“Don’t mind me,” I said. “I’m just the person who tried to rob the place last July.”“No, you diddn’t,” Abby said, appearing on the roof. She was wearing a trim suit and tall black boots. Her hair was pulled into a sleek ponytail at the nape of her neck, and either i was imagining things or Townsend wasn’t quite as good a spy as I thought, because I could have sworn I saw him drool a little.Note to self: your aunt is a hottie.”

“Excuse me, Abigail, but whose shift did she get away during?' Townsend asked with a glare.'Excuse me, Townsend, but who was supposed to booby-trap the doors?''I'm an agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service,' Townsend said, indignant. 'I do not do booby traps.”

“Abby must have been the one who found the safe house, because Townsend didn't like it."The building across the street is under construction," he snarled as soon as we'd carried our bags inside."The elevator has key card access, and I've hacked into the surveillance cameras from every system on the block," Abby argued. "We have a three-hundred-sixty-degree visual.""Excellent." Townsend dropped his bag. "Now the circle can see us from every angle.""Don't mind Agent Townsend, girls," Abby told us. "He's a glass-half-empty kind of spy.""Also known as the good kind," he countered. Abby huffed.”

“Cammie's going to be mad she missed this," Macey said to fill the silence."Excuse me?" Hale asked."Nothing." She shook her head. "I just... I have a friend who really likes air vents. And dumbwaiter shafts. And laundry chutes. Of course, the last time I was in a laundry chute, Cammie and I fell about a dozen stories...""Well, that sounds like fun.""It was either that or get kidnapped by terrorists, so I guess we got of easy.”

“Ambassador Winters, allow me to introduce my aunt Abby and her....boyfriend.' Townsed tensed. Abby glared. And Rebecca Baxter looked like she was going to choke on her chewing gum.”

“I wanted to pull away, remind him that I was a big girl, a highly trained operative, a spy - that I'd been training for this mission my entire life, and I wasn't going to be left on the sidelines. But in the dim space with Zach pressed tightly against me, only one thought came to mind. I kissed him - longer and deeper than I ever had before. The school was not watching us this time. There was nothing playful in the tone. We were just two people kissing as if for the first time, as if it might be the last. And then I broke away. "So," I asked, as if I got kissed like that all the time (which, believe me, I don't), "where is it you're taking me again?" "The tombs.”

“I suppose you should her it from me that I met your mother" he smiled a litte sadly. "well. . . When I say met I mean one time I tried to kill her." "Do me a favor" Zach's voice was low and dark and dangerous. "Next time don't just try”