Mad Dog,
I heard there was a kerfluffle. You will agree this is not what we envisioned. While I am disappointed in the situation, I am proud of how you handled it. I hope you are taking extra precautions. Trust no one.
Love,
Dad
"What does that even mean?" Logan asked, looking up from Michael Manchester's sternly worded letter. "I heard there was a kerfluffle," Logan imitated. "What the hell?"
"Someone told him what happened,"Maddie shrugged. "And he's pissed. He's also probably on assignment or working somewhere and doesn't want anything useful potentially gleaned from this letter. But he only uses words like that when he's trying not to sound angry."
"Your dad's a bit paranoid," Casey laughed, leaning over to take a look. "That's a very heavy cipher for a note basically saying 'get your act together.'" Maddie and Logan leveled glares in her direction. "What, I didn't say I agreed with him!" Casey cried.
"I need more waffles," Logan announced. He stood and walked toward the waffle bar, and Maddie couldn't help but watch Logan and their table neighbors, and the people in line at the waffle bar, and the people on the lawn outside the dining hall near the windows closest to the waffle bar.
"Are you going to do that every time he's not within arm's length?" Casey teased.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Maddie said, taking a bite of blueberry pancakes, but also watching Logan's reflection in the back of her fork.
"The constant surveillance," Casey jerked a thumb in Logan's direction. "I mean, I know it's an all girls school but I don't think anyone's going to steal your boyfriend under your nose."
Maddie rolled her eyes. "Well, someone literally just tried to steal him four months ago, so I'm not about to let my guard down."
"Okay, okay, sorry I said anything," Casey mumbled, moving further down the table. "Clearly you're in a mood today."
Maddie rolled her eyes but didn't respond. Logan returned to the table and eyed the distance between Maddie and Casey warily.
"Ladies," he said cautiously. "What's going on over here?"
Casey shrugged, "Maddie's in a mood, and I'm avoiding her bad vibes."
Maddie rolled her eyes again. "Casey doesn't take your situation very seriously, and she's also apparently afraid of me."
Logan placed his tray on the table across from them, and carefully aligned it so he was the same distance from each girl. "Ok then," he said calmly. "I guess I'll just sit here..."
Logan had no more than set his tray down, when Tiffany slid in between Logan and Maddie.
"Hi!" she said brightly, staring at Maddie. Maddie was silent. "I've been trying to flag you down, but apparently the only way to get your attention is to physically place myself between you and Logan."
"Sorry," Maddie mumbled, a little chagrined. "I saw you, I just didn't think you were gesturing at me."
Tiffany fixed Maddie with a look that said she wasn't buying Maddie's excuse for a minute, but then continued. "Fine. Sure. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you because it's been an entire week, and I wanted to know if there were any leads on Logan's near abduction."
"Okay, I wasn't . . ." Logan started, but Tiffany cut him off.
"Yeah, you were," Tiffany said. "And Maddie saw the person who was trying to grab you."
Maddie saw Casey turn to study them from further down the table, leaning to closer to catch as much as possible. Tiffany saw her too, and turned her head in such a way that Casey wouldn't be able to read her lips, as she whispered, "Do they know who it was?"
"I don't know," Maddie said quietly. "I drew them a sketch, but I haven't heard anything since." She shrugged. "The adults around here aren't particularly liberal with sharing information. I wish I knew someone who could run it through the government databases for me without anyone finding out."
Tiffany nodded. "Did you ask Professor Sutton?"
Maddie thought of the tiny science professor who had almost floated away during Maddie's perfumed-smoke-bomb creation seminar last week and decided that Tiffany must be messing with her. "Elizabeth Sutton?" she asked incredulously.
Tiffany nodded, and leaned closer. "Don't tell anyone else," she said, with a pointed glance in Casey's direction. "But she went to school with the headmistress's daughter, Cameron, and she's a genius. And I know, everyone here is a genius, but Professor Sutton, she's not a legacy. She was recruited because she accidentally hacked into the government databases when she was 12. They Circle of Cavan? Their mass plan of doom was based on Professor Sutton's exam results."
Maddie didn't do a great job of hiding her surprise as Tiffany continued.
"But most importantly, she's a lot more rules optional than a lot of the other adults here."
Maddie nodded. "Thanks for the suggestion," she said, gratefully.
"Let me know what you find out," Tiffany said quietly, getting up to leave. "Logan's one of us now. And no one's going to outsmart an entire school of Gallagher Girls."
A few hours later, Maddie nervously left Casey and Logan doing homework in the lounge and went in search of Professor Sutton. The tiny young woman wasn't in her usual location - the science lab - but it was a Saturday, so Maddie didn't make much of it. She checked the faculty hall, and then began to cover the floors of the castle methodically, figuring she would eventually locate Professor Sutton. What did professors even do on the weekends? Maddie had honestly never really thought about it before.
Maddie turned a corner without checking her margins, and collided directly with Alice. Maddie's books flew out of her hands, including the notebook into which she had slipped her sketch of the kidnapping suspect, and she fought to stay on her feet.
"What the hell," Alice cried out, catching herself on the nearby window ledge. "Watch where you're going for god's sake!"
Despite her best efforts, Maddie lost her balance and landed hard on the floor, her nose still stinging from where she had collided with Alice's chin. Maddie's head swirled for a moment, but it had more to do with the memories than the fall itself.
"Here, let me help you," Alice said, sounding annoyed. She reached a hand out to help Maddie up, but Maddie jerked away, involuntarily. Her hands began to shake. She pushed them into her pockets and forced herself to find her feet. "I'm fine," she said as firmly as she could.
Alice was already gathering Maddie's belongings off the floor, and Maddie tried to race her to the notebook, but she wasn't quite fast enough. Alice casually scooped the notebook off the floor, causing Maddie's sketch to flutter to the floor.
Alice bent over to gather the paper, and set it on top of Maddie's notebook, and began to hand it back to Maddie. "Sorry," she said, "I didn't know there was something in. . ."
Then she froze, her eyes locked on Maddie's sketch.
"Why do you have a bad drawing of Casey's mom?" she asked, carefully.
Ice slid down Maddie's spine at Alice's words, as she choked out, "that's my drawing of the woman who tailed Logan in Roseville."
Alice's eyes grew wide. "How good are you at drawing?" she asked.
Maddie shrugged, but didn't answer. "How sure are you?" she demanded.
Alice shrugged. "I've never met her," she said. "But Casey had pictures of her everywhere when we lived together."
Maddie couldn't breathe as she snatched the drawing and the notebook from Alice's out-stretched hands, and spun in the opposite direction. This couldn't be happening again. She couldn't have let this happen again.
Maddie sprinted through the halls, dodging 12 year-olds and suits of armor, and not even caring that her movements were in no way covert. She had to reach Logan before Casey took him god-knew-where. Maddie raced down the stairs three at a time and rounded the corner to the lounge at top speed. Her eyes took in the scene before her as she skidded to a stop, and felt her heart rise into her throat.
The lounge was empty.
How far could they have gotten? Maddie's mind raced, as she tried to remember exactly how long she had been gone. Fifteen minutes? Twenty? Twenty-five? Why couldn't she remember now, when it mattered the most? She'd been subconsciously counting her every second for months now, how could she possibly not remember?
What Maddie did know was that there was only one way to get out of the Gallagher Academy's grounds undetected. A route Logan no doubt would have been willing to show to one of his closest friends.
Maddie slid aside the heavy fireplace panel in the common room, and stepped into the darkness. Maddie couldn't see anything. She didn't remember it being this dark the last time. Maybe this was a different branch of the tunnel than the one Maddie had climbed into before. But there was no time to go back for a light, so she would just have to feel her way out until her eyes adjusted. Maddie's hands touched the bricks on either side of her as she tried to draw a mental map of the castle and chart a course. She couldn't run in the dark, so she power-walked. Besides, she needed to sneak up on Logan and Casey if she wanted any chance of getting him back, and running was just too noisy.
Maddie's heart raced and her legs churned as she tried to anticipate what she would find around the next corner - and the next, and the next.
They won't kill him, she tried to tell herself. He's worth nothing to anyone if he's dead.
And then Maddie heard Casey's voice on the other side of the wall. Panic turned to relief, then back to panic, as Maddie listened through the wall and searched for the exit trip.
"Your time is up Logan," Casey said threateningly. "And now I need your answer."
Maddie closed her eyes, and frantically felt for the lever she knew had to be hidden in the brick. When she caught it with her thumb, the entire wall fell forward, spilling Maddie out into a part of the castle she had never seen before.
She was in a bedroom, that much was clear, but it was a bedroom that hadn't been occupied recently. The room was immaculate, like a freshly made-up hotel room, and an open closet revealed a row of neatly pressed male uniforms, waiting for their next owner. The room was all white, and it reminded Maddie of a hospital. There was nothing to make the room stand out - no pictures on the walls, no color, no signs of life.
Except for Logan, sprawled across the bed with an open textbook, and Casey, casually sitting at the desk nearby.
"Hey, Mad," Logan said brightly. "I didn't expect you to be dropping in."
