Chapter Four

Cammie's POV:

What Not To Do While Hanging From a Greasy Elevator Cable (A List by Cammie Morgan):

-Sweat (the grease will stick to you)

-Touch your face or hair

-Stick your tongue out

"Get the bomb and save the people." I repeated to myself as I kept climbing. "You wouldn't catch Emily Blanchard doing this." I grunted. Emily was a girl in my Intro to Economics class at Georgetown. "Almost there." I breathed as I pulled myself inches away from the bomb. "Now all I have to do is-" then suddenly, like a flood, light cascaded over me and I was pretty much blinded. The shock of it made me lose my grip and slide a few feet down the cable. I clamped my eyes shut.

"Very good Miss Morgan." I heard a deep, condescending voice. And then the cable I was clinging to started to move. I was being pulled up. Get the contacts out! My body was screaming at me. So even though my hands were greasy, I plunged my fingers at my eyeball and ripped the contacts out. I had to blink a few times for my eyes to adjust. Part of my vision was still fuzzy. But I could see that the entire elevator shaft was lit up and the cable that the bomb and I were on was moving upwards. And the elevator on the cable next to me was moving down. "There you are." I saw a head peep over the edge of the top of the elevator as I came closer to being level with it. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd find the bomb."

"Well I'm here, aren't I?" I decided to go with the confident tone. There was no way to make him believe I wasn't capable.

"Well yes you are." He didn't seem intimidated by my readiness. When my cable became level with where he was standing, everything came to a stop. He beckoned for me to join him on top of the elevator.

"I was taught that if a stranger offers you a free trip, you don't take it." I was still clinging tightly to my cable. I don't think that the whole stranger rule was created for times like these, but the principle was the same.

"Well we can talk like this I suppose." He folded his hands and seemed to relax a little. "I don't want to hurt you."

"But you will."

"Eventually, everyone gets hurt." He sighed.

"Who's your boss?" I demanded. But he merely chuckled and shook his head slightly.

"Cameron, I thought you would be a little more ahead of this." He was simply smiling now. "Do you mean to tell me that you're completely unaware of why I'm here?"

"I'm aware of a few things." I didn't like how he was making me sound dumb and oblivious. "I'm aware that if you don't let me go get that bomb, you and I will both die along with anyone else who's in this building. I'm also aware that you work for the CIA." I pointed quickly to a badge that was slightly out of his inside pocket. "But you don't have the right kind of badge. Which means that you're posing as the CIA."

"Very good." He gave me a cheshire smile.

"But why you're doing it, I'm a little curious."

"You've come a long way since your junior year." He seemed like he was content just to reminisce about the past.

"What about my junior year?" I was getting fed up. He was wasting my time.

"Duck!" I heard a high pitch voice scream and as instinct, I hit the floor. I heard the crack of a gun go off and saw the man next to me duck as well. Then I saw a vision flying down at us.

"Zach!" I cried. He hit the elevator with a thud and the metal groaned.

"Cammie? What on earth are you-" Zach looked so startled.

"Cammie?!" Bex called. I looked up. I saw that she had pried open the floor doors on two levels above us. "Is that Cammie?"

"Bex!" I called. "It's not what it looks like!"

"You are so dead." I heard her mutter.

"Oh good." The man that I had been chatting with stood back up. "He's here too now."

"Me?" Zach looked at me. "What's going on?"

"I'd like to ask him that." I pointed to the man.

"Where's the bomb?!" Zach shouted at him.

"You mean "the bomb"." The man put air quotes around those words. "You mean that?" he pointed to the bomb I had been climbing to for the past ten minutes. "I thought that the top young spies would be able to tell a fake." He laughed.

"You're name is John Grey." I rattled off. "You really are part of the CIA. But the type of badge you have suggests that you got kicked out a few years ago. It's out of date. But why did you get kicked out?"

"Clever girl." He smiled. "Excellent choice." He nodded to Zach.

"John Grey." Zach murmured. Then his eyes widened. "John Grey."

"Ah good, so you remember me?" John looked pleased.

"Cammie, jump." Zach ordered.

"The girl stays." John put a hand up. "Or her precious package is dead." I froze. Precious package. Did he mean…..he couldn't. But yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that he knew. He locked eyes with me and nodded. My breath caught in my throat.

"Cam, now!" Zach used his firm voice.

"Zach, who is he?" I asked.

"Tell the girl who I am." John gestured to me. "She has a right to know."

"He's just somebody I used to know." Zach growled. "I don't know who he is anymore."

"Zachary doesn't care quite the same for me as he once did." John sighed. He sounded almost sad.

"Why are you here?" Zach looked like he was ready to kill.

"I came with a message for the girl." He pointed to me. I tried not to think about what this message could be.

"Zach, tell me who he is." I decided I could be firm too.

"He's the man who first introduced me to the Circle."