Continuum

by Marlys Beider

Overview

The terrorist group Al-Saafi is about to unleash its newly developed weapon of mass destruction. Soon the devastating MAX 18 virus will rid the world of infidels, beginning with the president of the United States and his cabinet.

Two beautiful and extraordinary women, born only minutes apart at opposite ends of the country, share a spiritual ancestry that extends well beyond mere psychic power. Together they have less than nine months to follow a trail of secrets and unthinkable deeds to keep mankind's future intact.

This heart-pounding story explodes with corruption and deceit, goodness and love. Through a brilliant blend of intriguing characters and a fast-paced plot, Continuum makes you wonder if indeed there are those among us who have been given the awesome responsibility of saving the world from a violent end.

Powerful, hypnotic, and utterly original, this paranormal thriller will keep you spellbound.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587363658
Publisher:	Wheatmark, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/17/2004
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Marlys Beider was born and raised in Hannover, Germany. She currently divides her time between Chicago and Tucson. Continuum is her second novel.

Read an Excerpt

Chantal Atwood woke her husband at two in the morning. Minutes later, State Legislator Edward Atwood helped his very pregnant wife down the wide stairwell of their home in New Orleans' Garden District. Ella Laveau, properly dressed and prepared, waited at the bottom of the stairs. Usually grateful for her premonitions, that night she condemned the gift of clairvoyance she claimed had been passed on to the Laveau women for generations. She had always been treated as part of the Atwood family rather than a household employee and strongly sensed that Chantal and Edward would need her presence for what was to come.

Accompanied by Secret Service agents, the group arrived at Touro Infirmary Hospital where Chantal, the daughter of United States President Paul Pearson, and Edward, the son of Louisiana State Senator Ronald Atwood, received VIP treatment.

Edward and Ella were granted permission to remain by Chantal's side through the birth. Listening to the fetal heart tones, the two attending doctors assured the soon-to-be parents that everything was perfectly normal. After six hours of relatively easy labor, Chantal delivered the first of her twins, a healthy baby girl.

A worried expression spread across the face of the nurse monitoring the heartbeat of the child still in utero, but before she could whisper her concern to the doctors, Chantal began to bleed heavily and the fetal heartbeat became shallow and faint. The doctors, deciding the placenta had separated or ruptured, performed a C-section. As soon as they delivered the second baby girl they saw that her respiration was labored. Recognizing her low APGAR level, they tried to resuscitate the already unconscious infant.

Edward begged the doctors to allow him to hold his dying child and pressed his lips on the infant's forehead. His tears stopped when the baby opened her tiny eyelids, emitting a mysterious purple brilliance. Mesmerized, Edward and Ella silently began to pray. For a second they were surrounded by the purple luminance, and then they witnessed the slow extinction of the amethyst fire in the baby's right eye. At the same moment, fifteen hundred miles across the country, Gloria Prime screamed curses during her final labor pains in the delivery room at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson. She had never wanted the baby that had agonized her throughout the pregnancy.

Nineteen years old and separated from her parents in Mexico, she was in her third month when she drove herself to Nogales. Gloria knew she could buy female hormone stimulants in the dusty city across the border. For ten days she swallowed five hundred milligrams of the drug four times a day, and believed the abortion worked when she began to spot daily for one week. When the spotting stopped for three weeks she assumed everything was normal, but was perplexed when the bleeding started on and off, repeating itself for ten weeks.

When the man whom she had married in desperation complimented her on the fullness of her breasts and the roundness of her hips, Gloria became suspicious and went to see an obstetrician. She was six months pregnant.

Blinded by rage, she began jumping rope excessively, bounced furiously on a trampoline, applied saltwater and vinegar douches, and even tried to harm herself with a coat hanger until the pain stopped her from going farther. After another six weeks, when she realized nothing had worked, Gloria pounded her fists on her growing belly and damned the resistant and unwanted child in her womb.

It wasn't only the pain of labor that made her scream and curse in the delivery room; her wails released the anguish of abandonment and the rage of rejection. Gloria swore that she would inflict the same pain on the child, who she believed was the cause of her misery.

When the smiling doctor put a healthy female infant into her arms, Gloria sobbed tears of bitter resentment. Her convulsions only stopped when the baby opened her tiny eyelids and made eye contact. Gloria froze and deemed it a hallucination as a magnificent purple fire erupted in the newborn girl's right eye.