Hi everybody,

I hope all of you are enjoying your Thanksgiving, and as you enter this holiday season you all have many things to be thankful for. I'm thankful to all of you who are reading this right now. I know its been a crazy-long time since I last updated, and I feel horribly guilty. I could give you excuses, but I'm not going to.

It was this time last year when I discovered Fanfiction, and I got the obsessing desire to write my own story. I can't believe its almost taken a year, put I'm going to keep working at it until I finish it, I swear! Thanks for being amazing readers and I hope this chapter makes your day even the slightest bit better.

Happy Turkey Day! Enjoy Chapter 26...

Chapter Twenty-Six

None of us got much sleep that night. After we finished our rather unsatisfying soup, we went straight to work. We left Snider in the interrogation room; he was sound asleep, he probably would be for a while.

While I had been out, Zach had apparently gotten a lot of information out of Snider. By this point, I was completely focused and didn't bat an eye as Zach and Ryan described what Snider had told them.

Zach did a majority of the talking, "Snider told us that apparently after you and I infiltrated their mansion outside the city they moved Bex to another COC agent's house in Dublin. It's in an upscale part of town, and the guy is apparently a pretty prominent figure in Dublin, so he was reluctant to let them put Bex there. So, he made them promise that she would only be kept there 5 days maximum. Snider thinks that after that she'll either be taken out of the country, or killed. Either way, in five days, it will be impossible to locate her, at least alive." He grimaced.

"So," Ryan said, "This means this is our last chance to rescue her, which means we can't mess this up."

I leaned back in my chair, "Right, so that means our plan needs to be airtight."

"Problem is," Zach spoke, "this time we're trying to break into a guy's house, not an apartment building. Plus it's unlikely this guy has accessible cameras on the inside of his house."

"There is one thing…" Ryan began. He exchanged a look with Zach.

"Yes Ryan?" I demanded, impatient with being the only one not aware of what was going on, even though I could only really blame myself for that.

"Snider did say that there was a clandestine annual meeting taking place at the house for higher up COC operatives in four days. A majority of them wouldn't even know that Bex would be being kept downstairs, and the guy who lives in the house, Jeremy Brookes, can't cancel the meeting because that would raise suspicion. And when COC operatives become suspicious…somebody gets killed."

I thought about this, "So this means that in four days there will be several people coming into the house?"

Zach nodded, "But the meeting is only for a select few of the Circle's main operatives. There's no way one of us could pose as somebody attending the meeting and not be blown. It's just not possible."

"How many main operatives would be attending?" I questioned.

"Mmm, maybe twenty would show up. Definitely just locals." Zach answered. "Why? What are you thinking?"

"Well…" I began. I had the boys' utmost attention as they listened to my plan. They mulled over my idea for a few minutes after I finished.

"Well, I think it could work," Zach said. Ryan nodded his head in agreement.

And so we began working. Almost the entire night was spent planning, mapping, assigning tasks, figuring out covers, etc. Yeah, I was exhausted as hell, but I was running on adrenaline; sleep could wait. Zach found a couple packets of horrible instant coffee that we all downed at about midnight.

At around 2 am, the diagram I had up on my computer was getting fuzzier and fuzzier. I rubbed my eyes, desperately trying to ignore the exhaustion. I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, only for it to fall in my face as soon as I leaned forward again. Zach was sitting at the table and Ryan was on the floor with his laptop on the coffee table. I had curled up on the couch with my computer. The only noises were typing on keyboards, the occasional sigh of frustration, and every once in a while, when one of us found something important, a quick statement of information.

Trying to not allow myself get distracted, I continued working. When I felt someone sit down next to me on the couch I looked up.

"How's it going?" Zach asked, glancing at my computer screen. Dark circles were under his eyes, and stubble covered his face from not shaving. I knew he was just as tired as I was.

"Alright," I said. "Obviously, I only have a basic idea of the buildings layout and where the ideal vantage points are, but I think we have enough to go off of."

Ryan stood up from his laptop and stretched. He then began to pace the room before stopping and looking at Zach and I on the couch, "Are we really going to be able to do this by ourselves?" A frown of doubt covered his face.

I shot a look his way, annoyed at the fact that he was questioning the plan now. "Do we really have a choice?" I replied.

Ryan raked a hand through his hair. "I know, but we're talking about infiltrating a building filled with some of the best rogue operatives in the world, and then waltzing away with one of their most precious hostages. And we're doing it alone."

My nerves were shot from lack of sleep which is probably why I raised my voice in response, "Well yeah Ryan. We have five days. That means there's not much room for making our timetable longer." I glared at him.

"There's also not much room for error." Ryan said quietly with a steely voice.

"I know that! Do you honestly think I would purposely walk into an op thinking it would be successful?"

"Well we might just be doing that! I don't want anything to happen to Bex, and this is our last chance to save her. There's no more do-overs Cammie."

My voice faltered when I spoke. "Bex is my best friend, I care about her just as much if not more than you do." I pulled myself together and continued. "If you don't believe in what we're trying to do here Ryan, then there's the door." I was standing and facing him. The table stood in between us.

We held each other's gaze until Ryan blinked.

"Fine," he said, holding up his hands. "I'll do anything for Bex, and I want to help you guys. I just don't want us making a crucial mistake."

I raised my eyebrows and gave him one final look, "Good. Now I need to sleep, I can't do this anymore."

Walking out of the room, I left Zach and Ryan and headed for the bathroom. I didn't have any other clothes to change into since we hadn't had time to grab our stuff before coming to the safe house. I flicked on the light in the bathroom and closed the door behind me. The grimy mirror faced me with the reflection of myself. I looked awful. If my appearance resembled anything like how this mission was going to end, I wanted to quit now.

The stress and pressure was going to get to me eventually, I knew it. But at that moment, all I could do was take some deep breaths and blink back tears. I wasn't upset Ryan had questioned me; he had been asking all the same questions that I had asked myself. And though I had told him we were doing the right thing, mentally, I wasn't so sure.

Turning on the tap, I splashed cold water over my complexion. When I turned the water off, I heard quiet voices coming from the other part of the house. No doubt it was Ryan and Zach, and they were probably talking about me. I squeezed my eyes shut, not allowing the thought that they were doubting me to consume my mind. I exited the bathroom quietly, flicking off the lights and walking almost silently to the bedroom that had several mattresses on the floor.

Grabbing a pillow out of the closet, I laid down on one of the mattresses and welcomed sleep. Zach and Ryan would come to bed eventually, and I wanted to be asleep before either of them came in. Luckily, no less than a minute later, I was asleep.

Bright sunlight that slipped through the blinds woke me up the next morning. Blinking and looking around, I noticed both Zach and Ryan were still asleep. Rolling off my mattress, I decided not to wake them. They had probably stayed up at least an hour after I did before finally going to bed so I figured they deserved to rest.

I made my way to the kitchen, with the intentions of getting something to eat. Halfway there, I passed our makeshift interrogation room and figured I should probably check on our little hostage.

I eased the door open and was relieved to find that Jason Snider was still handcuffed and sitting in his chair. He's feet were bound to the bottom of the chair and he looked pretty worn out. He looked up when I entered the room.

"Oh well if it isn't Cammie Morgan." Snider said with a sneer on my face.

Ignoring the fact that the scumbag knew my name, I walked over to him and lifted his hand, inspecting the injuries Zach had inflicted.

"How do you feel?" I asked with mock politeness.

"Like shit," Snider responded. I never responded until he spoke again. "So where will I go now?"

I sighed and walked over to lean against the wall so I was facing him. I shrugged.

"I'll leave that up to Zach and Ryan." Snider scoffed at my response.

"You know you're getting what you deserve." I said.

Snider shook his head. "Am I really? Do you think I had a choice to go into this business?"

"Everyone has a choice; look at Zach."

"He got lucky. Most of us get sucked in and there's no way to get out without getting killed. You have to spend your whole life making sure the other people don't outsmart you, otherwise this happens." Snider raised his cuffs.

I rolled my eyes, "I have no sympathy."

"Why? Because we killed your father?" I'll admit I flinched slightly when he mentioned my father. "You're father chose to go after the Circle, he only got what was coming to him." I felt my anger starting to boil at this guy so I headed toward the door.

"Just like you'll get what's coming to you." I said as I shut the door behind me with one last look at Snider.

This time I actually got all the way to the kitchen. Searching through cabinets, I looked for something to eat. I finally found a package of those disgusting instant noodle things, but I was hungry enough so I decided to eat them. After some more looking I found a pan and a measuring cup and began boiling water. I dumped the noodles in as the water bubbled and slowly stirred the mixture, completely lost in thought.

That's why when I felt two strong arms grab me from behind I instinctively elbowed the person who grabbed him and spun around to hit them again.

Instead of an intruder, I found Zach doubled over, clenching his side. "Geez, Gallagher Girl," he said when he finally found his breath.

I felt the adrenaline flow out of my body and I took a deep breath. "Sorry Zach, you scared me." I apologized as Zach stood up.

"That's alright," Zach gave me a half-smile. "I should have known better than to sneak up on you." He pulled me in for a hug, this time I allowed myself to melt against him.

"How late did you stay up?" I asked.

"Um, I think Ryan and I went to bed around four."

I shook my head. "I don't know how you do it, you must be exhausted."

Zach shrugged. "Occupational hazard."

I turned back to my food and switched the stove off. Dumping the noodles into a bowl, I made my way to the table. Papers and computers were everywhere, so I had to clear them away in order to make room for myself.

Zach looked at me, "Have you checked on our guest yet this morning?"

I blew on my forkful of noodles and nodded.

"How is he?"

I rolled my eyes and swallowed. "Still a dirtbag."

Zach chuckled. "You aren't supposed to let him get to you."

Just then, a semi-awake Ryan made his way into the kitchen. Rubbing his eyes, he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.

"I can't wait to leave this place. Those mattresses are positively awful." He mumbled.

Zach smiled, "I'm with you man." I didn't say anything; I didn't know where we stood entirely after last night. I regretted what had been said and I hated the fact that there was tension.

"Look-" I started at the same time Ryan said, "I-". Ryan gave me a half-smile, letting me go. "I'm sorry about what I said last night. I was tired and my nerves were shot and I guess…" I trailed off, hoping he understood.

"It's perfectly alright, I understand. As you Americans say, no hard feelings?" Ryan replied.

I breathed a sigh of relief, "No hard feelings," I agreed.

I finished my breakfast, if it deserved to be called that, and was cleaning my bowl when I heard a ding. Ryan must have known it was his phone because he got up as soon as he heard it. He walked over to the coffee table and picked it up. After glancing at the screen a moment, he looked up to see Zach and I staring, waiting for him to explain.

"Riley just replied to a message I sent him last night. I asked him if we could turn Snider over to him and he said to bring him by and they'll take care of him from there." Ryan explained.

"Jane and Riley's place is in Dublin. While we're in town, we might as well start putting our plan in motion." I suggested.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Zach said. Glancing around, he added, "I think we should take our stuff to, so we can go back to a hotel."

Ryan glanced at his watch. "I'll tell Riley we'll be there in an hour and a half. Does that give us enough time?"

I looked and Zach and we both nodded.

An hour later, we were ready to go. The safe house was returned to its original sorry state and everything was loaded in the SUV. All that was left was Jason Snider.

I opened the door to the room we were keeping him in and Ryan walked in behind me. Zach was already out in the car waiting for us.

Ryan began to undo the knots that kept Snider bound the chair. After they were loose he grabbed Snider by the arm and pulled him up. Snider didn't say anything as he was lead to the car. I followed behind, making sure that he didn't try to pull anything.

Zach stood by the SUV with the back door open for Snider to go into. Ryan shoved Snider in and then got in after him. Zach shut the door and the two of us got in the front seats. After clicking my seatbelt I turned around to glance at Ryan and Snider. Snider stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact.

Zach pressed the gas and I turned back around. We pulled away from the safe house and headed back toward Dublin. It was time to set our end-game in motion.

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~ Genuine QT