It was another night. The difference was that several small figures darted through the dead-silent town. The Agent, possessing a puppet's body, nimbly slid down a drainage pipe and jumped straight onto a second-floor balcony.
This was Derby's house. After investigating, the Agent had found where the former pastor lived. He knew there had to be clues here. While the evil spirit was occupied with its own problems, he needed to search the place quickly.
This body was small and nimble, but it was a little too small. It moved slowly, and even walking was difficult. The Agent struggled for quite a while before climbing onto the desk, where he discovered that the man actually had quite a few books at home.
This cult opposed modern education, and aside from the holy scriptures, its members were forbidden from reading anything. Newspapers, magazines, even flyers were not allowed. Yet this pastor had hidden away plenty of books.
Though they could not really be called hidden. He had openly displayed them on his desk. Many had clearly been read. The Agent gave them a quick inspection and found that they were all books on politics and economics. That made things even stranger.
In the United States, nonprofessionals generally did not read specialized books because they contained too much technical terminology and were hard to understand. The Agent also noticed that while the books showed signs of being read, those signs mostly stopped near the beginning. In other words, Derby had only read a few pages before giving up, probably because he could not get through them.
The Agent then moved to the desk drawers. He jumped inside and found an expensive fountain pen set. That was still understandable. Derby was part of the church's upper ranks, so it was normal for him