The X-Files - 4.

4.18 Max

German title: Tempus Fugit II

(The blinding light approaches Mulder, who shields his eyes. The light breaks into two distinct ones, revealing them to be divers carrying flashlights. The two divers move down towards Mulder, who takes off his airtank and breaks the surface, gasping for air. He glances at the boat waiting for him. He starts to swim away. The search lights on the boat turn on. The two divers break the surface near the boat.)

MAN: He's not here! He's not here! He's not down there! He swum out and is going to shore!

(The boat starts up and turns in the direction of Mulder, the engine revving loudly. Mulder walks onshore and drops the goggles, gasping. He looks back at the boat when more lights pop up behind him. He turns to see a truck with lights attached to the roof. Mulder starts to run as the truth gives chase. The two divers prove to be quicker and rush him, tackling him to the ground. The truck screeches to a halt. Other men wearing stealth clothes run up and point their rifles at the downed Mulder, who looks up at them.)

<-THE HEADLESS WOMAN'S PUB; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Women and men scream various "He's got a gun" shouts as Frish looks back at Garrett, but Garrett's line of fire is interrupted by a beer bottle. Garrett pulls the trigger, hitting Pendrell in the chest. As Pendrell falls, Scully shoots twice. The first bullet pierces the cabinet behind Garrett while the next hits him in the leg. Garrett falls in pain. Frish tries to stand, having left his seat, but Scully pushes him back down.)

SCULLY: Get down, stay down!

(Scully goes over to Pendrell and starts to undo his tie.)

SCULLY: You're going to keep breathing. Do you hear me?

(Pendrell breathes shallowly, nodding slightly. Scully, panting, pulls open his shirt to reveal a gaping wound in his chest covered in blood. Scully looks at Pendrell, worried about the seriousness of the wound.)

WOMAN: Hey! He's getting away!

(Scully looks up.)

SCULLY: I'll be right back.

(She starts towards where Garrett was shot, gun aimed, the patrons start to clear a path.)

SCULLY: Back away! Back...

(She looks down at the trail of blood leading out the door. She steps outside and looks around. The sound of sirens grows steadily and a number of police cars pull up to see Scully holding her badge in the open for them.)

SCULLY: I need an E.M.T. in here now!

(She starts back into the bar. The driver follows.)

POLICE OFFICER: Car thirty-nine, requesting an E.M.T....

(The bartender clears a path for Scully back to Pendrell.)

BARTENDER: Come on, let her through, let her through.

SCULLY: Excuse me.

BARTENDER: Help me with this table.

(He and another man move a table out of the way for easy access for the other law enforcement officials. Frish is standing over Pendrell, and Scully kneels down to the fallen agent. She stands and takes a cloth napkin, then kneels and presses it against the wound. The sound of an ambulance rings out.)

SCULLY: We've got paramedics on the way.

(Pendrell nods.)

SCULLY: You're going to the hospital. You're going to be okay. Look, we still haven't celebrated my birthday, Pendrell. I'm not going to let you off the hook like this.

(He laughs, then resumes his shallow breathing. A pair of E.M.T.s start to wheel a gurney through.)

BARTENDER: Let them through, let them through, please.

(Scully stands.)

SCULLY: This man has a puncture wound to his right lung. He needs to be intubated immediately.

(They paramedic leans over Pendrell and uncovers his gun, then looks up at Scully. She kneels down and takes the gun.)

SCULLY: He's an F.B.I. agent... and he's not going to die.

(He nods. Blood starts to trickle out of Scully's nose. They look down at Pendrell, who has an oxygen mask put on, and Scully wipes her nose nonchalantly. She looks down at the blood on her hand from her new nosebleed. She looks slightly embarrassed and takes out a tissue as she crosses to Frish, wiping her nose.)

SCULLY: Sit down.

(Frish sits.)

LOUIS FRISH: I'm sorry. How did they know?

SCULLY: When you talked to your girlfriend, what did you say?>

(Frish shakes his head.)

SCULLY: Did you tell her you were in D.C.?

(He shakes his head again.)

LOUIS FRISH: No.

SCULLY: Then there's someone inside.

(She looks behind her to see Pendrell being wheeled out. Skinner walks in, but steps out of the way as they walk out. Scully walks over to him.)

SKINNER: What happened? Who shot Pendrell?

SCULLY: I don't know.

SKINNER: I got a call about a federal witness being transferred.

SCULLY: That's Sergeant Louis Frish, he was the intended target.

(Skinner looks back at Frish, who watches them from his seat.)

SCULLY: There was supposed to be a federal marshall here to put the sergeant into protective custody.

SKINNER: That order was countermanded.

SCULLY: By whom?

SKINNER: Louis Frish is being put under military arrest.

SCULLY: Military arrest?

SKINNER: Suspicion of murder and providing false testimony in a federal investigation.

SCULLY: He has testimony that is damaging to the military. His life is in danger. He is not going anywhere.

SKINNER: The order to arrest this man came out of the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff... who've also issued a recommendation on Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: For what?

SKINNER: Agent Mulder's also been put under military arrest on charges of interference with a military investigation into the crash of a commercial airliner.

SCULLY: Sir, the military is responsible for the downing of that plane.

SKINNER: They are admitting as much ... but Sergeant Frish's story is not the one they're telling.

SCULLY: What is their story?

(He stares at her for a second, then looks down at the bloody tissue in her hand. She notices and looks away, sighing. He takes her hand and raises it, looking at the tissue.)

SKINNER: I have a responsibility for the safety of the agents under my supervision, Agent Scully. I'm not going to put another agent's life in jeopardy just to keep her on the field.

(Scully stares at him for a few seconds, trying to hide her worry for herself.)

SCULLY: I'm fine.

SKINNER: I suggest you make sure of that when you go to the hospital with Agent Pendrell.

(She looks down at the tissue.)

<-VON DREHLE AIR FORCE; RESERVE INSTALLATION->

(Scully walks out of a room and turns down a hallway where Mulder is walking in with two military police officers. Mulder is wearing a green shirt and pants, as well as prison boots.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: Hey, Scully. You come to spring me from the joint?

(The first MP holds out a clipboard, which Mulder signs with the attached pen. The second policeman walks past them. Mulder and Scully start walking down the hallway as the first policeman walks in the direction Scully came from.)

SCULLY: I came to talk to you.

MULDER: About what? The big old misunderstanding?

(The second MP leads them into a room.)

SCULLY: According to the military, there was no misunderstanding.

(The door closes. Mulder puts his duffel bag down on the table and starts to empty it out.)

MULDER: So all of a sudden, they just decide to take responsibility for the crash of Flight five-forty-nine?

SCULLY: They had no choice, not in light of all the facts that have come out.

MULDER: The facts? Have you heard their cover story? That the control tower gave bad coordinates to a fighter pilot, causing him to collide with Flight five-forty-nine over military airspace?

(Mulder takes off his green shirt given by the military.)

SCULLY: They allowed me to listen to their recordings.

(Mulder takes off his boots. She turns around as he starts to take off his pants.)

SCULLY: If you believe them, the coordinates that Sergeant Frish gave to the fighter pilot were the exact path that five-four-nine was on. Now, they would indicate that Sergeant Frish and his co-controller could not have seen Flight five-four-nine in the airspace until it was too late.

(Mulder starts to put on his button-down shirt.)

MULDER: So they're saying the tower put those jets on a collision course.

SCULLY: Yes, and that they were the only two aircraft on the radar screen.

(Mulder starts to put on his pants.)

MULDER: And realizing his guilt, Sergeant Frish's fellow officer put a gun to his head.

(Scully sighs and walks to the window.)

SCULLY: According to the Air Force, Sergeant Frish lied to save himself. When he found out that his, his fellow officer committed suicide, he came to us to blame the military. That's why they pursued him, to bring him to justice.

MULDER: Then they could conveniently lay the blame on a dead man.

(Scully nods slightly.)

SCULLY: Yes.

(Mulder finishes putting on his shoes and stands, putting on his jacket.)

MULDER: This, uh... second plane... they say it's a military fighter?

SCULLY: It was an F-Fifteen Eagle, according to an Air Force spokesman.

MULDER: You believe that story, Scully?

(Scully looks back at him as he throws on his overcoat.)

SCULLY: I don't know what to believe.

(He walks over to her and pulls back his hair on the right side of his face, revealing small radiation burns on his forehead.)

MULDER: You believe I got this from an F-Fifteen Eagle?

SCULLY: Those look like radiation burns. Where did you get that?

MULDER: At the second crash site, in about fifty feet of water at the bottom of Sacandaga Lake.

SCULLY: You found it?

MULDER: Mm-hmm. I followed a trail of bubbles down to the wreckage, but it didn't look like anything that might take off from an Air Force base.

SCULLY: What was it?

MULDER: What collided with Flight five-forty-nine was a UFO shot down by the military, taking the passenger plane right along with it.

(He starts out and she follows.)

SCULLY: Except it can't be proven.

(They walk out of the room.)

MULDER: Why not?

SCULLY: Because they haven't been able to find any physical evidence whatsoever that Flight five-forty-nine was involved in a collision.

MULDER: According to who?

SCULLY: Mike Millar, the I.I.C.... the man running the investigation.

MULDER: How do you know he's not lying?

SCULLY: I don't, except he seems to be the one man that truly wants to figure out what downed that plane and who came to me with information he had no reason to share.

(They walk out of the building and start down the steps.)

MULDER: What information?

SCULLY: He found Sharon Graffia wandering in a daze at the crash site the night we left, after seeing lights over the area.

MULDER: Max Fenig's sister?

SCULLY: That's another thing, Mulder. She's not Max Fenig's sister.

MULDER: Well, who is she?

SCULLY: She's an unemployed aeronautical engineer who spent time in-and-out of mental institutions. That's where she met Max.

(They stop at the bottom of the steps.)

MULDER: Why would she lie?

SCULLY: I don't know. All I know is that this plane seems to be killing people as it sits there on the ground.

(He stares at her, a bit confused.)

SCULLY: Mulder, Agent Pendrell is dead.

(He puts his hand on her shoulder, deeply saddened as well.)

MULDER: H, how?

SCULLY: Shot in an attempt on Sergeant Frish on Washington.

(He looks around, putting his hands in his pocket, angry and saddened.)

SCULLY: He saved his life, Mulder, and maybe mine.

(She starts walking away, on the verge of tears.)

MULDER: Wait, Scully, Scully.

(She walks back over to him.)

SCULLY: What are these people dying for? Is it for the truth or for the lies?

MULDER: It's got to be for the truth. If we owe them anything, it's to make sure of that.

<-BARNES CORNERS, NEW YORK->

(A motorcyclist rolls by. A man is raking leaves. There are a few picnic benches nearby. Mulder and Scully walk over to him.)

MULDER: Excuse me, sir, Max Fenig?

GARDENER: Over there.

(He points to his right.)

MULDER: Thanks.

(They walk over to the camper and walk in. The place remains unchanged.)

MULDER: Remember this place?

SCULLY: I remember being amazed at what some people will call home.

MULDER: You have to admit, the man had an enduring sense of style.

SCULLY: Only Max Fenig and you would appreciate living like this.

(Mulder chuckles as they walk towards the back of the camper. She rubs some dust off of the stereo and presses play. "Unmarked Helicopters" by Soul Coughing plays. She waits a few seconds before pressing stop.)

SCULLY: I think you were actually kindred spirits in some deep, strange way.

MULDER: What do you mean?

(She sighs.)

SCULLY: Men with Spartan lives, simple in their creature comforts if only to allow for the complexity of their passions.

(Mulder walks past her and picks up a can of food.)

MULDER: Hmmm, beans and weinies.

(He puts the can down.)

SCULLY: What exactly are we looking for here, Mulder?

MULDER: Something to explain what Max was doing on that plane... what he was coming to show me or tell me.

SCULLY: What makes you think he was coming to see you?

(He sits down at the computer and hands her the bloodied business card he pulled out of Max's pocket while checking the body.)

MULDER: Max is the key to all this. He knew that plane was in danger even before it took off, before it entered military airspace.

(He looks through the contents of a folder.)

MULDER: How would he know that? And what would be worth taking that risk?

(He pulls out a videotape and pops it into the VCR, pressing play. After turning on the television, a picture comes up of Max standing in front of his trailer. He nods, then waits a few seconds.)

MAX FENIG: Hi. Max here. But of course. This is, uh, well, quite obviously, uh, my story, since I'm telling it. Anyway... um... for those of you who know me already, this is going to be ancient history, but for the rest of you, this is... well, what can I say... the story of my life. Actually, all I ever wanted in life was to be left alone.

(He laughs.)

MAX FENIG: Don't we all? So just my luck that I'd eventually become an alien abductee. Now I'm never alone. Any minute, when I'm least expecting it...

(He motions to the sky.)

MAX FENIG: And the worst part is, no one believes you. Well, uh... almost no one. So, I've devoted my life to providing all you disbelievers out there with proof. Proof that there are extraterrestrial biological entities right now, as we speak, visiting our planet in alien ships for purposes of a rather troubling agenda known only to certain members of the government, uh, the F.B.I. and certain high-ranking members...

<-GREAT SACANDAGA LAKE->

(A clean-up crew is in the process of covering-up the evidence that Mulder found. Max continues his tirade over the scene. Machine-gun-mounted trucks race by, as well as different men running to a large area cordoned off by a giant sheet draped over the area.)

MAX FENIG: ...of the military-industrial community who have recovered some of these very craft, not that they'd ever admit to it publicly... uh... of course. Nor, nor would they, uh, admit that they have salvaged some of this alien technology and are using it in military applications.

(There are metal boxes all over inside the area, as well as computers. A man is writing on a blackboard, but stops and starts on the computer.)

MAX FENIG: No, that would be un-American and they won't admit it until someone conf, confronts them with irrefutable, undeniable proof. Someone like me.

(Other men are going over parts of the newfound wreckage with Geiger counters.)

MAX FENIG: And, uh... I should probably mention that I should do this at great risk to my own health and safety, but, hey...

(He laughs. Men are still bringing wreckage onshore.)

MAX FENIG: When every day's just another day you're going to get kidnapped by, by some little gray dudes from outer space, what's a few C.I.A. spooks to worry about?

(A man zips up a bodybag containing an alien body and he, with another man, bring it over to a line of bodybags.)

MAN: Hey!

(Two divers are helping another diver onshore, who is coughing and gagging wildly. He has radiation burns all over his face. They bring him over on a gurney, coughing and wheezing, over to a section of the tent. They all stare at him. A blood-stained bullet hole in his pants, Garrett walks over and stands over the sick man.)

SCOTT GARRETT: We found it.

<-HANGAR->

(The plane is nearly completely reconstructed. Mike Millar is wrapping up, talking to his team of workers.)

MIKE MILLAR: Recovery and identification of the deceased victims of Flight five-four-nine is at seventy-six percent... which is far better than anticipated, given the kind of destruction we've all seen. We've got a total of nearly three-thousand man-hours logged already in this first wave of investigation... and I wish I could tell you folks that we've come up with something more concrete, but... the evidence... just doesn't support anything more conclusive than the Air Force's assertion that the cause of this crash was a midair collision... or a catastrophic near-miss.

(Millar looks out onto the faces of his workers, some of which look as if they have a hard time believing such a story. He looks down at his folder.)

MIKE MILLAR: I'm going to ask you all to wrap-up your reports tonight... and then I want you to go home to your families. You've done a good and thorough job here. You'll be in touch with me or someone from the N.T.S.B. on anything further. I just wanted to thank you all personally. Thank you.

(The man and women start to walk out, a few shaking hands with Millar. Millar looks through the crowd to see Mulder and Scully standing off to the side. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Millar walks over.)

MIKE MILLAR: I'd wondered what happened to you. I'd put in a call.

MULDER: You had something you wanted to tell us?

MIKE MILLAR: No. Just, just... just wanted to touch base. Thank you for your help in leading us to the fact of the military's involvement.

MULDER: I think the facts are still a matter of speculation, Mister Millar, and listening to what you just said, I think you do, too.

SCULLY: The military's public claim of fault for the collision and their covert actions to promote that claim have raised some suspicions.

MIKE MILLAR: Suspicions? Of what?

SCULLY: That the story the military is now promoting is a convenient deflection and cover-up.

MIKE MILLAR: Of what?

MULDER: Agent Scully and I agree on some of the motives, but not exactly on the facts.

MIKE MILLAR: Do you have facts that I don't?

MULDER: No, but I do have a story if you're willing to hear it. Feel free to tell me it's bull, as Agent Scully has...

(Scully looks a bit embarrassed.)

MULDER: ...but I think it's as believable as any story I've heard floated, but at least it's the only one that can't be refuted by the facts.

(Millar looks behind him for a second, pondering it.)

MIKE MILLAR: All right.

(They start to walk, Scully close behind.)

MULDER: There was one man who knew what brought this plane down, and he knew it even before he got on the plane, but he got on anyway.

(He points to a seat.)

MULDER: He sat right here in this seat, thirteen-F. His name was Max Fenig.

(He points to the seat. Cut back to the night of the crash, or at least Mulder's version of it. Max looks a few seats back to see the Dark Man staring over at him.)

MULDER: There are a number of possibilities for Max's suspicions, but I believe Max had been followed for some time before he boarded Flight five-forty-nine.

(The Dark Man stands and heads for the bathroom in the middle of the plane, glancing at Max, who is staring back.)

MULDER: And I believe he was followed onto this plane by someone who wanted whatever it is Max had carried onboard with him.

(Max clutches his small green bag tighter to his chest.)

MULDER: The object that ultimately brought down this plane, the cause which has eluded you.

(Cut back to the present. Millar and Mulder are walking again, Scully still close behind.)

MIKE MILLAR: And what was this object?

MULDER: Physical proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life and intelligence.

(Millar looks back at Scully in disbelief. Scully has the same look on her face. Cut back to the night in question. The Dark Man builds his gun inside the bathroom. Mulder continues to talk over the scene.)

MULDER: The person who followed Max on the plane may have been prepared to kill to obtain this object, it's value greater than one human life, greater than the lives of the hundred-and-thirty-four people on that plane. Whether that plan was executed, we may never know because Flight five-forty-nine was intercepted by a second aircraft, an aircraft which did not appear on the military's or anyone else's radar screen.

(The ship starts to shake violently and men and women start to scream. The cockpit's controls are going wild.)

PILOT: What the hell is this?

(Max looks out his window.)

MULDER: Max Fenig knew immediately what this craft was and that he would not be completing the rest of the flight as scheduled.

(The Dark Man walks out of the bathroom, struggling to remain standing.)

MULDER: Max would have recognized immediately all the signs of a classic abduction scenario...

(The screaming goes louder as the power goes out on the airliner, but light shines in through the windows on all sides.)

MULDER: The craft taking control of the plane and all its systems...

(The door next to Max shakes violently as Max continues to clutch his bag to his chest, staring at the window wide-eyed.)

MULDER: Preparing to take Max.

(Cut to the present. The agents and Millar start walking again.)

MULDER: But something happened. Something went terribly wrong, something unimaginable.

MIKE MILLAR: Okay.

MULDER: A third aircraft, probably an F-Fifteen Eagle, was given the coordinates to Flight five-forty-nine.

(Cut to the control tower in the past. Frish is talking to the plane, Gonzales is in the back.)

LOUIS FRISH: Heading one-zero-zero at two-niner thousand feet.

(The fighter jet approaches the airliner in a perpendicular pattern on the radar screen.)

MULDER: The flight controllers watched the fighter enter Flight five-forty-nine's airspace on an intercept pattern...

(A beeping grows loudly. Gonzales rushes over and the two watch the radar screen.)

MULDER: Not knowing what they had set in motion, no way of knowing there was a third craft which was not on their screen.

(Cut to the plane, where Max continues to stare out the window despite the intense light.)

MULDER: Not knowing that for the next nine minutes, time would stand still on Flight five-forty-nine.

PILOT: We got something... some intercept. Oh my God! My God! Mayday! Mayday, mayday!

(The men and women stare back at Max's position, screaming. The Dark Man is tossed to the floor by the violent shaking. The plane shakes even more as the door is starting to be ripped off the hinges. Max is staring at the door in terror as he convulses slightly. The noise of the air pulling builds when everything stands still. The plane stops moving. The door has been pulled off its hinges, and no one is screaming now. Everyone is watching, amazed. Max starts to shake and convulse, having one of his seizures that occurs when the aliens come for him. His seat starts to rattle when Max suddenly levitates off his seat a few inches, movement stopping. His radiation burns have grown slightly as his body uncontrollably moves away from the seat and in front of the door, turning to face it. The Dark Man tries to shoot Max, but his gun jams, as guns usually do around the aliens. Max slowly levitates out the door, much to the amazement of the other passengers and crew. Outside, Max is merely a silhouette in the blinding light. Cut to the present, where all are standing still now.)

MIKE MILLAR: You're saying the man sitting in seat thirteen-F was abducted mid-flight without any depressurization of the cabin, without any effect on the plane.

MULDER: If not for factors unforeseen, I believe Max Fenig would have been abducted and returned to Flight five-forty-nine without any loss of life, without a trace.

MIKE MILLAR: Then what happened?

(On the radar screen in the tower a few nights before, the F-Fifteen Eagle and the airliner are about to collide.)

MULDER: Flight five-forty-nine and the alien craft which has taken control of it were intercept by the military fighter which had been given a specific set of orders... take down the UFO.

(In the plane and outside it, people watch as Max is slowly returned to the plane, approaching in the blinding light.)

MULDER: The missing nine minutes aboard Flight five-forty-nine, the nine minutes which would have been erased from the memories of the hundred-and-thirty-four passengers on board, would prove to be the final minutes of their lives.

(Slowly, Max is back in the ship when an explosion sounds outside. The lights shut out and people start to murmur, but less than a second later, Max's body is sucked out of the plane, along with various papers. Max flails wildly as he disappears from sight. The lights flicker on and off as people hold on for dear life, but one man is not so lucky as he is ripped out of his seat and out the door, screaming. The oxygen masks fall from the ceiling. The passengers clamor for it as a stewardess grabs onto the bottom of a seat to no avail. She falls out of the plane, screaming. Another women falls out. The Dark Man slides down the aisle, barely holding on. The passengers put on their oxygen masks, as does the Dark Man, who continues to hold on. The noise is a mix of a sucking noise and a symphony of screams. One women has taken the oxygen mask off and is praying loudly.)

WOMAN: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

(A stewardess is crying in the back. The woman's voice grows louder and higher as the impending doom approaches.)

WOMAN: Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death!

(A man and a woman hold hands across the aisle as the lights start to give out, the noise of the plane falling becomes louder.)

WOMAN: Amen!

(On the radar screen, the triangle representing Flight five-forty-nine flashes. A small number about says "549," and there is a line under it. Under the line, the number counts down: "1000," "800," "700," "500," "300," and finally "000" before dropping off the screen. Frish and Gonzales watch sadly, slightly confused. Cut to the present.)

MIKE MILLAR: You're saying that, that Flight five-four-nine was in the grip of... sort of a UFO tractor beam?

MULDER: That's the Hollywood term, but yes.

MIKE MILLAR: And the Air Force shot down the UFO, thereby sending five-four-nine out of control when the beam went off.

MULDER: Yes.

(Millar stares at Mulder, half-believing after what he saw the previous night, but still thinking it is ludicrous.)

MIKE MILLAR: Well, where I come from, that's what we call a "whopper."

(Mulder smiles.)

MIKE MILLAR: Even if it were true, I could never in a million years sell that to Washington, and neither could you.

MULDER: Not without the object that Max Fenig was carrying.

SCULLY: Look, I, I had the same reaction to the story as you, but there is one logical area that has yet to be explained and that is that the, the seats and the door did show traces of, of radioactivity. Now, now you found nothing in the wreckage? No source of any emitter?

MIKE MILLAR: I did find something. I think you should look at.

(They walk towards Millar's car. Millar takes out his keys and starts to open the trunk.)

MIKE MILLAR: After you'd found the first traces, I had my team see if they could link the radioactivity to a cause.

(He opens the trunk.)

MIKE MILLAR: They found no other evidence...

(He pulls out the small green bag Max was carrying.)

MIKE MILLAR: Except for this.

(He hands it to Mulder, who opens it and pulls out a familiar object. Max's NICAP hat.)

MULDER: That's it?

MIKE MILLAR: That's all there was. I'm going to have to make my final report. I'll include this if it makes any difference to you.

(Mulder puts the hat in the backpack and puts it back in the trunk.)

SCULLY: But not as a causal factor.

MIKE MILLAR: It's a good story.

(He closes the trunk.)

MIKE MILLAR: Maybe you can sell it to the movies.

(He walks away. Mulder and Scully walk away from the car. Mulder paces back and forth slowly.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I don't know what else you expect him to do.

MULDER: Yeah, I know.

SCULLY: Look, it is a good story, but it's, it's a house of cards built on a shaky foundation. We may never know what Max was carrying.

MULDER: And we may never know who killed Agent Pendrell. And if we don't find out, what meaning did their deaths have? Or their lives? I mean, Max'll be remembered as a...

(He chuckles slightly.)

MULDER: Disappointing rummage sale or some kook on a home video.

SCULLY: Well, where do we even start?

MULDER: How about Sharon Graffia?

(Scully sighs.)

SCULLY: She's a disturbed person, Mulder. She wasn't even who she claimed to be.

MULDER: Yeah, but she knew Max well enough for him to write her thousands of letters, well enough for him to call her and tell her he was going to die. Do you know where she is?

SCULLY: In a mental institution.

(Mulder's eyes widen slightly in shock. She sighs, knowing what Mulder's is thinking, smiling slightly.)

MULDER: I'd, I'd go with you, but I'm, I'm afraid they'd lock me up.

SCULLY: Me too.

(She sighs. He smiles.)

<-BARNES CORNERS, NEW YORK->

(Mulder pulls up to Fenig's old camper. The radio is blasting. He looks in to see "Unmarked Helicopters" blaring over the speaker. Max's videotape is playing and the camper is a wreck. The door is wide open. He walks in and looks around, then goes to the stereo.)

LANDLORD: Hello.

(Mulder looks over to see a man standing in the doorway.)

LANDLORD: Are you a friend of Max's?

(Mulder turns off the music. The man steps inside. Mulder shows him his badge.)

MULDER: No. My name is, uh, Mulder. I'm with the F.B.I.

LANDLORD: You're kidding, right?

MULDER: No, why?

LANDLORD: Well, I manage the park. I know Max had some weird friends and I don't believe the F.B.I. sends men out cause somebody trashed a trailer.

MULDER: Any idea who did this?

LANDLORD: N, no. Is Max in trouble or something?

MULDER: No, Max is dead. He, he died in a plane crash a few days ago.

LANDLORD: Oh, Lord, I... I am sorry to hear that.

MULDER: Uh, did, did he ever mention why he would leave or where he would go?

LANDLORD: No. But he disappeared sometimes. Had... stories. You're sure that's not what happened to him?

MULDER: Yeah, I'm... yeah, I'm sure.

(The manager sighs.)

LANDLORD: Have you, uh, any idea who's going to be taking care of his estate? Where I should, uh, forward his mail?

MULDER: Oh, he has mail?

LANDLORD: Yeah, a small stack of it. I'll run and get it if you want.

(Mulder nods.)

MULDER: Please.

(The manager walks out. Mulder kneels down in front of the television and rewinds it as it plays, then presses pause. In the window of the camper, Mulder clearly sees Sharon filming. The landlord walks in.)

LANDLORD: Here you go.

(He hands Mulder the mail.)

LANDLORD: Sure feel sorry about Max.

MULDER: So do I.

(The landlord sighs and walks out. Mulder flips through the letters and finds one with the return address:

"Paul Gidney Box 4024 Sta A Washington, D.C. 20001-99."

He opens the letter and finds a small plastic identification key as if some luggage claim. "SYR 4832008.")

<-NORTHEAST GEORGETOWN MENTAL HEALTH CENTER->

(Scully walks down the hallway and opens the door to a dark room. Sharon is sitting on the bed, facing the window.)

SCULLY: Sharon?

SHARON GRAFFIA: Hello.

(Scully walks in, not closing the door fully.)

SCULLY: How are you feeling?

(Sharon shrugs slightly, still facing away.)

SCULLY: Are you up to answering some questions?

SHARON GRAFFIA: I'm not Max's sister.

SCULLY: I know.

(She starts to walk around the bed.)

SCULLY: I'm not quite sure why you lied to us, though, Sharon... or what else you might be lying about.

(Sharon looks at her.)

SHARON GRAFFIA: It doesn't matter anymore.

SCULLY: Yes, it does. If you know something, if you know anything about what Max was doing, about what he was carrying on that plane... it could matter a lot.

SHARON GRAFFIA: To who?

SCULLY: To Max.

(Sharon stares at her for a second, then tenses up slightly.)

SHARON GRAFFIA: I can't.

SCULLY: Why not?

SHARON GRAFFIA: Because I could be in big, big trouble.

(She breathes raggedly. Scully turns on the lamp next to her and looks at the radiation burns over the side of her face.)

SCULLY: Max had those same blisters. You both were exposed to something, Sharon. What was it?

(Sharon is hesitant to answer.)

SHARON GRAFFIA: It was something I stole.

SCULLY: From whom?

(Sharon does not answer.)

SCULLY: Max was trying to find physical evidence to prove that the stories about his abductions were true. You worked as an aeronautical systems engineer. You stole something from your employer, didn't you, Sharon? Something radioactive.

SHARON GRAFFIA: Only because I believed in Max.

SCULLY: What was it?

SHARON GRAFFIA: Max said it was alien technology. It was three interlocking parts. We divided it into sections. I had one part. Max had another onboard that flight...

(She shakes her head.)

SHARON GRAFFIA: But they were taken from us.

SCULLY: There was a third part. What happened to it?

(Sharon glances at her, then looks down.)

<-SYRACUSE HANCOCK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT->

(Mulder slides the tag over to the clerk at the luggage claim.)

MULDER: I left a bag here.

CLERK: Big bag, little bag?

MULDER: Short bag, tall bag.

(He smiles.)

MULDER: I, I don't remember. Little bag, I think.

(The clerk looks around. A number of men-in-black conglomerate at the end of the hallway, staring at Mulder.)

MAN: He's at the baggage claim.

(The clerk puts a brown bag down on the counter.)

CLERK: Is this it?

(Mulder looks back at the men, who eye him inconspicuously.)

MULDER: I'm a federal officer. I need a security entrance to the terminal.

(He shows the clerk his badge.)

CLERK: Right this way.

(Mulder takes the bag and the two of them walk behind the gate and through a door. The other agents start off. Mulder ends up near a Travel Insurance and closes the door. His cellular phone rings.)

MULDER: Mulder.

(Cut to Scully, who is still at the mental hospital.)

SCULLY: Mulder, it's me. Where are you?

(Cut to Mulder, who continues to walk through the terminal.)

MULDER: I'm at the airport in Syracuse, New York. Whatever is it that Max had, I have it now.

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: How did you find it?

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Luck.

SCULLY: Mulder...

(Cut to Scully, who starts to walk slowly.)

SCULLY: What you're carrying was stolen from a military contractor, Cummins Aerospace.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Well, what is it?

(Cut to Mulder.)

SCULLY: I don't know.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Well, I'm going to let you know in a minute.

SCULLY: Mulder...

(He starts to undo the straps to the bag. Static builds on the phone. Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: It is extremely important that you do not take it out of its container.

(Cut to Mulder. The static is growing by the second. Mulder keeps walking, undoing the straps.)

MULDER: What's that? I'm having trouble hearing you on the phone here.

SCULLY: Mulder, did you hear what I said?

MULDER: No, hold on a second, I'm going to tell you what it looks like.

(The bag is open. Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: No, no, no, Mulder, listen to me. Do not handle it. Whatever it is...

(Mulder gets in line at the metal detector.)

SCULLY: It is highly radioactive.

(Static keeps interfering. Mulder puts the bag on the conveyor belt and watches it go through.)

MULDER: Hold on a second.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

(There is no sound except for static. Then a few beeps. Cut to Mulder, who has just stepped through the metal detector and is stopped by a security guard. He shows the guard his badge, and the guard nods. Mulder looks at the monitor with the bag inside. There is a container with a device that has four circles attached to one another, the two in the middle larger. There is also a few unrecognizable things. He picks the phone back up.)

MULDER: It looks like a small superstructure with three circular pieces inside. It's hard to tell on an x-ray, hold on.

(He takes the bag and starts walking. Cut back to Scully, who sighs in relief that Mulder didn't do something stupid.)

SCULLY: I think that what we've got here, Mulder, is a case of high-tech industrial espionage.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: More people are trying to get their hands on this thing than a "Tickle-Me Elmo" doll. I'm getting on a flight.

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: What flight number?

MULDER: I think it's five-oh-one.

(He pulls the ticket out of his inner coat pocket, looks at it, and hands it to the gate attendant.)

MULDER: Yeah. I'm going to need a ride when I get there.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: I don't think that'll to be a problem, Mulder.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Thanks.

(He hangs up and walks down the gate. Boarding the plane, he heads towards his seat. Seeing a stewardess, he holds up his overcoat.)

MULDER: Can I give you this?

STEWARDESS: Certainly.

MULDER: Thanks.

(She takes it as he passes by her. One man watches Mulder in particular, Scott Garrett. Later in the flight, when Mulder has settled in, Garrett walks over and puts a package in the overhead compartment near Mulder. Mulder, looking out the window, half-asleep, doesn't notice.)

SCOTT GARRETT: Excuse me. You look like you have some room here. Do you mind?

MULDER: No, go ahead.

(Garrett sits.)

SCOTT GARRETT: Didn't mean to disturb you.

MULDER: It's all right.

SCOTT GARRETT: You traveling by yourself?

(Mulder glances down at the bullet hole in his pants, then back up at his face.)

SCOTT GARRETT: You live in D.C.?

(Mulder moves his hand under his coat.)

MULDER: There's a weapon pointed at you right now. If I shoot you at this range, it wouldn't just hit you in the leg. If you so much as raise your arms off that armrest, I'm going to test that theory.

SCOTT GARRETT: What if you miss?

MULDER: I won't.

SCOTT GARRETT: Do you know what happens when a plane suddenly depressurizes at thirty-thousand feet, Mister Mulder? After the cabin fills with fog and all light objects, anything not tied down...

(Mulder sighs.)

SCOTT GARRETT: ...and including your weapon, go flying toward the breach?

MULDER: A pretty lady comes around with honey-roasted peanuts?

SCOTT GARRETT: Presuming the pilot... is even able to keep control of the plane, I put on the lightweight parachute I just stowed in the overhead bin and go out the emergency exit... with the knapsack you're holding.

MULDER: What if the pilot can't get control of the plane?> Then you die too.

SCOTT GARRETT: A man, if he's any man at all, knows he must be ready to sacrifice himself to that which is greater than he.

(Mulder laughs to himself.)

MULDER: I'm sure all the other passengers on this plane would appreciate dying for your noble philosophy.

SCOTT GARRETT: Look out your window, Agent Mulder. You see the lights? Now, imagine if one of those lights flickered off. You'd hardly notice, would you? A dozen... two dozen lights extinguished. Is it worth sacrificing the future, the lives of millions, to keep a few lights on?

MULDER: What is this?

(He looks down at the knapsack, as does Garrett.)

SCOTT GARRETT: Stolen property.

MULDER: It's an alien energy source, isn't it? What is it, cold fusion? Over-unity energy? What could be worth killing all those passengers on Flight five-forty-nine?

SCOTT GARRETT: The cause of that crash has been determined as human error.

MULDER: I'm going to see you pay for that error... along with you and your employer and the government that finances its contracts. I want you to stand up very slowly and move to the back of the plane. We're going to go to the bathroom.

(Garrett looks at him. Mulder leans in and whispers.)

MULDER: Move.

(Garrett stands and Mulder directs him to the bathroom. Garrett walks in and Mulder closes the door. After putting on his suit jacket, Mulder picks up the knapsack and moves the stewardesses' drink cart in front of the bathroom door, holding Garrett in. He picks up the airplane telephone. Cut to Scully, who is walking down the terminal in the airport Mulder is going to when her phone rings.)

SCULLY: Scully.

MULDER: Hey, Scully, it's me.

SCULLY: Mulder, where are you?

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I'm standing outside an airplane bathroom where I've got the man who shot Pendrell locked up.

(Cut to Scully, who stops walking in shock.)

SCULLY: What?

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: Yeah, and it looks like I'm going to miss the in-flight movie. Something starring Steve Guttenberg.

SCULLY: Mulder, did you get on that flight...

(Cut to Scully, who covers her other ear to drown out the noise in the terminal.)

SCULLY: ...that you said you were getting on?

MULDER: Uh, yeah.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Everything's going according to plan, but I think you should alert Skinner anyway, just in case. I don't want to take any chances of getting this guy off the plane.

(Cut to Scully.)

MULDER: And I don't think you do either.

SCULLY: Right.

(Cut to Mulder, who checks his watch. It's not moving.)

MULDER: Hey, Scully.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Yeah?

(Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: My watch just stopped.

(He drops the phone and runs over to a stewardess.)

SCULLY: What? Mulder? Mulder?

MULDER: Excuse me.

(He grabs her by the arm, forcing her to pay attention.)

MULDER: I'm a federal agent. I want you to listen to me very carefully. This plane is about to be intercepted.

STEWARDESS: Intercepted.

MULDER: Intercepted, engaged and boarded. I want you to tell the captain to initiate evasive maneuvers immediately.

(She doesn't look sure.)

SCOTT GARRETT: Put the bag down!

(Mulder spins around to see Garrett standing near the bathroom door with gun aimed directly at Mulder. People start to scream.)

SCOTT GARRETT: Put it down on the floor.

(The people quiet down. Mulder doesn't move. Garrett slowly approaches him. He is holding the same kind of gun that the Dark Man had used. Mulder puts the knapsack down on the floor and starts to back away. Suddenly, the plane is rocked as if it had collided with something. Mulder and Garrett are both nearly thrown off their feet as women and children scream loudly. The stewardess falls. Garrett tries to stay upright and keep his gun on Mulder, who stands. A loud buzzing starts and the power cuts, but a bright light shines in from the right. Garrett slowly approaches Mulder, holding his gun, and kneels slowly. He is parallel to the door, where most of the light is coming in, as he picks up the bag. Mulder whips out his gun as the plane shakes.)

MULDER: Drop the bag! Drop the bag! Drop it!

(Garrett refuses to listen. The door shakes. The woman screaming next to the door sounds like a distant echo. Mulder looks at the door.)

MULDER: Hey! Let it go!

(Garrett looks at Mulder, scared out of his wits but still keeping his resolve.)

MULDER: Let it go!

(Garrett looks towards the door. Mulder tries to fire the gun, but it does not fire. The plane stops moving. The door is pulled off its hinges. The light envelopes the cabin.)

<-WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(The plane lands and pulls in to the terminal gate. Scully and Skinner run up the stairs nearby the gate and run down into the plane, followed by four agents. The men and the women of the plane calmly collect their things and start out. Scully makes her way through the crowd to Mulder, who is still sitting, looking out the window.)

SCULLY: Mulder. Where is he?

MULDER: He's not here.

(Mulder stands and steps into the aisle.)

SCULLY: What do you mean? You said you had him on this plane. You said you had what Max Fenig had, the stolen part.

(Mulder takes her wrist and looks at her watch. It reads around 10:56. Skinner walks over and Mulder looks up at him.)

MULDER: What time do you have?

(Skinner looks at his watch.)

SKINNER: Ten fifty-six.

(Mulder looks at his watch. It reads 10:47. Scully looks at Mulder, realizing what has happened. He shows the watch to Scully.)

SKINNER: Would you like to tell me what's going on here, Agent Mulder?

SCULLY: I don't think you want to know the answer.

(She walks out past Skinner, sighing slightly. Mulder opens the overhead compartment and looks at the parachute Garrett left.)

SKINNER: Is this man on the plane?

MULDER: I think he got the connecting flight.

(He slams it shut and walks out, leaving Skinner confused. Max starts to talk over the scene.)

MAX FENIG: But... but nobody ever finds out about it. I mean, there...

<-BARNES CORNERS, NEW YORK->

(Another tape of Max is playing. He is still talking next to his camper.)

MAX FENIG: There are scientists in Finland right now who say that they've detected antigravity over the surface of a, a spinning superconducting disc...

(He laughs.)

MAX FENIG: Technology that is supposedly twenty or thirty years down the road like over-unity energy, um, massless displacement current from cold fusion that we need for space travel. I know, thanks to my inside sources, that this technology, in fact, exists.

(Max talks very excitedly as usual.)

MAX FENIG: I've seen military aircraft using it hovering right over my trailer.

(He points to the sky above his trailer.)

MAX FENIG: Why is the U.S. government keeping these facts a secret?

(Sharon watches the tape, smiling.)

MAX FENIG: I intend to expose these facts to the people. I mean, I'm just one man...

(She turns off the television. Mulder and Scully look at her. She smiles widely.)

SHARON GRAFFIA: These tapes, you don't mind if I keep them?

MULDER: No, I think you, you should consider yourself the sole curator of the Max Fenig Rolling Multimedia Library and Archive, and you should probably get tax-exempt status as soon as you can. This stuff could be worth something someday.

SHARON GRAFFIA: I want to thank you for helping me out, for all you've done.

SCULLY: Max would have wanted it that way. You lost somebody very close to you.

SHARON GRAFFIA: So did you.

(She nods slightly and smiles. Scully manages a small smile, glances at Mulder, and walks out. Outside, Scully is staring up at the stars when Mulder walks out.)

MULDER: You thinking about Pendrell?

SCULLY: I realized I didn't even know his first name.

(She chuckles slightly.)

SCULLY: I actually was thinking about, uh...

(She looks down at the Apollo keychain.)

SCULLY: This gift that you gave me for my birthday. You never got to tell me why you gave it to me or what it means... but I think I know. I think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and... extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals... that what can be imagined can be achieved... that you must dare to dream... but that there's no substitute for perseverance and hard work... and teamwork... because no one gets there alone... and that, while we commemorate the... the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible.

(She sighs, Mulder watching.)

MULDER: I just thought it was a pretty cool keychain.

(Scully chuckles. They walk off together. The stars are shining brightly tonight.)