Chapter 15: Liz-nap

Zach's POV:

I was heading up to my dorm. Full intentions of just lying in my bed and thinking.. or grabbing my gun and going to the range. After the staircase up, I walked down the hall past the girl's dorm rooms.

203…

204…

205…

206…

207… The door was opened a crack. Cammie was inside, lying on her back on her plain grey comforter. One hand was up in a fist, clutching some kind of chain with a charm that reflected the light from her partially closed window with a little spark.

My own fist led itself in the door and pulled back in a knock. I froze for a moment in hesitation but went along with it anyway, a hollow sound of my fist hitting wood and the creak of the door opening further from the force.

I'm not entirely sure why I did it. I just couldn't help myself.

Without looking, Cammie called out to me, "Come in Zach."

I cautiously stepped foot in as I pushed the door opened further with my right hand.

She sat up and wiped her face a bit, brushing her index fingers under her eyes. Shifting on her bed, she turned toward me. Red circled adorned her eyes and there were traces of very light black trails down the sides of her face. Her legs were crossed and her hands were clasped together with her elbows resting on her knees.

"What's that?"

I pointed at the her closed fist that covered the charm from view.

"What?" Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked down. Suddenly her facial features softened and she opened up her fist, revealing the odd looking charm.

It was a circle, I leaned forward and saw a tiny dagger that stretched across the middle, lying vertically. Swirls that looked somewhat like vines swirled around the circle outline, some parts of it going off the sides of the ring shape. Reaching forward, I picked I turned it around to see the other side. Cammie watched me as I looked at the Latin engravings on this side. 'Frater Soroque Semper', 'Brother and Sister Always'.

Cammie's blue kaleidoscope eyes looked up at me. We didn't say anything. I turned back to give her some privacy. She followed me as she watched me leave the room. I stepped out of the door and into the hallway and her voice followed me answering a question that I already knew the answer to.

"My brother's."

Cammie's POV:

After Zach left, I lied there for awhile. I don't know why. I had little motivation to go out and face the world. I had skipped lunch, moping, which was an unfortunate thing to do, according to my stomach. It was about dinner time, so I headed down to the Great Hall.

Everyone was already there, digging eagerly into their food and chatting cheerfully, and lightly. Well at least that's what it seemed like, but things are never as they seem. I went to the front of the room in invisible chameleon style. People didn't notice me and if they did, they didn't care because the rest of the room wasn't paying attention either.

At the front, Grant was piling his plate with the main dish of spaghetti for tonight. I grabbed a plate and slid it up next to him. "Hey Grant."

He jumped a little bit and his face swung over to land his eyes on me. "Oh.. hey Cammie. You startled me for a second."

"Do you know where Liz is? I noticed she was missing from the table…"

His speech sounded kind of nervous. I wasn't exactly sure why. "I'm pretty sure she's studying or doing an experiment. I'm gonna go sit down… uhh… see you in a bit, Cammie."

I shrugged it off and put a decent clump of spaghetti on my plate and grabbed some blueberries and a cookie for dessert. I eyed the table where all my roommates and the Blackthorne boys sat. When I made my way over there, occasionally pairs of eyes would glance up at me really quick, hoping not to be noticed. When I finally got to the table, I clunked my plate down on the table and everyone had a slight jump.

"What is with you guys? I cannot figure out why you are acting like you're scared by every step I take."(AN: "Every step you take… I'll be watching youuu!" Guess the song?)

Everybody looked at each other and then at me. It finally dawned on me. "Ohhhh, you heard about that whole ordeal this morning!"

I burst into laughter at their nodding.

"It's fine! It's not like I'm going to hurt you!"

Some of them started nodding as it made sense and smiling at their silliness as they were laughing. I all of sudden stopped, "Well unless you join forces with Catherine, but let's hope that none of you decide to take that choice. The Geneva Convention doesn't apply to me." (AN: For all of you who don't live in the U.S. or have no idea what the Geneva Convention is, it's basically a set of rules on how we can treat people like prisoners - Basically no torture laws.)

They stopped laughing. I smiled and started eating.

At that moment, Madame Dabney came through the doors with Mr. Moskowitz following behind and carrying a big sack. He resembled Santa Claus.. without the beard, and a whole lot skinnier.

"Here is the mail delivery for the week," Madame Dabney gestured to a senior, "Could your grade please help pass out the mail?"

The senior nodded and the entire table stood up and grabbed letters to hand out. I wasn't expecting anything and was surprised as a senior approached me and handed me a normal letter, with a white envelope and a Richmond, Virginia stamp and handwriting I didn't recognize, but female.

I tore the envelope and got to the postcard that was lying inside. There was a picture of a fountain and the corner said Monroe Park. Curiously and suspiciously, I slowly turned it around. Looking up for a moment I saw everyone happily chatting, some with letter in their hand. Their cheerfulness about to be destroyed by the words that I saw on the other side of the postcard.

I got everyone's attention as soon as I scanned all the words on the postcard.

"Guys! Where is Liz?"

Everyone looked at me in confusion and I held my postcard up and began to read.

"Meet me here at 1 A.M. - oh and as your motivation, your sweet friend Elizabeth will die if you don't come. Cheers, Catherine."

I left out the last part for I was positive someone wouldn't want everyone to hear it. But everybody was shocked and my roommates jumped into action. Macey went straight to my aunt and Bex and the boys spread out to go look for Liz. I already knew they wouldn't find her. Catherine meant what she said, and wouldn't bluff on this.

Sure enough, 10 minutes later, everyone returned to my table where I was and the adults and reported the same thing: that they couldn't find Liz.

"Cammie, you can't go. This is a trap." Aunt Abby confronted me.

"I know, Abby, but Liz will die if I don't."

Uncle Joe decided to hop in on the family matter, "Cammie, Abby is right. I'll go with Abby tomorrow night to meet Catherine. We will handle this. You just need to stay here."

"But Joe, what if Liz dies because of that?"

My aunt interjected, "Camster, let us do what we do best. She'll be fine."

"But-"

"But nothing," Abby and Joe chorused together and I rolled my eyes.

Townsend stepped forward amidst the crowd, "I'll come too, where are you supposed to meet Catherine?"

I knew that I couldn't argue with them and so I gave up… "Arlington Cemetery, we had a fight back there one time and she told me we'd meet there again."

The adults nodded and left to go prep, leaving me with my frown that was placed on my face in the wake of the defeat of the argument. The frown that came with giving up.

But they are spies, they really should have been more suspicious as I succeeded to their wishes faster than I usually would. I was sloppy and they should have noticed. They should have noticed that the stamp on the envelope was from Richmond, Virginia. They should have noticed that the postcard said, "Monroe Park,". They should have noticed that when I gave up… I didn't give up at all.

Zach's POV:

I had an off feeling about what had come in the mail. It followed me around the rest of the day and I couldn't shake it off. My roommates and I headed up the stairs, leaving the girls to convince Cammie to go to their room and get some sleep.

Jonas went directly to his bed and climbed on it. He was stoic. I felt sympathy for him, he and Liz had gotten really close since the school year had started. The rest of us left him be and did our own stuff. I took off my shirt and exchanged my jeans for sweats. Nick and Grant did the same and we settled in our beds. I did a bit of language homework and we tried to give something for Jonas to focus on.

It was 2:00 and I still had a weird feeling. All of my suitemates were emitting a quiet and slow breathing noises, even Jonas who had the hardest time getting to sleep. The hairs on my arms rose and I had the itching feeling to get up and walk around.

Tiredly, I pulled on a t-shirt from my drawer and sat at the edge of my bed. I ruffled my hair and got up, leaving the light off as I snuck out the door. I knew that Jonas had woken up, by the increase in his breathing so just as I snuck out, I nodded at him.

I don't know where I was going or what I meant to do, but I just walked. Somehow I ended up outside the hall of the girl's dormitory hall. I heard the softest patter. If I hadn't stopped there I would had never heard it. I had suspicions and as I waited there, my suspicions were confirmed.

"Don't."

The figure in front of me stopped short and in a blink of the eye they were right in front of me, forearm pushing against my throat.

"C-ugh-ammie." I whispered at my attacker.

Her face lightened in recognition. She let off of my throat and gave a huge exasperated sigh. "Zach, what are you doing?"

In the dark I could see her slim silhouette through the light of the moon that streamed in from the window behind her. She definitely wasn't wearing her night clothes, unless she wore a full catsuit to bed every night. She was geared up for a mission.

"Don't go, let your aunt handle this."

I couldn't really see her face, but I could feel her looking at me, studying me with the strip of light that shined on me.

"You know I can't just let her do that, Zach," She softened, "I got Liz into this, and I have to get her out."

"Let me come with you. I can help, I know Catherine."

"I can't risk endangering you, Zach. I have to do this alone. It's not a choice for you or me. Spy code, remember it."

'One must never endanger a fellow agent no matter the circumstances' - CIA spy code, section 5, paragraph 2. I had memorized it in the beginning of the year, and I realized that it went noticed by Cammie.

I knew she had to go but I didn't want her to. She was right about the spy code, but my mother was vicious. There was so much danger in going to get Liz, but I knew she had to. That would be the only way that Liz might be safe.

"At least bring some type of back up," I protested again as she peeled away.

She turned around, and she smiled, well I think she smiled. "I'm the Chameleon, I'm all the back up I'll ever need."

With that, she disappeared into the darkness, leaving me in the empty hall with my thoughts and worries.

Cammie's POV

My car was in the restricted Gallagher parking. There was no way that I'd ever be able to get it out of here completely un-noticed. Even if I did, they would probably find out that I was gone sooner than I expected. I needed all the time I could get.

I know Gallagher like the back of my hand. That's how I knew that if I went to the shrubs outside to the gate and to the left, there would be a secret passageway with a bike right inside the entrance. I put it there when I was 12, for emergencies only. This counted as an emergency.

Rolling it out, I dusted off the seat and pushed off the cobwebs and I was off. Riding down the road in the very early morning to save my roommate. Guns holstered to my hip, ankle, sitting in the small of my back, and in my inner jacket pockets. I was ready for anything.

AN: Hey sorry! That took forever and I don't have any good excuses. Oops..? Well I wrote this and I'm pretty happy about it and I hope you like this. Okay this time I promise the next chapter will be faster because I have a whole bullet list of my plans for all events until the end. 3 - 5 more chapters probably and maybe a sequel? Or should I leave you guys hanging? Thanks for reading!

Racheloncer - Hey! You got it! But Chuck is way too good, I love it.

Review - if you want. -S (as in Solomon?)