Macey paced back and forth nervously, shaking her hands. "What are we gonna do! What are we going to do?"

"Mace, calm down." Bex commanded. "We are spies, everything will be fine."

"Yeah, what Bex said." I agreed. "Everything is going to be fine. Lizzie, think. What's around here?"

"Um..." she said, placing her fingers on her temples, thinking. "Safehouse. There's a safehouse. It's hidden away to look like a cabin in the woods. Very secure of course, it is Gallagher. Uh, um, if we continue up the road for approximately two more miles, there is a dirt road on the left that looks like an old hunting trail. If we follow that, it will bring us to the safehouse after about ten minutes."

"Alright, you heard her girls." Macey snapped back into action. "Let's get him in the car and get going before someone else comes along."

"But Macey," I gulped, "he's Blackthorne."

"We know that." Bex said calmly. And with Bex, her calm voice was a terrifying sound. "And that's why we need to keep him close and get as much information out of him while we can."

I knelt down on the blacktop to help Bex pick up the unconscious boy. We carried him to the car and Macey opened the door for us. The girls squeezed in around him and I slowly began driving, keeping a lookout for the dirt road in the dark.

Blackthorne, I thought. The mysterious school for troubled boys. Boys who committed crimes were sent there. It was like a detention center, well not like one, it was one. Blackthorne only accepted the worst boys, and supposedly had the toughest schedule. I didn't want to know how this boy had escaped, or why he looked so beaten up.

"There!" Liz exclaimed, breaking me out of my thoughts.

The car jolted to a stop as I hit the brakes. Backing up a little, I turned down the nearly invisible dirt path. After what my internal clock told me was exactly twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds, the path opened into a small clearing with a cabin and a shed. I parked the car and ran up to the door. It was locked.

"It's locked!" I yelled.

"Look under the mat." Bex called back as she lifted the boy from under his arms and Macey grabbed his legs.

"Are you kidding me?" I grumbled under my breath. It didn't seem very likely for spies to hide their spare key under a doormat. Nonetheless, I bent down and lifted the mat up by a corner.

A key glistened in the moonlight.

I mentally face-palmed myself.

"'Kay, got it."

The girls carried the boy up to the door and I held it open for them before stepping inside.

Inside, the cabin consisted of a central kitchen- living room combo and three doors led off from the main room. I quickly opened them all to be greeted by a bathroom on the left and two bedrooms on the right.

"In here." I motioned to one of the bedrooms. Bex and Macey set him down on the bed. "Lizzie, find whatever first-aid stuff you can."

Moments later, Liz stumbled into the room, her arms full. "Oopsie daisy!" There was a clatter as she dropped several items on the wooden floor. At the sound, the boy on the bed stirred.

I gasped, "Shhhh!" his eyelids fluttered open and he groaned.

Macey and Bex stopped picking up the things Liz had dropped and looked at him.

"Where am I?" he croaked.

"What's your name?" I asked, ignoring his question.

It was barely a whisper when he said it, just one word.

"Zach."