They touched down on home ground hours later and after a shower Briley could still feel sand in her hair. Still she shook the thought from her head and made for the main hanger. Summer had been captured by Decepticons and her friend was more important to Briley than her immediate comfort. Inside the main hanger it was chaos. Briley was suddenly very glad that she had given Lennox Susana's number. Briley's older sister, Susana, was a lawyer and the NEST operative had a feeling they were going to need one. With all the chaos going on below Briley was greatly relieved when Jazz picked her up and she settled on his shoulder with a sigh of relief.
"This looks like Black Friday on steroids," she said and after a moment of searching to reference her terminology Jazz chuckled.
"Talk about apt analogies," he said and Briley shook her head with a slight grin.
"All this trouble over throwing a liaison with a parachute out of a plane," she said wryly, shaking her head.
"No, no," Lennox called up to her, accidentally catching everyone else's attention. "We didn't throw him out of a plane. He pulled the chute too soon."
"Thank you for clarifying that," a familiar voice said and everyone turned to see John Keller, Secretary of Defense. "I'm sure Liaison Galloway appreciates that differentiation as he waits for someone to pick him up from the middle of Egypt." Though his voice was serious Keller's eyes were bright with laughter. It seemed that Galloway was good at making enemies. Everyone started laughing at that, enjoying a small victory over the nasty liaison.
"So why're you here if he's not gonna be back soon?" Epps called from where he had been speaking to Sideswipe.
"Actually Galloway will be back shortly," Keller replied with the smallest hint of a smirk. "I'm here to inform him that he has been fired from NEST and is on no uncertain terms to leave."
"Victory at last," Epps crowed and Briley almost fell off Jazz's shoulder as she laughed.
"If I knew that would have worked I would have done it much sooner," Lennox added. "That jerk almost got us all killed."
"Which is why he's being removed," Keller said. The celebration continued long into the night but Briley was quickly in no mood to rejoice. Summer was out there somewhere alone and captured by Decepticons. She wouldn't rest well until she knew her friend was safe.
Author's Note: And onward we trek! I own nothing but my OCs
