Read Trident's First Gleaming: A Special Operations Group Thriller for Free Online Page B

see.”
    “I don’t want to go,” Chris said, “but something terrible might happen if I stay.”
    “I don’t want you to go, either.”
    “But if the Lord wants me to go, and I don’t go, I’m concerned about the consequences,” Chris said. “Not just for myself but for others. Since Hannah walked through that door, my whole world turned upside down. My old job and this job seem in conflict. She’s a colleague and a friend, but there were moments when I wished we could put the world on pause and see if we could be something more.”
    “God hears you.”
    “But right now, I’m afraid I can’t hear Him. Why would the Lord bring me all the way here to this peaceful place—just to send me back to war? Why would I walk away from Hannah just so she could walk back in? I want guidance, but I’m afraid that I only want to hear the guidance that I want to hear.” While Pastor Luther seemed to have a hotline to God, Chris experienced both good and bad reception days.
    “Where does your friend live?” Pastor Luther asked.
    “Virginia.”
    “It must be important for her to come way out here to Dallas.”
    “She said it’s a matter of national security.”
    “This was the Lord’s church before you and I arrived. And it’ll be the Lord’s church long after you and I are gone. I’ll be happy to cover for you until you return.”
    “Will you pray for me while I’m away?” Chris asked.
    “Certainly.”
    “I’ve never been too afraid about physical death, but I am afraid of spiritual death.”
    “I just have one favor to ask of you,” Pastor Luther said.
    “Sure.”
    “When you go back to the kind of work you used to do, old habits will return—it’s inevitable. Much of that can be forgiven. I don’t like killing, but I understand that’s what a soldier must do for his country, and I won’t tell you how to do that part of your job. But I saw how she looked at you and how you looked at her. If you fall into serious transgression, I can’t support you. And if you want my recommendation to preach elsewhere, I won’t be able to give it.”
    “I understand,” Chris said. “You told me the same before I started work here. I agreed with you then, and I agree with you now.”
    “God expects more from you and me. We are His ambassadors. We are His anointed servants. If you marry her, you two can procreate to your hearts’ desire, but until then, you abstain.”
    The conversation was awkward for Chris, and he guessed it was awkward for Reverend Luther, too, but he was grateful for Reverend Luther’s straight-shooting character and unflinching dedication. “Yes, sir. I’ll be careful.”
    “Shall I pray?”
    Chris nodded.
    They bowed their heads, and Pastor Luther prayed to protect Chris from harm, both physical and spiritual. “Please keep all cruelty, hate, and murder out of Chris’s heart, even during battle…”

    Chris had spent the whole night preparing for his journey back to black. After only a couple hours of sleep, he called a taxi that first took him to Pastor Luther’s home. In the dawn light, a spring wind graced new maple leaves with movement, and tree branches sent off an armada of flat fibers that whirled through the air like helicopters. Patches of fresh St. Augustine grass replaced the winter’s dead, and a cardinal pecked for food in the flowerbed where a small rainbow of petunias and lantanas bloomed. Chris rang the doorbell.
    Pastor Luther’s wife answered the door. “Good morning, Chris. You just missed him. He left to visit Zeke Jackson in the hospital.”
    “That’s all right. I just needed to drop some things off for him, if you don’t mind.”
    “Of course not,” she said warmly. “I was expecting you.”
    Chris nodded. “These are the keys to my house and car. And I’ve included some instructions and important papers in this file.” Chris handed the keys and file to her.
    She smiled as she took them.
    “My will is in the file, too,” Chris added as an