Ally Carter

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.)”

“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.”

“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.”

“You cannot con an honest man.”

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

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

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

“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”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”