Confidentially Revealed

-CAMMIE-

New York was new territory for me. Sure, places like Budapest and London had become normal, and yet the overpopulated city was left out of my reach. Why? The Circle of Cavan was still after me. Let's just say that they had gotten the information they needed over last Summer, and no longer had a need for me.

"Cam," Bex snapped her perfectly manicured fingers in front of my face, "you're doing it again." I enjoyed hearing my best friends smooth and and accented voice. It was always stronger after spending some of winter break with her parents in London.

I mumbled back, "Sorry," and tried to keep up with her long strides in the crowded streets of cold and humble New York City.

"What time is it?" I asked some time later. She didn't even break stride when she answered, "You know what time it is."

"Just checking," I said back. Ever since I lost my memory last Summer (Yes, the Summer where I was tortured and beaten and shown to my fathers grave), I always felt like I still lost track of time. But some time after I almost jumped off the fifth story of the Gallagher Academy, my internal clock rebooted.

We walked down sidewalks and crossed streets for about an hour. Why didn't we get a cab? Because in Rebecca Baxter's opinion, it is much easier to lose a tail on foot. Besides, one can't really argue with a girl who had grown up wanting to kick James Bond's ass and assume his double-0 ranking. And when you know how to kill a man with a piece of uncooked spaghetti, that is not considered a joke.

Bex suddenly halted and scanned the crowd in a mere three seconds. "They're bloody late."

"By twenty-two seconds, Bex, they'll be here."

Almost as if voicing me over, a black SUV pulled up in front of us. A boy with dark brown hair and fair skin emerged from the front. When his piercing green eyes met mine, I tried convincing myself that they were not the reason I was having trouble breathing, but the polluted air around me. Although the smirk he always wore had become overly annoying, I couldn't help but smile a little, wishing I could go back to an elevator in D.C., when he was just another nice guy, and I was just a spy on a mission.

But, unfortunately, those days were over. The boy walked with purpose towards me, and at the last second, pulled me into a bear-hug. Only a lot stronger. The kind that you have to say 'I can't breathe'. But I didn't care. Not one bit.

"Did you miss me too much, Gallagher Girl?"

I spread my fingers out an inch and squinted my eyes.

"Zach, I don't care if you two spend the next hour curled up in each other's laps, but if you don't place Cammie inside that car in the next two seconds, you're going to wish you stayed in California."

The last time I had seen Zachary Goode was three weeks ago. Sure, it doesn't sound like a lot of time. Except it is, when your boyfriend's (And I don't use that word lightly) job is killing and being killed.

My smile suddenly disappeared, remembering only how lucky we were to even see each other. Zach rolled his eyes, "It is ever so nice to see you too, Rebecca," invoking the power of using her full name.

Before Zach lead me back into the car, he leaned down to level my small frame and placed his lips on mine. It was a blur of emotions in milliseconds. I wanted to let him hold me and protect me from the dangers lurking around the corner. But I'm a Gallagher Girl, we don't need others to do the protecting for us.

"I really did miss you, Cam," he whispered in my ear. It was on rare event he actually took to using my name.

From inside the car I heard two distinct "Aww's" and a very frustrated Bex counting down from five. Once inside, I found myself wedged in the back with my other two best friends. Liz's small voice perked up once I closed the door. "If my studies are correct," she started, but before she could continue on, we interrupted her in a chorus of, "They are."

"We should be at the hotel in eight minutes and forty-two seconds if Zach keeps milage at an average thirty-two miles per hour. But if you add in and count pedestrian traffic and stop lights and added four-way sections then I could recalculate to give you an average but just off the top of my head I think it would add three minutes and seven seconds, so we could be at the hotel in eleven minutes and forty-seven seconds."

As Liz rambled on in math speak, her hands kept reaching up to her blonde hair and tucking it behind her ear.

"So how was California?" I asked Macey. Yeah, Macey McHenry, daughter of the senator of the United States and of a woman who owned more chemicals for her face and hair than Liz had in the Labs for an experiment.

I admired her perfect ivory skin and almost black hair that was never once out of place, and could tell already that she preferred the house on Martha's Vineyard over tan and blonde guys surfing.

Macey scrunched her nose, reminding me of the stud she used to wear when she was still snobby and had no idea she was being accepted into a school for spies.

Zach responded from the front, "Evidently, it's always sunny over there."

"Evidently, I burn easily," Macey narrowed her round and crystal blue eyes. If there were someone who was more gorgeous than her, America didn't know it. The old Macey I knew had a strict 800 calories a-day diet, but now, she ate just about anything. And although she wore not a drop of makeup now compared to before, her face remained flawless.

Oh, how I had missed my sisters.