Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2)

by Ally Carter

“Don’t worry, Cam,” Bex whispered. “It’s not that different from when we broke into Josh’s house.” I crouched at the air vent that would take us into the boys’ rooms and reached for the tiny bottle of hair spray that I keep for emergencies (just not of the hair variety) and sprayed the area around the grate. A grid of tiny motion detectors flickered in the fumes. “Yeah,” I whispered. “Just like Josh’s.”

Liz settled herself at the first computer she saw, pulled a disk from her pocket, and started uploading a spyware file that the NSA has been trying to buy from her for years.

retrieving the teeny tiny microphones that had bought me an A-minus on my freshman final. (They’re currently being used by the Department of Homeland Security.)

The Subjects do exhibit questionable taste in leisure activity capacity, since a search of their residence revealed NO television

If the whole spy thing doesn’t work out, the students from Blackthorne will surely have futures in the housekeeping industry.

I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think many girls fantasize about being a fly on the wall of a boy’s room. Well, let me tell you, the fantasy is seriously overrated.

I couldn’t help but wonder how a school for boy spies can exist so covertly that even a group of girl spies can’t find it.

a solid twenty percent of me wanted to spike Zach’s morning orange juice with truth serum and be done with it. (Actually, that was Bex’s idea, but we were saving it for an emergency.)

After all, normal girls probably know their parents’ story, but that’s not necessarily true for spy girls—spy girls learn early that most things about their parents are classified.

I couldn’t think of a single thing to say as I stood there drowning in the silence, struggling for breath while my head throbbed and Zach leaned closer. And closer. His hand reached toward my face, and for the second time that semester I froze. His finger brushed a strand of my hair away from my eyes, but then he pulled back as if he’d felt a shock. His hands slid into his pockets. His gaze fell to the floor.

“I’m saying you shouldn’t act like there aren’t any answers just because you haven’t taken the time to look for them.” “What am I supposed to do, Zach? I’m just—” “Just a girl?” he questioned me. Then he shrugged and sighed. “I thought you were a Gallagher Girl.”

So I hear we get to go to town this weekend. Want to catch a movie or something? –Z P.S. That is, if Jimmy doesn’t mind.

“I can’t do this,” I said, not really sure if I was talking about Zach or the push-up bra that Bex was insisting I wear (because push-up bras were invented for honeypot situations).

shrugged and said, “What?” defensively. “If you factor in pedestrian traffic routes, population numbers, and patterns of behavior, the answer is one hundred and eighty-seven to one.” But there was one thing not even Liz had learned how to quantify: fate. I knew I was tempting it. Again.

But talking wasn’t exactly easy, because I was with Zach….On a date-slash-honeypotting mission! I had a comms unit in my ear and a package of breath mints in my purse, and there was a 1/187 chance I would see my ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend.…I was dealing with a lot of issues!

“Just so you know, Gallagher Girl,” he whispered softly, “I’m going to kiss you now.”

Zach said a really bad word as he inched away from me. (But I doubt DeeDee noticed, because the bad word was in Farsi.)

Once is a stranger; twice is a coincidence; three times is a tail.

She shook her head. “I knew we couldn’t trust boys who keep their rooms that clean. It’s not natural!”

Still, our most precious resources aren’t behind our walls at all—they’re out in the world. Undercover. The real legacy of the Gallagher Girls lives not behind stone and glass but in flesh and blood.

Even in the dark I could see the relief that flooded Liz’s face. She was going to observe. It was maybe the most scientific assignment I could have given her, so she retreated into the shadows

“So that means Tina doesn’t have to sit on Grant?” Eva asked. “No. Tina needs to get off Grant.” (Tina didn’t sound at all happy about it.)

Zach looked at me like I was crazy, but then the door opened and I pulled one of the guards out by his collar. Shocked and dazed, he didn’t even realize what was happening as I knocked him out with one punch and slapped a Napotine patch on his forehead just to be on the safe side. “Nice one,” Zach said. “Did you learn that in P&E?” “No. Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”