Rebecca Baxter had never been wrong a day in her life. But something was wrong now. It was a feeling she had the moment she awoke in Kuala Lumpur. It wasn't even morning yet. Barely two a.m. But a shiver ran down Bex's spine that had nothing to do with the weather. She pulled herself from the bed in her tiny apartment and walked to the high rise's windows. The city slept, but something was wrong. Bex could feel it in her bones.
She dressed quickly and hit the pavement, channeling her inner Cammie without thinking about it. Years of watching Cammie disappear had only added to her own skillset. Bex certainly had never reached Cammie's level of mastery, but she'd never met a skill she couldn't improve if she tried hard enough.
Bex thought of her parents on their farm in Buckinghamshire. No, that wasn't it, she decided. Even retired, her parents were some of the best operatives in the business. Any person who went to the farm intending to cause harm would have their hands full.
Bex knew her friends were scattered across the globe. She'd crossed paths with them over the years, but their contact was sparse, scattered. It was a far cry from Gallagher, when they rarely went four hours without seeing each other. Maybe that was why Bex still felt like she was connected to each of them. Maybe they'd synced frequencies at Gallagher, and never really separated.
Bex checked her dead letter e-mail accounts. Nothing yet. That was a good sign, but it wasn't conclusive. Even bad news sometimes traveled slowly. Bex stopped at a street cart and bought a satay. It might have been two am, but that didn't mean Bex wasn't hungry. Besides, if her instincts were right, and they basically always were, this would be a long day.
Maybe it was Macey. Macey had always been a little rules-optional. With her powerful position as head of her mother's cosmetics company, and political bloodlines, she'd been routinely called out of the board room to infiltrate dangerous white collar crime rings. Bex had certainly heard stories of Macey's less than careful operations. Where most people used planning and forethought, Macey jumped in with both feet and let her looks, money, and unwavering confidence carry her the rest of the way.
Maybe it was Liz. Sure, she was teaching at Gallagher now, but that didn't mean she was out of danger. Maybe Liz and fallen down a staircase, or gotten stuck in a secret passageway. Maybe one of Liz's students was the next Catherine Goode. Maybe there had been an accident. Bex had to admit, she'd been less than confident about Liz's safety since that deadly lab accident at Blackthorne a few years ago. Though there'd been whispers that it wasn't truly an accident, Bex still feared for Liz. Bex had seen Liz hurt herself with a paperclip. Bex wasn't sure she should be trusted with a lab full of dangerous chemicals.
Bex supposed it could be Cammie and Zach. Bex had seen Zach just a few weeks ago. He'd been sent on behalf of the joint task force, to exchange information and check in with Bex. Bex had beaten him up to maintain her cover at one point. She was careful not to hurt him too badly, but she had to admit it had been fun to spar like they had at Gallagher. For a moment, she'd forgotten she was in a strange country, working her way into the central government, to gain classified information about a dangerous terrorist group.
In their few brief moments alone, Zach had confided in her. He'd told Bex that Cammie was hesitant to get married. This hadn't surprised Bex at all. Look at her mom, she'd told Zach. How could you witness a thing like that and not believe that eventually it will happen to you. Eventually you'll be the one explaining to your children that their father is never coming home.
Really? Zach's voice had been laden with sarcasm. Because I thought it had more to do with my mother's penchant for torturing and trying to murder her family.
You didn't know her before it happened. Bex had said. You never knew that Cammie. You didn't see Rachel every year on his birthday.
Bex passed a man who looked so much like Joe Solomon it was uncanny. She felt the creeping dread again. She knew her phone was about to buzz before it did. She needed to go. Now.
Bex knew she'd be jeopardizing an important operation. Bex knew she'd have a lot of explaining to do to some very important and dangerous people. But her sisterhood was calling, and that was the most important thing of all.
"Where are you?" the voice on the other end of the line was making every attempt to stay composed. Every attempt to pretend things were normal.
"Kuala Lumpur."
"I'll be right there."
Bex didn't know where Macey had been that she'd arrived in Malaysia with her private jet in a matter of hours, but it didn't really matter. They had a job to do, and that was more important than anything.
"Poor Rachel," Macey said, trying to hide the fear in her words. Bex heard it anyway. Sure, they were both professional spies, but they'd known each other so long that lies were basically impossible. "I can't even imagine."
Somehow, Macey had heard the news two hours before an alarm was ever raised. Every friendly government operative in the world may have been looking for Cammie and Zach by the time Macey and Bex took off from Malaysia, but they knew no one had a better chance of finding Cammie than they did.
"We'll find her," Macey was confident. "No one in the world could hide her from us."
Bex considered Macey.
"You found me," Macey reminded her. "You found me, and we're going to find Cam."
Bex wanted to argue against Macey's logic. Bex wanted to distinguish between finding an upset teenager at her teacher's safehouse and finding a kidnapped government operative who knew far more information than was good for her. Bex wanted to forget the following summer, when Cammie had disappeared, and no one had been able to find her, not even Bex. When Cammie had been taken by the Circle of Cavan. But the thought of Cammie being gone forever was too much to bear, so she just looked at Macey and nodded.
"Try to get some sleep," Macey advised. "It really is a long flight back."
Macey had dozed off by the time they stopped to refuel, but Bex was wide awake, counting the minutes until they'd land at the Midway International Airport and the real work would begin.
AN: Thanks so much for joining me for Chapters 11 and 12! Hope you enjoyed getting to check in with some of our other favorite characters. Don't worry, they'll be back soon! Come back here on Wed to see how Cammie and Zach are holding up.
