I follow her pointed finger.
A block ahead, I see a man and a boy wheeling a large metal trolley filled with tall, white wedding cakes up a driveway. The door of the house opens, and a group of women hurry out to help drag the trolley into the house. I notice that the man has a bushy beard and the boy has an egg-shaped head. A white van passes us. The words Tastes Like Cakes are emblazoned on the side. I do not get a look at the driver, but I have good idea what’s going on.
“Martin Geiger!” I say out loud.
“Food-based bad guy,” I remind myself. “Poisoning the competition in the fast-food market didn’t work out for him, so now he’s moving into wedding cakes.”
“Call the cops?” suggests Joanna, holding up her phone.
We could. We absolutely could. But we’re so close. And I’ve got history with the Geigers. This is me being a concerned citizen taking a stand against local crime rather than . . . that other thing I don’t do anymore.
I start to run in the direction of the house.
Joanna runs after me. “Spy action, right?”
“Not if we don’t call it that,” I say.
“What do we call it?” she asks.
“Being the good guys, making things right, and saving the day.”
Joanna grins. “I know a song that’s perfect for such an occasion.”
I know it, too.
“Here come the spy twins on another adventure,” belts out Joanna. I’d tell her to lower the volume, but the guys we’re pursuing are hard of hearing.
“Here come the spy twins coming to your town,” I join in, and I’m singing it for Adam Pacific, Dale Tookey, Vanessa Dominion, my long-lost friend Red, and even Ur5ula. All of us with our secrets, our gadgets, our double lives, and our mountains of lies.
“Here come the spy twins on another adventure, nothing’s going to stop us now.”
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Tina Wexler, Maria Barbo, Lori Majewski, James Greer, Lola G., Clare English, Kitty Page, Rebecca Schwarz, and everyone at Katherine Tegen Books.
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About the Author
COURTESY OF JONATHAN BERNSTEIN
JONATHAN BERNSTEIN was never a spy—but then that’s what someone who actually was a spy would want you to believe. Here’s what we do know: He writes books, magazine articles, and movies. He was born in Scotland and lives in Los Angeles. Everything else is classifed. Except for the information contained at www.jonathanbernsteinwrites.com. You can visit him on Facebook or Twitter @jbpeevish or @bwilderspy.
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Credits
Cover art © 2017 by Kory Heinzen
Cover design by Carla Weise
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
BRIDGET WILDER #3: LIVE FREE, SPY HARD. Copyright © 2017 by Jonathan Bernstein. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016935935
ISBN 978-0-06-238272-6
EPub Edition © March 2017 ISBN 9780062382740
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FIRST EDITION
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Bridget Wilder #3 Page 22
