Kitt remained silent.  He gently touched Michael to see if he was
still sleeping.  The thought of another day like yesterday was
overwhelming, his power supplies were already greatly diminished from
blocking Michael's pain throughout the night.  But without sleep
Michael's chances of survival diminished drastically.

"Today, my friend, you are left with a quandary. Which way to go."

Rehies grinning face disappeared and was replaced with two separate
images, each one repeated on four screens.  Kitt studied the
monitors, half showed a rugged path up the side of a mountain.
Boulders, some as big as houses looked as if they would continue to
slide down the mountain at the smallest provocation. Loose shale and
rocks littered an almost non existent trail up to the top of a
plateau.  The other screens showed a desolate desert rutted with
potholes and dried shrub.

"One leads to water and an afternoon of rest for Michael.  The other
one leads to a dead end, at which point you must backtrack and start
all over again."  Rehies mocking voice filled the cabin.  It's your
decision K.I.T.T..   Make the right one."

The speaker clicked off and Kitt stared at the monitors.  Which way?
He analyzed both routes.  The one leading to the plateau was
treacherous with loose shale and stones.  But it did afford some
shade from the unrelenting sun.  Michael was already badly burned
from the sun…  But if he fell he could be injured or killed.  The
desert was easier, but without shade of any kind Michael would be
subjected to heat exhaustion and possible sunstroke.  Either way it
would be hell on earth.

He felt Michael stir and sent out a warning not to move.

//Pretend you are still asleep.  We have to talk//

Michael remained still.

//How do you feel?//

//Better// He lied.  He hoped Kitt was not picking up on all his
discomforts.  The A.I. had enough to deal with.  And the discomforts
were plenty.  His wrists stung from the cuffs digging into his flesh,
the muscles in his legs were bunched up into tight painful knots and
the sunburn on his face and chest felt as if his skin would rip right
open with every movement.

//Rehies just presented his next challenge.  Michael, I don't know
what to do.  If I make the wrong decision..//

//I told you before, I trust your judgment//

//Thank you Michael.//  But Michael's confidence in him only added to
his burden.  He had to make a decision he was not equipped to make.
He tried to push his indecision aside.  Do what Michael would do if
he were able.  Use his instincts.  Make the decisions that had to be
made. // He has two routes set up.// He forged ahead.  Time was not
on their side.  //One takes you up the side of a mountain to a
plateau and the other across a desert.  At the end of one of those
routes is water and rest for the remainder of the day.  At the other
end is a dead-end and you must start over again.//

//Which one do you think Rehies would pick?//

//I don't know.  If he abides by human nature…//

//Do the opposite.//

//He will assume that I would think he would put the water at the top
of the plateau, then do just the opposite leaving it on the other
side of the desert.//

//which means it is probably at the top of the plateau.//

//The would be my guess//

//Then lets head up the hill.  I guess we've waited long enough, it's
time to wake me up.  Kitt…// He held him for a moment wrapping a
tendril around Kitt's being and holding him close.  //No matter what
happens this was a joint decision. Remember that.//  Kitt nodded.
But he knew the cards were not stacked evenly.  No matter what
happened, it was ultimately his decision.

//I will Michael//  Kitt reluctantly uncoiled himself from Michael
and opened the comlink.

"Michael..  It's time to wake up."

Michael pretended to fight Kitt's wake up call, the truth was,
mentally he was ready, but he couldn't say the same for his body.  He
lifted his head opening his eyes, stunned by the complete blackness.
He expected it, but it wasn't something he thought he could ever get
used to.  His arms ached from being shackled in their awkward
position and the cuffs had cut deeply into his skin. And he knew,
without looking, by the steady pounding of his hands that infection
had already set in.

"Kitt…" He was surprised how gruff his voice sounded.  His throat was
dry to the point of gagging from the lack of water and the pit of his
stomach had a hole the size of Texas from not eating, in how long, he
had no idea.

"Do you think you can stand?"

Michael struggled, his legs not wanting to obey his mind and it took
him several attempts to finally climb to his knees.

"Kitt, I need food.  I'm starving.  I can't continue without
something in my stomach."

"I'm sorry Michael.  There is no food.  Not yet.  But there is
water.  At the top of the plateau to your right.  You can make it by
noon time and rest the rest of the day.  But you must begin now or
you will be climbing during the hottest part of the day."

Michael drove every ounce of energy he had left in his wobbly legs to
stand.  It took precious time for him to find his balance in the
blackness.  He could already feel the heat of the day start to
shimmer up off the hot sand.  He wasn't sure if he could endure
another day.  But he knew he had to.  For Kitt's sake.  If he were to
die out here, with Kitt as his guide it would destroy the A.I.

Kitt studied the mountain.  It had been well traveled years before.
A narrow path was still visible, although overgrown by clumps of
weeds and layers of loose shale, it made it's way up to the top of
the plateau.

At points the trail narrowed to a foot or less, dropping off to the
rock strewn ground below.  One wrong step, one loose footstep could
spell disaster.  Kitt wondered if he had made the right decision.

"Michael, as you approach the hill you will find the area covered
with rocks and stones.  Be careful where you walk."

Michael nodded and started walking to his right, feeling for the
stones.

//Michael, rock climbing is your area of expertise.//

//There's a little difference here Pal, I'm handcuffed and can't see
a damn thing.//

//How many times have you said you could climb a mountain with your
eyes closed?//

//Cheap shot Kitt//  Michael grinned.

//Are you ready?//

"Kitt, tell me what I'm looking at here."  Michael said.  He had to
remember to use the comlink.  Rehise could not know about the link…
never.

"The first fifteen feet has a ten degree incline.  There is a narrow
path overgrown by clumps of weeds and loose shale.  You must at all
times stay to your right.  The path drops off steeply to the left at
times.  Toward the top the incline it becomes quite steep."

Michael shuffled his way forward kicking away small rocks.  It would
be too easy to step on a rock and sprain an ankle or worse.

"You are doing fine Michael.  You are four steps away from the
beginning of the incline."

Michael felt the ground begin to slant upward.  He took his first
step and waited.

//Michael…?//

//I'm alright.  I'm just looking for my balance.//  He had learned
through experience that all climbing depended on a sense of balance.
He had to find his center of gravity.  Leaning forward just a bit and
raising his shackled hands up a little higher on his back he took
another cautious step, then another.  Each time he dug his shoe under
the loose shale, feeling for solid ground.  He had spent a lot of
time in this type of terrain.  Almost every mountain climb had a
skirt of loose shale around it.  At times it was the most dangerous
part of the assent.

Kitt felt Michael searching for his focus point.  Every part of his
mind, every muscle was honed in on only one thing… Making it up the
mountain.

The climb was hard.  For every four steps he took he would loose one
from loose shale.  Kitt intruded only when necessary.  When the path
veered in a different direction or an obstacle stood in Michael's
way.

The path was becoming steeper and Michael's energy was failing.  When
he could, he leaned against the limestone walls of the mountain,
panting hot air into his already parched lungs.  Sweat poured down
his face, stinging his eyes.

"How much further…?"  He panted.

"Another thirty feet Michael.  You are doing fine."

But thirty feet proved to be more than Michael could handle in the
searing heat.  His legs buckled and he fell hard against the
limestone wall.

"Michael…"

There was no response…

//Michael…//

//Sorry….  Can't…//

//Yes you can.  You're so close.//

//… Can't…//

Kitt saw the top of the plateau.  Michael was so close…

//Get up!//  He commanded.  //Get up now!//

Michael's body obeyed.

//Listen to me Michael.  You are going to make it to the top.//

Michael nodded…  He couldn't fight both the mountain and Kitt;  and
Kitt was so much stronger.  He took a step and then another…
 

Michael was only aware of Kitt's voice, nothing else.  His mind had
shut down.  Step after painful step was only taken because Kitt
ordered it.  He slipped on loose shall and feel to his knees again
and again.  But Kitt pushed him on.  He obeyed his partner because
that was all he had to survive on.

Kitt was barely able to hang on himself.  He was driven to the brink
of exhaustion trying to keep the link open, sometimes throwing
himself against a wall of resistance from Michael's wasted body.  He
forged ahead, pushing and prodding until Michael was just feet away
from the plateau, always with that nagging fear that he had picked
the wrong direction.

He saw the monitors on the wall shift.  One remained on Michael while
the other two slowly panned the top of the plateau.  Michael stood
waiting, his head bowed, his shoulders stooped, his mind huddled in a
small corner while Kitt guided him up the mountainside.

Suddenly Kitt froze. He felt as if his world had suddenly collapsed.
In front of Michael was nothing more than a wall of rock jetting into
the sky, a dead-end.  With no water bottle in sight.

A small keening noise escaped his voice box.  The top right monitor
flickered and Rehies' face appeared, gloating.

"What happened K.I.T.T.?"  He asked, reveling in Kitt's
anguish.  "You picked the wrong direction?"

"Noooo!"  Kitt screamed. He tried to slam a block in place, save
Michael from the terrible truth but he was too exhausted.  He felt
Michael react, felt his partners legs buckle. "I'm sorry Michael," he
cried. "I'm sorry. There's no water."

Michael collapsed to the ground.

"No more."  Kitt pleaded.  "Please, make this end."

"Are you giving up so soon?"  Rheies panned the number three camera
down to Michael's face.  Tears ran down his burnt face etching lines
through the caked dust. "Are you giving up on your partner, after you
were the one to make the wrong decision?"

"Leave us alone."  Kitt pleaded.

"If that's what you really want.  But are you prepared to watch him
die?  He will you know.  No one but me knows where he is.  You will
remain here a prisoner, forever encased in this cement, while you
watch his body being torn apart by the vultures and hyenas.  His
bones will turn to dust beneath the hot sun, and you will have a
front row seat to all of it.  Are you prepared for that Kitt?  Death
is not pretty in the desert."

Kitt tried to hide, protect himself from the horrible words and the
images they produced.  But Michael was there, shivering, listening to
every word.

//Michael…  I'm sorry…//

//Not… your…fault…//

"You made a tactical error Kitt.  You tried to outsmart me.  But I
thought like a machine, like an A.I.  I analyzed and reanalyzed.  And
in the end you did exactly what I expected you to do."

"You have your experiment."  Kitt cried.  "Michael trusted me.  He
trusted me…  "  Kitt reached out to touch Michael, to try to protect
him, but he felt a new strength building within Michael's mind.  A
strength born of hatred and revenge.  The savage feelings took him by
surprise.  He didn't know how to cope with them.

//Don't listen to him Kitt.//  Michael said coldly. //He's a Goddamn
madman.  He's trying to destroy us.  He's trying to destroy you.
Don't let him.//

//He's right.  I made the wrong decision.//  The A.I's voice
trembled.  //I made the wrong  decision…/

Kitt suddenly fell back, cringing at the feelings building up in
Michael. He knew he was a man capable of hate, he had felt glimpses
of it through the link, but Michael had always taken great pains to
block the young A.I. when those feeling arose.  But this time there
was no block.  He felt the rage grow like an entity unto itself,
fueling Michael's body with newfound strength.

He watched Michael slowly struggle to his knees his face looking up
into the sky knowing, for Michael, there was only blackness.

"Listen to me Rehies," he shouted, venom in his raspy voice, "I will
kill you with my bare hands for what you have done."

Michael heard a click from the comlink on his shirt then Rehies's
voice.  "Powerful words for a man so near to death."

"You're a sick bastard…"

"Perhaps, but I still hold all the cards."

"What more do you want?"  Michael demanded.  His tongue was nearly
too swollen to talk.  His dry lips cracked with each word.  He
smelled blood as a thin stream of warm blood trickled down his chin.
He had to have water and this madman was the only one who could
provide it.

"I want to see if you can finish the course."

"And if we do?"

"Then K.I.T.T. will be set free."

"Is that a promise?"

There was a long pause.  "That is a promise."

Kitt staggered back digesting the implications.  "And Michael?"  He
asked hesitantly.

Silence hung between the three.  Kitt retreated further, unable to
accept the truth as Rehies saw it.

//Listen to me Kitt,//  Kitt could feel the hate being pushed aside
by Michael's desire to protect him.  //He doesn't know about the
link.  He doesn't know what we as a team are capable of.  We will
survive because we are together.  Kitt, I need you.//

Michael forced his trembling legs to stand and he turned until he
felt the hot breeze flow over his face.  He could smell the desert
below.  He took a blind step, then another, waiting for Kitt.

//Kitt… I could use some help here…//

//I can't.//  Kitt muttered.

//Yes you can.  Now, where the hell am I?//

Silence…

//I can't do this alone!//

//Rehies was right.//

//To hell with Rehies.  It's just us now.  I'm getting down off this
God damn mountain with or without you.  With your help I have a good
chance of making it, without… I'll probably be food for the
scavengers.  It's up to you now Pal.//

Kitt watched Michael take his first hesitant step.  The loose shale
rolled beneath his shoes.

"No!  Two steps to your left Michael."  Kitt's trembling voice came
across the comlink.  "Secure your footing on the clump of weeds."

"It's good to have you back Pal."  Michael smiled.

"Tell me that when we're crossing the desert later today." Kitt said
bitterly.
 

Kitt settled back in as watcher and guide.  He knew that Michael's
new found strength was just the result of a spurt of adrenalin.  It
wouldn't last long.  And there was still more than half a days hike
ahead of them.  But they had survived and they would continue to
survive.

Half way down Michael slipped on more loose shale and his feet flew
out from beneath him.  He landed hard on his back, screaming with
pain as the shackles bit deep into his wrists.  Panting he stayed
there…

"Michael…?"

"I'm alright Kitt…" Michael grunted, his words slurred by his swollen
tongue.  "I need rest... just for a second."

"Just a second Michael..." Kitt agreed.

Kitt watched Michael carefully.  He couldn't allow him to loose the
edge he had gained at the top of the plateau. If he rested too long
his muscles would stiffen up.  He had to keep moving.  It pained Kitt
terrible to have to keep pushing.

"It's time Michael."  Kitt said softly.

Michael levered himself back up to a sitting position and slid the
rest of the way down on his butt.

Four hours after they began their trek, up to the plateau, they were
back where they started.  Kitt studied the images of the desert that
lay in front of Michael.  It was dry and barren and littered with
potholes and dead shrub.

Michael stood, swaying, waiting for Kitt's next instruction.  His
legs felt like jello.  He slowly moved his head back and fort in the
blackness feeling the hot breeze on his face as he changed direction,
listening for the minutest sounds.  His hearing had become acute.  He
heard things he would never have taken time to listen to before.

//Michael...  you must follow my directions exactly.//

//I understand Kitt//

"Take three steps forward and one step to your left."  Kitt's voice
commanded from the comlink.

He did exactly as he was told.  Hour after hour.  Two steps forward,
one step to the right.  Four steps to the left one forward.  The
combinations were endless.  The sun was now directly overhead making
it hard to breath in the hot, dry air.  It was hard to think.  If not
for Kitt's constant voice over the comlink and his gentle presence in
his mind he would have collapsed long ago.  But he needed water
desperately...

Suddenly, miraculously, his vision cleared.  He was heading toward a
lake. The sun glistened off the deep blue water.

Kitt knew what Michael was seeing.  He tried to grab him, pull him
back from the hallucination.

Michael ran toward it. He could feel the air temperature cool as he
neared it.  He stood on the bank, tears flooding his face.  He had
never seen a more beautiful site.  He took a deep breath and plunged
in...

Fiery pain exploded over his body. He tried to scramble back up but
thorns were catching at his clothes, burning his skin like white-hot
matches.  He opened his eyes, blackness.  Kitt's voice was calling
him from the comlink, trying to calm him.  The more he fought, the
more he was stung.

"Michael...!  Stop!"

Michael struggled to his knees, his body on fire.  Insane with fear
and pain he tried to yank his wrists free of the shackles, they just
dug into his skin deeper.

"Michael... listen to me!  Michael...You're laying in Star Thistle.
It is painful but it won't injure you.  Michael..."

//Michael...  listen to me...//

He pushed himself to his feet and lost his balance falling backwards
again into the fiery thorns.

//Michael... Stand up!!//

Michael rolled over onto his stomach the star thistle burning every
inch of his skin, even his clothes couldn't protect him.  He pushed
himself to his knees again only because Kitt was there inside him
coaxing him.  He made it back to his feet, swaying, fighting to keep
his balance.

"Thirty feet Michael.  Just thirty feet and you will be clear of the
weeds."

//Thirty feet.  You can do it.  One step, then another.//

Kitt felt the agonizing sting of the thistles on Michael's skin.
Monitor number six suddenly flickered showing a water bottle hanging
from a post sunk into the dry ground.

"Michael...water.  I see water.  Twenty feet from you."

Michael's pace quickened.

"Fifteen feet..."

The Star Thistle was suddenly gone, but the stings remained.

"Where...?"  Michael gasped.

"To your right.  Six feet..."

Michael followed Kitt's directions, searching the blackness for the
water bottle.

"It's two feet in front of you, hanging from a post.  Another foot to
your left."

Michael's cheek brushed the cool bottle.

Rehies speaker crackled to life inside Kitt's cabin.

"It might be a good time now to tell your partner that the water is
tainted."  Rehies chuckled.

"No!!!"  Kitt screamed in disbelief. "...You promised."

"I told you in the beginning that there were eight bottles of water
and only six were good.  You forgot that Kitt. Another blunder on
your part.  How are you going to tell him, huh?  How are you going to
tell him that the water YOU promised him is poisoness?"

Kitt's hatred flared.

"You better hurry Kitt.  If he finds that water nothing on God's
earth will stop him from drinking it.  And the game will be over."

The number one monitor suddenly changed to Reheis face again.  "Or is
that what you want?"  He asked, mocking.  "It could all be over in a
matter of hours.  Michael could be put out of his misery.  You just
have to let him drink.  What is better?  This torture or death?  You
decide my friend."

The top screen returned to Michael.  He was moving his head back and
forth trying to find it.

"Michael..." Kitt's voice shook with emotions he didn't know how to
control.  Guilt, hatred, despair...  "Michael... there is no water.
I was wrong..."

Michael stopped dead in his tracks, not believing what Kitt had just
said.

//I'm sorry Michael.  There is no water...//

Anger rose and exploded in Michael's mind.  The overpowering emotion
caught Kitt like a sledgehammer.

"Goddamn you Rehies... Where's the fucking water?!!" He screamed into
the blackness

Kitt retreated, trying to keep Michael's fury from merging with his
own.  If they were both overcome with uncontrolled anger Rehies would
win.

"Rehies...!!!"  Michael's legs buckled and he sank to his knees.

Kitt hovered in the corner, trying to block Michael's mindless rage.
He couldn't help Michael if he was swept up in the same furor.  He
had to stay in control.  Michael's rage pounded at him.   He watched
and waited. Slowly Michael's body gave out and he collapsed into the
dirt, curling up into a tight ball, his arms stretched to their
limits behind him.  Kitt could feel his mind curling up with his
body...seeking shelter from reality.  He reached out and gently
wrapped himself around the amber essence, cradling him.  Michael
needed rest.  What ever Rehies had in store for them tomorrow was a
long way away now.  He simply let Michael collapse into him.

Time moved slowly for Kitt. He stared at monitor number three.
Michael lay coiled beneath the water bottle, gently swaying in the
hot breeze.  His own feeling of rage welled up inside him.  If Rehies
were standing in front of him he would have absolutely no compunction
to mowing him down like the inhuman animal he was. Kitt saw Michael's
body twitch and knew his feelings were transmitting down the link.
But there was no block strong enough to trap the hatred he felt at
the moment. The thought scared him. He wrapped himself further around
Michael, feeling his heart beating. As long as Michel was alive there
was hope…

**********************************************************************
**

"Damn it!  It's as if they fell off the face of the earth."  Bonnie
slumped back in her chair.  She had been working non-stop for twenty-
seven hours. "Nothing, absolutely nothing."

Devon looked up from his desk.  "The local authorities have scoured
every inch of the area of their last transmission.  They have come up
empty.  Except for the small crater in the road and the radiation
residue, there is no evidence that they were ever there."

"They were there all right.  We had a clear fix.  It was as if Kitt's
signal just blinked out."

"Well," Devon ran a hand through his white hair, trying to ward off
another headache.  "I have contacted all the hospitals and emergency
agencies in the area.  If Michael shows up at any of them we will
know."

"And if he doesn't…?"

"…He won't, you know..."

Bonnie jumped at the sound of the voice coming from the computer's
speakers.

"I'm sorry my dear Bonnie, I hope I didn't startle you."  The monitor
suddenly went black only to flip on again with Rheies grinning
face.  "It's been too long.  Five years to be exact."

"What do you want Alexander?"  Devon asked coldly walking over to
stand behind Bonnie.

"My, my, such animosity.  I thought you would have a warm welcome for
an old colleague."

"You were never a colleague Alexander.  You were always standing on
the outside looking in."

"Because little minds like yours couldn't comprehend what I had
discovered.  You were afraid of progress."

"You were toying with things that were better left alone."  Devon
sighed.  He had gone down this rode with Alexander more than once.
He remembered back… Two years before Kitt had been activated Rehies
had worked on another AI. based car.. KARR.  The results were
disastrous, due in part to Rehies's meddling.  He wanted to create a
computer that was totally self-sufficient.  He wanted Karr to be a
life unto it's own.  With out restrictions.  Not bogged down by human
emotions and frailties.   But he had made mistakes, they all had made
mistakes and KARR. was deemed a failure.  Then came Kitt and Rehies
was again ready to try his radical programs.  When his ideas were
nixed by the Foundation's Board of Directors he took it upon himself
to forge ahead.

"You destroyed K.A.R.R. and you nearly destroyed Kitt."

"And for that I was robbed of four years of my life."

"A life for a life." Bonnie whispered.

"Ah, Bonnie.  It has been a long time.  But you're are as beautiful
as ever."

"What do you want Alexander?"  Devon demanded.

"Nothing from you two actually.  I have what I want.  I just thought
I would ease your minds a bit by letting you know that Michael and
K.I.T.T. are still alive."

"What have you done with them?"  Bonnie breathed.

"After K.A.R.R. was put into mothballs I got to thinking.  I had a
lot of time to think, you know, four years in prison gives a man a
lot of hours to soul search.  I wondered what if man and machine were
to work together, as a unit?  Partners?  Then I come to find that
Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. had formed some kind of kinship that was
unexplainable.  Man and machine working as one.  The thought
intrigued me. How close were they?  How much trust would Michael
Knight put into an A.I., and how much could the A.I. trust himself?
Interesting questions, no?"

"Get on with it."  Devon barked.

"I made plans.  Hired the right people to carry them out.  And the
rest, my friends, is history."

"What have you done with Michael and Kitt?"  Bonnie's voice was
little more than a whisper.

"See for yourselves…"

Rehies's laughing face was replaced by a split screen.  Bonnie's
stomach dropped.  The left showed Kitt sunk to his fenders in a pit
of cement.  A bank of monitors covered the wall in front of him, each
one depicting a different view of the scene they saw on the right
side of the screen.

 Bonnie gasp.  Michael was walking across a desert.  His clothes were
tattered and blood stained. His face, beneath a growth of beard, was
violently sunburned and blistered.  His arms were shackled behind his
back.  But what was most disturbing, what made Devon weak in the
knees, was the way he was walking.  Each step was hesitant.  His head
slowly moved from left to right as if he were trying to pick up
sounds around him.

"Dear God…" Devon gasped in disbelief, "…he's blind."

"Very astute Devon.  What better way to test a man's trust?  K.I.T.T.
is Michael's only chance for survival.  Will he trust him enough?
Better yet, will K.I.T.T. trust himself enough to save Michael?"

"You are a manic."  Devon seethed.

"Sanity is in the eye of the beholder.  People thought all the great
men in history were crazy, but time proved them wrong.  I will be
seen in the future as the forerunner of Artificial Intelligence.  I
will be the Einstein of tomorrow."

"But at what cost?  A man's life?"  Bonnie asked.

"There have been many sacrifices through history.  In the future
people will look back on Michael and K.I.T.T. and deem them the
heroes of a new age.  Good-bye for now.  I will contact you again
tomorrow with an update on their progress.  Oh, and Bonnie, don't try
to trace this call. Any attempt will unleash a virus that will
totally wipe out your systems. And, remember," he warned, "I can do
it…"

The screen went blank.  Bonnie reached for Devon's hand, noticing it
was shaking as much as her own.