Chapter 14

Cammie POV

"Are you sure you're okay to go Gallagher Girl?" Zach asked for the fifth time during the car ride.

"Yes, Zach. I'm fine. I can take care of myself." His concern was starting to become slightly condescending.

"Just stay by me the whole time. Or else I'll tell Macey to get the handcuffs back out." He joked. At least, I hope he joked. "Jonas, Liz- where are we going?" He asked into the comms unit.

"Okay, well…" Liz started. "There are a few blind spots on the cameras… once you get inside the house, you're good. The security inside was significantly easier to corrupt."

"You all are going to have to split up into small groups," As Jonas said this, Zach grabbed my hand. "We can send the cameras outside on a loop for about ten minutes, so you have exactly that long to get inside the house. We're going to break into each of the cameras and security systems as you pass them, that way it will give you a longer amount of time." There was a frantic sound of typing keys in the background.

"Alright. We'll do it like we did the last one- each group takes a floor to search." Zach said.

"Actually, that won't be necessary. Dragnov is currently occupying the main floor. He has a party full of civilians there now. He won't have anything of interest on that floor. Even terrorist's aren't that reckless." Liz said through the comms. "So that means one group on the top floor, one on the basement, and one covering the courtyard and surrounding areas."

Grant raised his hand. Zach sighed. "Grant, this isn't a classroom, just ask your damn question."

"What are we looking for, exactly?"

"Anything having to do with the Hunter's, the Morel, or the meeting at the Westin in two days."

"Just to make this clear," Macey said. "I am not walking through the sewers again. So Nick and I get roof. You two can fight over who gets courtyard."

I turned to Bex. "Rock, paper, scissors?" I asked. She nodded and accepted the challenge. I won and Zach smirked at Grant.

"Courtyard it is, Gallagher Girl…" Zach said, throwing his arm around my shoulder.

It took us twenty minutes to run from the van to the courtyard, dodging cameras and taking short cuts on both Liz and Jonas' demand. "I don't understand why we are here." I said, picking at the flowers next to the cobblestone walkway. "Why in the world would he have any information out here?"

"I dunno. Our nerds seem to think there's something out here though, so who are we to argue?" He said, picking the flower out of my hand and pulling the petals out one by one. "Got to admit though, it is pretty romantic, don't you think?" He said suggestively, handing me the stem of the flower he had just dismembered.

"It was," I said, throwing the useless stem over my shoulder. "until you said that." I started to turn around.

"Hold on," He caught my shoulder and stared very hard into me, squinting as if he were putting in an excessive amount of effort.

"What are you doing?" I laughed and he smiled at the sound.

"I was gazing into your eyes. I thought you might swoon or something, you know, considering how much you love my eyes…"

I laughed again and hit him on the arm. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" I said, referring back to Macey's game of truth or dare. He shook his head. "Alright, Mr. Confident. What's your favorite part about me then?" I said, smirking his smirk at him.

He scoffed at me and I realized he was going to give me a smart-ass answer. "Well," He bit his lip and scanned me up and down. "Your ass is pretty great…" He said. I was unsure if I should laugh or be annoyed by his immature behavior.

I decided on the latter and walked deeper into the courtyard. I stopped to stare at a big oak tree next to a large lake. I could feel Zach's presence behind me, but he was quiet. I concentrated on the tree like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Zach inched closer to me and I felt his breath on my neck. I reached a hand out to feel an engraving on the bark. It was of a flower. Zach gently moved my hair to the side. I pressed my thumb into the engraving. The ground gave out from under me and a scream caught in my throat.

It was pitch black- the tree was gone, the lake was gone, Zach was gone, even the sky was gone. "Cammie! Where did you go? Cammie! Are you okay?" Zach's frantic voice crackles in from over the comms unit.

"Zach, I'm fine- what happened?" I asked, struggling to keep my voice calm.

He huffed in anger. "I could ask you the same thing. Jonas, where is she?" He said accusingly.

There was a shuffling of papers on the other side. "I… I don't know." Jonas said nervously. "There's nothing on the blueprints…"

I groped around in the dark to feel for my flashlight. I flipped it on and shined it around some. "I'm in a hallway." I felt a buzzing on my wrist and looked down to see my radiation detector vibrating. "And my radiation bracelet is going off the charts." There was a pause on the other line.

"That would explain the ridiculously high levels of radiation bouncing off the lake…" Liz said softly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Zach demanded.

"I didn't think to check until now." She said, sounding on the verge of tears.

"Zach- she didn't know. Lizzy, it's okay." I said, taking a deep breath and moving forward through the doors. They opened to reveal a gigantic room with a frosted dome. I could tell from the murky black outside that I was underneath the lake.

There were large missiles and mass-killing weapons covering the entirety of the room. To most people, the biggest one is the most intimidating. But I'm a trained spy- I know better than that. The most dangerous thing in the room is the flash drive wired down to a little pedestal in the middle. The flash drive containing the codes that could set off one of these very large missiles at any given moment.

I walked over to it cautiously, light on my feet. I saw a tag hanging off of it, almost as if it were for sale. On the tag was written Monday, 10:00. Westin Hotel, Paris. I held back a gasp. "I think I know what they're planning to give us on Monday." I said, my voice even.

"What?" Liz asked breathlessly.

"A very dangerous combination of codes." I couldn't take it now, it would set off alarms. We would have to wait until the meeting.

A thought occurred to me. "How do I get out of here Liz?"

"Give me a second, I'm working on it." She answered and there was the rapid sound of typing echoing in the background. Her heavy breathing through the comms suddenly stopped. "The lake…" She murmured.

"The what?" Zach asked.

"The lake!" She said louder. "The only way out is through the lake. Cammie, there should be a ladder leading to a door of some sort- a porthole, maybe?"

"I see it." It was true, there was a ladder leading to a high point in the dome. If I opened it up there would be nothing but blackness.

"But… but that's impossible!" Zach sputtered. "The water is freezing. You would be dead of hypothermia in a minute."

"Actually, with my calculations, she would have about thirty seconds until she loses consciousness, then she would drown." Liz added in.

Zach made a strangled-sounding noise through the comms. "She can't do this."

"It's the only way. Unless you want me to starve to death down here." I said, climbing the ladder. I reached the top. I took a deep breath and put my hand on the door to the portal. "Thirty seconds?" I asked Liz softly.

"Thirty seconds." She confirmed.

I opened the door and was submerged into the freezing black water.

1... 2…3… This water is not water- its ice.

5…6…7… It's so dark. Which way is up?

10… 11... 12… My lungs started to burn and there was a black tinge to my vision.

13… 14… 15… I felt myself lose consciousness and the last thought on my brain was- Liz was wrong.

A/N: Next chapter is a fluff chapter! Please review- and thanks for everyone who helped me reach 100! :)