Ally Carter

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A GG4 Deleted Scene!

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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

Hey everyone!

Today I thought I’d share a deleted scene from GG4.  Originally, the girls found Cam’s father’s journal in Sublevel Two and then took a few weeks to decode it.  Then the plot got sort of rearranged, and I altered that scene so that the girls figured out the code much sooner.

Still…I thought you guys might like a look at the original.  Just for fun.

Ally

-*-

 

“We have to crack it,” I said.

Liz looked at me.  “I
know.”

I gripped the journal tighter. 
“My father wrote this.  I have to
know what it says.”

“I know,” Liz said again.

“We have to—”

“I know,” Liz said, but it wasn’t a snap.  She wasn’t mad at me–she was mad at
herself.   And I totally knew the
feeling.

“Could it be a Pigpen?” Macey tried.  Liz shook her head.  “A Playfair?”  Another shake. 
“A Purple?”

“It’s none of them,” Liz said. 
“But you already knew that.”

Macey shrugged as if, yeah, she did know, but she’d been hoping
she was wrong.  We all were.

“That settles it,” Liz said, dropping at least a dozen heavy
books from the encryption section on the table. 
“It’s not breakable!”

“Come on, Lizzie,” Bex said. 
“I thought every cipher was breakable…in theory.”

“Well, yeah,” Liz said as if theory should never be mocked.  “But this isn’t monoalphabetic or
polyalphabetic—those would be too easy.” 
She sounded like Mr. Solomon wouldn’t have insulted her that way.  “Really, it’s more code than cipher and that
means it can’t easily be deciphered.   Look at this.”  She opened the journal wide, and even in the
dim room I saw letters from the Greek alphabet, pictures and symbols in every
line.  “No computer made this.  It’s more like…”

“It’s old,” I finished for her and she nodded.  I smiled. 
“We practice a very old art,” I repeated our teacher’s words as I turned
to watch the rain pound against the widow.

“Look at this,” Liz said, pointing to the page.  “It’s almost more like hieroglyphics in a
way.  Almost like a—”

“Language,” Macey said.

Liz’s eyes shone in the dim room.  “Yeah, that’s exactly it.”

“And you don’t crack languages—not really.  You learn them.”

“Or you translate them,” Macey said.

“But that’s just it!” Liz said. 
“We can’t translate it—not with just one document and nothing to compare
it to, and I don’t know why would Mr. Solomon go to all this trouble to make us
find something we can’t translate.”

“He wouldn’t.”  Bex was up
and moving

“He’d have to leave a key,” Macey said.

A flash of lightning filled the room and in the sudden
brightness I saw it.  I closed my eyes
and heard the thunder and the rain kept pounding against the mansion like a
tide.

“He did leave a key!” I cried, but I was up and running, my
roommates close at my heels, terrified it was too late.  “He left it and we didn’t see it.  Why didn’t we see it?”

I was running up the old stone stairs, and even in the mansion
the whole world felt heavy and wet.   I
could see the rain pounding against the glass of every window I passed and so I
ran faster, harder, praying I wasn’t too late when I finally reached the small
door at the stop of the circular staircase and pushed my way into the storm.

Freezing rain pounded against me, burning like a million tiny
needles driving into my skin.

I felt my roommates come to stand beside me, the four of us
staring at Mr. Solomon’s empty chair and the wall of words and symbols, letters
and chaos that filled the blackboards that sat deep beneath the shelter over
the overhang, barely—just barely—out of reach from the rain.

“He left it with the pigeons.”

 

 

Comments

  1. Thanks, Ally! That was awesome, but I still like the scene in the final book better, which I guess, is the point.

    I wonder what the code looks like, though…I sort of imagine it like the Dancing Men code in Sherlock Holmes. I would totally use it.

    Reply

  3. I adore all deleted scenes! Thank you, thank you, Ally!

    GG4 was AMAZING. It took the Gallagher Girls to a whole new level of beyond awesomeness.

    Reply

  11. That was so awesome/sweet of you Ally! I want to go back and re-read the scene as published to see what differences I pick up on and hopefully gain some knowledge into the editing of writing. 🙂

    P.S. Congrats on Heist Society making it into the Teens Top Ten!! I voted almost every day!!!

    Reply

  19. OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I love this series. I litterally just finished it a few minutes ago. I love the idea of the deleted scene but loved how it turned out in the book better. I think it just keeps the book going better. LOVE U ALLY, CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK!!!!!

    Reply

  21. Neat! Thanks! 🙂

    What great pacing… I was scanning downward faster and faster to get to the big reveal (even though I already knew what it was!).

    Reply

  22. OHMGEE!!!!!!!!
    Ally, you always know how to make my day better! I was just thinking last night about how I was dying for a deleted scene! Thank you sooooo much!
    Team Liz all the way!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

  23. Ally you are an inspiration to all. I nevver knew of NaNoWriMo until you now i have at least 6 small chapters. you are my favorite write. i woke up at 4 am once and decided to finish reading Heist Society( this is in february of course)i was up till 6 and finished then the same thing with GG4. thanks by the way for that deleted scene. i have gotten at the most 5 friends on your series. People who try to steal books from great au thors like you are idiots. Nobody should steal greatness escpeecially great ones like you. You are the best cant wait gor HS2 and GG5. Please do all you can to respond.

    Reply

  24. I totally understand that you said that you don’t like deleted scenes because it isn’t your best work and… that was good, but… I liked the final better!

    Admiringly,

    Elise

    Reply

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