Chapter 2

Too Good To Be True

I arrive at my mom's office and knock twice before the door is unlocked and opened by my mom.
"Cammie, there you are!" she says addressing me rather loudly, enough to put me on alert mode.

"We're been waiting for you, come in." She says, gesturing with her hand and I wonder who she means by 'we' as I step into her office.

"Be nice," She whispers as I walk by her.

I stop for a moment to take a glance around the room and find out that 'we' means Agent Townsend and Aunt Abby. I can't help but grow really, really suspicious given the fact that both of them, like Zach, usually showed up in the really wacky-slash- stressful moments of my life.

"Hey Squirt!" Abby chimes and it actually takes me a few seconds to realize she is genuinely happy and she is smiling that perfectly white, dazzling smile I hadn't seen in a really long time.

"Hello there, Aunt Abby," I greet and return the contagious smile, deviously wondering why she is smiling. (Not that there's anything wrong with it, but still, I want to know.)

"Good afternoon Ms. Morgan." Mr. Townsend greets me formally as my mom comes and takes a seat.

"Good afternoon Agent Townsend." I greet as pleasantly as Madame Dabney has taught me to and silently wish one of Zach's stray bullets would find him now.

I take a seat besides my mom. There's an awkward silence in which eyes dart between them, silently asking each other who'd start. Since I'm not sure of whether or not I want to know what I was about to hear I just fidget with my blouse until mom clears her throat.

"Cammie, sweetie," she starts cautiously, "this morning while checking on Joe the doctors detected strong brain activity in his brain which informs us that he is entering a state of mild consciousness, meaning, he's out of the comma now, out of danger and is, as of now, only in a profound sleep. They expect him to wake up soon."

I hear the words but, my brain refuses to register them. It takes me a minute to process the information; it is too good to be true. If I'm not dreaming, she just told me Mr. Solomon would wake up soon. I shake my head; not daring to let my hopes get high and just ask for the worst part.

"What's the bad news? " I ask eyeing each one of them. Aunt Abby smiles brightly and answers.

"There's not much bad news, of course there's no way for us to know how much brain damage he has suffered. We are hoping for the best, and the doctors say that it'll be minimal to none given the time it has taken for him to wake up and the way he subtly passed from being in comma to being in a deep sleep."

"So, he's going to be alright?" I ask the hope in my voice now noticeable. They all nod in reassurance and I have to believe them, because even if it sounds too good to be true, the reassurance of three highly trained, super intelligent government operatives should suffice in matter like this, yet I had noticed that there wasn't much bad news so I wait until Aunt Abby goes on.

" Anyhow Cammie, if there's any bad news is that they will be transferring Joe to a hospital facility at the CIA Head Quarters in Langley at this moment."

"What's wrong with the Gallagher infirmary?" I inquire because that didn't soundlike bad news, yet.

"Nothing's wrong, the doctors here are highly capable of providing excellent medical treatment to patients but we are not taking any chances Ms. Morgan." retorts Agent Townsend.

"Chances with what? What's wrong with Mr. Solomon?" I ask, hadn't they just said he was out of danger?

Mom sighs and caresses my hair. "Nothing is wrong with Joe, sweetie. What Agent Townsend means is that we are not taking any chances with you." She explains, rising to her feet, and crossing her arms before she continues addressing me.

"We know Joe loves you, he loves us, but as much as we trust him, he still is or was a double agent and the CIA doesn't trust him so we are not taking any more chances."

"Meaning that he is to be detained at Langley?"

"Not exactly, as soon as he is well enough he is going in for interrogation." answers Aunt Abby.

"Very callous interrogation, Ms. Morgan." Adds Townsend and I can't help but scoff at his statement which causes mom to glare at me.

"What do you mean by 'callous', which interrogation is not 'callous'?" I ask with a note of sarcasm. Recalling the time he had been my interrogator.

"By callous he means that we are telling Joe you died the night he fell unconscious," supplies Aunt Abby looking at me intently. They all did, as if to see if I agreed with it. Which I didn't, but I realize there wasn't much of an option here.

I took a deep breath.

"Are you going to be the interrogator?" I ask directing my question at Agent Townsend.

He nodded. "I will, Ms. Morgan."

'Joe Solomon will never be you teacher again.' Were the words he had said while interrogating me, and they still haunted me until now. I couldn't let him do that to Mr. Solomon. They just couldn't do that. Not to Mr. Solomon, it would destroy him and they knew this.

"No." I stated plainly. "You can't do that." But I knew it wasn't up for discussion.

"He is doing it, believe me, I tried to leave him unconscious upon his arrival but your mom won't have it. She's on his side now."

"There are no sides Abigail, and perhaps you need to get that arm of yours stronger, the apple wouldn't have hit hard enough to leave him unconscious." my mom admonishes smiling and I do too, knowing that Townsend would never be very fond of apples.

"It would have if it weren't because you stopped it midway." counters my aunt childishly.

"Excuse her, Edward" was all that she said, feeling the need to apologize for my aunt's behavior.

"See, Cammie? It's Edward now," retorts Aunt Abby, and mom reddens slightly as Agent Townsend rolls his eyes, but winks at me and I can't help but smile.

"Anyhow, Cammie, seeing that I'm perfectly conscious I will direct interrogation with Joe, and you have the option of either being there to watch or staying here and waiting until he gets home."

"What about Zach? Is he going too? Are you going to lie about Zach too?" I ask.

"First of all, no Zach is not going, just for the sake of his safety, and second, we wouldn't exactly been lying. If Joe remembers well-which we hope he does-, he saw him die. We just won't disclose the fact the he, is in fact, alive. We are planning of having you do that if you go."

"So, you are concerned about Zach's safety, but not about mine? What about not taking chances anymore?"

"You are a top CIA protégée and Zachary is not, you'll be accompanied by a surveillance team at all times."

"-A team in which Mr. Solomon manage to break into." I pettishly point out but Mom ignores me and goes on.

"You'll be in a top CIA facility-"she continues.

"-Of which Mr. Solomon was broken out of."

She lets out a loud, exasperate sigh. "You are going Cameron, please do not look for a way around it," she says, her dark deep eyes looking at me sternly for a moment before softening.

I understand now that she had made such arrangement possible, because she didn't want Mr. Solomon to suffer more than he had too. She wanted me there to soften the blow. I honestly do not know why I countered it, I wanted to be there, I had to be there, but maybe it was because it still sounded too good to be real.

"Fine, I'll go. When do we leave?"

Agent Townsend rose from his seat.

"As soon as possible, Ms. Morgan."