randomplaces | Transformer-'verse. The SoD's office. Leads and threads. ((written with <lj site="livejournal.com

The phone rang on Keller's desk, causing the tiny Transformer to shoot upward with a squeal of surprise and fright.

"Oh, calm down," he said with a chuckle before picking up the phone. "Keller here."

"Mr. Secretary." The voice was deep and unmistakable. "Do you have a few moments?"

"Of course." He frowned slightly into the receiver. "What can I do for you?"

"I just heard that my boss was arrested for hiring an illegal alien." Optimus Prime's tone showed his displeasure and concern over the news. "All of my coworkers were born in America."

Keller sighed. "You do realize this is out of my direct jurisdiction, right?" Then again, Prime and his comrades had saved the world, so the least he could do was to provide the Autobot with some advice. "So all I can do is tell you what to do to get this fixed. First off, have they said who is an illegal alien?"

"No. But as I said, there could be only one of us to fit the description. Ron is also being held on suspicion of harboring an illegal alien because he wouldn't give the authorities any information about his men."

Keller frowned even deeper, absently trying to discourage the pet-bot, who was crawling up into his sleeve. "Who made the arrest?"

"The FBI."

"Alright." By now he was taking notes. Vanessa Raymond, the ex-forensic investigator and aide he'd put in charge of the investigation into the Autobots' attacker, was going to need all the information. "And where did this happen? I'm going to give all the pertinent information to Ms. Raymond."

"He was taken from his office, in Tranquility, last night at five fifteen. His wife and youngest daughter were warned not to leave town for any reason."

The scratching of a pencil across paper could be heard over the phone. "Well, whoever did this is... ah... abusing their authority. Ron is your boss, correct?"

"Yes. He knows what I am. Vanessa and Emily don't." There was a tap at Keller's door. "Am I interrupting something?"

Keller frowned slightly, but then spoke curtly into the phone. "Can I get you to hold, please, Mr. Peters?" He pressed hold on the phone, his hand closing around the pet-bot who'd just fallen out of his sleeve.

The tiny robot squirmed, then moved backward till he was once more stuffed between Keller's arm and the fabric of his shirt, twitching slightly as the polite tap was repeated.

Keller grumbled. "Come in."

Two of his aids stepped through, closing the door behind them. Both wore serous expressions.

"What's going on?" Keller's face took on a pinched look.

Benson and Cooper exchanged a glance and then Benson stepped toward his desk and pointed a large caliber silenced pistol at his forehead. "Don't try anything. Lift your hands slowly to where I can see them."

Keller hoped that the pet-bot had the sense to stay still. He slowly rose his hands up into the air, then placed them down on his desk, palm up.

What neither Benson nor Cooper could see was his knee pressing against the underside of the desk. It was an alarm that activated the CCTV in his office, as well as alerting security. Hopefully the apparent mutiny only extended to these two.

"Don't bother with the silent alarm. It's been disabled." Benson waved the gun slightly. "In the air, halfway up, with the palms facing me."

Keller's face remained impassive as he acquiesced to Benson's request and did as he was told, his brain absently quoting his thirteen year old grandson. Well, then, that sucks.

"So. What's this about?"

"You stuck your nose in where it wasn't wanted." Benson's finger drew up the pressure on the trigger, his face impassive. "So now you die."

It would be the understatement of the year to say that Keller was frightened. However, he stared beyond Benson and his gun and saw the red light of the security camera glowing. The alarm might have failed, but this entire debacle was being recorded.

At the very least, should Vanessa Raymond stumble upon the recording, there would be some evidence.

Benson didn't ask about last words. He didn't gloat. He only pulled the trigger.....

Something moved in Keller's sleeve, and a tiny head and arm suddenly popped free of the fabric even as a thin line of red fire burned into Benson's trigger finger, causing him to yell with surprise and fire the bullet into the wall, just shy of Keller's head.

And that noise had the Secret Service hammering at the door. Keller simply stared, completely awestruck at what the pet-bot had done.

There was an irate beep, and Benson gasped and staggered back, his other hand going to his chest as the minuscule laser fired again.

There was the sound of two silenced shots and he crumpled. Cooper didn't watch him fall, instead turning his gun toward Keller even as the door began to crack.

The office door fell down then, Secret Service agents pouring in and subduing Cooper... and Keller was frozen in place.

Did that tiny little thing just... shoot Benson?

"Cooper shot him... wait, is this a burn?"

"His shirt's smoking...."

"Sir, are you alright?" One of the SS left the group around the would-be assassins and leaned over him with concern.

Keller blinked a few times, then nodded and straightened up, adjusting his tie. "Yes."

"What's this?" Keller's arm was suddenly seized as the brawny redhead noticed the lump that was pet-bot heading for his elbow under his sleeve.

He paused. "It's not important."

The redhead frowned and made as though to grab the moving lump, which evoked a startled squeak and tiny arms trying to wrap around Keller's arm.

Keller sighed. "It's from the people at Nellis."

Which should be all the answer the man needed.

The young agent relaxed and turned his attention back to his colleagues, barking some orders as he walked over to look at Benson's body.

And the phone rang again.

Keller reached up and answered it, barking a terse greeting into the receiver.

"I'm sorry," said Optimus Prime. "But your hold started getting long and I became concerned."

Oh. "Well, there may be reason for concern, Mr. Peters. It would appear that I am also a target."

A pause, and then a metallic growl. "What happened?"

Keller watched as the rest of the Secret Service agents hauled off the assailants. "Two of my aides." He made a gesture to the redheaded agent that seemed to say 'don't worry about me, get those guys taken care of properly'. Then he covered the mouthpiece briefly.

"Tell Raymond about this."

"Yessir." The redhead nodded tersely and turned on his heel to walk out.

"Mr. Secretary?" asked Optimus.

"Yes." He blinked and took up the phone again. "I do believe we have our break."

"You're undamaged?" Concern was very clear in the big mech's voice.

"My suit is wrinkled," Keller said wryly, "but that's about it." The pet-bot let go of his arm and wriggled down to the desktop, apparently relieved that the room was empty.

"Thank Primus." Relief warred with anger and frustration. "May I ask what happened?"

"The two of them came in, attempted to shoot me, and..." This is going to sound ridiculous. "That day when I was at Hoover Dam, I had a toy belonging to my granddaughter in my pocket. Now I have a robot. And it... came to my defense."

"One of those created by the Allspark's pulse? It's sane?"

It was hugging a kleenex and rocking like the very young child that it seemed to be, at the moment.

"It seems to be rather juvenile," Keller said, looking at it and smiling despite himself, "but I'd say yes, it is."

Another tap on his door sent the little thing scrambling in a panic toward him before it simply vanished under the kleenex and shifted.

"A youngling." Optimus sounded bemused, but then returned to the matter at hand. "Do you think you'll be able to obtain information from your attackers, then?"

"That's the idea." Keller covered the mouthpiece again. "Who is it?"

"Vanessa Raymond, sir," came the voice on the other side of the door.

Keller grinned and put Optimus on speakerphone. "Come in."

She did so, carrying a thick manila folder in her arms, looking worried but satisfied.

"Cooper caved," she said. "One of my many hunches was confirmed. Credit checks on Cooper and Benson showed they'd been receiving money from sources linked to several ex-S7 employees."

Keller nodded. "Did you receive my latest memo?"

"No sir."

"Well, we'll have plenty of time to talk about it. I have Mr Peters here on speaker." He looked meaningfully at Raymond, who smiled.

"Hello, Mz Raymond," the deep voice rumbled, causing slight vibrations in the speaker.

"Hi." Raymond grinned. She'd been provided with all pertinent information concerning the Autobots, but had never had contact with them. "A pleasure to speak with you at last."

"Yes." There was a pause, then a slight awkward sound. "Er... Mr. Secretary?"

"Yes?" Keller was shuffling through the folder Raymond had just handed him.

"The baby is crying."

"Oh." He lifted up the kleenex on his desk and saw the game beeping softly and rocking from side to side. "Huh."

"Er... aren't you going to comfort him? It's rather distracting." Optimus sounded slightly embarrassed.

The Secretary of Defense blinked a few times and closed his hand around the little robot, picking him up and gently rubbing his thumb along the pink plastic. "...yes."

The faint sound of whimpering came from the background on the speaker phone, followed by young Sam Witwicky's voice soothing Honey. The sound had not only been distracting to Optimus; it had made the Autobots' baby cry.

Interestingly, it was Raymond who broke the tense atmosphere. "So what's the situation, then?"

Keller sighed. "If what you've said is true, this is starting to spill over and affect innocent people." He tapped his fingers on the desk. "Optimus, you should probably explain this to Ms. Raymond."

"It's affected innocent people from the beginning," said Optimus grimly. "Jazz's friend died merely for being close to him." There was the sound of small beeps and the soft clang and rubbing of metal against metal, and then the Autobot leader tersely outlined everything that had happened thus far, beginning with Jazz and Laticia's murders and ending with the trap that was specifically set for Ratchet.

Raymond looked up at Keller. "I need to go to Nevada."

Keller stared back. "Why?"

"I have a hunch. Trust me on this, Mr. Secretary." She leaned over the speakerphone. "Do you have anything left from the most recent attack? Wreckage, UXO, something to that effect?"

"We cleaned up and analyzed everything we could," said Optimus. "Our best tracker was unable to find a trail. Either time."

She scowled slightly. "What I'm interested in is anything with serial numbers. I have here invoices, requisition orders... everything that came up for the credit check on the wannabe assassins. There's plenty that matches the alleged weaponry used during the first attack. Regardless of who's pulling the strings, Benson and Cooper were buying the material."

"Ah." Optimus's sound of understanding was echoed by a sweet baby giggle and more soft beeping.

"So we have something to go on. I'd like to come by and take down what I can."

"Very well." The big alien paused, then continued in a heavy voice. "Just... please be careful."

"Oh, I will." Raymond looked at Keller, who pinched the bridge of his nose.

"If you must," he said. "But you're to communicate your findings to myself and the Autobots only, do you understand?"

"Have I ever done it any other way?" A grin.

There was a louder clang and a whimper and a yelp from Sam, and Optimus gave a very human sigh. "Have we anything else to discuss?"

"I don't think so," Keller said. "Just... that news."

"Alright. I'd better go feed the baby, then. Thank you for your time, Mr. Secretary, Mz Raymond."

"Anytime," they said in unison.

The pet-bot squeaked from where he was still nestled in Keller's hand.