Checkmate
By Kenneth Hill
A Braden Mezo Adventure
From Hill Family Publishing
Chapter 1
Chess
Ken studied the chess board intently. His grandson was undefeated at
the game. Maybe that would change today. He picked up the dice and
rolled an eight. Not bad, he thought. His bishop jumped two of Braden’s
pawns, capturing both. With a little luck, he could win on his next turn.
“Good move, Grandpa,” Braden said. “Now watch the Chess Master.”
He blew on the dice for luck and rolled a double three. His rook took his
Grandpa’s queen and a pawn while he used a pawn to capture a knight. Ken
reached for the dice but Braden stopped him. “I rolled doubles, Grandpa.
That means I get another turn.” Ken smiled. He hadn’t heard that rule
before. Braden’s next roll captured his grandpa’s remaining pieces.
“Checkmate!” Braden declared. He was still undefeated. “Wanna play
again, Grandpa?”
“Not sure we’ll have time. President Bush called on the radio earlier.
I told him you would call back after the game.” He tossed Braden a radio.
“PP9USA calling President Bush. Do you copy? Over.”
The president’s voice came back over the speaker, sounding strangely
similar to Ken’s, only muffled. “PP9USA, this is President Bush. Braden,
our agents have spotted Billy Wildman in your area. Your mission is to find
out what he’s up to and to kill all his henchmen.”
“Roger, Mister President. PP9USA out.”
“President Bush, out.”
“Sounds like a simple mission,” Ken said, “but where do we start?”
Braden caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. His quick
reflexes probably saved their lives. He dived across the room and grabbed a
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machine gun, then fired two quick bursts at the window. “Henchmen,” he
said.
“Or Jehovah’s Witnesses,” his grandpa replied.
They went outside to check the bodies and saw the black sedan
speeding away. “Henchmen,” Braden confirmed.
They searched the bodies and Ken found a paper in one of the
pockets. “It looks kind of like a map but it’s divided into a grid.”
“Looks kind of like a chessboard,” Braden observed. “But why would
Wildman send only two henchmen? I’ll bet he wanted us to find the map.
Those two poor suckers were set up.”
Ken thought about it for a minute. “My guess is that he’s bored and
he wants a game. Probably figures you’re the only one who could give him
some competition. The problem is that his games are life and death!”
“Well,” Braden replied, “I’m a little bored myself. Let the game
begin!”
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Chapter 2
The Queen
Billy Wildman thought it was good to be on his own again. Viper had
moved to Hong Kong and was closing a business deal that was worth
billions. His brother, George, was in Saudi Arabia with some sort of arms
deal. This left him totally free to plan his revenge on Braden. He had been
holed up in this underground fortress in Wolf Lake, IL for the past two
weeks making plans. He couldn’t wait to get into action.
Billy looked over a larger version of the chessboard map. The trap
was perfect. Braden would either play the game or else. Wildman had seen
to that.
The object of the game was to capture the king, in this case, President
Bush. Not that he had anything against the president. It was sort of ironic
that in this game, the king was really no more than a pawn. The clues were
subtle but he was sure that Braden would catch on.
The two henchmen had served their purpose. It was no different than
sacrificing a couple of pawns. Braden and his grandpa would be studying
the map by now and wondering what he was up to. It was time for his next
move. The plan called for weakening Braden’s defenses before going for
the king. He would attack the queen.
---Amy glanced over at Braden in the passenger seat. “Braden, you’ve
been studying that piece of paper for hours. What’s on it?”
“It’s a map that Billy Wildman sent me. I think it’s some kind of
game but I don’t know the rules.”
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Amy smiled. “That’s never stopped you before. Just make them up
as you go.”
“Good idea.” He glanced around outside and then looked back at the
map. “According to the map, I think this is where we get ambushed! Here,
you better take this gun.” Braden handed his mom a 47 Magnum revolver.
“There they are now!” he yelled, firing his machine shotgun out the window.
There were at least three hundred henchmen attacking the little black
Passport. “They’re coming up behind us in a tank!”
“Good thing you and dad put the armor and weapons on my car.” She
pressed a button on the dash. The taillight swung open and a rocket took out
the tank. She then turned her attention to the attack helicopters, firing at
least twenty shots with the revolver before reloading.
Braden’s arms were starting to get sore. He was firing his twelvegauge machine shotgun with one hand and throwing hand grenades with the
other. It was all he could do to keep the attackers at bay.
It was a fierce battle that lasted all the way to Kroger. “Mom, they
may be inside. We better take our guns with us in the store.”
“I don’t think so, son. According to the rules, they can’t attack us
inside Kroger.”
The guns were left in the car and Braden wondered how his mom
knew so much about the rules.
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Chapter 3
The Knight
Billy wasn’t at all happy with the reports that were coming in. He
plotted the attack on the map. The pattern looked perfect but the results just
didn’t fit. It was the rocket launcher that came as a complete surprise. He
couldn’t remember Amy’s Honda Passport ever having weapons or armor
before. He was beginning to suspect that Braden wasn’t playing by the
rules. “No problem,” he thought. “The game is just beginning.” He
conceded the first round to Braden. It was time for round two.
The next move would remove Braden’s knight from the board. That
would be his meddling Grandpa Ken. Get him out of the way and rest of the
game will be a piece of cake. “Your luck can’t hold out forever, Mezo!”
---“So, Wildman’s henchmen tried to take out you and your mom on the
way to Kroger?” Ken asked from underneath the rear of Amy’s SUV. He
and Braden were reloading the rocket launcher. “At least he didn’t attack on
the way back home. A stray bullet may have hit the beer or the steaks.”
“Grandpa, this is serious. We’ve got to find out what he’s up to!”
“I think I already know his evil plan. I’ll bet he was trying to ruin our
bar-b-que. Anyway, the rocket launcher is reloaded and the armor seems to
have held up just fine.”
“I’ve been studying the map and I think the next attack will be down
at the edge of the woods. If we get down there before they set up, we can
booby trap the area with land mines and win this round before it even starts.”
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Ken thought it over. “I like it. We can have the landmines in place
before the steaks are done and Wildman’s henchmen won’t be able to
interrupt our meal. And I still think that’s Wildman’s plan.”
They gathered up as many landmines as they could carry and headed
down the hill towards the edge of the woods. Braden compared the map
with the area they were in. “I know we’re in the right spot but something
doesn’t fit. I’m just not sure what it is yet.”
“Has your mom or anyone been working down here lately?” Ken
asked. “There are a lot of fresh foot prints around these trees.”
Braden studied the footprints and then the trees. “That’s it! Don’t
move, Grandpa,” he yelled. “These thorny vines growing around the base of
the trees aren’t from around here. They’re a native of South America and
very rare and extremely poisonous. Someone planted them here. One
scratch and you’ll be dead in less than twenty minutes without the antidote.”
“Then I guess I’m a goner.” He looked at the blood running down his
arm.
Braden pulled a bottle from his pocket. “Catch,” he said, tossing the
bottle. “It’s the antidote.”
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Chapter 4
The Bishop
“Oh, come on!” Wildman yelled. “He just happened to have the
antidote to a rare, poisonous vine in his pocket?” Now he was sure Braden
was cheating. He made some marks on the chessboard map. The picture
was starting to take shape. Maybe Braden wouldn’t see the big picture until
it was too late. Billy would have to make sure of it.
The attacks were all part of an equation that once solved, would give
Braden the final clue. The bishop would be the only person with the math
background needed to plot the equation and fill in the picture. Cindy would
have to go!
Everything was in place, including the remote camera he had set up to
observe the results. His spies had just reported that Cindy had left for town
and Braden was riding with her. This was better than he had hoped for.
Now, he would take out both of them. Billy radioed his henchmen and had
them set the signs in place. He then smiled as he eyed the remote control
button that would release his pets.
---“Thanks for taking me with you into town, Cindy. What are you
getting Grandpa for his birthday?”
“Tools. What are you getting him?”
“I thought I’d get him a new gun. What do those signs say up there?”
“I’m sure he’ll like the gun,” Cindy said smiling. “They say the
bridge is closed for repairs and we’ll have to follow the detour. They must
have just started the repair work. The bridge was fine the other day.”
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Once Cindy’s Chrysler made the turn onto the side road and was out
of sight, Wildman’s henchmen quickly loaded the signs into the back of a
pickup and sped away. Another detour sign had them turning on a remote,
narrow little road. It came to a dead-end in the middle of the Shawnee
National Forest.
“I don’t like this,” Cindy said.
“Me either,” Braden agreed, grabbing his twelve-gauge machine
shotgun. “According to my game map, this is where we get attacked. Better
take this.” He handed Cindy the 47 Magnum.
The two got out of the car and were scanning the area for henchmen.
What they didn’t see were the hundreds of poisonous snakes that were
heading for them. Billy Wildman had released them from their cages by
remote control.
Misty, Braden’s faithful pit bull, sensed her master in danger. She
leaped from the car and sunk her teeth into a snake that was just about to
strike Braden! Killing the snake instantly, she flung it into the woods.
Misty went from snake to snake, killing and flinging.
She didn’t have to do the work all by herself. Braden and Cindy
opened fire. Cindy blew the head off one snake just as it started its strike at
Misty’s hind leg. When the snakes were all taken care of, Braden noticed
the camera in one of the trees. He waved to Billy Wildman and then blew it
away with the twelve-gauge. The air was thick with gun smoke.
“Let’s go get Grandpa’s presents,” Braden said.
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Chapter 5
The King
Billy Wildman jumped from his chair and pounded his fist on the
desk. “Where did the dog come from?” he yelled. “No one said anything
about a dog! That’s cheating!” He’d never been so angry. “The game is not
over yet, Mezo. Now, the king dies!”
---“Did you and Braden have fun on the way to the store,” Ken asked.
“It was interesting,” Cindy replied, smiling.
“Yeah,” Braden added, “Billy Wildman tried to kill us with a bunch of
poison snakes. Good thing Misty was there.”
“She’s such a good dog,” Amy said, hugging Misty’s neck. “Aren’t
you, girl?”
“So, is the game over?” Ken asked his favorite grandson.
“I don’t think so. The map is pretty much covered but I think it’s just
another clue.”
“Let me see it,” Cindy said. “We’ll plot the attacks on the map and
see if we come up with anything.”
Amy started by filling in the squares on the map with the tank, the
helicopters, and the henchmen. Ken followed by sketching the poisonous
vines. Finally, Cindy and Braden filled in the location of the snake cages
and the camera.
Cindy stared at the map. “If you think of the attacks as an equation,”
she began, doing the computations in her head. “Carry the one,” she
continued, still calculating. “Then plot the results, we may have a clue.”
She picked up a pencil and began putting her results down on the map grid.
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“Hey,” Braden exclaimed, “that looks like a picture of the White
House. You don’t think his next attack would be on President Bush, do
you?”
“Could be,” Ken said. “Guess you and I are going to go save him,
right?”
“I think we better!” Braden exclaimed. “How else can I win the
game?”
“Just don’t take too long,” Cindy added. “I’m ready to go home
soon.”
Braden went to his room and grabbed a couple of flight helmets. He
tossed one to his grandpa. “Let’s get Wildman,” he said with a determined
look. The two boarded “The Phoenix”, Braden’s private fighter jet, and took
off for the nation’s capital.
“Braden, do you think we’ll take him on in the air or on the ground?”
Ken asked.
“It’ll be in the air,” Braden replied.
“What makes you think so?”
Braden turned to stare at his grandpa. “Because we’re playing by my
rules!”
“That made sense,” Ken thought.
“According to the map, we should be meeting him right around here.”
Braden was ready for a fight.
As if on queue, they heard the sound of bullets strike the Kevlar armor
of the little plane. Ken lowered the 50 caliber machine gun and returned fire
as Braden put the Pheonix into a dive. Wildman had fired a missile at them
but Braden had anticipated the move. He pulled back on the stick at the last
second to break the dive and the missile exploded harmlessly in a corn field.
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Now, it was Braden’s move. He rolled the plane in behind Wildman
and fired his own rocket, not at Billy but at the base of a huge tower off to
the left. The tower came crashing down to the right. Wildman pulled back
hard and left on the stick, just missing the falling tower. “That was too
close,” Billy thought.
Billy’s next move was to lure Braden out over the ocean where he
could bring other pieces into play. With Braden hot on his tail, Wildman
flew toward what looked like an innocent fishing boat. He brought them in
low and close to his trap.
Ken caught the flash of the rocket from the boat out of the corner of
his eye. He instinctively swung the big machine gun around and fired. The
missile exploded less than thirty yards from the right wing.
Braden used his next move to send a rocket to the enemy boat.
“Another piece gone,” he said.
Wildman was through playing. He swung the plane around and
headed straight for Braden less than fifty feet above the ocean. It was the
ultimate game of chicken. They were less than a mile apart and closing fast.
Braden gritted his teeth and held his course and speed.
Less than one half mile apart, Ken had targeted Wildman’s plane and
he had his finger ready on the fire button. Not that he thought it would do
any good.
At one quarter mile apart, Billy was beginning to wonder if he made
the right move. He had counted on Braden losing his nerve before now.
The two planes were less than five hundred feet apart when Braden
made his final move. He shoved the throttle full forward, committing them
to their flight path. The little jet shot forward with fire pouring from the
afterburner.
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The move caught Wildman totally off guard. He pushed the stick
forward and dove underneath the Phoenix, missing it by inches, and ditched
his fighter in the ocean.
“Checkmate!” Braden said triumphantly.
On the flight home, Ken had to ask, “Why didn’t you just finish him
off while you had the chance. He was a sitting duck!”
Braden couldn’t believe his grandpa would ask that. “I followed the
president’s orders! Besides, I may want a rematch someday. That was a
good game.”
The end
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Acknowledgments
This is another story that I can’t take full credit for. Amy and Braden helped
with a lot of the ideas during the “First Annual Pilot Express ‘Strive for
Ecxellence’ Tax Deductible Summer Picnic.” I think my mom may be also
partially to blame. I thank them all for their help and hope you enjoy the
Braden Mezo Adventures.
Ken
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