The Spy Devils by Joe Goldberg (top rated books of all time .TXT) 📕

the call from Chen demanding a status update on the mission. Li Chu would not be recalled to Beijing, where he would be jailed, or end up killed by a firing squad. How ironic, he thought, that he only had one mission now.

Find the Devil and kill him.

8

The Deal With China

Belgrade, Serbia

Bridger stood in a circular observation deck built into the rampart of the massive Belgrade Fortress. Located at the bottom of the Big Staircase, it provided a scenic view situated high above the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.

It was a beautiful April day in Belgrade. Everything around him reminded Bridger of the year of his childhood when his mother was the CIA’s Deputy Chief of Station. He couldn’t remember if it was before they moved to Berlin or after, but he was pretty sure he was around nine years old.

When he received the notification to head to Serbia, Bridger transmitted a secure text to the rest of the Spy Devils. Travel and lodging were immediately arranged by companies within Bridger’s global Spy Devils support network. New safehouses would be waiting supplied with a cache of Spy Devils specific gear. Computers. Communications. Weapons. Devilbots.

He was waiting to meet his friend in the Serbian Intelligence Agency, the BIA. Right on time, he saw Goran walking toward him along the broad stone terrace.

“Bridger,” he said with a smile and handshake. “It has been too long, and you are looking too thin, but well.”

“Thanks, Goran.” Bridger returned the handshake. “You look like a bureaucrat now.”

“I run a department now. I get into the field, just to remind all the youngsters who they are working for.”

Goran was a little older than Bridger, putting him in closer to fifty. Despite the receding dark hair on top, he was a handsome man with bright eyes and a friendly smile. He wore a dark blue tailored suit. A blue shirt open at the collar. He ran the counter-intelligence section of the Bezbednosno-informativna agencija, known as the BIA—The State Security Service of Serbia.

Charging a reasonable rate at the low end of the scale for a dishonest government official, Goran had proven useful to Bridger. He was corrupt, but Bridger appreciated Goran was less corrupt than many others on his payroll.

Bridger and Goran had teamed up a few years ago when the Spy Devils were on an operation to curtail the flow of illegal Balkan arms trafficking. Bridger made a deal with the largest private arms merchant, Serge Taube. He agreed to eliminate his competition in exchange for him accepting U.S. and U.N. sanctions afterward.

It worked. The Spy Devils exposed and shuttered a half-dozen dealers and their networks. Many others decided to change businesses and disappear.

Serge lived up to his end of the deal—except ignoring the sanctions. Bridger knew he wouldn’t. He didn’t blame him.

“Goran. My team is watching your team watching us. And I am sure your team doesn’t know that. So let’s back them off and talk.”

Goran paused, smiled a toothy white smile, and flicked his hand in the air. A half-dozen people dressed as tourists moved away.

Bridger leaned on the cool stones. He looked out over the rivers.

“You are having issues with Serge?”

“Serge?” Goran folded his arms and leaned against the stone wall. “That is why you are here? Serge?” Goran looked at him. Bridger didn’t answer. “We are always having issues with Serge.” Goran sighed.

“Recently?” Bridger asked.

Goran kept his gaze on Bridger, who was looking out over the rivers.

“Ah. I did not think you were here to tell war stories. You are here about the deal with China,” Goran said.

“I might be here about the deal with China. Tell me about it,” Bridger said without answering directly.

“To put it simply, our intelligence says Serge is about to sign an agreement worth maybe five-hundred million dollars, maybe a billion when all the shipments and equity are exchanged.”

“Wow,” Bridger whistled low, “that is a big one. Between the Chinese and Serbia?

“It is more complicated than that, Bridger. China and Serbia are good brothers, partners, friends, and comrades. An ‘unbreakable partnership,’ our president said. Of course, he would say that. Serge has the full backing of the president—the Chinese met his price. Serbia needs China. They are everywhere. China’s investments and trading are running the business in our country. Telecommunications. Railways. Medical—”

“So, what are they buying?”

“Small arms ammunition, heavy artillery ammunition, sniper rifles, demolition equipment, mortars, antiaircraft guns, a few helicopters, and a fucking mini-submarine. A submarine! What is Serbia going to do with a submarine? We are a land-locked country. But that is the small stuff. It is the Ukrainian part that makes it big and bigger.”

“What about Ukraine? What’s the connection?” Bridger asked as he watched three kids sprint too fast down the Big Staircase's long stone steps. A man and woman frantically followed.

“Ukraine? Ukraine is not so simple. China has rushed in to fill the economic vacuum after Russia invaded the Donbass. China has strengthened its connections in Ukraine. Billions are being invested in infrastructure as normal economic cooperation under the cover of China’s Balkan Silk Road Initiative. The Oligarch elite is secretly selling large portions of the military industry business to the Chinese. Helicopter and jet engines.”

“I know some of them. The oligarchs never miss an opportunity to make some money. But no one cares?”

“I care,” Goran shot back, then recovered. “Sure, there is the press and whistleblowers. You know who gets arrested? The whistleblowers.”

“And there is nothing you can do about it?”

“That is the situation. Why? You have a way to do something?”

Bridger looked at Goran and smiled.

“Maybe.”

9

The Old Timers and The New Kids

Kirkwood Headquarters

Peter Schaeffer’s eyebrows raised as he checked the caller ID. He picked up the receiver of his desk phone.

“Hello,” Peter said.

“Pe-ter?” The woman’s voice sounded tired.

It took a few seconds to recognize it as Marilyn, the administrative assistant to his boss, Tom MacBride, the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Kirkwood International Industries.

“Yes? Marilyn?” Peter asked.

“There is a meeting. In the boardroom.