The Spy Devils, Joe Goldberg [fastest ebook reader .TXT] 📗

THE SPY DEVILS

Joe Goldberg

Contents

NOTE

Foreword

1. The Streets of Kyiv

2. The Streets of Taipei

3. The Hard Way

4. The Devilbots

5. Greetings From the Devil

6. The 12th at Augusta National

7. Find the Devil

8. The Deal With China

9. The Old Timers and The New Kids

10. Serge Taube

11. Asap

12. The Streets of Belgrade

13. Chaos is Good for Business

14. Warning Signals

15. Lomina Street

16. Dream Career

17. Recruitment

18. Adapt to Circumstances

19. Chanel N°5 Parfum Grand Extrait

20. Na Cosku

21. Bondar Battalion-1

22. Nom De Guerre

23. Anna Malinov

24. The Capital Grille

25. The Mole Hole

26. Latin for Guard

27. Kill the Devil

28. Quadrangle Investment Group, LLC

29. The Hint of Coriander

30. Drunk, On Drugs, and Dancing

31. Sharks in the Med

32. 100% Silk Pajamas

33. Plausible Deniability

34. The Bank of Viktor Bondar

35. Taste of Blood

36. Thunderlover

37. Where is Tinka?

38. Truth is Stranger than Fiction

39. It Sucks to be Pavlo

40. The Day

41. Fade to Black

42. A Proposal

43. Take it to the Bank

44. Beast is Dead

45. What is in the Case?

46. The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

47. A Thin Metal Device

48. Chapel and Chen

49. Where is the case?

50. Research

51. Wrath of the Devil

52. Mr. Nice Guy

53. Who Killed Beast?

54. You are a Liar

55. We Win And They Lose

56. The Stuff of Fiction Books and Movies

57. A Delicious Ruffino Chianti

58. Certificate of Appreciation

59. Angel

60. Don’t Call Me

61. One Month

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also By Joe Goldberg

NOTE

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or CIA endorsement of the author’s views. This material has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent disclosure of classified information. This does not constitute an official release of CIA information.

The Spy Devils

Copyright 2021 by Joe Goldberg

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

First Electronic Edition: May 2021

13 Digit ISBN: 978-1-7364745-1-8

10 Digit ISBN: 1-7364745-1-0

First Print Edition: May 2021

13 Digit ISBN: 978-1-7364745-0-1

10 Digit ISBN: 1-7364745-0-2

Cover by Damonza.com

Printed in the United States of America

Created with Vellum

To my parents, Gene and Janet.

I wish you were here to read this.

“The Devil hath the power

To assume a pleasing shape.”

—William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”

—John Milton, Paradise Lost

Foreword

FROM BRIDGER

Let me get straight to the point. I never thought I would be writing the foreword to a book, be in a book, or allow a book to be written with me and the Spy Devils as the main characters. Never. Not once.

Then Joe approached me about telling the Spy Devils’ story in a fictionalized book.

I said, “hell no!”

“You have stories that need to be told,” he kept saying.

After many asks, he finally convinced me.

I thought about it. The world is a dangerous place. Why not give people a peek into the world of espionage? Why not shine a little light on topics governments, international organizations, or corporations would rather leave in the shadows?

I did ask for conditions.

Any specific details about our missions had to be changed. Names of all people, companies, dates, and locations had to be changed. We are still active and our enemies would love to find us. There are also regular hard-working people who got caught up in this, and we need to protect them. Some of you reading this will know who you are. Others will think you know, but will be wrong.

I stressed the point that when it comes to the Spy Devils, the old adage ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’ is, well, true.

Here it is. Truth as fiction.

Bridger

USA

2021

1

The Streets of Kyiv

Kyiv, Ukraine

The instant he was tossed from the balcony of his luxury suite into the cool darkness, he calculated how long it would be before he landed on the crowded sidewalk ten stories below. He couldn’t help it. That’s how his quantitatively-oriented mind worked. Factoring his considerable weight, distance to the sidewalk, and gravity, he determined he would hit the concrete in roughly four seconds. Give or take.

Only a few seconds had passed since he heard the light taps on the wide, overly ornate door of his executive suite in the InterContinental Hotel Kyiv. He was fresh out of the shower and, in his haste, opened the door without looking through the small peephole.

That, he now realized, was a mistake.

A fist with the force of a sledgehammer crushed his nose. Staggering backward, he grabbed his face with both hands. He felt the warm blood already pooling in his palms. Then he felt powerful hands gripping his arms.

Then came the sensation of weightlessness.

Random thoughts wandered into his consciousness. Accelerating past the eighth floor, he admired the beautifully illuminated exterior of the hotel and the city’s gorgeous skyline. His feet were chilly, and he wished his comfy slippers hadn’t flown off like balloons in the wind.

A wonderfully plush hotel-supplied bathrobe fluttered at his sides like broken wings, exposing his enormous hairy naked body. He worried his office would be saddled with the expense of a white robe soon to be ruined with his blood and goo.

Tumbling by the fourth floor and through eyes watering from the wind, the cracks in the sidewalk appeared, flooded by soft yellow rays from lamps near the hotel entrance. The air smelled of river water and exhaust fumes.

Then terror-induced depression arrived from deep within his shocked brain. He would never