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"Am I?"

"What does Rome mean?" Zach asked

"Someone tell me," I demanded

"About a month before your father disappeared, he called --more excited than I’d heard him in years He didn’t want to tell Joe or even yourthe Circle down Those were his words: ‘Bring the Circle down’ And he wanted me to come meet him--to help him But I was late…" She turned to look out the"He was calling me from Rome That’s what Rome means"

"Matthew didn’t disappear for another four weeks, Abby My husband did not disappear in Rome It is not your fault"

"He wanted me there, Rachel Whatever it was, he needed ain, fresh e, Macey" Zach stood and walked to the bookshelves "We don’t"

Liz looked at him as if he were crazy "But it’s a clue It’s a piece of the puzzle, a--"

"Risk," I finished for her "It’s a big risk" I looked down at the envelope with its frayed edges "I’ risk"

"But…" Liz sounded utterly confused "We went to the cabin and we found this It has to "

"We went to the cabin, and the Circle found me" I took a deep breath "And then I killed someone"

"But…" Liz started, and then realized that even she didn’t kno that sentence was supposed to end

"They sent so people until they succeed"

I watched Bex, saw her weighing the risks and rewards in her mind, butto have to think about this" She stood, gently cradling in her hands the siven her

"But--" Liz started

"But they don’t needis different now that they don’t need

"Go to class," Abby said "We’ve got a lot to think about"

Chapter Twenty

We left the package in my mother’s office, but the memory of it followed us everywhere ent for the rest of the day

I doodled the postmark all over the back of a pop quiz fro and rewriting the address (but that worked out okay because I riting it in Swahili)

By the ti that I couldn’t shake from mythe words on the label

The classroom was totally empty--just my friends and Zach and me

"It’s one of Joe’s aliases," Zach said with a shrug of his shoulders "Technically, the cabin belongs to Mr Rozell He pays taxes and has a valid local driver’s license and makes an annual donation to the volunteer fire departet into town very much"

Bex smiled slowly "Mr Solomon is awesome"

"Mr Solo into my seat in the almost empty roo any of us needed was a reminder

"No I mean Mr Solomon is in a coma--and I knew that I would have known he wasn’t there Why would I send so to an e there to get it" When Bex spoke, it was as though the girl who had shouted at me in the forest was a million miles away, shattered by a sniper’s bullet, washed away like the black of ain, e back," I repeated as, one by one, the rest of the senior class filtered through the door and took their places all around h, until I heard Professor Buckingham say, "Good afternoon, ladies Mr Goode"

She didn’t look like a woain, I think clandestine rendezvous are probably what Professor Buckingham does best

"Today our friends at the FBI have asked for a baseline assess technical irl in every row, and slowly they passed the rest back "So if you will follow ham said when I raiseddown at the stack in my hands Our names ritten at the top in bold, black letters, but my name was nowhere to be seen