Chapter 9
Cammie POV
I was woken up by a loud and incessant banging on my door.
"Charlotte! Get up!" someone shouted, and I groaned. It was the agents. They were probably here to interrogate me about my midnight trip.
But I opened the door anyway and they stormed in.
"What were you thinking?" they reprimanded.
I yawned, thinking I'd already heard this whole spiel from Zach. Instead of answering them, I asked, "What time is it?" I glanced at the clock. Six-thirty AM. I'd had barely four hours of sleep. Great.
I padded over to the safe and entered the code. I pulled out the pouch, and then pulled out the ring. When I turned around, Agent James' hand was already outstretched, waiting. I dropped it in his hand and said, "Here. Save the speech. Take the thing, and then take me home, please."
Agent Peters looked at me a little funnily, but grabbed Agent James by the arm and pulled him out of my room. Right before they exited, he looked back and ordered, "Pack."
Thank God.
As soon as my door shut, I pulled out my phone and called Bex, Liz, and Macey. It was breakfast time at Gallagher, so I could hear the noises of the Grand Hall in the background as they screamed into the phone.
"Cammie!"
"How did it go!"
"Are you hurt?"
"Why did you need to know about Adele?"
"Are you coming home yet?"
"We miss you!"
All of a sudden, I felt like I could laugh out loud. I had the best friends in the world. "I'll tell you the story," I giggled, "but you'll have to agree not to interrupt me, or I'll never finish."
They agreed, so I talked while I packed, and of course, there were interruptions galore. But I laughed for the first time about the whole mission and was even able to crack a joke or two about how gaudy the ring had looked on Adele's finger.
Right before I hung up the phone, I clutched it tightly and whispered, "I miss you guys. Missions are so not the same without you."
They all laughed at that, and I knew we were all ready to be back together again.
I hung up and finished packing. Another knock came at my door, and it was Agent Peters again. He looked at my stuff sitting neatly on the couch.
"Ready? Let's go."
He helped me take my bag and then we went down to the lobby. With a little drop of my heart, I noticed Zach wasn't with us, but I brushed it off. He was probably late or something. Typical.
The taxi ride back to the airport was silent. It was a silence made even louder by Zach's absence. Admittedly, he would have annoyed me to pieces, but at least he would have had something witty to say. But I didn't ask about him. I didn't want to bring up the tension between us anymore than was absolutely necessary.
"Goodbye, Cammie," Agent Peters said kindly as I stepped out of the helicopter two hours later. "Don't forget to write that report and turn it in to the Director within the week. Here's a slip to excuse one day's worth of homework so you have time to do it." He handed me a pink sheet of paper. "Good luck, Cammie."
I tucked the paper away and watched the helicopter rise up again and fly away. I soon heard a humph noise behind me.
"And we thought you'd be tearing down to our room to see us," a British voice said in a fake-hurt voice.
I turned with a gigantic smile on my face. I dropped my things and ran over, hugging them so tightly it must've hurt. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you guys," I rambled. "I missed you so much! How's school been? What does Mr. Smith look like this year? I can't believe I missed the first few days of school!"
Liz pulled us down to the bedroom and locked the door before she said anything. "Everything's been great, Cam, but we have some really important stuff to tell you. About Zach."
I grimaced. "I don't really need to know, Lizzie. The mission's over, and chances are, I'll never see him again. I don't think there's really any point in telling me all that stuff. His choices are his choices and they'll probably never affect me again, anyway."
Liz shrugged. "We're still going to talk your ear off by the end of the night. It might as well be about something interesting."
Zach POV
I woke up with an ear-splitting headache. For a moment, I couldn't remember why, but then the previous night's events came rushing back to me.
Oh right. Cammie.
I checked the clock. It was eight in the morning. I was almost surprised that the agents hadn't come to wake me up yet. I would've thought spies were more morning people. After all, that's when the world is quietest.
But I dismissed the thought and pulled my phone off the nightstand. Without ever getting out of bed, I dialed Grant and set the phone on my ear, preparing for a boatload of questions.
"So where you off to today, champ?" Grant chirped in lieu of a greeting.
"Home, hopefully," I groaned.
There was silence on the other end.
"What happened, man? You sound terrible. Not like sore-throat terrible, but like depressed terrible. Oh man, what did Hot Blondie do to you? Oh my god, you guys didn't like…do it, did you?"
My nose wrinkled. "Grant," I groused. "Shut up. You're gross."
"Okay, hang on, let me get Jonas and Nick over here." I heard a little bit of scuffling in the background before Grant's voice filled the line again. "Explain," he demanded.
"Um, well…" I didn't know where to start. So I just began from the very beginning, when Cammie hopped in the helicopter and blinked those big blue eyes at me in surprise. I talked about her hesitancy around me, her smile, and finally what she did. It was uncomfortable at first, but as soon as I got on a roll, it was hard to stop.
When I finally had finished, Grant chuckled. "Zachy has a new crush," he teased.
If he had been next to me, I would've punched him. "Stop it. No, I don't. I barely know her."
Jonas finally piped in. "You should've heard the way you just kept going on and on about her, Zach. According to my mathematical model, all that talking probably means you do. Granted, we can't see you, so we can't pick up on visual cues like faraway eyes, or blushing, but I still think it's safe to say you do, in fact, like Cammie."
"You guys suck," I groaned. I was perfectly fine with my denial, but my friends were adamant that I get over it. And so while I didn't say it, I knew my friends felt it: a silent admission about Cammie.
"Get home soon, man," Nick joined in. "We got some news that you'll like, I think. Especially now that you got to know…well, you know…her."
My interest was piqued. "I'll try," I promised. I hung up.
I went to knock on the door between me and Cammie's rooms. The sound lingered in the air for a little, but nobody answered. I couldn't imagine that she'd be so mad at me that she wouldn't answer, but then again, I didn't know the workings of a female mind. Maybe girls were as crazy as Grant said.
I gave up and went down the hall to find Agent James and Agent Peters instead. Neither answered their doors, either. Weird.
When I came back to my apartment, I noticed a sheet of paper on the kitchenette counter that I hadn't seen before. It was from them.
Zach,
Something happened last night?
We took Cammie back to her school.
There's another helicopter up on the roof for when you're ready to go home.
Best, Agents James/Peters
Weird. The whole thing was so sudden, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know if it was a good or bad thing I never said goodbye to Cammie. We didn't exactly end on the happiest of notes, but I also half-wanted the chance to say bye.
But Nick said they had news! And about Cammie! I had a feeling things were going to get interesting soon.
Cammie POV
I sat in slight shock as Macey, Bex, and Liz narrated the story for me, with help from audio clips stored on Liz's computer.
"The audio bug we placed in Zach's room was a high-intensity bug," Liz had explained. "Basically, it picks up the smallest sound. So we got a lot of meaningless stuff like bugs running through the vents, but we also got some interesting audio footage that you might want to hear. One was from last night at one, and another from eight this morning, when you were on the 'copter." She pressed play on one clip.
"What?" a voice that I recognized as Zach's growled.
"Well, hello sunshine," a tinny voice replied. Liz looked at me. "We think that was over the phone." The tinny voice continued. "I'm great, thanks for asking. How has your night been going?"
"Grant, not in the mood," Zach groaned. "Why are you calling me at this ungodly hour."
There was then a lot of rambling by the aforementioned Grant until Zach cut him off.
"Grant, just tell me whatever you called me for."
"Get this, man," Grant interrupted. "Cammie? She's… /CUT/ She's the Chameleon."
There was then a long pause, and then Zach just said "Thanks man" and then hung up.
"Weird, isn't it?" Bex asked. "Zach has a crew, just like you had us, and they were researching you just like we were him. Which means their school must be every bit as good as ours if they got through the CIA's firewalls on Cammie."
I sat and thought for a moment. Finally I nodded. "What's the other thing you wanted to show me? The one from this morning."
Macey grinned evilly. "Maybe we should just keep that one to ourselves, what do you think Bex? Liz?"
I started to complain, but then realized what I was doing. "Fine. Whatever you guys. Does this mean we're done talking about Zach?" I asked with some relief.
Macey pouted, but nodded. "Done." But then her mischievous grin was back on her face. It had also spread to Bex's and Liz's. "For now."
I got up and stretched. "Good. I'm going to get a croissant from Chef. Man, I've missed his cooking." And before anyone could protest, I left the room.
Bex POV
"Should we tell her?" Liz asked us. Out of the three of us, she was the most honest. It was an endearing quality on her, but it also made for a relief when she'd chosen the R&D track instead of fieldwork.
"Are you bloody kidding?" I laughed. "She would flip out."
"I think that would kinda be fun to see," Macey said, waggling her eyebrows. But I knew she was kidding. Telling Cammie that Zach liked her was going to agitate her so much she wouldn't be able to focus on anything until she was able to sort things out. So basically until the end of eternity arrived and hell froze over. She was like that with boys.
"Well the whole deal is already over, and there wouldn't be any point. So…I guess not?" Liz sighed, as if she had been thinking along the same lines as me and come to the same conclusion.
"No," I confirmed. "Definitely not."
Sorry if this chapter was a little boring. I'll try to liven up the next one!
Also, I'm sorry but school started today, so updates might be once every other day instead of every day from now on. But I'll try my best to get them up as soon as possible :) If I don't update at least every-other day, feel free to shoot me a quick message and yell at me.
