The Watchers
Praise for
MARK ANDREW OLSEN and
The Assignment
“A writer who can take your breath away with a single sentence. A welcome, fresh voice that must be read!”
âTed Dekker
“Olsen's multifaceted plot of good and evil is a page-turner. [
The Assignment
] will also appeal to readers of Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. Highly recommended.”
â
Library Journal
“. . . a nonstop thriller . . . a smoothly plausible story. [Olsen] includes a religious perspective without being preachy. The concepts he presents are fascinating and well plotted. His characters are involved in a good vs. evil struggle from the start and the journey to the ending will keep you on the edge of your seat and awake until it's finished.”
â
Heartland Reviews
“In his first single major inspirational thriller,
The Assignment
, Mark Andrew Olsen weaves a riveting and unforgettable tale . . . His characters walk straight off the pages and will give the reader not only an edge-of-the-seat, thrilling read, but a life-changing experience.”
â
MyShelf.com
“Surprisingly, this is not a preachy or apostatizing story but reads more like an urban fantasy in which the powers of good and evil fight for supremacy. Mark Andrew Olsen is a talent comparable to Frank Peretti and Jerry Jenkins.”
â
ReviewCentre
“Mark Andrew Olsen blasts action into his story and keeps us up until the wee hours of the morning wanting to finish, yet not wanting the story to end . . . His pen writes with spiritual ink that captures and captivates.”
â
The Road to Romance
“His non-preachy yet grounded style is both refreshing and thoughtprovoking . . . I found myself movedâboth by the outcome and by the sense of this author's living faith in God.”
“
The Assignment
is the perfect blend of Christian fiction and suspense, with something for fans of both to enjoy.”
“[Olsen's] power of description is beautiful. The concept of the story is fascinating. The main characters are instantly captivating and likeable. Glimpses of Ireland, Jerusalem, and France through the eyes of the characters are so vivid you feel you've been there. The conclusion of the story, at least for the main male character, is satisfying enough to induce tears.”
â
Focus on
Fiction.net
“A good book that relies on its story and characters rather than on sermonettes and churchy cliché.”
â
Infuze Magazine
“Olsen weaves the present and the past together to show a man tormented by immortality . . . [and] combines well-developed characters, a fast-paced plot, and an intriguing problem into a fascinating suspense novel.”
â
Christian Book Previews
“. . . a well-told story, a unique combination of characters, with scenes and plot development that should please mystery readers . . . Spiritual messages come across as part of the essence of the story, not broken twigs or branches sticking out unnaturally to interrupt the flow . . . I'm keeping it for a second read.”
â
Rambles Magazine
“Wow! I've read hundreds of thriller, international-intrigue whodunits. But few of them have grabbed my imagination like this.
The Assignment
is rife with exciting action, rich characters, complex plot movements, and especially fulfilling in its historic panorama. A great read!”
THE
WATCHERS
Books by Mark Andrew Olsen
Hadassah: One Night With the King
1
The Hadassah Covenant: A Queen's Legacy
1
Rescued
2
The Assignment
The Watchers
1
with Tommy Tenney
2
with John Bevere
MARK ANDREW OLSEN
THE
WATCHERS
The Watchers
Copyright © 2007
Mark Andrew Olsen
Cover design by Lookout Design, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansâelectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwiseâwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN-13:Â Â Â 978-0-7642-2818-6
ISBN-10:Â Â Â 0-7642-2818-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Olsen, Mark Andrew.
    The watchers / Mark Andrew Olsen.
        p. cm.
    ISBN-13: 978-0-7642-2818-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
    ISBN-10: 0-7642-2818-8 (hardcover: alk. paper)
    1. Young womenâFiction. 2. AssassinsâFiction. 3. Secret societiesâFiction. I. Title.
    PS3615.L73W37        2007
    813'.6âdc22                                                                                2006038325
To my own precious
Abigail,
more beautiful and delightful
than any character in a book,
and forever our
Miracle Child
THE
WATCHERS
CONTENTS
PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA
âMIDNIGHT
The blue flickers of her television danced across the housekeeper's unmoving pupils. She neither budged a muscle, nor leveled the odd tilt of her head, nor wiped the crimson trickles crisscrossing her neck, nor rose from the stain darkening the sofa cushions beneath her. Nor did she notice that, twenty feet away, a man gripping the weapon of her murder had now reached the bedroom door of her
pequeña angelica
. Her angelic one.
Her employer's beautiful, sleeping, twenty-year-old daughter, Abigail.
No, deep in the final tremors of her death, the housekeeper did not hear her assailant turn the bedroom's door handle or see him enter the room. Nor did she scream when he took two padded strides into shadow.
Paused just inside the threshold, the killer breathed in deeply and tried in vain to calm his pulse by drinking in the darkness, savoring the smell of clean sheets and dissipating perfume. He badly needed the pause. The ecstasy of the previous slaying still fired through every synapse of his nervous system. In fact, the bliss so enthralled his faculties that he could only stand motionless while it subsided, peer down at young Abigail's bed, and focus all his energy on recovering his poise.
That, and resist the urge to harvest the new prey now sleeping before him.
Breathing as silently as he could, he tried to relax by forcing his thoughts back to the instant his first kill of the evening had awakened from her TV-induced stupor and realized what was happening to her. His soul was fed by the montage of terror that had blazed across those sleep-swollen eyes: disbelief, shock, rage, numbness, and finally heavylidded resignation as the laws of biology asserted themselves.
Oh, how the woman's death had electrified his every sense! Each layer of fear delighted him like nothing else. His Order had never overstated how delicious it was to savor those last moments of someone's life like a mouthful of caviar. He never tired of it. He doubted he ever would.
And best of all, as the Order of the Scythe would faithfully insist, was his assurance that in the process he had fulfilled one of earth's most necessary and neglected functions. The recycling of an inferior being.
Culling the herd
.
Now he scowled and focused on this second girl, on his actual purpose for being in this place.
She
was a different matter. No thrill-harvest here. He could not shake from his mind the fact that taking her life without authorizationâor deviating one inch from his ordersâcould prove his last mistake.
Beyond the surface value of sparing the world one more parasite, the woman out there on the sofa had been little more than a contingency. But now the sleeping girl embodied the assignment of a lifetime, one whose failure he might not survive.
Even
that
danger gave him a rush.
He stared harder at the beauty before him, the insolent serenity of the woman's slumber, of her blond hair tossed casually across the pillow.
Sleeping soundly like any other untroubled youth, probably dreaming of pimple-faced boys and MTV. She'd have no idea. . . .
He gazed at the placid face, the contours of her cheeks, and the long, thick eyelashes that lay atop sculptured cheekbones. Full lips parted gently around an escaping breath.
Beautiful girl
, he acknowledged. He followed the outline of legs under quilted blanket and realized that in another context the sight might have pierced him with a different desire altogether.
But tonight there was serious business at hand.
Inwardly he compared her sleeping expression to the photos he had studied. A lean, tanned face, a winsome, carefree smile, and hair bleached sandy blond by the sun. In her photos she'd worn no makeup, sporting an ordinary, unglamorous hairstyle. She might have been even more stunning if only she paid attention to such things.
She's the one,
he reassured himself.
Next to his shoulder, on the dresser, sat an open laptop. He merely had to touch the space bar to wake it up.