Chapter 14: The Chameleon's many personalities

Zach's POV:

I looked down at my breakfast hungrily. There were 2 delicious pecan waffles that were cooked to golden-brown perfection. Brown maple syrup, straight from Ontario, Canada (AN: guess where I went on vacation this summer, and guess why...), everything was still warm. On my second small plate, I had some eggs and a strip of bacon. My outstretching fingers reached for the long piece of meat perfection. I picked it up and my mouth opened, watering. Leaning forward for a bite, I closed my eyes and bit into… nothing but air. I looked around me to find the one and only Chameleon standing behind me, with half of a piece of bacon in her hand and the other presumably in her mouth.

"You don't do that to a person!" I whined at her, making a face that was partly for dramatic effect. "But honestly! What kind of per-"

The next thing I knew, the last half of the bacon was in my mouth and Cammie and the rest of the table were laughing at my dumbstruck face. I mean, I didn't predict that she would hand feed me when I woke up this morning.

Recovering, I managed to chew and swallow the piece of meat in my throat and croak out, "As I was saying, what kind of person takes another's bacon?"

"Me."

She sat down next to me with her own plate of food and I took one of her two bacon pieces. Cammie playfully frowned at me but then turned toward her roommates and started talking about school, or clothes, or P&E, or… I really have no idea.

I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence. If I was to be completely honest, which I rarely am, I would admit that this friendliness between us frightened me at the same time as it made me feel… warm? Haha no I'm kidding.

Standing up, I threw away the scraps of my breakfast and put my plate in the dirty dish stack in the corner of the room. I returned to the table and slid back into my seat to join the conversation.

"You guys ready to go to class?"

COW class was nothing special. The only stand-out thing was Cammie frequently adding details about the missions that we learned about, as well as talking about the region that was brought to attention. Whenever she talked, everyone seemed to lean forward and hang on to every single word that escaped her lips. Everyone wanted to know more about the Chameleon.

C&A was a basic class. Macey, Bex, Nick, and Cammie were also in the class, and we learned about tea, proper utensil manners in different places and meal manners around the world. Everyone chattered a bit and my friends and we asked each other for clarification on the rules, always answered by Cammie. No surprise there.

After that, I had a languages class with Professor Buckingham. Apparently she was some older semi-retired teacher that occasionally taught some small classes. Only Cammie and Bex had that class with me and once again, we were learning Latin, but Cammie already knew everything. I was amazed of her extensive knowledge but not that amazed. It was only 15 minutes into the class when a man came in the door. Everyone was working on conversational review in Latin and turned to the door as Professor Buckingham greeted him.

"Hello Agent Townsend, what may I do for you?"

He whipped out a charming smile, "Hi Patricia, I was just coming to grab Ms. Morgan."

Buckingham's eyes widened in realization as she responded, "Oh, oh yes. Of course." She turned to find Cammie already walking out the door with all of her stuff.

Agent Townsend followed immediately, with a nod to Buckingham.

"Everyone, we are now going to move onto higher level casual conversation, as used with royals that you may encounter in the future..."

Cammie's POV

Townsend pulled me out and we walked down the hall into the sublevels elevator. His brisk steps clacked on the shiny marble and he was swift and quiet as he placed his palm on the reader to be scanned. The elevator doors opened and we both stepped inside and turned around. We watched as the room before us was hidden behind the sliding elevator doors.

As soon as they snapped shut, Townsend handed me the folder that he had been carrying between his upper arm and his side during our walk. I opened it to see image and text information of dialogue.

"The subject hasn't been talking."

I looked up, "As expected, he's no amateur."

Townsend looked perplexed because I interrupted but went along with his debrief. "Solomon and your Aunt Abby have talked it over as well as some of the other Gallagher faculty. We have decided that you can have your turn with him."

I smiled, not the sweet one that you see on the faces of young girls and boys. It was sparked from the joy of revenge. Townsend caught my look and shook his shoulders a little bit. Maybe it was just me, but I could've sworn that was a shudder.

"Now Cammie, don't kill the subject. We need him to talk, he works closely with Catherine so he could know something."

"Yeah… I won't kill him."

He took my answer even though it wasn't completely what he wanted. It was the best he was going to get though. This whole private school experience, spy school or not, was boring and I was dying to express some of my pent up energy. Nothing specifically against the guy except for A: he worked with Catherine at the COC, and B: the whole part where I had to lug him through the forest.

We walked down the corridor and Townsend led me to the room where they were observing him through one sided glass.

"What's his condition?"

"He's still a little banged up from you, and Solomon did a number. He's been staying shut and isn't close to fainting or medical condition, just some cuts and bruises."

I rolled my eyes, "See - that's why he isn't talking. Bring out the knives and syringes and maybe he'll talk. Nobody is going to talk for punches."

"Cammie," Townsend had a low tone, "I get that this is not how you do things, but when you stay with us, we try not to go to extremes."

"I'll just talk with him and find out his fears. Don't worry, I'll get him to talk."

"Cammie. No."

Townsend opened the metal door on the right of the creepy concrete walls of sublevel 3. The whole place felt like a man-made cave, suffocating in a way. I stepped through the threshold to find Solomon alone in the room, flipping through a file and sitting with his back facing the one sided glass. There were two computers to each side of him and a long, messy desk that stretched to the corner of the walls.

I turned to look in the cell. The man was in there. He had grown a 5 o'clock shadow and he sat in the metal chair, unmoving. His buzz cut short hair stuck out along his head and seemed to symbol alertness within the man. His tan arms were crossed on the metal table, shackled with cuffs to a handle attached to the surface of the table. The muscles on his arms bulged out and his solid face had a purple circle on and around his eye, probably remnants of a punch from Joe.

"You can go on inside," Joe swiveled around in his chair to face me. "Don't hurt him too bad."

With another swivel of the chair, Joe clacked a bit on the keyboard and the light above the door turned from red to green. It was unlocked for me.

Agent Townsend motioned for me to go to the door and I straightened my back and went to stand at the door. The motion made it slide open and reveal the plain room that lie ahead.

"Hello, you may remember me from yesterday."

The hefty man slowly lifted head that was rested on his cuffed hands and glanced at me. His eyes flashed and then went back to being dull and bored as he looked away from me and into the space in front of him. I took that as an unspoken invitation to sit in the metal chair that was placed on the other side of the table.

I smiled at him, " So, are you going to tell me information about Catherine and her plans?"

He still didn't look directly at me with his mouth snapped shut. I sighed, if only people would take the easy way out.

"Very well, then. May I have your name?"

Another blank stare and a closed mouth.

"Do you have any family?"

He kind of looked at me and gave another nod. I smiled in encouragement at the rookie that was sitting at the table in front of me. The non-challenge was welcome.

"What family do you have?", "Where did you grow up?", "Was that a good environment?", "How'd you end up almost falling into the well?", "I'm afraid of drowning, how about you?", were all among the questions I asked and was answered with mumbled sentences. He was getting comfortable which was perfect for me although he had little resolve in the beginning. Who knew a juvenile face such as mine could coax the tough guy down despite my tazing him? I did.

"So do you want to tell me about Catherine?"

His eyes flew open as he came out of his comfortable stupor and realized what was happening. An ugly expression pulled at his face and he gathered spit to shoot at my face. By the time he spit, I was already out of the way.

"Nice try."

I smiled and then stood up and leaned across the table, grabbing his head and pushing down quickly, smashing his head into the table. The door immediately open and Solomon and Townsend pulled me out sternly as I watched the man come up with a bloody nose. I smiled again.

I flung both men off of me like flies and pushed them into the control room, using the fingerprint scanner on the inside to lock it so they couldn't get in. I turned back to the man who was wiping blood off his face and onto his clothes.

"Where are your base of operations?"

He looked straight ahead as if he hadn't heard a single word I said.

"Unfortunately for you, I don't have a whole lot of patience today."

My fist went swinging and smashed into his cheek, knocking one of his pearly whites out of his mouth and across the room. It landed with a little clink on the ground.

He laughed, "Catherine has a lot planned for you, Chameleon. Just like your brother."

I saw white for a second and then calmed myself. Let me rephrase, calmed myself by socking him again. His words fueled me on and my smile was replaced by a sinister glare and a straight-lined mouth. I glanced over at the bucket of water in the corner and stood up to go grab it. If he wanted it the hard way, he would get it the hard way.

Zach's POV

We were still in languages as Mr. Solomon and Agent Townsend raced by our door. Solomon ran into the classroom and looked straight at Buckingham.

"Patricia, get Abby. Bring her down to the interrogation room. Cammie locked the doors and is losing control."

Buckingham's face went white as she watched Solomon rush out of the room.

"Students stay here. I want you all to study French slang until I get back."

She briskly left the room and her steps clacked urgently down the hallway, receding into silence. Another pair of footsteps followed and through our doorway, it revealed Agent Townsend and Mr. Mosckowitz hurrying the same way as Professor Buckingham.

Whispers started around in the classroom as everyone imagined what was going on right now. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't imagine Cammie being as violent as they were acting. They were probably overreacting, I assured myself of this fact and turned to Grant and talked about P&E drills in Mandarin.

There were about 10 minutes that passed until Professor Buckingham came back into the classroom with her hair a little bit out of place. More footsteps echoed through the halls in the hallway and everyone seemed to lean forward in their desks a little bit so even the students in the back could see the commotion.

Cammie, flanked by Abby, who was tightly grabbing her arm (as shown with her white knuckles) and Solomon who had his hand firmly on her shoulder. Her face was exasperated and she looked bored with the whole procession of teachers. She also adorned a shirt splattered with water and blood that trickled down to her pants, as well as a bright smile.

We could hear faintly from the hallway, "C'mon Abby, I got the information out of him. This is a little bit overboard."

A stern reply followed, "We will talk about this, young lady. You are not getting out of this one."

"Ladies and Gentlemen." Professor Buckingham once again drew our attention back to her, "For the last few minutes, we will be speaking Bulgarian to brush up on our skills.
"Oh my god. Did you just see that?" Macey's eyes were wide open along with her mouth as she stared at each of us from 2 rows ahead.

"I know." Bex replied seriously, but more in awe then shock.

Poor Liz just looked scared and didn't say a word.

Abby's POV

"Yeah I know, I crossed a line." She said for the 6th time, "But I got the information that we needed!"

My hands flew to my temples as I massaged them and undid the stress. It was just Cammie and I sitting in my office. She sat across from me in the leather black chair with the tall back, looking at me like I was the crazy one.

"Cammie, you can't just do that! Joe and Edward told you to take it easy!"

I fell back and slouched into my chair. I love my niece but she is always a little bit too intense and doesn't have a knack for understanding or just emotions in general. I guess her behavior was the work of all the adults in her life, including me. Should've just sent her to Gallagher when she turned 12 instead of her first completely solo red test (AN: From a TV show- guess! Also it's a mission where you have to kill your target.) mission. She grew up too fast.

"Squirt, at least tell me that you understand my point."

Cammie sighed and gave in, "Yes, Aunt Abby."

I rolled my eyes at her pouty response. She performed mopily as her feet dragged for comedic effect. I laughed.

"Don't think that I won't tell your parents about this!"

Cammie's POV

My 2nd class had already started by the time I left Abby's office and made it up to my room. I threw myself on the bed, suddenly tired from the energy I spent dunking the man's face and holding him in the water.

The clothes that I had worn yesterday lie under me, making my lazy job uncomfortable. I pulled them out and threw them down on the ground. A little clink rose my curious mind as I rolled onto my side and peered off the side of the bed until I spotted the object. I had almost forgotten.

Leaning off the side of my bed, I picked up the metal design and chain. A wave of nostalgia hit me as I lied back down on the bed comfortably. The pads of my thumbs and index fingers explored the silver metal as my eyes closed, picturing exactly what it looked like. It had been in my hand just a day earlier and I was careless enough to forget about it.

I held the chain by the end and dangled it above my face so it caught the sunlight.

"Ryker… I'm so sorry."

AN: Well that took me 5 years. Haha but really oh my gosh I'm so sorry. Chances are more of the updates are going to be like this but I just wrote 4 pages in 2 hours spread across two days so… *hair flip*. This chapter kind of went out on a lot of tangents but you know what? I guess I don't really care because I kind of liked the unpredictable side.

Review… if you want. - S