{"id":1037,"date":"2026-01-03T21:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/deliver-us-from-evil-baldacci-david\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:10:07","slug":"deliver-us-from-evil-baldacci-david","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/deliver-us-from-evil-baldacci-david\/","title":{"rendered":"Deliver Us From Evil &#8211; Baldacci, David"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='book-preview'>\n<h3>Book Preview<\/h3>\n<div class=\"frontmatter-rw\">\n<div class=\"title-block-rw\" id=\"rw-title-block_49222-00001\" title=\"Block Title\">\n<p class=\"title-num-label-rw\" id=\"rw-title-num-label_49222-00001\">CHAPTER<\/p>\n<p class=\"title-other-rw\"><span class=\"calibre3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ornament\" class=\"calibre1\" src=\"..\/images\/00003.jpeg\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"title-num-rw\">1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"fp-rw\" id=\"rw-fp_49222-00001\"><span class=\"dropcap-rw\">T<\/span><span class=\"sc-rw\">HE NINETY-SIX-YEAR-OLD MAN<\/span> sat in his comfy armchair enjoying a book on Joseph Stalin. No mainstream publisher would touch the delusion-filled manuscript<br \/>\n            since the author had been unfailingly complimentary about the sadistic Soviet leader. Yet the self-published book\u2019s positive<br \/>\n            opinion of Stalin appealed greatly to the old man. He\u2019d purchased it directly from the writer not long before the latter was<br \/>\n            committed to a mental institution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00001\">No stars could be seen hovering over the elderly man\u2019s large estate because of a storm moving inland from the nearby ocean.<br \/>\n            Though he was wealthy and living in great luxury, his personal needs were relatively simple. He wore a decades-old faded sweater,<br \/>\n            his shirt collar secured all the way to his fleshy neck, which was thick with wattles. His cheap pants lay loose over his<br \/>\n            skeletal and useless legs. The hypnotic drum of rain on the roof had begun and he settled farther back in his chair, content<br \/>\n            to delve into the mind and career of a madman who had killed tens of millions of people unlucky enough to live under his cruel<br \/>\n            fist.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00002\">The old man occasionally laughed at something he read, at least the particularly gruesome parts, and nodded his head in agreement<br \/>\n            over passages where disciples of Stalin explained his graphic methods for the destruction of all civil liberties. In the Soviet<br \/>\n            dictator he clearly saw the leadership qualities necessary to drive a country to greatness while also causing the world to<br \/>\n            shake with terror. He tilted down his thick spectacles and glanced at his watch. Nearly eleven o\u2019clock. The security system<br \/>\n            went on promptly at nine, with every door and window professionally monitored. His fortress was secure.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00003\">A crack of thunder seemed to cause the lights to flicker. They sputtered twice more and fluttered out. In the lower-level<br \/>\n            electronics room the battery backup in the security system had been removed, causing it to cease functioning when the power<br \/>\n            supply was interrupted. Each door and window was instantly disarmed. Ten seconds later the massive backup generators kicked<br \/>\n            in and brought the electrical flow back to full power, returning the security system to online status. However, within that<br \/>\n            ten-second span a window had opened and a hand had darted out and caught the digital camera that had been tossed from ground<br \/>\n            level. The window closed and was locked a second before the system armed once more.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00004\">Oblivious to this, the old man idly rubbed his hairless head; it was mottled over with scabs and patches of sun-damaged skin.<br \/>\n            His face had collapsed long ago into a pile of gravity-ravaged tissue that pulled his eyes, nose, and mouth downward into<br \/>\n            a permanent scowl. His body, what was left of it, had followed a similar route of degradation. He relied on others to help<br \/>\n            him perform the simplest tasks now. But at least he was still alive, when so many of his brothers in arms, indeed perhaps<br \/>\n            all of them, were dead, many by violent means. This made him angry. History showed that inferiors were perpetually jealous<br \/>\n            of those greater than them.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00005\">He finally put down his book. At his age three or four hours\u2019 sleep at a time was all that was required, but it was now that<br \/>\n            he required it. He called for his attendant by pushing the blue button on the small circular device he always wore around<br \/>\n            his neck. It had three buttons, one for the attendant, one for his doctor, and one for security. He had enemies and ailments,<br \/>\n            but the attendant was mostly for pleasure.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00006\">The woman entered. Barbara had blonde hair and was dressed in a hip-hugging white miniskirt and tank-top blouse that allowed<br \/>\n            him a liberal view of her breasts as she bent down to help him up into his wheelchair. He had insisted on her wearing revealing<br \/>\n            clothing as a condition of employment. Old, rich, perverted men could do what they pleased. His wrinkled face nestled against<br \/>\n            her soft cleavage and lingered there. As her strong arms slid him onto the wide seat, his hand slipped under her skirt. His<br \/>\n            fingers glided along the backs of her firm thighs until they touched her buttocks. Then he gave each cheek a hard squeeze.<br \/>\n            He let out a small moan of appreciation. Barbara made no reaction because she was well paid to endure his groping.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00007\">She wheeled him to the elevator and they rode in the car together to his bedroom. She helped him undress, averting her eyes<br \/>\n            from his collapsed body. Even with all his fortune he could not force her to look at his nakedness. Decades ago she would<br \/>\n            have certainly looked at him, and also done so much more for him. If she wanted to live. Now he was simply helped on with<br \/>\n            his pajamas like an infant. In the morning he would be washed and fed, again like a baby instead of a man. The cycle was complete.<br \/>\n            From cradle back to cradle and then the grave.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00008\">\u201cSit with me, Barbara,\u201d he commanded. \u201cI want to look at you.\u201d He said all this in German. That was the other reason he had<br \/>\n            hired her; she spoke his native language. There were few left around here who could.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00009\">She sat, crossed her long, tanned legs, and kept her hands in her lap, occasionally smiling at him because she was paid to.<br \/>\n            She should be thankful to him, he felt, because she could either work for him in this grand house where the tasks were easy<br \/>\n            and the time in between long, or else go whore herself on the streets of nearby Buenos Aires for what amounted to pennies<br \/>\n            a day.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00010\">He finally waved his hand and she immediately rose and closed the door behind her. He leaned back on the pillows. She would<br \/>\n            probably go to her room, strip off her clothes, leap in the shower, and scrub hard enough to rub the filth of his touch off<br \/>\n            her. He quietly chuckled at this image. Even as a shrunken old man he could have <i class=\"calibre4\">some<\/i> effect on people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00011\">He vividly remembered the glorious days when he would walk into a room, the heels of his knee-high officer\u2019s boots clicking<br \/>\n            on the concrete floor. That sound alone would send ripples of terror throughout the entire camp. Now <i class=\"calibre4\">that<\/i> was power. Every day he was given the privilege of feeling that sense of invincibility. His every command was carried out<br \/>\n            with no hesitation. His men would line up the vermin, long columns of them in their filthy clothes, their heads bowed, but<br \/>\n            still they eyed the shine of his magnificent boots, the power of his uniform. Playing God, he would decide which ones would<br \/>\n            die and which ones would live. The living hardly got the better of it, for their reward was a hell on earth, as painful and<br \/>\n            miserable and degrading as he could possibly make it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00012\">He shifted to the left and pushed against a rectangle of paneling on his headboard. The piece of wood swung outward and his<br \/>\n            hand shakily punched in the combination on the safe door revealed there. He slid his hand in and pulled out the photo, then<br \/>\n            settled back on his pillow and looked down at it. He calculated that it was taken sixty-eight years ago to the day. His mind<br \/>\n            was still all there, even if his body had deserted him.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00013\">He was only in his late twenties in the picture, but he\u2019d been given great responsibility because of his brains and ruthlessness.<br \/>\n            Tall and slender, he had light blond hair that was striking against his tanned, square-jawed face. He looked so fine in his<br \/>\n            full uniform with all his medals, though he had to concede that hardly any of them were actually earned. He had never seen<br \/>\n            combat since he had never been able to muster much personal courage. The talentless masses could fire the guns and die in<br \/>\n            the trenches. His skills had allowed him to seek safer ground. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of what he had once<br \/>\n            been; and next to him of course stood the man himself. He was small in stature, but colossal in every other way. His black<br \/>\n            mustache was frozen for all time over the expressive mouth.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00014\">He kissed his younger self in the photo and then did the same to the cheek of his magnificent F\u00fchrer, completing his nighttime<br \/>\n            ritual. He returned the photo to its hiding place and thought about the years since he\u2019d fled Germany months before the Allies<br \/>\n            marched in and Berlin fell. He\u2019d come here by prearrangement because he\u2019d seen the inevitable outcome of the war, perhaps<br \/>\n            before his superiors had. He\u2019d spent decades in hiding but once more used his \u201ctalents\u201d to build an empire of wealth from<br \/>\n            mineral and timber exports in his new homeland, ruthlessly crushing all competition. Yet he longed for the old days, when<br \/>\n            the life and death of another human being was solely in his hands.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00015\">He would sleep comfortably tonight as he did every night, his conscience clear. He felt his eyelids growing heavy when he<br \/>\n            was surprised to hear the door opening again. He looked across the gloom of the chamber. She stood there silhouetted against<br \/>\n            the darkness.\n         <\/p>\n<p class=\"calibre5\" id=\"rw-p_49222-00016\">\u201cBarbara?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr style='margin: 30px 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee;'>\n<p style='text-align:center;'>Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/download-is-starting\/?url=https%3A\/\/mega.co.nz\/%23%21Y8gmjJDR%21bOR2nJ-Z51OYH8QlB5vQ6OHZ4qxYt5kU10rgdTPmZXg' class='download-btn' target='_blank'>DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book Preview CHAPTER 1 THE NINETY-SIX-YEAR-OLD MAN sat in his comfy armchair enjoying a book on Joseph Stalin. No mainstream publisher would touch the delusion-filled manuscript since the author had been unfailingly complimentary about the sadistic Soviet leader. Yet the self-published book\u2019s positive opinion of Stalin appealed greatly to the old man. He\u2019d purchased it &#8230; <a title=\"Deliver Us From Evil &#8211; Baldacci, David\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/deliver-us-from-evil-baldacci-david\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Deliver Us From Evil &#8211; Baldacci, David\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-david-baldacci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}