Fool Me Once
Chapter Two

Zach couldn't believe his target was standing right in front of him.

No, he couldn't believe his target had snuck up on him. Blackthorne boys were trained to be undetectable – after all, if someone saw your face after you killed an important diplomat, you were done.

"Why were you following her?" his target repeated, irritation creeping into her voice.

Denial was always a good starting tactic. "I wasn't following your friend."

She crossed her arms. "You're really going to play that game?"

"What game?" Zach asked. He wondered if he could get away with pulling a poison dart out of his backpack, then mentally reprimanded him for being so careless. If Cameron Morgan turned up dead tomorrow, her friends would suspect the stranger who'd just showed up in town.

Another valuable lesson – assume if something could go wrong, it would go wrong.

"Look, I've had a terrible night. I'd really like to just go home."

It was going to be impossible to get this job done immediately – Zach was going to have to wait for the right moment to come. What he didn't know was what he was supposed to do up until that time. "Well don't let me keep you here," he said.

She glared. "Why were you following my friend?"

"I wasn't following your friend," Zach said coolly, reaching into his pocket. He could have sworn his target tensed.

"Whatever. I have to go," she said, walking past him. Zach stuck his foot out, effectively tripping her and catching her just before she fell.

"Watch your step," he said, pressing a hand on the small of her back. With a smile, he added, "I'd be careful if I was you. There's lots of…" Zach took the moment to dramatically look towards the bonfire, where teenagers were shouting and drinking something a little stronger than pop. "…questionable people around here."

"I can take care of myself. Thanks," she said, quickly moving past him and blending into the crowd.

A classic pavement artist.

Who he'd just managed to bug.

Zach knew what he'd done was temporary at best. The bug was the size of a pencil head, and it was made to look like a burr. He'd been able to press it onto his target's shirt when he'd helped her get her balance.

These bugs were made for their camouflage properties – not durability. It'd probably go through the wash or get thrown away in a few hours. However, any information he could get up until that point was extremely valuable.

After remaining at the fair for a half hour longer, Zach had gotten into his car and driven a few towns away and checked into a small inn. He used a fake ID and paid with a credit card linked to the same name.

Before doing that, he'd added wrinkle lines to his forehead and temporarily added gray streaks to his hair. It was amazing how with a bit of costume makeup and a change in posture, he could pass for a 30-year-old on a business trip.

Upon entering his room, Zach immediately wanted to power on his laptop and review what his bug had picked up, but Blackthorne had trained him to know better.

First, he checked the room thoroughly for any hidden microphones or cameras. Short of ripping open the mattress, Zach was as certain as he could be that he was safe. To go with his cover, he pulled dress shirts out of his suitcase (formerly stashed in the trunk of his car – also linked to his alias) and hung them up, as well as set out a few pairs of dress pants and fancy shoes.

Next to his car keys, he set pictures of his pseudo family. First, he propped up a picture of himself in case he ever needed to explain why he showed up without his disguise. It was ingenious, really – being able to pose as his cover's son. Next was a digitally altered image of him from six years ago, made to have longer hair and more feminine features – a beautiful daughter.

There were even false records of a divorce in the court system and a woman in West Virginia being paid to back him up. Holes in a story caused suspicion, and that was something an assassin never needed.

After stocking the bathroom, Zach decided he'd done enough. He pulled his laptop out of his bag and powered it on. It took nearly five minutes to enter all the passwords and perform a retinal scan using the computer's webcam – assassins were nothing if not paranoid.

He opened a program called Brutus Unlimited – named after the man who'd assassinated Julius Caesar. On the welcome screen, he clicked an icon labeled Bug 1. There were already over two hours of audio; his touch had activated the device.

"I'd be careful if I was you. There's lots of…questionable people around here."

"I can take care of myself. Thanks."

The audio wasn't the clearest he'd ever heard, but he knew the device wasn't flawless. If he could figure out where she lived and when she'd be gone, he'd be able to set up much better devices. That was assuming such drastic action became necessary.

"You're late," a distinctly male voice said.

"I had to help Bex lose a tail."

Bex. Zach immediately associated the name with the picture he'd seen in his envelope.

Zach was easily able to fast forward through half an hour of audio. Presumably, his target had been sitting in a car with the microphone pressed against her seat. All he could hear was static and the occasional muffled word.

Nothing of value was observed until about half an hour before real time. Zach opened up a word document and began a record of the conversation, calling the voices Target, Girl 1, Girl 2, and Girl 3 until he could identify names for the voices.

Target: And then he told me to be careful and just gave me this weird smile.

Girl 1: But what exactly did he say?

Girl 2: It doesn't matter. He was obviously flirting with her.

Girl 3: Whatever, Macey. If he was flirting with Cammie, then why was he stalking me?

Notes: Girl 2 identified as Macey McHenry. Girl 3 identified as Bex. The target, formerly known as Cameron, prefers to be called Cammie.

Target: He wasn't flirting.

Macey: Sounds like it.

Bex: Guys, focus. Who cares if he was flirting with her? He was stalking me.

Girl 1: It's weird that you were followed on the day we were supposed to be learning counter surveillance. Do you think Mr. Solomon hired him?

Macey: You're being paranoid, Liz.

Notes: Girl 1 identified as Liz, presumably the target's third friend. The male voice heard before tentatively identified as Mr. Solomon.

Target: No, she's not. It is weird.

Bex: Did he realize you were following him?

Macey: Of course he didn't. Cammie's the best pavement artist here. Even Mr. Smith didn't notice when she followed him.

Liz: I think we should let Cammie-

Target: He didn't know. But something's off about him. Who shows up to the town fair with a backpack crammed full of stuff? He wouldn't admit he'd been tailing Bex.

Macey: Now you're being paranoid, too. He probably just wanted to talk to Bex and ended up flirting with you. No wonder they don't let you girls into the real world that often.

Liz: What's that supposed to mean?

Macey: It means you need to quit working on your stupid boy decoder and read a few more 17 magazines. Then you'd know the difference between flirting and-

Bex: Hey, Cammie. You've got something on your shirt. Let me…

End audio.

Zach tried not to feel frustrated. He knew he shouldn't have hoped for much more, but he was still disappointed that he'd hardly learned anything. Wanting to at least have something to show for his first day, he opened up the database feature on Brutus Unlimited.

When you only had a last name, it was hard to find records of any value. Mr. Smith was probably a hopeless cause – the last name screamed of someone who didn't want to be found. Solomon wasn't much better of a lead, especially once you calculated all the variations in spelling.

Opting for an advanced search, Zach typed the last name Solomon and narrowed the criteria to males with some tie to Virginia. He was making assumptions and pressing his luck – two things they'd learned at Blackthorne to do with caution.

There were over 500 results. Adding the criteria of language – English weeded out only 16 entries. He upped the dates to exclude deceased people, which still left him with a total of 200 people.

Desperate, Zach refined the location to only show people with some connection to Roseville. The results went down to five people. There was no way to determine which of the five was the Mr. Solomon the girls had been talking about, but Zach had a hunch it might have been the one with a small black circle next to his name.

A member of the Circle.

Brutus Unlimited was a program developed by the Circle. Of course they'd keep a list of who was out in the world doing their work. Zach clicked on Joseph Solomon, adding the necessary clearance codes in order to view the record.

JOSEPH ANTHONY SOLOMON – LIMITED ACCESS PROFILE. The words were on the top of the screen in bold, letting Zach know that there were more records available, but he didn't have the authorization to view them.

There was a date of birth and links to his parents' records, as well as records of his schooling.

Blackthorne Institute. Zach didn't let the information surprise him. Plenty of people had received training from his school.

CURRENT INFORMATION: Working at Gallagher Academy in Roseville, Virginia.

Zach knew he wasn't supposed to believe in getting lucky, but he could at least make tentative assumptions. He turned on his webcam and began his first video entry – something they learned to do at Blackthorne in case anything happened to them while they were on a mission.

"Zachary Goode, Blackthorne student. Mission day one. The current time is 9:54 PM, and I'm at the Country Motel in Treyton, Virginia. I have found and identified my target – Cameron Morgan, also known as Cammie. Identified by her friends as a pavement artist, she shows above average stealth abilities. From here on out, everything I say is pure speculating based on evidence obtained. The target attends Gallagher Academy here in Roseville. Her teacher, Joseph Solomon, is a former Blackthorne student and member of the Circle. My plan for the next few days is to find a way to get close to Solomon and obtain more information about the target before finding the way best to eliminate her. Zachary Goode, ending video log."

Zach put his computer in cover mode. The laptop that was worth thousands of dollars was instantly transformed into the computer of a businessman, complete with files, Internet search histories, and a background of his two children.

Assassins always slept with one eye open, but in an unfamiliar place with none of the people he'd come to trust, Zach wasn't sure he got more than a few minutes of light sleep in.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow.