Dropping Like Spies - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter Eleven

At the start of the year, Grandma had insisted that if I were going to spend my Fridays at Blackthorne, then I needed to be back by, at the very latest, Sunday afternoon.  That's why the boys dropped me off directly at the Gallagher Academy.  That's why Will and Bill were the only ones allowed to report back to Mr. Hughes, even though I had found most of the pieces to the puzzle.

So, yeah.  Maybe I was a little annoyed as we made our way up that long, winding drive and okay.  Maybe I was pouting a little bit, but I think that if a girl is denied seeing the look on her superior's face when she tells him what she's figured out, she's allowed to pout.

Grandma was there to greet me when we pulled up.  The boys said their goodbyes and pushed me out of the door, giving their most innocent smiles to my grandmother.  She shot them a smile of her own, seeming to warn them against taking part in any mischief that was undoubtably headed their way.  Or maybe, just maybe, she was encouraging them.  Someone had to keep Grandpa Joe on his toes, after all.  

They took off as soon as I slammed the door behind me, turning up the music loud enough to make the mirrors shake and honking their horn.

I flashed Grandma my best smile, but she looked back at me like she knew every little classified secret from my weekend.  My heart fluttered, wondering if maybe she did.  She knew everything.  "Maggie, sweetie," she said, using that voice that adults always used with me.  Concerned, yet entirely unsurprised.  "What happened to your face?"

Well, strictly speaking, the thorn bush that had assulted my face was classified and I wasn't sure how much Grandma was allowed to know, so I stuck to my story.  "Training execise."

She reached out to pull my chin in every direction, turning it to see all of the angles as she was trained to do.  I could practically hear the tsk in her voice as she spoke.  "You look like you narrowly avoided a knife fight."  She turned my chin again and I knew that she had found the longest cut.  "Scratch that.  There was no avoidance.  You look like you were in a knife fight."

"Who's to say I wasn't?" I teased, but Grandma didn't find this very amusing.  In fact, Grandma didn't look like she'd ever be amused again.

I tried to get a read on her, but far more experienced agents with far more resources had been trying to get a read on Rachel Morgan for years and I knew that I was joining the company of the unsatisfied.  I looked over her shoulder to the massive, pointed doors behind her, thinking about how her office was on the other side and very much not on this front lawn.  "Grandma," I started, trying to figure out how a woman as busy as she was had found the time to meet me at the car and why she had felt the need to do so.  "Why can't we go inside?"

She nodded ever so slightly, a smile almost breaking through.  Like she should have known that little Morgan Ann would be able to spot a shadow when she saw one.  She let her hand fall, standing up straight as she said, "I wanted to meet you out here before you saw Alice."

Something in my chest barreled over and my mind automatically flashed bak to a cold night in Sublevel One, my best friend's neck snapped and her breaths gone.  "What is it, what happened?"

I took a step forward, but Grandma grabbed me as if she'd known exactly when I'd start to run.  "She's fine.  She's not hurt, but something has happened."

"What is it?" I asked immediately, not wanting to let my mind linger on the possibilities.  That's always the worst part about getting bad news.  There's always those few seconds when every last one of your worst nightmares are suddenly true.

"It's Ellie," she said.  "Ellie Sutton has missed a few call-ins—"

"How many?"

Grandma's expression didn't change.  It was the perfect poker face of a trained Gallagher Girl as she said, "Three."