*Chapter 26*

"Got it logged. Go to sleep now guys, we have an early morning and a long day tomorrow. We have to get out without Buckingham's new systems going off." Preston clicked the enter button for Liz and turned to them, "What do we now have to get past?"

"10 fully trained guards, automated Code Red system and password locked doors." Liz reeled off like clockwork, Zach couldn't remember that ever being said but he supposed he probably wasn't listening, "But Professor put emphasis on the password being something Rachel would have loved, which I don't understand." Liz sounded mad in annoyance at not understanding something, Jonas gave her a reassuring hug.

"That's fine because I think I do." Zach finally looked up from the radio, he knew Cammie hadn't been gone long, approximately 2 days, and she had been in contact but the article still existed and the students had all started to read it.

Cameron was always odd but now scientists know more.

Random words from the article were in everyone's head but they all tried to ignore it.

Murder?

Zach finally lay back down, the radio was on the floor and he reached for a small sliding puzzle he had found in Townsend's pocket inside a pocket inside an invisible zip. He had arranged and re-arranged it but it seemed to just be a small sliding puzzle. It made a picture of a stickman girl and a stickman boy holding hands. He shifted it around some more and looked at the small picture and smiled, could we ever be that happy? Maybe get married? Zach stopped at that thought, it made him feel slightly ill with whatever it was. He gave up trying to daydream so he padded over to the door and slipped out, checking everyone was still sleeping. Taking a deep breath he stepped into the shadows and became silent, almost totally silent now he moved towards a door which was open a small amount with a shaft of light falling out, stepping closer he saw a group of boys and girls, about year 10, sitting in a circle talking quickly but not that quietly.

"I don't know though Ky, I used to think he was amazing but now…"

"Don't worry about it Rich, we have 5 to worry about. Bex, Mace and Liz have all chosen to stick with a murderer. And our old headmistress was one of them too!" A small girl whispered murderer as if it was a swear word but Zach heard it, he decided to show himself knowing Ky would catch him. He had come across Ky having picked fights with people outside Dr. Steve's office when he had been called there semi-permanently. He moved onto the other side of the corridor and passed through the beam of light making as much noise as his feet could.

"Hey! You!" Ky, as Zach had suspected, shot up and pulled Zach around. He went pale when he saw who it was but defiantly dragged him after himself into the room. "Look who I found!" He laughed like a dog, he tried to throw Zach down but Zach shook his head and stayed standing. Ky was tall for his age, same height as Zach's eyes, but he was much weaker, and he knew it.

"If you are going to try and force me to sit you will fail, i would just ask." He made sure his voice was kind and light, this put Ky off his guard, "As you won't ask I will just leave." Zach turned to go but one of the girl stood in front of the door, in fighting stance.

"Please sit, we have some questions for you." Rich said in as colder voice as he could manage, Zach fought the smile creeping onto his face, this really was role play. They all may have been taught to fight but they were all unprepared and unready to fight, it would hurt them more than Zach. Zach sat down cross legged opposite her, and she smiled, one girl went to kick him in the back, he heard her footsteps and caught the kick behind his neck.

"If you are going to sneak up behind somebody work your way up from your deaf grandma don't try a spy first." The girl hobbled away, looking embarrassed.

"Zach, what did you do to Cammie?" The girl was deadly serious and Zach realised where this was going, rolling his eyes he sighed.

"Nothing, she chose to join us. We were told to get them out unhurt, the girls then chose to believe us not the person who killed Rachel Morgan. Try it sometime, pick the side telling the truth not the side that Vogue is on." Zach pointed towards the magazine on the floor.

"How do we know you are telling the truth? How do we know that the reason Cammie has run is because the truth came out about her, the fact she killed her mum and dad and your dad to make sure you turned to her, so she could kill you. We have seen the way she can hold a gun but no other Gallagher Girl can…"

"That's because in the first safe house we went to I taught her how to shoot." They were all slightly taken aback but regained composure as soon as they could.

"We have seen how happy she was to put that gun to Harvey's head and did you ever think the reason your dad is always sedated is because he is dead!" Ky whispered in Zach's ear, Zach laughed,

"He is walking dead if that's the case, we cured him of the drug Catherine was using to control him and he is fine now. He is living near the Baxter's." Zach smiled at them, "We as much as I do love to help younger students this is getting boring, I need to go to and solve some real mysteries. So thank you for this lovely chance to meet you all, but go to sleep. I think if you had a gun and were a bit bigger you might be able to interrogate really well though." Zach stood up and the girl glowed. He walked through the open door and disappeared into the darkness. So that is was that think about us, he thought as he walked towards the large staircase, his bare feet made no noise on the wood and he made a mental note to ask Liz to make a rug for this corridor. The entrance hall was the only place he had seen people in the corridors, 10 men stood by the huge doors all looking half asleep. Zach, not being one for spy gadgets, simply slid down the banister rail and saw every single one look at him. He didn't say anything just walked over to the doors, a man stopped him.

"Can't go there." His voice was normal but he didn't sound that bright, Zach supposed if they were guards then they weren't the brightest sparks.

"I'm literally looking at the door." Zach pulled his arm out of his grasp and walked over to the door, he sat down in front of the lock and looked at it puzzling, it had a series of letters in a vertical order in a small frame, Zach guessed they were like a puzzle. He could feel all the guards looking at him, he slowly pulled out his phone and stood up. He took a few steps back, so he was the other side of the guards, took a photo on his phone and ran. He could hear guards shouting at him but they didn't want to wake anyone and they had been told about this boy and that he wasn't a problem. Zach didn't stop running until he reached the corridor again, he became the shadows and slunk down it and past the kids bedroom, the light was out and the door cracked open like they had been told to do. Zach slipped into his room and sat back on his bed, reawakening his phone he looked at the photo,

H

A

T

E

C

O

C

O

L

Zach focused on each section in turn, trying to work out what it said, he closed his eyes for a moment trying to understand.

"Zach, wake up." Jonas shook his shoulder, Zach was the only one he would dare to wake up. He knew it would a take a few seconds but once Zach was awake he was awake, as long as he didn't have a hangover, which nobody came near him until he surfaced himself. Zach opened his eyes, it was still dark out and Jonas was still in his pyjamas and he seemed to be the only one awake, Zach forced his eyes open and sat up slowly so not to knock his head. "Sorry, I just don't have the guts to wake anybody else. And to hack some of the stuff and get out could take us a long time." Jonas smiled and Zach shook his head in disbelief. He glanced at Jonas's watch and saw it was 6:30 almost exactly.

"Look its easy, I will show you." Zach took a pillow of his own bed and went over to Bex and hit her on the head. He then shoved Jonas onto his bed and dived onto his own, Bex squealed and looked around to see everyone sitting up groggily.

"Who hit me with the pillow!" She squealed, everyone denied knowledge and Jonas sent Zach a glance as he stood up.

"How far away is the edge of the forest?" He asked the group.

"I guess about 100 meters? Down a hill, but it's only dark enough after about 500 meters in." Bex was awake finally, Grant sent her an amazed look at her awareness. "What are we going to take and wear?"

"As long as you have a dark coat on or dark bottoms and sensible shoes whatever. Bex you don't have to worry about shoes, Grant, you will need to peg it with her."

"I'll jump on the back and roll down the hill." Grant laughed and Bex nodded. Swinging her legs over the side she turned over the bars and hung herself down onto the chair, Grant watched warily from his bunk before parkore jumping off his own. Preston was more calm and slid down the ladder before pulling Macey out by her shoulders. Zach was already and dressed and by the door to their cupboard of supposedly clothes but instead was guns, weapons and other stolen equipment. Zach handed the guns to the boys and put two in his belt, one for him and one for Cammie.

"When are we going to get a go at them?" Bex asked impatiently as her bag was packed with a radio transmitter Jonas had stolen from Fibbs and a laptop from Liz. Zach laughed lightly,

"They weren't a toy Bex, but soon. Only thing is it would be harder in a chair." Bex made a noise similar to a cow in response.

"Stop!" Macey suddenly called, everyone turned round in shock and she looked at them all. All were wearing dark jeans or leggings in Liz's case. "We are too conspicuous all looking so dark." She walked along the group passing Grant a light blue shirt to put over his own, she left Zach being so dark knowing he was anyway, she gave Bex a bright t-shirt and a black hoodie to wear later, she made Liz wear a light fashion overcoat and finally forced Jonas into a green hoodie. Bex gave her a leave-us-alone look and they finally left the room and moved down the corridor in vague silence.

"How are we…"

"Got a plan, it will require me and maybe two others who are virtually silent to do and Bex to be very loud. Oh and Jonas to block the elevator, break it temporarily. Liz you can work on disabling the Code Red from inside right?" She nodded and patted her shoulder bag which she had refused to leave behind. Macey had only agreed once she had attached an undercarriage to Bex's chair so they could put things in it so they could run and Grant could get down faster. "Grant no offence you are a noisy soul, you stick with Bex and make sure they know the lift is stuck, Jonas you run ahead and mess with it, Liz likewise you know where the button box is? Preston can you and Macey help me, only a few agents will move over. We have to knock out the others, silently get behind them and elbow their temple. Ones at the back first." They nodded and everyone separated. Zach moved with the flow of traffic across the room and towards the hall, Preston and Macey with him, luckily a group of students peeled off to look at the lock, the agents let them and Zach slid into the shadows like a ghost. Macey pretended to drop her bags and caused a minor commotion, it caught the agents attention and Zach neatly caught one on the temple and Preston guided him to the ground silently. Macey tried to get up but Liz fell over her causing even more of a problem. Once they finally got up and pattered off into the hall 4 of the 10 guards were on the floor unconscious. Preston dragged them into a nearby cupboard behind the other guards, then Jonas appeared causing Preston to nod at Zach who caught the nearest man and caught him too. The lift light began to flash, the 5 remaning guards ran over and Preston grabbed two of the hats of the unconscious men and put them on his and Zach's heads. Both were in dark clothes so nobody noticed,

"Look at the lock," Zach muttered to Preston and he obliged, "Understand it?"

"No." He breathed back, Macey and Liz came out and walked over, Zach copied what the man last night had done and Liz walked past. He and Macey continued to argue about jurisdiction as Liz made a small noise of understanding and the lift light turned off. The Agents stepped away from the lift as Bex rolled off and Grant thanked them all then ran over to the door to see 7 people disappear though it, a wheelchair in tow. The door shut and the puzzle re-shuffled, the guards ran into the hall yelling something about escapees. Buckingham and the Baxters shot outside, opening the cupboard they found 5 unconsious guards, two hats on the floor, the code box open and the lift safety hatch open too.

"This plan, whoever it is, is a genius." Abe scratched his head in confused befuddlement.

"It will be, he is a natural genius, trained by the best and has more of a reason to escape than anyone else." Townsend had followed them out and he stood by the door grinning, "He has always been an escape artist, to the point where he could elude the most controlling person ever and a top flight spy." Townsend turned around and Buckingham put her head in her hands in disbelief, she unlocked the door and the Agents shot though to follow the group. But she knew it was too late, if Zach had gone with the group, nobody would find them.

"Go! The lift is going down, go!" Zach kicked away the small pile of bright clothes and followed Grant and Bex out, Grant grinned and Bex nodded, he started to run and they rolled down the slope towards the forest, Grant jumped up and sat on Bex's shoulders hanging dangerously onto her head as she skidded down the slope followed by the group all running. She pulled on the handbrake at the end and Grant jumped off as everyone flew past her into the forest. Liz grabbed her bag of the floor and sprinted in, Macey likewise but everyone wore theirs. The Agents spilled out of the lift to see nothing but marks on the mud.

\_ ({} ^ {})_/

"I think we are safe." Bex called from the back, Grant stopped and bent over breathing heavily and she reached out and held his hand. "Zach?" Bex made everyone turn around in her shock, Zach was staring though the tree's wide eyed. He dropped his rucksack and disappeared though the undergrowth, everyone called after him but he though he saw something, a small red flag of sorts. Macey ran after him,

"Zach! What on earth do you…" Zach pointed at the bit of red material, Macey ran even faster than Zach over and held it in her hand, "Its Cammie's dress, she must have ripped it." She pulled the wet, dirty red from the tree and looked more carefully at it, Zach looked at the branch, it was broken and had a sharp end.

"Cammie would have cut herself on this if her dress got torn." He muttered prodding the end experimentally. He turned to Macey and they wandered back to see a three pairs of feet, Bex scowling in her chair and Grant laughing on the floor. "What?"

"They climbed the trees and Bex started to scowl, she sounded like an angry hippo!" Grant giggled and Bex hit him hard, he coughed a few times and fell over. The people in the trees slid down one by one and Zach sprung up the nearest one until his head broke through the canopy. Judging by how far they had run in the hour they had been running they had been making good pace. He could barely see any signs of the hut even from his vantage point, looking in the opposite direction he couldn't see an end to the trees just a residual mist settling over it all from the passing storm. Jumping down he checked his watch, 9:12, they needed to tell Cammie where they were. Reaching into Bex's bag he pulled out the radio and began to talk.

…

Cammie rolled over in the pale light falling though the gaps in the shutters, rubbing her eyes she sat up and stared into the embers of last night's fire. The large dog was still asleep in its basket and from what she could tell so were her saviours. Picking up her bowl from last night and the radio she practiced the silent walking she had learnt of Zach, her footsteps didn't make a sound as she moved into the kitchen and to the bowl of now cold water. She washed up the bowl and spoon and collected some wood from the pile and put it next to the fire, she didn't light it just in case. Then she sat down and began to tune the radio, once it was on her communication station she lay down and listened. The wind had died down and she could hear birds outside, she closed her eyes.

"Cammie dear, it's your friends on the radio." Cammie opened her eyes to see Graham talking into the small radio in Japanese with a girl and Grace shaking her shoulder. She sat up and took the radio from Graham,

"We will make this one short," Zach smirked down the radio, Cammie grinned, "We are where your dress ripped, we had to run after we broke out. I am tracking you path with the broken branches, we should be able to find out pretty quick if you walk the opposite direction. "

"Do we have to break in? And okay." Cammie grinned, she knew perfectly well the answer would be no but she could Grace's face falling.

"I hope not, those Guards I knocked out aren't happy with me, and the ones Bex and Grant fooled aren't either. To be totally honest we have peed off most the CIA in one go…"

"IT WAS FUN!" Bex called from the background and everyone laughed, including Graham.

"We will meet you there as soon as possible." Grace ended the connection and Cammie grinned at her, "You my friend, are trouble but it does sound fun. How could they break out!?"

"This is Zach, he is an actual evil genius. IQ up by 190 if I remember correctly." Graham chuckled and Grace's mouth fell open.

"Do you know where that is?"

"No, but I think I will be able to follow my trail." Cammie shrugged, "It's not like I ran 50 miles, only like 30." Grace's jaw dropped.

\_ (I I) _\

Grace had packed all the things, Graham had secured the house and Cammie had sorted the dog. She now stood with it next to her, both looking equally excited about going somewhere. The forest was behind them as Cammie stood in her tatty skirt, mismatched jumper and baseball boots looking like a stereotypical runaway, apart from her beaming smile. Graham stood with a bag on his back and so did Grace, they were in their huge fur coats again and looked like Inuits.

Cammie wandered over to her tree and looked around, seeing a broken branch she moved to that point and looked around again, Graham stood next to her and pointed to another one, she moved to that point and in the pale light she traced her footsteps.

"I ran pretty straight if I remember." Cammie frowned and by crouching down she could see a slight path, an indent in the hedges and broken branches. "Yep, I did." She stood up and Graham crouched down, he gave a short laugh and followed Cammie though the path.

…

"Bex, we are going to need you." Zach turned to her and put the radio back away, "You are by far the best at tracking Cammie, we know she was over there." Zach pointed and Bex navigated her way across, she wasn't that quick but she was the best and Zach knew it. Looking at the branch she looked around.

"Right, if Cammie is stressed she goes straight. So I guess she went straight that way," Bex pointed northish, Zach peered through the branches and saw a bush with the middle all flat and nodded. Bex grinned and wound through the trees towards the bush and then straight into the middle of it. The others were behind them and Bex was glad she wore clothes she didn't mind getting a bit muddy as her chair threw up quite a bit of mud at her. Jonas was on his phone and talking to Liz again about something nobody understood, Grant was wandering just behind the chair and singing very badly to himself.

"Grant shut up." Zach grinned at him, Grant did for 5 whole seconds then he carried on, "Grant shut your mouth." Grant again did it for 5 seconds.

4 hours 23 minutes, one good punch, what felt like three thousands of Grants songs and Bex swearing in 16 different languages later Zach found himself sitting up a tree waiting for everyone else to start going again. They were all sitting drinking and eating chocolate Macey had stolen at some point and hid in the supplies cupboard. Luckily for them they all carried water bottles in their bags for such occasions as this. Zach however was just bored, he wanted to do something except for walk.

"If I'm correct they will be near." Zach could just hear a female voice, and his heart skipped a beat.

I told u i would upload loads at once xxx