Chapter 39

"OUT OF THE CAR, PLEASE," the leader of the mechanoids announced politely but thunderously. Simmons and the driver complied with alacrity. Crouched together on the ground, they recoiled as the massive mechanical head lowered to within a foot of their faces. Enormous lenses focused on Simmons, who would greatly have preferred to avoid the attention. A light from the robot's eyes played briefly over the cringing agent.

"Your nervous system does not register significant shock," the giant observed thoughtfully. "You are not surprised by our existence."

"Look, uh," Simmons stammered, "there are Sector Seven protocols that need to be observed here. Okay? I'm not authorized to communicate with you. Except to tell you I can't communicate with you."

A second mechanoid approached. It was bright yellow and black-striped. From an opening on Bumblebee's body a jet of hot lubricant shot out to spray all over the agents.

"Get that thing to stop!" Simmons pleaded as he flailed uselessly with both hands at the dark, soaking stream.

Alexander yelled,"Stop it Bee, they are our allies."

Optimus agreed and ordered,"Yes,Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man."

Bumblebee stopped and shrugged.

Simmons managed to mumble before a squirt of dark liquid filled his open mouth and he had to retreat, gagging.

Alexander went next to Simmons and said,"Sorry they are pretty protective of me, seeing your team take me and my friends with you by force must have triggered them."

Simmons was annoyed,but saw the boy was really being sincere here. As Alexander added,"You know there is fight coming and other NBE's as you called them are more violent, you have very small chance going after them alone especially with our communication systems are destabilized. They know the enemies well, they have knowledge about them and have necessary firepower."

Simmons frowned, he knew Banachek wanted the boy to come on orders of Defense, so he nodded and said,"Okay, we play it your way kid. But only one of them will comes with us, the rest will have to come by ground."

Alexander agreed,"Okay no problem."

Simmons gestured one of his men to call the choppers.

Bumblebee being Alexander friend, chose to go with him and was lifted with help of Choppers.

It was very early and the sun was just raising its scorch-ing self above the sere brown rocks of the desert horizon. These first rays found the three big army choppers traveling low and fast over the desiccated terrain. Each carried a different human cargo. Each component of that cargo had its own perspective on the incredible events of the past several days.

Alexander and Mikaela Banes sat on the bench on the left side of the middle chopper's cargo hold, Maggie Madsen on the other. All wore advanced radio headsets that for some time now had told them absolutely nothing. They had been exchanging uncertain, uneasy looks ever since they had been loaded onto the copter. Maggie was checking her minimal makeup in a compact mirror."Well we are now going to a secret govt facility, even John didn't know before."

Alexander hummed and nodded, while Mikaela held his hand in comfort.

As the sun rose sharply, its intensifying rays struck gold off the surface of Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam. Alexander, Mikaela, and Maggie sought windows to look out. All three choppers began to descend. Along with a couple of agents, a group of seven soldiers emerged from the first helicopter.

Coming down the steps, Lennox looked around, shook his head, and muttered to Epps. "No matter what a soldier does these days it seems he can't get away from the freakin' desert."

Alexander, Mikaela and Maggie exited the second chopper, while the third disgorged the secretary of defense, Sector Seven agent Banachek, and Agent Simmons, the latter looking even more gaunt than usual. As he had been instructed, Lennox held his ground as the secretary came up to him. The two men shook hands. "We got your intelligence, Captain. Excellent work, especially getting that thermal image."

Lennox nodded in the direction of his friend. "Sergeant Epps deserves the credit for that, sir." He squinted at the desert sky. Unnervingly, it looked exactly like the sky over Qatar. "What about the gunships?"

"Being retroloaded with sabot rounds now, Captain," Keller told him, "but it's going to be difficult to coordinate much of anything if we can't get military communications back up. The last thing we want is to have to involve civilian authorities in this." He gestured at Maggie standing next to him and Alexander, Maggie seemed unable to keep from shifting back and forth from one foot to the other, as if she needed a continuous outlet for her energy. "This is Maggie Madsen, one of our analysts. And by her side is,Alexander Morozova he has contact with some more friendly alien robots, he has more information about them."

While soon they started toward an art deco entranceway. Mikaela paused to admire the view of the vast lake held back by the dam.

As one of the agents was doing his duty, something hopped out of his pocke, and disappeared among the concrete and scrub.

Scuttling under a barrier, the spider-shape worked its way through passages far too small to admit anything bigger than a large rat. Finally halting beneath a sign, a resurgent Frenzy looked upward.

SECTOR SEVEN ONLY NO TRESPASSING! LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED

A sonic squeal emerged from the transformed Sidekick. Lasting less than a second, it shrieked in code too dense to be deciphered and too rapid to be picked up by the primitive native sensors nearby. "Sector Seven located. Follow my signal—and bring my body."

On a nearby air force base the engines of an F-22 Raptor suddenly roared to life. Taxiing off the end of a line of identical planes, the interceptor headed for the main runway. Within the nearby tower there was sudden confusion. No one among the air traffic controllers present seemed to know who had requested permission for a takeoff or who had authorized the departure. Their bewilderment would have been worse had any of them been able to see that there was no one in the plane's cockpit. On the edge of an army motor pool a huge mine-clearing vehicle rumbled to life. It was sixwheeled and heavily armored, and its front end sported specialized steel mine-excavating prongs. There was no one around to notice as it cut quietly through a fence and headed for the nearest highway. Above a city not far from Tranquility a military helicopter banked sharply and headed north. It was an MH-53. A particular MH-53. Lennox and Epps would have recognized it immediately. They had seen the exact same chopper before. In Qatar.

In a salvage yard two workers were in the process of removing a wrecking ball from the top of a crushed police cruiser. The sight generated chuckles and some especially crude jokes. These were transformed into screams when the freed cop car abruptly morphed into a towering, glowering bipedal shape. As the terrified workers fled the lot, Barricade reached down and picked up the crushed metal body that had been lying next to it. Once the last human had fled, the powerful, thick-bodied Decepticon changed back into police cruiser form. Lights and siren stilled, it rolled quietly out of the lot.

At the base of Hoover Dam, Bumblebee was in his car form driving and following closely behind Alexander, Mikaela and Maggie.

While lot of Sector Seven agent's including Simmons was watching Bumblebee warily.

They were soon ushered forward by Simmons and his minions. They were joined by a tall agent with a gleaming metal briefcase cuffed to his left wrist. Banachek glanced at the three youths but said nothing.