Maddie,

Abby told me what happened. I'm sorry you had to find out like that. I know I should have been the one who told you the truth. I did a lot of unforgivable things after your mother died. Keeping her from you was only one of them. For what it's worth, she would be so proud of the young woman you've grown up to be. I know I am.

Love,

Dad

Maddie wished she hadn't opened the letter. But once she'd read those words, they wouldn't stop playing on a loop through her head. They almost made her question what she was about to do, almost made her call off the whole operation. Almost, but not quite.

It was Logan who kept her moving forward.

Logan, who had wrapped Maddie in his arms the minute Zach had left the night before, rested his head on top of hers and sighed heavily.

"What?" Maddie demanded, indignantly. "You don't think this will work?"

Logan was silent. His hands ran down Maddie's arms and settled around her waist. His lips grazed the top of her head, and Maddie swore he took a moment to smell her hair before he answered.

"I have complete confidence in you, Mad," Logan whispered. "But I also know how dangerous this is. And I'm so afraid of losing you."

Maddie's hands found Logan's and grasped them tightly, and she leaned her small body against his broad chest.

"You're not going to lose me," Maddie said firmly.

Logan kissed her forehead and said, "I'm holding you to that, Mad Dog."

Maddie pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him. He kissed her back, hard, his hands moving to rest along-side her face, his body rising up to meet hers.

"Stay tonight?" Logan's lips were at her ear, a hoarse whisper thick with longing, and Maddie felt an emotion burning deep in her core, as she nodded her head up and down in an answer.

Logan lifted Maddie off her feet and kicked the door closed before gently setting her onto the bed and laying down beside her. He stretched a blanket over the two of them, and moved so that Maddie's back rested firmly against his chest, and his arms wrapped around her.

Maddie shivered, involuntarily, at the sparks that flew against her skin with Logan's touch, but he moved away when he felt her shudder.

"Is this okay?" Logan asked, concerned. "It's not too much like Alaska is it?"

Maddie contemplated his words for a moment. It was like Alaska, she realized. But, maybe for the first time, Maddie's mind hadn't automatically taken her back there. Maybe Maddie really was getting better.

"No," Maddie said, finding Logan again. "I like it."

"Good," Logan said, and Maddie could hear the smile in his voice. "You need actual rest. And I just needed to be with you tonight."

Maddie's hand found his and she rubbed small circles against his palm with her thumb. "It's going to be okay," she said firmly.

"Of course it is," Logan whispered into her shoulder. He was silent for a while, and Maddie started to drift off, safe and warm in Logan's arms. There was something magical about allowing yourself to be vulnerable with someone. A kind of honesty and trust Maddie had never experienced before.

When Maddie was almost asleep, Logan broke the silence.

"Mad?" he asked quietly, as though he'd been thinking about it a long time. Maddie mumbled a response.

"Do you remember that night of the state dinner when my mom almost got abducted?"

"Mhmm," Maddie murmured, groggily.

"I got you that necklace," Logan said thoughtfully. "Because I was going to tell you that you weren't just my friend anymore. That's how long I've loved you, Mad Dog," Logan continued. "And I just wanted you to know."

They were the last words Maddie had heard before she finally fell asleep, and they were the words that continued to echo in her mind as she hiked toward Roseville with Zach in tow.

Maddie and Zach had missed the bus into town intentionally. Maddie's makeup job might have fooled a stranger, but it wouldn't have fooled a single Gallagher Girl at close range. It definitely wouldn't have fooled Agent Abigail Cameron, the designated sophomore class chaperone.

Maddie set a swift pace through the woods, and Zach matched it, hovering two steps behind her the entire way. Maddie accidentally caught him in the corner of her eye as they neared the edge of town, and even she was impressed at the way he had modified his gait and breathing patterns to imitate Logan. If Maddie hadn't known both of them better, she might have been convinced.

She prayed Logan's attempted kidnapper would be.

Maddie heard Tiffany's voice whispering through her comms unit, and she indicated that she had begun her surveillance of Casey and logged a position. Maddie's heart beat a little faster in her chest, but she forced herself to ignore it. She forced herself to focus on Tiffany's voice in her ear. Then she tripped and almost fell down the water retention ravine on the outskirts of town.

Zach caught Maddie's arm before she could fall, and set her firmly on her feet.

"You alright, Manchester?" He asked knowingly.

Maddie nodded.

"The best chance you have of both you and that boyfriend of yours making it out of this alive is to be as vigilant out here as possible," Zach warned. "You understand me?"

Maddie nodded, embarrassed.

"Anything else you've got floating around your head right now, you've got to just let it all go," Zach continued.

Maddie took a deep breath, and attempted to clear her mind. Although it didn't work entirely, she looped her arm through Zach's and guided him toward downtown at a march.

They entered the Presbyterian Church without making direct contact with anyone. The goal was to be noticed by every guest in the room - but never come within 25 feet of anyone else. That was the range at which Maddie was fairly sure no one would notice the pancake makeup smothering Zach's face.

They made a lap of the craft fair, hovering on the fringes of the room. When they paused in front of a small stage that took up one end of the function hall, Zach leaned incredibly close to Maddie's ear and whispered curiously, "Are we dating?"

Maddie was taken aback for a moment before she realized Zach was asking about her relationship status with Logan. He confidently wrapped an arm around Maddie's shoulders and said, "If we are, we need to sell it."

Maddie forced a girly laugh, as if whatever Zach had said to her was hysterical, and leaned into him, turning to face him and pulling his head down close to hers.

"Won't your girlfriend get upset?" She breathed back.

Zach leaned his forehead against Maddie's and rolled his eyes in a silent no. "It's just an op, Manchester," he whispered. "Don't get all in your head about it. Pretend I'm Logan. It's the little things that make it convincing."

Maddie laughed again, and pretended to kiss the tip of Zach's nose, then took his hand and proceeded to pull him into a corner, his face toward the wall.

"What can you see?" Zach whispered in her ear.

Maddie studied the room, her fingers tracing lines on Zach's muscular shoulders, just the way she'd touched Logan the night before, as she covertly scanned the room..

"Camera on the west wall, near the stairs" she muttered, brushing her lips along Zach's neck. "Casey's still with Tiffany, but she's just shopping. No sign of our would-be kidnapper yet."

Zach nodded. "You're doing great Manchester. Let's find the camera room. I think we've made our presence known, and can get a better view from a private spot."

"There's a third floor lighting space too," Maddie responded. "I think we can see the whole room from up there."

Zach raised his eyebrows jokingly and said "Do you want to go somewhere a little more private?"

Maddie took Zach's hand and dragged him toward the staircase on the opposite side of the gym, letting her face fall in full view of the camera while Zach ducked his head.

Maddie pushed open the doors to the stairs and ran up the two flights to the locked mechanical door. She slipped a bobby pin from her hair and fiddled the lock for about five seconds, then pushed the door open.

"Really high tech security around here," Zach joked.

"Perfect for planning an exfiltration," Maddie said seriously.

Maddie broke into a run and skirted the edge of the lighting space, searching for the master circuits. When she saw the tell-tale communications box, she skidded to a stop.

A soft curse fell from Maddie's lips as she realized that someone had beaten them to this location. Wire clips ran from the communications interface to a burner cell phone, likely transferring the video feed of the church to a remote location.

"I think I can trace it back," Maddie said, immediately pulling her own phone from her pocket and connecting it to the burner via Bluetooth.

"Damn if you aren't a full-fledged Gallagher Girl already, Manchester," Zach commented.

He was silent for a moment, before he asked calmly, "Remind me, where's Logan?"

If any other person had asked the question, Maddie would have immediately considered him a suspect. Instead, panic rose in her throat at Zach's words. The phone in her hand pinged as it located the device receiving the video stream. Maddie's heart stopped when she read the coordinates, coordinates she knew far too well. Coordinates where she'd been living for the past four months.

Maddie pushed the panic aside, and forced herself to think. Logan was in imminent danger. There was no time to panic. Panic wouldn't protect Logan. Right now, Maddie had to do what she'd been born to do. Maddie had to be a Gallagher Girl.

"Get Rachel Morgan on the phone, right now," Maddie ordered, and Zach immediately reached into his pocket for his encrypted phone. "Find Agent Cameron. Whoever or whatever is receiving this video is inside the Gallagher Academy."

Maddie clicked through another option on her phone, until she found the tracking app she had programmed for her Modern Spy Tools class, and connected it to the tracer she had planted in her necklace, knowing it was the last thing on the planet Logan would willingly part with. Logan's tracking device was no longer inside the Gallagher Academy. Instead it was moving, on foot, somewhere through the woods between the Gallagher Academy and Roseville.

"They have him." Maddie forced the words through her lips. They came out as a whisper, as though speaking the truth quietly would make it less true. But Zach heard them nonetheless, and his eyes widened slightly, as he continued speaking in hushed, hurried tones through his phone.

At the same moment, Tiffany's nervous voice crackled through Maddie's earpiece, spurring her into action.

"Guys, I lost her," Tiffany said. "I lost Casey. I followed her into the bathroom and I think she snuck out through a ceiling panel."

Maddie raced toward the railing, her eyes scanning through the crowds, until she spotted Casey on the other side of the function hall, moving rapidly toward the exit. Maddie didn't stop to think as she ran across the third-floor mechanical space to the place where the stage curtain was hung from the ceiling. She climbed onto the third-floor railing and leaned over until she could just barely reach the pulley cable that moved the curtain. Then she glanced down quickly, to make sure no one was occupying the stage below, and unhooked the pulley cable, yanking it toward her. The curtain wobbled noticeably as Maddie tested her weight on the cable. Finding it sturdy enough for the task at hand, she took a deep breath, wrapped the cable around her waist, and stepped off the railing, at the same moment she heard Zach shout her name from ten steps away.

Maddie swung across the hall, and down toward the floor, blowing out her breath as she went with the hope that, if she cracked a rib when she landed, at least she wouldn't puncture her lungs. There was no time for a punctured lung today, that was for sure. Maddie sailed through the air, but the majority of the hall's occupants missed her descent because their attention was occupied by the curtain crashing toward the ground. It was a good distraction, even if Maddie hadn't intended it that way.

As Maddie neared the ground, she freed herself from the rope and executed a perfect rolling landing. She crashed into a table, and an entire display of crocheted blankets went flying, but she was immediately on her feet and racing after Casey. When Casey saw Maddie, she began to run, but Maddie cut through an aisle of vendors, and drew even with Casey, her tiny body faster and more agile. She reached a hand out and flipped the closest display table over and into Casey's path, which forced her to slow her pace just enough for Maddie to tackle her and pin her to the ground in the hallway outside the function room.

Casey's body crashed into the floor, and Maddie fell on top of her, pinning her arms and rolling her over so their faces were inches apart.

"Where is your mother taking him?" Maddie demanded, as Casey struggled against her. "I know you've been helping her. I know you told her we'd be here tonight."

Zach suddenly came into view, his face red, Maddie could only assume from anger, as he raced out of the staircase and ran toward the place where Maddie had Casey pinned to the floor.

"Are you kidding me?" A look of genuine surprise, and indignation registered on Casey's face, as she realized what was happening. "I don't know how many times I can tell you this, but I'm not in contact with my mother and I'm not trying to kidnap Logan! Logan is my friend, and we've barely even spoken in weeks. I had no idea you would be here tonight. You can have your psycho friends tail me all you want, you can attack me, and interrogate me, but it still isn't going to change the fact that I'm not helping anyone kidnap Logan."

Maddie hesitated, her arms still pinning Casey's to the ground. Casey turned her eyes to look at Zach, and Zach studied her for a moment, considering.

"Let her go, Manchester," he nodded. "She's telling the truth."

"You don't know that," Maddie accused.

"I do," Zach said firmly. "You have to trust me. And we're wasting time."

Maddie turned back to Casey. "If you're not the mole, what about the postcard your mom sent you? And the girl you bullied into leaving Gallagher so there would be a spot for me?"

"I didn't bully anyone into leaving," Casey responded. "That's just a nasty rumor that Alice started. And I don't know what postcard you saw, but I told you before, I haven't heard from my mother since she disappeared fifteen years ago."

"Then why was she following us around Roseville?" Maddie demanded. "How did she know where to find Logan tonight?"

"Maddie, your sketch looks nothing like my mother. I still don't even know how you got that idea. And I told you before, I didn't know you would be here tonight."

Maddie's mind spun, as the truth started to take hold. Someone hadn't been in Roseville the day Logan was almost kidnapped. Someone had planted that postcard. Someone had bullied a girl into leaving the Gallagher Academy last semester to make a place for Maddie, and then spread rumors about Casey to cover it up. Someone had intercepted Maddie when she went looking for Professor Sutton, and just happened to identify the woman in Maddie's sketch. Someone had known Maddie would be here tonight, and that Logan wouldn't. Someone who knew the Gallagher Academy inside and out.

"Alice."

The word fell from Maddie's mouth before she even realized she had thought it.

Maddie released Casey and rose to her feet, immediately turning and running out of the hall. She could hear Zach following in close pursuit as she bolted into the woods. Maddie raced toward the signal, but it started to move faster. Her legs churned as quickly as she could make them go, but it wasn't enough. No matter how fast Maddie ran, she couldn't outrun a car.

Maddie slowed to a stop, panting. Zach skidded to a halt behind her.

Maddie's hands started to shake, and her vision blurred. This can't be happening, she thought. This can't be happening again. But it was. And now Maddie had to come up with a plan to rescue Logan.

Wordlessly, Maddie changed direction, and started back toward the church. Her legs found a new sense of purpose, and her body a new source of energy as she pushed herself on. She was going to find Logan, and she would rescue him, just like the last time. There was no other option.

Maddie backtracked to the corner of the church parking lot, and stopped at the first old, nondescript sedan she reached. She tried the door latch, which was, miraculously, open.

A strong hand gripped Maddie's shoulder, and she tried to neutralize her assailant, but Zach predicted her next move and trapped her against the partially open car door.

"Manchester," Zach said firmly. "Stop. Think this through. The cavalry is coming. All we have to do is go back to Gallagher and show them your tracker and . . ."

"I'm going after him," Maddie cut him off. "Now."

"Maddie, no," Zach ordered. "We're in enough trouble as it is. You don't know what's waiting out there, and you can't face it alone."

"I'm going," Maddie insisted. "And you know you would do the exact same thing, if it were Cammie. You were in my place not so long ago, Zach."

Zach blinked as Maddie's words met their mark, delivering a powerful blow.

"You're right," he said calmly. "I would. But you can't go alone, Manchester. You could be walking into a trap."

"Oh, I'm positive I'm walking into a trap," Maddie said with an unsettled laugh. She paused for a moment, calculating, before she held out her hand and said, "Give me your phone."

Zach hesitated.

"Now, Zach," Maddie ordered. "You have to trust me. We're wasting time."

Zach passed his encrypted cell to Maddie, and in less than 30 seconds, she had loaded Logan's tracking device onto it.

"So you'll know where to bring the cavalry," Maddie explained. She forced a reassuring smile. "It's going to be fine."

"Except for my court-martial, you mean," Zach commented.

"I'm pretty sure the CIA can't do that," Maddie responded with an eye roll. "It's hard to prosecute people who don't exist. But anyway, I don't think you'll be court-martialed after we save the president's son."

Zach took the phone, and stepped away from the vehicle. Maddie slid behind the wheel and placed her hands under the dashboard.

"You do know how to drive, right?" Zach asked, as the engine sprang to life at Maddie's instruction. Maddie reached for the stick shift to put the car in gear, and laughed internally. This poor vehicle owner was probably certain his manual transmission would prevent his car from being stolen, but he hadn't planned on a sixteen-year-old from Alaska, where there wasn't an automatic transmission for miles.

"Godspeed, Manchester," Zach said, smacking the side of the car as Maddie closed the door and began to move the car forward. "Be vigilant out there."