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First Wave (1998)
| Kieli | T/J/T | Arvosana | Lähetetty |
|---|
Subject 117
"On the seventh dawn of the seventh day / A twice blessed man will roam the fields / Doomed to shadows with his brethren / Or savior to all who walk the ground". My name is Cade Foster (Kincaid Lawrence Foster). Picture the life you wish you had. I had it. A beautiful wife, a great career, money, friends, all of it. And then just as quickly, it was gone. I used to be a thief. I was considered by the cops to be the best break and entry man in Cook County in my day. They couldn't touch me. But I realized that was a fool's life when I met Hannah, so I did an about face and went legit, and left it all behind. Maybe I finally stumbled onto what I could never find behind all those broken safes: a real life, a reason for being... And then it all began to unravel. My bank accounts were drained overnight. I started having vivid and gruesome hallucinations that would hit me outta nowhere. I was fired from my job at a security firm when they found out about my colorful past on the other side of the law. I thought maybe I was losing my mind. Then I came home one night and found my house ransacked. The number "19" was scrawled in bloody red paint all over the walls of my house. Hannah was okay; she had locked herself in the upstairs bathroom for protection. But the bastards came into my home. I wasn't insane. Somebody was out to get me... And I was gonna find out who it was. Opened the shed. Broke out my Blackhawks bag. Dusted off the lockpick tools I call The Sisters, fired up Blowtorch Betty, and got all the rest of my gear together. Did some surreptitious entry and investigative digging. Followed the trail to a nut named Emmett Mayhew, a billionaire doing time in a mental hospital for taking an axe to his family tree. Thing was, the story he was telling didn't sound that crazy to me. Somebody messed with Mayhew's life, too; the hallucinations, drained accounts, all of it. He clued me in to a book he said was the key to the whole thing. And he told me who was destroying our lives; Mayhew said they were aliens. I found the book. It was written over 400 years ago by Nostradamus. His prophecies brought the mystery together for me: he predicted the Earth would be destroyed in three terrifying waves: invasion, attack from above, and finally, Armageddon. The first wave has landed. I know they're here. I'm gonna stop them. And if they think they can defeat me first, they got another thing coming. 'Til next time...
Crazy Eddie
On the run for the past 22 days. Borrowed five grand from my Uncle Harry. Used cover identities to stay one step ahead of the law. Anonymously contacted the FBI, CIA and the Defense Department about the alien experiment that killed my wife. As expected, I got no response. Headed to Potomac, Maryland, in search of a man known as "Crazy" Eddie Nambulous. He's the publisher of The Paranoid Times. It's on the Web. The masthead says "Believe the Unbelievable." If anyone ever needed a believer, it's me. Eddie was skeptical of my story that Hannah was cloned and I was part of an alien experiment. He dismissed the aliens as yesterday's news. Claimed the government was behind secret cloning experiments. He told me his friend Dean Hormeth had stolen some evidence from a cloning lab that would reveal the conspiracy of the century.' I made a beeline for Dean's place to check out the evidence he had. There was no sign of Dean and his place was ransacked, but I found what someone else obviously hadn't a metallic orb unlike anything I'd ever seen. Thought it might perk Eddie's interest, too. The aliens came after Eddie looking for the orb. Whatever its connection to the cloning story was, the aliens wanted it back. Eddie finally believed my story after a close encounter with a beautiful alien that almost got both of us killed. We decided to trace the orb back to the aliens and take them down. Eddie's a self-proclaimed genius and a helluva paranoid guy, but now he's seen the aliens. He knows the terrible secret, too. He believes I didn't kill Hannah, either. When you're wanted for murder, every move is critical. The wrong choice can be fatal. This is my life as a hunted man. Crazy Eddie can help me stay on the run so I can clear myself of this murder charge. I'm gonna let people know. So now I have a believer. I know I'll find more out there. When the word is out, I won't be the one running anymore. The aliens are here. My story may sound crazy, but look around and look hard. Reminds me of a saying my friend Eddie has; Sometimes madmen turn out to be prophets. 'Til next time...
Mata Hari
Quatrain 6, Century 8. "Where ivory towers meet the eastern sea / Young trees of knowledge will fall / crushed by the thorny vine of a red rose." If Crazy Eddie's right, Nostradamus' idea of an ivory tower is here at the National Institute of Applied Mathematics in Boston, Massachussetts. A young Einstein named Ted Eichmann dropped dead with bubbles in his blood, like he's a can of soda someone shook too fast. Word on campus had it he was working on a government project. The program needed a new boy wonder. Looks like I finally made it to college. Mom would've been proud. Crazy Eddie wired me up with a microphone and earpiece so I could play genius to all the real geniuses. I fooled them with Eddie's help and made the grade. They told me we were working on a "communications satellite system." I didn't buy it. With the level of secrecy surrounding the project, I was betting this project was far more dangerous than anyone was letting on. Super-brain Ted Eichmann died from some kind of nitrogen narcosis, like he went deep sea diving and got the bends. Ted was the key to cracking this mystery. I checked Ted's room out and found some provocative pictures of a brunette beauty. The teaching assistant Henrietta, or "Hank" as she preferred, said she recognized the woman. Saw her hanging out at the campus bar. Thought it was time Ted's polaroid pal and I met. I went looking for her, but she found me first. Her name was Lara. She said she had a thing for campus geniuses and I was next on her list. Can't say I liked the sound of that. She touched my hand and I felt woozy. She got inside my head, and I told her who I really was, a fugitive framed for murder, the whole bit. Lara had some kind of telekinetic power that sliced straight into my mind. Lara's targeting the geniuses on the satellite project. Whether she's an alien herself or merely working for them, I don't know. But she's going down. And I'm setting the trap. 'Til next time. . .
Hypnotic
Quatrain 45. Century 3. "The trickster seeds the mind with paralyzing terror / Bearing false witness to the bitter truth at hand." I've seen the bitter truth. The aliens are here, among us, laying the ground work for a massive invasion to come. Crazy Eddie believed this Nostradamus quatrain suggested alien interference in a most unlikely place, an alien abduction therapy group. I went to meet Dr. Rita Hagen, a nationally known expert on "alien abductions," thanks to the huge success of her best-selling book Sexual Contact: True Stories of Alien Contact. Were the patients at Hagen's clinic really abducted? Or was somebody trying to cover up the bitter truth? That's why I journeyed to Hagen's group, in the '65 Mercury I bought for 300 bucks at a junkyard. After 43 days on the run, I could've used a good shrink. I met the other abductees from the clinic. Evan and Nicole, a young couple consumed with flashbacks of their alien contact experiences, seemed to have lost any hope they'd ever get their lives back to normal. Nicole talked about being snatched away by a beautiful angelic woman who took her to an alien ship. What these aliens then did to her was horrific Vanessa, another abductee, had an entirely different experience with her abduction. A "satisfying" encounter with a extra-terrestrial blind date. I think her words were, "in space, no one can hear you moan " You get the idea. The alien encounter of the last member of the group, Drew, had led him to believe in an impending Armageddon by the aliens. He might've been a nutcase, but I knew he was right on the mark. These stories seemed hard to believe, but the terror of Evan and Nicole was real. What seemed strange, however, is that none of them had the same abduction experience. None of the aliens were remotely similar. Something wasn't right with the picture. Nostradamus' quatrain seemed to support that. There was an alien at work here the "trickster seeding the mind" Evan, Nicole, and the others had their minds invaded. One of these people was an alien. And I was gonna find out before it got me first.
Elixir
Quatrain 13. "The younger woman shall surmount the old before the lusty hearts of many men / The precious drops quench the thirst of time before the ugly truth shall take its toll". Crazy Eddie tied this quatrain into the bizarre events of May 16 in Kalkaska, Michigan. Customers say a beautiful young woman goes from 22 to 102 while doing the shimmy-shake at a local bar. She was later identified as Miss Margaret Grant, resident of a local retirement home in town. Decided to start there. Eddie said records indicated that this woman had a nephew in Anchorage, Alaska. It was time to say goodbye to Cade Foster, and hello to Ben Grant. The home's administrator, Sarah, was quick to write off the stories of Margaret's death to the local drunks in the bar. I made myself acquainted with Margaret's friends, Patricia and Leonard, to see if they had any insight into the recent death. They were less than forthcoming, even secretive, but I was able to squeeze Leonard for some information. He pointed me towards The Organic Source, a health food store. Leonard said the salesman promised to make them all young again. Met Trevor Hyams at the health food store, a snake-oil salesman to the core. He was pushing a youth elixir on a group of seniors, an elixir he claimed that would magically reverse the aging process. Hyams was less than happy to pitch the potion to me. I came back later that night and let myself in to the store. As I was taking the five-finger discount on the elixir as evidence, Hyams interrupted and attacked. He revealed himself as an alien. I knew for sure they had come to Kalkaska. Why would the aliens want to make the old young again? Why were they trying to exploit our need to stay young, beautiful, and strong? Maybe the aliens had plans to use the elixir after their second wave invasion for a vast labor force of perpetually young, strong, and renewable slaves. Well guess what? This sweet bird of youth was gonna take them down.
Speaking in Tongues
Quatrain 11. Century 2. "The Starborn one will fly into the hearts of many". A reading from the alien testament: "The Almighty Force looked down from above. They surveyed the galaxy, and what they found was Earth. And the Almighty Force said, Behold, the children of men...they are impure. They are imperfect. They are weak. We must establish our Kingdom on Earth. The children of men will welcome us with arms open wide.' So the Almighty Force cast one of their own in the image of man. So the divine shepherd did come down from the stars to lead the lambs to the Aftertime..." And he was called Elton Beleye. Word was out this rock star preacher claimed extra-terrestrial ancestry. Said he wanted to lead the hearts and minds of humanity towards an alien eternity. Sounded like hell on Earth to me. This is my reality. They are studying us. Testing us. Waiting to strike. But I'm not gonna clear my name without proof they're here, living among us. A blood test, a DNA sample...something. Which means I gotta expose one. Or catch one. I headed to Dutton, Georgia. Elton Beleye, the divine shepherd, got a new disciple. I faked my way into the flock where I met Jenny and Cassandra, two sisters who had joined Elton some time ago. Jenny bought Elton's act completely. But I found out Cassandra became a follower to keep an eye on her sister. She believed Jenny was in danger. Her family had sent a private investigator to track Jenny down and pull her out of the cult, but he never came back. I sensed foul play in Elton's kingdom. Elton was intoxicated with the adulation of his followers. He posted guards around the compound to keep them inside. He took women away to his bed, some of whom never returned. He twisted the love of the flock into a bitter noose that threatened to hang them all. It was clear he'd do anything to protect his position and maintain his power. But Elton Beleye promised salvation in the form of aliens who seek to destroy us. I planned to expose him and his deadly path. I had to convince the congregation of the truth first. Elton didn't realize a leader's real power lies in his followers I keep these journals so that someday others will believe what I know to be true, and perhaps save this earth from the almighty, the all-terrible force that lies in silent wait. Elton Beleye said he could save his followers from the impending alien destruction. He's gonna have to save himself from me first.
Lungfish
Quatrain 32, Century 9: "The fish that travels land and sea will be cast up on shore by a great wave / And pestilence from the sky will drive multitudes into the ocean". I seek them. I hunt them. I will stop them. Since my crusade began, I've destroyed an alien cloning lab, ruined their disinformation campaign to discredit alien existence, and taken down a cult that sought an alien salvation. But the trail was growing cold. For three weeks, Crazy Eddie had been studying Nostradamus quatrains to lead us to the aliens. The only lead he found was a newspaper clip about a farm in Indiana claiming to have a large mouth bass that breathed on land. It seemed to fit with the quatrain. Eddie thought I was wasting my time going after a fish, but I had him make up some snappy credentials for me as a tabloid reporter for the World Standard News anyway. I thought it was time to go fishing. I met Esther and her little brother Cody on their farm and inquired about the fish. Esther gave me a cool reception. Her farm was going into foreclosure and she wasn't interested in getting Cody's hopes up that a little tabloid money would keep the farm from going under. Cody, however, secretly agreed to show me the fish. I met him later at the pond. Using peas as a lure, he coaxed a bass out of the water, walking on its fins. Can't say I'd seen anything like it in Fish & Wildlife. I told Eddie about the bass, and he asked me to get a water sample for analysis, too. I went back to the pond that night. The water was quiet, that is until a female form emerged from deep under the water. It was Esther. She had been under the water for awhile. I took the fish and the water sample to a scientist that Eddie put me in touch with. She said that the fish was mutating into a mammal at an amazing rate of speed. Looking at a map, we determined that the place where I had caught the bass was only two miles away from a fish farm called Aquaculture. My next stop. That night, I let myself onto the grounds at Aquaculture. I surveyed the vast breeding tanks. In one particular dark pool, I discovered the piece that filled in the puzzle: two scaly, webbed hands reached out of the water humanoid hands. Were the aliens genetically mutating people so they could survive under the water? Had they gotten to Esther, too? I'm seeking them. I'm hunting them. I will drive the great pestilence from the sky back from where they came or die trying. 'Til next time.
Book Of Shadows
Quatrain 42, Century 6. "The dark craft shall slay the dragons, conjured by the humble raven / Justice shall be blind to history, until windswept leaves return to the barren tree". This Nostradamus quatrain brought me to Salem, Oregon, where high school cheerleader, Diana Black, was charged with multiple first-degree murders. She killed three prominent Salem citizens with poisoned cookies, a helluva fundraiser for the cheerleading squad. Diana claimed to be a witch... I came to see if her dark powers were of the alien variety. The defense needed an investigator, so Crazy Eddie created the credentials, and guess who got the job? It was time to see what was brewing The courthouse was crawling with shutterbugs, so I had to keep my profile low. One picture could put me in a headlock with the long arm of the law. This investigation was not going to be easy. District Attorney Warren Phips was taking the witch hunt as far as he could. The case was stacked up against Diana she was facing death row. When I spoke to her alone, she told me something surprising: the people she killed with her witch's recipe were not actually people. She said they were demons Eddie came up with the information from the coroner's report. The ingredients in the cookie recipe didn't contain anything harmful or poisonous, and yet three people out of hundreds who tried the cookies bit the dust. In court, the prosecution elicited damning testimonies from Diana's friends. They recounted how Diana cast spells, one of which caused a girl's boyfriend to catch fire when he got sexually aggressive with her. But the testimonies also mentioned a special spell book a Book of Shadows that Diana used in her witchcraft. I let myself into the Historical Society later to check the book out, but it was gone. Something in this Book of Shadows was important enough to get the book seized and sealed tight by the prosecution. Then more testimony clarified the picture: Diana and her four friends attended a Sabbat a witch's séance. Diana had a horrific vision: a man transformed into a demon. I talked to Diana to get more information. I realized she didn't see a demon. She saw the man in her vision flash like an alien. It clicked into place: the aliens were here in Salem. Diana sensed them. The spell from the Book of Shadows was able to kill three of them. But the book was gone. The prosecution had it and they were prepared to protect it at all costs. And they were onto me, following me at every turn. Gut instinct said the prosecution was holding the book tightly in their grasp for a reason. The same reason they were leading the witch hunt. They were the aliens. And they were fightin' scared. The spell in the book was the ticket to beating these devils. It had the recipe for alien death and my salvation. And this defense wasn't gonna rest till I got that book back.
Joshua
There's no quatrain for this journal entry. I guess Nostradamus didn't see every little mess I'd walk into. Too bad. I could've used the warning. I got spotted by a cop in Cascade County, Montana, while checking out a lead on possible alien activity. A deputy pegged me as a fugitive while I was eating my steak and eggs. I got away and made it to the woods, but the manhunt was on. A dozen sheriff's deputies, a couple bloodhounds, and a surveillance chopper breathing down my neck. I called Eddie on the cell phone. He told me to head west and he'd meet me. If I made it Eddie tipped me to tear up the underbrush to muck up the scent trail and confuse the dogs. It gave me enough time to make it to the river and evade the dogs. I thought I had shaken my pursuers. The leg chains thrown at my feet said different. I was caught. He had the uniform of a U.S. Marshall, but I knew otherwise. I recognized him as the alien hitman (or Acolyte) who took out Elton Beleye a little ways back. The aliens or "Gua" as he called them, had finally caught me. He said his name was Joshua, and his mission was to bring me in dead or alive. With his rifle at my back, I made conversation with Joshua as we trudged through the woods. I looked for the opportunity to make a break for it. Joshua told me that my capture meant the aliens would be able to finish their study on me, seeing what made me tick. When I got the chance to turn the tables pushing Joshua onto a spiked tree stump I let Joshua know what kept me going: I hated the alien bastards for what they did to me and Hannah, and they weren't taking me without a fight. With Joshua injured, I had him and he was just the evidence I needed to expose these "Gua." Joshua tried to stoke my rage and make me kill him. But since aliens don't keep too well when they die, I quenched my anger by rubbing a little salt in his wound. The effect was incredible it made Joshua euphoric. He spilled his guts. Told me about the alien home-world, that it was dying, that Earth was like a paradise to them. Joshua admitted that my success against his alien brood made him question their chances of success. He was having reservations about the Earth mission. He told me other things, too; about the divisions within the alien ranks: the Acolytes, the Empiricists, and the Osmosists hitmen, scientists, and infiltrators. These aliens are part of a first wave invasionary force that has been on our planet for a long time. Joshua's wound healed dramatically fast an alien self-repair ability. The manhunt was still on, and I was running out of time. I wasn't sure how long I could hold Joshua. The cops, and possibly more aliens, were closing in.
Marker 262
"Their doom was sealed at the gate / steel chariots vanished in still clear nigh / Glorious terrain left undefended / 'till the river changes course". What did this Nostradamus quatrain have to do with Ash Grove, Missouri, a small Midwestern town that billed itself as "Hot Rod Heaven?" Crazy Eddie heard the news of the mysterious disappearance of one Jason Coleman, drag-racer and car mechanic, who vanished as he crossed the finish line. Was the disappearance of Jason Coleman and his Corvette part of an alien experiment? With some bogus credentials from the Transportation Safety Board, I was gonna find out. Gentlemen, start your engines. Met the hot-rod gang that Jason ran with. Rodder Tommy Cranston drove against Jason the night he disappeared, said he figured Jason got scared and took off after the race. Darcy, Tommy's girl, directed me to Jason's house. She said she had a bad feeling about Jason's vanishing act. Paid a visit to Jason's brother, Danny, who seemed less than interested in what happened to his brother. Danny didn't believe the town myth about the ghost highway and missing people. He figured his screw-up brother took off for the next town. My meeting with Danny was depressing. The guy couldn't care less his brother had disappeared. If people didn't give a damn about each other, why the hell should I? I gotta admit, I was ready to give it up and end this fight, head up north and spend the time before the Second Wave fishing my days away. Eddie brought me back to reality. Nostradamus, twice-blessed man, all that stuff didn't really matter. Eddie cut to the quick this was about Hannah. He was right. I owed it to her. Danny came into the bar where Eddie and I were. Said he'd found Jason's pocket knife, a good luck charm he'd never leave home without. Danny was getting worried. He gave me some newspaper clippings about other disappearances. Eddie and I traced them out on the map, they all coincided with a stretch of mile near marker 262. The same stretch of highway where Jason vanished. I checked out the marker, and chipped a piece off of it. Suddenly out of nowhere, Tommy Cranston's Chevy came straight at me. I dodged, and he drove off into the night. One thing for sure, Tommy was aiming for me. Was it something about this marker he was trying to protect? The chip from the marker seemed to work like a reverse magnet. Eddie found it emitted an electromagnetic pulse. It was identical to the pulse rate of only one other place on Earth: Cat Island, the center of the Bermuda Triangle. Eddie theorized this marker led to something called a quantum pocket, another dimension with only one way in or out. Was Jason stuck in this alien engineered other-world? Was Tommy keeper of the gateway between these dimensions? It was time to jam into high gear, and bring this alien operation down.
Motel California
"The unseen mistress drives her slave mad / In a mansion of many rooms, where waves ripple within". Corporate executive Elroy Dunn had the psychological community baffled. Old goat never had so much as a headache. That is, until he was found locked in a permanent hallucination, ruled by a dominatrix he called Lady Lumina. Eddie thought this quatrain fit Elroy like a glove. I headed to the Havenwood Inn, the closest thing to a "mansion of many rooms" near where Elroy was found. Was he the unwitting guest of an alien experiment that produced his delusions? I looked for answers after I checked in I met two other guests staying at the inn Richard, a stockbroker on a hunting trip, and Mary, a salesperson travelling through the area who had stopped for the night. I checked the register and saw that Elroy Dunn had indeed stayed at the inn as well. I requested the same room and searched it. Found a porn mag with the featured femme of the month, Lady Lumina. Guess Dunn got lonely on the road Called Eddie to get his spin on things. The pieces of Dunn's demise were taking shape. Eddie explained that Elroy's condition was a rare form of dementia with a central delusion. The quatrain referred to "waves." I suspected that an outside force might be the cause of Elroy's madness. Eddie agreed, suggesting that psychotropic drugs might be at the root of it. It was anyone's guess. But if it happened here at the inn, it could happen to any of the guests staying here as well, including me On my way back to the room, I spotted a maid disappearing into a closet. Followed her in and discovered a false wall. There was more to this "mansion of many rooms" the secret passage opened up to a long metallic tunnel which led to a lab. It was safe to say that the aliens were behind this Found Richard the hunter strapped to a table, seemingly lost in some kind of hallucination. I freed him and we proceeded to get the hell outta Dodge. Except that Stacy, the hotel desk clerk, blocked our way. She wielded a large knife with alien expertise and attacked. She slashed my stomach, dropped me to the floor, and was about to carve me up like Sunday's supper when the police arrived. Can't say I've ever been so happy to see the cops. I had done it had an alien in custody and cops who were willing to hear my story out. I had won. Went back to my room to grab my things when someone knocked at my door. It was Stacy the alien no cops in sight, the slash on my stomach gone. Eddie said we never spoke. Nothing had happened. Yours truly had just taken a walk on the wild side a major hallucination where I got evidence to bring the aliens down. The aliens were waging the battle right in our minds, exploiting what we desired most. I wanted to win, and they let me. How were they doing it? How easily could the aliens use this against all of humanity? Giving us peace and happiness 24-7, while the aliens cut us off at the knees? It was going to stop that night. I planned to turn my fantasy of victory over the aliens into a permanent reality.
Breeding Ground
Quatrain 68, Century 10: "The Cheshire breed is spawned / an intertwining battleground / dominance attained, without a ship set sail". This Nostradamus quatrain clicked after logging onto an Internet chat room. Students at the Bradbury Academy in Chesire, Massachusetts, were talking about fellow student Julia Hartman. Seems she may have torched a classmate with the power of her mind. In my textbook, that pegged her as alien. The problem's trying to investigate a boarding school incident when you're wanted for murder. An airtight cover is needed. Fortunately, heard about the need for a new track coach at Bradbury. It was time to lace up my sneakers. Coaching the track team proved a good opportunity to meet the students. Julia Hartman was made the outcast. When I asked the other students about Julia and the fire, nobody claimed to know much. But they did say Julia spent most of her time in the infirmary with Nurse Kelly. Julia was a peculiar girl quietly confident, guarded and confused, but incredibly smart. Found her speed reading Shakespeare. She told me Nurse Kelly didn't want her to go to gym class anymore something to do with an anemic medical condition, but that she wasn't supposed to talk about it. She resented this, said that she wasn't a quitter. I asked her about the fire. She didn't know what happened. Julia explained that when the others humiliated her, she felt an uncontrollable anger. Now the other girls thought she was a freak. I sympathized with Julia. It's tough being on the outside. I knew what she was going through Julia showed up at practice the next day, determined to show her taunting teammates what she was made of. Julia started the race late, but still left em all in the dust. Her speed was super-human. A record time. Julia was amazed at her own performance. She said she was transforming something was happening to her. I guessed the Gua were behind this. I wondered if Julia might even be an alien and not know. Julia's transformation concerned me. The other girls taunted Julia repeatedly. Julia was starting to stand up for herself and relishing the power she was starting to wield. I found out more about Julia's background. Her mother had given her up for adoption when she was only four. Nurse Kelly had raised her and now her grip was tightening on Julia. I stole a look at Julia's medication on the sly. Eddie determined these pills were primarily used for DNA research. Were the aliens manipulating Julia's DNA? Was this the "intertwining battleground" that Nostradamus prophecized? If there was going to be a battle for Julia Hartman between me and the aliens, only one of us was going to win. I wasn't about to let Julia Hartman be an innocent casualty of war.
Blue Agave
Quatrain 32, Century 5: "Pillars of light will fall with serpents coiled in their heads / Twelve Lords and Ladies of the Empire will be devoured by the darkness or spared by the fruit of golden hue". After months on the run, a strange thing happens. The old life you knew slowly slips away until it finally ceases to be real. You start to think about it like a favorite book. Your closest friends turn into characters who'll never come to life again. Or at least that's what I thought. My wife's best friend, Susan Tannen, just won the Pillar of Light Award, an honor given annually for excellence in investment and finance. I wondered if the aliens were targeting the mavericks and mavens of Wall Street. If Susan was one of the "pillars" in Nostradamus' prediction, then my past and my present were about to collide. Susan was shocked to hear my voice when I called. Came as no surprise considering I'm wanted for murder. But Susan knew how Hannah and I felt about each other. I didn't have to convince her I was innocent. She told me to stop running. With her money and connections, she could put me in touch with the best defense attorney in town, Frankie Salvo. They say Salvo's the guy Johnnie Cochran would call in a jam. Susan took me to a very exclusive nightclub called the Royal Room to meet Salvo. The friendliest hostess I'd ever met told me I could have anything on or off the menu. Figured she wasn't talking about the wine list either. Susan didn't try to hide anything about the club getting to the top of Wall Street doesn't allow time for dating or relationships. The club provides companionship for people like her: wealthy and lonely. Met Frankie Salvo at the bar while Susan went off to dance with a guy named Grant. Salvo seemed confident about appealing my case. First good news I'd had in ages, but the warm and fuzzies didn't last long. Salvo took a shot of tequila and promptly doubled over. The bartender called the paramedics. Trying to help Salvo, I noticed something crawling out of his ear it was a small slimy worm. Took the worm for Eddie to analyze. The next day, the papers reported Salvo had died in a car accident. There was a lot more going on in that club, and they were trying to cover it up. The Royal Room was chock full of the city's power players. My gut said the aliens were involved here, and it was easy pickins for them. That meant Susan was in danger. It crossed my mind that I was also in the line of fire now. Did they slip one of those creepy-crawlies into my head, too? Eddie's analysis of the worm showed it was composed of human nerve cells like brain tissue. We speculated that the worms were absorbing nerve signals from the victim's brain. But why? When a clone of Susan Tannen showed up, the picture got a lot clearer. The aliens could duplicate people's bodies, and now they had the means to duplicate their memories, too. The real Susan was in deep. Hell, we all were if the aliens succeeded. Where was it gonna stop? The Gua steal our lives, and they steal our bodies, too. Now I had to figure out how to stop these maggots from stealing our very souls.
Cul-De-Sac
Quatrain 28. Century 5: "When Jezebel enters the village, her steps shall shake foundations / With a venomous flower, she breaks chains of steel". Every week I post my journals on the Paranoid Times Web site. I need people to know the aliens are here. They're taking over. Our lives mean nothing to them. A few e-mails have come in, but not a lot of people who take me for real. Not a lot of people who believe until now. Clarksburg, Missouri. Nick Patterson swore he witnessed a double homicide except that one of the victims, a blonde bombshell named Michelle who just moved into his neighborhood, got up and walked away. Based on what he read in my journals, Nick thought she was an alien with the power of self-healing. Maybe she was... or maybe Nick was just a kid with an over-active imagination. I was usually guided by Nostradamus quatrains. This time I was taking a chance on the word of a teen-age kid. I found Nick hanging out in the cul-de-sac and introduced myself as a reporter for the Paranoid Times, following up on his story. Nick gave me the recap and invited me back later to see some proof. Seven o'clock that night, Nick trained his telescope on the house across the street. Just like Nick said she would be, Michelle was undressing in the window. Her body was just about perfect, and didn't have any bullet wounds from the alleged shooting. Either she was an alien, or Nick was way too involved in his teenage hobby. Nick suggested I show up at the neighborhood barbeque where Michelle would be in attendence. The cul-de-sac residents at the barbeque were pure slice-of-life Americana. But when Michelle arrived, a rift in neighborly love became evident. The wives fell silent, the husbands practically drooled. Two of the men, Barry and Warren, got into a fight. Michelle's very presence seemed to stir up jealousy and bitterness. Nick's parents, Ron and Joanne, weren't immune to Michelle's influences either. Ron and Michelle were seen talking at the barbeque, almost intimately. Joanne confronted Ron, suspecting he had a relationship with Michelle. Didn't hear the details of the argument, but Joanne packed her bags and left. Michelle was wreaking major havoc in this quiet cul-de-sac. Good kids like Nick got hit hard by it. Figured it was time for a closer look Stealthed my way into Michelle's house later that night, but I had to hide in the closet when the police showed up courtesy of the neighborhood watch. Michelle spritzed herself with some perfume and went to greet the cop. The cop became pure putty in her hands. I had a hunch the perfume was the key. Was Michelle the "Jezebel" from the quatrain? Could the aliens be trying to destroy the "foundation" of family as a first step to destroying the foundation of human resistance? Nick's parents and the other families in the neighborhood were casualties of this alien scheme. Nick was looking to me the alien hunter to take her down. Who was I to disappoint? I just hoped family forgiveness and neighborly understanding would be resilient enough to survive the battle ahead.
The Box
"On the seventh dawn of the seventh day / A twice blessed man will roam the fields / Doomed to shadows with his brethren / Or savior to all who walk the ground". Seems like forever since they took Hannah away from me and made me a fugitive but the pain is still there always boiling inside. In life, Hannah gave me strength. In death, she gives me the will to keep fighting until I've beaten every single one of the Gua. Told Eddie I was going to Oakland to do some preliminary investigating of possible alien activity, but I caught a boxcar to Chicago instead. I wanted to visit Hannah's grave. It was our anniversary. Hannah would've said going back to Chicago was a stupid move, that the cops would be all over me. She'd say deep down I wanted to get caught. Maybe she was right The cops pinched me right in the cemetery and hauled me in for questioning. I found myself in the interrogation room or "the box" as it's called. Detectives Ludlow and Olanski played good cop/bad cop, trying to pin me to a few of their unsolved murders while they waited for the sheriff to come take me back to jail. To put it in cop parlance, Olanski had a bit of a "hand problem" meaning his hand kept smacking my face, despite the presence of a video camera in the room. Goes with the territory, I guess. Ludlow played it cool, got me some food and let me make a phone call. I dialed Eddie. Wanted to make sure it was really the cops who got me, not the aliens. Eddie said I was logged into the police computers, which made me relax a little figured Ludlow and Olanski were on the level. Thought maybe I could give them my alien pitch and make them listen Then I remembered how hard of hearing cops can be. Olanski didn't care about the Gua. He unplugged the video camera, and beat the crap outta me. Then outta nowhere, Ludlow grabbed his partner around the neck and twisted hard. Olanski fell to the floor with a broken neck and I was stuck in the box with an alien. Ludlow wanted to know about the Nostradamus book. Guess the aliens were getting worried about my recent success at kicking butt. His good cop routine was gone and I got another pummeling. Ludlow phoned an alien cohort they had my Uncle Harry, and were giving him the same treatment I was getting, but no way could I give up the book. Ludlow turned away for a moment, and I was able to grab a packet of salt off the lunch tray and dump it in his coffee. I pulled out a pick I kept in the seam of my jeans and unlocked the cuffs. Hands free, I got the drop on Ludlow as the salt in his coffee started make him woozy. Cuffed him to the chair and reconnected the video camera. I had a few questions of my own about the alien operations on Earth, about the second wave, and about Hannah's murder. Ludlow and the aliens pissed off the wrong guy, and I was gonna get it all on videotape. It was time for my interrogation.
Undesirables
"One man seeks a leap to the distant stars/ Through a rift on the Northwest Sea / A forbidden love finds a safe shore / And removes battle lines between foes". Eddie and I buried the Nostradamus book. Sealed it in a cooler, put it in a kevlar case, covered it with clay, and then dried the clay with a fire. That book has led us to all manner of Gua activity over these past few months it's become invaluable to the crusade. But the aliens have targeted the book and seem intent on claiming it for their own. We're making sure the aliens are never gonna find it. And if Eddie or I ever get nabbed by the Gua, that book is our insurance policy. Consider it buried treasure Eddie scanned all the quatrains into his database where they're encoded and secured. As we were doing all this, one quatrain caught my eye. Eddie called it a lucky guess, but it connected to theoretical physicist James Dutton, who lived on the "northwest sea" of Cape Charles, Washington. Dutton thinks wormholes can be created by man for space travel to "leap to distant stars." These wormholes sounded a lot like the means by which the Gua have come to our planet. Wondered if Dutton had a relationship with the aliens.; At the very least, I figured the aliens had noticed him. I went to Dutton's house, but he was gone packed and left in a hurry. I did, however, run into someone surprising Joshua, looking for Dutton as well. It wasn't a warm and fuzzy reunion, but I had searched the house already and got what I hoped was a lead. I left Joshua to do his own detective work. I knew I had to find Dutton before the aliens did. I just hadn't figured out the real reason why I had taken the micro-cassette from Dutton's answering machine. It revealed Dutton was involved with a woman named Anita. I traced them both to Dutton's boat. Found Joshua there ready to shoot Anita, not Dutton. I knocked Joshua out and Anita and Dutton got the hell outta there with me. Later I learned what the deal was Anita was an alien, and she had fallen in love with Dutton, a human. Figured this was it I had the evidence. Anita would turn herself in as an alien and Dutton would reveal the wormhole technology to support the story about the Gua. But Anita and Dutton wanted nothing of it. They wanted to escape and live their lives in peace. They didn't care the second wave could be coming any day Finally, Dutton and Anita came around and contacted a congressman. He agreed to meet them on the docks. But I knew Joshua and his team of Acolytes weren't going to let Dutton and Anita get away easily. The Gua were closing in, and the time to escape from the aliens was running out.
Second Wave
Quatrain 34, Century 2. "A vision of destruction appears near the throne / And the struggle to reign supreme begins / An approaching storm unchecked / To test the mettle of all men". The Paranoid Times Web site is set up to warn people of imminent danger we face from the alien race that has infiltrated this planet. People are starting to take notice. One e-mail came from a Sheldon Lamott, who said he had pictures of a UFO floating above Columbia, Maryland, just 20 miles outside Washington, DC. I was skeptical the photos were legit in my experience, spaceships weren't the Gua's style. But this seemed to relate to a quatrain Eddie found, so I checked it out. Met Sheldon and his wife Pauline at their suburban home. I figured out what the tension was between Sheldon and his wife when Sheldon showed me his UFO pix in the basement darkroom. There were other photos not of UFOs, but of Pauline's tryst with their neighbor, Boyd Hackett. This wasn't about the Gua, it was about a cheated husband getting some attention. I'd walked into an episode of Melrose Place I left with worthless photos of some out-of-focus lights. Then to add insult to injury, the car wouldn't start. Another neighbor, Dale Moody, offered to help. But Sheldon interrupted he said to come in the house quickly, something was happening on the TV A newscaster announced that a large force of alien ships had attacked Washington DC. They were moving out towards the suburbs, towards where we were. The electricity went out. Maybe Sheldon wasn't making his UFO story up. Maybe the Second Wave was here. A few neighbors gathered on the front lawn to decide what to do. I told them about the Gua and how I had been tracking aliens for some time. Now the invasion was upon us. The only thing we could do was to fight back. The rest of the group wasn't convinced until an orange ball of flame shooting across the sky moved everyone quickly inside, into Sheldon's reinforced basement to hide, to make a last stand, to hope From the outset, arguments among the neighbors, old grudges, and the affair that Pauline and Boyd were having made a bad situation even worse. Orange flashes and the sounds of distant bombing reminded us of how close the aliens were getting, but that didn't make anyone get along better. Accusations flew back and forth, naming each other as alien imposters. The arguing almost turned physical, when we were interrupted by a knock at the basement door. There was someone outside We hauled John Tran into the basement and gave him some water. Exhausted and bloody, Tran had run from the aliens' attack in DC. He told us about the ships flying down the highway melting cars and burning people where they stood. Moody was suspicious of Tran, but this had more to do with his own prejudices than anything else. The situation was tense. Boyd and Sheldon's arguing rose to such a pitch that Pauline ran out of the basement. I followed her outside to talk her back in. It was pretty easy to convince her out of nowhere, a giant alien ship appeared above us. We got inside, though the rest of the group hadn't wanted to let us in. There was no unity here, and the aliens were upon us. What kind of stand where we going to be able to make? Was this really the Second Wave? Or was it an experiment by the aliens to see how united we'd really stand. I hate to admit it, but in both cases the outlook wasn't good.
Blind Witness
Aliens conduct secret experiments in an abandoned hospital. - - - Quatrain 12, Century 5. "Where angels touch grace / One without sight sees the dark enemy / At the right hand of the twice-blessed man / The ally leads him to the summit". I'm fighting against an enemy nobody sees or wants to believe exists. I'm getting to the point where I'm not sure why I was doing this waging a war that I seemed doomed to lose. I was thinking of giving up the fight. Nostradamus predicted I'd find an ally where angels touch grace. Eddie and I thought that might be a reference to Grace General Hospital in Los Angeles. I needed to find that ally. This desperate quest drove me to a desperate act I faked insulin shock to get into the hospital to look around after hours. They put me in the 23-hour hold for observation. That night I stealthed my way through the empty corridors and picked up some O.R. scrubs to pose as a doctor. Looking good enough to fool another doctor on staff, I checked the patient clipboards to find the one without sight.' In ophthalmology, I found a patient scheduled to undergo eye surgery to correct her blindness. I knew I was on the right track when the nurse told me that her chart must be mistaken -- no patients were housed in the abandoned wing of the hospital. If the Gua were here in the hospital, I was betting there was no mistake The abandoned wing of Grace General was a disaster area. But I found Alikah Aldredge in the room her ghostly white eyes staring back at me. She said she could see me, that her preliminary eye surgery had been successful. She didn't believe me when I told her she was in danger. She hit the alarm and called the nurse, so I got out of there. Alikah used to be blind, but her eyesight had somehow been restored. That much matched with the quatrain. "One without sight sees the dark enemy" I wondered if she could actually see the aliens Alikah found me the next morning in the 23-hour ward. I told her that Nostradamus predicted she and I would meet and she would be an ally to fight the Gua. Alikah was less than convinced. But she did say that some people looked strange to her and she told me about when they took her to surgery. She said the place they went was all wrong that it smelled like rotting meat. Alikah gave me the audio map of how to get there. It led me through a freakish part of the hospital to a putrid and bloody operating room. There were several surgeons inside working on a young man, and I watched as they lifted the sheet to reveal their horrible handiwork they had grafted a large tentacle in place of his leg. There was no doubt the aliens were here. I had found my ally in Alikah. She made me want to stop the aliens' heinous experiments. I realized I wasn't fighting the Gua to clear my name or avenge Hannah's death anymore. I was fighting the aliens because that's who I am. Alikah taught me that. I vow to take the aliens down every last one of them.
Deluge
Foster arrives in a town where it has been raining for two years. - - - Quatrain 64, Century 8. "The slayer flees to the shadow of Olympus / Where a mother' s tears wash away ties to Rome / Fear extracts vain sacrifice / Until the raging pyre of the deluge is quenched". The Olympus that Nostradamus foresaw was Olympia, Washington, where convicted mass murderer Glenn Harris had escaped from police custody three weeks earlier. I pegged Harris as the "slayer" from the quatrain, and figured "the shadow" of Olympia laid just to the east... in a small lumber town called Athlone. That's where I hoped a mass murderer would lead me to aliens. It rained incessantly in Athlone and I was soaked to the bone right away. I posed as a bounty hunter looking for Harris' reward. The sheriff denied knowing anything about the killer. When I told the sheriff I'd ask around town, he firmly explained that I wasn't welcome. The local bar wasn't much help either. Tough crowd with cold shoulders. The barmaid, Glynis, was the only friendly face in the bunch, but that didn't stop the rest of the hard-drinking mill-workers to make it clear they wanted me out of town, too. Everyone's denials told me one thing for certain Harris had been here, and they didn't want me to know. Finally one of the locals, a guy named Fergus, approached and tried to steer me away with some bogus information. When I pressed him, he told me I'd find Harris in the woods. In a clearing of the trees, I came across strange sculptures and carvings, like something from an ancient cult. I also found Harris or what was left of him. Sitting in a pile of burnt wood and ash, I discovered a human skull. If it was Harris, looked like he'd been burnt alive. A conversation with Eddie suggested Druid sacrifice and Harris was a human offering made to appease the gods. Most of the men in town worked in the lumber mill. I made it my next stop. I searched the mill, but was attacked by men in animal masks. Later that night, I followed some of the townspeople into the woods. It was a secret meeting in full Druid regalia. I watched from behind a tree as they chose a new sacrifice to appease the gods Glynis. They were trying to stop the rain. The quatrain made sense. I found out the rain hadn't stopped for two years. It had driven these people to their ancestors' ancient religion and human sacrifice, turning on each other to stop the rain. Eddie discovered that the rain over Athlone wasn't on a single meteorological chart of the National Weather Service, either. We were looking at a deluge handiwork of the Gua. There was an alien seeding the clouds over this logging town, and I had a strong hunch who it was. It was time for a new sacrificial offering Cade Foster style.
Melody
Foster poses as a record executive to investigate a band whose music inspires violence. - - - Quatrain 30, Century 4: "Where iron chariots are forged / The sweet youth cries revolt over a bitter melody / The poisoned song taints mind and soul / Spread by air across the land' s tears washes away ties to Rome / Fear extracts vain sacrifice until the raging pyre of the deluge is quenched". Seemed like Nostradamus' "iron chariots" might've been a reference to Detroit, Michigan the Motor City. A mob of teen-agers had made headlines when they assaulted two officers at an underground club. With both cops listed in critical condition, parents blamed a local band called Sonic War for inciting the violence. I knew if the aliens were involved, this was about a lot more than rock-n-roll. I posed as a record company executive on the lookout for the next big thing and approached Sonic War's manager, Preston Barry. He was slick and over-protective, and said he wasn't interested in sharing a demo tape with a rep of corporate rock. According to Preston, Sonic War weren't sell-outs. Preston was a dead end, but I managed to track down Sonic War's lead singer, a girl named Kat. Kat said she always dreamed of having a band like Sonic War playing her own songs and having a loyal following. I mentioned the violence blamed on her music, but she insisted there was no connection. Kat wanted to prove it she invited me to the band's gig that night. After my meeting with Kat, I saw some kids wearing headphones who were harassing a shopkeeper. I caught one of the kids after the others ran and pressed him for some info. He told me that they were listening to Sonic War and it made him want to tear someone's head off. Eddie thought the aliens were making rage rock and that everyone in the band was Gua. After talking with Kat, I didn't think so. I needed to get a tape of Sonic War's music for Eddie to analyze. Headed to the Sonic War gig that night. Kat put me on the list to get in. I saw one of the kids who was freaking out earlier that day and lifted a bootleg tape of Sonic War off him. But as the band launched into a raucous song, the teens at the concert started to go berserk. They pegged me as a cop and came after me. With half the mosh pit after me, I barely got away. Eddie checked out the demo tape. There was something in the music itself, layered underneath the songs an extra track that seemed to affect the teens. Eddie suspected the music stimulated androgens adolescent male hormones that made the kids more aggressive. It would explain why I wasn't affected by the music the same way the kids were. If the Gua had found a way to target youth through music, there'd be no stopping their weapon. Was this a subliminal weapon designed to cause teens to self-destruct? And was Kat a pawn in their plans or a willing participant? Kat believed her music had power how far was she willing to go to prove it? Half the fans of Sonic War wanted my head on a platter, I was going to have to find another way into that night's concert. The band had to be stopped before the Gua declared their experiment a success and targeted every top 40 hit coast to coast. I figured it was time for the Gua to face the music.
The Aftertime
A woman travels back in time to change history and save Cade from assassination. - - - Quatrain 81, Century 5: "Dusk will become dawn / And the man twice-bless'd will be resurrected / The follower will beckon him to the great war ahead' s tears washes away ties to Rome / Fear extracts vain sacrifice, until the raging pyre of the deluge is quenched". I had no idea what Nostradamus was talking about till we got a message on our Web site from someone claiming to be Joshua. He asked me to meet him in an abandoned lot in Cleveland, Ohio. Can't say I trusted him, but couldn't turn the meeting down either. I had to hear what Joshua had to say. He told me someone using the handle "Rover" had intercepted a Gua transmission and recorded it on disk. If this was another alien experiment I wasn't playing. I was already walking away when Joshua showed his real hand. It was a warning the Gua would find the tape, and Rover would be killed. Challenge or set-up, Joshua got to me. I needed to help the hacker. Had to get to Rover first the contents of the disk could be vital to the fight. Eddie used his tech-skills to zero in on Rover's location. Posing as an agent for the FCC, I discovered the hacker. Stephen was a teen-ager operating a ham radio through his computer, all from the basement of his mother's Chinese restaurant in downtown Cleveland. He was lucky I got there first. When I pressed the kid, he got spooked and took off with the disk. I caught up with him and got the disk back, but not before the Gua picked up our trail. They chased us with guns drawn. Just when I thought I'd bought it things got really weird. Some kind of portal opened up in the street and a woman jumped through. She was ready for combat and took out the agents with a series of incredible martial arts moves. The other Gua grabbed Stephen. I tried to follow but G.I. Jane had a different plan she also had a gun. Her name was Lizbeth. She claimed she was from the future, come to take me back before I was assassinated. She showed me tattered newspaper clippings that reported me gunned down in the street. She said that after I was killed the Second Wave was launched and no one was left to lead the resistance and Nostradamus' prediction was realized. 19 million died on the first day. She said I was their only hope Lizbeth knew the quatrains, and she passed a cut test. Figured it was time to introduce her to Eddie. He was as skeptical as ever. She painted a bleak picture of the future to come. Humanity would be enslaved except for a small resistance hiding in tunnels under the major cities. She confirmed my worst nightmare -- the Gua ruling the Earth in human form, ready to wipe us out for good. By saving me that day, Lizbeth hoped she'd already changed the future. She had two days to convince me to go back with her claimed I had no choice. I had other ideas. Seemed to me there was more at stake than just my life. There was still Stephen and the information he held. Eddie said we'd need the kid's computer equipment to triangulate the Gua transmission and decipher the encoded material. Lizbeth wanted me to stay out of the Gua's sights. But I had to do more. I owed it to Stephen and to Lizbeth's future. What kind of future would I be creating if the life of one person didn't matter anymore? With the picture that Lizbeth painted of the invasion to come, I still needed to make a difference in the present. There was no clear path, only one thing remained constant -- I had to do anything to stop the Gua whether it be in the here and now, or in a future where the Gua believed they'd already won. Lizbeth told me I'd cheated death that day. I was gonna make it count.
The Decision
The Gua convene a tribunal to debate whether to launch the second wave. - - - I'm on the road right now, heading west to investigate an e-mail that may be a tip to some alien activity. Eddie's driving the Caddy, I was napping in the trailer but I couldn't sleep. Thought I'd peck out a little journal entry to pass the time. Been thinking about where this war has taken me, how it's changed my life, and how it's changed all of us Thought I was crazy. Then wished I was. Aliens. The Gua. They killed my wife, Hannah. Framed me for her murder. I've taken a personal vow to hunt them, to make them pay. Nostradamus thinks that makes me the "twice bless'd man," humanity's savior to stop the first wave of alien infiltration bent on destroying us all. I guess I believe him, but it's a lot to ask someone to bear that responsibility. I try not to think about it. All I know is that I'm the only one who can expose the Gua, and I'm going to take them down. My quest was first documented here on The Paranoid Times. I hope you're reading my journals. I hope there are those out there who truly believe. When you're cut off from society like I am, it helps to know people are listening. Gives me some hope. In this fight, I win some and I lose some. But each time I learn something new about these bastards something I can use against them. I post it here so you can use it too, when that inevitable day comes and we all hear the call to arms. I've found believers along the way, who I hope carry on their own fight against the Gua. In Salem, Oregon, there was Diana Black rooting out the unknown evil of the aliens with her ancient craft I believe she continues to battle on. And then there's Alikah Aldredge, with her special eyes that see through the Gua's illusion. I like to think that Alikah will do her part to fight the aliens. There's also my old friend Susan Tannen who now knows the aliens are here. The Gua have definitely met their match with her. Read it all on The Paranoid Times, published here by my first ally and friend -- Crazy Eddie Nambulous. Eddie may have thought alien conspiracies were old news when I met him but now he's bent on sending the Gua packing. I'm not sure I could carry on this fight without Eddie. I'm grateful for his help. Strangest one of all in this mix Joshua. Don't know if I'd call him an ally, but I don't know if he's the enemy either. Maybe he disagrees with what the Gua are doing on Earth. Maybe Joshua feels stuck in a similar place that I'm in. How Joshua will effect the future of this fight is a mystery I just don't have an answer for. That's all I feel like saying right now. No quatrain to decipher, no experiment to tell about in this journal entry. Just a reflection and a warning: the aliens are here and the war's going to get a lot worse before it's over. The battles ahead will be bigger and meaner. And I got the bad feeling the second wave isn't far behind. But that doesn't mean we've lost. Not yet, not by a long shot... As long as you keep reading these journals, keeping your eyes out for the Gua, and believing, we'll bring the Gua down. We don't have any other option. In the meantime, I'll be here. I'll be fighting them. In the end, I'll stop the first wave.
Target 117
Lucas is sent to Earth to test Cade Foster's warrior potential. - - - Quatrain 99, Century 1: "Heed the call to the island of commerce / Cut be watchful of footsteps that lead unto battle / Look to the light to guide thee / The hacking blade has a double edge" This quatrain had had me and Eddie baffled for some time until Eddie began receiving a series of e-mails at the Paranoid Times from a man named Harold Shanley who claimed to have escaped from an alien experiment. The poor guy sounded out of his mind; seems he became delusional enough to shoot his own kids. His descriptions took me back to my own nightmare. As much pain as I felt at losing Hannah, I'm sure his was 100 times greater. I knew I was the only one who could help him, and I also knew that any information he had could undoubtedly help me too. I had to find him before the Gua did. According to the origins of his sporadic e-mails, Shanley was making his way across the country, the most recent was from an Industrial Trade Zone called Cosgrove Island. I decided to meet him there. Cosgrove Island looked more like the final resting place for tin can tankers and old cargo containers than the bustling port of activity that I was expecting. The place was almost totally deserted, except for Shanley, whom I found cowering inside a cargo container -- and the Gua. That's right. The aliens were there. The whole thing was a set-up. Shanely was for real, poor guy, but he was beyond any hope of salvation. They put him on the island knowing I would come after him. But more importantly, lying in wait for me was the biggest challenge I had yet to face: Lucas, the Gua's ultimate warrior. She was blond and beautiful and it took all my human strength not to give in to her female charms. While I always used to say I enjoyed a woman who went after what she wanted, especially when what she wanted was me, this wasn't what I had in mind. It seems her orders were to test my abilities before making a final recommendation to the head of the Gua on when to launch the second wave. Now I don't need to tell you how thrilled I was to be back in the role of human lab rat for Gua experimentation. I decided there was no reason to sit around and remember old times, I needed to find a way off that island fast. I was trying to think up my escape when who should show up but Eddie. What a pal. Once he figured out he had been tricked by the Gua's computer, he left the sanctuary of the Airstream to come to my rescue. How's that for a role reversal? I'm not entirely sure what he thought he would accomplish when he got here since he showed up with no weapons, no supplies, not even any food. But, all the same it shows his heart was in the right place. And that's why I'll bet on the humans every time: they got heart. But unfortunately, all the heart in the world wasn't going to save us. With no apparent way off the island we were just two sitting ducks waiting for Lucas to take her best shot. If there is one thing I have learned about the Gua, however, it's that they are overconfident. And Lucas was a prime example. In this situation, the underdog always has the advantage. Superwarrior or not, Lucas was going to need more than just her hyped up DNA to beat me and Eddie. With a little human ingenuity and a junkyard full of almost worthless crap Eddie and I needed to come up with a slingshot to take down this extraterrestrial Goliath.
Deepthroat
Cade works to expose a U.S. Senator who is thwarting government funded space exploration. - - - Quatrain 42, Century 5: "When the sun bursts forth at night / The life of a starwatcher is lost / But the truth revealed in the heavens / Is carried to a high magistrate". Eddie's friend Vincente Miranda, an astronomer in Ohio, was shot to death shortly after witnessing a meteor burst out of a wormhole just outside our atmosphere. He instantly understood the implications of what this could mean. While he explained his findings to Eddie over the phone, he put the critical photographs and charts in a package to be over-nighted to U.S. Senator Sterling Preston. Lucky for us it wasn't clearly labeled. The Gua who rubbed him out destroyed everything having to do with the discovery, but he didn't think to go through the outgoing mail. The package was sent, delivered and signed for. Of all the places I wanted to go hunt down evidence, the nation's capital was at the bottom of my list. Only the thought of how sweet it will be to blow open this conspiracy and finally clear my name fueled me into this hotbed of the federal government. I tracked Senator Preston down in the Washington Mall; he was just finishing up a run. 5 miles in 30 minutes, pretty good for a man in his mid 50s, even I would be hard pressed to beat it. When I questioned him about the package he claimed ignorance, though I saw a slight flicker of recognition when I mentioned Vincente Miranda's name. What I didn't see, however, was the woman in the bushes snapping our picture like some rabid paparazzo. Samantha Ray, reporter for the Washington Examiner. Had I known she was there I would have been a little more careful following up with the senator. Seems she was one step ahead of me, both in terms of knowing about Preston's involvement with a major cover-up involving the Subcommittee in Space Technology, and in ability to get in to see him. While I was dealing with his snotnosed aid out in the lobby, she was grilling him on his attempts to shut down all present and future space exploration and research. It wasn't until she questioned him on his involvement with a murderer wanted by the FBI for killing his wife was I invited to join the party. Lucky for me I had Eddie on the inside. Well, inside via the bugs I planted in his office, listening to the conversation. Without his head's up, I'd be writing this from a cozy concrete cell. I broke my vow of no more federal offenses and carjacked Samantha and her associate Vernon. I didn't know what else to do. They had more information on Preston than I did and they had already blown my cover, but more importantly, they represented a major newspaper. If I could prove to them what Eddie and I knew only too well, this could be our big break. But, they were hard-nosed, savvy Washington reporters. Eddie wanted to dump the whole story right in their laps. You know the old adage about leading a horse to water and making her drink, right? This lady was thirsty, but she had to find the well on her own. Samantha did some investigating herself, but I was hard-pressed to convince her of my innocence and Preston's guilt. It wasn't until her top secret inside source called were we able to make any progress. Why is it in Washington they'll believe a disguised voice coming over the phone from an untraceable number, but they won't believe evidence that is clear as day and spelled out right in front of them?
The Apostles
Cade poses as a journalist to investigate a disappearance in a Wyoming town. - - - Quatrain 54, Century 7: "Iron horses blaze a vengeful trail / The first of many to follow / Their method must be chartered / Or liberty will fall". 19 million innocent humans killed on the first day of the Gua attack. That fact has rung in my ears and echoed in my heart everyday for the past year. It is a staggering concept. How far will I go to prevent it from happening? What price am I willing to pay? I faced my biggest challenge to date in Crestline, Wyoming. It was not a battle of strength, nor a battle of will. It was a battle of beliefs. But this time I fought other humans. I followed a lead about a town having trouble with some bikers. Seems this gang had been harassing citizens of Crestline by acting out vigilante justice. But for all the murders the Apostles committed, no one could produce any bodies. Imagine my surprise when they revealed themselves to be alien killers; they had read Eddie's journals and taken it upon themselves to flush out aliens and smoke them. They claimed to be Apostles, my Apostles. For the first time I saw how we could really win the war. I saw my months of unending battles pay off. I finally had an army who was willing to fight by my side. I rode proud that first day as leader of a band of men committed to saving the world. But my joy soon turned to fear. These guys were fighting aliens all right but they fought according to their rules. They stormed houses and took prisoners; they shot first and asked questions later. I watched them kill an innocent man. I was at an impasse. Here was a chance to really make a difference. 12 men were willing to go the front line and kill the aliens. But they believed that sacrificing a few innocent people was a small price to pay for the deliverance of millions. As much as I wanted to destroy every Gua on this planet, it was not worth it to me to take the lives of helpless people in the process. What started as a differing of opinion unfortunately ended with the trading of blows. I wanted to explore a quartz crystal mining camp that produced suspicious eight sided crystals. One of their Gua victims had been the owner and it seemed a better strategy to address the reason the Gua were in Crestline than to hunt them down one by one. But the Apostles had no patience for investigations, they wanted action. When they took a local shopkeeper, who had innocently been selling the crystals to tourists, hostage, I finally had to turn on this band of renegades. With the gang members threatening me and the sheriff asking too many questions I needed to make a beeline out of Crestline. It was hard decision to make. But in the end, it is not worth it to me to destroy in battle those whom I am fighting to save.
Susperience
Cade investigates a psychic research project in a seaside town. - - - Quatrain 23, Century 3: "The two-sighted will meet death in sleep / Purged from the nightmare of a hidden enemy / Barricades protect spurious sleep / And the spectre is lanced with a common blade". Found myself cruising along the coast to Prescott, Maine where a renowned group of psychics were burying one of their own. Rachel Cates had died mysteriously in her sleep. I usually think of hotlines and con artists whenever psychics are mentioned. But with all I'd seen in the past two years, it seemed possible the Gua had decided this was a group they couldn't afford to ignore. I'm no psychic, but I had a strong hunch there was an alien in my future. Posing as an investigator for Cates' insurance company I went to talk to Ellen, a clairvoyant, and part of the local universities illustrious paranormal studies department. Besides Ellen, the group also included a telekinetic and a man who could cast images that weren't there -- sounded like an academic super-hero team to me. Ellen was sure Rachel had been murdered, claimed the coroner's report was false. She explained her theory of "susperience," suspect experience, another spin on the psychic game that caused the wielder to invade the dreams of another person and scare them to death literally. Ellen thought there was one psychic in their group who had the potential to create susperience a pretty boy named Quinn, definitely not your average angry 20-something. I caught up with Quinn at a local pool hole. He believed what Ellen said, Rachel was definitely murdered, but not by him. Seems Quinn was kicked out of the group, and not for bending spoons. Maybe the University wasn't the real reason all these psychics were in Prescott? Quinn told me the program was government-funded and that was all he was giving up until he pointed a finger at Molly Simon, the telekinetic. Quinn had read my mind, knew I was looking for aliens in Maine. That could mean my time was running out. I went to see Molly who busted my watch with her brain and basically told me to get out of town. Sorry, Molly, not without my alien. Eddie traced the government agency that had been funding the Universities research project SETI the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. The psychics had discovered the Gua, and now the Gua were going to kill them and they seemed to be adopting psychic skills to do it. The Gua already had an edge on us with their increased strength and healing factor the last thing we need is for them to exploit the hidden powers of our minds. Gonna need more than me and Eddie on this one hate to say it, but it looks like I'm about to call a psychic friend.
The Channel
A young woman communicates directly with the spirit of Nostradamus. - - - Quatrain 4, Century 9: "She will rise from the dead / With words of fortune on her lips". The local newspapers say paramedics revived a waitress in Cranston, Rhode Island, after six minutes with no heart beat. She woke up speaking words of fortune, only those words belonged to an ancient prophet. I know Chloe Wells is reciting the lost quatrains of Nostradamus. The aliens must know it too. I have to find her before they do. Arrived at Chloe's house to find a media circus led by glitzy news hound Arthur Hewitt, and a crowd holding vigil for their newly appointed savior. Seems that one of the first quatrains Chloe spoke struck a cord with the people of Cranston a prediction of their mayor's death. Checked out the scene and the cameras caught me just for a second, but when you're a wanted man every second counts. Nobody wants to be on America's Top Fugitives. Eddie and I had hidden the Nostradamus book as an insurance policy against the Gua. By spouting quatrains, Chloe made herself an instant target. Eddie thought the whole thing sounded like a trap, he'd been over every quatrain and said the ones Chloe spoke weren't in any book. Had a hunch this was something big. I had to talk to Chloe. If she wasn't coming out, then I was going in. A young cop named Barlow was watching Chloe's back, keeping the masses from storming her front door. But when Chloe and her best friend Denise got hungry, Eddie and I intercepted the delivery order and I became your friendly, neighborhood, take-out guy. I hate having to deal with cops. Barlow had me on the alert for a second. Turned out he was just giving me a hard time. I wasn't laughing. Got in the front door and met Denise who was skeptical from the start. Chloe froze when she saw me called me the twice blessed man. Denise wanted me out. Didn't want anyone honing in on Chloe's new found fame there was only room for one hitch up to Chloe's star. Chloe held Denise off, felt this was happening to her for a reason. Chloe wanted to know what that was. I told them about the book, about the danger Chloe was in. She was having trouble buying the story, Denise didn't help figured I was working an angle. Told them about the aliens and Denise flipped she told Chloe to choose between me and her. When Chloe didn't kick me out, Denise walked. A scorned girl friend wouldn't help me right now. I was running out of time. Seems Barlow and Denise had a thing going, so while I was on the inside with Chloe, Barlow was running my plates for his girlfriend. Good news -- Chloe was beginning to believe me. She asked me my name, asked how she could help me? I told her who I was. I needed her to contact Nostradamus. And then the phone rang the Gua were outside. Eddie wanted to get me out. But Nostradamus was there, right in Chloe's house, and I needed answers. Nothing was gonna make me leave before I had them.
Red Flag
Foster attempts to uncover an alien plot to infiltrate the military. - - - "The town will not ring its cracked bell / For the hero has gone astray / The crimson banner lures the one and the many / With each victory so will victory undo". Special Forces Colonel John Russell died suddenly of extreme internal temperatures literally boiled to death. His first lieutenant, Alex Harkin, disappeared immediately after. Suspected of being a "deep cover" spy, Harkin was due to face inquiry before his hasty exit. Twice-decorated for heroism, Harkin was the winner of the Red Flag, an award given to the best of the best in the military. The crimson banner and the hero gone astray are both mentioned in the Nostradamus quatrain. I wanted to know how the Red Flag and the aliens were connected, so Eddie and I cooked up some triple-A credentials and I became Matin Sloane super-soldier one of five contenders for this year's competition. Off the bus, I met a military hard-ass named Major Birch, my tour guide in Camp Pain. Birch told us the Red Flag was a rare-opportunity for the best and brightest to realize their maximum potential. Gave us the competition's specs. 72 hours. Two days of intensive training with individual point scores. Competition on the third. Points and the flag determine the winner. No outside communication and no comings and goings meant no Eddie I was on my own. And then there were the players. Birch read our stats. Jordan Vincent, demolitions and tactical strategy expert. Joel Langley, West Point, Army Delta. Amy Lopez, law degree, marine recon, no special treatment for the ladies Birch made that clear. Trevor Payne, list of super-specs and fourth generation Red Flag could be one to watch. And then there was me Birch thought my credentials were too good to be true. Disliked me immediately I felt right at home. Langley immediately emerged as the front-runner cut throat and vicious Birch liked him right away. At night I went investigating, lifted my cell phone and picked the lock of a door marked "no entry" an open invitation to an ex-thief. Found some really old files dating back to 1862 the Civil War didn't know what to make of them. Found something worse next an alien transfer machine. And the uniformed husk of Alex Harkin. Called Eddie in the morning. Told him the Gua were definitely here. We figured the aliens had transferred the Harkin consciousness from that husk to another Red Flag-er. Eddie was checking out Birch and his lackey, Sergeant Plimption, as well as the rest of the Red Flag wannabes. Couldn't make the connection yet. Harkin, the Red Flag, the Civil War the aliens were there but I didn't know why. Eddie wanted me to get out but I couldn't leave yet. I needed to know who the aliens were, and how much they controlled. The aliens were infiltrating the military, but so was I. This year, the race for the Red Flag is a race against the Gua. Time for me to be all I could be.
Prayer for the White Man
Foster poses as a journalist to investigate proposed casinos on native reserve land. - - - "In the woods of Winchala / Amnis lights the flame of affliction / Elders set the course / To choose wrongly will mean woe". This quatrain led me to the reservation of the Winchala, a small Native American tribe with a rich history. The landscape was calming, but something was definitely wrong. There was a lot of tension about the legalization of gambling on reservation lands. But why would the Gua infiltrate the Winchala reservation? And how could gambling fit into their plan? I arrived posing as a reporter for The Gaming Chronicles. I played a few hands at the black jack table and was able to spark up a conversation with a talkative dealer who filled me in on some of the details. Only one casino has already been built, but there was a proposal in the offing which would call for the construction of ninety more to be scattered across Winchala territories. The community's board of elders was only days away from a vote on whether or not to approve the proposal. One especially respected community elder named Lonetree was determined to shoot down the proposal. According to the dealer, Lonetree doesn't trust the white man. When I visited him at him his home and introduced myself as a reporter, he wasn't too happy to speak with me. Lonetree maintained that the casinos would bring only crime, addiction and spiritual dissatisfaction to his people. Like others I've heard in the past, he believes that gambling is one of the most insidious of vices. He struck me as an angry man, but I appreciated his reverence for spirituality. After our exchange, it was clear to me that gambling was the "flame of affliction" of which Nostradamus speaks. My next interview was with Alex, a slick but very shady character. A Native American with a self-proclaimed respect for tradition, he said he was all for the expansion of gambling. It brings a lot of benefits, he said. Funding for child care, educational programs, lots of new jobs. To him, Lonetree's principles had been informed by fear and superstition. Needless to say, I had Eddie do some digging. He confirmed that Alex had arrived at the Winchala community seven years earlier. As for his life before that Eddie drew a blank. And if Eddie can't find it, then I knew Alex had to have been awfully careful to cover his tracks. Eddie also filled me in on another interesting bit of info. Seems yours truly made the cover of the latest edition of Bounty Hunters Monthly. At least I found out that, on the open market, I'm worth more alive than I would be dead. So between Alex, the Gua and the inevitable bounty hunters, I wasn't exactly surprised when I was jumped by a couple goons. Thankfully, the fight was cut short by the intervention of, well a guardian spirit that first appeared as a wolf, then as a Native American woman. She was floating a full foot above the ground, I might add. When I ended up back at Lonetree's place, he explained the legend behind the spirit. Seems she was a Native American woman who had saved an entire village by warning them of an impending cavalry invasion. She sure saved my carcass. As Lonetree was patching up my wounds, I decided the time was right to come clean with him. I told him about how the aliens were laying the groundwork for a full-scale invasion, and about how the Winchala had apparently been chosen to play a part in initial infiltration. He wasn't buying me, until I used the word: Gua. Something told me he'd heard it before. He still wasn't ready to listen to me, but one thing we were able to agree on: Alex is a dirty character. Since Lonetree wasn't willing to join forces, I decided to call an end to the whole Winchala investigation. Eddie helped me find a route out of the reservation, but my trip was cut short by a pesky bounty hunter. That piece of bad luck turned out to be good. Who should come to my rescue but Lone Star. He finally came around, and his timing was perfect. A quick search of Alex's "museum" exposed him for the hypocrite he is. Turns out that Alex had a secret stash a series of sacred parchments, the ancient teachings of the Winchala people hidden beneath a totem pole in his museum, no less. Clearly, this guy has been trying to control the fate of the Winchala. And how better to cut off a community from its heritage than to steal the documents around which that community was built? It's like someone lifting our Declaration of Independence. Seemed to me that the Gua might be experimenting, using the Winchala to measure the strength of the human spirit. With Lonetree on my side, I felt certain that we would uncover the truth. Fortunately, we share the belief that our spiritual side is our most powerful weapon. That's the one thing the Gua can't possibly understand. The time had come to confront Alex and let the chips fall where they may.
The Purge
An attempt on the life of the minister causes chaos at an assembly of alien dignitaries. - - - There is a potentially dangerous storm brewing deep within the ranks of the Gua forces. Though my concerns grow more dire each day, I, Joshua, must admit to feeling a certain degree of relief to finally know that I am not alone in my conclusions, that others both here and at home are similarly doubting the validity of our mission here on Earth. Decades ago, during the earliest days of the infiltration, we were a unified force, certain that patience and careful planning were all that would be required to defeat the human race. I used to believe that. But now I find myself riddled with doubt. Now I know enough to question not only the tactics but the very objectives of our leadership. Yet even as I write here, the most powerful and respected of our leaders continue to maintain that Earth and its inhabitants are well within our control, utterly unprepared to defend themselves against a full-scale attack. In order to halt growing ambivalence among the Gua forces, our leaders are apparently preparing to launch the second wave invasion. The Gua minister, our second-in-command, recently arrived here on Earth, presumably to survey our findings, reassess our methods, and determine our next phase of action. Soon after his arrival, his true mission was revealed: The Minister has come in order to conduct what the humans have historically referred to as a "witch hunt." His objective is to further his own agenda by making an example of any alleged human sympathizers. To illustrate his position, he has already ordered the execution of numerous Gua agents, both warriors and researchers, stationed here at the compound. Soon after his arrival, I was placed in charge of the minister's security. Following a failed attempt on his life, I found myself placed at the center of his hunt for suspected traitors. My guess is that he is testing my own loyalty to the cause. Like so many of my fellow Gua, the minister still sees the humans as inferior beings ruled by greed, lust, and self-aggrandizement. As our studies have shown, he's not entirely incorrect in his assessment. We've seen, again and again, that these qualities exist in humans subjects across all social, economic and geographical boundaries and that they greatly influence human behavior. But I have learned that there is more here than meets the eye. Unfortunately, The Minister remains blind to the more spiritual (and therefore immeasurable) aspects of our supposed enemies. In recent months, I have come to wonder if our mission was compromised from the moment we first occupied human form. In transplanting our consciousness, we have experienced new sensations, new stimuli. How could we have expected that the human experience would have so profound an effect on our beliefs and, by extension, on our sense of duty? Has the process of combining our DNA ultimately worked against us? In our determination to defeat an alien species, have we unwittingly created a new species, neither fully human nor fully Gua? To move forward, I must believe that a peaceful resolution is possible. Unfortunately, my search for comrades within the Gua forces places me in great jeopardy. Thankfully, I have been able to join forces with Trent, an old friend and top Gua researcher who has been studying the humans for years. Our mutual disdain for the minister's actions his random executions and, in particular, his recent approval of breeding experiments to be conducted on human children has brought us together. Trent and I agree that moral propriety must override our sworn duty, that we must be willing to risk everything in order to stop any force we perceive as evil --- even if we have pledged our allegiance to that same force. As the lines that once divided us from the humans continue to blur, the questions I ask myself become increasingly urgent. Can we hope to positively influence the current Gua leadership? Can we stop the impending launch of the second wave invasion? And will we survive long enough to learn the outcome?
Lost Souls
Foster investigates an alien experiment that caused people to be trapped alive in underground tombs. - - - "A maiden cut aloft from humanity / Locked in a coffin of stone / Her resurrection a clue for the man twice-blessed / Till the fate of her soul has been sealed". Our boy Eddie was able to link this quatrain with a wildly bizarre story he picked up in the Paranormal News Group. While building a connector deep within the New York City subway system, a group of workers discovered the extraordinarily well-preserved body of a woman. She had apparently been entombed within a concrete wall that was built over 50 years before. And, believe it or not, that's not the weirdest part. The strangest aspect to the story is that the woman was found alive. Authorities were able to identity the woman as one Francesca Dutton, an accomplished travel writer who was reported missing way back in 1945. Eddie worked his usual magic and managed to work up a false identity for me. I would undertake my investigation as "Jack Dutton" a Philadelphia cop who also happened to be Francesca Dutton's grandson and only living relative. I drove out to the Maple Ridge Retreat, a psychiatric hospital in upstate New York where Francesca was being held and examined. I almost managed to walk right into her room, but I was stopped by a pair of special agents with the NAMP the National Agency of Missing Persons. These two were clearly determined to get in my way, and they were damned effective watchdogs. One of the agents introduced himself as Agent Haley Burbitt, the other as Agent Simon. They told me their specialty was missing persons and that they had been placed in charge of the Francesca Dutton investigation. Burbitt was a tough-as-nails kind of cop, but he seemed like one of the good ones. He was like a well-intentioned bull dog. I could see right off that he was a decent guy underneath his hard-ass demeanor. He was sure more open-minded than his partner. Simon made up her mind about me from the second I introduced myself. She obviously didn't trust me, so she was not about to listen to a word I had to say. My first conversation with Francesca was heartbreaking. Needless to say, she was confused, disoriented, and extremely frightened. Her health was miraculously good, but her appearance was pretty ghostly. She had no pigmentation. Purse white. Her eyes had lost all normal color. Instead, they were blood red. She had virtually no memory of how she got into that subway not a clue that might reveal how she survived, how she was breathing, moving, and behaving in relatively normal manner after 55 years entombed in stone. It seemed crazy to me, but Simon was looking for logical explanations. She had no interest in even considering possibilities outside of the so-called scientific ones. She talked about fissures in the rock which would allow for air and for Francesca's absorption of trace elements that kept her alive. She even brought up the idea that Francesca might have been the unfortunate victim of some freak accident. But none of Simon's theories could explain away one fact: Francesca Dutton looked as if she hadn't aged a day in well over half a century. Like me, Burbitt was more, shall we say, open-minded. He wasn't ruling anything out. He was talking about crystals, strange medical conditions, even voodoo. My initial suspicion was that Francesca Dutton's dark and private hell was linked to the Gua and their experiments. Maybe they wanted to see how humans respond to prolonged isolation. Maybe they wanted to determine a way store our bodies for future use as slaves. Burbitt seemed to lend support to my ideas when he finally decided to share a piece of highly classified information. It seems that when Francesca's body was uncovered, a Gua orb was found along with it. Eddie's first thought was that Francesca was Gua. I wasn't so certain. I hoped that Eddie was just being his reliably paranoid self, because when I looked into Francesca's eyes, I saw a profound sadness that struck me as all too human. Imagine waking up from a nightmare to find that everyone you loved and everything you knew was gone forever. A second trip to the subway revealed that the stone from which Francesca was extricated was close to pure limestone. Pretty unusual for a subway. Though they came at it from different directions, Burbitt and Eddie arrived at similar conclusions based on that finding. In the Buddhist religion and in a lot of ancient cultures, it was apparently believed that encasing a body in limestone would trap its soul, hold it in a kind of perpetual limbo where there could be no reincarnation, no heaven, no hell. It started to sound as if Burbitt might have been right from the very start. Maybe it was voodoo or something damn close to it. I still wasn't making any bets. During our next conversation, Francesca opened up to me. She told me that there were two more like her, two others who had suffered the same fate and were still buried. With her help, Eddie and I were able to locate another of the bodies. This time it was one J.J. Reed, a native of New Haven who had also been missing for 55 years. Once he was dug up, we found that Reed's circumstances were identical to those of Francesca. He was also entombed in limestone, also inexplicably alive yet unable to remember even the minutest detail of how he got there. But what was the connection between these lost souls? Working through U.S. Customs records, Burbitt and Simon were able to determine that both Francesca Dutton and J.J. Reed had been in India during the same period in 1945. Eddie had missed that little piece of information during his own digging, but hearing that someone else beat him to it got our favorite hacker back on his toes. He continued his own research and was able to connect all three of the missing persons with a guy named Frederick Lansing --- an architect who just happened to design both the subway from which Francesca Dutton was unearthed and the New Haven building in which we found J.J. Reed. We also found out that Lansing and his wife, Olivia, traveled through the Himalayas together with Francesca and J.J. way back in 1945. Based on that bit of information, I felt sure that Lansing would know where his wife Olivia was buried. Burbitt, Simon and I headed out to visit Frederick Lansing at his home. We were all certain that Lansing held the final piece to this puzzle. But I couldn't help worrying. What if the Gua got to him before we did?
The Heist
Foster and his cronies find themselves as participants in an alien experiment. - - - "The weapon will fall upon cities / Unless theives deliver humanity from woe / The enemy of triumph is intellect / For faculties failure requires sence anew". I spent my early years in a top-notch thief crew, so this Nostradamus quatrain peaked my interest. But touching base with my past quickly collided with my present. Suddenly, I was back in the game, working as a break-and-enter man for a score going down in Silicon Valley. And the people I worked with were no strangers. Harley Daniels, more than an old friend, a statuesque blonde with brains to spare she finds the scores and makes sure they get set up right. Ritchie Black, a wild boy who happens to be the best alarm-bypass man around it always felt good to have Ritchie by my side on a job. And then there was Dex the taskmaster of the unit took "Crew Chief" as his title. Dex had a special love for giving orders he kept us on track. Thing is, Dex didn't like me. Welcome to the club. Before I met Hannah these people were my family. On this job, out of necessity, they become my allies, with one difference between us they were there for the money, I was there for a bigger score aliens. Had we been hired by the Gua to steal computer weaponry that'll someday be turned against human-kind? The only way to find out was to take it from them. Security was tight. But we were the best there is at what we do still were. Some things you never forget. Working as a team we were able to get into the first room. Things got ugly fast. I don't know what kind of security system this place was trying to run, but when Dex got skewered by an iron blade from the ceiling, I knew there was nothing normal about this job we were in for trouble. The vault had sealed shut behind us. Wanted to cut bait, but Harley wasn't having it. Thing about the best, they don't give up easy, especially with a buyer willing to pay millions for the score. With Dex out of the picture, Harley gave herself a speedy promotion. Said we keep going seemed to get off on bossing me around guess she still had a score to settle. We were sealed in, not like I had much of a choice. Time to play follow the leader. Next obstacle was a simple key lock gut told me that wasn't right. No trip wires, no motion sensors just something even more odd in the room an arsenal. What does a computer company in Silicon Valley need with a room full of guns? My partners didn't have a clue but Ritchie wasn't taking any chances he went back to tried-and-true thief basics, lifting a double-barrel as some extra insurance. Door slammed shut behind us. No where to go but through the next. Ritchie wanted to know how I could have given this all up, thought I missed the rush of the ride. Told him I missed a lot of things about my old life this wasn't one of em. Got into the next room and things got really spooky. Harley and I started getting into it, seems our past was creeping up on us. Harley's true feelings about me and Hannah came into play. Shoulda known better never scorn a woman on the job. The room ignited in fire, we booked double-time through the next door to find the last person I ever expected to see Crazy Eddie Nambulous. Times two. I knew it was a hallucination. Had to be. This was no ordinary building. Altered reality was my best guess. Harley and Ritchie looked exactly the same like Eddie! We were being set-up. The floor plans were suspect, there was no military technology, no score nothing. Ritchie seemed to be coming around, knew it wasn't right Harley finally agreed. This gig had gone bad. Time to back track through the towering inferno and get the hell outta there. But once we were through the door again, the flames were gone the room wasn't even hot. Harley and Ritchie looked like themselves. Now the walls were seeping blood. The guys finally knew nothing was normal here. They got me talking about why I'd come back. I told them I wasn't there for the score. Everyone thought the next guy was to blame for the job going sour. Nobody was happy. Our personal histories started playing out again. Old issues, long resolved everything was muddled. Ritchie'd let me take the wrap and do his time in the past. Maybe I'd never forgotten that. He pulled a gun on me. Harley and I got back into it. She told me she hated me. I grabbed her neck. Tried to crush her esophagus. That wasn't right. In all the muck it started making sense. Anger, confusion, paranoia, laughter, guilt the rooms were affecting us. Playing with our emotions. It had Gua written all over it. I'd thought the weapon is what we were hired to steal, but I had it wrong. We were in the weapon. Now I just had to get us all out alive.
Ohio Players
Cade Foster investigates the possibility of alien experiments on football players. - - - "Here the good river runs north / Young fortunes are reversed in mock battle / Enslavement takes myriad focus / The key to them all is control". The Ohio River runs north on the eastern border of the state. In the Iroquois language Ohio means "good river." Sounded like a good place to start looking for a Gua experiment. Eddie checked for anything unusual in the region and came up with what looked like anything but. The Fairvale Falcons a high school football team with a winning streak that the pros would love to claim 11 and 0. It was an amazing turn around for a team that's been in last place for nine years running. And it got me thinking. Could high school football be the mock battle Nostradamus was referring to? If so, the Fairvale Falcons have thrilled the state as they reversed their fortunes. As unlikely as it seemed, it fit. Had to check it out. Every dog may have its day, but I've learned that the alien race known as the Gua would stop at nothing to enslave humanity. I also know that in war, as in football, the best defense is a good offense. Posing as Cal U college recruiter Clyde Howell, I made my way onto the field at Fairvale High and quickly got the attention of the exceedingly proud Coach Jenkins. The coach wouldn't take any credit for the teams wild turn around in skill and wins he was only interested in giving credit where it was due. Quarterback Quentin Billup Falcon's superstar, the kid who'd single-handedly gotten the rest of the team up to par. Coach believed Quentin's arm was kissed by the Lord above. I just wanted to be sure it wasn't alien. Quentin was new to Fairvale; this was his first year on the squad. Coach asked me to take a look at another player Trevor Jenkins his son. Coach sold Trevor as the heart and soul of the offense and Quentin as the guts. No surprise, Coach Jenkins had the American football dream in mind for his boy. He also knew Quentin was the Falcons ticket to the state title. Thought Trevor might be able to answer some questions, sometimes the underdog wants to talk. Told Trev that I figured there was more to the Falcon's turn-around than just one man. The kid said he wasn't the reason for the lucky streak but neither was Quentin. Sounded like he knew more than he was saying. Trevor told me about another teammate, Lionel, a friend of his who went berserk on the field last week and then fell into a coma -- reason for the melt down a bee sting. Thing is, Lionel had been stung before by a whole hive and he definitely wasn't allergic. There was something else on Trev's mind, but he wasn't ready to talk. Eddie was in Pennsylvania checking out a Quatrain that came up empty. He cracked the usual jokes when I filled him in on the situation in Ohio said he had trouble believing "E.T. was playing Q.B." Eddie didn't think amateur ball was worth the Gua's attention. Figured steroids were involved in Lionel's freak-out. I wasn't sure. Eddie agreed to meet me in Fairvale. Steroids and allergies just didn't seem right. It was time for Clyde to do a little medical fact checking. I headed for the hospital. Lionel's chart confirmed what Trevor said, the kid wasn't allergic to bees but that wasn't my only discovery. Noticed something in the corner of Lionel's eye. A honey-brown tear, thought it might have been an iodine stain but it was more sticky. Pocketed a sample and was getting ready to exit when Quentin showed up. Q.B. said he was checking on Lionel seemed like a friendly kid, amped, enthusiastic but then his tone shifted Quentin wanted to know what I was doing in Lionel's room. He got angry. Intense. Told me his game was up eighty percent this year, that I should ignore his junior year stats. He braced the bed. That's when I saw the monitor. With Quentin in the room, the device set to read Lionel's brainwaves went wild. Near flat-lines suddenly spiked off the screen. Quentin took off and the readings went back to normal. Didn't know what to make of it. Time to get the sample to Eddie. While we were waiting for results on the sample I told Eddie my best hunch was that the Gua were running some kind of mind-control experiment liking the brains of these kids. Eddie thought it was a possibility we figured the aliens might be trying to get at us through our heads rather than through brute force. A football team was the perfect proving ground to see if humans could work in synch. Made a plea to Trevor to help me prove what was going on. Told him Lionel's life could depend on it. It worked. Trevor explained that he didn't need to read the game plays anymore, they were automatically in his head something subconscious was telling him where to run, where to receive a pass it was all perfectly synchronized. And he knew it wasn't natural. Was Quentin an alien? Time to find out.
Night Falls
The aliens try to trick Foster into revealing the location of a lost book of Nostradamus' quatrains. - - - "Three rivers amidst iron wrought / Barren ground shall be sowed once more / The hunter and hunted are one/ When shadows descend on the twice-blessed man". Followed up on an e-mail to this Web site which led me to the iron city of Pittsburgh searching for possible alien activity. I thought Nostradamus' mention of barren ground might have been the Soames medical facility, which had been closed for years wrong move. Made a mistake this time, a big one. The cops were after me. Got caught at the facility, chased out. Down a fire escape, over a fence, they weren't messing around, took a bullet in the side. Figured the Gua had probably joined the hunt too. I was running out of time. Had to think fast. Taking a hostage was a desperate move, knew it would happen some day and dreaded it. Couldn't take any chances. No way I'd make it on foot. That's how I came to take Lena Hansen hostage in her car, not far from her apartment. Had a near miss when Cori, Lena's nosey neighbor, caught us coming up the stairs. Lena vamped was convincing. Guess that's what fear'll do to you. It makes us want to survive. Lena was terrified. Truth, so was I. I had to cut her to make sure she wasn't Gua she didn't heal that made me feel worse. I was in this now deep in, doing stuff I never believed I could. Helicopters, news coverage the F.B.I. had bumped me up to number nine on the "Most Wanted" list. Lena heard the report looked at me with fear in her eyes. Fear of what the Gua have made me out to be. It made me hate them even more. Lost my cell running from the cops, had to call Eddie on a land line he hated the risk. Told him about the set-up, that I was in the eye of the storm. Eddie was freaking, couldn't believe a quatrain had led us into a trap. Eddie said I'd have to wait til night fall to leave Lena's, otherwise cops would pick me up. Five hours. Wasn't sure I'd make it this time. Lena, got free of her binding, tried to make a break for it. Got her back in her chair. Promised I'd leave her alone when it was safe for me to go. That's when she started with the questions Why'd I kill my wife? It meant I'd have to give her the speech. Tell her I didn't do it, how I was framed. And I'm sick and tired of telling people that. After the first hundred or so you feel like you're wasting your breath. My appearance in Pittsburgh was getting plenty of coverage on the major networks. Add jewelry theft and assault to my fabricated list of crimes apparently I'd had the time to rob a store and beat up the owner on the run from the cops. Lena heard the report and started to wonder. Told her I was a scapegoat. Asked if I could prove my innocence, would she believe me anyway? Lena didn't have an answer. People always believe what they hear on the news problem is, sometimes even the media doesn't get it right. Felt a little whoozy, was losing a lot of blood. Lena suggested she wrap the wound, said her mom was a nurse. I wanted to trust her, but that's burned me before. Didn't know how to help myself with the bleeding, didn't think I could handle it. Didn't have much choice bleeding to death in her place would've made it too easy on the aliens. And I ain't about to let them win. Nosey Cori came by to warn Lena about the serial killer loose in the neighborhood. Cori'd seen me earlier, didn't think she'd gotten a good look but I couldn't be sure. Lena got rid of the snoop. I thanked her. Seemed like an act of faith. Lena was being good to me but she wanted some answers. She was being held hostage and wanted to know why. I needed to explain it all one more time but differently. Then it hit me. Told Lena I was doing this for her, for her neighbor, for the misinformed news reporter, even for the cop who shot me. And then I asked her something. Wanted to know what she would do if the building was on fire? Would she bail, would she get the hell out of there or would she wake people up, make sure they knew what was happening? Told her that's what I do. Problem is most people think I'm the one who started the fire. Lena checked out the Paranoid Times on the Web. Said if it wasn't so crazy she could almost believe me. Then she asked me about Hannah. And the Nostradamus book. That's when the cops showed up to search the place. And nothing Lena was going to stay could stop them.
Normal, Illinois
Several teens die from mysterious neurological disorders. - - - "Here the waters are contained / Nature's course is obstructed / And youth imprisoned by devil's lightning / Whose use shall tame the rival's ardor". Crazy Eddie has been recently getting more and more e-mails from visitors to the site. Readers who believe the unbelievable that the aliens are here to take over our planet. One of our readers, Robbie Harlock, e-mailed us repeatedly about the bizarre death of Carson McAuliffe during a pool party in a small town in Illinois. The e-mail bore similarity to Quatrain 66, Century 7: "Where the waters are contained / Nature's course is obstructed / And youth imprisoned by devil's lightening / Whose use shall tame the rival's ardor." From previous experiences I knew following up e-mails is a risky business, but I also knew our network of believers is growing so the risk was worth it. That's what brought me to the small town called Normal. Met Robbie in the woods along the highway. He I.D.'d me right away from my wanted poster and then cut himself to prove he wasn't Gua. Eddie had already briefed him on our need for secrecy. Robbie had been following the journals since the beginning so he knew the score. He told me I was right on the money, there were definitely aliens here on Earth. A believer. I already felt good about coming to town. Robbie thought Carson's death was suspect even though the coroner's report said nothing out of the ordinary. Robbie told me that, though nobody talks about it, there was definitely lots of freaky stuff going on in town. Carson wasn't the first teen death, Robbie had heard his parents talk about others. Cops showed up, suddenly I didn't feel so good about standing around in the woods Robbie and I arranged to meet up later. Robbie took the believer thing to the extreme. His girlfriend Laura told him not to go around telling people he believed in aliens they'd think he was crazy. Harlock called that the "Cade Foster Dilemma" you tell people how it is and they tell you you're nuts. As nice as it was to have company, I kinda felt for the kid. Didn't want to create another outsider. When I got back to the trailer Eddie verified what Robbie suspected to be true four kids in Normal had died recently of "natural, but very unusual causes all linked to neurological malfunction." All the kids were among the best and brightest, good grades, good-looking, top athletes just the kind of kids who used to beat up Eddie as a kid. And there was something else, the kids had procaine in their systems an ester composed of PABA and diethyl, amino-ethyl both are water soluble B vitamins that affect nerve functions in the pre-frontal cortex. Eddie said our bodies have plenty of B-complex vitamins but procaine isn't one of them. Procaine was toxic in huge quantities and was generally administered through water absorption. That info and the quatrain got us wondering if we should check out the town's water supply. It also got me drinking bottled water. It was time for me to pay another visit to my new pal Robbie. Seems Robbie had gotten Sandra, Carson's girlfriend, to agree to talk to me. Sandra was the last person to see Carson alive. And Robbie said we had to hurry, we were meeting at Laura's house, and Laura's dad wasn't a fan of little Robbie Harlock. Sandra was understandably upset by what had happened to Carson. She said she wanted to make love to him that day, but needed to stop. Seems whenever the kids got turned on, they got horrible headaches. Thing is, Carson didn't stop this time, and then he just went crazy electricity coursing all over his body. Sounded to me like Carson's death was triggered by lust. Laura's Dad came back so we got out of there. Don't know why, but Robbie seemed to think Laura's father wouldn't appreciate her hanging out with one of the F.B.I.'s Most Wanted. I told Robbie I was gonna need more help from him. He had to talk to the other kids, get more info. See if they were having similar problems, especially with sex. If Robbie didn't think I was crazy for believing in aliens he sure thought I was nuts for making him look like a dork to his friends. To a teenager, looking uncool was more terrifying than any Gua plot. But I didn't have a choice I couldn't talk to these kids, Robbie knew them. I hoped he'd come around. Robbie wanted to know why I did it? Why I fought the Gua? I told him I wanted to prove my innocence for one. He didn't get it, wanted me to explain how you can prove something most people just won't see? I didn't have an answer for him. Asked Robbie why he believed any of it? But I never expected the answer I got back. Robbie said he believed in me. And that was enough. I'm gonna take down the Gua plot in Normal. I'm just not the kinda guy who can let a believer down.
All About Eddie
The aliens pursue Eddie at his high-school reunion. - - - I ain't Foster. But you probably know that right off the bat. That's right, Crazy Eddie here. I talked to Cade about taking over the journal this week seeing as I was the alien target du jour. You heard it here first the Gua were gunning for the Nambu-lator. And it all started with a reunion. They say that high school is the practice run for the marathon of life, if that's the case, then what started out with a blazing burst of speed ended in the limpid lameness of loserdom. The terrible event that closed out my school years has haunted me to this day, a failure so profound I cast off my closest friends like obsolete software and never looked back. So I had some issues associated with my teen years. That's why I left the warm security of my trailer for the cold harsh reality of Heisenberg High. To reconnect with the people who were once my friends and seek answers to the enigma that is my life. Just when I was about to lose my cool (and beat a hot retreat to that same-safe-softness of the Airstream) I was almost run down by Herman Garrett my high school arch rival. Herman was living high on the hog as the owner of a computer securities company. A former hacker, Herman had sold out now he was into protecting financial transactions on the Internet guess every geek has their price. Oh yeah, Herman called me Larry, cause that's my real name Larry Pisinski had to drop it when I went on the run. Didn't bother me much, Eddie Nambulous is way cooler. Moving through the gymnasium, passing through crepe paper streamers, I was starting to think I'd never find a friendly face then I ran into Stanley Spencer. We immediately did the handshake of our super-cool, hacking club (the Binary Bandits) and I knew it would be just like old times with Stan. I explained to him how I pulled the ripcord after what went down at HHS and erased all traces of Larry. Conditions of my probation said I couldn't touch a computer for the rest of my life couldn't have that, so Larry had to disappear. Stanley said he had something to tell me about that fateful night, but before he could explain he got dragged off by a buxom blonde named Mimi. Heisenberg didn't have a football team so this babe went for guys with high I.Q. I know, I know, a nerd's dream and Mimi still caused heads to turn. But never mine, I only had eyes for one girl. And when I finally did turn my head, there she was Marianne a vision in low cut evening wear. I grabbed a mug of punch and headed straight for my dream only to find her toasting the plastic cups with Herman. Made me wonder why we go back to these things? Herman was pissing me off for some reason I really clammed up around him. I had to get him away from Marianne but I didn't know how. That's when I got an idea. I called Foster, who was hanging in the Airstream, and told him to boot up my computer. And then I hung up on him you have no idea how long I'd been waiting to do that! Nice! Hacked into Herman's company's computer and caused a little stir. Herman dumped Marianne like a cold potato. It was time to make my move. Marianne didn't look thrilled to see me, she said I had a lotta explaining to do. She was right. I detailed that fateful day at Heisenberg, how I was hacking into a highly classified government file when suddenly a stack of Feds burst through the door and took me into custody. Marianne wasn't interested in my arrest, she just wanted to know why I never called her. She told me the only reason she came to the reunion was to see me. She said we'd been in love. I knew it was true. But getting caught by the feds changed me it made me who I am today, a paranoid recluse. But losing touch with Marianne was the greatest regret of my life and I wanted her to know it. Marianne was still single, and ran a computer literacy program for inner city kids in Baltimore. I knew Marianne would never need anyone, she was too cool for that. But I kinda wish she had a nice guy to keep her company. Mary and I took a stroll to the old computer lab where it all went down. I thought I'd impress her by picking the lock a little trick Foster had taught me in our time on the road. No such luck, I flopped but Marianne got us in guess the kinda kids she taught were more like Cade than me. We reminisced about all our old high-jinks with the Binary Bandits, we laughed it felt good. And then we hugged that felt really good. Until I saw an alien. I sent Marianne back to the gym and told her there was something I had to do. Mary was confused, guess I was kinda cold but I had business to take care of. Jerry-rigged a listening device and eavesdropped on a convo happening in the catering truck. I thought I'd just seen a Gua-strong arm drag a schoolmate into the back. Through the head phones I heard a voice say they were looking for me. The Gua were at my high school messing with my life like they had with Foster's it made me scared, and mad. Foster was worried when I left for the reunion, didn't think I should be goin' this alone. I'd told Cade before I left that it ain't about me. This time I was wrong. For the first time in a long time, it was all about Eddie. And these Gua were goin' to detention.
Playland
A young man kills nine people in an act of senseless violence, based on his experiences in an alien-run amusement park. - - - Fork Falls, South Dakota. Gary Lanning shot and killed nine people in a fast food joint. When the cops found him, he was stuffing his face with fries. The publically released records of a psychiatrist said Gary had delusional fantasies of time spent in an amusement park called Playland. That was before Gary stabbed the shrink in the heart with a pen. Are kids like Gary who Nostradamus was talking about when he said "youth most murderous?" Is it possible that this troubled teen's delusions were caused by a Gua experiment? I went to Playland to find out. Met Eddie in the Laser Gun House at the park. Kids were running all over the place, we found a back room. Eddie said there was an abnormal electrical ion level focused there. Gary mentioned going through a secret door in the park. The quatrain spoke of a "threshold of light." We'd seen the Gua use quantum pockets before and I was wondering if this could be another case of that. Eddie was worried about something he called "Einstein's Definition of Relative Synchronism." It says all space and time scales are based on the velocity of light. Translated to words we'll all understand, that meant if you cross through such a doorway there was no way to know what you'd find on the other side. Just the kind of odds we hated to play...and were used to. And then there was the good news. There were no guarantees the portal to return to our reality would be in the same place on the other side. I'd need an ohm-meter and an electro-magnet to power my way back through. 'Course Eddie had those in his pocket. Now I was just supposed to run at this space that looked like nothing and find myself magically transported to a whole new world. Was nervous, more so than usual. Had to trust in Nostradamus. I went through. And came out mid-air in a deserted themepark. The ohm-meter and magnet broke in my fall. I was trapped. Funny, Nostradamus hadn't mentioned that. Caught a girl watching me from the rides. Chased her, grabbed her she threatened to "bleed me." Quickly found myself being confronted by a band of rag-tag teens wearing torn off swatches of blue cloth. They wondered if I was "the stranger." Spoke in a broken, halting speech. Asked if I like the "Blues" or the "Reds." Told them I was friendly to the Blues seemed like the smart thing to do. They said they could use another "brawler" and took me with them. The place was a wreck, broken down and covered in trash. Had no idea what to expect, and I was on my own. Knew the only way out was to learn as much as I could from these guys and fast. Peter, the leader of the group, told me the rival brawlers were the "Reds" and Gary had been their king. Peter was Blue King, he said the best fighter leads the set. Gary was "taken" by the stranger Peter's girlfriend Dawn mistook me for. They called me an "ay-dult." Made me wonder how long these kids had all been here? Dawn answered. Said most of them had been there for years, they were runaways stolen off the streets. That's when a "brawl" broke out. It was terrifying, brutal, an all out war. Had to stop it. Fired my gun in the air. That got everyone's attention. The Reds retreated. Peter was impressed. And then a horrible sound tore through the air music, driving and violent. The Blues headed for the source, I followed. There it was, a giant black monolith, 20 feet high the music blaring from speakers at the top. A door opened and food poured out bags and bags of stuff kids love. The Blues attacked it, ravenous. Asked Peter what the tower was -- he called it "the feeder." Woke up the next morning to find the Blues sleeping in the grass using trash as blankets. Went to the feeder. Peter found me, called me "the man with gun," wanted me around to keep the Blues well fed seems the machine would reward the winner of the brawls and another monolith would give the losers gruel. Told Peter that I was there to find out what made Gary kill nine people. I believed the kids in Playland were being turned into walking time bombs and then set loose in the real world. Didn't want to see Peter become a murderer shot dead by a security guard. I wanted to work together and figure a way out of this place. But Peter didn't want to go back to that "other place." It was hell parents and cops kicking his ass. In Playland he got fed. Course I could relate. Had a similar history but I knew the solution wasn't hiding in an experiment, willfully succumbing to the Gua's machinations. Peter swore to never work with a Red. Didn't know what to do next. Dawn found me. She was afraid I was gonna take Peter and didn't think he could survive in my world said he wasn't meant to live there. Told Dawn she and her friends were rats in an experiment, going after cheese, too blind to see they were in a maze. My plea fell on deaf ears where Dawn was concerned too. No one was listening. How do you save a bunch of strong-willed teens who don't wanna go home? Was gonna figure it out. The Gua were stealing the lives of kids this time. Not acceptable. We were all going back to the real world even if I had to drag Peter into it.
The Harvest
Aliens harvest human hormones for their healing properties. - - - "On the fields of Revolution / Where England's traitor King runneth / Passion's dew is stolen / The undercroft keeps the salve of enemy wounds". The Charles River in Boston is named after Charles the First, the Traitor King of England. Bit of a stretch when you read the quatrain, except that three wealthy women had recently disappeared in Boston. Looks like I was headed to Bean Town. One of the women who had gone missing was Jennifer Moore, the sister of Renee Ashford. Ms. Ashford was offering a reward, $100,000 to the person who could find her sister and bring her home. Apparently Renee thought the cops didn't have enough incentive to launch a real man-hunt. Met Renee at her home as she was telling the press about the reward money. Posing as a representative for the missing sister's bank I told Renee that the last time Jennifer used her credit card was to charge a room at the Whitmore Hotel. Renee already knew that she wasn't interested. What she didn't know was that Jennifer hadn't used her own name she'd registered as Christina Reynolds. It struck a cord with Renee. Christina was the heroine of the romance novels Renee Ashford was famous for writing. Renee didn't think the cops were interested in finding her sister because they expected Jennifer had been the target of a serial killer and were waiting for her body to turn up. Sounded pretty cynical to me. But for a novelist who'd made her fortune writing sweeping love epics, Renee was pretty hard she told me it was a fact that nobody cares about anything in this world, the only way to stay afloat was to look out for yourself. Wasn't my way. But Renee didn't know that yet. Figured I could help her. We headed to the Whitmore. The cops had ordered the hotel to keep Jennifer's hotel bill info strictly confidential. Needed a diversion. While Renee played the distressed babe in a low-cut dress, I checked out the computer at the registration desk. Wasn't much there. Jennifer had made two phone calls and ordered a drink from room service. Renee thought that was odd, Jennifer didn't drink. But Christina did. The only thing that the real-life sister and the fictional character had in common was that they were both married to jerks. Started to wonder if there was more about Jennifer that Renee wasn't aware of. Tried the number Renee didn't recognize but it wasn't in service. Called Eddie who was in the trailer knee-deep in a Renee Ashford tome. Book was about romance, passion and sex Eddie said he could relate. Wanted him to check and see if the disconnected number's billing address was charged for any other numbers. Seems as soon as the old number was disconnected a new number was established. Eddie gave it to me that was my next lead. And Eddie had something else for me. The word "undercroft" referred to a vaulted chamber under a church. There were 483 churches in Boston. Maybe this wasn't getting any easier. Called the number Eddie gave me and heard the same music playing in the hotel lounge on the other end of the phone. The last person to speak to Jennifer was sitting right there in the hotel. The guy on the line said I had the wrong number. Told him I wanted to talk about the call Ms. Moore made to his phone. When we were finally face-to-face he told me I had the wrong guy and took off. Chased him through the stairwell and up onto the roof. The guy wasn't interested in answering my questions. He threw himself off the roof. Broke like Humpty Dumpty. And then, piece by piece, he put himself back together again. Bones snapped back together with a loud crack it sent chills through my whole body and not because it was creepy as hell. It was because he was Gua. Back in the hotel, Renee and I decided to check out Jennifer's hotel room. Found a strange vial in the bathroom. Didn't know what to make of it. And then Renee was gone. Eddie checked out the fluid in the vial. Looked like brain cells and some other type of cells he didn't recognize. The coroner had found the other missing bodies but not Jennifer's. Both victims had puncture wounds in their foreheads like a needle had been inserted right into the pre-frontal cortex. Eddie expected the women had something injected in their brains. How would injecting something into human brains help the aliens? Didn't know. Wasn't sure I wanted to either. The guy on the roof should've died in the fall Gua or not. Could the aliens have found a way to make themselves immortal? Eddie freaked, wanted to go pitch a tent on the beach and live out his last days in peace. But I wasn't giving up. They could not win. I wouldn't let them.
Rubicon
The aliens make Foster a national hero. Or do they? - - - No quatrain this week. No century. Woke up in the present with the possibility of realizing a dream. Thing is, got a feeling I've become too cynical to accept it. The Gua have messed with me too many times before to believe this will ever be easy. All started with Eddie cracking an internet code and getting us a lead on a possible Gua transfer of some kind of device the transfer of goods happened in an open lot a suitcase left in the passenger side seat. Checked for C4 explosive residue, found it all over the car. Also found a steel Halliburton briefcase filled with Gua orbs. Jackpot. But it was gonna come with a price. Said goodbye to Eddie and made a choice. The car exploded, the world went black. Back to my dream. Woke up in a hotel suite, hooked up to monitors, wearing different clothes. Looked like I was in a high security, high-class hospital security clearance notices posted all over the place. Found my way into a control room signs called it the "National Defense Agency." Monitors indicated alien surveillance happening around the world. First guy to notice me, an official-looking type named Blaylock, called me "hero." Blaylock told me I'd been unconscious for thirteen days, his young hot-shot tough guy named Mitchell said the only reason I'd survived the blast was a malfunction in the pressure trigger. The NDA was holding me in a protective facility outside of Detroit. And they had the orbs knew what they were. Blaylock told me I'd delivered the first hard evidence of something the NDA had expected for a long time that hostile, extra-terrestrial life does exist. Maybe it was hangin' with Eddie for so long, but something didn't feel right. Had an attack of paranoia, took down Mitchell, and threatened to pierce Blaylock's throat. The top-guy did it himself, wanted to prove he wasn't Gua. He didn't heal. Funny thing, I didn't feel any better about this. Was getting the five-star treatment good food, great room and then a top-notch doc. Heather LeGuin was a shrink ready to pick my brain or "help me in any way I can." No offense to her, but I wasn't a fan of being manipulated. LeGuin wanted to get me in bed for at least three weeks, apparently that's what the docs prescribe for a head trauma. Told her I wanted a second opinion. Then she brought in Harry. My uncle the only family I had left before the Gua. But I knew the aliens killed my uncle, or thought they had after the Gua took me hostage in a police station in Chicago. Harry said he survived. Tried to prove he really was my mother's brother. It was too good to be true and I knew that kind of hope didn't exist anymore. Blaylock wouldn't let me out said the threat for assassination was too high. LeGuin spoke up convinced Blaylock to let me out of the facility. He agreed, reluctantly. Mitchell and Leguin went with me. I told them to take me home. Drove to Chicago. The place had changed, been remodeled. I remembered Hannah, the good times, the evil, the blood those goddamned 19s everywhere. It didn't help. Went back to the compound. Didn't know what else to do. Blaylock told me Eddie'd up and vanished they suspected he was dead. I sure as hell didn't believe that. Blaylock and his team were trying to locate my partner, but now there was another problem. The NDA was discovering just how high-up the Gua infiltration of the government had gone. They showed me slides Colonel Grace was among them. Mitchell said their first priority was to smoke out the alien, Gua infiltrators. And they needed me the locations of my encounters, information gained through my contact with the aliens, who else was supporting me. Then it would be time for me to rest. Everything Blaylock said became a blur it was too much. Every instinct I had said this was wrong. LeGuin was reasonable in our "sessions." Wanted to know why I wasn't dead if she and the NDA were truly Gua? That's always an easy answer they wanted the Nostradamus book. LeGuin didn't agree, she figured the Nostradamus book wasn't an issue any more, I'd crossed the Rubicon to success. My paranoia was simply a survival technique from being on the run a tool I wasn't ready to give up. It was all too clinical. Post traumatic stress. Denial. Sorrow and grief. A testament to human will. What LeGuin wasn't getting is that I could never get back what I lost. I didn't know what to do. Blaylock made a final plea. Told me I had single handedly given humanity a fighting chance. And then Eddie showed up. He'd busted into the facility to bust me out. The soldiers shot us we dissolved. Eddie wasn't there at all. It was just a nightmare within a nightmare. No one could find Eddie. But I knew he was the only one I would trust -- Eddie could make me believe. LeGuin introduced me to Agent Tomalin, a redhead with her fingers on the pulse of the Net. She sent a secret code out to Eddie. Now we'd wait and see. Then Tomalin sent me a secret message of her own. Told me I was being watched and surveilled to meet her on the roof at 2 am. I stayed calm, but inside I was freaking out. Tomalin found me on the roof, she was frantic, wanted me to get the hell out of there with her. Said the NDA were Gua. Mitchell found me too claimed Tomalin was the alien gen-tech dupe. A fight broke out, Tomalin decked me and fled. Mitchell went after her, she got him too. Right before she was about to plunge her fingers through my throat she let out a roar "For the Gua!" And then Mitchell dissolved her. The Gua tried to detonate a nuclear device within the Pentagon. The world had been put on alert. We were ready to go to war with the Gua. And now the government wanted a hero Blaylock told me that hero would be me. Maybe I could survive this? Maybe I'd finally made a difference? Did the government truly know about the alien presence on Earth? Were the forces of the world about to rally to save us all? It was a dream I wanted to believe. For the first time in a long time, I had hope. Part of me was praying I was never gonna wake up
Gladiator
An alien experiment involving bare-knuckle fighters draws Cade Foster and an old prison friend to enter a boxing competition. - - - I went to Atlanta, a city built on the ashes of the Civil War, to check out the world of bare-knuckle fighting and seek an ally in my fight against the Gua. Passed a wanted poster on my way into town and the face staring back was my own. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Time to take off the gloves. Omar Healy was a prize-fighter in a world without the Vegas showgirls and limelight. 35, and with a prison record, Healy had been disqualified by the Olympic committee for drug use turned out to be a bum rap, since the drugs were over-the-counter migraine medication. Healy and I knew each other from our days locked up together, he accused me of being a bad guy who turned good and then back again. Told him I was innocent and needed his help. Then I told him I wanted to call in an old debt. Needed Healy to help me gain entry into the Human Genome Project a research program I suspected was a Gua front to test humanity specifically human instinct and aggression. The study was looking for athletes and fighters. Healy would be the muscle, I could pose as his trainer. Healy was eager to fight, that's what lured him in. Tensions with Eddie didn't make him any more happy to be on board, but he stuck with us. At the institute we met Dr. Meera Rubin, she took a blood test and we established our cover. Looked like Omar and I were going to be sharing a small room again reminded us both of old days but it wasn't a good memory. Meera claimed the institute was part of nationwide effort to map the human genome over the next five years with an eye toward preventing disease, birth defects and extend human life. Meera claimed concentrating on the aggression gene could help scientists to genetically screen out and calm a possible killer. Funny, bet the Gua would love to go the other way. Just as Healy was about to go into his first "test fight," I was introduced to another lab-brain Dr. Bern Galloway, molecular biologist and the project's resident genius. Had a near-miss when Bern was sure he knew me. Blew it off, but I could tell my time would be running out. Bern took a lot of pleasure watching Healy fight. The scientists would alter the climate in the arena to see how outside factors like heat and cold could affect aggression. Noticed another scientist, Rae, move in and take something from the lab. Healy won his fight. Bern and Meera were smiling ear-to-ear. Used the victory moment to follow Rae. She disappeared into a high-security area, the McGruder Wing, with Omar's blood sample. Following was too risky time for Healy and me to beat a hot retreat. Problem is, Healy wasn't willing to go he thought this was the best training he was gonna get, and his chances for fighting a real championship tournament were getting slimmer. He wanted to find some glory. I'd brought Omar in so I was responsible for getting him out. Met up with Eddie on the outside, he'd run some checks on the Docs Meera's credentials checked out definitely human. Bern was the better shot for a possible Gua no school records to speak of. Pretty odd for a resident genius boasting about his Ivy League education. Had to go back in, convince Healy to get out. Took Eddie with me, thought I'd need his expertise on the science side. We found our way into the McGruder wing Bern and Rae were there. Bern detailed the specs of a husk they were growing two and a half times stronger than humans, greater resistance levels to biological dysfunction and sexual deviance a warrior-class killing machine. Bern hit some buttons and this giant incubator started humming something organic was growing inside. They were using Healy's DNA for the project and they were successful. Out popped a gigantic husk oozing, stern the X-15. The Gua's very own Frankenstein monster. Had to find someone who could help us out. Decided to try to talk to Dr. Rubin. Told her that the project had been infiltrated by a group who wanted to use her studies for their own agenda I'd come to the project undercover. I wanted her to call the cops and have them check out the McGruder Wing she agreed. Then she called security. Time for me and Eddie to get the hell out. Only way to get Healy to ditch was to pull a gun on him. He told me he was ready to knock me on my ass as long as he moved I didn't care if he broke me in half. Got Eddie to a safe place just as Healy and I were ambushed by a Gua guard. Healy fought him hard and the Gua dissolved. Add Omar to my list of believers. And then Meera showed up can't believe I took her for human. Meera told me I was the best humanity had to offer and I was about to face off against the best the Gua had to offer. Could I survive inside the ring against the X-15? Wasn't sure. But you know I was gonna try in the fight against the Gua, we just can't afford to lose.
The Trial of Joshua Bridges
Joshua is put on trial, and must defend himself against charges that he is a human sympathizer and a traitor to the gua. - - - No quatrain this week. Eddie and I are sifting through the database, checking some out, following up leads but we haven't discovered anything solid enough to head in. But that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about the fight. Days like this I worry about the fight. If we don't keep making strides we could lose. Hate to say it but it's true. Try to push myself, harder, further, faster everyday want to get some kind of momentum going. Times like these, I think a lot about the enemy. I think about Joshua. He says he's not on our side he's just looking out for the best interests of the Gua a true patriot. Don't really care, as long as it benefits us. Like the time I was on the run from the Feds in Montana and Joshua first helped me. I'd handed an alien a gun she was posing as a forest ranger, was supposed to "protect" me from the FBI once they took me and their "agent" (aka Joshua) into custody. Thought I was about to give the government proof that the aliens existed. Almost got myself killed instead. When I asked Joshua why he killed his back up, he told me he was doing it for himself. He saved my life because he knew the invasion wasn't the best thing for his people. Figured with me out here causing problems for the Gua, the Second Wave was less likely to happen. Still pray he's right. It was the first sign that Joshua and I had a common goal to stop the Second Wave. I was in his debt but that didn't mean I'd always trust him. Joshua is still Gua, maybe the best they have to offer, but he'll always be an alien first. If I could, I might tell Joshua that we need each other. The Gua's experiments have no honor I believe Joshua's intentions do. Joshua wouldn't support the type of experiments the Gua were running don't believe he even knows about all of them. But I've seen first hand how evil they can be. Like the hideous stuff the aliens were doing in that hospital in L.A. Using humans as little more than guinea pigs chopping them up and playing mix-and-match with their parts. Attaching Gua tentacles to human bodies giving Alikah a pair of stolen eyes. Sick stuff. That one still gives me nightmares. It's a perfect example of how the how the Gua can't even trust themselves. Like the experiment in Normal, Illinois where another renegade Gua came to our aide when he realized the his leaders were planning to use an experiment on human teens to control the sex drives of the aliens when the Second Wave came. The alien town sheriff, John, thought it was one thing to be testing out the control device on us, and another to be prepping a device that could be used on the Gua. A pair of believers, Robbie Harlock and his girlfriend Laura, survived the alien plot and we lost the Gua who helped us, but not before John made it clear that he had chosen to fight against the Gua mission. Before he died, John said the Gua forces were poised to destroy humanity and that it was coming soon. There are millions of Gua here on Earth to be possibly consumed by human passions John took a stand not to help us, but again to help his own. And that's a good thing. As long as the Gua attempt to hurt themselves there'll be "patriots" ready to protect their people as a whole. The aliens use us for their tests, to make the invasion easier, to keep order once they're here. And Joshua isn't above it either. There was that time in Cleveland when he used me to get a disk that contained the Earth identities of 200 Gua operatives. He traded Stephen (the boy who had stumbled upon the info) for the disk Joshua knew I wouldn't let an innocent die no matter what the prize was. Joshua was protecting his people from me, he knew I'd hunt down the names on that disk and couldn't let anything happen to his comrades who he felt were just doing their jobs. That's the way Joshua used to see it all black and white. The Gua were doing their jobs and for them that's conquering. And even if that's what they were here to do, even if the best warriors they have to offer believed that they could beat us when they got here, I believe we're giving them reason to doubt their actions. A long time ago Joshua told me the word Gua meant power to overcome. Now, sometimes, I think he wonders if they can live up to their name. The Gua are realizing there's more to us than they first anticipated now they know we're strong and because of that, some of them are realizing they could lose. That's why Joshua doesn't want an invasion. And that's why we're gonna win.
Underworld
Foster uncovers an alien experiment with ties to the mob. - - - "City of Fountains" is a nickname for Kansas City, Missouri, a town whose headlines have screamed of a gangland war that left over 30 dead. It's no mystery why the Gua would seek out organized crime. Drugs, gambling, prostitution all things that could weaken mankind's resolve. But why did Nostradamus point to this gang war? The quatrain suggested I form an alliance with "the steed," a man I suspected to be Sammy "The Horse" Kozak, head of a Kansas City crime family for over 10 years. I'm wanted for capital murder, so mixing with mobsters might be insane Eddie sure thought so. But checking Sammy out could lead me to the Gua, and that's an offer I can't refuse Took the name Nick Flynn and checked out the '88s Club, Sammy's totally nude strip bar and a front for his operations. Met a brick-wall bartender named Pete, told him I was looking for Sammy. My cover "Loma Cinquemani" had sent me up from the Miami families with a recommendation to the Horse. When I told Bud, the second brick wall, that I could see all kinds of ways to kill Sammy in the bar I got his attention. Pocketed his gun right under his nose. That got someone else's attention enter Sofia Kozak Sammy's wife. Looked like I was about to get my meeting. Sammy checked up on me verified my story about doing security for Cinquemani. Eddie did his best Brando and convinced the Horse that I was the real deal. I was in but only if I proved myself. In the bar Sofia came on strong told me when she saw something she took it. She gave me a key to her place told me to come over when I was finished at the club. I declined. Respectfully of course and it wasn't easy. It was my final test. I passed. Sammy was ready to talk. Seems, until last year, four families controlled the organized crime in KC now there were only two left Sammy ran one, Jack Mitchum ran the other. Things got ugly when everyone's trucks started getting hijacked ten months ago the bosses were pointing fingers Sammy tried to stay out of it and survive. Until this week that's when some hot club dancer ripped her pole out of the floor and tried to hurl it through Sammy's heart. The Horse thought it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen when they chased the dancer down, she seemed to disappear into thin air. Pay dirt. Figured it for a Gua husk with a new ability, and that was never good. Sammy couldn't figure out how the rivals, or whoever might have been responsible, could know his every move. I told him we should sweep the club for bugs and I knew the best bug-man in the business a guy I trusted with my life. Eddie Nambulous. And that's when stuff got typically Gua-strange. Turns out Eddie found a bug in Bud. Not the ordinary high-tech kind but the part organic, part mechanical, oozing-type only the Gua could build. Bud puked it up under duress and then it dissolved. Sammy and I found rival gang boss Jack sitting in a car with Sofia looking more than a little bit guilty but Sammy had sent her in. Kozak stuck a big gun in Jack's face and demanded to know who was backing Mitchum. Jack didn't want to talk, so I gave it a try a basic strong arm. Jack told me the outfit backing him was too strong and none of us had a chance. He called them freaks, said they had powers and he knew their name Gua. But that's all Mitchum said because Sammy shot him. Turns out Sammy wasn't much of a believer. Not until we got back to the club and Pete pulled a gun on him. Bud and Pete got into a fire fight and Bud lost. Pete dissolved for Sammy and then Sammy got pissed. Nobody messes with Sammy Kozak not even E.T. The Horse was ready for war with the Gua. He said he'd stayed alive and on top all these years because he fights back and doesn't quit. Sammy would rather be dead than roll over like Mitchum. Made me think the mob was the right kind of ally to have. I always loved the Godfather, only this time the drama was too real. What would happen if Michael Corleone were threatened by the Gua? I was about to find out.
Tomorrow
Foster gets a glimpse of what the world would be like during the alien occupation of earth. - - - It started in a dim alley filthy, ridden with rats. Had no idea where I was at the time. There was a sign on a post "Help us, help you. Human Registry: Gua and Human Succeed Together." A bum with a bar code-like scar in his forearm was dead on the floor. I was disoriented, bewildered I wandered into a seemingly empty, blown-out building an execution was taking place. An execution of a human by the Gua. They electrocuted him, said they found him guilty of actions against the Gua. I ran. How did I get here? Nothing was right, nothing at all. And that's when I saw my worst fears realized. A new flag flew over the capital building not red, white and blue. Red, white and black the Gua had taken over the Earth. My worst fear had come to life, humanity had lost to the Gua. But how? I had no memory of the invasion, nor the battle that caused us to lose control of our planet. Had to explore the nightmare. Another bum tried to sell me condoms and computer parts, he said he knew me was so freaked I just slammed him into the wall and asked him what year it was? He said 11. The eleventh year since the day of judgment. Suddenly there were Gua cops on top of me wearing dark black clothes and armor. They threw me down and demanded to know where my brand was my registration brand. That explained the scar on the dead bum in the alley. Then they started treating me like a celebrity. They were happy to see Cade Foster, they let me go. Told me I needed to be branded, even if I was Foster. Then they told me to hit the registry just a few blocks away. Found the place, a big brick building in town. Pleasant announcements urged humans to help build a better tomorrow for Gua and human together by getting "registered." Gua guards scanned the forearms of humans out front. And then Joshua exited the building. Followed him, right to a lady friend's house. Was surprised to find the door unlocked but let myself in. A plaque on the door called her Claire Wilson. Occupation: Concubine, Military Section guess some of the laws had changed in this reality. Claire's place was nice but there were camera's on the wall that followed movement. Disabled the camera and waited for Claire. As soon as she saw me her face lit up like a kid at Christmas called me "the most famous human in the whole world." Said I was on the mandatory Gua-Net all day long showed me a public service announcement I knew was impossible me, Cade Foster, telling the people of Earth to go down to a local station and get branded so our "leaders" could keep track of us and "help us." She showed me my "journals" but I didn't remember writing any of the bull they contained. The Cade of this reality was telling people that humanity was headed for doom and destruction and that the Gua swooped down like "caring parents" who wanted to "re-organize and reeducate a dying planet." The aliens wanted to help "make Earth whole again." Somehow, they'd undone everything I ever worked for and I was pissed. I told Claire it was all a hoax everything the Gua said was untrue. Somehow they'd created a false Cade Foster to spread the word. Claire didn't want to believe the Gua were anything but benevolent. So I took her to the abandoned building I'd been in earlier and showed her an execution. It made her a believer. Claire arranged for a "meeting" with Joshua and did her "job" which I hated but she insisted it was the only way. I stole Joshua's key card in the meantime. Claire said a Gua card would give her access to the human registry files I told her to look for Eddie. When we couldn't find anything Claire, bet Eddie was dead I told her to search for Larry Pisinski we got him. Eddie was alive. But here, even my partner was different. He spit on me when I found him working in his garden just outside the city. He spouted Gua loyalties thought I was putting him through a test. I told Eddie that I was back and ready to fight I asked him to trust his instincts that I didn't sell out. Eddie listened and then he believed. I needed his help again. He filled me in, told me our predictions all came to pass 16 cities were hit by 10 million Gua troops in the invasion 19 died on the first day. But it was all covered up in one massive publicity stunt and somehow, through this "re-education," the Gua had come out our saviors. With Eddie and Claire's help, I was determined to turn this around to fight again. To tell the world the truth, that the Gua weren't our saviors, but rather our destroyers. We would not be slaves to these monsters I wanted humanity to rise with me, to become a resistance and take back our planet. I was determined to get people to open their eyes and see the Gua for what they really were. My mission hadn't changed at all. In the reality of my nightmare I would fight back as hard as I had before. And if this wasn't real, then someone new was pulling the strings but who? Either way I was going to find out. And I was gonna win.
The Believers
Foster and Eddie take over a TV station at gunpoint to get the message out to the world about the alien invasion. - - - Fugitive. Murderer. Madman. That's how most of the world sees me. All my efforts to prove my innocence have come to nothing. Whatever happens today, happens because I've finally run out of options. It's been two years since they ripped my life to hell. Two years of trying to warn people of the danger that looms so close. Now I'm convinced the Second Wave is about to begin. And I'm taking drastic measures to prevent it. If we die in a hail of bullets will that bring recognition to my cause, or will we be martyrs who sacrificed ourselves in vain? Can't know for sure but today's the day we find out. Writing this along the way, stealing seconds to make a final entry. This could all go bad. Eddie'll let you know if he makes it out. You're my believers, I'm doing this for you, for us. So however they spin it, the press or the Gua, you know not to buy in. And you know to keep fighting. Target of this action: The Phil Tennant Show daytime talk one of those schlock hours that asks the viewers to help take down wanted felons. Eddie'd seen some promos that pointed to what the show expects to be its sweeps ace a special on the FBI's Most Wanted list. A show about Cade Foster. Talk about a platform to get people listening. It was perfect. As usual, Eddie thought I was nuts. The set was virtually clear for a run-through. Eddie and I rigged the doors to blow sealing in only the bare-bones staff and ourselves. I came in with guns blazing had to make it look legit -- but didn't want anyone to get hurt. Phil Tennant, the network's golden-boy host was there -- gruff guy who thought he knew it all and showed it Phil made demands I wasn't gonna listen to. He had an equally as ballsy assistant named Gwen. For Gwen to be where she was in her career now she'd had to have been smart and tenacious. She made no bones about telling me how unafraid she was of my tactics. Knew she was lying. Was putting up a good front and the remaining hostages were feeling it. Hal, a techie for the show told me about his wife and kids as I tied him up. A mid-twenties production coordinator named Tina was also caught in the mix -- she promised me she'd just started working at the show and didn't know anything yet. Felt bad about scaring them, but we planned to be out of here in 20 minutes and then the world would know better. Or so I hoped. Plan was for Eddie to manipulate the satellites at the station, link up to some larger ones, and beam my story out to about two-hundred million people. Wasn't gonna be easy, but this stuff never was. Left Eddie to work his magic and headed back to the hostages Gwen was lose. Knew she was gonna be trouble. Eddie told me the power was out on the satellite feed. Gwen worked quick. Threatened the rest of the group more severely this time told them if they didn't follow my orders I'd hunt them down and kill em. I almost couldn't believe I was saying it they were innocent I was playing the role I'd been fighting for years. Everything was changing. Eddie said we needed to get the power up and then we'd need more time to get the satellites on line that's when we heard the cops were outside. Eddie wanted to run said he could feel it in his bones we were gonna die today. Couldn't tell him that wasn't true. Got the satellites back online and went looking for Gwen. Cell phone rang it was Cain. Told him I was gonna make some believers today. He told me he was outside and I was gonna fail. Also told me he wanted the real Nostradamus book and how he was gonna snap my neck once he had it. As usual, was running out of time. Found Gwen holding a gun on me in the dark a prop gun. Gwen knew everything about me, and all about the aliens that was just part of her job prepping for the show's topic. Needed her to be a believer to make this easier then Cain called back. Let Gwen listen to the call she heard the sunofabitch boast about how long his race had been on the planet virtually undetected. Then he threatened Eddie and made some kind of weird reference about my partner. Checked in with Eddie immediately he said everything was cool. Gwen still didn't believe me. Said the people in the journals didn't exist. Told her I had to use fake names to protect those believers. Gwen didn't crack. Eddie said the equipment would be ready in fifteen. He was really nervous, scared didn't seem like himself. And for someone as odd as Eddie, that's a stretch. Had to stay focused. Had to head to the main stage we were going to go on air any second. Reality. This could be my final entry All I ask is that you continue the fight. We cannot let them win. It's up to you.
Mabus
By now you all know how close the end could be. A massive alien force known as the Gua are quietly preparing to invade the Earth and snuff out humanity. Cade Foster and I had been trying to stop the Gua before it was too late, we were desperate, something had to be done. My name is Eddie Nambulous. These are my journals. At least, now they are. As faithful readers of this site you know this is where Cade wrote about the alien threat week after week. And you were all there at the end. Calling in your support. You were part of the worldwide audience who saw Cade shot and killed on live television. I pulled the trigger. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to explain why. Not the way I want to. But know this. Cade's death was not in vain. He's a martyr to our cause. And I've sworn to fight on. With all of your help of course. Things are a little out of whack. Kinda all over the place. And there's a new alien in town. His name is Mabus. The third Anti-Christ predicted by our buddy Nostradamus. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's at least a partial explanation I can make of the madness. It follows in my first official entry in Cade's stead. See guys, things have just gotten as bad as they could get. The heat was most definitely on for Foster. And now it wasn't just heat of the official kind. Cade was at the local gas and sip when a pump jockey called him by name. The Gua wanted him dead, the Feds wanted to bring him in and now people were shouting his nombre when they saw him on the street. To make matters worse Phil Tennant, this millennium's edition of Geraldo Rivera, was super-seriously promoting an upcoming special on The Elusive Journey of Spree Killer Cade Foster: The Most Wanted Man. And that ain't all. A short while ago I started noticing a surge of hits here at The Paranoid Times so I did some hinky-jinky computer wizardry, ran a new decryption and badda-bing I got just a few words back. It was a message to all of us: "We are living on the brink of Armageddon. As aliens in human form mobilize to seize control of the world, the Raven Nation will fight fire with fire." Not conclusive but it got Cade and I thinking. Who was this Raven Nation and how'd they know about the Gua? We ran a scan of the quatrains to find one that might fit with all of the above. Century 4, Quatrain 12. "The Brodde Nation will swiftly rise / On the fortnight of its own prophecy / The scholar who solves the great riddle / Points the way to the bloodstained globe." Brodde means dark or dusky in French so Cade and I agreed it was a definite lead. The Raven Nation's prophecy referred to Armageddon and a fortnight had happened since they'd sent their message out. I just hadn't caught it until now. I was freaking, this one felt like the big chulupa: the Omega quatrain that would signal the end. I'd missed it. Earth's destruction was gonna be on my head. I wanted to implode. But Cade thought we still had a chance. We kept working the quatrain. Cade and I ran a search for the "scholar." Figured we needed a teacher who solved a great riddle but the solution couldn't be in theory. No, what we were looking for was a field of research that allowed for only solid, concrete and definite answers to riddles. And we found him in mathematics. Peter Mincer, a Ph.D. at Berkeley who'd solved a mathematical riddle known as "Laurent's Last Theorem." Cade went in posing as a fan of Mincer, poking around about the prof's belief in aliens and the Raven Nation. But Mincer played dumb. Seemed like a dead end. Until Cade did a little B&E on Mincer's office. The place was like some gothic priest's bad dream. All skulls and upside down crucifixes. Cade took the hard line with Peter. Told him that we were all part of an apocalyptic scenario that was playing itself out right as Cade and the geek were sitting there, gun to nose. Mincer told Cade that he's been trying to break a Bible code, and so far he'd done pretty well with his predictions. But he wasn't interested in floods or earthquakes or even bombings. Mincer wasn't messing around. He told Cade that Armageddon was just around the corner. The Anti-Christ was on the way. And he would rule. The code turned up some coordinates to find the location of our impending doom -- Forest, Michigan. That's where it would begin. And maybe end. Cade headed to the coordinates, Mincer followed. They radioed me from the road. Looked like Mabus was here and he'd arrived via a bloodstained globe. The clue hadn't represented Earth as we supposed, but rather an orb containing the evil leader's consciousness. A woman had died outside a church in Forest that morning. The Priest said she'd bled to death but there were no wounds. Foster and Mincer were on it. They found the orb. Foster said it made him woozy, sick. It scared him. And then Mincer did the double cross. His research told him that whomever freed the Anti-Christ from his prison would sit at his right hand forever and Mincer felt that was his destiny. Just another geek with delusions of grandeur. Real bad news. We'd lost the orb. And, truth be told, it felt like we'd lost the war. To make matters worse, Cain was hot on Cade's trail and the cops had been tipped to Foster's location. And then Cade almost lost it all. Right there, in a church in Michigan, where it would do none of us any good. But someone stepped in before the Acolyte waiting in the wings could assassinate my bud. She was a fire-hair angel and she shot that Gua scum square in the chest. Cade didn't have much time with her, he didn't even get her name, but she left him with an emblem to her cause: a black bird scorched in metal. And so that's how we got to this place. Some of you might call it a desperate measure but we'd run out of time. Cade would make the ultimate sacrifice to be heard. Cain was at the TV station, he was posing as F.B.I. I couldn't let Cade's cause be reduced to delusional ranting. He'd have to be assassinated by and unseen force. He'd have to be a martyr. Now he is. And as long as you're still there we have a chance. But I have a feeling we're not alone. There is another alien hunter. And I'm gonna find her.
Raven Nation
Things are about to change here on Earth. YOU are the hunted. You are Gua. You don't know me. But I am here. We're all here. You think we're not ready. You think you're smarter. Quicker. Harder. You think yourself superior. Wrong again. We are strong. Stronger than you can possibly know. And you created us. The force that will stop you. The force that will rise up to destroy, not to be destroyed. And we don't just want to send you home. We want you to die. And we want it to HURT. Afraid yet? You should be. There was another who opposed you. Another you created. You know his name. These are his journals. I don't write this for his supporters, I don't write it for those who follow his memory now. Because he will always be one of us. He will always be the man who exposed your evil plans. You called him 117. But he has a name. It's Cade Foster. And his death only strengthens our resolve. I address you here only because I know you will read this. It's what you do. Putting us under a microscope, analyzing and cataloguing our behavior. Studying the every move of humanity. Well now it's your turn. See, we've been watching back. Look over your shoulder. There we are. Can't see us? That's because we don't want you to. Not yet. But you will. And you can bet your ass you're gonna wish you'd never made this move. We all have our own stories. Our own losses at your hands. That's why we address you here. Where our fallen comrade gave voice to our own inarticulate pain. We will fight hard and fast, as he would have wanted É even as we grieve the loss of the Twice Bless'd Man. We're Foster's army. The Raven Nation. We're a new breed of warrior. The kind who'll fight fire with fire. You started this, Gua, now we're gonna finish it. We will have no mercy. For years you've been here, ready to obliterate our homes, spreading like a virus. You've been preparing for the Second Wave. To that, the Raven Nation has only one thing to say. Bring it on.
Comes a Horseman
"Quatrain 88, Century 8. In the arsenal of an emerald city / the smallest of creation becomes great / Horses four will trumpet the end, born on the devil's breath." The Emerald City is Seattle, where a converted armory housed the labs of Vio-Zor, a company that specialized in microbiology. Mabus is the leader of the alien invasion here on earth. If he's the devil referred to in the quatrain, then somehow Vio-Zor plays a part in the Gua's plans for our destruction. Eddie uploaded a computer bug into Vio-Zor's software. I went in to fix the problem, posing as Jay Rollins, a software technician I planned to find out how Vio-Zor might be connected to the aliens. I entered through the airtight seal and met Dr. Kelly, the Program Director of Vio-Zor and her staff, Dr. Jagger and Dr. Samuels. Seems a guy they affectionately referred to as "Tim the Rat-Boy" was missing. It was my first clue that something was up. On our way to the computer lab we passed through a decontamination chamber Kelly claimed was inactive. The chamber was built by the army to handle bio weapons during the Gulf War. It used ultra-violet lamps and anti-viral mist. Got me worried, was I gonna leave this place with a bug I didn't come in with? Kelly brushed it off, said Vio- Zor didn't handle anything stronger than Level Two research strictly benign substances. But I noticed the jets were wet meant they'd been used recently. Things were definitely not what they seemed at Vio-Zor. Kelly left me alone with the computers so naturally I hooked Eddie up to start working his hacker magic. He said the company had links to U.S.A.M.R.I.D. (The U.S. Army Medical Research of Infective Diseases) and the Delta Wing, but he didn't have time to explain what they were. Samuels walked in on the call, started buddying up to me. Told me Dr. Kelly was a renowned Virologist, Ratboy had his rodents and Jagger was into cell-targeting all specialists. Samuels didn't get to tell me his specialty before Kelly dragged him off. That was fine, because I was planning to do some research of my own. Broke into the animal lab and was caught by Kelly. She was jumpy, called Samuels and Jagger down to the lab right away. Didn't appreciate my wandering around unattended. And then she noticed some samples missing. There was no explanation and Kelly wasn't happy about it. Samuels tried to cool her down. And then we found Ratboy. Hidden in a supply closet, all puss and ooze. He looked like his face was being eaten off. Kelly said it looked like a massive viral infection and we had to seal off the building immediately. Samuels went nuts, he had Ratboy's blood on him. Kelly pulled the ripcord we were sealed inside with what I believe could have been a Gua bio-weapon. And we weren't getting out for 12 hours. And there were no guarantees we'd get out at all. Kelly and I went into the decontamination chamber. Had to strip down and throw our stuff in the burn shoot. Kelly said she didn't know anything about bio-weapons or the Delta Wing. Wasn't buying, it just didn't add up. When I asked her about the lockdown she said the facility was built to survive a war and to avoid any kind of viral outbreak. It even had a Level 4 termination factor meaning the Center for Disease Control could monitor us to assess the situation and if necessary, destroy the place to control a lethal contagion. Samuels was in really bad shape. The virus was spreading unnaturally fast and Samuels was suffering. Got Jagger alone and questioned him about the facility. He said the rats were to blame. Called Eddie. He had some info on the Delta Wing. It was a CIA front, specializing in bio weaponry and Vio-Zor was running tests for them. An infectious agent known by the code name "Revelation," was shipped from the Delta Wing's HQ in Maryland to Vio-Zor. "Horses Four" tied into Revelations. This was continuing to add up to something none of us wanted to consider. And now I was beginning to hallucinate. Get angry. So I decided to force some info out of the pretty Doc. She'd received Revelation, was doing the tests for "the good of her country," or so she thought. But I had news for her. The anger, the delusions, someone messed with Revelation. It was airborn now. And we were all infected. How was I gonna get out of this one? Didn't know. But if I didn't the Gua would win. And you know that's something I could never accept.
Gulag
Quatrain 83, Century 7. "The traitor sits in a hidden world, waiting for the man Twice Bless'd. Joined in desperate moments, to push the rock over the peak of time." I believed the traitor Nostradamus spoke of in this quatrain was Joshua, an alien who has helped my cause on numerous occasions. The Gua build hidden worlds known as "quantum pockets" - Eddie's learned to penetrate them. Recently, I busted into a pocket, believed Joshua was to be found there and if he was alive, I had to get him out. Everything in this particular false reality suggested the aliens had been defeated, my wildest dream come to life. But I knew it wasn't real. Out in my world the alien leader named Mabus seeks to enslave humanity. The key to his defeat could be Joshua. Found my sometimes ally in a desperate situation. Joshua believed the aliens had launched a neutrino bomb toward earth - a final desperate move to cover their humiliation at having been defeated by humanity. Joshua had the code to abort the mission and wanted to get to the deactivation site. I had to convince him to come with me instead. But how do you tell a desperate man that his mission isn't real? That it's all an engineered delusion? Knew first hand why Joshua wouldn't listen, guess I was along for the ride. Joshua had a gun on me at first sight. Told him we were in a QP and I was there to get him out. Eddie'd found an exit point and Joshua and I had to be there in exactly 24 minutes or we'd miss it. Joshua believed he had less than 19 minutes to save the earth and whatever Gua remained there from total annihilation. Joshua didn't trust humans. He took off, but human authorities quickly picked him up. Pulled a gun on the "cop"- told him Joshua and I had to be going. The cop knew I wasn't Gua, figured I was worse than alien - because in this world it looked like I was helping the Gua scum escape. There was no second chance out of there. The cop pulled a gun so I shot him. I killed a human copeven in virtual reality it felt wrong Tried to convince Joshua that Mabus was on his way in the real world, that we needed to get out of the pocket and back to the real fight. Joshua didn't buy it, asked me how I didn't know I was the one in the delusional pocket? He reminded me that in a false world I'd believe in a fighting chance and I wouldn't give up either. Again, he had a point. Helped him hot-wire a car and made a deal. I'd help Joshua stop the bomb and then he helps me by getting the hell out of there. He agreed. High speed chase got us away from the authorities and into an abandoned barn. Joshua said it was a regional command post for the western sector before the war. He wanted to find the launch command console for a wormhole and close it before the Gua bomb made it into Earth's air space. The console was in a white room - we had forty seconds. Ran into a Gua following old orders to protect his post. Joshua and I were shot. The bomb was headed this way. It was over. Earth was destroyed. Or was it? That's when things got really confusing. Everything seemed to start over. But this time I was having vague premonitions of what was about to happen. Felt like I was living the moment but not. It was eerie, couldn't explain it, something just wasn't right. At the command center we noticed a flickering monitor outside the white room. In the image, Joshua and I were dead. A Gua entered, we tried to reason with him and this time Joshua was ready for the Gua who shot him before. But we couldn't seem to stop the launch again? And then we were back for more. This time I knew Joshua needed my help right away. Something told me I had to stop the launch or we were never getting out of there. I remembered the quatrain, "joined in desperate moments to push the rock over the peak of time." It was based on the myth of Sisyphus, we were stuck in a loop, trying to accomplish the same objective over and over - repeating time. And Joshua was feeling it too, starting to remember things. He told me he suspected the Gua put him in the pocket intentionally - some warped alien version of a gulag. He suspected it happened during his trial - when he was tortured for helping me and branded a traitor to his own kind. The Empiricists had erased his memory and doomed Joshua to live out his failure for the rest of his days. Again we weren't sure how to get out, but knew we had to stop that launch. And that's when there was a new wrinkle. Something we were sure hadn't happened before. Cain was in the quantum pocket. Wanted to take me in for dissection. Too bad I wasn't up for it. Joshua and I were getting out. And there was no way Cain was gonna stop that.
The Flight of Francis Jeffries
Quatrain 73, Century 6: "A daughter of war meets the gallows when darkness' spirit takes flight. In the land of the Eye of the Stag, savior and devil come together as one." Even though I'm flying the Airstream solo these days I promised to keep up Foster's fight. So I'm doing the usual, scanning the quatrains and looking for matches in the real world. Thought the "Eye of the Stag" sounded like Ohio, the Buckeye State. So I checked for odd stories in the place that's "round on the ends and hi in the middle." Came up with a girl named Lindsay Tilden, a cheerleader facing the death penalty for murdering her dad, Alistaire. Death penalty. Gallows. The clues were adding up. Spicing up the pot was the fact that Lindsay's late Dad worked for Rocom Industries, a high tech weapons design firm and prime target for the Gua. Could Lindsay be the "daughter of war" the Big N had mentioned? All signs pointed that way. So it was Eddie to the rescue. Solo. Or so I thought. Posing as Jack Reynolds from the North American Liberties Union I had a tête-à-tête with young Lindsay. She insisted she was innocent, couldn't remember a thing about the moment of murder except finding her dad dead. I asked her about projects Alistaire might have been working on at work. Anything unusual. Lindsay just said that her dad didn't talk about work much. And she was afraid to die. A psycho killer named Lanning was about to be executed in Lindsay's prison. The chick was terrified. I know it's a crazy world, kids popping each other, their parents, classmates every chance they get. But something about Lindsay made me believe her. I wanted to prove her innocence. Rocom was a no-go, they had firewalls and all kinds of junk to keep a hacker at bay. So I figured I had to do the next best thing - I headed over to Lindsay's place and did a little "B & E" as Foster used to say. And that's when I met the person we've all been waiting to hear about. Jordan - leader of the Raven Nation. Details notwithstanding, let's just say Jordan wasn't on Team Nambulous just yet. She does things her own way. We've made contact, and stuff went down but I can't talk about it here just yet. It's a story for another day and one I promise to tell. In the here and now however we decided to share some info, got to know some of Alistaire's fellow science buds through files in his home office. I figured checking out the people who knew Lindsay's dad was a good idea. Jordan wanted to tag along. As we were prepping to bail Casa Tilden we heard a whistling coming up the steps - it was "London Bridge." The fella who caught Jordan and I in the dark gave us a whacked stare and took off, running right into a moving car on the street. The guy grabbed at the driver and she just took off, laughing as she drove away. And that's when things got really weird. The guy had no idea where he was. Total blackout. And Jordan and I believed him. Just like Lindsay. Back at the trailer we got to thinking - could what we have witnessed been the some kind of Gua consciousness transfer? It freaked me way out. The Gua have a special process for that transfer - if they could just start jumping body to body -- through touch, well the ramifications for all of us here on earth were huge. Invasion would be that much easier. Not something we wanted to consider. Jordan and I decided to split up - start checking out the scientists from Rocom. She was gonna take some Raven Nation operatives to Susan Wilson's and we were gonna hit a guy named Francis Jeffries. Both checks turned up nothing, but we did find some info that would send us to where Susan may have been hiding. Headed to a camp ground in the Lakes area where I had a run-in with the body-jumping Gua. We had a knock down, drag out fight and he high- tailed it but not before Jordan tried to kill him, which I couldn't let her do. As far as we could tell, this Gua was using innocent human hosts to get around -- people with lives. Jordan figured he was a major threat, and if one human had to die to stop him so be it - I wasn't so sure. We butted heads over the issue (and if you could see Jordan, you wouldn't mind butting heads with her - that's for sure). She wasn't too pleased with me, and the Gua was still on the loose. We'd have to argue ideologies later. Jordan found Susan and the woman was terrified. She verified our worst fears. The man named Francis Jeffries was a Gua. And the device they'd been working on at Rocom, something they called "the Vessel," provided Jeffries with a way to transfer his consciousness from person to person simply with a touch. Jeffries was searching for the vessel and killing everyone in his way. We needed to stop him. I didn't want to consider the alternative. Foster would have known what to do. Jordan had an idea. This was a race against evil. And God help us if we didn't get there first.
Still At Large
"Quatrain 77, Century 9. Redemption is offered by a woman of scarlet, for the twice bless'd to seek out. Enter the belly of the beast and become one." There's no more reason to hide. The ruse is over. The way I see it, we didn't have a choice. Eddie received a computer tip from a user known only as "Red." She said she knew about the Gua and that she'd found the true file on Hannah's murder and that the ones read at my trial were a fake. Traced the e-mail to a PD in Chicago, I had no choice but to go undercover. A convicted killer walking into a cop station sounds crazy, especially for a "dead" convicted killer. If I was recognized it would be feeding time at the zoo. I'm writing this now, so you know that's happened. But I couldn't stay away, the prize was just too huge. There was a secretary in Operations with red hair who hadn't been seen for a few days - she was our best lead. I had a few things going for me there, since the assassination of my clone on live TV the cops weren't looking for me anymore. The heat was off. The other was Jordan, our new ally. She infiltrated along with me - posing as clerical support. With her watching my back, at least I wasn't alone in the belly of the beast. The plan was to be in and out within an hour. Posing as Officer Jeff Thompson, transferring over from the 18th Precinct, I quickly started scanning personnel files, until I was caught-in-the-act by Sergeant Cznoffsky - who didn't have a clue who I was and why I was rooting through his files. Fortunately Eddie was on top of it - sending in a quick dummy "transfer" file via some first class hacking. Eddie made Jeff sound like a nightmare so they'd put me in a nice, low-profile desk job. I just didn't expect it to be in Homicide. The Sarge boasted how the guys in Homicide had broken some of the most famous murder cases in Chicago. What he didn't know is just how familiar I was with these goons. Asked about "Red," Cznoffsky figured I was talking about the secretary named Emma, who had a thing for sex in the workplace. Emma's rep was known throughout the precinct - she'd taken most of the cops on the force down to the evidence room for tricks. The Sarge figured she got fired for leaving marks. Seems the wives didn't appreciate Emma's idea of overtime. And then I met Detective Gavin, my superior in the Homicide department. Gavin was said to be a hard nose - the kind of guy who took the fun at of being a cop. And of course he said he recognized me, he just didn't know from where yet. I knew I had to get out of there fast. Disguised or not, the heat was already building. Eddie said the records he sent over wouldn't hold up long but the quatrain said that red would offer redemption. And that could be the key to us getting some serious public recognition - to exposing the Gua. I wasn't leaving. Jordan hadn't found much in Emma's desk - everything had been erased. But she did lift a paper with a bunch of odd scratches on it - the letters MAB. Mabus, newly arrived leader of the Gua. There were aliens in the precinct. It was the only answer. And here we were worrying about cops. Ran into Gavin in the hallway with Jordan. He offered me a plastic file and then took off with it. Jordan and I knew it right off - I'd just been fingerprinted. We had even less time than I thought. We headed for the evidence room. I'd been thinking about Emma, Jordan figured her for a nympho, but I knew better. Emma wasn't kinky, she was scratching the cops as a test - trying to figure out if they would heal. Trying to see if they were alien. We slipped the Evidence Room guard a twenty and told him Jordan was a friend of Emma's - a little nudge got him to shut off the surveillance camera but we still had to make it sound real. Between moans I figured out what Emma was trying to tell Eddie in her message before she was cut off - she wasn't talking about dead people, she was talking about dead files - unsolved cases. That's where we found Hannah's file. It was like living the nightmare all over again.
Asylum
Quatrain 92, Century 8. "The mighty shall be laid low, impaled on the fine honed sword of truth. A voice of justice is stilled, as nightmares take earthly form." Judge Carlton Levy was a respected district court judge for 23 years, a true voice of justice before sudden insanity laid him low. Levy had been a regular visitor to the Paranoid Times website, claiming to have information about the aliens who've infiltrated this planet. Was the judge really mentally ill, or did his nightmares simply "take the earthly form" of the Gua? Time to go undercover to protect one of our own. Posing as Lukas Johnson, Associate Director of Human Resources down at the court I went to see Carlton's wife. Didn't even need the false I.D., she wasn't interested in talking to me until I mentioned aliens. Told her I wanted to help her husband, that I believed he spoke the truth. Eddie didn't believe that Levy had snapped, felt responsible for one of his readers who'd put his neck on the line for us. Now the Judge was in a high security mental hospital named "Shady Crest." Place was locked down, even to Carlton's wife - no one was getting near Levy for at least 30 days. Except Eddie. Jordan resisted, said this was a field operation, too risky and difficult for Eddie to handle. It pissed Eddie off. Eddie said the Judge was a believer - we didn't have a choice. To get himself noticed by the Docs at Shady Crest, Eddie tried to take over a post office "run by aliens." It worked. Inside he met the Chief shrink of the facility - Dr. Zahn and his nasty staff of orderlies. They held Eddie down and drugged him. Then it was time for group. In the common room Eddie met Mary, a blonde nympho, and Lorenzo, a smarmy little guy who thought everyone was an alien. He also found Levy staring blankly out a window as if no one were home. When Eddie pushed the Judge to talk Levy went ballistic - attacking Eddie and trying to choke him to death. That's when Eddie met Orderly Coogin, who wasn't pleased that Eddie had upset the Judge. Coogin wasn't a nice guy. Strike one. That night, Mary crawled into bed with Eddie - said she didn't think he was an alien but that she did think he was cute. Wasn't easy, but Eddie gave Mary the boot - sent her on her way. He also lifted Coogin's pass key from the blonde - headed out to do some investigating of his own. Once free, Eddie called Jordan and I, wanted to upload some files but he got cut off. Eddie claims a hand reached out of the computer screen and started choking him to death. Sounded like a hallucination - sounded like the work of the Gua. Jordan wanted to move in, felt Eddie needed back up. Eddie believed he could pull this off on his own, we had to give him the chance. Checked out some of the files Eddie uploaded. A couple of the names sounded familiar - and they were all influential. Worth checking out. Inside, Zahn was drugging Eddie again. Told him if Eddie were to get well, they really needed to create a "partnership." Eddie would have to want Zahn's help. But who was the Doc really? Eddie's bet was Gua. Back at the trailer, Jordan and I had discovered all of the influential names in the patient files Eddie had uploaded had gone crazy right before they were about to reveal some information - usually of the top-secret kind. And they all had something to do with a "Project Blacklight." I'd never heard of it, but was betting the Docs at Shady Crest had. Eddie was trying to get through to Levy again. Told the Judge he understood why he was afraid, how when they talked about the aliens, certain "visions" took over. Levy indicated that Eddie was right, but couldn't say a word - he was scared. Eddie told the Judge he had a way to get them out, Carlton should meet him in the bunk room later. Judge wasn't gonna make it. Eddie found him hanged. Another Gua victim. Coogin and Co. found Eddie with the Judge's lifeless body so Eddie beat-it outta there. Had another hallucination, this one worse than the rest. Found a room full of unmoving patients - who then taunted him incessantly. Telling Eddie he was crazy for real. It pretty much broke my buddy. I hated waiting on the side-lines. Was ready to go in. Jordan and I busted into the Judge's office - searching for anything about "Project Black Light." Had a near miss with a clerk. Jordan distracted him and I found an unmarked cell phone. Hit redial - guess who answered? Someone who knew about the Gua. Someone who wanted me to "come in" to talk about the aliens. It was a trap. No doubt. But whoever was out there was gunning for believers. And no way was I gonna let that happen. Eddie'd be on his own for a little while longer. I had an alien to catch.
Eyes of the Gua
Quatrain 72, Century 5. "Hallowed eyes burn through the line to the fifth in colonies of old. Malevolence awaits a perfect division, as four makes five for apocalypse." A killer struck twice in New England recently, a place Eddie and I took for Nostradamus' "colonies of old." The police did their best to keep details confidential but reports leaked. The victims were said to have their eyes burned out of their skulls. Malevolence could be a reference to Mabus. Suspected the killer could have been Gua. Could the murders have something to do with the coming apocalypse? Cops had turned up short on leads. Couldn't stop me from starting my own investigation. Posing as Lafayette County, Field Evidence Tech "Fozen" I checked out the second crime scene, claimed the detectives on the case needed some new angles on the clues. Up on the ceiling near the pipes I found a strange symbol É could've been written in blood. Wasn't the only one working the case for our side. Eddie was at the local police station "confessing" to the murders, claiming to be "kill crazy." He told the cops the aliens were the reason for his killing. They weren't buying. Didn't matter, all Eddie really wanted was to hook up to the cops' computer to get the inside info from the Metro Police files. There was only one suspect - and he looked a lot like Joshua. Eddie figured our alien ally had lost it after I pulled him out of the alien prison - was on a spree-killing. I knew Joshua better than that, if he was anywhere near the killings it meant they had something to do with the invasion. There were two victims - cops hadn't found any connection, didn't mean there wasn't one. Broke into the coroners office, figured the report might have some more info. Wanted to inspect the body. Those rumors weren't rumors at all - the victims eyes were charred away. And the killer had struck again. New crime scene had footprints burned into the ground, saw the same thing at the first location. Victim's eyes were gone and the cops logged another symbol. But I wasn't the only one checking this out. Joshua was there too. Questioned him. He wanted me to stay out of it, didn't think he owed me a thing. Once I pulled a gun he gave up what I already expected -- the killer was Gua, but not like anything I'd ever seen. Joshua wasn't intimidated by the weapon, he turned the level up, got in my face. Warned me that guns wouldn't help me against this enemy. Joshua seemed different, more angry, more intense. He walked away. Checked out one of the victim's homes - Chandler Evans, met his sweet widow. Mrs. Evans said Chandler had complained of a headache the night he died - that he seemed scared. And she never saw him again. Noticed something odd in the house. Chandler had been painting pictures, the same thing over and over - a road in the woods, with a marker for "Mile 9." Mrs. Evans never understood what it meant. All three of the victims had an odd birthmark on their neck - we knew it couldn't be a coincidence. Eddie'd checked back for generations, but there was no connection between the victims. Told him to go further. We both knew there was nothing random about these killings. Not if the Gua were involved. And then it all made sense. Eddie was running a computer program to trace geneoligies in both the USA and Europe - he found the connection. Michele de Nostredame. The Gua were knocking off our prophet's living descendents. "Four makes five for the apocalypse." That meant that there were two left in the Nostradamus blood line. This was huge. If these people inherited any of Nostradamus' ability the Gua could be facing a modern-day psychic. And he or she would make an ally that could turn the tide. Found the location from Chandler Evans' drawing -- not a pretty scene. The killer had tied the fourth victim to a tree, the killer was on fire. Shot him in the chest, but didn't even make a dent. He got out of there fast. Joshua was there too, and this time he was ready to talk. Told me the fire that this Gua creates is focused and intense. The killer wears an amulet around his neck to control the flames - an accelerator that converts matter to energy such as fire. Joshua told me that the Gua believe they are born of flames and that fire is the purest state if being. The symbols represent the moons that orbit the Gua home world, each sacrifice is said to bring power to the killer. Didn't make sense, why was Joshua suddenly sharing? He told me it was clear that I'd figured out why the killer was choosing his victims, and Joshua wanted the name of the final descendent. But I wasn't giving up the name without something else. Wanted to know what the symbols really meant. Joshua wanted the name so he gave it up. Said the Gua had faced this kind of killing before, in a dark time for his people. Sacrifices, tortures, rituals, a single, sick ruler took control then -- Mabus. If the Guahead was to consume the power of Nostadamus' family line he could gain the power of the prophet - Joshua said that Gua wars had been won by stealing visions. When the final descendent was dead, Mabus would end the killer's life with the same ritual and take Nostadamus' visions for himself. Joshua believed he was the only one who could stop Mabus. Too bad. That job's mine.
Skywatchers
Quatrain 28, Century 3. "Tainted streams flow into fields of stone / As the vanguard rises from hope / On the path of least obstruction / The evil one is crowned." An operative for the Raven Nation, Alana MacAfee, disappeared while investigating an anonymous posting to the Web site. It claimed that the aliens were active in the small mining town of Hope, Montana. Could've been the "hope" mentioned in the quatrain. Always wanted to see Big Sky country. Alana was one of Jordan's soldiers, so she was taking this personally. We decided to make the infiltration a team effort. Jordan set off to check out a local motel, questioned the clerk there, a woman named Sheryl Nelson. Told Sheryl we were a couple and were supposed to be hooking up with Alana to drive to Bozeman together later that day. Sheryl told us Alana had already checked out. Jordan was antsy, hadn't heard from Alana in three days but knew her agent had been onto something when they last talked. I told her how a cop had tailed me into town these days I call attention to anything we do. Didn't want to leave Jordan behind but figured I might not have a choice. That's when a sergeant named Cobb tracked me to the motel. Some shaving cream and glasses made it impossible for Cobb to make a positive I.D. He seemed to buy our story but we weren't out of the woods yet. Best lead we had so far was to search for Alana's car, Sheryl provided us with the make and model. At the towing company we met Jim, a weathered townie who claimed he'd never seen Alana or her vehicle. Hope seemed like a nice enough place but so far I had no idea what the Gua would want with it. Jordan knew Alana, trusted her, and if a Raven Nation op said this was worth checking out, then as far as Jordan was concerned we'd find something. The quatrain mentioned a "vanguard," troops that move at the head of an army. Having met the citizens of Hope, it just didn't add up. These were simple people, not soldiers, and definitely not aliens. The cops found Alana's car pitched into a ravine. While Cobb was distracted, Jordan checked out the body. It was Alana her face nearly burned off. Car hadn't caught fire, no skid marks on the pavement. The entire accident site seemed staged. Eddie checked out a roll of film I lifted from Alana's car. Far as he could tell, the prints had been exposed right through their protective canister by some kind of radiation or x-rays. And they'd all been exposed at once from some kind of blast. We figured that was how Alana's face got burned. The pictures looked like fragments of a whole, turns out that's exactly what we had. Put the prints together and they made what looked like a monster. Something large, looming. Something not human. Hope's main business was the HMC. Hope Mining Corporation. Jordan and I broke in, but it was too easy. There was no one working there in the middle of the day. The place was practically deserted. Investigation of the files showed no major production at the facility since 1988. We were stumped. No tourists, no exports. How were people in Hope surviving? Cops showed up and we were on the move until we ran into Jim. He held a gun on us and bagged our heads. He knew about my alleged crimes, told him I was innocent. He didn't care, just wanted us to get out of town. But we wanted answers. Turned Jim's gun on him and told him to start talking. He confessed to putting Alana's car in the ditch, said she was already dead when he found her. Then he said what was going on in Hope was wrong, and that nobody there wanted anyone else to know about it. Jordan put it together, realized Jim put the anonymous tip on the Web site. He admitted that too. Said Alana had been snooping around the "watcher's fields." We wanted to know what happened there. Jim said "they" were forming some kind of army, getting ready, and then he was cut off by a shot in the back. We were under fire, took cover. And Jim was dead. But right before he passed he told us we shouldn't be looking under, but rather over. Jim was gone. But he didn't dissolve. We still hadn't seen any aliens in Hope but we knew they were there. Or maybe this was something more? Something we hadn't seen before? Were the people of hope working with the aliens? And if they were, did they know what they were sacrificing? Felt like this was gonna be a different fight. This time it wasn't man vs. alien, it looked like it was man vs. man. And I'm not about to tolerate any traitors in this fight.
The Plan
A faction of Gua generals, working with Joshua, seek Foster's help in a plot to assasinate Mabus. ----- The prophet Nostradamus has foretold the arrival of an alien antichrist who will bring about the apocalypse. He calls himself Mabus, and he's out there right now ... somewhere. The prophecies of Nostradamus guide us and help us fight the Gua, but we have yet to get close to Mabus, we have yet to strike a blow that will stop the impending invasion. Until then, we prepare. Call it a crisis of faith. Eddie was desperately searching the quatrains, trying to get us closer to Mabus but we were running out of angles. Jordan tried to bolster my spirits - told me our plan was working. We would continue to take the Gua down one by one, each step bringing us closer to finding the Guahead. Jordan believed we were gonna get him and win the war. While sifting through quatrains, Eddie received an encrypted message from Joshua requesting a meeting to discuss Mabus. He wanted me to come alone. Eddie seemed to think the message was genuine, Joshua had used the encryption code before. Jordan thought I was nuts, the Gua were onto me, to take a risk like this was suicidal. Figured this could've been the break we were looking for. No matter how strained things had become between Joshua and I, this was an opportunity I wasn't gonna turn down. Joshua said he'd be alone, but when we rendezvoused in the desert he had two Gua snipers pinned on me, didn't matter, 'cause Jordan had my back. Joshua said I was vital to a plan the Gua snipers, Allegra and Steven, had proposed to him - a plan to assassinate Mabus. Jordan rigged me with a Raven Nation satellite tracking device - shot the sucker right into my shoulder - hurt like hell. Eddie was freaking out - he didn't like the risk, wanted me to take backup. We didn't have a choice - Mabus had been our focus for months and the Gua assassins had insisted that I join them alone -- this was do or die. Allegra took me into the camp. The Gua had a hundred thousand acres of desert to use as training ground - they got it from the government. They were training to take us down right under our noses - and Uncle Sam was helping. In our first official meeting Steven made his feelings clear - we had a common goal to kill Mabus, we weren't there for any reconciliation - as far as he was concerned humans were scum. Told him I felt the same way about aliens. Moved into a briefing where I was told the Gua still hadn't developed a husk strong enough to hold Mabus' consciousness for more than a few weeks, their leader had to spend the bulk of his time in an incubation unit to slow down the accelerated decomposition of his human body - we were gonna use that to our advantage. Each of us had skills suited to the mission -- as Adjunct General, Steven had free passage into the bunker, he would arrive early to occupy the Guahead and disable his last line of defense. Allegra had thorough knowledge of the bunker's defenses. Joshua was a weapons specialist and skilled Acolyte assassin - he would provide cover as we blitzed the corridor leading to Mabus' chamber. And then there was me, "one-one-seven," I'd provide a decoy as they approached the unit - and I'd get to fire the first, and hopefully last, shot. They wanted me to kill Mabus. Gave me a special gun, developed in a Gua lab. It used a charge that should destroy husk and consciousness - but they couldn't be sure and couldn't risk his surviving the attack. Joshua said no one truly knew how strong Mabus was - and he wasn't any ordinary Gua. Something didn't fit. These guys were all Gua soldiers, all had access to Mabus - so why the hell did they need me? Steven's answer seemed to make sense. If Mabus were killed by a Gua it could start a civil war at home, but if he were killed by a human it would raise questions about the viability of the Gua's invasion of earth. Steven didn't like the situation but said we needed each other. I disagreed - we were using each other. Cornered Joshua, asked some questions about Steven. Joshua said Steven spills blood like water and had led the Gua to victory before -- his ambition was boundless. Allegra collected state secrets like jewelry, she'd seduced several American and international officials. I didn't trust any of them. Not even Joshua, though he assured me that I could count on him. After what went down since I got him out of that quantum-pocket prison I couldn't be sure. Used to believe Joshua had some regard for human life, now I questioned that belief. The Gua team had a high-tech simulator just like the one Harley and I ran into last year. We ran the plan and we failed -- the entire assassination team was killed in a hail of gunfire from a Gua guard. Steven was pissed. No way was this gonna work if we couldn't act as a team. And in the real world there would be no second chances. Tensions were on the rise and Allegra had a real jones to take me out. She talked about a Gua prophecy, said she didn't believe I was the one it spoke of. Joshua explained that the Gua had prophets like Nostradamus, they called them Harbingers - with powers far beyond that of the normal species. The first was Medak, a philosopher the Gua once revered. The last was Mabus. The prophecy said that if Mabus was killed by the "chosen human hand" this invasion would end. Both Joshua and Steven believed I could be the "chosen one" their prophecy spoke of. Now they worried that my prior knowledge of that same prophecy could invalidate it. I told them not to worry. I was gonna kill Mabus ... whether he knew I was coming or not.
Wednesday's Child
Quatrain 15, Century 5. "The message precedes the messenger, a sudden link to darkness. Betwixt the glare and the chasm, the child is freed with shadows behind." The Paranoid Times gets thousands of hits a week, all from the growing contingent of believers who know that aliens threaten our world. Most of these e-mails voice support, but when one tipped us to a Gua bomb set outside a United States Federal Office, we had to check it out. That e-mail saved hundreds of human lives, but who sent it? A disgruntled alien, a human with knowledge of Gua plans? The e-mail was traced to a residential address. With backup courtesy of Jordan's Raven Nation, I set out to see if our mysterious cyber-tipper was truly a friend ... or possibly a foe. Posing as Timothy Murray, a Compustar Internet Service employee I met Anne Berman, Aunt and guardian to Emily the intense little girl who lived at the house and the only one to ever use the computer. Made no headway, Anne said Emily was sick and she wasn't interested in the computer problems she sent me away. Back at the trailer I asked Eddie if there was any way the kid could have sent the plans to him. Eddie was emphatic, he knew all about child prodigies but there was no way any kid could have sent such a complex schematic of an alien bomb. Far as we knew, Emily was the only one using the computer and Eddie's research indicated said no one had piggybacked the message. It came from that household unit. Research into her school records proved the kid was a genius for sure, but she was having social problems lately. It gave us our shot this time it was Jordan who was going in. Using a home-study program Emily's school had implemented for emotionally troubled students Jordan went undercover as Helen Lesco, a representative of the school. Got the details on Emily's recent past. Emily had lost her parents in a car accident the year before, Jordan could relate to the loss but couldn't imagine how difficult it could be on a nine-year-old. Anne said Emily had been doing well for a while, but then started getting into fights, slacking on her schoolwork. And she'd been having seizures, visions of some horrible nightmare. She was dying, her white cell count diminishing daily the doctors gave the little girl two months. When Jordan first met Emily she didn't know what to make of her. The kid was hostile, detached, until she told Anne that Jordan wasn't who she claimed to be and started chanting "Stay away!" That's when things got really weird. The world started shaking and Emily collapsed telling Jordan "He says we're all gonna die!" Jordan asked her who says that? Emily's answer sent chills down all our spines. She said it was "Mabus." Far as we could tell Emily was human and so were her parents and Anne. We'd met psychics who could connect with the Gua before, so why not this kid? If it was true she was all too valuable though I still had trouble believing the key to ending the invasion rested with a nine-year-old girl. While Eddie and I wrestled with this puzzle Jordan tried to reach Emily. Told her about her own troubled past. Emily didn't remember sending the e-mail, but she did say that sometimes she would play on the computer and then couldn't remember anything. And she also said when she was with Mabus it was scary -- they were in a long hallway with a bright light like the way people talk about heaven. And the kid knew this place wasn't heaven. Emily was afraid of the light, she said if she touched it, she would die. With Jordan, Emily and Anne out of the house Eddie and I did some recon. Emily was inserting a symbol in all of her drawings, it seemed familiar to Eddie, but he didn't know where he'd seen it yet. Emily and Jordan were establishing a strong relationship, I could tell Jordan was starting to care for the kid. Emily even told Jordan how much she liked her back. Then Emily had another vision. The whole park was suddenly shaking, wind howling. If we were gonna help Emily we'd have to do it fast. The seizures were getting worse. In the meantime Eddie had tracked down the icon. It was a "Vahnas" symbol, iconography from a 1600's Hindu cult. It involved a psychic link between two people that allowed the linked minds to meet in a "netherworld" of sorts. The ritual was extremely debilitating, often resulting in the death of one or both of the participants handily severing the link for good. Figured it was why Emily was dying. But we were still missing something, and had no idea what it could be. At the Berman house Anne wasn't taking Jordan's truth too well. And Emily was having another "seizure." Anne grabbed Emily during the episode this time, and she saw Mabus. He told her "the target of destruction will be struck again." It meant there was another bomb. We could have used more info but Jordan didn't want to push Emily too hard and she couldn't let her die. Mabus was preying on a kid this time. Jordan swore to make the alien leader pay for what he was doing to Emily. And I was determined to make sure it was his biggest mistake yet.
Unearthed
Quatrain 17, Century 4. "Through the ancient north it shall pass, ship to ship the power of powers. All strength to those who unearth it, joined together will earth itself be consumed." A Gua intelligence communiquè intercepted by the Raven Nation mentioned an all-powerful weapon the Gua have spent years searching for, and now we were close to finding it. A search of archeological dig sites turned up an excavation of a Viking settlement in Nova Scotia. Crossing the border into Canada was a risk, but one I was willing to take. The dig was stationed out of a bus graveyard. Yesterday's settlement was today's dump. I had to go in low profile - this time posing as Clyde the tow truck driver who wandered into the wrong place. But that's why I have Eddie and Jordan. Eddie posed as a big-shot archeologist named Dr. Charles Channing. His partner in the dig would be a man who made searching for "The Hammer of Thor" his life's ambition an uptight, hefty guy named Dr. Samuel Spiedel. Jordan was Jane, the trusty archeological student. Could this hammer be the weapon the Gua were searching for? Seemed unlikely. But somehow the two were linked. Even Eddie was skeptical. Called the hammer the "golden fleece" or the "holy grail." He said there was a reason these things were still myths and it was because they didn't exist. Guess Eddie figured if a Paranoid hadn't exposed them yet there wasn't anything worth exposing. Besides the Gua had only been interested in earth since the 1940's, Eddie didn't want to think they'd been around since the Vikings. Jordan told him to chill out, thought Eddie needed to live and learn. With my team as my eyes and ears, and also to create a diversion, I was able to sneak into the dig's main tent. And what I found made this puzzle all the more confusing an ancient hammer in a silver lock box. Didn't have time to investigate any further. Jordan saw the dig chief Bishop and his heavy henchman Ash reacting to something with alarm and I had to get out of there. But the goons were onto me, and they had guns. And then I was gone. In one giant flash an otherworldly portal opened up and pulled me through ... THAT'S WHERE I'll PICK UP THE STORY. Jordan here. What happened to Cade was a mystery for both Eddie and I right after the chase. We'd lost contact with him, gunfire and static. But I wanted to keep it cool. Sure, my first impulse is to go in with my biggest guns hefted high but something told me that was the wrong way to go this time at least. I started my own investigation, kept up the "Jane" persona. Until I saw Bishop making contact with Mabus online. Eddie's worst fears were confirmed. And truthfully, so were mine. The "Hammer of Thor" was named by humans, but it turned out to be alien. Over the communicator Mabus foreshadowed it's devastating effects saying that thunder was an appropriate link to the shattering effects of the weapon. It was definitely the weapon the Gua wanted a power of powers. I figured it was time to call in my people the Raven Nation. We hadn't heard anything from Foster and Eddie was going nuts. I alerted the nearest team but it would take them some time to get to us. Until then, Eddie and I were it. We had to get the weapon and get the hell out of there before Bishop was able to deliver our destruction to his slimy leader. Eddie was picking up some wild electromagnetic activity of the quantum pocket variety. But that's when Ash and Bishop exposed us. Or thought they had. The Gua knew they didn't have the real Dr. Channing in their midst but they couldn't peg him as Cade's closest ally. And my cover was still a lock. Eddie was tied up in the tent when Spiedel uncovered what looked to be the real deal the mystical Hammer of Thor. But when we uncovered it and flashed a light on it the whole world seemed to open up a portal of energy, unlike anything we'd ever seen. Cade was inside, and he looked like a ghost. He called out to me but couldn't see me at all. He was pale, fading. He sounded as if he were in pain. I wanted to plunge right in and grab him out. But I knew if Cade and I were out of play the Gua would have their weapon and it would be game over. Cade wouldn't have wanted it that way and neither did I. I'd have to save him later. We couldn't do anything until the weapon was safely in Raven Nation hands. Eddie was loose. And he said he had the hammer. But as far as I knew Spiedel had run off with it when the portal opened. That's when it all finally clicked. The Hammer had been split into two parts. Cade thought he's found it earlier but all he'd found was one half. Now Eddie had the other. "_joined together will earth itself be consumed." It fit the Quatrain. The Gua hadn't won yet, they needed to join the two halves of the hammer to make it work. I needed Eddie to work on the half he had, figure out what made the thing work. It was our only chance at getting Cade back safely and I wanted Foster here for the final fight. Eddie wasn't too pleased, told me he'd need time and quiet to figure out a piece of alien technology and the Gua were crawling all over the place. Screw the Gua. Now this was between me and them. And you all know how this girl feels about aliens. They were gonna wish they never set foot on my side of the galaxy.
Shadowland
Quatrain 22, Century 4. "When twice three years and twice again, find secret skill in darkest hour. "Tween Blessed and Cursed a Third will come, or world's consumed in battle's fire." Nightmares. They were stealing my rest. Making it impossible for me to sleep. In them, I'm twelve years old, in a white room, strapped to a chair and there's a man there. He gives me a gun, commands me to shoot. I do it. And then I wake up. And I'm terrified. Don't even like to admit it. But Jordan and Eddie were noticing and thought I needed help. Didn't want me becoming a liability in the fight. Eddie keyed into the quatrain, thought Nostradamus was talking about me all those years ago. Even if the prophet was right I figured the news was about sixteen years too late. Jordan disagreed. Mentioned a Raven Nation regression therapist, thought I should check him out - he could take me back, help me relive my past. But my childhood wasn't any picnic - and living it once was enough. Wanted to let it go but the team wouldn't let me - it was one of the lines in the quatrain -- "find secret skill in darkest hour." As much as I hated the idea it looked like I was going to have go back to my past and relive some dark moments. If I did, maybe we'd finally find the edge we need to win the war. Got me thinking about my father. My real father, the one who died in combat. My mother always yearned for him. Came home one day to find her staring at his picture, just like any day. She always told me "he was brave and died so that others could live." She told me I was just like him. And then Ned came in and ruined the moment, again, just like any day of my life then. Ned was my stepfather. A poor excuse for a person, a drunk, a nobody -- and he knew that's what I thought of him. He was always goading me, wanting me to take a shot at him. Who does that to a kid? People like Ned do. He fostered my anger. Made me want to kill him. It was like watching him kick the hell out of my life all over again so I woke up. I was in "regression therapy" with Jordan and Tyler Greer, her RN Doc. I'd already had enough. Jordan wanted me to give it another chance but I wasn't buying. My mother and Ned weren't in the dream - they had nothing to do with this. I took off. The nightmares continued. This time my mother was there, with a hole in her head. I was being tortured, my mother was being beaten. It was worse than before. Quatrain or no quatrain it looked like I was gonna need more "help." Greer explained that nightmares weren't random, that they were triggered by traumatic events in our life that we couldn't face. The answer to what my mind was trying to tell me lay somewhere in a twelve-year old me. I was back on the couch, regressing again. Ned was there, Mom. But it wasn't real, this hadn't happened. The memory was too good. Greer said I was using my memory "creatively" to create walls and hide a painful truth. That's what was happening in the real world, but inside my head the truth was crashing down all around my mom and I. She was going to the hospital and I promised to stay with Ned until she got back. Too bad that wasn't gonna happen. Ned had sold me to some experiment, told me I was gonna earn my keep around there. The man who was there to take me away was a scientist, a guy named Rook who promised I'd be back before my mom returned. Rook's flunkie handed Ned a wad of cash and they grabbed me, so I fought back. And that's when I saw the truth for the first time. I cut the flunkie and he healed right before my eyes. He was Gua. Ned had sold me to the Gua. Eddie did a search. A Dr. Rook never existed but he'd found something else. There were a lot of missing kids in the Chicago area at the exact time this stuff would have been happening. They were almost all found a day or two after they'd disappeared, but none of them remembered where they'd been. And they had social problems when they got back - were in and out of hospitals, committed suicide. And Eddie thought I was one of 'em. All of these kids' fathers had died in the war and all of them were 12 years old. I was furious. It didn't make sense, the Gua had started messing with my life only a few years ago. How could I have been a test subject all this time? Greer thought the Gua had found some way to block the memory. That only made it worse. As lousy as my memories had been at least they were mine. I owned my crappy childhood. Now I find out the Gua had been there too. Their manipulations never seemed to end. I needed to know why. But there was a wall in my mind. And every time I hit it I'd plunge back into reality. Greer said we had to be more aggressive to get to the suppressed memory. He'd have to put me directly into the white room. Bypass the blocks. Told him to do it. And it almost killed me. Saw my first Gua flash alien and I went into cardiac arrest. I was trapped in my own brain, in these first memories of the Gua. And it didn't look like I was ever coming back.
Legacy
Quatrain 11, Century 9. "Nobles gather on a midsummer's eve / and the Raven grasps the curse of legacy. / Look to the traitor's haven / as the beast prepares for Apocalypse." When Jordan got an invitation to a midsummer bash at a mansion owned by her late parents, Eddie linked the party to the words of Nostradamus. Did this "curse of legacy" refer to the Radcliffe family? Could the traitor possibly be Jordan's father, a man she both loved and respected? Jordan wouldn't rest until she knew the truth. Neither would I. If "the beast" was Mabus, then I wanted to do my part to find out how the Radcliffes fit into his preparations for the Apocalypse and I wanted to stop him. We knew of a secret vault within the mansion, so while Jordan made a grand entrance to join the rich and famous, I was breaking in upstairs to crack a safe. Some things never changed. Had to be tough for Jordan. Once the Gua enter your life it changes forever. I'd lived it, and so had she. But Jordan was good at putting up a front. Downstairs she was reuniting with Sabrina, an old journalist pal and her father's business partners Keenan and Tara a couple of old timers Jordan believed were genuine friends to the Radcliffe family. They asked her to come back to the company. Jordan told them she'd been creating a "foundation of her own." Said it helped her heal. She was talking about the Raven Nation. And I couldn't agree more. Found the secret vault and some pretty interesting stuff inside. Radcliffe had a file labeled "conspiracy," inside was some info on me including my now infamous mug shot. They were alien-related files. Jordan's father obviously knew about the Gua. And then there was Davis. Jordan never mentioned that she'd been engaged before her brother's death. We didn't talk about our romantic pasts, lotta pain there. Davis had been Radcliffe's protégée; since Jordan's brother never wanted to be a suit her father trained someone who was interested. Before he died, Jordan's father asked Davis to look after the two things he cared about most: the company and his daughter. Jordan left Davis at the altar, but the company was doing great. Davis said it was easy to focus on work once Jordan walked out of his life it was all he had left. He gave her a necklace her father had left behind, an heirloom with the family symbol. Jordan didn't waste any time telling him how much she changed. One look at Davis and you knew his feelings hadn't changed any. Couldn't blame him. Even before Jordan became who she is today I know she couldn't be easy to forget. There aren't many women as strong as she is. Found a tape in the vault too. Played it. It was of Jordan's father presenting her with the necklace. He said the jewel had been worn by five generations of Radcliffe women and that, with it around her neck she'd "always have the legacy at her grasp." It fit the quatrain. Jordan would be crushed. And Davis had another surprise for his ex. He had a great offer on the company and was looking to sell it off. He'd been waiting for Jordan long enough, she'd had time to mourn. He wanted to get back to his life, and he wanted Jordan to join him for the ride. Things get a little fuzzy here. We'd had a contingency plan in place. Find out what we could and get out of the mansion. But Jordan had missed our meeting time, so I had to go in. Been a while since I put on a tux. Time to break it out. Found Jordan in the party but she didn't have a clue who I was. Eddie thought she might have been maintaining her cover but I could see it in her eyes this wasn't the Jordan I'd been fighting beside all these months. Something was different. Heard a conversation between Davis and Keenan. Davis was ticked; Jordan wasn't willing to go along with any of his plans. Keenan told him to give it time, told Davis "the process" seems to have worked. They'd done something to Jordan, I just didn't know what. Ran into Sabrina downstairs, pumped her for info on Davis. She gave me the basics: Davis was the golden boy who wasn't about to give up on his girl. Sweet-talked "Jordan" into giving me a dance. Told her something happened to my "friend" when we got to the party. Told her that I was worried about this friend. Again, no recognition. And then Davis spirited her away. Talked Keenan into doing some tequila shots, figured the salt might work as a Gua test. Baited him with talk of my concern for Jordan, we moved into another room for some privacy. That's when I tried the hard sell. Keenan said they'd used some form of psychological therapy to extract painful memories from Jordan's brain a kind of retrograde amnesia. A group of doctors were running the experiment. Far as I could tell Keenan wasn't Gua. Cut him lose and hit the party again. Jordan and Davis were giving a toast and announcing the sale of Radcliffe Enterprises to Keenan and his wife Tara Barton. But that wasn't the worst of it. Davis had some other plans in mind as well. He and Jordan toasted their new engagement. Jordan was getting married. Things were out of control and I was about to lose my partner. No way this could get any worse. But it did. Sabrina had an announcement of her own. She knew who I really was. And she couldn't wait to tell the world about Cade Foster.
The Edge
The Raven Nation is an army of believers from every walk of life: cops, teachers, salesman, parents, and scientists - all touched by the lethal hand of the Gua. Dr. Pierce Malcolm was a highly renowned geneticist before the Gua killed his only son. Soon after, he joined the Raven Nation and brought his genetic expertise to our fight. I'm usually encouraged by the determination shown by people like Dr. Malcolm to beat the Gua. So why did I have such a bad feeling about the Doc and the lab he'd invited Jordan, Eddie and I to visit? Maybe it was because it would be the site of our latest trial - a real nightmare. Jordan gave Malcolm one mandate: to find weapons that would give us an advantage over the aliens. The Doc claimed we now had that advantage. He did a test on some blood samples, one human, one Gua - from a prisoner Malcolm had in his lab. He changed the Gua sample green - made it distinguishable from the human sample. It was an indisputable method for telling who was Gua and the beginnings of a way to attack and possibly destroy them on a genetic level. Scientific gibberish was wasted on me. Was more interested in the weird looks I was getting from our Gua-guest. She called me "brother" and I kept hearing this chirping in my head - like some kind of horrific baseline - plaguing me. It was making me feel crazy. Went to a mirror ... I flashed alien. Punched the mirror and healed. And then I remembered something. Was drugged, dragged to the lab, injected with something by Malcolm the night before when we'd arrived. He was hiding something - and I had a feeling I knew what it was. I was Gua. The sunnofabitch had turned me, injected me with a derivative blood serum replicated from the hostage. Malcolm said the Gua genome was powerful, resistant; it would give me unparalleled strength and intelligence. He was giving me the edge we needed to win the war. The Doc believed he had a right to vengeance and believed we were all helpless in this fight. But now I was the strongest of us all. A Twice Bless'd Gua. I hadn't asked for this. Jordan was on the razors edge herself. Couldn't believe we'd been betrayed by one of her own. Thing is Pierce didn't believe he'd done anything wrong - the world was changing and it was survival of the fittest now - Pierce had made me into a walking symbol of evolution. And then he was dead, along with the key to an antidote he claimed existed. The Gua captive snapped his neck from her cell. We dissolved her, but the Doc was gone. Tensions were up within the group. Somehow I felt Jordan was responsible for this - she should've been more careful with her people. Eddie figured he might have enough genetic know-how to figure out how to reverse the process - we started checking out his research. And then the voices started again, a constant, eerie reverb in my head. I could hear the Gua. Felt desperate, begged Eddie to stop the change. He told me I needed to rest. So I did. And then I was awake. Strangling Jordan. Wanted to feel her throat crushed beneath my hands. But it was all a dream. And there was a Gua coming. It was Joshua, Eddie'd called him. Jordan was suspicious, this war was Gua against human and Joshua was still the enemy. She wanted him gone but I knew we needed him to stay -- he could help. Joshua checked me out. Told me Gua DNA replicates more aggressively than human DNA, my change would be exponential. But in humans, DNA was coding, a blueprint, according to Eddie I shouldn't have been "transforming" into an alien. Joshua explained the Gua DNA acted more like a virus, it attacks a genome and rewrites its code - it was the way they procreated. Joshua didn't know how far the change would go - he wanted to look at Malcolm's files. I count on Eddie for certain things, Jordan for others. What I had to ask her for wouldn't be easy but she was the only person I could trust to handle it. If the change went too far, she'd have to kill me - I couldn't become Gua. Jordan resisted but I told her I'd do it for her in a heartbeat. To become what I hate - couldn't imagine anything worse. The changes continued, my body was shifting, my skin had become almost reptilian in places. We were running out of time. But Eddie had a lead on how to change me back. Checked out the machine, it'd been sabotaged. And Jordan thought I was the guilty one. She locked me in the Gua-holding-cell. She'd already begun to not trust me. Jordan and Eddie went head-to-head on the decision. Eddie couldn't stand to see me treated as sub-human. Joshua thought my change was unprecedented, figured it was affecting my mind. It was Jordan's facility -figured if there was a law to follow it was hers. My future wasn't looking pretty. Joshua said the Gua were powerful in life, but most humans would probably consider them disturbing to say the least. The Gua were in a constant metamorphic cycle throughout their lives, I'd continue to change often. They had different senses - supposedly ten-times as sensory as humans. Joshua resented his human body. I just wanted mine back.
The Vessel
Quatrain 41, Century 4. "At the inception of the millennium / machines of the new age deliver devastation in war. / From a throne under 13 faceless warriors / the invader king wields power." "Inception OS" is an operating system used by almost every computer in the country "the machines of the new age." Max Stareman is president of the software empire who planned to release the program to a massive media and consumer blitz. If Inception software was the weapon that "delivered devastation" then we had to stop it. And first we had to get to Max Stareman. Eddie figured tapping into Stareman's home base computer qualified him as nuts and who was I to argue Eddie'd always called himself "crazy," my plan helped validate the name. Way I saw it, the world's top computer programmers worked for Stareman, and any one of them could've been Gua even the billionaire himself. Wondered what the Gua wanted with an operating system anyway? Eddie figured the answer was easy: control. Most of the worlds' computers ran on Inception even the ones at the Pentagon. A hidden Gua-program could crash the entire world's computer-net or link them all into one big "Gua.com." Wasn't gonna be easy to get close to Stareman but I knew Jordan, Eddie and I would have to what choice did we have. Eddie hacked into the billionaire's personal calendar Max had a meeting scheduled in Silicon Valley with a quirky programmer named "Jinks." Stareman wanted to buy his company "Terminal Bug" they were developing a high-tech, security program. Jordan and I broke into Jinks' place had a close call with an electronic sensor in the air ducts but otherwise I had my cover. Jordan left me for my "meeting" with Jinks the next day all I had to do was wait. Jinks was the stereotypical computer geek played most of the day, worked almost never. When he finally made it into his office he crumbled easier than I thought. Jinks didn't like guns, sent the rest of his team home and then our own version of programmers came in Raven Nation-style-programmers they packed guns instead of pocket protectors. We were gonna corner Stareman and uncover his game with the Gua. Eddie posed as Jinks, the RN ops took their places at the computers. Jordan played receptionist and I stayed out of sight until the last minute. But Stareman was quick he knew something was up right from the start. Tried to leave. Jordan wasn't having it. Came out with my gun, told Stareman what we knew about the Gua and about how Inception could pose a serious threat to the world. Jordan cut Stareman he didn't heal. Then, just as we were about to cut George, Stareman's trusty assistant the real Jinks burst into the room. George was Gua. Jinks' distraction let the alien get me by the neck, ready to snap it Jordan shot him square in the forehead. Stareman got to see a genuine Gua dissolve. It was enough for a guy like Max a take-charge guy. He brought us to the office, shut down the Inception project and ordered the master copy of the program brought to his office immediately. Stareman was a dream he had exactly the kind of clout we needed to get the word out about the Gua. We'd stopped the launch of a system that would effectively cripple the world's defenses in the Second Wave and had found a new ally. Felt like a good day. Couldn't have been more wrong. Never saw what was coming. Stareman was Gua. Right above Max's desk was a sculpture 13 partial faces hanging above his throne-like chair. Stareman was Mabus. Alien Anti-Christ. Leader of the Gua. And he was in my head. Probing, smothering my psyche. But he got distracted. He went after someone else. It's the worst blow we'd been dealt in a long time. Listen up, Mabus. I am not giving up. You've taken away too many people I care about. You've attacked my family again and again. And I protect my own. This game isn't over. And now you've made it personal all over again. Gonna be your last mistake.
Requiem
Quatrain 26, Century 9: "As the Apocalypse draws near the adherents are summoned. Down to the catacombs they flee, pursued by an enemy none can see." We had to warn the Raven Nation. But they weren't about to believe anything they read online -- not something this important. Using information Jordan shared with only a trusted few I would send a top-level distress signal - it would trigger a failsafe plan. The Raven Nation would assemble. They'd be expecting war. Probably would've been easier news to deliver. Mabus was living inside Jordan, controlling her body and mind. There was no way of knowing what he planned to do. The Code 13 was sent. As part of Jordan's self-designed security measures the four top Generals of the RN didn't know each other. They didn't even know what the others looked like. The one thing they did know was the secret roster of militia in their zone. Four Generals with four separate cells, it was a brilliant way to make sure no one could cripple their ranks. But I had the names of the chosen ones. Smythe. Sullivan. Tonetti and Kendricks. They were all on their way to the meeting location. Their leader was gone. I kept replaying the events over and over in my head - Jordan, Mabus and I, trapped inside Stareman tower, a standoff with results I didn't want to believe were possible. I'll live with the moment forever - standing by the elevators, my gun drawn - a wicked smile crossing her his face. I'll always wonder about the choice I made, because that decision brought me to the satellite base - to meet the RN Generals. To confront the fact that, now that Jordan's body has been taken over by Mabus, she herself may be the "enemy none can see." We needed to plan our counteract. But the Raven Nation wasn't all sweetness and roses. General Tonetti knew better than to trust just anyone waltzing into the facility - pulled a gun. The "good cop," Sullivan convinced her hotheaded comrade that I was the real thing. Smythe and Sullivan hadn't shown yet. Sullivan and Tonetti always got their info from Jordan directly - didn't take well to the idea that something might have happened to their leader. Then the power went out. Had to go searching in the dark. Found the old horse of the crew - Kendricks. He'd already done some recon. The facility had been cleaned out. The Gua had already been there. The Generals figured it for a trap. Tonetti took off, didn't want to take orders from anyone. The crew was rough around the edges but they had the fire to win. They couldn't be too trusting of anyone. With the power out the doors were all locked down. Kendricks and I found something strange in the locker room of the facility - a kind of skin - a giant snake shedding. And Tonetti found something else - an eye - human. Best guess said it belonged to Smythe. The facility used a retinal scanner to let the Generals in. Mabus, posing as Jordan, must have taken it right out of Smythe's skull. We had an uninvited guest. Tonetti had been attacked by something, but we didn't know what. He couldn't tell us anything - seemed like he was in a coma. There was ooze on his face; Sullivan's hand went numb when she touched it. Closer analysis of the skin indicated that it was in fact reptilian. Figured the Gua had a hybrid on their hands - had crossed the DNA of a snake or a lizard with human and Gua DNA like we'd seen them do with bees in Ohio. Kendricks had a hard-on about the chain of command in the Raven Nation. He was a military man, an ex-marine, assumed he was next in line to give orders to Jordan's army. Kendricks thought I was good enough to rally the troops behind but now we needed someone to lead them into war. I didn't care who was in charge, right now I just wanted us all to get out of the facility alive. And then I met the alien who'd infiltrated the facility. It came out of nowhere. She was chameleon like - blue, hideous - its skin was cold. She attacked me, got close enough to kill me for sure - but she didn't. She just looked me in the eye and leaped away. Kendricks was looking for a way out. Thought he'd found it, he went to work. Sullivan and I finally realized why the beast was here and why it hadn't killed me when it had the chance. It was there for the Generals, that was its mission. And until it had what it needed from them it wouldn't come after me. Which is what it did. Out of nowhere the beast attacked Sullivan, sprayed her with its paralyzing ooze and disappeared. It was a chameleon. The power came back on and we chopped the beast in half with one of the facilities two-ton doors. Sullivan survived but she couldn't remember anything about the Raven Nation. There were non-blistered, burn scars on her head from a device the Gua used on Sullivan's forehead. The beast was harvesting information on the Raven Nation. It was going to locate the members and destroy our allies. That force was Jordan's legacy. No way was I gonna let it get taken down.
Checkmate
The Gua have struck hard. Mabus has entered the body of Jordan and taken over. The army of the Raven Nation has fallen. Its generals are dead, the survivors scattered. Even after everything we've worked for, I can't expect defeat. I choose to believe in the future. In spite of everything, we can still win this fight. I have to believe it. They're the words I posted right before we were attacked. The entire Airstream was taken down in a hail of bullets and I was suddenly on my way to a specially planned visitation with my one time partner and friend - Jordan Radcliffe. A woman we now call Mabus. I'd been hit in the attack on the trailer but a Gua Empiricist healed me. Couldn't figure it out, Mabus wanted me dead, so why were they fixing me up ... even I knew the truth -- I was on my way to hell. The answer came from the Guahead himself -- my journey had come full circle. He wanted to have the pleasure of breaking me. It was the conclusion of the same human will experiment that had started all of this. Mabus wanted to defeat me the old fashioned way ... and he wanted me to beg for my death. Tried to keep my cool but it wasn't easy. Mabus was inside Jordan's body, and she looked ... powerful, stronger ... comfortable. Freaked me out big time. Got me thinking Mabus was winning, taking over Jordan's soul. Was hard to look into her eyes and see that evil. But it was seductive too. Jordan had warned me of that after we saved a young girl recently -- one of Mabus' pawns to reach Jordan. He'd failed at capturing Jordan that time but now he had her. All I could think about was freeing my friend. Told Mabus that the Gua had tried to break me before and failed, this time wouldn't be any different. Mabus shrugged it off, said he'd show me why I was wrong. Pain didn't matter to Mabus, he was beyond that - but he was in Jordan's body, he could still harm her. Mabus put Jordan's arm in some flames and I snapped. Told him to stop. Wanted to kill him there and then. It only egged him on. Mabus told me Jordan was my weakness, said she was buried within him. She'd put up walls inside her head to keep Mabus out but he was too strong, he was chipping away at her. Soon the walls would fall and Jordan would be nothing but a memory. Didn't know how much of what Mabus was saying was true. Jordan could've been gone already. But I doubted it. She'd rather die than give into Mabus. I believed in her. That's when Mabus gave me a gun. Told me I couldn't kill him before, wanted to see it I could do it now. He told me Jordan was begging for me to end her pain. No way. Mabus wanted me to do this, which is exactly why I wouldn't. Didn't want to kill Jordan, didn't believe I could ... but if I had to, no way would it be on Mabus' terms. He had me on a leash. Told me Eddie'd given up the Nostradamus book, that I'd failed my best friend. Mabus said he'd killed Eddie. Told me I'd failed mankind. But I believed there'd be another after me, someone else to carry on the fight. It pissed Mabus off. He told me that every time he conquered a planet there was someone like me, someone who couldn't accept that they'd lost. Screw him. I was happy for it. If the Gua were so sure they were gonna win then why'd they care about the damn book. Told Mabus he wasn't all knowing -- his needing the book proved we still had a chance. And then he touched my head and showed me a future I can't believe is real. Horrible visions of an Apocalypse to come. Shoulda kept them to himself, it only made me more determined. The visions knocked me out. Woke up to find the Empiricist "healing" Mabus. Horrible scars and boils had formed on Jordan's back and shoulder - he was killing her from the inside. Mabus still needed another vessel. Offered myself up if he'd let Jordan go but Mabus said he liked Jordan's body, wondered if I didn't find it appealing? Couldn't take the bait. He was playing with my emotions, using my ... feelings for Jordan to manipulate me. Mabus was reveling in trying to break me but I got out of the leash / collar - clipped it onto Jordan's neck. Got the hell out of there. But Mabus caught me before I was through the first corridor. Grabbed the Empiricist to use as a living shield, thought it would help me make my way out of the facility. Mabus killed the Empiricist to catch me - said he didn't believe in bargaining. Put me in his incubation chamber. Thing looked like a giant tuna can, was meant to keep Mabus fresh until he could find another human body to inhabit. It would have a different affect on me. Mabus said I was about to experience "profound regret." Wasn't kidding. Heard the voices of all those who have died, Eddie and Joshua were telling me how I'd failed them. Jordan was there - she forgave me for what'd happened. We got close. It was a dream. Or maybe a nightmare. And I had a feeling I'd just given Mabus exactly what he wanted.
Black Box
Omega Quatrain 2. "In the west, near the rock mount, a load stone pulls opposing sides closer. The fallen signals war and guidance for the coming maelstrom." A loadstone is a magnet, which may connect to a powerful magnetic anomaly Eddie detected in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. We suspect it's the source of several mysterious satellite blackouts that have been baffling authorities. Could the loadstone be a Gua weapon designed to disable earth's defenses? I was starting to have doubts, until something dropped out of the sky. Had a feeling "the fallen" that "signals war" just made its first appearance. With Eddie complaining all the way, we hiked deep into the mountains. Found a device putting out high-magnetic readings but no one running it. Left the device and headed in the direction of the crash site. Found a fire, something had crashed, could have been a satellite or maybe a ship? Couldn't tell which yet. And we found something ... or someone, too. Joshua -- nothing like a little destruction from above to bring out our recently estranged ally. Joshua was interested in a specific piece of the wreckage, so I distracted him, sent Eddie to pick up the junk before Joshua could get away with it. Joshua wasn't thrilled to see me - he'd decided he was gonna fight Mabus on his own since I'd refused to kill the alien Anti-Christ in Jordan's body. Asked him why he was there? Joshua said he was investigating Mabus' new pet project - a vessel that had cloaking and spy capabilities. Joshua had shot it down. Said there was nothing of value left in the wreckage, told me we were both wasting our time. He was bluffing. No way he'd take the ship down for the heck of it, not with the Second Wave coming any day. Joshua thought the crew must have been incinerated in the crash but I'd noticed a footprint in the dirt leading away from the site. Joshua was definitely hiding something, but what? Eddie couldn't figure out what the "box" he'd lifted from under Joshua's nose was used for but he was gonna try to figure it out. Figured Joshua knew we had it but he'd taken off instead of trying to recover it again - he must have really been after the survivor. Left Eddie with the device and went after Joshua. Didn't need his cooperation to figure out what was going on. It was obvious Joshua wanted to play this the hard way. Good, I'm used to the hard way. While I was searching the woods for Joshua, Eddie made some headway with the box - said there was a substantial amount of electromagnetic resonance coming off of it - just like we'd seen in quantum pockets. Could've been some kind of portal - Eddie would need more time. Heard an explosion up ahead. Headed in that direction. Then I heard Joshua scream. Found the Gua crewmember first. She was cocky, told me it was her lucky day -- she was gonna finish Joshua and one-one-seven back-to-back. Joshua howled again in the distance. Sounded like he needed my help. Took the pilot and went looking for Joshua - he didn't answer any of my calls. The alien taunted me - told me Joshua had already dissolved. Didn't think so, Joshua was tougher than that. The alien said the vessel she'd crashed meant the end of mankind - didn't matter that they'd lost one, the Gua had dozens of the ships ready to strike the earth. She tried to pull a mini-grenade on me, turned the tables on her and pocketed it myself. Headed back to the crash site with the Gua prisoner, found Eddie who'd figured out what the "box" did. It was a Gua flight-recorder, a lot like an earth plane's black box, except this was a 3D version. We entered a "duplicate cockpit" inside a quantum pocket the box created - whatever happened in the real world was recorded in the parallel dimension inside the box. Eddie'd already lived through the crash simulation and didn't want to do it again. We scanned the flight recorder to help us figure out what else Joshua was looking for. Had to drug the alien pilot with salt to get her to talk. She said the ship had carried a warhead ten times as powerful as any human nuclear weapon. Didn't make sense, a bomb of that magnitude could destroy the entire planet - the Gua would have nothing left to live on. But the pilot said this bomb had no fallout - humans would die and the Gua would move right in. But why would Joshua want the warhead? Why would he keep it from us? Left Eddie with the drugged-up Gua and found Joshua. He was next to the warhead, almost dead, his wounds too severe to self-heal. Using a wonder-drug I'd taken from the pilot I was able to bring him back but Joshua was still pretty weak. Asked him what he planned to do with the warhead? He said, right now, Mabus had the element of surprise on his side, take that away from the Guahead and the planned invasion would fail. Joshua was going to set off the bomb. Earth would believe they were being attacked and unite -- the Gua would have to reconsider their strategy, maybe go home. Joshua felt the ends justified the means. Hundreds of thousands, even a million of human deaths are better than nineteen million Mabus promised. Joshua didn't want to see his own side slaughtered. This was war. I called it murder, and no way was I gonna let Joshua get away with it.
Beneath The Black Sky
Joshua said it best - we needed to understand the extent of Mabus' fist strike and the clock was counting down to the Second Wave. Checked out a lead that didn't pan out. Searched the woods in the dark, but it was a trap -- the Gua came after us - a fleet of assassins targeting us with laser tags. We split up, lost Joshua in the dark. Eddie fell behind me and then there was a blinding flash of light. And suddenly, I wasn't in Kansas anymore - it was some kind of void, howling snarls echoed throughout the place. Walls of crystal, maybe ice. Could hear Eddie calling for my help in the distance and then suddenly there was "another me." That same "other Cade" who rescued me from the Gua as a child - the first time they messed with my head. The quatrain which lead us to that discovery said "When twice three years and twice again, find secret skill in darkest hour. 'Tween bless'd and cursed, a third will come, or worlds consumed in battles fire." This other Cade appeared as my "adult self" then -- couldn't be sure it was the same guy, this could've been a Gua trick. Gun flew out of my hand; he was using some form of telekinesis. The twin told me he'd be back someday - now he was. Said he was there to prepare me for the fight of my life. His name was Xevallah and I believed he was the so-called "third" from the quatrain. If he had a skill to teach me he needed to be quick about it - Eddie and Joshua were out in the real world being hunted by the Gua. The Second Wave was happening in less than a week. Xevallah's timing couldn't have been worse. He arranged some strange stones in a circle at the center of the void. Told me there was nothing I could do for my friends, I just needed to pay attention to him and my surroundings. Asked me if I would risk what he had to teach me to save one man's life? He was talking about Eddie, damn right I would. Xevallah said I was safe within the circle, outside were my fears, my demons, and my nightmares. Big deal, my life had been a nightmare for the past three years. I wasn't afraid. And then he said something that really got my attention - I had the power to save Eddie AND stop the Second Wave. Didn't know what being in this void could teach me but figured I'd give Xevallah the chance to explain. He said I would gain insight into myself. Screw the self-help; I needed practical tools, a way to beat Mabus - a way to save Eddie! Xevallah said my perceptions would be brought to life in this place and only when I understood those perceptions would I be able to proceed. Then he started taunting me about the Raven Nation, said I'd let my army go. That I'd failed, let the Gua proceed to the "eve of their invasion." Things got ugly, pulled a knife on Xevallah, told me I needed to learn to respect the teacher and took my weapon away. Then he gave me his bio. He was from a place called Arkipova, a lush planet like earth. It was destroyed by a Gua invasion. He was one of the only survivors. He'd survived despite the odds, just like me. To Xevallah, the Gua were trying to hurt my "warrior spirit" - to drain the fight out of me. They'd killed Hannah to distract me, let me expose experiments even taken Jordan just to fuel my capacity for anger - Xevallah felt that hurt my development as a warrior. He took me to a place far away with a tap of his staff. It was his home, or so I thought. Looked like a wasteland. Using anger as a weapon resulted in the destruction of his planet, wanted me to understand the futility of my rage. Almost thought he had a point, but then I heard Eddie in the void - he sounded terrified. Xevallah cautioned me not to step outside the circle but my friend needed me. Eddie wasn't out there - terror was. I was hunted, helpless, hated the feeling - reminded me of the Gua - they killed my wife and I couldn't stop them. But Xevallah didn't think I should hate the Gua for killing humans - it was simply their nature. Nothing I could do could change that. He had to be wrong, they were predatory but that wasn't an excuse! Xevallah wanted me to let that go. He said hate and anger were an "impediment to the warrior." Hating the Gua couldn't change anything for Xevallah and it wouldn't for me. Hadn't I already avenged Hannah by killing the Acolyte who murdered her? That was true --fine. But there was still the little detail of the aliens trying to take our planet from us - I couldn't forgive them that. He gave me a test. Controlled my anger, passed. My reward was a rock from the circle - it absorbed into my hand. Xevallah told me to revel in it, save questions for another time. He gave me something to eat and drink, was unlike anything I'd ever tasted. Didn't surprise my host, said I'd just eaten the blood and heart of a great Gua warrior. Was sick - worse than I've ever felt before. Threw up my guts, wretched over - Xevallah said I was reacting to the essence of the warrior - that the illness would "purify" me. Started having visions - there was a hammer in the fabric of the void. The image was whoozy but it seemed familiar - like the weapon we'd used against the Gua a few weeks ago - the one we'd uncovered in the dig in the bus graveyard. Felt like hell, passed out. The sunofabitch had poisoned me! The Sensei disagreed, said the Gua had poisoned me, slowly but surely over the past few years -- now he'd cleansed me of that poison. Told me the hammer was the key. It would be of practical use in the final battle. Finally, something I could understand, something I could really use. Next test came up quick. Xevallah wanted me to put my hand in the flame of his staff. Didn't think so. But he was driving his words home - asked me if I had forgiven the Gua for killing Hannah? Told him no way. He told me the weight of the past would prevent me from winning. The way to victory was to be free of those events - I had to let go. I couldn't. I failed. We were running out of time, Xevallah insisted I work harder ... if I didn't, the earth would go up in flames. But how could I ever let what had happened to my friends go? The innocents, Hannah, Jordan ... I could never forgive the Gua for what they'd taken from me. But I wasn't gonna let them win either.
Terminal City
Final Omega Quatrain. Eddie called it the last chance. "Into the void must go the Twice Bless'd Man. Seek the hammer, as the seeker has sought before. In the courage to end, find the beginning, or death and darkness befall mankind." The hammer is the ultimate Gua weapon, able to move matter through a vortex in time and space. It could deliver an alien army to our doorstep in a heartbeat. Our only salvation was that the hammer had been lost in a vortex, beyond Mabus' grasp. Or so we thought. Joshua intercepted a Gua transport carrying a locator, a device meant to help the Gua locate the missing hammer. Our only hope was finding the weapon before Mabus did. Eddie and Joshua rigged a device to get me into the vortex; once inside, the locator would lock onto the energy of the hammer and guide me toward it. Downside: There was no way back. Only the hammer could bring me home. It was succeed or die. And if Mabus got there first, there wouldn't be much to come home to. Joshua asked me if I was ready. Was I ready? I'd been fighting the Gua for three years. I'd traveled to the future, been killed, brought back to life, trained by an alien sensei this was as ready as I'd ever be. Joshua didn't think any of that mattered if I wasn't prepared to face the hardest part of my journey I'd have to kill Mabus in Jordan's body to win this fight. For me that was the absolute last option, but if it had to be done, I'd do it. Jordan would've wanted it. Into the vortex I went. Found myself under Gua fire right off the bat. There was a sign: "Terminal City: Forbidden Zone. Condemned by the Gua Military Council." Bullets had me running for cover. There was a girl there, looked like Raven Nation, name was Taryn. She knew who I was. She took my locator, figured me for an "AC" - Assassination Clone. I was in the future again; the invasion had already happened. Then I was face-to-face with myself, but this time I was nine years older and I looked like hell. The "future me," a guy Taryn called "the Commander," wouldn't believe I was real; he said no one could stop the Second Wave. But if the Commander really was me, then I should've known what I was doing there. Confusing, I know, but stay with me. My future self was bitter, angry. Said he knew all about the hammer and that the plan wouldn't work. He'd already fought for a decade, watched humans hunted and exterminated and all they had left to fight for was this hellish future. He'd failed, which meant I was wasting my friggin' time. He destroyed the locator. In an instant, he'd killed us all. The fight for the future was over. And Mabus was in the vortex now, too. The older Cade was afraid that, if he helped me, history would repeat itself. Thing is, I didn't know what the history was. Eddie and Joshua entered the vortex behind me; I wish they hadn't, but Joshua wanted to be sure someone came out with the weapon. Taryn seemed intrigued by me... wanted to know more about why I was there, told me Eddie was dead in this future, started asking questions about Jordan. Taryn said her Commander had loved Jordan and that Jordan had been a martyr for the resistance the Commander didn't talk about Jordan much. It killed me to know Mabus had finally finished Jordan off. The Commander came to see me. I realized he still had the hammer in his possession. We talked about the prophecy, he'd had to choose between Jordan and the hammer and he'd chosen the weapon it wasn't an easy call to make. Said I'd do the same it was the only way to stop the Second Wave. But the Commander had lost something in letting Jordan go it broke his spirit, dulled his skill all he'd been taught meant nothing. He couldn't control the weapon when he had to. Then he told me how Jordan died the Commander said I killed her. She was so close he could see her eyes when he did it, he could see Jordan was still inside Mabus. "I" shot her through the heart. Mabus died too, but the Second Wave came anyway. Commander said this time it would be different; Jordan wouldn't die because he wouldn't let me kill her again. He was gonna let Mabus get the hammer this time Jordan would live! Figured I'd become insane in the future. Wanted to make things right, but the future me couldn't believe we had a chance. We couldn't both exist in the same time period, not for long. We were deteriorating. The Commander felt one single act could change the world, and he wanted "us" to disappear from both our realties. Figured whatever happened, the world would get another chance if "we" hadn't existed. He was just hoping the next spin would be better than his own. The Commander was playing with all our fates, but I believed he was wrong. Got out of my cell and went after the hammer. I could still stop the Second Wave if I got there first. See, there was a difference between the future Commander and Cade Foster today: he'd given up. I hadn't. I will stop the Second Wave.
Twice Bless'd
Would everything end where it begins? That's what I was wondering in the final hours. Stuck in a psychiatric ward, integrated by doctors who believed I was crazy. I believed they were human, if they weren't I would have been dead. Not that it mattered, the invasion was upon us and humanity didn't want to know a thing about it. One thing was for sure; they'd know when the war was upon us. Kept telling the Shrinks that 19 million people would die on the first day and that we were all screwed. Told a new Doc about the alien anti-Christ named Mabus. She wanted to know how I'd survived my fights with the demon if he was really so all-powerful? I didn't have an answer - they had me talking in circles. Were doing the same thing to Jordan, trying to convince her the Raven Nation didn't exist. Telling her she'd been manipulated by me, pulled into some grand lie. They told Joshua he wasn't an alien at all. Said he was a staff sergeant for the U.S. Marines, told him he had kids. Eddie was just plain crazy, they didn't have to tell him otherwise. They kept us from each other but I could hear Eddie in his cell. Said he'd found a fifth Omega Quatrain coded in the algorithm of the other quatrains: "As the Second Wave is nigh, four must be chained strong as one, hammer can smite victory if honor is granted to Xevallah." But we still needed to find the hammer! And we were locked away with a bunch of non-believers! Felt like I was going crazy myself. Probably sound like it here. Until I heard the crap they were selling Jordan, then I got mad. They taunted her about our relationship. Told her my journals talked about what happened between us, meaning Mabus and I, when I was his prisoner. Jordan told them they had no idea what she'd been through - she was right, none of us did. Then they told her she was some kind of victim who'd fallen in love with a wife murderer who'd used her. She was just like any other abused women, maybe she was worse? Told me I'd gone on a countrywide killing spree, murdering innocent people under the guise of a quest to stop an alien invasion. It wasn't true. It wasn't! Could it be? Jordan even asked me if someone who was insane could tell they were insane? And then I woke up from the nightmare. It was all a Gua security measure - they'd bombarded us with a mind-altering device. We were together - Jordan, Eddie, even Joshua. And we were at ground zero. A gua bunker holding the army of the Second Wave - football fields of husks. The invasion wasn't on its way, it was already here! An invasion from above without an aerial attack. It must've taken years to grow the husks. Joshua didn't think it was possible to download that many consciousnesses at once. He'd need an unbelievable power source - we were missing something. If Mabus had his army ready, what was he waiting for? Decided to start searching for the download mainframe. Joshua and Jordan were at odds, neither trusting the other. Good thing I trusted them both. Eddie figured Mabus was using the hammer as a power source; it was the only thing that made sense. That's when we all got caught. And sent back to the delusion. Back to the mental hospital. That's where Jordan remembered the husk they'd built for Mabus, growing in an incubation chamber. Believed it was our baby - Mabus had used our bodies to make the perfect husk for his consciousness. It was one of the reasons the Gua had kept me alive. And the others were all losing out to the delusion. They didn't want to believe. They'd lobotomized Eddie, convinced Joshua he was human and Jordan had committed suicide. She left a note that read: "believe." Now it was just between Mabus and I. He offered me a bargain: continue trying to return to the bunker or live inside the delusion where at least I could stay alive. Told him to go to hell. Then he offered me the chance to save my wife, Hannah, I could go back and undo the past. The hammer would give me the power. But it was something I'd never do. The past got us here and leaving it alone was the only way I could be sure we'd never have to live through this nightmare again. Broke out of the delusion and we all figured it out. Mabus needed me to power the download - it required both of us. Jordan and the crew thought I needed to get the hell out of the bunker. Knew that wasn't the right move. Had to ask them one thing, same thing I'm asking you all. Believe in me. This is our final battle.