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3.18 CHECK MATE By Eddie Nambulous Mabus called it a Checkmate. My precious trailer, my home, was torn to shreds by Gua machine guns. The aliens kidnapped Cade. I figured it couldn't get any worse. Then I met Sagon - a Gua interrogator. He wanted to know everything I knew about this fight - he wanted the lost book of Nostradamus. I'm here to tell the tale so you know I survived. Eddie ain't gonna go down. I'm here for the duration. But this time surviving sure wasn't easy. The proof is in the details. Sagon got his rocks off through torture - guess it was his specialty. He wanted my files - wanted the entire hard drive from my super computer. He started copying them, but Sagon wasn't any idiot. Sure he looked kinda pasty, maybe a little yellow around the edges, like a guy who smoked too much, but he had an edge - razor sharp. Sagon knew he needed my code to decrypt the files. He pulled out some real ugly needles, said they'd been forged from a metal found on another planet the Gua had conquered. Guess that kind of thing was no biggie for a race that rapes and pillages for kicks. The metal altered the neural pathways of the body, eliciting the most indescribable pain. Resisting made it worse. So I did just that. I fought it and Sagon wasn't blowing smoke (pun intended) - this stuff was killing me. The needle disappeared within my wrist and I gave up the code. Hated doing it, but being dead didn't sound any better. I broke. And then he asked about the book. I didn't give up the location, but I did pass out. When I came to I got a needle in the eye. Sagon had the book. He phoned home. Mabus knew he had the last piece of the puzzle he called Earth. Sagon was about to torch the trailer when my knight in black shining leather arrived - Joshua Bridges. He took Sagon out. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a Gua. Joshua had been monitoring Gua activities and saw how active they'd suddenly become. He knew about the stuff at Stareman Plaza where we'd lost Jordan, knew the Gua had taken out the Raven Nation and knew Mabus would send his storm troopers after us next. Felt like telling Joshua he was too late. Cade was already gone. Showed Joshua the Book, something I never imagined I'd do in this lifetime ... or even the next ten or twelve. Joshua studied the cover carefully - guess he never imagined he'd have it in his hands either. He told me he'd seen the cover symbol before, long ago. To him it represented a race of scholars and philosophers the Gua had quickly decimated in the past. That's where he'd lost me. See, you guys know this symbol like the back of your toes. It's the cornerstone of every conspiracy theory known to man. Key word: man. No way could it be alien. Each point of the triangle represented a state of being: intellectual, spiritual and physical. The ruby eye was a union of all three, it represented the astral plane. I ran my fingers over the points and the eye started glowing. I'd never seen the book do that before. And it wasn't done with its parlor tricks. The books cover revealed another secret: a sheet of Omega Quatrains. The final quatrains, designed as a last resort. But they were written in Aramaic, which was a real stumper. Joshua was sure he'd seen the language before. On that same planet he swore the symbol came from. Which was, let's face it, impossible, cause it meant Nostradamus BROUGHT Aramaic to this planet, which would mean NOSTRADAMUS WAS AN ALIEN! I've asked you to åBelieve the Unbelievable' before but even I was having a tough time with this one. Turns out we didn't have much time to dwell on the brain-squishing news. The computer had deciphered the first omega quatrain. It read like this: "Face and subdue the Multiple, cast through invisible sound. Tame and skin the beast, to live for tomorrow's time." Made immediate sense to me. MPD -- Multiple Personality Disorder. The C.I.A. had done studies on it using sound treatments. Low frequency sounds frequently subdued the second personality. If we could use such a treatment on Jordan than maybe we could subdue Mabus' psyche and "skin the beast!" åRound here we call that one friggin' hell of an exorcism! Convinced Joshua to go in and get Foster out. He thought it was suicide but I wasn't taking no for an answer. I told Joshua that no matter what the odds he knew Cade would do the same for him. He'd done it before. He could use Sagon to get into the bunker. Joshua told me he'd be back ... but this time with Foster AND Jordan. Mabus was worried about a union of Foster and Jordan for a while - felt it could bring about his destruction. The Guahead figured since that hadn't happened yet maybe he'd had it wrong. In fact, he realized a literal union of Foster and Jordan might give him exactly what he needed - a body to conquer us in. Foster was broken. Couldn't believe what had happened. He'd been duped into creating a life with Jordan that could spell the end of humanity. And Mabus had the demon seed locked up in Jordan's body. Using the low frequency device I rigged Foster and Joshua were able to free Jordan's psyche from Mabus but only temporarily. She begged Cade to leave her with the Gua, with Mabus. She told Cade to fight on for the chance to win tomorrow. It killed him but Cade let Jordan pose as Mabus so he and Joshua could get out of the bunker safely. He told Jordan he'd see her again - he promised. And he meant it. I'd never seen Cade so defeated, he had to look into Jordan's eyes and leave her to such a horrible fate. Nothing could've hurt him worse. Joshua went off to fight alone and though Cade didn't want to leave Jordan he knew he had to fight on for another day. We have to look ahead; we can only fight for the future. In time, there will be another chance. It's something we more than know; it's something we believe. READ CADE'S CORRESPONDING JOURNAL
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