Chapter 23 - Fieldtrip!
(MPOV)
I stretched as I walked toward the hangar, looking around with a bit of surprise as I walked in. Will was standing beside a kneeling Optimus, a single computer was burning the midnight oil, manned by a yawning Jerry.
"You want me to..." I murmured, pointing back the way I came.
"No, Kae you are with me," Optimus rumbled quietly. I looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "We have something of an... ambassadorial mission at hand," Optimus rumbled, rolling his optics.
"Dress code?" I asked with a half laugh. Will rolled his eyes and tossed me a rather comfortable looking jacket.
"New York, it's getting cold," Will sighed.
"Something's eating you," I stated calmly, looking at the Major.
"Information, there's a civilian with potentially more knowledge about what's happening with you than we have," Will groaned, looking at the computer again.
"Robowarrior," Optimus rumbled with a frown.
"May I see?" I asked curiously, plopping down beside Jerry, he turned the screen toward me and shoved the keyboard slightly. I took it up and began typing quickly. "So you've got the IP nailed down, address from it?" I murmured.
"Yep," Jerry nodded. I frowned in thought for a second and opened up a new window.
I began scanning the blogs, bringing up windows, articles, closing them just as quickly until I spied it.
'defunct government... sector 7'
"Got it." I stated calmly.
"Got what?" Will asked curiously. I pointed. "Okay, but sector seven was huge."
"It means we're looking for an ex agent," I shrugged. "Shall we go?" I stood and looked up at Optimus.
"We shall," Optimus rumbled firmly.
"That still doesn't make any sense," Will frowned at me as we walked toward the plane, Optimus transformed and idled behind us.
"Once an agent, always an agent," I laughed. "Have you never noticed the way an agent stands? Joys of being a criminal, I can pick out an agent, a cop and a thief out of a crowd the way you can pick out a bad apple among the troops."
"How'd you know that?" Will snorted.
"One, you're a Major, two, not one of the soldiers under your command here is a bad apple," I snorted, skipping up the ramp and into the plane.
"How'd you know that!?" Will demanded as I strapped myself into one of the seats.
"Seatbelt?" I asked innocently, looking down at the clasp.
"No, that I don't tolerate bad apples in my unit." Will stated.
"I have eyes to see, and ears to hear," I shrugged, smiling at Optimus as he onlined his holoform beside me.
"Yeah okay, but most people don't even know what to look for," Will pressed on with a wry grin.
"You're talking to a criminal girl who spent her childhood among incredibly gifted men," I laughed. "My father and his men taught me one hell of a lot, but the first lesson I ever received was how to read a person."
Will fell silent. I looked at him calmly.
"Stop feeling sorry for me," I told him patiently.
Will jumped and stared at me.
"Pity sucks," I told him with a half smile. "It doesn't get anything done. If I can't be bothered to pity myself, you shouldn't waste a moment pitying me. I learned a lot from the men who raised me, and they made the lessons far easier than how they learned them."
Will heaved a sigh and shot me a wry look.
I rolled my eyes at him.
"C'mon Will, catch a nap, we're flying what, five hours?" I asked with a small smile.
He sat back in his seat with a snort.
I closed my eyes and fairly listened to him stewing. I cracked an eye to look at the two of them. Will looked like he needed to say something. Ask something.
Optimus always looked like that.
"Let me hazard a guess," I stated with a snort.
Will looked at Optimus curiously as he snorted.
"Which is to say you already know," he rumbled patiently.
"Not always," I shrugged.
"Shoot," Will stated quietly.
"You're curious as hell about me, statement of loyalty or not, I'm still an unknown to you," I stated calmly.
Will sighed and leaned back.
"About all I know about you so far, is that you're way the hell more mature than most people your age." he sighed. "The CIA is interested in you, Hetty knows you when most people think she's an urban legend and Galloway hates your guts."
I turned to look at him calmly. We sat in silence for a long moment.
"Then the real question is," I stated calmly, lightly reaching over and catching his wrist, I caught hold of his pulse and held his eyes. "As a soldier, a man of honour, can you promise me that what I tell you, you won't use against me? I won't ask you to lie for me, I have no intention to cause that necessity."
Will's pulse jumped slightly. Shock. His eyes said the same. He looked at my hand on his wrist for a long moment, thinking, then looked in my eyes.
"Strictly between the two of us." he nodded firmly.
I smiled and released him.
"Then ask," I shrugged patiently. "If I'm free to tell you, I will."
"The first time I saw you in your 'normal' life, you were working nightshift in highschool," Will told me calmly.
"Uh huh, and?" I snorted. "There was work to be done, bills to pay. If I were twenty eight, not eighteen, you'd be calling me a mature, intelligent and hardworking woman, not pitying me for accepting my lot in life."
"What about your childhood?" Will demanded.
"I had an incredible childhood!" I protested immediately. "I grew up with four uncles, and a father who did their best to be there for me. I wasn't shipped away to school, everyday was 'go to work with your dad' day."
"Stealing cars," Will stated flatly.
"Sometimes," I nodded. "But more often than not it was building motorcycles. Dad never taught me to steal, I was given the groundwork of right and wrong from the cradle. Stealing, killing, lying is wrong. But sometimes you have to do wrong to survive. Above all else, I survive, falling back on doing wrong only when the right way is no longer an option."
Will stared at me. So did Optimus.
I gave him a half smile.
"The right way was to work nightshift in high school. You gotta survive."
"But..." Will whispered.
"Okay, another angle. Did you know that in the end, a single, undamaged car door sells for five hundred dollars?" I asked him with a smile. "If I stole a car, stripped it down of the cosmetics and parts and re-stamped the serials I could feasibly make three grand on it untraced. It takes me three hours all told." I held up a hand, and looked at it. "Sell it to a shop and they'll sell the individual parts. They'll make an additional ballpark of four grand profit, more if they take care of the installation and paintwork."
I held up my other hand. "Nightshift job makes one grand a month, I work an average of seven hours per night, five and a half nights per week." I stated calmly, offering the hand. "But stealing is wrong." I flipped the first hand over and settled them in my lap.
Will and Optimus stared at me in shock. I leaned back and closed my eyes.
"So you guys..." Will whispered.
"It takes forty hours for me to assemble a motorcycle. After everything I'll make about three grand on it." I snorted.
"Why weren't you doing that then!?" Will demanded.
"Overhead," I snorted. "A motorcycle frame costs about twelve hundred dollars to buy," I stated calmly. "You can figure that an engine will cost an additional three thousand in parts, along with another grand or so of brakes and electrical. Done properly I could probably sell that custom made bike for ten and average four grand gross profit."
"Then why weren't you doing it!?" Will demanded. I opened my eyes to look at him.
"Property tax for our commercial warehouse is one fifty per month, mortgage payment is four. Utilities are thirty, my trailer cost thirty per month property tax, utilities an additional sixty. Every cent that I don't spend on food, clothing or shelter is saved for the next time the cops decide that I'd be better off in jail for something or another. Dad's been in jail for five years, more or less the same for my uncles. The crips and the bloods have been eyeing my territory for those five years. The only reason they haven't already moved is because I have an alliance with the wolves."
Will and Optimus stared at me in shock.
"You-" Will choked.
"The wolves are a good gang," I shrugged. "Primarily non-violent, our territory borders theirs, I have a great deal of respect for their methods, they keep their territory as crime free as possible. They respect our neutrality primarily because we build damn good bikes and our motorcycle sales depend on more than one biker gang as well as the un-initiated and the weekend riders. They get that. So they're allies, so much so that it went uncontested when Brick married Mary, it made us family."
"Kae..." Will choked. I felt my eyes harden slightly.
"To date I've had offers from six gangs to be made a prospect and potentially patched into their gang, despite the fact that I'm female." I stated firmly. "Three of those gangs have spent a great deal of time trying to force me in. I survive, Will. I survive. The lands we've claimed are technically a dowry, they're in my name. But my first loyalty was to my unit. To my father and my uncles."
"They kept your territory safe? At what cost?" Will choked.
"In return, I provided free services to their bikes, cost of oil and parts." I stated firmly. "Side jobs, I built a few bikes at cost for a couple of them. Easy things. We maintained our alliance."
Will slumped in his seat, staring at me.
"But now..." he whispered.
"Now, Dad's taken over the reigns again," I shrugged. "The kind of man my dad is... he and I fought like devils whether or not I was going to college."
"He-" Will started indignantly.
"He practically kicked my butt for even thinking of not going." I snorted.
Will stared at me.
"And you've seen me battling it out with Optimus and Sides, it takes a lot to kick my butt." I grinned at him unrepentantly. Optimus snorted in amusement, then vented a deep sigh. He looked at me sadly.
"In all of that, you chose your path," he rumbled softly. I looked at him curiously. "I have trapped you with us."
I snorted in amusement, looked at him and burst out laughing.
"Then you really don't know me," I snorted.
Optimus and Will looked at me curiously.
"Optimus, if I had decided to disassociate myself from the auto-bots, you would never have found me." I told him firmly.
He smiled. Will shook his head.
"You know, eventually you would have been found," he told me wryly. I snorted.
"Nope, at best you would have found an agent, three or so years from now using my name," I smirked at him. "And considering how much of my identity I agreed to trade with said agent, it's entirely possible you would have believed she was me, right up to the point that Ratchet scanned her."
Will stared at me and burst out laughing.
"Good to have you on the team, Kae," he snorted.
"Good to be here," I smiled, leaning back in the seat and closing my eyes.
I opened an eye as the flight announcements were made.
We were landing. I opened the other one and smiled at Optimus as he grimaced at the plane.
"We're not going to crash today," I told him with a snort. "If anything, even if we did crash you'd probably survive."
He glared at me somewhat.
"It is not my own life that worries me," he grumbled irritably.
"Daaww," I grinned at him. "You giant softy."
Optimus snorted.
"Tell that to the Decepticons," Will snorted.
"I will," I stated airily. "They'll die of shock, problem solved."
The two males stared at me and burst out laughing. The plane thumped onto the ground and taxied around for a few minutes before the flight crew began wandering around.
I undid the seatbelt and climbed up into Optimus' cab.
"Right, so we've got the co-ordinates," Will muttered almost to himself.
"Indeed," Optimus rumbled patiently, getting into gear and driving down the ramp as the flight crew waved him on.
We drove. Eventually, Optimus parked and onlined his holoform behind me.
"Deli, nice cover," I stated cheerfully. I slid out of Optimus' cab and waited for the menfolk to catch up.
I kept my face down and away from the ATM and traffic cameras.
Old habit. The males were watching the street, I'd already done that. Instead, I walked idly into the deli and began watching the people.
Oh. My god.
Seymour Simmons.
Optimus and Will were behind me the next moment.
"Too. Easy." I murmured with a low snort.
"Well, now what?" Will grumbled softly, looking around the crowded deli.
"Watch, and learn," I snorted. I got into line. Will looked at me as though I were insane. I shot him an innocent look.
I stood in line for a few minutes, got to the front and looked Simmons straight in the eye.
"Robowarrior," I stated calmly. He barely twitched. Barely. I very purposely directed his eyes to Optimus Prime.
He stared at me.
"No," he muttered. "Alright, meat store's closed!" he began shouting, he whacked a bell on the counter. "Everybody out!" he began walking around, clearing the store out. I calmly walked behind him and pushed Will and Optimus' holoform against the wall.
"You gotta be kidding me," Will muttered.
"Old friend," I snorted.
"Old friends! You're the case that shut down Sector Seven!" Simmons half yelled at me as the last civilian walked out of the store. "Got the kibosh disbanded, no more security clearance, no retirement no nothing. All 'cause of you, the little criminal girlfriend." he sneered at me. Optimus made to step forward, I planted a hand to his chest and pushed him back slightly.
"Moron, where's the whitefish!" a distinctly Jewish woman demanded. We looked over, a man was dragging meat along the rolling racks.
"Hey, don't touch me with the pigs!" a man shouted.
"Yakov!" Simmons shouted.
"What?" the man shouted.
"You don't get Christmas bonuses just standing around. You want those new teeth you saw on sky-mall?" Simmons asked.
"It's my dream," Yakov nodded, hitting a meat mallet down again.
"Help her out," Simmons commanded.
Quickly, the store was clear. He turned back to me.
"You live with your mama?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No my mama lives with me, it's a big difference," he shot back at me. "They've got your face all over the skywatch, you know that?" I nodded irritably, crossing my arms. "So NBE one is still kicking, huh? How did that happen? Huh? Don't answer, I don't know what you're hiding but I don't want anything to do with it so goodbye, you never saw me I've got bagels to shmear. Vanish!" he commanded, turning to walk away.
"Look, can you give me five seconds," I stated irritably, walking after him. "Look, hold on," I caught his shoulder. "I need your help."
"Really, you need my help," he stated sarcastically.
"I need-" I stated angrily. "Look, for christ sake Simmons," I snarled, catching his collar in a hand as Will stared between us in shock. "You think you've got it bad? My family had to steal cars just to pay for my mother's medical bills, and she died anyway. Now I've been exiled to a top secret base, I can't move around without a soldier hovering over me and I'm going insane for the sheer amount of information that was crammed into my brain by the All-spark, and we're talking several billion years of learning swimming in front of my eyes in symbology every second of every day. Guess what, now I have to deal with an ornery ex-agent who knows more about me than I do and doesn't want to share."
Simmons stared at me in shock as I slammed him against the wall.
I wanted to stop, I really did, I just couldn't.
"And if that's not enough, your insistence on calling me the little criminal girl when we were in sector seven caused just enough of a shit stir that fucking suits have been following me ever since that day. Do you realize just how hard it is to follow the orders to look normal when I have to duck and dodge every fucking suit carrying a glock!?"
"Seriously?" Simmons whimpered, staring at me.
"That's why you ran?" Will gasped.
"Meat locker, now," Simmons growled. I released him and followed him into the ice box. "What you're about to see is top secret," Simmons stated. "Do not tell my mother." He opened up a hatch in the floor and climbed down the ladder. Will touched my shoulder and went next. I waited until he was at the bottom before sliding down.
"Showoff," Will snorted.
Optimus didn't bother with the ladder. He simply winked his holoform to the bottom of the steps, looking as innocent as a ray of sunshine.
"Showoff," I muttered. He snorted. I looked around, there was a tv playing re-runs of talk shows featuring alien nuts. Floor to ceiling in files, books, boxes and papers.
"Okay, files, files," Simmons muttered, looking around, "We're talking about symbols..."
Will reached toward a head in a domed glass, Simmons reached out and lightly whacked his hand with the paper he was holding.
"Hey, still radioactive. Hands off."
I glanced at Optimus as he scanned it.
"Frenzy," he rumbled quietly.
"Should I feel bad that I went after him with a sawsall?" I murmured worriedly. Optimus looked down at me in amusement.
"What did you do?" he rumbled with a snort.
"I kind of cut his arms, legs and head off with an electric saw," I muttered guiltily.
"That's my femme," he rumbled with a snort, patting my back.
"Okay cube brain," Simmons stated with a snort, turning to look at me. "Any of these look like the symbols you saw?"
I stared at the photos in shock and reached for them.
"Where did you get these?" I demanded quietly.
"Before I got fired, I poached S-7's crown jewel," Simmons began, climbing up a filing cabinet. "over 75 years of alien research, which points to one inescapable fact. The Transformers? They've been here a long, long time."
"How do you know this?" Optimus demanded beside me, scanning the photographs over my shoulder.
"How do I know?" Simmons grinned, he dug out a box and tossed it down to Will. "Archeologists found these unexplained markings in ancient ruins all over the world."
He clambered down and took the box, opening it up and beginning to slap photographs down on the table.
"China. Egypt. Greece." he smacked a projector and the lights came on. "Shot in 1932." he added, pointing to the screen.
"Cybertronian," Optimus rumbled darkly, looking through the photos.
"Optimus?" I asked quietly.
"Do you see the cant, here, and here," he rumbled, pulling me to stand in front of him. I squinted at them and jumped as the symbols dancing in front of my eyes began up full force. I began struggling to breathe.
"What do you see?" Optimus rumbled softly in my ear, pressing a pencil into my hand. I began writing automatically as Optimus growled softly.
"What is it?" Lennox demanded.
"Decepticon variations, the old ones," Optimus growled. I leaned against him as the information began blurring in front of my eyes. The faint hum of his spark changed instantly, the holoform's arms winding tightly around me.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what's this?" Simmons demanded, looking at the holo. "Aren't you a bit old for her?"
(OPOV)
"How do I know?" Simmons grinned down at them. He dug out a box from the pile and tossed it down to the Major. "Archeologists found these unexplained markings in ancient ruins all over the world." The man climbed back down and opened the box, slapping photographs down in front of Kae. "China. Egypt. Greece." He started up a projector and showed more symbols in a jumpy film.
Optimus barely heard the man's continual commentary. His eyes were locked on the symbols. He felt Kae looking up at him.
"Cybertronian," Optimus rumbled darkly, looking through the photos. A dialect he couldn't translate. Not properly, he couldn't tell the speed they'd been written.
"Optimus?" Mikaela murmured quietly.
"Do you see the cant, here, and here," Optimus rumbled, pulling Kae to stand in front of him. She leaned closer to the photographs, so close, he could feel her muscles ripple in a flinch. He could hear her struggling to breathe.
"What do you see?" Optimus rumbled softly, pressing a pencil into her hand. She began writing automatically as Optimus growled softly.
"What is it?" Lennox demanded.
"Decepticon variations, the old ones," Optimus growled, Mikaela began struggling a bit more, Optimus worriedly wound his arms around the femme, holding her tightly. She pressed against him, relying on him for support.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what's this?" Simmons demanded, looking at the holo. "Aren't you a bit old for her?"
"We do not worry about the age of mates, if that is what you mean," he rumbled irritably. "However at this point I am more concerned for the state of Mikaela's mind than your worry that I would ever take advantage of a Femme currently struggling to stand."
"Oh..." Simmons stated quietly. He glanced around for a moment before looking at Kae. "Is she okay?"
"I'm... okay..." Mikaela gasped. Optimus flinched slightly and pulled her away from the drawings, covering her eyes.
"Shh..." he murmured gently, holding her carefully and covering her eyes. "Calm, little one," he rumbled gently. Mikaela turned in his arms and buried her face in his shoulder.
Optimus felt a surge flow through his spark at just how... right that felt.
Mikaela was breathing deeply now, her muscles relaxing as he held her. Eventually, she pulled back with a final, deep breath.
"Better?" Optimus rumbled worriedly, cupping her face in his hands.
"That was intense, but yes, better, thank you," Kae murmured.
"You ran?" Optimus rumbled curiously.
"We're in the middle of Sector Seven's poached archives and the first thing you ask is that I ran?" Mikaela asked wryly.
"It's safe to talk down here," Simmons called out quietly.
"Please?" Will asked quietly, looking at Kae pleadingly. "I really want to know why we couldn't find you, the nurse swore you couldn't have gone far..."
Optimus felt another surge of shock, remembering Kae's words.
'...But now you know that I'm not simply capable of observing another, I can control my own, lie at the basest level, and I do so everyday...'
"Why would you need to do that?" Optimus rumbled sadly, cupping her face.
"To stay alive," Mikaela stated quietly. "At the CIA I have... well... had a specific handler..."
"When you have a handler, if you see another suit who recognizes you, you run, 'cause you can bet that if a suit recognizes you, they're out to kill you." Simmons stated quietly, looking at Mikaela with sharp eyes.
"Which is bizarre, because if you know that, why weren't your men better trained?" Mikaela asked curiously, looking at the ex-agent. "I managed to pick the cuff keys out of your man's inside pocket, shouldn't be able to do that with an agent."
"Rookies," Simmons shrugged. Mikaela snorted in agreement. "Well, that explains one hell of a lot, I'm sorry."
"Shit happens," Mikaela shrugged.
"Do you get the feeling you're missing something?" Will asked, looking at Optimus. "Because I sure as hell feel like I'm missing something."
"It's an agent thing, lemme guess, you're a red baby?" Simmons nodded at her.
"Laurentian deep," Mikaela snorted.
"Wow, that's... wow," Simmons stated in shock. He looked around.
"Simmons, I need your help," Mikaela stated softly. "Please."
"You can't go anywhere anymore, can you?" Simmons frowned at her.
"My contacts are there, but they're useless," Mikaela stated irritably. "The left hand truly doesn't know what the right is doing. I wasn't lying, I didn't need a rosette. But then none of us knew about sector seven. Hetty doesn't count-"
"Hetty knows everything," Simmons snorted.
"Why were you guys spending so much time isolating!?" Kae demanded.
"Are they ready for it?" Simmons demanded, pointing to the ceiling. Mikaela pinched the bridge of her nose.
"They're never ready for it, and at this rate they're never going to be ready for it. How many bandaids can they plaster on?" she groaned.
Simmons snorted.
Irritably, Optimus looked down at Kae.
"Sorry, that's just us catching up on old times," she stated calmly. "To business."
Simmons grinned at her. Mikaela smirked.
"Rule forty four, time to put your hero pants on," she stated with a smirk.
Simmons rubbed his hands together with a grin.
"Uh, what?" Will demanded.
"Rule five, Will," Mikaela stated calmly.
"That, is possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me," Simmons stated with a grin. Mikaela smiled at him.
"For god sake would you read me in already!?" Will demanded.
"Rule number five, you don't waste good," Mikaela stated calmly. "Simmons is on the ground already, his unit didn't track the bots down with energon signals. They found us through a video on Sam's phone."
"And the police report," Simmons shrugged. "Stupid easy."
Mikaela frowned, crossing her arms and looking at her chest. She looked at Optimus.
"Wheelie may be the best to partner him," she stated calmly.
Optimus jumped in surprise. He looked at Simmons, then back at her.
"Wheelie!?" he demanded.
"Can get into a hell of a lot more places than the rest of us," she stated calmly.
Good point.
Optimus crossed his holoform's arms.
"Do you feel we can trust him, either of them?" he demanded of Kae.
"Simmons? Absolutely. Wheelie? He'd be returning without the all-spark sliver, and without our location. He came in in a shipment hiding as a dead symbiont." Mikaela stated calmly. "His choice is death at their hands, or research assignments at yours. If he willingly surrenders his transponder, then yes, he can be trusted."
Optimus nodded.
"He comes back with us?" he rumbled calmly.
Kae frowned. She turned to Simmons.
"What do you think, rendezvous at base or will that harm your cover?" she asked firmly.
Simmons frowned.
"You're right," he muttered. "Yo Lennox, you bring a secure burner with you? We need numbers."
Lennox jumped and handed over the spare cell-phone he was carrying.
"Done deal," Simmons nodded. "Keep in touch, we need to establish a secure channel if I'm going to be your eyes on the ground."
Lennox stared at Kae.
"Goes in the paperwork as classified secure, civilian consultant," she stated calmly. Simmons beamed at her.
(WPOV)
Will sat down in Optimus' cab and stared at Mikaela.
"Okay, how much did I miss?" he asked with a frown.
"Not too terribly much," she shrugged. "The agency taught me the codes to speak to another agent, primarily the ones that get them to like you. If you're really curious, you now have Simmons as your groundwork eyes. He's going to keep tabs on his contacts, the civilian lines, the word of mouth. All of the channels that I used to pay close attention to, except now I'm stuck at base."
Will shook his head.
"What's he going to be able to find out?" he demanded.
"Well, with Wheelie's help? Like as not he'll be able to find and document the deactivated Decepticons, go through those files of his and perhaps find out more about the energon source the Decepticons believe that I'm going to lead them to. Etcetera etcetera."
"But..."
"He's also the link," Mikaela stated calmly, turning to look at him with serious eyes. "He's the translator between the bogus claims of nutjobs, and the hysterical ramblings of a scared person who saw an alien in the flesh... metals..."
Optimus snorted in amusement and drove back to the airport.
Straight onto the waiting plane.
"So..." Will stated with a frown. "Sorted?"
"Sorted," Mikaela grinned at them.
They sat in silence for a long moment.
"Okay, now will you read me in?" Will demanded again.
"As an agent, and as a living backstop, there is a set of rules you live by," Mikaela stated quietly. "Rules that we accept because not only your life, but the lives of the people you love depend on them."
Optimus stared at her, right beside Will.
"Rule number one," she stated softly, looking out the windscreen. Her eyes were a million miles away. "Never, ever lose your temper..."