Switzerland

Claren/Montreux, Montreux, Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District

Zach's POV:

On the car ride to the airport Cammie looked out the window and it seemed like she was contemplating something.

"What's on your mind?"

She sighed and glanced at me. "I don't know. It just feels more...real?"

I kept my eyes on the road but couldn't help but let my surprise show a bit. "What's this? You're talking like a rookie."

She let out a small laugh but it was one of disbelief. She almost looked disappointed in herself. I think the fact that I had pointed it out must have embarrassed her a bit that she avoided looking over at me and stared out at the freeway. "You're right. But something about this mission is off. I can't explain it but the number of people we're getting as backup...I mean you'd think there would be various teams tracking down this organization."

I stepped on the gas as I was beginning to feel the pressure Cammie was starting to shoulder. In an attempt to ease her worries, I tried to brush it off. Counterproductive, I know, but it was the best I could do at the moment. "Yea, well, you know the CIA wants to ensure that the organization gets brought down by sending their best agents. Nothing unusual there."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her glance at me. I could tell she wasn't convinced but we didn't push the topic. The GPS announced our exit was coming up. We would be there soon.

Once we arrived we waited by the exit and chatted about our school days. I couldn't help but laugh at her stories. "You've hit your head so many times. Do you think you've set a record?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "I'd be surprised if someone's hit their heads more times. So if you see me get hit in the head, it's not a big deal. Wouldn't be the first time."

I looked away, trying to stifle my laugh and regain my composure. It felt nice having a normal conversation especially after the one we'd had in the car.

"There you are!" I heard a female voice call out. I turned my gaze to see a girl running over to us. Behind her I saw Preston who seemed to be having a hard time handling all the luggage he had in tow. I looked at Cammie and she pointed at him with an amused smirk. I nodded and ran over to him and took some of the suitcases from him.

I glanced over to the dark haired girl who was happily chatting away with Cammie. I turn to him and flash him my signature smirk. "Aww. You've been demoted from agent to bellboy."

Preston rolled his eyes and gave me a fake laugh. "You're hilarious. You should've been a comedian," He set down the shoulder bag he'd been carrying. "The others shouldn't be far behind us. Macey was just excited to see Cam again. Anyway. Where've you been? It's been awhile Zachary."

I raised an eyebrow. "Not the government name." I turned to take another glimpse at the girls. Two more girls had joined them and I spotted Grant and Jonas making their way over to Preston and I.

"Zachary." Grant said as he practically tackled me. He ruffled my hair as he scolded me for not coming to see them after my last mission. I saw Jonas sigh and shake his head at me in disapproval.

He stepped forward and seemingly feeling tired of pretending to be mad, just smiled. "Long time no see. Did you forget you had friends?"

Grant stopped messing up my hair and just put his arm around my shoulder and pointed at me. "You think being one of the best agents out there finally got to his head?"

I shot him a fake offended look as the other guys just nodded and hummed in agreement. "Gee thanks guys."

"Maybe he broke his phone," Jonas teased.

Preston shook his head. "Maybe he hates us."

I sighed, making a pathetic attempt at fixing my hair. "I came back a month ago," I began to protest.

Granted pointed at me in a 'look at this guy' kind of way. "We're not worth his time, I fear."

I shot him a look of disbelief and it was my turn to ruffle his hair. "It's not like that. I've been on autopilot. I had a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Especially after that accident."

I saw them all wince at the mention of it. I don't blame them. I still vividly recall the way Grant had hugged me when I had woken up in the hospital. I could feel how worried and stressed he'd been. Grant's always been like family to me so seeing him in that state had been devastating. I even recall how he'd asked me why I was more worried about him rather than why and how I'd arrived at the hospital.

Grant cleared his throat as a way to break the tense atmosphere the mention of the accident had created. "We should get back to them and get a clear vision about what we're gonna do."

We all nodded. It was why we're all here after all.

"So. Are you boys ready?"

We all turned around to see the girls approaching our little circle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grant smile and the golden retriever energy that exuded out of him definitely raised some questions in my mind. I made note to ask him about it later.

The tallest girl, the girl Preston had been with, stepped forward and gave me a look I couldn't decipher. "My name is Macey McHenry. Nice to meet you, Zachary."

I raised my eyebrows. In part because this was the Senators daughter but also I'd just realized earlier Preston had referred to Cammie as 'Cam'. I think it's safe to assume they had met because of Macey. I nodded and glanced at Preston. Noticing my eyes on him, he just shrugged and smirked.

A petite blonde girl peered over Macey's figure and smiled. There was a bubbly kindness about her as she extended her out to me. "I'm Liz Sutton. I'll be your technical targeting analyst." I gave her a kind smile in return. Liz took a step back and looked over at the last girl who simply put her hand on her hip and studied me.

She grinned. "I'm Rebecca Baxter. You can just call me Bex."

Cammie glanced at her and shook her head, a smile easing its way onto her lips. "Be nice, Bex. Don't set him up like that."

I raised an eyebrow but decided to play along so I gave her my signature smirk. Bex rolled her eyes and began walking towards the parking lot. "Ok. Let's get this show on the road."

Cammie and I exchanged a look. "We're in good hands," She said as she glanced at her friends.

"I'd expect as much, Gallagher Girl." I gave her a pointed look. I heard Grant stifle a laugh behind me. I turned to look at him, playfully glaring at him. "Something you want to say Newman?"

Macey and Cammie exchanged a look before shaking their heads. Liz simply smiled at the unfolding chaos.

"I mean Gallagher Girl? Seriously?" I watched as Jonas shot him a judgmental look. I knew Grant saw that look and I nodded towards him, smirking.

"So pretty boy. What's your nickname?"

"British Bombshell."

I saw Macey give him a side eye. "Oh for gods sake."

Liz seemed to be trying not to laugh while Cammie had no problem laughing at us. "Better luck next time."

We arrived at the car and hopped in. The mission had been carefully planned out and everyone had their own partner: Bex and Grant, Liz and Jonas, and Preston and Macey. They would each be masquerading as a couple and had their own residences that were near the Clarks' residence. We drove them each to their new home and agreed to meet tomorrow at a safe house to discuss what we needed to do since we needed to give them time to settle down and let the jet lag wear off.

At the end, it was just Cammie and I again. As we approached the residence we quickly got into character and were greeted by Noah who welcomed us back. Evading him might be a bit of a problem as he's keeping tabs on us and our activities. Efficient for a butler but a pain in the ass for us.

"I hope you enjoyed your morning escapade today, sir." He smiled as he opened the front door. 'Escapade' was an interesting word choice. I'll have to keep my eye on him just in case. It's too early in the mission to have our covers blown, especially with the arrival of more CIA agents. I simply flashed him a smile as I led 'Emma' upstairs towards our room.

As soon as I shut the bedroom door behind us, Cammie plopped on the bed. "What an annoying guy."

I scoffed. "Tell me about it."

She looked over and managed to give me a tired smile. "So. What do you think about our team."

I walked over and sat next to her. "Are you kidding? 4 field agents and 2 analysts? We have an awesome team. We'll get this done in no time."

She smacked my arm, laughing a bit. "Come on. Don't jinx it."

"Superstitious much?"

"Maybe a little. And what about it?"

I laughed. There was something about the way she carried herself that was attractive. I couldn't ask for a better partner especially given the mission level. She brought a sense of normalcy amongst the secrecy of the job and I made a mental note to thank her once this was all over. We talked a little bit more before I decided to go shower.

When I walked back into the room, feeling refreshed, I saw Cammie looking down at her phone. She was holding it so tight to the point her knuckles turned white, her face displaying utter disbelief and a bit of horror. Seeing her like that reminded me of London and that stupid text so I rushed to her side and peered over her shoulder.

My eyes widened. She had gotten a message too. And this time the person confirmed my suspicions. They were aware of our mission.

The message read: Worried about the mission? I mean it's been going exceptionally well but it's too early to tell right? You're both so gullible or perhaps it's because you don't know. I just wanted to let you know one thing. This is only the beginning.

She looked up at me, alarmed. "We've been..." She looked around as if at a loss for words. I don't blame her. We haven't been here that long and with the classification of the mission few people would've been aware we were assigned to this mission at all. "Compromised?"

She sounded incredulous as she whispered the last word. She looked at me and shook her head. "We need to get this traced. This is a problem."

I nodded. "We should get Liz and Jonas on this but-"

"Did you get one?" I met her gaze. "You did right? In London?"

I swallowed and slowly nodded. Her gaze hardened but she didn't push any further. I knew she was upset but I also knew she would've done the same if she had been in my position back in London. "Do you think we have a target on our backs?"

She nodded and sighed. "This seems personal. A scare tactic. It's not unusual, I mean, we have people after us but that's because of who we represent and the information we hold. This," She held up her phone, "was meant to scare us because they have knowledge of our whereabouts. I mean think about it."

She was right. Had this been any other situation where people would want us dead it'd be because we had meddled in their affairs and even then their way of threatening would be by outright attempting to kill us. They wouldn't announce themselves to us like this. These messages were specifically directed towards us. I glanced back down at the text and prayed that we'd be able to track down at least the location they had sent the message from but I doubted we'd get that. It was likely a burner phone. It had to be because this would need to be sent by a sophisticated individual. How else would we explain how they knew our movements?

Either way this was a problem. We haven't been compromised, not necessarily. But if we get another message it'd be best to inform the Director. I doubt that this person is working with the R.O.F. but I'm not sure enough to discard the idea. Either way, we need to find out what the Clarks' were planning in order to gain further access to the organization. All we need is for Noah to hand us those files with their intended targets.

The Following Morning 10:00 AM

Switzerland

Claren/Montreux, Montreux, Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District

Cammie's POV:

This morning I received a text from Bex asking to find a location we could all meet at so we could gather intel and plan our next move so naturally we agreed on a safehouse. Zach and I had run into Noah as we descended the stairs. He quickly ran up to us with a sense of urgency.

"Good morning. I hope you slept well. I just spoke on the hone with an informant and they told me since you'll be hosting a party in four days, they'll send an agent with the information. You needn't worry about his identity, you're good friends with him. Is that all right or do you propose another time?"

Zach smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "That sounds fine."

Noah nodded before eyeing us. "Are planning on an outing?" I had to refrain from reacting at his poking around.

When it comes to his job, Noah's a bit too efficient but then again that's probably one of the reasons why the Clarks chose to confide in and recruit him. Escaping him in order to meet up with the others had been a hassle. Zach had played up the marriage act in front of him, talking about how he wanted to take me out to brunch before we got busy with our jobs. Noah seemed to understand and got the car around to the front of the house, wishing us a good day before walking back inside.

Zach and I had exchanged a look and the moment we sat inside the car and began driving, we let out a sigh of relief.

"We managed to escape," Zach said almost laughing in disbelief. "Do you think he suspects something?"

I rubbed my eyes, suddenly feeling drained after that exchange. "God I hope not."

Since we had all agreed to meet at a safe house closest to all of us, I gave Zach the location of the safe house I co-owned with Joe Solomon. Zach seemed to light up when I had mentioned Joe. He told me stories about how Joe had helped him escape the Circle, how he'd trained him to be the spy he is today, and most importantly how Joe had been like a father figure to him.

At the mention of that I had blurted out, "What about your real father?" The moment those words left my mouth I wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Who asks that?

Zach went quiet for a moment and I wanted to throw myself out of the car because I was sure whatever relationship we'd built I had just thrown out the window. Horrified, I glanced at him and he just smiled softly. "My mom, Catherine, hid his identity from me my whole life. Turns out she hadn't only hidden it from me, she'd hid it from him too. I'm sure you're no stranger to her mind games. Apparently Joe and my dad had been tracking her down and they'd cornered her in D.C.," He shook his head and let out a quiet bitter laugh. "They'd drugged her with truth serum in order to question her about her plans. Instead she smiled and pointed at my father, talking about how he's failed to catch her the first time and how he'd wronged her. She said he'd failed her and his son. That we looked so much alike. That's how she told him about me."

He glanced at me, studying my reaction. I shot him a small sad smile. "Yeah. That definitely sounds like her. She always has to have the last word, huh?" I couldn't say I was surprised because truthfully he knew what she'd done to me and he knew I knew her a bit too well to be surprised.

He nodded and focused his attention back to the road again. "Joe told me my father had gone into shock. He asked her several times if she was lying but under the serum he knew she wasn't, she couldn't. He'd asked Joe about me and he said it'd be better if he met me. Joe knows me too well though and didn't bring him along when he visited me at Blackthorn. He sat me down and explained to me who he was and how they'd found out. I was upset, I was angry and I didn't want to hear it and Joe knew that. When I calmed down he asked me when I wanted to meet him. I told him the next time he came around would be fine. That's how I met him. My dad promised me he'd spend the rest of his life making it up to me and, I won't lie, I loved him for it."

I couldn't help but smile as he spoke fondly of his dad and I was relieved his father was willing to make up for lost time, time they both hadn't realized they'd lost because Catherine had hidden it from them. However I caught onto the fact he hadn't disclosed his fathers identity, just the fact he was also a spy. I respected him for that, after all he's also a high ranking agent who's information is confidential.

We drove in comfortable silence after that and reached the safe house in no time. When we walked through the door, the others were already lounging in the living room, having made themselves at home.

A delightful smell wafted around the room and it was then that I truly realized how hungry I was. After all, Zach and I had skipped breakfast in order to be here.

"Who's cooking?" I asked as I sat down next to Bex on the couch.

"Me!" I heard Grant call out from the kitchen. I looked up in the direction of his voice and I spotted Zach grinning at Bex.

"Hope he didn't give you a hard time. He gets a bit hangry sometimes," He teased.

"I do not get hangry," Grant yelled out. Zach laughed as he began making his way over to him. I looked over at Bex, who simply smiled a bit menacingly and muttered, "A bit ?"

Liz let out a chuckle as she came over to hug me. It felt nice to just hold her like this because truthfully it had been awhile since I'd seen Liz. She quietly went on about how I needed to be careful and take care of myself. When I had asked her why she had emphasized my need to take care of myself, she angrily whispered about my pale complexion and the shadows beginning to form under my eyes. I knew where her worry stemmed from. Ever since my accident my friends seemingly began to walk on eggshells around me. When I'd argued I'd be been through worse, I was met with uncomfortable silence and Bex's sad smile.

"Sorry Lizzie," I smiled apologetically. "I've just been-"

Macey stood in front of me and handed me a cup, "Coffee deprived?"

I let the coffee's aroma enthrall me and I couldn't help but smile. "Oh my god, yea. I'm so sick of tea."

Macey smiled and sat next to Bex. They shared a look but I couldn't make out what it was supposed to mean. I raised an eyebrow but didn't comment and instead let myself enjoyed the freshly brewed coffee. I heard Bex snicker.

"Grant's hangry and Cam's coffee dreprived," Her eyes twinkled as she looked at me. I watched Grant pout as he began setting the table a few feet away, grumbling about how he's not hangry. Bex simply nodded but her smirk made it clear she didn't believe him for a second.

"Alright foods ready!"

Everyone crowded over the dining room table and for a while it felt more like a reunion between old friends having breakfast and making jokes rather than operatives who'd been carefully assigned to head this mission. Bex murmured something about Grant being a good cook and he had simply rolled his eyes, smiling. I made sure to take note of the little flush that decorated her features so I could tease her about her little crush later.

Eventually we all settled down and the atmosphere in the room shifted.

"So." Bex started. "What's our plan?"

Everyone wore the same expression. If this mission was going to succeed we needed our first steps to be executed flawlessly or else we risked failure.

"Do we have any intel? Maybe archives, files, people." Macey said. Everyone shook their head after all they had been given the same information we had been given. Then I remembered Zach and I's previous conversation with Noah.

Zach must have seen the realization dawn on my face and caught on to what I was thinking as he began to explain the party that would be hosted four days from today and that we would be receiving intel on a mission reserved for the Clarks. Not only that but we surely would be surrounded by R.O.F. operatives and others who were likely unaware of the Clarks secret business and reason for hosting such an extravagant event.

"This should be the perfect opportunity to gather some intel on potential targets and files. Not much is known and frankly we need all the information we can get. We're not working with much at the moment." Grant nodded over at Liz and Jonas.

"Lizzie, do you and Jonas think there's a way we can access their files? They probably have their own database, right?" Macey leaned over the table, studying the looks exchanged between our two tech analysts. After a brief non verbal conversation they seemed to reach the same conclusion.

Jonas nodded slowly. "Might take a while to find it but they surely have one. Anything digital is easier to handle compared to a physical paper trail."

We gestured at them and they went over to begin their set up. They settled nicely at the coffee table and began taping away, exchanging ideas. After five minutes found what we were looking for. Liz began chewing at her inner cheek, Jonas pursing his lips, brows furrowing. They shared a look and eyed us warily.

"Look..." Jonas began. Liz sighed, "We can hack into their files. There's just a teensy tiny problem. If we can't track it in 60 seconds we're doomed. The whole database on this computer will crash."

Preston's face contorted into a look of disbelief and admiration. "It's going to take both of you?" Liz glanced over at Jonas who merely nodded. Preston cleared his throat and continued, "Well. You're both the best in your field. We trust you."

Jonas chuckled. "I'd be offended if you didn't. Then our college dorming days of bonding would've been a lie."

Preston laughed at that, "If I wasn't so concerned about messing up your techie set up, I would've chucked this pillow at your face already. You're so dramatic. And people think you're so quiet and reserved, you're unbelievable."

Liz smiled as she studied her screen. "He'll be there as my precautionary backup. Now. Let's get this started."

We all nodded. We weren't as worried as we would've been in other situations. The CIA had sent the best of the best trusting all of us with this mission and we also had to trust them in return.

"I'm in!" Liz yelled triumphantly. We searched the Clark's files. We also came upon the guy who was supposed to deliver the file(s) to us. His name was Samuel Carter James. He was an operative of the R.O.F. He was one of the best spies (assassins) in the organization. He was a big guy. Black hair, brown eyes, broad shoulders, muscular, 5' 7".

"Plan A." Grant said. I'd heard stories of his skill when it came to tactical planning when we'd all first joined the agency. I peered over at Zach, who had his gaze fully focused on Grant. "We go to this guys house. Break in. Liz and Jonas hack into system stealing all his files. We fight if attacked. In and out. Is that fine?"

"It should be easy. We're all experienced in that considering it's standard proceeding in cases like these. During the night?" Bex asked. Grant nodded. She looked approvingly.

"When though?" Preston piped up.

"We have three more days not counting today." Zach said. Bex hummed in acknowledgment of our upcoming event.

"So we'll move in on our target tomorrow." Macey grinned. I couldn't blame her. As stressful as In and Out missions are, I miss the adrenaline rush of actually being out on the field and not just doing observation work. It was also a welcome distraction from those messages. This presents an opportunity to test out if this person really does know our whereabouts but for now I can't put my focus there because it's a possibility this person intends to distract me. My focus is solely on the mission at hand as it would be in any other scenario. With the lead we have, we can't afford to risk our identities.

It's been so long and I'm sorry. College picked back up again and it's been kicking my ass and I won't lie I've been putting this off due to writers block. Updates may be slow but I haven't abandoned this project. Anyway thank you for reading!

P.S. I'll probably write the rest in third person or maybe I'll alternate. We'll see.