Chapter 2: Welcome to Gallagher Academy
Alex groaned as he woke up. He felt like his head was going to explode. He opened his eyes and immediately closed them again, jerking his head away from the harsh light. He blinked rapidly and tested his bonds as he waited for his eyes to adjust. When they finally did he looked around. He seemed to be tied to a chair in a holding cell with two-way glass.
"Damn!" He muttered under his breath. Now it was going to be a whole lot harder to convince Cameroon to help him. All he could do was wait and stare at the glass.
The boy woke up with a groan and Cammie looked over to see Bex wince slightly, the only sign that she felt bad for knocking him out. Cameroon's mom and Mr. Solomon where waiting with them. Instead of going in right away like Cammie would've, they waited to see what he would do. They watched the boy wince at the harsh lighting and test his bonds while he waited for his eyes to adjust. As he took in his surroundings he muttered something darkly under his breath and scowled, more like this was just a setback than that he was actually worried.
"He's good," Solomon muttered. "Definitely been in this position before." Then, he sighed and left, walking into the holding cell.
Alex watched as a dark haired man with green eyes walked into the room.
"What's your name kid?" The man asked.
"I'm not a kid!" Alex exclaimed. "How long have I been out?" The man rolled his eyes.
"Listen kid, I don't think you get how much trouble you're in here," he said calmly.
"Yeah yeah yeah. I broke into a CIA training camp for girls. I get the picture. Now, I'm on a bit of a schedule so how long was I out?" Alex shot back impatiently. The man looked stunned.
"How'd you..." He trailed off. Alex rolled his eyes.
"Listen, since you're clearly not going to tell me how long I've been out, can you get me Cameroon Morgan and her friends? I believe they're the ones that jumped me in the first place." He shot a gleaming, movie star smile at the mirror. "By the way, very impressive Rebecca! Not many people can sneak up on me like that. I congratulate you!" The man stared at him in astonishment for a second before slapping him are across the face. Alex's head snapped around and he shook his head.
"Someone's cranky," he taunted. He just wanted to get out of here and talk to Cameroon so he could go home.
"Who the hell are you!" The man shouted. "Are you a member of the Circle come to kill Cammie?" Alex froze, feeling shock register on his face no matter how hard he tried to keep it neutral.
"Are we talking about Cameroon Morgan? She's a walking target? Shit! Just like them to not tell me something important like that!" Alex exclaimed.
"Who's them?" The man asked. Alex grew silent, gazing grimly at the man. "Tell me dammit!" The man screamed, slamming his fist on the table between them. Alex didn't even flinch and the man stormed out of the room.
"What the hell was that?" Mrs. Morgan yelled. "He's a child. You can't just smack him around whenever you feel like it!" She screamed.
"Yeah, well how the hell does he know about us? Who the hell even is he? His target is your daughter, that's for certain and he knew all her best friends!" Solomon stormed back into the holding cell.
Alex waited patiently for the man to speak. When he didn't Alex spoke up.
"Okay, I'm a little confused as to who you are. I know that Cameroon's, Cammie's mother is the headmistress of this school but who are you?" Mr. Solomon calmed down a little.
"I'm one of the teachers here. Cammie and her friends are my students. My name is Mr. Solomon."
"As in Joe Solomon, the CIA operative? When did they take you out of the field?" Alex asked. He remembered his uncle talking about a Joe Solomon, an American he worked with at "the bank" once. Apparently, he was one of his dad's friends too.
"How in the hell. . . Who are you?" Mr. Solomon yelled. Alex smiled.
"Wouldn't you like to know. Now, are you gonna let me speak to Cammie or are we gonna do this the hard way in which I escape, get captured again and you show those girls in there how a real interrogation is done. Do you think they're ready for that Joe?" The man seemed to be trying to decide.
"What do you mean real interrogation?" Solomon asked. Alex glanced at the mirror, trying to decide how far he should go and how much he should egg the man on.
"Oh you know," he said, looking back at Solomon. "The usual, twenty questions where I get all my nails ripped out, water boarding, always very effective, or there's the classic grab a knife an cut me open. Heck I've even been electrocuted! You're choice, the easy way or the hard and painful way, and I mean painful for both of us." Solomon looked conflicted and a woman came into the room.
"Ah, you must be the lovely Mrs. Morgan, headmistress of this school. If you don't mind, I'd like a word with your daughter and I'm kind of on a tight schedule so sooner would be better than later." The woman completely ignored him and instead started talking to Solomon in a low voice.
"Cammie wants to talk to him. She thinks that maybe she can find out what he wants. I have to go. The rest of the school should be at breakfast right about now. We can't let them know anything about what's going on here." Alex nodded approvingly.
"I knew that girl was smart! I just need to talk to her. It's all I want, I swear," he told them. Solomon jumped. It wasn't until a couple seconds later that Alex realized that they had been speaking in German and he had jumped in, speaking the language as a native would, with a perfect accent. He wiped his face completely blank, devoid of any emotion, waiting for whatever would come next.
"How did you. . .?" Mrs. Morgan asked. Alex decided to play dumb for now.
"How did I what, speak German? Come on! Seriously? A mysterious and if I do say so myself, quite handsome young man shows up in a school that's supposedly very well protected, a spy school, and knows and does amazing things but when I speak German that's when your surprised?" Mr. Solomon shook his head, also clearly shocked.
"No, how did you speak it with such a perfect accent?" He asked. Alex shrugged.
"I lived in Germany with my uncle for awhile a couple years back," he said, spinning the lie quickly. Solomon shook his head.
"Just like in every language you would have an American accent. You don't get that perfect unless you've lived in Germany almost your whole life which you clearly haven't since you don't have a German accent when speaking English." Alex shrugged.
"Uh oh! Caught in a lie! I'm so scared!" He said sarcastically. "I don't know how I do it okay? Now can I please talk to Cammie?" Both adults were taken aback at his attitude and it showed on their faces. He, as always, had no expression, a blank, unreadable mask. They waited for a minute, waiting to see what he would say of himself, if anything.
"Look, yeah I'm being kinda rude right now but interrogations bring out the worst in me and it's made worse by the time limit I have right now. If I could just talk to Cammie that would be great." Mrs. Morgan nodded slowly. She and Mr. Solomon turned around and walked out of the room. Alex waited patiently and a few minutes later Cameroon Morgan walked in. She looked a little scared but Alex could tell she was trying her best to put on a brave face.
"Don't be scared Cammie. I just want to talk. I promise I'm not the bad guy here," Alex said reassuringly. He smiled warmly at her and it seemed to give her confidence.
"Just so you know, they're all in the next room listening in and if you try anything they'll be in here faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket," she said. Alex tsked her.
"That will never do. I'm sorry but I can't have them listening in." He smiled at the mirror. "Don't worry. I'll be a good little boy and I won't hurt her but I need to talk to her alone." With that he pressed the button on his watch that turned off whatever bug they had in the room that let them listen in.
"What do you mean they can't listen in? What are you going to do?" Cammie asked suspiciously.
"I've already done it. My watch is one of my gadgets. It can disrupt any signal from any listening device within a few yards of me. They can't hear anything going on in this room right now, which is exactly how I need it. No offense but Joe's kind of a jackass and your mom is a little overprotective." Cammie glanced uneasily at the mirror and Alex rolled his eyes.
"I told you I'm not going to hurt you. I already would've if I were going to. These bonds are nothing to what I've had before and to be honest, Joe sucks at interrogation too."
"It doesn't mean the interrogation is over," Cammie said. Just then, the door opened. Alex casually glanced over Cammie's shoulder and his eyes lit up mischievously.
"Rebecca! To what do we owe the pleasure?" He asked pleasantly.
"Don't give me that shit you jerk! You did something! What was it?" Alex glanced behind her to make sure the door was closed before answering.
"Short and too the point. That's so American," he drawled pretending to be bored as he scrutinized her. He had slipped back into his natural British accent to see how the two girls would react. Despite the initial shock that had shown all over their faces for a moment, they recovered relatively quickly. Rebecca scowled at him and he smiled.
"Who the hell are you?" She asked.
"Bex," Cammie warned as she advanced on him. Rebecca, Bex, ignored her. Instead, the girl grabbed Alex roughly by his shirt collar, lifting him slightly off the chair he was sitting on.
"Oh, strong!" Alex smirked, purposely egging her on. "Please, I can't wait to see what you'll do! It can't be worse than what I've already been through."
"Bex!" Cammie cried exasperatedly. After glaring at Alex for a minute, she dropped him suddenly. Alex didn't let any surprise show on his face when she did.
"Who are you?" Cammie asked again.
"Would you believe me if I told you?" Alex asked rhetorically.
"Try me!" Bex challenged.
"I'm MI6, and I need Cammie's help." The girls looked incredulously at him so he just continued. "I came here to talk specifically to you Cammie. I've read all the files we have on you. Your nickname is the Chameleon. You're always surrounded by a small group of friends though you have many. This small group consists of Bex, Elizabeth, and Macey. Your mom is Mrs. Rachel Morgan and your dad died in the field. Your first boyfriend was somebody named Josh and then it was Zachary Goode. However, they did not tell me that you were a walking target, which is just like them. Then again, I am too so I don't think it'll make too much difference. Also, I had no idea about Joe Solomon. What I do know about him is that he is, or was, a CIA operative at one point."
"So what do you need me for?" Cammie asked curiously. Alex smiled but before he could explain Bex cut in.
"Just a minute buster! Cammie's not going anywhere without us!" Alex's smile widened. He had been hoping for this response.
"I'd hoped you would say that. I've got aliases for you, Cammie, Elizabeth, and Macey. Cammie and I look close enough that we're siblings visiting our dear aunt. You guys will be our cousins since you don't look as similar to us. The mission will take us to California. Once there I'll need every one of you to help be figure out what Scorpia is planning this time. MI6 says if I manage to bring them down again, they'll be weakened enough that they'll either disband or weak enough that MI6 can pick off the rest of the group. What do you think? Sound like fun?" Both girls were frowning.
"What's Scorpia?" Cammie asked.
"Why should we trust you when we don't even know your name?" Bex asked.
"Fair questions," Alex commented. "My name's Alex. I'd give you my last name but that would be too easy. Plus if we get caught, you'll be better off not knowing it. Scorpia is the organization that I've gone on a ton of missions against with a hundred percent success rate and I'm not about to fail this one. They're a terrorist organization. The name's an acronym standing for Sabatoge, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination, the last part being their main focus."
"So they're the one's that want your head," Bex said. It wasn't a question.
"Sorry?" Alex asked, not quite sure what she meant by it.
"You said you were a walking target too. Scorpia's the organization that wants you dead." She explained. Alex nodded.
"Unfortunately yes and they've come pretty close on multiple occasions. I have the bullet wound to prove it," he said. He immediately saw their eyes search him for the scar and he smirked. "You won't be able to see it. My shirt is covering it. Remind me to show you sometime."
"I'll hold you to that Alex," Bex commented. Then she sighed. "Well, I better go explain that you're not dangerous. Well, not to us."
"Cool," Alex said, standing up and letting the ropes fall to the ground. "This way?" He walked passed them toward the door and Bex grabbed his shirt collar pulled him back.
"How in the hell...?" She trailed off.
"A magician never reveals his secrets," he said slyly, winking at her.
"Well either way, if you barge in there before us they're gonna rip you to shreds thinking that you're trying to escape or something," Cammie cautioned.
"Actually, I hadn't thought of that," he murmured. Bex opened the door and Cammie and Alex followed.
A/N: Hey guys. Sorry this is a little late. I wanted to get this up by yesterday at the latest but it obviously didn't happen. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this and thanks to those of you who have followed and/or favorited this. I'm glad you guys are liking it.