Yay! Chapter 25! A quarter of the way there! Nah, I'm only joking. There definitely won't be 100 chapters (I'm not sure if that makes you sad or relieved.) Anyway, I hope you all like the upcoming developments. We've still got plenty of story to go still, but we're nearing the climax. I might have another update either tonight or tomorrow, but either way, hopefully before the end of the week. Sincerely, Tickgrey

I must have been drugged at some point because when I woke up, my head felt like something was beating on it like a bass drum. It took a few minutes of batting my eye lids before my vision sured up again. Even still, everything was in a weird fog that just wouldn't go away.

When I finally got my senses relatively back in order, I noticed that I was sitting unrestrained in a cold, metal chair which was pulled up to an equally sterile table. I looked around and recognized my surroundings immediately: I was in an interrogation room. It wasn't like on television. There was no mirror which secretly led to some back room, there were no visible cameras (though I'm pretty sure I was being watched,) and there was a fairly sufficient light on the ceiling.

Suddenly everything was coming back to me. I had been apprehended before I was able to complete my mission. What was my mission? Oh, right, I was trying to take out a top Circle backer. That's noble enough, right? Surely they wouldn't have any qualms with that. It's not like they were going to do it themselves. Who was they anyways? CIA? MI6? Russian authorities? No... they spoke in English, of that I'm sure. Did they have accents? I couldn't quite remember. What else happened? There was something wrong with the sniper's perch. I just couldn't remember what was wrong. The location! It wasn't where it was supposed to be. I wasn't in the right spot. Or maybe the target's building was never meant to be there? Was I meant to be apprehended?

Then it hit me harder than a train. I had been set up.

I banged my fist on the steel table in frustration which made a loud, metallic crash. Gah! How could I be so stupid? Of course Catherine would set me up! I was the perfect target, so willing to just join up with a terrorist group! I was emotionally unstable, I was a wreck, I was stupid. The authorities wouldn't hesitate to think that someone like me might commit murder as retribution. Now I didn't even have super spy parents to get me out of this mess. I was alone.

Thankfully, my thoughts were disrupted when the door swung open with a creek. Either I was being carefully watched like I suspected or they had just heard me hit the table. Either way, it was time to face the music.

But when I looked up, it wasn't exactly who I had expected. "Townsend?"

"Hello, Miss Morgan," he replied cordially. "It seems we're in a bit of a predicament."

I shrugged, "This is merely a misunderstanding. I was just out for a walk when I decided to go into that abandoned store."

He smiled, "So, you're not talking? Well, then, I'll talk for a while, and you just consider your options. You ran away from your school and joined a highly dangerous terrorist organization. You were found in a building with a sniper rifle, and from the looks of our surveillance, you knew how to use it.

"Still nothing?" he almost mocked. I just sat there and stared at him directly in the eye. He sighed, "We're willing to make a deal."

I must have perked up slightly at that because Townsend continued, "We will drop all charges against you and let you go completely free in exchange for everything you know about the terrorist organization including headquarters, plans, targets, weapons, personnel, and well, everything. You'll be treated like a key witness."

On one hand, I really wanted to get out of here. I just wanted to go back home to Arlington. I wanted to run into my parents' arms and let them tell me that everything was going to be alright. I was beginning to realize that being a spy was a lot more complicated than anyone ever let on.

"Well?" he prodded. I looked up again and realized that I had been thinking for awhile.

Before making a decision, I had an even more pressing question, "Where are we?"

"You've been here before," he replied.

I looked around once more at the incredibly generic interrogation room before almost smiling, "London, then."

He nodded. "So what do you say?"

"Fine," I sighed, "What do you want to know?"

After three hours of talking Townsend through every detail of the compound, their targets (though I left out the part about being the one who stole the ledger because it seemed that they didn't already know), and everything I had seen or heard over the past week. Townsend didn't take notes (presumably because I was being recorded,) but rather listened intently to every detail I gave and occasionally asked a question to clarify.

"And then I noticed the building across the street wasn't quite as I was told, and well, you know the rest," I finished.

Townsend was quiet for a moment before nodding and saying, "Very good. There is something I would now like to tell you if you don't mind a few more minutes in this room?"

He didn't wait for a response because obviously I'd want to hear whatever new information I could get. Townsend got up and walked to the wall where he flipped a switch. He began, "We're off the record now. As you've probably gathered by now, you were being set up by the splinter group for murder, yes?" He didn't wait for my nod before continuing, "But what you likely don't know is that over the past week the terrorist group has been responsible for the murders of seven of the Circle's biggest financial backers."

"So," I began before being cut off.

"So not only were you being framed for one murder but a series of them," he explained. I gulped and waited for him to finish. "In fact, the rifle you had in your possession was the same gun used for all seven assassinations."