One More Knight Please

Chapter 16: Consequences Of The Knight.

When both Bo and I had finally pulled away from the kiss, it felt like it had been an eternity. Now it was determined in my mind. I loved him. No, not loved, love. We didn't kiss for that long, just about 30 seconds.
"Wow, uh, I was not expecting that." He said.
"Neither was I...." I said, I felt my face turning red.
"So uh, is that why you wanted me alone?" He questioned, teasingly.
"No, I was just going to apologize... but... y'know.." I said. I took a step away from him. "I'll go get Dahlia if you don't mind."
"Yeah.. sure."
I walked out of the room, where Dahlia and Sonia were leaning against the wall, talking.
"He's fine," I said.
"Of course, you would say that." Dahlia teased.
"Yeah girl, you're redder than a tomato," Sonia added.
"Don't worry about it," I said, trying to brush it off.
"I watched the camera footage, next time, go to the janitor's closet." "Dahlia interjected.
I froze in my tracks. I was about to get the worst of it. "I- Er- uH-"
"Don't worry about it Pookie, we don't care that much" Sonia comforted.
"Okay good, because I thought I was about to be fired," I said with a sigh of relief.
The two chuckled then Dahlia gave me a weird-looking device. It kind of looked like an old 90s telephone, the ones that were about the size of a brick with a single wire poking out the top. It was entirely black and had two buttons on the side. One was green, the other red.
"What is this?" I asked, inspecting the black thing.
"This is a mobile way to communicate with Kitt, as you can see, it was made from a telephone," Dahlia explained.
"Why do we need it?" Sonia asked, waving her phone slightly, showing that we already had pocket-sized versions of the device that can do far more than just communicate with Kitt.
"This is what you're going to give to Bowie. It functions properly as a way to talk to Kitt and a tracking device. As you can see, it is made out of junk we had laying around, so we don't care if it gets destroyed or lost." Dahlia said.
"Now let's go tell Bowie he is dismissed," Sonia said, waving over at Quincy who was at the other end of the hallway, eating a twinkie.
"That man and his Twinkies." Dahlia teased.
Sonia laughed as Quincy came over.
We all walked into the room together, and Bowie was still sitting in the chair he was in when I walked in.
"You're free, prisoner." Sonia jokes.
"Oh really, I was starting to like it in this cramped, tiny, soundproofed room." He retorted, jokingly.
"Since you and Susan seem to get along well enough, I thought I'd let her walk you out," Dahlia said, winking discreetly at me.
I rolled my eyes at her gesture, but I didn't think she even noticed. The rest of the group walked out, leaving me and Bowie alone again. My watch buzzed, and I looked at it.
"Whatever you're thinking of doing that isn't planned, don't," Kitt said. I ignored his text, just like I had earlier.
"Are you ready to leave?" I asked.
"Yeah," He said as he stood up from the small chair. I walked him out of the room and into the lobby.
"Here, take this," I said, handing off the piece of what looked like 80s technology.
"What is it?" He asked, raising a brow.
"This will let you communicate directly with Kitt," I said, looking deeply into his eyes to ensure he bought the trick.
"Susan, this is great, my uncle will love me!" He exclaimed as he examined the thing.
I didn't say anything, I just smiled at him. My mother had always told me that actions speak louder than words. We walked to the door where his black Trans-Am waited for us. He hid the black piece of technology by his side as we walked past our receptionist. We stepped outside and the wind blew cold air over us, causing my long brown hair to sway gently.
"Susan, you're beautiful, you know that right?" He asked, looking at his T-top.
"You make it hard to forget," I stated.
Before he got into his car, he turned around and kissed me once more, then wished me well. His car roared to life, the classic 70s way, and slowly crept out of the parking lot. I waved as he began his way onto the road beyond us. Suddenly, I heard Kitt's turbine engine approaching the corner. Here it came, the aftershock. He approached slowly as if making emphasis on his entrance because you know, he is a little drama queen after all.
"Susan." He said, stopping about 6 feet away from where I was standing.
"What?"
"I'm disgraced by you."
"Oh shush, Micheal did the same thing, but to several other women."
"Right, and haven't I made it clear how utterly disturbed I was by it?"
"Not really."
Kitt stopped for a moment as if he was collecting his thoughts to form a sentence.
"Well I was disturbed by it, and I will refuse to work with you if you do the same thing." He finally spoke.
"Well I'm not, It's just one boy."
"I've heard that one before."
"Oh shut it will you?" I said, getting annoyed with the car.
"Fine, but I will tell your Grandmother." He said smartly.
"Go ahead, she has been trying to set me up with guys for years, she'll be more than happy." I retorted. I walked back into the foundation building, approaching the secretary who had her mouth gaping open at the sight on the black t-top.
"How did you-" She said, in utter disbelief.
"I know a guy who knows a guy," I said as I walked back towards my office.
"Is that the real Kitt?" She asked as I passed her desk.
"Absolutely, why don't you go have a talk with him and find out for yourself," I said, pausing a moment, then continuing.
I neared the offices when I ran into Dahlia.
"Kitt isn't happy with you?" She asked though it sounded more of a statement than a question.
"He is overjoyed," I said sarcastically as I walked into my office. After collecting my phone, I checked my messages. I wanted to see what Kitt had said when I was a little, preoccupied, with Bowie. All it was, however, was a simple little one-worded message that certainly showed how he felt.
"Susan..." That was all the message said. Though it could have several different tones into it, obviously I translated it to be annoyed, because Kitt certainly was annoyed.
I sighed and opened the Laptop on my desk, signed in, then checked the analytics. It was sad. The Foundation was fading, fading fast. Just like how some celebrities became famous for large periods, then forgotten. Like One Direction, well, one thing is, they certainly did not all go 'one direction.' Our last call for a genuine need of help was over a year ago, now we spend most of our time doing charity work. Just as Devon would have wanted. Well, at least that was what Dahlia always said, and she knew him better than everyone. If you want me to be entirely honest, I thought that having Kitt back would spark nostalgia in the hearts of some and they would advertise the Foundation for us, but that hadn't worked. Hopefully, the takedown of Berio Electronics will reach out and get enough attention from the public. Maybe there are some people that Berio has done wrong to as well. I had no clue if this whole plan was going to happen. If you want me brutally honest, I prayed to God that it would work, this is what we need now, and there is nothing that is going to change that. Our analytics plummeted even further than last week, we were losing money, and fast. The realization hit me. Wilton's dream couldn't be continued any further. One man had made a difference, In 1986. That was all done and over with, this is all done and over with. The Foundation will die, and with it, all the technology we had. Why don't we just surrender to Berio now?
"Hey, can I see you for a moment," Dahlia said, peeking her head into my office.
"Yeah, sure," I said.
I followed her into her office, which wasn't very far from mine.
"Take a seat," She stated, plopping herself down in her large computer chair.
I took the smaller chair across from her desk. I knew this wasn't about me getting fired or anything like that, Dahlia would never, she needs me.
"I need you to interact with Bo more." She said, crossing her hands on her desk.
"Why?"
"We need to ensure that he trusts you."
"That won't be a problem," I said, giving her a wink.
"Oh I'm sure it wouldn't be, that's why I asked you." She said with a giggle.
I jokingly rolled my eyes at her, then walked out of her office. I looked back at the analytics. Everything was screwed. It was almost like a water slide with some bumps and turns, but ultimately, it went straight down. I pulled out my phone, it was never too early to start an assignment.
"Hey Bo, I was hoping to restart things again today, would you like to meet me at my apartment again?" I asked.
Then I got a message from Kitt.
"Do your work." He commanded
"You're not my mom," I replied, then went back to my laptop.
I didn't do anything but look at it, what could I do? Well, I guess I could do my daily report, but I like to do that closer to when I go home. I got to work at about 8:00 every morning and went home around 3:00. I picked up my metal water bottle and took a sip of the coffee I had put in it this morning. I glanced down at my watch where the bright pixelated numbers had illuminated the time. "12:36" Only 2 and a half more hours to go. I stood up and walked to another part of the building we never used. It was another storage area. It had all of the gadgets and robots from booths in the 80s and 2000s. Most of the actual robots were from 2008, and most of the gadgets were from the 80s. This was most likely the room where Dahlia had pulled out the telephone communicator thing.
I turned on the light. The whole room was flooded with light. If I hadn't told you it was a storage room you may have mistaken it for a studio with how bright the lights are. Most things were covered with a tarp, others just bare bones of the machines they used to be. It was like a robot graveyard. Somewhere in here was another Mustang like The Knight Industries Three-Thousand. However, this mustang was to never be powered on again. Nobody besides Dahlia knew why, but I had to guess, I'd say because it would be a whole Kitt vs. Karr thing. I've looked through this room hundreds of times, but I have never found that Mustang. I always wanted to see it, because I thought I could convert it back into a helper. Maybe it was just a rumor that somebody started to scare the new guys, which, I was a 'new guy' once, but that was 5 years ago when I graduated High School. I made my way to the back of the room, where there was an individual robot under a tarp. I pulled it off quickly and revealed the machine. In 2008, this was one of the machines used to administer regular maintenance on the 3000. It was short-circuited, and some of the worse were cut, but with some TLC, it could be new again. Now, of all time, it would especially be helpful. Considering we now have three Knight Industries vehicles hanging around. I and my grandmother could probably take care of two, but three is one too many. Upon closer inspection, the machine looked as if it had been burned in places. Was the foundation building before this one burned down? It was bizarre, maybe something blew on it causing it to catch fire. I heard footsteps coming from the door.
"What are you doing?" Dahlia's voice asked from the doorway of the room.
"I'm looking at these old maintenance bots, I was thinking that maybe we could re-commission them," I said.
"That is a smart idea, however, those things have sat around forever, the chances of getting them running again without entirely rebuilding them is smaller than the chances of a car that has sat in a junkyard for years starting and running perfectly." She said as she approached where I was.
"Give them a chance will you?" I tried to reason with her.
"Susan, the cost of fixing them is too high, we don't have that money now, and we won't have it in a very long time either. It's better to just keep them here, than deal with the expenses." She explained, then walked out of the room.
I sighed and then covered the machine back up. Trust me, I was far from an engineer, but I could tell, it wasn't as bad as she described it. I walked out of the room, flipping the switch by the door, causing the light to be chased out by the new darkness. I walked back to my office, as Dahlia continued down the hall to the security room, probably to check the cameras. I sat back down in my office chair, filling out the report on the analytics for the day. Nothing seemed to be happening. My watch buzzed and Bo had responded to my text.
"Sure thing! When do you get off?" He said in response to my message.
"I'll be home by 3:30," I answered.
"Oh alright, I'll drop the device off at my Uncle's business, then come on over." He responded.
I turned off my phone, then looked at my watch for the time. "1:07"
I decided to text Kitt.
"Hey Kitt, I'm sorry, remember when I told you relationships were made of impulsive decisions?" I stated.
It didn't take him long at all, he must be sitting in the loading dock playing chess or something on his computer screens just to entertain himself.
"All is forgiven. What did you mean exactly when you said relationships are made of impulsive decisions though? Micheal and I have been friends for years, yet I haven't made many impulsive decisions towards our relationship." He replied.
"But you still have made some," I responded.
"I guess you are correct, where are you going with this?" He asked.
"What I did today is a prime example of an impulsive decision in a relationship," I answered. There was no response. Sometimes it took him longer to compute things. I thought maybe he was just doing that, but a few minutes passed and he still had said nothing. I put my phone back into my pocket and walked out of my office. I stopped by Dahlia's office door, which was closed, which meant she wasn't in it. I went down to the loading dock, presuming she would be catching Kitt up on the modern Foundation. As I approached her and the black car were having a conversation, I decided to wait right outside the doorway, because I did not want to interrupt. The last thing I needed was to be scolded by Kitt again.
"You got that?" Dahlia asked Kitt,
"Yes, but just to be sure, you want me to 'keep an eye on' Susan and Bowie?" He responded.
"Yup, make sure they don't do anything on our time too." She answered.
I was disturbed. Why would she tell Kitt to spy on me? Does she really not trust me?
"I will do that, I must say, I have been trying to study them," Kitt stated.
"Oh really? Why so?" She asked.
"It's more of a research project I assigned myself. Over the years, I have been studying human emotions, just to better my knowledge of them. So far, I have most of the main ones down, Anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust. But there are a few others that I cannot comprehend, one of which being love." He explained.
"What else?" She questioned.
"Well, most of them are the more descriptive ones, like anxious, inferior, etc. But I also haven't nailed down fear. I just don't get it, why is it scary when it isn't needed? The human species is superior to any other living species.'' He said.
I didn't hear what Dahlia said next, I was deafened by my rage. I felt angered, and betrayed. I was angry and sad at the same time. I walked into the loading area but tried my hardest to hide my emotions.
"Oh hey, Susan!" Dahlia exclaimed.
"I'm going on lunch," I said, approaching Kitt.
"Oh, okay," she said as she left, winking at Kitt.
If I didn't know any better, I would have killed her right then and there.