"Grant!" I called, seeing my friend on the other side of the street. He had an ice cream cone in one hand, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the conversation he was having with the clown that I had pointed out to Cammie earlier. "Grant!" I called again, but either he didn't hear me or didn't care, because he kept talking. I walked up to him. "Hey, brother," I said, keeping my voice calm. He glared at me – after all, "brother" was his phrase, not mine. "I just saw Mr. Solomon, and he said to start rounding everybody up; it's time to head back." He nodded, as if he understood.
Grant turned to the clown. "Have a nice day," he said, and the clown waved. "Brother," he turned to me. "What's going on? First you steal my catch phrase, then you call Solomon 'Mr. Solomon,' and not 'Joe.' Something wrong?"
I nodded. "From now on, if I start quoting you and calling teachers by different names than I'm used to, you can just assume that either something's wrong, or I've been cloned. Got it?" Grant shoved me. "Anyway, I'm heading back."
Grant stared at me, wide eyed. "What's wrong?"
I shrugged. "It's no big deal. I just sort of blew it, and Cammie sort of ditched me. So I'm heading back."
"I'll come with," Grant said. On the way we saw Jonas, and he followed us back.
Just as we got to the gates, Seth and Drew, another junior, ran up to us. "Something's wrong," Drew said, his face pale. "Another code black. The girls took off in one of the vans.
I looked to Jonas. "Do you still have the tracking device?" I asked, and he held out his watch. "Good. We need to go. Now."
Within ten minutes we were outside an old, seemingly abandoned industrial complex. But then we saw the shape of two girls cutting across the lawn. "You guys find the others," I said. "I have to find Cammie." They looked at me as if I had totally lost my marbles, and maybe I had, but I felt that I needed to find her before anyone else did. I looked up, hoping an answer would fall from heaven, and saw, of all things, Cammie Morgan standing on the roof of the nearest building. I silently climbed, and stood behind her. "Cam," I whispered. She stepped back, grabbed my wrist, and began to flip me, but I leaned back, shifted my weight, and she stopped. "It's me," I said. "It's Zach."
She turned. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off this building right now," she said, and even in the darkness, I could see the anger in her eyes. "Give me one good reason—" A searchlight swept over the building, and we dropped to the roof.
"I'll give you two," I said, pointing to two men carrying guns walked around the corner.
"What's going on, Zach?" She asked once the guys were gone. "Who was that man in town?" She grabbed my arm and twisted it, pinning it behind my back. "How did you find this place? Who is down there, and what are they going to do with the list?"
List? "Well, first of all, ouch," I said, but her grip on my arm tightened. "Second, I came back to school after you ditched me in town with jimmy,"
"josh," she corrected.
I ignored her. "I came back to the school after you ditched me—thanks for that, by the way. Then it's all Code Black again and you and your whole class were gone. We figured you'd tracked us, so we tweaked the signal so we could follow your tracking mechanism." Well, technically, Jonas tweaked the signal, but I wasn't worried about technicalities right then. "And here we are."
"Who's we?" She asked, tightening her grip again.
"Seriously, Gallagher Girl," I complained. "That hurts like a—Ow!" She twisted again. "Grant, Jonas, some of the juniors. They're here, too. They're out there with your girls." She looked up, distracted, and I took my chance. I rolled, and within two seconds Cammie was the one in the uncomfortable position.
"Cammie, look at me." She tried to get out of my grip, but I held her tighter. "Gallagher Girl."
She relaxed in my grip. "You lied," she whispered. She sounded hurt. "I know you lied in town, Zach. I know you've seen that man who was on our tail."
"That's what this is all about?" I knew she'd be ticked, but I didn't realize my lie was the reason they were there. "You ditched me in town and organized a war party because I lied about knowing that guy?"
She glared at me. "No, I organized a war party because someone knocked Mr. Mosckowitz out and stole the Gallagher Academy alumni list!" I pictured my mother, strong and beautiful, and also evil and deadly. I felt the terror take hold. I lessened my grip on Cammie.
"Here. Look at it." I lifted her hand, indicating the lie-detecting ring. "Or better yet, look at me. Watch my eyes, Cammie. I'm not lying. I'd seen that guy with Dr. Steve before and didn't want to blow his cover. I had no idea he was a threat. I thought he was on a training op or… I don't know… checking up on us or something. I didn't think it was a big deal. I didn't think it was worth explaining in front of…" I trailed off, refusing to speak his name outloud.
"josh and DeeDee," she said.
"We're not the bad guys, Gallagher Girl," I told her, wanting more than anything for her to believe me.
She looked at me, her eyes wide. "Then who is?"
I looked past her, saw Dr. Steve, and was filled with rage. I pointed. "Him."
Cammie put a hand to her ear, trying to hear the chatter on the comms unit more clearly. "I know, Chica," she said to one of the girls. She looked at me. "Zach's with me." She paused, then smiled. "No. Tina needs to get off Grant." I wanted to laugh, but was too afraid to make a sound. "And bring him to the roof of the building on the northwest corner. They've got some explaining to do." For the third time that day, I felt sick to my stomach. She looked at me. "They're coming," she told me, crossing her arms.
Bex was the first to arrive, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the girls, as well as Grant. "What's going on, Cam?" Bex asked. Her gaze shifted to me. "Want me to throw him off the roof?" From a normal girl, the question would have made me laugh. But not a Gallagher girl. I knew that, if she wanted to, she could throw me off the roof.
Cammie studied me, her eyes meeting mine, and for the first time that semester, she looked like she trusted me. No, she didn't. Standing in the rain on the roof, she looked like she wanted to trust me, and I wanted so badly for her to feel she could. "Only if he doesn't tell us what the Blackthorne Institute is and why one of their teachers is out to destroy the Gallagher Girls."
Grant's eyes widened. "What do you mean? You know what our school is."
The silence filled the roof, until I finally took a deep breath. "You've got your cover. We've got ours."
Cammie looked at me, confusion written all over her face. "What's that supposed to—"
"You're Gallagher Girls," I said, a bit too sharply. "We're the stepchild no one ever talks about."
"Then what—" She started, but the creak of hinges cut her off. Two guards left the building next to the one we were on. Her eyes widened. "He can't get away. That list can't get away."
"It won't." I told her. I went to the edge of the roof and strapped one of the harnesses the girls had left to a cable. I reached for her hand. "We've got to go now, Cam," I told her. She paused for just a moment, then stepped toward me. "Do you trust me?"
She nodded. I grabbed her and jumped, and we went flying down the zipline to the ground. As soon as our feet hit the grass Cammie ran to the building. "What are you doing?" I whispered as she knocked on the door. I watched in terror.
"Hey, can one of you guys come give me a hand with this?" She called, lowering her voice. The door opened, and I was sure she was a goner, but before the guard realized that it was a girl standing in front of him, and not another guard, she grabbed him by the collar and hit him in the head hard enough to knock him out.
"Nice one," I told her, and she grinned. "Did you learn that in P&E?"
She shook her head. "No. Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Now, I had absolutely no clue who Buffy was, and why she needed to slay vampires in the first place, but I figured that then was not the time to ask questions. Cammie studied the man on the ground. I groaned. It was the man Dr. Steve had been talking to. We dragged him to the weeds, then went through his pockets.
"Here," she said, pulling an earpiece out of his ear. "Comms." I put the comms unit in my ear, and was instantly greeted by at least a dozen male voices.
"Guys," Cammie whispered into her own comms unit as she nudged me and pointed in the window she was looking in. "I've got a visual on the subject." Dr. Steve paced the room, while four guards watched him. "Maintain your position until we give you the all clear."
I leaned toward her. "They've got at least fifteen guys," I told her.
"What do you hear?" She asked. I paused, listening.
"The plane's on its way, sir," I heard.
I looked at Cammie. "Cammie, listen to me. I don't know where he's going, or what Dr. Steve's planning to do with that list, but…" I trailed off, looked up. Sure enough, I saw the light of the small airplane. "I think I know how he's getting there."
"Guys," she whispered. "Change of plans."