Ahhhh! I immensely apologize for my horrendous updating schedule! Unfortunately, summer has been complete chaos and I just haven't gotten any time to write, but I won't bore you with excuses. Thank you to all of the amazing readers who have added this story to their favorites or alerts, and major thanks to all the people who broke 200 with their reviews! You guys are amazing, and instill my desire to write!

Here's chapter 24 - rather action-y and it gets into some deep stuff toward the end. Sorry if Cam's a little OOC, I had a hard time writing this chappy.

Disclaimer: All rights to Ally Carter

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Explosive is in position." I heard Ryan say an hour later.

"Ten-four. Meet you at the car." Zach responded. The two of us were wandering the streets hand-in-hand as Ryan was busy placing the device that would cause a mass evacuation from the building where our Circle of Cavan recruiter/terrorist, Jason Snider, was hiding out.

Zach and I had stayed in our room up until ten minutes ago, watching surveillance feeds to make sure Mr. Snider did not leave before we wanted him too.

But now, the two of us were busy blending in with the rest of the wealthy foot-traffic that was walking the streets of Dublin. We had walked a loop and were approaching the hotel. As soon as Ryan came out, we would briefly meet and then split up to cover all of the exits.

This was our chance to catch the criminal that had kidnapped my best friend. Was I nervous? Not at all. Mentally, I reviewed our plans. By covering all of the exits, there was no way that Snider would be able to leave the building without one of us seeing him.

I felt Zach remove his hand from mine and wrap his arm around my shoulders instead. I was happy to say that things had really changed between Zach and me last night. Sure I was aware of the fact that operatives got together on missions all of the time, because for us that really is the closest thing to dating we get. But Zach and I were both not the type of people to start a relationship if we didn't want it to really genuinely work.

I turned my head up to smile at Zach, he pulled me a little bit closer and smirked. We were nearing the hotel and I saw the sophisticated spinning door spit out Ryan. He carried himself in a way that only Joe Solomon's son could. He glanced to his right and left, obviously looking for us.

He quickly spotted us, but headed straight for our car across the street. Ryan was still dressed in a maintenance uniform that he had used as part of his cover to get into the hotel's basement. He did look a little out of place among the classy businessmen and wealthy women that were bustling to and from the building.

Zach and I didn't increase our pace at all. Instead we continued to look like a casual couple out for a stroll and made our way over to the car where we had agreed to meet with Ryan.

As we reached the black SUV we heard the black hatch slam. Ryan appeared around the side, this time dressed in his usual clothes, without the maintenance uniform. He briefly ran a hand through his hair.

"Okay," I stepped away from Zach so that I could look at the two of them. "Zach, you're going to cover the main entrance doors, right?"

Zach nodded and I turned to Ryan. "You will stay around back and make sure he doesn't go through the courtyard and the back exit. And I, I'll be monitoring the emergency exit that leads to the side alley. Those are the only 3 ways he can get out of the building."

Ryan took a deep breath. He then reminded us of how the explosive would work. "The device will detonate when I dial the number of the cell phone attached to it." He held up his phone. "I won't dial until all of you are in place. The device should explode instantly, causing a small boom and lots and lots of smoke. Since the device is in the air conditioning system, the smoke will spread throughout the building's air ducts. As soon as it is noticed an alarm will sound throughout the building. At this point everyone will be required to evacuate."

"And that," Zach said, "is when we'll get Snider."

I nodded, "Exactly." The three of us looked at each other. "You ready?" I asked.

Nobody answered my question; the boys just started walking toward the apartment complex. I stood there for a moment, the gravity and desperation of what we were about to do weighed on me. I shook my head to clear my mind and took another breath before following the boys.

Less than five minutes later, I was in the currently vacant alley. "Chameleon is in position." I said. Almost as soon as I spoke, I heard verbal conformation that Zach and Ryan were also ready.

"Detonating in three, two, one." Ryan said, and just a second later I felt a small shudder come from beneath the building in front of me.

A few moments of silence followed and I subconsciously held my breath that our plan would work. We didn't have room for error.

To my relief, a loud, blaring siren began to echo from the building. Within moments people began to follow evacuation procedures and make their way to the nearest exit. Most people were headed out the main lobby door, but my money was on the fact Snider would want to be discreet and take one of the other two exits.

As a few confused people exited the door in front of me, I mentally pictured Jason Snider's face and compared it to the people in front of me. None of them matched his description. None of them seemed to pay any attention to me thankfully, and I moved on to the next people coming out of the door.

Trying to make it seem like I was also making my way from the building too, I scanned faces. As the group coming from the building grew larger, I was momentarily filled with panic. What if I let him slip by?

Then my instincts took hold, and I focused. Women were automatically ruled out. And general height and weight ruled several of the men out.

Zach and Ryan were silent on their ends, so neither of them had spotted him. I kept scanning. Any man that could bear resemblance to Snider was closely analyzed by my trained eyes. Caught up in the moment, my heart pounded with adrenaline and determination.

"Anything?" I heard Zach ask.

"No," I responded quietly.

I heard Ryan swear before following with another no.

My heart leapt to my throat as a spotted a man that looked like Snider. He had a hat pulled low over his face and was wearing a thick leather jacket that hid his physique. Almost positive it was him, I headed towards him.

"Ryan, Zach, I may have eyes on the target." I whispered.

I purposely bumped into him, causing him to look up. When his face met my eyes, I was instantly disappointed. Mumbling a quick apology I stepped around him.

"False alarm." I said. Exasperation filled me, the last of the crowd was coming through the door, there couldn't be too many people left.

And that's when I saw him. A majority of the crowd made a right turn heading out of the door to go to the main avenue that was in front of the building. But one man turned to the left and headed farther back into the alley.

He was dressed so that he didn't stick out in the crowd. Wearing jeans and a button-down t-shirt with a baseball cap to hide his hair and eyes, he looked like any thirty-year old man. If it wasn't for the fact that he purposely didn't follow the crowd, he wouldn't have caused any suspicion. But I knew better, international terrorists often looked like your next door neighbor.

I broke away from the crowd and began to walk purposely toward him. As he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw me, but no look of alarm crossed his face. He continued to walk at the same pace.

"Guys, I found him. He's heading down the alley to Chestnut Street."

Another glance over his shoulder confirmed to him that I was following him. "Here we go," I said to nobody in particular. Sure enough as the words left my mouth, Snider began to run.

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I began to sprint after him.

"Zach, Ryan, I need backup like now." I barked as the sight of the end of the alley loomed near.

The two of us were at a dead sprint. He was determined to get away, and I was determined to stop him. Unfortunately, he was pretty fast, so I wasn't gaining ground fast enough.

We were getting closer to the street, where it would be easier for him to lose me.

"Stop!" I cried in between breaths. But Jason Snider didn't even hesitate; the sight of cars on the street ahead of him seemed to reel him in. At this point, I was unarmed and the only way I was going to get him was to catch up.

Ryan reached the opening of the alley and anger filled me. Where was Zach? Or at least Ryan?

But my frustration was soon wiped away. As Snider turned to head down a sidewalk, I saw a fist slam into his face. He staggered backwards and that's when I saw a black SUV come to a screeching halt. At the same time the owner of the fist, which turned out to be Ryan, grabbed Snider in a hold and threw open the door to the SUV stopped next to him.

Realizing exactly what was happening, I ran toward the car. Ryan had maneuvered Snider into the backseat and jumped in, slamming the door behind him. Zach, in the driver's seat turned and saw me and reached to open the passenger door.

I climbed in and quickly closed the door. Zach, wanting to get away from all possible nearby witnesses as soon as possible, instantly pulled back out into traffic and made his way down the street.

My breathing finally regulated and I turned with a huge grin to Zach. He glanced over at me for a millisecond before turning back to the road. I shifted around to look at the situation in the back seat. Ryan had slapped duct tape over Snider's mouth and blood ran down the side his face. A Napotine patch was slapped on Snider's arm, and he was out.

A look of pride covered Ryan's face as he rubbed the hand that had hit Snider.

"You guys make pretty good backup." I said.

"I know." Zach and Ryan said at the same time, but with different accents.

I rolled my eyes. Zach smirked at me.

"So where are we going?" I asked curiously. We couldn't go back to any of the previous places we had stayed, they were all too obvious.

"We're heading to a MI6 safe house." Zach answered. "There we'll be able to…get as much information out of him as possible. Then we'll turn him over to Interpol." He glanced in the rearview mirror at an unconscious and beaten Jason Snider.

Excitement filled me. We had Jason Snider, who was one of the few people who knew where Bex was. We were finally making some progress, and were one step closer to finding my best friend. Now the only thing we had to do was make Snider talk.

After a good half hour of driving, Zach pulled up to the safe house. I made a face and looked at him. "This is the safe house?" I questioned.

"Yep," Ryan answered for Zach. "Isn't she a beauty?"

'Beauty' was probably the last word that came to mind when I saw where we'd be staying. We were in a rough part of Dublin, to say the least. The safe house was a dingy, single floor house. It's exterior had peeling paint and the stairs leading to the front door looked as if they were about to fall apart. I groaned.

The three of us managed to get Jason Snider into the house fairly quickly. The place was minimally furnished, so we dragged two chairs and the kitchen table into an empty room. This would be where we would interrogate him. Interrogate, was what we wanted to do. But all spies know that sometimes information is so important that other…ways have to be used.

Torture. I have always shuddered at the word. Summer after my junior year I was tortured, and I never regained my memory of it. But the topic always does strike a nerve, and I've had mixed feelings about it. Groups like the Circle wouldn't hesitate to torture someone. And as spies we often have to stoop to our enemies level, whether we like it or not. And as much as I didn't want to admit it, I was at the point where I would do anything to save Bex.

Fortunately I wasn't the one who would be talking with Snider.

About two hours after we arrived to the grungy safe house, Snider began to stir. Ryan and Zach were in the room with him, as I watched through a video feed Ryan had set up.

Ryan removed the duct tape from Snider's mouth and stood in the corner crossing his arms. Snider blearily glanced around, slowly realizing the situation. He looked at Zach who sat across from him.

Zach stared him down and didn't say anything. Snider spoke first. "Okay, who are you and why am I here?"

Zach didn't answer either question, but asked one of his own. "Where's Rebecca Baxter?"

Jason Snider blinked, an obvious sign he was surprised, then a look of genuine confusion crossed his face. "You have the wrong guy. I have no idea who you're talking about."

Hmmm...thoughts anyone? Review please!

I swear it won't take a month to update. Pinky swear.

Thanks again!

PS. This story has always been un-beta'd so I apologize for previous grammatical mistakes, I try to catch them, but I've found quite a few in previous chapters.