Author: Phoenixnz
Title: Knight of the Pretender
Fandoms: Pretender, Knight Rider (some hints of Smallville)
Pairing: Michael Knight/Jane (the Pretender)
Characters: Michael Knight, Jane, KITT, Sarah Graiman, Zoe, Billy, Jarod
Rating: PG13 to Adult
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters - but if I did, Knight Rider would still be on screen if I had any say in it. Jane and any other original characters are mine though.
Summary: Jarod assigns Jane to protect a federal witness after a friend asks for the Foundation's help when they suspect there is a mole in a combined ATF and DEA case. Along comes the Knight Foundation for Law and Government and KITT. Michael and Jane are about to clash.
(Here is the link to the awesome cover done by ctbn60: http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/pi...pictureid=6067
One:
“You’re the only person I can trust right now, Jarod.”
Jarod looked at the red-haired woman on the screen. He’d known Jenna McGann for about ten years, ever since he’d helped reunite her with her daughter and put a dangerous man away. Jenna was still with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. She was in a more senior position now, although she often said she hated ‘pencil pushing’. But she had one very important role in that position. Ensuring witnesses were protected.
Now Jenna had concerns about one particular witness. A combined operation with the DEA, they had one witness who had come forward to testify against Sonny Ortega, a man known to be involved with a major drug cartel, and who had been suspected of selling firearms to terrorist organisations from the Middle East with suspected chapters in the US. But Jenna believed there was someone either in the Drug Enforcement Agency or in the ATF who was selling out witnesses. The case was due to be heard in the courts in a week.
“Do you have any idea who your mole is?” Jarod asked.
Jenna shook her head. “I was hoping you might be able to use your expertise to flush him, or her, out.”
“I’m more of an administrator now,” he said regretfully.
“Oh?” Jenna cocked an eyebrow at him.
“My wife put her foot down.”
Jenna laughed. “Parker got out the whip huh?” Jarod didn’t like the implication that he was hen-pecked, but he had promised Parker he would not travel so much and he had pretty much done his quota for the year.
“Something like that,” he grinned wryly. “But I can call in Jane. She’s just completed a job in Chicago.”
“Is she any good?”
“Jane? In some ways better than me. Although in some ways not. I warn you, she can be a bit, er, aloof?”
“Thanks for the warning. Think she’ll do it?”
“Yeah. She’ll do it. For all her pretence at being detached, she enjoys it. I’ll send her a message and tell her to come see you.”
“Thanks Jarod. I really appreciate it.”
“What are friends for?”
Jenna smiled. If it hadn’t been for Jarod, she never would have seen her daughter again.
“How is your daughter?” he asked, moving on to more trivial subjects.
“Cassie’s great. Although she’s still bringing her laundry home for Mom to do.”
Jenna rolled her eyes at that. Her daughter was in college now, staying in a dorm. Jarod thanked his lucky stars that he didn’t have to face that for another ten years. The twins were almost eight now and already made Jarod feel old.
The two of them began swapping war stories while Jarod sent off an email to his sister to pay Jenna a visit. One good thing about being a former Pretender, he thought. He was a great multi-tasker.
***
Sarah Graiman didn’t often get out in the field. She was far too busy trying to keep the Foundation For Law and Government in the black. But an old friend of her father’s had asked her to meet him and she couldn’t say no. Especially when he was a DEA agent. How her father had known someone in the DEA she didn’t know.
Phil Cameron had asked her to meet him at a cafe in a town not far from central operations and she drove at a sedate pace. He’d told her not to attract too much attention, and in these small towns, it was so easy to get caught by local sheriffs wanting to fill their traffic violation quota.
Sarah managed to find the cafe without any trouble. She had no problem identifying Phil. There were only two others in the cafe, and they were a couple. Sarah looked at him and he nodded.
“Hello Sarah,” he said. “You look a lot like your mother.”
“Thank you.” Sarah put her bag down on the cushioned seat as she slid into the booth. A waitress approached the table and she ordered a coffee.
“Forgive me, Mr Cameron, but my father never mentioned you.”
The older man smiled gently and put down his coffee cup. “Please, call me Phil. And I’m not surprised your father never mentioned me. The kind of work I do, the kind of work he did, it was probably better that way.”
He watched as the waitress brought Sarah’s coffee and then looked at her, as if prompting her to order something else.
“Try the apple pie,” Phil suggested. “It’s delicious.”
Sarah noticed an empty plate on the table beside him and figured he’d sampled the pie himself. She decided to take him up on the suggestion and ordered a slice. Phil grinned at the waitress, who said nothing, just taking the empty plate and walking away.
“Ignore Maureen,” he said. “She has a bad temper at times but she’s a real sweetheart.”
“So, you obviously come here a lot,” Sarah said.
Phil sipped his coffee. “Mmm-hmm. Anyway, where were we?”
“You were going to tell me how you knew my father?”
“Actually, I’ll do better than that. How much do you know about FLAG?”
“That it was established by Wilton Knight before he died and eventually run by Devon Miles.”
“Ah, Devon. Yes, good old Devon. A bit of a stick-in-the-mud at times, but then he had such a huge responsibility. He was charged with the care of Knight Industries as well as ensuring the mission statement was adhered to. I’m afraid Michael wasn’t always as willing to go along with Devon. Anyway, I met your father through Michael and the Knight Industries Two Thousand. Such a genius, your father. Of course, KITT wasn’t your father’s first attempt at creating a vehicle with artificial intelligence. There was the Knight Automated Roving Robot – actually the prototype for KITT and unfortunately, that one went a little haywire.”
“I know all this,” Sarah interjected.
Maureen returned with the slice of pie and looked at Phil. “You going to order something else?” she said sourly. Phil smiled serenely. “More of your delicious coffee Maureen. There ‘s a girl.”
Maureen looked like she’d swallowed a lemon as she grimaced at him.
“Anyway, obviously you know that your father developed KITT to assist Michael Knight in his work.”
“Championing the cause of the innocent ... I know it,” Sarah said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. It sounded so clichéd, so corny. Michael Knight had literally been the ‘white knight’ of old. Her friend, Mike Traceur, who was now going by his father’s assumed name of Knight, had taken up the same job.
“Well, when I met your old man, I was a brash, young federal agent out to prove myself. Michael Knight showed me just how naive I was. Got into a real scuffle.”
Sarah hadn’t heard this story, and she had heard a lot of war tales from her father. Phil’s eyes became sort of glazed as he delved into his memory.
“Oh yeah, there I was, looking to bust a guy for the smuggling of cocaine – the drug of choice in those days, none of this meth crap. And Michael was trying to get the guy for the death of a little kid. FLAG was trying to prove that the guy was selling the stuff to kids on the street – and it wasn’t pure, it was just complete crap. Michael and I turned up at the same time, and we fight over who gets him. While we’re fighting the guy gets away and goes on to hurt another innocent kid. So Michael’s real pissed by this time. We both realise we’re after the same thing, so we work out a plan. With Devon, and your Dad, we come up with a plan to bring the guy down.” He sighed, reminiscing. “That was actually my first collar.”
“So, the DEA and FLAG were working together back then?”
“Oh, hell no. The agency didn’t take kindly to vigilante organisations, and well, while they applauded FLAG’s motives, they weren’t at all happy about the case. But they worked out some kind of agreement to disagree, took the collar and FLAG was never mentioned.”
“Where was I when this happened?”
“Oh, you were just a twinkle in your Daddy’s eye honey-bun. Or maybe you were a bun in the oven, then. Not sure exactly.” He shifted in his seat. He had obviously put on a few pounds since his days as a young agent and looked uncomfortable. “Memory’s not quite what it used to be. Anyway, your Dad and I got to be friends. Always had a thing for gadgets and KITT fascinated me.”
“Really?” Sarah said, realising she hadn’t touched her pie, so intrigued by this older man. She began to eat, realising he had been absolutely correct about the pie. It was delicious. She could see why he’d put on weight, if he spent a lot of time at this cafe.
“So why did you call me?” she asked.
“I heard your old man died a couple of years ago. Real sorry about that. And we have a bit of a problem. Think we may need some outside help on this one.” He fidgeted again and leaned forward. “Thing is honeybun, I’m more of a pencil pusher than a field agent these days.” He grinned wryly. “Wouldn’t know it by the look of me, would you?” he winked at her. She was forced to laugh.
Phil dug into the pocket of his windbreaker and took out a disk, slipping it to her. “Everything’s on there,” he said. “Keep this confidential. Don’t want the bosses to know I’ve sought outside help. Not yet anyway. Not until I’m proved right.”
Sarah nodded. They continued to chat for a little while longer about her father and about his work.
When Sarah returned to the SSC, Mike was just coming back from a workout. He was wet from the shower, his tank top clinging to his wet skin, showing his well-defined muscles. Sarah once more saw the military tattoo on his arm. She wasn’t big on tattoos, but on Mike it looked, well, hot just didn’t quite cover it.
They’d grown up together. When Charles Graiman had decided to move his family away from the foundation’s home in Nevada, Michael Knight had agreed to send Jenny Traceur and their young son along with them. It had been for the boy’s protection, Charles had finally told his daughter. Michael Knight, or Michael Long as he’d been once known, had a lot of enemies, and the last thing he needed was for his enemies to discover that he had a family. He was terrified his enemies would hurt the only family he had left.
Jenny Traceur hadn’t talked about her son’s father the entire time he’d been growing up. Charles had said it was out of choice. Out of that protectiveness. But when Mike had become a young man, her refusal to discuss the subject had torn the mother and son apart. Mike had gone off to join the army rangers, leaving his mother alone.
Sarah didn’t know much about the senior Knight’s relationship with Jenny. All she knew was that her friend and now colleague had been the result of a brief love affair.
She had once looked up Michael Knight and his history, in an attempt to understand him. Michael Long had been a police officer, working undercover as a bodyguard for a company when he had been shot by the woman he was supposed to be protecting. The bullet had hit his face – the only thing protecting him had been a metal plate fused to his skull – the result of a shrapnel wound when he had served in Vietnam. The woman, Tania, had been a high-tech thief, planning on stealing computer parts and technology and selling it to the highest bidder.
Michael had been found by Wilton Knight and brought back from the dead, as well as given a new face. Another body had been buried in place of Michael Long, who was now Michael Knight. He was offered a chance to help Knight Industries by becoming the face of the new crimefighting and justice organisation. With KITT, he had gone after Tania, who, realising his true identity, had tried again to shoot him, this time through the bulletproof window of the car, a Pontiac Transam. The bullet had rebounded and Tania had paid the price.
Several months later, Michael had encountered the woman he’d been engaged to before he’d been left for dead in the Nevada desert. Stephanie, or Stevie as she was called, Mason had been working for a lawyer when she discovered he was involved in some illegal activities. Her boss had tried to frame her for one of his crimes and Michael had begged Devon Miles to step in to protect her. Which had been timely because the criminal organisation her boss had been answering to had sent people after her. Stevie was taken into protective custody and put into the witness protection programme, leaving Michael heartbroken again. Thinking he would never see Stevie again, he had tried to move on with Jenny. When they’d discovered she was pregnant, it had been a mutual decision for Jenny to take the baby somewhere safe. Charles had offered to help Jenny find a place near to his own family.
Michael senior’s fears had proved to be prophetic. Nearly four years after his ‘rebirth’ as Michael Knight, he and Stevie had married, with Michael choosing to leave the foundation. But just as they were married, his love had been gunned down. Michael had returned to his job, vowing never to let himself be that vulnerable again. He had visited his son a few times since his birth, but after that day, it was almost as if Michael junior didn’t exist. Jenny had been heartbroken for her son, of course, but understood her former lover’s decision.
When Mike’s mother had died, Mike had chosen to take up the same work as his father, as the pilot for the Knight Industries Three Thousand, a more advanced model of the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which was still in the possession of Mike’s father.
Father and son were still estranged. Aside from his brief appearance at Jenny’s funeral, Michael senior had little to do with his son. Sarah wasn’t sure if that was Mike’s decision or his father’s.
“Hello, Earth to Sarah!”
Sarah looked at Mike.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“Miles away. What’s up?”
“I was asking where you were coming from.”
“Oh, I had a meeting with an old friend of Dad’s. I just need to look up something. I’ll tell you about it later.”
Mike shook his head and shrugged. “Hey, whatever.”
Sarah called a staff meeting as soon as she reviewed the information. She had Zoe place it on screen.
“This is Terence Hilton.”
“As in Paris?” Mike smirked. Both Zoe and Sarah glared at him, while Billy sent him an answering smirk.
“No relation,” Sarah answered smartly. “Mr Hilton is a witness in a combined agency operation to take down Sonny Ortega. Ortega is a known drug smuggler. He’s worked with a number of cartels, one especially out of Cartagena, Colombia. Both the ATF and the DEA were interested in Ortega for a number of operations. The ATF suspect Ortega has been supplying weapons to local chapters of Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Hilton is due to testify in one week against Ortega.”
“What’s he to Ortega?” Mike asked.
“Hilton witnessed the murder of an ATF agent who was working undercover. The agent was killed during a phony arms deal. Ortega did the shooting.”
Mike looked at Sarah.
“You said this was a combined operation?”
“ATF had a bead on Ortega for months. Turned out, so did the DEA. There’s still an undercover DEA agent in there.”
“So what’s the problem with the witness?” Mike asked. “And why are we getting involved?”
“My source believes there’s a mole. He’s not sure if it’s in the ATF or in the DEA. But he wants us to protect the witness. Take him somewhere safe until he can testify before the Grand Jury next week.”
“We’re not bodyguards,” Mike argued.
“I’m aware of that,” Sarah told him dryly. “But my contact requested us personally.”
“Why us? What’s the connection?”
“He knew Dad,” Sarah said simply. “Mike, please, just do this.”
Mike nodded. “I’ll take KITT,” he said. Sarah nodded. The information was already being downloaded to KITT’s system.
Title: Knight of the Pretender
Fandoms: Pretender, Knight Rider (some hints of Smallville)
Pairing: Michael Knight/Jane (the Pretender)
Characters: Michael Knight, Jane, KITT, Sarah Graiman, Zoe, Billy, Jarod
Rating: PG13 to Adult
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters - but if I did, Knight Rider would still be on screen if I had any say in it. Jane and any other original characters are mine though.
Summary: Jarod assigns Jane to protect a federal witness after a friend asks for the Foundation's help when they suspect there is a mole in a combined ATF and DEA case. Along comes the Knight Foundation for Law and Government and KITT. Michael and Jane are about to clash.
(Here is the link to the awesome cover done by ctbn60: http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/pi...pictureid=6067
One:
“You’re the only person I can trust right now, Jarod.”
Jarod looked at the red-haired woman on the screen. He’d known Jenna McGann for about ten years, ever since he’d helped reunite her with her daughter and put a dangerous man away. Jenna was still with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. She was in a more senior position now, although she often said she hated ‘pencil pushing’. But she had one very important role in that position. Ensuring witnesses were protected.
Now Jenna had concerns about one particular witness. A combined operation with the DEA, they had one witness who had come forward to testify against Sonny Ortega, a man known to be involved with a major drug cartel, and who had been suspected of selling firearms to terrorist organisations from the Middle East with suspected chapters in the US. But Jenna believed there was someone either in the Drug Enforcement Agency or in the ATF who was selling out witnesses. The case was due to be heard in the courts in a week.
“Do you have any idea who your mole is?” Jarod asked.
Jenna shook her head. “I was hoping you might be able to use your expertise to flush him, or her, out.”
“I’m more of an administrator now,” he said regretfully.
“Oh?” Jenna cocked an eyebrow at him.
“My wife put her foot down.”
Jenna laughed. “Parker got out the whip huh?” Jarod didn’t like the implication that he was hen-pecked, but he had promised Parker he would not travel so much and he had pretty much done his quota for the year.
“Something like that,” he grinned wryly. “But I can call in Jane. She’s just completed a job in Chicago.”
“Is she any good?”
“Jane? In some ways better than me. Although in some ways not. I warn you, she can be a bit, er, aloof?”
“Thanks for the warning. Think she’ll do it?”
“Yeah. She’ll do it. For all her pretence at being detached, she enjoys it. I’ll send her a message and tell her to come see you.”
“Thanks Jarod. I really appreciate it.”
“What are friends for?”
Jenna smiled. If it hadn’t been for Jarod, she never would have seen her daughter again.
“How is your daughter?” he asked, moving on to more trivial subjects.
“Cassie’s great. Although she’s still bringing her laundry home for Mom to do.”
Jenna rolled her eyes at that. Her daughter was in college now, staying in a dorm. Jarod thanked his lucky stars that he didn’t have to face that for another ten years. The twins were almost eight now and already made Jarod feel old.
The two of them began swapping war stories while Jarod sent off an email to his sister to pay Jenna a visit. One good thing about being a former Pretender, he thought. He was a great multi-tasker.
Sarah Graiman didn’t often get out in the field. She was far too busy trying to keep the Foundation For Law and Government in the black. But an old friend of her father’s had asked her to meet him and she couldn’t say no. Especially when he was a DEA agent. How her father had known someone in the DEA she didn’t know.
Phil Cameron had asked her to meet him at a cafe in a town not far from central operations and she drove at a sedate pace. He’d told her not to attract too much attention, and in these small towns, it was so easy to get caught by local sheriffs wanting to fill their traffic violation quota.
Sarah managed to find the cafe without any trouble. She had no problem identifying Phil. There were only two others in the cafe, and they were a couple. Sarah looked at him and he nodded.
“Hello Sarah,” he said. “You look a lot like your mother.”
“Thank you.” Sarah put her bag down on the cushioned seat as she slid into the booth. A waitress approached the table and she ordered a coffee.
“Forgive me, Mr Cameron, but my father never mentioned you.”
The older man smiled gently and put down his coffee cup. “Please, call me Phil. And I’m not surprised your father never mentioned me. The kind of work I do, the kind of work he did, it was probably better that way.”
He watched as the waitress brought Sarah’s coffee and then looked at her, as if prompting her to order something else.
“Try the apple pie,” Phil suggested. “It’s delicious.”
Sarah noticed an empty plate on the table beside him and figured he’d sampled the pie himself. She decided to take him up on the suggestion and ordered a slice. Phil grinned at the waitress, who said nothing, just taking the empty plate and walking away.
“Ignore Maureen,” he said. “She has a bad temper at times but she’s a real sweetheart.”
“So, you obviously come here a lot,” Sarah said.
Phil sipped his coffee. “Mmm-hmm. Anyway, where were we?”
“You were going to tell me how you knew my father?”
“Actually, I’ll do better than that. How much do you know about FLAG?”
“That it was established by Wilton Knight before he died and eventually run by Devon Miles.”
“Ah, Devon. Yes, good old Devon. A bit of a stick-in-the-mud at times, but then he had such a huge responsibility. He was charged with the care of Knight Industries as well as ensuring the mission statement was adhered to. I’m afraid Michael wasn’t always as willing to go along with Devon. Anyway, I met your father through Michael and the Knight Industries Two Thousand. Such a genius, your father. Of course, KITT wasn’t your father’s first attempt at creating a vehicle with artificial intelligence. There was the Knight Automated Roving Robot – actually the prototype for KITT and unfortunately, that one went a little haywire.”
“I know all this,” Sarah interjected.
Maureen returned with the slice of pie and looked at Phil. “You going to order something else?” she said sourly. Phil smiled serenely. “More of your delicious coffee Maureen. There ‘s a girl.”
Maureen looked like she’d swallowed a lemon as she grimaced at him.
“Anyway, obviously you know that your father developed KITT to assist Michael Knight in his work.”
“Championing the cause of the innocent ... I know it,” Sarah said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. It sounded so clichéd, so corny. Michael Knight had literally been the ‘white knight’ of old. Her friend, Mike Traceur, who was now going by his father’s assumed name of Knight, had taken up the same job.
“Well, when I met your old man, I was a brash, young federal agent out to prove myself. Michael Knight showed me just how naive I was. Got into a real scuffle.”
Sarah hadn’t heard this story, and she had heard a lot of war tales from her father. Phil’s eyes became sort of glazed as he delved into his memory.
“Oh yeah, there I was, looking to bust a guy for the smuggling of cocaine – the drug of choice in those days, none of this meth crap. And Michael was trying to get the guy for the death of a little kid. FLAG was trying to prove that the guy was selling the stuff to kids on the street – and it wasn’t pure, it was just complete crap. Michael and I turned up at the same time, and we fight over who gets him. While we’re fighting the guy gets away and goes on to hurt another innocent kid. So Michael’s real pissed by this time. We both realise we’re after the same thing, so we work out a plan. With Devon, and your Dad, we come up with a plan to bring the guy down.” He sighed, reminiscing. “That was actually my first collar.”
“So, the DEA and FLAG were working together back then?”
“Oh, hell no. The agency didn’t take kindly to vigilante organisations, and well, while they applauded FLAG’s motives, they weren’t at all happy about the case. But they worked out some kind of agreement to disagree, took the collar and FLAG was never mentioned.”
“Where was I when this happened?”
“Oh, you were just a twinkle in your Daddy’s eye honey-bun. Or maybe you were a bun in the oven, then. Not sure exactly.” He shifted in his seat. He had obviously put on a few pounds since his days as a young agent and looked uncomfortable. “Memory’s not quite what it used to be. Anyway, your Dad and I got to be friends. Always had a thing for gadgets and KITT fascinated me.”
“Really?” Sarah said, realising she hadn’t touched her pie, so intrigued by this older man. She began to eat, realising he had been absolutely correct about the pie. It was delicious. She could see why he’d put on weight, if he spent a lot of time at this cafe.
“So why did you call me?” she asked.
“I heard your old man died a couple of years ago. Real sorry about that. And we have a bit of a problem. Think we may need some outside help on this one.” He fidgeted again and leaned forward. “Thing is honeybun, I’m more of a pencil pusher than a field agent these days.” He grinned wryly. “Wouldn’t know it by the look of me, would you?” he winked at her. She was forced to laugh.
Phil dug into the pocket of his windbreaker and took out a disk, slipping it to her. “Everything’s on there,” he said. “Keep this confidential. Don’t want the bosses to know I’ve sought outside help. Not yet anyway. Not until I’m proved right.”
Sarah nodded. They continued to chat for a little while longer about her father and about his work.
When Sarah returned to the SSC, Mike was just coming back from a workout. He was wet from the shower, his tank top clinging to his wet skin, showing his well-defined muscles. Sarah once more saw the military tattoo on his arm. She wasn’t big on tattoos, but on Mike it looked, well, hot just didn’t quite cover it.
They’d grown up together. When Charles Graiman had decided to move his family away from the foundation’s home in Nevada, Michael Knight had agreed to send Jenny Traceur and their young son along with them. It had been for the boy’s protection, Charles had finally told his daughter. Michael Knight, or Michael Long as he’d been once known, had a lot of enemies, and the last thing he needed was for his enemies to discover that he had a family. He was terrified his enemies would hurt the only family he had left.
Jenny Traceur hadn’t talked about her son’s father the entire time he’d been growing up. Charles had said it was out of choice. Out of that protectiveness. But when Mike had become a young man, her refusal to discuss the subject had torn the mother and son apart. Mike had gone off to join the army rangers, leaving his mother alone.
Sarah didn’t know much about the senior Knight’s relationship with Jenny. All she knew was that her friend and now colleague had been the result of a brief love affair.
She had once looked up Michael Knight and his history, in an attempt to understand him. Michael Long had been a police officer, working undercover as a bodyguard for a company when he had been shot by the woman he was supposed to be protecting. The bullet had hit his face – the only thing protecting him had been a metal plate fused to his skull – the result of a shrapnel wound when he had served in Vietnam. The woman, Tania, had been a high-tech thief, planning on stealing computer parts and technology and selling it to the highest bidder.
Michael had been found by Wilton Knight and brought back from the dead, as well as given a new face. Another body had been buried in place of Michael Long, who was now Michael Knight. He was offered a chance to help Knight Industries by becoming the face of the new crimefighting and justice organisation. With KITT, he had gone after Tania, who, realising his true identity, had tried again to shoot him, this time through the bulletproof window of the car, a Pontiac Transam. The bullet had rebounded and Tania had paid the price.
Several months later, Michael had encountered the woman he’d been engaged to before he’d been left for dead in the Nevada desert. Stephanie, or Stevie as she was called, Mason had been working for a lawyer when she discovered he was involved in some illegal activities. Her boss had tried to frame her for one of his crimes and Michael had begged Devon Miles to step in to protect her. Which had been timely because the criminal organisation her boss had been answering to had sent people after her. Stevie was taken into protective custody and put into the witness protection programme, leaving Michael heartbroken again. Thinking he would never see Stevie again, he had tried to move on with Jenny. When they’d discovered she was pregnant, it had been a mutual decision for Jenny to take the baby somewhere safe. Charles had offered to help Jenny find a place near to his own family.
Michael senior’s fears had proved to be prophetic. Nearly four years after his ‘rebirth’ as Michael Knight, he and Stevie had married, with Michael choosing to leave the foundation. But just as they were married, his love had been gunned down. Michael had returned to his job, vowing never to let himself be that vulnerable again. He had visited his son a few times since his birth, but after that day, it was almost as if Michael junior didn’t exist. Jenny had been heartbroken for her son, of course, but understood her former lover’s decision.
When Mike’s mother had died, Mike had chosen to take up the same work as his father, as the pilot for the Knight Industries Three Thousand, a more advanced model of the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which was still in the possession of Mike’s father.
Father and son were still estranged. Aside from his brief appearance at Jenny’s funeral, Michael senior had little to do with his son. Sarah wasn’t sure if that was Mike’s decision or his father’s.
“Hello, Earth to Sarah!”
Sarah looked at Mike.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“Miles away. What’s up?”
“I was asking where you were coming from.”
“Oh, I had a meeting with an old friend of Dad’s. I just need to look up something. I’ll tell you about it later.”
Mike shook his head and shrugged. “Hey, whatever.”
Sarah called a staff meeting as soon as she reviewed the information. She had Zoe place it on screen.
“This is Terence Hilton.”
“As in Paris?” Mike smirked. Both Zoe and Sarah glared at him, while Billy sent him an answering smirk.
“No relation,” Sarah answered smartly. “Mr Hilton is a witness in a combined agency operation to take down Sonny Ortega. Ortega is a known drug smuggler. He’s worked with a number of cartels, one especially out of Cartagena, Colombia. Both the ATF and the DEA were interested in Ortega for a number of operations. The ATF suspect Ortega has been supplying weapons to local chapters of Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Hilton is due to testify in one week against Ortega.”
“What’s he to Ortega?” Mike asked.
“Hilton witnessed the murder of an ATF agent who was working undercover. The agent was killed during a phony arms deal. Ortega did the shooting.”
Mike looked at Sarah.
“You said this was a combined operation?”
“ATF had a bead on Ortega for months. Turned out, so did the DEA. There’s still an undercover DEA agent in there.”
“So what’s the problem with the witness?” Mike asked. “And why are we getting involved?”
“My source believes there’s a mole. He’s not sure if it’s in the ATF or in the DEA. But he wants us to protect the witness. Take him somewhere safe until he can testify before the Grand Jury next week.”
“We’re not bodyguards,” Mike argued.
“I’m aware of that,” Sarah told him dryly. “But my contact requested us personally.”
“Why us? What’s the connection?”
“He knew Dad,” Sarah said simply. “Mike, please, just do this.”
Mike nodded. “I’ll take KITT,” he said. Sarah nodded. The information was already being downloaded to KITT’s system.
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