Read Online Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter - Free Book Online Page A

teacher said, "Exfiltrations are defined by two
factors, Ms. Baxter. Name them."
    "They take place in hostile
territory," Bex said.
    "Correct,"
Mr. Solomon replied, taking a step. He wrote Bex's response on an ancient
rolling chalkboard at the front of the room. "That's one qualifier of an
exfiltration. Ms. Fetterman, what's two?"
    As
we waited for Anna's response, I heard the chalk against the board. Everything
was louder here, especially the clear bright voice that said, "No one ever
knows about it."
    Every
head turned. I've never seen anyone command a room more effortlessly than Aunt
Abby did when she said, "You rang, Joe?"
    Oh. My. Gosh.
    Maybe
it was the spy in me … or the girl in me … or the niece in me … but when Aunt Abby placed her hand on her hip, I could have sworn she
was doing something that I hadn't thought any Gallagher Girl would ever dare to
do: flirt with Joe Solomon!
    "Agent
Cameron," Mr. Solomon said. "So glad you could join us. The junior
class…" He gestured toward us. Aunt Abby waved two fingers.
    "Hi, girls."
    "…and
I were just getting ready to discuss exfiltration operations." He dropped
the chalk into the tray and slapped his hands together twice. "Thought you
might lend a unique perspective to that topic."
    "Oh,
Mr. Solomon," Abby said with a smile, "you do know how to show a girl
a good time."
    She
walked around the U of desks, scanning the walls, the cases of books,
everything about Sublevel Two; and I realized that while I was seeing it for
the first time, my aunt was seeing it again after a long time. I wondered if
it might look different in the light of everything she'd learned since leaving.
    "As
I was saying," Mr. Solomon went on, "exfiltrations are critical. And
they're hard—"
    "Especially
in Istanbul," Aunt Abby added softly, and our teacher laughed. It sounded
like an inside joke, except spies don't make inside jokes! There's too much
information "inside," and so that's where we keep it. But the
craziest thing wasn't that Aunt Abby had made a joke. … It wasn't even that she
was flirting. The craziest thing was that I was pretty sure that smiling and
laughing were Mr. Solomon's way of flirting back!
    There
we were, in a cavern of stone and secrets, and yet it felt like my aunt had
brought the sun in with her, illuminating a side of my teacher that I had never
seen.
    For
the first time in weeks, my head didn't hurt. Boston was just a city in
Massachusetts.
    I
might have been content to sit like that all day—all week. All year. But then
the lights went out. At the back of the room an old-fashioned projector came to
life, and an image was slicing through the dark.
    "I'm
sure you've all seen this before," Mr. Solomon said.
    But
I hadn't seen it. A chill ran through me as I realized…I'd lived it.
    The
entire class seemed to hold its breath while the film cut between different
angles, different cameras, different news crews. Parts of the footage had been
shown in an almost continual loop on every TV in the country for days, but as
with most things we Gallagher Girls do, there was a lot more to the story, and
that day we were seeing the uncensored version.
    "What
I'm about to show you is a nearly textbook example of a daylight exfiltration
operation in an occupied area." I thought Mr. Solomon would look at me. I
expected my aunt to ask if I was okay. I wanted someone to acknowledge that it
wasn't a lesson—it was the hardest day of my life. But the only change in our
teacher's voice was a sudden pause before he added, "Lucky for us, it didn't
work."
    And
then I knew that we weren't there to study what Macey and I had done right. We weren't
the seasoned professional operatives on the roof that day. We were just two
girls who got lucky, and luck's not a skill that anyone can learn.
    Dust
kept dancing in the projector's light. At no point did anyone say, "If
this is too much for you, Cammie, you can leave" or "Ms. Morgan, what
were you thinking there?"
    I
was just another girl in the