Finally! Real life and writer's block (for this story) delayed me a while there, but at last this next chapter is done. :D
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It didn't take long for Kitt and Michael to reach Mrs. Mahogany's house. A quick knock on the door by Michael as Kitt waited in the driveway, a rapid opening of the door-and there was Lizzie, staring back at him. After all that searching and running, finding her standing there was kind of anti-climactic.
"Finally," she said, yanking her father inside the house and closing the door behind her, "Listen, Dad. Someone's after Karr."
"So he is with you," Michael Knight said.
"Yeah," Lizzie said, "But Dad, we've got a problem-"
"Michael, it's Them." Kitt interrupted, speaking through Michael Knight's comlink.
"How far away are they?" Michael responded.
"Nearly here." Kitt responded.
"Right," Michael said, turning to his daughter, "Lizzie, there's not a lot of time to explain. We've got to move. Now. Get in Karr and follow us out."
"Dad, I can't." Lizzie said, "That's the problem!"
"What?"
"Karr won't let me inside," she continued.
"Did he say why not?" Michael asked.
"No," Lizzie said.
"Michael, we need to hurry," Kitt said.
"Kitt, tell Karr to get Lizzie to safety while we take care of these goons." Michael said.
"I'm afraid that's not possible, Michael. Karr is in the garage, but he's not receiving me on any known wavelengths."
"Dad," Lizzie said, "He doesn't understand me."
"He doesn't-what?"
"And he can't speak," Lizzie said, "And I think he has amnesia."
"Oh great," Michael said, and then he turned back to his comlink, "You hear that, Kitt?"
"I heard, Michael."
"So what's the plan?"
"That's your department, not mine. But I suggest you hurry, we're about to be joined by some unsavories any minute now."
"Right," Michael said. He turned to Lizzie, "Karr was tailing these guys earlier," he said, "But right now they are following us. Maybe we can lead them away from here. Kitt, drive as far away as you can!"
"I'm not leaving you, Michael."
"Then we're coming with you," Michael said, grabbing Lizzie by the wrist and yanking the door open, "If we leave fast enough maybe they won't realize that Karr is in the garage!"
"I'm not leaving, not without Karr!" Lizzie said, digging her heels into the ground.
"Listen," Michael said, stopping to look her in the eye, "If we don't get out of here now, they will find Karr! Now, come on!"
With that, Lizzie allowed him to lead her quickly towards Kitt and she climbed into the passenger seat.
"I hope this is a good idea," she said as she buckled up, "Are you sure they won't find Karr? If these are the same goons who were after him earlier-"
"They probably are," Michael said even as Kitt began backing up and tearing out of the driveway, "But if Kitt couldn't recognize Karr in the area, I'm willing to bet that neither can they."
"But what if they-"
"Here they come!" Kitt remarked, and in the rear-view window Lizzie saw down the street behind them the same small black car she had seen in front of the police station.
"That's the same car I saw earlier," she said, "The driver's the one who called me on my cell phone."
"What?" Michael asked, as Kitt sped up, "Lizzie, explain!"
Lizzie opened her mouth, but never got the chance to elaborate. Behind them there was a loud sound, a large boom! and suddenly, to Lizzie's horror, the garage door of Mrs. Mahogany's house-which she could just barely make out down the street behind them-burst apart like toothpicks. Out of the wreckage drove Karr, who drove through the grass to come up to the road and get behind the small black car.
"KARR!" Lizzie screamed.
"Michael, they see him!" Kitt said, slowing down.
"Slow down!" Michael said.
The small black car behind them suddenly braked and reversed, apparently trying to crash into Karr. Not deterred, Karr drove off the road-narrowly missing a parked car in the process-and sped through the grass, flashing his headlights at Kitt.
"Kitt, what's going on?" Michael asked.
"Karr is following Lizzie." Kitt explained, "Michael, they're speeding up again. We'd better hurry!"
"Where are we going to go?" Michael asked, "Any ideas?"
"I think we might be able to lose them in the woods again," Kitt said, already heading in that direction.
"But what about Karr?" Lizzie asked, frantically trying to turn around in her seat to see him behind them, "He has no idea what's going on! What if they catch him or something?"
"I'll tell him to follow us." Kitt said.
He turned on his hazard lights, and they quickly flashed in the same kind of pattern that Karr used with his headlights. Just then Kitt turned into the woods, and Karr followed behind them. Kitt then shut off all his lights, and Karr followed his example.
"He's right behind us, but we've got to hurry if we want to lose that car again." Kitt said, "What is the fastest way to your dorm from here, Lizzie?"
"How did you-what language was that?" Lizzie asked.
"Focus, Elizabeth!" Kitt said.
"I think that way," Lizzie pointed, "Now, what was that?"
"He was communicating in binary." Kitt remarked, "It's our primary language, Lizzie."
"Let's worry about that later," Michael said, "Kitt, how far behind us are they?"
"Not far enough," he said, "I'm attempting to lose them, but we might have to hide behind Lizzie's dorm. I'd call FLAG for backup, but they're still busy trying to contain the virus."
"Virus? What virus?" Lizzie asked.
"Long story," Michael said, "Kitt, do you think they can spare Bonnie and the trailer?"
"The Rook, Michael." Kitt corrected, "Perhaps, but it's risky. Do you think we can drive back to them instead of asking them to come to us?"
"Why would we need the Rook?" Lizzie asked.
"Because whatever it was that they did to Karr," Michael said, pointing backward with his thumb, "Is going to require Bonnie to fix it."
"So they're the ones who hurt Karr? I thought so," Lizzie said.
"That's what we assume, Lizzie." Kitt said, "In our last contact with Karr, he was infiltrating their firewalls."
"So, that's what gave him amnesia?" She asked.
"We don't know," Michael shook his head, "They could have captured him and did something to him manually."
"Perhaps," Kitt said, and they were suddenly out of the woods and onto a road again, "But whatever it was they did, it didn't stop him from coming to find you, Lizzie."
A few sharp turns and a couple parking lots later, and Kitt and Karr were behind Lizzie's dorm building.
"We lost them." Kitt remarked.
"Finally," Michael said.
Karr pulled out of his parking spot next to them.
"Where's he going?" Lizzie asked.
"I'm not sure," Kitt responded, but then Karr reparked in a spot that faced them and began flashing his headlights at them.
"Ah. He just wants to talk." Michael said.
"What's he saying?" Lizzie asked, recognizing Karr's favorite headlight pattern.
"No." Kitt translated.
"No?" Lizzie said, "All this time, that was 'no'? Huh."
Karr paused, then repeated the pattern.
"I mean, he does that one all the time." Lizzie said, "I thought he was calling my name or something."
"Perhaps he is." Kitt said, opening the passenger door.
Lizzie quickly unbuckled and was out of the door, but almost before she could close it Karr had moved again, almost crashing into Kitt as he parked in front of her.
"Whoa there!" Lizzie said, smiling as she touched his hood, "It's alright, Karr! Everything's fine now."
Karr suddenly shoved himself into her hand, and she could feel his hood shivering.
"It's okay," she said, spreading both hands out on his hood as much as she could, "It's okay, Karr."
Michael moved to open his door, but it wouldn't open.
"Better stay inside, Michael." Kitt said, "Karr doesn't remember you."
"Right," he agreed reluctantly, "So, how are we going to get him back to FLAG?"
"We might need Lizzie for that." Kitt said, "Karr trusts her."
"But she's got classes," Michael said, "And then there's the whole issue with the police to deal with. Kitt, you can speak with him; are you sure we can't just convince him to follow us?"
"Michael," Kitt said, "He's only communicating a few basic words, and I'm fairly certain he only followed us because we had Lizzie. If we tried taking him to FLAG without her, I'm afraid he'll just take off to find her again."
Michael sighed. "Roll down the window, will you?" He asked, "I want to speak to Lizzie."
The passenger window rolled down, and Michael leaned towards it to call out to his daughter.
"Lizzie," he said, "We can't stay hidden back here forever, and we need to get Karr back to FLAG as quickly as possible. Karr trusts you, so we're going to need to take you with us."
"Got it," Lizzie said, "But what about my classes?"
"We'll worry about that later," Michael said, "Right now, I need you to get back inside Kitt. We've got to leave before they call for reinforcements."
"Right," Lizzie nodded, stepping away from Karr towards Kitt.
Karr suddenly revved his engine, and pushed himself at Lizzie. Surprised, she fell to the ground and looked up to find Karr's grill just above her face.
"Karr, let me up!" She demanded, maneuvering her hands out from underneath the car to push herself away. The second she had, though, Karr just rolled over her again so that her hands were once more stuck underneath the car. "Aw, come on Karr! Let me up!"
Suddenly, she heard a strange sound. Click, click-click, click...that clicking sound was coming from Kitt.
Wait a minute. He was locking and unlocking his automatic door locks. He was using them to communicate with Karr!
Slowly, Karr backed away from her even as he flashed his headlights in response to whatever Kitt was telling him. After what seemed like forever, he was finished and Kitt clicked his door locks again to continue the conversation. They both went back and forth for a while, long enough for Lizzie to stand up and dust herself off and then wait around rubbing Karr's hood before Kitt opened up the passenger door.
"Get in," he told her, and Karr offered no objections as she gave him one last pat and stepped inside Kitt.
"What did you tell him?" Michael asked as she buckled up.
"I'm afraid that's private, Michael." Kitt said, a hint of humor in his voice, "The short answer is that he has agreed to let Lizzie sit here with me, and he's going to follow us back home."
"Then let's get going, before the bad guys find us." Michael said, "Besides, we can't have anyone spot us back here. They might stop us to arrest Lizzie."
"Hey!" Lizzie said.
"As soon as we can," Michael said, "I'm going to ask Devon to get some good lawyers to straighten that whole thing out for you. In the meantime," he continued, "You should start thinking about what you're going to tell that roommate of yours."
Lizzie groaned, and leaned against Kitt's window as he pulled out of the parking lot. She watched Karr behind them as they drove the back way out of campus, and couldn't help but notice that he was flashing his headlights as he drove.
And she noticed that whenever he stopped flashing his headlights, one of the dials on Kitt's dash kept blinking to show that he was rapidly changing his license plate number.
Huh, she thought with a smile.
That was certainly a less annoying way of communicating than using the door locks.
