I turned back to the window, stood staring out at the shadowy grounds. They need him alive.
"We're going to get him back. We have to get him back." I felt my roommates looking at me like was crazy, but I turned to Zach. "Where would they take him?"
"I don't know."
"Don't lie to me, Zach. Don't tell me you don't know things, because you do. Now where would they take him?"
"I don't know! Do you think I'd be here if I knew?"
I've seen Zach in a lot of lights, but in the early morning haze, I saw him as he really was: a scared, parentless boy with absolutely no place to turn.
"What about the man the CIA has in custody - the one who shot Abby?" Macey asked.
"He might know."
But Bex was shaking her head. "He's compromised. No way the Circle is using anything he ever knew about."
"So that's just . . . it?" Liz asked. I could see it weighing on her. There were no databases to crack, no satellites to hack into. I thought about Mr. Solomon and his insistence that technology is a crutch, and a real spy should always be able to walk without it.
"Mr. Solomon would know," I admitted softly. "I wish we could ask him."
The room was quiet in the gray light of early morning. The school still slept. No one was jogging across the grounds. We were alone when Zach whispered, "Maybe we can."
* * *
"What do you mean there is a second journal?" Bex asked ten minutes later. She was looking at Zach, and Zach was looking afraid.
"The one Mr. Solomon hid in Sublevel Two was your dad's Cammie. If anything ever happened . . . it was supposed to go to you. It was your dad's, so now it's yours. But Joe kept one too. It goes all the way back to his time with Circle - all the way back to Blackthorne."
Zach stood at the windows, squinting against the slowly rising sun.
"No one had ever known more about the Circle than Joe. He started writing everything down as soon as they recruited him. And then when he realized what they were, he kept writing because . . . well . . . he knew something like this would happen eventually. He said if I ever needed it, I should go get it."
"Go where?" Macey asked.
Zach looked at the four of us for a long time before taking a deep breath. "Blackthorne."
I know it will sound crazy. I know you won't believe me. But I that split second I ran through every scenario I knew - calculated all the odds. It was an informed decision that made me say, "We'll go get it - right now. Before everyone is up. "We'll -"
"We?" Bex cut me off. "You think we should . . . what? Jump into Liz's van, drive all night, break into a top secret facility, and, oh yeah, take you away from the safest place in the world?"
"Think about this, Cam," Liz said. "We don't have to go anywhere. All we have to do is tell your mom, and she'll call the CIA and -"
"My mom's not here, remember? And you read Dad's reports - you know the Circle has people at every level of the CIA. Mr. Solomon knew he couldn't trust just anyone with this, and neither can we."
Bex shook her head. "No. It's too risky."
"It's not that risky. We drive up, get the journal, and see if it has any clues about where Mr. Solomon is. It's not like we're going to break him out by ours -"
"What?" Bex and I snapped at the exact same time, turning to stare at Zach, who was giving us the oddest look.
"Nothing." He crossed his arms and shrugged. "I was just wondering when the two of you switched bodies is all."
It was true. Bex was not supposed to be the cautious one, the careful one. But then again, a lot of things had changed on that bridge.
"I have to do this for him, Bex. I have to do something."
The sun was coming up over Roseville. I'd never seen it from that window, but it was especially beautiful with the early morning rays reflected in Madame Dabney's finest crystal. In that moment and that place, almost anything seemed to lie within our grasp.
And maybe that's why Bex smiled. "Well, I have always wanted to see Blackthorne."
I looked at Liz. "I just tweaked the van to incorporate solar technology. It really needs a road test for statistical significance, you know."
"Us versus Blackthorne?" Macey said with a smile. "Yeah, I'm all for that."
I don't know how to explain it, but right then, things seemed okay. Our mission was clear.
We could go to Blackthorne.
We could get the journal.
Then we could find a way to bring Joe Solomon home.
Yes, in that moment everything was okay. But, of course, that moment could not last.
I remember the sound of the door as it swung open, the shocked, surprised look that crossed each of my roommates' faces as we turned to see the slim, dark silhouette that stood in the open doorway and said, "So when do we leave?"
My mother took two steps forward, then turned to stare at Zach. "Didn't I tell you to stay in my office?"
Chapter Thirty-Six
THINGS THAT REALLY, REALLY SURPRISED ME
ABOUT THAT PARTICUALR ROAD TRIP:
1.That it happened. At all.
2.That it happened with a boy.
3.That of all the people in the van, Bex spent the most time driving.
4.That after a whole day in a vehicle with nothing else to snack on, a person really can sick of Peanut M&M's.
5.That even while sleeping in a van, Macey McHenry's hair never gets messed up.
6.That no one mentioned Mr. Solomon's name, not even once.
7.That no one talked about where we were going.
8.That four Gallagher Girls were playing hooky and missing an entire day of class (even with our headmistress's permission).