Cammie ditched me. I watched her wrap her arm into DeeDee's and knew instinctively that she wasn't coming back my way. I gave Josh a look. "Girls what can you do right?" He said with a dimpled grin. "So you and Cammie?"
There were many things I could have told Josh, but the truth was I didn't know how things were with Cammie. I stared at the ground until finally saying "We're good."
"I'm glad," says Josh, and there's no doubt in my mind he means it. But there's an extra pain and tenderness in his voice when he said "Treat her well, that girl is something special."
And well, she was something special. no doubt about it. The thing was, Josh didn't know exactly how special. Yet, he saw through Cammie without clearance or special training. I look at the boy in front of me with new found interest, and find myself nodding in agreement with him.
"Listen man, I've got to get back at school." I lie. "It was nice meeting you." (Not a total lie, but I'm never admitting that to anyone.)
"You too Zach" he said, "She might be crazy, but she's worth it."
I spun around on my feet and made my way across the crowded square, running head to head with Jonas. I don't bother with a greeting.
"Cammie ditched me" I said "and I haven't seen one of the girls in a while now, have you?"
The look on his face told me he hadn't.
"Remember how the girls bugged our rooms..." I began, but as usual Jonas was one step ahead of me. He pointed to his watch.
"We've got trackers" He said with a smile.
It took Jonas only 97 seconds to tweak the signal to follow Liz Suttons. The girls were back at the school.
"Come on," I said to Jonas "We've got to find Grant."
"Find me what?" Says Grant, emerging from the shadows holding a cotton candy.
"Girl's are missing." I said simply. Surprise registered on his face as he swerved around wildly attempting to catch sight of everyone, anyone. But he realized what we already knew, that there was no one.
"Do you think..." Grant began, but I cut him off.
"No."
"But your mom... the circle..." He made out.
"I SAID NO GRANT." I slam my hand down on a nearby trashcan. "I promised I wouldn't ever let anything bad happen to Cammie." I said "And I let her go out today, on her own, without protection. I should have followed her."
Jonas and Grant give each other looks but I don't wait any longer.
I'm running.
We make it to the Gallagher Academy in twelve minutes. (Which was a feat considering it was two miles and we did have Jonas with us.) Only the girls weren't there.
"Zach" Said Jonas but I didn't hear.
It would be hard to hear anything over the Code Black.
Jonas grabs my shoulders and points me towards the watch. "They're no longer at the school. Come on" He says and despite the two mile run he still finds it him him to continue on another mile.
We make it to this abandoned building in record time, but the thing is, it wasn't abandoned.
Between metal structures and piles of lumber invisible trip wires lace the ground, cameras did a 360 sweep, and arm guards patrolled the shadows.
"I'm going up" I say "You guys, patrol the perimeter, make sure the girls are okay."
They both nod and disappear from sight. I climb up onto the roof, and I'm momentarily transfixed by the stillness of the night when below I see Cammie, sulking through the dark. I attached a piece of rappel-a-chord to myself and jumped into the darkness behind her. I slid one hand over her mouth, the other around her waist, and brought her up to the roof.
As soon as we got up, she threw herself back into me, preparing to throw me off the roof, but I countered my weight at the exact moment throwing her off her momentum.
"Cam" I said gently "It's me, Zach."
The look on her face made it clear that I was the last person she wanted to see. Just then, a searchlight swept across the building and we both dropped to the ground as the light sliced above us.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off the roof right now" She said, not hearing the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Give me good-" But she couldn't finish because I rolled over towards her, putting my arm around her shoulders and pressed my body against hers, feeling her breath hot against my neck.
"I'll give you two" I whispered as the armed guards walked past the place we were standing moments before. We sat there in silence for twenty seconds before Cammie pushed me down, throwing herself on top of me.
"What's going on Zach?" she demanded "Who was that man in town?" she cinched my arm behind my back pushing it further and further up with each syllable. "How did you find this place? Who is down there, and what are they going to do with the list?"
"Well first of all ouch" I hissed but she didn't let go. "Second I came back to school after you ditched me in town with Jimmy-"
"Josh!" she snapped.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "I came back to school after you ditched me- thanks for that, by the way - and its 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. And here we are."
"Who are we?" She asks gripping my arm tighter/
"Seriously Gallagher Girl that hurts like a - Ow!" I say as she twists my arm further than it's ever been twisted before. "Grant, Jonas, some of the Juniors. They're here too. They're out there with your girls."
She looked over the side of the building and starts to issue a warning call, but that second of distraction is all I need. I rolled and pinned Cammie to the ground.
She kicked and squirmed but I held her tighter. "Cammie." I snapped "Look at me." My voice went softer. "Gallagher girl"
"You lied" She said, trying to disguise the pain in her voice. But I'm my mother's son, and I know pain when I hear it. "I know you lied in town Zach" She continued "I know you've seen that man who was on our tail."
"That's what this is about?" I exhaled a laugh "You organized a war party because I lied about knowing that guy?" I realized then that Cammie didn't know how bad things could have gotten in town. I was just glad she was safe.
"No!" She snapped, waking me from my thoughts "I organized a war party because someone knocked out Mr. Mosckowitz and stole the Gallagher Academy alumni list!"
My opened wide. So that's what they wanted. But how did this connect with the CoveOps report?
Then, the answer hit me. It didn't.
Whatever this was, it was completely separate from the other problem that had been plaguing me all semester. I lessened my hold on her arms, and I held her close, listening to the sound of our combined heartbeats and the mingling of our breath echoing through the silence of the night. I Grabbed her hand and held it in front of her face.
"Here. Look at it" I said, trying desperately to make her understand "or better yet, look at me. Watch my eyes, Cammie. I'm not lying." I watched as she studied my face. I'd seen that guy with Dr. Steve before and I didn't want to blow his cover. I had no idea he was a threat. I thought he was just on a training op... I don't know... checking up on us or something. I didn't think it was a big deal." I shifted my weight so that I was sitting next to her, but I didn't let go of her hands. "I didn't think it was worth explaining in front of..."
"Josh and DeeDee" She finished for me, shaking her head. At that moment, I didn't feel it was necessary to bring up the circle, not yet anyways. Or maybe I just couldn't bear the thought of her face when she found out, the look she'd give me just like everyone else.
"We're not the bad guys, Gallagher girl" I said gently. I wanted so bad to hug her, to hold her, to show her I wasn't the enemy.
"Then who is?" She asks me. I let go of her hands and point into the darkness.
"Him."
One of the doors to the building across from us opened. Four armed guards walk out, and in the fleeting moment before the door closes there was a faint "Excellent" coming from the man we knew as Dr. Steve.
Cammie lifted her finger up to her ear. "Dr. Steve" she said "I know Chica, Zach's with me."
I watched her face, She looked strong and powerful, as if she could take on the whole world, and I didn't doubt it.
"No Tina needs to get off Grant" Said Cammie and I smirked thinking about how muscular Grant let a 5'3 girl get the best of him. " And bring him to the roof of the building on the northwest corner." Her eyes met mine. "They've got some explaining to do."
I'd never felt worse than I did in the sixty seconds it took for the others to make their way across the grounds. Cammie studied me, her stare penetrating and it made me feel ashamed of myself.
"What's going on Cam?" quipped Bex as the rest of the Gallagher girls circled around us boys in the center. None of us have felt this... worthless since Blackthorne, and our newfound confidence was disappearing rapidly. Bex glared at me "You want me to throw him off the roof?" She asked
"Only if she doesn't tell us what the Blackthorne academy is and why one of their teachers is out to destroy the Gallagher Girls."
"What do you mean?" Says Grant "You know what out school is." He looked at me and I knew what he was thinking because we were all thinking it. I mean, hadn't the bugged our rooms? Didn't they track us all semester?
After a long stretch of silence I finally echo the words of Joe Solomon when he first arrived at the Blackthorne Institute telling us that we were coming to the Gallagher Academy. "you've got your cover, we've got ours."
"What's that supposed to-" She started but I cut her off. I could feel my anger rising at the injustice of it all.
"You're Gallagher Girls" I snapped as the mist turned into rain. It streaked down my face but I didn't blink, I didn't back down. I stepped closer to her and said "We're the stepchild no one talks about."
Confusion flickered across her face. "Then what-" But she was cut off yet again by the creak of rusty hinges. Light sliced across the dark lot below as two armed guards left the building across from us, and started to patrol the grounds. Cammie stood up straighter and even in the faint light and the heavy rain you could see she was a leader. That she'd put her duty first. Always.
"He can't get away. That list can't get away."
"It won't" I say. I walked to the edge of the roof and attached a rappelling harness to a cable that skirted down between the buildings and I reached for her hand. I asked her the question that had been so important all semester and was even more so now. "We've got to go now Cam. Do you trust me?"
Her eyes met mine as she grabbed my hand, and we jumped together into the dark