* * *
Reflector rather liked Swindle. It was an arm's distance enjoyment of a promising journeyman; not that Swindle would wind up anywhere near the camera's line of work if he knew what was good for him. Two master blackmailers were more than enough for one Decepticon ship.
Reflector also liked Vortex, though that was purely professional. The helicopter was good at his job, something Reflector didn't always get the luxury of dealing with.
Still and all, as much as he liked the pair of them, he didn't like their brothers, and Swindle had yet to come up with a good reason why he shouldn't take his little recording to Megatron. "Threats just upset me, Swindle, and only one of me is here." He crossed his arms. "I've already named a perfectly reasonable price."
"Come on, Fleccy! That's more than twice your usual rate!"
The camera-component shrugged eloquently. He knew exactly how much the Combaticons were worth, and if Swindle felt like it, he could pay Reflector's fee out of hand. He seemed to want to play silly games with his brothers, though. A pity, as any damage Reflector took would drive up the price. If he just paid like a smart little Decepticon... Well, then Reflector would identify him as a moderately easy mark, but his brothers would make the effort to blackmail him more trouble than it was worth most of the time.
Swindle did have a point about the price, but that was just a side-effect of anticipating Swindle bringing the rest of his gestalt into their deal. He didn't want to teach them that they could get away with hurting him instead of paying him. So he'd taken another mech into the partnership. Soundwave wouldn't get paid if Reflector didn't successfully convince Swindle that it was better to pay him off than to maul him, but if Reflector got mauled, Soundwave had no reason to keep the information to himself. A win-win scenario for both of them, really. "That's not my problem, Swindle."
"But-"
"And the price will go up if Brawl lays so much as a fingertip on me." Reflector smiled at both Swindle and Brawl, thoroughly revelling in being able to be in three places at once. He'd said that with both mouths, so what the tank did now... Well, on his own head be it.
Reflector was greedy, yes, but he was rarely stupid.
End