Secret Agent Minister Read Online Free Page A

another colleague before our meeting to discuss my speech. Charles went up ahead of me. They must have ambushed him. It should have been me.”
    She stared up at him, flabbergasted at what he was telling her. “You could have been killed tonight?”
    He nodded. “Yes. I’m out of CHAIM and no one, not even the other operatives, knows where I’ve been assigned. But someone has breached the security of the entire organization. Just to have me killed. And I’m pretty sure I know who that someone is.”
    Lydia’s whole body was shaking now. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think beyond the fact that Pastor Dev might have been killed tonight. Up until now, she’d wanted to believe it had all been some sort of mistake, that they weren’t the target. She looked back up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. And then she started shaking so badly, she felt sick to her stomach. With a rush, everything that had happened came at her, causing her to grow weak. “You could have been killed.”
    He touched his thumb to her chin. “I might still be killed, Lydia. And you right along with me, if they find us. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
    He caught her in his arms just before she passed out.

THREE
    D ev hated to bring Lydia out of the relative peace of her little fainting spell. But he had to, so he carried her to a big stone bench. “Lydia, wake up.” He held her in his arms, scoping the spot just as the little old lady they’d seen on the train came charging around the corner.
    Obviously trying to focus, Lydia lifted her head and spotted the woman. And in her usual Lydia way, said, “How nice. She’s worried about us.” While Dev went into combat mode, Lydia sent the woman a reassuring smile. Then asked, “How long has that nice little lady been tailing us, anyway?”
    “She’s not so very nice, and she really isn’t a lady at all,” Dev whispered. There she stood, glaring at Lydia and Dev through her bifocals. And she was packing more than just antacid and Advil.
    Even in her stupor of confusion, Lydia seemed to figure things out. “That woman’s gun is much bigger than yours, Pastor Dev.”
    “You can say that again.”
    The woman aimed the gun right at Lydia and Dev. Then she spoke. “‘Will your riches, or all the mighty forces, keep you from distress?’”
    “Job again,” Lydia murmured, her shock obviously bone deep. And it was about to get worse, Dev thought.
    Everything after that was in fast-forward. Dev pushed Lydia down into the leaves and grass behind the bench, his hand on her back. “Stay down,” he hissed.
    Since Lydia seemed paralyzed with fear, staying down wasn’t a problem. She cringed low as Dev managed to position himself behind the concrete back of the bench, trying to protect her with his body. But her head came up in spite of his best effort as she strained to peek at their assailant.
    Then she gasped. Probably because she saw what Dev had already figured out. The old lady wasn’t actually a woman. She was a he . A wiry young man dressed like an old lady. And that man was trying to kill them. Shots clinked and pinged all around them, but Dev didn’t let that bother him. He kept Lydia’s head down, his body protecting hers, and kept himself out of the line of fire. While he waited for his chance.

     
    Amazed and paralyzed with fear, Lydia watched him—but it was like a slow-motion dance of some sort, surreal and bizarre. He stood, then crouched forward, all the while firing that big-barreled gun at the enemy. One of the shots hit its mark. But Pastor Dev didn’t kill the VEP—the Very Bad Guys had been elevated in Lydia’s mind to Very Evil People. Pastor Dev shot the man in the leg, causing him to drop his weapon and roll around in agony. The wound must have hurt something awful from the way the man was screaming.
    “Don’t worry, I just maimed him,” Pastor Dev explained, in a tone he might use to say, “Don’t you just love long walks in the woods,