First Wave Episode Rating Graph

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 sta

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 wa

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

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

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 dest

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 pl

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

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.

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 wo

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

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

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 Nostrad

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 wi

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.

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.

Contacting his late wife's best friend for help, Cade discovers that she and other members of an exclusive club are the subjects of an alien experiment that uses a parasitic blue worm to read people's memories.

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

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.

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

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.'

""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 look

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'

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.

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.

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 pocket

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

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

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.

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 P

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 hostag

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

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

""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