"How is that possible?" yells Diana, whirling towards her father in shock, fury written all over her face.

Her cheeks are red, and her teeth are clenched so tightly together that I fear she will never be able to open her mouth again.

When we got back to the Mar the first thing Diana demanded was to see her father. When we made it to his office, we found Team A, Mara, and Jayson and Cassie all sitting around and chatting while they kept an eye on Khan, who was too busy looking at his computer to notice much else. Diana slammed the door closed with such brute force that I was surprised it didn't fly off its hinges, but it sure did cause the President to jump. He smiled at first, but then he noticed her outraged expression and stiffened. Now we all watch as Diana paces in front of her father, watching him like a predator would its prey.

"Diana, sweetheart, calm down," says the president, reaching out to try and soothe his daughter. But she moves away from him, flinching as if he'd burned her, putting her hands up and leveling him with an icy stare.

"Calm down?" she looks at the floor and laughs.

"Calm down!" she shouts "You expect me to calm down when I learned that my uncle, who is supposedly dead, has miraculously come back to life, and has been murdering innocent people? And you didn't think to share this little piece of information with me? You didn't tell me anything, nothing about how Elite's basically have a target painted on all their backs, or the pain they were all suffering because of our messed up family?" She spits at him, words lined with poison.

"And how was I supposed to know that Dominic was alive?" Roars the president, watching his daughter with sorrow in his eyes. "I had to watch him die Diana, my brother! Do you think I wished for any of this?"

Diana groans in frustration, burring her hands in her hair and pulling at the roots, before she turns her anger towards the person closest to her. Me.

"And you," she says, pointing an accusing finger at me, poking me in the chest so hard it hurts.

"Brianna," she seethes, as if my name has personally offended her. "All this time, you have been lying to me. Has our entire friendship been a lie? Did you just try to get close to me so you could spy on my father? This," she says, gesturing between the two of us, "this is why I don't trust easily. I was stupid to think that this time would be any different."

Hurt starts to shine through all the anger, and I swallow at Diana's accusations, taking her blows with as much dignity as I can. But on the inside, I am hiding behind a wall of shame, because everything she is saying is true. Except for one part, one key component to this entire situation.

"I never meant to hurt you," I say softly, not wanting to raise my voice and worsen the already bad situation. "I really do think of you as a friend, and I'm really glad to have gotten to meet you."

She snorts, smiling, but there is no warmth behind it.

"Well I'm starting to regret ever meeting you."

Ouch.

I can't say that didn't hurt a little. Cassie, who had been listening in on our conversation squares her shoulders and steps in front of me, standing eye to eye with Diana.

"Well that's your loss princess, because Bri is the best person you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. You should feel honored just for standing in the same room with her."

I put a hand on my best friends' shoulder before she continues, stopping her in the middle of her rant. She turns to me, frown etched into every feature. I convey to her with my eyes that which I cannot with words, my gratitude for her being here, my feeling of relief for her standing up for me, but also the need to solve my own problems myself.

"Thanks, Cass, but she's right," I mumble, "I did get close to her as part of the mission."

I turn to Diana, making sure that she sees that I'm being completely honest with her.

"But I do not regret using you as a part of it, because it still gave me an excuse to get closer to you and to get to know you, and the person I met seemed pretty amazing in my eyes."

The fire behind Diana's eyes seems to disappear, and her shoulders slump as the tension starts to leave her body bit by bit. She sighs, covering her face with her hands, and sinks into one of the many chairs surrounding her father's desk, who comes up to place a hand on his daughter's shoulder. This time she doesn't jerk away.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, looking at me through her fingers before she runs her hands through her brown hair and lets them rest against her neck, leaning her head back to stare up at the ceiling.

"I'm just so confused."

"And that is understandable Miss Khan," says Daniel, directing himself to the upset girl. "Which is why I believe it would be beneficial for you to come back to our compound with us. Our director will be able to inform you about your uncle much better than we ever could, and he can bring you up to speed on what has been happening with the Elites."

Khan looks like he wants to oppose to my mentor's suggestion, but one look from Daniel has him closing his mouth and hanging his head in defeat. He looks at his daughter, who is staring up at him expectantly, and nods.

"Will I need to take anything?" She asks, looking at me hesitantly.

I smile at her, glad she is talking to me again and not spitting nasty words in my face.

"I don't think so," I reply, but then think better about it.

We don't know how long Diana will be staying at the compound, probably until we catch her uncle and the council decides what to do with him. That could take days, or it could take months.

"Maybe pack something just in case, we don't know how long you will be staying with us. Until all of this blows over I assume," I say, correcting my previous statement.

She nods, chewing her lip like she wants to say more, but she decides against it, brown curls flying as she turns around and walks out of her father's office. I watch her go, feeling someone walk up next to me.

"So, your friendship is saved?"

I look at Cassie, finding comfort in her familiar green eyes. She smiles at me, and that is all the incentive I need to launch myself at her, burying my face in her shoulder inhaling her familiar scent. Lilacs and honey, her favorite shampoo.

"Hey, careful," she says, "don't knock a girl over!"

I squeeze her even tighter, making her laugh.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you," I say into her shirt, and I feel her hair tickle my neck as she moves her head.

"Oh I can imagine," she says, and I can practically hear the smile in her voice.

I let go of her, studying her for a second before glancing at the rest of the group.

Khan is looking tired, more wrinkles appearing on his face as he frowns and rubs his forehead with his forefingers.

"I still don't understand," he says, sounding defeated.

"Why would he want to go to that factory, if he never intended to show up?"

Why indeed? Did he somehow find out that we were on to him, and he sent someone to deal with us, finding Anna and injuring her in the process? Or did he want to make sure the president wouldn't be at the Mar when they went after Diana at the orphanage so that she had no way of getting in touch with him? He hadn't brought a TekPad with him when we found him, which means they could have kidnapped her and been halfway across the country before he realized what happened.

"We can't worry about that now," says Mara, just as Diana walks back into the room with a blue and purple backpack slung over her shoulder.

"All we can worry about is getting this pretty lady," she walks over to the President's daughter and puts an arm casually over her shoulders.

"To a safe place. And trust us, the compound is the safest place she will be. The first place Dominic will think to look is here, so I would suggest you double security for your own safety, Mr. President."

Khan nods, walking up to his daughter and embracing her. I watch curiously as Diana stiffens in his hold, almost like she doesn't want him to touch her. Or maybe... because she's scared of touching him.

"Diana, before we go, there is one thing you should know," I say, wanting to get this conversation over and done with as soon as possible.

Of course she reacted badly to the fact I had given her a fake name and had lied to her, so I don't even want to think about her reaction when she learns that her father told us about her Gift. I much prefer to just get it over with now than have to deal with it later. Like ripping a band-aid, I would do it fast.

"We know you aren't a Norm," I say quickly, "we know about your Gift."

Diana's mouth falls open, and she springs away from her father, who looks like he has accepted his fate, standing up tall and staring at his daughter straight in the eye.

"You told them?" She asks incredulously.

But the anger I was expecting to lace her voice is not there. Instead I catch on to a feeling of dread, sadness, and mistrust.

"You promised you would never tell anyone."

Khan sighs for what seems like the one hundredth time today.

"I'm sorry," he says, "but the situation we find ourselves in forced me to tell them. They needed to now that I wasn't the one responsible for my brother's misdeeds, so I needed to tell them about my Gift. Or lack of, better said."

Her eyes widen when she realizes that it isn't just her secret that has been exposed, but her fathers as well. They stare at each other, father and daughter, probably wondering how everything could have gone so wrong in such little time. Daniel, who notices the tension in the atmosphere coughs, trying t draw their attention.

"We should start heading back. We have a four-hour drive until we make it back to the compound, and we don't want to be waiting around when Dominic is probably already on the move."

He's right. The sooner we get Diana to the safety of the compound, the better. That means Dominic will have a harder time getting to her. We all nod and together we walk out of the President's office.

"We will stay in touch," says Daniel over his shoulder, speaking to a distraught looking Khan, who is staring after us with worry in his eyes.

"Thank you," he says, before the door closes behind us.

As we walk through the maze that is the Mar Diana ends up walking at the back of the group, and I wait, knowing she wants to say something but is still mustering up the courage to say it.

"So," she starts, "this is the first time I get to visit a compound."

Her attempt at friendly conversation warms my heart and gives me some hope. Maybe our relationship isn't completely ruined after all.

I smile and bump her shoulder, which makes her stumble. She catches herself but seems relieved that I'm not mad at her. She doesn't know however that I was never mad at her, to begin with.

"Well," says Cassie, waiting for the two of us to catch up to the group.

"I can guarantee that you will love it," She exclaims, excitement in her voice. Just like Mara did before she slings an arm over her shoulder, drawing Diana close, who has to readjust her backpack to avoid it falling off.

"Tell me," whispers Cassie, trying to sound mysterious and failing miserably.

I laugh and watch as a shy smile makes its way onto Diana's face. Cassie sticks her tongue out at me and goes back to speaking with Diana.

"Have you ever heard of the Pentagon?"