Hello again! Thanks so much to the reviewers! It made me so happy to hear them! So happy, that I actually wrote the next chapter the next day, which is practically unheard of from me! Anyway, I hope you like this, and I hope you keep reviewing. Anything is good, and CC is most definitely welcome!

Disclaimer: Right, does anyone actually read these things? Anyway, I'm going to shock you all with the revelation that in fact I am not Ally Carter. If I was, then I probably would be out buying a Ferrari right now! Seriously though, I own nothing. I don't eveen own this cushion I'm sat on, my mum does. So sue me Mwuhahahahaha! (I'm joking - please don't.)

Present time.

Zach stepped forward.

His face showing no emotion – but I saw the tell-tale glimmer of sadness in his eyes.

After years of never being seen, I myself had learnt to see people – what they wanted to hide – when they were hiding something.

This turning out to be my downfall.

"What do we do?" His voice cracked. "Cammie, what do we do?"

Everything around us was black, we were in the midst of a forest in the middle of the night, but this wasn't what he was talking about.

We could find our way out of here easy; we could find our way out of here with our eyes shut.

But there was no reason to – not now.

I sighed before answering. "I don't know."

I was a pavement artist, with a top spy for a mom – the headmistress of Gallagher Academy, a top spy as a dad – his whereabouts unknown.

I was the chameleon – the girl who's never seen, and the truth is I had never been more invisible than I was right now, without Bex and Macey, and Liz...

Liz.

Oh God.

Bex, Bex could handle herself, Macey – she could talk herself out of any situation, but Liz?

She just wasn't a field agent – she would crumble.

My only hope was that they were together.

I looked down, before feeling something fall onto my shoulders.

Zach's hands.

All the sadness that I'd noted earlier had been drained from his eyes, and instead replaced with anger.

"What we're going to do, Gallagher girl, is find them.

Find them and sort out this mess we've made."

I thought that was pretty generous of him to be honest, because in the bleak darkness of the forest an unspoken thought –a question rang out.

'Our mess? Or my mess.'

Two weeks ago.

"It's today!" Liz shouted, bouncing up and down on her bed.

I rolled over to stare at the little bundle of energy bobbing up and down on her purple bed sheet.

(Liz's favourite colour was purple.)

It was half past four in the morning – how the hell was she so awake?

Bex obviously had the same idea as me, but I clearly was marginally less grumpy about it.

Understatement.

"Liz my little bobbin, you do know that I have learnt at least thirty seven ways to kill someone with half a banana. To avoid me putting this into practice, I suggest you stop with the perkiness until I have actually managed to peel my eyelids open."

Liz rolled her eyes and carried on bouncing – Bex would never lay a finger on her, no one would, Liz was just one of those people that you could never hurt.

Like Elmo.

Okay, so comparing my best friend with a big red fluffy thing may not be the most flattering observations, but it's true.

Macey rolled over and yawned. "Liz. We're not being introduced to them until seven. Why, did you feel the need to wake us up at half four?"

Liz smiled, and held up a pair of straighteners.

"Through extensive research, and fieldwork concerning Cammie's Josh-"

I blushed, they still referred to him as my Josh, even though we'd broken up and he had taken the memory tea.

"- I've found out, that the average preparation for a teenage -NON SPY -girl – before meeting a boy, is to primp." She said.

So that's what we did.

Quarter to six on that same day.

Mr Solomon had called us down to breakfast early, and only us four knew why.

We got a couple of stares when walking into the hall, what with the curled and straightened hair, the light make up on me, Bex and Liz and the kohl that outlined Macey's eyes, but no one questioned us.

Tina was making up theories as to why we had been called into the hall so early.

"Mr Solomon and Head mistress Morgan are going to elope." She whispered (in Swahili.)

I raised my eyebrows and carried on eating my waffles.

My mom certainly would NOT be eloping with my CoveOps teacher without any pre-warning.

Seriously.

Bex, who takes delight in winding Tina up (– I think she finds it amusing,) suddenly looked round, as if to check if anyone was listening in.

(Everyone was of course; when you live this close together you know practically everyone's business. Well every students business anyway…)

Then, in possibly the loudest whisper known to man, she said to Tina "Well, I heard, that he had started a relationship with professor Buckingham and they were leaving to start a belly dancing work shop in Germany."

I started laughing at this. Mr Solomon and Professor Buckingham?

A belly dancing workshop?

My giggling was stopped abruptly when I got a vision of Professor Buckingham belly dancing. As much respect as I had for her, I didn't really wish to see her belly dancing.

Shudder.

The hall went silent as Mr Solomon walked in. "Girls, you are probably wondering why I've called you here."

A low hum started up as he said this – a low hum mainly consisting of 'Professor Buckingham' 'Eloping' 'Belly Dancing' and 'Pass me the maple syrup.'

"Quiet! There are twenty of you here. Today will be your first real covert operations. In fifteen minutes, you girls will be on a bus heading to the mall. When you get there, you will activate your coms and reach the ruby slipper exhibit."

Everyone looked around confused, that was easy, up the escalator to the left and round the corner.

"Oh," Mr Solomon added. "And you're being tailed by some of the best young spies in the country. Besides yourselves of course."

Well you could've heard a pin drop in the hall as this information registered.

I, Bex, Macey and Liz shared a knowing look.

Watch out for Zachary Goode I thought.

Whoever he is.

As this was running through my head, I thought back to something that had previously confused me.

On Mr Solomon's files, why is it just me that's mentioned?

Me, and this mysterious Zachary Goode.