The X-Files - 4.

4.1 Herrenvolk

German title: Herrenvolk
translation: Master Race

<-CANADA->

(A van pulls up to a pole in the middle of nowhere. The repairman gets out of his van and attaches two special additions to his boots, two spikes on the insides. He then clips a strap onto a clamp on one side of him, then throws the strap around the tree and clamps it on the other side. Digging the spikes into the wood, he makes his way up the pole, using the strap for support. He opens up the box on top and starts using a screwdriver when a bee approaches him. He goes to swat it away, but it comes back. He tries to swat it again.)

REPAIRMAN: Get away.

(The bee lands on his neck and stings him.)

Oh, damn it!

(He smacks the bee and it falls down to the ground, laying on its back and buzzing wildly. Five boys walk up to the pole. Five identical boys. The repairman acknowledges their presence but doesn't look directly at them.)

A bee stung me, ay?

(He looks at them and sees that they are identical.)

Well, now... don't you all take the cake?

(He chuckles.)

Does your mom ever mix you up?

(The boys don't answer. He laughs to himself, then gets cottonmouth, He starts to gag and choke, clutching his throat. The boys step back as the man shakes violently, jarring loose the spikes and straps. He falls, screaming, then rolls over on his back. The boys walk over to him as his last breath escapes him. One of the boys nudges his head with his foot, then the boys head back in the direction that they came from.)

<-BOND MILL ROAD; RURAL MARYLAND->

(Jeremiah Smith walks towards Mulder, followed by Scully.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: I've come to you at great risk... I mean you no harm.

(Mulder aims his gun nonetheless.)

SCULLY: Mulder, he knows about your sister.

MULDER: How do I know you're for real?

JEREMIAH SMITH: I can explain everything to you.

MULDER: First I want you to come somewhere with me. I want you to come with me to see my mother.

(Smith nods. A bright light shines upon them and they look over to see headlights quickly approaching. The car stops as Mulder and Smith look at each other. The bounty hunter steps out of his car and draws the blade out of his icepick. Smith turns and runs.)

MULDER: Stay out of his way, Scully, he doesn't want to hurt you. You can't use your gun!

(Mulder runs after Smith. Scully aims her gun at their attacker.)

SCULLY: Stop right there, sir!

(The bounty hunter runs towards her and slams into her, knocking her down. She groans as the bounty hunter continues along his way. Everybody is searching for everybody now. Mulder sees Smith run up a flight of stairs and follows. The bounty hunter enters the building next and runs up the stairs. Mulder catches a quick flash of Smith in a level above him. The bounty hunter seems instinctively drawn to his prey. Scully looks to be completely lost. The bounty hunter runs a level under Smith and, seeing his chance, jumps up a ladder and grabs Smith's foot from the lower level, but Smith wrestles free and keeps running. As the bounty hunter jumps down from his short perch, Mulder runs in. The two stare at each other tensely for a few moments, waiting for the other to do something. They turn in the opposite direction from each other and start to run for their objectives. Smith, nervously, looks around and finds an exit door on the roof. As Scully continues to search, the bounty hunter finds the exit door. Smith comes to the end of the roof and looks back to see the Bounty Hunter quickly approaching. Faced with no other choice, he jumps down to the ground. Mulder runs out to see Smith on the floor across the way from him. He runs over and helps him up.)

MULDER: Come on.

(As they start to run, the bounty hunter jumps down and lands on his feet. Slowly stalking them, he walks after them but is stopped when Mulder locks the door behind him. The bounty hunter tries the handle, but to no avail. Mulder runs down a flight of stairs, Smith close behind. Scully looks up at them from a lower level as they run by.)

SCULLY: Mulder!

MULDER: Scully, get the car!

(She runs off to do so. Mulder and Smith continue to run.)

This way.

(They run down a flight of stairs. Scully gets in the car and the tires screech as she speeds towards the entrance. Before she can reach it, however, the bounty hunter jumps down onto the hood. Scully stares at him for a second before pressing down on the horn. The bounty hunter starts to climb off the hood. Mulder and Smith hear the noise inside.)

Damn.

(After looking out the window, they start in the other direction as the horn stops.)

This way.

(Hurrying down a steel walkway, the bounty hunter runs inside and up a flight of stairs after them. The door closes outside and he walks over to a window. Rubbing off the fog, he sees Mulder and Smith start towards a pile of wood chips. The bounty hunter runs up the pile of wood chips and looks down into the harbor below. Mulder slides out of the wood chips, having hidden himself in them. He clicks the button on the icepick and the blade shoots out. With a grunt, he jams the weapon into the back of the bounty hunter's neck. The bounty hunter winces in pain, as does Mulder from the fumes. The assassin rolls down the hill, apparently dead. Green ooze typical of his species leaks from the wound. Mulder picks up the assassin's stiletto and slides down the other side of the wood pile towards the harbor. There, Smith starts up a motorboat and starts off.)

MULDER: Hey! Jeremiah!

(He runs down the dock towards him.)

Jeremiah, stop! What are you doing?

JEREMIAH SMITH: There'll be more right behind him!

MULDER: You can't leave here!

JEREMIAH SMITH: They'll kill me!

MULDER: I need your help!

(Smith stares at him.)

My mother is dying!

(The green bubbling liquid on the back of the bounty hunter's neck dissipates as the wound closes. Scully runs towards the wood chips.)

SCULLY: Mulder! Mulder!

(She walks tentatively around the body of the bounty hunter as she walks up to the top of the wood pile to see Mulder and Smith speeding off in the motorboat. She screams at the top of her lungs.)

Mulder! Mulder!

(Getting no response, she turns around and looks down at the body. She leans over and pulls open one eyelid to check for a sign of life. Much to her regret, the bounty hunter grabs her by the throat and starts to crush the life out of her. He forces her down as he sits up. She gags and chokes.)

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: Where are they going?

SCULLY: Uh... I don't know...

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: I need to know.

SCULLY: Please, I don't know.

(With a grunt, he rips the stiletto out of his neck. Looking down upon Scully, he releases his death grip. Down the river, Mulder and Smith tie the boat to a wood dock and get out.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: They know where to find us. They'll be waiting for us.

MULDER: Who?

JEREMIAH SMITH: Your government men. They'll be waiting at the hospital with your mother.

MULDER: What can they do? We're working in the light. They, they can't stop us without exposure, without consequence.

JEREMIAH SMITH: You have to understand something. I must perish. Whatever the consequences to that end, they are incalculable to the preservation of the larger plan.

MULDER: The larger plan?

(Smith stares at him.)

You mean colonization.

JEREMIAH SMITH: Hegemony, Mister Mulder. A new origin of species.

MULDER: I don't understand...

JEREMIAH SMITH: I can show you.

MULDER: My mother is dying. I need to take you to see her right now.

JEREMIAH SMITH: And if they are waiting for us? If they're willing to kill me and then face the consequence of their actions and stand before your ineffectual justice system, I will be dead. I won't be able to save your mother. The work will go on. The plan will continue to be executed. Or you can stop it.

MULDER: How can I stop it?

JEREMIAH SMITH: I can take you to a place, show you the work in progress, where you can see...

MULDER: No, look, there's no time!

JEREMIAH SMITH: Where you can see your sister!

(Mulder stares at him, aghast.)

<-PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND; 4:55 AM->

(Mrs. Mulder is hooked up to a respirator. The Cigarette-Smoking Man lets go of her hand as the Elder walks in.)

ELDER: He isn't coming.

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: I told you.

ELDER: Then where is he?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: I don't know. Certainly, he anticipated we'd be here, waiting.

(The bathroom door opens and the Gray-Haired Man walks in. The Elder closes the door.)

ELDER: Unless we have a security leak.

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: Who?

ELDER: I've come in receipt of some pictures... of your visit to Mrs. Mulder's summer house.

(He hands Cancer Man a picture of him and Mrs. Mulder fighting on the porch.)

Were you aware you were being photographed?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: By whom?

ELDER: I believe that can be determined by a simple planting of information... to see where that information flows.

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: What information?

ELDER: That Mrs. Mulder's life is in danger... that left unprotected... she may come to an unnatural end.

(The Cigarette-Smoking Man looks down at Mrs. Mulder with sorrow.)

<-7:05 AM->

(Scully sits in her car next to the plant. The sun shines brightly. Her phone rings.)

SCULLY: Scully.

MULDER: Scully, it's me.

(Cut to Mulder, driving with Smith.)

Where are you?

SCULLY: I'm right where you left me, Mulder.

(Cut to Scully.)

I'm sitting here in my car.

MULDER: Why?

SCULLY: Because you wouldn't answer your phone and because I didn't know what else to do.

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: Are you okay, Scully?

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: Yes, I'm fine.

(She seems very tense. Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Listen to me, there's going to be... there's going to be people looking for me. They're going to think they can get to me through you.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: No, no, no, hold on, just, just listen for a second, Scully. I need you to do something for me. I had to steal a car from an airport in Alberta.

(The bounty hunter, sitting behind Scully, places his hand on her shoulder and draws the extended icepick near to her head.)

There's going to be a record of me going through Canadian customs and I need you to cover my tracks.

(Cut to Mulder.)

I also need you to know that I'm okay, Scully.

(Cut back to Scully.)

I'm fine. Okay?

(The bounty hunter gets out of the car and goes to his, which is next to Scully's.)

SCULLY: Mulder, he's coming after you.

MULDER: Who?

SCULLY: The man you left for dead.

(Cut to Mulder.)

He's alive.

(Mulder and Smith look at each other. Later, Smith and Mulder drive down a dirt road until the car comes to a sudden halt.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: That's it for the gas.

(They get out of the car.)

MULDER: How much further from here?

JEREMIAH SMITH: About twenty miles. Maybe half that... on foot over those hills.

(He points to some hills.)

MULDER: Let's go.

(They start walking.)

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

(Skinner is looking at papers with his secretary at her desk when Scully walks in.)

SCULLY: Sir.

SKINNER: Agent Scully.

SCULLY: I heard that you were looking for me.

SKINNER: There's been some concern about you and Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: We're fine, sir. We've been searching for this man, Jeremiah Smith.

SKINNER: Did you find him?

SCULLY: No.

(Skinner stares at her, half-believing her.)

SKINNER: I received a memo from you that there's more confusion about this man... that the Social Security administration has five men with this name working in branch offices around the country... with identical photo I.D.s. I ran a check on these men. All five have not reported to work in three days. Now, would you or Agent Mulder like to let me in on what it is your suspicions are?

SCULLY: I'm afraid we haven't exactly formulated any clear suspicions, sir.

SKINNER: Well, we have, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Sir?

<-SCI-CRIME LAB; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Pendrell sits at his computer, typing. Skinner and Scully stand behind him.)

PENDRELL: We were able to download the hard drive data from each of the five missing men's social security workstations, and in each case, we found an enormous amount of files and data that cannot be identified. Do not correspond with any kind of accounting or document collection done as normal departmental business.

(He brings up a seemingly infinite list of numbers and letters.)

The data was all locked in password files.

SCULLY: How much of it is there?

PENDRELL: Enough to fill seven ten-gigabyte hard drives, roughly, uh, a billion entries.

(Scully looks at him in shock.)

SKINNER: It appears to be some kind of personal record-keeping or accounting.

(The file on the monitor scrolls down the list.)

SCULLY: Could it be some kind of cryptograph?

PENDRELL: If it is, I can't crack it.

SCULLY: I'd like to get a copy of a portion of this. I might be able to figure it out.

(Pendrell types a few keys and the printer gears up.)

PENDRELL: Seriously?

SCULLY: Maybe. There's somebody I want to run it by.

SKINNER: Agent Mulder?

SCULLY: No. I think, sir, this is more along my field of expertise.

(She takes the paper out of the printer and walks out.)

<-CANADA->

(Mulder and Smith trod through the grass fields. Seeing a body by a large pole, they run over to find the dead repairman covered in maggots. Other than that, the scene has been untouched.)

MULDER: What happened to this man?

JEREMIAH SMITH: I wouldn't touch the body, Mister Mulder.

(Mulder leans down and looks over the body as Smith goes to the open back doors of the truck. Mulder pulls out a pink piece of paper from the body's pocket.)

MULDER: There's a work order here. It's for yesterday. He's only been here a little more than twenty-four hours.

(Smith walks over to him.)

You know what killed him, don't you?

JEREMIAH SMITH: It's not much further.

(Smith starts to walk again. Mulder reluctantly follows. Walking up a hill, they see giant black sheets covering miles of earth.)

You're looking at the future, Mister Mulder.

MULDER: What is it?

JEREMIAH SMITH: A flowering shrub. But it's specific epithet can't be found in any of your taxonomic charts.

(He hands Mulder a pair of binoculars, which Mulder looks through.)

MULDER: Being grown for what?

JEREMIAH SMITH: Pollen.

(Mulder sees a boy, the same kind as the ones that watched the repairman die, and a girl walking, each carrying buckets. Mulder immediately recognizes the girl.)

MULDER: What is this? What's going on here?

JEREMIAH SMITH: What did I tell you, Mister Mulder?

MULDER: That looks just like my sister.

(He looks through the binoculars again.)

But that's not possible. She's no older than the day she was taken.

(They start down the hill.)

Samantha?

(Bees buzz in the flowers beneath the sheets.)

Samantha! Samantha?

(The boy and the girl turn around to see Mulder running towards them.)

Samantha? Samantha?

(Reaching his sister, he gets down on his knees and puts his hands on her arms.)

Samantha, it's me. It's me, Fox, your brother.

(She shows no response. Smith runs up to them.)

Do you remember me?

(Mulder looks back at Smith.)

What's wrong with her?

JEREMIAH SMITH: She has no language.

MULDER: What do you mean?

JEREMIAH SMITH: She's a drone, Mister Mulder. A worker.

(Samantha glances up at Smith, then stares back at Mulder.)

MULDER: What are you talking about?

JEREMIAH SMITH: There's more you should see so that you might understand.

(The four of them walk along a dirt road in a beautiful, almost picture-esque area to a collective small farm town. The boy and girl leave their buckets on the front steps to their green house as they walk inside.)

MULDER: How'd they get here?

JEREMIAH SMITH: They're stationed here. They're part of an agrarian work force.

(Mulder looks around.)

MULDER: Who takes care of them?

JEREMIAH SMITH: They take care of themselves. Parenting is unnecessary... a needless division of energy.

(Almost all simultaneously, many boys and girls come out of their homes and look at the two newcomers, each wearing different clothes. Mulder looks around in slight horror.)

MULDER: They're clones.

JEREMIAH SMITH: Serial ovotypes. Have you seen enough, Mister Mulder? We can't stay around here much longer.

(Mulder looks to be more confused than anything else.)

I'll go see if I can find some gas.

(He walks off. Mulder looks at the original pair.)

<-MULDER'S APARTMENT; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Scully walks in and immediately tapes an "X" to Mulder's window then looks at her watch. Time passes as she sits, waiting, going over the list. There is a knock on the door. She picks up her gun out of the holster and goes to the door, listening.)

X: Open the door, Agent Scully.

(She unlocks it and X, looking around, walks in and goes to the main room.)

SCULLY: How did you know I was here?

X: I've been trying to reach Agent Mulder. I watched you enter the building. Where is he?

(She walks over to him.)

SCULLY: I don't know.

X: I have information for him. A matter that would concern him greatly.

SCULLY: Concern him how?

X: Concerning his mother.

SCULLY: Has something happened to her?

X: No. No, not yet.

SCULLY: Is she in danger?

X: I prefer to speak with Agent Mulder directly. Let me just say she is unprotected.

SCULLY: From whom?

(He walks past her, but she grabs his arm and spins him around to face her.)

From whom?

X: If you want to involve yourself, Agent Scully, you might do well to give this information to your partner.

SCULLY: Not until you give me some information first.

(X glares at her. Scully picks up the list and brings it over to him.)

These are data entries taken from social security records...

X: You're going in the wrong direction, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: All beginning with the letters S-E-P. You know what these are. Confirm or deny.

X: Smallpox eradication program.

SCULLY: Smallpox?

X: Don't unlock doors you're not prepared to go through, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: What's that supposed to mean?

X: Leave it alone. Protect the mother.

(He walks out.)

<-PLANTATION; CANADA->

(Smith starts back with a can of gasoline. He sees Mulder walking with a Samantha.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: What are you doing?

MULDER: She's coming with us.

JEREMIAH SMITH: You can't do this. She's not your sister.

MULDER: Well, then who is she?

JEREMIAH SMITH: You have a chance here to understand something so much greater, to comprehend it, to expose it.

MULDER: Well, then explain it to me. Explain it to me now!

(Tires squeal as the bounty hunter races down the dirt path. Mulder and his compatriots start to run. The bounty hunter pulls onto the road, giving chase. Mulder, Samantha and Smith run through the grass fields until they stop, looking for a place to hide. Samantha runs off towards a building and the men follow. Samantha looks back at them, then pulls open a door to reveal a beehive.)

Bees.

JEREMIAH SMITH: It's an apiary.

MULDER: Are bees what killed that man we found?

JEREMIAH SMITH: Yes.

MULDER: It's probably not a good idea to hide in there.

JEREMIAH SMITH: No, you have no immunity to them.

MULDER: But you do?

(Smith looks back in the direction that they came from, then at Mulder. Mulder takes the gas can out of Smith's hand and douses himself with it, covering himself in gasoline. He groans and holds his eyes.)

Somebody lead me, I can't see anything.

(Smith takes the can and Samantha and Smith both take his hand. Together, they walk into the beehive as Mulder breathes heavily, the gasoline burning his eyes. Bees are flying everywhere, giant honeycombs dangling from the ceiling. Recovering, he looks around the room and sees a staircase.)

Is that the only way out?

(Samantha looks up to see a small hole in the ceiling, the only other way of egress. They all look up at it.)

JEREMIAH SMITH: We've walked into our own trap.

(The bounty hunter drives up to the beehive building and gets out. Hurrying down the stairs, his targets are nowhere to be found. He kicks the gasoline can on the ground lightly as the bees swarm around him, one landing on the tip of his icepick as he arms it. He looks at a honeycomb and sees a hole, but cannot prevent it from tumbling over on top of him. He grunts as it lands and Smith and the Mulders race out from behind the honeycomb and over to the stairs.)

MULDER: Come on!

(The bees are furious and swarm around the bounty hunter, stinging him crazily as the Mulders and Smith watch. The bounty hunter screams as he desperately tries to swat off the bugs. He gasps as he slowly falls.)

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

(Pendrell is sitting at his desk, reading, when Scully walks in.)

SCULLY: Are you busy, Agent Pendrell?

(Pendrell is surprised by Scully.)

PENDRELL: No, I was just, uh...

(He straightens his tie as Scully closes the door.)

SCULLY: Good, because I think I've made some headway on this data. Can you call up the files?

PENDRELL: Yeah. I got to tell you, I've gotten nowhere.

(The files are called up. Scully points at the letters "SEP.")

SCULLY: "SEP." Smallpox Eradication Program.

PENDRELL: Smallpox? How'd you figure that?

SCULLY: I got lucky, but the key is in this first string of letters.

(She points to the scrolling lines of letters on the screen.)

PENDRELL: Twenty-letter strings. Thirty different variations.

SCULLY: You say "a twenty-letter code" to any scientist, and they immediately think "protein amino acid sequence..." which is what this turned out to be.

PENDRELL: Protein sequence for what?

(She starts to type.)

SCULLY: Cowpox virus... the virus used to inoculate humans against smallpox.

PENDRELL: Okay, right. These guys were keeping records of smallpox inoculations. Why?

SCULLY: I haven't worked that out yet, but the big question is this second alphanumeric string.

(She points to a scrolling list of numbers and letters.)

Fifteen digits.

PENDRELL: Yeah, I checked. Each one is different... an infinite number of variations.

SCULLY: An inventory.

PENDRELL: Of what?

SCULLY: Of us.

(She takes off her jacket to reveal a patch on her arm where blood was taken.)

<-ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALTER SKINNER'S OFFICE; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(A clear diagram is up on a light wall of a large glowing blue mass against a dark blue background with small white dots. The second senior agent is standing. Skinner, a woman, the senior FBI agent and another man are sitting. Scully is standing by the slide.)

SECOND SENIOR AGENT: With all due respect, Agent Scully... it looks like something from the Hubble telescope.

SCULLY: Actually, it's an image created by what's called a confocal microscope. You're looking at a three-dimensional picture of the location of a protein. In this case, cowpox structural protein number six. It's one of the inoculants used in smallpox vaccines.

SENIOR FBI AGENT: Where'd it come from?

SCULLY: From me. I had a biopsy taken from the smallpox vaccination scar on my upper arm. Through a process called immunohisto chemical staining and through the addition of an antibody for the cowpox virus six, I was able to get this picture of the location of a protein... a single, non-random, protein pattern.

SKINNER: I'm not a scientist, Agent Scully, and I don't know that many people in this room...

SCULLY: What I'm saying is that I think this protein is a tag... some kind of genetic marker that was applied to me when I was inoculated against smallpox as a child.

SENIOR FBI AGENT: Why you?

SCULLY: Not just me... all of us... quite possibly anybody who's been inoculated over the past fifty years.

(The group murmurs.)

SECOND SENIOR AGENT: Agent Scully... frankly, this sounds like something we would might have expected from Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: I had my doubts... and I'm still not certain. But I performed the same procedure on Agent Pendrell.

(Pendrell, who is standing more off to the side, hands Scully another see-through diagram, which Scully posts.)

The location of the protein from his biopsy should be identical to mine, but it's slightly different, which might correspond to the alphanumeric entries collected by the men at the, uh, social security administration.

SKINNER: So what you're saying, Agent Scully, is we're being tagged, catalogued and inventoried? By who?

SCULLY: I don't know, but it would have to be a government agency.

SENIOR FBI AGENT: And to what purpose?

SCULLY: I don't know that either, and I think the only man who might be able to give us that information is Jeremiah Smith.

(Skinner stands and sighs.)

SKINNER: Agent Scully, can I see you outside for a moment?> Alone.

(They walk out of the office and into the outer room.)

Do you realize what you're promoting in there? You're rounding these people up in the middle of the work day to imply that there's...

SCULLY: I am a scientist, sir. What I'm promoting in there is reductive evidence. It's the reason I believe I was assigned to the X-Files in the first place, is it not? To put Agent Mulder's work to the test of science?

(Scully's cellular phone rings. She takes it out.)

Excuse me.

(She presses a button. It beeps as she raises it to her ear.)

Scully.

(Cut to a phone booth on the beehive farm, where Mulder is on the phone. Jeremiah is in the passenger's seat, Samantha is in the back seat.)

MULDER: Scully, where are you right now?

(Cut to Scully. She turns around.)

SCULLY: I'm in Skinner's office, where are you?

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I'm still in Canada, but I'm catching a plane soon. I need you to meet me on the other end.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Just tell me where.

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: At the hospital where my mother is.

SCULLY: Mulder, I don't...

(Mulder looks at his passengers.)

MULDER: Her life depends upon me and my party getting there safely.

SCULLY: Who?

(Cut to Scully.)

MULDER: Jeremiah Smith... and someone else.

(Scully looks at Skinner. Cut to Mulder.)

I'm going to need some protection, Scully.

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: Oh, believe me, Mulder, you're going to have it.

MULDER: What do you mean?

SCULLY: There's a lot of people who want to talk to Jeremiah Smith.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: They'll get their chance.

(He looks at Smith. In the distance, tires screech. They look behind them to see the bounty hunter racing towards them in the cable van. As the alien aims for the phone booth, Mulder gasps and jumps out. The phone booth shatters as the assassin collides with it and hits the front of the car. Mulder, hurt slightly, is picked up by the bounty hunter and groans. The bounty hunter has bee stings over most of his face and hands.)

MULDER: Please, you can't kill him...he can't die.

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: He must.

MULDER: That girl is my sister.

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: He shows you pieces, but tells you nothing of the whole... because he's inconsequential... a traitor to the project.

(Smith gets out of the car and starts to limp away, having been hurt in the crash.)

MULDER: Kill me, let them go.

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: You'd trade your life for his?

MULDER: For my mother's.

(The bounty hunter nods slightly. They stare at each other, Mulder seeming very off.)

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: Everything dies.

(As Smith limps away, the bounty hunter raises Mulder over his head and throws him into the back of the cable van. Mulder starts to drift into unconsciousness as the Bounty Hunter picks up his stiletto. Samantha looks at Smith limping off, then at the bounty hunter. As Mulder blacks out, he sees the bounty hunter stepping over him and hears Samantha scream.)

<-PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND->

(Skinner walks away from an agent and looks inside Mrs. Mulder's room. Scully looks back and walks out, shutting the door. Agents and the hospital staff are also present.)

SKINNER: Five hours we're out here swinging in the wind, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Something's wrong. Something happened.

SKINNER: You don't have any way of getting hold of him?

(A nurse walks up to them.)

NURSE: This is beginning to seriously compromise our ability to treat patients.

(Scully nods, Skinner sighs. Agents start to murmur louder as Mulder walks down the hallway towards them.)

SCULLY: Oh, my God... Mulder...

(She runs over to him.)

MULDER: I can't... there's nothing.

(Scully walks with him, hand on his shoulder, concerned. Skinner looks on, concerned as well.)

SCULLY: Oh, dear... no... he's freezing. He's in, you're in shock, Mulder.

SKINNER: What happened?

(Mulder walks past him into his mother's hospital room and stands over her. Scully walks over beside him. Skinner stands in the doorway.)

MULDER: She'll never know.

(Scully drapes a blanket over his shoulder. Skinner, sensing the severity of the moment, walks away.)

She'll never know...

(He starts to cry. Scully holds him as he cries into her shoulder.)

<-MULDER'S APARTMENT; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(The "X" on Mulder's window still is evident in the night. A man walks around inside of Mulder's apartment. X knocks on the door and it swings open. Realizing what is happening, he slowly backs out of the doorway and heads for the elevator, looking behind him every few feet. He presses the button, staring behind him. As he reaches for his gun, the door opens. He turns around to see the Gray-Haired Man waiting for him. The bullet races out of the chamber, hitting X in the stomach. X drops to the ground, gagging and groaning. The shadow of the man inside Mulder's apartment brushes over him and into the elevator as X writhes in pain slightly on the ground.)

<-PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND->

(Mulder and Scully sit at Mrs. Mulder's bedside.)

MULDER: I could have saved her, Scully.

SCULLY: As long as she's lying here, you can't give up on her. I don't care what the doctors say.

(He sighs.)

MULDER: I had one chance... and I let it slip away.

SCULLY: We don't know that, Mulder. You can't blame yourself for what you could only hope.

MULDER: He took me to a place with green fields. And I saw my sister. She was just a little girl. I've seen too many things not to believe.

SCULLY: I've seen things too. But there are answers to be found now. We have hope that there's a place to start. That's what I believe.

MULDER: You put such faith in your science, Scully. But... the things I've seen, science provides no place to start.

SCULLY: Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only in contradiction to what we know of it. And that's a place to start. That's where the hope is.

(Mulder stares at his mother, then shakes his head.)

MULDER: I feel like I came so close.

SCULLY: I feel it too. I know it.

MULDER: How?

SCULLY: I was warned...

(Cut to the hallway near Mulder's apartment. X drags himself along the floor towards Mulder's apartment on his stomach, leaving a wide trail of blood as he slides. Scully speaks over the scene.)

By a man we both know... who I believe knows the truth... who can lead us to a place to start.

(X finally reaches Mulder's apartment, gasping and grunting. He pulls himself in front of the door and starts to write something out in blood as he chokes on his dying breaths. Finishing, his body goes limp, his eyes dead. X dies in front of Mulder's apartment, leaving a message in blood. "SRSG.")

<-UNITED NATIONS BUILDING; NEW YORK CITY; ONE MONTH LATER->

(The door is marked "Special Representative to the Secretary General." Marita Covarrubias opens it and walks into the room. Mulder looks up at her.)

COVARRUBIAS: Mister Mulder. My name is Marita Covarrubias. I'm the assistant to the Special Representative.

(She walks over to him and they shake hands.)

MULDER: Hi, was he able to review the material that I sent him?

COVARRUBIAS: Yes.

MULDER: And will he see me?

COVARRUBIAS: I'm afraid he's been called into something important.

(Mulder nods, frustrated.)

Can I ask who sent you here, Mister Mulder?

MULDER: A friend. You know, I've been inquiring with each of the special representatives all month about the farmland in Canada. I've been trying to get some answers and all I've gotten are dead ends.

COVARRUBIAS: Well, I can tell you that farm has been abandoned. The crops you described were left to die, but they have been identified as ginseng. No evidence of beehives or bee husbandry was found.

(Covarrubias seems concerned of Mulder.)

I know it's not the answer you wanted.

(Mulder shakes his head.)

MULDER: No, I, uh...

COVARRUBIAS: Can I ask why this is so important to you?

MULDER: I've suffered... I've suffered some very personal... losses recently, and... I was... I was hoping...

(He straightens up, trying to reform his resolve.)

That, um...

(She hands him a folder and he nods. He opens the folder to find pictures of the young boys and girls of the beehive farm in Canada toiling over the crops. He looks back at her.)

COVARRUBIAS: Not everything dies, Mister Mulder.

(Mulder stares at her, wondering about her allegiances.)

<-PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND->

(The alien bounty hunter walks down the hallway, dressed in a black suit and tie. He opens the door to Mrs. Mulder's room and walks over to the bed, looking at the respirator. He looks over to the Cigarette-Smoking Man on the other side of the bed.)

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: I need to know the reasons why this should be.

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: So that the work may continue.

(He takes a few steps over to the bed.)

So that the project may proceed unabated by removing an unnecessary obstacle.

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: What obstacle?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: Agent Mulder, actually.

(He fiddles around with the unlit cigarette between his fingers, looking down at Mrs. Mulder.)

If his mother were to die, he would...

ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER: He what?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: You see... the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose.

(They stare at each other.)

And we both know how valuable Agent Mulder is to the equation.

(The bounty hunter nods slightly, then closes the door. After them mentally preparing for the upcoming task, the Cigarette-Smoking Man tenses up as his cohort places his hand on Mrs. Mulder's forehead. The bounty hunter closes his eyes and Mrs. Mulder's begin to flutter open, slowly. She looks over to the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who is transfixed on her.)