Please note that these characters belong to their original creators as do any songs used in this fiction, not me, this is just my take on what might happen enjoy and let me know what you think.
also i am still trying to fix any mistakes that i might have missed in past chapters (i.e spelling, grammar and so on)
Sam entered the waiting area and found Bumblebee in is robot mode looking at a round container made of the same dull gold coloured material as the building they were in. Sam transformed and readied himself for any possible affects from the box they had found in the tower. For a second he stood there half expecting the same disruption that he had gone through before, but this time nothing happened. "it's in that thing isn't it?" asked Sam as he pointed at the round container, "yes, this is a kind of shielded safety container designer to hold dangerous items like bombs, it has an integrated signal dampener designer to prevent remote detonation" answered Bee. Sam looked at the container, it reminded vaguely of a squat cookie tin only made with much thicker walls, bottom and lid. It had four large clamps that held the lid to the rest of the container these each had three rectangle shaped lights that pulsed in a rhythmic pattern. Sam scanned it and found that it was generating a dampening field as strong as the one Bumblebee had been using when he was transporting the strange box in his trunk. "you think it might explode?" asked Sam as he inspected the container "no I scanned it for explosives when you were getting you legs back and it came up clean" replied Bee. "so your just using this thing to dampen the signal from it until ironhide gets here" said Sam as a statement more than a question.
Now that his questions about where the box had gone and what the container was had been answered he asked "did you hear mikaela?", Bumblebee just nodded in answer. Sam pulled up a chair and Bumblebee did the same "she's really upset with her dad as you probably heard, but it's hit her harder than just making her angry, she's really scared because if he'd been caught she could have lost him again, not to mention what would have happened to wheelie if he'd been caught" said Sam. "what's she going to do about it?" asked Bee "when I came back I though that she was going to kill him and solve her problem permanently, but she's trying to find a way to get her dad back on the straight and narrow while keeping wheelie from becoming a card shark at the same time" replied Sam. This was an interesting concept for Bumblebee, "how can a salvage drone become a shark?" he asked. Sam laughed lightly then said "it means that he's going to try and cheat people at cards by using his ability's to work out what cards their holding and so on, people call players like that card sharks". Still slightly confused Bumblebee accessed the internet and looked up any references he could find on the subject. It took Bee about a minute to look into the the term and it's associated connections but when he was finished with the information on Las Vegas he under stood how much trouble Mikaela's dad and Wheelie could have been in if they had been caught.
"so mikaela was worried that they would have been "whacked" if some of the more connected casinos had found out what they were doing?" asked Bee. "that's one way to put it bee, but I think that she was more worried that her dad would have been sent back to jail while wheelie would have probably been thrown in some kind of science lab to be dismantled by some of galloways friends" said Sam. "still at least their both here in autobot city and for the time being and they can be kept out of of trouble, that is if wheelie doesn't start cleaning out the troops stationed here" continued Sam. Bee laughed slightly as he though of Wheelie sitting in a card game with some of the soldiers and then having to explain to Ironhide and the rest of Autobot city security what they were doing and why he was so loaded up with cash that he couldn't move. "what is it?" asked Sam "I just had a though about what wheelie was going to say to ironhide when he gets pulled in for gambling, I can almost see ironhide's face" said Bee trying to hold back his growing laughter. "what about my face?" said Ironhide as he almost crashed into the waiting room in his usual forceful manner.
"we were just thinking about the expression you were going to have when you arrested wheelie for ripping people off in card games" answered Sam still smiling. Ironhide let out a snort as he said "wheelie is clear to play cards so long as he looses every time, the moment he even wins a single penny then he's getting locked up in the smallest cell I can find". Sam and Bee both commed each other quickly as they tried to guess how serious Ironhide was being about his threat. Finally Sam said "well since we know what wheelie has in store why don't we get down to the business of this device we found patched into the come system of the central tower". Ironhide nodded and said with more than a trace of anger in his voice "all right sam well deal with this and who ever put in the tower under my scanners or do you have other orders for me prime" the last part said jokingly "it's sam and no I don't have any orders" said Sam quickly "you've known me long enough to know that you can call me by my first name no matter what". Ironhide smiled at Sam and said "at least being a prime hasn't gone to your head" before he slapped Sam hard on the back in gesture of friendship that he had seen humans do. "thanks" said Sam as he tried to hide the wince of pain in his voice. "so where was this thing when you both found it?" asked Ironhide anger still present in his voice "fourth floor of the central tower in a com section built for humans, the weird thing is it's transmitting on the frequency I use to connect to my avatar" explained Sam. A look of concern crossed Irohides face as he thought of the possible implications connected with this information.
Ironhide quickly accessed his com system and barked orders for a full sweep of every building in Autobot city for any similar device. Once the orders were given he turned to Sam and said "we need to get this box of yours to one of the forensic bays, from there we can figure out who built it and where the parts came from". Bumblebee picked up the container and followed Ironhide out, Sam still a little unsure of how he would be affected by the device followed a few second later. The weapon specialist transformed and said "I'll take the thing off you now bumblebee, you two transform and follow me". Bee placed the container in Ironhides rear cargo section and transformed into his Camero alt, Sam took a few steps away from Ironhide and transformed into his Veyron alt. Once ready to roll the three Autobots headed out towards the unused forensic bays deep in the security office. Ironhide lead the way through the maze of road sized corridors and Sam was surprised that they hadn't gotten lost given the number of turns they were making. As they rounded another corner Sam asked "why is this place built like this ironhide, don't people get lost in here?" "no-one who works here will ever get lost sam, each member of the security force has a navigation system built into their own com unit and each com unit only works for the individual it was built for, that way we know where we're going and any intruders or escaping suspects don't" explained Ironhide.
A few more minutes of driving got them to the forensics bay located in the central section of the building. A large set of doors sat between them and the bay they were planning to use, Ironhide transmitted a signal and the doors slid backwards allowing access to the three Autobots. The room was filled with all kinds of equipment designed to be used by both Autobots and humans, there were scanners, analyzers, decoders and all manner of things needed to investigate any kind of crime that could be committed by either a human or cybertronian. But despite all the equipment the bay was unmanned and lifeless. Sam and Bee scanned the room making sure that they were both seeing the same thing. Their scans matched, there was no-one other than the three of them in the entire forensics bay or in any forensics in the entire building. "what's going on here ironhide?" asked Sam "where are the people who work in this section?" asked Bumblebee just as curious. "we're still interviewing for people" said the weapons specialist almost sheepishly "most of the humans in autobot city came here from n.e.s.t. h.q and we had no troops trained in forensics there, most of that was handled off base by separate facility's and the military doesn't want to break up the units in those facility's to staff this one so for the time being we have all the equipment but no people to use it". "then why did we come here?" asked Sam, "bumblebee has some training in identifying devices like this I'm hoping that he can get us some where" replied Ironhide.
Sam opened his comlink to Bee and said "I didn't know that you were trained in this kind of work bee", Bumblebee replied "I'm not, well not really, I am trained as a scout and I need to know what I'm doing when I set-up surveillance devices of my own, so I can kind of do a basic analysis of the device we found and with a little access to the internet I should also be able to fill in any gaps in my information about it". "so basically you flying blind and learning as you go" commed Sam, Bee commed back"not completely but that's a good analogy for what I'm doing". Sam closed the link and asked Ironhide "we can't get anyone to help with this can we?" "not on such short notice sam, after bumblebee's had a look at it I'll take it to one of the forensics labs in a near by city for their analysis of it's components and any trace evidence inside it" answered Ironhide. The weapon specialist moved to one of the stations built for Autobots and said "bumblebee get this thing unloaded so we can start checking it over". Bumblebee transformed and lifted the container off Ironhide's cargo area and placed it on the work station. Now free of his cargo Ironhide transformed and started opening the container, Sam was unsure if he should transform and join them or get as far away from the box and its signal as possible. The decision was made for him when Ironhide said "sam please come over here and give us a hand, two sets of scanners set-up to detect even the smallest change in things will be better than one".
Sam transformed and moved towards the work station, Ironhide was busy removing the clamps that held the lid to the container firmly in place so he didn't see the slight grimaces on Sam's face as he drew closer . Once the last clamp was removed and the dampening field was turned off Sam braced him self for the waves of disorientation that had him before. Ironhide slowly removed the lid as Bumblebee kept a close eye on Sam ready to catch him if anything happened again. Once the lid was free Sam only felt the same strange feeling that had drawn him to the central tower in the first place. Sam relaxed now that he was only getting this feeling as he commed Bumblebee and said "so far so good bee". Bumblebee nodded at Sam then started dismantling the box, Bee quickly got the outer section removed but then found an inner box designed so that only a human could open it. The inner box had what looked like a hand shaped scanner mounted in the middle of the top section, the rest of the box aside from sealed input ports was seamless with no means of opening it. "this is interesting" said Bumblebee "it looks like this has been designed to prevent access to anyone who isn't human with an authorized hand print". "so you need to be human and have the right hand print to access this thing?" asked Sam "yes" replied Bumblebee "but I may have a way of getting past that".
Bee scanned the hand shaped scanner and looked of any impression left on the device, "there's a faint print left on the scanner plate I think I can copy it" he said. Bumblebee activated his Avatar and adjusted it's hand so that the prints would match those on the scanner plate. For a second the hand on Bee's Avatar flickered and fazed as it changed to match the scan "this will be a little on the rough side but I think it will work" said Bumblebee. His Avatar walked over to the inner box and placed it's hand on the scanner plate, nothing happened other than a red light flickered across the plate for a second. "I was sure that should have done it" said Bee as he adjusted his Avatar trying to get a better match. Sam scanned the box looking for any change in it, his scan picked up an increase in it's power output and it was building in intensity. "bee I think this this s over loading it's self" said Sam quickly "self destruct" said Ironhid as he reached for the bomb proof container. "just a second" said Bee as he finished reconfiguring his Avatars had print. Bumblebee's Avatar slammed it's hand down on the scanner in a last ditch attempt to stop the overload and open the box. For a second nothing happened but then a pulsing green light flickered across the scanner and then went out as the power output returned to normal.
Bumblebee backed his Avatar away from the inner box as it made whirring and clicking sounds. The dull grey box slowly started to move as it's lit with the hand scanner lifted up with a his and it's sides fell open like the petals of a flower. The lid made one last movement as it slid to the side fully exposing the the inner contents of the device. All three drew closer as the device powered it's self down ready for inspection. Sam was the first to notice a familiar symbol sitting in the center of the circuitry, branded there as a mark of the organization who had built the device. The S7 logo sat there surrounded by what looked like a poor copy of cybertronian circuitry mixed with the latest human based components. "I though sector seven had been disbanded" said Sam as he looked at the devices inner workings, "so did I, this must be some kind of surveillance tool they built, it looks like it was designed to monitor human based systems" said Bumblebee as he analyzed the layout. "you see here" Bee pointed "this was added to the design after it was built so that it could access our systems, the only question is who could have gotten hold of this and how did they get it in the city".
