The Veiled Threat (30 page)

Taking the shape of a gigantic industrial vise, it enveloped him from beneath and on all four sides. Driven by huge pistons powered by unseen generators, it locked him in place and immobilized him far more securely than had the simple nets the now disbanded Sector Seven forces had once used to capture Bumblebee.

Joints straining, Optimus struggled to free himself from the trap. At any moment he expected a triumphant Starscream to drop down beside him and shove a cannon into his face. But strangely, the leader of the Decepticons was nowhere to be seen in the circle of starlit night that loomed overhead.

Quite unexpectedly, the unassuming figure of a single human appeared, emerging from a small side tunnel. He was stylishly dressed in the manner of his kind. A small cylinder of paper-wrapped weed protruded from his lips. It was on fire, but this did not seem to trouble the human. Casually, as if this were
something he saw every day, the man contemplated the towering Autobot securely restrained before him.

“So you’re Optimus Prime.” The human’s voice was soft yet somehow thick with menace. “I would have thought you would have been bigger.”

The leader of the Autobots glared down at the human. “You are responsible for this? You have allied yourself with Starscream and the Decepticons against your own kind? What sort of human are you?”

“The self-interested sort. My name is Bruno Carerra. I build things.” Removing the smoking cylinder from his mouth, he used it to gesture at the massive five-sided vise that pinned Optimus like a mouse in a trap. “My people built this.” Turning, he indicated the access tunnel from which he had emerged. “Back in that direction is where we’re building part of a new subway line. The city authorities won’t allow it to run any closer to the Colosseum because they’re afraid the vibrations from the trains might damage the foundations here and at the Forum. But the main tunnel is close enough to permit access via a clandestine subsidiary passageway to this part of the Colosseum’s original sub-basement. We had to work very quickly, of course, but we had help. It’s amazing how much dirt and rock a Decepticon can move when it is properly motivated.” He took another puff on the smoking cylinder protruding from his mouth.

“It seems that the prospect of your ultimate demise constitutes more than sufficient motivation.”

Throughout the entirety of the human’s speech Optimus’s servos continued to strain at the imprisoning vise. Already he could feel one corner of the mechanical
snare beginning to weaken at its bottom hinge. They would not succeed in trapping him here. From above he could hear the distant sounds of heavy fighting. That was where Starscream had gone, he realized. To attack the other Autobots. He strained anew and another hinge started to give. In a few moments he would be free to aid his companions. Then they would finish Starscream and once and for all finally free this world from the threat posed by the Decepticons.

As for the individual quietly taunting him, Optimus would leave his fate to be decided by his fellow humans. He did not think it would be pretty.

The man turned to go. “I’ll leave you now, Optimus Prime. I will soon have a great deal to do. There will be much to administer, many orders to give.” He smiled at the thought. “Commands, really. Oh, and one more thing. There’s someone else here who wants to talk to you. As it promises to be a noisy conversation, I’ll leave the two of you to your privacy.” With that he turned and disappeared back into the tunnel.

Once more alone in the trap, Optimus pushed and shoved against the metal slabs that continued to restrain him. He heard as well as felt the hinge on one corner of the enormous vise give way with an unmistakable metallic
snap
.

Hold on, Ironhide, and the rest of you. I will be at your side in a moment
.

If Starscream believed that any kind of human construction could restrain him for very long, Optimus thought determinedly, then the Decepticon had miscalculated for the very last time.

As he resumed his struggle a high, vertical metal
panel that he had assumed had been put in place to hold back loose rock and earth revealed itself to be another doorway. One that was far larger than the portal through which the scornful human had departed. Optimus halted his struggling. A shape was becoming visible behind the opening door. It was massive, metallic, and intimidating. A pair of burning red eyes met Optimus’s own. The voice that issued from the gleaming mouth was deep and foreboding.

“Greetings, Optimus. Greetings for the last time.”

It was Barricade.

Even more clearly than the crash that had sounded from the interior of the Colosseum, the three Autobots standing watch outside had heard the troubled transmission from their leader. But before they could go to his aid, they had barely changed shape when they found themselves set upon by the leader of the Decepticons. With Starscream throwing himself at them in a fury the three Autobots had enough to do to keep from being overwhelmed. Had Ironhide not been present the battle would have ended quickly and badly for Ratchet and Knockout, staunch though they were.

Firing at the far more powerful Starscream with little effect, a worried Ratchet wondered at the Autobot leader’s continued absence from the fight. Occasional fragments of transmission drifted through, but they were incomplete, as if Optimus’s broadcasts were being blocked, intercepted, scrambled, or a combination of all three by some heavy metal or electronic barrier.

Something slammed hard into Ratchet’s left side as the furious Starscream pressed his attack. For the time being the smaller Autobot was too busy to concern himself with Optimus’s current condition. Besides,
with Starscream fully occupied with the three of them, the leader of the Autobots was doubtless all right and would be arriving to join the battle as soon as he cleared away whatever minor impediment was delaying him.

“You are a devoted follower of Megatron.” As he continued to exert every one of his servos to escape the imprisoning vise, Optimus worked to engage Barricade’s full attention. “What are you doing groveling at the orders of a deceiver like Starscream?”

“Megatron is dead,” the huge Decepticon rumbled. “I am a soldier. In his absence I follow the orders of Lord Starscream.”

“How do you know Megatron is dead?”

“There are many images available of the final conflict in which his Spark was extinguished, and of his burial in this world’s deepest ocean. Starscream is master of all Decepticons now. His orders are to kill you.” A few errant sparks flew from the Decepticon warrior’s activated armaments. “It is an order I did not need to be given.”

He moved nearer, unafraid to match Optimus’s stare photon for photon. “As I have often said, it is a large galaxy. Yet it is amazing how often the lives of two such as ourselves can cross.” A heavily armed arm started to rise. “Your life ends here, Optimus Prime … ouch!”

Ouch?
Optimus’s perceptors scanned the blackness of the pit into which he had fallen. What he saw made him redouble his efforts yet again.

An angry Barricade whirled, searching the darkness. “Something
stung
me.”

The voice that replied was small, but its volume was magnified by the enclosing walls. “That’s what we insects do.”

“What is thi—ow!” Letting out another yell Barricade reached up, started to slap himself on his right shoulder, just to remember that the weapons systems on that arm were activated, partially deactivated them in time to avoid blowing off his own arm, and struck himself forcefully.

But Kaminari Ishihara had already darted behind his head. As she did so, Petr Andronov took aim from the ground and fired at the back of the Decepticon’s neck with his rifle. A burst of electricity shot through the startled metal giant, jolting his internal stabilizers and causing him to stagger briefly.

He staggered more when Lennox yelled “Fire!” and both he and Epps let loose with their launchers. Directed toward the same spot on the Decepticon’s right leg, the two sabot rounds struck Barricade just a little too high above the critical joint to bring him down. But they did cause him to grab at his knee. Hopping violently on one foot, he shook off the human who had been clinging to the back of his neck. Tumbling toward the ground like a gymnast dismounting from the uneven parallel bars, Kaminari landed lithely on her feet and raced to rejoin her companions. The ropes they had appropriated from one of the Colosseum’s renovation storage areas and had used to descend silently into the pit behind Barricade hung limp against the wall nearby.

Leave it to Kaminari, Lennox thought as he worked frantically to reload his launcher, to land on
top
of
the seething Decepticon’s shoulders while the rest of them had descended silently to the floor.

Regaining his footing, the enraged Barricade immediately located the fleeing human. “More of you meddling creatures! You swarm like bugs!” Raising an enormous foot, he started to bring it down as Kaminari and the others fled for the safety of the access tunnel.

The foot never reached the ground.

Making a supreme effort as he exerted himself to the utmost, Optimus Prime burst outward from the shattered vise and slammed into his old enemy. Locked together, Autobot and Decepticon crashed into the wall of the cavity, sending rock and cross-bracing beams crashing to the floor.

Lennox grabbed Epps’s shoulder. “Let’s get out of here! Move, move!” With dislodged rock and earth crashing down around them as the two metal giants slammed back and forth against the enclosing walls, the soldiers joined the scientists in racing for the access tunnel.

The clash of the metal titans echoed behind them as they sprinted down the smooth floor of the covert passageway. Motion sensors mounted on the walls activated embedded battery-powered lights to illuminate their way: an addition on the part of the traitor Bruno Carerra’s engineers that now benefited his enemies. At the end of the tunnel they encountered a heavy door that was locked from the outside.

“Everybody step back.” A grim-faced Epps raised his launcher. “I just happen to have the key with me.”

The single sabot round blew out the lock as well as a chunk of the door itself. Shoving aside the smoking
remnants, they found themselves standing in a reinforced subway tunnel that was still plainly under construction. It was far too early for the morning work shift to have begun to arrive.

“Which way?” Kaminari was looking up and down the unfinished tunnel.

Petr was already gesturing. “Nearest station in service is this way. There will be access there to surface.”

As they ran, Lennox caught up to the heavier Russian. “Let me guess. When we got here you memorized the public transport map for the entire city of Rome.”

“No.” Puffing as he ran, Andronov struggled to keep up with the others. “I memorize public transport maps and systems for hundred largest metropolitan areas when I first asked to join NEST. Thought it might come in handy one day.” He nodded in the direction they were running. “Was not difficult. Moscow’s metro is much bigger than this.”

“So is New York’s,” Lennox countered, and the two spent the rest of the time it took them to reach the nearest functioning station arguing the merits of their countries’ respective subway systems.

Crowded together in the lightless pit that Starscream had planned to be Optimus’s tomb, the metal leviathans were unable to deploy swords and clubs, far less explosive weapons. The fight devolved into a contest of physical strength and determination that saw first one combatant slam his opponent into a wall only for him to be wrenched around and smashed in turn into the enclosing rock and metal.

“It’s over, Optimus.” One powerful arm jammed hard against the Autobot’s throat, Barricade pressed
the attack, leaning all his weight against his opponent. But unlike a human, no life-giving air passed through the Autobot’s neck. For all the damage he was causing, Barricade might as well have been pressing his arm against his foe’s foot.

Reaching up and under with both hands, Optimus lifted his massive assailant and threw him against the far wall of the pit. “Indeed it is, Barricade. You are a good soldier, but you’ve chosen the wrong side in this war.”

“More words,” Barricade spat. Straightening, he gestured for his enemy to come toward him. “Too many words.”

“I agree.” Poising for another leap, Optimus prepared to engage his opponent afresh.

Instead, this time he jumped straight upward.

Barricade was an instant late in following. Halfway through his leap he encountered a blizzard of cut stone as Optimus proceeded to shove one ancient chunk of rock after another into the pit. As soon as he had shoveled enough on top of his fuming adversary, the leader of the Autobots proceeded to activate one of his more advanced weapons to melt the upper layer of rock to as great a depth as possible. His aim was not to imprison Barricade permanently—no simple entombment in molten stone would achieve that—but to delay him.

The instant Optimus showed himself outside the Colosseum, Starscream knew this was a battle he could not win. He could inflict damage, yes, and wreak collateral destruction. But he could not win. Nor could he imagine what might have happened to Barricade. Had Optimus actually managed to kill the
old warrior? One thing the leader of the Decepticons knew for certain: it would be unwise to wait until the truth made itself known.