Delta: A Spy Novel

Chapter One

            “Good to see you haven’t lost your touch.”

            Starting, I whipped around to see Josh Steiner standing in the doorway, leaning against the post and shoving his hands in his pockets. His green-blue eyes smirked at me as he added, “Except maybe in your perception, that is.”

            “Your sneaking abilities are as good as ever.” I kept my voice neutral but was unable to keep a grin from creeping out onto my face. “Still – long time, no see, Josh.”

            He came forward, shaking wavy brown-blonde hair out of his eyes and inspecting my target with a half-smile. “Oh, I see what you did there,” he said, glancing over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Still a kid at heart, huh, Astrid?”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I returned, straight-faced.

            Gesturing towards the target, he said, “A smiley face? Really?”

            I grinned, looking over at the pattern my bullets had smashed into the cardboard of the target. “I couldn’t resist. Like you’ve never made a smiley face.”

            Josh shrugged. Seventeen years old, my best friend since birth, and a complete idiot to boot, he knew me so well that it was almost scary. He was one of perhaps four people in the world who did, and two of the other three were or had been Delta agents as well. Rigorous training for CIA-type work tended to bring people closer together, especially since we were some of the only ones of our age group.

            “Where’ve you been the last couple of days?” I asked.

Josh made a dismissive gesture. “You’re going to find out in a bit,” he said mysteriously, and I groaned. I knew all too well what that meant: another assignment. Part of me was unenthusiastic, because assignments could get stressful; the other part was energized – nothing like a little adrenaline to let you live life to the fullest. And if Josh was in on it, then it would be five times better.

            “Okay, what do you want?”

            “Astrid von Shauff, as conversational as always,” grumbled Josh. “Maybe I’m just stopping in to say hi?”

            I fixed him with a beady look, unloading the gun as I spoke. “I’ll believe that when cows fly. There has to be some reason you’re in here, and I’d be willing to bet it’s not about a picnic.”

            His eyes were on my hands as I disassembled my weapon. “The expression is ‘pigs fly,’ and – okay, you’re right. I’m not here for salutations.”

            “Thank you, Charlotte.” I paused, looking at the pieces of the gun in my hands. It was a bad habit of mine – dismantling weapons when I was wary about something. I would have to break that particular habit, because it could probably end up killing me one day. Sighing, I began to put the weapon back together, looking up at Josh again as I did so. “So…what are you here for?”