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

by the front door. Bridger steadied his nerves, opened the front door, and walked in. He held his Devil Stick tightly in his right hand, given the cast covering his wrist. In his other hand was the bag containing Hillcrest.

She was on the couch talking to a man sitting in one of two high back chairs across from her.

May saw him in the doorway. “Speak of…well…the Devil.”

Chapel peered over the top of the chair. “Hello, Bridger. We meet again, as they say. As you can see, I have not ‘fucked myself’ as you suggested.” Chapel waited for a snappy retort from Bridger. When it didn’t come, he shrugged. “Come in and have a drink.”

“Sit down, Trowbridge.”

She pointed with a thin finger to the empty chair across from her. He didn’t move. She signaled again. He stood with a look that he hoped betrayed nothing of what he was thinking or feeling. It was working. Bridger saw her eyebrows rise an eighth of an inch.

“Please display some common courtesy. Do what your mother asks—for once,” Chapel said.

Bridger walked into the study and sat on a second chair across from her. Chapel, dressed in his usual suit and tie, was to his right, arms crossed. Calm and composed, Bridger set the Faraday Bag on the floor by the chair.

“It is nice to see you.” She nodded to his injured wrist. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine for having to blow myself up.” He let the Devil Stick rest in his lap—the end was pointed directly at May.

“I am glad.” She looked at the weapon, then back to Bridger’s unflinching face.

“That was quite an audacious idea,” Chapel added with a laugh. Bridger looked at him with disdain. “And my guards? Demon did not kill them, did he?” Chapel looked over May’s shoulder out the window.

“You both will find your security teams are in less than perfect operating condition.” Bridger looked at Chapel. “Again.”

“Disappointing,” he said. “I was told these men were better.”

May reached for a cup of tea on the end table. Her steady hands brought the hot beverage to her lips, sipped, then returned it to the saucer with a rattle. “It might not come as a surprise, but I was expecting you.”

“No, I am not surprised. I assumed Chapel whined to you about our dinner date,” Bridger said.

“I do not whine.” Chapel brushed his tie as he smiled and turned in his chair.

“Shut up, Chapel. I wasn’t talking to you.”

Chapel ignored Bridger. “I told her she should expect you, since, as I said, you had no choice but to come here.”

“Shut up, Chapel,” Bridger said, keeping his eyes on May.

Chapel looked at the bag and continued with the pompous tone he used to let others know how prescient he was. “I expounded that your options are limited. And here you are.”

Bridger twisted his wrist, pointed the Devil Stick at Chapel, and clicked the Taser switch. The probes hit Chapel at point-blank range in his neck, just above the knot of his tie. He gagged, stiffened, and jerked back as his feet spasmed against the floor, propelling him and the chair backward. Bridger flipped the controls, extended his arm, and let out a blast of spray into the grunting man’s face.

He went silent.

Shock crossed May’s face as she realized her son had just attacked one of the most powerful men in the world—and a useful tool.

She looked at Bridger. Now the Devil Stick was pointed directly at her. His hands were steady. His eyes were focused on May. Bridger rolled his thumb to the gas controls. He saw her body tense.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Tell me everything, May. Everything.”

“What don’t you know?”

“Why us?” His thumb slowly rubbed across the control like he was scratching an itch.

“I made a deal,” she said. Her eyes nervously flicked again at his hand.

“A deal?” He felt the sweat in his palms. He tightened his grip on the weapon.

“I had to get the case to Chen. It was the last step in a decades-long operation. You were the only option. The last option. Chen had supplied all the intel you used to eliminate the Dragon Fire—I assume you ascertained that.”

“I’m not a fool.”

“No, you are not. Chen thought it fair I do the same—as a final show of good faith. Imagine, after all these years, and the things we have done to get to this point. He wanted a show of good faith.”

“I can only imagine.”

“I had to figure out a way to get the case and get rid of the rest of them, and, well, the only way to do that was to use you and your team.”

She started to reach over toward her tea, then stopped when she saw her hands were trembling. She clutched them together and set her hands in the lap of her dress.

“Chen had to appear to have acquired the case and bring it back to the MSS. We had made them think it was a vital technology. A long and steady deception op with Chen seemingly overcoming all odds. Now, acquiring it is their number one priority.”

“What is inside the case?” Bridger asked.

“Nothing we can’t live without and something his side will commemorate when he brings it to them.”

“But, like most ops, it all went sideways. He couldn’t fail.”

“At the most critical moment. First, MacLean and Bondar. Then Mr. Li Chu, who had nothing to do with Hillcrest until he went out on his own looking for you in Ukraine. I promised to give Chen the Spy Devils. He had a small amount of leverage. Can you believe that? Leverage on me!” She shook her head a few times. “Certainly, you can see allowing him to locate you was the only alternative left to me. Once you had your encounter, either way, Chen would be happy. Li Chu dies by your hand or his. He gets the case. I kept face.”

“No matter the outcome?” Bridger asked.

For the first time, he noticed the deep creases of age around her eyes. Her