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It took an hour to reach it--the ruins of an old stone house that stood alone, cru at the top of the mountain

"I was here," I said

The ies in my mind were black-and-white and blurry, but I felt it inback, but they weren’t dreams And yet they weren’t quitewooden door and walked through roonize, listened to sounds I didn’t know Only the feel of the stones beneath ers was familiar

There was a cold fireplace filled with black logs and forgotten ashes It hadn’t burned in months, but I heard the crackle of the fire

Tls sat on a table, cold to the touch, but I could taste the food

I’d already broken free once, but there was soo

Townsend and Abby ordless, efficient Opening drawers, scanning floorboards They covered every inch of the old stone house until they finally huddled together and spoke in low, conspiratorial whispers

"Nothing," Abby told him "You?"

"This place is clean," he said

But I just turned to the small door that led to the narrow cellar stairs, and said, "Down there"

Zach was ath on the wall, barely peeking over the ground

"Coher Girl," he said "Don’t do this to yourself The Circle never leaves anything behind" My fingers traced the walls beside a narrow bed "They never use a safe house twice"

And then ers found the letters scratched into the mortar between the stones

CAM

Caan to shake as it pushed thethree more letters hidden below

MAM

Matthew Andrew Morgan

"Yes," I told Zach, my voice flat and cold and even "They do"

Zach couldn’t hold ent Townsend couldn’t stopin that hosts I was running to soh the door and out into the snow

The woods were alive with flashes and beats, ies that came in black-and-white, like I’d seen it all before in a drea the girl, a voice said

Show her what happens to spies who don’t talk

My s did They took me over banks and around pine trees My body was i, "Ca to keep pace behind , The least we can do is take her to her father

I skidded to a stop at the edge of the trees, exhaling foggy, ragged breaths, staring into the s--I knew it The outline of the trees was too precise, the corners too square to be randoround, and yet I knew that patch of earth I’d felt it calling tome back to that mountain

"It’s real," I said

Abby was behindfrom the altitude Zach tried to put his ar to do with the cold

When I began to say, "No No No," he didn’t knoas revolting against, not a memory, but a fact

"What is this?" Townsend was there finally, Bex at his side

But it was Macey who stood apart fro at a distance And that’s why she was the first to realize, "It’s a grave"

"No No" I fell to h the white

"Cammie" Townsend’s hands were ontoo

"Cammie!" Zach yelled, and pulled me to my feet and into his arms "Stop"

"He’s there," I said, the words blending into sobs "He’s there He’s there"

Abby didn’t screa in the snow

"It’s over" Agent Townsend reached for her He didn’t scold or scoff He just sainst hers, and said, "He’s gone"

Chapter Thirty-one

I know the theories behind interrogation tactics I’ve seen the tutorials I’ve read all the books In the part of , I knew that if the Circle had wanted to break rave to do it I stared at my reflection in theof the car that carried us back to school twelve hours later--at htht have worked

When the school gates parted, I couldn’t help but remember the first tiust after my father disappeared, and I had spent every day since wondering where he had gone and what had happened For years I’d thought that not knoas the hard part But right then all I wanted to do was forget