So that night, I knew what I had to do. I promised Mr. Solomon that I wouldn't give up, so I wouldn't. It was time that the Circle and the splinter cell and anyone else that played a part in the death of my parents felt my wrath. When my roommates got back from their day in town, I practically dragged them up to our room and sat them down. Bex looked concerned, Macey looked like she wanted to comfort me again, and Liz looked a mix between confused and panicked.

"Look, this has been a long time coming, but at some point I've just got to say it," I gulped. Sometimes the hardest part about being a spy (or at least, training to be a spy) was having to regain your closest allies. Repairing these relationships takes one of the hardest things in the world to do, apologize, and it was now or never. I breathed, "I'm sorry."

Liz teared up a little, "Cammie, you don't have to, I mean, we understand..."

"No," I said firmly. I wasn't about to let my friends make excuses for me anymore. It was time to face the truth; that was a part of growing up, right? "It isn't okay. I was irrational and foolish, and I never stopped for a second to think about the consequences of my actions or the effects they had on you guys. So, thanks for having my back even when I didn't have yours."

"What are friends for?" Bex smiled. "Besides, erratic Cammie keeps things interesting."

Macey nodded, "We've tried to do whatever we could do to help, but we just don't always know what you want or need. None of know what you're going through."

"I know a way you can help," I sighed. And now came the hard part: asking the people I had betrayed for their support once more. "And I promise it isn't me sneaking out again or anything like that."

"Anything," Bex said. I was loving my best friend even more now. Why hadn't I been as good a friend to her as she was always to me?

"I want to fight," I stated. Macey shifted her weight, unsure of what I meant by that, so I continued, "The right way. This time, we take it slowly. We gather intel, come up with an actual plan, and we run it by Mr. Solomon, Aunt Abby, and whoever else is around."

Liz, never one to hide emotion well, grinned, bursting with excitement, "You had me at 'gather intel,' Cam."

Macey nodded, "You didn't leave me in the cold when we thought the Circle was after me or when I was the one running away all the time or when all I did was act like a spoiled brat. So, yeah, I'm right beside you."

We all looked at Bex, who hadn't moved yet. She finally smiled and said, "Cam, you're my best friend. I'd be in if we we're executing the most idiotic operation ever, and I'm pretty sure we've done that at some point over the years."

"So, where should we start?" Liz pulled out a pad of paper and a pen to begin drawing out our game plan.

I looked at Macey who said, "Well, we first should define our endgame. What do we even want to accomplish?"

Bex answered for me, "We take down the Circle and the splinter cell brick by brick."

"Sounds good to me," Macey affirmed as Liz jotted it down word for word.

I looked at the faces of all my friends and turned to Bex as I said, "Thanks."

How to take down one of the world's leading terrorist cells (A list by Operatives Morgan, Baxter, Sutton, and McHenry)

1. Gather intelligence on their known whereabouts, targets, and goals because you can't exactly take down a terrorist organization you know nothing about

2. Come up with a plan to take them out because so far our ad hoc plans hadn't done us much good over the years

3. Get both permission and support from the world's best spies, which is even scarier than it sounds

4. Execute said plan (hopefully successfully)

5. ? ? ? (because if you fail, you're dead, and if you succeed, where exactly does that leave you?)

Unfortunately, the next two weeks did very little to further our plans. Despite hours upon hours of research and searching, we were left with exactly what we started with: nothing. The copies I made of the ledger I stole from the sublevels was practically useless to us because we couldn't figure out a way to attach names or locations to the financial statements. Even Zach didn't have any ideas on where we could find anyone in the Circle.

Finally, I knew we'd have to admit it; we needed help.

"I know this wasn't exactly in our plans, but I think we need some help," I announced at breakfast one morning.

Bex shrugged, "Who are you thinking of?"

"Well, my initial thought was Mr. Solomon, but then again, I may have promised him I wouldn't look into this anymore," I shook my head. "I can't even remember anymore..."

Macey nodded, "Plus, he's not really into the whole 'revenge plot' thing."

"So, then I thought of Aunt Abby," I explained. "I mean, she has to know more than she's telling us, right?"

"But will she tell us anything?" Zach asked. He had a point. In the time Abby had been in my life as a spy-in-training, she never gave away much information. Even more than that, I definitely promised her that I wouldn't look into this more.

I shrugged, "It's worth a shot, right?"

Everyone agreed. I added, "There's only one thing though; I don't even know how to contact her."

We all looked at each other, hopeful that someone would have an idea, but none came until Bex shot up from her thought, "Mr. Solomon would know probably."

"Yeah, but he's not going to just tell us," Macey pointed out. "Something about spycraft and secrecy and how we should just leave this stuff to-"

"Yes," Bex cut her off. "But she's the only family you've got left, Cam."

"I have grandparents still," I pointed out.

Bex shook her head, "Like spy-family, I mean."

"I'll give you that," I nodded.

"So, anyways," she continued, "what if you just really needed to talk to her? Someone who could really understand what you're going through?"

"That could work," Zach agreed, his voice noticeably excited. Liz nodded her head with more energy than I'd seen in a long time.

I rubbed my shoulder, "I don't know... I'd feel really weird asking for something like this, especially after how nice he's been."

Macey conceded, "We could always think of something else?"

I shook my head, "No, you guys are right. This is pretty much the only option right now."

I sighed and looked up towards the teachers table at the front of the dining hall where Mr. Solomon casually ate breakfast. His hair was still the dull shade that had been present since he'd returned from the dead. And even though he no longer used the cane, he still walked in a stupor, which was weird because at this point his leg should have been better medically. Liz pointed out that it could be psychosomatic, likely due to my mom's death. Thinking about that made me feel even worse about even considering conning him, but I suppose it would have to be done, for mom.