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Chapter One

The water was still as alked beside it A single rower sliced through the channel like an arrow shooting out to sea, and I couldn’t help but stare after him, more than a little jealous

“It’s beautiful Isn’t it, Cammie?” I heard my mother ask She slipped her arm around my waist It felt sure Safe

But all I could do was muster a nod and add a not-very-enthusiastic “Yeah”

“Do you have an interest in rowing?” asked the man in the tweed cap and brown trench coat as acco Either that or a Sherlock Hol British acadeht on

“Caed me

“Oh Yes Sure Rowing looks…fun”

“Do you row at your school now?”

He sounded interested He looked interested But I’ve been trained to hear what people don’t say—to see the things that are better kept hidden—so I knew that Dr Holt was si his best to be nice

“No We do…other things,” I told him, and reminded myself that it wasn’t a lie I didn’t, however, feel the need to add that by other things I hetti and disarm nuclear bombs with Tootsie Rolls (Not that I’d done either of those things yet But I still had one seher Academy)

“Well”—he pushed his horn-rie is a very well-rounded university Whatever activities you enjoy, I’m sure we have them here”

Oh, I highly doubt it, I thought, just as my mom said, “Oh, I’m sure you do”

Dr Holt turned up a path, and reen, even in winter But the sky overhead was gray, threatening rain I shivered inside my down jacket I wasn’t as thin as I had been at the start of ht Despite the fact that Grandan had spent the better part of Christravy,My shoulders felt too s what had happened to her Girls aren’t always as strong as they need to be

“Ca me back to the moment “I said, what other schools are you—”

“Oxford, Yale, Cornell, and Stanford,” I said, rattling off the universities that Liz had put onthe question I’d only half-heard

“Those are all excellent schools I’m sure that if your test scores are any indication, you will have your pick”

He patted e-looking, average-sounding Airl My hair was in a ponytail, and busters on my chin and a couple of scars at s that hadn’t turned out so well

There was absolutely no way for Dr Holt to knohat I’d done over s can’t cover, and they were still there I could feel them And I couldn’t tell Dr Holt the truth—that I was a perfectly normal senior at the world’s foremost school for spies

“And this, Cammie, is Crawley Hall What do you think of it?”

I turned to study the big stone building It was beautiful Old Regal But I’d been living in an old, regal building since I elve, so I couldn’tfor

“Our economics department is world renowned Do I understand correctly that you are interested in economics?”

I shrugged “Sure”

“Can we go in?” Mom asked “Take a look around?”

“Oh, I’ain “The university is closed for our winter break I’ of an exception”

My ently on the ar us in like this As you knoe’re only in the UK for a couple of days, and Ca forward to it”

Dr Holt looked at me I tried and failed to mimic my mother’s smile as Dr Holt walked on

“And here we have the library Soht say it’s the jewel in our campus crown,” Holt added “We have the finest collection of rare books in the world First editions by Austen and Dickens—we even have a Gutenberg Bible”

He puffed out his chest, but all I could say was “That’s nice”

“Now, up this path you will find—”

“Excuse me, Dr Holt?” My mom cut him off “Do you think it would be okay if Cammie looked around on her own? I know classes aren’t in session, but et a feel for the place”

“Well, I…”

“Please?” my mother asked

“Oh, of course Of course” Dr Holt looked at me “What do you say, Cammie? Meet us back at the quad in an hour or so?”

Soe about that moment For months, there had always been someone by my side My htly) boyfriend So e for my mother to nod her head and say, “It’s okay, kiddo Go on I’ll be here when you get back”

So I stepped away, re o on One foot in front of the other, wherever the narrow path ht lead

Before I turned the corner, I heard Dr Holt say, “What a…charirl”

My hed “She’s had a hard year”

But Mom didn’t try to explain I hter used to be a real sweetheart, but that was before all the torture? So she didn’t say a thing, which was just as well Dr Holt didn’t have the clearance to hear it anyway