Quick Note – I've read the first three books, and I'm currently working on the fourth. I'm sorry if some details are off, but keep in mind that this story is AU. Happy reading!
Fool Me Once
Chapter One
It was Zachary Goode's first real mission.
Countless times, he'd watched other boys come back to the dorms to find an unmarked manila envelope on their bed. Every student learned what would be in there when their time came – pictures, personal documents, schedules, and anything else that might be of value.
They'd also learned how the first real mission changed a person. Boys came back glassy-eyed and shell-shocked. They'd constantly look over their shoulder and even wake up in the middle of the night screaming.
Their classes conveniently left out the nasty side effects of PTSD.
Someone had once tried to get the curriculum changed. The Circle had laughed at that idea – they didn't need spies; they got them from the other school. They needed Blackthorne Institute to produce assassins – calm, heartless, dedicated killers.
Zach had just finished his poison immunity class – far from a favorite among students, it involved being injected with minute amounts of poison until the body built up immunity. If they were lucky, there were only twenty needles waiting for them.
The first lesson they'd learned at Blackthorne was not to rely on luck.
Zach didn't know how he'd expected to feel when his time came. When he saw the envelope resting on his perfectly made bed, he could already feel knots forming in his stomach. With care, he picked up the thin folder and saw that a small circle had been drawn on it.
A mission on behalf of the Circle.
Zach wasn't sure what kind of target the Circle would select for a teenage boy, but he did know one thing.
If he completed this task, he'd become one of them.
The information in his packet – now carefully tucked away in the secret compartment of his backpack – had led him to Roseville, Virginia.
He'd been given relatively few pieces of information. There had been maps and addresses, all pointing towards this small Virginia town. He'd been given a few pictures of the target – a girl about his age named Cameron Morgan.
Not satisfied with the information in the packet, Zach had turned to search engines and government data bases to find out more about her.
Nothing.
Zach wasn't sure if it was relevant, but he did find information on someone named Matthew Morgan – a spy and Blackthorne graduate who'd died nearly three years ago. When he'd tried to delve deeper in the matter, his computer had frozen, a black circle appearing on the screen.
Only people with the highest level of clearance amongst the Circle could view the records.
Zach could have assumed this man was his target's father.
But the second lesson he'd learned at Blackthorne was that making assumptions got people killed.
His backpack was equipped with over twenty things that would never pass through airport security. He had poison in five different forms, six knives, and other multipurpose weapons designed to give him flexibility when it came to taking out his target.
Because the third lesson he'd learned was that once you had a target, they quit existing as a person. They were nothing more than a threat that needed to be eliminated.
Zach had planned his timing perfectly. He left Blackthorne the day of the Roseville Town Fair, hoping the occasion would draw his target out of her private school.
Invading a private boarding school for girls wasn't a probable plan of attack – he hoped this would be a job he could get done in one night. The quicker he could get in and out, the better. It wasn't wise for an assassin to stay in one place for too long.
Perhaps more valuable than the pictures of his target, Zach had been given pictures of three of her friends – a petite girl, another who looked like she belonged in a magazine, and an exotic standout. They'd be easier to spot than his target.
It seemed as though the entire town of Roseville showed up to their small fair. Children went on the rides while adults stood close by, but most teens gathered around the bonfire that was going on in the town square.
Zach knew where he'd find his target.
As he'd assumed, it was her friend he spotted first. The waif of a girl was standing next to the model. Though it had been hard to find two of the girls in any database, it had taken one Google search to identify the model as Macey McHenry.
The other girl was a few feet away, but Zach couldn't spot his target. When the girl started leaving, Zach decided to follow her. Hopefully, she'd lead him right to his target.
The girl took the most roundabout path through the area – passing the rides, looping back to the bonfire, going to get food, and then returning to her friends. There was no sign of the other girl – no evidence to show that she was here.
Until the prickling feeling on the back of his neck told him someone was behind him.
"You want to tell me why you've been following my friend for the last hour?"
No way.
Zach slowly turned around, coming face to face with the girl he'd been looking for. She looked exactly as she had in the pictures he'd gotten of her – dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes, the kind of face that was easy to forget.
Cameron Morgan.
Notes: New to the fandom. Reviews are love and inspiration.