Chapter Text
– Michael –
"I still can't believe we flew right over them..." I muttered, my head in my hands, elbows propped on the sticky diner tabletop. My back was starting to hurt from how long I'd been pouring over the maps KITT had dutifully printed off, every scrap of intel we'd managed to capture with our infrared gear. And we'd picked up a lot. Mines, armed patrols, security cameras. The works, and then some.
"Well, Michael, that was the primary objective of your aerial escapade, was it not?" came KITT's voice over my comlink, and Bonnie didn't quite stifle a smile at KITT's wry tone where she sat across from me at our booth, sandwiched between Cort and the grimy window. Cort had picked a real winner of a dive bar for us to meet up, but I couldn't argue his logic. The joint was dim and quiet and out of the way, perfect for us to hole up and put our heads together. And the food wasn't too terrible, either.
"Yeah, yeah..." I waved KITT off dismissively, a compulsive gesture. I had a clear view of his sleek black form parked outside, his systems on high alert and his red scanner pacing keenly. If anyone so much as sneezed within a mile radius, KITT'd know.
"I just wanna reach in and grab 'em." I jabbed a finger into the center of the map, right over the thermal signature of Garthe's headquarters nestled in the mountains, a glowing beacon. Taunting me. "Just drive in there, crash through the nearest wall, grab Mitch and get the hell back out."
"Michael, that would be suicide," KITT chided. "Or have you already forgotten the two mile swath of land mines surrounding the estate?"
"We've driven through minefields before, pal," I grumbled, sitting back and crossing my arms with a pout. My bloodstream hadn't stopped buzzing since our run-in with KARR a handful of hours prior, and I was too wired to strategize. I needed to do something. I needed to punch something, preferably Garthe, but I'd settle for blowing something up, instead.
But KITT was right, and his remark deflated some of my spunk. There was more than just a minefield to worry about. We had KARR to contend with, and his armament of Tuflex bullets. Driving through a minefield was one thing, but I wasn't too keen on the idea of KARR blowing out KITT's tires in the middle of all hell breaking loose.
"We need to get in there," I murmured, staring at the infrared signature of Garthe's main stronghold, glowing hot with computer equipment and body heat, and a foreboding shudder slipped down my spine. "I wanna know what he's up to, why he's just holed up in there. He's gotta be planning something, and we gotta get ahead of it."
"Too bad we don't have one of those handy-dandy little bugs," Cort mused with a dry chuckle, having polished off the last basket of beer-battered fries and wiping the grease off his fingers. "Y'know, the undetectable ones?"
"We have the original one from the Macroplex case," Bonnie replied offhandedly. I snapped my head up to stare at her in bewilderment, and her eyes widened. "What? We've been running tests on it. I never figured you'd get close enough to Garthe or KARR to actually use it."
"But we can use it?" My heart and mind were already racing, newfound hope blossoming through me, and Cort's brows shot up, too.
"Sure." Bonnie shrugged like we were asking her to change a lightbulb, and I coulda strangled her and kissed her at the same time for being so nonchalant. "If Garthe's security system is as integrated as I'm assuming it is, even affixing the bug to a phone line might be enough to give KITT access to the central computer hub."
"At the very least, we'd be able to listen in on Garthe," I added resolutely. Not exactly crashing through walls and blowing things up, but it was a start. Baby steps.
"Now, we just have to figure a way to get in." Cort propped his elbow on the table and leaned his face in his hand, his brows knitted in thought. He'd forgone the wicker cowboy hat today, and his wavy hair shone gold under the dim lightbulb overhead.
"Well, another aerial approach is out of the question," Bonnie cautioned. "It's safe to assume KARR figured out what you were doing at the park last night, and has taken measures to prevent you from doing it again."
"So add ground-to-air artillery to the list," Cort muttered wryly, pretending to draw a checkmark on the table with a mirthless chuckle. "This is like playing chess against a computer. Only the computer also wants to kill us."
I compressed my lips in a grimace. He wasn't exactly wrong.
On that note, we all lapsed into silence, pouring over our respective portions of the infrared shots, land deeds, road maps, everything we could get our hands on, scouring for a chink in Garthe's defenses. Dropping in from the sky was shelved, the mobile patrols were airtight, the minefield was uncrossable. What did that leave?
"Maybe we're looking at this all wrong." Abruptly, I shoved everything away except for the zoomed-in shot of Garthe's mansion and garage. "Forget the mines, forget the patrols, forget all that. What if we go in through the house?"
"You mean the house that's fortified with land mines and armed patrols?" Bonnie stared at me, deadpan, like I'd lost my mind.
"I said, forget all that," I retorted. "He's still living in a normal house, right? A house with staff, and contractors, and deliveries. Access points, things we can work with."
"What're you gonna do, pull up in an exterminator van and tell 'em you're treating for woodworm?" Cort laughed out loud. "Actually, you look more like a TV repairman, eh? Or there's always the ol' gas leak stunt."
"Alright, alright, maybe not something that obvious." I flashed a rueful grin. I could pull off a pretty convincing city worker, but driving right up to the front door in a bogus utility van was a little too risky, even for my tastes.
"What about food?" I went on, eyeing the winding driveway of Garthe's estate. "Groceries probably get delivered like clockwork, right to the kitchen at the back of the house. Minimal security, easy access."
"Michael, surely you don't intend to go in there without any means of defense?" KITT protested, and I winced at the unspoken Without me? in his tone. But we all knew KITT couldn't go within a mile of the place without tipping off KARR. There wasn't any other way–
"'Course he's not, KITT," Cort interjected, his voice just a little too loud, and he looked me dead in the eye when he said: "'Cause I'm the one going in."
"Excuse me?" I stared right back at Cort, perfectly baffled. "Who died and volunteered you for this mission, huh?"
"Nobody, yet. And I'd like to keep it that way." Cort raised his brows, daring me to argue. "For all we know, they've got the whole place rigged to explode if you so much as step foot on the property. But they don't know me from anybody."
"Cort, he'll kill you." I couldn't emphasize the words enough, my voice pitched to a lethal monotone. "Do you hear me? He will kill you, and leave your body somewhere for us to find it. This is a game to him!"
"Well, like it or not, buddy, I'm one of the players." Cort's eyes had gone steely, and his gaze never wavered. "If Garthe wants to shoot me for sport, fine. At least he won't have a reason to hurt Mitch. But if you go in there, and something goes wrong, who knows what Garthe'll do."
I ground my teeth, wracking my brain for an argument, but I knew Cort was right, damn him. Garthe and I hadn't been face-to-face since he locked me in that rat-infested dungeon of his, and that had been damn near a decade ago. Seeing me now would send Garthe right back into that seething, unpredictable fervor, with Mitch's well-being hanging in the balance.
"It doesn't matter which one of you goes," Bonnie interjected dismally as soon as she got a chance. "It won't work. KARR will have a log of every single living being in that house, solider or otherwise. If a new heat signature shows up out of the blue, he'll notice, and take immediate action."
"Is there any way to get KARR off the board?" Cort chopped his hand against the tabletop, exasperated. "Not even permanently, but just long enough to get this done?"
Bonnie's lips thinned in thought. "Not likely. Especially after getting his spoiler handed to him by Michael and KITT, he's not going to come back out unless he's absolutely positive he'll win the next round."
"Yeah, I get that," Cort replied with a clipped sigh, his brows drawn together. "He's like an animal, like a lion or a shark. Predators don't expend their energy unless they have to, and they don't pick fights unless they're provoked."
I followed along with a thoughtful nod, impressed with the analogy. KARR was programmed to be a beast by nature, the primal Hyde to KITT's sophisticated Jekyll. Self-serving and unfeeling. Maybe Cort was onto something.
"There has to be something that'll lure this shark outta his cave," Cort went on firmly, looking to me. "What's the one thing KARR wants badly enough that'll get him out in the open? Short of offering you up in a dive cage, of course."
I let out a thin laugh. "That sure would get his attention, but I don't think Devon would approve."
"What about a laser?" KITT's voice filtered through the comlink without preamble, and we all sat up a little straighter in surprise.
"Oddly specific, but I'll bite," Cort responded breezily, a sharp contrast to the color draining from my face and the perturbed look on Bonnie's.
"A laser is the only weapon that can destroy KARR," Bonnie ventured at last, breathlessly, and I shuddered at the memory of KARR ripping into the back of the semi, eager to get his proverbial hands on our resonating laser. I could only imagine what was going through Bonnie's head, what it must've been like to be in the semi when KARR came crashing through.
"I thought these cars were indestructible?" Cort leveled an befuddled glance at Bonnie, then at me.
"Virtually indestructible," Bonnie amended. "A direct shot to the front scanner with a resonating laser would destroy KARR, but the same shot can also destroy KITT. Which is why we finally removed KITT's laser power pack, for good. It's too dangerous of a weapon to risk it falling into the wrong hands again."
Again. I cringed, guilt and anger welling up inside me, a vitriolic mix. For all the good it had done us, like helping us defeat Goliath, KITT's laser had caused us a helluva lot of trouble, too. KITT had been stolen, ripped apart and left for dead in a junk heap, all for his laser power pack. Just for some stupid art heist. Not to mention the very real risk of KARR using our own laser against us, the way we had used KARR's stolen laser against him.
"Alright, well, no one ever said we have to get our hands on a real laser, okay?" Cort said briskly, trying to cleave through the tension crackling off me and Bonnie alike. "We just have to make them think we have a laser."
"I'm listening." I leaned forward, intrigued, though I figured I already knew what Cort was getting at.
"Let's say we order, I dunno, a thousand boxes of staples from Lasers-R-Us," Cort went on, his eyes shining with renewed enthusiasm. "'Cause who orders staples from Lasers-R-Us, right? It's gonna look like we're trying to cover something up."
"And they don't have the luxury of not checking it out," I finished. "Because if we get our hands on a laser, that'll tip the game back in our favor. And if they think they've got a chance of snagging a laser..." I whistled. "Yeah, they'll bite."
"Exactly." Cort tapped the maps. "Set it up all nice, 'Michael and KITT dispatched to rendezvous with the transport truck.' Yadda yadda. Garthe and KARR race out to intercept you guys, and I sneak in and plant the bug. Clockwork."
"But that can't be it," I pressed. "We can't go though all this trouble to draw them out just to play rodeo with them. We can't make it look like a diversion; we have to make it seem like we're actually making some kinda play."
"You mean like trying to disable KARR?" Bonnie ventured, her eyes wide and her brows furrowed.
"Something like that." I jabbed at the maps again, buzzing with restlessness all over again. "Hell, if we managed to capture KARR and Garthe, we could wrap up this whole damn mess in one afternoon, bugs or not."
"Nice try, big guy," Cort cut in with a wicked smirk. "I'm still going in and planting that bug, just in case KARR slips the noose."
"Capturing KARR will be no easy feat, Michael," KITT added cautiously. "He's quite unstoppable."
"What do you think?" I glanced at Bonnie expectantly. "You're our resident KARR expert, after all."
Bonnie chewed on the straw in her glass of Coke, thinking hard, and Cort let out a restless, sardonic laugh at nothing in particular.
"Why about one of those big claw-grabbers they have in junkyards?" Cort mimed a claw machine with his hand. "Or maybe a gigantic magnet."
"Getting KARR's wheels off the ground would sufficiently immobilize him," KITT concurred, albeit reluctantly, and I couldn't help a rueful smirk at all the times KITT had found himself hoisted up on hydraulic lifts or flipped on his side like a turtle. "But maneuvering KARR into said compromising position will not be easy, either."
"Right," I agreed dismally. "And even if we do immobilize him, then what? We know KITT can blast himself out of just about anything. Box trucks, storage containers, tow hitches. And KARR's just as powerful."
"Maybe we're putting too much focus on KARR's physical limitations," Bonnie mused, and her eyes lit up. "Maybe we need to go after the weaknesses of his microprocessor."
"You mean hack into him?" Cort stared at Bonnie, baffled. "You can do that?"
"Like what Randy Merritt did to KITT." My stomach soured when Bonnie nodded, too eager.
"KARR's base programming is virtually identical to KITT's," Bonnie said, her eyes darting like she already had lines of code streaming through her mind. "With a little tweaking to Randy's original program, and the added advantage that I know KITT's programming like the back of my hand, I should be able to come up with something that'll let me gain access to KARR's CPU remotely."
"This plan certainly gives new meaning to the phrase, what I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy," KITT muttered, and my stomach twisted again. "It's a terrible experience, having one's autonomy stripped away, bit by bit."
"Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of playing nice, KITT," I replied, trying to sound sympathetic. "This isn't anything they wouldn't try to do to us. If they're not gonna play by the rules, then we gotta play hardball, too."
"I understand, Michael," KITT replied, though he didn't try to mask the dejection in his tone. I sighed, trying to ease the persistent knot in my gut. It wasn't fair, pitting KITT against KARR, brother against brother. KITT could posture all he wanted about being the best, the one and only, the pinnacle of Knight Industries technology, but I knew, deep down, it pained him to see a fellow AI treated so cruelly.
"There's just one more question," Cort piped up, suddenly deadpan, his eyes shining earnestly. "What do I do about Mitch, once I'm in there? Is this an extraction?"
The foreboding knot in my gut only tightened. Of course, my instincts screamed for me to say yes, get Mitch out at all costs. But those were my emotions talking, and I couldn't let them cloud my better judgement.
"You'll have to call that one as you see it," I forced out at last, letting the strategist in me take over. The cop, the solider. "We don't know if Mitch is under guard, or injured, or, hell, if he'll even be cooperative. So, no, your only objective is to plant the bug and get the hell back out. Garthe doesn't need two hostages."
Cort nodded, but a frown soured his expression all the same. Cort wasn't afraid of Garthe, and no amount of veiled threats would change that. All I could do was let out another heavy sigh and hope to god Cort wouldn't do anything detrimentally reckless.
"Alright." Just like that, Cort was back to business, rubbing his hands together with a fiery glint in his eyes. "Back to square one: how the hell am I getting into this joint?"