A Decepticon in Human Skin

"Sam, I'm having people over tonight. Come by."

"Can't. I've got a shift."

"You work every night now?"

"College isn't paying for itself, and my parents didn't leave me a tuition fund like yours."

Sam Witwicky left his classmate in the campus courtyard and hurried into the yellow Camaro waiting at the curb. Mikaela, played by Gal Gadot, was already in the driver's seat.

"Ten minutes late," she said.

"Ten minutes and thirty-four seconds," Bumblebee corrected through the radio.

"My roommate wouldn't stop talking. I told him I had to work."

"You do," Mikaela said. "For the Autobots and the government. Come on. The world won't save itself."

Bumblebee's engine rose as they cleared the city. The road blurred behind them, and the film cut to a base concealed inside a mountain. Its architecture was neither wholly human nor wholly Cybertronian. The production had built enough of it for the actors to touch; the rest came alive through effects.

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide were waiting. New arrivals stood among them: Skids, Mudflap, Sideswipe, Arcee, and Elita-One. In ten minutes, the sequel had brought its audience back to the world MGM had built and made that world larger.

More than a year had passed since the battle in Las Vegas. The damaged AllSpark had left the Autobots unable to return to Cybertron. Megatron was dead, but the Decepticons who survived had scattered across Earth. They still surfaced often enough to be dangerous. The Autobots helped the government respond to them; human teams supplied materials and equipment for work on the AllSpark. Optimus had also been calling other Autobots out of hiding.

Sam and Mikaela had earned access to the base and assisted on selected missions. Both were older than the teenagers who had followed Bumblebee into the first fight. Captain William Lennox's performance in Las Vegas had earned him a promotion to lieutenant colonel and command of a joint operations unit.

In the theater, a little girl leaned forward as Arcee appeared.

"Dad, there's a girl Autobot."

"That's Arcee."

"She's pink. Can I have one?"

"One Arcee or one Barbie. Your choice."

The girl thought it over. "Arcee. And Elita-One, so she has a friend."

"You negotiate like your mother," he said, though he was already working out which toy store would have them. He wanted to see how the figures transformed himself.

Onscreen, Ironhide reported that Jazz had not returned from a mission. Lennox's soldiers, who had gone with him, were missing too. Autobots and humans reached the last known location together. The ground was scarred by weapons fire, but there were no bodies.

"Decepticon signatures," Ratchet said after scanning the damage.

"Can you identify who fired?" Lennox asked.

"Not from this. I need a cleaner trace."

Mikaela looked at Sam. Neither said what they feared.

Optimus studied a burned stretch of earth. "Jazz has survived worse than this. We have evidence of a fight, not of his death."

Arcee proposed a wider search. The Autobots needed access to the satellite network if they were to find a Decepticon trail quickly. Lennox promised to take the request to the Defense Department.

The film then cut to a Decepticon gathering. Starscream, relieved that Megatron was gone and eager to inherit his army, delivered a speech that sounded more confident than his position deserved. Soundwave and the bots loyal to him had no intention of accepting Starscream as their leader. They were still looking for a way to bring Megatron back.

"You doubt me," Starscream told them. "I'll do what Megatron couldn't. I'll destroy the Autobots."

"You don't even know where they are," Soundwave replied.

"I do now."

He refused to say how he had found their mountain base. The Decepticons followed him anyway, tempted by the chance to seize the damaged AllSpark. They came in fast and hit a defense that was already waiting. Human satellite support had given the Autobots time to set a trap of their own.

Sam and Mikaela joined the battle in Cybertronian exosuits made for them by their allies. Metal crashed through the base's outer works, jets cut across the mountain, and Decepticons who had expected a clean surprise attack found themselves fighting for an exit. Several did not make it out.

Soundwave and Knock Out escaped the main battle only to run into a second ambush. The attackers were human, equipped far beyond any ordinary unit. The Decepticons still had the advantage until Airachnid dropped into the fight, seized Knock Out, and left Soundwave no choice but to flee.

The unit took its prisoner away. Its leader was Leland Bishop, a former senior government official who had become obsessed with Cybertronian technology after Las Vegas. Bishop and Airachnid had made a secret bargain: she would help him capture Autobots and Decepticons for research; he would help her reach the AllSpark. An insider had given him access to information he should never have possessed.

Jazz was already in Bishop's custody. Knock Out was the second prize. Bishop intended to study both until his people could build a Transformer of their own.

"I told you I'd bring you a Decepticon," Airachnid said.

"And I said the captures were only the beginning. We need to understand their systems well enough to make one."

"Keep your part of the bargain."

"I haven't forgotten it."

She folded her spiderlike limbs against her back. Sam and Mikaela trusted their Autobot allies; nothing about this partnership resembled that trust. Airachnid looked Bishop over and gave him the name his ambition had earned.

"You're a Decepticon in human skin."