Mission of Hope by Allie Pleiter Read Free Book Online Page A

longer lie to himself: Nora Longstreet had caught his eye.

Chapter Six
    â€œI ’ve laid it all out in my head, Reverend. It wouldn’t be that hard, actually.”
    Reverend Bauers sat back in his chair, ready to listen. Quinn had once loved the meticulous order of the reverend’s study—it had seemed to him like an enormous library, although he’d never actually seen a true library. Today, Bauers reclined between tall stacks of linens and a tottering tower of pots and pans. The neatness of his study had been overthrown by the new demands on the Grace House kitchen, which had suffered damage in the earthquake but now had even more mouths to feed. As such, the study now doubled as an extra pantry, so the books shared their shelves with tins of tomatoes, jars of syrup, and whatever foodstuffs Bauers had managed to find to feed his flock.
    â€œI expected as much, Quinn.”
    Quinn again had the sensation of being the center of a story that had begun before he arrived. As if everyone around him knew more of his own future than he himself did. It was the kind of thoughts that could makea man edgy. And bold. “If we could get them from the army or the hospital, it’d be easy as pie.”
    Reverend Bauers frowned. “If you could get them easily from those places, you’d have them already.”
    Quinn leaned one shoulder against the wall. “You’re right. And that’s wrong. Even I can see we can’t fit in those official camps. Why bother to divide us at all unless someone wants the groups to start fighting each other?”
    â€œJust to make things clear here, man, stealing will not be an option. I admit we might have to stretch our definition of ‘procurement,’ but there will be no taking of supplies against the will of those who have them. You must become an agent of expediting, not a thief.”
    Quinn furrowed a brow at the long word. “Expediting?”
    â€œThe art of expediting is the art of getting things where they need to go quickly. Efficiently. And, I’ve no doubt in this case, rather creatively. You possess the creativity in spades. We just need someone very well-connected. And, you’ll be happy to know, God has been kind enough to present us with an ally. Can you be at Fort Mason tomorrow afternoon at two?”
    Quinn winced. There was only one place he ever wanted to be at two in the afternoon, and it wasn’t anywhere near the army base. “I’ve got someplace to be at two, but make it three and I’ll be there.”
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    â€œTwo minutes after three,” said a dark-haired man in uniform with a precise mustache and an even more precise snap of his pocket watch. “He’s punctual, at least. That’s something.” Quinn found himself noseto nose with a meticulously dressed man with dark, sharp eyes.
    â€œI’m told you run fast.” The man pocketed his watch.
    â€œI do.”
    â€œHave you a steady hand?”
    Quinn wasn’t entirely sure where this was heading. “So they tell me.”
    â€œQuinn Freeman,” Reverend Bauers cut in, “may I present Army Major Albert Simon. Major Simon, this is Quinn Freeman, the man I’ve been telling you about.”
    Major Simon walked around him, appraising him as if he were buying a horse. “Tall, strong, good reach, I’d expect.” He turned to Bauers. “He’s had some training in fencing?”
    â€œTwo years,” Quinn stepped in, not liking the idea of Bauers and Simon talking about him as if he weren’t in the room. “It was a long time ago, but I still remember most of it.”
    Simon stroked one hand down either tip of his mustache. “Ever shot a pistol, Freeman?”
    â€œI’ve been fired at,” Quinn offered, “but I don’t own a gun.”
    â€œIt’s harder than you think.”
    â€œSo is a lot of life, Major. Especially now.”
    â€œWhich is why