Hires a spy to be devious? (4)
I believe the answer is:
pays
'hires' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with ownership as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'a spy to be devious?' is the wordplay.
'to be devious?' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'devious' mean this).
'a'+'spy'='aspy'
'aspy' is an anagram of 'PAYS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pays that I've seen before include "Gives money for work" , "Foots the bill" , "Remunerates" , "(13) [FRENCH] Country" , "Hollande's country" .)