After narrowly avoiding being annihilated by the Nucleon explosion, Bumblebee and Wheeljack had finally arrived at the launch base to deliver the remaining nineteen Nucleon fuel rods. They stopped at the elevator where they met up with Prowl and Smokescreen. "Hold it, we're going to need a look in that briefcase." he said in a stern tone.
"Relax Prowl, all we have is the Nucleon." Wheeljack assured.
"Oh I have no doubt that you have, but I need to check the rods just in case any of them have bugs or tracking devices." Prowl said as he pulled out one of the fuel rods and inspected it, what he was looking for were any small disc like objects attached to the rod, these would usually be placed on either end of the rods to conform with the shape of the rods, he proceeded to do this for every rod in the briefcase. He didn't find anything but he didn't want to take any chances, he turned to Smokescreen "You know what to do." he said. He kept an optic on him though; from the Elite guard's reports he's read, Smokescreen had a tendency to read individuals.
Smokescreen nodded, and walked up to the briefcase with his Electro disruptor variant of the W-45 acid pellet rifle, and set it too low as to not potentially blow everyone to kingdom come. Before activating it, he turned to Bumblebee "You may want to shut down your audio receptors for this." he warned.
Bumblebee complied and shut them off, Prowl guessed that Smokesceen read the scout's discomfort and he flashed a glare at the red and blue bot.
When Smokescreen's disruptor sweep was finished, Prowl continued to shoot a glare at him until he handed the briefcase back to Wheeljack "Everything's green on our end, go ahead and take it to Engineering." Prowl said. As he saw Wheeljack and Bumblebee walk off. He then turned his attention back to Smokescreen, however before he could say anything to him he got a sudden transmission from his spy, Punch. "What did you find?"
"The 'Cons have a spy in your midst, they know about the Ark." Punch said
"Any Idea as to who it might be, or the earliest the spy could have infiltrated our ranks?"
"Negative on the who, as to the When: It was at least ten solar cycles ago when Prime issued the front line retreat order; in the chaos, the spy must have been able to slip in and get past security." Punch explained before ending the transmission.
This sudden revelation disturbed Prowl and presented a dilemma: do they pursue an investigation and run the risk of getting ambushed by a ground assault or do they immediately take off and investigate when they escape orbit while risking the chances of getting shot out of the sky by decepticon warships? Either decision posed great risks.
"Should I tell Optimus about this recent development?" Smokescreen asked
"No, he'll just slow things down with a public investigation. When we escape orbit, I'll commision Nightbeat to commence a discrete and private investigation amongst the crew in the meantime we should prepare to board Ark now." Prowl said before leaving to board the Ark.
Smokescreen glared at Prowl as walked off to enter the ark, he saw the smug expression and arrogant stride he had, that jerk was more willing to let the spy do possibly more damage to the Ark before take off. Smokescreen was going to tell Prime about the spy problem, there are too many lives at steak for him not to know.
Smokescreen raced to inform Prime of the Spy, he was rushing through the Ark's hallways in vehicle mode, nearly crashing into his fellow crew members until he reached the elevator to the bridge. When he arrived at the bridge he converted back to his robot mode and rushed towards Optimus "Sir, I believe there is a spy in our midst!" he exclaimed.
"A spy, are you sure?" Optimus asked, despite the calm and borderline stoic demeanor he displayed when asking, Smokescreen read his body language, and it read concern and he didn't blame him.
"Yeah, I was there when Prowl got the call from Punch. Though Prowl didn't want you to know, he said that you'd 'slow things down with a public investigation.' if you ask me we should investigate this before we launch, just delay it for a couple of solar cycles." Smokescreen said.
"I understand, I'll announce that take off will be rescheduled to next Pimasola, that'll buy you three solar cycles to find this spy."
Smokescreen nodded "Thank you sir." he said before going off to meet up with Nightbeat to assist in the investigation, the trek to his office was thankfully not as long as it was to get to the bridge since Nightbeat had established it close to the bridge in case Prime or any of the bridge crew wished to use his services. Once there he pressed the buzzer beside the door "Nightbeat, do you have a couple cycles, I have a job for you." he said.
Nightbeat immediately opened the door and asked "What sort of job?" the way Smokescreen saw Nightbeat was conducting himself was very cautious: he didn't have the door open all the way and despite the fact he was sporting a smile, his optic brows were raised and pulled together and his upper optic lids were raised while the lower lids were tensed indicated some form of some form of fear or discomfort.
"Relax, there's a Decepticon spy on the ark and I need your help to investigate and find out who it could be." Smokescreen explained, this seemed to peak Nightbeats interest.
"Spy busting eh? sounds like a nice change of pace compared to constantly having to deal with that zealot Wing-saber. Last Onyx-sola that maniac threatened to set an explosive off in my office so that I could 'burn like the filthy sinner that I am.', disgusting." Nightbeat vented, no wonder he was acting cautious.
"What did you do to get him so crossed?"
"Did an investigation of his church on an account of rumors embezzlement and terroristic behavior. However when the war broke out, my investigation was put on an indefinite hold." Nightbeat started to frown a little. "I was so close to finding the answers and truth too, do you know what it's like to be so close to finishing something and be satisfied only for it to be interrupted before you can?" Smokescreen had to stifle an all too obvious remark, though he still let out a quiet chuckle. "Anyways, you said we're dealing with a mole, correct?"
"Yeah, the problem is that we don't know who contacted the 'Cons, let alone have the original transmission." Smokescreen said.
"Didn't Prowl order Blaster to monitor or record any and all communications?" Nightbeat asked.
"Yes, but I'm not sure he'd be too keen to hand the recordings over to us." Smokescreen said he was aware of Prowl's well documented tendency of wanting everything under both his control and supervision paired with his strict attachment to a strict regimen of time, were signs of an obsessive and compulsive individual, why he was put in the position of Chief of security instead of Red Alert still confounds him.
A mischievous grin formed on NightBeat's face "Oh don't worry about that, good old Blaster still owes me a favor or two. Perhaps I can cash one in, in exchange for those recordings." Smokescreen gave a hesitant look, he wasn't sure if Nightbeat's plan would work, but he followed along anyways seeing as this was their best shot at catching the spy.
The trek to Blaster's post wasn't long as it mostly consisted of an elevator ride followed by a two cycle long walk, before Smokescreen took a single step into the room he was halted by Nightbeat. "I'd suggest turning down the sensitivity of your audio receptors Smokescreen, Blaster tends to have music blasting out while he's working." Smokescreen nodded and adjusted his audio receptors down to 50% sensitivity, a mistake he would instantly regret once he entered the room. Blaster was playing 'music' on a electro-scramble concussion rifle that he had modified to double as cyber-tar. The tunes were so painfully loud that Smokescreen was forced to grind his dental plates together to get his mind off the noise, though thankfully his pain would be short-lived in the form of Nightbeat alerting Blaster of their presence.
"Well, well, well; if it ain't one of the most persistent Nitrocat on Cybertron, how you doin' Nightbeat?"
While Nightbeat was talking with Blaster and catching up with him, Smokescreen decided this was probably the best time to observe those accompanying the red and gold communications officer; there was Prime's right hand bot: Jazz as well as a lavender and bronze bot named Sound-bite, who was accompanied by his minicon named rooker. There was something about Soundbite that put him on edge, he wasn't showing any hostile body language, in fact it was very calm and relaxed, almost too relaxed in fact. It was as if it were an act to lull the young deception expert into a sense of security, however his attention was pulled away when he heard Nightbeat call his name. "Hm, yeah?" he asked.
"Blaster thinks he has the recording we're looking for, you ready to hear it?"
"Sure, let's have a listen." Smokescreen said, as the recording played he was given a nasty surprise of hearing Shatter and Dropkick's voices, his mentors and fellow members of the prestigious Autobot Elite guard had sold everyone out. But why, what reason could there be for them to betray everybody? Deep in his spark he felt such a great anger that he wished to unleash, but he suppressed it for now; he was going to save it for the two traitors now.