diff --git a/src/execnet/gateway_base.py b/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
index 252bdbcb..f0bd2512 100644
--- a/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
+++ b/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
@@ -316,6 +316,8 @@ class Reply:
     """Provide access to the result of a function execution that got dispatched
     through WorkerPool.spawn()."""
 
+    _exception: BaseException | None = None
+
     def __init__(self, task, threadmodel: ExecModel) -> None:
         self.task = task
         self._result_ready = threadmodel.Event()
@@ -328,10 +330,10 @@ def get(self, timeout: float | None = None):
         including its traceback.
         """
         self.waitfinish(timeout)
-        try:
+        if self._exception is None:
             return self._result
-        except AttributeError:
-            raise self._exc from None
+        else:
+            raise self._exception.with_traceback(self._exception.__traceback__)
 
     def waitfinish(self, timeout: float | None = None) -> None:
         if not self._result_ready.wait(timeout):
@@ -342,8 +344,9 @@ def run(self) -> None:
         try:
             try:
                 self._result = func(*args, **kwargs)
-            except BaseException as exc:
-                self._exc = exc
+            except BaseException as e:
+                # sys may be already None when shutting down the interpreter
+                self._exception = e
         finally:
             self._result_ready.set()
             self.running = False
@@ -526,7 +529,9 @@ def __init__(self, outfile, infile, execmodel: ExecModel) -> None:
             except (AttributeError, OSError):
                 pass
         self._read = getattr(infile, "buffer", infile).read
-        self._write = getattr(outfile, "buffer", outfile).write
+        _outfile = getattr(outfile, "buffer", outfile)
+        self._write = _outfile.write
+        self._flush = _outfile.flush
         self.execmodel = execmodel
 
     def read(self, numbytes: int) -> bytes:
@@ -544,7 +549,7 @@ def write(self, data: bytes) -> None:
         """Write out all data bytes."""
         assert isinstance(data, bytes)
         self._write(data)
-        self.outfile.flush()
+        self._flush()
 
     def close_read(self) -> None:
         self.infile.close()
diff --git a/testing/test_xspec.py b/testing/test_xspec.py
index 4c9ff8d6..de011c0f 100644
--- a/testing/test_xspec.py
+++ b/testing/test_xspec.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from execnet import XSpec
 from execnet.gateway import Gateway
 from execnet.gateway_io import popen_args
+from execnet.gateway_io import popen_bootstrapline
 from execnet.gateway_io import ssh_args
 from execnet.gateway_io import vagrant_ssh_args
 
@@ -78,13 +79,7 @@ def test_vagrant_options(self) -> None:
 
     def test_popen_with_sudo_python(self) -> None:
         spec = XSpec("popen//python=sudo python3")
-        assert popen_args(spec) == [
-            "sudo",
-            "python3",
-            "-u",
-            "-c",
-            "import sys;exec(eval(sys.stdin.readline()))",
-        ]
+        assert popen_args(spec) == ["sudo", "python3", "-u", "-c", popen_bootstrapline]
 
     def test_env(self) -> None:
         xspec = XSpec("popen//env:NAME=value1")