And I didn't choose it, Kat. I chose you.

...maybe it's only fitting that relationship that started with a lie would end with one.

...nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).

Not knowing you can't do something, is sometimes all it takes to do it.

The whole summer lay ahead of us-time to rest, time to wait. And when the future comes-no matter what comes with it-I'll be smarter. I'll be stronger. I'll be ready.

You shouldn't judge someone until you've walk a mile through an underground tunnel in her uncomfortable shoes

And then, despite everything, I smiled and looked at the note and knew that spring would come —it always does. so I stared out that cold window, watching my breath collect on the glass, trying not to think about my life after the thaw.

So I hear we get to go to town this weekend. Want to catch a movie or something?--ZP.S. That is, if Jimmy doesn't mind.Translation: This weekend might be a good chance for us to see each other outside our school in a social environment, free of competetiton. I do not view other boys as threats, and I enjoy making them seem insignificant by calling them the wrong names. (Translation by Macey McHenry)

Number of empty Ben & Jerry's containers: 3 -- two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)

I think it's kinda nice.' And I did. my mom isn't famous for her pies. No, she's famous for defusing a nuclear device in Brussels with only a pair of cuticle scissors and a ponytail holder. Somehow, at the moment, pies seemed cooler.

So far Kat has been through all the Wa's she could think of, but Hale hadn't admitted to being Walter or Ward or Washington. He'd firmly denied both Warren and Waverly. Watson had prompted him to do a very bad Sherlock Holmes impersonation throughout a good portion of a train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland. And Wayne seemed so wrong she hadn't even tried.Hale was Hale. And not knowing what the W's stood for had become a constant reminder to Kat that, in life, there are some things that can be given but never stolen.Of course, that didn't stop her from trying.

She'd absolutely adored the library_an entire building where anyone could take things they didn't own and feel no remorse about it.

Ooh..I want one" - BexThey're not puppies." -Cammie

You don't need a search warrant to go through someone's trash. Seriously. Once it hits the curb it is totally fair game-you an look it up.

You look disappointed to see me, Zach," Macey teased. "Don't you like my jacket?

Hale." Kat sighed. "The headmaster's car? Really? That's not to cliched for you?"What can I say?" He shrugged. "I'm an old-fashioned guy. Besides, it's a classic for a reason." He leaned against the window. "It's good to see you, Kat."Kat didn't know what to say. It's good to see you, too? Thanks for getting me kicked out? Is it possible you've gotten even hotter? I think I might have missed you?

If you ever put a student at this school in danger again-''Oh, I thought you Gallagher Girls were immune to danger.'Despite the hundred girls the filled the foyer, no one moved or gasped or tried to defend our honor. We stood silently, waiting for our headmistress to say, 'Oh, we are quite used to being underestimated, Agent Townsend. In fact, we welcome it.

'Tell Suzie she's a lucky cat.' Have sexier words ever been spoken?

Unusual financial activity: none, unless you count the fact that someone in the family is way too into Civil War biographies. (Can this be a possible indication of Confederate insurgents still living and working in Virginia? Must research further.)

It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.

Somebody knows.

Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful than even the most elaborate lie.

Because even though the truth can set you free, that doesn't mean it won't be painful.

Despite having known him for almost a year, there were a lot of things I still didn't know about Zachary Goode. Like how soap and shampoo could smell so much better on him than anyone else. Like where he went when he wasn't mysteriously showing up at random (and frequently dangerous) points in my life. And, most of all, I didn't know how, when he mentioned the jacket, he made me think about the sweet, romantic part of the night last November when he'd given it to me, and not the terrible, bloody, international-terrorists-are-trying-to-kidnap-me part that came right after

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 know too well how dangerous hope can be, how it grows and sometimes dies, taking its host with it. It's more powerful than anything Dr.Fibs keeps in his labs, more precious than all the secrets inside Sublevel Two.

Hope is a delicate thing. A dangerous thing.

There are 6 reasons that a person does anything: Love, faith, greed, boredom, fear... revenge.

There are six reasons anyone does anything: Love. Faith. Greed. Boredom. Fear..." he said, ticking them off on his fingers; but he lingered on the last, drawing a deep breath before he said, "Revenge.

You can’t really yell at your boyfriend for stealing your seat and your best friend. You also can’t yell at your best friend for stealing your boyfriend. Or you can…but Hi seemed like a much easier way to start the morning.

Waiting. Like it or not, it's a skill all spies have to master eventually.

Time. I would have gone somewhere to buy time.

Time, Ms. McHenry," Townsend said. "It can be a cruel, cruel thing

I tell you, I'm half tempted to break into CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon out of CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon.

And so that means...""We have to rob the Henley," Simon said.Kat sank onto a truly uncomfortable sofa. "Again.

Fear is a weakness. It makes a person lose her nerve and her cool. It makes people jumpy and organizations nervous, and when that happens, there is always a chance to take advantage.

But that's the thing about being the girl who's spent years convincing the world she's not afraid of anything: At some point, someone is going to find out you're afraid of everything.

the only way Bex would miss this would be if she were unconscious. And tied up. And in a concrete bunker. In Siberia.

-I'm your girlfriend?- "No." Alexei shakes his head, then pulls me to him again, holds me closer. "There's not a word in either of our language for what you are to me".

And, of course, there are the perfect day, perfect moment, perfect life dreams that come sometimes and make a person hit the snooze button for hours, trying to go back to sleep and make the perfect moments last.

You really saw some?" Liz said an hour later. Sure, we had the stereo blaring and the shower running, but Liz still whispered, "They really...exist?" "Liz," I whispered back, "they're not unicorns." "No," Bex said flatly, "they're boys. And they're...good.

Do you know what pain is, Cammie? It’s thebody’s physical response to imminent harm.It is the mind’s way of telling us to move ourhand off the stove or let go of the brokenglass.

A mind is totally big enough to get lost inside - to go crazy if you're left with too much time and too much room to let your biggest fears run free.

Power has always corrupted, my dear. Even the promise of power. It is a hard thing to look at through the fence for hundreds of years without wondering what it would be like on the other side.

A lot of people think that being a Gallagher Girl means not being afraid of anything. Actually, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's not about ignoring fear. It's about facing it, knowing the risks and the costs and sacrificing safety and security anyway.

I thought the morning would bring change. But I should have known that it doesn't take that long for change to happen - it takes a second. A moment. In a single breath, reality as you know it can simply fall away.

Kat," Hale groaned, then fell back onto the pillows."Funny, I didn't hear a doorbell.""I let myself in; hope that's okay."Hale smiled. "Or the alarm."She stepped inside, tossed a pocket-size bag of tools onto the bed. "You're due for an upgrade."Hale propped himself against the antique headboard and squinted up at her."She returns." He crossed his arms across his bare chest. "You know, I could be naked in here.

Do you understand any of this?" he said, pointing to the lines and symbols that covered the massive screens."Some people understand the value of an education."Hale stretched and crossed his legs, the settled his arm around Kat's shoulders."That's sweet, Kat. Maybe later I'll buy you a university. And an ice cream.""I'd settle for the ice cream.""Deal.

I didn't know there were this many math guys," Hale said as they stepped onto the crowded concourse.Kat cleared her throat. "And women," he added. "Math women.

You know you're smarter than all of them, right?" Hale said flatly."In fact, if you wanted to PROVE it..."He glanced at the blackjack tables.Simon shook his head. "I don't count cards, Hale.""Don't?" Hale smiled. "Or won't? You know, technically, it's not illegal.""But it's frowned upon."Sweat beaded at Simon's brow. He sounded like someone had just suggested he swim after eating... run with scissors... "It is SERIOUSLY frowned upon.

You know" - Hale's breath was warm against Kat's ear in the chilly ballroom- "I don't know that both of us really have to be here...." The slide changed. While hundreds of mathematicians waited with baited breath, the boy beside Kat whispered,"I could go make some calls... check on some things...""Play some blackjack?""Well, when in Rome...""Rome is tomorrow, babe," Kat reminded him.He nodded. "Right.

I think you’re freaked about what happened at Cambridge. I think it scared you."“I’ve been through worse, Bex,” I said, joining her on the lower stairs. “Way worse.”“Oh, not the attack.” Bex raised her finger in contradiction. “What happened before the attack. I think you saw the future. Which is kind of freaky when - two months ago - you didn’t think you were going to have one.

The hallway felt like time itself, and Patricia Buckingham and I were standing at opposite ends-her looking back on all she'd seen, me wondering what lay ahead.

Either we're a team or we aren't. Either you trust me or you don't.

It was the first time in years I didn’t wonder if my father was out there, looking at it too.

Cammie!" I'll never forget the tone of Macey's voice in that moment. "Cam," she said slowly, moving toward me, "I know how it feels to be watched every second of every day. I know what it's like to trust fewer and fewer people until it seems like you are completely alone in the world. I know you think the only things that are left in your life are the bad things. I know what you're feeling, Cam." Her hands were on my shoulders. Her blue eyes were staring into mine. "I know.

The obvious," Noah goes on, a little out of breath, "being that he is probably some super secret assassin or something. And I'm not as tough as I look.""That's OK," I tell him. "I'm way tougher than you look.

Friends help each other when they are...you know...going up international hit men and stuff.

I knew she was right. Of course she was right. Bex was always right. She knew me better than I knew myself. But then again, isn't that a best friend's job?

Don't let two men fall in love with you, girls. It's not the sort of thing that ends well."-Uncle Charles

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Grace, if you have used an iron within the last six months, I will eat that fork," Ms. Chancellor says."Which one?" I try to tease. "You've got a lot of forks to choose from.""From which to choose, Grace. Do not end your sentences in prepositions, dear.""Of course, I totally see what you're getting at. I mean, at what you're getting.

Keep your chin up. Eventually, you will meet someone who cares about your opinion. I'm so sorry I'm not her.

I have to smile. He's such a dork. But I'm starting to realize the one good thing that's happened: he's my dork.

I've attended seven schools in ten years," I explain. "So you can rest assured I know you. You're the girl who thinks being cruel is the same thing as being witty. You think being loud is the same thing as being right. And, most of all, you're the girl who is very, very pretty. And also very, very...common. trust me. There's at least one of you in every school." I watch her features shift. "Oh. Wait. Did you think you were unique?

For the first time I realize how perilous peace can be. I appreciate the tightrope that my grandfather has spent his whole life trying to walk. And now, more than ever, I grow terrified that I'm going to make us all fall down.

Congratulations," I tell her with a slight bow. "I hope you and your power trip will be very happy together. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go.

There's a power that comes with silence. I had grown to fear the unsaid thing. So it felt like a release to say it-to admit that the risk wasn't just inside our walls-it was inside my skin. I was willing to claw, scratch, and bleed until I'd found it.

Okay, gang," I said, "according to blueprints, there's an elevator access panel on the east side of the building. We may get a little dirty, but—""I thought we'd just go through the doors," Liz said, flashing three beautifully engraved invitations and some wonderfully authentic fake IDs.The tickets were $20,000 each. The Secret Service had been vetting the guest list for weeks, so Bex and I stopped beneath a streetlamp and studied Liz."Do I even want to know where you got those?" I asked.Liz seemed to ponder it, and then she said, "No.

I tell you, I'm half tempted to break into CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon out of CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon

I don’t understand hate. I’ve seen its power. I’ve known its wrath. I’ve even felt it coursing through my veins, pushing me on. But I don’t know where it comes from or why it lasts, how it can take hold in some people and grow.

You cannot con an honest man.

Lies aren't just the things we tell -- they're the lives we lead.

We're going to be okay."Here's the thing about being a spy: sometimes all you have are your lies. They protect your cover and keep your secrets, and right then I needed to believe that it was true even when all the facts said otherwise.

Tell me Zach.” I don’t know if it was the wind or the adrenaline, but I shivered. “And don’t lie to me.

Even at the Gallagher Academy, they don't teach you to break somebody's heart.

But even the Gallagher Academy hadn't figured out a way to help us protect our hearts.

Liz paced and talked like it was just another test. Another challenge. She was looking at it like an exercise in probability - cause and effect. It's the physics of human nature, and to truly understand it, one has to be objective and cool.

I don't want tea, I want justice!

I know. I'm sorry." And the bizarre part is that I really am. I want to be good, to use the right fork and wear a pretty linen dress to breakfast. I want to be the girl in the pictures upstairs. But I can't be. That girl is dead.

Two days after my dad's funeral, my mom went on a mission. I never understood it until then--that sometimes a spy doesn't need a cover so much as she needs a shield.

How sweet is that? I know I'm no boy expert, but I have heard entire lectures on reading body language, and I have to say that assuming that a person will have forgotten your name is way high on my "indicators of humbleness" list (not that I have one, but I totally have a starting point now).

No! I need to go home," I say, but then the realization comes: My mother was my home. My mother is dead.

Did you see Grace is back with us?"Megan did see me. She saw me jump off a cliff and crawl under an Iranian fence. Megan has seen plenty. And I can't help but hold my breath, waiting on her answer."Hi," Megan says, turning to me. "Welcome home."Home. The word hits me. I've spent all my life thinking that I didn't have one, but now that I'm back I can't deny that I've spent more my life on Embassy Row than in any other place-that maybe it just wasn't my mother's childhood home. In a way, it's mine, too.

On most guys, Hale's smile would have looked sheepish. On him, it was so roguishly charming that Kat's heart actually skipped a beat.

As Buckingham talked, I couldn't help but remember that there's a reason they call us Gallagher Girls. It's not just because the youngest of us are twelve. It's also because our founder was under twenty. From the very beginning we have been discounted and discredited, underestimated and undervalued. And, for the most part, we wouldn't have it any other way.

That's the thing about being a criminal," Kat told her. "Nothing ever goes according to plan.

Ok," he says. "First lesson."Noah broadens his stance, taking his place firmly on the embassy side of the threshold. "in the United States," he says. Then, with both feet, he leaps on to the sidewalk. "Out of the United States." Quickly, he jumps back toward me. "In the United States." Another jump across the threshold. "Out of the United States. In. Out. In --""Is this the part where I hit you?

I needed to see you. And touch you. And just... know

And then his arms were around me. When he kissed me it was hungrier somehow, as if this moment was all we had, and we had to taste it, drink it, savor it, and not waste a single drop.

There are many ways a self-respecting (not to mention sane) teenage girl might react to having a teenage boy suddenly in her bedroom in the middle of the night.Hit.Panic.Flail.Freeze.

I can sleep anywhere. Planes. Trains. Sofa. Lawn chairs. Call it the upside to my life as an army brat. Never having a home means, I guess, that everywhere is your home. There is absolutely no place I'm anxious to return to. But this is different.I'm not trying to fall asleep in someplace new; I'm trying to fall asleep in someplace that's old.

Eventually, we all end up alone.

My name is Cammie!” I didn’t think about all the people I could have woken, all the alarms that might have gone off. I just snapped, “How did you know about Boston? Why are you working with Mr. Solomon now? Are you my friend or are you my enemy, Zach? Or, wait, let me guess, you can’t tell me.

But guilt isn't smart. It isn't logical. It doesn't only live in the places it belongs.

Honor is overrated.

She really wants to be my friend, I realize, and suddenly I feel very sorry for her. She doesn't know what a terrible thing it is she's asking for.

I'll be here when you get back.

Count me in, Kat." He squeezed her tighter. "You should always count me in." - W. W. Hale the Fifth

Somtimes people run to see if you'll ever come after them. -Joe

She'd absolutely adored the library-an entire building where anyone could take things they didn't own and feel no remorse about it.

Kat looked down at her lemonade. 'Do you think he betrayed the love of his life...because of us?''She used the name Romani, Kat,' was Gabrielle's answer. 'And besides...' She let the words draw out. Her gaze went to the distance, and there was a sense of peace in the way she said, 'WE'RE the love of his life.' She raised her glass again. 'To family.

What kind of plan B?" Hale asked. He was almost holding his breath when a voice answered, "My kind." Macey tried to read the look on his face then, but it was gone in a flash. It had been a simple moment of peace and joy and pure happiness. That voice made Hale happy. It kept him calm. It was his backup and his conscience. Macey couldn't help herself, she envied him.

I came back, Uncle Eddie. Last year, after the Henley, I could have gone to any school in the world -- I could have done anything, but I came back." "You ran away, Katarina." "And now I'm back." "You're still running.

I don't understand boys.

Its Vermeer"Kat turned to the boy who lingered in the doorway. "It's stolen""What can I say?" Hale eased behind her and studied the painting over her shoulder. "I met a very nice man who bet me he had the best security system in Istanbul." His breath was warm on the back of her neck. "He was mistaken.

I sprung you because I've got a message for you""doesn't your family own a cell phone company?""only a little one