Karl led the way into the factory, his posture rigid with a bravado he didn't quite feel. Behind him, Sean followed closely, unwilling to let the birthday boy take all the credit for "bravery."
The four girls—Alicia, Elly, Maya, and Sarah—shared a look of weary amusement. They were used to the posturing between the two boys. "It's just a derelict plant," Alicia noted, brushing past a rusted support beam. "What's the worst that happens? We get a splinter?"
But as they crossed the threshold into the main courtyard, the laughter died.
The interior of Aethelgard Industrial didn't look like a factory that had been abandoned for decades. It looked like a combat zone. The concrete ground was pulverized into craters, as if struck by high-velocity kinetic shells. Heavy machinery had been torn apart like wet cardboard, and the remains of a warehouse lay in a heap of twisted girders and shattered brick.
Most unsettling of all: the damage was fresh. There was no rust on the exposed metal, no weeds growing in the craters.
"I have a feeling..." Sean whispered, his bravado replaced by a genuine systemic chill. "I think we're going to find exactly what we're looking for."
"Quiet," Karl snapped, though his hand was trembling as he reached for the handle of the primary assembly bay. "Let's check the main floor."
He put his shoulder into the rusted door.
CREEEAK.
As the door groaned open, deep within the shadows of the vaulted ceiling, two crimson optics flared to life. E-15 had been tracking their thermal signatures since they crossed the perimeter.
[ INCOMING DATA-LINK: SQUADRON FOUR / UNIT E-15 ]
[ MESSAGE: SIX ORGANICS DETAINED. OPERATIONAL STATUS: COMPROMISED. ]
Nathan, currently parked in the shadow of a canyon wall near Hoover Dam, felt a surge of irritation. He had been deep-mining the human global news-cycle when the alert hit his bus.
How did civilians find that hole? Nathan mused.
He didn't have time to return to Miami. He sent a high-speed encrypted burst back to E-15: [ INTERROGATE FOR INTENT. IDENTIFY AS OFFICIAL OR CIVILIAN. IF CIVILIAN, MAINTAIN STASIS LOCK. IF OFFICIAL, PREPARE TO EVACUATE COORDINATES. ]
He assumed they were just local scavengers. If they had been Section 7 agents, E-15 wouldn't be sending status reports; he'd be engaging in a firefight.
Before he could close the channel, another priority request slammed into his processors. This one was different. It carried the unique encryption key of the Decepticon Chief Medical Officer.
[ CONNECTION REQUEST: SCALPEL ]
Nathan authorized the link. Unlike the email-style status reports from his squad, this was a synchronous neural-data stream.
[ T-22. REPORT. ARE YOU WITHIN THE NEVADA STRONGHOLD? ]
Straight to the point, Nathan noted. [ NEGATIVE, DOCTOR. I AM DEPLOYED ON LONG-RANGE RECONNAISSANCE. ]
[ RETURN IMMEDIATELY. THE SITUATION HAS ESCALATED. ]
Nathan's cooling fans spiked. [ STATUS? ]
[ STARSCREAM HAS PLACED ME UNDER TOTAL SURVEILLANCE. I AM RESTRICTED TO THE LAB SECTOR. ][ I HAVE THE COORDINATES FOR A SPACE BRIDGE INJECTION. SOUNDWAVE IS PREPARING FOR DEPLOYMENT, BUT THE BASE'S SIGNAL-ARRAY IS BEING CHOKED BY THE AIR COMMANDER. ]
[ YOU MUST RETURN, EXTRACT THE DATA, AND ESTABLISH A GROUND-LINK AT A SPECIFIC COORDINATE. WITHOUT YOUR INTERVENTION, THE SPYMASTER CANNOT BREACH THE ATMOSPHERE IN TIME. ]
Nathan's optics dimmed as he processed the data.
Soundwave is coming.
The game was changing. If the Spymaster landed, Starscream's autonomy would end, and the search for Megatron would become a global hunt. But more importantly, if Nathan helped Scalpel, he was officially choosing a side in the internal Decepticon schism.
[ UNDERSTOOD, DOCTOR. I AM INBOUND. ]
Nathan didn't hesitate. He ignited his engines, the tires of his muscle car form shrieking against the asphalt as he performed a high-speed U-turn. He abandoned his surveillance of Hoover Dam. The "rabbit" would have to wait. The wolves were arriving.
He sent a final command to E-15: [ HOLD THE ORGANICS. DO NOT TERMINATE UNTIL MY ARRIVAL. I HAVE A NEW PRIORITY. ]
Nathan streaked across the Nevada desert, his speedometer climbing as he pushed his synthetic core to its thermal limit. He had a Space Bridge to build, and a Spymaster to welcome to Earth.