Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Ally Carter. Only the plot is ours.

Chapter 1

Cammie's POV

Pros and Cons of Sitting Watch in an Air Vent for the CIA

A List by Cameron Ann Morgan

Pro: It gives you a good excuse as to why you didn't finish your English paper

Con: You can't actually tell your English teacher that you were in said air vent as it would compromise the mission

Con: You may have forgot to eat dinner before coming to sit in this vent for four hours

Pro: It gives a girl a lot of time to think

Con: Thinking is really distracting you from your mission of watching this painting

Con: The person you are thinking about really should be sitting in this vent with you

I look down at my watch for the twenty-third time this hour. I know it's kind of pointless, as my internal clock is always ticking, but I still check just in case it's wrong. Nope, my internal clock is exactly on time.

Where is Zach? He was supposed to meet me fifteen minutes ago to switch up. I've been sitting in here for just over four hours, and my stomach is really not co-operating. College food may not compare to Chef Louis' Creme Brulee, but anything would be good right about now.

I look down through the vent that opens up onto the library once more, trying desperately to ignore the pleas of my stomach for food. I have always thought the library at Georgetown was the best building on campus. There are dark circular wooden tables spread throughout the main floor, with wooden book shelves on almost all of the walls. A great chandelier that hangs from the ceiling, casting the room in a bright glow. The mezzanine looks down on the main floor, filled completely with row upon row of shelves, all stocked full with books, from novels to encyclopedias. And on the wall right next to the staircase leading to the mezzanine is a painting that just arrived this morning. The one that I am supposed to be watching.

The painting shows a dirt road, surrounded on either side by trees, leading up to a two-story white house with green window shutters. The leaves on the trees are just starting to turn colour as they do in autumn. It's beautiful.

There is also some secret CIA message in it somewhere, but I don't have the clearance to know what it is. But I have been tasked, along with Zach and Townsend, to watch over it until the CIA agent comes to pick up the message on the 21st. It's currently the 14th, (the 15th in an hour and seventeen minutes) so I still have a week left of this. Not the most exciting mission, but a mission all the same.

I am just starting to let my mind wander once again, when the doors to the library below swing open, and in walk six people who look to be around sixteen.

Now, usually there aren't many people in the library this late, unless they seriously need to study. More unusual was the fact that these kids are in no way old enough to go to university, and it is a little pre-meditated to tour universities at sixteen. And what kind of tour happens at 11:00 pm?

All of this sets me on edge, making me narrow my eyes as I watch as they walk through the room. Then, with a look around the room once, the short girl with cropped mousy brown hair and a tall boy starts to walk toward the doors while the other four people go towards the painting.

"Zach!" I whisper-yell into my comms. "Where are you? We have a slight situation."

I get no answer. I am going to kill Zach once I get my hands on him. I start to open the air vent so that I can jump down into the library, when I hear shuffling from behind me. I look back to see Zach crawling towards me, a bright red rose in his hand. His trademark smirk is plastered on his face, which only slightly falters when he sees my piercing look.

He comes up to me and places the rose in my hand, and kisses my cheek.

"Hey, Gallagher Girl," Zach whispers in my ear, sending shivers up my spine despite the situation. "What's up?"

I simply point down through the now open vent and his smirk falls as he sees the scene below. I give him a nod which he returns before grabbing the edge of the hole and leaping into the library below, rose still in hand.

A/N We are canadianreaders! This is our first story so please read & review. Constructive criticism is welcome!