Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the Transformers franchise.

Chapter 7

"Mommy can we have this?"

"No! I want this instead!"

"Nuh-uh. We gonna get this, right mommy?"

"That's enough from both of you!" Sarah Lennox said taking the box of Oreos and Snickers from her two younger children. From behind her ten-year-old Anna grabbed her waist and brought another snack.

"No, Anna. I'm sorry. Mommy has bought enough food for the night. Come on. Let's get you all home," Sarah said, making her way to the check-out line at the grocery store.

As she stood in line, Madeline and Lucas, her four and five year olds, stood next to the cart arguing about some new toy and Anna had somehow gotten Daniel out of his baby seat in the shopping cart and into her arms.

Anyone could have told Sarah that having four children would be exhausting, but having four children and a missing Will was even worse. He always seemed to have a constant flow of energy that made him perfect for having kids—especially toddlers—whereas Sarah felt as though she could use a real good break. Not that she hated her husband for his occupation, but she just needed him sometimes.

"Next!" the clerk called ready to ring up Sarah items. Anna finally put Daniel back to assist her mother in unloading the cart.

"Mommy! Mommy look! Auntie JoJo's car is on the news!" Lucas exclaimed, pointing to the television above them.

"And tonight we visit the horrible explosion on Fifth and Broadway. Earlier this evening a car exploded in the Broadway Centre Parking lot. Those closest to the vehicle suffered minor burn wounds—"

The rest of the reporter's words were forgotten at the sight of the burgundy Impala ablaze.

Sarah gripped the rim of the shopping cart for balanced as the images sunk in. She was shaken out of her shock by Anna who cried, "Daddy's calling mommy! Daddy's calling!"

Sarah picked up the phone quickly. "Will—"

"Sarah, finally! What took you so long?"

"Will, there's been an accident—"

"I know, Epps' is freaking out—"

"I don't think Jo made it, Will."

Will was silent for a moment before he responded. "I don't think so either. But I need to be sure. Epps is freaking out over here. He was trying to do Jo a favor and when he called her back, she didn't pick up. He's been calling for hours now. And then Epps spoke earlier to Allison Bridge, one of Sam's secretaries. She was supposed to go down to the crime scene, but that was nearly an hour ago and we haven't heard from her. Epps is losing his mind over here. Do you think you can head down there to see what's going on?"

"Of course. I'll just drop the kids off at the house and see if Rachelle can watch them and I'll make my way down there," Sarah promised.

"One more thing, love, Fig is on his way home. He should be coming in early tomorrow. Do you think you can pick him up from the airport?"

"Sure. I'll do it. Let me get the kids to Rachelle and I'll call you back in about an hour, okay?"

"Alright. Tell the kids I love them and I'll be home as soon as I can."

"Of course."

"Hey, Sarah?"

"Yes, Will?"

"I love you."

Although she hadn't noticed it, she was already out of the grocery store and in the light breeze of the Arlington night. She smiled, although she knew he couldn't see that and gazed lovingly at their children.

"I love you too. I'll see you soon."

"Where are we going mommy?" Madeline asked, after Sarah had gotten off of the phone and started the car.

"You all will be going to the house and Aunty Rachelle is going to watch you. Mommy has to go downtown for a while."

Fifth and Broadway Street was completely blocked off, so Sarah parked her car about two blocks down and walked up. The Broadway Centre Parking lot was roped off with Police tapes and there were still several civilians on the edges of the boundaries.

"Excuse me officer!" Sarah called after she pushed her way to the front.

A scruffy officer came towards her way and asked, "Ma'am please, we're trying to conduct an investigation. We need you all to back up."

"I know the owner of the car, please! I just need some answers!"

The officer stared at her for a moment, before lifting the tape and allowing Sarah to pass through.

"Go right into Greco's and nowhere else. There'll be a team in there who'll want to speak with you."

Doing as the man said, Sarah walked into the Italian restaurant and was greeted by three officers, one of them being Mark Gregory, one of her co-worker's husbands.

"Sarah?" Mark asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I told the officer at the front that I knew the owner of the car and he said you all would want to speak with me."

"Who owns the car Sarah?" Mark asked.

"Joan Davis. But where is she?"

Mark was silent before he answered, "We don't know."

"What?"

"The car was empty when it exploded," another officer answered. "There were no human remains."

"Did you speak with Joan today Sarah?" Mark asked. "Do you know anyone who might take her car?"

"No," Sarah answered. "But I'm sure she had it. She was at work today."

"How do you know that?" Mark asked. "Doesn't she work for Sam Witwicky?"

Sarah then told the officers of her conversation with her husband about Joan and Allison.

"And you've heard from neither of them, correct?" the second officer asked.

Sarah nodded.

"Sarah, you've done more than enough," Mark said. "You can go home. We'll go to Hasbro and check it out and I'll call you if I have any information."

"You won't be able to get in," Sarah said. "Allison is usually the last person out. It's past ten. The whole building is on automatic lock down. The only way you can get into Hasbro is with security cards and passwords."

"Passwords that I'm assuming you have," the second officer asked.

"Follow me," Sarah said.

Hasbro was a dark, towering building at night. She had once told this to Sam and Will, who both laughed, but in the light of all that had transpired the building only seemed even more demented. Sarah couldn't pin point exactly what was off about the building. Everything looked as it should. The entire building was on its nightly automatic lock down and the parking lot was completely empty. Using the spare key and password that Will had given her, Sarah led the three officers into the building and another team of four officers.

On the main floor the houselights were still on.

"Is this normal Sarah?" the second officer, whose name she learned to be Rodgers asked.

"I'm not really sure. I think so. The lights are automatic. They should come on when anyone walks into the building and turn off once the last person leaves."

"How does it determine someone leaving?" Mark asked.

"Heat sensors," Sarah replied.

"Witwicky is pretty hi-tech," the third officer, Wills commented.

"I asked, because the house lights were already on when we came in," Mark pointed out. "Do the lights on all the floors come on if someone is still in the building or just on the floor that the person is on, Sarah?"

"I'm not sure," Sarah responded. "It's most likely the floor that you're on. I doubt Sam would waste energy like that."

"Check the floor," Rodgers commanded.

After a moment or so the floor rang with declarations of "Clear!"

"Where's the elevator Sarah?" Mark asked.

"The public one is behind Schooner," Sarah replied pointing to the only female officer with them. "You can take it three floors up without needing a password. But I-I need to check something else. Mark, do you mind following me? We can meet them on the third floor in a minute."

Mark nodded and the others made their way to the elevator.

Sarah took Mark to the back of the floor where the private elevator was located. Inside Sarah quickly went through the thumb print identification and typed in the password and hit the LB button.

"What does LB stand for?" Mark asked as the elevator began to move.

"Lower Basement."

"And what exactly is in this lower basement?"

The doors to the elevator opened again and Sarah and Mark stepped into the garage.

"Can I see your flashlight?" Sarah asked peering around. Mark handed it to her, but even with the light Acree was nowhere in sight.

"Peters, Rodgers, where are you at on the other floors?" Mark called into his radio. There was no response. After a few more tries, Mark turned it off.

"I guess you don't get any service down here," Mark mumbled.

"What exactly are you looking for Sarah?" he asked watching her look around.

"A motorcycle," Sarah replied.

"A motorcycle? What's so special about a motorcycle?" Mark asked.

"Don't know," Sarah lied. "I just know it's important."

"You're lying Sarah. I want to help. Tell me the truth."

Sarah sighed. "It's confidential Mark. Will would kill me."

"Are we talking Pentagon confidential?"

"Yes."

"Shit. So why does Witwicky have it in his garage?"

"It's his personal garage. There are only a handful of people with the codes. Not to mention Sam runs a pretty tight security around here. I mean how many businesses have thumb print IDs, coded passwords, heat sensors, eye scanners—"

"Eye scanners?" Mark asked.

"Yes," Sarah replied. "Eye scanners. They're used specifically for the restricted floors."

"Is this a restricted floor?" Mark asked.

"Well, yes," Sarah answered. "Why?"

"You didn't use an eye scanner to get down here. Did you notice that?"

"No," Sarah responded slowly.

"Who controls the eye scanner?" Mark asked.

"Sam does. But Sam's away in the Middle East. He wouldn't just turn it off."

"Sam is the only one who could do this correct?"

"Maybe Joan, but I don't see why she would want to turn it off either. She's security crazy."

"I don't know about this Joan," Mark answered. "Sam's ex comes into town looking for Sam and sees Joan. Joan calls Epps, who tells her that he'll call her back and when he does, she doesn't pick up the phone. Epps then calls Allison Bridge, who by this time has seen the explosion on Fifth and Broadway. She promises to go down and figure everything out. But Allison never calls back. And now—"

"Wait are you trying to say that Joan has been doing all of this?"

"Maybe," Mark reasoned. "Jealous of Sam's hot ex-girlfriend. Maybe she doesn't want her back in Sam's life. She is his personal assistant. And don't give me that look Sarah; it's happened plenty of times."

"Not this time," Sarah argued. "Joan is not interested in Sam."

"And you know because…?"

Sarah sighed loudly again before answering, "She's with Epps. That's why he's freaking out."

"She's dating Epps? Why is that such a huge secret?"

"There's a bit of an age difference between the pair. It also has a lot to do about privacy and something in Jo's past. They may not broadcast it but they are dating."

"Well it doesn't mean she can't have a thing for Sam," Mark argued. "If you get into the habit of hiding one thing, you can hide plenty of other things too."

Mark made a move to hit the button for the elevator, but Sarah beat him to it.

"It's another thumb ID. You would have set the alarm off," Sarah explained. When they were both on the elevator she continued saying, "Besides, Jo's not like that. Her whole family is military orientated. It would have gone against everything she had learned as a child to steal from the military."

"Could be a spy for another country," Mark suggested as Sarah punched in level 7.

"Her whole family is from the States."

"Level 7," the automated voice from the elevator said, "is a restricted level. Accessing eye scanner…"

"Well the eye scanner seems to be working," Mark said as the black box opened up. "Seems like someone has been tampering with the system. And according to you the only two people who could do that would be Sam and Joan. Y'know it is a possibility that Sam could have done this himself."

"Not likely," Sarah snapped. She was tired of the accusations growing ridiculous to absurd. "Sam's a war hero. He'd never."

"Pissed off at the government?" Mark asked.

"Sarah Lennox. Access Granted."

"Sam loves his job. He's a workaholic," Sarah responded as the elevator began to move.

"Sounds like motive to me," Mark said. "They overwork him."

"No, he overworks himself. He's the CEO of the largest toy company and he does classified work for an interna—the point is that Sam chooses this."

"Maybe he wanted to get out," Mark suggested.

"Then he would. No one would hold him back. Everyone has been trying to get Sam to take a break for years," Sarah snapped.

"Sorry, Sarah," Mark apologized after a moment. "I have to ask—"

"I know. It's all about procedure. It's just I know that neither Joan nor Sam would do this."

"What about the ex-girlfriend?"

"Mikaela?" Sarah asked. "No, she hasn't seen Sam since they were about eighteen. How would she get into the restricted parts of the building?"

"Level 7," the elevator announced, "Mr. Samuel Witwicky's office."

Mark stepped up in front of Sarah and entered Sam's office first, gun raised.

"Clear," Mark said after a moment. "You can come in Sarah."

Sarah stepped off of the elevator and the two of them made for the doors towards the seventh level office.

"Do the doors have sensors?" Mark asked.

"No," Sarah said.

Mark kicked the doors opened and they were both greeted with bright light.

"Allison?" Sarah called before Mark hushed her.

They walked up to the front of the floor to Allison's desk and found her slumped over, blood slowly dripping from the back of her head to meet the pool below.

"Oh my god," Sarah whispered, tears beginning to drop.

There was a soft creak audible to even the poorest of ears.

"We need to get out of here," Mark said. The pair moved quickly towards the elevator and took it down to the main floor.

"What about your partners?" Sarah asked once they got on to the elevator.

Mark bit his lip. "Do not turn around," he advised.

Thanks for reading! And please don't forget to review!

Much Love,

Santiva Potter