The X-Files - 1.

1.23
The Erlenmeyer Flask

US Airdate: May 13, 1994

<-SHIPWORKS; ARLIS, MARYLAND->

(A car speeds down a small hill in the road, followed by a police car
with sirens blaring. The car goes up a short hill and catches a few feet
of air before hitting the ground. The police car does the same.
The car does a sharp left turn as it passes a train. The train honks
its horn as the police car follows pattern. The man in the car looks
in his rear-view mirror.)

WOMAN ON APB WIRE: About your request for assistance, Fifty,
what is your present location? Unit Fifty, go ahead.

(The man in the passenger's side talks into the transmitter.
The cars race through a gate into a shipworks.)

OFFICER #1: Suspect is now westbound. Has entered the shade of
the shipworks off April Street. Unit Fifty still in pursuit, over.

WOMAN ON APB WIRE: A roger, Unit Fifty, I copy.
Be advised when you are...

(A truck backs up and the man swerves around it. The officer looks to
his partner, a heavy-set man, who slams on the brakes and swerves
to a halt. They drive around the truck. The man drives into a pier area
with a dead end. He smashes into some boxes, seeing the police
behind him. The skinnier officer gets on the bullhorn.)

OFFICER #1: This is the police! Pull your vehicle over and step out!
Stop your vehicle. Put your hands on the roof and freeze!

(He turns around and sees the car coming towards him. He gets out.
Nearly stumbling over a box, he runs to the fence behind him and jumps up.
The heavier officer hits him in the back of the knee with the nightstick,
sending him falling.)

Hold it!

(The suspect tries to get up but is met with more nightstick shots to
the back.)

OFFICER #2: Get down there!

OFFICER #1: On the ground! Do it!

(The fatter one continues to prod him with it.)

OFFICER #2: Did you hear me?

OFFICER #1: Face down! Do it!

OFFICER #2: Stay there! Get down!

(A second police car pulls up. The suspect shrugs off the last shot to
the head and grabs the first officer's nightstick. He swings it into his
kneecap, nearly shattering it. The officer goes down in pain. A third
officer gets out as the man drives the nightstick into the fat officer's
gut, then smashes him in the face with it. The cop flies back into
some boxes. The third officer runs to their aid, only to be greeted
with a blow to the chest. A fourth officer, a young man, gets out
and aims his taser at the man, who looks on his shock. The two
conductors fly out and hit the man on his chest. He simply looks
at them and pulls them out, then runs up a flight of stairs for boats.
Two more cars pull up.)

OFFICER #4: Stop! Armed officer!

(The fourth officer takes out his gun and shoots the man in the side.
He flinches. The officer shoots at him again as the man jumps off the
stairs and into the water an incredible distance. The fourth officer and
another one run up and look at the rippling water.)

I hit him. I know I hit him. Where the hell did he go?
He'd be bleeding bad.

(The fourth officer notices some strange green spots on the last step.
They look at each other, confused.)


<-SUNDAY, MAY 8, 1994->

(Mulder is asleep on his couch. The TV is playing.
Two scientists are talking in the show.)

MAN #1: ...off the coast of Italy.

MAN #2: But, but theirs is a very light larvae.

MAN #1: That's exactly what stumped me. Because inside there must
be something, the weight of the heaviest rock in existence.

MAN #2: But, professor, that... that would be Icelandic peridotite.

MAN #1: Precisely.

MAN #2: There's a piece chipped off.

MAN #1: By me.

MAN #2: Well, what, what's the rock inside?

MAN #1: Icelandic peridotite, naturally.

(The phone rings. Mulder wakes up.)

When I saw this, I stopped chipping.

MAN #2: In a rock from Iceland?

(Mulder picks up the phone.)

MULDER: Mulder.

(Cut to Deep Throat, at an unknown dark location.)

DEEP THROAT: Are you watching channel eight?

(Deep Throat hangs up. Mulder hangs up the phone and sits up.)

MAN #2: ...across the world.

MAN #1: What's your conclusion?

MAN #2: Science does not jump to conclusions. Science is not a
guessing game...

(Mulder changes the channel to channel eight, where the news is on.
They are at the pier where the man jumped in.)

FEMALE REPORTER: ...Shipworks, where a sixty-mile high speed
car chase ended early this evening. The suspect eluded capture by
leaping into the harbor but not before reportedly injuring several Ardis
officers.

(Mulder takes a video tape and puts into the VCR, then presses record.)

We have Captain Roy Lacerio standing by. Captain? How was the man
able to escape and how seriously injured were the officers involved?

LACERIO: Those details are still unclear, I'll be talking with several of
the off...

(A man comes over.)

MAN: We need you, Captain.

LACERIO: I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me.

FEMALE REPORTER: Captain Roy Lacerio here being pulled away
during an intense manhunt.

(Lacerio walks past a number of people, a few of which are not police
officers and are wearing trenchcoats. Mulder rewinds the tape.)

Captain Roy Lacerio here being pulled away during an intense...


<-FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(He pauses the tape.)

SCULLY: Mulder, you've been through this tape a hundred times.
What exactly are you hoping to find?

MULDER: I don't know.

(He presses a button on a machine and a picture prints out of the current
shot. It is of the various men in trenchcoats as Lacerio walks by.
He looks at the picture. A man in the front is very evident.)

SCULLY: And all he told you to was to watch channel eight?

MULDER: Yeah, that's all he said.

SCULLY: Do we even know why the suspect was being chased?

MULDER: As far as I can tell, he wouldn't pull over for a moving violation.

SCULLY: Well, that ought to put him in the Ten Most Wanted list.

MULDER: There's got to be something here. Some detail.
Something we're not seeing.

(He prints out a picture of the silver Ciera the suspect was driving.
Scully looks at it.)

SCULLY: How do you know he's not just yanking your chain,
this Deep Throat character?

MULDER: Why would he do that?

SCULLY: Well, he has lied to you by his own admission.

MULDER: I don't think he'd call if there wasn't something here...
something I was supposed to see. Something he wants me to see.

SCULLY: Then what are you missing?


<-SHIPWORKS; ARLIS, MARYLAND->

(Lacerio looks at the picture of the various people as Mulder and Scully
look at him. Various people talk to each other in the background.
Lacerio gives the picture back.)

LACERIO: Well, I don't know if you were aware but there were three
different law enforcement agencies out here last night.

MULDER: Hunting a man on a moving violation?

LACERIO: I know it's not "Silence of the Lambs," but it's what we do.

MULDER: The man in the photograph doesn't appear to be wearing a
badge or a uniform. He's not one of yours?

LACERIO: No, sir. But like I said, it was a zoo out here.

MULDER: You say the suspect was shot.

(They look at a scuba diver falling backwards off of a boat,
searching the water.)

Any explanation why the body hasn't been recovered?

LACERIO: Well, as you can see, we've got our search ongoing.
Divers down there in shifts. We're quite certain he'll be found.

MULDER: It's been almost eighteen hours, Captain.
Where could the body be?

LACERIO: Well, there are cables and debris all over the bottom.
It's a painstaking business. Can I ask what the F.B.I.'s interest
in this case would be?

(Scully looks at Mulder.)

MULDER: The suspect matches the description of a federal fugitive.

LACERIO: Really? How's that? No description of the suspect has
been released.

(Mulder looks away, slightly embarrassed.)

MULDER: If you don't mind, can we take a look at the car, please?

LACERIO: It's been taken to impound.


<-IMPOUND->

(Scully looks at a folder as Mulder is sitting in the front seat of the car.)

SCULLY: The report says that the car was registered to a rental agency
in Gaithersburg. They had no idea that the car was even missing.
You know, Mulder, I think that we're wasting our time here.

(Mulder gets out.)

MULDER: I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to find.

(He picks up the pictures, which he accidentally dropped, and moves
to the front of the car.)

You can't make out the license plate in this photo.

(He leans up against the red van in back of him. He looks at the picture
again, then at Scully, who is reaching through the car window.)

Hey, Scully, look at this.

SCULLY: What?

(She walks around to him.)

MULDER: Look at the car in this photo. Look at the windshield.

(She looks at the photo and sees there is a sticker on the windshield.
The car in front of them does not have it.)

SCULLY: It's not the same car.

(Mulder shakes his head.)


<-FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Scully looks at the picture of the windshield and the sticker under a
magnifying glass.)

SCULLY: It's called a caduceus. It's sort of the adopted symbol of the
medical profession.

MULDER: So, probably, only a doctor would have that on his car.

SCULLY: Mm-hmmm. (in agreement.)

(Mulder fast-forwards the tape frame-by-frame.
The quality looks to be better.)

MULDER: I had the picture enhanced and the plate is different.
"3-A-Y-F."

SCULLY: Fast-forward.

MULDER: That's all you can make out. The rest is obscured.

(Scully advances the tape frame-by-frame as Mulder picks up the phone
and dials someone's number.)

Hey, Danny, it's Mulder. I need you to run a Maryland plate for me.
All I got is a partial. Registered to a doctor. Or used to be. Yeah, I'll hold.

(He looks at Scully, who notices something on the tape.)

They switched cars on us, Scully, and they lied about it.

SCULLY: Why would they do that?

MULDER: Maybe the, uh, real owner of the car has got something to hide.


<-EMGEN CORPORATION; GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND->

(Doctor Berube pours some reddish liquid into a container from an
erlenmeyer flask and closes the lid. His hands are inside a glass case
with gloves on. Monkeys squeal in the back. Mulder and Scully walk in.)

MULDER: Doctor Berube?

BERUBE: Yes?

(Mulder walks over to him and shows him his badge.)

MULDER: We're with the F.B.I., can we have a minute of your time?

BERUBE: I'm actually very busy.

MULDER: I'm sorry. Are you aware that a car registered to you was
involved in a high-speed chase in Arlis yesterday?

BERUBE: Excuse me?

MULDER: A silver Ciera, doctor. Do you own a silver Ciera?

BERUBE: Yes. It was used for what?

MULDER: A crime. Were you aware that it was even missing?

BERUBE: Not until you mentioned it. I have a housekeeper and she
often uses the car.

(Scully looks at a monkey in a cage next to her.)

It's a second car...

(Scully taps the cage bars and the monkey lunges at her fingers.
Scully pulls her hand away as Berube and Mulder look at her.
Other monkeys start making noises again.)

Please! They should not be excited. Nothing should be touched.

SCULLY: I'm sorry, I thought they were friendly.

BERUBE: They're part of an experiment.

MULDER: What kind of experiment?

BERUBE: Am I under some kind of suspicion?

MULDER: No.

BERUBE: Then I think I've answered all your questions.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more work than time.

MULDER: Thank you.

(He and Scully walk out. They stop outside the door.)

Did he bite you?

SCULLY: No, but he tried to.

(Mulder looks at his watch.)

MULDER: Well, it's almost 5:00. We should check with the doctor's
housekeeper about the car while we're out here.

(He starts off.)

SCULLY: No.

(Mulder stops and looks back at her.)

MULDER: "No?" What do you mean, "no?"

SCULLY: I mean, this has reached the point of absurdity, Mulder.
We're out here on half a hunch off of a cryptic phone call chasing
down a, a clue that's based on nothing but speculation.

MULDER: Well, that's all we've got.

SCULLY: That's all he's given us. Who is this Deep Throat character?
I mean, we don't know anything about him. What his name is,
what he does...

MULDER: He's in a delicate position. He has access to information
and indiscretion could expose him.

SCULLY: You don't know that this isn't just a game with him.
He's toying with you. Rationing out the facts.

MULDER: You think he does it because he gets off on it?

SCULLY: No. I think he does it because you do.

(She walks into the ladies' room, stopping and looking back at him for a moment.)


<-MULDER'S APARTMENT->

(Mulder gets out of his car and starts walking to his building.
Deep Throat walks up behind him.)

DEEP THROAT: Calling it a night, Mister Mulder?

MULDER: My mother usually likes me home before the street lights
come on.

(Deep Throat walks up to him and they start walking.)

DEEP THROAT: I'm surprised at you.

MULDER: Why?

DEEP THROAT: Your level of commitment seems to have diminished.

MULDER: My level of commitment?

DEEP THROAT: I should have expected that you'd be working through
the night trying to put the pieces together.

MULDER: Well, maybe if you'd given me something more to work with.

DEEP THROAT: Under the circumstances, I've given you all I can.

MULDER: A news report?

DEEP THROAT: And where has it led you?

MULDER: Not very far.

(Deep Throat chuckles a little.)

DEEP THROAT: It may be further than you realized.

(Mulder stops in front of him.)

MULDER: You know, from day one, this has always been on your terms.
I've gone along. Been the dutiful son. But maybe this time, we can just
cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap and you can save me the trouble.

DEEP THROAT: I fear you've become to dependent on me.

MULDER: Let me tell you something. I've got plenty to do without
chasing down your vague leads or trying to decode your circular logic.
Maybe it's you who's become too dependent on me ...
on my willingness to play your games.

(Mulder starts off.)

DEEP THROAT: Mister Mulder?

(Mulder turns back.)

MULDER: What?

(Deep Throat walks up to him.)

DEEP THROAT: Don't give up on this one. Trust me.
You've never been closer.

MULDER: Closer to what?

(Deep Throat sighs and walks away. Mulder sighs.)


<-EMGEN CORPORATION; GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND->

(Berube sits at his desk, looking through a microscope. A monkey rolls
around in his cage and squeaks. Berube looks at him for a second,
then goes back to his work. The door unlocks and a man walks in,
remaining in the shadows.)

BERUBE: Hello? Hello? Who's there?

CREW-CUT MAN: Working late tonight, doctor?

(Berube stands.)

BERUBE: What do you want here?

(The man steps partially into the light. He is the Crew-Cut Man,
and he is the man in Mulder's picture.)

CREW-CUT MAN: He's alive, isn't he? Has he contacted you?

BERUBE: Please. You're going to have to leave.

(The Crew-Cut Man bangs on the cages, sending the monkeys screaming.
Berube runs over to him.)

If you're from the F.B.I., I've already answered all your questions!

(The Crew-Cut Man walks over to Berube's desk.)

CREW-CUT MAN: What questions?

BERUBE: I had nothing to say to them. I have nothing to say to you.

CREW-CUT MAN: Where's Doctor Secare?

BERUBE: I don't know what you're talking about.

(The Crew-Cut Man chuckles to himself slightly. Berube walks over to him.)

Please. My work is very important. I must get on with my work.

CREW-CUT MAN: I'm afraid...

(He turns and faces Berube.)

Your work is done.

(Sounds of equipment breaking, glass falling and Berube groaning as
the monkeys run around their cages, screaming.


<-SHIPWORKS; ARLIS, MARYLAND->

(The men on the boat talk.)

MAN #1: Anybody see anything?

MAN #2: No.

(The scuba diver pops out of the water. Lacerio and a few other people
watch on the shore.)

SCUBA DIVER: Nothing!

LACERIO: That's it. I'm calling it off. Get those guys out of the water.

(He walks off. Another man takes out his walkie-talkie.)

OFFICER: Yes, sir. Shore to R.C. One, bring it in.

(The men on the boat pull the scuba diver out of the water. )

MAN #1: Visibility...

(They talk as the boat starts moving.)

MAN #2: ...been down there for two days. Forget it.

(As they drive by, they do not notice Doctor Secare sticking his head
out of the water and looking around.)


<-EMGEN CORPORATION; GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND->

(Scully is reading the folder and Mulder stands next to her.
In the photos, there are pictures of Berube lying face down, a roll
of medical gauze around his neck. The next one is from a different
angle, and the next is somebody's hand holding the medical gauze
that is tied around his neck with another man pointing to a knot near
his neck. Berube's shirt is open. The fourth picture is an even further
close-up of the third. The final picture is of broken flasks covering the
floor. Various policemen, agents and men in suits are in the background.
The room is in shambles.)

SCULLY: The county sheriff's office is conducting the investigation.
On the preliminary reports, it's being listed as a suicide.

MULDER: Suicide?

SCULLY: Yeah, they think that for whatever reason, he trashed his
lab and then killed himself.

MULDER: How?

(He walks over to a desk with some glass containers on it. Scully follows.)

SCULLY: Well, it says he tied one end of a roll of medical gauze around
his neck and the other end to this gas outlet.

(She puts her hand on a gas outlet that has medical gauze tied around it.)

Then he jumped.

MULDER: I don't suppose there were any witnesses?

SCULLY: Nope.

MULDER: The man we met yesterday kept this place like he was
waiting for the people from Good Housekeeping to show up.
I would have never pegged him as someone to do all this...
or a Greg Louganis out the window.

(He looks out the broken window next to him.)

SCULLY: I know, that gauze is troubling.

MULDER: It's a bit too calculated, huh?

(He holds the gauze.)

Almost as if someone wanted to make doubly sure he'd break his neck
before he hit the ground.

(He throws the gauze away and starts walking. Scully follows.)

What else do we know about Doctor Berube?

SCULLY: Ummm... "Terrence Allen Berube. Harvard Med., 1974."
He was working on the Human Genome Project. Are you familiar with that?

MULDER: Yeah. The mapping of all human genes. Maybe the most
ambitious scientific endeavor in the history of mankind.

(He walks past her.)

SCULLY: Right, but there's nothing extraordinary about that.
I mean, there were thousands of scientists working on that project.

(Mulder looks at a glass, then puts it down.)

MULDER: Yeah, but only one who owned a silver Ciera and went
bungie-jumping with medical gauze wrapped around his neck.

(Mulder opens up a metal case.)

SCULLY: I'm sorry, Mulder. I'm seeing the pieces but I'm not seeing
the connection.

(He takes out the erlenmeyer flask containing the red liquid.
It has a label on the bottom that reads "Purity Control.")

MULDER: Well, maybe that's just it. Maybe we're not seeing it because
it can't be seen, not in any obvious way. What do you think this is?

SCULLY: I don't know.

MULDER: Well, can you find out for me?

(Scully sighs and takes the vial.)

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: I'll see what else I can find out about Doctor Terrance Allen
Berube.

SCULLY: Okay, Mulder, but I'm warning you...
if this is monkey pee, you're on your own.


<-6:30 P.M.->

(Mulder pulls up to Berube's house. He gets out of the car and rings the
doorbell twice. He takes a piece of mail that reads:

"Dr. T.A. Berube
2650 W. 1st
Ardis Maryland
149376"

He goes back to the door, then walks around the side of the house.
He sees that a window to the cellar is open and he climbs inside.)


<-GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY; MICROBIOLOGY DEPARTMENT->

(Dr. Carpenter, a woman who works there, feeds a sample of the
bacteria into a machine with a microscope. Scully stands next to
the computer.)

CARPENTER: My first impression is it's some kind of bacteria sample.
Can I ask you where you got it?

SCULLY: It was recovered at a crime scene.

CARPENTER: Well, we've come a long way from Colonel Mustard in the
den with the rope, haven't we?

(Scully laughs as Carpenter types.)

SCULLY: No, I'm expecting it to turn out to be nothing.

(Carpenter looks at the computer screen.)

CARPENTER: No... no, you've definitely got something here.

(There are a few white balls on the screen which have little holes,
looking like some sort of bacteria. She zooms in.)

Wow... look at this.

(It zooms in slowly.)

SCULLY: What are they?

CARPENTER: Well, they're the size of bacteria but no bacteria I've
ever seen.

SCULLY: How do you mean?

CARPENTER: Well, most bacteria are symmetrical and smooth.
These are... I don't know. It's strange.

SCULLY: You have no way of identifying them?

CARPENTER: Well, we could do a freeze fracture. Take a thin slice off
and see what's going on inside these babies. If you don't mind waiting.

SCULLY: No, no, I'll wait.


<-7:45 P.M.->

(Mulder turns on Berube's desk lamp and sits down in his chair.
He opens up a drawer and looks through the files. Stopping at a
telephone bill, he takes it out and sees that there are many calls
to the same number: "(301) 555-2804." He picks up the phone
and starts dialing.)

MULDER: Hi, Danny. Yeah, it's Mulder again. Look, I got a number
this time. 555-2804. Area code 301. I need an address, a name if
you can get it for me. All right, I'm at... same prefix... fifteen-seventeen.
All right, thanks, Danny.

(He hangs up and puts the telephone bill away. A white van pulls up
outside the house. Mulder opens up the top drawer and pulls out a
set of keys. He pockets them and the phone rings. Outside, the
Crew-Cut Man sits in the front seat, headphones on, a satellite
dish in hand to pick up the phone call. Mulder picks up the phone.)

That was fast.

SECARE: Terry? Is that you?

(Mulder pauses.)

MULDER: Yeah. Who's this?

(Cut to Secare, standing at a phone booth.)

SECARE: They shot me, Terry. Oh, God.

(Cut to the Crew-Cut Man, who listens intently.)

I've been in the water for three days. I'm hurt.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Where are you now?

(Cut to Secare.)

SECARE: I'm at a pay phone.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I'm going to pick you up. Where are you?

(Cut to Secare, who grabs his bullet wound in pain.
A man in a leather jacket walks by.)

SECARE: Terry...

(He slumps down against the glass. The man stops.)

MULDER: Hello?

MAN: Are you okay?

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Are you there? Hello?

(Cut to the man, who takes the phone.)

MAN: Hello? This man's been hurt here. I, I think he needs medical
attention.

(Cut back to Mulder.)

He's in pretty bad shape...

MULDER: What's the street? What's the street?

(Cut to the man.)

MAN: I'm gonna call an ambulance.

MULDER: Sir?

(The man hangs up. Cut to Mulder, who slams the phone down in anger.
He stands and the phone rings. He picks up and sits down.)

Don't hang up.

DANNY: I got it.

MULDER: Hi, Danny.

(The Crew-Cut Man takes off his headphones.)

Let me get the address...

DANNY: All right, you ready?

(Mulder reaches over and takes some paper.
As he does, he sees the white van.)

Mulder?

MULDER: I'm just writing it down now, go ahead.

(The van speeds off.)

DANNY: All right, the number belongs to a company called Zeus Storage.

MULDER: Yeah...

DANNY: Sixteen-sixteen...

MULDER: Sixteen...

(Mulder writes this down.)

DANNY: Pandora Street.

MULDER: Sixteen... Pandora Street.

DANNY: That's it.

MULDER: All right, thanks.

(Danny hangs up. Mulder does right after.)


<-MARYLAND->

(An ambulance speeds down a road carrying Secare, who does not
have a shirt on.. A man is pumping an oxygen mask over his mouth
while another is talking to headphones.)

MAN: All right, we've got a white male, forty, weak vitals and signs of
severe dysnea and hypertension. He also has what appears to be a
green fluid coming from a wound in his right upper quadrant.

(The other man takes off the oxygen pump and starts taping the wound.)

MAN AT HOSPITAL: I don't know what the hell that is.
Is he responding to ventilation?

MAN: No, and we're noticing those rope veins at the neck and a
hypersonant sounding chest. He's going real blue on us now.

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Okay, you've got a tension to a thorax. I want you
to perform a thorachotomy and release the pressure in his chest.

(The man turns to the other man.)

MAN: Okay, we're going to need a cannula.
We're going to do a needle decompression.

(The second paramedic hands the first one a needle and a cannula.
Secare's head lifts up as the paramedic pushes the needle in.
He looks at the two as air rushes out and they cringe, holding their eyes.
The second man coughs. The ambulance swerves off the road.)

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Mobile van, what's going on?

(The driver falls out of the car. Secare plucks the needle out.)

Mobile van, can you hear me?

(Secare opens the doors and runs out.)

Mobile van, answer me! Mobile van, what is the problem?
Mobile van, come in please!


<-GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY; MICROBIOLOGY DEPARTMENT->

(Scully is calling Mulder. It's ringing.)

MULDER: Mulder.

SCULLY: It's me.

(Cut to Mulder, who is driving.)

MULDER: He's alive, Scully.

SCULLY: Who?

MULDER: The fugitive, the driver of the silver Ciera.
He called the doctor's house while I was there.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Where is he now?

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I don't know. Where are you?

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: I'm at the Georgetown Microbiology Department.

(She sighs.)

I've got something for you.

MULDER: Is it smaller than a silver Ciera?

(She walks over to Carpenter, who is sitting at a computer.)

SCULLY: Much. And it's not silver, it's green.

MULDER: What is it?

(On the computer, there is a picture of the freeze fracture.
It is green with little blue spots.)

SCULLY: Some kind of bacteria, each containing virus and it looks as
if Berube may have been cloning them.

(Cut to Mulder.)

They also contain something that looks like chloroplasts...

(Cut to Scully.)

Plant cells. But they, they've never seen anything like it here.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Any idea what he could have been doing with them?

SCULLY: Well, the only reason why you clone a virus inside a bacteria...

(Cut to Scully.)

...is in order to inject it into something living. It's called gene therapy
and it's still highly experimental.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Well, maybe that's what he was doing with those monkeys.
Can they tell you anything else there?

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Yeah, they're just about to run some primary cell cultures and
a DNA sequence. (She walks away from Carpenter.) Now, I may be
understating the strangeness of this, Mulder. Bacteria like this...
it may have existed, but not for millions of years, not since before
our ancestors first crawled out of the sea.

(Cut to Mulder, who pulls up at Zeus Storage.)

Are you there, Mulder?

(Mulder does not answer.)

Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah, Scully. Keep up the good work.

(Cut to Scully. She exhales sharply, feeling cast away.)


<-ZEUS STORAGE->

(Mulder walks in and down a flight of stairs. He sees a number of doors.
He looks through the keys and sees one marked "1056." Walking to
the door with the same number, he unlocks it and slides the door open.
Inside, he sees five glass cases, like aquariums, each hooked up to
various computers. Inside each case is a naked man, perfectly still.
As he walks past them, he looks at them in disbelief. Suddenly,
one of them moves. Mulder realizes that they are all alive and breathing
underwater.)


<-GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY; MICROBIOLOGY DEPARTMENT;
11:45 P.M.->

(Scully is sleeping on a couch in the employee's lounge. Dr. Carpenter
walks in and closes the door. She nudges Scully on the shoulder.)

CARPENTER: Agent Scully?

(Scully wakes up.)

SCULLY: Oh, Doctor Carpenter. I fell asleep.

(Dr. Carpenter sits down next to Scully. She holds out a piece of paper
that has a pattern of dashes up and down the paper until a point where
they become sparser.)

CARPENTER: I've done some work. These are the DNA sequences from
the bacteria sample you brought in. You seem to know something about
molecular biology. Do you know what you're looking at?

SCULLY: Yeah, I think those are genes.

CARPENTER: Right. They're called base pairs. Each pair is made up of
something called a nucleotide. Only four nucleotides exist in DNA. Four.
And through some miracle of design that we have yet to fathom, every
living thing is created out of these four basic building blocks. What
you're looking at is a sequence of genes from the bacteria sample.
Normally, we'd find no gaps in the sequence. But with these bacteria, we do.

SCULLY: Why is that?

CARPENTER: I don't know why. But I tell you, under any other
circumstances, my first call would have been to the government.

SCULLY: What exactly did you find?

CARPENTER: A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair.
Agent Scully, what are you looking at... it exists nowhere in nature.
IT would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.


<-ZEUS STORAGE->

(Mulder walks out of the building and sees a white van pull up.
Two men get out. He starts walking the other way and sees that
they are following him. A third man comes running at him.
He runs down an alley and jumps the fence. He runs down that
side of the alley as fast as he can until he turns a corner, stops
and draws his gun. Seeing no one, he runs the other way.)


<-MULDER'S APARTMENT->

(It is morning. Mulder walks in and sees his phone is ringing.)

MULDER: Hello.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder? Where on God's earth have you been?
I've been trying to call you all night.

MULDER: I had a situation. I left my phone in the car.

SCULLY: Mulder... that bacteria I had analyzed...
they're saying that it doesn't exist in nature.

(Cut to Mulder, who sits down.)

They're saying that it could be extraterrestrial.

MULDER: Scully...

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: How soon can you be here?
There's something I got to show you.


<-7:30 A.M.->

(Mulder and Scully pull up. A car is parked out front.
Mulder walks to the building and Scully follows.)

SCULLY: Wait a second... Mulder?

(He stops.)

I, I just want to say that I was wrong.

MULDER: It's all right, don't worry about it.

SCULLY: No, um... if you'd had listened to me, we wouldn't be here
right now. I should know by now to trust your instincts.

MULDER: Why? Nobody else does.

(She smiles.)

SCULLY: You know, I've always held science as sacred.
I've, I've always put my trust in the accepted facts.
And what I saw last night... for the first time in my life,
I don't know what to believe.

MULDER: Well, whatever it is you do believe, Scully...
when you walk into that room? Nothing sacred will hold.

(He looks at her and walks in. She follows. Downstairs, he unlocks the
sliding door and walks in, flicking on the switch. The room is completely
barren except for a table. He walks to the middle of the room and she
follows.)

There were tanks here and five bodies suspended in solution. There were
computers monitoring them. They were alive, Scully, underwater.

SCULLY: What happened to them?

DEEP THROAT: God only knows.

(They turn to see Deep Throat standing in the doorway, carrying an envelope.
He walks over to them.)

Most likely, they've been destroyed.

(He looks at Scully and nods to her.)

Miss Scully. I believe we met ever so briefly.

MULDER: Destroyed by whom?

DEEP THROAT: I don't know.

MULDER: I don't believe you.

DEEP THROAT: There are limits to my knowledge, Mister Mulder.
Inside the intelligence community, there are so-called "black
organizations." Groups within groups conducting covert activities,
unknown at the highest levels of power.

MULDER: There were three men last night, I was chased.

DEEP THROAT: Hmmm. If you were chased, you would have been killed.
Those men are trained for that sort of business and they are trained well.

SCULLY: Were those the same men who killed Doctor Berube?

DEEP THROAT: Presumably.

SCULLY: Why?

DEEP THROAT: "Why?" Good lord, you've worked so hard and you
still don't see it.

MULDER: Doctor Berube was conducting human experiments with
extraterrestrial viruses.

DEEP THROAT: Yes, but that's been going on for years. We've had
the tissue since 1947 but not the technology.

MULDER: Roswell?

DEEP THROAT: Roswell was a smoke screen, we've had a
half-a-dozen better salvage operations. Doctor Berube was killed
because his work was too successful. You're standing in the room
where the first DNA transplant took, the first human-alien hybrid was
created.

(He puts the envelope down on the table and opens it up,
spreading pictures over the table.)

Six volunteer patients, all terminally ill.

(He holds up a picture of Secare.)

One, Doctor William Secare, an old friend of Doctor Berube's,
was dying of melanoma cancer. And as a result of the E.T. gene
therapy, all six patients treated in this room began to recover from
their illnesses. Doctor Secare was able to live a more or less normal life.
As normal as possible for a man who has developed inhuman strength
and the ability to breathe underwater.

(Mulder starts to walk around.)

MULDER: That's how he was able to elude capture.

DEEP THROAT: Hmmm. (in agreement.)

SCULLY: What was he running from?

DEEP THROAT: Doctor Secare was never supposed to have survived.
Doctor Berube's research was part of a top secret government project
being run out of Los Alamos. All they were interested in was the
technology, the science. To have a hybrid living out in the real world?
Too great a liability. What if he should need emergency medical procedure?
The man has a blood chemistry that is alien and very likely toxic.
That story should hit the press.

MULDER: It was just easier to kill Doctor Secare.

DEEP THROAT: Of course, there was only one problem.
He was Doctor Berube's old friend and he was able to warn him.

SCULLY: There's just one thing I don't understand. Why you gave us
so little to go on in the beginning and why are you giving us so much now?

DEEP THROAT: I didn't anticipate the speed and precision of their
clean-up operation. They're systematically destroying all the evidence...
Doctor Berube, the bodies here. Without the evidence, you two have
no case. Who would believe the story I just told you? You must put
together everything that you have found and you must find Doctor
Secare before they do. I'll have no further contact with you on this matter.

(He walks out. Mulder and Scully look at each other. After, they walk out.)

SCULLY: I'm going to get back to Georgetown and get all the lab work.

MULDER: I'm going to find Doctor Secare.

SCULLY: Where?

MULDER: I don't know. I'm going to trust my instincts.


<-GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY->

(Scully walks into the employee's lounge and sees various female
doctors lounging around, drinking coffee, eating lunch and reading.)

SCULLY: Excuse me? I'm looking for Doctor Ann Carpenter. I've been
unable to reach her by phone and she's not in her office.

WOMAN: She was in a terrible car accident, her whole family.
And Doctor Carpenter is, um... dead.


<-BERUBE RESIDENCE; ARDIS, MARYLAND->

(Mulder unlocks the front door and goes inside. He looks around and
hears a thump from upstairs. He draws his gun and slowly walks up
the stairs, waiting before turning each corner. Another thump comes
from the attic door above him. He goes up and looks around the dark room.)

MULDER: Doctor Secare?

(He starts walking to the back of the attic when Secare jumps out from
behind him and tackles him into the wall, knocking the gun out of his hand.)

Wait!

(Secare punches him, literally sending him flying across the room into
a pile of boxes. Secare picks him up by his trenchcoat.)

I'll protect you.

(Secare looks at him strangely. A gunshot sounds and Secare's head
jerks back. He falls to the floor, letting Mulder see the Crew-Cut Man
standing up through the doorway, gun in hand and gas mask on.
Mulder looks down at Secare and sees that he has been shot in the
back of the neck, green ooze fizzing out. He gasps in pain and starts
holding his eyes, coughing. He falls to his knees. Later, Mulder lies
on the floor, hands and feet tied. His phone is ringing. Two men in the
back carry the doctor's body down the stairs, both wearing gas masks.
The Crew-Cut Man walks over, kneels next to Mulder, and takes off
his gas mask. Mulder's eyelids, nose and mouth are inflamed.)

CREW-CUT MAN: Your cellular phone's been ringing off the hook.

MULDER: I'm a popular guy. Why don't you answer it for me?

CREW-CUT MAN: Oh, I don't like talking on the phone. I have this thing
about unsecured lines. When you feel like talking, let me know, though.


<-MULDER'S APARTMENT; 6:10 A.M.->

(Scully pulls up and gets out of the car. She walks over to the door and
presses the button to the buzzer in Mulder's apartment. Deep Throat
walks around the column and looks at her.)

DEEP THROAT: He's not home.

(She looks at him.)

SCULLY: Where is he? He's been gone all night.

DEEP THROAT: I wish I knew.

SCULLY: Something's happened to him.

DEEP THROAT: They won't kill him.

SCULLY: How do you know that?

DEEP THROAT: He's become too high-profile and you've got evidence
that could expose them.

SCULLY: I don't have any evidence. They took the evidence and they
may have killed in order to get it.

DEEP THROAT: Listen to me. Evidence still exists.

SCULLY: Where?

DEEP THROAT: It might be difficult to obtain but with your medical
background, I might be able to get you inside.

SCULLY: Inside where?

DEEP THROAT: The high containment facility at Fort Marlene, Maryland.

SCULLY: What do they have there?

DEEP THROAT: The wellspring, Miss Scully. The original tissue.
If they've got Agent Mulder, they might be willing to make a deal.
It could save his life.


<-FORT MARLENE; HIGH CONTAINMENT FACILITY->

(Scully walks in carrying a briefcase, an I.D. attached to her trenchcoat.
Two doctors walk up to a guard in front of a door. The guard checks
one of their credentials and pushes a button, opening the door.
The first doctor walks out. Scully looks up at the video camera
positioned above the door. The second doctor leaves and Scully
walks up to the guard. She shows him her I.D. which reads:

"6D
Dana Scully, MD
26-38-90 Class A
Bio-Medical Division"

There is a picture of her next to the writing.)

GUARD: Clear.

(He pushes the button and the door opens. She walks through and turns
right. A man closes a filing cabinet and walks past her. He looks back
at her for a second, then keeps walking. Scully looks back at the man
and puts the briefcase in the other hand. She walks past a few more
doctors until she reaches the elevator. The board next to it reads:

"Level 7 Cryology
Level 6 Virology
Level 5 Oncology
Level 4 Radiology
Level 3 Immunology
Level 2 Toxicology
Level 1 Admin
Level G Security"

She plucks the I.D. off her trenchcoat and runs it through the keycard
sensor. The machine beeps and the doors slide opens. She walks in
and pushes a button. The doors close. On the seventh floor, she walks
out of the elevator and to a door with a sign that says "Cryology."
She slides her I.D. through the keycard sensor, which beeps. She
opens the door and closes it behind her. She slides her I.D. through
the next keycard sensor, which beeps a different way and does not
switch from a green light to a red light. There is a speaker above the
sensor. A guard speaks through it.)

GUARD: Name?

(She looks at the speaker, then walks over to the glass pane.
She sees the guard sitting there.)

SCULLY: Dana Scully.

GUARD: Company or institution?

SCULLY: Federal government.

GUARD: Project password?

(He takes a pen and prepares to write something down. Her face goes
blank, she looks at the alarm bell, then at the video camera. The guard
looks at her and presses the intercom button again.)

Project password?

(She thinks back.)

SCULLY: Purity control.

(He writes it down, then starts tapping number out on a keypad.
The door unlocks. She opens it and walks over to the guard.)

GUARD: Log in, please?

(He holds up a clipboard, which she signs. She walks through an open
door down a hallway past a number of canisters. Wearing rubber gloves
now, she opens a door marked "Purity Control." She slides out the
nitrogen canister and takes off the lid. Reaching in, she pulls out a
metal container with glass all around it. It contains a small alien
fetus-like creature.)


<-BRIDGE->

(Scully sits in her car on the bridge, waiting. Another car drives up
behind her. She gets out of the car, carrying a box that presumably
contains the evidence. Walking over to the door, Deep Throat rolls
down the window.)

SCULLY: You're late.

DEEP THROAT: Do you have it?

SCULLY: Yes.

DEEP THROAT: Good. They're willing to make the exchange.

SCULLY: You spoke to them?

DEEP THROAT: Yes.

(He reaches out his window.)

I'll take the parcel.

SCULLY: No, sir. I'll make the exchange.

(He pulls his hand back in.)

DEEP THROAT: I made the deal, Scully, they're expecting me.

SCULLY: I don't trust you.

DEEP THROAT: You've got no one else to trust.

SCULLY: I don't know who you are. I know nothing about you.

DEEP THROAT: Oh, for God's sake, don't screw this up! Let me tell
you something you should know. In 1987, a group of children from a
southern state were given what their parents thought was a routine
inoculation. What they were injected with was a clone DNA from the
contents of that package you're holding as a test. That's the kind of
people you're dealing with!

SCULLY: So why give it back to them?

DEEP THROAT: To save Mulder's life.

SCULLY: At the risk of so many other lives?

DEEP THROAT: Oh, it's the tip of the iceberg. You and Mulder are the
only ones who can bring it to light.

(He reaches out again.)

Now, give me the parcel.

(She stares at him, not knowing what to do. A white van pulls up in front
of Scully's car.)

Give me the parcel, Scully.

(She hands him the package and runs back to her car. As the car passes
her, she looks at the man driving the car. He is the Crew-Cut Man.
He looks at her as he drives by. She gets in the car. The van pulls up
next to Deep Throat's car. The two men step out of their cars as Scully
breathes deeply, watching in her rear-view mirrors. Deep Throat hands
the Crew-Cut Man the package. Scully turns around and watches
through her back window. The Crew-Cut Man walks over to his open
door, puts the package, turns around to face Deep Throat, and shoots him.)

SCULLY: No!

(Deep Throat falls to the ground. The back doors to the van open and a
man pushes Mulder out onto the concrete. Scully runs towards the van
with her gun in hand. She goes to Mulder as the van drives away.)

Mulder. Mulder!

(He groans. She checks his pulse and runs over to Deep Throat.
She feels his neck and opens up his jacket, revealing the gunshot wound.)

DEEP THROAT: Trust...

(She lifts his head up so he can speak.)

Trust... no one.

(He exhales sharply. And with that, Deep Throat dies in Scully's arms.)


<-WASHINGTON, D.C.; THIRTEEN DAYS LATER->

(Scully is asleep on her bed. She wakes with a startle.
Looking at the clock, which reads 11:21, she takes deep breaths.
The phone rings and she picks it up.)

SCULLY: Hello?

MULDER: Hey, Scully. It's me.

SCULLY: Where are you?

(Cut to Mulder, sitting in his apartment with the lights off.)

They're shutting us down, Scully.

(Cut to Scully, who sits up.)

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: They called me in tonight...

(Cut to Mulder.)

...and they said they're going to reassign us to other sections.

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: Who said that?

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: Skinner.

(He spits out the word.)

He said word came down from the top...

(Cut to Scully.)

...of the executive branch.

SCULLY: Mulder...

(Cut to Mulder, who still seems amazingly placid.)

MULDER: It's over, Scully.

(Cut back to Scully, who is in disbelief.)

SCULLY: Well, you have to lodge a protest. They can't...

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Yes, they can.

(He nods to himself. Cut to Scully, who sits in silence for a few seconds.)

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: I'm... not going to give up. I can't give up.
Not as long as the truth is out there.

(Cut to Scully, who hears a click. She lowers the phone from her ear.)


<-HIDDEN ROOM; PENTAGON->

(The Cigarette-Smoking Man turns a corner and walks through a narrow
row of shelves in the same room that he hid the communications device
taken out of Billy Miles so long ago. He walks over to a box that is labeled
"Evidence, 16604." He holds up a jar that contains the alien fetus in it.
He looks at it, then puts it in the box, which contains many others like it.
He pushes the box back onto the shelf and walks all the way down the
hallway. He walks out and closes the door, then runs his keycard through
its sensor. The sign on the door reads:

"In Case Of Fire Or Emergency
Know Your Exits
PENTAGON
Evacuation Procedure"

There is a map of the Pentagon next to it.
The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks away.)