A/N: I'm so so so sorry guys. I know it's been like forever since I updated, and I apologize. I hate to say it, but this fanfic has been on the bottom of my to-do list for the past couple of weeks. I'll try to update throughout the next few days.

Katniss979-Goode-Morgan: I'm glad you liked that part. Don't worry; the next chapter will be better.

xXFangirlingBookwormXx: Thanks :)

So the last chapter was boring. I made one that's a little better for you guys. One thing, though. Just imagine the CoveOps assignment in the simulation room in this chapter as the fear landscape simulation thing in Divergent, okay? Speaking of Divergent, has anyone seen the movie yet? How was it? I'm going on Saturday. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: All rights go to Ally Carter.

Chapter 10

Cammie POV

"Ready for a game of hide and seek, Gallagher Girl?" Zach smirked.

"Hide and seek?" Cammie echoed. She turned to Joe, who explained what Zach meant.

"Today's CoveOps mission will be a basic surveillance operation," Joe said. "I have divided you into two teams. Boys versus girls. The boys will be assigned a character each and a disguise. This assignment will be timed for three hours."

"In those three hours, it is the girl's job to make it to a certain destination without being tailed by the boys. If you don't make it, congratulations girls, you've just failed today's assignment." Joe started passing out black bags to the boys.

"Guys, inside is your costume. Don't show anyone else what it looks like. You will have fifteen minutes to change into your disguise." Joe gave a long look at the line of boys. "Understood?"

Zach caught Cammie's eyes and smiled supportively. "You'll do fine," he mouthed. Cammie nodded appreciatively and smiled as the boys walked out of the room, leaving the girls inside the room with Joe.

Cammie swallowed hard and glanced at Macey, Bex and Liz. Bex's eyes were gleaming, Macey looked bored (as usual), and Liz was biting her nails.

"Okay, ladies," Joe came forward and handed a white envelope to Tina. "Here's your destination."

Tina clutched the envelope as if she was holding onto it for dear life. Cammie didn't feel bad for her. If Tina looked scared, then Cammie was going to have some trouble as well.

"The boys should be out soon," Joe walked towards the door of the room. "I'm going to put up the landscape up. Oh, and Miss Morgan," he added. "try your best not to get startled."

Joe exited the big room and entered the control area that was connected to the room with a glass window. He clicked a few buttons and the simulation room whirred to life. Lights started flashing, beeping sounds echoed throughout the room and the skylights at the top of the room were covered with steel shutters, sealing the room in darkness.

Cammie looked at Liz, who was staring at the presentation with huge grin on her face. "Now, all he needs to do is program the computer into displaying little pixels with colors that represent the object he wants," Liz said in awe.

"Right," Cammie nodded without understanding half of what Liz said. Suddenly, the ground beneath them seemed to disappear. Cammie stumbled backwards as buildings started to pop up from the ground. The moved across the floor swiftly and stopped at random places. Bushes, flowers, and other nature appeared out of nowhere. Cammie looked up. A pale blue color crawled out onto the ceiling, with a splash of yellow shining in the corner. Cammie blinked, and she was suddenly standing underneath a clear blue sky with the sun warming her face.

"This is so cool..." Cammie breathed.

"You should see the other landscapes that Joe creates," Macey smiled.

Cammie's mouth fell open. Gone was the empty walls and drab gray floors. Instead, a new world seemed to have taken its place. It didn't even seem that she was in a room anymore. Instead, the girls were standing in the middle of a town square. There was a bubbling fountain located a few feet from her. Cammie looked around her and saw that the town square was part of a village. It wasn't a village she knew, but it looked similar to Gallagher. She saw a brown plaque next to the fountain and walked towards it. The other girls followed.

"Roseville," she read aloud and frowned.

"Roseville?" Bex repeated. "Never heard of that village before."

"Oh my god," Liz said softly. "Look!"

Cammie stepped back and realized that the village had suddenly come to life. People were walking around, going about their daily lives. Where had all these people come from?

Then, the truth dawned on her. The boys, she thought. It's them, hidden underneath their own disguises. But there were definitely more than the number of students that were participating in the CoveOps mission. Were they all Blackthorne boys and teachers? Or additional holograms projected for the simulation?

Just to make sure, Cammie smiled at one of the guy that walked past her. He smiled back and continued walking. Okay, definitely not a hologram. Cammie whirled around subtly, studying at each person that went by her. Was that Zach underneath the wavy black hair and blue eyes?

"Okay, ladies," Joe's voice boomed over the intercom. "You know what to do. You may pair up or work with anyone you want. Tina, you can open the envelope now."

The girls crowded around Tina, who gingerly opened the flap and pulled out a slip of paper. "Flower stand in market place." The girls looked at one another nervously. "Good luck, guys," Tina smiled.

"I'll stay with you, Cammie, since it's your first assignment," Bex reassured her.

Cammie nodded and suddenly felt worried...and scared. She was going to have to be very careful during this assignment. I can do this, Cammie thought to herself. I am a pavement artist...no one can see me. She heard a loud beep and looked up. A large clock was placed against one of the buildings. The screen read 3:00:00. As she was staring at it, the clock started, and the screen showed 2:59:59.

The simulation had begun.

Cammie's heart raced as the clock began to count down seconds. And then the seconds turned to minutes.

"Come on," Bex took Cammie's hand and pulled her towards the residential part of the village. Here, they mingled with the other villagers while keeping a lookout for any tails. Cammie glanced to her left. A man was standing against a house, smoking a cigarette. Is he our tail? Cammie thought. This is going to be a long day.

Cammie and Bex spent the next hour or so scouring the whole residential area. They entered buildings, only to exit them two minutes later. They bent down, tied their shoelaces, stopped to sniff flowers, complimented people's appearances; all when they didn't need to. Right now, Cammie and Bex were strolling through a small park in the village. Cammie looked around discreetly, taking in everything around her. She turned back towards Bex, who was staring at the reflection of the timer in a puddle of water. The time now read 1:50:37.

"Here's the thing you need to know about detecting and losing a tail," Bex declared as she and Cammie strolled through a small park in the village. "It's—"

Before Bex could finish her sentence, a loud alarm started blaring through the village. Cammie and Bex looked around in surprise. A red alarm bell that Cammie had never noticed before now hung next to the timer. The numbers on the clock had disappeared, now replaced with the words "CODE BLACK."

"Shit," Bex pulled Cammie's hand and led her through the village. As Bex was tugging her along, Cammie glanced around and saw that all the other villagers had similar expressions as the one on Bex's face. They looked scared, worried, and determined. We've had Code Blacks in Gallagher before, Cammie thought. But never like this. She wriggled her hand out from Bex's grasp and put her hands over her ears to block out the alarm's noise.

Suddenly, the entire village started to disappear. The buildings sank beneath the floors, the blue sky overhead flickered and faded away, and all that was left were the crowd of villagers standing in the middle of the empty simulation room. The men and boys started taking off wigs, and jackets, and fake mustaches. The boys's disguises, Cammie thought. She spotted Mr. Mosckowitz and Professor Smith in the crowd, shouting orders to the other students. She craned her neck to see if she could spot Zach anywhere. Instead, she saw Tina and some other girl students taking orders from the teachers.

In the middle of the room stood Macey and Liz. They spotted Cammie and Bex and rushed over to them.

"Cam!" Liz cried and took her from Bex.

"Lizzie, take Cam to her room," Bex ordered. "Lock the door, and don't let anyone inside until the next hour or so is over. Not even me." Bex turned to Macey. "We have to go."

"What's going on?" Cammie asked the girls.

"Just take her," Bex told Liz. Liz nodded and pulled Cammie to the doors. Cammie looked over her shoulder and saw Macey and Bex standing with a sad look on their faces.

"The simulation," Cammie shouted to Liz over the ringing alarm. "Why did it stop?"

"It's a Code Black," Liz explained as they hurried down the hallways. "The Circle is nearby."

As Liz dragged Cammie down the corridor, the windows and skylights above them were shielded by steel shutters, and bolts were screwed on tight.

"What?!" Cammie asked. "I thought you said that the location of Blackthorne was classified! Even I don't know where we are!"

"It is," Liz assured her. "For now." She gave a sidelong glance at Cammie. "The Circle has been wanting to find out the location of Blackthorne for a while now, but they've been pretty persistent ever since..." Liz trailed off.

"Ever since what?" Cammie asked even though she was sure she knew the answer already.

"Ever since you came along," Liz said quietly.

"But that was like two weeks ago!" Cammie exclaimed. She stopped as she and Liz arrived at the elevators. Liz kept jabbing at the call button for the elevator, but it didn't arrive.

"Gallagher Girl!" A voice called out from behind her. Cammie whirled around and saw Zach and Joe running towards her.

"Are you all right?" Zach asked protectively. He placed his hands on her cheeks and tilted her face upwards.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cammie replied distractedly. "Why wouldn't I be?" She stared into his eyes, looking for any sign of emotion that would give her a clue to what was going on. All she could see was anxiousness and worry.

"Liz," Joe asked. "Are you taking Cammie to her room?" Liz nodded. The elevator finally arrived and the doors slid open. Liz pulled Cammie inside despite her protests.

"Wait, what's going on?" Cammie demanded. "Why is is such a big deal that the Circle doesn't find me?" She gave a pleading look to Zach.

"Gallagher Girl, I promise everything will make sense after this," Zach said quickly as the doors started to close. "Just stay put for—" His voice cut off as the doors closed.

"Zach..." Cammie whispered so quietly that even Liz couldn't hear while standing next to her. The elevator slowly sank lower and lower to Cammie's floor.

"Cam," Liz placed a hesitant hand on Cammie's forearm. "You do know how important you are to us, right? All of us."

"But why?" Cammie looked at Liz. "Why am I such a big deal?" The elevator ringed and lurched to a stop. The doors slid open, and Liz and Cammie hurried towards Cammie's room.

Cammie unlocked the door for Liz and followed her into the room. She turned around as she entered and bolted the door shut. As she turned back around, she saw Liz dragging a chair to the door and placing it underneath the knob. "Just in case," she explained.

"Okay, what is going on?" Cammie glared at Liz. "Why exactly is there a Code Black—heck why is the Circle always trying to find me?!"

Liz sighed. "Well, I suppose you do deserve an explanation." She sank into one of Cammie's armchairs and put her head against her arm. "Ever since you were little, the Circle has been after you. Nobody really knows why. It could be because of your parents and their relationship with Catherine, or something else. We don't know," Liz looked at Cammie sadly and shook her head.

"Joe told you that Catherine was taking over the villages," Liz said. "She was starting slow. I guess, now that Gallagher was destroyed, she's been trying even harder to find you."

"Zach," Cammie recalled. "Bex, Macey, Joe. Are they going after her now?"

"Just protecting the perimeter, that's all," Liz smiled. "Nothing too serious."

"But that's what we're going to do eventually, right?" Cammie asked.

"Cam—" Liz started.

"We have to!" Cammie interrupted. She stood up from the bed. "I'm not going to let her get away with what she's been doing all these years. I'm pretty sure Joe was going to send up half of Blackthorne to attack Cavan."

Liz stared at her hands in her lap. "Yes," she mumbled. "That was the plan."

Cammie exhaled and paced the room. "The sooner the better. I should be out there, protecting the perimeter, too," she said. "I can fight just as well as any of them—"

"Cam, no," Liz cut in sternly. "Joe would never forgive himself you got hurt. Worse, killed. Neither would Zach. Anyone of us girls, too, for that matter."

Cammie nodded and collapsed back on the bed. "Well, what am I supposed to do then?"

"Wait," Liz said softly. "And hope." And so they did.

After about an hour, Cammie was working on her COW homework, but her mind was still on her friends and Joe's well being. Liz was slumbering softly on her armchair. Suddenly, Cammie heard a knock on her door. She jumped up, startled, and glanced over. Was her ears playing tricks on her? Sure enough, a second knock pounded on the door; this time even louder.

Cammie slowly stood from her seat. Liz's eyes blinked open and she yawned.

"What happened?" Liz asked sleepily. The knock rapped once again, this time accompanied by a "Cam, it's me, Bex!"

Cammie went over and peered through the peep hole. "It's them," she said, relieved.

She moved the chair aside and threw the door open. Bex stood there, with Macey, Zach, Joe and Grant behind her. Even Jonas was included, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

"Cam," Bex breathed a sigh of relief. "You're all right?"

"Yeah," Cam smiled. Liz came up beside her. "Liz protected me," she gave the blonde a small nudge of her shoulder. Cammie turned back towards the group, her expression serious. "What happened out there?"

"All we saw were a couple of Circle droids," Macey smirked. "Jonas here shut all them off, and then reprogrammed the machines telling them that they didn't find Blackthorne."

"That's all?" Cammie asked.

Zach nodded and pushed his way into the room. "You know that we wouldn't let anybody hurt you, Gallagher Girl..." He hurriedly added on to make his sentence less suspicious. "Not that anyone is hunting you down or anything..."

"It's okay," Cammie said. "Liz told me everything." She stepped back and let the rest of her guests into her room. They took seats on the chairs, her desk, bed, and on the floor. Cammie leaned against the wall near her bathroom. "And I want in," Cammie stared at all the people inside the room.

"What?" Grant burrowed his eyebrows.

"I want to go out with you during a Code Black," Cammie said defiantly.

"Kiddo, that's dangerous," Joe pointed out.

"So what?" Cammie said. "I've been in the face of danger before. There shouldn't be a problem."

"Cameron, what I think Joe is trying to say, is—" Bex started.

"Don't Cameron me," Cammie snapped back. "I really want to do this."

"Gallagher Girl," Zach stared at Cammie. "You are not going out there. Not unless the Circle has been taken down."

"So let's take 'em down!" Cammie cried. "What's the big deal?"

"You know," Macey said. "I think she has a point."

Grant gasped. "How can you agree with her?"

"Look at her," Macey shrugged. "It's obvious that she hates being trapped in here."

"Exactly," Cammie said thankfully. "I mean, I don't even know the location of Blackthorne!"

"That's because—" Joe started.

"Because what?" Cammie asked. "It's classified? You're not allowed to share it with me? Because I'll tell somebody? Who do I have to tell, anyways?"

"True," Jonas shrugged. He glanced around the group. "I think she deserves a chance."

"Fine," Joe snapped. "You're not going to be scouring the perimeter, but I'll take you to Gallagher. Just remember that you're going to have to wait a while. It's not safe this just minute. Got it?"

"Yeah," Cammie nodded. "How long?"

"Possibly a week," Joe informed. "Now, I want you to start your training period with Zach." He left the room followed by Liz, Jonas, Macey, Bex, and Grant.

Cammie groaned to herself. A week? She couldn't wait that long!

"Come on, Gallagher Girl," Zach put his arm around her waist and steered her into the bathroom. "Go change and meet me in the gym." He pressed his lips to her forehead. "We'll do a few workout sessions. And maybe not just work out sessions." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Ewww...Zach, that's gross..." Cammie swatted his arms and shooed him out of her room.

A/N: Okay, so I was wrong. This isn't going to be the action packed chapter. The next one is. Sorry if you guys were excited about that. I just didn't want to make this chapter super long, and then make the next one super short, 'cuz then you would get mad -_- So, for everyone's sake, I'll give you a spoiler to keep you anticipated. In the next chapter, Cammie will finally *cough* meet Catherine *cough*. But you didn't hear it from me!

Well, I hope you enjoyed that, and don't forget to review! I'm sure you think this chapter was a flop as well. Sorry about that... Anyways, I'll see you guys later, then. Bye :)

~bookwormbullet