Suggested Listening: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran
KITT was cruising along the freeway in Los Angeles, at actual normal speed.
He was on auto cruise, because inside, Michael had a bouquet of flowers in his hands, and he was admiring each petal with a very nostalgic look on his face.
“I must admit, it is nice to see you like this, Michael,” KITT commented.
“Like what, pal?” Michael asked, inhaling the sweet scent of a white carnation.
“Happy and content,” KITT answered. “Ever since D…Danni came back into your life, and you found out who she really was, a noticeable change has come over you. It is a nice thing to see.”
“Thank you, pal,” Michael said, pulling away from the bouquet for a moment. “I have to admit, it’s nice knowing that I am not the last of my kind anymore, and to have my sister back alongside of me…it’s remarkable!”
“You two are very close,” KITT observed.
“I virtually brought her up, KITT,” Michael stated. “Mom was busy trying to keep the household alive, and my father and step father…well you know their histories. Danni and I grew up very close.”
“It’s definitely nice to see. I hope that she enjoys the flowers we are giving her,” KITT said.
“I hope so too,” Michael agreed.
“Michael…Devon’s calling.”
Michael gently put the bouquet of purple and white flowers in the passenger seat. He then touched the two buttons over his head to receive the transmission.
“Yo, Devon!” Michael called out in his already familiar manner.
“Hello, Michael,” Devon greeted in return. “I hope that I am not interrupting anything. I need you back at the Foundation immediately. A situation has come up, or more specifically, a case, a rather urgent one.”
“Sure, we were on our way anyway, see you in a few,” Michael answered.
Devon nodded, and disappeared off the screen, as Michael took back control, and accelerated.
Once Michael got back to the Foundation, he carried the bouquet in. Danni came down the stairs, looking healthier, and wearing her normal jeans, tie-on blouse and tennis shoes. The scars had healed, and she was only just a bit pale.
“Hi Michael, those for Bonnie?” Danni asked.
Michael smiled widely with a smile that was absolutely warm and genuine. “Hi sweetie, no, these are for you.”
Danni smiled and looked mildly surprised. “Me? Oh, Michael, thank you!”
She took them, and sniffed deeply, relishing the pleasant smell of carnations and roses. She smiled contentedly. Michael grinned.
“So, has Devon given you a clue of what the new urgent case is yet?” Michael asked.
“There’s a new urgent case?” Danni queried, looking confused.
“He called me in for it,” Michael stated, his smile melting away to concern.
“He just told me to report in once you got here,” Danni said.
Michael put an arm on her shoulder. “Then I guess we had better not keep the man waiting.”
Danni nodded once, and the two walked down to Devon’s office, where Bonnie was racing around back and forth across the room, delivering info, while Devon sat at his desk.
“Oh good, you are here,” Devon observed.
“Don’t we have to wait for April and RC?” Michael asked.
“They are on vacation, and I sincerely don’t think we will need them for this assignment. I believe that you and KITT can handle this. Danni will only be backup if you need it.”
“Huh?” Danni uttered, caught off guard.
“We will continue to afford you recovery time, you will be on standby,” Devon explained, unable to look her in the eye.
Danni looked down. “Then I guess I’m not needed here. I will go put these in water.” Danni then looked at Michael, trying to disguise the pain. “Good luck on the case, Michael.”
She patted him on the shoulder, and walked out. Michael watched after her, and then turned to Devon with a slightly confused look. Devon finally looked up, holding on to a folder.
“Now, down to business,” Devon announced. We have been contacted by a member of the FBI, who has assigned us a case that they need urgently solved. All of their attempts have failed, and they have been ordered to hand it to somebody else who has experience in these type of matters.”
“What member of the FBI?” Michael asked, suspiciously.
“Their director and one of their senior agents,” Devon answered.
“Federal, isn’t this more Danni’s cup of tea?” Michael quickly asked.
“Normally, I would say yes, but I believe that your experience is what is needed for this case, and she still needs her recovery time,” Devon answered. “Several years ago, a highly classified government project was snatched right out of the government’s hands. The project was plagued with problems, including its central creator, Charles Henry Moffett. The man was certifiably crazy, and was attempting to sabotage his own project, in order to steal it. The test pilot basically beat him to the punch, and the project disappeared off radar.”
“What was the project?” Michael asked.
“A super deadly helicopter code named Airwolf,” Devon stated.
“A helicopter?” Michael uttered.
“Not just any helicopter,” Bonnie spoke up. “This is a fully armored fighting machine that is capable of speeds up to and past Mach 1, potentially Mach 2. It is armed with full defensive and offensive capabilities. More capabilities than an F-16.”
“Whoah, not exactly the type of thing you want in the wrong hands,” Michael commented. “Who was the pilot?”
“A man by the name of Stringfellow Hawke,” Devon replied.
Michael blinked, and frowned. “Hawke? I remember that name from ‘Nam.”
“His brother was part of your special forces unit...St. John Hawke,” Devon replied, quietly.
Michael looked down, as memories of combat raced through his head.
“He’s one of the ones who was left behind,” Michael mumbled.
“Yes, he is still listed as a POW,” Devon said, still in a quiet tone.
“So Stringfellow managed to hide a multi-million dollar super deadly helicopter?” Michael asked, trying to steer the conversation back on track.
“Yes,” Devon confirmed.
“That is one hell of a feat,” Michael noted.
“Yes it is,” Bonnie said, coming over to him. “I have run a listing of all major police reports of any sightings, as well as any strange and unusual shipments of nitro rocket fuel to any place in the country that shouldn’t have it through normal means.” Bonnie handed Michael a file. “While there seemingly were some efforts to cover up these shipments, they were not exactly deeply or exactly well done. It seems like you are going to be led to the Valley of the Gods Area where there have been some strange sightings. There are other locations within that you may also want to check out.”
Michael quickly flipped through the folder. “So why exactly is this so urgent, it seems like the FBI has been spinning their wheels on this for some time.”
“Word has come down through intelligence sources that Hawke is planning to defect with the helicopter,” Devon stated. “Within the next week.”
“I can see where that would be a problem, defecting where?” Michael asked.
“Russia, of course,” Bonnie answered.
“Well, I guess I am heading out to the Valley of the Gods area, aren’t I?” Michael sighed.
“I believe you are heading towards Santini Air first, and then seeing where it leads you.” Bonnie added.
“I’m outta here, then, see ya all later,” Michael said, tapping the folder against his other hand, and then heading for the door.
“Michael, godspeed, and be careful,” Devon warned.
“Of course,” Michael answered, and disappeared through the door.
Devon waited a beat, and then sighed. “Danni, you can come in now.”
Danni appeared at the door, and walked in, her jaw set. “Am I that predictable?”
“In this case, yes,” Devon said, with a slight smile tugging at his lips.
“You’re not going to leave me as backup on this case, are you?” Danni asked, as she walked in closer to Devon’s desk.
“Am I that predictable?” Devon retorted.
“No, just that sneaky, why did you lie to Michael?” Danni demanded.
“I did not lie to him, we are sending you in as his backup, but he is most likely going to need you, because he could end up over his head. I need him to go in the front door.”
“And I get to go in the back,” Danni guessed.
“Correct.” Devon stated, handing her a file. “You know how the FBI works, and you know how Special Intelligence Services work, and that is the experience you are going to have to deal with.”
“Why couldn’t you tell Michael this?” Danni asked, looking over the file.
“Because I am not too sure that he would be so willing to do this if he knew the finer nuances of this whole case, if we are lucky, he will get what we need through the front door. But you need to be there in the case the door has problems,” Devon stated.
“Rest period, eh? Riiiight,” Danni chuckled. “KARR will be happy to get out and do something, at least, we’re on our way.”
“Be careful, Danni,” Devon stated.
“I will do my best,” Danni stated, as she nodded once to both Devon and Bonnie, then exited.
Bonnie looked at Devon, with a bit of a cocked eyebrow. “You keep treating her like a secret agent, that is what she is going to get used to.”
“Sometimes, I find myself with no choice. We’re living in a slightly different world, Bonnie, and we are also finding ourselves dealing with a whole different breed of case.” Devon replied.
KARR pulled out of the Foundation driveway, and headed down the road. Not more than a few moments afterwards, several black sedans, all of a newer model, all with government plates pulled up to the Foundation gates, and the people within began to make their demands to the guards.
An older man, with a slightly rotund belly, yet a rather friendly down home Italian grandpa demeanor was hopping in and out of the engine hatch of a red, white and blue helicopter, painted like the American flag. He was armed with the standard tools of a helicopter mechanic, and the clanging sounds were neither proof nor disproof of his accomplishments in his attempts to fix the helicopter.
“I tell you, String, I am just getting a real funny feeling about something, I just dunno what,” Dominic “Dom” Santini stated, in his averagely Italian/Bronx laced accent.
Another man, this one younger, but with a very old, and ravaged soul, whose face had been weather beaten, and tortured by horrors of the past, and present. His face was cold and hard, his eyes burned with darkness. He was physically fit, a fact made very apparent by the fact that he was rushing across the garage to the helicopter at a fast clip, with a full toolbox in hand, and wasn’t struggling. He stopped next to the helicopter, popped the toolbox open, and handed Dom a giant wrench.
“Dom, every time you say that, nothing really happens, I consider it a good omen,” Stringfellow “String” Hawke stated, a slight smile playing at his lips. The reality of the situation was, every time that Dom stated something like that…something did happen, but he didn’t want to worry the old man.
“String, that’s a bunch of hooey, and you know it, you know my feelings always amount to something,” Dom stated, turning to String with pinched eyes of worry.
“Dom, nothing is going to happen, and if it does, we will deal with it, just like we do everything else in life,” String stated, as Dom looked at him, frustrated. “We can only wait until it happens, and deal with it then.”
Dom sighed in resignation. “I guess so.” He took the wrench, and turned back to his job within the helicopter.
Michael and KITT were on a desert highway, heading for their destination, as determined by the information that Bonnie had uploaded for them.
“Why hasn’t anybody else followed up on these leads, it seems a bit obvious,” KITT noted.
“Maybe they have, and come to a dead end, who knows, but we have to start somewhere,” Michael shrugged.
“But what if nobody has tried them, it seems a bit curious to me,” KITT noted.
“Don’t tell me that you are developing a gut sense?” Michael teased.
“Michael, don’t be absurd, I am a computer, I don’t even have a gut, but there is a sense of curiosity that is being led to by logic in this situation, that I do think warrants caution.” KITT noted.
“Noted,” Michael nodded.
At the Foundation, Devon was watching as the FBI agents were lined up at the gate, being held off, as they produced their credentials.
“Mr. Miles, they seem to have a search warrant here, for the Foundation,” The guard reported via the audio communications systems.
“For what exactly?” Devon asked.
“I am not sure, the remaining portion is in a sealed envelope to be opened by you, the servee, but it is definitely addressed to you, and there is an electronic survey van here,” The guard reported.
Devon looked to the side, and frowned. “I shall be out to the gate momentarily,” Devon stated. “Hold them there.”
Devon tapped a button to the side, and cut off the transmission. He tapped another button. “Jodie, get me one of our lawyer staff, and get them over here right now.” He tapped the button, to shut off that particular transmission, and then tapped another button.”
“Bonnie, Code black,” Devon ordered.
Something about this didn’t click, and it was just better to be safe than sorry.
Danni was laying back in her seat, behind the darkened windows, as KARR flew down the road, basically taking the back roads to the ones that KITT was taking.
“Do you ever get the feeling that we are the black ops of FLAG?” KARR asked.
“I think you have been scanning too many spy novels into your systems,” Danni noted.
“I have to do something while you have been laid up, I need to keep my mind fresh,” KARR noted.
“You are a computer, you don’t have a mind, you have a central processing unit, and memory modules, they don’t get stale, either,” Danni stated.
“That hurt,” KARR said, with a slight pouting tone to his voice.
“The truth generally does,” Danni sighed.
“So, how about you, chiphead, what is your excuse?” KARR shot out.
“I want to be as bitter and bitchy as you when I grow up.”
“I liked you when they were probing you better.”
“You are one sick twisted shmuck, KARR,” Danni growled.
“And you are one giant bitch,” KARR replied.
“Ah, then I am half way to my goal of being you.”
“If I ejected you here, it would take you days to walk back,” KARR threatened.
“Ah, but I would walk back, and once I found you, I would kick the ever loving crap out of every circuit board, then piss on them, so they would short out, so that you were completely and totally disabled,” Danni stated, not once losing her cool.
“That is crude,” KARR stated.
“And you like it.”
KARR went quiet for a moment. “Sadly, yes, it’s just kinky and sadistic enough to have some sort of charm…”
Danni sat up, with an eyebrow cocked. “Ew.”
“I know you get off on this…” KARR stated.
“In reply to your original statement, you are most likely correct, we are the Black Ops of FLAG, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We just have different methods to achieve the same goal,” Danni stated, laying back down, shaking her head.
“Just wish that somebody had told us ahead of time,” KARR quietly said.
“That’s the problem with Black Ops, all of it ends up need to know, including our own status,” Danni uttered. “But on a good note, it can be a whole lot more fun.”
“True,” KARR stated.
Back at the Foundation, Devon and Julia were standing at the gate, before the FBI agents, looking over the papers that they were presenting to them. The five cars worth of agents didn’t look too amused.
“You have to understand, we have governmental contracts, many of which are highly classified, even above FBI standards, we are having to run checks with our governmental superiors to assure that they are not going to be bothered by these actions, as well as verifying the legitimacy of this warrant,” Julia stated.
“It is legitimate, mam,” The impatient lead agent, Special Agent Rosemont uttered, in a sigh.
“You know that, but we don’t necessarily know that,” Julia stated.
While they were delaying, they did not notice the slight evacuation of the premises being done by lab employees, who were walking off the back end of the estate, as well as the lab itself, which was having a lot of the interior machines and other items being loaded into the semi, which was hidden from view.
“So when will you be able to verify this?” Special Agent Rosemont asked.
“Momentarily, I assure you,” Devon said. “A call has gone in to the Federal Jurisdiction office already, and we are just waiting on a return call from the Secretary of Defense, it should be just moments now.”
Bonnie was rushing through the house like a madwoman, making sure that all the computer terminals were set to lock out all the important data, and to access a separate mainframe with cover information. She was definitely breaking a sweat.
Suggested Listening: “Authority Song” by John Cougar Mellencamp
KITT was racing along the roads at a relatively fast speed, but nothing special. He and Michael were playing trivia games, and laughing all the way.
Hawke and Santini were going on with their business as normal, completely unaware of what was coming their way. They were just going on with their daily routine of running a helicopter service.
Devon and Julia were holding off the Feds at the gate, trying to be as cordial as possible, even offering them something to drink, as they waited, not necessarily for the phone calls, but for the evacuation to finish.
Danni was sleeping in KARR, while KARR was driving himself, and reading his spy novels on his screen at light speed.
Bonnie had finished transferring over all of the consoles within the Foundation, and then rushed out to the Semi, where in world record time, they had finished evacuating the sensitive equipment. She loaded in, and they pulled out, and went out the rear way, where nobody was watching.
KITT and Michael pulled into the outskirts of tiny little Pencrow, a small town, and Michael took in the sights of yet another little Norman Rockwell town.
In an undisclosed location, a shadowy man was watching a screen, suddenly; a blip appeared on the screen, traveling at about the speed of a standard car. The blip was transferred to a map overlay of Pencrow.
Devon got a phone call in the guard’s booth, he and Julia both excused themselves, and listened in on the phone call, neither one looking all that appreciative of the information they had just gotten. They walked back out to the FBI agents, and took in a deep breath.
“Your wishes have been granted, you are allowed to view the premises for what you are looking for, whatever that may be,” Julia said.
“All that we ask you is to heed great care, there is a lot of sensitive equipment and other items within this place, and it would not heed well to you to break or mess with any of it improperly,” Devon requested.
“Move on out!” Rosewell commanded.
Devon and Julia looked at each other, and sighed, as they stepped out of the way.
Danni and KARR were just coming up to the town limits sign; KARR sounded a chime off.
“Are we there yet?” Danni mumbled, as KARR put her seat in an upright position.
“As a matter of fact, we are, but there is also something of great strangeness, I tracked something that seemed to be echo reflecting off of my scanners, almost like something tracking them,” KARR reported.
“What could it be?” Danni asked.
“I am not sure, but we could be getting some VLF interference from some of the nearby military testing areas,” KARR replied.
“Change your frequency, we will notify the rest later, we’re supposed to be dark anyway,” Danni ordered.
“Doing so now,” KARR replied.
In the undisclosed location, a second blip entered the screen, but then disappeared just as fast as it had appeared.
“Where do we look first, buddy?” Michael asked.
“I thought you were the investigator on this one, where would you like to start?” KITT sarcastically replied.
“You’ve been parked by KARR way too long,” Michael muttered. “There is a shipping address for those materials, correct? Maybe we should start there.”
“Very well, Santini Air. I am plotting our course now,” KITT stated.
Michael shook his head and chuckled.
“So, where do you propose we start?” KARR asked.
“Well, I am guessing that Michael is going to take the investigative front end approach to this, so us doing that wouldn’t be very practical,” Danni said. “I say we don’t play fair.”
“What do you have in mind?” KARR asked, in a slightly lecherous tone.
“We have the project codes in those files, you already hacked into the NSA mainframe, pull out some of those sweet schematics of this thing that we are not supposed to see, and give me a computer frequency operations code,” Danni replied.
“I love it when you talk dirty,” KARR said. “But what do we do when we do find it?”
“We draw them out, so Michael and KITT can follow their prow, then come in for the snatch, just so they feel good about themselves, and we ride off into the darkness,” Danni stated.
“And how do we draw them out?” KARR queried.
“We’ll figure that out when we get to it. But first, you need to cozy up to your favorite little NSA computer and get us some goods to play with,” Danni said.
“She is not my favorite computer,” KARR snapped. “She’s more uptight than you are, and not half as sexy.”
Danni shook her head, and you could get a distinct feeling that she was rolling her eyes behind the sunglasses.
Michael pulled into the parking lot, next to the red, white and blue CJ-7 Jeep, and looked at the hangar in front of him.
“I presume that you have an angle of questioning to pursue,” KITT noted.
“Think I look like an FBI agent?” Michael asked.
“Is that a trick question?” KITT replied.
“Very funny,” Michael answered, as he got out of the car.
To put it accurately, Michael didn’t have the ‘man in black look’, wearing the jeans, boots and black shirt that he did, but he could act.
Or at least that was the plan.
KITT watched Michael walk towards the hangar. “I don’t think this is going to work,” he mumbled.
Michael walked into the hangar, where Dom was hanging out of the helicopter.
“Excuse me,” Michael stated. “I am looking for a Dominic Santini.”
“Well, ya found him, young fella,” Dom said, coming out of the helicopter, cleaning his hands on a rag. “What can I do for ya?”
Michael whipped out his ID badge, and flashed it quickly, quick enough that nobody could possibly see that it was not an FBI badge. He put it back in his jeans pocket.
“I’m Special Agent Michael Knightwood, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Field Operations Unit,” Michael uttered. “There have been some recent threats made to domestic situations, and they are now sending us out on a standard routine check of anybody who has ordered in any kind of items on a certain watchlist.”
“Wow, did ya go to school to utter all that?” Dom asked. “Well, what can I help ya with?”
“I need to know what uses you have had for these items,” Michael asked, unwrapping a piece of paper from his other rear pocket, and handing it to Dom.
Dom took the paper, and looked over it. At that time, String came out from the rear area.
“Dom, what’s goin’ on?” String asked.
“Oh, this young FBI agent is here to check on some of our stuff, that we seemingly had shipped in,” Dom answered.
“Like what?” String asked, gruffly.
“Oh, the machine gun bullets, the jet fuel, the electromagnetic cell chargers…” Dom answered, trying to sound nonchalant.
“The movie props?” String asked.
“Yep, that would be them,” Dom answered. “We provide services for movie makers and cinematographers, sometimes their demands are….a little strange if ya know whatta I mean.”
“Oh, I do, I’ve already had three movie maker findings this week,” Michael sighed. “They like to torture us rookies.”
“You don’t look like any FBI agent I’ve ever seen before,” String noted.
“Yeah, seen lots of them?” Michael shot back.
String cracked only a partial smile. “They sure haven’t worn blue jeans before.”
“If they allowed me to do real cases and stuff, then I would wear their nice suits, but since they have me on this detail, I wear what is comfy,” Michael allowed.
“We’ve got the paperwork right here in the office,” Dom noted. “Letta me show it to ya.”
“Thank you, much obliged,” Michael said, as he followed Dom and String to the office.
“Wow,” KITT commented, as he saw what happened in the hangar on his screen. “He really is a good actor.”
Danni and KARR were parked on the far side of a Sonic Drive-In, Danni was very carefully eating her burger in the vehicle, keeping a low profile, as KARR did his work.
“I have those schematics, I downloaded a full set,” KARR reported. “And they didn’t even know that I was there, silly people.”
Danni smiled, and delicately ate a French fry. “You can’t pick on the inferior computers, KARR, it’s not their fault.”
“Computers never are at fault,” KARR stated, then went silent. “I think that there is something wrong with these schematics.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wilton Knight’s name comes up quite repeatedly within the schematic patents for this helicopter.”
Danni stopped chewing, and looked absolutely stunned.
Back at the Foundation, Devon was watching as the real FBI were digging around the offices, rather roughly. Devon cocked his eyebrow, as they tore through desks, and pounded at keyboards.
“If you told me exactly what you were looking for, I might be able to save you some time, Special Agent Rosewell,” Devon stated.
“I think you know what we are looking for,” Rosewell snidely answered.
“My dear boy, if I knew, I wouldn’t be asking,” Devon stated.
“Stolen government property,” Rosewell tersely stated.
“I gathered as much from the search warrant, could you be more specific?” Devon queried.
“The XK1000 and XK2000 units,” Rosewell said, looking at Devon for any sign.
Devon didn’t give it to him, he remained perfectly calm. “What would that be?”
“If it is here, you already know,” Rosewell stated.
“Oookkk…” Devon stated, totally unimpressed.
Danni took a deep breath, after looking over the schematics that KARR passed in front of her at virtual light speed.
“Do you think Devon knows?” KARR asked.
“Oh, I’m willing to bet that he does, he just likes this cloak and dagger shit more than we do,” Danni said, with a scornful look. “Set up a wide area scanning array for that frequency code, and eliminate the duplicates.”
“Doing so now, I am able to use our new Satellite, since it is overhead,” KARR noted.
“Use all the resources you can, this case is starting to irk me a bit, and I think getting it done and over with as soon as possible would be the best course for us to take,” Danni sighed.
“This is too easy,” KARR commented. “I found it.”
“Give us a course, and let’s go check out this nifty helicopter and its hiding place,” Danni stated.
Michael walked out of the office, followed by the two men, they were all laughing and joking.
“Well, I just want to thank you for your hospitality, most people just clam up when they see me coming, you made this experience very decent,” Michael stated.
“No problem, come back sometime, and we will give you a nice helicopter ride over the dunes, they are quite spectacular from the overhead views,” Dom offered.
“I’ll have to take ya up on that,” Michael smiled, and shook their hands. “Thank you, gentlemen.”
Michael walked out, as the two men nodded him out. Michael walked out towards KITT.
“Are they watching me?” Michael mumbled.
“No, they went back to their office,” KITT noted.
Michael dropped to the floor next to KITT, and scooted under the jeep, and put a tracking dot on the underside.
“How could they ever be inconspicuous in that thing?” KITT whispered.
“Darned if I know,” Michael stated, getting back up, and getting into KITT. He started up, and pulled out. “Find us a good vantage point, buddy, we may be sitting around for a while.”
“Does that mean that you think we have found our suspects?” KITT asked.
“Yep, those documents were pretty intriguing; too bad that there wasn’t a computer in that office that could have produced them. It is all too neat considering the shopping list involved.” Michael noted.
“And they haven’t had a movie production come through in over three months, yet they ordered their newest stockpile of items a little over a month ago,” KITT added.
“This is potentially too easy,” Michael mumbled.
“At least we can agree on that,” KITT noted.
“There was something strange about that FBI agent,” Dom noted.
“Very strange, he was too hospitable,” String grumbled. “We are going to need to stay alert.”
Devon was looking extremely ‘put-out’ by the agents who were scouring the entire Foundation. He shook his head as he went from room to room watching them. Julia was standing in the foyer, talking on the phone, looking a little ticked.
“I guess they didn’t understand the concept about taking care of the place,” Julia noted.
“Not at all, luckily, I have no problem reporting to superiors about such matters,” Devon stated.
“Neither does Knight Industries, who is also suffering through the same fate, they are being searched as well,” Julia sighed.
“Determined bunch,” Devon observed.
Dom rushed back into his office, and found that a beeper was going off within his desk. He popped it open, and found the beeper flashing too. He grabbed the beeper, and rushed out.
Stringfellow Hawke was just parking the red white and blue helicopter within an area in the hangar, when he saw Dom lumbering out as fast as his chubby body could carry him. Dom gasped for air, and held up the beeper.
String knew what it was automatically. He quickly rushed out, at a run to the red, white and blue jeep CJ-7 that was parked outside, and fairly far away from the hangar entrance. Dom rushed after him as fast as he could. String started the jeep up, and then pulled it out, and up to Dom, who hopped in, and they sped out.
“Michael, their Jeep is on the move,” KITT reported.
“Let’s follow them at a discreet distance, of about 5 miles, if we can,” Michael ordered, as he started KITT up. They were parked at a truck stop near the airfield.
“Understood,” KITT stated.
“I can’t believe that they would actually take that thing out anywhere, it is not exactly the most subtle vehicle around,” Michael uttered as they pulled out onto the road.
“Maybe that is the beauty of the situation, maybe it sticks out so much that people wouldn’t think anything covert was going on,” KITT noted.
“KARR has been sharing his spy novels with you, hasn’t he?”
“They can be quite educational, Michael.”
Michael chuckled, as they drove on out.
Danni and KARR were driving back into town, with Danni chuckling.
“That seemed to be quite the fascinating helicopter,” KARR noted.
“I wish that we had a little bit more time to get to know it better, but hopefully in the time it takes to return it back to the US Government, we might be able to get a better view once this is all done,” Danni said.
“Providing Michael and KITT don’t screw it up,” KARR stated.
“Give them a little bit more credit, KARR, they are the older team in this case, and they are the investigative team.”
“They are too goody two shoes,” KARR grumbled.
“They are that,” Danni sighed. “What the…pull off, and camo!”
KARR skidded to the side of the road, and quickly activated his hologram generator. The world outside soon saw a black Trans-Am turn into a burned out heap on the side of the road, that had long ago stopped burning, with no sign of anybody inside.
The object of Danni’s panic passed by at an awesome speed for a red white and blue CJ-7 jeep; the occupants didn’t even notice the heap. It was a common sight for the desert.
Danni watched as they passed by. “They sure responded quickly.”
“It’s a very important piece of equipment to them,” KARR noted.
“Where are Michael and KITT? They should have tagged the car and should be following them,” Danni uttered.
“They are about 5.5 miles back,” KARR stated.
“Oh hell no, they are going to be spotted out there, they will be wide open, and spottable,” Danni groaned.
“They’re hanging too far back, they are going to screw it up,” KARR sighed.
“They are going to have to wait to strike on the rebound,” Danni sighed in return. “Luckily, we gave them the rebound to work with.”
Danni sat back, very displeased in her seat.
Moments later, KITT passed by, completely oblivious to the burned out heap on the side of the highway.
KITT was scanning the area ahead of them.
“Michael, we could have a potential problem, it seems as if they are heading into the Valley of the Gods formation area, and at this distance…any distance, they will be capable of spotting us,” KITT reported.
“Keep us in as long as we can, buddy, and amplify the tracker so we have some general idea of where they are going, I have a feeling that they are in fact reporting in to their helicopter,” Michael noted.
“Once the vehicle is off, we will be able to get audio, if I boost the signal,” KITT stated.
“Do it,” Michael ordered.
“I swear, I could hand that man the world, and he would find some way to make it complicated,” Danni sighed as the junked out car pulled out from the side of the road, and then switched back to a black Trans-am.
The multi-colored Jeep blasted through the sands of the Valley of the Gods monument area, KITT had to come to a screeching halt by the side of the road. If they went in any further, they would be exposed easily.
“All we can do is track them, but there is a lot of lead level interference here, we may have a slight technical difficulty continuing to track them in full, but we will still be able to get audio once they shut the vehicle off,” KITT noted.
“This is a bit of a pain in the butt,” Michael scowled.
“Your rear hurts?” KITT asked.
“Now that you ask, yes, but let’s concentrate on the case,” Michael retorted.
Minutes later, the Jeep was sneaking in to the mountain, where the alarms were going off silently inside, but were washing the whole interior of the mountain with red lights.
“What the hell is going on?” String demanded.
“Heck if I know, but this wasn’t any small little critter,” Dom noted.
String parked the Jeep right in front of the light highlighted helicopter that was lying dormant in the midst of the cave. He shut off the engine.
The moment the engine stopped, a buzz that was filling KITT’s cabin also stopped. The dot was sporadic, and difficult to lock down on the tracking, but the sounds within the cave were coming in loud and clear.
“There are no footprints or tire prints,” String stated.
“There’s nobody here,” Dom noted.
“But somebody had to have been to set the alarm off,” String countered. “Spread out, check everything, I will be doing a diagnostic on The Lady.”
“Ok,” Dom agreed.
Dom broke off from the Jeep, and started to do a walk around tour of the place, as String went straight to the helicopter. He slipped his hand underneath the handle, which read his DNA/Fingerprints, and allowed him admission inside. He hopped into the main pilot’s seat, and looked around.
Dom came running out of the side office, with a slightly pale look. “String, all our camping equipment is gone! All of our supplies, the storage lockers were broken into, and they are all gone!”
String went pale, and his lips flapped slightly as he searched for words.
“Keep looking around, we will go into town, get replacements, and call Archangel, and find out if he knows anything about this,” String demanded.
“Ok!” Dom stated in a slightly higher than normal voice.
“Arch angel?” Michael uttered. “That sounds…different.”
“Who could have broken into their hiding place, to steal their camping equipment?” KITT queried.
“That is a potentially good question, but they are going to afford us with a chance to corner them in town, and force them to bring us back out here. I think we were given a second chance,” Michael noted.
“I am getting strange processes about this, Michael, it’s all a little too convenient,” KITT noted.
“Maybe convenient is good,” Michael said. “After all these cases that we have dealt with, and are continuing to deal with, convenience is actually welcomed.”
“Unless it’s a trap,” KITT noted.
“For what?”
“That, I do not know,” KITT replied.
“The Lady checks out,” String reported, hopping out of the state of the art helicopter.
“The camping supplies are the only thing that is missing,” Dom reported, coming back to the Jeep.
“We need to talk to Archangel,” String scowled as he too got into the Jeep, and started it up.
The hum started up again, and Michael and KITT lost contact with the Jeep.
“We know they are heading back into town. Let’s find the camping supply store, and wait for them to show up,” Michael suggested.
“As you wish, Michael,” KITT noted, as they started up from the side of the road, pulled a U turn, and headed back into town, ahead of their charges.
At the Foundation, Special Agent Rosewell was looking at Devon, extremely displeased. Sounds of the Foundation almost being torn apart could be heard throughout the building.
“I tell you, what there is to see, is here, I do not know what you are talking about when you speak of stolen items,” Devon explained.
“I think you do, Mr. Miles, I think you know where the XK-1000 and XK-2000 are, you were part of that team, and you had to know where it went,” Rosewell said.
“I swear to you, sir, I do not,” Devon stated. “As far as I know, both items went bust, and I do not understand why we are being harassed now, almost a decade after the fact.”
“We are just following our orders, Mr. Miles,” Rosewell stated.
“Well, I hope you and the Bureau are prepared to pay for any damages, I can assure you, those are expensive sounds,” Devon replied, trying to keep as cool of an exterior as he could, despite the fact that inside, he was total turmoil.
Michael sat in KITT across the street from a camping supply store in downtown Pencrow.
“This could be a very large long shot, Michael,” KITT noted.
“It’s the only shot we got, pal. These people are not exactly the type that parade around in public very often, and our private options really stink,” Michael stated.
“Something about all of this just doesn’t feel right,” KITT uttered.
Michael looked slightly amused. “Since when did you start going by inner feeling?”
“Since KARR taught me how,” KITT shot back.
“I think we are going to have to have a talk with April and Bonnie about th…” Michael said, but was cut off, as he perked up in his seat, when he saw two of the men they were looking for, getting out of a CJ-7 Jeep with red, white and blue stars and stripes on it.
KITT popped the two pictures of the two men they had been sent after up on the screen. One was a man about Michael’s age, with a face that had been weathered by hard times. The other was an older gentleman with a very wild look. Both of them were right in front of Michael and KITT, heading for the camping supply store.
“We were right, pal, we got em!” Michael uttered, excitedly.
“Yes, we do.” KITT agreed.
Michael quickly got out of the car, but before he could even shut the door, he was slammed against KITT, face first, and forced to spread his legs.
“What the…?” Michael yelped.
“Michael Knight?” A man asked.
“Who’s asking, and what in the hell are you doing?” Michael spat.
“You are under arrest,” The man stated, coming around, revealing that he was in a trench coat, and typical FBI clothing.
“What?” Michael yelled, once again being forced against KITT, hands splayed out on top. “Under what charge?”
“Receiving stolen government property,” The agent said, frisking Michael. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
Michael scowled, and looked around him, just in time to see the two men discreetly go into the store, choosing not to be interested in what was going on. Michael sighed.
“Danni, there is something happening,” KARR noted.
“What?” Danni asked, as she looked up from the game that she was playing on his screen.
“Michael is being arrested,” KARR uttered.
Danni snapped her head up, and shut off the game, to show KARR’s visual of Michael being arrested, and a tow truck coming in to take KITT away.
“What the f…” Danni uttered. “Get me the Foundation, now!”
“I am trying, but I can’t get through, they are on communications blackout,” KARR replied, calmly.
Danni’s mouth fell open. “What the hell is going on?”
“I wish I could reply, but I do think things have gone remarkably sour.”
Danni and KARR watched as both man and vehicle were hauled away.
String and Dom didn’t even notice as they went on their merry little way.
Devon was taking a stroll outside, to get away from the hell that was going on inside the house, when his jacket started hissing at him.
Devon discreetly walked into the bushes, and pulled the walkie talkie out of his jacket, and pressed the button. “I’m clear.”
Bonnie’s voice filtered through the device. “Devon, I am getting a request from KARR for a report, something has happened.”
Over the same line, another voice filtered through. “Mr. Miles, there is a call coming in for you, via landline, it is from Michael,” Cathy reported.
“Devon, KARR is reporting that Michael has been arrested, and KITT has been taken into impound,” Bonnie added.
“I’m through, but on limited communication, I am getting some information from the semi now, it seems that the Foundation is being investigated,” KARR replied.
“Say what?” Danni asked, her astonishment continuing.
“They are being investigated, the place is crawling with Federal Agents,” KARR stated. “Bonnie is attempting to relay all the information now.”
“Give Danielle permission to utilize any money she needs to in order to get Michael out, Devon ordered. “Then go back into radio silence, see if she can find out what is going on.”
“Understood,” Bonnie noted.
“I am on my way in, Cathy,” Devon stated, as he hid the walkie talkie again, and headed back into the house.
“Talk to me, KARR,” Danni ordered.
“You are going to have to play nicey and bail Michael out, they have opened up the account to us for the money, no limit,” KARR noted. “I think we just walked straight into a trap.
KARR started up, and pulled out. As he did, Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini walked out of the camping store, their arms loaded with their purchases. The same arresting team that had taken Michael down previously tackled them.
“What the heck…?”” Dom sputtered.
“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say cold be used against you in a court of law…” The Agent began to Mirandize.
“What is this about?” String asked.
“Your demons have finally caught up to you,” Another FBI agent growled.
Michael was at the pay phone, his hands cuffed. “Devon, they say they got me on receiving stolen government property. What in the hell are they talking about? I am sitting here at the Pencrow Detention Center, and they won’t even tell me what I stole!”
“Something extremely strange has been going on,” Devon noted. “We have been arguing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation out of Los Angeles over a sudden warrant to search this premises for stolen government property as well.”
“Somebody is trying to run interference, Devon. We’re literally sitting on that chopper and the men who took it,” Michael whispered.
“I will see what I can do, Michael. You should be bailed out momentarily,” Devon said.
“Knight! You’re free to go!” The guard yelled from outside the cell area.
“Call me back when you are out,” Devon stated.
“Thanks, Devon,” Michael said as he hung up.
The guard came up to him.
“Gee, was I on the phone that long?” Michael asked sarcastically.
“Your sister posted preliminary bail on you,” The guard answered, as he escorted Michael out of the call area.
Once they got up front, he saw Danni, looking very innocent in a pink flower print dress. She looked more innocent than a kid at an Easter egg hunt. The government agent was standing nearby.
“We are releasing you into your sister’s custody, but you better not leave town. We are holding the car for evidence,” The agent stated, as the guard gave Michael his stuff back.
“What?” Michael spat.
“Michael…” Danni warned.
Michael looked at Danni, who pulled her sunglasses off revealing blue eyes that went from side to side, telling him to back off.
“A court date will be set up. Your sister has given us the contact information for you,” The agent continued.
“Thank you, Agent Cauldwell, and Sheriff King. I really appreciate you doin’ this,” Danni stated, with a girlish smile.
“No problem, Ms. Knight,” Agent Cauldwell said, smiling warmly at her.
They sent them on their merry way, once they got outside, Michael looked around him.
“What in the hell is going on?” Michael demanded.
“Somebody is turning the tables on us, and I don’t think it’s the Airwolf guys, because somebody is screwing with them too, from beyond anything we could do.” Danni stated.
Michael rubbed his wrists, and looked around.
“Where is KARR?” Michael asked.
“Undercover,” Danni answered, as she led him to a blue sedan.
“What about KITT?”
“We’ll get him later. Right now, we are better off with him in there, and resisting their efforts to get into him,” Danni answered.
“What?!” Michael spat.
“Get in,” Danni ordered.
Danni went around to the driver’s side of the sedan. Michael opened the passenger side, and they both got into the familiar world of KARR.
“How did you get here so fast?” Michael asked, closing the door.
“I’ve been here since about 10 minutes after you got here, I’ve been doing the undercover sneaky thing all this time,” Danni stated.
“What in the hell is going on? When I called Devon, he said that they were fighting off a search warrant,” Michael added.
“Somebody has called in an order to retrieve the stolen XK1000 and XK2000 computers that were stolen from the government in 1978. A man by the name of Richard Jansen has called it in, stating that the Foundation stole the technology from the government, and then reintegrated it into two vehicles,” Danni reported.
“That is ridiculous,” Michael uttered.
“No it’s not, it’s true,” KARR admitted.
“What?” Michael asked.
Danni gestured towards KARR’s dash. “I’d like you to meet the XK1000, now presently known as the Knight Automated Roving Robot. The XK2000…”
“KITT,” Michael sighed.
Danni started up the car. “Yep. And whoever is doing this, knows what they are doing. They tracked KITT down by his frequency. KARR read the scanner searching as we came into town.”
“…And changed my frequency,” KARR added.
“Did you say Richard Jansen?” Michael queried.
“Yeah,” Danni answered.
“That’s the same guy who signed off on the order to track down the helicopter,” Michael noted. “Special Agent Richard Jansen.”
“Something is really wrong here,” Danni observed. “KARR, look up Richard Jansen.”
“Already on it,” KARR stated.
Danni began to pull KARR out of the parking space.
“Wait!” KARR demanded.
Danni slammed on the brakes, stopping before they could get any momentum.
“Look near the entrance,” KARR ordered.
Danni and Michael both looked up and saw that a police car, followed by a tow truck had just entered. The tow truck had a red, white and blue stars and stripes, CJ-7 Jeep attached to it. Danni put KARR in park.
“What the…?” Michael uttered for the thousandth time that day.
“Monitor the police station for any outgoing calls,” Danni ordered.
“Yes, mam,” KARR replied.
The same agent that had arrested Michael came out to greet the newcomers. Another FBI agent who had ducked out of the passenger side of the police car immediately met him. Slowly, they and the cops pulled Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini out of the rear, handcuffed. The tow truck went on to the impound yard.
“I guess our case is over,” Michael commented.
“I think it has just begun,” Danni corrected. “KARR, what was the name of the female cohort…employee of theirs?”
“Caitlin O’Shannessy,” KARR replied.
“Call her up, tell her of the situation, tell her to get down here to bail them out, and to not worry about the bail money, it is covered,” Danni ordered.
“What?!” Michael choked out.
“Doing so now,” KARR responded.
“Michael, don’t you find it the least bit curious that we were sent after these guys who have stolen government property, and then we get nailed for the exact same charge? By the same agent, by the same commanding agent?”
“Well…yes!” Michael sputtered.
“We were sent into a trap,” Danni noted. “And I want to see what these guys may know.”
“That could increase the charges against us,” Michael warned.
“Breathing at this point increases the charges against us. Somebody is out to get us, and I have a feeling that they are out to get them, too,” Danni explained.
“Oh, my,” KARR uttered.
“What?” Danni asked.
“Richard Jansen is the brother of Samuel Jansen,” KARR noted.
“Ok…” Michael said, not quite catching on.
“Doctor Samuel Jansen was one of the cyberneticists who helped create me at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. He was killed getting me out,” KARR explained.
“Keep digging, I am sure you will find an even deeper connection,” Danni said.
“Bail has been set for Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini both at $5,000 each,” KARR informed them.
“Nice and cheap, so they can be tailed,” Danni noted.
“A call is going out from the building, but it is scrambled. As far as I can see, its destination is Los Angeles. I am attempting to unscramble it now,” KARR reported.
“So we have the brother of a deceased cyberneticist who worked on KARR…” Michael tried to summarize.
“And KITT,” KARR added.
“…and he is trying to entrap us?” Michael finished.
“Except…how did he know?” KARR queried. “Nobody knew about our exit from the Laboratories. It was a sealed exit. Jansen’s family was told that he was killed in an armed robbery. As far as the government had been concerned, KITT and I died in the mainframe.”
“Somebody found out,” Danni darkly commented.
“I have contacted Caitlin O'Shannessy, she is on her way,” KARR piped in.
“This is too weird,” Michael muttered. “Is KITT ok?”
“They were able to tow him here, but they are having a very difficult time in their attempts to open him. They are utilizing mediocre techniques. I told him to not cooperate and keep his processors shut, and we would be back for him as soon as we could. He is being held in the garage, not the impound lot, and they have his wheels off the ground,” KARR replied.
“He is what they arrested me for, how are we going to get him out?” Michael asked.
“As soon as we get a few more pieces together, probably the hard way,” Danni answered with a bit of a smile.
“The money has been wired to the police station for the release of Hawke and Santini. The phone call has ended. I have recorded it, and am descrambling it, and Miss O’Shannessy has arrived.” KARR relayed.
“But why them?” Michael uttered.
“KARR and I sort of…got a back door to the NSA computers, and got slightly more detailed information on them. That helicopter is very much KITT and KARR’s cousin. A large part of the equipment within all came from Wilton Knight’s think tank and home base for all computer grandness, also known as Knight Laboratories.” Danni replied.
Danni put the car in reverse and backed out.
“Not to sound like an idiot, but where are we going?” Michael asked.
“Around the corner, to wait for them to get out. If I am right, they aren’t going very far,” Danni stated.
“And if you are wrong?” Michael uttered.
“Then we might have a long trip ahead of us. You might as well relax; you’re going to be my partner for the moment,” Danni informed him.
“I thought I was supposed to be the senior investigator,” Michael mumbled.
Danni smiled as she parked KARR in a nearby doughnut shop. “You gotta share on occasion, and this, is a more lot down my alley.”
“What alley? You don’t even remember what street you used to live on,” Michael commented.
Danni rolled her eyes, as she prepared to strip out of her dress, back into her normal jeans. “Some instincts just come naturally, and others are programmed, I get the best of both worlds.”
Dom and String were sitting in the jail cell where they had been dumped.
“I don’t understand, I thought that we answered that FBI guy’s questions right,” Dom mused.
“I don’t think he was FBI, and I don’t quite think he was there for what he seemed to be there for,” String growled.
“They didn’t even tell us what we were being truly jailed for, String,” Dom complained.
“I think that our demons have finally caught up with us,” String sighed.
“This must be our lucky day, we’re springin’ people fast today,” The guard stated, as he came in, and unlocked the cell door, to let String and Dom out. “Hawke, Santini, you have been bailed out.”
“By who?” Dom asked. “We didn’t even have a chance to call anybody yet!”
“She says she’s your friend, considering what the bail was on your heads, I wouldn’t complain too much,” The guard retorted, as they followed him out.
Caitlin was sitting in the chairs, as the Feds continued to swarm the office, and wouldn’t even look at her. She was clearly nervous and wanted out. String and Dom were brought up front, and were given envelopes with their stuff. She walked up to them.
“That was fast, who called you?” String asked.
“I don’t know, it was just this voice that told me to get down here and bail you out, and that the bail would be taken care of,” Caitlin stated.
“Don’t leave town,” The agent that arrested them said. “We’ll be needing to talk to you.”
String and Dom both looked at him, then saw another two men standing off to the side. One looked like a high power Fed, and the other was a man dressed in all black, he looked sort of like a vampire. String and Dom both turned away, and followed Caitlin out.
“Here they come,” KARR announced.
Danni and Michael looked up, and saw Caitlin escorting the two men to her little sedan. The two men looked very shaken.
“Remember what we were hypothesizing that they had to have some sort of corporate or government attachment to be able to utilize the helicopter, since jet fuel and machine gun ammo is not a normal request that you can get filled at an ordinary gas station?” Danni asked.
“It’s even what narrowed Bonnie’s search, to bring us here,” Michael said.
“I think we are about to find out who the upper level management is. I think these guys are just like us, but they were a little more obvious about their theft, and they can sustain flight,” Danni said, starting the car up.
The Airwolf team pulled out of the parking lot in the sedan, and rushed along the roads. The green Camaro that was now KARR followed along, very discreetly.
“You love this cloak and dagger crap, don’t you?” Michael asked.
“It takes out the middleman of reading it in a book, or watching it on TV,” Danni sarcastically answered.
“Richard Jansen is a former CIA agent with a heavy background in military engineering, in particular, cybernetics. While his brother was working on our project, Jansen was working on Project Airwolf,” KARR reported.
“Son of a…” Michael groaned.
“It gets better,” KARR interrupted. “The majority of the designs have a similar thread buried deep within their copyrights. Two commonalities continue to appear within the copyright blueprints. Samuel Jansen or Wilton Knight.”
Danni and Michael looked at each other, stunned into silence, as the sedan in front of them turned down a street sharply. KARR had no problem continuing to follow them at a discreet distance.
Moments later, after theyhad been driving around the streets for a while, Hawke took one last look back, and then looked out the front, as a nervous Caitlin was continuing to drive.
“I didn’t see anybody, we weren’t followed,” Hawke said.
“Archangel is waiting for us in another alleyway. He is very interested in why this happened,” Caitlin stated. “I called him before leaving the house, to see if he knew what the heck was going on.
“So are we!” Dom exclaimed from the back seat.
“Something is really not right here,” String mumbled.
Caitlin simply turned another corner. KARR lazily followed along on his radar.
“They are heading for an alley, there is a white limo parked inside of it. They had a tracking bug placed on the sedan, while she was inside the station, but I have nullified its signal,” KARR reported.
Danni reached under her seat, and pulled out two weapons. She handed one to Michael, and put the other between her legs.
“I don’t…” Michael tried to protest.
“Just hold onto it for appearance’s sake,” Danni ordered. “We are not going to shoot them up, but I don’t think we want to break in ready to blast them over with our brains.”
Michael frowned, but held on to the shiny black hunk of steel.
Caitlin pulled her car into the alley, behind the white limo that was parked there. The three occupants got out of the sedan, and went to the white limo’s passenger compartment. One driver got out of the limo’s passenger side, and went around to the sedan. He got in it, and drove away, as the three previous occupants folded into the limo, and sat in a line across from the occupant inside; they were facing the rear, he was facing the front.
The limo occupant was a strange creature, dressed in all white with a white eye patch. He was handsome in a darkly mysterious way.
“Michael, what the hell is going on?” Hawke growled.
“I wish I knew,” Archangel replied. “We know that you have some new tails in town, but we didn’t know that they were going to get this frisky.”
“Thanks for bailing us out,” Dom stated, somewhat sarcastically.
“I didn’t bail you out,” Archangel said. “The first we knew of this situation was when Caitlin called, and said that she had gotten some dark, mysterious call that you two had been arrested, and that she was on her way to pick you up. Bail had already been arranged.”
“But then…who?” Dom sputtered.
Just then, the passenger compartment doors flew open on both sides, and Danni and Michael jumped in, weapons drawn, on either side of Archangel.
“Sorry to interrupt, but this isn’t a party we figured we would normally be invited to,” Michael stated.
“What the…” Archangel spat in his typical haughty tone.
“You!” String spat, and looked as if he were ready to kill, after seeing Michael.
The Airwolf team looked outside, and noticed that a blue sedan was parked alongside of them. That sedan was holding a microlock on the limo. Up front, the female driver, Mirella, also wearing all white, was struggling to get out, but was getting nowhere.
“You are the ones that have been following us,” Hawke smoldered.
Danni smiled an evil smile. “You can accredit us with a little more mischief than that, but…yeah, sorry. I am Danielle Knight, is this is my brother Michael, and we are from the…”
“Knight Foundation For Law And Government,” Archangel stated, darkly.
“He said he was from the FBI…” Dom gasped.
Michael shrugged apologetically.
“Yep, and you must be the higher ups that have been keeping this rogue operation going for so long,” Danni observed, the smile disappearing.
“Along with your own base company, Knight Industries,” Archangel coolly replied.
Danni and Michael fought off their surprised looks. Danni looked at him neutrally.
“I am pretty sure that we are on the same side,” Danni stated. “And we are all being set up. Just before you two,” she nodded to Dom and Hawke, “were arrested, my brother here had just been sprung from jail for receiving stolen government property, in the form of our company vehicles. We were ordered after you for the same charge. We believe that both teams are being played with.”
Archangel was silent for a few moments, and then nodded. “I think you are right. The government doesn’t have full possession of the aircraft, but they still have the use of it. Hawke is just holding it in lieu of getting his brother back.”
Danni put her gun away in her belt holster. “We are in the same situation, about to be screwed.”
Michael followed suit, and put his weapon away. “We won’t chase you down. We won’t continue our mission, and we will help you find who has decided to start this witch hunt, if you will help us.”
“Why should we? You probably got us arrested,” Hawke spat.
“I wouldn’t know about that, but we sure got you bailed out,” Danni commented. “Look, whoever has opened this witch hunt on us knows what they are doing.”
“Our vehicles are not ordinary vehicles, just like Airwolf is no regular chopper. They tracked our vehicles down by its operating frequency, which is a very guarded secret. They could very well be looking for Airwolf in the same manner.” Michael noted.
“Seriously?” Dom asked.
“We are down to one car, and the reason why they haven’t found it, is because we changed its operating frequency,” Michael admitted. “We are even cut off from our base.”
There was a period of silence as they all stared each other down. Archangel broke the silence. “I am Michael Cole. Code name: Archangel. This is Caitlin O’Shannessy, Stringfellow Hawke, and Dominic Santini.”
Danni remained fairly stiff, however. “Pleased to meet you all. What do you know of a Richard Jansen?”
Archangel frowned. “He was one of the heads of cybernetics and security on the Airwolf project. He was the one who received the designs from the group of designers, and integrated it into the system.”
“His name is on both of our arrest warrants,” Danni informed them.
“I think he is the head witch hunter,” Michael added.
Archangel shook his head. “But he’s supposed to be dead. He supposedly went on a suicidal drinking binge after his brother, Samuel died. He took his own life two years later with a shotgun blast to the head.”
“He’s the only one who would know both projects in detail,” Danni shrugged.
Hawke scowled. “It wouldn’t be the first time that somebody faked their own death to go deeper undercover.”
“If you do not want them finding Airwolf, I recommend that you go out to it, and change its operating frequency,” Danni suggested. “They are widening their search, and well…” Danni blushed slightly. “That is how we found it.”
“What?” Archangel gasped.
“You found it?” Hawke, Dom and Caitlin all spat at the same time.
Danni cracked a slightly sheepish grin. “Yeah. We were provided a frequency code, and we have stealth scanners.”
“You’re the ones who took our camping supplies!” Hawke growled.
Danni looked guilty. “Yah, we wanted the whole package. We have the stuff in our trunk, sorry about that.”
Michael struggled to keep from looking absolutely surprised.
“We need to get out of here, and get out there,” Hawke urged.
“Do you know how to change the operating frequency?” Caitlin asked.
Dom and Hawke looked at each other, then looked down in guilt.
“I do,” Danni spoke up, drawing all of their attention. “If it is a series KX-2500 processing unit.”
“It is,” Archangel solemnly answered.
“Then I know how,” Danni stated.
“Can you take Caitlin and do it?” Archangel asked.
“Yes,” Danni confirmed.
“What about us?” Dom asked.
“You have to stay in contact distance, as I am sure Mr. Knight does. So I am guessing that we will be reporting to the cabin until Ms. Knight and Caitlin return.” Archangel stated.
“But we just met them…they…” Hawke tried to protest.
“If we wanted to take your toy, we would have left you in jail,” Danni stated firmly. “We need to know who is setting us all up.”
Hawke looked at Danni and Michael with suspicious eyes, and nodded.
“Once you are done, report to Hawke’s cabin. We’ll take your brother up there and wait,” Archangel said.
Danni and Caitlin nodded. Michael nodded to Danni. KARR unlocked the limo door so that Danni and Caitlin could get out. Michael grabbed Danni’s arm, and they shared an unspoken look of caution to each other, before Michael let her go.
Danni and Caitlin went to the sedan parked outside of the limo, and got in. Caitlin sat down, and her mouth dropped, as she saw the plethora of lights, monitors and switches, as well as the dual images of the real and holographic exteriors.
“This car is a real case of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’,” Caitlin gasped.
“Thank you,” KARR spoke up.
Caitlin jumped, as they pulled out of the alley. The lock was fully released, and Mirella jumped out of the driver’s seat, weapon pulled, and went around back. Archangel opened the door.
“Well, you were rather helpful in that situation,” He spat sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t…” Mirella sputtered.
“Never mind,” Archangel waved her off. “Take us to Hawke’s cabin.“
Mirella flashed Michael a look of anger, and then nodded. She went back to her post, started the vehicle up, and pulled out.
“Don’t let the voice deceive you, he doesn’t bite,” Danni commented, as Caitlin sat uneasily in the passenger’s seat.
“Permit me to introduce myself,” KARR stated. “I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot, KARR if you prefer.”
“I…I’m…” Caitlin uttered.
“Caitlin O’Shannessy, it is a pleasure to meet you,” KARR stated.
“Let me guess, he is what you are accused of stealing,” Caitlin guessed.
“And his brother,” Danni admitted. “Who is having to suffer the indignity of impound.”
“Yet you didn’t steal him?” Caitlin asked.
“No, she did not,” KARR answered. “I was taken into possession by my original creator, Ms. Knight’s father. The government wants to possess me.”
“And I thought our story was crazy,” Caitlin uttered.
“Oh, we haven’t even gotten started.” Danni smiled.
Caitlin looked over at the speedometer, and saw it climbing up towards 200 mph.
“Who needs a helicopter when you drive a car that can fly?” Caitlin muttered.
“Oh, but there is more,” Danni stated, not missing a chance to show off. She reached down, and pressed the SPM button. Caitlin watched as the exterior of the car, the holograph, disappeared, and was replaced with the transforming Trans-Am.
She didn’t get to watch a whole lot of the transformation, due to the speed it happened at, and the fact that when it was done, they shot off like a rocket, and Caitlin was pressed into her seat.
It was now dark, as the limo pulled up to a beautiful (even in the darkness) cabin in the mountains near a lake. Michael looked out the window, taking in the sights. They had ridden up to the place in total silence.
“Why did you lie to us?” String asked.
"Because you wouldn’t have been so forthcoming if I had told you that I was from the Foundation For Law and Government, and I was here to investigate you because of your top secret helicopter,” Michael said, very calmly.
“Why you?” Hawke asked.
“I don’t know why me, why us, why now,” Michael answered, turning back to him. “If I did, we’d already have a solution, rather than hiding out and staying where they can find us. Look, I am sorry, I was just doing my job as well as we could do it.”
“It’s pretty obvious that somebody was trying to get all of us lined up for a stoning with only one stone,” Archangel stated. “Maybe now we can get some information from our resources as to what is potentially going on.”
“I hope so, because this is very uncomfortable,” Michael said, as the limo stopped, and Mirella opened the door for them to get out.
“This is Mirella, my assistant,” Archangel introduced. “Mirella, this is Michael Knight.”
“Interesting to meet you, I always like to meet the people who one up me, when nobody gets killed.” Mirella coldly stated.
Michael sheepishly grinned. “Yeah, sorry about that, but we were just trying to do the job as well as we could, and we didn’t think a straight forward approach would do.”
“Well, ya gotta admit, you’re better at the spook game than we are,” Dom stated.
“Not exactly something we are proud of,” Michael admitted, as he took in a lungful of fresh cool mountain air. “It’s amazing up here.”
“It’s even better during the day,” Archangel commented. “Let’s go inside, and see what we can find.”
“I presume that your agents will be staying here, or will you be refreshed by further reinforcements?” Devon asked Rosewell, who was almost sleeping against the wall.
“Our reinforcements should be here within minutes,” Rosewell yawned.
“There is nothing to find, Agent Rosewell, everything we have is absolutely legitimate,” Devon assured him.
“Everybody says that, yet they are not all that surprised when we actually do find something,” Rosewell shot back, stretching.
“Would you like some coffee?” Devon queried.
“No, I have my own, thank you,” Rosewell stated.
“Well, if you would like a good comfortable chair to get some rest in, the conference room provides some very nice comfort,” Devon stated. “ I am going to go to bed, I truly hope that your teams have had enough noisemaking for the night.”
“Why are you acting so nonchalant about this?” Rosewell uttered.
“Because I have nothing to hide, and I know that you are only doing your job,” Devon noted, as he walked by.
Danni pressed the EBS button, and the flaps came out, stopping the Trans-Am
outside of the cave.
“Hooo-weee! That was fun!” Caitlin exclaimed.
Danni smiled as they pulled around to the side of the mountain that harbored a holographic door. Caitlin pulled out a little remote control, and a door in the mountain suddenly appeared.
“Definitely nifty.” Danni approved.
KARR pulled on through into the darkness of the mountain. His headlights pierced the darkness until they came to a patch of light in the center of which, a shiny black and white helicopter stood, at rest.
“It is beautiful,” Danni admitted.
“Nice paint job,” KARR admitted.
They came to a stop, and the women got out of KARR. Caitlin looked back, and saw the black and silver paint job on KARR, as well as his extensions.
“How did you know what processor this thing had?” Caitlin asked, suspiciously.
“On the schematics we were given when we got this case, my…father’s name was on them. Knight Industries is the only company that puts out a multi-dimensional CPU. I am pretty sure that this machine needs a multi-dimensional CPU to operate. I just put all the pieces together, and the KX2500 is the only multi-dimensional CPU that Knight Industries ever put out for external project use,” Danni explained.
“Nice deducing,” Caitlin complimented.
Danni smiled. Caitlin walked up to the pilot’s side door. It acknowledged her fingerprint ID, and opened. Danni smiled again.
“Let me guess, your dad designed that, too,” Caitlin guessed.
“I think that my father’s designs are more part of this helicopter than he was probably ever aware of,” Danni commented.
Danni hopped in, and crawled back to the rear console. Caitlin joined her.
“We are still trying to figure out what half of these things still do,” Caitlin admitted.
Danni chuckled. “You never quite learn it all.”
Danni looked around until she found a panel with a key lock on it beneath the computer console keyboard in the center behind the pilot’s seat.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a key to that, would you?” Danni asked.
“Nope.” Caitlin shook her head.
“Didn’t think so,” Danni mumbled, as he smiled, and reached into her jacket, and pulled out her lock picking tools.
She made easy work of picking open the hatch. Beneath the hatch was a shiny red chip.
“Access the system,” Danni ordered. “And enter in the words command.exe.KX2500.”
Caitlin did as she was told. A whole list of commands appeared on the screen.
“Go down to fixfreq.exe,” Danni added.
Caitlin scrolled down. Danni stuck lock picks on either side of the chip, which created a little sparking sound, and a series of numbers to appear on the screen.
“Is that our frequency?” Caitlin asked.
“That is the operating bandwidth for this system, yes. Now, you will be the only one other than me who will know this. You have to keep it safe from anybody’s eyes, including your friends.” Danni stated.
“Including Dom and Hawke?” Caitlin asked.
“Especially them,” Danni replied.
“Why?”
“Because if this falls into the wrong hands, you fall into the wrong hands. This code is the access to all the frequency modulations on this ship. Hit control F,” Danni explained.
Caitlin did as he was told. The numbers started to fly forward in a scrambling sequence.
“I understand,” Caitlin stated. “I’ve never had this kind of responsibility before.”
“Everybody has their day,” Danni commented. “Hit control C.”
Caitlin tapped in the keystroke, and the code stopped displaying on the screen, returning it to a simple standby prompt. Danni pulled her tools out, and closed the hatch.
“There we go,” Danni announced, as she turned back to the screen, and set the codes to clear it completely.
Mirella closed her laptop in frustration. She was sitting at the table in Hawke’s cabin. Michael and Archangel were sitting in the living room area with Hawke and Dom.
“We’re cut off,” Mirella announced.
“What?” Archangel asked.
“The Firm cut us off. Andrew said that they were being federally searched and that to protect us, he was going to make us dark, and then he did,” Mirella answered.
“Oh that’s just great,” Dom spat in his trademark loud Italian way. “Now we will never get the information we need.”
“Don’t count us out yet,” Michael warned. “There is still one more card we need to try to play.”
“And that is?” Hawke growled. “Aren’t you cut off from your base too for the same reasons?”
“And the fact that we had to change our operations frequency to hide, but there is still one more option open to us that we should still be able to access as soon as my sister gets back,” Michael noted.
“I can see why the Foundation has gotten so big, you never fail not to have a plan,” Archangel commented.
“Not if we can absolutely help it,” Michael admitted.
“What I can’t understand, is why your sister was able to go in and be bailed out, if she is driving the other one of the supposedly stolen cars, then why was the warrant just for you?” String queried.
“I was wondering that myself, the only thing I can think of, is that somebody tracked my vehicle’s signal, saw me, and got an instant warrant on me, seeing as I was nearby, and they couldn’t see her vehicle, or her.” Michael stated.
“And on us?” Dom queried. “And not Caitlin?”
“As far as I can deduce, because they saw me talking to you,” Michael uttered.
“Or they had already gotten a key on you, and not her, because we have files on you,” Archangel answered.
“What?” Mirella asked.
“That security breach, it was for two files, and two files only, theirs,” Archangel answered.
“Security breach?” String asked.
“Three days ago, our main database was hacked into, we were able to lock them out, but not before two files were looked into, your files, Mr. Hawke, and Mr. Santini,” Mirella answered.
“And nobody told us?” Dom spat.
“We didn’t think it was an issue,” Mirella coldly replied.
“Are you sure that it wasn’t them?” String asked, nodding to Michael, who was looking quite uneasy.
“It couldn’t have been us,” Michael noted. “We didn’t get the case until this…yesterday morning.”
Dawn began to break over the mountains, casting an eerie light over the beautiful vistas.
KARR pulled up alongside the limo, back in his normal style, and back under holographic cover, this time, they were a black limo. Danni looked around at the mountainside lake and the picturesque cabin.
“Wow, this place is beautiful.” Danni gasped.
“It is, isn’t it?” Caitlin drawled. “It’s Hawke’s getaway.”
“I’d want to get away here, too,” Danni uttered.
The two women got out of the car, immediately the rest of the team went to the door of the cabin, and came out.
“All taken care of?” Dom asked.
“She is amazing!” Caitlin spouted. “She had it taken care of in no time!”
“And we returned your camping supplies, too,” Danni humbly stated.
“They’re cut off from home. Same excuse as us,” Michael declared.
“Somebody sure if getting hot and heavy about bringing the hammer down,” Danni noted.
“Somebody wants to keep us on the run and blind,” Archangel agreed.
“They hope we will make more mistakes that way,” Danni said.
“I think we have one more option, don’t we?” Michael asked.
“The Geosync Orbital Satellite?” Danni replied.
“Yep,” Michael said with an impish grin.
“Let’s hope that wasn’t considered stolen property too,” Danni shrugged. “It can’t hurt to try.”
“Uh…the Geosync Orbital Satellite?” Dom asked.
“It’s our communications satellite owned by Knight Industries. It is meant to be our global positioning system, and constant relay center when we are away from home.” Danni answered as the group moved over to KARR. “It operates on a rotating frequency in order to keep from interfering with the telecommunications satellites and the defense satellites. It’s virtually untraceable.”
“They have all the toys,” Caitlin giggled.
“Why are you doing this?” Hawke groused. “You may not be guilty of the crime being brought against you, but we are. We did steal Airwolf from the government.”
“String…” Dom tried to calm him down.
Michael and Danni both slipped into the vehicle.
“We’re probably not all that innocent of what is being thrown at us, either, but I think that for all the good that you and we have done, that we deserve a little leeway. Somebody knows our secrets, and we don’t like it when we are set up,” Danni replied.
“We were sent on this case to bust you, but somebody was setting us up to be in a vulnerable position as well. That pisses us off.” Michael added.
“You are more government associated than we are, yet suddenly now they are demanding repossession of their property? When you are still proving beneficial in your function?” Danni queried.
“Yeah, we did look through your files, once we managed to gain access. We probably know more about you than you know about you,” Michael added, when he saw the other team’s surprised looks.
“We work for truth, justice and what is right. And we don’t think that it is right that either of us is being taken out of the game by some unknown, unproven faction,” Danni continued.
“The moment that they took it to us, is the moment that we decided that we were on the wrong side of this, and that we needed to be on the right side,” Michael agreed.
“And that is why we are doing this. KARR, get us a link to the Foundation via Geosync Orbital Satellite,” Danni ordered.
“Right away,” KARR replied.
Everybody except Caitlin jumped.
“What…?” Hawke grumbled.
“I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot, KARR if you prefer, I am the artificial intelligence unit of this vehicle,” KARR stated, saving time. “Connection established on our end, waiting for receipt at the FLAG base.”
“Wilton Knight’s supercar,” Archangel whispered under his breath.
Bonnie and the semi were parked down at the beach parking lot, obviously trying to hide. Bonnie came from the back room to the communications center from where she had obviously been sleeping.. She saw the Geosync Orbital Satellite prompt, and smiled. She tapped in the acceptance code, then picked up the walkie talkie.
“Devon, the back door is open,” Bonnie said into the walkie talkie.
In his bedroom, the somewhat unnerved Devon was reaching for his walkie talkie, and heading out for a walk in the exterior grounds in the dawn emergent light. He was still in his suit, though it was not perfectly pressed, but pretty rumpled up.
Once he was outside…
“Put the welcome mat down,” Devon ordered.
Bonnie nodded, and taped the send button down on her unit, as the video on the message came through on her screen.
“I knew that you would figure out someway around the conventional RCS. I have Devon on audio line,” Bonnie stated to the two faces that appeared in front of her.
“Sounds like things are pretty bad over there,” Michael commented.
“They are trying to do a search and seizure of everything related to KITT and KARR that they can find. I am sitting off the grounds, hiding the mobile unit,” Bonnie reported.
“The standard RCS, and the regular phone are being watched,” Devon added.
“But they still can’t do anything about Geosync Orbital Satellite,” Danni stated.
“They can not do anything about what they can not see,” Devon said.
“What’s your status?” Bonnie chimed in.
“I’m out on bail, we are concealing KARR, I am not supposed to get out of touch with the town, and KITT is still in impound,” Michael reported.
“Locked down, and inaccessible,” KARR added. They traced him by his operating frequency. They were looking specifically for us. I had my frequency changed.”
“We are also presently in the company of the Airwolf team,” Danni added.
Devon stopped, and did a double take. “Pardon?”
“Devon, they are more government affiliated than we are. We got into their controller files and retraced their case files. They are us. And they are a lot closer to Uncle Sam than we are,” Danni explained.
“Another case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing?” Devon asked.
Danni shook her head. “A case of somebody trying to get their piece of the pie.”
“How the hell could they have known about KITT and KARR’s operating frequency?” Bonnie broke in.
“Only certain people know…” Devon uttered.
“Like Dr. Samuel Jansen’s brother, Richard?” Danni interrupted.
Devon stopped once again near the pool, and paled.
“What?” Devon gasped.
“You may want to look a little closer at who assigned the case to FLAG,” Michael suggested. “And then take a look at our arrest and harassment warrants.”
“And the search warrants for Knight Industries and FLAG,” Bonnie added, slightly shocked.
“And the search warrants for the Firm, the controllers of the Airwolf project,” Danni continued.
“He’s supposed to be dead,” Devon uttered.
“So are we, but when has that stopped us?” Danni shot back.
“Devon, we went into this on the wrong side to start with, and we fell right into somebody’s trap,” Michael stated.
An audible sigh came over the walkie talkie.
Devon leaned up against a shrub, looking highly distressed.
“I will dig further into the files, if it can be pinned on one man, we might be able to call off the hounds on both teams.” Bonnie announced.
“Does this mean that if we can call off the hounds from the government, that we can call off the hounds that are known as us, on Airwolf?” Danni asked.
“Only if you can prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are not a danger to national security,” Devon answered.
“I think we can prove that they are a benefit,” Michael noted.
“As soon as we get more information, we will relay it to KARR and keep us informed. I presume that you are planning to spring KITT?” Devon queried.
“Just as soon as night falls,” Danni admitted.
“You’ll make it look as if he isn’t stolen?” Devon pushed further.
“Of course. We’re not amateurs you know, Devon,” Michael chided.
“Be careful,” Devon replied, seriously enough that Danni and Michael had no problem visualizing his serious look.
“You got it,” Michael said. You too. Somebody has our deepest darkest secrets, and somehow I have a feeling that he’s not just out to obtain some new toys.”
“I am most certainly seeing that now,” Devon admitted.
“Now that we know which direction to start looking in, we’ll be able to get after this problem right away,” Bonnie reassured them.
“That’s what we are counting on,” Danni noted. “Be careful.”
“You too,” Bonnie stated.
“Geosync Orbital Satellite disconnect,” Danni stated.
“So that’s it? We’re basically still on our own?” Caitlin sputtered.
“Until we can somehow get our names cleared, yeah,” Danni said. “The best we can do until they get more information is to keep our hides covered.”
“And get our car out of their clutches,” Michael added.
That night, Danni, Michael and Stringfellow Hawke, (all dressed in black), were working to blend in with the shadows around the police impound, working to stay out of the occasional security light. Night had solidly fallen on a moonless night, which served the team’s purposes well. They had spent the previous four hours making sure that they couldn’t track or trace Michael, String or Dom, and then had come up with the particular plan that they were striving to execute.
Inside the impound garage, the efforts to break into KITT had ceased. Diamond drill bits lay scattered on the floor, bent and ground down in their defeat against the Molecular Bonded Shell. In the nearby trashcan, the remnants of power tools that had valiantly given their life, lay heaped, covered in foam to prevent their overheated motors from catching fire.
“Four men, all dressed like FBI agents stood around, looking at the impenetrable car, as a carrier truck backed up towards KITT. One of the ‘agents’ looked too calm and collected, even for a Fed. He stood watching the whole thing off to the side. This was the mysterious Richard Jansen, who was supposed to be dead, but rather obviously, was very much alive.
The flatbed carrier came to a stop, and the other members stepped in to put straps around KITT, to be able to drag him aboard the truck.
Back at the lair, Dom and Caitlin waited patiently inside Airwolf, as the back up to the team that was trying to become one with the night to get to KITT. They were suited up and on standby, in silence, just staring at the monitors, as they flashed their readings by.
KARR was waiting nearby in the bushes outside the impound yard, his black exterior easily blending in with the night, and his silver being shielded by the bushes. He had a perfect view of what was going on, both with his own scanners, as well as that of his brother’s.
An ear splitting screech resounded from the garage, stopping the shadow team in their tracks.
“What in the hell was that?” String hissed.
KARR replied via commlink. “That was KITT, pulling a carrier truck backwards, that was attempting to winch him on board.
KARR opened up the communication to KITT.
“KITT, it’s me, KARR. We are presently outside the complex, preparing to get you out, are you all right?” KARR asked in a hushed tone.
“Yes, it seems that they have given up their attempts to open me up, at least here, and have proceeded to arrange for a transport to an undisclosed location, as ordered by somebody over a secured telephone line,” KITT replied, in an equally hushed tone.
The team remained huddled in a dark corner, listening to the quieted conversation through Danni’s commlink.
“I’ll bet they weren’t planning to tell anybody, either,” Danni whispered.
“I was just postulating a hypothesis, that if they do take me out of here, that they could be leading me to the person who is behind this,” KITT uttered.
“If we track his homing signal, they could lead us right to the problem,” Michael whispered.
“I can keep my homing signal subtle, so as to not be traced, and potentially, you could track me right to the source of this problem,” KITT continued.
“Between your other car and Airwolf, we could,” String added in a hushed tone.
Danni looked at the other two men, who both nodded their consent. Danni held up a thumbs-up to the commlink.
“Let them take you, KITT, we will follow right behind you,” KARR relayed. “Good luck.”
“The same to you,” KITT replied.
KITT activated his anharmonic synthesizer to create a ‘thunk’, just as the carrier truck’s winch tried again after the smoke had cleared from the previous attempt. Anybody could distinctly see where the carrier truck’s tires had left their mark, as it’s own momentum dragged it backwards. KITT easily rolled up the ramp assisted by the winch, and in some part, his auto drive system.
“We must have just popped a pin on the transmission,” Martinez, the mechanic flunky noted.
“We’ll deal with it later, for now, we need to get this thing out to Cretu,” Jansen noted.
KITT illuminated his homing signal button, then self adjusted the frequency, as seen on his side monitor, via a flashing of numbers.
String, Michael and Danni had reversed their route back to KARR, trying to remain as unnoticed as before.
“I have his frequency code, we should be able to track him ten miles away in any direction,” KARR noted.
“We need to send the code to Airwolf. Ten miles on land, if you are in the desert, could be a problem,” Danni observed.
The three of them managed to make it back to KARR, and got inside. Michael climbed into the rear, as String sat up front.
“Not a problem for Airwolf, it can go into silent mode,” String noted.
“Well, it’s nice to know that cars aren’t the only ones who get muzzled,” KARR dryly noted.
“KARR,” String spoke up, holding a walkie-talkie. “Can you hone in on this communicator frequency?”
“Of course, that is actually quite a menial task. It is done. Would you like to speak to your team?” KARR replied.
String was caught slightly off guard. “Er…yes please.”
The communicator chime sounded off in Airwolf. Caitlin tapped in the code to accept the transmission on her computer.
“You got us loud and clear, String,” Caitlin answered.
“Change of plans,” String’s voice filtered through the cabin. “It seems that a higher source has decided to move their car to another location, potentially closer to them. The car has a homing device, and is going to allow us to track it. We are sending you the frequency now.”
Danni tapped a button over her head.
A tone sounded off, and a number appeared on Caitlin’s screen.
“We can’t get any more than 10 miles away from it,” String noted. “We will track it as far as we can down here, but we may need air support.”
“You got it, we’re getting’ airborne now,” Dom reported.
Dom reached forward and pressed the two start buttons beneath the two glass doors on the front panel. He and Caitlin donned the two specialty helmets, as the propellers whipped through the air with increasing speed. Momentarily, they were cutting through the air at full speed.
Dom pulled back on the throttle, and the graceful, two-toned helicopter ascended out of its cave lair. The helicopter was not much more than a speck, as it shot out of the mouth of a former volcanic vent, one of many in the Valley of the Gods. It then proceeded forward, blending in with the darkness of the night.
Danni, String and Michael watched as the carrier came out, a tarped lump on the back of it, that was obviously KITT, as you could see from the occasional cling of the tarp to the body of the vehicle.
Danni began to press buttons, starting with KARR’s silent mode. She then continued on to press the HOLO button. The view on the secondary screen switched to show the entrance screen for the holographic system. Danni began to type on the mini keyboard from the side console.
The truck pulled out of the gates. On the primary screen, KARR pulled up the diagrams of the streets, with a flashing red dot representing KITT on it.
“We need to follow them at a 6 to 9 mile radius. I have set the holo system to change projections every 15 miles, or when the conditions are otherwise right.” Danni reported.
Michael fell back into the back seat, stretching out. “I can’t believe that KITT offered to do this. He was so upset the last time I used him to find the end result, he whined at Bonnie for days, and she bitched me out for weeks.”
“Maybe he has found his guts,” KARR said, quietly.
Danni started KARR up, and they pulled out from their bush-hiding place, not as a Trans-Am, but as a Ford Escort, blue in color. It’s headlights were on, but there was absolutely no sound as it moved on out onto the road to track KITT.
Back at the Foundation, the extremely worn out Rosewell approached Devon with a very discouraged look on his face.
“Mr. Miles, we would like to apologize for the inconvenience we have put you through up to this point,” Rosewell begrudgingly stated.
“Didn’t find anything, did you?” Devon replied, very nicely, as he sat behind his desk.
“We did not find any evidence of what we were looking for, but we will continue to search Knight Industries other assets, seemingly in order to clear your name,” Rosewell stated.
“Who sent you on this?” Devon asked.
“What do you mean?” Rosewell asked.
“It has been close to a decade since the supposed thefts occurred, who sent you, and why now?” Devon queried.
“Senior Agent Richard Jansen supposedly came up with some new leads, he is a highly respected agent from the Technology sector of the Bureau,” Rosewell answered.
“What new leads? Or did he even bother to share that with you?” Devon asked.
“No, but seemingly they were incorrect,” Rosewell admitted. “Please send us an itemized bill for any damages we may have incurred….”
“No, but you can do one thing, you can check into the past of this particular agent, if he is who I think he is, this whole investigation is illegal, since he is related to somebody who was involved in this matter in the first place, and in particular, he lost his brother to the initial supposed incident,” Devon replied.
Rosewell looked at him, intrigued.
Airwolf flew high, so that it was a general spec in the air. Due their being up in the air, their tracking abilities of KITT were capable of much further distances. Dawn had begun to break, casting an eerie hue on the white portion of the helicopter, but it, too, was completely silent as it hovered over the carrier truck below.
“Their technology and ours seem to work well together,” Caitlin noted. “The signals are coming in loud and clear, even though it is masked from virtually every other frequency.”
“That would be because most of our equipment IS their equipment,” Dom chuckled.
Caitlin smiled. “True.”
The carrier was out on a highway, where there were a few other cars. They had left the town several miles previous. 9 miles back, was a 70’s model Silver Cadillac, driving along with no sound.
“Where the hell are we going?” Michael mumbled.
“It looks like we are heading towards the open desert, towards Death Valley or Dry Gulch,” KARR answered.
“There are a few bunkers out here, as well as an underground complex, as well as a deserted military complex, that have all been deserted,” Hawke noted.
“There used to be the old nuclear testing grounds, too,” Danni stated.
“I hope that your team can keep right on top of them, if they go underground, we could be in trouble,” KARR noted.
“Lead,” Michael added.
“Correct,” KARR noted.
“That is our Achilles heel as well, but they will be able to see where they go in,” Hawke nodded.
“They just turned,” KARR reported.
Danni, Michael and Hawke all looked at the road ahead of them, and to the side. They then quickly looked at the map readouts on the screen.
“There’s…” Michael uttered.
Up in Airwolf, Dom and Caitlin were watching in total confusion as the truck turned off the road into the pure desert. It was thrashing thorough the tumbleweeds, cactus, and sand, creating its own road.
“…..no road!” Caitlin and Dom both finished exclaiming.
Danni slowed KARR down, as the truck piled through the desert sand, kicking up a storm of sand. Michael’s hand shot forward over Danni’s head to tap a few buttons.
“KARR, can you triangulate where they are heading?” Michael asked.
KARR’s map seeker started to click off map grids as he tried to triangulate where the truck was heading.
Underneath the tarp, KITT was being bumped around a bit, held down by the support straps of the tow truck. KITT risked an outside scan to the exterior, and saw the truck bashing its way through the actual desert, rather than a road.
“Heathens,” KITT mumbled.
“The truck is heading straight for the abandoned, or listed as such, Dry Gulch Preparation Facility. It directly crosses their present course, they would have to turn sharply, and there are ditches to either side on that particular route if they do not return to the road,” KARR reported.
Up in the helicopter, they were able to see the building up ahead.
“They gotta be goin’ there,” Dom commented.
“According to our databases, that is the former Dry Gulch Preparation Facility. It should be abandoned,” Caitlin reported.
“We got a deeper look on it?” Dom asked.
“Yes, it is a 100,000 square foot facility, 3 stories, two of which are underground. It is full of full sized garage facilities, all lead lined for nuclear containment,” Caitlin read off.
“Thatta could be a problem,” Dom sighed.
“A big problem,” Caitlin agreed. “String is contacting us.
She tapped in a code on her computer.
“You see where they are going?” String asked via the comm. line.
“We sure do,” Dom answered. “And it’s a nice secure fort. The road to it has long ago disintegrated.”
KARR had pulled over to the side of the road, and had to come to a stop, this time, he was a tan-colored sedan, about the same color as the surrounding desert.
“If KARR follows them, we will stick out like a sore thumb,” String commented.
“We can follow them right up to the complex, but once they go inside, we got problems, the whole facility is lead lined for nuclear containment,” Caitlin stated, not knowing that she had just repeated what had already been said on the ground.
“Get the visual, then come pick me up, we may have to do things the hard way,” String commented.
“You got it,” Dom replied.
Hawke turned back to Danni and Michael, as KARR muted their end of the conversation.
“I will hold Airwolf in a hover, maybe between the two sensor systems, we will be able to amplify our chances,” String stated.
“It’s worth a try. Once KITT is off the truck, we should be able to storm the place, and he will be able to give us at least a general idea of what we could be looking at,” Michael said.
“We’ll have to storm blind, but we have no other true choice. Once KITT is inside, we will have a limited window. If this person is as strong as he seems to be, he will be able to pop KITT wide open in no time. There is a way to compromise the Molecular Bonded Shell.” Danni reported.
“We’ll get him back, and we will hit them hard,” Hawke promised.
“If they’re dead, they won’t be able to continue to press charges,” KARR added, darkly.
High above, Airwolf waited as the truck freely barged down the desert, to come out on the last remaining portion of the road that did in fact lead to the facility, and it came to a stop in front of the building.
Caitlin’s fingers flew over the keyboard, as she got every scan she could from the building. She suddenly frowned, but her fingers kept going.
“What the…” Caitlin uttered.
“Don’t do that! That’s worse than oops!” Dom complained.
“Dom, I am picking up strange readings from what seems to be a small aircraft hangar behind the building, made to house small craft,” Caitlin reported.
“What kind of strange readings?” Dom queried.
“It seems like an echo, but much stronger, of Airwolf’s primary operating signal,” Caitlin answered.
KARR’s screen lit up with a new visual, slightly red tinted in color.
“KITT is transmitting, that is what he is seeing now,” KARR explained.
They were still hearing the air traffic from Airwolf as well within KARR.
“You mean somthin’ else is here that is operatin’ on Airwolf’s operating signal?” Dom asked in horror.
“Actually, it’s former operating signal,” Caitlin answered. “Before we changed it.”
One of the massive garage doors opened, and the truck began to pull inside. In KARR, they began to see what Caitlin had been detecting. String scrunched over to see what was in the building. A gasp escaped from his mouth.
KITT’s scanners began to flutter, and show that they were encountering interference, but they were still clear enough to see a red and black version of Airwolf inside.”
“That’s…” Michael blurted.
“Redwolf,” Hawke replied. “The secondary prototype of Airwolf. It was supposed to have been destroyed.”
“The world just likes evil twins, don’t they?” KARR dryly asked.
The garage door closed, and even more interference threatened to cut KITT off from them.
“We’re going to lose him soon,” Danni observed.
“Not completely,” KARR noted. “His CPU is still capable of sending out a traceable frequency, that they can not block completely. He’s sending video data through bit messages. Not exactly efficient, but still a method of communication.”
“Slow, but it’s better than nothing,” Danni commented.
“String, we’re comin over to pick you up,” Dom stated, sounding slightly ill.
“Look for a tan colored sedan approximately three miles from the building on the road,” KARR stated.
“We gotcha. We got some interestin’ readings to show you,” Dom said.
“I think we already know,” String whispered.
A slight wind kicked up overhead, moving the dry weeds, and a bit of sand. String looked at Danni and Michael, and managed a weak smile.
“Good luck, see you at the end,” Hawke nodded.
“You got it,” Michael and Danni both stated at the same time.
A cable appeared out of what seemed to be nowhere, right in front of KARR’s hood. If one had looked out KARR’s windshield, straight up into the sky, they would have seen the black and white helicopter attached to the rope, hovering several feet overhead, so as not to disturb the surrounding scenery that much. String caught the cable, strapped himself in, and was reeled on up.
Michael climbed back into the passenger seat, and looked at Danni.
“How the hell are we going to storm a solid concrete, steel and lead fortress?” Michael asked.
“With a smile?” Danni sarcastically asked back.
“I can do it,” KARR uttered. “Just as long as I am not in Super Pursuit Mode when we do.”
Inside the cockpit of Airwolf, Dom had moved to the co-pilot’s chair, while String settled in to the pilot’s seat, putting his helmet on.
“We are picking up some strange readings from that garage, they look like a frequency echo of Airwolf’s former operating frequency,” Caitlin reported.
“Before the doors were shut, their other car was capable of sending back video. They are now cut down to limited contact. But what we saw in that garage wasn’t comforting,” Hawke said, ominously.
“Don’t keep us in suspense, String, tell!’ Dom spat.
“Redwolf,” String replied.
“WHAT?” Dom sputtered.
“It was supposed to have been destroyed long ago!” Caitlin uttered.
“Looks like it came back for a return visit in the hands of whomever is behind of all of this. That has to go far over the top of Jansen’s authority,” String sighed.
“So what do we do now?” Dom asked.
“Right now, we work with KARR to enhance our scanning strength, and keep getting as much interior data as we can from KITT to get a better idea of what we are facing. But you do know that if that chopper gets in the air, we’ve got a helluva fight on our hands,” Hawke warned.
“That’s no kiddin,” Dom noted.
“Especially if they have enhanced it in anyway,” Caitlin noted.
“That may be why they wanted this one back, they may not be totally clear on all of its systems, or at least that is what I'm hoping for,” String said.
The truck came to a stop deep within the labyrinths of the complex, it had pulled into a bright room, obviously a laboratory, full of computers and tools, it looked like a chaotic version of his own home garage back at the Foundation. They wasted no time in releasing him from the straps. He recorded and took in everything he possibly could. They dragged him off of the ramp, though he did roll off partially of his own volition.
He had managed to control his scanner so that it looked like it was swishing like it normally did, rather than at a rapid pace, to indicate to all those around him as to what he was doing. With his scanner sweeps, he was gathering all the information he could get, and was tapping into the internal security systems. KITT’s multi-tasking was also relaying bits of information of what he was seeing, to KARR.
Jansen stood watching, preparing tools and people for a full on assault on KITT to try to get him open. The other man, who had control, a man who was even darker then Jansen, a man who gave absolutely no indication that he had a nice streak anywhere within his body, stepped up next to Jansen, and looked at KITT with his dark, black eyes. A slight upturn of his left lip was the entire smile the man could allow on his cold, hard, chiseled face.
“So, when will you have access to the car? You know the Knight ninnies won’t be out of commission for long, and they will come looking,” The man said, in a dark, yet chiding voice.
“Once we get started, the neutralization will take an hour, after that, it should be minutes until we gain full access,” Jansen replied.
“We’ll be able to destroy the other car with him?” The man asked.
“Between him and your other vehicle, it should be no problem,” Jansen replied.
A labrat stepped up to the two men. “The serum is ready, sir.”
KITT didn’t screw around this time, he reached out and tapped into the underground labs’ telephone system.
The phone rang in KARR, a strange sound, one that Danni and Michael didn’t quite recognize at first.
“It’s the telephone,” KARR sarcastically noted, as Danni and Michael heard a ‘click’. “Hello?”
“It’s me, KITT,” KITT whispered. “I tapped into the laboratory’s phones. I do not know how much longer I can hold out, they have managed to concoct a neutralizer for the Molecular Bonded Shell, and are preparing to use it. They want to get control of me to use me to kill you, KARR, using me and their other helicopter that we saw as I was brought in.”
“We already got the number of people inside, how armed are they?” Michael asked.
“Very,” KITT answered. “The entire area is also double lined in lead, with reinforced concrete exterior walls.”
“I can handle it,” KARR noted again.
A person ran up to the other man, and whispered in his ear. KITT was unable to make out what had been said. The dark man just looked at the messenger and nodded, a look of power sweeping onto his features.
“It’s time for you to create a heck of a distraction, KITT. Do a lot of damage, and try to get out. Avoid getting that neutralizer stuff on you, we’re coming to the rescue,” Michael instructed.
“Understood, I shall see you on the inside,” KITT stoically said.
“Good luck,” KARR wished.
“Thank you,” KITT replied, as he disconnected.
Michael quickly tapped another button over Danni’s head.
“This is Airwolf, you’re coming in loud and clear,” Caitlin’s voice filtered over the comm. system.
“We gotta move, they’re about to break through the car’s protection. We need you to open a door for us, first,” Michael stated.
“You got it,” String replied.
Suggested Listening: “How Soon Is Now” by The Smiths
KARR started up, and began to shed his hologram image, as he turned to the side, and began to blaze another road across the desert, picking up immense speed.
KITT took the opportunity to quickly take control of himself. He started up, and shifted into reverse, and getting away from the labrat, who was about to add his solution to KITT’s door. KITT swung his prow around, just enough to knock the man off balance, and sending both the man and the substance falling to the floor. KITT slammed into a mobile computer set-up, obliterating it.
“Uh-oh…” Jansen uttered.
“Stop him,” The mystery man ordered.
KITT pulled around, and charged for the garage door. Jansen pulled out a weapon, and aimed it at KITT. He shot off a round; an orange laser with an eerie white glow. KITT swung to the side, and it missed him, hitting the panel of computers to the side, and completely disabling them.
“That is a problem,” KITT noted.
KITT sped forth, and began to totally destroy the lab, crashing into everything he could, sending people flying everywhere. The mysterious man fled. Jansen lined up another shot.
KARR was a black torpedo, heading directly for the building. Overhead, Airwolf was hovering, waiting for the car to get closer, and lining up the shot. String picked the wall that KARR was heading straight for, and was getting it locked in his cross hairs.
Danni reached under her seat, and pulled out her spare weapon again, and handed it to Michael. Michael took it without hesitation this time, as the wall loomed closer and closer.
Jansen took his shot, and hit KITT squarely on the door. KITT didn’t stop as he destroyed a tool cart, but for just a moment, every system within him went nuts, then off, before he fought back, and reset his systems to normal on the fly.
“Not good!’ KITT uttered.
Airwolf locked on the outer wall on its crosshairs. String pressed the red button on his controller stick, and a missile tore out of the helicopter; a blur of metal and deadly intent focused on disintegrating a wall.
With a ball of fire, and an earth-shattering explosion, the missile turned a large part of the wall into dust, leaving a wide-open gateway for KARR to drive into.
Unfortunately, while the Airwolf team was focusing their concentration on beating the dust out of a wall, they didn’t notice that they had been joined in the air.
A proximity airspace alert sounded off from Caitlin’s wall of computers, as the visual of what was now out of invade their airspace was now appearing on her monitor.
“Uh-oh…” Caitlin uttered.
KARR disappeared into the wall of dust, turbo boosting over the small nub of cement that had been left. Guards came out, shooting at KARR as he rampaged through. He began to do doughnuts in the wide-open garage area. Danni pressed the smoke screen button; KARR began expelling thick white smoke out of his rear jets. They also knocked a few guards away with his back end.
KITT headed straight for Jansen, who took aim with his little weapon once again, but then decided to rethink his action, and took off running up the stairs, where KITT couldn’t reach him. The other technicians and guards were fleeing as well, as they could now hear the commotion upstairs.
“How the hell did it get into the air without us noticing it?” String sputtered.
“We were all concentrating on opening a door for the other team to get in through, it had to have gone out the back way,” Caitlin noted.
The red and black version of Airwolf struck out with its laser, missing Airwolf’s nose. String set his jaw.
“Give me all we got,” String ordered.
“Laser is online and charged now,” Caitlin noted.
Dom tapped the button; String took a shot, and barely missed the upper portion of the propeller as Redwolf took off, starting a deadly game of tag.
Michael and Danni got out of the vehicle, as the guards and others were running around in a flurry of confusion. Both were armed, and both were on a mission to clear the compound, and find their main target; Jansen.
KITT now found himself alone, with the sounds of machine gun fire and screeching tires overhead. He decided that the best route out was up, rather than through a solid cement and lead door, from which he had originally came through. He most certainly wanted out of that particular little hovel. He calculated his trajectory guide, and set his angle for escape.
Danni and Michael both ran into confused and disoriented guards and workpeople in the smoke. Before any of them could get their bearings, Danni and Michael laid them out with solidly connected punches. Both would step over their unconscious guards, and went on their way through the cement-laden catacombs.
Redwolf ducked through a sand canyon, kicking up a flurry of sand as it blew through. Airwolf hovered overhead; trying to lock onto a target they could barely see. They fired a missile, but it missed, exploding in the sand, kicking up an even larger sand plume of sand. Redwolf zoomed out of the canyon in a hammerhead stall, and went up over Airwolf to end up behind them. It shot its machine gun rounds at Airwolf’s rear, striking the rear tail twice before String countered, and threw Airwolf into a side jerk out of the way. Alarms blared through the cabin.
“We’ve been hit!” Dom stated the obvious.
“Minor damage to the rear tail shell, no major systems hit, but one of our intakes is taking in some serious sand,” Caitlin reported.
“I’ll get us higher, kick up their cycle speed to blow them out,” String ordered.
“I gotcha,” Caitlin confirmed.
Airwolf quickly headed upswards to a higher altitude. Redwolf was hot on its tail, still trying to shoot at it.
KARR was chasing guards out of the building like a rabid pit bull seeking out its prey, until the guards ran off screaming like babies. Suddenly, there was a rumble of jet fire from below, and then the ground buckled, separated by the prow of KITT, as it shattered the floor. KITT flew out, and landed hard on the floor beyond the hole he had just created.
“Glad you decided to join me,” KARR noted.
“Glad that I could,” KITT noted. “Keep your scanners open for Jansen, he has a weapon that can disrupt our systems, and he is only slightly afraid to use it.”
As KITT was giving his warning, he was chasing another guard out of the building.
The engines of Airwolf kicked into a much higher pitched whine as they gained altitude. Redwolf was still hot on their tail, trying to tag them its laser again, this time, barely missing Airwolf’s rear rotor.
“He seems to have a real attachment to our rear,” Dom commented.
“Maybe a bit of a starburst will give him something else to think about,” String noted.
String tapped the button, and tapped his fire button. The rear flapped open, and dropped a ball of light out right into the windshield of the pursuing helicopter. Redwolf had to veer off.
Jansen reached the back area and found a black sedan taking out of the garage area, across the desert.
“Son of a…” Jansen exclaimed.
He ran to one of the other cars that was parked in the rear garage, but found that it was dead, as he turned the key. He looked to the side, and saw a pile of distributor caps tossed onto the floor. He roared with fury as he got out of the car. Danni appeared at the door, aiming her gun at his head.
“Jansen, don’t move!” Danni warned.
He growled, and shot his strange weapon at her. The ball of light hit her square on the chest, knocking her back in a jolt of convulsions. At the same time as she hit the ground, her finger managed to pull the trigger on her gun, and a bullet ripped through his arm, as she fell to the ground, paralyzed as her own systems reset themselves, but slowly.
Jansen ran, holding his bleeding arm, and jumped right over her to get out.
Redwolf curved around and took another shot at Airwolf with a missile. String hit the starburst again, and veered Airwolf out of the way, and pulled their own hammerhead stall to end up behind Redwolf, chasing it through the sand dunes, as the missile exploded when it connected to the ball of light. This time, String didn’t hesitate to hit the missile launch button, at close range, on Redwolf’s rear, and then veer out of the way. The pilot of Redwolf didn’t even have the chance to put out any defensive maneuvers before the missile climbed up his rear jet, and ended his life in a ball of flames. Airwolf flew by, screeching an eerie howl.
Michael ran into the garage, where Danni was just beginning to come to, out of her reset stage. Michael rushed over to her, and knelt down next to her.
“Danni?” Michael gasped.
“Son of a bitch has a new toy. Seems to electromagnetically disrupt electronic systems. He went up that staircase, get him, I will follow up,” Danni stated, quite bitterly.
“You sure?” Michael asked.
“Go!” Danni ordered.
Michael nodded, got up, and ran through the stairway that Jansen had disappeared through.
Jansen tore through the upper level, which was mostly storage, as he looked around for any method of escape that he could find, the thunder from downstairs was beginning to ease off. Unfortunately, those that fled, were gone, and had taken the last of the vehicles with them. He was in an utter panic.
He got to a box, and tore it open, and looked inside, but didn’t find what he was looking for. He went for another box, shredding it in an attempt to get it open.
“Jansen, freeze,” Michael stated.
This time, he was standing with his weapon aimed at Jansen’s head, before Jansen could get his up.
“We can make a deal, I can get you out of the legal trouble that you are in…” Jansen uttered.
“Yeah, you’re right on that, your head gets us out of the legal trouble that we are in,” Michael stated.
“I could give you the guy behind all of this,” Jansen offered.
“Put your hands where I can see them, face it, Jansen, you are the one in control…” Michael stated, not impressed.
Airwolf screeched overhead, causing Michael to flinch, which afforded Jansen his chance. He quick drew the weapon, and shot it at Michael, knocking him into a wall. Jansen slipped past him, out towards the main entrance/exit.
Michael shook out his head, and struggled to get to his feet.
Danni got to her feet, a little loopy, and with a lot of difficulty, because her legs kept trying to give out, but she managed to get up, and heard the footsteps as they ran towards the garage area, where the previous chaos had come to a level of quiet.
Michael tumbled down the stairs, a little bit dazed.
“Michael, you ok?” Danni asked.
“The bastard shot me with his toy,” Michael mumbled. “I have a splitting headache.”
“Which way did he go?”
“Towards the garage entrance, I don’t know where he thinks he’s going,” Michael uttered.
“To try to distract one of the cars with his toy,” Danni stated, as she grabbed onto the wall, and hurried out of the area.
KITT and KARR had come to a stop, and the dust was settling. They were both waiting for further interferences with their scanners swishing back and forth, wildly.
“There is a person coming towards us,” KARR noted.
“It’s Jansen,” KITT identified. “He’s mine…”
“KITT…don’t, he’s not worth it,” KARR replied, slightly horrified.
KITT pulled up towards the doorway where Jansen was going to emerge, but Jansen came out, his weapon at the ready.
“Why don’t you play fair?” KITT asked.
“You’re a car, there is no fairness involved,” Jansen growled, as he prepared to pull the trigger…
…And was knocked onto KITT’s hood, as his kneecap ceased to exist, with the loud snap of a hand weapon echoing throughout the building. Jansen’s toy was knocked out of his hand, and sent clattering across the ground, where KARR rolled up, and stood ground over it.
“It’s over, Jansen,” Danni stated.
“I will have you all in jail, this is assault of an FBI agent,” Jansen stated.
“You’ll be right there with us,” Michael noted. “Abuse of power, stealing government property, interfering with an investigation, the list is never ending, and we are on the favorable side of this one.”
Jansen swung around, and took a swing at Michael, who laid him out with one punch, Danni caught him, and laid him out on KITT’s hood, unconscious.
“Too bad, his brother was a very honorable man,” KARR noted.
Outside, Airwolf had landed. Caitlin remained with the chopper, as Dom and Sting got out, and rushed through the hole in the wall that led into the garage warehouse.
“Everything fine here?” String asked.
“Other than a few headaches, and one out cold headache, we’re just fine,” Michael grinned.
Dom and String looked at the destruction within, in awe.
“Wow, when you guys throw a party, you sure throw a wild one,” Dom commented.
“How are things on your end?” Danni queried.
“They came to…an explosive end,” String answered. “That him?”
“This would be Richard Jansen according to the files that we do have on him, pretty good looking for a dead man,” Michael commented.
“He’s a small fry,” String stated. “He’s a fallen Fed, he didn’t have the ability to do this, and we saw a car heading out of the rear of the place at a high speed long before anybody else had a chance to flee. We couldn’t see who or where it went because we were sort of busy.”
“What do you mean?” Danni asked, still trying to get her bearings.
“Jansen is small stuff,” Hawke admitted. “He’s the middle man here.”
“But he was the one who had the knowledge to do this, are you sure?” Danni guessed.
Hawke shook his head. “He’s just a higher level puppet.”
“Then who?” Danni queried.
“I don’t know, but whoever it is, doesn’t seem to be just fuelled by revenge, they seemed to be fuelled by power,” Hawke answered.
“It’s a bitch to fight off an enemy like that,” Michael admitted.
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Hawke noted.
“How can they fight an enemy that they don’t even know about?” Dom asked.
“The same way we always have…with everything they got,” Hawke answered.
Danni and Michael looked at each other, as the chilling realization hit them, that they were playing with a whole lot larger fire than they had thought they were.
KITT and KARR pulled into the Foundation driveway, just ahead of them, the semi was pulling back into its slot, and the returned Foundation employees had returned to unload it.
“Home sweet home,” Michael uttered.
KITT and KARR both pulled into the garage, and were hooked in by technicians. Bonnie came in from the side door, looking remarkably haggard.
“We all need a vacation after this one,” Bonnie sighed.
“Sorry we couldn’t get Jansen to squawk sooner,” Michael apologized as he and Danni got out, looking equally as haggard.
“We never want to go through that again,” Bonnie sighed.
“We should have never have had to go through that in the first place,” Danni noted, as she began to walk towards the door.
Devon opened the door and greeted them. His suit was perfect, but his eyes and face reflected the fact that he too had no sleep.
“Good to see that you were able to make it,” Devon stated.
“Good to see that you were able to get Knight Industries and the Foundation off the hook,” Danni commented.
“Jansen admitting that he set the whole thing up as a ploy helped immensely,” Devon stated. “They are going to be putting him behind bars for a long time. They have called off the search, and have declared KITT and KARR once and for all, destroyed entities.”
“So we are relatively free?” KITT asked.
“From the bonds of government developers, yes,” Devon stated, you are the entities that do not exist.”
“Too bad that Jansen refuses to cough up his backer,” Michael grumbled.
“Pardon?” Devon asked, as they headed to his office.
“Jansen was the small fry, the puppet that had some knowledge, but he did not have the knowledge, nor the ability to carry out the operation that had to have been carried out not only to get the FBI to do their wild goose chase and disturbance of the Foundation, but to also be able to track the operating frequencies for an KX-2500 processor from an extreme distance. That takes some serious dough, serious development, and abilities that were far above Jansen’s head,” Danni noted.
“I would have to agree,” Bonnie noted. “Jansen was a fallen Fed, but not somebody who could possibly have a mastermind like was demonstrated to track and hunt down Michael specifically.”
“And the Airwolf team,” Michael added.
“Yes, speaking of which…” Devon stated.
“A deal is a deal, they got away from us,” Danni stated firmly. “I don’t even know where they hide the thing.”
“I think it would be best if we took the lawyer’s cue and pretended that this whole incident never existed, otherwise, we might be plagued to ask you why a large part of Wilton Knight’s designs, as well as those listed under Samuel Jansen, are within that helicopter,” Michael countered.
“Fair enough,” Devon noted. “But if indeed there is a mastermind to all of this, he or she just got away, and we may not be able to forget it for long. It seems that they have started a bit of a vendetta against us, and they started it in quite superior style.”
“True, but for now, I think we need a vacation,” Michael noted.
“When we get back, we can deal with the potentially larger implications,” Danni stated.
Back at the Lady’s Lair, Dom and String were doing one last lockdown of the helicopter.
“String, do you think they will really keep quiet about us?” Dom asked.
“I think they do, they seem to live by the same honor code as us, and it would not be beneficial for them to turn us in at this point,” String answered.
“What about whomever is hunting us, and started this whole rigmarole?”
“We will have to watch our backs, that’s for sure, because he or she is out there, and if they were able to mount that large of an assault on us, you can tell that they definitely will not take well to losing,” String said, ominously.
In a dark office, a shadowy figure was watching video of the entire conflict both in the air, and in the warehouse on a large screen TV in front of him. He put a drink down on the table, and chuckled. He shut the TV off.
The End
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