Read Online Stealing Sacred Fire by Storm Constantine - Free Book Online

began
to flicker on and off. All the TV screens sputtered, their images
reduced to grey fuzz.
    Fox frowned and silenced
Melandra with a wave of his hand. He began to press buttons on his
console. ‘What the…’
    The other delegates had begun
speaking to one another in soft, urgent tones, and Melandra became
aware that a strange atmosphere had come into the room. Her skin
tingled with what felt like static electricity. The hair had lifted
on her head. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
    Fox did not answer her. Beneath
his hands, the long table began to shake. Evincing only slight
unease, he pressed the intercom button. ‘Kimberley? Can you hear
me? We got problems with the systems in here…’ The intercom
expelled a high-pitched whine. Fox cursed beneath his breath.
    Abruptly, one of the other
delegates sprang to his feet. He wore glasses, and all Melandra
could fix her eyes upon was the reflection of the fuzzy TV screens
in the lenses.
    ‘Abraham?’ Fox snapped. ‘Sit
down. I’ll get this fixed.’
    The man, an overweight,
grandfatherly figure, opened and shut his mouth with a fish-like
popping sound. His body was shaking, as if he was about to go into
convulsion.
    Fox made an impatient sound.
‘Someone help him out.’ He pointed at another man. ‘Mordecai, go to
my secretary’s office and call the technicians.’
    Mordecai nodded shortly and
went to the door. Melandra saw him try to open it, and fail. He
turned to Fox. ‘Somethin’s wrong with this here door…’
    Fox uttered a snort of
irritation and jumped to his feet, but activity from further down
the table took his attention. Two men were trying to ease Abraham
back into his seat, but he suddenly uttered a distressed cry and
pushed the helping hands away violently. Strange sounds began to
issue from his distended mouth. It sounded like a language, but
none that Melandra had ever heard.
    ‘Get him out of here!’ roared
Fox.
    ‘How? The door’s jammed!’
someone yelled.
    ‘Then break down the goddam
door!’
    For a moment, chaotic activity
erupted around the table as the men jumped to their feet to obey
their leader’s command. Then, a brilliant flash of blue light threw
everybody back into their seats. Melandra yelped and shielded her
eyes. When she dared open them again, she saw a dozen or so
baseball-sized globes of blue-white light whizzing around the room,
just above the heads of all present. The men cowered beneath
them.
    ‘Lord, protect us!’ gasped
Fox.
    After what appeared to be a few
light-hearted circuits of the room, the light balls converged to
form a single, hovering globe of radiance above the centre of the
table. It emitted an electric hum.
    ‘What is it?’ Melandra asked in
a high voice. ‘Mr Fox… what is it?’
    ‘Abomination!’ Apparently, Fox
could not take his eyes from the light.
    Melandra glanced around
herself. Her limbs were tense to the point of paralysis, and it
seemed no-one else could move either. The room was held in stasis.
Power, confidence, and a certain mordant humour, seemed to ooze
from the globe of radiance. It pulsed before them, gradually
increasing in size. Then Melandra became aware that a tall shape
was forming within it. ‘My God!’
    Abomination? Surely not. An
alien creature now hung above the table, its hands extended in a
gesture of welcome. It was beautiful. An angel. Its face was utter
benevolence, its body clad in a long, shifting robe of coloured
light. White-gold hair floated around its head and shoulders like a
halo of wind-blown feather-down.
    Beside her, Fox uttered a
choked cry. Melandra thought he didn’t know whether to pray or
scream. Beneath his breath, he murmured lines from Luke: absurdly
inappropriate, or perhaps not. ‘And the angel said unto her, fear
not: for thou hast found favour with God.’
    Had this being manifested for
Melandra’s benefit: one of God’s angels sent to offer His support
to her mission?
    Then, the radiance around the
angel began to change. The blue light