The X-Files - 2.

5.13 Patient X

NOTE - Any text written between the < and > signs means that it was spoken in Russian, and that subtitles were provided for the English translation.

[Moving through space, we pass across stars, dust, and constellations, manyof which we will recognize in our horoscopes. MULDER speaks to us in voiceover. Suddenly, from somewhere out there, a blinking light makes its way downward ... downward ... downward ...]

MULDER (V.O.): Before the exploration of space, of the moon and the planets, man hailed that the heavens were the home and province of powerful gods who controlled not just the vast firmament, but the earthly fate of man himself and that the pantheon of powerful, warring deities, was the cause and reason for the human condition, for the past and the future, and for which great monuments would be created on earth as in heaven. But in time man replaced these gods with new gods and new religions that provided no more certain or greater answers than those worshipped by his Greek or Roman or Egyptian ancestors. And while we've chosen now our monolithic and benevolent gods and found our certainties in science, believers all, we wait for a sign, a revelation. Our eyes turn skyward ready to accept the truly incredible to find our destiny written in the stars. But how do we best look to see? With new eyes or old?

[We hold on a single constellation and pan down as the blinking light - a UFO - disappears behind some mountains in KAZAKHSTAN, FORMER SOVIET UNION. It does not crash, it merely settles. Two boys - DMITRI and his FRIEND watch from beyond.]

FRIEND: <They're here.>

DMITRI: <Do you think the others have seen them?>

FRIEND: <Let's go tell them.>

[Moving quickly through the woods, the two boys head up the mountain, but stop suddenly.]

FRIEND: <Do you smell that?>

DMITRI: <Fire.>

[Again they are on the move and, once they emerge from the clearing, they are confronted by the sight of a burning car.]

FRIEND: Mama! Papa!

DMITRI: Papa!

[As the two boys move, we see more burning cars, about twenty of them, all set ablaze and no traces of life. Dmitri shields himself from the heat when suddenly a MAN ON FIRE emerges, trying desperately to douse the flames. The two boys run off, scared, into the woods again. Dmitri goes one way while his friend goes another. Unfortunately for the friend, he is caught by a FACELESS MAN, and Dmitri stops in horror as he hears the helpless screams of his friend ...]

[OPENING CREDITS]

[The next day, three United Nations trucks make their way over a small hill to the site of the fires. Each one parks a considerable distance from the others. SOLDIERS emerge from each one, and each soldier carries a fire extinguisher. From one of the trucks steps out a woman - blonde, wearing a black cloak, with a stern face. She is MARITA COVARRUBIAS, the Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations. What a title. The soldiers go about their tasks, putting out flames and prying open doors. Inside many of the cars are charred bodies, burned to the bones. Dmitri hides in the bushes, and a person stands behind him. He moves away from this person, only to bump into another - the man we know as ALEX KRYCEK.

KRYCEK: <What is your name?>

DMITRI: <Dmitri.>

KRYCEK: <You saw what happened here?>

DMITRI: <Yes.>

KRYCEK: Too bad for you.

[We cut to broken glasses, and a soldier is standing over a body which has had its flesh burned right off.]

SOLDIER: It's like the flesh is cooked ... all the way through.

KRYCEK (O.S.): <You there. Under what authority are you corrupting this crime scene?>

[Krycek makes his way over to Marita. These two have never met before.]

MARITA: <Under the United Nations Charter, chapter 7, articles 39 and 42 ...>

KRYCEK: Your authority isn't recognized here. Only your lies.

MARITA: These are UN Peacekeepers. This is a mission of mercy.

KRYCEK: This is a mission of fear. Yours and the men you work for.

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

KRYCEK: You go back and you tell them what you've seen here, what you've found.

MARITA: My name is Marita Covarrubias. I am a Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations.

KRYCEK: I know who you are, and I know who you work for. Now you go back and you tell them ...

MARITA: Tell them what? What happened here?

KRYCEK: Tell them it's all going to Hell.

[In Russian, Krycek orders his men to take Dmitri away.]

MARITA: Does the boy know?

[Krycek begins to leave.]

MARITA: Did he see?!

[Krycek turns back around to face her.]

KRYCEK: You tell them to kiss my American ass.

[We cut to the image of a woman in a wheelchair, speaking to us. Her image is on a large screen in the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE VISITING LECTURERS' FORUM. Her name is CASSANDRA SPENDER.]

CASSANDRA: During my last several abductions I have experienced no fear whatsoever. And it was the absence of fear that allowed me to communicate with them and them with me. They've told me that I am an apostle, here to spread the word of the dawning of a new age of supernatural enlightenment.

[The image freezes, and we hear clapping and cheering from the crowd. In front of the crowd sits a panel of UFO specialists including (according to the names in front of them) DR. PER LAGERQVIST, DR. FLOYD FAZIO DGM, and SPECIAL AGENT FOX MULDER. There is also a woman who is unnamed.]

LAGERQVIST: Wonderful, just wonderful!

[The cheering dies down.]

LAGERQVIST: Sensibly, it's not a question of truth versus fiction, but of truths which are incomprehensible, because we have no physics - no real language for explaining Patient "X"'s story, much less the existence of extraterrestrials - nothing to prepare us for the ontological shock that is bound to follow ...

WOMAN: We quibble and we jaw about the need for proof for evidence as if it would serve some purpose, as if it would make a difference, when what we should be seeking is exactly what this woman is describing: Not IF they are here but WHY and what their business is.

FAZIO: In my conversations with her, she believes this business - the abductions and the experiments - are due to their plans for us, and that we are not simply breeding cows for them, as some have suggested - but subjects, much like we think of our relationship with God. And that there are sites - what she calls lighthouses - around which will be great activity.

MULDER: All this conjecture - the "ontological shock" that you speak of, for which we are so ill-equipped - is not only false but dangerous. This woman ... this woman presents no good or credible testimony apart from the feel-good message that she promotes.

FAZIO: You think she's lying?

MULDER: No, I don't think she's lying. I think that if you prepare people well enough to believe a lie, they will believe it as if it were true. And if you tell them a really big lie, like there are aliens from outer space, much more than a small one, they will believe in it. And if you suggest to them these aliens are doing bad things to them, the ... the power of the suggestion will be to make people believe that certain psychopathologies and neuroses that they're suffering from can now be attributed to that.

LAGERQVIST: Mr. Mulder ... Agent Mulder, she has physical ailments.

WOMAN: Are you discounting any belief in the existence of extraterrestrials?

MULDER: No. I just question mindless belief.

FAZIO: But you've cited evidence. You've made claims yourself.

MULDER: What I've seen, I've seen because I wanted to believe. I ... if you look too hard, you can go mad, but if you continue to look, you become liberated. And you become awake, as if from a dream, realizing that ... that the lies are there simply to protect what they're advertising: a government which knows its greatest strength is not in defense, but in attack. It's strongly held by believers in UFO phenomena that there is military complicity or involvement in abductions, but what if there is no complicity? What if there is simply just the military, seeking to develop an arsenal against which there is no defense: biological warfare, which justifies - in their eyes - making an ass out of the nation with stories of little green men - a conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda.

[Several people shake their heads in disbelief. Later, when the conference is over, Mulder goes to leave. But a man in the audience catches his eye - his regression hypnotherapist, DR. HEITZ WERBER.]

MULDER: Dr. Werber?

WERBER: It's been some time.

MULDER: Almost five years.

WERBER: I came down expecting to hear how your work had progressed. I'm ... surprised, to say the least.

MULDER: A lot has changed.

WERBER: You seem to have abandoned something you believed so completely. In spite of what I know about you from our work together - the memories I helped you recover about the experience with your sister.

MULDER: Well, I've come to distrust a lot of things. I've - I've come to distrust those memories.

WERBER: I'm sorry.

MULDER: For what?

WERBER: I've taken a lot of criticism for my work with alien abductees, and in the field itself. The regression hypnosis work I did with you ...

MULDER: I'm not questioning your methods, Dr. Werber. I'm questioning myself, and how I was tricked, how I was led to believe through an elaborate staging of events that my sister had been abducted.

WERBER: A man with faith can indulge in the luxury of skepticism.

MULDER: I don't think you understand. There's just too much evidence that it's all been a lie. The conspiracy is not to hide the existence of extraterrestrials. It's to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing.

WERBER: So, you and I have just been advocates of insanity all along? Is this the extreme possibility you believe in now?

MULDER: Yeah. Is Patient "X" any more credible?

WERBER: I hope so. I'm her doctor. I think you should meet her. I think you might change your mind.

[We then cut to the TUNGUSKA GULAG, RUSSIA. This was first seen in a previous episode, season four's 4X09 Tunguska. A bright light moves around trying to find any prisoners who may have escaped. Inside the gulag, two men, one of them a DOCTOR pushing a tray, make their way down a hall. The other man - a GUARD - takes keys out and opens a cell door with them. The doctor enters, wearing a white lab coat, and the guard follows. Inside the cell they find a panting Krycek, and Dmitri laying on the floor in a corner, beaten senseless.

KRYCEK: <The boy has told me what I need to know. You may begin.>

DOCTOR: <But he is just a boy. We do our experiments only on the criminal.>

KRYCEK: <Do you argue with me?>

DOCTOR: <I have orders.>

KRYCEK: <And now you have new orders.>

[Krycek turns to face the guard, leaving the doctor in the room with Dmitri. He places a note of money on the guard's chest, a bribe.]

KRYCEK: <You were never here.>

[The guard walks off down the hall. Krycek notices, on the doctor's tray, an amber fluid in several bottles. Checking to make sure that the doctor is not watching, Krycek pockets one of the bottles. The doctor, meanwhile, is checking on Dmitri who is bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth.]

DMITRI: <Are you going to kill me?>

DOCTOR: <No.>

DMITRI: <Why not?>

DOCTOR: <We are doing a test.>

[Now, we are in Cassandra Spender's hospital room. She turns and faces a man who has walked into her room - Mulder, accompanied by Dr. Werber.]

WERBER: Cassandra?

CASSANDRA: Hi.

[She makes her way over to Mulder.]

CASSANDRA: Fox Mulder.

MULDER: Hi.

CASSANDRA: I ... I am so glad to finally meet you. You are hero of mine.

MULDER: I am?

CASSANDRA: I read about you in the news, about three years ago. How you helped that man who escaped from the hospital - um, Duane Barry. How he had held those people hostage at the travel agency, because he was being called by aliens, and ... and you were the only one who believed him.

MULDER: You may not like me as much as you like that story.

CASSANDRA: Oh, that story saved my life.

MULDER: How's that?

CASSANDRA: I have been a multiple abductee for over thirty years. I had been afraid to seek help. Nobody would ever believe me, really, until I read about you. That's how I came to meet Dr. Werber.

MULDER: Cassandra ...

CASSANDRA: He told me that you had been through hypnotic regression yourself. That's how you discovered that your sister had been abducted.

MULDER: Cassandra?

CASSANDRA: Yes?

MULDER: Are you here voluntarily?

CASSANDRA: Um ... yes, under doctor's supervision.

MULDER: Whatever it is that you're afraid of, I suggest that you check yourself out of here as soon as you can and start living your life. Okay?

CASSANDRA: Uh, now is not a real good time.

WERBER: Cassandra is experiencing the sensation that she's about to be called.

CASSANDRA: Now is a time of war and stress among the alien nations. The ... the different races - they're in upheaval. I will be summoned to a place, just like Duane Barry.

MULDER: The man you're talking about died because of what he believed in. He died in a room after I'd been interrogating him - after he received a visit from some men from our government.

CASSANDRA: I'm sure the government's involved. They just, they don't want us to know about it all.

MULDER: Cassandra ... there was a time when I would've believed what you're saying without a doubt.

CASSANDRA: There is no doubt, Mr. Mulder. I know what I've experienced. I ... I have been through the terror and the tests more times than I can count. I have had an unborn fetus taken from me. But they're not here for the reasons that you might think. They're here to deliver a message. Except ... something has gone wrong. There are ... there are other forces at work. They're going to be calling me. I can feel it. And you, of all people, need to know about this because you're the one that can do something.

MULDER: I'm not.

[And with that, Mulder leaves. We then cut back to the Tunguska gulag, in a different room. Dmitri is bound to a table, covered in chicken wire. A grate slides open and light filters through. Dmitri looks up and sees a tap ... and suddenly the tap begins to ooze a black liquid which falls onto him and forms a puddle. We've seen this black stuff before in episodes like 3X15 Piper Maru, 3X16 Apocrypha, 4X09 Tunguska and 4X10 Terma. We don't know what it is, but it appears symbiotic. The black ooze begins to make its way up, over Dmitri's chin and it enters his body through his nose and mouth. He clenches his fists in pain. Next, we see a BALD MAN who we recognize from 4X09 Tunguska and 4X10 Terma, walking down a hall with the same guard as before.]

BALD MAN: <Why was I not informed of this?>

AIDE: <Krycek was given orders.>

BALD MAN: <Where was the boy captured?>

AIDE: <I was told there was a site. People were burned alive.>

BALD MAN: <What did the boy say about this?>

AIDE: <I don't know. Only Krycek knows. He interrogated him - beat him. Then he ordered the test.>

[The bald man opens the cell door that they have arrived at, and finds within ... the doctor, hung.]

BALD MAN: <What is this? Who has done this?>

[Off of the shocked look of the guard, we cut to the exterior of a ship, the UROFF-KOLTOFF STAR OF RUSSIA, LEAVING VLADIVOSTOK. Inside the ship, Krycek makes his way down a flight of stairs, carrying a bucket. He opens a door, and enters a room where Dmitri lays.]

KRYCEK: <I've brought you water. Can you hear me? If you can hear me, I need you to nod your head.>

[Dmitri nods slowly, and Krycek uses a wet cloth to dampen his forehead.]

KRYCEK: I'm going to take good care of you.

[End the scene, and cut to FBI HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D.C. in which SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY walks down a hallway where she is confronted by fellow agent, SPECIAL AGENT JEFFREY SPENDER.]

SPENDER: Agent Scully, my name is Jeffrey Spender. Special Agent Spender.

SCULLY: Is there something I can help you with, Agent Spender?

SPENDER: I feel kind of funny approaching you like this. I just haven't been able to reach Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: About what?

SPENDER: About somebody he's been talking to ... somebody who claims to be an alien abductee, who I'd really prefer he weren't talking to.

SCULLY: You're going to tell me who this is?

SPENDER: This is going to sound weird. Uh, it's my mother.

SCULLY: Your mother?

SPENDER: It's a very long story. Uh ... she's an exceptional person. But for reasons that are probably kind of obvious I'd rather this didn't get out. Appearances being what they are.

SCULLY: Is this part of a case?

SPENDER: No.

SCULLY: Then why is he talking to her?

SPENDER: I don't know. She just called me, and she's ... she's a very disturbed woman. This is something that caused a lot of pain about twenty years ago. I'm just trying to save myself any extra humiliation. I'd like to build a reputation here, not be given one.

SCULLY: I think I understand.

[We now cut to EAST 46TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY ... home of the men who form the group known as the Syndicate. Inside the building, the men who we have come to know as the WELL MANICURED MAN (WMM), the FIRST ELDER, the SECOND ELDER, and QUIET WILLY all sit among their peers and listen to what Marita Covarrubias has to say.]

MARITA: Whatever happened in Kazakhstan ... there was no one left to give an accurate account.

FIRST ELDER: How many bodies were there?

MARITA: Forty-one ... all burned beyond recognition. The result of some kind of intense biochemical reaction, none of the UN Medics had ever seen. Not in the Gulf or on any battlefield. The corpses were literally carbonized from the heat.

SECOND ELDER: A new weapon being tested?

FIRST ELDER: There's no intelligence on that.

MARITA: There's no clear data on the victims or their relationship, but I found at least two of these among the dead.

[She shows the men a glass vial containing two small computer chips ... implants.]

WMM: I think it's fairly certain that all the victims had them. That what was taking place was a staging for a group abduction.

SECOND ELDER: What the hell is that?

WMM: In the final phases before it begins, there will most likely be assemblies.

SECOND ELDER: We're years away from that.

FIRST ELDER: If we're to believe their timetable.

WMM: Unless it's already begun.

SECOND ELDER: We're fifteen years away!

MARITA: I don't think this was planned. I think something - or someone - set this in motion. An act of war. Against us and our plans. Krycek was at the burn site with a unit of Russian soldiers.

SECOND ELDER: Alex Krycek did this?

MARITA: He was there, probably acting on the same data we got. Whether he had any direct involvement in what happened, he knows what caused it.

WMM: Knows, how?

MARITA: He captured a boy at the site. A survivor. Someone who saw.

FIRST ELDER: What does Krycek want?

MARITA: I don't know.

SECOND ELDER: How do we find out?

[The phone rings, and they all know that very few people know the number. Slowly, the Well Manicured Man moves over and picks it up.]

WMM: Yes?

[Krycek is on the other end.]

KRYCEK: Well, look who's answering the bat-phone.

WMM: Alex Krycek.

KRYCEK: Those guys too cheap to offer you a pension plan?

WMM: Where are you?

KRYCEK: I'm in town, actually. New York City.

WMM: Just tell us what you want.

KRYCEK: You've been working on a vaccine. Against the black oil.

WMM: Unsuccessfully, you know.

KRYCEK: Yeah, well. I figured you and your buddies must have been busy while I've been gone.

WMM: Our research continues.

KRYCEK: I'll take everything you've got.

WMM: In exchange for?

KRYCEK: The boy.

WMM: Why is that in our interest?

KRYCEK: Because without what he knows, you're not going to need any vaccine.

WMM: What does he know?

KRYCEK: That's my opening offer. The longer you wait, the skinnier this kid gets.

[Krycek hangs up, as does the Well Manicured Man who looks menacingly at Marita. Cut to the X-Files Office, where Mulder is doodling on some paper. Scully enters and throws a newspaper on his desk.]

SCULLY: Shouldn't that be my picture next to the headline?

[The headline of the paper reads "All This Conjecture About Little Green Men - False, Dangerous, Delusional. -- Panelist Fox Mulder" with Mulder's photo underneath.]

SCULLY: Or is that just you having a little fun?

MULDER: Do I look like I'm having fun, Scully?

SCULLY: You look constipated, actually.

MULDER: That makes sense. I've had my head up my rear end for the last five years.

SCULLY: This wouldn't have anything to do with Cassandra Spender?

[Mulder is drawing a moustache on his own photo.]

MULDER: Cassandra Spender is living proof that the truth I've so boldly sought for the last five years is the truth of a madman.

SCULLY: How's that?

MULDER: One more anal-probing, gyro-pyro levitating-ecoplasm alien anti-matter story, and I'm gonna take out my gun and shoot somebody.

SCULLY: Well ... I guess I'm done here. You seem to have invalidated your own work. Have a nice life.

MULDER: How do you know about Cassandra Spender?

SCULLY: Her son accosted me in the hallway. He's an FBI agent.

MULDER: Great.

SCULLY: He's of the same opinion as you, by the way - that she's not well.

MULDER: You know, you try to reveal what's hidden, you try to incite people with the facts, but they'd rather believe some insane nonsense, refusing to believe what our government is capable of.

SCULLY: You've come a long way, Mulder.

MULDER: Yeah, and still nobody believes me.

[Scully looks concerned as she reads the newspaper.]

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: Cassandra Spender was abducted at Skyland Mountain. That's where I was taken ... where Duane Barry took me.

MULDER: The woman is a nut, Scully.

SCULLY: It says here that she has an implant ... in the base of her neck.

MULDER: Where the government no doubt removed her brain. Isn't that what her son stopped you to say, Scully?

SCULLY: Oh, no, he, uh, he asked if you'd please not talk about this with anyone.

MULDER: Wish granted.

[Mulder exits, a little agitated, and we cut to a sign which reads "Beautiful Skyland Mountain National Park - 20 Miles Ahead." Several cars drive past the sign, and we pan across to reveal a whole line of cars going back as far as we can see. We cut to the interior of a car, standing still. A flashlight illuminates a map. A DRIVER is pulled up at the toll gate and is greeted by a TOLL COLLECTOR. The driver appears dazed.]

DRIVER: Hi. I'm, uh, looking for ... I'm looking for, uh...

TOLL COLLECTOR: You're looking for what?

DRIVER: A mountain, I think.

TOLL COLLECTOR: You and everybody else.

DRIVER: How's that?

TOLL COLLECTOR: Well, you're a little late to the party. Six dollars. I hope you find some parking.

[We now cut to Cassandra who is gazing out her window at the stars. She uses her fingers to print dots on the glass, forming what appears to be a constellation. The door behind her opens, and Scully is standing there.]

SCULLY: Cassandra? Miss Spender?

[Cassandra turns around to face her.]

CASSANDRA: Oh. Yes? Do I know you? Of course I do.

SCULLY: I don't think so.

CASSANDRA: No. No, I'm - I'm sure of it. Are you a doctor?

SCULLY: Uh, yes, but not a practising one.

CASSANDRA: No?

SCULLY: My name is Dana Scully and, uh, I'd like to ask you some questions.

CASSANDRA: Questions about what?

[Scully indicates to a chair.]

SCULLY: May I? Um ... I think you should know that I, uh ... I learned about you from your son.

CASSANDRA: Jeffrey?

SCULLY: Yes. I'm an FBI agent and he asked that I protect against your story getting out.

CASSANDRA: Oh.

SCULLY: I guess I'm betraying that by coming here. But, um ... but I - I don't ... I'm here for more personal reasons, actually. I took the liberty of reading your medical file.

CASSANDRA: You're feeling it, too, aren't you?

[Cassandra reaches her hand around the back of Scully's neck and presses down at a certain point.]

CASSANDRA: Here. You wake up at night knowing you need to be somewhere, but you don't know where it is. Like you forgot an appointment you didn't know you had.

SCULLY: That's not why I'm here.

CASSANDRA: Oh.

SCULLY: I'm here because I, uh ... because ... I wanted to tell you that you should ... that you should not remove the thing that you have in your neck. Not without possible consequences. Um ... I became very ill.

[Cassandra smiles.]

CASSANDRA: I'd never dream of removing it. I want to go ... wherever it is. Oh, they have ... so much to teach us. You being a doctor would want to know their great healers. Maybe that's why you were chosen.

[Back inside the driver's car, he peers through the dense fog at the top of Skyland Mountain. Suddenly, a SHOCKED MAN covered in the fog and lands on the bonnet of his car. He is being pursued by the faceless man from the teaser, who now has a long, metallic stick-like object in his hand.]

DRIVER: Oh, my God.

[The shocked man tries to open the locked door of the driver's car, but to no avail. The faceless man closes in.]

BURNING MAN: Help me! Help me! Help me! Please! Help me!

[The faceless man reaches the shocked man and prods him with the object. The shocked man bursts into flames right before the driver's eyes. The next day, a POLICE MAN gets out of his car and runs past Mulder. Mulder begins walking through smog. There are people everywhere ... FIREMEN, POLICE, and what have you, along with black, charred cars. Mulder reaches a covered area under which are large, yellow bags, each with a dead person inside. INVESTIGATORS examine the bags. Scully is also under the shelter, and Mulder moves towards her as she moves towards him.]

MULDER: Are there any survivors?

SCULLY: No. Not as of this moment.

[They start to walk through the rows of bodies.]

MULDER: From the smell ...

SCULLY: They've all been burned and there are plenty more who are still being bagged as we speak.

MULDER: Any preliminary theories?

SCULLY: Well, it appears they all came by car. Most of the dead are congregated in a wooded area a short distance off the road.

MULDER: Self-immolation?

SCULLY: There's no evidence of that right now. There's no accelerants, no incindiary device.

MULDER: And what was their relationship to each other? Were they families?

SCULLY: There's no way to ID their bodies right now. It's going to be a painstaking dental process. Mulder, why are you tiptoeing around the obvious fact here? I mean, this is Skyland Mountain. We're right back here on Skyland Mountain.

MULDER: And you think it's related to your abduction from the same place?

SCULLY: Well, you can't deny the connection.

MULDER: You think this is some kind of abduction scenario?

SCULLY: No ... I'm not saying that.

MULDER: Do you have any evidence of that?

SCULLY: What do you mean by evidence?

MULDER: That's what I'm asking you.

SCULLY: Well, are you going to give me your theory, then?

MULDER: No. I'm going to give you an explanation.

[And he walks off. Inside the Syndicate's headquarters, they observe the scene being played out on the television news. Marita Covarrubias also watches.]

MARITA: This is the same scene we saw in Kazakhstan.

SECOND ELDER: What the hell is going on? This is our own backyard ...

FIRST ELDER: This is no good. I don't like being kept in the dark on this.

WMM: Someone's going to great lengths to sabotage our work.

SECOND ELDER: Who?

WMM: One way or another, we'd better find out before it's determined we're unable to handle this ourselves ... to put a stop to it ... before the Colonists intervene.

[Quiet Willy gets up and leaves. We cut to Cassandra's room, where she, too, watches the same news. The television NEWSREADER breaks the silence.]

NEWSREADER: More on our top story this hour - in the northern part of the state, last night's mass death in the forest just inside the national park at Skyland Mountain. Again, authorities have now released a barely-complete list of the deaths gathered from vehicle registrations, hoping relatives and friends will come forward and help to explain the cause or reasons of this bizarre tragedy.

[Names appear on-screen, and Cassandra looks on bewildered. She recognizes the names, and begins to cry.]

DAVE BROWNLEE MITCH LA FLEUR WAYNE POWER BOB BUXTON MARTY LACROIX WILLIAM UNRAU ANDREW SCULTHROP CHRIS FLEMINGTON PETER HUFF MARTY GROHN MALCOLM JOHNSON NIGEL HABGOOD BRUCE McLEOD KARL OJAMAE VAL ARNTZEN JAMES PATE KATHLEEN KASINGER GALE IRVINE INA BROOKS DON McGILL

[Mulder and Scully arrive at the door.]

SCULLY: Cassandra? You called us?

CASSANDRA: This is not supposed to be happening. I knew these people.

MULDER: You knew them?

CASSANDRA: They - they were friends of mine.

SCULLY: Friends from where?

CASSANDRA: From a long time ago. It's not supposed to be happening. Not like this. You have to do something about it.

MULDER: What would you like me to do?

CASSANDRA: You have to stop it.

MULDER: Stop who?

[Cassandra's son, Jeffrey Spender, enters the room and sees Mulder and Scully.]

CASSANDRA: I don't know.

SPENDER: Agent Mulder? My name's Jeffrey Spender.

MULDER: Oh, son of ... the prophet.

[Spender turns to Scully.]

SPENDER: I asked you to leave her alone.

SCULLY: Your mother called us about the incident in Virginia. She said that she knew some of the dead.

SPENDER: Of course she did. They were in the same ridiculous cult that she used to be.

MULDER: There you have it.

SCULLY: She was in a cult?

SPENDER: A UFO cult believed they were going to be carried to immortality in some kind of flying motherwheel.

MULDER: I'm sorry. We won't be bothering you or your mother anymore.

[As Spender leaves, Mulder and Scully walk off down the hallway. They pass a man wearing a black coat and black beret. The man - Quiet Willy - enters Cassandra's room. We then cut to the UROFF-KOLTOFF STAR OF RUSSIA, NEW YORK HARBOR. Krycek squeeze water from a cloth onto the face of the sleeping Dmitri to wake him up. He turns to leave the room, and is surprised when he again is confronted by Marita.]

MARITA: You think you can pull this off, don't you?

[Krycek grabs Marita and passionately begins to kiss her. The couple lean against a wall, continuously kissing.]

KRYCEK: They give me what I want ... I'm going to rule the world.

MARITA: We've got them on their knees, Alex.

KRYCEK: Yeah?

MARITA: Let's get out of this hole.

[Hand-in-hand, they walk off, leaving Dmitri's room unguarded. Cut to Scully's bedroom, and the constellation that Cassandra formed before with her fingerprints is the constellation we now see in the sky above. Scully suddenly jumps to life, awake, after being asleep in her bed. She recognizes the constellation outside as the one Cassandra formed, and moves to the window for a better look. She reaches behind and feels her neck - just as Cassandra described. Back onboard the Uroff-Koltoff Star Of Russia, Krycek arrives back at Dmitri's cell, and opens the door. Dmitri is not in there. Krycek enters the room, looking for any sign of Dmitri, when the voice of the Well Manicured Man comes from off-screen.]

WMM: Well?

[Krycek turns to face the Well Manicured Man, who has a gun in his hand.]

WMM: Where's the boy?

[Inside the X-Files Office, Scully enters and shuts the door. Mulder leaps from his seat, handing her a stack of papers.]

MULDER: Are you ready for this? I've been going over the initial forensics and pathology reports from the incident at Skyland Mountain and, while the event itself remains unexplained, I think it's less than a mystery who's involved - at least for me, and certainly for you. Our pathologists here haven't finalized their reports, but I was able to have three victims selected at random for x-rays.

[He moves over to a UV light and places the three x-rays on top of it, for easy viewing.]

MULDER: That's how I found these - small pieces of what looks like metal in the charred cervical tissue here ... here ... and here. Implants.

[He points to little black dots on each of the x-rays.]

MULDER: I followed up with the families of the three victims and I found that none had any cult associations but two out of the three belong to the local mutual UFO networks, and both of them claimed abduction experiences, and both of them were being treated by a medical health practitioner over the past few months.

SCULLY: For what?

MULDER: Take a look.

[He hands Scully medical files, and she reads from them.]

SCULLY: "Major depressive disorder characterized by periods of sustained anxiety and paranoia. Patient believes he will be contacted or called to an undisclosed place where he will be abducted by aliens."

MULDER: The implants triggered those responses. Those people were led to Skyland Mountain.

SCULLY: By whom?

MULDER: By the same government that put the implant in you, to function as a homing mechanism.

SCULLY: Mulder, that doesn't make sense.

MULDER: Why not? A tracking system using military app satellite technology to monitor test subjects. Or to stage what people might otherwise believe are alien abductions.

SCULLY: But they weren't abducted. They were led to their deaths. And for what purpose?

MULDER: I don't know that yet.

SCULLY: Now, Mulder ...

[The phone in the office rings.]

SCULLY: Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to rule out what Cassandra Spender has to say.

[Mulder nods slowly, then picks up the phone and answers.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[We cut to a phone booth where Marita Covarrubias speaks into the phone to Mulder.]

MARITA: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yes?

MARITA: This is Marita Covarrubias. Is this a secure line we're on?

MULDER: Yes.

MARITA: You were at Skyland Mountain. Are you aware of a UN report on a similar incident in the former Soviet Union?

MULDER: No.

MARITA: I was in Kazakhstan, Agent Mulder. There is a connection. I have someone who knows it. I have him with me now.

[She gazes out the phone booth into her car. Dmitri sits there and, unbeknownst to Marita, he begins to pull out the stitching in his eyes and mouth.]

MULDER: Where are you?

MARITA: At a pay phone on Skodal Road, just off the I-90. Come here and wait for my call for my call, for directions.

[Marita tries to scream, but can't. Dmitri is outside the payphone, and the black liquid which was once in him now seeps from his eyes and mouth and Marita drops the phone.]

MULDER: Marita? Mar ...

[Mulder turns to face Scully, but she is not there. Cut to an opening elevator, out of which walks Scully. Scully walks down the hallway to a bubbler, and takes a drink of water. Cut back to the phone booth, as Mulder pulls up in his car. He sees no sign of Marita and the phone is off the hook. He gets out and walks up to the booth. Traces of the black oil remain there, and he's seen it before. We now cut to a phone ringing. Spender answers the phone, which is in Cassandra's room.]

SPENDER: Hello?

[Mulder is on the other line, at the phone booth.]

MULDER: Who's this?

SPENDER: This is Special Agent Spender. Who's this?

MULDER: This is Fox Mulder.

SPENDER: Why are you calling here?

MULDER: I'm actually looking for Agent Scully. I haven't been able to reach her, and she said that -

SPENDER: She's not here. Nor is my mother.

[Spender turns to face another man in the room - Dr. Werber.]

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SPENDER: She's gone from her room.

MULDER: Gone where?

SPENDER: Look, she's just gone. Don't you get it? She's got nowhere to go.

[Cut to the night sky, and we pan down to be confronted by an illuminated bridge, with a beautiful blue waterfall in the background. Hundreds of people line the bridge in waiting. We know they are abductees, and we recognize some of the faces. One of them, namely, being Cassandra, with her wheelchair being pushed by none other than Quiet Willy. They pass another person, Dmitri, eyes and mouth unsewn. And who else is amongst the crowd? Scully. People begin pointing to the sky, where a bright blue light has appeared.]

AMAZED WOMAN: Look!

STUNNED MAN: There! There it is!

[The light moves overhead, and appears to "jump" forward in a sort of explosion. Every person on the bridge is looking up at it as it continues to move overhead. Scully makes her way through the crowd and approaches Cassandra. She takes Cassandra's hand, and does not recognize Quiet Willy. Suddenly, a man covered in flames comes running in pain and panic from the end of the bridge. Behind him walk calmly two faceless men, one of them being the faceless man from the teaser. Walking towards the group of abductees, we catch a glimpse of Scully's stunned expression, and we cut to black ...]

TO BE CONTINUED