The X-Files - 2.

5.18
The Pine Bluff Variant

SCENE 1 FOLGER PARK WASHINGTON, DC (MULDER jogging through park.)

(SKINNER and SCULLY watch from FBI surveillance van.)

TECH 1: (voice) North Perimeter clear. No sign of him.

TECH 2: (voice) South access clear.

SKINNER: Camera one, pan right. Mulder, make for the west entrance.

TECH 3: (voice) West gate … No sign of suspect.

SKINNER: Two, angle south entrance.

TECH 4: (voice) Mid-park clear

SCULLY: (looking at a bus on monitor) There. The bus.

SKINNER: Three, zoom in.

SKINNER: Stay close, Mulder. (Compares mugshot of Haley with the image of a man getting off the bus. It’s Haley.) We have Alpha off an east bound Metro bus.

(MULDER running.)

TECH 2: I have alpha heading south.

SKINNER: One, follow suspect.

(AGENT READING PAPER on a bench watches HALEY pass and sit on a bench with another man, the FBI beta target.)

UNDERCOVER AGENT READING PAPER: Contact made.

SKINNER: All right, hold your positions.

(Lots of undercover agents around.)

SCULLY: What’s he looking at?

SKINNER: Two. Pick it up.

(Camera pans over to MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder, he’s watching you.

(MULDER pauses.)

TECH 2: He’s reaching for something.

SKINNER: Zoom in. One, zoom.

(HALEY hands an envelope to the other man.)

SKINNER: Okay, slowly. Slowly. Wait for it. Wait, wait. Wait for it.

(MULDER stretches, looking casual. The man meeting with HALEY on a bench takes the envelope from HALEY and looks in it.)

SKINNER: Okay …

(Man meeting with HALEY puts envelope in his pocket, then suddenly doubles over in pain.)

HALEY: What - what- what -? Hey.

SCULLY: What just happened? What’s happening?

SKINNER: I don’t know what the hell happened.

HALEY: Anybody! A doctor! I need a doctor over here.. My friend’s sick here. I don’t know what’s wrong. Oh, God. He just … he just fell … Ah, man. (runs off)

SKINNER: What the hell’s going on?

SCULLY: I can’t see anything! There’s …

TECH 2: Beta target down!

TECH 3: We’ve lost Alpha!

SKINNER: Go! Go! Go!

(Car pulls up and FBI agents get out to pursue HALEY.)

SCULLY: There he is! He’s heading west. He’s on the move! He’s on the move!

MULDER: (running after HALEY) I’m on him!

SKINNER: Maintain your position on the downed Beta. Find the Alpha on three.

AGENT READING PAPER: (approaching the fallen man on the bench) Federal agents! Step aside! Oh, my God.

SKINNER: What is it?

AGENT READING PAPER: What the hell did he do to him?

SCULLY: What? What? What? What are you seeing?

SKINNER: Come on, talk to me! Talk to me!

(Man looks like acid has been poured on his face and hands.)

AGENT READING PAPER: It’s eating away his flesh.

SCULLY: What?

SKINNER: Haley must be carrying something lethal.

SCULLY: Where’s Mulder?

SKINNER: Mulder was on him. There’s no way he couldn’t catch him.

SCULLY: Mulder, respond!

SKINNER: Can you find him? Zoom in. Zoom in!

SCULLY: I can’t see a thing. Mulder, suspect is armed and dangerous. Pursue Alpha with extreme caution.

(MULDER chasing HALEY.)

SCULLY: Mulder! Damn it!

(SCULLY gets up and jumps out of van. Skinner yells after her.)

SKINNER: Agent Scully!

(SCULLY runs through park. She sees MULDER stop near a car, and look around. Car pulls away quickly. MULDER walks away. SCULLY watches. MULDER runs up to SCULLY)

MULDER: Scully.

SCULLY: What happened?

MULDER: I lost him.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: (not looking at her) He got away.

(SCULLY watches MULDER leave. She appears confused.)

Opening credits. Mulder … Whooo. Scully rocks.

SCENE 2 (X-Files office. SCULLY is watching surveillance video. It looks like Mulder is handing off something to HALEY. MULDER enters, avoids looking at SCULLY.)

SCULLY: I came in early. I wanted to take a look at the surveillance tape to make sure I wasn’t crazy. What happened out there, Mulder?

MULDER: "What happened?"

SCULLY: There were 12 agents yesterday in the park. We had ownership of the suspect. We were in position to make the capture and you let him get away. And from what I see now, you may have aided in his escape.

MULDER: (not looking at her) I don’t know what you’re talking about.

SCULLY: It’s on the video, Mulder. I can’t prove it was you, but I know what I saw. This man is a murderer. He is a terrorist. I have a report to give this morning. I expect you to give me an answer. I expect you to tell me the truth.

MULDER: We’re late for the hearing.

SCENE 3 JOINT FBI/CIA COUNTER TERRORISM COUNCIL (FBI briefing room. 15+ agents and MULDER, SCULLY and SKINNER.)

SKINNER: 15 hours ago, a joint FBI/CIA task force assembled to capture Jacob Steven Haley, second in command of the militia group known as New Spartans. Intelligence revealed Haley was to make an exchange of money for a quantity of automatic weapons to conduct domestic terrorist activities and to further their express goal of overthrowing the federal government. Due to reasons that are still under review, our operation failed. (SCULLY looks at MULDER. He looks away from her.) Jacob Steven Haley remains at large. Whereabouts unknown.

CIA AGENT: What about the weapons?

SKINNER: An arms dealer name Cadre who died at the scene received from Haley a $50,000 bearer bond. Presumably, this was payment for weapons delivered.

CIA AGENT: In other words, Haley not only got away, he got away with $50,000 worth of guns? Have we determined a cause of death? How Haley killed this man?

SCULLY: He was killed by means of a highly toxic biological agent.

CIA AGENT: What kind of toxin are we talking about?

SCULLY: We don’t know. It’s affect on the dermis and the soft tissues, the rapidity of its action – it is not a disease known in nature. It would seem to be genetically engineered. A bioweapon.

CIA AGENT: How the hell did he get it?

CIA AGENT: The former Soviet Union. Security on the Siberian Vector Lab is, uh, lax. It’s conceivable it was stolen, though we have no confirmation from Moscow.

CIA AGENT: So this is out in the ozone now? Is this stuff floating through Folger Park?

SCULLY: Level Four decontamination procedures were undertaken immediately. Our best indications are that exposure was limited and that the toxin was transmitted directly and not contagious.

CIA AGENT: How do you know that?

MULDER: We’re not all dead?

(No one is amused.)

SCULLY: At this point, we can only guess that the toxin was transmitted by liquid or gas, touch or injection.

CIA AGENT: Anybody care to tell me how this guy, Haley eluded us?

(SCULLY looks at MULDER. He looks away.)

SKINNER: Video recon indicates Haley had an accomplice at the park. We have yet to identify who this was, or how Haley knew he was under surveillance.

FBI AGENT: He must have made us.

CIA AGENT: Could he have?

SKINNER: No. Every member was chosen for their lack of exposure in terrorist circles.

MULDER: Haley’s extremely suspicious to the point of paranoia. He’s got military training and a guerrilla mentality.

SKINNER: Second only to this man. (Shows slide of BREMER.) August Bremer. He’s the group's mastermind. However, there are reports that he and Haley are vying for control. This destabilization makes August Bremer our primary threat.

CIA AGENT: Well, this is it. This is the scenario we’ve all been worried about, people. Now, I need maximum control of information. Nothing leaves this room. The media gets a sniff, we’re going to disavow. We are going to stop these men. We’re going to make it all go away.

(Everyone gets up to leave.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

(MULDER walks out of the room, ignoring SCULLY. SKINNER watches them.)

SCENE 4 GABLES CORNER, OHIO (Movie theatre. A man, BREMER comes up to the USHERETTE.)

USHERETTE: The show’s almost over.

BREMER: One, please.

(USHERETTE sells it to him.)

BREMER: Thanks.

(BREMER goes inside and up to concession counter.)

BREMER: I’d like some popcorn, please.

USHERETTE: (walking from ticket booth to concession counter) Do you want large, extra large or Jumbo large?

BREMER: Could I get some fresh popcorn, please. The sign says "Fresh Popcorn."

USHERETTE: This is fresh popcorn.

BREMER: No, fresh-fresh --- hot – out of the machine back there. Please. A large.

USHERETTE: (turns her back to him) I’ll have to make it. Probably take a minute.

(BREMER puts on gloves and takes out an unmarked aerosol can and uncaps it.)

SCENE 5 AARON BURR MOTOR COURT ANGOLA, DELAWARE (MULDER drives up to a hotel lobby to check in. SCULLY pulls in behind him and watches MULDER enter the office.)

(Later, in hotel room, MULDER’S phone rings. He answers.)

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah?

HALEY: (on phone) You set me up.

MULDER: I saved your ass.

HALEY: (on phone) Then why wasn’t I told?

MULDER: (on phone, voice) I didn’t know about the operation.

HALEY: (on phone) It was your operation.

MULDER: (on phone) No. The Justice Department got an anonymous tip. I found out a half hour before it went down. I did what I could.

HALEY: (on phone) You’ll have to do better than that, Mulder.

MULDER: (on phone) What else can I say? I-I got as much to lose here as you do. They catch you, you’ll flip me. Look, I believe in your ideals and your goals but the only reason I tolerate your methods is because the government’s are worse.

HALEY: (on phone) Wow. What a ringing endorsement.

MULDER: (on phone) Hey, you came to me, remember? I mean, what more do you want from me? I’ve risked everything. I’ve given you information. My partner is seriously suspicious. If that’s not enough for you, that’s all I’ve got. (hangs up)

(HALEY sighs and hangs up.)

SCENE 6 (Outside movie theatre in Ohio, two teens sit on curb.)

TEEN 1: Ain’t nobody home.

TEEN 2: Eh, she’s in there. She’s just hiding or something.

TEEN 1: I’m thinking we could break for it right through the front doors.

TEEN 2: (holding up a coathanger) Why? I got us front row seats.

(They use the hanger to open the exit door behind the theatre and enter the theatre. They sit on front row. Die Hard With a Vengeance is the feature.)

TEEN 1: She see us? Is she coming?

TEEN 2: (turning around) Hey, man.

(Other patrons in the theatre are dead, their faces eaten away.)

SCENE 7 (Hotel lobby.)

SCULLY: (with attitude rings lobby bell) Maybe you can tell me what’s going on.

MANAGER: What?

SCULLY: There seems to be a problem. A man just told me you gave him keys to my room, room 130.

MANAGER: Who are you?

SCULLY: Who am I? Who is he?

MANAGER: Mr. uh, Kaplan.

SCULLY: Mr. Kaplan.

MANAGER: Yes.

SCULLY: Thank you. (starts to exit)

MANAGER: Are you the wife?

SCULLY: Not even close.

(SCULLY leaves the office, angry.)

SCENE 8

(MULDER’s hotel room. Phone rings. MULDER answers.)

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah?

BREMER: (on phone) We’ll proceed as planned.

(MULDER hangs up and goes out of his motel room. SCULLY hides behind a car. Another car drives up beside MULDER.)

DRIVER: Agent Mulder? You coming with us?

(SCULLY watches MULDER get into a car. She gets in her own car and follows without her lights on. She is run off the road by another car.)

SCULLY: Shi….!

(MAN gets out of his car and knocks on SCULLY’s window.)

MAN: Step out of the car.

(Commercial 1.)

SCENE 9 (SCULLY is being escorted down a hallway by four men.)

SCULLY: Exactly what agency are you from? Obviously not the Office of Information.

(MAN knocks at a door. SKINNER and CIA operative are seated at a desk.)

CIA AGENT: Agent Scully, take a seat.

SCULLY: What the hell is going on?

CIA AGENT: I apologize for our methods.

SKINNER: They may well have saved Agent Mulder’s life.

SCULLY: What about my life? I don’t appreciate being run off the road.

CIA AGENT: We had our reasons.

SKINNER: You’re suspicious Agent Mulder’s betrayed his country.

SCULLY: I don‘t know what you’re talking about.

CIA AGENT: Your discretion is understandable. In point of fact, Agent Mulder’s actions are entirely honorable. What you’ve stumbled into is a classified action, a deep-cover assignment.

SKINNER: Until now, Agent Mulder’s true mission was known only to the US Attorney and myself.

SCULLY: His true mission?

SKINNER: The council we sat in was a front to make the New Spartans believe we were unaware of Agent Mulder’s complicity.

SCULLY: Why him? Why choose Agent Mulder?

SKINNER: We didn’t choose him. They did.

CIA AGENT: He spoke at a UFO conference in Boston where he broadcast his feelings about the government and their conspiracies against the American people. Somebody from the organization was listening so the man who escaped, Haley, sent out feelers in hopes that Agent Mulder was a man whose politics were in line with his own. Someone on the inside that he could use.

SCULLY: To what aim?

SKINNER: That we don’t know.

SCULLY: You’ve put Agent Mulder’s life in danger by not telling me.

SKINNER: I advised him not to tell you. He’s at a very delicate point. Everything he does now must work to build trust.

SCULLY: Including letting this man Haley get away with murder? Sir, we know nothing about this bioweapon. We don’t know what they want to use it for. We don’t even know if they have the capacity to store it safely. Putting Agent Mulder in this situation is extremely risky.

SKINNER: They want something from him. We have no other way of learning what.

(Knock at door. AGENT enters.)

AGENT: Movie theatre in Ohio. Whatever they’re using, they’ve used it again.

SCENE 10 (Car pulls up to warehouse. Three men exit the car and pull MULDER, who is wearing a hood, out and seat him at a table inside the warehouse. They strap his hands to top of the table, then step away.)

MULDER: (still wearing the hood) Ooh. Is this the Pepsi challenge? How ’bout some, uh, fresh air, boys?

(They pull the hood off. MULDER blinks his eyes against the light. HALEY is sitting across from MULDER.)

HALEY: Welcome, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: Okay, deal me in.

(One of the men who brought MULDER in grabs MULDER’s left pinky finger and holds it in his fist.)

HALEY: This is just a little method that we use to learn the truth.

MULDER: Well, you might want to put that hood back on me unless you want to see a grown man cry.

HALEY: What happened in the park?

MULDER: I told you on the phone.

(FINGER BREAKING MAN twists and breaks MULDER’s finger. MULDER screams in pain.)

MULDER: I was set up. I’m telling the truth. Wait, wait! Wait! I let you go!

HALEY: You’re spying on us, aren’t you?

MULDER: No. No. No.

(FBM twists the finger again. MULDER screams.)

MULDER: You want me to lie and say yes?

(FBM twists again. MULDER screams.)

MULDER: (to FBM) I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch! I’m going to kill you! (to HALEY) If I set you up you think I’d even get into the car with this Nazi piece of shi…!

(FBM twists again. MULDER yells and head butts FBM, knocking FBM to the floor.)

MULDER: (in lots of pain) I risked everything! If I was lying, there’d be federal agents descending on this place like the wrath of God right now. (to FBM) If you touch me again, you’d better kill me!

(FBM twists again. MULDER screams, weaker now.)

HALEY: A war is going on, Agent Mulder. Either you’re on the right side or the wrong. (Pulls out aerosol can and holds it pointed at MULDER’s face.) You’ve seen the effects of this?

MULDER: (weakly) Yeah.

HALEY: Would you like to see them again?

MULDER: No, I didn’t set you up. If you got set up, it was one of yours.

(FBM bends the finger all the way back. MULDER cries out, then puts his face down on his unbroken hand and sobs.)

HALEY: (thoughtfully) You know what? I believe you.

SCENE 12 (Outside movie theatre. SKINNER and SCULLY approach a TECHNICIAN.)

SCULLY: What are you reading in there?

TECH: We’ve been through and through. No hot zones. No atmospheric. You’re clear, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: (taking kit from the TECH) Thank you.

(SKINNER and SCULLY enter the theatre lobby.)

SKINNER: 14 victims total, including patrons, a projectionist and an employee.

(They look behind the counter. SCULLY is disturbed by the sight of the body. We don’t see it.)

SKINNER: That’s the usherette. There were two survivors. Two teenage boys.

(They enter the theatre and shine flashlights over about 10 plastic covered dead bodies still in their seats.)

SKINNER: How did it happen that those two kids survived?

SCULLY: I don’t know. But it’s going to help us establish a method of delivery. (looks closely at one of the dead patrons whose skin has been dissolved) It’s doubtful the pathogen was airborne. They found no atmospheric traces. So it’s got to be something that everybody touched.

(SCULLY bends down, and with gloved hand picks up a ticket stub)

SCENE 13 (MULDER enters his dark apartment. He closes the door and looks at his broken finger.)

SCULLY: Don’t be alarmed.

MULDER: (startled, then rubs his face tiredly with his good hand) Scully, get out of here.

SCULLY: Mulder …

MULDER: Get out of here!

SCULLY: I know what you’re doing. Skinner told me everything.

MULDER: I don’t know what you’re talking about

SCULLY: What happened to your hand?

MULDER: Nothing.

(SCULLY takes MULDER’s hand and inspects the damage. MULDER winces.)

SCULLY: Oh, Mulder, what did they do to you? God, this needs to be set. You’re in pain.

(SCULLY goes to kitchen.)

MULDER: Yeah, if you keep pulling it around like that.

(MULDER sits on his couch.)

SCULLY: Let’s get the swelling down.

(SCULLY brings ice wrapped in a towel and sits on the coffee table in front of him and holds the ice on MULDER’s hand.)

SCULLY: They’ve killed again, Mulder. 14 people in a movie theatre in Ohio. The same toxin they released in the park.

MULDER: 14 people? That doesn’t make any sense.

SCULLY: Unless it was a test… for something bigger.

(Camera brings old adhesive X shaped tape marks on window into focus. The rest of the scene is heard through a handheld listening device pointed at MULDER’s apartment.)

SCULLY: (voice) Why do this to you, Mulder?

MULDER: (voice) They’re testing me, too. Haley’s paranoid … and spooked. I was sure he was going to kill me.

SCULLY: (voice) What stopped him?

MULDER: (voice) They still need something from me … and I’m sensing there’s someone Haley trusts even less – The man giving him his orders. Someone I haven’t met yet. A guy named August Bremer.

(We see that the listening device is being held by August Bremer sitting in a van outside.)

(Commercial 2.)

SCENE 14 FBI HEADQUARTERS 3:14 AM (MULDER, finger in a splint, <yea, Scully> walks down hall and enters SKINNER’s office. SKINNER and the CIA AGENT are waiting for him.)

SKINNER: What happened to your hand?

MULDER: Terrorist lie detector.

CIA AGENT: Well, did you pass?

MULDER: Well, I must have. I’m still here. They told me what they want. Documentation from the federal reserve bank. Fund transfer schedules for the eastern seaboard. Cash money.

CIA AGENT: They’re going to hit a bank or an armored car.

SKINNER: That’s it? That’s all?

MULDER: I think I convinced Haley that the near miss in Folger Park was due to a mole inside his own group. He wants surveillance files on them.

SKINNER: How soon?

MULDER: They’re waiting for my call.

SKINNER: All right, we’ll need some time to redact. Dummy something up.

CIA AGENT: No, I anticipated this. I’ve got files ready to use. (goes to his briefcase)

SKINNER: You know, I’m getting a bad feeling about this. I want a tail on him.

CIA AGENT: No tail.

SKINNER: Once they get what they want from Mulder, what’s to keep them from killing him?

CIA AGENT: They spot a tail on him, they’re gonna shoot him on the spot. We have got no other way of learning what they want past this – What the big picture is.

SKINNER: You may not have another chance to contact us.

MULDER: (leaving the room) If you don’t hear from me by midnight … feed my fish.

SCENE 15 (FBI biology lab. Microscope image of bacteria.)

TECH: That’s it. That’s your bug.

SCULLY: It’s a bacterium.

TECH: An especially virulent one. We isolated it from the bearer bond.

SCULLY: Was the bacterium also found on the ticket stub?

TECH: Actually, no. Barring the usual particles and dust mites the ticket stub was clean.

SCULLY: Well, then how was the biotoxin spread throughout the theatre?

TECH: I don’t know.

SCULLY: It looks like streptococcus.

TECH: A strain of streptococcus, but one that has been genetically altered to make it extraordinarily lethal.

SCULLY: But strep wouldn’t be able to survive any kind of exposure to the environment.

TECH: Normally. But whoever produced this has cleverly coded the bacterium with a synthetic protective covering. The covering gives them an adhesive quality. It’s like a scratch and sniff. Dermal contact activates the contagion. It’s ingenious in its own evil way.

SCULLY: Developed by the Russians?

TECH: I’ve seen everything in the Russian arsenal. They’ve got nothing this sophisticated.

SCULLY: Well, then by whom?

(TECH shrugs.)

SCENE 16 (MULDER drives up to motel. Enters room. Overhead light doesn’t work. FINGER BREAKING MAN turns on table lamp. MULDER is startled. HALEY enters.)

HALEY: Do you have what we need?

MULDER: Tell the gimp to back off.

(HALEY nods. FBM leaves the room.)

HALEY: Give me the files.

(MULDER tosses down a roll of film.)

MULDER: I need that back by tomorrow.

(HALEY takes it to the lamp and looks at the images.)

HALEY: Lies within lies. (Pulls hood out of a briefcase.) Put the hood on. You’re going with us.

(MULDER picks up hood and looks at it.)

MULDER: No.

HALEY: You put it on or the gimp puts it on for you.

SCENE 17 (SKINNER’S office. Phone rings. SKINNER answers using speaker phone.)

SKINNER: Skinner.

SCULLY: (on phone) The biotoxin was applied to the bearer bond with an aerosol spray, but there is no evidence whatsoever of it on the theatre stubs. Now, I still have no idea how these kids were unaffected.

SKINNER: (on phone) Have you ID’d the toxin? (no answer) Agent Scully?

SCULLY: (on phone) Sir, are you alone?

SKINNER: (on phone, looks at CIA AGENT) No. Why?

SCULLY: (on phone) I’d like to speak with you in private.

SKINNER: (turning off speaker phone) You’re off the speaker.

SCULLY: (on phone) Thank you. Now, CIA Intelligence suggested that this biotoxin was stolen from the Russians, but my research indicates that it was almost certainly developed domestically.

SKINNER: (on phone) The United States has no bioweapons, Agent Scully. President Nixon dismantled our program in 1969.

SCULLY: (on phone) Yes, sir, that’s what we’ve been told, but the CDC database contains evidence of a streptococcus bacterium being developed by the Army’s Pine Bluff Facility in the 1960’s. It appears to be a very primitive strain of what we’re seeing here.

SKINNER: (on phone) What are you saying?

SCULLY: (on phone) What I’m saying is that the bioweapons program may have continued in secret and that someone may be sending Agent Mulder on a suicide mission.

SKINNER: (on phone) Right. Thank you. (hangs up)

CIA AGENT: What is it?

SKINNER: She’s just .. concerned for her partner.

SCENE 18 (Black car drives up to a barn. Inside the barn are lots of men with guns. HALEY enters with MULDER, hooded. BREMER is there. Once inside, MULDER is unhooded.)

BREMER: You put us all at risk bringing him here.

HALEY: We took the usual precautions. Anyway he came through for us. Federal Reserve schedules for tomorrow. (gives Bremer film from MULDER)

BREMER: (to MULDER) You’re a believer?

MULDER: I have my beliefs.

BREMER: You willing to die for them?

MULDER: I’d prefer it didn’t come to that.

BREMER: We have a job to do.

(BREMER tosses MULDER a rubber Dracula mask.)

BREMER: You’re Dracula.

SCENE 19 6:04 am (SCULLY sitting in her car on stake out outside motel?.)

SCULLY: (to herself) Oh, damn. (realization) The money. Oh, my God, the money.

(Starts her car.)

SCENE 20 (Terrorists and MULDER in a moving armored car truck. They are putting on Halloween masks and checking guns.)

HALEY: (wearing werewolf mask, handing MULDER an evil looking gun) Mulder, take it.

BREMER: (wearing purple demon mask) Make sure you point that the right way.

(FINGER BREAKING MAN puts on skeleton mask.)

FIRST SOVEREIGN BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA (MANAGER is walking through large bank.)

MANAGER: Euna, can I have the keys, please?

(Secretary gives him the keys. He walks back to the armored car loading dock. Guard opens gate. Manager unlocks door. Backup alarm beeps. As he reaches armored car, terrorists get out of car.)

BREMER: You do what I say, or I’ll shoot you!

HALEY: Three minutes!

(BREMER takes MANAGER by the collar and leads him back into the bank.)

BREMER: Open the gate. Open it!

TERRORIST 1: Get down! Now! Everybody down! Now!

TERRORIST 2: Don’t be foolish. Give us the money and we’ll be gone. Move back! Move it! Come on! Move it! Down! Move it! Down, here, now! Don’t touch that phone!

(Employees obey, with minimal screaming.)

BREMER: Dracula, take the teller.

MULDER: Right.

(MULDER holds young male teller at gunpoint.)

HALEY: Step away from the counter! Open the doors! Put your hands up on the windows now! Now! Do it! Get down!

TERRORIST 2: You! Here! Get down! Now! Get down!

HALEY: Two minutes!

BREMER: (leading MANAGER to vault) Let’s open it! Open it!

(MANAGER begins opening vault.)

FBM: Don’t move!

MULDER: I got it!

(Teller that MULDER was watching is shot by FBM, but not fatally. A woman screams.)

HALEY: Is he dead?

MULDER: No. He’s still alive.

HALEY: Finish him!

(MULDER points his gun at the wounded teller.)

(Commercial 3.)

SCENE 21 (Bank scene continued. MULDER holds his gun aimed at the man lying on the floor.)

HALEY: One minute thirty!

(MANAGER finishes opening vault.)

HALEY: You! Face down on the floor! Right here!

(HALEY pushes MANAGER to the floor. Terrorists go in vault and begin stuffing money in bags.)

HALEY: (to MULDER) What are you waiting for? Do it!

(MULDER aims gun again.)

TERRORIST 2: Get down!

(In vault, BREMER sprays money that they are not stealing with an aerosol can.)

HALEY: (to MULDER) I told you to finish him. Finish him!

(MULDER stands ready to fire. TELLER is frightened.)

BREMER: (pushing MULDER aside) That weapon’s traceable. Go.

(Behind MULDER, BREMER shoots <and kills?> the TELLER. Other employees cry and moan.)

BREMER: Get the hell out of here. Go! Go!

(Terrorists leave.)

SCENE 22 (MULDER throws his Dracula head onto a bonfire, disgusted with himself. BREMER puts money on the bonfire, also.)

MULDER: What are you doing? What are you doing?

BREMER: The bills could be traced.

MULDER: The bank heist was a decoy. To contaminate the money you didn’t take.

BREMER: No more tests, Mr. Mulder. This is the real deal. You’ve been a big help. (Points a gun at MULDER.)

HALEY: (stopping BREMER) Put that down.

BREMER: He’s a liability now.

HALEY: To who? You? If you think you’re going to kill Mulder to protect your secret, it’s too late. I already know your secret. Agent Mulder provided us with FBI surveillance reports – files which contain the name of a source who’s been leaking information on us for a period of two years – Charles Bogard. (to other terrorists) See, Bogard is an alias, an old one – for August Bremer.

BREMER: Agent Mulder knows my alias just as he knew a false report would feed your ambition and pit you against me.

HALEY: Mulder risked his life for us.

BREMER: Are you sure about that?

(BREMER plays tape of MULDER and SCULLY in MULDER’s apartment.)

MULDER: (taped) They're testing me, too. Haley's paranoid... and spooked. I was sure he was going to kill me.

SCULLY: (taped) What stopped him?

MULDER: (taped) They still need something from me. And I'm sensing there's someone Haley trusts even less.

HALEY: (to Mulder) What the hell is this?

(MULDER does not answer.)

SCENE 23 (FBI headquarters. SCULLY, upset, enters command center for the operation and goes to SKINNER and the CIA AGENT.)

SCULLY: Director Skinner, you’ve got to get to Mulder. You’ve got to find the bank that they hit..

SKINNER: That’s what we’re trying to do.

SCULLY: Agent Mulder’s life is in danger -- and anybody else who touches the currency at that location. They’re putting the biotoxin on the money.

SKINNER: We’ve got no way of contacting him – not without blowing his cover.

SCULLY: You’ve got no choice.

CIA AGENT: We had surveillance tapes satellited to us -- There have been 27 robberies in seven eastern states, all this morning.

SKINNER: There’s been no sign of Mulder.

SCULLY: Well, he’s got to be on there somewhere.

(SCULLY looks at several monitor freeze frames. One of them has MULDER in the Dracula mask.)

SCENE 24 (MULDER and HALEY are kneeling on the ground.)

BREMER: (to MULDER) We’ve made some decisions.

(BREMER places leather pouch of keys on top of HALEY’s head.)

BREMER: (to HALEY) Take it and get out of here. I don’t want to see your face again. Go.

(HALEY gets up, gets in car and leaves.)

BREMER: (to MULDER) On your feet.

MULDER: I don’t need a car. You can just call me a cab, that’d be fine.

BREMER: Let’s go.

MULDER: Go where?

(FINGER BREAKING MAN roughly pulls MULDER to his feet.)

BREMER: Witnessing the murder of a federal agent will make these men an accessory to the crime.

MULDER: (to the FINGER BREAKING MAN) You hear that?

FINGER BREAKING MAN: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

(They walk a ways into what looks like it used to be a greenhouse area.)

BREMER: (not looking at MULDER at first) Stop there. Down on your knees. Hands behind your back.

(After a look, MULDER complies. The FBM points his gun at MULDER’s head. Gunshot. MULDER jerks forward. Slow motion camera. We see that BREMER has shot and killed the FBM.)

BREMER: There’s a car for you just over the rise. Head south ‘till you get to the highway.

MULDER: Who are you?

BREMER: Go on. If they come out here and find us, they’ll kill us both. Go.

(MULDER runs toward the car.)

SCENE 25 (MULDER pulls up in front of bank that was robbed.)

POLICE: Hey! Hold it ! Who are you?

MULDER: FBI. Who’s in charge? Who’s in charge? I need everybody out of the bank!

(SCULLY comes running toward him.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: The money! They sprayed the money.

SCULLY: We got here an hour ago before any of the funds were touched or transferred. The cash supply is being isolated. It’s being locked down in the vault.

MULDER: How did you know it was this bank?

SCULLY: I recognized you from the surveillance tape.

MULDER: With the …?

SCULLY: Your finger.

(MULDER laughs shortly. SKINNER comes over .)

MULDER: August Bremer, or whatever his real name is – he’s working with us.

SCULLY: Mulder, before you go any further you should know that the biotoxin they used may have come from government labs. Our government.

MULDER: You’re saying I was set up?

SKINNER: We have no definitive information to justify that position.

MULDER: I was being used? This whole operation? The people who died in that theatre?

CIA AGENT: (walking over) Agent Mulder. Our government is not in the business of killing innocent civilians.

MULDER: The hell they aren’t. Those were tests on us to be used on someone else.

CIA AGENT: Those bills have been analyzed. The money in the vault gave no readings. There’s absolutely no evidence of any biotoxins. So, before you climb on any bandwagon …

SCULLY: You knew about this all along. You knew about this the whole time!

MULDER: I want that money rechecked.

CIA AGENT: That money has been cleared. It’s being used as evidence in a federal crime.

MULDER: That money’s as dirty as you are, isn’t it. Isn’t it?

CIA AGENT: Say that were true. Then what do you hope to accomplish , Agent Mulder, as a whistle-blower? To mobilize a civil rights action? To bring down the federal government? To do the very work that group you were a part of is so bent on doing? What do you want? Laws against those men, or laws protecting them?

MULDER: I want people to know the truth.

CIA AGENT: Well sometimes our job is to protect those people from knowing it. Excuse me.

(CIA AGENT walks away from SKINNER, MULDER, and SCULLY.)

SCENE 26 (Two lane road. Car that HALEY took begins weaving, then drifts off the road, horn blowing steadily. Interior shot of car shows HALEY dead against the wheel, his skin quickly being eaten away. Close up of leather key pouch that BREMER gave him.)

The End.

US Airdate: May 3, 1998

writer: John Shiban director: Rob Bowman

STARRING: David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner

Guest Cast: Daniel Von Bargen as Haley J.B. Bivens as Field Agent Armin Moattar as Goatee Man Sam Anderson as Leamus Michael MacRae as August Bremer Kate Braidwood as the Usherette Trevor Roald as Martin Kett Turton as Brit Douglas Arthurs as Skin-head Man John B. Lowe as Dr. Leavitt Michael St. John Smith as CIA Operative