Hey, guys; thanks for all of the awesome reviews! They make me want to keep on writing, so keep em coming! School has started for me, but I'll try to continue updating, even though it will be extremely hard with AP English going on and AP Chem and that kind of thing. I'll do my best to update as quickly as possible, though! Especially over the weekend! Happy reading!

21.

"Today, ladies," Mr. Solomon said as he handed out comms units. "You're playing with the pros. Your tails could be anyone, they could be anywhere. You will have until five o' clock this evening to reach the warehouse with the address I gave you alone. I will see you all then."

The girls began to head off and he reached me, holding out a comms unit. I reached for it, but he wouldn't let go and his green eyes bore into mine. "I'm still not sure that this is safe for you."

"I'm wearing your watch," I argued. He'd given me a watch a few days prior that had a panic button. "And I even ate your edible GPS tracker. I'll be fine."

"Be careful," he whispered and he reached out to touch my cheek for only a split second before I was gone, melted into the crowd. New York City was huge and there was so much street traffic that I knew it was every pavement artist's dream. There were tons of places that you could duck into and tons of taxis and other means of transportation to get in and out of. There were a lot of different kinds of people, but that also meant that there were more faces to memorize than was really possible. And everyone knows that spotting a tail is easier when you can see the people that don't belong. But everyone belonged in New York City.

With my special training, though, I figured that I would be fine.

An hour later, I got out of a taxi as I threw the driver a – very convincing fake – twenty dollar bill. Then, I took off speed walking. This assignment was harder than it had seemed – even for me. I groaned as I saw the woman in a beige business suit, talking animatedly on a cell phone. There was nothing too unusual about her, except for the fact that only twenty-five minutes before, she'd been wearing jeans and a t-shirt and had been pushing a baby stroller. I sighed as I realized what the problem was. I was wearing my Gallagher uniform, which was too easy to spot. But not to worry, I had a plan.

Thirty minutes later, I examined myself in the mirror of the bathroom in the mall. My hair was up in a high ponytail and I wore jeans, a tight-fitting black blouse that I would never wear if I had a choice and black boots that covered my calves and came up almost to my knees. My Gallagher uniform was stuffed in a tote bag that I had bought and I wore darker makeup than I would ever wear if I was sane – I'd paid a girl at the makeup counter to do it for me. All in all, I guess I looked…hot.

This was confirmed when two extremely hot, Mr. Solomon-type guys (but younger) sitting on a bench in front of Abercrombie & Fitch stared at me with their mouths slightly open. I'd never felt less invisible in my life, but I knew that was exactly what I needed when a tail I'd noticed earlier walked right by me and didn't notice me. I smiled to myself and headed over for the food court to buy myself some lunch, even though it was three in the afternoon.

I went to the Geno's pizza section and said, "A slice of cheese pizza and a medium Coke, please."

"Make that two slices of cheese pizza and two Cokes." I spun around to see who had spoken, at first thinking that it was Mr. Solomon. But, the guy who had spoken was shorter than Mr. Solomon by about an inch, though he looked just as strong. He was younger, too – my age – and he had light, messy hair and deep blue eyes almost exactly the shade of mine. All in all, he was gorgeous. But he was smiling at me as he reached to hand the guy the money.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked curiously. I'd heard of flirting before, and I'd even done it with Mr. Solomon, but I had no clue how to flirt or discourage flirting from a normal guy.

He shrugged. "Can I not buy you lunch?"

"You don't know me."

"We can change that."

At first, I was frustrated, but then I decided that he wouldn't be a half bad cover. I shrugged. "Fine."

"So what's your name?" he asked, leaning against the counter, which was a body language sign for feeling at ease.

"Ally," I said. It was one of my seven aliases.

"Do you go to school around here?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I'm just visiting."

"How are you liking it?"

"Fine."

Our food was handed to us and we walked off. "Pick any table," he said. "I'm Caleb, by the way."

"Hi," I mumbled, which would have made Madame Dabney shriek in horror. Actually, her class had been the one that I'd been pulled from, so maybe I'd had all of Culture and proper manners that I could take for the day. I was about to sit down when Caleb pulled out my chair for me. How sweet is that? I mean, what kind of normal guy does that?

"Thanks," I said as I sat down.

He sat down across from me and reached for the parmesan cheese. "Sure. So, why are you visiting?"

"My parents," I lied smoothly as I took a bite of my pizza. "They like big cities."

"Where are you from?"

I supposed that these were normal questions, but I still wasn't all that sure that I liked them. Lying was easy for me, though, so I said, "St. Louis."

"What's it like there?"

I shrugged. I'd been there before. "Kinda boring."

He nodded. "So, what do your parents do?"

"They're doctors."

"My dad's a teacher at Julliard and my mom is a travel agent," he said.

I wondered how long I would have to keep the ruse up. A glance at my watch told me that it was three-forty-five. That meant that I had approximately twenty minutes to lose him if I hoped to get to the warehouse on time. I finished off my pizza and then looked at my watch. "Oh my goodness!" I said, standing up.

"What?" he asked, looking at me.

"I just remembered..." I lied. "I have somewhere to be." I put on my best apologetic face. "Thank you for the pizza. I'm so sorry, but…"

"It's fine," he smiled easily and I couldn't help but think that it defined his whole face. Made it light up. "It was my pleasure."

That was easy. "It was nice meeting you."

I caught a cab outside the mall and gave it an address close to the warehouse. The drive took thirty minutes and when we stopped, it was four-thirty. I paid him and then began the walk to the warehouse, which I knew would take me about twenty minutes.

When I got there and walked inside, I wrinkled my nose at the smell of stale air. "Ozzie?" I asked, using Lauren's codename. "Beauty, Fox?"

Nothing but static.

"Hello, Ms. Hunter," Mr. Solomon said as he stepped out of the shadows. He didn't look happy to see me, though. He looked…disappointed.

"I'm here," I said. "I'm alone."

"Not quite," he said softly, just as the guy from the mall walked out of the shadows, smirking now. I had liked his smile a whole lot better. Even his voice was deeper as he said, "Hey, there, Ally."

"My name's Katelyn," I corrected him without thinking.

"And mine's Grant," he said, still smirking.

And then I realized. "You're from Blackthorne."

I felt like I had to include Blackthorne since after winter break of Mr. Solomon's first year is when Blackthorne comes to Gallagher. Just trying to keep it real, even if it is a fic. And someone asked how old Joe Solomon is in this since he was friends with Matthew Morgan. THIS IS A FICTION – so I'm saying that he was younger than Matthew and that he's thirty in this.