Writing this was a lot harder than I expected. This isn't the end yet, so don't panic, but the closer I get, the more difficult it is to write. I hope you all enjoy this one. Keep reading and reviewing. I love hearing from you.

Forty-three and a half minutes later, the car slowed, then stopped, and we heard footsteps as someone walked toward us.

"Southern Pennsylvania," Zach whispered, and I felt a small shiver run through him.

"You've been here before," I said quietly.

"Yeah." He didn't elaborate, but I could tell from the fear in his voice that there was a specific reason why we were there. And that that was a bad thing. But the footsteps were coming closer, and we both knew we didn't have much time left.

"I love you, Cam," he said, quietly.

"I love you too, Zach," I answered. "Thank you. For everything."

"Don't say that like this is the end."

"It could be."

"I'm not going to let that happen."

"I know."

His bound hands found mine, squeezed them one last time.

And then I felt the night air fall around us, felt the hands of Caroline Goode roughly pull me out of the trunk, press a gun into my back and lead me down a hill.

"Take him," she ordered. "I'll deal with this myself."

Part of my brain wanted to fight, To work the knots loose and attempt to slip away. But the other part knew the truth. That I desperately needed answers. And that allowing myself to be captured was the only way I was going to find them.

We didn't walk nearly as far as I'd expected before the air turned stale and I knew we were underground. Then we made two lefts, one right, one left, and two rights. And then we stopped. My hands were dragged above my head and tied to a metal pole of some sort, and the sack over my head was removed. Leaving me staring straight into the eyes of Caroline Goode.

"Hello, Cameron."

I didn't answer.

"I have to admit, your efforts impressed me. Leaving your protection detail and teaming up with a former Circle agent? That takes some guts. I commend your…bravery."

I was silent.

"By now I'm sure you know why we wanted you. Abigail Cameron, who should be dead by now, no doubt showed you that. Although, I'll admit, there was nothing more entertaining than watching them scrambling around, desperately trying to figure out why the Circle of Cavan might feel threatened by a young, untrained, rebellious teenager."

I could have told her she was wrong. That the chip she so desperately sought wasn't inside of me, or anyone for that matter. That she'd been closer to it than she'd ever imagined, all this time. But really I couldn't. Because on that chip was valuable information, information so important that others had died to protect it. And my life was no more important than any one of theirs. I didn't know exactly what information was on that chip, but I did know one thing. It was my job to protect it. And if that meant letting Caroline Goode believe the chip was planted under my skin, so be it.

"How long have you known?" I asked, quietly, attempting to stall. Desperately hoping I could get her to tell me something important. Or that I could at least postpone the torture I knew must be coming. Because as much as I wanted to tell myself otherwise, I wasn't a real spy. I was seventeen. And I was afraid.

"Since I first sent Zach to Gallagher," she sneered. "I was hoping he would bring back information that would cripple your defenses by way of jeopardizing all of your alumni. But what I got was even better. A boy who'd fallen hard for the person I wanted to get close to. Naturally, he tried to protect you. And when he and Joe discovered what I was planning, they formed a coalition to keep you safe. Making it even easier to keep track of you.

"You see, Cameron," she continued. "One teenage girl who technically doesn't exist can be difficult to follow. But surround her with professional covert operatives for protection, and she's no longer a blip on the radar. Add a hormonal teenage boy to the mix, particularly one you know very well, and the movements of the target become even easier to follow."

"You don't know him."

"Oh, I think I do," she said calmly, brushing the edge of my cheek with the back of her fingernail. "You forget that he was all mine before he met you. That I raised him. That I trained him. He's just like me, Cameron. And I know myself quite well.

"He'll try to escape soon, no doubt," she added. "But he won't succeed. No one leaves this place. Not without my permission. And he knows that. And by the time he figures out a way to reach us without dying in the process, we'll be finished here."

A shiver ran down my spine, as I remembered the images Mr. Solomon had shown us so long ago, after I'd lost Liz and Bex at the street fair. She saw it.

"I'm not a heartless woman, Cameron," she said, as if there were any way I would believe her. "I'll try to make this as painless as possible. But I do have business I need to take care of. And if you try to make it harder for me…I can't promise you anything."

She turned away from me and I took a deep breath. I was going to die. I knew it, deep down, and yet, that human part of me urged me to keep fighting. Urged me to keep talking. To stall. Even if the end result was inevitable. I couldn't give in, not yet. And if I was going to die, there were things I needed to know. Nuggets of truth she could tell me now, because I wouldn't be able to tell them to anyone else. So I played my last card, even if it sounded childish, even if I knew it wouldn't matter in the long run. Because it was all I had left.

"You told me you would take me to my father."

She froze, surprised. And then she turned around.

"Technically, I didn't, which you know perfectly well."

"You killed him, didn't you? Just like you killed Alex Goode."

She smiled, a twisted expression flashing in her eyes. "I see my son's told you of his father's mysterious disappearance. No doubt it was a moment of bonding for the two of you. I should have anticipated that you'd hit it off." Her lips twisted into a smirk as she continued. "Yes, I killed my husband. He was plotting against me, it turns out, from the very beginning. I was foolish not to see it. But he played his role well. He and Joe had gone to school together, so it didn't seem strange at all that they were constantly together. But I was becoming increasingly involved with those in leadership positions, so I knew things. I knew a CIA agent by the name of Abigail Cameron was on to one of our operations."

"Rome," I said quietly, remembering Aunt Abby's story and the bits from my father's journal about Mr. Solomon's nightmare.

"Yes," she answered. "It was supposed to be a one man op, but when we heard that Agent Cameron intended to stop us, we sent another man as well, one of our best covert assassins."

"Joe Solomon."

"Yes," Zach's mother smiled. "Joe Solomon."

"What happened?"

"He didn't kill her. Oh, he came up with a plausible excuse, of course. But she knew too much, and we needed her dead. We were tracking her, searching for the opportune moment to eliminate the threat. And then she was gone."

"She slipped off our radar," Caroline Goode continued. "And I knew it wasn't a coincidence. Because shortly after, Joe Solomon began spending a lot more time with someone else as well."

"My father."

She nodded. "Your father. I knew it was Alex. I knew he'd managed to take Abigail Cameron off of our radar to spare his friend from being forced to kill someone he was obviously attached to. It wasn't until your father became involved that I knew they were working a bigger game. And it didn't take me long to find out what that was. His body washed up in a river eventually, as soon as he was no longer useful to me."

"What did you need him for?"

"I needed to know the dynamics of the group. How I could use them all to my advantage. You see, they weren't really a threat. There was no way they could come close to bringing down the Circle. No one ever has and no one ever will. But they helped me achieve my current position. You see, Cameron, any hand can be a winner when played at the right time…"

Her voice faded off, an evil grin spreading over her face.

"Obviously that's not what you really think."

Her eyes met mine, anger building in them. And I couldn't help thinking that if I made her angry enough I could get her to kill me quickly.

"If you really thought the circle was infallible, you wouldn't need the chip. You're already the leader, so you don't need it to ingratiate yourself with the higher-ups. And if there's nothing on the chip that could possibly lead to the defeat of the Circle, why would you spend years chasing after an untrained, teenage spy who didn't even know the chip existed? Which means one of two things. Either you don't want just the chip. Or you're lying, and I'm holding the only information capable of bringing you down."

Her eyes narrowed, and she moved toward me, her hand reaching toward my body, a small knife gripped lightly between her fingers. But I took a deep breath and looked in her eyes. And instead of hers I saw Zach's. Transported my mind somewhere else. Tried to convince myself that if I moved myself to another place I wouldn't feel the pain that I knew was coming.

And then I felt her pause. Felt her take a step back. Heard her bark into her comms unit.

"What?" she snapped, and I knew that Zach was gone. That he'd escaped her after all. Because she didn't understand. She couldn't. Because there was a good in Zach she would never be able to claim as her own.

"You'd better," she said flatly into the unit, and the unspoken threat in her voice was more powerful than any words. Then she turned to me.

"I'll be back soon," she smiled. "And when I am, we'll finish this. I wouldn't move, if I were you, by the way. I have certain security measures in place. The results of which, if triggered, would be quite…unpleasant."

She turned and walked calmly away from me, but I called after her.

"You never answered my question."

"No, Cameron," she said, as she let a retinal scanner read her image. "I didn't."

And with that, Caroline Goode was gone.