.o What do You Know? o.

Macey POV

"That's it! What do you know?"

"Macey, I don't-"

"No, Zach! You are not telling us something, and Bianca is paying for it! Spit it out!"

"I can't! It's dangerous; I'm not even sure if it's right!"

It had been five hours since the attack at London Tower, fifteen minutes past midnight. We were in a room in the middle of the maze of hallways that was Baring Cross Station. Bianca had been taken to a safe room and I had just left her to talk to the others. Well, by 'talk to the others' I mean 'demand the truth out of Zach.' I knew he had been keeping something, but I had trusted he would tell us if he thought Bianca would get hurt. Obviously, I was wrong.

"I thought I could trust you to tell me if you knew anything!" I yelled. I knew I needed to keep calm, but I was scared. Bianca had been attacked twice now. We needed to keep her safe. I wouldn't be able to bear it if anything hurt her. She was like a little sister to me. I was probably getting too attached to Bianca, but I didn't care. I just wanted her safe.

Zach opened his mouth but was cut off by Solomon.

"Macey, Zach has his reasons for silence. I thought I taught you better than this."

I sighed, "You did." I needed to keep my emotions in line. The field is not a place for feelings. Feelings make you sloppy, being sloppy gets you killed. I turned to Bex, who was sitting at the steel table in the middle of the room with Tina. "What do we know?" I asked her.

Bex looked at me. "The comms database was hacked. The agents running it were found unconscious in a car two blocks away. When they came to, they had no memory of the past week. They regained their past memories with treatment, but they still don't remember today."

Great, that's just what we needed. Whoever did this knows what they're doing? At least, they had the sense to clean up after themselves. That was bad for us. I sighed and nodded. "And?" There was always an 'and' with things like this.

"And when we investigated the database, we found nothing to track. No trace, no code, nothing," Tina said.

"So, what does this tell us?" I asked. If we couldn't track them, then there were only a handful of people who could.

"That whoever hacked the database is good."

"Exactly." I turned back to Zach. "Do you have anything to add?"

To my surprise, he nodded, "You won't find anything to track yourselves. There are only three people on the planet I know would be able to." Well duh, I knew that. We needed someone who knew computers even better than we did. Someone who was the smartest Gallagher Girl in her class. Someone who happened to be still at Gallagher helping teach Advanced Encryption right now.

"Who?" piped Tina. Huh, I would have thought she would have known. Or maybe she did but couldn't help the urge to ask anyway.

"Liz."

We all turned to Bex, who had given the answer. She was sitting casually, legs crossed, hands playing with a bracelet that happened to contain a tiny camera and microphone. She spoke so calmly as if she was just having lunch with us, staring at Zach.

"She's who you're talking about right?"

Zach nodded.

"Okay, so we get Liz here and have her track down the hackers!"

"It won't be that easy," Zach muttered.

"What? How do you know?" Tina asked.

"Because he knows who is doing this and not telling us," I muttered. Okay, I knew I needed to stop, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was true. I hated not being told something so important, no matter the reason.

"No, I don-"

"Then how do you know it won't be that easy?" I yelled, my pent-up anger and worry gushing out.

"Because nothing ever is!" He cried. "When, in this line of work, is it ever that easy?" Great. Now I'd done it. Zach looked so upset.

"Zach-"

"If it was that easy, I could have stopped the attack in London!" He looked so weak at that moment. I wish I knew what was going on with him. Guilt started to break the surface as I realized just how badly I had been treating him. I trusted Zach with my life. It wasn't fair to treat him as if he was a double agent-regardless of the secrets.

"Zach-" I tried again, guilt rising. I knew Zach had honestly tried to prevent any attack. My fear for Bianca had blinded me to that. But I still did believe he knew a lot more than he was telling us. My saying that was cut off by the door opening.

Agent Townsend entered the room. He had been searching the crime scene again. When I looked into his eyes, I couldn't read them, but his posture and the way he was walking towards Joe and Zach made me think he found something.

Townsend walked across the room stiffly, stopping only a foot away from Mr. Solomon. He leaned in and said something quietly in his ear, trying not to let us hear. He had always underestimated Gallagher Girls, and this was no exception; but from what his body language showed, this time it could be pinned down to worry.

I didn't exactly hear all of what he said, but it seemed like he wanted Joe and Zach to come look at something at the attack scene. Townsend turned to Zach and handed him a piece of paper. Zach visibly paled as he heard whatever his father had just told him. He opened the paper, glanced at it for four seconds, then wadded it up and stuck it in his mouth. It must have been Evapopaper.

Bex, Tina, and I were dying to know the new information Townsend seemed to have. Tina was the first to voice our question. Or in her case questions.

"What's going on? Did you find something? Is-"

"Miss Walters, if it concerned you I would have told you."

Tina shrunk down in her seat. Townsend and Joe were the only people I've ever known that could make Tina stop her questions that quickly. It was impressive and scary.

Joe turned back to the three of us. "You three take care of Bianca. We need to discuss some things," he said.

Joe then turned and calmly strode out of the room, followed by Zach and his father. Once they were gone, Bex slapped her hands down on the table.

"Alright, enough drama. We don't have time for it," Bex stated. "We need to focus on our mission." She was right. Worrying about what others know wasn't going to help Bianca.

"I'll get Liz to come, but we need to figure out where to take Bianca."

"You're right. Bianca needs to be relocated, now," I said. "We need somewhere with advanced security measures and twenty-four-hour guards."

"She won't like that," Tina mumbled.

"I don't care. I've been her friend too much; I need to make her protection my number one priority." I should've seen these attacks coming, but I had been too occupied worrying about Bianca. She was probably going to get upset with me, but I was not risking her safety any longer. I needed to make sure she was safe, no matter what. Even if it meant tracking down these nut jobs myself.

"So, what? We keep her in a safe house?" Bex asked. "You know as safe as could be, there is always a chance they could find her."

"Yeah, and whoever these maniacs are, they have already proved they can hack Langley," I said. "We have to keep Bianca's security private."

"Wait, isn't it obvious?" Tina burst. "There's only one option for Bianca." She let that hang in the air for a moment, then added, "Gallagher."

Bianca POV

Have you ever been so bored you start talking to yourself? Like actually having a whole conversation with yourself out loud? Yeah, that's about how bored I was a long time after Macey left.

I say a long time because no one in that freakin' spy prison of a safe room would give me the time of day! I mean, sure it's a top security place, but what danger would I be in if I knew what time it was!? I didn't know where I was or what had just happened. All I knew was that if someone didn't start talking soon, I was going to kill somebody.

Of course, Macey had come with me to the room, after some guys in suits looked me over and asked me some stupid questions. 'How are you feeling? Did anyone hurt you? Did you see anyone suspicious' Are you kidding me? Someone just tried to kill me! Of course, I'm not alright! Did I see anything suspicious? Hm, let me think. Oh yeah, there was that one guy WHO TRIED TO SHOOT ME! Other than that I think everything was pretty normal. Except for the spies going into panic and dragging me here, of course.

I didn't actually say any of that though. I only thought of it afterward. While they were actually asking me, all I could do was nod, considering I was in shock.

After the guys let me leave, Macey brought me here and told me everything would be alright, that I was safe here. All the while I threw a tantrum, screaming and crying. Macey eventually calmed me down. She had stayed with me until I was calm enough to lie down and sleep. She told me she would explain everything later.

She'd better. I had I right to know why I had to fear for my life- no. Don't think about that. Macey wouldn't let anyone hurt me.

When I woke up, I was alone. I finally looked around the room I had been brought to. My first impression? Silver. Metal walls, metal ceiling, metal floor, metal everything. I just couldn't see a door, which freaked me out, but I knew I had to of come into the room through a door, so there must be one somewhere.

In the metal prison room, there was a steel bed- if you could call it that- with a thin mattress, a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and a silver table with two metal chairs. On the table, someone had placed a glass of water and three pieces of peanut butter toast. I had gotten up and eaten my toast, massaging the crick in my neck. I mean seriously, why can't spies afford a little more comfortable beds?

That had been what feels like hours ago. Since then I had paced, sang, cried, danced, sat, slept, and just plain screamed; no one came. No one checked on me. No one told me anything. Sure, I'm just the girl who just had her bloody life threatened; why tell me anything? And yes, I said 'bloody.' It's something Bex taught me.

I knew someone had to be watching me. Even though I couldn't see any cameras, I knew they were there. That's one thing you learn having spy guards- they see everything.

Well, everything but a guy with a gun.

No. Don't let yourself think about that! If I started dwelling on the fact that I was wanted dead, I don't know what I would, would... I wiped away the moisture in my eyes, angry at myself for crying. Again. I had made an oath to myself years ago when my father first started getting high in politics, that I would never cry again. An oath that this stupid attacker had made me break too many times.

I wished Macey would hurry back. I wished I wasn't terrified. I wished I knew what was going on. I wished this stupid terrorist would leave me alone. I wished my dad never got into politics! I wished- I wished- I just wished I had someone on my side. Not security, not politicians, not reporters and their audiences. I wanted a friend.

I let myself cry for two more minutes, then told myself to suck it up. I hated the fact these people made me cry. That they could make me this scared. The one thing I had tried to do was keep it inside. Not let myself dwell on it. Not break down and cry in a little ball. I hated that I was like that, but mostly, I hated that people could see me like that. No one had mentioned it though. I think they knew I didn't want them to.

After what felt like an eternity, the door finally revealed itself. A piece of the wall slid away, and in walked Macey, Tina, and Bex. They looked tired. There were dark circles under their eyes, and their posture sagged. Yet, all three girls looked as if they were ready to take on terrorists. It must be a spy thing.

They just stared at where I was hanging upside down on the metal bench of a bed, like a five-year-old on a sofa, for a while. I straightened myself and stared back, refusing to be the one to break the silence.

Finally, Bex spoke. "Hey, Bianca. How-"

"Do not ask me how I bloody am," I said in a flat voice.

Macey sighed, but the other girls showed no expression at all.

"What time is it?"

"Two twenty-seven pm, on the nineteenth of March."

I huffed and crossed my arms. "And is someone finally going to tell me what's going on?"

Macey sighed and crossed the room to sit on the bed next to me. Bex and Tina brought the chairs closer to us and sat down. Macey cleared her throat and began her long overdue explanation.

"While we were at London Tower, someone hacked our comms. We don't know who or how, but they did. Whoever it was got away while we were making sure you got here-"

"Where exactly is here?" I cut her off.

"An MI6 base," Bex answered.

"I'm not getting more than that, am I?"

"Nope."

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Fine."

Macey nodded and continued. "After I left last night, we had a meeting to discuss what our next move is."

"And?" I asked. "What remote prison of a place are you sending me next?"

"We've decided it's best to keep the CIA out of your security detail. Instead, we are sending you to one of the safest places in the world, which happens to be one of our favorite places in the world."

One of their favorite places? Where could that be? I was in too foul a mood to wonder about it much, so instead, I whined. "Will you just tell me?"

Tina was the one to answer. She looked as if she was deciding to grin or look sad. Eventually, the grin won. "You're going to The Gallagher Academy!" She said excitedly, though her face sank a second later when she remembered why I needed to go there.

Wait, The Gallagher Academy? Why there? How was an all-girls boarding school one of the safest places in the world? It took a few moments of looking at all three of their small grins to remember all my observations about them and that school. Macey said she had 'special training' even though she went to Gallagher since she was fifteen. She was ready to join the Secret Service by the time she was eighteen. Tina had let it slip that she went to Gallagher too. Macey had acted like it was some secret when she did. I had found out over the time of the trip that Tina had joined the agency at eighteen too. Bex was exactly Tina and Macey's age. She also seemed to be best friends with Macey. Now they were claiming The Gallagher Academy was one of the safest places in the world.

It couldn't be a coincidence.

There was more than met the eye with Gallagher.

All three girls were looking to see what my reaction would be. I shrugged and said, "You mean the all-girls spy school you guys went to?"

Bex's eyes widened, Macey blinked, and Tina started to get a little excited again, "Yes! Isn't it amaz- wait." She stopped and stared at me, realizing what I had said.

I smirked. "What? I had time to think in here. Did you think I wouldn't figure it out?"

Bex raised an eyebrow. "I never said I went to Gallagher."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh, please. Why would it be one of your favorite places if you never went?"

Macey smirked. "She's got you there," she said to Bex.

"Okay, so when do I get out of this place?" I asked.

"As soon as we can get the security cleared. We've discussed it, and Bianca, I won't be able to go with you," Macey said. She wasn't going to come? Why?

"You'll be safe at Gallagher, and Tina's going back with you. I need to stay here to find these terrorists and stop them. I'll come back as soon as they're gone, alright?"

I didn't know what to think. Macey had been the reason I was still sane. She had been with me for so long. The only person who knew me was her. Sure, I knew I was going to be in one of the safest places ever, and she needed to do this; but it would be hard without her.

I looked up at her and nodded. "Okay," I whispered. Then to try to lighten things I said, "How hard could it be to take these guys down? I mean they can't be that good if their aim was so bad they came closer to hitting you two than me." I pointed at Bex and Macey.

All three girls froze. Then glanced at each other with wide eyes, but were back to normal in a second. Tina laughed strangely, "Yeah, they did have terrible aim, didn't they?"