Only the Good Spy Young is the fourth book in the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter. The cover and title were released on December 25, 2009 as a Christmas present from Ally for all her fans.
It was released on June 29, 2010 by Hyperion Book CH. Chapter 1 was released June 11th, 2010. It is at www.gallaghergirls.com
Passage[]
"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."
- Only the Good Spy Young, Book
Official Book Summary
When Cammie Morgan enrolled at the Gallagher Academy, she knew she was preparing for the dangerous life of a spy. What she didn’t know was that the serious, real-life danger would start during her junior year of high school. But that’s exactly what happened two months ago when she faced off against an ancient terrorist organization dead set on kid napping her.
Now the danger follows her everywhere and even Cammie “The Chameleon” can’t hide. When a terrifying encounter in London reveals that one of her most-trusted allies is actually a rogue double-agent. Cammie no longer knows if she can trust her classmates, her teachers—or even her own heart.
Complete Plot[]
Warning, this summary contains major plot spoilers! Do not read unless you've read the book (or just want everything spoiled for when you actually do decide to read the book. Either way, this has spoilers).
The novel, Only the Good Spy Young starts off by taking place in London during winter break. It is revealed at the end of the previous book that Cammie tags along with Bex and her parents during that time, which explains why she is in London, Bex's home land. They go ice skating near the Tower of London where Cammie and Bex try to enjoy the last few days of their holiday. However, when Mr. Baxter calls them over telling them that it's time to go home, Cammie's instincts tell her that something doesn't feel right, that their tail is not clear. Cammie tries to voice her concerns as she takes off her skates, but then the lights around them go out and the entire area goes into utter chaos.
Bex's dad grabs Cammie's hand immediately in order to keep her safe like he promised her mother, but at one point, their hands slip-free and it's too dark and crowded to find each other. In the meantime, Joe Solomon comes out of nowhere and finds her, desparately needing to tell her something. The security lights flicker on, which brings the general public a bit more at ease but Cammie still knows that something is seriously not right. Frantically, Mr. Solomon takes Cammie's hand telling her to run. They stop in the middle of Tower Bridge where they're surrounded by guards and operatives, mostly from MI6. Mr. Solomon looks scared, a sight that Cammie is not used to seeing. Everyone seems to be staring daggers at Mr. Solomon, which brings great confusion to Bex and Cammie because to them, he's one of the good guys. Little did they know that Joe Solomon hasn't been working for just the CIA all those years and the CIA and MI6 are just starting to find this out too. During their time on the bridge, Abe Baxter is trying to pull Joe away so he can take him in for questioning as this is what they have been trying to get him to do for the past month or so. But Joe's mission at this moment is the same as most of the peoples' on that bridge; to keep Cammie safe. So he tells Cammie to "Follow the pigeons," and jumps off the bridge into the freezing cold water below so nobody can take him into CIA custody.
Shortly after this fiasco, the Baxter's take Cammie in for questioning. Still extremely confused by the whole ordeal, Cammie ends up spending the night in a top secret facility. She wakes up to a tall man with black, wavy hair and blue eyes walking into the room to question her (we later find out that this man is Agent Edward Townsend).
After Cammie is debriefed, she and the Baxters stay in safe houses until it's time for the the girls to go back to school. The night before they leave, Cam's aunt Abby shows up at the safe house while Bex and Cam are sleeping. The girls wake up and spy on her conversation with Bex's parents for a while until they get caught. They give the girls more information about Mr. Solomon after they beg them for it. They find out that he was recruited into the Circle of Cavan when he was at Blackthorn at the age of 16 and has been a double agent ever since.
The next day, Abby and Bex's parents take Bex and Cammie back to school. When the girls make it into the mansion, they realize that the security was modified a lot over break to ensure safety inside and out. This means that mostally a of the secret passageways are blocked off and inaccessible, which deeply upsets Cammie as they are her favorite parts of the mansion. Professor Buckingham warns Cammie and Bex to not try to get around the security of the manswalls of the mansion also not to share any information from the past few weeks to their classmates. So they were the only students who knew about Mr. Solomon's disappearance. Professor Buckingham also explains to them upon their arrival that Cammie's mother has been detained for the time being. Because of this, Professor Buckingham takes over Rachel's duties at the welcome back dinner. She announces that Mr. Solomon will not be teaching Covert Operations this semester and that Agent Townsend would be taking his place.
When classes begin the next day, the junior class gossips about where Mr. Solomon is and what he's doing. Of course, Cam and Bex had to tell Liz and Macey what happened because they can't keep secrets from their other two roommates and best friends. Other than that, all four girls stay silent. As Bex and Cammie separate from Macey and Liz on their way to the Sublevel elevators to go to CoveOps class, they notice a sign on the door that says:
ATTENTION STUDENTS: UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, THE SUBLEVELS WILL BE CLOSED. ALL COVERT OPERATIONS COURSES WILL TAKE PLACE IN ROOM 132.
So that's where they spent their time in CoveOps for pretty much the entire semester. Meanwhile, Cammie, Bex, Liz, and Macey try to figure out who this Townsend guy really is and why he's here because he really isn't a good teacher... at all. The Headmistress still isn't back at this point and all the CoveOps students are silently complaining about how they're not learning anything in his class.
The girls have had enough so one day, they decide to drug Agent Townsend with truth serum that Liz injects into an apple to get him to confess what's going on. This is one of the first steps in what the four roommates are calling "Operation Townsend". Throughout the day, they track Townsend everywhere he goes in the mansion until he finally eats the apple and the truth serum kicks in. Right before this happens, Townsend stops Mr. Mosckowitz in the hallway and expresses his desperate want to get into the sublevels and that since Mr. Mosckowitz is the best codes man out there, then he should be able to figure it out faster than he has been. But Mosckwitz just tells him that they are looking into it and if anyone goes down there then they would probably die due to all of the booby traps.
When Townsend finally eats the apple, they get answers; some they are looking for, some they are not. They find out that he doesn't yet know where Mr. Solomon is and when they ask him why he is here he says, "To track a fox, you start at its den." He also says that he doesn't think that Rachel Morgan would want to work alongside the man who killed her husband.
Soon after, Rachel comes home and reveals to Cammie that she was mainly just being questioned by the CIA and MI6 because she's the one who knows Joe Solomon the most. She also is very sad to say that he is never coming back.
The next night, Cammie wanders the halls for hours unable to sleep. But when she finally decides to go back to her room, she looks out the window to see a bunch of pigeons flying around an old rampart rooftop that was once the place of the Gallagher Academy's covert carrier pigeon breeding program years ago. So she wakes up her roommates and follows the pigeons, just as Mr. Solomon had asked her to. When they make it to the roof, blackboards covered in gibberish surround them in Mr. Solomon's handwriting. They find a note on a piece of paper saying to meet him in Roseville.
After much thought, they decide to carefully go into town to meet Mr. Solomon. But to their surprise, they meet Zach instead. He tells them that Joe is busy and asked him to take the message to them. Zach tells the girls that Mr. Solomon put Cammie's dad's journal in Sublevel Two. If they go down and get it, it will explain everything. The girls protest that the sublevels are rigged with booby traps and Zach says that that's because Joe Solomon was the one who rigged them. He didn't want the journal to get into the wrong hands.
The next day, Agent Townsend must have finally come to his senses because he takes Cam's CoveOps class to an amusement park and gives all the girls assignments, even though Cammie technically isn't supposed to leave the mansion. After convincing Bex to go do her own assignment, Cammie tails hers. While following him into a building she finds a rugged, tired looking Joe Solomon. She yells at him and tells him he got her father killed to which he wearily replies "I know." Then agents show up and it is revealed that Agent Townsend only took them there to use Cammie as bait for Mr. Solomon. She runs to a hill and finds Zach there. They talk for a few minutes and she asks him why Mr. Solomon would walk right into a trap. He tells her that Mr. Solomon would do anything to keep her safe before kissing her forehead and running off.
Three weeks later, the girls are ready to get the journal. They go through Sublevel Two with some difficulty, but finally get to the place the book is supposed to be. While Liz is hoisted up to get the book, Cammie and the other roommates become aware that there is someone else trying to break in. They assume it is Agent Townsend (we later learn it was Cammie's mother), and get out as soon as possible. The journal was written in code but the girls quickly figure it out. It turns out that the book was actually Cammie's dad's journal. As they read it, it becomes apparent that Cammie's dad knew that Joe Solomon was in the 'Circle of Cavan' and together they were planning to bring it down.
One night Zach sneaks into Cammie's room and wakes her up. They take a walk through the mansion and she asks him why the Circle would break Joe Solomon out of federal CIA prison if he was working against them. Zach responds saying, "They weren't doing him a favor." Cammie demands more answers but Zach won't give her any. Her furious roommates show up and try to get answers from him too. Zach suggests a plan to go get the other notebook, the one that Joe Solomon wrote, from Blackthorne.
Soon after, Cammie's mother shows up and says she will help them. While in the car Zach tries to talk to Cammie, but she ignores him. They pull over the van, and we learn that Bex's parents and Aunt Abby are there to guard Cammie. From there, the girls and Zach walk to Blackthorne. After going through its various defenses, they learn Blackthorne's cover: a school for juvenile delinquents. Macey, Bex, and Liz go shut down the defenses and keep and eye on security, leaving Zach and Cammie alone to complete the mission. Zach asks Cammie to stay wanting her to be safe, but she responds by kissing him and asks where they are going. "The Tombs" is his reply. Zach and Cammie go out to the woods and find the entrance to "The Tombs." They make their way through a complicated maze and Zach reveals that Blackthorne is a school for assassins, not necessarily spies. They finally find the place where Joe Solomon's journal is hidden and retrieve it. As they are about to leave, they hear people coming and then they hide. They see several members of the 'Circle of Cavan,' including the woman who tried to abduct Cammie from the roof in Boston last summer, and Joe Solomon. After seeing the explosives on the walls, it becomes apparent that Mr. Solomon brought many members here only to kill them and himself in the process. A guard finds Cammie and Zach and brings them to the woman. We learn that she is Zach's mom, and Cammie is horrified. After a quick figh,t Zach manages to get a gun and take aim at the explosives. Cammie says "No!" but cannot stop Zach and she begins to run. Cammie quickly makes her way out while she still has a chance to get away, injuring her shoulder in the process, thinking that both Zach and Mr. Solomon are dead. They find her and take her back to the school's infirmary. After having her explain what happened, Agent Townsend takes her to a man that is bandaged from head to toe. We know it is Mr. Solomon, but according to Agent Townsend, Mr. Solomon is "dead" to protect him. He hands her Mr. Solomon's journal and walks away. Cammie learns Zach is still alive. Cammie is later talking with her mom and we learn that Zach will stay the rest of the semester at the Gallagher Academy and that Mr. Solomon might not make it. Cammie gives Zach the journal before being ambushed by her distressed roommates. Cammie learns she will not be able to go to her grandparent's ranch this summer because it would put them in possible danger. One day Cammie and Zach talk where she found the carrier pigeon and Zach asks her to run away with him. She kisses him and says she can't to which he replies "I know." Soon after it is revealed that she i, in fact,t going to run away (it is implied she is going alone, not with Zach), promising answers when she gets back.