Authors Note: I still don't own Knight Rider, or Fast and the Furious. Apologies for the lack of recent updates, I've been struggling to get the next couple of chapters to work the way I want them to. But I've got them finished, so hopefully you'll enjoy the continuation of the story. Thanks to Tempest-Races for beta-ing and fixing my mistakes, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 17: Spoiling for a fight, cuz I've gotta make it right

Knight grinned with relief as he pulled the Trans-am to a stop inside the Knight Industries HQ, exiting the car rapidly, and jogging into the rec-room. "Good to see reports of your demise are greatly exaggerated."

Mike almost cracked a smile. "Thanks, but they aren't that exaggerated."

"What's that mean? You ok?"

"For a guy whose existence has just been wiped off the face of the Earth? Yeah, I'm ok." Mike answered.

"That reminds me, you need to come up with a name," Carrie told him, "Or the FBI can come up with one."

"How about Buster?" the Asian girl, Zoe suggested. Knight shook his head, "Buster is an insult. Especially in the car world."

Mike rolled his eyes, "My father's real name was Michael Long."

Zoe lowered the basketball she'd been ready to shoot. "Mike Long? Sounds like a porn star."

"Total porn name," Billy added from the other side of the room. Mike glanced at him, shook his head and started out of the room. Knight glanced at him. "Speaking of your father, I'd better check in with him," and headed out with him.

As they exited the room, they were just able to catch Zoe questioning Billy on how he'd know, and the techie's response.

"So what did the semi's driver have to say?" Michael asked.

Knight shook his head as he paced back and forth. "Not much. He was dipping in and out of consciousness at the hospital, and they wouldn't really let me talk to him because of his injuries. Lots of lacerations, broken bones, head trauma. Serious stuff."

"Go back and talk to him when he's had chance to recover."

"With all due respect," Knight paused as the door opened and Rivai entered, seemingly cleaned up after the basket ball session, "I don't think he'll be able to tell us more than we already know. The hijackers were wearing helmets with tinted visors, so he wouldn't have gotten a good luck at the guy that got into the cab. Which leaves us with a group of hijackers in black Honda Civics, using precision driving and semi-automatics to hijack trucks in transit."

"Alright. What about potential suspects?"

"There's a group of Latinos led by this guy called Hector," Knight shrugged, "I already snooped around Hector's garage. There are three Civics in it, very dark blue that could easily be mistaken for black at night. Don't know what colour the under chassis neon is. Tyres don't match though."

"It's enough," Michael told him. "Worth looking into. I'll use our sponsors resources to dig into his finances and background, see if we can turn anything up."

"There's this gang too, the Tiger's. It could be them. Leon's girl Kat and her team used to be members but, it's worth looking into. There's this other guy too," Knight frowned, "Ricky Tran. Seems to have a finger in everything, lot of cash, but I'm not exactly sure from what. From what I know, he has a lot of businesses but none that good give that kind of cash."

"He may have investments," Michael said pointedly. "But I'll look into it, see what turns up. What about the primary suspects, the ones

you're rooming with?"

"It's not them Michael. There's no way."

"But you can't account for their whereabouts at the time, because you were on a date."

"He was on a date?" Rivai questioned from where she was observing, "Shouldn't you be trying to crack this?"

"She can get me close to one of the other groups that are potential suspects, which I can't do otherwise because of my association with Toretto and his crew."

"And exactly what progress have you made there?" Rivai countered, "Because my bosses at the FBI are beginning to question backing this project. We gave you the information you needed, including the previous heists. And so far there's been no obvious results."

"I was making plenty of progress until you shot Mike," Knight countered.

"With getting in close to another group of suspects or getting invited back to her apartment?" Rivai retorted, "Or just in blowing your cover, since the hijackers will have got a good luck at Karr."

"Oh please, it was dark, and everything moved fast. There's no way they could have identified Karr."

"Alright, that's enough, both of you," Michael ordered, "Carrie, tell your bosses we're working on it, focus on your job, and let us do ours."

Before Knight could smile triumphantly, Michael rounded on him, "And you, Agent Rivai has valid concerns. We can't play this as fast and loose as we did when I was in the field. Forget the distractions and focus on the case. Get it done."

Knight's jaw tightened slightly, but he bit back a retort. "Alright, I'm on it. Me and Karr are heading out."

As he closed the door behind him, Rivai looked at Michael, "We're beginning to have reservations about him. He's not exactly the right material for this."

"Maybe not, but he's what we've got. And unlike the FBI agent you wanted originally, he gets on with Karr," Michael told her. "He'll get the job done. And if he can't, it's on my head, not yours."

"Have it your way," Rivai told him, "But if he can't get it done, the FBI will be sending someone else in."

Knight was in a dark mood as he pulled in to the races. Even Karr was subdued from the chewing out they'd been given about the truck heists last night. When Michael had told him, he'd automatically defended Dom and the team, until Michael had countered by telling him what time the heist had taken place, and he couldn't account for their whereabouts. He still felt sure it wasn't the team though. Still, he'd given them more time and seemed to accept that they didn't have much to go on, but plenty of suspects. He pulled the Trans-am in alongside Brian's Skyline and got out, Brian catching his mood instantly. "You ok bro?"

"I'm fine Bri," Knight answered.

Brian slung an arm round his neck. "You don't look happy. Despite staying out all night" he grinned boyishly.

Knight shrugged. "Last night was fine. Until it was interrupted."

"What happened?"

"Doesn't matter, it was sorted," Knight answered, then smiled slightly as Jade pulled up, without her team. Brian frowned slightly, but didn't say anything, exchanging a look with Knight as the other man headed over . "Hey Jewels."

"Hi. Did you get everything sorted out with work?"

"Kinda," Knight answered. "It's complicated."

"Work?" Brian asked. "Weren't you supposed to be on a date last night?"

Knight glared at him as Jade answered. "We were. The TV in the bar showed a news report about a colleague of his being killed."

"I thought you were just a driver for your job, what does he do?" Brian frowned. Knight realised quickly that just because Brian was no longer a cop, didn't mean he didn't still have the instincts and quickly tried to play it down, "He used to be an army ranger, and left under less than ideal circumstances. He intervened in something he shouldn't have, they thought he was part of it, and he caught a bullet from the FBI for it."

Brian nodded slowly, "Yeah, it's been known. For what it's worth, I hope they caught the guy they were after when he intervened."

"They got one of them, the other got away." Knight answered, doing his best to create a story that fit with what happened, without giving away the whole truth.

There was a few moments silence before Knight offered "Let's just go race huh? I don't want to be thinking about this anymore than I have to."

"Fair enough man," Brian replied, "Let's see what we can get set up for you."

End of Chapter 17…