“I will survive, Ms. Morgan. Thank you for asking.”
“No,” Abby snapped. “Cameron Ann Morgan, don’t you sit there acting like you’re so sorry. I’m not even going to ask the four of you why you’re here. I don’t care. What were you thinking—stumbling into a live op like that?” my aunt asked, but all I could think of was how she’d been when she first came to my school. Cocky and easy and fun. She’d grown up. And I guess she wasn’t the only one.
Bex shifted in her seat. “We didn’t know it was a live op.”
“Well, you should have known.” Abby had her hand on her hip. She sounded like my mother. “You all should have known better. You’re seniors. You should realize by now that everything you do comes with repercussions.”
“How were we supposed to know you’d be there?” Macey challenged. She crossed her long arms. “All anyone ever says is Don’t worry about Preston. Preston isn’t in trouble. We won’t let Preston get hurt.”
“And we didn’t,” Abby countered. “We had eyes on the embassy at all times.”
“So that you could take him!” Macey shouted, and, for that, not even Abby had an answer. She and Townsend shared a look and, I’m not going to lie, it kind of scared me. Macey must have seen it too, because her voice changed. Anger morphed to terror.
“Where is he?” she asked. “Where is he right now?”
Townsend shook his head slowly. He ran a hand through his hair and took a seat. I watched my aunt lean ever so slightly against him.
“We don’t know, Ms. McHenry,” he said.
“You’re lying,” Macey snapped.
“We would lie—if we had to. But we aren’t,” Abby said with a shake of her head. “All Circle operatives are held in a high-security facility, the location of which is need-to-know, and we don’t know. I can promise you that.”
“I don’t believe you,” Macey told her.
“That’s fine.” Abby shook her head. “But I’m telling you the truth. He’ll be okay, Macey. It’s normal. It’s protocol.”
“Protocol for what?” Bex asked.
“He’ll be questioned, along with his father,” Townsend said.
“Questioned…” Macey started. “You mean, interrogated. You mean, tortured.”
“He’s in the authorities’ hands, girls,” Abby said. “He’ll be fine.”
“Like Cammie is fine,” Macey said, then glanced at me. “No offense.”
“None taken,” I said. “I think.”
“We aren’t the Circle, Macey,” Abby told her. “We’re the good guys.”
Macey crossed her arms. “Forgive me if I have my doubts.”
“What about Preston’s mother?” Liz asked.
“She’ll be questioned too, I’m sure,” Townsend said. “But the Circle doesn’t exactly admit spouses, so I doubt she knows anything. She’ll stay at the embassy for now.”
“That man…in the van with Preston’s father—” I said.
“His name is Max Edwards,” Townsend filled in before I could say anything more. “He used to be with Interpol.”
“I remember him. I met him two years ago at the career fair. He told me he knew my father.” I thought about the man who had given me his business card during my sophomore year. He’d looked at me that night like he saw through my chameleonness. He’d looked at me that way again that afternoon. Something about it made me feel uneasy, vulnerable. Naked.
“I don’t doubt it,” Townsend said. “Edwards has been in this business a long time. He knows everyone. That’s why he’s heading up the task force.”
“What task force?” Bex didn’t even try to hide the skepticism in her voice.
“Seems the intelligence community is finally starting to take the list seriously, girls,” my aunt told us. “Edwards is in charge of a brand-new task force that has just been put in place. It’s not big. Just a few key agents from the CIA, MI6, all the usual suspects. They’re supposed to track down the Inner Circle. Not that it’s going to be easy. But they’re going to try. And if today is any indication, they might just succeed. Winters is the first Inner Circle member to be taken alive, after all.”