The X-Files - 4.

4.19 Synchrony

German title: Rückkehr aus der Zukunft
translation: Return from the Future

< MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY >

(On a dark and damp night, an old man runs frantically through the campus, looking for someone. He passes a clock that shows 11:40. He sees two young men, Jason and Lucas, walking toward him and runs toward them. The two young men are having a heated discussion.)

JASON: You know what he's capable of. Please! McFarland's going to turn this into a witch hunt. And who do you think he's going to burn at the stake?

LUCAS: Yeah, well you should have thought of that before you published your results.

JASON: No, you should have come to me before you went to McFarland!

LUCAS: I did, Jason, more than once, but you ...

JASON: That's bull!

LUCAS: ... you didn't want to hear anything I had to say. You never did.

JASON: So you deliberately went behind my back.

(The old man reaches them and grabs Lucas by the arm.)

LUCAS: I did exactly ... (to Old Man) What? What?

OLD MAN: (to Lucas) I need to talk to you.

JASON: Excuse us, please.

OLD MAN: That street is dangerous.

LUCAS: (to Old Man) Right. Thank you. We'll be fine. (to Jason) Look, I'm not gonna lie about this.

JASON: I'm not asking you to lie.

LUCAS: Then what are you asking me to do?

OLD MAN: I've travelled a long way.

LUCAS: (to Old Man) Here, what, you want some money, is that it? Here. Here's a dollar, it's all I have.

(The old man grabs Lucas by the arm again. Jason tries to pull him away.)

OLD MAN: No. No. Listen to me!

JASON: Hey! Hey! ...

OLD MAN: I'm trying to save your life.

JASON: ... Hey! Take it easy. Calm down.

LUCAS: Let go!

(In the scuffle, Lucas drops his books to the ground. A campus security vehicle stops alongside them and a security cop gets out to investigate.)

SECURITY COP: What's the problem here?

LUCAS: (pointing at the old man) This old guy is harassing me.

JASON: No, he's just a little bit agitated.

OLD MAN: No, he's going to die. At exactly 11:46. The bus ...

SECURITY COP: We're all gonna die, pop. Come on, let's go sleep it off.

(The security cop grabs the old man by the arm and pushes him toward the car.)

OLD MAN: No!

SECURITY COP: Come with me ...

OLD MAN: Jason!

SECURITY COP: ... You'll feel better in the morning.

OLD MAN: Don't let him cross the street!

SECURITY COP: All right.

OLD MAN: His papers, he won't see the bus! At 11:46!

SECURITY COP: All right, into the car.

OLD MAN: Stop him! No! Jason!

(The security officer pushes the old man into the back seat of the car and closes the door.)

JASON: How did he know my name?

LUCAS: How the hell should I know?

(Lucas has retrieved his books and starts back down the street. The security vehicle pulls away, with the old man continuing to shout at them from the back seat.)

OLD MAN: Stop him! You've got to stop him! You don't have to die! You're gonna die! Stop him now! Stop him now!

(Jason has watched the security vehicle pass by him. He then runs to catch up with Lucas.)

JASON: Lucas? Wait! Come on, man, give me a chance!

LUCAS: We have got nothing left to talk about.

(They reach the intersection with another street and Lucas turns one way. Jason is frustrated and turns the other way and walks up the street. Ahead, he sees a bus turn onto the street and approach him. Remembering what the old man said, he turns around and sees Lucas walking away. He looks at his watch and the time is 11:45. The rain has picked up, and Lucas has stopped at the edge of the curb and is trying to open his umbrella, but he drops his books out onto the street, just beyond a parked van.)

JASON: Lucas!

LUCAS: Damn it! [According to the subtitles. The actual word said sure sounds like the s-word.]

(Jason starts running toward Lucas. Lucas is kneeling on the street, just beyond the curb, picking up his books. The bus is approaching, but the van keeps Lucas from seeing it. The bus driver sees Jason running down the street but can't see Lucas because of the van. Jason passes a clock that advances to 11:46.)

JASON: Lucas! Lucas!

(Lucas has picked up his books, but one paper has fallen farther out into the street. He steps out beyond the van, into the bus's path, to retrieve it, just as Jason gets within a few feet of him.)

JASON: Lucas! No!

(Jason is too late. The bus slams into Lucas. The driver stops. Because of the van and the poor visibility, it looked to him like Jason pushed Lucas out into the street. He looks at Lucas, lying motionless in the street and bleeding heavily from the head. He turns to confront Jason.)

BUS DRIVER: What'd you do to him? You pushed him! You pushed him right in front of me! You killed him! What the hell did you do?

(Jason stares at Lucas's body in shock. He looks at his wristwatch and the time is 11:46.)

ACT I

< MULDER'S OFFICE >

(Mulder is seated at his desk, while Scully is looking through a case file and at pictures from the scene of the accident.)

MULDER: His name was Lucas Menand, a post-doctoral fellow at MIT. He was a bright and promising researcher, a life dedicated to science cut short by an unfortunate bus accident.

SCULLY: Cause of death was massive head trauma, pronounced on site. But according to the bus driver, it was no accident?

MULDER: He claims that Menand was pushed, by a suspect identified as Jason Nichols (he hands Scully a police photo of Jason), an associate professor of biology as well as Menand's academic advisor.

SCULLY: Says here in the police report they'd been seen arguing earlier that evening, but Jason Nichols has refused to tell police about what.

MULDER: Hmmm ... sounds like a motive, doesn't it?

SCULLY: Between that and the bus driver's statement, why am I looking at this?

MULDER: Would you like to hear his alibi?

(Mulder uses the remote control to start a video tape of Jason's police interrogation.)

JASON (on video): If I wanted to kill him, you think this is how I'd do it?

INTERROGATOR (on video): Then what were you doing, Mr. Nichols?

JASON (on video): Trying to save him!

INTERROGATOR (on video): From getting hit by the bus.

JASON (on video): I told you! There was a man, some old guy, who said it would happen! He warned Lucas about the bus! He knew the exact time and place! He tried telling us! He knew my name!

(Mulder stops the video.)

SCULLY: That's his alibi, that some old man came and warned him that his colleague was gonna die?

MULDER: Well, he goes on to tell a pretty convincing narrative and to give a rather detailed description of the old man.

SCULLY: What was he wearing, a long black robe and carrying a scythe?

MULDER: Well, not when campus security picked him up.

SCULLY: He was arrested?

MULDER: Minutes before the accident, according to Jason Nichols. Packed into a security vehicle, trying to warn Nichols even as he was being hauled away.

SCULLY: Has anybody talked to him?

MULDER: No.

SCULLY: Has anybody talked to the campus security officer?

MULDER: Can't.

SCULLY: Why not?

MULDER: He's dead.

SCULLY: Of what?

<BOSTON MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE, 11:35 AM >

(Scully, Mulder and an autopsy doctor enter an examination room.)

AUTOPSY DOCTOR: I haven't been able to make a definitive determination as to cause or time of death. There's been some internal disagreement over how to proceed.

SCULLY: You mean, with the autopsy?

AUTOPSY DOCTOR: Yes ... but mostly, rather to cut or to saw. (he uncovers the body) You see why we didn't put him in refrigeration.

(The face and hands of the body are frozen in place, covered with frost.)

MULDER: Have you ever seen a body in such an advanced hypothermic state?

SCULLY: Hypothermic? Mulder, this man's an icicle. Did you see this? (points to the ear) His ear. It looks like something's been inserted in it.

AUTOPSY DOCTOR: Something has. I took his temperature. I don't know if the reading was accurate, but the thermometer said his body temp was 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

(The doctor hands Scully an electric thermometer. She inserts the probe into the body's ear.)

MULDER: Where was he found?

AUTOPSY DOCTOR: On campus, inside his patrol car. Parked just off Adams, with one wheel on the curb. Police also found an empty gin bottle under the driver's seat. Apparently, he had a history. He'd been cited for drinking on duty. You'd assume he'd passed out and froze to death, but the low temperature for last night was 28.

(The thermometer beeps and Scully reads a value of 8 degrees.)

SCULLY: And now, his body temperature is 8 degrees.

MULDER: You mean he's actually getting colder.

AUTOPSY DOCTOR: Like I said, we're a little betwixt and between on how to go forward here. We'd be happy to take your lead on it.

SCULLY: I think we're gonna need some time ourselves.

(The doctor leaves.)

MULDER: So what's your medical opinion, Scully?

SCULLY: Well, my best guess would be that he's been exposed to some kind of chemical refrigerant, like liquid nitrogen, possibly even ingested it.

MULDER: Well, you see what happens when you drink and drive?

SCULLY: I don't know what else to say, Mulder, except that what this doesn't do is add any credence whatsoever to the suspect's alibi that the old man was on the scene.

MULDER: Maybe we should ask Jason Nichols if he can explain this.

SCULLY: What if he can't?

MULDER: We'll just hope that he keeps until Thanksgiving.

< 6TH PRECINCT, 12:22 PM >

(Mulder approaches an interview room and, through the window, sees Jason inside talking to a young woman, Lisa.)

LISA: This is serious, Jason. This couldn't be more serious. They're talking about charging you with second degree murder. (Lisa looks behind her and sees Mulder standing outside) I'll call you as soon as I speak to a lawyer.

(She leaves and Mulder enters.)

JASON: Are you from the FBI?

MULDER: Yeah. Special Agent Mulder. (they shake hands) Is that your girlfriend?

JASON: Yeah.

MULDER: Thanks for seeing me. I know your attorney advised you against it, so I appreciate it.

JASON: I just want to talk to somebody who's going to listen to me. Somebody who's going to tell me they can find that old man.

MULDER: Yeah, people out there looking for him.

JASON: Who? Campus police?

MULDER: I'm sure you know that the man who allegedly detained the man you described is now dead.

JASON: So, are they going to try and blame me for that one, too?

MULDER: Well, not unless, uh, you're capable of killing a man by flash freezing him.

JASON: What?

MULDER: The security officer who's now in the morgue has a body temperature a little south of Frosty the Snow Man.

JASON: (annoyed) You think that's funny?

MULDER: Do I think what's funny?

JASON: (angrily) Coming in here and trying to screw with my head!

MULDER: Does this have something to do with you and Lucas Menand?

JASON: Look! He's the one that had been threatening me, OK!

MULDER: He threatened your life?

JASON: My reputation.

MULDER: How'd he do that?

JASON: By saying he would go public with his claim that I'd falsified data on my research paper.

MULDER: Had you?

JASON: No. (pauses) The theory was sound. If my interpretation of certain data was a little lax, it's because I've been under pressure to produce results. My NSA grant is up for renewal. And Lucas knew how damaging his allegations would be.

MULDER: Was Lucas Menand up for the same grant?

(Jason pauses, then nods.)

MULDER: And what research would this grant have funded?

JASON: Cryobiology. I study the effects of freezing temperatures on biological systems.

(Mulder's cell phone rings.)

MULDER: Oh! Excuse me. (he steps outside) (to phone) Mulder.

(Scully is calling from the examination room.)

SCULLY: Has Nichols said anything?

MULDER: No, I'm right in the middle of it.

SCULLY: Well, I think we may be filing a second murder charge against him.

MULDER: Security officer?

SCULLY: I found Nichols' right thumbprint on his uniform, and forensics also matched his with the prints they lifted off the interior of the patrol car. I think the old man in this story is gonna be Jason Nichols serving 25 to life in a federal prison.

< HOTEL JAMES MONROE, 6:05 PM >

(The hotel lobby is very busy. The desk clerk gets off the phone and turns to a young man, Dr. Yonechi, standing at the desk.)

DESK CLERK: I'm sorry, sir, there's nothing more we can do.

DR. YONECHI: My name is Yonechi.

DESK CLERK: Yes sir, you've told me. But I'm not finding a reservation under that name.

DR. YONECHI: But this is where I am supposed to stay.

DESK CLERK: I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what else to tell you.

(The old man approaches the desk.)

OLD MAN: Dr. Yonechi?

DR. YONECHI: Yes?

OLD MAN: There's been a misunderstanding. I'm afraid my assistant made a reservation at the wrong hotel, so I came here myself to make sure you, uh, you got a room. It's, uh, it's a good room with a view of the river.

DR. YONECHI: You are not, uh, Dr. Nichols?

OLD MAN: He apologizes. He was not able to be here to meet you yourself, so he asked me to come in his place.

DR. YONECHI: Excuse me, but who are you?

OLD MAN: A great admirer of your work.

(At another hotel, the bellman opens the door to a room for Dr. Yonechi, who is followed by the old man.)

BELLMAN: (to Yonechi) Here we go, sir.

DR. YONECHI: Thank you.

BELLMAN: (to old man) After you, sir.

OLD MAN: No. Go ahead.

(The bellman steps inside. The old man stands at the door, pulls out a handkerchief and wipes his forehead.)

BELLMAN: (to Yonechi) If you need anything, just give us a call. Here you are, sir. (hands him the room key) Have a good evening, sir.

(The bellman leaves. Yonechi sees the old man at the door, still wiping his face and neck.)

DR. YONECHI: Are you sick?

OLD MAN: No, no, I'm fine. Thank you.

DR. YONECHI: May I get you some water?

OLD MAN: If it's no trouble.

DR. YONECHI: Please, come in.

(The old man enters and closes the door. Yonechi is getting a glass of water for him.)

OLD MAN: The, uh, mixup with the reservation? It was actually my fault.

DR. YONECHI: Your fault?

OLD MAN: But I owe you so much.

DR. YONECHI: For what?

OLD MAN: Your contribution to my work. Vitrification. You were the one who solved the problem.

DR. YONECHI: (puzzled) Me? No, not yet. No one has solved vitrification.

OLD MAN: Oh, yes, Yonni. You found a way to substitute water with a sugar - trehalose. Your paper ... it changed everything.

(The old man has pulled a small medical device, with a pointed end, out of his pocket. As Yonechi looks at the glass of water, the old man grabs his other hand and injects something into it, leaving a small blood mark. Yonechi is startled and drops the glass.)

OLD MAN: I am sorry, Yonni. But this is the only way.

(Yonechi sees that his hand is turning white and frosting over. He screams in pain.)

DR. YONECHI: Aaaauuuuggggghhhhh!

ACT II

(Scully is in the hotel room looking at Yonechi's body. Like the first victim, he appears frozen. She notes the drop of blood on his hand as Mulder approaches.)

MULDER: I just spoke with the bellman who brought up the luggage.

SCULLY: What did he say?

MULDER: The iceman cometh. Dr. Yonechi was accompanied by a man in his seventies. It's a description confirmed by the desk clerk. They're working with a composite artist on a sketch right now.

SCULLY: Sounds like Jason Nichols has an accomplice.

MULDER: It sounds like that.

SCULLY: More than that, Mulder, it makes sense. Science is a high-stakes game. Jason Nichols is trying to eliminate his competitors and he's succeeding.

MULDER: Yeah, but what if he's being set up?

SCULLY: He's a cryobiologist. He freezes things for a living. How many people can do that?

MULDER: Just about anybody who's up for that grant money could.

SCULLY: I want to show you something. (she hands him a folder with a specra analysis) This is what's called a nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. Dr. Yonechi had a spot of blood on the heel of his hand - a pin prick, something that might have been caused by a small gauge hypodermic needle. Now, I found the same thing on the security officer. This is the analysis.

MULDER: What is it?

SCULLY: Well, no one at the lab would even hazard a guess, but we think it's some kind of unidentifiable chemical compound.

MULDER: A lethal injection?

SCULLY: You'll have to ask Jason Nichols.

MULDER: No, there's somebody I want to talk to first.

< BIO-MEDICAL RESEARCH FACILITY, 10:22 PM >

(Mulder and Scully enter a laboratory and, from behind, approach Lisa. She jumps when Mulder speaks to her.)

MULDER: Lisa Ianelli? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.

LISA: No, I was working. Sometimes you just get lost in it.

MULDER: Yeah. You may remember me from this afternoon. I spoke with Jason.

LISA: From the FBI.

SCULLY: I'm Agent Scully. May I show you something?

LISA: Uh-huh. (Scully hands her the spectra) Where'd you get this?

SCULLY: You recognize it? (Lisa doesn't respond) Lisa, you can tell us now or we can subpoena your testimony in court. Either way, we'll find out what you know about it.

LISA: It's a kind of catalyst.

SCULLY: A catalyst for what?

LISA: A self-sustaining endothermic reaction. It's a rapid freezing agent - something Jason's been engineering for years. See, when a cell freezes, its moisture forms into ice crystals, which literally grind up the cell from the inside out. But extreme rapid freezing causes a smoother, glass-like structure to form instead. So the cell can survive being thawed. At least, according to Jason's theory.

(Lisa has walked across the lab and keyed into a secured area. Scully and Mulder follow her to a computer terminal.)

SCULLY: This compound ... has Jason actually tested it yet?

LISA: He hasn't tested it yet because it doesn't exist - except in the computer. So far the work's been limited to generating virtual chemicals - like this. (she points to a model of a molecule on the computer screen) In fact, what we're looking at here is a version of the catalyst you brought me.

SCULLY: Is it possible that he could have synthesized the compound without you knowing about it?

LISA: Not even remotely. The technology to engineer something like that is still five, ten years away - minimum.

MULDER: Not any more, apparently.

LISA: What are you talking about?

SCULLY: Traces of the compound were detected in a man who was found dead last night - frozen solid.

LISA: Then there must be some kind of mistake.

SCULLY: And a, uh, a Dr. Yonechi was also found frozen to death.

LISA: What?

MULDER: In his heated hotel room.

LISA: When was this?

SCULLY: Just over two hours ago. Why is that relevant?

LISA: Because he may not be dead.

(Later, Dr. Yonechi is immersed in a controlled-temperature bath. Lisa, Mulder, Scully and a medical team surround the bath.)

LISA: What's his temp?

DOCTOR: His core temperature is up to 97.

LISA: OK. Let's take him out.

DOCTOR: And then what?

LISA: We've got to try to resuscitate him. Let's go.

DOCTOR: All right, on my count ... one ... two ... three.

(They pull Yonechi from the bath and put him on a table. As the medical team connects instruments, Mulder and Scully confer privately.)

SCULLY: This isn't gonna work.

MULDER: Why not?

SCULLY: His body temperature was 8 degrees. The lowest reported body temperature ever survived by a human being was 70.

MULDER: Well, if he's already dead, then he's got nothing to lose.

DOCTOR: OK, we're hooked up. All right, Dr. Ianelli, we're gonna want to start with 300 joules and an amp of epi.

(A nurse gives Yonechi an intra-cardial injection as the defribulator charges.)

TECHNICIAN 1: Charging.

DOCTOR: Clear?

TECHNICIAN 1: Clear.

(They zap him with the defribulator.)

TECHNICIAN 2: Still no pulse.

DOCTOR: Go to 360. Clear?

TECHNICIAN 1: Clear.

(They zap him again.)

TECHNICIAN 2: No response.

DOCTOR: Give him another amp of intracardial epi and atropine 1 milligram. (the injection is given) Try again at 360. Clear?

TECHNICIAN 1: Clear.

(They zap him a third time and the instruments show a pulse.)

DOCTOR: He's got a rhythm.

LISA: Dr. Yonechi, you're in a prototype frostbite bay in Cambridge, Mass. You've been unconscious for almost 12 hours. Dr. Yonechi? My name is Lisa Ianelli.

(Yonechi is breathing and gasping from the tube inserted into his mouth.)

SCULLY: Don't try and talk right now. We've inserted a tube down your throat to help you breathe. Try not to fight the machine. Let it breathe for you.

(Yonechi's gasps become louder and he starts to convulse.)

LISA: Something's wrong.

MULDER: Scully, look at his temperature.

(The instrument reads 106 degrees. Scully feels his forehead.)

SCULLY: Oh my God. He's on fire. He's having febrile siezures.

(Yanechi continues to groan loudly and convulse. His skin shows signs of blistering.)

DOCTOR: This can't be right. He's burning up. Hold him down! Hold him down!

(Yonechi bursts into flames and thrashes about on the table.)

TECHNICIAN: Oh my God! Oh my God!

(Later, firemen are in the room. Yonechi's charred body is on the table. Mulder, Scully and Lisa are off to the side.)

SCULLY: Lisa, what happened? What, what could have happened to create such a violent cellular reaction?

LISA: I don't know. All I can think is the compound used to freeze him must have been unstable.

SCULLY: So raising his body temperature may have catalyzed an opposite reaction, heating him internally.

LISA: Uh-huh. I question now if we should have removed him from the tub. I think we might have saved him.

MULDER: I think the real question is how somebody could have had access to a compound that doesn't exist.

LISA: I'm sorry. I need to talk to Jason.

(She leaves.)

(Later, Lisa is riding a bus across town. She looks behind her and sees the old man in the bus. She gets off the bus and heads down a street. The old man gets off as well and follows at a discreet distance. Lisa approaches a mirror along the street and sees the old man following her. She walks up the steps of a building and goes inside. The old man struggles to keep up, following her up a staircase. Lisa goes through a pair of fire doors upstairs. Seconds later, the old man goes through the same doors but Lisa is waiting behind them. She calls to him after he has passed.)

LISA: Who are you? I said, who are you? What do you want? Why are you following me?

(The old man pauses for a second, but then continues to walk forward, not looking back at her. Lisa follows him.)

OLD MAN: Unless I'm mistaken, you're the one following me.

LISA: I saw you outside.

OLD MAN: I'm afraid you're confusing me with someone else.

LISA: You're the man Jason saw, aren't you? (she grabs his arm and turns him around) You killed Lucas Menand and Dr. Yonechi.

OLD MAN: (grabbing her by the wrist) And I can kill you.

LISA: Let go of me.

(Lisa sees that the old man has pulled out the injection device.)

OLD MAN: I came here to kill you.

LISA: Who are you?

(The old man stares at her with a sorrowful expression. He releases her wrist and walks away.)

ACT III

(Mulder, Scully and Lisa are in a public square next to a fountain. Mulder hands Lisa a police sketch that looks very similar to the old man.)

MULDER: You say he followed you off the bus?

LISA: Yes. I noticed him just before my stop.

MULDER: And you were on your way to see Jason?

LISA: Yes. I confronted him inside the library. He followed me in there. And then he grabbed me - hurt my arm.

(She shows them her wrist, which is bruised.)

SCULLY: What did he say?

LISA: That he could kill me. That that's why he was following me. He threatened me with some kind of medical instrument.

SCULLY: But he just let you go? (she nods) Lisa, if you're leaving anything out, if you're hedging the truth, you could be held accountable if Jason committed a crime.

LISA: It wasn't Jason. It was me. I falsified the data to get the grant. Jason's covering for me. He's sitting in jail because of me.

MULDER: That's what he can't tell anyone?

SCULLY: But there are people who could have figured it out - Lucas Menand, Dr. Yonechi. These people are now dead.

LISA: No, it's not what you think.

SCULLY: You know who this old man is, don't you?

LISA: I don't, I swear to you.

SCULLY: But Jason does. He has to, because this man is doing what Jason can't, he's protecting your secret.

LISA: He swore to me he would never confess it to a soul.

SCULLY: If he'd lie for you, what makes you think he wouldn't lie to you.

MULDER: Scully? (they step aside for a private conversation) It doesn't really makes sense, Scully. Why would he threaten her if he's the one who's protecting her secret.

SCULLY: Because it's not just her secret. It's Jason's secret, too, and the old man is protecting Jason.

MULDER: With a medical instrument?

SCULLY: (sighs) I suppose it is an unlikely choice as a murder weapon.

MULDER: Well what if it's not a murder weapon? I'm just speculating, but what if it was designed for some other purpose?

(A policeman approaches.)

POLICEMAN: Agent Mulder? We've been canvassing the area. Hotel manager from a couple of blocks away thinks he's made your guy. It's on McKinney Street. Hotel's called The Lighthouse.

MULDER: (to policeman) Tell the unit to keep watch until we get there. (motions toward Lisa) Make sure she gets home safely.

(Mulder and Scully head off, leaving Lisa studying the police sketch.)

(Mulder and Scully approach a door at The Lighthouse. He knocks.)

MULDER: Federal agents, sir, open the door.

(There is no response. Mulder unlocks the door with a pass key, and they enter. The room shows little signs of occupancy.)

SCULLY: Are you sure this is the room?

MULDER: Hotel manager says he's been living here for five days.

SCULLY: I'm not sure if 'living' is a word I'd use on this place.

(They look around. Scully finds a note pad on the dresser. The words "Pan Oceanic flight #1701" are written on it.)

SCULLY: Yonechi's flight information was taken down on this pad.

MULDER: Hey, look at this.

(Mulder has found a somewhat crumpled photo in the drawer of the nightstand. He hands it to Scully. The photo shows Yonechi, Lisa and Jason wearing lab coats, smiling and enjoying a toast with champagne.)

SCULLY: When was this taken?

MULDER: And what's the occasion?

SCULLY: It's a celebration, but of what?

MULDER: Or something that never happened.

(He gets up to leave.)

SCULLY: What? (she catches up to him at the hall elevator) Mulder, this is a photograph. It is a documented moment in time.

MULDER: In a future that somebody is trying like hell to prevent from happening.

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: Think about it, Scully. If Lucas Menand never gets hit by the bus, his complaint gets heard before the grant committee. Jason Nichols loses his funding and he never gets to collaborate on his research with Dr. Yonechi. Therefore, this photograph never gets taken because this celebration never happens.

SCULLY: And if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you'd be your own grandpa.

MULDER: The old man couldn't save Lucas Menand, so he had to kill Dr. Yonechi.

SCULLY: OK, so this photo that was never taken, when was it never taken.

MULDER: At least five years in the future, when they first synthesized the freezing compound successfully. (he looks at the elevator and pushes the call button again) Let's take the stairs.

(They continue their converstation as they walk down the stairs and back onto the street.)

SCULLY: Mulder, the compound already exists. We have physical evidence.

MULDER: Only because the old man brought it back with him.

SCULLY: Back from where?

MULDER: From when may be the real question.

SCULLY: You're seriously suggesting that this old man is back from the future?

MULDER: Unless you have a better explanation for how he knew exactly when and how Lucas Menand was gonna be killed, why Jason Nichol's fingerprints are inside that patrol car, and how he knew Lisa Ianelli's secret.

SCULLY: So what you're saying here is the old man is ...

MULDER: Jason Nichols. Although common sense may rule out the possibility of time travel, the laws of quantum physics certainly do not. In case you forgot, that's from your graduate thesis. (smiling at her) You were a lot more open-minded when you were a youngster.

SCULLY: I know what I wrote, Mulder. I also know that the laws of physics would permit the theoretical possibility of time travel, but the limits of human endurance would prevent such a trip from ever happening.

MULDER: Well, there's one sure to prove that theoretical possiblity.

SCULLY: How?

MULDER: Show this photograph to Lisa Ianelli and ask her if it was ever taken.

(Later, the old man gets off the elevator at his hotel. He is panting and staggers down the hall to his room. He enters and kneels beside the bed. He injects himself in the wrist with the injectin device and his breathing slowly becomes less labored. Behind him, Lisa enters.)

LISA: Jason? I don't understand. How is this possible?

OLD MAN: Because you made it possible. It was you.

LISA: How? I need to know.

(The old man slowly gets up and turns to her. He sits on the bed.)

OLD MAN: Thirty years ago - ten years from now - you'll be at a conference in Zurich. You'll meet a man named McGuane who's just discovered the first evidence of tachyons - subatomic particles that can travel faster than the speed of light and go back in time - but only for a few seconds and only at a temperature of absolute zero. But from that, and from your correspondence with McGuane, you'll have an idea. A revelation.

LISA: What revelation?

OLD MAN: One so remarkable, it would change the course of history.

LISA: Then why did you ... you said you came back to kill me.

OLD MAN: But I couldn't do it.

(He extends his left hand to her. She takes it.)

LISA: You're cold. Jason ...

OLD MAN: Yes.

(She gasps as he injects her wrist with the device.)

LISA: Uhhh!

(She falls as the old man appears to be crying. Her face turns frosty.)

ACT IV

(At the police station, Jason is at a desk as Mulder approaches.)

CLERK: (to Jason) Sign here.

MULDER: Jason.

JASON: What are you doing here?

MULDER: I arranged for your bail.

JASON: I assumed it was Lisa.

MULDER: Well, that's why I'm here. Something's happened to her.

JASON: What are you talking about.

MULDER: I think it's something you should see for yourself. She's at the Medical Research Facility.

(They start down the hall.)

JASON: Was it the old man?

MULDER: Yes.

JASON: Why haven't you found him yet? Who the hell is he?

(Mulder stops him.)

MULDER: Look, Jason, I don't expect you to get your mind around this completely right now ...

JASON: What?

MULDER: The man we're looking for - the old man - he's you.

(Later, they are headed across town in Mulder's car. Mulder hands Jason the photograph.)

MULDER: If that photo is indicative of a pattern, you may be his next target. It puts a whole new spin on being your own worst enemy, huh?

JASON: Except that I've never met Dr. Yonechi and neither has Lisa. So this must have been altered somehow.

MULDER: Not according to the photo specialist that I had examine it. As far as she can tell, it's the real McCoy.

JASON: Then maybe you should get a second opinion, because I'm not buying your story.

MULDER: Jason, it's your story.

JASON: It's science fiction.

MULDER: So was your rapid freezing agent until two days ago. Now why don't you just consider the evidence as a scientist. How could the old man come to possess a compound that you yourself admit doesn't exist?

JASON: Whoever he is, why would he be trying to prevent my compound from being developed?

MULDER: I'm not sure of that yet.

JASON: But you have a theory.

MULDER: Well, I think it has something to do with the practical application of your compound, though I don't know what that is yet.

JASON: Involving time travel.

MULDER: Physicists like Stephen Hawking have hypothesized the existence of wormholes and closed time loops, actual portals through which matter can travel backward through time. Although, phenomena like extreme heat and gravity would render the trip lethal for any organism.

JASON: So you're saying the properties of my compound will make it possible?

MULDER: Eventually, yes, that's what I'm saying.

JASON: But why stop time travel?

MULDER: That's what I'm hoping the old man can tell us.

JASON: Agent Mulder, if any of this is true ... then what happened to Lisa ... is really my fault.

< BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH FACILITY >

(Jason and Mulder enter.)

JASON: Going up to the cryo lab.

SECURITY GUARD: Mmmm, hmmm.

(Jason places his hand on a palm scanner. The security door slides open.)

SECURITY GUARD: Hey, wait a sec. (looking at his computer screen) Are you Dr. Jason Nichols?

JASON: That's right.

SECURITY GUARD: Then something's wrong. It says you're already in the building.

MULDER: Listen to me, Jason. I need you to get to Scully and tell her that he's here. She's in the frostbite bay with Lisa. Can you do that? All right.

(They go in opposite directions.)

(In another part of the facility, Scully and the medical team are attempting to revive Lisa. She is on the table.)

DOCTOR: Clear?

NURSE 1: Clear.

(They zap her with the defribillator.)

SECURITY GUARD: Let's give her another amp of epinephrine and we'll go again at 360.

NURSE 1: Charging.

NURSE 2: Epi given.

DOCTOR: Clear?

NURSE 3: Everybody clear.

(They zap her again.)

NURSE 1: Increase of dmso.

DOCTOR: We have a rhythm.

NURSE 1: Pulse.

DOCTOR: (to Scully) Now what?

(Scully sees that Lisa's body temperature has risen to 105 degrees.)

SCULLY: Get her back in the tub. Now.

DOCTOR: All right, let's disconnect and get her back in, right away.

NURSE 3: Here we go.

DOCTOR: Let's go.

NURSE 1: All right, here we go.

DOCTOR: Easy ...

SCULLY: How hot's the reading now?

(Lisa is lowered into the tub.)

NURSE 1: 106 ... 107

(In another part of the facility, Mulder crosses a laboratory to the door of a small room in which a researcher is working at a computer. He taps on the door and flashes his badge, and the researcher opens the door.)

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: Is there a problem?

MULDER: Has anybody been through here in the last hour?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: Well, there was a maintenance guy who fixed the fan, but, other than that, it's just been me.

MULDER: No, I'm looking for an older man, a man in his mid-seventies maybe.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: No, I haven't seen anybody like that. Why, does this have something to do with Dr. Nichols?

MULDER: Do you work with him?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: I'm one of his research assistants.

MULDER: You have access to his files.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: Yeah.

MULDER: I'd like to pull up some information about his rapid freezing compound.

(The research assistant sits at the computer and begins to work. Mulder's cell phone rings.)

MULDER: (to phone) Mulder.

(Scully is calling from the frostbite bay.)

SCULLY: We've resuscitated her, Mulder. Her body temperature is still high but it seems to have stabilized.

MULDER: Did Jason help?

SCULLY: He's not here.

MULDER: All right, he should have been there five minutes ago, Scully.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: What is this?

SCULLY: Where are you?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: This is crazy.

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: Let me get back to you, Scully. (he hangs up) (to research assistant) What?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: It's Dr. Nichols' files. They're totally whacked.

MULDER: What do you mean, "whacked"?

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: His data ... it's gone. It's like somebody's completely erased it from the mainframe.

(Mulder runs out of the laboratory and down the hall.)

(In the computer center, the old man is typing frantically on a computer. He wipes his forehead as he works. Jason appears across the room.)

JASON: I knew I'd find you here. (the old man stops typing) I figured this is where I'd go to stop myself.

OLD MAN: I don't have much time. Please, let me finish.

(Jason approaches him and grabs his arm.)

JASON: Let you finish destroying my work?

OLD MAN: It's my work, too.

JASON: I want her back!

OLD MAN: I know.

JASON: Then tell me how to go back so I can save her. Please.

OLD MAN: I don't expect you to understand.

JASON: Understand what?

OLD MAN: What she created. What you - we - helped to create. A world without history, without hope. Where anyone can know everything that will ever happen. I've seen that world.

(Mulder is still running through the halls.)

JASON: (grabbing the old man by the collar) Tell me how to go back.

OLD MAN: I can't

JASON: (shouting) You will! Tell me!

OLD MAN: No, Jason! Try to understand!

(Mulder has reached an adjacent room, separated by a glass partition. He tries the door, but it is locked. He can see that Jason has the old man pushed up against a cabinet.)

MULDER: Jason!

JASON: Tell me how to go back so I can save her!

MULDER: Jason! (he pounds the door) She's alive, Lisa's alive! Don't hurt him! If you hurt him, we'll never know the truth! Open the door.

(Jason releases the old man and starts toward the door.)

JASON: She's ok?

(The old man, now sweating profusely, walks up behind Jason and grabs him in a bear hug.)

OLD MAN: It's better that we never were.

JASON: No!

(Jason struggles to get free but the old man holds on. Mulder grabs a fire extinguisher and starts pounding on the door with it. Just as he breaks a hole in the glass, the old man bursts into flames. He continues to hold on to Jason as they are both engulfed in flames. Jason screams, while Mulder looks helplessly through the glass.)

(Later, Lisa is being wheeled out of the facility on a stretcher by paramedics. Scully is walking alongside.)

SCULLY: Lisa? It's Dana Scully, can you hear me? (Lisa nods) You're going to be fine. We knew to keep you submerged in order to maintain your body temperature. After what happened to Dr. Yonechi, your theory about the compound's instability, well, you proved it yourself.

LISA: (whispering) He said, he said he was Jason.

SCULLY: The old man? (Lisa nods) Look, there's been some incongruous evidence. I've had difficulty explaining myself.

LISA: (still whispering) It was him, Agent Scully. It was Jason.

SCULLY: Lisa, Jason's dead. There was a fire in the mainframe room. I'm sorry. (Scully gives her a comforting look) I'll see you at the hospital.

(The paramedics hoist the stretcher into an ambulance, which then drives away. Mulder comes out of the building and joins Scully.)

SCULLY: You find the second corpse?

MULDER: No, and I'm not holding out much hope that they will, either.

SCULLY: We should put out an APB on the old man.

MULDER: They won't find him. I know what I saw, Scully, and I know what I believe happened.

SCULLY: Even if it can never be proven?

MULDER: Never? Never is a very long time, Scully, you said that yourself. "Although multidimensionality suggests infinite outcomes in an infinite number of universes, each universe can produce only one outcome."

SCULLY: I was 23 when I wrote that.

MULDER: Yeah, but I take that to mean that you were suggesting that the future can't be altered. Which means that the elder Jason Nichols' attempts to stop his own research will fail, and that eventually his compound, and time travel, will be discovered.

(Mulder walks away. Scully pauses a moment to ponder the situation, then follows him.)

(Much later, Lisa is working at a computer terminal. She has the model of Jason's compound displayed on the screen.)