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“Do you think they’re arranging a prisoner exchange?”
Jazz paused as he heard the familiar voice coming from the holding cell below him. There shouldn’t have been any prisoners here, and especially not this prisoner. But when he creeped to the edge of the vent and peered through the grating, he definitely saw Ratchet’s beloved apprentice talking with another mech he vaguely recognized from a stint in Praxus Medical ages ago.
Fraggit, all their intelligence said no one but Decepticons would be at this outpost and that it would be safe to destroy on his way out with the updated schematics for Darkmount. He couldn't leave these bots here, Ratchet disassembling him alive for killing his apprentice aside, but he’d already rigged the place to blow so he didn’t have time to sneak them out either.
“Dammit,” he whispered. Then he considered his options for a klik and opened a comm line.
”Who are you and how did you get this frequency?” The mech on the other end answered immediately. That hurt a little, because it meant that their deep cover mech didn’t know what had happened to Highbrow.
”Highbrow died,” Jazz replied, condensing all his hurt down into a little ball inside his spark where he could ignore it until they were safe. ”I’m his replacement. And I don’t exactly have time to explain more. I need a distraction at Outpost Sixty Six.”
”Outpost Sixty Six? What are you…” Jazz heard a few taps in the background. ”Frag, why did they move prisoners there? All right, I’ll do what I can but you better call back with that explanation later.”
”Thanks, mech. I will.”
”Great. Go in five.” The line cut out and Jazz nodded to himself.
After a count of five kliks, he heard the fire alarm begin wailing and smiled. It wasn’t a great distraction, but it would do. He rearranged himself in the air shaft so that he could plant both feet on the vent, and then he kicked the grate in without any warning to the mechs below. If they were lucky, the sound would be missed by guards who were more concerned with evacuating and saving their own skins than their charges.
Both medics were looking at him in shock when he dropped down into the cell a klik later. “Hiya, mechs. I’m here to get you out.”