Since the last chapter took so long to get up, I decided to buckle down and get you guys another one up tonight. I think I'm getting back where I want to be. We're probably about 1/3-1/2 of the way done, so just a fair warning there. I'll keep this intro short, so thanks for reading/reviewing/following/favoriting! Love you guys, Tickgrey

"Someone should go arrest her or something," Abby said mostly referring to Townsend when she said 'someone' because Townsend was the only person with any actual authority in this country.

He shook his head, "I will not, no, I cannot just go down there and arrest her."

"Why not?" Abby asked defiantly. I was beginning to notice a pattern: all of Abby and Townsend's conversations could have easily been held between toddlers rather than mature adults.

"For one, spies can't just arrest people, and you'd know that if you were a decent one," he began. Abby snorted; I could see the gears in her head turning to think of a comeback. "And we can't just go down there. She could be armed, she could have back up, and oh yeah, she's a bloody terrorist!"

Mr. Solomon was quick to jump into the fight as well, but I didn't want to hear any more of it. I slipped out of the back room while they argued. They had hardly noticed me anyways, so I doubted they would care if I slipped out. I don't know why, but I soon found myself sneaking out of the apartment door as well. I flew down the flights of stairs and made my way outside.

I saw Catherine's mouth curl into a smile when she saw the front door of the building open. I walked over to the bench and sat down next to Catherine. I was well aware that I had the bewildered eyes of three spies on me now too through the window.

"What do you possibly want?" I asked her with my best effort to sound annoyed, but in reality, I was just really curious.

She sighed before turning the page in her book which she wasn't actually reading. "I want to make a deal. Just you and me. Those bumbling idiots up there don't need to know at all."

"Maybe I'm wired right now," I said coolly. "How do you know we're really alone?"

She shook her head, "Because I recognize something in you that I see in myself. We're sneaky. We do what must be done to get what we want."

"There's nothing like you in me," I said firmly. This was one area that I wasn't even willing to disagree about. She was completely wrong. "You're willing to kill, steal, and lie for what? For money? For panic?"

She laughed or at least, I think it was a laugh. It was more of a snort combined with a high-pitched chuckle. She said, "Well, we can get into my motives later, but anyways, there's something I want that you can get me."

"Why would I possibly want to get you anything?" I retorted defiantly to hide my growing hope of finding Mom.

"Because I know where your mother is!" she exclaimed as though she was excited to know she had something tangible over me.

I shook my head, "I highly doubt it."

"Why would I lie? You get me what I want, and I tell you what you want to know. How else are you going to get this information? Another bonus is that you getting your mom back means lots of dead Circle members - Circle members that I want dead," she explained. "We can both get what we want."

"What do you want me to get?" I asked. I added some hesitation to my voice, because even though I so badly wanted to deal, I couldn't let her get the upper hand.

She looked around before dropping her voice, "There's a ledger in the one of the SubLevels of the Gallagher Academy. That's all I want."

"What's on the ledger?"

She shrugged, "You can find out for yourself when you get it. I don't care if you read it. Just get it to me in its original condition, and you get to know where your mother is. You'll recognize it; it's got the Cavan seal on it."

I stuttered, "I don't know."

"You can get it and then decide. Look at it, check it out, make copies, I really don't care. If you decide you want to deal after seeing it, just call me," she said as she handed me a scrap of paper. I carefully put it in my pocket. Both of our movements were so discreet that I was pretty sure that no one in the apartment could see it. I certainly didn't want them to think I was a traitor. But was I a traitor by even considering? I sure felt like one.

"Fine. I'll let you know then," I ended the meeting afraid to hear any more. I got up and walked carefully back to the building making sure to look at all possible sniper's perches, hiding spots, and surveillance points. I walked up the flights of stairs as slowly as I possibly could.

When I finally got to the door, I didn't want to face my aunt, CoveOps teacher, and former CoveOps teacher. Unfortunately, the door swung open before I had the chance to run or come up with a creative story.

"What were you thinking?" Abby hissed at me as she pulled me inside. Townsend closed the door and sat down at the table with his hands rubbing his forehead. She continued, "Do you know how risky not to mention stupid that was? You could have gotten killed!"

I was tired of getting treated like this. Like some child who couldn't do anything. So I merely shrugged. Mr. Solomon turned to me and said, "What did she say?"

"What?" I asked coyly. "Oh, she… uh…" I was still a horrible liar especially to a room full of the people I respected most, but this was for mom. "She told me that she had seen me on the cameras."

"And?" Abby asked impatiently.

I sighed, "She told me that the Circle had seen me. I think she was warning me."

"She risked us killing her to… warn you?" Townsend said not believing a word I was saying.

I nodded and sat down trying to avoid direct eye contact. Townsend turned to me and said, "So what did she hand you?"

I shrugged innocently. "What do you mean?"

Mr. Solomon continued the interrogation, "We saw her hand you something."

"Oh, that…" I trailed off. "It was… uh…"

Before I could say anything else, Abby was pulling the paper out of my pocket. She read it and said, "A phone number?"

I nodded. My cover wasn't quite blown… yet. Townsend turned and gave me one of the most frightening stares I've ever seen and said, "Time to start telling the truth."

My mouth was dry. I so badly wanted to keep lying so I could go back to school and save Mom, but I just couldn't face them anymore, so I said, "She offered me a deal. I get her a ledger from school, and she would tell me where Mom is."

Abby looked furious, "You told her no, right? You called her out on her lie? And then told her to go to hell?"

I shook my head ashamed. "It could be my only chance."