Agent in the Dark (The Agents for Good) (10 page)

Curious, I couldn’t refrain from asking, “So what’s the verdict, still gonna try to save me?”

“Absolutely!” She said without hesitation.

“What’s your strategy?” I asked.

“Well, you already have faith; you just need relationship to go with it.”

“Good luck with that honey! My brothers already tried everything in the Good Book, in order to save me from my wicked ways and he’s come up empty time and time again.”

“Is he as pretty as I am?”

I gave her a quick look. She had such a confident smile on that I couldn’t break through to read her thoughts.

“Are you going to try to sensually entice me into joining the ranks of Christianity, because that strategy has a real possibility of success?”

Her smile deepened, but remained cryptic in regards to her thoughts. She spoke, “Honey, I’m not going to be the one to save you, God is. I’m just along to help and be useful whe
rever He might have a part for me to play.”

Her confidence of my defeat was annoying, so I ignored her for the next several hours. It was getting on towards evening, when I saw the sentry. The sentry, not much older than a boy, saw us at the same moment and reacted out of sheer startlement by bring up a rifle and firing.

I felt the bullet smack into my side and then burn away past me, then I heard it impact with Asia. I wheeled around in horror to see her white faced and clutching at her shou
lder. Screaming in rage I turned on the boy and closed the distance between us in several bounds my sword lifted high to hack him into pieces. The boy screamed and dropped the rifle and fell to the ground in abject fright of me.

“No!!! Please don’t hurt the boy!”
Boomed out a voice off to my right.

I hesitated only long enough to catalog the new threat, which revealed itself as an aging black man, who appeared unarmed. My sword lifted higher.

“John don’t!” Asia spoke out from behind me.

My blade was poised to descend upon the quivering boy at my feet, as I glanced back at Asia. She was leaning back against a tree with a hand pressed to her shoulder, as her face was twisted up with pain.

“Don’t do it John.”

I saw her start to fall and I dropped the sword, as I rushed to her side. She was unconscious, I quickly felt at the wound. Blood was everywhere and I pressed a rag against the wound to try to stop it. Feeling under her I searched for the exit wound. There wasn’t one. I swore hard.

The old black man was kneeling beside me, “We have a su
rgeon in our camp! We need to get her there!”

Quickly, he helped me tie a makeshift pressure bandage over the wound. I swung her up into my arms and started to follow after the man, only to stop briefly beside the boy, who still lay on
the ground shaking.

“So help me, if she dies I’ll finish the job I started with you!” I said, before I hurried on after the older man leaving the boy to cry on the forest floor.

We broke out of the forest into a clearing made up of makeshift shacks huddled around an old stately looking
farmhouse. The older man called out orders to surprised looking individuals that came popping out of everywhere.

The man seemed to be something of a leader in this little community. He led me straight for the house holding the door open for me. I passed through it careful not to hit Asia’s head on the doorpost. The man directed me to a room and I stepped into it. The room was obviously set up for medical purposes. I had no sooner entered the room then a clean-shaven man of about forty with Doctor written all over him stepped into the room followed by a woman with all the practicality of a nurse in her bearing.

“Put her here on the table.” The Doctor said.

I laid Asia down and they lost no time, but showed their experience in how they coordinated together at cutting away the bandage and shirt in order to examine the wound. It was a small clean hole, probably made by a small caliber bullet such as a 22.

They rolled her onto her side, as the doctor felt at her back, “I feel it!”

The nurse sterilized the area and then the Doctor split the skin with a scalpel. More of my Asia’s blood dripped down to stain the table red. My hands tightened into fists at the sight of it. A hand squeezed my shoulder and I glanced to the side to see the black man there. I shrugged his grasp off and went back to watching the Doctor. The man didn’t seem to be offended, but continued to stand beside me.

“Got it!” The Doctor said pulling a small smashed up, but intact looking bullet from the wound.

The piece of lead tinkled loudly into the little pan that he dropped it in, as he continued digging into the incision on the back of Asia’s shoulder. My temper began to rise. What was he doing? Couldn’t he see she was bleeding out? He pulled something else out of the wound with a pair of twe
ezers.

The nurse quickly took it from him and stretched out Asia’s shirt and pressed out the bloody patch onto the hole in the shirt.

“It fits!” She said.

“Good, let’s get her closed up and an IV started.” The Doctor said.

They moved quickly and expertly in doing just that and I began to relax inside. The Doctor left off and the nurse took over.

The older man beside me spoke deeply, “Steve, he needs some attention too.”

I glanced down to see the small puddle of blood on the floor. I had completely forgotten about being hit first by the bullet. I couldn’t care less about my wound. The Doctor pulled my shirt up and inspected the wound. He glanced up at me and then over at Asia. “Minor miracle here Eli.” The Doctor said.

“How so?” Asked the man beside me curiously.

“The bullet hit him first, which stole most of its energy, but more than that hitting his rib deflect the bullet slightly off course. It would’ve cut a major artery otherwise and the
bullet would’ve smashed off the bone and likely ping-ponged around inside of her, if it hadn’t first hit him.”

“That isn’t a small miracle by any means Steve.” The man called Eli said.

The Doctor smiled, “I guess not.”

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked breaking into the co
nversation.

“She’s lost a lot of blood, but the bullet doesn’t seem to have amounted to any major internal damage, so I think with some rest and recovery she’ll be absolutely fine. Betty, when you’re done there can you clean and stitch this up?”

The nurse quickly nodded.

Steve smiled at me, “Sorry I have to skip out like this, but I’ve got two sets of twins trying to beat each other out.”

I nodded in understanding, as he passed by me out the door. The nurse came to me and I held my shirt up for her, as she worked on my side. She was very proficient and soon had me stitched up. I let my shirt down, but she hadn’t moved away. Her steady hands and demeanor were gone.

Her fingers shaking she brushed away a tear unable to meet my eyes with hers, “I’m so sorry! I……”

“Your son?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Send him by later. I’d like to have a little talk with him.”

She nodded and left the room. I turned towards the man still by my side.

“Are you the leader here?” I asked.

He shrugged expressively, “Some look to me for gui
dance.”

“Can we stay until she’s better?”

“I wouldn’t hear of anything else!” He exclaimed.

“I can’t pay you anything.”

“No payment is required. Now why don’t you sit down over there and take a load off your feet and I’ll send you in some food.”

He left then and closed the door behind him. I waited a moment before approaching the bed. Asia’s color had improved drastically. I leaned down and pressed my ear to her chest relaxing as I felt the steady beat of her heart. I went to the other side of her and sat down heavily on a cot. I reached up to hold her hand and lean my forehead against the table. This had been much too close a thing.

The man called Eli was back with a tray of food. The plate was piled high with food, including a steak. I looked up questioningly at him and he gave a deep belly laugh.

“Only the kind that moos.” He responded still chuckling.

I dug into the food. It was good and I felt myself unwind some and I started to talk with Eli, who sat across from me. I liked the man and I felt at ease with him, as I rarely did with strangers or even those I knew.

There was a knock on the door before it opened. The boy was standing there with his mother. Haltingly he stepped into the room towards me. The first thing he did was hand
me my sword. I took it back from him and studied it for a moment before glancing at Asia. It really had been an accident, nothing malicious intended. I turned the sword end for end and handed it back to the boy. The boy’s eyes widened drastically at the offered gift.

“Take it and keep your mother safe. You can go now.”

The boy took the sword, but looked around as if he couldn’t believe it.

He glanced at Asia and swallowed, “That’s all you have to say to me for what I did?”

I looked up at him, “What do you want me to say? You’re not going to fall asleep on sentry duty again are you?”

“No Sir!”

“I didn’t think so and it looks like you’ve put yourself through enough hell without me adding any so let’s leave it at that and move on.”

The boy managed to whisper out, “Thank you Sir.” B
efore he backed out of the room and closed the door.

Eli spoke up, “You made him a better young man just now and for that I thank you. Many can speak a hard thing and tear down, but few can actually build others up by speaking just plain ordinary words.”

There was a period of silence between us then, which Eli broke. “Is she important?” He asked.

I thought about it for a moment. “I guess you could say that she’s humanity’s last great chance at freedom.”

Eli nodded, as if he had suspected as much. His eyes seemed to bore into me. “But that is not why she is important to you is it? Tell me is she your wife?”

“She’s mine!” I responded firmly.

He seemed to accept the answer. “You should rest now. I’ll keep watch over her and wake you if you’re needed.” Eli said.

I was tired, especially after eating all the food that I had. I lay down on the cot, but sleep eluded me. It had always been hard to sleep ever since…… I opened my eyes, it wasn’t good to remember. I glanced over to see Eli reading something by candlelight. I sat up and his eyes drifted over to me.

“Is that a Bible?” I asked.

He nodded.

“You a preacher?”

“I am.” He affirmed.

I’d suspected as much. I stood up and moved toward the door, but stopped before I went through it.

“If you don’t mind I think she’d enjoy it if you were to read out loud. She draws comfort and meaning from those words.” I said before I started out the door.

“And what meaning do you have for her?” Eli asked deeply.

I stopped briefly, “I’m the man who’s supposed to be keeping her safe from all harm.” I said bitterly before stalking away into the night.

Eli stared at the closed door for a moment, as his finger tapped on his Bible. The man was hard to read. There was anger and perhaps even shame in his cloaked demeanor that he used to shield some private pain. There was also confusion to be sure and Eli stretched out a hand toward the door and prayed out against the spirit of confusion that he felt twisting the young man up inside. That done he turned back to the table and the beautiful patient that lay upon it.

He had a very good feeling about her. He glanced at the door, as he again remembered the big warrior’s request for the woman that he had claimed as his own. A smile touched Eli’s lips; the proper application of sweet honey always did catch more flies. He pulled his chair closer to the bed and picked up from where he had been reading in Psalms. Psalms was always a good book of the Bible to read, when one was in need of comfort. Eli’s deep voice filled the room with a resonating melody, as he read the Scriptures he’d read coun
tless times before to his silent witness.

I watched the exact moment she came awake. She moaned and felt at her shoulder. Her eyes traced around the room and landed on me. I swallowed the chunk of apple I had been chewing on.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Like I’ve been shot. Are there more of those?” She asked looking at my half eaten apple covetously.

“Covetousness is a sin.” I said with good humor.

Her lips curved, “So you have read the Bible!”

“Bits and pieces come back to me now and then I admit.”

I helped prop her up and she reached for my apple. I smacked her hand away playfully. “Stealing is a sin too.”

“But I’m hungry!” She exclaimed piteously.

“So that makes it all right then?” I asked leadingly.