Hoping to be American secret agents, say? (8)
I believe the answer is:
aspiring
'hoping' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american secret agents say?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'spiring' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to be' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aspiring that I've seen before include "Striving" , "Having a strong desire to achieve something" , "Strongly desiring to achieve" , "Hoping" , "Ambitious, hopeful" .)