
Michaela gripped the steering wheel to keep herself from being jerked around. Even with the Passive Laser Restraint active, K.A.I.S.Y.'s sudden movements caused Michaela to be tossed about in the seat.
Turning to look out the back window, Michaela could see that K.I.T.T. was right on their bumper.
"I don't suppose he'll follow us all the way home," Michaela said, a note of hope in her voice.
"Doubtful," K.A.I.S.Y. replied. "As soon as he realizes where we're going, he'll stop chasing us. Hold on!"
A dump truck had pulled onto the road ahead of them, lumbering along at well under the speed limit.
K.A.I.S.Y. whipped around it, only to have to turbo boost over a car that turned head on into the lane they were in.
"Man, I can't wait to be the one to do that!" Michaela whooped in delight.
"Devon has said not until you are at least eighteen," K.A.I.S.Y. reminded her, as he took a corner at high speed.
"Yeah, I know," Michaela replied, a bit deflated.
K.I.T.T. had matched them move for move. A few blocks later, their destination becoming glaringly clear, K.I.T.T. cut off the chase. Michaela watched in the rear view mirror as K.I.T.T. came to a screeching halt, slowly reversed and turned around to drive back the way they had come.
K.A.I.S.Y. slowed down and allowed Michaela to take over.
"Well, that went well!" Michaela exclaimed. "Run a trace on those two offshore accounts, would you?"
"They both belong to the Stalov's and were only just set up within the last few weeks. I've flagged them, so I'll know the instant either has any activity."
"Okay. Now for the bigger issue of the laser. Where is it now?"
"It's being housed at a secure development facility on the outskirts of L.A." A schematic of the building appeared on the dash monitor. "There are armed M.P.'s posted outside and inside the building, with several on constant patrol. All exterior doors require retina scan to gain admittance. There are motion sensors throughout the building. The exterior walls are triple reinforced concrete."
"In other words, nothing K.I.T.T. can't just smash through. I doubt they'll go for the subtle, stealthy approach, anyway." Michaela sighed in resignation, "Get Devon on the line. Let's see if we can't get the D.O.D. to work with us."
A moment later, a connection to the mansion was made, but it wasn't Devon's face that filled the monitor.
"Jason!" Michaela said in surprise, "Where's Devon?"
"He wasn't feeling well, so I sent him to bed," Jason replied, a hint of worry tinging his deeply lined face. "He put me in charge. What's up?"
"Mom and K.I.T.T. are going to steal a highly advanced laser from a D.O.D. facility on the outskirts of L.A. I need you to contact the D.O.D. to work with us to stop and, hopefully, catch, Mom and K.I.T.T."
"You sure dream big! The D.O.D. isn't the easiest organization to get in contact with. I'll see what I can do, though."
"Thanks, Jason! K.A.I.S.Y. and I are going to go stake out the D.O.D. facility."