Golden Gate Page 25
FAVES: Likes the combo of art and technology and started studying graphic design for fun.
HAPPY PLACE: Since moving to the UK, she has become addicted to watching Bollywood movies on late-night telly. She usually watches with Kat while munching on a massive bowl of masala popcorn. They dance along with the characters when they think no one else is watching.
PARIS
NAME: Salomon Omborenga
COVER IDENTITY: Lucas Doinel
AGE: 15
BIRTHPLACE: Kigali, Rwanda
SKILL SET: Has a lucky cricket bat named Charlie that he’s used to fend off a masked intruder, break into an Indonesian railway station, and help pull Sydney to safety after she’d fallen through the ice on a frozen pond. Oddly, he’s never used it to play cricket, which he considers mind-numbingly dull.
FAVES: Not spiders! They terrify him. He once extracted a key hidden in a tank filled with snakes without breaking a sweat only to return to the hotel, where he saw a harmless house spider and almost fainted.
HAPPY PLACE: Watching Liverpool FC on the widescreen with a full array of snacks. Warning: He wears the same red socks for every game and only washes them once the season’s over.
SYDNEY
NAME: Olivia Rose
COVER IDENTITY: Eleanor King
AGE: 14
BIRTHPLACE: Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia
SKILL SET: Quite the escape artist. During a rescue op, she eluded the Albanian secret police by hiding in an active sewage pipe. While on holiday, she outran (technically out-skateboarded) six members of the Queen’s Guards after performing several tricks including an “ollie,” a “backside 180,” and a “kickflip” in a restricted area of Buckingham Palace.
FAVES: Rule-breaking. (See skateboard story above.)
HAPPY PLACE: The ocean. She regularly surfs in the frigid waters of the North Sea on a stretch of beach the others have christened “Sydney Surf.”
KAT
NAME: Amita Bishwakarma
COVER IDENTITY: Supriya Rai
AGE: 13
BIRTHPLACE: Monjo, Nepal
SKILL SET: Sees patterns where others see randomness. This helped her identify an undercover spy posing as a mail carrier because he pushed his trolley differently than his coworkers.
FAVES: Has a sneaky good sense of humor and writes jokes that she regularly posts in an online community for mathematicians. Examples: “Why shouldn’t you take advice from pi? It’s irrational.” “Why did 4, 12, and 34 go into overtime? Because they were all even.”
HAPPY PLACE: Life goals include constructing a crossword puzzle that gets printed in the Times, studying at Trinity College like Isaac Newton, and attending Comic-Con in San Diego dressed as Chewbacca (despite her petite size).
RIO
NAME: João Cardozo
COVER IDENTITY: Rafael Rocha
AGE: 12
BIRTHPLACE: Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
SKILL SET: An accomplished magician, he’s used sleight of hand and deception countless times during operations. He also puts on a magic show every December for patients at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
FAVES: Has a lovely singing voice and is a soloist in the Kinloch Abbey boys’ choir.
HAPPY PLACE: He’s obsessed with eating and keeps a journal in which he rates food on a scale from one to one hundred according to a secret formula that he will not share. Kat and Brooklyn are competing to see who can crack the code first.
Acknowledgments
The City Spies team that comes together to publish these books is every bit as wonderful and impressive as the team featured on the pages. And like their secret agent counterparts, most of their essential work is done behind the scenes and without recognition. That said, I’d like to acknowledge some of the ones who helped bring Golden Gate to life.
First and foremost is the amazing Kristin Gilson, who edited the book and helped turn it into much more than it would’ve been without her. She demonstrated great patience, clear thinking, and best of all, laugh-out-loud humor. This is the first of what I hope will be many collaborations to come. I’m also thrilled to work with publisher extraordinaire Valerie Garfield. We’ve only just begun, but I feel like we’re off to a wonderful start and can’t wait to see where we go from here.
This is my eighth novel with Aladdin, and I’m constantly wowed by the creativity and hard work everyone there puts in to bring a book to life. Huge thanks to Cassie Malmo, Lauren Hoffman, Rebecca Vitkus, Sarah Woodruff, Emily Hutton, Nicole Russo, Caitlin Sweeny, Amy Beaudoin, Anna Jarzab, Alissa Nigro, Savannah Breckenridge, Tiara Iandiorio, Erin Toller, Beth Parker, Beth Adelman, Jeannie Ng, Chelsea Morgan, and Amanda Livingston. Also, I am in love with the artwork created by Yaoyao Ma Van As.
I am beyond fortunate to call Rosemary Stimola my agent and my friend, although not in that order. The entire Stimola family (both literal and professional) is as good as it gets. Special thanks to Alli Hellegers, Peter Ryan, and Nick Croce. I’d also like to give a huge shout-out to Jason Dravis of the Dravis Agency.
While the idea of tween and teen superspies may stretch the imagination, I do aim for accuracy in almost everything else. Much of this means calling (and probably annoying) experts and friends with random questions about minute details.
For their expertise on Oxford University, I relied on Clementine Gaisman and Justin Graham. For all things nautical, I reached out to Hannah Delapp and Jay Coles. Ed Marsh is a font of knowledge across the spectrum and has been a wonderful friend ever since film school. Alex Rocha provided both culinary and cultural support, while Chris Graham answered no fewer than two hundred questions about cameras and photographic metadata. Ranger Maja Follin of the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks provided both wonderful insight and information. I’d also like to thank Shannon George for her numerous contributions for all my books.
I am beholden to young readers everywhere, and particularly to a handful who read while I’m writing to give me vital feedback. This includes Chloe, Jack, Madeline, Harrison, and Liz.
Most of all, I am thankful for the incredible love and support I get from my family.
More from this Series
City Spies
Book 1
More from the Author
Trapped!
Vanished!
Framed!
Dark Days
About the Author
JAMES PONTI was born in Italy, was raised in Florida, and went to college in California. After receiving a degree in screenwriting from the USC Film School, he began a career writing and producing television shows for the likes of Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, Spike, History Channel, and Golf Channel. James loves writing, travel, and the Boston Red Sox. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida.
JAMESPONTI.COM
Aladdin
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
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ALSO BY JAMES PONTI
The Framed! series
Framed!
Vanished!
Trapped!
The Dead City trilogy
Dead City
Blue Moon
Dark Days
The City Spies series
City Spies
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin hardcover edition March 2021
Text copyright © 2021 by James Ponti
Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Yaoyao Ma Van As
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Book designed by Tiara Iandiorio
The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.
Series designed by Tiara Iandiorio
Jacket illustration copyright © 2021 by Yaoyao Ma Van As
Library of Congress Control Number 2020947148
ISBN 978-1-5344-1494-5 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-5344-1496-9 (eBook)