"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.