VTITLE: Insight4 - Shutdown 
RATING: R (violence, disturbing imagery) 
CLASSIFICATION: X A 
DATE: July 2004 
TIMING: Starts during FaD and takes a new direction 
ARCHIVE: Gossamer, Ephemeral - yes. Others please ask. 
AUTHOR: jowrites - joannhere@gmail.com 

LEGALLY: Legally these characters belong to some combination of 1013, Chris 
Carter and Fox. 

SUMMARY: A research lab is housing terrible secrets. Mulder has the key to the 
door. 

BACKGROUND: Suppose Scully arrived at the hospital two minutes later in Folie a 
Deux - what could have happened next. After two years working apart, Mulder and 
Scully need to work together again, but Mulder's got a secret that keeps getting 
in the way. 

A refresher on the Insight timeline. 
It's two years after FaD - so Krycek's alive, as is CSM. As we're effectively in 
an AU S7, where some bits of S6 and S7 happened - Daryl Musashi is dead. Clear 
as mud - yes? 

Previous parts of the Insight series can be found at: 
http://www.cbcasa.com/apb.htm 

My grateful thanks to my beta readers - Ann, Sana and Kel for help and 
encouragement. The mistakes as usual are mine, all mine. 

My thanks also to everyone who's written to me during the series - it was great 
hearing from you. Just a couple more stories to go and we'll be home! 
Joann 

-------- 

The gun against the back of his neck was cold. The voice that ordered him to his 
knees was unfamiliar and overwrought. And amateurs were dangerously 
unpredictable. 

A stray thought in the midst of the panic - what a beautiful place to die. 

Lush green grass under his feet; the dappled shade of tall trees enveloping his 
body; a chorus of birds whispering in his ears. 

The sound of nearby gunfire brought clarity. He remembered where he was. Who he 
was. 

Somebody pulling a stunt like this in the grounds of the FBI's training academy 
was either a professional or an idiot. Complying with the man's whims was mere 
time wasting. 

Mulder rolled forward, turning to face his would-be assassin as he did. "Daryl 
Musashi?" What the hell? The boy wonder of virtual mayhem, as Byers had 
described him. The CIA's virtual reality computer guru. Last seen getting his 
head chopped off by a renegade character in a computer game. 

Mulder scrambled back to his feet, disgusted. Held at gunpoint by a fucking 
computer geek. A dead computer geek. At Quantico. He quickly scanned his 
surroundings, looking for witnesses. 

Musashi at least had the sense to look embarrassed. "Sorry. I always wanted to 
do that. For real, you know?" 

For real? He'd shoot the jerk if he wasn't already dead. "What can I do for you, 
Daryl?" 

"Not me. A friend of mine. He needs help." 

Mulder nodded, coming down fast from both the adrenaline rush and the anger. 

It was remarkable how well his body had adapted to the sudden highs and lows. 
Perpetually combat ready. Always willing to stand down. 

--------- 

Langly snorted in amazement. "You're hiring me to play Doom?" 

The other two Gunmen looked faintly put out by the idea. 

Mulder answered both sets of reactions. "Unless you'd prefer to work for free?" 

Frohike frowned. "No, we could use the -- business. Doom?" 

"Think of it as a way of making new friends. There are some modifications you'll 
need to make." 

"To an old copy of Doom?" 

Mulder shrugged. "Cash on delivery." 

------------ 

An offer to do lunch sounded so normal, so familiar, that Scully could almost 
recall a time when she was a Federal Agent doing a valuable job who could still 
find time to do something just because she wanted to. 

Had it really only been a few weeks ago? Saving the world was heavy work - a 
weekend off perhaps? 

Even so, she felt a little awkward to be doing lunch with Tom Colton. But he'd 
called her, promising important information on Mulder, and she hadn't been able 
to resist. 

He smiled. "Great to see you. I thought you might not show up." 

"Why wouldn't I?" 

They managed to make it through almost five minutes of gossip on the menu and 
latest sightings of their old Quantico classmates before Colton got down to 
business. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm sorry to see you back here." 

"The work's important." 

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Of course. I'm just surprised - I 
guess." 

Enough fencing. "You wanted to talk about Mulder." 

Colton nodded - ready, willing and well prepared. "After you left, he went wild. 
Jurisdiction, authorization, procedures..." His voice trailed off. He waved his 
hand. "Sure, you know all that. Let's throw in violent, illegal, unethical. LAPD 
locked him up. Basket case - they were talking about committing him. They only 
held off because Skinner flew out." 

"What happened?" 

"The PD picked up a guy, a vagrant, not far from a grade school where a kid had 
been kidnapped. Her blood on his clothes." 

"And Mulder?" 

"Told them they'd got the wrong man." 

"You said he was violent." 

"He arrested a school teacher. No authority. No consultation. The detectives 
weren't pleased. Mulder went ape. The local Bureau got called in. Like a wild 
cat, they said." 

"And did they say what happened next?" 

Scully and Colton turned in unison at the sound. 

Mulder stood at the side of the table, staring down. "Tell her what happened, 
Agent Colton." 

"The vagrant said he found the clothes in a bag he rescued from a bonfire. The 
teacher admitted they were his." 

"And told them where he'd buried Nicky's body. Nicky Jenson, that was the kid's 
name. As you can see - I remember the incident clearly." A single slow breath. 
"My apologies for interrupting. I didn't mean to spoil your lunch. Agent 
Scully." 

He turned to walk away, but Scully reacted fast, determined not to miss the 
opportunity. "Mulder - don't go, please join us." 

He hesitated for long enough that she was sure that he was going to refuse 
before he turned to face her, nodded, and drew up a chair to sit at her side. 
The smile he offered Colton was cold. "Sorry," he said, though he didn't look 
sorry at all. "So, Tom, how's life treating you?" 

Colton shifted uncomfortably, his skin coloring as he replied. "I don't have to 
file daily reports anymore, if that's what you mean." 

"I'm glad for you." He directed his next question to the both of them. "Have you 
ordered?" 

The food arrived a few minutes later. Colton bolted his down and left as quickly 
as he could. 

Scully was torn between a need to know and a determination not to scare Mulder 
away. "How did you know I was here?" 

"Dave Skillen. I wanted to run a case past you." 

"And it couldn't wait?" 

"Not when Dave said who you were lunching with." 

She wasn't sure whether to be pleased or annoyed, forced herself to settle for 
curious. "Mulder. Colton, that whole Tooms thing, it was years ago." 

"I'd have fired him then. It would have saved everyone a lot of time. But enough 
about Colton. What about you? How's the apartment?" 

"Beautiful - you'll have to come over." 

"And the X-Files agents?" 

She shook her head, half-smiling as she puzzled over the Mulder version of 
routine social chit-chat that sounded awfully like an interrogation. "Are Human 
Resources insisting you fill in a report card on me?" 

He smiled briefly and turned his attention back to the fish on the plate in 
front of him. 

"I guess I still haven't worked out my place in all this. How are *you* doing, 
Mulder?" 

"Better." He looked up from the food. "Which I guess makes me the villain of the 
story." 

"It makes me wonder how bad things were." 

"Never so bad I had to talk to people like Colton about it. Why him?" 

"He's an old friend, classmate." She paused, annoyed with herself for making 
excuses. "Why shouldn't I see him?" 

"Because he nearly got you killed?" 

She only just stopped herself from hitting back with the first words that 
entered her head, knowing a reply of, "So did you," would not only be unfair, it 
would be juvenile. 

Unfortunately he seemed to hear the words without her needing to say them out 
loud, sat back as if she'd slapped him. Quickly recovered his poise to ask 
another impossible question. "If you wanted to talk about me - why not talk to 
me?" 

Anger and embarrassment swirled in equal measures. "You haven't been easy to 
talk to." 

A slight shrug and a brief wave of the hand, he didn't argue. 

OK, she would try. "Tell me about the case in LA." 

"Nothing to tell." 

What was the point? She stared at him, looking for why this was "better" as 
Mulder had claimed. 

Swallowing, he tried again. "I told them they'd arrested the wrong man. I gave 
them the right one." 

"That doesn't explain why they wanted to hospitalize you." 

"Same old. I was telling them something they didn't want to know." 

Her eyebrow rose in interrogation. "Why didn't they just throw you out of the 
station?" 

"They did and when I wouldn't go they put me in a cell to cool off until a 
couple of agents came to take me back to the office." 

Not so hard to visualize, except for one thing. "Colton said they were talking 
about committing you, not disciplining you. Is he wrong?" 

"Not about that." 

Like pulling teeth, she noted. 

"I'd only been back at work for a few days," he added. 

And Skinner had let him fly across the continent to work without a partner, 
without local backup on a case that wasn't even Bureau jurisdiction. Not even an 
X-File! "Your first case back?" 

The wry smile that formed on Mulder's face contained an iciness that stunned her 
for a moment. "First case in LA." His voice as flat as she'd ever heard it. He 
looked around the restaurant, seemingly convincing himself that they were out of 
earshot of the other diners. "They heard me arguing with someone in the cell. 
Thing was - I was the only person there. It was all captured on video; Skinner's 
got a copy." 

He returned his attention to his food, pausing between bites for just long 
enough to ask, "What do you know about cross-species organ transplantation and 
limb regrowth?" 

The sudden change of subject left her shaking her head, almost made her smile. 
Just like old times. "Funny - I get the feeling that you're going to tell me 
that I don't know nearly enough." 

He smiled up at her, nodding his agreement. 

---------- 

Skinner looked uncomfortable about showing her the video footage of Mulder's 
trip to LA. "He was angry with them for not listening." 

On balance, Scully didn't blame them. Mulder looked like he should be 
hospitalized, if not for the sake of his mind then for the sake of his body. 
Haggard, slump shouldered, wearing a disheveled suit, three days growth of 
stubble on his chin and hair that hadn't seen much care in weeks. "Why was he 
working?" 

"He wasn't. He'd been assigned light duties, pending evaluation." 

Not good enough! "Why was he working at all?" 

"I..." His jaw tightened. "You didn't see him when he left the hospital. I 
thought if he was back here, I could keep an eye on him." 

She snorted at that, bit back her indignation as she watched the screen. Mulder 
pacing the cell, circling a little slower each time, until finally he slouched 
back against the bars, as if he'd found some reserves of calm, or at least of 
apathy. 

The next few seconds were bewildering. Startled, bolt upright, he twisted his 
head to look behind him, violent shaking taking over as he turned, then slid 
down the metal bars until he was sitting on the floor, knees huddled tightly to 
his chest. 

She couldn't see his face, but she could tell from the stiffness of his body and 
the shudder of his shoulders that if he wasn't actually crying, then he was at 
least fighting the need. 

"Leave me alone." 

And though it was Mulder's voice, it shook with a fear and a horror that she'd 
never heard before. 

His head moved as if he was looking at something in the corner of the room. 
"God. I'm sorry. I can't." 

Then he was facing forward again. "I'm not fucking talking to you. I won't talk 
to you." 

Something in the other corner of the cell caught his attention. "It's OK. 
They'll let him go. I've told them what you said." Voice fading as he added, 
"Sometimes it just takes a while before they understand." 

His face dropped into his hands and he drew up even tighter, hair resting lankly 
on his knees. Sharp gasps of sobbing as if he'd like to cry it all away but 
daren't, and yet incapable of stopping the tears completely. "Leave me alone." 

Scully shook her head, not believing what she was seeing. "What happened?" 

"A couple of agents collected him, took him back to the office." 

"And?" 

"He grabbed a shower in the gym they use; got something to eat in the cafeteria. 
When I got there he was asleep in one of the offices." 

She tried not to get angry at his sidestep, made sure that her expression told 
him that she needed more. 

"Exhaustion? PTSD? Mulder's not easy to read. He said it was role play - he was 
just working out alternative scenarios." 

"But he saw somebody, a psychiatrist or someone?" 

"He saw anyone we mandated him to see as often as we told him to do it." 

"Was there any move to get him committed?" 

"No basis for it. He wasn't violent. He wasn't suicidal. I'm not very proud that 
it was my name on the papers that put him away during the Pincus case." 

"They didn't think he was delusional?" 

"If you're *always* right - where's the delusion?" 

"So you just let him go back to work?" 

"I told you, I couldn't stop him working. The best I could do was get him an 
office." 

-------- 

Krycek's report was vague to the point of incoherence, which was exactly the 
effect he'd hoped for. 

Unfortunately the Smoker deemed it inadequate. 

Krycek shrugged. 

Depressed? Exhausted? Stressed? Mulder was all those things and more. He hadn't 
actually lied. Still, he could see the Smoker's point of view - he might get 
better value out of Mulder's shrink. 

"Who are his informants?" 

Alex mentally lined up the usual suspects only to shoot them down. "If I didn't 
know it was impossible - then I'd have to assume the main one was you." 

A bitter twist of the lips and the Smoker turned away. "A word of advice, Alex. 
Don't outlive your usefulness." 

All this and career guidance too. 

----------- 

The pictures arrived by internal mail in the eleven o'clock delivery. 

Scully studied them, her reactions fading from angry thunder to dead flat calm. 
One of her worst nightmares had come true, and she wasn't even surprised. She 
passed the photos to the lab, asked them to look for inconsistencies and 
manipulation. 

She knew it was a waste of time. The images were real. 

Mulder's words still echoed through her mind. He'd claimed during the Clyde 
Bennett case that he was saving souls. But whose? No wonder he couldn't talk 
about it. 

She left a message with Tom Gibbs. She was careful not to make it sound 
important. 

Mulder's arrival in the office was greeted by her colleagues as the return of 
the prodigal. He smiled, oblivious to Scully's carefully masked anger, 
dispensing coffee and Danishes to the X-Files crew. Scully accepted only the 
coffee. The others tucked into the food, messing up her desk with pastry flakes 
and sticky fingers. 

Mulder paused between bites only for long enough to ask them how much they knew 
about cell regeneration, limb regrowth and organ farming. 

When the food was gone, she shooed her staff from the room. Mulder shifted 
nervously to attention in the seat facing hers. 

"Tom said it wasn't urgent." 

"He said what I told him to say." And it wasn't urgent. Merely fundamental. She 
pushed her copies of the photos across the desk. 

A slight hiccup in his breathing was the only clue she got. 

"Are they real?" she asked, clinging to one last hope. 

Mulder nodded and she wondered if she should be grateful that he hadn't lied. 
She waited, silently demanding an explanation. 

"Krycek helped me to get Clyde Bennett out of a consortium clinic." 

The photographs were grainy stills from the video surveillance cameras. Krycek 
was walking just ahead of Bennett, convicted child killer and torturer. Mulder 
was following just a little way behind. 

She thought about the other photos, the ones of Bennett's body. Found face down 
in a ditch, three days after his escape from jail. A bullet through the head, 
another through the heart. Fired at point blank range with a 10mm automatic. 
"And did he help you to execute him, too?" 

"I didn't shoot Bennett." 

"Did Krycek?" 

"I don't have any proof of that." 

Angry disbelief in her eyes, she glared at Mulder, but he refused to say 
anything more. 



END of Part 1/3 

---------- 

It took the X-Files team a couple of days to start delivering on their side of 
the limb regeneration case. A vague comment from Mulder to "Check out Fort 
Danemoor," and they'd gone into action. So efficient in their response that 
Scully had felt almost redundant as, within minutes of hearing the words, the 
agents had considered the problem and handed initial analysis over to Cathy 
Bridges. 

It wasn't hard to see why Cathy had found her way onto the X-Files. "Money 
movements a specialty," she'd announced when she first met Scully. But there was 
more to it than that. 

"The key information's here." Bridges waved a laser pointer along the relevant 
lines in the spreadsheet she was displaying on the whiteboard. "Bed linen 
laundry versus toilet paper use - it suggests almost everyone lives on site." 

"Ah gross," grumbled Saunders. 

Cathy smiled apologetically. "You know what I mean - most people are there 24/7. 
But more disturbingly we've got this." She highlighted the figures for adult 
diapers. "We've got a significant number of people there who are permanently 
bedridden." 

Scully pressed for more. "We already know that there's some kind of hospital on 
the base - the DoD site data says so." 

"Some kind. But the ratio between doctors, nurses and patients is wrong. Too 
many doctors - mostly with not much experience in regular hospitals. If these 
are supposed to be recovering Vets then there's a distinct lack of physiotherapy 
and rehab facilities." 

"Coma patients?" 

"They'd need more nurses and auxiliary staff, and the doctors' specialties are 
inappropriate." 

Dave Skillen nodded in agreement and added his own twist. "The size of the clean 
room facility says they're doing some fancy stuff in there." 

----------- 

Krycek was puzzled, couldn't quite get his head round what he was seeing. Like 
trying to follow a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces thrown away and some other 
images added in to confuse the scent. 

To his surprise, the FBI had found a way to hide the X-Files division not just 
from electronic surveillance but even from computer tracking. Presumably some of 
Mulder's hacker pals had helped him with that. 

It was like a blackhole - things entered but nothing came out. 

A sudden raid on a research lab where someone was playing with some 
plate-spinning, stone-throwing, poltergeist-powered kids and then absolute 
silence again. 

Lateral thinking was a talent. He knew their methods, could tell by the 
histories of the agents on the team how they worked. Could almost visualize the 
biochemist and the financial analyst dissecting the outside world. 

He returned to the DoD's computerized records. Why would anyone outside the 
Department want every requisition, purchase order and delivery record for a 
dozen partially decommissioned missile bases? 

And who, outside of the DoD, would be given access to those records? 

He skimmed through the list of locations, recognizing a couple of them as places 
with a consortium operation on site. Recognized one - a name that made him 
shiver. Fort Danemoor. Why would Mulder be interested in that hell hole? 

He picked up the phone and called a number that he knew would be changed again 
tomorrow. "I may have a lead on one of Mulder's informants." 

The Smoker was interested. 

Krycek volunteered his services. One way or another, it could be an interesting 
project. 

------- 

Mick Saunders was laughing and Mulder couldn't resist playing to his too 
receptive audience. "Sure, we'll need wizard dust to get through the doors but 
apart from that it's standard stuff." 

"The Thinker - where the hell do they come up with these names! If this turns 
out to be some acne-ridden 12 year old." The threat was lost in another burst of 
laughter. 

"Just so long as he's got magic powers, I don't care." 

But Scully wasn't laughing. In fact, the worry lines in her brow were deepening 
with every casually delivered jibe and each facetious comeback. "I don't like 
this," she said at last. 

"Me neither," announced Mick, "I never made it past Tetris." 

Mulder smiled briefly at Mick but sobered up fast when he looked back at Scully. 


"You're expecting to get onto a military base, break into its research wing, and 
free Kenneth Soona, who from all accounts died five years ago?" 

"We didn't get to examine his body." 

Fair comment and really the idea that The Thinker might still be alive was the 
least of her worries. "All we've got are a few garbled messages that might be 
from Kenneth Soona. If the Gunmen were given the right information by your 
'contact' then maybe he's responding, and maybe he wants to get out, and maybe 
he's in a position to help you to reach him. It's not good enough." 

"Not good enough for what?" questioned Mulder. 

"To get a warrant?" she responded, even though she knew the two men were going 
to laugh that idea out of court. 

"If we try to get one, then they'll kill him or move him, and they'll make sure 
we can't find him." 

"Then do it quietly. You've got friends in high places." 

"Not high enough to start a war between the Bureau and the DoD without any 
concrete evidence. In any case, the project is about to move into a new phase - 
they may not let him live to see it. I'm not saying there aren't risks. But I 
don't see what else we can do." 

No, Mulder never could see what else they could do. That didn't explain Saunders 
though. Surely he wasn't as blinkered? She directed her words at the ex-Marine. 
"This could be a trap." 

"Sure," agreed Saunders. "But it won't be less of a trap a month from now." 

"More corroboration? More on the base itself? At least we'll see if this person 
can keep his story straight." 

Mulder shook his head. "More corroboration just means more opportunities for 
someone to spot that their secret's out." 

This time it came as no surprise to Scully that Saunders agreed. "He's a 
civilian. If Soona thinks the cavalry's coming, he's going to give himself away. 
The less time he has to keep a secret the better." 

"And if you get Soona out - what about the other people who are being held 
there?" 

Mulder took over again. "We'll get as many as we can." 

"And the rest?" 

"If we get in there, then we can get enough evidence to get a warrant." 

"And won't the rest of the patients just get moved or killed as soon as they 
realize their project's been exposed?" 

"If I'm right about what they're doing in there then maybe - " Mulder's voice 
trailed off, unwilling to complete the thought out loud. 

"What? Death might be kinder?" 

He stopped the discussion. "Mick, give us five." 

A brief frown before the other man nodded and left the room. 

Mulder watched her carefully. "So?" 

"You ask me for alternatives, but when I object, you don't want to hear. It's 
the same thing as on the Clyde Bennett case, I was arranging secure treatment 
for him - but you preferred Krycek's methods." 

"Give me an alternative to going in there tonight." 

"You aren't giving me the time to find one." 

"We don't have time. Do you think that a day from now, a month from now - we'll 
be able to get everybody out in one hit? They're killing the men as the current 
test cycle completes. A couple of weeks - will there be anyone left? Do you have 
any idea how we can save them all?" He paused briefly, before continuing as if 
he'd actually heard her answer. "Nor do I. I know I can't. I never can." 

"So you play God and decide which ones are worth saving - because Soona might be 
useful to you?" 

"I play God every time I pick a file from the inbox." He swallowed, looked 
embarrassed by his words, took a deep breath before continuing. "You're right. 
Soona might be useful to us - to billions of us. And you're right, it affects my 
judgment. I'm not proud of it. If you want to order Agent Saunders to stay out 
on legal or ethical grounds - go ahead." 

"That's not what I'm saying." 

"You're saying that we need to get a warrant, go in with an army, and hope they 
don't see us coming or fire back when we arrive?" 

"That's what we did when we rescued those poltergeist kids. That place was 
secure." 

"No. It wasn't." 

No, it wasn't, she admitted. The kids were well cared for. They were being 
studied not tortured. Security was geared to keeping the kids in, not to keeping 
the world out. "Do you know who else is in there?" 

"People who've angered the consortium. People like Soona who knew too much. And 
their own men, ones who got too greedy or too careless, or who started to 
develop consciences." 

"Why them?" 

"No family or friends who would go looking for them. Better than street people 
because they've usually got a problem - drink, drugs, chronic illness, 
infections - and they needed these test subjects to be young and relatively 
healthy. I guess the bonus was that it was a warning to other consortium people 
to stay in line." 

"How do you know all this?" 

"Informants." 

"Who?" 

He slumped back in the chair, which looked promising to Scully - maybe he was 
going to respond - but that just meant that his next words came as even more of 
an unpleasant surprise. "I think you're allowing your personal feelings to 
interfere with your judgment. We've gone into situations worse prepared, with 
less information, and with just as many risks to innocent lives. The only 
difference this time is that you won't be with me." 

Was that really the only difference? Her reply froze on her lips. It wasn't the 
only difference was it? If she was still his partner wouldn't she be ready to go 
in at his side, just like before? So had she been wrong back then? Or was she 
wrong now? 

Mulder cut short her thoughts. "If I get the 'go' tonight from Soona, I'm going 
in. I don't have an alternative. If you want to stop Mick from going in with me, 
you'd better order him off. Soon." 

"I saw the video, Mulder. You, in LA." 

"I don't see the relevance." 

And in fairness, nor did she. Yet, it was part of a pattern. Part of a pattern 
she'd been uncovering by degrees. "The relevance is you. You - on some mission 
to self-destruct. You - in the same place now and taking Mick down with you. Why 
this sudden interest in Kenneth Soona? Why now? You've scarcely spoken to me 
about an X-File since I arrived and suddenly it'll be the end of the world if 
you don't go in there tonight?" 

"I told you - he's important." 

"Who gave you this stuff and why - have you even asked yourself that question? 
The Gunmen say that you supplied them with user identities belonging to some 
dead computer games whiz to hook up to Soona. How did you get them, Mulder? Who 
would know something like that?" 

"An informer." 

"Oh that's right, you've got a team of them - highly-placed, invisible, and with 
no reasons to lie!" She was on a roll now, frustration doing the talking for 
her. "Who was it? Krycek? What did he do to get the passwords - kill someone or 
just torture them until they talked?" 

"It wasn't Krycek. And no one needed torturing." 

---------- 

Soona had promised them green lights all the way. Alarm systems that wouldn't so 
much as squeak. Video surveillance cameras relaying last night's footage of 
empty corridors at the vital moments. Electronic door locks and elevator 
controls that would accept American Express and Diners Club in addition to the 
DoD issue swipe cards actually intended for the job. Mick checked his watch. 
"Go?" 

"Go," confirmed Mulder, running a blank credit card through the lock and typing 
in a row of 1's until the click confirmed an invitation to enter the premises. 
It was no guarantee of course, but it was a good start. 

Mulder looked down at the briefcase apparently chained to his hand, glanced up 
at Mick and nodded. 

The corridor was deserted. Hardly surprising at 10 o'clock on a Friday night. 
Reassuring though. 

The next corner brought them to the lion's den. Four guards expected. Their post 
commanded the center of the building, allowing them to control all access to the 
other levels. Only one of them came out to greet them. Mulder quickly checked 
the guard's corporal's uniform, suppressing the sigh of relief that Mick 
Saunders was dressed in the right way. 

Using cost codes, location identifiers and part references Cathy Bridges had 
painted a picture of the site and of the people in it. Even the ID holders she'd 
procured, using the right NATO code numbers, matched the house style. 

"Lab 3C?" barked Mulder, brushing off the guard's challenge. 

"Level 3, turn right from the elevator." 

Mulder started walking again, ignoring the guard's, "Sir. Your name? Sir?" 

Mick growled a reply for both men, his Staff Sergeant insignia doing the rest of 
the job. "Special Projects - North K2 Zebra." 

Mulder had to work to keep the smirk from his lips. 

"Who's that?" the Corporal queried, looking at Mulder's back as he waited for 
the elevator, his voice hesitant despite the orders he carried to challenge 
everyone that came through here. 

"Zebra," announced Saunders and Mulder knew that the ex-marine was sure to be 
smirking himself this time. Mick's heavy footsteps indicated that it was mission 
accomplished. "I think they're regular Marine Corps," he mumbled, as he stepped 
in close to Mulder. 

Yeah, agreed Mulder, knowing that was going to make the job tougher on both of 
them. Serial killers, mutant assassins, and consortium goons were targets, easy 
to write-off as "them". Killing a man doing his job was a much tougher 
proposition, particularly as these men probably didn't even know what they were 
guarding. Which meant that unless they got extremely lucky tonight, this was 
going to be hard. 

Leaving the elevator at Level 3, they took the stairs down to Level 5, switched 
to the service elevator for the rest of the trip to Level 7. The blank card 
worked at every step, just as Soona had assured them it would. 

Far below ground in a shrine to Cold Wars and heavy money, the clinic was large 
and well-appointed. A prison bristling with every technological treat that money 
could buy and that a lab rat could want. 

As planned over the net, they met Soona in the computer room. Mulder checked the 
man's appearance, relieved to see he'd taken their advice and shaved, gratified 
to find that he'd also somehow tortured his hair into a non-descript but neat 
trim. The Thinker still had his brains then. 

"Cameras?" questioned Mulder. 

"Running a replay of last night's action." 

"Guards?" 

"They think the place is locked down. There are four of them in the nursing 
station, and two in the video room. They only patrol in response to something on 
screen or an alarm from one of the monitors." 

"Trusting the technology?" 

"Sure. They've got to. The whole system's geared up that way. If they're walking 
around they've got to switch off the alarms else the hallways flood with gas." 

"But not tonight?" 

"Not tonight." The Thinker grinned, a manic smile which bothered Mulder a 
little, even though he understood the justification - the man was a civilian and 
he'd just met the cavalry. 

"Can we get anybody else out?" 

"Off the ward you mean?" Soona sighed. "There are a couple of them they keep 
functional, head-wise I mean, like me, but usually an arm's enough, you know?" 

Mulder knew and could only wish he didn't. Forced amputation for the purpose of 
testing limb regrowth. Did computer programmers really need legs? He forced 
himself to look at Soona, to really look, and to think what it might mean. "What 
happened to your arms?" 

"They tested some prototype stuff on me. It didn't work and it messed up the 
tissue where they do the grafting. There was some talk of trying to grow hands 
straight off the rib cage but it was too much hassle." 

"So they let you keep your legs?" 

"Yeah, someone high up spotted I might be more useful if I could still drive a 
keyboard, even if it's a bit clumsy." Kenneth smirked, trying to make it sound 
as if it was OK, as if this was some kind of happy ending. "But most of them - 
most of them aren't really all there anymore - you know." The manic smile was 
back and Mulder forgave the gallows humor even as he swallowed down the bile in 
his throat. 

"Who can we get out?" 

"Brad and Dale - they're still good. Brad's the one who helped me to shave. We'd 
need wheelchairs for them. It'd have to be gurneys for most of the others - I 
don't think they would understand what was going on." 

Mulder helped Soona change into the charcoal gray Hugo Boss suit that he'd worn 
on his way in - stuffed the arms with foam and finished them off with neat black 
leather gloves. 

Emptying the briefcase, he swiftly redressed in the full Marine Corps officer's 
uniform it contained. Checked the buttons and seams, declared himself ready for 
inspection. 

He cast the same careful eyes over the other man, halting at the trainer-clad 
feet - at least they were black. He helped Soona put on the glasses to complete 
the outfit. 

They headed across to the main ward with its orderly rows of beds. Around fifty 
patients, Pam had said, and there were forty-eight beds in here. 

Patients? 

Mulder tried not to react to the torsos belted to the plastic covered 
mattresses, to the tubes that fed nutrients and drugs and cleared away the 
waste, to the strange opalescent white growths that started out as buds and 
seemingly sprouted into full-grown limbs. Every degree of loss and every degree 
of regeneration was represented in some way amongst the men. 

Five beds were empty. Fifteen more were occupied, not by unconscious, broken 
men, but by people who didn't show up on the video screen, and who didn't look 
warm to the Infra Red thermometer. The invisible men he'd spoken to before the 
raid nodded to him, looked grateful that he was here to witness what had been 
their nightmare. 

Inhuman. Yet, no aliens were at work and while those guards above ground might 
have no clue about what was really happening down here, plenty of people did. 
The security guards looking at the monitors that had been carefully reprogrammed 
to tell lies tonight. The doctors, nurses, and of course whoever was actually 
running the show. They knew. 

Mick Saunders blew his nose and cleared his throat. "How could they?" 

There wasn't an answer to that and Mulder didn't even try. "Did you get the 
photos?" 

Saunders nodded, patting his pocket as extra confirmation that the film was 
safely tucked away. There might be some argument over interpretation, and there 
was no doubt that they were obtained illegally - but they would get their 
warrant. Whether it would be in time to do any good was more questionable. 

Mulder looked back to the beds. "Are any of them awake?" 

"They use drugs instead of a night nurse." 

Mulder nodded and turned to Soona. "Kenneth - you know them. Brad and Dale, you 
said. Who else?" 

Saunders glanced quickly towards the beds. "You're thinking gurneys?" 

The Thinker scanned the room, starting to make his list. "Tim died last week. 
Carl killed himself." 

Mulder already knew about them. He'd spoken with both of them. Kenneth's 
hesitation about the condition of the rest just confirmed what he'd already been 
told and what his own observations had confirmed. Mulder took the decision for 
all of them. "One gurney - Brad and Dale - we'll have to put them both in the 
same body bag." 

They would have to try to play the "removal for autopsy" game, and they would 
just have to hope that those guards up on the ground floor were too squeamish to 
look in the body bag and too inexperienced to demand paperwork and protocol from 
a Major and a Staff Sergeant. 

Mick nodded, guessing what Mulder had in mind. "Let's get started." 

They were halfway through the process of disconnecting Brad from the straps and 
tubes when Soona screamed. 

"I'd cuff him," announced Krycek, "but that would be a little redundant, don't 
you think?" 

Mulder froze. He'd scarcely seen Krycek in years and suddenly here they were 
again - standing face to face in a consortium lab for the second time in two 
weeks. He sensed some shift in the air, took it as a warning that Saunders was 
about to act. "Mick - don't. Kenneth - just keep still." He kept his eyes on 
Krycek. "What the hell are you doing here?" 

"A little reward." Krycek lifted his left arm to reveal not hard plastic, but 
young, snake-smooth, still growing flesh. 

Jesus. Mulder flinched, felt his chest tighten. Wondered how to square a circle 
that started with a nightmare and ended with a miracle. He looked at his 
colleague. "Mick, take Kenneth and wait for me in the computer lab." Sensing the 
objection before it was spoken, he added a "Please." 

He waited until they left before turning back to face Krycek. "They're closing 
it down, aren't they?" He pointed at the empty beds. 

"As soon as they complete this cycle, they move onto the next phase." 

"And the people?" 

"The phase terminates - you know what that means. If they were smart they'd have 
moved Soona out. He could still be useful - but I guess that's why you're here. 
So why didn't you just get him and run? Why are you still here?" 

"Brad and Dale." 

"I can't let you take them." 

"Why not?" 

"You'll get caught. You can't wheel two guys out of this place, even in a body 
bag. Security on the surface level are regular Marine Corps. They'll challenge 
you - even over a corpse." 

"And we wouldn't kill them." Mulder admitted. 

Krycek shrugged, an incongruous, ungainly move, emphasizing his unbalanced arms 
and undeveloped musculature. 

Mulder shook his head. "But you would. You would kill them." 

"But I won't. Do the math. They aren't worth it." 

Mulder didn't even want to think about the calculation. "Why did you send those 
photos to Scully - us taking Bennett?" 

"I didn't. They did. They thought it might scare her off. They really don't know 
her at all. Does she have an X-File open on you, Mulder?" 

"Is this is a set-up?" 

"Just get the fuck out of here, before I remember who pays my medical cover." 

Distrust was a luxury Mulder couldn't afford. Nodding once, he headed for the 
exit, collecting Saunders and Soona as he walked. "We've got to go." 

A single questioning look from Saunders, acknowledged quickly by Mulder. 
Explanations would have to wait. 

Krycek returned to his private room and Mulder locked him in with the 
all-purpose swipe card, absolving Krycek from any personal responsibility for 
the events. 

Saunders led the way. Soona looked terrified, shaking as he walked. 

Mulder took up position at the back of the group and snapped a sharp, "Keep it 
together, and we'll be out in under a minute." Not quite sure if he was talking 
to the programmer or to himself. 

A few flights of steps and a couple of elevator rides later and, as they 
approached the corridor with the guard post, Mulder threw an arm round Soona's 
shoulder and started talking, making sure his voice was loud enough to carry. 
"The trials aren't going as well as I'd like but I'm sure you already know 
that." 

Soona looked puzzled, but was smart enough to play along as Mulder continued to 
mouth vaguely technical sounding bull about critical path analysis and mean time 
between failures, with scarcely a pause for breath and certainly with no 
opportunity for the computer guru to spoil the effect by replying to the stream 
of consciousness. 

Slowing only slightly as he passed the guards, he delivered a brisk, "As you 
were," to the corporal who'd been sent out to challenge them. 

"We're done for the night," added Saunders, as he followed them out. 

The blank credit card performed its magic and they were soon back in the Jeep. 
Soona sat in the back seat with strict orders from Mulder to keep the glasses on 
and to pretend to be engrossed in a file. Saunders drove. "How come you always 
get to play the officer, Major?" 

"You think I could pass as a sergeant, Sergeant?" 

Mick laughed, breaking the tension just in time for them to reach the gate. None 
of the guards queried the presence of a Marine Corps Major in the vehicle as 
they drove away. 

------- 

Tom Colton's advice to look deeper at Mulder's records had taken Scully into 
some of the darkest places in the ISU's vaults. The most prolific, the most 
sadistic, the most cunning. The worst monsters and every one of them human. 

The volume was too high to do justice to. She changed tack, focused her 
attention on the final few cases of the agents who'd left the ISU since Mulder's 
arrival. If the pattern was going to show itself anywhere, it would be there. 
Just what had finally sent them away? 

Or, if Mulder was to be believed, given them back their freedom? 

Freedom? Perhaps those last straws had not broken the camel's back, maybe they'd 
removed the load. Long dead cases had seen resolution. Missing links had been 
found. Patterns had emerged in seemingly senseless events and profilers had 
connected the dots to find killers who must have imagined that they'd escaped 
justice forever. 

It wasn't easy to read between the lines. The profilers were all talented 
agents. But there were hints, leaps that seemed like more than intuition. 
Detours and diversions. Promising looking tracks backed away from for no obvious 
reason. Blind alleys smashed through by battering rams when any sane 
investigator would have walked away. 

Mulder's name seldom appeared, other than as one of the witnesses at an 
interrogation, but she could see his handiwork in every page. 

How? 

When she'd read the records of the X-Files division, she'd wondered about those 
informants. Wondered if he'd sold his soul to Cancer Man and thrown in his lot 
with some faction of the consortium. Laughed it off as unimaginable. Only to 
have it flung in her face again, this time with pictures of Mulder and Krycek to 
illustrate the message. 

But as she read through the ISU's closed case files, the thought that she'd 
dismissed as fanciful returned. 

Maybe Mulder had sold his soul after all. 

----------- 

The inquest that followed their return to the safe-house was, as always, a 
brutal affair. Mick Saunders had kept his anger carefully hidden from Soona just 
as Mulder had bluffed his way past panic. With The Thinker safely ensconced with 
the Lone Gunman trio in the other room the gloves could come off. 

Even now, Mick was showing restraint, clearly surprised that Mulder had chosen 
to do this in Scully's presence. 

Mulder had expected her to join him the following morning for Soona's interview, 
but she'd already been waiting for them when they arrived back at the FBI 
supplied accommodation. The idea, of calling her "Mom" and telling her that she 
didn't need to wait up to let them in, crossed Mulder's mind before he wrote it 
off as a sure sign of hysteria. 

Yet it was important to clear the air while both the actions and the emotions 
were fresh. It was a policy that had served them well over the past couple of 
years. However smoothly a raid went, there were always lessons - always 
something that they could do better next time. And tonight's job had not gone 
smoothly. Mulder insisted that Saunders go ahead with his tirade. 

After five minutes he was regretting his decision and desperately trying to 
suppress the cynical notion that Scully was enjoying the occasion. 

"Poor planning?" noted Scully, as if she was going through a checklist. 

"There's no way we should have approached the site in that way." 

"Insufficient intelligence?" 

"Worse than useless - dangerous. That asshole coming out of the annex could have 
killed us before we'd even moved." 

Mulder glanced up at Scully, decided to tell her the worst, before someone else 
did. "He means Alex Krycek. He was there as a patient. But not like the other 
ones. I guess he was a volunteer." 

"You knew that?" snapped Scully, a look of horror in her eyes. 

"Not until he showed up." 

Saunders nodded. "Bolt from the blue. Fact remains - " 

" - we could have been walking into a trap," Mulder confirmed. "Soona didn't 
recognize Krycek's significance so he didn't pass the data on." 

"That's not the only thing he didn't tell us." 

"I was misled. I listened to a civilian perspective on a military installation." 


Saunders snorted in angry agreement. "They were using kids!" 

Scully flinched, breathed in sharply as the words hit her. Mulder jumped back in 
before the miscommunication got any worse. "Kenneth's hack into the security 
system meant we managed to bypass the real security staff on the hospital unit, 
but not the ordinary guards looking after the rest of the base." 

"But we still had to walk out past a couple of twelve year olds!" 

How old were those guards on the ground floor really? Nineteen? Twenty? "Maybe 
we can include service years in our computer searches next time." 

"Maybe - fuck maybes. Oh. Sorry, Agent Scully. They were regular Marine Corps." 

"I know." 

"If one of them had stopped you, spotted Soona wasn't the same man who'd walked 
in there in the flashy suit - what the hell would you have done? Christ - you 
were thinking about hauling a body bag out of there. Did you seriously think 
they wouldn't have challenged us about moving a corpse? Minimum - they'd have 
opened it up. Then what would you have done?" 

What would he have done? It was a good question and a couple of years ago he'd 
have answered it without a second thought. He'd have let himself get captured. 
But he'd seen so many dead bodies since then. He'd killed a few, too. The lines 
between dead and alive had become blurred. The black and white of good and bad 
had become gray around the edges. 

Mick tried again. "Would you have shot your way out? Was I supposed to be ready 
to do the same?" 

Mulder shook his head, still wondering if his conscience only operated in safe 
houses or whether it would have rescued him when it mattered. 

"You could have been killed," stated Scully, hearing the battle between the men 
but not yet seeing the full implications. 

The words hung in the air as they considered their response. Mulder nodded to 
Saunders; this was Mulder's responsibility and Mulder's crime to admit. "It's 
worse than that. We might have killed them." 

------------- 

There were too many people around and Mulder couldn't even think about sleeping. 
Cat on a hot tin roof with nowhere to go but down. 

Saunders went home at five in the morning; the adrenaline finally fading enough 
that he could imagine sleeping in his own bed. "Mulder," he said as he left, 
"I'll come back when I don't feel like throttling you." 

Mulder gave him the only reply possible, meaning it with all his heart, even 
though the word sounded worthless on his lips. "Thanks." Mick had handled the 
raid without a murmur of protest, following Mulder's lead without question while 
they were in action, saving up all his doubts for when they were safely back 
home. He understood how rattled Mick had been by the prospect of a shootout with 
a couple of young marines - he'd felt the same. 

Soona was in bed in the other room, though Mulder doubted that he was getting 
much rest either. Scully was snoozing, sitting up in a comfortably large 
armchair. The Lone Gunman trio had sprawled out across the benches in the 
corner. 

Why the hell hadn't they all just gone home and left him in peace? Was it really 
too much to ask? Apparently. Maybe he should have gone home then? Wouldn't that 
be ironic - the guy who practically lived in his office heading off for a couple 
of hours breather. Of course he didn't leave, the drive too long to be 
attractive and too risky given how tired he was. 

Risky? He shook his head, horribly amused. Breaking into a secret lab inside a 
military base was fine, but driving a car required nerves of steel and razor 
reflexes! Checking the video screen in the car as he drove to make sure all the 
pedestrians he saw were real had become second nature, as normal as glancing in 
the mirrors, but it took concentration and energy. Just as well he didn't see 
ghost cars too. 

He didn't recognize the two men who walked in not long before breakfast. A quick 
glance at the surveillance camera's monitor and he looked away. He would have to 
talk to them later, when no one was around to catch him in the act. Carl 
introduced them as patients who'd been present at the clinic the night before. 
Executed at dawn that morning, without pomp or ceremony, just something extra in 
the IV line that made sure that they would never wake up. 

It had taken the staff another thirty minutes to realize that Soona was missing. 
One breakfast too many on the trolley. 

You've got to get the others out, they told him. They don't have long left, they 
insisted. And Mulder just shook his head and closed his eyes and tried not to 
hear. The warrant would come too late for most of them. The cavalry would not 
arrive in time. 

Breakfast was coffee and plenty of it. 

In the circumstances, Mulder thought he was handling things quite well. 

Unfortunately, Kenneth Soona spoiled the illusion as soon as he entered the 
interview room. "I'm going to the airport. I'm going home." 

For one wonderful moment, Mulder thought it was a joke and started to smile. 
Then he realized that Soona was serious. "Kenneth - we need to talk to you. 
You're a witness in a murder investigation. We need your statement as part of 
the evidence to get a warrant to enter that building." 

The Thinker made sure he got his best shot in first. "Different day, different 
prison." 

Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable. Analyzing fast, Mulder recognized the naive 
stupidity of the challenge, but he also understood the reasons for it. Soona had 
been tortured. Freedom had been a miracle. Yet the freedom was suspect - tainted 
by Federal authority and by more big guys who carried guns. Soona wanted to test 
the limits. Fine. Mulder would spell them out for him. 

But it was Scully who answered Soona's question first. "Not at all. You're free 
to leave at any time you choose." 

The computer guru rose to his feet. 

There was no way Mulder was letting the man get on a flight to LA. Far too 
dangerous. Fear and pain could make Soona run and keep on running. Mulder knew 
it; he'd been there himself. Mulder stepped in front of the door. 

Soona sneered. "Free? I can see that." 

Scully kept her voice level. "You're a witness to a multiple homicide. We need 
to speak with you first." 

Soona's eyebrows rose in a look of pure disbelief. "Speak?" 

"We would appreciate your help." 

"And this differs from them - how?" 

"It's not safe for you to just walk out of here. If you'd just give us the 
chance to explain." 

"Call me at the hospital - I need to register for rehab." Soona headed for the 
door again but Mulder didn't move. "She says I'm free to go." 

Mulder shook his head. "If you think the people who did this to you are going to 
let you just disappear then you're wrong. I didn't break you out of that place 
just so you could kill yourself." 

"Give me half an hour with a terminal and I'll disappear." Soona gestured at the 
door to the room where the Lone Gunmen were waiting. "They said they'll help." 

"We need to talk." 

"On your terms?" 

"It's always on somebody's terms. I'm sure you know that by now. Sit down. I 
said sit the fuck down." 

Scully tried to intervene. "Mulder. You can't -" 

"Kenneth knows better than that. He understands that I need his help." Mulder's 
reply was all business and no room for argument. He turned his attention back to 
the increasingly nervous looking man. "Mr. Soona - if you'd just take your seat 
again." 

He sat down. One last glare at Mulder before he focused back on Scully. "What's 
the deal?" 

Mulder didn't give Scully the opportunity to reply, sat down directly opposite 
Soona, far too close for comfort. "There are a group of people within the DoD 
who are operating unofficially, subverting projects to their personal goals, 
diverting money, resources, people." 

"A budget scam!" 

"They're doing experimentation forbidden because it's illegal or unethical. 
Human test subjects. Speculative research. You know some of them personally. You 
even helped them to computerize their results. You have skills we need." 

"What? You want me to see where the money's going and who's signing it off? I 
thought the FBI had people for that." 

"We do. But there's a group within the group who we need to know more about. 
People who may be manipulating and sabotaging those projects from the inside." 

"You're going to give them medals?" 

Not exactly. 

----------- 

Scully was past furious. She was stunned. Too horrified even to talk to him. And 
really Mulder couldn't see anything wrong with that. A couple of years ago he 
might even have agreed with her. Which bothered him. 

His explanation was simple. "I was angry and it was necessary." 

"My God - after everything that's been done to him. You intimidated him." 

"Good." At least the verbal threats had worked and he hadn't had to slap the 
ungrateful bastard around. His stomach rebelled at that, ashamed that the idea 
had even crossed his mind. 

"Is this another technique you've picked up from Krycek?" 

Mulder frowned, shook his head, didn't have the words to respond. 

He gave Soona a nice quiet room and a couple of hours to read the files. 

Kept him supplied with the coffee and sandwiches of his choice. Found the best 
design of cup to make it practical for him to manage unaided. Ignored his demand 
for access to a computer with a link to the outside world. Laughed when he tried 
to insist on making a phone call. 

Daryl Musashi was standing in the corner of the main room, furious with Mulder 
for how this was turning out. Red-faced with anger that Mulder had used his 
secret codes to talk to Soona only to lock the man away again. 

The Gunmen had made their displeasure clear. "You used us to get to him." 

Of course! "The Department of Justice thanks you for your assistance." Even 
Mulder was dismayed at the mocking tone in his voice. 

Tim, Carl, and the other newcomers, who'd been victims of the same project, 
looked on in anguish and confusion. 

How marvelous. He'd managed to piss of everybody in the building. Dead and 
alive. 

Snorting down another cup of coffee in a single gulp he headed to the bathroom. 
Showered, shaved and wearing the change of clothes he'd brought with him, his 
expression was ice cold and dangerous when he walked into the room where Soona 
had been reading the carefully edited highlights of the past two years work of 
the X-Files division. 

Human experimentation. Babies bred for slaughter. Plans for mass medication 
delivered through the water supply or perhaps for mass poisoning if the wrong 
hands were on the button. 

Soona looked up at him as he entered. Mulder dug back into reserves of empathy 
almost destroyed by the slow poison of too much knowledge and too many demands. 
"You can go now if you want." 

The man shook his head and Mulder was grateful for his profiler's instincts that 
had told him that he could now risk making the offer. "Can I get you anything - 
drink, food?" 

"Just tell me what you need." 

Scully entered the room and Mulder stamped on the irritation that welled up 
through his body. Perhaps he was being unfair - maybe her presence was a gesture 
of support, not a mark of distrust. 

Scully swiftly made her position clear. "You're free to go, Mr Soona. The 
witness protection program are ready to assist you. I've made arrangements for 
you to visit a specialist clinic for a medical examination and initial 
consultation. If you have another doctor in mind - then we can provide guards to 
protect you. We will want you to give evidence as a witness as soon as you're 
ready. But don't doubt this - you're a free man." 

Kenneth nodded, but immediately turned his attention back to Mulder. 

Mulder started the discussion again from where they were before Scully arrived. 
"Some of those working on the project went into it with their eyes wide open. 
They went in believing that some greater good was being served. That the work 
was a necessity. Others stumbled in by accident and only became aware of the 
real nature of those projects later, by which time for whatever reason, they 
found it impossible to get out." 

"But those aren't the people you're looking for." 

"Oh - we're looking for them. And we will find them. But there's another group, 
who also went in with their eyes wide open, but whose reasons have nothing to do 
with the greater good of mankind." 

"Self-interest?" 

"Of a kind. They haven't just got different goals to their colleagues, they 
don't even think the same way." 

"Most people don't think the same way I do, Mr. Mulder." 

"That's why I need a way to distinguish between normal human diversity and 
something else." 

"Something else?" 

"A non-human intelligence." 

"Machines? You want me to develop some kind of artificial intelligence to look 
for artificial intelligence?" 

"Not artificial. Psychopaths don't see other people the way we do - at it's most 
pronounced they view us as cattle to be used and abused. But they're still 
human. This is -" 

"Non-human. And how exactly do you think we would identify it in action?" 

"By monitoring how they use their computers." 

Soona frowned, an almost smile coming to his face as an answer dawned. "What - 
if they don't check out the weather reports for the place they've booked for 
their next vacation then they must be alien?" 

Mulder shrugged. "Something like that." 

---------- 

The cigarette smoke triggered the alarm system in the lab. The doctors looked at 
one another, hoping that someone else would speak. 

The Smoker snarled. "They're to be disposed of." He waved a hand across the 
bodies in the beds before adding a, "Now." 

Krycek stood at his side; the strangeness of his new arm still making him feel 
light-headed and throwing him off balance. It had taken months to develop the 
muscle tone to compensate for the prosthetic. Presumably, even if this all went 
perfectly, it would still take months to adjust. He glanced down at the new 
limb, found its jello-like surface softness and its pearly translucency 
disturbing, discarded the reaction as inappropriate. 

The Smoker was looking for answers. "How did this happen?" 

The security guards squirmed. Termination of phase one meant that phase two was 
just around the corner. Even the least imaginative consortium operative could 
guess what that might mean. 

Krycek felt no sympathy for any of them. Not the guards, not the people who'd 
designed the security equipment, not the jerks who'd let a renowned computer 
hacker loose on the computer system. And, despite this gift of a new arm, he 
could feel only contempt for the medical staff who hadn't only obeyed orders, 
but who'd reveled in the work and been proud to show off their triumphs. 

When the Smoker turned to Alex to ask who had given the details of the operation 
away to Mulder, Krycek didn't even hesitate. Second in command of the medical 
staff. Always best to go for the deputy. The boss would blame the man's lapse on 
blind ambition and sour grapes. 

Krycek threw the computer manager to the wolves as well. A man stupid enough to 
let Soona onto a keyboard didn't deserve to live. 

The Smoker seemed content. 

---------- 

Scully looked tired and made it clear that she wasn't happy to be talking to him 
at all. "Soona's talking about going back to basics. Turing tests, animal 
behavior, psychology, trials done in computer usability labs, data entry error 
rates, things like that." 

Mulder nodded. "He left a back door open at the DoD to get in?" 

"Yes, you were right. He's going to work with Byers to make sure that it stays 
active without attracting attention." 

"Usernames - that's all we need." 

"He's aware of that. He's conscious of the need for caution. Too much data being 
collected, too much processing power being used, and the machine operators will 
spot it. He says it'll take a while." 

"Yeah, I know." 

"I'm still angry - the way you treated him - it wasn't right." 

Yeah, he knew that too, and couldn't bring himself to care. But he did care 
about how tired she looked. "Are you OK?" 

She stared at him, as if she was struggling to understand the question. He 
almost told her to forget it. But her expression, already solemn, became dark 
with some mix of pity and disbelief that took him back to Chicago and a hospital 
bed and her hope that he would see past his delusions. He could feel the shiver 
building in his spine. 

She shook her head. "You ask me to help, tell me that I'm the only one who can. 
Then you ignore everything I say. Is this how it's going to be?" 

He didn't ignore her. Not really. But there were so many voices now. 

He hadn't just lost her two years ago in the fog of noise, he'd lost himself. 

Always surrounded by people. Always alone. "I don't know." Didn't know anything 
really. Didn't know if he could tell her what was happening to him. Didn't know 
if she'd have him tranquilized or exorcised if he did. Didn't know if he could 
come up with another convenient lie to cover his ass. 

"You took Krycek's advice - again." 

He hadn't, not really. Or had he? Wasn't he going to try to rescue more of those 
men until Krycek intervened? Fact was - he would have taken anybody's advice at 
that moment if they'd been saying the things that he wanted to hear, and granted 
him absolution for not being able to save them all. "We wouldn't have got out of 
there if I hadn't." 

"Why would Krycek help you?" 

"I don't know." 

"You cover up the death of a prisoner in your custody. You threaten a man, a 
victim who's already been tortured and abused. You almost drag Mick into some 
kind of shoot-out with a couple of Marines. What next? Blackmail, assault, 
murder?" 

Scully's return had made his life better, her moral certainties a relief after 
two years of compromise and pragmatically blind eyes. She was right. He wasn't 
the man he'd been. He wasn't the man he wanted to be. What next? He shook his 
head but didn't have an answer. 

"You asked me to save your soul - remember? Am I too late?" 

Was she? 







THE END


Until Insight V - Overload concludes the series. 
I hope to see you there. 
Thanks for staying with me so far. 



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