I hate gas stations, especially when you're stopping in the middle of your road trip. One, gas prices are, well…pricey. Two, the workers at the gas station are always going to stare at a 16 year old with a flashy Lamborghini Gallardo. Like I needed the attention. And three, while waiting for the tank to refuel, you've got a couple minutes to check your phone. I had wired my phone to the CIA computer system, which meant I was informed of every movement of the CIA. Right now, typed neatly on the screen were the words, "Operative Townsend (008) requests for Grade Five security protocol and back up at the Virginia Amusement Park from 14 00 to 15 00 hours. The Operative claims to be able to trap Joseph Solomon. Request has been passed by the Director."

The words slammed into me like a well-placed front kick to the solar plexus. I wrenched the gas nozzle out from the car and swiped my credit card so hard against the machine that I prayed that it wouldn't break. I could NOT let anyone get to Joe. He still had to take down the Circle. He still had to help Cammie and I. He was still needed. I needed him. This Townsend person said that Joe would be in Virginia. Maybe Joe was hiding out there. I could warn him before the CIA arrived. Or grab him before the Agency did. Or anything. He just had to be free.

It was 07 30 hours, which meant it only left me around seven hours to make the nine-hour journey to turn around and drive back up to Roseville. Maybe eight if there wasn't any traffic.

"Funny seeing you here, sweetie." Oh, wait. Make that four things I hate about gas stations- uncanny encounters with people you don't like. I snapped the phone shut and casually put it back in my pocket as I glanced at Mom. "Playing hookie?"

I shrugged, "Not that the lessons help, anyways." I swallowed and quickly made up a cover story in my mind.

Mom laughed and walked to the shotgun side of the Lambo, "Care to take your mother for a ride?" She stroked the shiny black armor with her manicured nails like it was a thorough-breed horse.

"I'm doing business." I replied firmly. I could literally feel the clock ticking as Mom continued to waste precious time- I had barely enough time to drive back to Virginia and almost no time at all to find Joe and warn him. Or whatever I needed to do. (What? I'm improvising here!)

Mom arched an eyebrow, "Oooh, are they paying you good?"

"They should because I'm tightening up their security systems." I lied and my deceiving skills kicking in full-time. I lifted a corner of my mouth to max the confidence factor, "They had a bit of a problem on their hands, wanted me to sort it out."

"Where?" Mom cocked her head. "New York?"

"I'm flattered by your expectations," I said. "But no. I'm doing it in D.C. Simple and easy."

Mom nodded, as if letting your 16 year old son check a company's security systems in Washington D.C. was a completely normal thing. "I'm following a lead to Vancouver, says Joe Solomon was sighted there." She tilted her chin at me, "What about you? Heard from him recently?"

"Found a trail leading to London during the winter break but it went nowhere." I replied evenly, my hand inching to the door handle. I was resisting the urge to jump in the car and leave Mom in a cloud of dust as I save Joseph Solomon's life. (Okay, maybe I wasn't exactly saving his life but…it kind of was.)

"He knows too much." Mom said softly. "The CIA is after him. We're after him. The Agency wants information and we want him to keep quiet. No loose ends, no whispers, no unauthorized paperwork." The journal, the two words flashed through my mind.

"Never really trusted him. And don't start to." Mom continued as she pushed off the Lambo and started to walk away. "He's nothing but a no-good, stealing, lying, coward." It took a lot of self-control to not engage my fist to her mouth. She looked back and flashed me a devious smile, "But I can trust you, can't I?"

I tried to hide my uncomfortable swallowing and my phone with the CIA announcements started to burn in my pocket, "With your life."

"Get back to your business. And I'll get back to mine's." Mom said and she disappeared behind a travelling bus.


I already knew something was very, very wrong before I even reached the amusement park.

1) A ruby red Gallagher Academy was parked in the parking lot. It was empty.

2) Two Blackhawks were forming a figure-eight rotation above the park.

3) Three words: Too. Many. Cameras.

4) Three more words: Unusual. Human. Movement. Obviously, agents were everywhere. Communicating, rotating, observing, waiting.

It was five minutes to three. I leapt out of the car and tried to walk as quickly as possible into the crowd of families having fun without catching anyone's attention. I looked around, hoping that I didn't seem like a kidnapper eyeing the little kids.

There was Mack, standing beside a cotton candy machine, occasionally glancing at a guy with a green polo and blue cap. Tina Walters was mingling with some teenage girls, all the while staying close to an old lady with an electric scooter. Bex was tailing someone pushing a cart of boxes. And a large crowd was applauding Eva Alvarez by the Shoot-A-Duck game booth.

Only two things were out of place- agents were suddenly sprinting to a space behind the merry-go-round and Cammie was running away from them, screaming, "Bex!"

NO.

No.

Just…no…

Everything was gone. Everything was lost. Everything was over.

We lost Joe. We lost the only help we really had. We lost everything. We had the closest shot to bringing down the Circle and IT. WAS. GONE.

So I ran. Running faster than I ever had. Even faster than the time Professor Devereux did that sprinting drill and threatened to throw us off the waterfall if we didn't run fast enough. The whole fairground became a multi-colored blur as I pushed through the crowd. I was already thinking how to blend with the CIA agents and maybe sneak Joe out right under their noses. I was already preparing to risk anything and everything to launch myself into the frenzy and fight my way out.

I was going overdrive by so much that I didn't even notice that I was running past Cammie.

"Zach!" Her voice sounded from my right.

I practically screamed at her, "Where is he?" My voice was hoarse from the shock and running. Cammie grabbed me and I tried to push her away. "Let me go, Gallagher Girl. I have to-"

"Do you want them to take you too?" Cammie's shrill voice cut through my thoughts, pulling me back to reality, coaxing me to think sensibly again, shaking some sense into me (no, really, she was actually shaking me). Her arms were around me. She was holding me so tightly against her that it hurt. "They have him, Zach. He's gone."

So I could do absolutely nothing but stare as agents slammed Joe down onto the grass. They formed a tight perimeter around him, making sure he couldn't escape. And I knew that I was too late. But I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't devastated. I was angry…at myself.

"Stupid!" I yelled, momentarily losing control. I banged my hand against a tree. I couldn't feel anything now- everything was too much. I breathed in a deep breath and turned to Cammie, "What happened?"

"CoveOps exercise. I tailed a man here. And then Mr. Solomon was there, talking about the Circle, saying I was in danger. And then there was a woman. I thought she was the woman from Boston."

"That wasn't her, Cammie." I said a little too harshly.

"I know that now." She said.

I put my hands on Cammie's shoulders and held them tightly, "There's no way Joe Solomon would ever be with her." Because he's with us. He's with me.

"Why would he come here?" Cammie asked, voice rising with urgency. "It was a trap. Joe Solomon walked into a trap."

"You." I said and suddenly everything fell into place. "If he thought you were going to be here- virtually unprotected…" Joe was afraid that the Circle would grab Cammie here. "There's nowhere he wouldn't go to save you."

"Why would he do that?" Cammie snapped, obviously thinking that it was the most ridiculous idea in the world. She tried to pull away but I didn't let her. "That doesn't make any-"

"It's all in the journal, Cammie." I said fiercely. It was our last hope. "It's all in the journal."

"Cammie!" Someone shouted her name in the distance but I still kept staring into Cammie's eyes.

"I think I see her!" Another person called and I knew I was running out of time.

"Look at me." And Cammie's eyes focused on me again. "Read the journal, Gallagher Girl. Read it all." Then I pulled her close, savoring the short, sweet moment of her in my arms and I pressed my lips to her forehead. I wish I could've stayed there longer, maybe even move my lips down and kiss her properly on the lips. Or maybe I could just be there for her as her classmates and her security detail brought her back to school. But I knew I had to go. Other things were at stake. I still had other disasters to fix.

I let my arms fall and I started to back away from her. I didn't even look into Cammie's eyes- afraid of what I would see there. Before the fairground completely disappeared from sight, I could see the other girls, gawking and staring at Joe's capture. Their faces were a horrible mixture of confusion, shock and disgust. Guilt stabbed at me again because I realized that had let down so many other people as well.


News of Joe's capture spread and of course, Mom knew. So instead of eating dinner in the cafeteria with the other juniors, Chester and I were called into her office. When we stepped in, I was truly horrified to see a couple of seniors also in the office.

"Good, everyone's here." Dr. Steve said from his position behind Mom. He turned to Chester and the seniors, "First of all, I wholeheartedly welcome our new recruits." He smiled nastily, as if already planning the assassinations. But the seniors just nodded and grinned confidently.

"Secondly, we are here to discuss Joe Solomon." Mom's voice was hard and cold, completely business-like. "For those who don't know him, he was a part of us. I say 'was' because he has abandoned us and now the CIA has him. Joseph Solomon knows too much and that makes him dangerous. And dangerous things should be stopped."

"So…how are we going to get him?" One of the seniors asked.

"The dearest Agency has done it for us." Mom smiled.

"In three and a half weeks time, the CIA will move him to another secret location for further questioning. He will be the most vulnerable and most exposed when moving. We'll will use that to our advantage and take him." Dr. Steve clasped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly. The mixture of emotions in the room at that moment was literally stabbing me- Chester was grinning like Christmas had come early, the seniors were doing the Blackthorne smirk, completely prepared to break into CIA custody to break Joe and needless to say, Mom was radiating cold fury and determination. I put on a fake smile and nodded but my insides were shriveling up.

I had absolutely no idea how to reach Cammie (I wasn't supplied with a pigeon this time). I didn't know if Cammie had read the journal yet. I didn't know how to stop the Circle from killing or doing whatever horrible thing they wanted to do to Joe. I was completely alone.


This is crazy. This is horrible. I cannot believe this is actually happening. I can't-

"I can't believe I'm actually on an official mission!" Chester whispered excitedly. "This is it, Zach. This is it."

Hearing Chester's words, you'd probably think we were standing on the rooftop of the Russian embassy. Or at least in front of some national monument, waiting for a face that often appeared on newspapers. But no, we were waiting in the bushes next to the road and when a car passed by, a huge cloud of dust would shoot up our noses. And we were waiting for someone who was on the CIA's Most Wanted List.

"I can't wait to see the looks and the agents faces. They'll never see this coming. They probably think we're after Solomon because we want him back and…"

"Chester…" I whispered.

"But after we get him, we'll force him to tell us everything about his traitor ways and we'll make him say everything that he did against the Circle then we'll…"

"Chester!" I hissed.

"And he'll be so devastated and sad and…yeah, Zach?" Chester turned his head.

"Quiet," I growled. "The van's coming." A plain white van rounded the corner. No windows, no distinctive markings- a type of van that would pass right under your nose and you wouldn't take a second glance. Well, unless you saw the motion sensors underneath the van, the slightly shinier missile-proof body armor and the camera positioned at the back of the van.

"Jump," a single command rang in our ears and black-clothed figures leapt out from nowhere. I watched them wrench open the van's doors and shoot down incoming guards. I watched them and…I ran in the opposite direction.

I sprinted away, the grass slapping at my calves and the wind rushing past my ear. Adrenaline pulsed through me as the white van grew smaller, the black figures crawling all over it like lionesses taking down their prey. Static crackled in my ear, I picked up bits and pieces of the conversation, "Take him… You have a gun, use it… GO!" And the words, "Where's Hawk?"

Those were the last two words I heard as I ripped the comms unit out of my ear and stamped it into the ground. I stumbled through a thicket of bushes and a very familiar car greeted me.

A/N: Phew...finally got this chapter out. Sorry it took some time because 1) I fell sick and 2) I am doing some brainstorming on some Harry Potter Next Gen. fanfictions...but those are still very, very WIP and might not be published for quite a while... Anyways, thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed! :)

And I'm already thinking about Zach's summer before his senior year. No, it will not be under another title (which means this fic will end when the senior year starts). All I can say about the summer is that it's...very different. But that's for later!

Cheers,

AwesomePP