Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter Page B

her protectee and the door. "You
can't go outside. I'm sorry." She added that last part later, like an
afterthought.
    "Isn't
that why you're here?" Macey reminded her and stepped toward the door again, but Abby
casually cut her off.
    "Actually,
that's why I'm here." Abby pointed to her feet and leaned against the
door. It might have been a casual gesture from another person, in another
place. But as I looked from my aunt to Macey, I realized they were both strong.
Both smart. Both used to being the prettiest girl in the room. The last time
I'd had a feeling like that, it had involved Dr. Fibs's lab and two chemicals
that are both potent, and volatile, and don't really like being put together
under pressure.
    "Rule
number one, ladies," my aunt said. "Get careless…get caught."
    As
she walked away, Bex grabbed my arm and mouthed, "She's bloody
awesome!"
    Then,
without turning around, Abby called, "I bloody know."
     
     
    The rest of the morning was
something of a blur.
    Macey
was in the junior level Countries of the World class, so she sat right beside
me as Mr. Smith talked for forty-five minutes about the pros and cons of
getting your cosmetic surgery at CIA-approved facilities. (Evidently, the work
is very high quality, but since they don't technically "exist," the
insurance paperwork is a nightmare!)
    Madame
Dabney gave a nice, relaxing refresher course on the basics: i.e. identifying
every piece in a twenty-piece place setting (and the corresponding best methods
in which each utensil could be used as a weapon).
    Things
seemed perfectly normal as we started down the
    Grand
Staircase and Liz headed toward Dr. Fibs's lab in the basement.
    "See
ya!" she called, which was okay. I'd gotten used to the idea that Liz was
destined for the research-and- operations track while Bex and I were training
for a life in the field.
    It
wasn't until I heard Macey say, "See you at lunch," that I remembered
she was still behind the rest of us, academically.
    As
she set off for the freshman-level encryption course taught by Mr. Mosckowitz,
Bex and I moved into the small passage beneath the Grand Staircase and stepped
before a gilt-framed mirror. A thin laser beam scanned our faces, reading our
retinal images. The eyes of the painting behind us flashed green, and a mirror
slid aside, revealing the elevator to the most secret classrooms of the most
secret school in the country.
    But
I didn't feel a rush. I wasn't thinking about pop quizzes or how Mr. Solomon
looked that one time when we were doing wilderness reconnaissance exercises and
he rolled up his sleeves.
    Instead
I just said, "Bex," and waited for my best friend's "Yeah."
    "I'm worried about
Macey."
    "Why?"
Bex asked, pressing her palm against the glass on the inside of the elevator.
"She seems fine to me."
    I
placed my palm beside my best friend's. "That's what worries me."
    Bex
is black and I'm white. She's beautiful and I'm plain. She grew up in London
and I spend my summers on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. She was born for
fight and I was born for flight. But the way she looked at me reminded me that
Bex and I are alike in all the ways that matter.
    "I
know something that'll make you feel better," she
    said.
    "What?"
I asked as the elevator around us rumbled to a start. My palm burned hot and I
jerked my hand from the glass. An odd light unlike anything I'd ever seen
before filled the car around us, and through an eerie purple glow, my best
friend smiled.
    "We're about to see Sublevel
Two."
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    When
you're the first Gallagher Girl since Gilly herself to find and use the
passageway behind the third-floor corridor that contained a million dollars
worth of confederate coins, you might start thinking that the Gallagher mansion
can't possibly surprise you anymore.
    But you'd be wrong.
    The
car stopped. I knew the doors were about to slide open and reveal the most
covert place we had ever seen. I held my breath, waiting. Then suddenly the car
jerked backward,