Cammie woke up disoriented, which is a bad thing to be if you're a spy. Her surroundings finally came into focus a few seconds later, and she realized she was still on Grant's couch. The only problem was that her feet were over the end of the armrest and her head was on somebody's stomach… Zach's stomach. He was slouched against the opposite armrest and was staring down at her. His piercing green eyes appeared to be upside-down to her, however, but they were still mesmerizing.
Cammie struggles to sit up in her morning grogginess, and a killer head-rush greets her once she's in sitting position. She clings to the sides of her head as she unconsciously rocks back and forth, dizzy from the sudden foggy spots in her vision and the pounding of blood in her head. When the feeling passes, she looks at Zach.
"What are you doing here? Where's Bex?" she asks.
"When Grant and I finally finished last night, he carried Bex to the guest room because she wouldn't wake up. Grant went to his own bedroom, I'm guessing, and I fell asleep on the couch with you because I didn't quite feel like sleeping on the floor. Was that okay I did that?" he asks.
"What? Oh… uh, yeah. You're fine," Cammie stutters, running a hand through her hair, which was still a bit curly from last night's party. She had a tiny grin on her face, because the fact that Grant carried Bex to the guest bed amused her. It was obvious Bex had just pretended to be asleep so Grant would carry her, because nothing got past Bex, even when she was sleeping. She was even a lighter sleeper than uber-paranoid Liz.
Cammie lets out a massive yawn, which she tried to hide with both her hands. "What time is it?" she asks.
Zach cranes his neck backwards to check the digital clock on the microwave in the kitchen. While he does this, Cammie can't help but check out the sliver of tanned abs between the hem of his white shirt and his black plaid boxers. Cammie does a double-take. Boxers?! Only boxers? And she was practically sleeping on him for most of the night… or, at least, her head was. "Almost noon," Zach replies, turning back to Cammie. Her eyes snap back to his face and away from his torso.
"Did you and Grant find anything? Before you went to sleep last night?"
Zach shrugs and scratches the back of his head with his hand. "Uh… yeah. We did. Ironic enough, their names are Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Zach answers, raising his eyebrows.
Cammie grins. "I love that movie," she admits, "Then again… that name is pretty common. But what about them? Are you sure they're working for Mr. and Mrs. Hemlock?"
"Definitely. The computer chip contained a whole list of people involved. Mr. and Mrs. Smith's names were highlighted, though, so they're probably the ones we should focus on the most. I sent a copy of the list to Joe, for good measure," Zach explains.
"Alright." Cammie shifted on the couch, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders. Her half-curly, half-matted hair spilled across the lemon-yellow blanket and she yawns once more. "How long are we allowed to sleep until we have to get up again?" she asks.
"I guess we could sleep until about seven this evening," Zach replies, "We have another party tonight at eight at Mr. and Mrs. Smith's mansion. When we first scheduled the party, we hadn't known they were our suspects. So this is rather… fortunate."
"Another party?" Cammie groans.
Zach holds out his arms on both sides and jokes, "Welcome to the life of the rich and fabulous." He folds his hands behind his head and looks at Cammie with intent. His sudden interest in her made her feel awkward and exposed… much unlike a chameleon.
"What?" she asks self-consciously, running a hand through her nearly fully-grown bangs.
"I was just thinking. Maybe we should pretend to have a fight so we could split up at this party. I could keep the people busy downstairs and you could search the other floors for anything suspicious. Bex could go with you for safety, of course," Zach suggests.
"Sure," Cammie answers. She opens her mouth to say something else, but Grant stomps down the hallway with major bed-head and grumbling about his stomach.
"I'm so hungryyy," he complains, stumbling into the kitchen and opening the fridge. Grant lets out a huge sigh, and Zach looks at Cammie and winks. She laughs, hoping Zach was winking at her because of how immature Grant was being and not for some other reason.
Bex shuffles down the hallway a few minutes later with a hot pink blanket wrapped around her. Even after an uncomfortable night's sleep, her friend was still gorgeous without even trying. "Morning, Bex," Cammie greets.
Bex collapses face-down across the arms of the overstuffed chair in the corner of the living room and mumbles something unintelligible.
"Hey, Grant, get me something too, will ya?" Zach calls to the kitchen, where Grant was struggling to shake the toaster upside-down, since it appeared that the toast was stuck. Grant turns around and scowls at Zach, who was making fun of his misfortune.
"Get your own toast, douchebag," Grant snaps, causing Zach to burst out laughing.
Suddenly, there's a knock on the apartment door and Cammie jumps off the couch. She runs into the kitchen with Bex right behind her. Bex nudges Cammie out of the way and peeks through the peephole. "It's Liz!" Bex exclaims, fumbling to unlock the door.
"Liz!" Cammie exclaims, hugging her friend once Bex opened the door.
"Cammie! Bex!" Liz replies, hugging them both. "I haven't seen you guys since… that one mission, like, three years ago."
"Yeah… it's kinda depressing, really, how we all lost touch like that," Bex admits with a shameful look on her face.
"But we talked to each other practically every day on Facebook. And we all texted each other whenever something important happened," Cammie reminds them. The three girls walk back into the kitchen and begin talking about Gallagher Academy as if they hadn't been separated for the last three years.
"Ohmygosh, has anybody seen Mr. Solomon? I remember when he was a new teacher at first and everybody was obsessing about him," Liz blurts.
"He wasn't even your teacher," Bex protests.
"Yeah, but I saw him in the cafeteria every day! You guys are so lucky you got to see him without a shirt when you all had the underwater weapon unit," Liz gushes.
Cammie clears her throat loudly and tips her head in the direction of Grant and Zach, who were looking at them with disgust from the living room.
"What?! He's hot!" Liz exclaims, causing Bex and Cammie to double over in a fit of giggles.
"He was your teacher," Grant answers, a shudder creeping up his spine. Liz just waved off his comment like a pesky fly. The apartment door was knocked on again, and Grant got off the couch to answer the door, followed by Zach. "That's probably Jonas."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask you guys. Do you know who this Jonas guy is? I mean, I researched all I could about this mission once Zach sent me the file. I got information on Zach and Grant, since I wanted to see who I'd be working with, but when I searched Jonas' name, there was only one site. I tried to open it, but it was blocked by a code, and no matter how long I worked on it… I could. Not. Crack. It," Liz says the last part with her nails digging into the skin of Cammie's wrist, as if it were the scariest thing ever imagined.
"That's because Jonas is the best computer whiz you'll ever meet," Grant answers.
"I resent that," Liz pouts indignantly.
Zach opens the apartment door and in walks a tall guy with thick black hair. He was noticeably skinnier than Zach and Grant, but still had a sizeable amount of muscle on him. His eyes were a deep brown, rimmed by rectangular black glasses. The three guys greeted each other with a few shoulder pats and low-pitched hellos.
"Hey, I'm Jonas," he announced to the three wary girls in the corner of the kitchen.
"That's Cammie, that's Bex, and that's Liz," Zach points them out with his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Nice to meet you," Liz says curtly, holding her hand out for a handshake. When he met her grip, her fingers went white squeezing his hand so hard. But Jonas' expression didn't waver. "I understand we'll be working together a lot, since we both seem to be the 'computer geeks' around here."
"I wouldn't mind that one bit," Jonas replies smoothly. Then, as if as an afterthought, he added, "Liz."
A cellphone buzzed against the leather couch, the sound emanating throughout the room. Zach jogs over and answers it, mouthing, "Solomon," to the rest of the spies in the kitchen.
There was an awkward silence as they all tried to listen in on the conversation, although Zach spoke in such a hushed tone they could barely hear him. Finally, he tossed his cellphone on the couch and scanned all five spies. "Mr. and Mrs. Hemlock are on their way to tell Mr. and Mrs. Smith about me and Cammie. We have to stop them before they get there," Zach announces.
"I know you're deepest, secret fear.
I know everything; everything you do, everywhere you go, everyone you know.
I know your deepest, secret fear.
I'm a spy. I can see what you do, and I know."
- The Spy by The Doors
"They're on their way? Like, right now?" Liz asks.
"Yeah. Cammie and I will go together, you and Jonas will go together, and Grant and Bex can search too. We'll keep in touch by cellphones; I trust you girls all have each other's numbers," Zach suggests.
"Yep," Bex chirps.
"Good. Then let's get going. We have no time to waste," Zach orders. All six of them run out of the kitchen and down the hallway to their respective bedrooms. Liz was already completely dressed, but she followed Bex and Cammie into the guest room anyway.
Bex quickly sorts through her clothes and tosses Cammie a complete outfit. "You can borrow these since you don't have your own clothes," she offers.
Cammie quickly pulls on the gray short-shorts, purple tube top, and thin white quarter-sleeve cardigan Bex gave her. Liz hands her gold bangles, gold hoop earrings, and a thin heart locket that she had scoured for in Bex's jewelry bag. Cammie sneaks a peek of purple metallic flats in Bex's suitcase, and puts those on too. In the mirror, her hair was still curly enough from last night that it looked fine.
"Let's go!" Bex exclaims, pulling on a navy V-neck shirt over a white cami and rushing out the door. The girls almost collide with the guys, who were coming out of Grant's bedroom.
"We can take the Lamborghini around town and see if we can find their car," Zach tells Cammie, pulling her along hand-in-hand, "But I bet Mr. and Mrs. Hemlock are smart enough not to use the same car… so we'll have to find them some other way."
They were already out of the apartment and crossing the road to get to the Lamborghini parked in the alley. "Does Mr. or Mrs. Hemlock have a job somewhere in Miami?" Cammie asks, climbing into the passenger seat and not bothering to put on a seat belt; they may have to quick jump out of the car at any second.
"Yeah, he works at an accounting firm a few blocks away from here," he muses, spinning the wheel to presumably drive in the direction of the firm. On the curb by the apartment building, Cammie saw Liz and Jonas hailing a taxi, and Grant and Bex were speed-walking down the sidewalk towards downtown.
"We'll check there first," Cammie says. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Mr. or Mrs. Hemlock wasn't there… Where else would they check? After all, Miami was a huge city, and they could be anywhere.
Zach quickly parallel-parks the car along the curb in front of a huge skyscraper. They scramble out of the car and into the building to the front desk. "What floor is Mr. Hemlock's office at?" Cammie asks politely. Zach puts his hand on her lower back, like any young faithful husband protective of his wife would.
"The fifth floor," the secretary answers, reading glasses low on her nose, "But may I ask if you have an appointment?"
"Actually, we don't. But we're long family friends of Mr. Hemlock, and we know he'd be fine with seeing us. If he's not there, we'll just wait in the hallway. We planned out we'd be seeing him sometime, so he might be here soon," Zach butts in.
The secretary glares at him skeptically.
"Is there a problem?" Cammie asks, "He doesn't have any clients in front of us, does he?"
"Well, no. Actually, he called in for a sick day, so I don't know about you two even getting to see him."
"We talked to him on the phone just this morning," Zach comments, looking at Cammie with an overly-skeptical look on his face. Cammie laughs in her head at how far he was going to keep this lie. "He sounded perfectly fine. He'll probably be here soon. So, if you would, what number is his office?"
"Number 534, but don't get your hopes up," the secretary scowls.
"Thank you!" Cammie says graciously, except Zach was already pulling her towards the elevator. They ride up to the fifth floor and down the hallway to office number 534, where all the lights were off. "Of course he would have a sick day. He obviously had other plans," Cammie declares bitterly.
"Then we'll just have to lure him here," Zach proposes, plucking a bobby pin from Cammie's head. A lock of mousy brown hair falls into her face and she brushes it away. He looks up and down the empty hallway before picking the lock on the office door and stepping into the darkness.
Cammie closes the door behind them and takes her bobby pin back from Zach, slipping it into her hair. "I didn't know you even knew how to use a bobby pin," she deliberates.
"Spy," he replies, pointing to himself and smirking.
Cammie rolls her eyes and with a playful grin adds, "No duh."
Zach sits down at Mr. Hemlock's desk and waves the computer mouse around until the computer screen glowed to life. Cammie put her hand on the desk and leaned next to him, watching as he opened and closed several files on the computer desktop. "What are you doing?" she asks.
"Finding this," Zach replies, pointing to a cell number in a list of other phone numbers. Next to the cellphone number was Mr. Hemlock's name, and Zach was already digging out his phone and dialing the number.
"What are you going to say?" Cammie asks in a whisper, except Zach doesn't answer her. The office is silent except for their unified breathing. The computer screen set off a blue-ish glow in the otherwise dark office, since they hadn't turned on any lights so as to not alert anybody's attention.
Zach's cellphone emits a low ringing sound through the speaker, and finally Mr. Hemlock answers, "Hello?"
"Where are you?" Zach blurts.
"Pardon? Who is this?" Mr. Hemlock replies. The office was so silent that Cammie could hear Mr. Hemlock's responses through Zach's speaker on his phone.
"This is Mr. Goode. Now I believe you didn't answer my question. Where are you?"
"I'm… in my office. At work," Mr. Hemlock answers. Clearly he didn't want them to know he was on his way to tell Mr. and Mrs. Smith about them, and clearly he also thought they had no idea where his office was, otherwise he wouldn't be sharing that valuable information.
"No, you're not," Zach says blatantly.
"Yes, I am," Mr. Hemlock insists.
"No, you're not," Zach repeats. "If you were, then we'd be having this conversation face-to-face." He hangs up before getting Mr. Hemlock's reply and smirks.
"I think you're enjoying this much more than you should," Cammie comments.
"At least he'll be here soon," Zach says confidently, exiting out of the file and turning off the computer monitor. He reaches over and wraps his hand around Cammie's wrist. "Now let's hide."
"It may look to the untrained eye like I'm sitting on my ass all day.
But I'm biding my time until I can take you on. I will prevail, I will not fail.
Cause I spy. I've got your numbers, taken notes, and know the way your mind works.
You never let masks slip, you never admit to it, you're never hurried. Oh no. Cause I spy."
- I Spy by Pulp
(Author's Note: Omg, I suck. Soooo sorry I haven't updated in, like, forever. I had major writer's block, since I couldn't figure out what to write before the actual suspenseful part of the story began. But it's all good now. I know exactly what to write after this. So expect a new chapter soon.)