Winter break was finally here, and I was ready to put the past semester behind me as I zipped up my suitcase, excited for the holiday season. I would be spending all of break in London with my best friend. What more could a girl ask for?

"The car`s waiting downstairs for you when you`re ready, girls." Madame Dabney reminded Bex and I as she drifted past our dorm.

Bex met my eyes, and I knew we were thinking the same thing; I wasn`t the only one coming with Bex to London. As soon as I set foot off school grounds, every move I made would be tracked, every building I entered secure, and my plane to England would be filled with international security professionals, all guarding one person. Me. "We`ll be down in a moment!"

I took a deep breath and hugged my smallest roommate, Liz, goodbye. "Say hi to Ellie for me."

"I will!" She said, brightening at the mention of her sister. "You be safe now, okay? Don`t do anything I wouldn`t do."

"So I can`t go barefoot?" I joked.

"How about making her promise something more realistic, like not doing dangerous stuff without Bex?"

I let out a dramatic fake sigh. "I suppose…"

Eva stuck her head into our room. "Bex, you`re mom`s downstairs."

For a girl who hadn`t seen her mother since August, Bex looked reluctant to follow Eva out.

"Go ahead." I said, realizing she`d been waiting for me. "I just need to grab a few more things."

She nodded, and turned to Liz. "Race you down the stairs."

I was about to ask if it was wise to race the girl who`d once tripped over a leaf down two flights of stairs, but they were gone before I could get my warning out.

"Forgetting something?" asked Macey, tossing me Zach`s jacket. I caught it easily, and stuffed it in my bag, trying to block out the image of it soaked in my aunt`s blood that had been burned into my mind since November.

"I can`t wear it. Not yet."

"It`s okay."

Her tone of voice reminded me I wasn't the only Gallagher Girl who had been under tight security for the past few months. My guards were protecting me from the international terrorist association that, until recently, everyone had though was hunting her.

"See you in January." I hugged her, glad that I had a friend who understood my secrets.

"Cam? I know it`s next to impossible, but try and forget about the Circle for a little while and have some fun."

"Thanks, I`ll try." I pulled the suitcase off my bed. "Coming?"

We left the room and headed downstairs. "Have you read that new issue of Espionage Today? I`d lend you my copy to ready on the plane, but Liz already asked to see it over break."

"Is that the one with the article on how to make your own bug out of a picture frame? Tina was talking about that this morning." Macey said. "I totally call dibs when we get back."

I nodded just as we reached the main floor. Liz walked up to us, digging through her purse for some reason.

"I have a granola bar here for you, for the tip… I hear it's a really long plane ride!" Liz said in her soft southern accent. A clear glass vial fell out of her purse. "Oopsie daisy!"

Thankfully, Macey snatched the vial before it smashed on the floor, unleashing who knows what into the room. Liz took the vial and passed me a granola bar. I gave it back.

"I could say I don't need the calories, but Lizzie, truthfully? I don't need the tracking chips that I know you planted in here."

Liz looked at me with innocent brown eyes. "Cammie, do you really think I would…?"

"First off, to stop you right there, yes you would. Second, if it`s just granola, how come you didn`t give one to Macey?"

Liz, Macey, and Bex exchanged looks similar to those of children caught with stolen chocolate all over their faces.

"Seriously, the MI6 and CIA agents that are in my protection detail can handle the Circle. They`re professionals."

Then again, it hadn`t been MI6 or CIA professionals who`d found Macey at the lake.

I took back the granola bar. I opened it. I bit it.

"Thanks." I mumbled. "I`m gonna miss you two." I pulled Macey and Liz into a hug.

"Get in here!" Liz smiled, pulling Bex into our group hug.


After another exchange of goodbyes, I joined Bex and her mother and in a bullet proof (and possibly bomb proof) limo that used to belong to the president. Behind us, Liz and Macey got into their own (less hi-tech) limos and waved to us as we pulled away. As the driver pulled us out of the front gates and towards highway ten, I realized my mom hadn`t come to say goodbye.

"Can I borrow your phone?" I asked Bex, who nodded and passed it over. Unfortunately, we were still too close to the school`s jammers for her phone to work.

I thought Bex had fallen asleep for most of the ride, until, when we were on the outskirts of D.C, she sat up and looked over at me.

"My dad`s meeting us at the airport in D.C, and the CIA are protecting us from here till the plane." Bex said, although I vaguely heard her. D.C. stretched out on all sides around us. On the left, I could see my old street. The American History Museum, standing tall and proud next to the golden topped Natural History. Then I saw a van, a white van speeding towards us on the road. I was about to scream for the driver to speed away as fast as possible when I saw it was just an electric company van. Bex put her hand on my shoulder.

As much as I wanted to forget what had happened in this last month, my trained memory would not let me forget. I wanted to forget that Bex didn`t usually go home with a CIA/ MI6 escort. As much as I wanted to forget it, the words from the rooftop in Boston kept coming back. Get Her. Get Me.


Bex's parents were both MI6, so when I stepped in to their London home, I could tell that Mrs. Baxter's mirror was a computer (it was a newer model of the one my mother used to have when we lived in D.C.), and I wasn`t surprised to learn that behind the portrait of Queen Elizabeth was a computer with direct contact to MI6. But the thing I was most excited about was that, second door to the left upstairs; they had a bedroom for me, Liz, and Macey to use anytime we visited.

So, have you any plans?" I asked Bex, who had offered to help me unpack.

"Well, while I have you hostage in my bloody country, I am going to show you how fun it is to be a Brit. Tomorrow we`re going to see…" she cut off suddenly. I looked at what she had found. "You really like him, don't you?" said Bex, holding Zach's jacket high above my reach so I couldn`t hide it.

"Rebecca Baxter…. come on!" I swept her legs out, but she recovered before I could grab the jacket, and jumped out of the way. I`d tried kickboxing her too many times to think this was going to end well, so I analyzed the situation and took the safest (but not the most preferable) route; the truth. "Fine, I do." I muttered.

Bex beamed.

"…but I`m making it my New Year's resolution to give up boys."

"Why?" She asked, as if I`d told her I was going to shave my head and become a monk.

"Honestly, the boys seem to be the root of all my problems. My first CIA debrief was because of Josh, and don`t even get me started on all the trouble Zach has caused…" Bex shrugged, and I took the opening to flip her onto the bed and snatch the jacket back.

"You leave me no choice, Cameron Ann Morgan. My New Year`s resolution…" Bex paused dramatically, smiling and glowing as if she fell out of a modeling audition, and not onto a bed, "…is finding you a boy!"

"You`ve got to be kidding me."


A/N: Just a warning, I`m in the middle of going through this story and revising the whole thing (aka making it comprehensible), so the rest of the story is not yet up to par with this chapter. I am terribly sorry for the horrible quality of writing in the rest of this story, but I promise it will be fixed soon. Until then...