Chapter 17: The Search Is On

Zach's POV

Solomon took a slow breath and rubbed his temples as he sat back down. He continued with a few breaths before returning to the audience in front of him.

"Ryker is… was Cammie's older brother." He clarified for both me and Liz.

"When Cammie was 15 and Ryker was 19, they went on a mission in Rome. I didn't ask about it, they would tell me if I needed to know. The thing is, Cammie came back. Ryker didn't. The official mission report that Cammie wrote stated that they had split up for recon and his comms went dark. She spent 3 days on his trail before he disappeared for good. They found something, I don't know what, but I have my suspicions."

"There's a rumor. We've never had any reason to believe it to be any more than just that. The rumor is that Hitler mass produced a substance called, HHS-19, a chemical weapon designed to target one person in a crowd, if modified with their DNA. His scientists supposedly came up with the perfect formula but didn't have the technology to modify it. Now we do, and if the rumors are correct, it could be used for complete chaos. Wiping out political figures, government officials. They say that Hitler kept a log of the locations he stored HHS-19 in, and that log is locked god-knows-where."

Abby's eyebrows were furrowed,"I've never heard about this."

"This investigation was locked down long before you became an agent. With Cammie and Ryker's clearance level, they probably stumbled across new information and looked into this. I wouldn't expect any of you to know about this. I doubt the president knows, the CIA has worked hard to keep this under wraps to prevent mass panic."

"I've heard of HHS-19. I didn't know what it was until now, but Catherine mentioned it to other Circle members on occasion." I spoke as I remembered countless times that I caught parts of hushed conversations, sneaking around the different Circle bases at night..

Agent Townsend then spoke, "What exactly do you think that they found?"

"My guess? The key and or the location of Hitler's log." Solomon sounded sure of himself. "That's what Catherine wants."

Abby chimed in, "If the Circle obtains this substance…"

She didn't have to say anymore. All of us knew that anything that happened would be serious bad news. Obtaining this substance would give them too much power. That's exactly what Catherine wanted.

"We need to find where Cammie is. Every second Catherine is closer to pulling the information out of her."

I winced at Agent Townsend's words. I've seen the "information digging" rooms. When I was 8, my mother decided to allow me a front row seat of the magic that happened behind that door. Much to my mother's dismay, I lost my lunch fairly quickly. After my punishment for that, I was careful not to eat before she invited me in until I became numb to the show she put on. Her favorite thing was grooming me to become just like her. Numerous times, she pushed me to take point during those little "meetings", as she said.

"Zach," Abby's words brought attention to where I was sitting, "Do you know any Circle compounds where they would take her?"

I cleared my throat, "There's a few contenders…"

Cammie's POV

My head was pounding. I groggily opened my eyes and brought up my hand to block out the light… Or at least tried to. There was a small draft that chilled me to the bone. My body softly shivered and I looked down to find leather strapping my arms and feet strapped to the cold metal chair I was sitting on. Fun.

There was nothing in the room except a TV. One of those old VCR ones, that were shaped like a big cube. It was on one of those racks that had the TV on the top and the VCR located below, with the wire connecting it to the TV. The ones that they use at school… One of my missions included going to high school and impersonating a student. Long story.

The door screeched open, "Oh perfect, you're awake!"

Catherine walked into the room sporting a bright smile, one that I doubted was fake. Her shoes clacked on the ground as she approached me. I stared her in the eyes, unwilling to back down even though she had already gotten the better of me. There was already nothing to do but hold onto my pride in defiance.

"I guess you're not very talkative today, sweetie."

I glared at her from my bound position on the chair. Every ounce of my being wanted to stand up and strangle her with the chain that hung from her neck. Of course, she smiles even more at my glare. I was hopeless for now.

"What would you like to start with today?" Her saccharine voice echoed in the room, "No answer? Show me some respect, sweetie."

With that she swung her foot up and knocked me across the face. Great. I especially loved the detail that she purposefully kicked at my nose and I was now bleeding onto my shirt.

"Still no answer? Well, I'll choose."

She skipped over to the door like a child, slipped out, and came back in with something much more sinister than her shoe. A rolling table slid in with no help besides herself, holding many things designed to bring grown spies to their knees. I surveyed the table as she started to choose a weapon, singing "Eenie Minnie Moe".

There sat an impressive display of knifes, some for carving some for skinning, a few guns, a tazer, bottles of… poison? There was a bottom rack with some machine with two wires sticking out with electrode pads at the end - the kind that they use in hospitals, shaped as squares and designed for electric shock. How fun.

"...50 dollars every day," She ended the childhood nursery rhyme with one polished index finger pointed at the bottom shelf. "Oh Cammie, this is one of my favorite toys."

I watched as she pulled a chair from the side of the room and placed it next to me. The machine part of the electrocution device was placed on the chair, and the electrodes were attached to each temple. A remote was nested securely in her right hand as she took a step back and admired her handy work.

"This is how we are going to play this game. I ask a question and you answer," Her lips pull back to reveal her bared teeth, "If you fail to answer or lie, a shock for you."

"Now tell me… have you ever been to Rome, Cammie?"

"A couple times…"

"Do you remember the mission in Rome, sweetie?"

"There was no mission in Rome." I denied adamantly without hesitation.

She cackled, "Wrong!"

The machine made a buzzing sound as Catherine turned a dial, looking both angry and amused. A fast click to the center of the remote she was holding released a zap that seemed to short out my brain as I spasmed slightly in the chair. My body relaxed and I smiled at her, causing her eyebrows to furrow.

"What'd you find in Rome, Cammie?"

"A few souvenirs to send home to the family… You know, the usual." I smiled innocently at her and gave a few blinks of my eyes.

She immediately turned her remote and tapped the dial before hitting the center button. Jolts ripped through my body, stronger now, shaking me even more as my body spun out of control, straining against the leather that bound my hands.

"You mean Ryker?"

I formed a spit ball in my mouth and launched it at her face, hitting her in the cheek. Ryker was too far, she wasn't going to bring him into this without my resistance.

Her hand reached to her cheek and wiped off her face before she turned the dial even higher and pushed the button. I think I blacked out, I couldn't be for sure. I faintly remember the leather digging into my arms and ankles as I strained and shook and spasmed. Now, I had to wipe the foam that was saliva off my face and onto my shirt.

When I regained my bearings, I saw her with a VCR, pushing it in the machine under the TV and setting it up. She got it in and the VCR on before standing up to turn on the TV itself.

"I didn't want to have to do this, but I need this to hurry along. Also, can't risk frying your brain before you tell me what I want to hear," She frowned at that thought. "I know you've had your own share of torture, but it's better if you truly learn what happens to spies who don't talk."

The TV flicks on at the push of a button and the frozen image suddenly caused my throat to dry. Flickering on the screen was a picture of my brother in the same position I was in, arms and ankles strapped to the metal chair. Mirroring each other down to the defiant but tired expression on our faces. His, although was a little bit more bloody and bruised - stealing my breath for longer than a second.

Out of the frame, a door opened and slammed closed. Footsteps walked into the room and Ryker's head lifted to glare at the person in the room.

"What do you want?" He growled and I wilted at the sound of his voice.

He sounded strong which differed from his physical appearance. I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them up again.

"What did you find in Rome?"

I recognized Catherine's voice. I glanced at her pleased expression and a bad feeling settled in my stomach. It didn't take an idiot to figure out the series of events that would follow.

"A couple souvenirs… I would have bought you some, but you picked me up too early."

His response was jarringly close to the one I had given Catherine myself.

"I know you found something."

No answer.

"Is it with Cammie?"

This one caused a glare from Ryker, "No. Leave her out of it."

"You're useless," Catherine scoffed, "Maybe I should get your precious little sister as motivation."

"She doesn't know anything."

"So you agree that there is something?" Catherine stepped into the right side of the frame.

Wisely, Ryker clamped his mouth shut. He looked so tired.

A knife appeared in Catherine's hand as she stepped closer to him. Ryker maintained eye contact as she got closer.

"Where's the key?"

"What key?" He weakly grunted back.

Her arm brought the knife forward as she lifted up his shirt. I watched the screen in horror. The tip was red hot and slowly being brought closer to the skin on his stomach. It grazed his stomach and his face paled as he scrunched his eyebrows together and pressed his lips together, trying not to scream.

She pushed harder and an inch of the knife disappeared into his abdomen. Ryker screamed out, with sweat dripping down his face. I wanted to plug my ears, to close my eyes, but I couldn't look away. The knife had started moving.

Screams of his agony filled my own cell as I suppose they had filled his. The horrible noise ongoing as she started to write on his abdomen. I could see the small amount of smoke from the burnt flesh.

It seemed like hours later when the screams stopped and the knife was pulled out for the last time. A fine sheen covered Ryker's face as he panted silently, too exhausted to lift his head up. Blood oozed onto his lap and covered his abdomen, dripping down the sides of the chair.

"A masterpiece." A pleased Catherine murmured from my side.

There were deep and jagged incisions but they were obviously purposeful. On the screen I watched as Catherine's hand dodged forward and wiped the blood off of my brother in order to reveal the words before the blood oozed again and covered them.

The video ended. I closed my eyes for a long moment. 'CG'. She had marked like some kind of animal or possession. I heard movement and footsteps coming closer to me. Hands took my shirt and lifted it up to expose my stomach.

My eyes fluttered open to watch a hot knife zoning in on my abdomen.

"Now you'll have matching tattoos, how sweet."

Zach's POV

I stared down at the whiteboard that sat on an easel in the headmistress's office. My lazy scrawl was highlighted on the board in a couple of words. I sat back as I watched Headmistress Cameron groan and stand up in order to grab a marker and cross out some of the words in my handwriting. This time she was crossing out the last few words on the board - North Carolina.

My fingers tousled through my hair as I strained through childhood memories. Everyone was looking extremely haggard. We had been working constantly since Cammie was taken 62 hours ago. The longer it took to find her, the more torture she would endure and the more information Catherine could get out of her.

It seemed that every moment of the day was spent with my veins bulging out on my forehead, waiting for good news. I had assumed mother would want to take her somewhere near, with a higher level of security. Somewhere that people had limited knowledge of. I had written on the board: Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina.

I have to admit, some of these places were a stretch. It was hard to recall the different bases and their characteristics. It was overwhelmingly disheartening to have it scouted out and conclude that she wasn't there.

"Zach, it's alright, you just have to remember." Headmistress Cameron urged me on, "Just think."

"I am," I nearly growled in frustration and surely enunciated my words singularly and loudly. "It's been such a long time - the bases I've told you about are the only ones that come to mind. Even now, it feels like I can't think clearly - everything is riding on how well I can remember my childhood. Whether Cammie lives or dies seems to be on my shoulders."

The headmistress and I were the only ones left in her office and the silence overtook us. She knew it to be true, I had been stuck in the office trying to remember and the rest of the people had taken up different jobs to try to help. Liz had commandeered her roommates and headed to the library to look in Gillian's journals. They were desperate to find Cammie and that was the place that Liz knew she could help. Mr. Solomon had taken to scouting out the different bases, as well as Agent Townsend.

She sighed, "It has to be somewhere away from the rest of the population, very secluded because the building itself would be bound to draw attention…" Headmistress Cameron abruptly stood and walked to the whiteboard and took the eraser, frantically erasing everything on the board."There would be high security…"

The cap of the marker and untwisted off with a pop in her hands before she turned to the board, making a bullet list. She wrote down a quick notes of 'extremely secluded', and 'high security'.

I interrupted right there, "It's probably smaller and extremely top secret." I paused a moment, "None of the Circle captives would know anything about it. The important ones would have already taken the steps to escape or commit suicide before we got the information."

She nodded at me and wrote down notes of that in bullet points. "We also know that it would be somewhere that would be recently more active than usual. I can check with some of our Circle implants but that will take awhile."

We didn't have enough time as it was. "Somewhere not too far away, they wouldn't want to transport her very far and I know Catherine would be too eager to start on the interrogation. Write down: East Coast."

Headmistress Cameron obliged. "Zach, think about personal preferences. We know a lot about the type of place we need to be looking for, but where would Catherine prefer."

"I'm not sure if you noticed, but Catherine and I are far from 'close'."

"Close your eyes," I did as she commanded. "Do you remember anything - vacations or even pictures or art in personal quarters?"

The dark of my eyelids settling over my eyes allowed me to imagine the various bases I've lived in. I remembered the gray walls and the constant working. Her cruel face demanding a better outcome in my actions rather than my silly play. California, Germany, Kansas, North Carolina, Maryland, London, Belfast, Athens, Vermont, Toronto.

"We were in the bases in the North most of the time," I spoke knowing it to be true as the words spilled out of my mouth, flashes of coats and gloves to protect from the cold. "Catherine welcomes the numbness from the cold."

Headmistress Cameron quickly scribbles 'North' on the board. She turned to me, "We're getting somewhere. Think, Zach. A small base."

The door to her office opened and the 3 girls entered the room, Liz holding one book in her hand. "We didn't find much of anything in the journals."

"But what did you find?" I took the opening that was placed in her short statement.

"There were mentions of a secure stronghold being built," Macey answered, "Gilly talked about needing to watch the place and how it could be the Circle's asset."

The headmistress eyes squinted a bit. "Nothing about the location, no hints or code?" Solemnly all three girls shook their head. "That's alright, we know that this could be the location and the building would be old."

I squeezed my eyes shut and searched through memories of a different life. I pictured roaring waves smashing into jagged cliffs and storm clouds pouring rain over the ancient fortress - built of stones that were slowly falling apart as they chipped and chipped.

"Zach?" Bex had obviously taken in my expression.

"Maine," I said growing more sure of myself, "We need to go to Maine."

AN: Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews. I'm glad to see some people have stuck around even though it has been quite awhile. I can only hope that more people come back to read the story once again. Once again, I would love to hear from you, your critiques, suggestions, favorite parts, least favorite parts, hopes for the future of this story. I'll respond to all that comment with their username and answer any questions at the end of next chapters from guest reviewers.

-S as in Sully, our beloved blue and purple animation monster.