Free Classified Material by Ally Carter Page B

here?” Liz asked in her she’s so silly tone. “I should take it back to the room. She’s going to need this. She has to—”
     
    “Liz,” Bex said, reaching for her.
     
    “Cam’s going to need to finish her report, Bex,” Liz talked on in the manner of someone who doesn’t want to listen. Of all the things that Liz was good at, Macey knew, denial was possibly what she did best.
     
    What Macey did best was take action.
     
    Before anyone could stop her, she pulled the papers from the top of the case and ripped off the rubber bands that bound them.
     
    “She’s gone,” Macey said. Her gaze never moved from the words at the bottom of the very last page. “She left last night to find answers.”
     
    In the next instant, the pages were gone—out of her hands and into Bex’s. Macey watched Bex and Liz scan the final pages, memorize Cammie’s last words. But Macey was having trouble breathing. She wasn’t afraid, she realized. She was furious.
    And she wasn’t the only one.
     
    “What does Cam mean when she says Zach was right?” Bex asked, pointing to the words Cammie had written and turning to look at the boy beside her. His hands were clenched into fists as he stood silently, shaking. But he didn’t move to touch the pages.
    “Well, Zach,” Bex asked again, “what does she mean?”
     
    To a lot of people, Zach Goode probably seemed fearless. Having a mother who’s an international terrorist-slash-psychopath will do that to a boy. He had mastered the tough guy facade long before he and the boys of Blackthorne ever strolled through the doors of the Gallagher Academy. But Macey had always known better. Probably because Macey had always known boys.
     
    But when Bex moved toward him that morning, he seemed more fragile and damaged than usual.
     
    “Well, Zach, what does she mean?” Bex yelled.
     
    “I saw her—a few days ago. And we talked. I told her that she and I are the only people the Circle would hesitate to kill.” He took a deep breath. Sadness filled his eyes. “I told her that maybe we should run away together.”
     
    “You told her to run away!” Bex yelled.
     
    “I told her we could keep each other safe,” Zach tried to explain. “I never said she should take off on her own.”
     
    “Of course she was going to take off on her own!” Bex lashed back. “This is Cammie we’re talking about. Anyone who knows her would know—”
     
    “Stop it!” Macey snapped. “Just stop it! Both of you.”
     
    “I know Cammie,” Zach said, his voice low and even.
     
    “No.” Bex shook her head. “You don’t.” Then she whirled around and started for the headmistress’s office.

Day 1: Bex
    As soon as Bex reached the door, she regretted it. Sure, the operative in her knew exactly what she was supposed to say and do, but the part of her that was Cam’s friend found it almost impossible to raise her hand and knock. She might have stood there forever if the door hadn’t swung open and she hadn’t come face-to-face with her mother.
     
    Not Cam’s mother.
     
    Bex’s mother.
     
    And that was all it took to make Rebecca Baxter, toughest and strongest of the Gallagher Girls, want to cry. “Rebecca?” her mother said. Anyone else would have missed the way Bex’s eyes were a millimeter wider than normal, the incredibly subtle tremble of her lip. But there are some things that spies, and moms, and especially mom spies, never ever miss.
     
    “What is it?” Bex’s mom said. She didn’t move, however, until she realized that her daughter was not looking at her.
     
    “Bex,” Headmistress Morgan said. She stood just behind Mrs. Baxter’s shoulder, holding a cup of coffee, and Bex thought about the nightly vigil that Cam’s mother had been keeping at Mr. Solomon’s side.
     
    Mrs. Morgan’s eyes were red and swollen, her suit wrinkled. And right then Bex hated her best friend for running away and leaving the people who loved her to clean up her mess. Bex would have