Chapter 2

It was easier to sneak back into the Gallagher Academy than it had been to sneak out. All I had to do was go into one of the many passageways and find an air duct. I chose the one that started out in the Roseville's movie theater and extended 3 miles and 3900 ft. into the place I had left not even a year before. Inside would be the help Zach and I needed to save my Dad, bring down the Circle of Cavan, and set my life back on the track it should be on, working for the CIA. That help shrieked when I quite literally dropped from the ceiling into her room.

"Cammie?" Liz exclaimed dropping the papers and pen she was holding onto the floor. Rebecca Baxter, also known as Bex looked out from the bathroom holiding her toothbrush and Macey McHenry looked up from the book she was memorizing, Encryptions made Easy. None of these deterred Liz from pressing onward. "What are you doing here? You left last June to find answers. Have you found them? Are you safer? Want us to get your Mom?"

"Liz, slow down," Macey interjected, "Cammie will tell us what's going on when she wants to. It doesn't help if you don't give her a chance to talk." My friends looked at me expectantly, but there was something underneath that expectation. It took me moment to realize what it was. Guilt and anger. Guilt they hadn't been able to come along and anger at me for not inviting them. Now, I knew how to start.

"Hey guys," I began, "I missed you."

"We did to," Bex stated walking in with a towel wrapped around her hair like she'd just gotten out of the shower, which she had.

"I wanted you guys to come along," I continued cautiously, "I really did, but that would have ruined point of leaving to protect you guys, it would've just put you in more danger than you had been in before. That and the rest of you aren't as good at being Chameleons." I grinned ruefully at my old nickname. " Anyway, there weren't many leads until last week. That was when I talked with a source that said they would be in, they would be in a city. I got there yesterday. Zach apparently got a lead that lead to the same place. I followed him into an alley. And well," my voice cracked. I composed myself and continued, " And well, this picture pretty much explains it." I thrust the Polaroid at them as a single tear leaked from my eyes.

They stared at the photo in shock. "Is that," Bex started to ask.

"Yes it's him," I snapped. "They punched him in front of me. Hard enough to knock anything fake off."

"But plastic surgery," Macey said.

"He knew things he would never tell them. Things that they wouldn't care to ask," I said.

"Okay, let's say it's him," Liz said after a few minutes, " What exactly are you going to do about?"

"Turn myself in." They all turned and looked at me with shock. "That's where you three come in." The three of them continued to stare at me. "Actually," I amended myself, "it's where Liz comes in."

Everyone looked at Liz. She glanced at Macey and Bex then me and asked, "Me? What would you want me for?"

"Coms," I stated matter-of-factly, "Both Zach and I need com units if we're going to sneak into the Circle of Cavaan's headquarters and bring them down. We need coms that can't be seen and someone to run them. Now I'll turn myself in on Saturday at midnight in Rome. That means it will be around 6 here. At 10 Zach and I will start to move. I'd need you to be ready by then." I looked around.

"Just how are you going to keep a com on if you turn yourself in?" Liz inquired in a nonchalant manner.

I laughed hard. They stared at me like I was crazy. "You guys think I haven't been keeping tabs on you." My friends continued to stare. " I know what liz has been working on in the lab it's far easier to find out than you'd think." Looking around I sighed with my eyes landing on Liz.

"I need the undetectable coms Liz." All eyes were still on me. I started to walk around the room. "You guys seriously never found them. Heh." I reached up and moved a solid looking seal on top of the fireplace, the mirrors in the bathroom and the vanity, and, of course, inside the vents. All the coms were where I had left them. I took them and held them out for the girls to see "Wow, you guys feel safe in this room," I concluded out loud waving the coms in the air. "Check your shoes." They did and found the trackers. "Wow, you really do feel" I stated when I saw their shocked faces. "So, yeah, I know about the coms. I need two and some one to run them."

"Ohhh," Bex burst out storming across the room. "Miss I'm-going-out-on-my-own decides that she needs help. Well, you could have decided that about 6 months ago!" Tears were streaming down her face.

"She was only doing it . . ." Liz tried to intercede before Bex could let out her pent up rage.

"She was only doing it to protect us! Do you not think I know that. But she could've contacted us. Let us know she was safe. Not rotting in some whole with bloody traitor scum. But nooo she only contacts us so she could ga and risk her bloody life to find a man who may not even be her father. And this whole time, she's been spying on us, worried about us, when she's the one living on the bloody edge!" Bex glared at me with such a burning hatred, I barely recognized her.

"Whoa," I said. "I only wanted to find answers and protect those I love."

"Did you ever think about yourself? The danger you put yourself into?" Bex demanded.

"I was in less danger than you, I was always in less danger then you guys. Don't you get that?" I pleaded.

"Yes we get that, but as your best friends it's an intolerable insult that you left us.," Liz stated so quietly that I couldn't believe she said the words.

"Well I'm asking you to help me now as my comms unit and back up. I know it's not the best positions, but it's the plan Zach and I came up with. Now," I said looking from each face to the next:Bex's filled with fury,; Liz's closed and cold; and Macey's cool and thoughtful. I looked into Macey's eyes when I asked the question, "Will you help me find my dad or not? I'm going with or without you, you just increase my chances of coming back so Bex can kick my ass."

Macey nodded, her mind made up, "I'll help you."

Liz went next to her, "Me too. Who knows it could count as extra credit." Everyone shook their heads at Liz's constant thought of grades.

I turned to Bex and gave her that your-my-best-friend-don't-abandon-me-now looks. "Fine, but only if you'll let me beat you to a pulp when you get back."

"Deal" I agreed. "Now we have a lot to do and not much time. So let's get to work"