.o ACE o.
Zach POV
This could not have been happening.
As soon as Townsend-my Dad- walked in the room, I knew something was wrong. Or, more wrong than Bianca being attacked when I should have been able to stop it. I knew Macey was just worried about Bianca, but her being convinced of me knowing who was behind this stung. I may not have known exactly who it was, but I did have a very good guess. Guilt struck me every time I denied knowing, but I couldn't tell them yet. Not unless I was positive my worry- and secret hope- was correct. Because when I did tell them, I'm not sure how much they would trust me after they knew my secret. But, my hopes of being wrong had been crushed with the piece of Evapopaper Townsend had handed me.
Oh, Zachy, I'm disappointed. Hopefully, my little hint will help you figure this out.
The note didn't give me any hint on who sent it with the content. But the penmanship was one I recognized but hadn't seen in over a year. There was no signature on the paper, yet it filled me with dread and hope seeing it. I stuck the note in my mouth, and it dissolved into my favorite flavor, cinnamon apple. There was only one thing I needed to be sure about who this was. I wasn't sure if I would be happy or terrified when I found out. My emotions had been so mixed that week. I was torn between fear, hope, anger, dread, and guilt. But I needed to find out who this was.
Townsend said we needed to see the crime scene now. So Joe and I followed him out the door. When we got to the scene my worst fear and greatest hope were confirmed. On the ground, where the bullets had hit, were three painted letters connecting the bullet marks, like a giant connect the dots game.
ACE
We just stared at them for a minute, then Joe turned to me.
"Does this mean something to you?" he asked.
I took a deep breath. "Yes." They were alive. Somehow she survived. I should have known. She always survived.
Joe nodded. Townsend was staring at me with an unreadable expression. Then he turned to Joe, "We've been scouting this area since the attack, yet no one has any idea how this got here."
"And you won't. If these people don't want to be caught, they won't be," I muttered.
"Zach, you know who this is?"
I looked my father in the eye. A war was going on in my head. One part of me knew I should tell him- that I should have told him a long time ago, but the other half told me to keep quiet for a little bit longer. I didn't want to keep secrets, and he had a right to know, but there are some things that would cause more damage said than unsaid. For now at least.
"Yes."
Suddenly, I felt something hit the back of my head. I turned to see a paper airplane land at my feet. Not even bothering to look for the sender, I picked it up and walked away from Joe and my dad to read it.
About time! Do you think you know what to do now?
I nearly laughed. I could nearly hear the writer's sarcastic voice. Then I remembered what this meant, dread settling back in. Sticking the paper in my mouth, I turned back to Joe and Townsend.
"Yes, I know who this is, and I know that I am the only person who will ever be able to find them," I said, choosing my words carefully. I turned to Joe, "Do you know where the guys are?"
Joe raised an eyebrow, "Yes, turn around."
Confused, I turned to see a guy standing with some other agents in front of three computers. The guy was skinny, had short, curly, black hair, and was wearing wire glasses.
"Jonas?" I asked as I ran over to him.
The boy looked up, "Zach! You're here! Did you see the-"
I grabbed his arm and dragged him away, "Not here."
I dragged Jonas to a deserted alley. When we were far enough from the crime scene, I turned to him.
"How are they alive? I thought they were caught! Did you know about this?" He demanded. Of course, I didn't know they were alive! He had searched with me! He would have been the first person I would have told if I knew they were alive.
"No. No, I didn't know, okay! I should have, but I have no idea how they're alive!" I spat.
Jonas seemed to understand that I was on edge. He sighed, "Look, we'll never find anything out by staying here. Do you know what they want? Why are they are coming out now if they survived?"
"I have a guess, but we need to pick someone up before we go looking for them."
Jonas nodded. "I know. Does anyone else know who they are?"
I shook my head, "No. Not even my dad; but I'm pretty sure Joe has a guess."
He nodded. "When do we leave?"
"Now."
Mystery POV
"Finally!"
"Well, it's Zach. Did you really expect him to catch on any quicker?"
I turned towards the blonde. Sometimes I seriously wondered the way she saw people. I already knew her childhood had changed her views dramatically but had she thought that I didn't think that Zach would have figured it out faster? He should have known a lot sooner, but of course, he had gone CIA. I should have known he would have given up our ways. He might have forgotten some even.
"Yes," I muttered, turning back towards the monitors that showed us everything the MI6 and CIA's cameras were picking up. I admit that the systems had indeed improved. It still only took Pixie a few minutes to hack them though.
Watching Baxter and McHenry's reactions to my cousin's presence in their ears had been hilarious. Watching then run around as Viper and I shot at them was pretty amusing too. Of course, we weren't really trying to shoot our target- only close enough to scare them. And possibly give them a clue to their mystery.
Early this morning, it had only been a matter of looping the 'good guys' footage and waiting for the right moment to leave our final clues for Zachy. Now, it finally seemed he guessed who we were. Though I was honestly shocked it had taken him that long to figure it out. I should have known though. He always did underestimate me.
"I love being up here! It's so high! Like being in a castle!" the little, black-haired girl said airily.
"Shh!" the blonde hissed.
Pixie ignored her. "With all these bricks, it does seem like we're in a castle. Don't you think so?" she asked. Not waiting for anyone to answer, she continued, "I think it seems like a castle."
"You little Pixie, if you start-"
"Above the plains, up on the hill, there stood a castle bold-"
The blonde started reaching for her knives on her belt. I grabbed her hand before she could maim my cousin.
"A gleaming palace, made of white, a pillar to behold."
She turned to me, eyes flashing. "Make. It. Stop," she hissed.
I turned to my cousin. "Hand me that paper airplane," I told her, pointing to the paper next to her.
She stopped singing and handed it to me, and I walked down the hall to the window facing the scene of our latest 'project'. I aimed, then tossed the plane into the air. I turned and walked back to the room the girls were in, knowing the plane had hit Zach in the head. Looking at the monitors, I watched him pick it up and read it. Zach stuck the paper in his mouth and went back to the traitors he was talking to.
A second later, we watched as he ran over to a guy near the computers.
"Is that Jonas?" Pixie cried.
Viper rolled her eyes. "Are you still-"
"Sh!" I cut her off. I turned back to the screens. Zach was dragging the skinnier boy into an alley. I typed a few keys and the alley popped up on the monitor.
Zach and Jonas talked for a few minutes, then they both walked back to Joe. Zach told him something, and the two boys disappeared from the scene.
I turned to the girls behind me. "Well, girls, they know; and if I know them, they're going to get the third musketeer. It's time for phase two."
Bex POV
Three days.
That's how long it took for everything to be cleared for Bianca's flight back to America. That's how long it took for Mrs. Morg- Solomon to get Bianca attendance to Gallagher. That's how long it took for Liz to get to London. And that's how long it had been since Zach disappeared.
When Joe and Townsend came back, there was no sign of Zach. We asked where he was of course, but Joe and Townsend said nothing. I didn't have time to look into it, though. Macey, Liz and I had bigger problems to deal with.
Liz had come as soon as I told her the situation. She arrived shortly before Bianca left with Tina. Macey seemed to be doing okay, but I could tell she had been trying not to show Bianca how nervous she was.
We were currently at the scene of the attack. We had just come from saying goodbye to Tina and Bianca. Bianca had seemed interested in meeting Liz since she had been helping Mr. Mosckowitz and Dr. Fibbs for the past few months. They seemed to get along. When it was time for Bianca to leave, we said goodbye. Macey and Bianca had a moment together, then Tina and Bianca left for the plane owned by Gallagher.
After they had left, we took Liz to the crime scene. What we found was shocking. The agency had finished the official search of the place yesterday. We were free to look into it ourselves. No one had told us that something had changed since we last saw it. Three letters had been spray painted where the bullets had hit.
ACE
Ace? Who was Ace? What did that bloody mean?
Of course, Liz immediately ran it through every CIA and MI6 database. But she found nothing, and Liz hates not finding something.
"I don't understand! There has to be something! An operation, a mission, a code name, something!"
"Calm down, Lizzie," Macey said. "There's nothing there."
Liz looked like she was about to pop. "But-"
"Liz!" I snapped. "There's nothing there. So what does that mean?"
Liz's eyes went wide. "It means nothing has ever been entered into the system under that name or it was erased."
"Exactly. So, we first need to find out who was in our comms, before we look into that. Do you think you could trace the hackers?"
Liz looked offended I had to ask. "Of course! I just need the system you were using."
The next day we were back at the site of the attack. We had needed to get permission to have access to the system, and that had taken all the day before. Liz had asked us to put in the comms, to see if she could duplicate the hack, then track where the original came from. Now Liz was typing away, plugging in wires here and there, while Macey and I discussed what Bianca had said a few days before.
"She was right," Macey said. "The first bullet landed in front of you. If they had been aiming for Bianca, why would they shoot that far ahead of you?"
I shook my head. It didn't make sense. Remembering what happened next, I said, "The bullet that did land behind me- it landed a lot closer to you than Bianca too."
"What if Bianca really wasn't their target?" Macey asked. "What if it was us?" It was crazy, but I certainly couldn't deny that was the way it seemed. But if we were the targets, why was there the attack in D.C.?
"If we were the targets, why wait until we were around Bianca to attack?" I asked.
Macey thought about it for a minute. Then her eyes went wide. "Cover," she said. "It's the perfect cover. If they plotted the attacks to make it look like they were after Bianca, we would be distracted with Bianca's security and not go after them the way we would if it was obvious they were after an agent."
It was scary how much sense that made. I shook my head, trying to digest the new theory. "It makes a lot of sense, but we still don't have any proof it's correct."
"Plus, who would be attacking you guys?" Liz piped up from her nest of wires and screens.
"Liz, it would actually make more sense for someone to be attacking us than Bianca. We have a lot more threats to us from our occupation," Macey told her.
"True, but who do you think this could be if you guys are the targets?"
Dozens of names raced through my head. Macey was right. In our line of work, we did have a lot of people who would want to attack us. Though, I still had no idea what the ACE meant.
Suddenly, a strange cross of a scream and groan came from Liz.
"I can't get this! How can I not get this? I made this! How can I not figure out how it was hacked? It makes me feel absolutely blind!" She screeched.
Both Macey and I opened our mouths to say something, but we never got to. A crackle of static burst in our comms we were wearing. A small, light, sing-song voice spoke in our ear. A voice Macey and I had heard once before.
"Oh, lookie. Trying to find the hack code on the base? So silly."
Instantly, Liz was typing, tracking where the hack was coming from. Macey and I rushed to the windows to look for any clue to where the hacker was.
"Look at them running around. So funny," the voice in our ear said.
"Shush!" hissed another.
"Oh, lighten up. The little blind mice won't find the code in time," the first voice giggled.
Liz suddenly jumped up and turned a laptop to face us. The screen showed a map of the area. There was a blue dot on our position and a red, blinking dot on the building across from us. If the hackers were that close, how did we not notice them? The three of us took off through the door. We split up as we ran, to surround the building.
The first voice in my ear had begun to sing.
"Three blind mice, Three blind mice. See how they run, see how they run- Ow!"
"Shush! Come on," hissed the second voice. There was a muffled crunching, then nothing but static.
By the time I got to my entrance to the building, there was only light static in my comms. As I turned a corner I heard a muffled cry. I sped up. In ten seconds, I was at the door to the room Liz had tracked the signal to.
I kicked the door open to find a ring of computers in the center of the room, a zipline going from the window on the left of the room, and a few empty bottles of Dr. Pepper. But those things only registered because of my training. What caught my attention was the two girls lying on the floor. One black-haired, one blonde.
I swallowed a scream as I moved towards them- right before a sharp pain hit me in the back of my neck and I crumbled on the floor, next to my friends.
Black spots danced in front of my eyes, partially blinding me. I was able to make out a pair of long legs step in front of me and hear an amused voice mutter, "Too easy."
Then the world went black.