How Corban Dowler’s Faith comes into the Picture

Greetings, Reading Friends! This is Dee for the Telbat Team. Today, we’d like to take you back to the beginning—the beginning of Corban Dowler in Dark Liaison, Book One of The COIL Series. Some of this backstory was posted in 2011 but our first website didn’t go so well and we lost those posts. We hope some of this is new info for you, or a good reminder. If you want to read about the very beginning of COIL, you’ll need to download the FREE Prequel, Dark Edge. The free eBook is available from all retailers; just click the title for all the links. Now, on to David Telbat’s post.

Corban Dowler, CIA Friend, or Foe?

During the Cold War, Jimmy Carter implemented a restructuring of the CIA. The Agency underwent a makeover, in an attempt to make it “socially acceptable,” to distance American espionage specialists from the shadowy “spook” image.

Agents who were not part of society’s cream-of-the-crop, or those who had a shady past, were targeted with pink slips. Some of the agents who were allowed to stay with the Agency had to go through makeovers of their own, as their redesigned organization demanded class as well as, if not more than, duty and honor.

But there were some agents who slipped through the cracks—men like Corban Dowler—who stayed in the shadows and continued to do the Agency’s dirty work. Until he grew tired of the killing and got out.

The Agency missed Corban Dowler, but they couldn’t bring him back in. And they couldn’t kill him without killing the secrets he had built and the covers he continued to maintain.

Dark Liaison is largely the story of Corban Dowler, the aging agent who found a better way to utilize the skills his government had taught him. He has class and he has honor, but in Dark Liaison, we see how Corban Dowler’s faith comes into the picture.

A Focus on the Bigger Picture

We have all been violated emotionally by someone. Some of us have even been assaulted physically. In those moments of fear, anger, and confusion, we become the center of the universe. But is there more that we could focus on next time we are victims of verbal or physical abuse? Is there a purpose larger than ourselves—a bigger picture—to perhaps make the injury seem less significant?

I explore this alternative in Dark Liaison with protagonist, Corban Dowler.

An assassin is hired to kill Corban. Corban knows his life is in danger, yet he looks beyond himself, and wonders if he can reach out to the killer. Can he forego the risks and focus on the bigger picture? But what is the bigger picture?

When people have wronged me, I usually become self-absorbed. I might lash out, or withdraw. Perhaps there is an alternative, through our own injury, regardless of the risks, if we remember the power of the Cross. We may find that we are not, after all, the center of the universe.

Maybe we can be used to reach the aggressor as Corban did, even if we’re only planting a seed of forgiveness, as Christ forgave us. That can be a piece of the bigger picture.

See you on the next page!

David Telbat

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We hope you’ve enjoyed these flashbacks of how Corban Dowler’s faith comes into the picture in Dark Liaison.

You might also enjoy this previous post on some of the research David did while writing The COIL Series: “High Pressure, Low Pressure, God’s Pressure.” 

COMING UP: Join us next time for David’s new STEADFAST Short #4, “The Red Scarf of Hope“! This short story provides another character perspective alongside The Steadfast Novella Series. You can find the other three Steadfast Shorts here.

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