Churches burn in small rural Pennsylvanian towns, world leaders drop dead, and humanity stands at the brink of enslavement. For millennia humans have sought saviors and their imminent return, only now the truth will be revealed. When a has-been reporter and a young FBI agent cross paths, their past and fates are revealed as they race to save the world, becoming pawns in the greatest event in human history.
Churches burn in small rural Pennsylvanian towns, world leaders drop dead, and humanity stands at the brink of enslavement. For millennia humans have sought saviors and their imminent return, only now the truth will be revealed. When a has-been reporter and a young FBI agent cross paths, their past and fates are revealed as they race to save the world, becoming pawns in the greatest event in human history.
The moon cast an eerie glow over the foggy fields as the silence gave way to the sound of an oncoming car on the dirt road. Headlights bobbed up and down in rhythm with the bumps in the road as the car’s suspension struggled with its rapid pace and the rough terrain. As if in a trance the young woman sped purposefully toward a barely visible structure in a nearby field—a lonely, abandoned church; its steeple faintly outlined in the moonlit mist.
The car veered off the road and lurched to a stop just in front of the forgotten church, its headlights briefly bathing it in light. Its sentinel features were worn by time and neglect, but to her, it was beautiful. On this night that solitary structure would fulfill a destiny far greater than its builders and former tenants had ever imagined. As she jumped from the car, she grabbed a duffel bag and a pair of bolt cutters from the front seat, then ran quickly up the steps to the chained double doors. Biting down on a single rusty link with the cutters, she strained to compress the handles together until the link finally popped. When she cut the opposite side, the rusted metal that had guarded the doors for decades fell to the ground at her feet. The door gave a weary groan as she pushed it open to release a rush of stale air from within. Quickly closing the door, she scanned the vestibule with a flashlight for a prop to bar the door. Time was of the essence.
Guided by the flashlight’s beam, she made her way through the dusty, abandoned sanctuary to the center of the church—the pews had long since disappeared. Moonlight streaming through the stained-glass windows cast an eerie glow upon the worn wooden floor. Pausing, she quickly undressed to reveal her bare silhouette to the moonlight. Reverently she reached up and clasped a charm that hung around her neck; the pentacle was her talisman; it had brought her this far. Closing her eyes, she pressed the star against her lips, then quickly dropped to her knees to dig into her bag, pulling out a stick of chalk. She drew a huge circle in the middle of the floor. Six or eight inches in from the edge of that circle, she drew another—a circle within a circle. Moving quickly, she scribbled an ancient script into the space between the two circles from right to left in a counterclockwise fashion, as she chanted softly under her breath; her movements urgent yet graceful in the attention she gave each character. As she drew the seemingly alien words she chanted softly under her breath:
“ Inox ven atu, vallas ven tachas, semu ves lumos, pordez val chatiz!”
Finishing the script, she next placed five black candles around the outside of the circle, lighting each candle carefully from right to left, and connecting their points with chalk lines that formed an inverted pentagram; one point out of the five aimed directly at the south door, through which she had entered the sanctuary. Positioning herself in the center of the inverted star, she too faced south and reached into the bag once again, pulling out a small bowl, a bag of incense, a small charcoal disk, a dagger, and a photograph. She lit the charcoal disk and placed it in the bowl at her feet. As it began to glow, she sprinkled pinches of incense onto the glowing coal and allowed the smoke to rise about her.
With the point of the dagger, she scrawled an inverted V upon her right palm, allowing a steady stream of blood to trickle down her arm. It dripped from her elbow as she walked widdershins about the circle, leaving a trail of blood along the outer edge. Returning to the center of the inverted star, she placed the photo directly in front of the bowl and breathed in the smoke from the incense, a mixture of sacred and toxic herbs. She rocked back and forth, falling quickly into a deep trance. The words came to her then and she chanted aloud, “Renich Tasa! Uberaca! Biasa Icar, Lucifer!”
Chanting the ancient incantation over and over with increasing force, the candles flickered as the room began taking on a heavy air; a rush of chills ran through her body. He is here! she thought as she continued with her chant. The air in the room grew heavier still, announcing the arrival of the very demon she had sought to summon. The candles flickered wildly, creating a strobe-light effect, and at that moment, halfway around the world from the church enveloped in misty darkness, a meeting of utmost international importance was only seconds from beginning.
*****
“Any news from Homeland Security on the deaths of Parker and Roth?” a man asked as he fumbled with his cuff links, adjusting his sleeves in a long mirror.
“No, Mr. President, no word as of yet. I highly doubt it was any kind of attack, sir; probably nothing more than a coincidence,” the aide said casually, giving the president a look of reassurance.
“Well, it scares the hell out of me,” the president said, pulling on his suit coat. “My leading allies on this agenda of unification and—poof!—both drop dead in front of an audience in the space of two weeks, with no sign of illness, poisoning, attack, or otherwise. Then we have those Satanist wackos burning churches around Pittsburgh. Odd those two arsons happened at the exact same time as the deaths. It is like something out of the Twilight Zone. They can’t be connected, Mr. Scott, but if they were, we would be dealing with something far beyond our understanding…” Grabbing his notes the president moved to the door and stopped, glancing back at his aide with a look of uncertainty.
“I guess I’ll be fine; the whole damned thing is just coincidence, right? What other explanation could there be? Some paranormal hocus-pocus? Not likely. What do I have to fear? I need to stay focused on the unification goal. We are looking at a much better future for the world, and all humanity.”
“That’s right, sir,” said the aide. “Simply coincidence. That is all; do not let it rattle you. Good luck, sir.”
The president nodded, turned, and walked out the door as several servicemen escorted him down the corridor. The aide looked away from the door, staring out the window of the room, across the busy streets of Paris, glowing softly in the early morning light. Mr. Scott could hear the applause down the hall, and he spoke quietly to himself, “I hope you’re right, sir. I hope it’s not you today.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we at the annual Summit of Nations, are honored to announce the next speaker, the President of the United States of America, William Bradley.”
The crowd rose to their feet and applauded as the president walked up the stairs and across the stage, shaking the hand of the moderator as he took his place behind the podium.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor to be here with you today, and it is a great honor to be a part of this summit. Speaking on behalf of the American people, we are pleased and excited about the new economic plans for our country, and our collective participation in the coming new world union.”
*****
The candles flickered faster now as a tempest began to build within the walls of that little church. “Renich Tasa! Uberaca! Biasa Icar, Lucifer! Come forth now, my Lord, and hear my plea. I offer myself as a willing sacrifice for our cause and the whole of humanity!”
With her words, the flickering flames seemed to creep down the sides of the candles and onto the floor, running between the candles and connecting them with fire. As the flames crept around the circumference of the circle, they formed a spinning vortex of fire as she continued to chant. “Come, My Master, and heed my call! Hear my plea and the pleas of humanity! Show us your mercy! And that there is indeed Light within the Darkness!”
With the flames swirling faster about her she reached for the photo, a picture of a man—the very same man who was beginning his speech halfway around the world, a speech in which he would agree to accept an invitation to add America to a rapidly growing, economic super-union of nations and corporations—a union of governments, financial institutions, and military complexes that would saddle millions with crushing debt and destroy the liberties of even more people around the world under the guise of a protective police state ostensibly meant to monitor the merging of assets.
Beyond the church and up the bumpy road, headlights were again visible speeding out of the fog. Descending fast upon the church, four black SUVs slid to a stop just beyond the front door.
“She must be inside. Unit two, take the left; unit three, go to the rear; unit four, go to the right. Shoot to kill on my word!” Randolph chirped on the radio before getting out of his truck. As he stepped out, he could see the faint glow of flames through the crack in the front door and emanating from the stained-glass windows as the fiery glow pierced the darkness. Drawing his sidearm, he made his way up the stairs and opened the door slowly. Stepping through he squinted harshly against the flames, eyes struggling to adjust from the darkness outside, his jaw opening wide. As he was slowly able to see into the blinding glow within the tiny church, his eyes widened with dread; the image before him was something straight out of a horror film. A swirling vortex of flames whirled furiously in the center of the church, nearly filling the sanctuary. In its center, suspended in midair, naked and arms splayed in a cross-like fashion, was the young woman, the picture of the president clutched firmly in her left hand.
“You’re too fucking late, Randy!” she growled with the voice of the demon that now filled her and the church with its power.
“Stop this madness, Melissa! Stop it now or I will shoot!” Randy struggled to aim through the whirling flames.
“No! You know what’s going on in this world. You know what they want to do! They want to enslave us! We can’t let them do that, Randy! My eyes are open now!” Tears began to run down her cheeks.
“It’s for the common good, Missy. You know this. Murdering world leaders and executives won’t change a thing. Stop all of this; tell me who got to you! We can get you help!”
The fierce expression on her face mellowed into one of focused intent and peace.
“No, it’s too late, Randy.”
As Melissa hung there in the air the world and time itself stood completely still. There were no flames that she could see from within her cocoon, no heat, and no smoke—just herself, suspended between the worlds along with the ominous glowing figure before her, the figure of the brightest and most angelic being she had ever beheld. Melissa had grown accustomed to the perceptions of ignorant religious fanatics in the years of her practice; stereotypes that she and her kind worshipped a hideous and cruel devil. But the very sight of him and his glowing presence instilled a peace and hope within her that sent all of her fears fading into the surrounding darkness. And then he spoke to her as a father would his daughter.
“Are you ready, my child?” the demon asked in a loving tone.
“Yes. Take me, and let it be done,” she whispered softly as tears streamed down her face.
“Do not fear. Your deeds will not go unrewarded. You shall be freed and live again,” he told her.
And then it began.
Randolph squeezed the trigger, releasing a burst of rounds into the ferocious inferno; the bullets had no effect and were absorbed by the fiery tornado. The vortex of flames seemed to swirl faster and more violently, obscuring the girl within as it began to collapse in upon itself. Like a supernova in reverse, the image of the girl within the flames vanished as her form shrank into the vacuum of quickly compressing light. Contracting inward in an instant, it recoiled in upon itself, ready to release its devastating force upon the world as the blinding brightness of it became unbearable.
“Run! Get out of here!” Randy screamed at the men behind him as he made his way to the door. As they cleared the front steps and ran for cover the nova exploded in a fury of light that ripped through every seam of the wooden structure; the force of the explosion causing the entire church to erupt into a ball of wicked flames, scattering tiny pieces of the small building across the adjacent cornfields.
*****
At that precise moment, halfway around the world, the President was finishing his speech to the Summit of Nations. His voice rang out, sure and strong, as he prepared to formally announce the unification.
“And so, in the name of world peace and prosperity—” Suddenly he stopped, taking a stumbling step away from the podium as his eyes rolled back into his head. He collapsed upon the floor, dead; the very life force pulled from his body the instant the young woman’s deed was done.
I went in expecting a lot from this book but it was such a disappointing and confusing read. It started good but started to lose focus within a few chapters and it was so very random till the end.
Mysterious church burnings and assassinations of prominent world leaders look like they are not connected to the common people. But it turns out to be connected as the FBI dispatches two agents to investigate the church burnings. The agents disappear during the investigation and one of them ends up in another church performing the said ritual.
Agent Kelly Saunders is brought into this investigation since she is an expert in occultist and ritualistic cases. She meets an investigative reporter, Paul Evans on the scene. Kelly and Paul have met once before when he rescued her from a tricky situation. They find a pentagram pendant on the church grounds which shows Kelly and her partner, Adrian visions of calamities and a woman speaking to them.
Events unfold and somehow Kelly and Paul become the main suspects behind these occultist killings and they are on the run together. There are various revelations and it becomes their mission to save mankind against an evil force.
I couldn’t connect with the plot or the characters. The plot derailed from the initial mission and it went haywire. Kelly and Paul were investigating the case and suddenly became main suspects with the whole country searching for them. I didn’t understand the sudden 180 on this situation. It kept getting bizarre.
The assassinations and church burnings – which were human sacrifices, turned out to have a spiritual purpose and to save humanity. And Kelly and Paul had a big role in fighting the evil force out to destroy humanity. There was no correlation or justification for a lot of what was going on.
The romance between Kelly and Paul was so awkward and creepy. It felt forced and there was no development at all. They meet as strangers and proclaim their love for each other in few days. Paul looks at Kelly and the first thing that comes to his mind is the age di erence between them and how awkward it would be if they started dating.
There was also an instance where there was a sexual kind of ritual dream, they both had. Paul recollects this dream and gets aroused but also gets a paternal feel when he looks at her. It was so weird the whole time. Kelly calls this sexual ritual rape and changes it into making love the very next day.
There were so many inconsistencies in the plot too. Paul once goes on a spiritual trip of sorts where he meets di erent gods and spends hours there. But when he returns, it had taken only a second here. But Kelly does the same and it takes her half a day to come back.
During the events of the story, mystical beings start roaming the earth. But, it doesn’t seem to raise an alarm for anyone. The main point of the story was to prevent humans turning into slaves but somehow it felt like that’s how the story ended anyway.
I expected something phenomenal and ended up disappointed throughout.