Page 40 of Spy With Me
Lacey grabbed a third plate and sat across from Devi,leaning over conspiratorially. “Not that he’s been a saint. Quite the opposite.He’s a horny bastard.”
“I am not. I am a regular sex drive bastard.” She didn’thave to put it like that. “I’ve been single and quite frankly, despite heruncle’s rules for his daughters, he’s willing to throw me out as man meat alot.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Devi’s brow had arched, andshe looked a lot like her mom in that moment. Her mom when she was trying tofigure out if it was time to kick a little ass. “Because I happen to know thatmy uncle has a honey pot rule, and yes, I know what honey pot means in the spyworld. It’s flirting for information and potentially having an entire sexualrelationship to work a target. I happen to know my cousins are forbidden fromdoing that, and I’m fairly certain my uncle would never ask Cooper or Tris.You’re telling me he’ll toss you in?”
And she sounded as fierce as her mother.
Lacey grinned. “Oh, from what I can tell Big Tag oftenthrows Zach to the wolves, and by wolves I mean any target who finds himattractive. Once he flirted with a man in an airport for over two hours so amember of his team could steal his laptop, download the information, and get itback in his bag. The bugger had shown zero interest in Miss Magenta, but heperked right up when Big Tag sent in Zach.”
Devi frowned and looked at Zach. “She knows about thetwins?”
Fuck. Big Tag was going to kill him. “No.”
Lacey’s eyes narrowed. “Twins. Bugger all. That’s what I’vebeen missing. You keep talking about your cousins. I thought you were using theplural because you grew up with them. I knew Tasha Taggart was on the team. IsKara a Taggart, too? Did the Agency scrub her? Or them? Twins explains a lot.”
Devi had gone pale. “Oh, I did that.”
He reached out and took her hand in his, guilt threateningto swamp him. “Sweetness, you are not an operative. I don’t blame you. Youruncle won’t blame you. The twins won’t blame you.” He squeezed her hand andlooked her right in the eyes. “You have done nothing wrong. You’re in a worldyou’re not used to. Look at me. Your cousins are fine. Lacey is an ally, andone I assure you Big Tag will vet thoroughly if I bring her in. Which I’llprobably have to at this point.”
Lacey’s head shook as though that was a terrible idea. “Idon’t think we need to do that at all, but Zach is right about one thing. I’mnot about to go out and shout it to the world. The truth is I don’t care. Ihave my job and that is to infiltrate an organization called Disrupt.Particularly Disrupt Europe.”
“I don’t know what that is,” Devi admitted.
She wasn’t alone. Outside of politicians and some thinktanks, it wasn’t a wildly advertised group. “It’s a bunch of wealthy people whogot together with intellectuals and politicians to create new ways to solveproblems. Like water in Africa. They basically brought together a group ofinnovators and are working on real solutions to bring water to dry areas of thecontinent.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.” Devi sat back, seeming to findsome calm.
“Yes, it certainly seems fine from the outside,” Laceyagreed. She scooped up some of the beet, carrot, and kale salad she made.
Zach sighed and wished he had a burger. “There’s a secondlevel to Disrupt. A darker one.”
“And that man who took my cousin is involved.” Devi winced.“I need to stop saying cousin.”
“You don’t. I was serious. I have a vague interest in someof the stories Zach has told me about Ms. Magenta. I won’t talk about it toanyone,” Lacey promised. “I owe Zach a lot. So to answer your originalquestion, I have to talk a bit about my mum. She’s a legend in activistcircles. She works mostly on the environment, but she will champion animalcauses as well. One of her friends was working with Disrupt Europe on animaltesting. She called my mum one night and said she found evidence that there wasa group within the group, and they were buying bombs.”
“Why would they need bombs?” Devi asked.
“A good question, and very specific bombs.” Lacey passedDevi the wine she bought. “Do you recall the terrorist attacks in Jakarta a fewyears back?”
She nodded. “Yes, because I was working on a project with acompany at the time. It was some post-grad work I did for a professor designinga sportswear line. Our manufacturer was in Indonesia, and we ended up having toshift to Vietnam because the shipping lines were screwed up for months.”
“Yes, the worddisruptworks for both parts of theorganization,” Zach agreed.
Devi looked thoughtful for a moment. “Why would they want toblow up some transportation sites in Asia?”
“Because of what comes out of Asia. An enormous amount ofmerchandise, and more importantly, parts we use to build things here come outof Asia. Disrupt those shipping lanes and you disrupt the world,” Laceyexplained. “I know it’s hard to understand, but what I’ve uncovered is a groupof extremely wealthy people behind the front-facing organization who use thelegitimate parts of Disrupt to do what they actually want to do. Which is burnthe world down so they can make a profit and rule over what’s left.”
“What happened to your mom’s friend?” Devi asked.
Lacey stopped and put her fork down. She took a long sip ofwine. “She disappeared. She was supposed to meet my mum in Munich to give herthe files and the evidence she found. She didn’t make it. Three weeks later herbody was dragged out of a river in Croatia. Any reports you read will claim shewas drunk and fell in. She didn’t drink.”
“So she was murdered,” Devi surmised.
“She was, and my mum was heartbroken. She’s strong but she’snot capable of violence. It’s not in her soul. It is in mine. My father hadanother life before he married her, and it seems I take after him. My originalplan was to find her killer and bring some justice. I brought blood and pain. Idon’t think it qualifies as justice, but it did feel good,” Lacey said, hervoice steady. “However, I found nothing that would stand up in a court of law,so I decided to keep my cover and go further. And that is when I met ShannonReed.”
“Zach’s mom.”
He nodded. “I’ve told you about her. True things, like shewas in and out of jail.”
