"Baglin Meteor Crater is definitely fishy!"
Sun Cheng couldn't contain his excitement. The book he'd found, titled Interesting Earth, was an autobiographical novel written by an American under the pen name Bert Quinton.
After taking it back to the librarian's desk on the first floor, he used a computer to search online. He couldn't find any information about Bert Quinton, which made it clear the author wasn't well known in the United States.
Still, the book confirmed some of his suspicions. The two professors it mentioned, Brewster and Clement, were probably the very same Neville Octavian Brewster and Wallace Wilson Clement that Sun Cheng had just learned about from the university's history.
The book clearly proved that the two men had led a scientific expedition to Baglin Meteor Crater in 1912. They had definitely found a meteorite there—one that had astonished everyone who saw it.
There was something strange about that meteorite. Otherwise, no one would have suggested moving it and hiding it away for study.
Now all the scattered clues fit together.
The reason Professors Brewster and Clement had left the University of Arizona the following year was that the United States Government had intervened. As the discoverers of the mysterious meteorite, they had joined a government agency and begun studying it.
As for why Bert Quinton had suddenly lost contact with Professor Brewster a few years later, it was probably because Brewster had revealed the meteorite's location.
"Black Canyon? Looks like I'll have to go there."
After carefully finishing the book and confirming it contained no further mention of Baglin Meteor Crater, Sun Cheng tossed it onto the librarian's desk and searched online for information about Black Canyon.
There were no cities in the United States named Black Canyon, but there were two towns by that name: one in Wyoming and one in Colorado.
Interestingly, he also found that, besides those towns, the canyon where Hoover Dam stood—on the border between Nevada and Arizona—was also called Black Canyon.
After noting the locations of all three places called Black Canyon, Sun Cheng quickly shut down the computer.
"Hoover Dam? It doesn't seem too far from Onslaught's base..."
A decision came to him. He would head to Hoover Dam first.
He also planned to stop by Onslaught's place on the way back. After days of testing, Sun Cheng had realized that his new body, though powerful, wasn't perfect. It had a few minor issues, and he wanted Onslaught to fix them.
At last, he'd found a suspicious clue about the AllSpark, and his mood lifted. He soon left the University of Arizona.
Avoiding the National Guard patrols still roaming the streets, Sun Cheng deliberately stayed away from Starscream's base. He planned to take a little time and leave the city of Tucson from another direction.
Not long after leaving the University of Arizona, he let his guard down a little, now that he had found some clues. As he passed a street corner, he accidentally exposed himself to a device tucked away there that looked just like an ordinary electric meter.
"Beep, beep, beep, beep..."
The device suddenly blared out a series of beeps. For no apparent reason, Sun Cheng felt a surge of danger. He glanced at it instinctively and saw a needle marked "21" trembling wildly. His Spy Template immediately picked up signals from several monitoring devices.
"Warning... Warning. Radiation detector in D4G19 Zone has detected an anomalous energy target!"
Twenty or thirty meters away, a commercial van that Sun Cheng had assumed was simply parked by the roadside began emitting a piercing burst of radio signals. Its doors flew open, and three or four burly men in black suits rushed out, weapons in hand, charging toward him.
"Suspicious target spotted..."
The man in front immediately spotted Sun Cheng, who had nowhere to hide. Keeping his guard up as he charged toward him, he barked, "This is a United States Sector Seven office. Suspicious intruder, stay right there and don't move..."
"Damn..."
Sun Cheng's heart sank. Before entering the city, he'd noticed National Guard patrols, but he hadn't expected the Americans to build a machine capable of detecting Decepticons so quickly.
But with danger closing in, there was no way he'd let the United States Government capture him and dissect him for research. He activated every function of his Spy Template, shifted from robot to beast mode, and took off running without a word.
"Damn it, he's getting away!"
The man in black shouted and raised his UMP45, spraying bullets at Sun Cheng. "Rat-a-tat-tat..."
The sharp gunfire soon caused a commotion in the surrounding area.
But that only made things worse for Sun Cheng. He'd just used his speed to shake off the men in black when he heard a piercing roar from the sky. Moments later, several blinding searchlights locked onto him from above.
"Warning... Intruder, stop running immediately and stay where you are..."
"This is your final warning. Stop resisting immediately and stay where you are..."
"All units on alert: suspected high-energy radiation target spotted in D4G19 Zone. The target is fleeing toward D5 Zone. Capture it alive if possible..."
Sun Cheng's Spy Template picked up one transmission after another from the humans around him. To his horror, he realized that although he'd quickly pushed his speed to the limit and ground units would struggle to track him in the city, U.S. military armed reconnaissance aircraft could keep him firmly in their sights with their altitude and maneuverability, firing down at him from above.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat..."
The bursts of gunfire from above could barely damage Sun Cheng's current body. After he withstood several attacks, the enemy seemed to realize that, but they still didn't switch to different weapons. Clearly, they intended to capture him alive.
After enduring several more bursts, Sun Cheng sensed that his body was starting to give out. In a panic, he finally began dodging on purpose.
That slowed him down.
"Boom!"
After several warnings had failed to make him stop, and with Sun Cheng drawing ever closer to the outskirts, the threat from above began to escalate.
A violent explosion followed. Hit at close range by an air-to-ground missile, Sun Cheng was sent tumbling through the air several times before crashing back down onto the ground.
Apparently assuming he wasn't capable of fighting back, one of the armed helicopters descended a little lower and called out to him again. "Final warning, intruder. Stop resisting immediately and stay where you are..."
Sun Cheng shook his head and ran a check. He found that a piece of shrapnel had torn into his back. Unable to feel pain, he simply reached in and pulled the fragment from his body.
As two armed helicopters circled overhead and four more approached in the distance, Sun Cheng's eyes suddenly landed on a manhole cover nearby. He quickly sent out an Insect Reconnaissance Drone to investigate. His eyes lit up at what it found.
He had to admit, the Americans had done an excellent job with their underground infrastructure. The city's tunnels and pipes crisscrossed the entire area, and an established city like Tucson was even better equipped.
Without hesitation, he summoned two rapid-fire machine guns from his body. He aimed at the armed reconnaissance helicopter hovering low and fired a precise burst. Then he leaped forward and sprinted to the manhole cover. Shifting back into robot mode, he yanked it up, flung it away, and jumped into the sewer.
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