Heyyy everyone! I'd just like to tell everyone that there might be a long time in between updates because I have school, and that means a LOT of homework.
The next two weeks seemed to crawl by. Mr. Solomon gave us a pop quiz on the first day back in CoveOps, which including three routine bug inspections and how to take down twenty people at once (with the assistant of a stick of any kind). I tried to pile on homework and extra credit. I couldn't think about the letter I wrote Zach. I still hadn't gotten a response back. I hadn't dared go back to the pigeon tower. I would probably sob if the letter was still there, even though I sort of knew it was. Bex, Liz, and Macey tried to get me to talk more, but I had put up a barrier, trying to keep the thoughts of the Circle of Cavan out of my mind. I knew one day that confrontation would come, but I couldn't think about it.
Bex, Macey, and I walked to CoveOps after Culture and Assimilation. Macey had finally qualified to be in the senior CoveOps class, and was all caught up with us. I was reading through my notes from the day before, knowing that we would probably be having a pop quiz on the Marchiano theorem, when we silently walked up to the elevator to Sublevel 3. When Mr. Solomon saw Abby's CoveOps classroom, he rolled his eyes, and sighed. He was about to get rid of it, but the seniors objected, and made him use the room next door. No one really wanted to see my aunt's room go. It was like a part of her. Macey and Bex were talking about COW when I heard a coughing from behind us. I turned around to see Mr. Solomon in jeans and a red sports jersey on.
"Pop quiz, ladies." He smiled, handing us duplicates of the red jersey he had on. "Be back in the foyer in this in ten minutes." Macey, Bex, and I glanced at each other, and grinned. This was going to be good.
Ten minutes later, we, with the rest of the CoveOps class, stood in the foyer of Gallagher Academy, all of us in jeans, sneakers, and Washington Capitals jerseys. I glanced down at myself. I hated hockey. I shrugged. It was just another cover. We all bordered onto the bus, along with Mr. Solomon and my mother. They were sitting in the front, giggling and snuggling and holding hands.
"Can they keep their PDA fest private?" I said, maybe a little too loudly, because my mother shot me a look. Macey stifled a giggle.
"What's the purpose of this game, hockey, anyway?" Bex wondered, obviously confused.
"You have to get a puck in a goal." I shrugged, summing it up as best I could.
"It's pretty barbaric, when you think about it. Guys are pushing and shoving and punching and smashing people with their sticks. The guys are pretty hot, though." Macey shrugged.
"Sounds like my kind of sport!" Bex laughed. And I cracked a small smile back, but I also wondered if Zach had been a hockey fan. I had so many questions for him that I never got to ask. A few hours later, we pulled up to the Verizon Center, in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington DC. Fans poured into the arena, wearing jackets to protect them from the cold.
"Okay, ladies. This mission is similar to a lot in the past. Just watch. Just learn. Just listen. You'll be hooked up to a Comms Unit, so be careful what you say." Mr. Solomon said, his arm looped around my mom. I threw up a little in my mouth. We all got off the bus, Eva and Courtney trying to explain hockey to Tina, telling her "it's not just about hitting a little round thing with a curvy stick".
Mr. Solomon each handed us a ticket, all of the dispersed throughout the stadium. I unhappily noticed my mom's and Mr. Solomon's seats were still next to each other. When we walked inside the arena, it was packed. The Capitols were playing the Philadelphia Flyers, and all the fans, decorated in their respective team's colors were filtering into their seats. I waved goodbye to my friends, and started heading towards my seat. As it turns out, I was in the front row, near the Capitols bench. The people who were sitting near me were giving me awkward looks, as if saying "Why are YOU here?" I sat down softly in my seat, wishing I had brought a jacket. Suddenly, two people slipped into the seats next to me.
"See, Bones? We came to the arena with a lot of money, and we bought these amazing tickets from that broker. We made lemons into lemonade!" The man, who had dark hair, and chocolate brown eyes, said to his counterpart, a tall woman with big blue eyes, and light brown hair.
"I don't know what that means…" She mumbled, and I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long game.
"Ms. Morgan, do you copy?" Mr. Solomon said in my ear, and I felt the urge to wince. I nodded, knowing he could probably see me. "Good." And that was it. I glanced around the stands, seeing Mr. Solomon and my mom sitting right across from me, near the Flyers bench. As we stood up for the National Anthem, I scanned the rest of the arena, seeing Bex, Liz, and Macey. I noted at least ten security cameras, twenty possible exits, and five undercover security guards.
"Do you see the man three rows behind you in the blue hat, Cammie?" My mother said about halfway through the game. Before that, there had been silence on the Comms unit, and I was forced to watch the game. A few players crashed into the glass right in front of me, and I think one of the lost a tooth.
"Yes." I said softly, glancing at the man's reflection in the glass.
"He's getting up to buy some food. Tell me how much change he gets." I heard my mother's comms unit click off, and I knew it was the end of the conversation. I waited for the man to leave, and a few seconds later, I got up, stretched, and walked casually up the risers, following him. He headed towards a sushi food stand. The concord thing was crowded, and I blended in easily. I watched the man as he bought his California rolls, and got thirty-two cents in change.
"Thirty-two cents." I said softly in my comms unit.
"Nice job." Mr. Solomon replied quietly, and that was it. I was about to head back to my seat, when I saw something in the crowd. I don't know what made me stop to get a better look. It was a man, with bushy white hair and a mustache. My heart skipped a beat. I couldn't breathe. My mind went foggy. Zach.
Zach.
Zach!
Zach was here.
The man started walking away, and I started following him. Where was he going? Would he be looking for me? Everything was in slow motion. Zach was walking away from me, headed towards a less crowded space. He would notice me for sure. I smiled, and started walking faster towards him. I wanted to talk to him, to ask him if he got my letter. I was finally three steps away from him.
"ZACH!" I cried, and hugged him from behind.
"Excuse me?" Zach, in a heavy Russian accent, that I knew couldn't be faked easily.
"I can't believe you're here! You really should get a new disguise." I sighed, hugging him again. "You can take the wig off, you know." I laughed, yanking at his hair.
"Who the heck are you?" Zach yelled.
"It's Cammie, you silly goose!" I giggled. I was so happy to see him, even though I might have to kill him. I shook the thought from my mind. We would both make it out.
"Ms. Morgan, I think you're going to have to come with me." A familiar voice said from behind me, and I turned around to see Agent Edward Townsend standing there with a stupid smirk on his face. He turned to Zach. "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, sir." He grabbed my arm, and started yanking me away from Zach.
"NO!" I cried, and I felt the tears streaming down my face. "I need to talk to Zach!"
"Ms. Morgan, that man is not Zachary Goode." Townsend sighed, hauling me behind an ice creams stand.
"What do you mean he's…?" I couldn't find the words. Then, everything hit me. That man wasn't Zach. I was pretty sure I knew it all along, but I made myself believe that it was him. I hoped with all my heart it was him. I remembered what my mom said two semesters ago. Hope is a dangerous thing to have when you're a spy. "Why are you here?"
"It doesn't matter, Cameron." Edward shrugged, and I noticed he looked different. His blue eyes were cold, and unforgiving.
"What happened to you, Agent Townsend?" I wondered softly. He didn't say anything. "Is it Abby?" Edward Townsend didn't say anything for a long time, and when he looked back up at me, his eyes were wet.
"I loved your aunt, Cammie." He said quietly, his voice shaking. "How could she…do that to me?" It was a question, but I knew it wasn't meant to be answered. I looked at him for a long time. "She…broke my heart." He murmured, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"If you still love her, you should tell her." I countered. Townsend smiled slightly, sadly.
"Well, she obviously doesn't love me." He said, his voice pained. "Go back to Gallagher, Cammie." And he turned, and walked away, disappearing into the crowd. I felt frozen. I just stared after him. It hurt, to see someone who was always so strong, breaking. And that's when I realized my life was coming apart at the seams.