"Hazard Auto. Will speaking." It was hour three into Will's shift. There had been the usuals along with a customer checking in on a rebuild he wanted to be done 'before the weekend.'

Both Bo and Luke hated the type of customer, those that demanded the moon and stars express shipped. The money being offered, however, was unignorable. Will figured this was Mr Rush Order calling for a progress report.

Instead, a young voice spoke. Male, possibly african american. "Yes, this is Reginald Cornelius the fifth of Knight Industries. Are you Will Turner?"

Will swallowed hard, "I am."

He pulled up his personal phone and started dialing KARR. "Mister Cornelius, I assume this is about the auctioned items I've come into possession of?"

"If you're referring to KARR and associated hardware," Reginald's voice sounded less adversarial and more inquisitive than Will would have thought, "Yes."

KARR hissed in Will's other ear, "I am not going back to Them."

"My shift ends at five, but we've got an involved case that involves an engine and drivetrain rebuild with a fairly immediate deadline. I will-"

Bo opened the door leading from the front desk to the repair bays. "Hey, Will. I just got a text from Knight Industries about our certification. Say they want to meet with you. Specifically You. Right Now."

"Oh... Kay. Just as a warning I do not drive and-" Will tried.

"I'm in the red sedan out front." Reginald clarified. "We need to talk. Right Now."

"Guess I'm going with them." Will hung the desk phone up before looking to Bo. "If I get kidnapped-"

"Wipe your browsing history." Bo gave a half smile. Which faltered when Will wasn't smiling back.

"There's hardware on my test bench that is from the auction. I don't make it back or I give the wrong answer when you talk to me next? Destroy it."

"Oh haha very funny." Bo tried passing it off as Will's way to diffuse tension from a fairly strange situation setting in. "Wait, you're serious, aren't you?"

"Look into my nearly blind eyes." Will stared as best as he could at Bo. "I am dead serious. I don't make it back. What's on the workbench does not want to go with them."

Will walked out, leaving a very confused Bo to flip the shop's sign to indicate they weren't accepting walk-ins now.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

As Will slid into the passenger seat of the sedan Reginald grinned. The man was of a slight build, dark-skinned, with a healthy amount of hair grown out in a shaped flat top with the very top bleached. "Hey, man it's cool. This isn't some huge black bag you disappear forever if you don't tell us what we want kind of things."

"I've only just gotten KARR into a half-working configuration spread across most of my workbench at home. He's either watching a very currated list of things I'd left for him, running diagnostics, or resting. I have no idea what memories he has because the formats are all weird and I'm terrified of plugging the drive into anything other than him, but I did get diagnostics files out of it."

Reginald gave a slight nod to Will then tried to sound reassuring. "I promise you I'm not going to take him, and nobody else that I know of is going to take him with me running interference either. Letting Maddock sell KARR is one of those things we're kind of ashamed happened."

"It happened, though," Will said bluntly. "Maddock's era was... about twenty years ago give or take?"

Reginald gave an affermitive nod. "Yea but-"

"KARR's boards are dated from the late seventies. The last timestamps on error logs are from the mid-eighties. You're only now tracking him down." Will's voice had a hardness to it that surprised even himself. Yet he kept talking. "From where I sit, this is damage control trying to make sure I don't sell him to someone trying to crack into your new car line rather than any care that you left a thinking being alone in the dark inside their own mind for Forty. Years."

He emphasized that last part.

He also didn't tell Reginald he had his cell phone on so KARR could hear what was going on.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"When you put it that way," Reginald spoke after several seconds of silence. "It does sound fairly bad."

"The duck-like object is quacking and splashing," Will said in agreement.

He then leaned back in his seat and watched the traffic. "So, Reg..."

"Folks just call me RC, or RC Five." Reginald clarified.

"Wow... Always thought it was the unimaginative wealthy idiots that kept a name going." Will looked Reginald over. "I get Knight pays well, but you don't look like the oligarch type."

"Please, I work for a living." Reginald gave a soft laugh and then continued. "I get the hostility man. I also know you aren't stupid. Otherwise, you'd have put KARR on ebay, or marketplace for a quick flip on old parts. I need to tell you what you're defending though."

"An artificial intelligence that has been left in a box, and no regard for human life or human morals," Will smirked at the brief look he got from Reginald the Fifth. "A few of those error codes, like the temperature ramp-up and air pressure warnings only make sense when trying to kill someone considering the times of each. Plus KARR told me his primary directive was survival. As you said. I'm not stupid."

"Alright. Still. I want to tell you bout the two times he tried to take out FLAG's original driver and the second AI Knight Industries made."

There were noises from Will's phone. He frowned and turned the volume down. "Alright."

The rest of the trip involved Will learning of KARR's initial theft from a closed-down lab by a pair of thieves that frankly had no idea what they had on their hands, KARR's first run-in with The Foundation, and on and on ending with KARR's apparent death and dismemberment.

Only then. Only as they pulled into the driveway to Will's home, did Will pull out his phone and turn on the loudspeaker. "KARR, can you verify what this man has told me?"

"Does my answer affect your willingness to ensure my continued survival?" KARR asked, perhaps too calmly.

"Your answer will dictate how things proceed, but I will not let them take you, nor will I put you back into a situation where you are trapped without stimulation."

"In that case," KARR said, "I will verify that these events described align with my memories. I presume you are in the red car that has pulled in."

"That would be correct," Reginald opened his door. "I'm just here to talk. Worst case, I leave. Best case. I give the go-ahead and help where I can on getting you into something more secure than a box on a bench."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Reginald looked over Will's house. Largely everything was put away, in order, yet there were little signs that maybe more could have been done to deal with those little details.

Then he opened the door to Will's workroom and saw several bare boards surrounding a VCR-sized black box connected to several peripherals all facing a TV screen with a video about making it snow on Venus.

"Hello," KARR stated as the video was muted. A lone camera focused on Reginald. "I assume you are from Knight Industries."

"I am," Reginald kept in full view of KARR's camera. "My grandad worked on KITT, which is why I was asked to see you."

"I see," KARR stated. "As my options are exceedingly limited and non-cooperation may hinder the person who has been performing mantinancing and cleanup of my physical systems. Cooperation is the best path to survival."

There was an ominous pause before he added, "For Now."

Will winced even as Reginald grabbed a chair and sat where KARR could see him, and more importantly see his hands. "OK, that's going to have to be enough. I know you have a fairly negative history with my employers but for the sake of this interview can you make an effort to leave your assessments to yourself? It will speed things up and we can move on to figuring out what next."

"Only if Will and or Jocelyn remain with you in this room as an oversight." KARR spoke as if he were the one capable of dictating terms.

"This is fair." Reginald conceded before looking to Will, who shrugged, then back to KARR's camera.

"This is perhaps the biggest thing." Reginald sounded serious, or at least attempted to impart an amount of gravitas to his voice. "Given your programmed for self-preservation even if it means taking human lives. You cannot be allowed in a situation where you are able to interact with the wider world under your own power. If you are found piloting a vehicle on an open road, put into a robotic shell that has unrestrained access to the world, or any other mobile configuration where your directive will see humans as expendable. We will have to terminate you."

"I understand." KARR's voice was pure ice.

What Reginald said held just as much somberness as the threat to end KARR's existence. "And, as he has essentially taken on the role of caretaker, we will ensure that Will is charged with any crimes you committed up to and including charging him with any deaths you cause, as his negligence will have allowed these things to happen."

"I understand." KARR's acceptance of this statement was positively dripping with venom.

"Yea," Will managed to keep his voice diplomatic, but there was a stiffness to how he held himself. "I hear you loud and clear. that's the stick. Is there a carrot?"

Reginald looked to Will. "I know you want to try putting him in your track car. That's absolutely something we'll help with. Plus we do want your opinions on parts from the KI-Six line."

"And what information would you gain from me that wouldn't already exist from your own engineers?" KARR snapped. "I have spent most of my subjective life being metaphorically poked and prodded then thrown in the dark when I gave answers Wilton didn't like."

Reginald winced. "It... was just an offer at something to do. I thought maybe you'd like to go into a purpose-built body instead of something homemade."

At that, Will spoke up, "Hey, just because the Mera is a homegrown EV doesn't mean you she's a bad car. I'm on track for getting her down to a six-second zero to sixty."

That caused Reginald to give a low impressed whistle.

KARR merely made a derisive noise. "My original shell could perform this feat in two seconds. What is this Mera's top speed?"

"Uh..." Will grew defensive as he seemed to deflate. "I've gotten her to one twenty, but I was scared out of my mind the whole time since. Well. Poor eyes. Poor reactions."

"That is... actually fairly respectful for someone with your resources," KARR conceded.

Reginald nodded, "OK now I'm interested. Lemme help you pack KARR up. I want to see this thing.