Who Shot Optimus Prime?

Chapter Four

   The detective found Rachet's apartment easily enough. The building's neighborhood was a quick drive from the city center, far enough away to be quiet, but close enough to the Metroplex for the doctor to be able to get to Optimus Prime quickly in case of emergency. It was a nice building, complete with an ornate, fully staffed lobby and front desk.

   As Nightbeat stepped inside and approached the desk, one of the two attendants looked up from his computer to greet him, "Welcome to Adamant Towers, how may I help you?"

   Nightbeat placed his CIS I.D. on the desk and spoke quietly and calmly to the attendant, there were a few other bots coming and going in the lobby, and Nightbeat didn't want to start a panic. "I'm Detective Nightbeat with the CIS, I need be let upstairs to question a tenet, if you could do that for me?" 

   The attendant was a little shocked by this. He looked at Nightbeat, then at Nightbeat's I.D., then back to Nightbeat. "Certainly, sir" he answered, a little nervously. He made a few clicks on his computer, "Which unit?"

    "Unit 405, please."

    "Okay...", the attendant clicked a few more things, "If you would wait here for a moment, I can get you a manager with a key to the unit who can accompany you up."

    "Perfect, thank you", Nightbeat responded. The attendant exited through a staff only door behind the front desk. A few minutes later, he came back out with a manager, who culched a skeleton key on a lanyard in his hand.

    "Right this way Detective", the manager said, as he beckoned Nightbeat toward the elevators.

* * *

   "This is it, Unit 405", the manager stopped beside the door.

   "Thanks", then Nightbeat instructed, "I'll knock first, if there's no answer, be ready with that key."

   "Got it" the manager responded.

   Nightbeat rapped firmly on the door, "CIS, open up!"

   He listened closely. 

   Nothing.

   He tried again, louder this time, "Cybertron Investigation Service! Open the door!"

   There was more silence, then the sound of footsteps.

   Then a pained yell.

   Then a thud as the bot behind the door hit the ground.

   That wasn't good.

   "Get that door open!" Nightbeat barked at the manager. The startled employee fumbled a bit but unlocked the door quickly. 

   Nightbeat charged inside to find his suspect face down on the threshold between the living room and the hallway leading into the rest of the apartment.

   "Scrap!", Nightbeat rushed the rest of the way in and, kneeling, rolled the doctor onto his side, "Doctor! DOCTOR! Doctor Rachet, can you hear me?"

   Rachet remained unresponsive. Frame limp, optics shut.

   Nightbeat turned back to the shaking manager in the doorframe, "Call for help! Now!", he ordered.

   The manager nodded and bolted. Nightbeat kept trying to rouse the doctor.

   Another death was the last thing he needed right now.

   The paramedics where quick to arrive and got Rachet out of there even faster. Nightbeat sped after the medical transport, firing off orders into his commlink, ". . .Adamant Towers, Unit 405 - a full forensic sweep, top to bottom! And we need at least two bots to stand guard at the hospital, if he survives he's still a suspect!"

   "Sending units now, Detective", the dispatcher answered.

   Nightbeat transformed before he fully stopped, landing in a run and heading into the hospital with the gurney, the paramedics had commed ahead already. The Iacon General ER was more then ready.

   Nightbeat stood by as the doctors worked to get him stable. Still, Rachet did not respond to questions or attempts to wake him.

    "Let's get him up to radiology, get started on tests", the most senior seeming doctor finally said. Nighbeat followed them up to the radiology department, he'd stick close until other CIS personnel could arrive to relieve him.

    He was standing in the hallway trying to decompress a little from all the commotion, when the door opened again. The nurses wheeled Rachet back to the elevator, but the doctor lingered, "I'm sure you want an update, Detective."

   Nightbeat looked to the red and white femme, "Did you find anything?"

   "We did, and it's. . .odd", she said, "You'll want to see the scans."

   She brought him inside the radiology lab, and showed him a set of brain module scans on a monitor. She tapped them with her finger, indicating to what looked like. . .a small object that had been lodged into Rachet's brain module.

   But it couldn't be that, right?

   "What. . .what exactly am I looking at here?", he asked.

   "That's the thing; we can't tell", she answered, "It doesn't match up with any of our initial hunches, but whatever it is, it's almost certainly causing his unconscious state."

   "About that", Nightbeat said, "How soon can we expect him to wake up?"

  "The rough plan is to run more tests, then go in for exploratory surgery, if we have to. When he's well enough to answer questions, the CIS will be the first to know"

   Nightbeat offered the femme his hand, "Thank you, Doctor. . ?"

  "Red Alert", she answered, accepting his handshake.

* * *

  "Sweet Solus Prime. . .", Depth Charge's voice crackled over the commlink, "The doctors really have no clue?"

   "Not yet", Nightbeat answered.

   Nightbeat was standing outside Iacon General Hospital's main entrance. Two CIS bots had finally arrived to guard Rachet's hospital room. He'd be under constant guard until he could be questioned. Nightbeat had stepped out after filling them in. Now, he had to fill the boss in.

   "They have to run more tests", he explained, "Any progress on his apartment?"

   "Forensics is still working on it", Nightbeat heard Depth Charge take a drag of his Cy-gar, "But I've got something else for you."

   Nightbeat was hoping he wouldn't say that. It was turning from afternoon to evening, and with the interruption to his stasis, plus the running around he'd done today, a creeping fatigue was starting to set in.

   "What's up?", Nightbeat asked.

   Depth Charge must have heard the tiredness in his voice, "Don't worry, you're not going anywhere else today. The Magnus has agreed to talk to us tomorrow morning. Bright and early too, so I need you rested."

   Depthcharge signed off, and Nightbeat let out a relived sigh. He transformed, and headed straight to his own apartment. Depthcharge was right.

   Nightbeat would need to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow if he was going to get any information from a bot like that.