hextraterrestrial | Sigillvm Sanctvm Fraternitatis (Reply)

After a short distance away from the temple, Fredrick Mudi had to take pause. He needed to park and plan some logistics on his situation. He needed some mental reinforcement. Almost everything that Gooch had spoke to him had hit home; even if Fred didn't want to admit it. His gut was turning in upon itself and his heart ached behind his sternum. He had to stop moving, had to stop driving, stop thinking, stop doing - anything. He needed to just be still. Like Gooch had said, Fred was over-analytical and was now realizing how true it was. He was going bat-shit crazy, in circles trying to fill in the gaps in his memory.

It was mid afternoon, Fred had pulled over and was parked behind a small shopping center by some dumpsters. He was sitting in an orange, 1983 Pinto and was smoking another cigarette, he was taking stock of his life. More in particular, he was trying to sort out this year known as 2017. He turned the radio down while trying to think. A moment later he just shut the radio completely off. Even the soothing sounds of classic rock where now agitating to him. He sighed a heavy sigh and felt the weight on his shoulders momentarily relax. After exhaling, the world closed back in on him, forcing his shoulders and eyes down.

The spiderbot "Bootsy" was still crawling Fred's prearranged list of servers and collecting a file on the cloud. He didn't bother opening any of them. He just slipped the phone back into his pocket. "First things first" he said to himself. He hopped out the pinto and opened the back hatch. Rifling under some dirty clothes, a blanket and a tire iron, he found his laptop, closed the hatch and returned to the drivers seat. He opened the glove box and retrieved the external hard drive that Taniguci had given him and then booted his pc. He flicked his cigarette butt out the window onto the asphalt.

He couldn't get it out of his head. Someone or something had messed with his mind. The only clue he had was nothing more than a hunch and it wasn't very reassuring. Although it did make Fred realise that there had to be a reason for someone to erase (or was it more like 'steal'?) his memories. His second conclusion was that this was no hodgepodge operation. Selective memory erasing? That had to be a highly sophisticated and advanced maneuver. Likely the work of of some military or government operations. Someone like Hydra, or some other corporate front. What did Fred happen to known that was taken from him? Why was his whole life suddenly under a whole new form of self scrutiny? At what point did he stop becoming himself? At what point would "they" (whoever they are) take such actions against him? And why?

Between what Gooch had told him of relaunching their old company "Knight Tech” and the likelihood that the military had put a microchip in his head, Fred’s mind drifted towards all the possible threats to his life. He needed some protection, some reassurance. Ah, the smell of burnt black powder! It was somehow signaled and he could actually smell it for a second. A plethora of images came to him, a double barrel shotgun, a 9mm pistol, a fully mod’d AR-15, outdoor shooting ranges, the old Madrid armory, dismounted Baghdad patrols, and his favorite place to shoot in the mountains. He called that place Area 52.

Fred had to look under his laptop at the password again before pecking it in. He jacked the external hard drive into the computers usb port and waited for recognition. A single folder appeared. The folder was entitled "Do Not Read". Fred laughed a rather sarcastic laugh while clicking it. The widow burst open with a full screen of folders. He scrolled down a bit unveiling pages and pages of folders. He randomly opened a folder and selected a text document:

Initiates and the profane.

A.A. Sigillvm Sanctvm Fraternitatis

“Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.” - AL 1:15

Scarlet Women

Babylon, Mother of Abominations

Isis

Oak King

Holly Tree

Dark Pan