Maddie was going to be late for covert operations. Her Countries of the World lecture had run two minutes longer than usual, but she didn't expect Joe Solomon to understand that, especially not when Maddie took COW with the eighth graders, and she would be the only person late to his class.
Maddie's hurried footfalls echoed in the empty hallway as she raced toward the end of the corridor and the sublevel 1 elevator that occupied it.
"Maddie," a familiar voice called from behind her. "Can I have a minute?"
Maddie groaned internally as she turned to face Abigail Cameron.
"I would love to, professor, but I'm late . . ." Maddie started, but Agent Cameron cut her off.
"Joe Solomon can wait." She said authoritatively. "I'm here at the request of your father."
Maddie tried to hide her embarrassment and annoyance, but she suspected it wasn't very convincing.
"You see," Agent Cameron continued. "He apparently hasn't heard from you all semester, and since he and I are old friends, I offered to check in with you for him."
Maddie nodded.
"Do you want to tell me why you haven't been writing to him?" Agent Cameron asked gently.
"I've been very busy with school," Maddie lied. "Trying to catch up from 4 years back is pretty challenging."
Agent Cameron rolled her eyes. "Try again," she said.
Maddie sighed and tried another lie. "Being a Gallagher Girl has been more difficult than I expected, and I don't want him to change his mind about me going here."
Agent Cameron nodded. "I can see why you might feel that way." She placed a hand on Maddie's shoulder as she continued. "I know your father never told you about the Gallagher Academy, but I think if you hadn't been in Alaska when you started seventh grade, he would have sent you to us despite his misgivings." She smiled. "You belong here, Maddie, and everyone knows it."
Maddie saw an opportunity, and she took it.
"You and my Dad were in the secret service together, right?" she asked innocently.
Agent Cameron nodded. "He was my first CO," she said. "And a bit of a mentor at the beginning of my career."
"Did you also know my Mom?"
Agent Cameron was silent for a moment as she studied Maddie, as if something about Maddie's line of questioning took her back a long way, to places she didn't really want to revisit. It was the same look Maddie's dad had whenever the topic of her mother had come up, and so Maddie had stopped asking. But Maddie was an operative now. And this was a chance to find answers she might never get again.
Eventually, Agent Carmon nodded, and said tightly, "I did."
"My dad's never told me anything about her," Maddie said sadly, pouring on . "So imagine how strange it was to come here and find out everyone knew more than me."
Maddie forced a tear from the corner of her eye for dramatic effect. "My dad said she died in a car accident, but now I'm pretty sure that's not true," Maddie sniffled. "I didn't even know she was a Gallagher Girl until I got here and heard other people gossiping about it."
When Maddie looked up, Agent Cameron's face had softened, and she was looking at Maddie with a combination of concern and pity.
"Come with me," Agent Cameron said, gently placing a hand on Maddie's shoulder. "I have to show you something."
Maddie walked with Agent Cameron down the hallway and up the stairs to the third-floor trophy hall. They stopped in front of a trophy case. Agent Cameron gestured toward a shield in the center of the case, engraved with 150 years' worth of names. The name in the center was that of the school's founder, Gillian Gallagher. Other names spiraled out around it, moving toward the edges of the shield. And there on one of the far-left panels was the name of Maddie's mother.
"What's it for?" Maddie asked.
"Courage under fire," Agent Cameron said. "The shield was gifted to Gillian Gallagher after she saved the life of President Lincoln. She later decided to add the names of every Gallagher Girl who foiled a presidential assassination attempt right beside hers."
"Your name's on here too," Maddie commented.
"Yeah," Agent Cameron said quietly. "Right next to Eve's."
Maddie knew better than to ask for more details.
"You're right, Maddie," Agent Cameron continued. "Your mom didn't die in a car accident. She died trying to stop the Circle of Cavan from killing the President of the United States." Agent Cameron took a deep breath, and looked away, unable to meet Maddie's eyes. "She died because she took a bullet that was meant for me. Your mom was a hero, and it's about time someone told you that."
Maddie wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel. So her mother really was dead, and she had died protecting the President of the United States, and her own colleagues. She really had been a Gallagher Girl. Maddie had been a legacy her whole life and never even known it.
Maddie didn't know how she was supposed to feel. But all she felt was numb.
The first coherent thought Maddie had was that she couldn't waltz into CoveOps 20 minutes late.
"Mr. Solomon. . ." Maddie started, and Agent Cameron immediately composed herself.
"Of course," she said calmly. "Take the rest of this period as a study hall. I'll make sure he knows I kept you."
As Maddie retreated to the sophomore lounge, her head began to spin. There was so much her father had never told her, and so much she still wanted to know. What about her mother's family? Did they exist? Did they know about Maddie? Why had she never met them? She'd asked these questions in the past, but her father had always deflected them.
And how did Abby fit into the picture? Maddie suspected she still knew a lot more than she was letting on.
Maddie pulled a piece of evapopaper from her notebook, and scribbled hastily.
Dear Dad,
Not telling me Mom was a spy is forgiveable. Not telling me Mom was a Gallagher Girl is forgiveable. Not telling me Mom died a hero while saving the president really just isn't.
Thanks for the heads up.
Maddie
Maddie spun toward the door at the sound of footsteps to see Logan crossing the threshold. Logan saw the look on Maddie's face and immediately crossed the room and gathered her into his arms, and Maddie might have been annoyed or offended by his paternalistic gesture, if it hadn't been exactly what she needed in that moment.
"Mad Dog," Logan said gently. "Tell me what happened."
Maddie choked back the tears that were finally threatening to fall, and pressed the evapopaper letter into Logan's palm. He looked at it briefly before holding her closer and whispering into her hair, "oh, Maddie. . ."
There was sadness and sympathy in Logan's voice, but no surprise, and so Maddie pulled away, and said indignantly, "you knew?"
Logan nodded slowly. "I was reading about the trophy hall a few weeks ago, so I snuck the book out and took it over there. I found the shield, and . . . Well, then I noticed your mother's name on it. I didn't know anything else, I just put two and two together. I didn't really think it was my place to bring your attention to it."
Maddie rolled her eyes. "Apparently my Dad shared your opinion. Not once in the fifteen years since my mother died has he uttered more than 3 consecutive sentences about her.
"I'm not taking his side," Logan said gently. "But it probably really hurts him to think about her."
"That doesn't give him the right to deprive me of any meaningful knowledge of who I am and where I come from," Maddie insisted. "He could have at least told me before I came here."
"Yeah," Logan agreed. "That was super not cool. Especially since a lot of the people here knew more than you did."
Logan paused for a moment before he continued.
"Hey, Mad," he said cautiously. "You don't think whoever's after me could be related to the Circle of Cavan, do you?"
Maddie studied him carefully. "You have a theory, don't you?" She asked knowingly.
"Well, this is probably crazy," Logan prefaced. "But remember how my Dad beat the Winters / McHenry campaign almost 8 years ago?"
Maddie nodded. "Of course I do."
"Well didn't Mr. Winters turn out to be one of their inner circle? I know they're all allegedly gone now, but what if someone out there is still holding a grudge, and they're coming after me and my family?"
Maddie considered Logan's idea carefully. "Well, it's a theory," she said finally. "But right now we haven't got any evidence to back it up."
Logan looked a little disappointed, so Maddie added, "I'll run it up the flagpole, though. But I think if there were rumblings that the Circle of Cavan was making a comeback, someone would have heard about it. I know we didn't get every single agent the last time, but the rest were driven far underground. They left their crimes in the past and embraced the opportunity to start over."
"Oh yeah," Logan rolled his eyes, and his voice was thick with sarcasm. "That sounds like all the bad guys I know. They're just longing to be normal people."
Maddie shrugged. "A lot of people were recruited into the Circle under false pretenses, and then were unable to escape."
"Ok," Logan said. "And for every one of those, there's another who's a happy, willing, member of a terrorist group. What happened to all of those people?"
Maddie sighed. "The truth is, Logan, there are a million people out there who could benefit from holding you for ransom. And even though we tried to keep what happened in Alaska very quiet, people in our community talk. And sometimes they talk to the wrong people."
"So how do we bring this to a head," Logan asked. "I can't live like this, Mad. We need to find out who's after me once and for all. We need to find a way to flip the table, make them come to us."
Maddie nodded. "You're right," she agreed. "I think this has gone on long enough. Whoever is after you isn't just going to go away. We need a plan."
