DISCLAIMER: Ally Carter owns the original Gallagher Girls Series... No matter how much I wish I did:(


Chapter Ten

Cammie's POV


The Clandestine business is one of relationships. Everything you are is built upon the trust or mistrust of someone else. Sometimes you must forge a relationship with someone to earn their trust, only to turn on them and take them down.

The scary thing about conducting deals with covert intentions is not in the actual execution of the arrangement. No. The part that makes your blood curdle is when trust is lost before it is used.

The thought that I had lost Zach's trust petrified me. As completely horrible as it sounds, he was my in road to the inner workings of the Circle of Cavan.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, though. None of this was supposed to happen. I was supposed to come back to Gallagher with the feeling of liberation. Everyone was supposed to be re-united again- Macey, Liz, Bex, and myself. Zach and Solomon were supposed to be here. My mom was supposed to be her usual self. And Mr. Smith was supposed to be, well, not here.

I walked up to the Pigeon room after a dinner of silence and bad pasta. (Although, let's be honest- Smith's a way better cook than my mom…)

The security team had posted a sign on the door saying, "Do Not Enter. Off Limits." I scoffed and opened it anyways. Signs had never really bothered me, but then again, limits, barricades, and armed guards never really phased me either.

I opened the door and promptly closed it behind me. Everything was exactly as it had been last semester. With the exception of the code Solomon had on the blackboard being gone, that room was like it was supposed to be.

I sat down in one of the chairs and closed my eyes.

I had never been close to Joe Solomon or cared much for him, for that matter, but he was my godfather, and he had practically sacrificed himself for me. And all of that aside, he was a heck of a lot better at teaching CovOps than Smith.

He had brought me closer to finding my father than anyone, including my mother, had. He left us clues to the journals he and my father kept during their time at Blackthorne.

At Langley, he was a file marked, Classified. At the Circle of Cavan headquarters, he was a threat. At Blackthorne, he was a legend and a ghost. At Gallagher, he was just a teacher. He was a teacher making more legends. The thing is, legends are really useless unless they're living. What good is the story of the best spy in history if he or she is dead? Contrary to popular belief, legends never let themselves be exposed. After all, to be worth anything, you have to be a living legend.

"Why are you here?" A voice asked. A voice that belonged to Zach.

"Why do you care?" I replied.

"Why are you breaking rules?" He said while pointing to the Do Not Enter sign.

"Since when do I not break rules?" I said nonchalantly.

He shrugged and pulled up a chair then sat infront of me. "What happened to you, Cam?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've changed. And it's not good."

"Who are you? Dr. Phil?" I remarked.

He shrugged and stood, "I thought I was a little more important than that."

"I can't wait for Solomon to come back." I muttered.

"You know he can't change any of this, right?"

"What do you mean?"

He chuckled. "Have you seriously been so caught up with yourself that you didn't take time to figure out why he's gone?"

"He's on a mission, Zach. I'm not stupid."

He laughed in disbelief. "You're actually gonna believe that? Don't you know he was-"

Before he could finish, the school turned upside down.

I rushed to the window and looked out. All was calm on the outside except for a long, black limousine pulling in the driveway.

"Who's that?" Zach asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. We should probably get downstairs though, this is a Code Red, they're not operatives."

We hurried down to the grand hall and waited with everyone else. Bex slipped in beside me and Grant barreled down the stairs and stood beside Zach. Macey made her entrance like the supermodel she is. I sighed.

No Liz.

"Do you think this is Liz coming back?" I asked Bex. "Macey's here and there aren't any other civilians at Gallagher…"

Bex shrugged, "Beats me. I haven't heard from her since she moved out."

"Maybe she decided to come back." Macey suggested.

I head Zach mutter something about how Gallagher girls are inferior because of all our 'rich girl drama' in Portuguese. I elbowed him in the side as hard as I could and stood there as he fell back, taking Grant down with him, while Jonas just stood there and laughed.

The doors opened and a very short- very rotund couple walked through. 156 pairs of peering eyes stood at the strangers.

"ELIZABETH!" The woman screamed.

Liz scrambled through the crowd of students and teachers and ran into the lady's open arms.

"Liz?" We all said simultaneously.

She flashed us a grin and then winked at my mom.

Bex, Macey, and I stood there dumbfounded.

How in the world had Liz managed to pull this off? I mean, fool one of us, sure- it's possible. But all three of us? No way.

Just then, Abby walked up behind me and smirked, "Gotcha, Squirt."


Alrighty. So this was kind of a filler chapter, just to tie up a few loose ends.

JUST IN CASE YALL DIDN'T CATCH THIS:

-Liz is BACK! (woot woot!)

-Abby was the one tutoring Liz while she was in hiding.

-JOHN SMITH IS NOT MATTHEW MORGAN.

-JOHN SMITH IS NOT JOSEPH SOLOMON.

-JOHN SMITH IS JOHN SMITH.

-I AM NOT TRICKING YOU ON THIS! JOHN SMITH IS ACTUALLY HIMSELF! SO IF I GET ONE MORE REVIEW OR MESSAGE ASKING IF SMITH IS SOMEONE ELSE I'M PROBABLY GONNA SCREAM! (okay, not really scream, but you know what I mean:)

SO.

Here's a preview of what's to come:

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Dun Dun Duuuuhhhhhh- BIG REVEAL! Who do you think it is?

-We find out more about SMITH!

-What do you think Zach was going to say before everything went all Code Red?

So there you have it!

Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease(:

-Alli(: