Iris

...

The Docklands

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

Dirty raindrops pissed out of the sky, wetting the pavement out on the edge of the harbour. The sky was navy blue and the air was bitter coming in from the sea.

Carl Spender came into focus, a lone wolf on the prowl in the empty street. He carried a metal brief case, trying not to jostle it too much as his coat tails whipped around his calves in the late summer wind.

The streetlamps above cast a misty sort of glow on the pavements below them, making his skin appear nearly translucent, betraying every line in hollow in an almost skeletal fashion.

Ducking up an alleyway, Spender clearly knew where he was going; towards the black sedan that had been waiting there for him for the past few hours.

Opening the boot without even an acknowledgement to the car's driver, he carefully placed his package inside. It would come into play later.

"Got some more horny teenagers you want me to trail this week?", the young African American agent asked him bitterly as soon as Spender got himself situated in the passenger side. "The captain of the football team? the head cheerleader? or maybe some more social outcasts? They seem to be your favourites?"

Reggie Williams was so fucking sick of his job and he had only been working for Spender a few months. 'Reggie go shake up Mayor What's-his-face', 'Reggie make sure old Whatsername keeps her mouth shut', 'Reggie spend the next 48 hours chasing around some dopey looking kid who wants to save the world and his little red haired girlfriend'.

He had expected excitement and money and the full thrill factor when he was recruited for the Syndicate. Reggie had fancied himself the next James Bond-esque character. Shaken not stirred, if you please...he fucking wished.

Like hell itself, he had sat hungry in the front of this very damn sedan all night watching a couple of stupid kids go for pizza and then take a drive towards the local military base, apparently sizing up an entrance his boss had told him...who the fuck did they think they were kidding, the only way they would get in there is if they were wanted in there, otherwise there wasn't gonna be a hope in hell they would get anywhere near the place.

Spender chuckled darkly, always slightly amused by the younger man's frustration. He had been eager to please at first but now he had turned fiery and easily pissed off, two days on surveillance duty would do that to a man.

"You can get some rest later, Reginald. We need to talk first", Spender said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of Morley's cigarettes. "Want a smoke?"

Reggie was just about to decline the offer since he never had touched a cigarette in his life but instead, found himself considering it. His day had already been the fucking pits, what harm could it do? "I don't usually."

"There's always a time to start."

So he did, and they puffed away in silence for a few minutes.

"I need you to look after a little something for me, Reginald."

Reggie tossed his still burning cigarette out of the window. It sizzled on the wet pavement. "And what's that?", he asked, half heartedly. Complaint aside, he needed his job and he needed his money. It had been the only thing keeping himself and his mother afloat after his father died.

Spender smiled, he knew he could get people to do whatever he wanted of them. "I'm sure your aware that Bill Mulder's son is planning a break into Chilmark Base".

Reggie nodded, waiting for the older man to continue.

"I need you to make sure they remember nothing afterwards and I have given you a little gift to do just that."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Reggie was on his way home...and he was so fucking glad of it too. Already he was daydreaming about a hot bath, some food and his bed, none of which he had seen a whole lot of in the last week or so.

Suddenly he heard a pair of footsteps behind him on the pavement, quickening when he moved his pace up and slowing down when he did. The footsteps went up the same streets and around the same bends.

Well fuck this anyway...he was being followed.

Suddenly a pair of hands grasped his elbows in a vice like grip, ramming him into the front face of one of the older crumbling houses on his block.

A pair of brown eyes fixed him with a stern gaze under masses of curly dark hair. He knew this man...of course he fucking did. It was one of Spender's right hand guys. Deep Throat, Reggie thought the other men called him.

"What do you want?", Reggie asked, pissed off. He may be wary of Spender but that didn't mean the sentiment stretched to the other men he worked for. "I'm going home for the first time in a week, thank you."

Deep Throat pressed Reggie harder against the wall, his breath hot on the other man's face. "I hear Spender has given you a little job."

The young African American shrugged. He wasn't supposed to let word of his work get around. It was worth more than his life was and he was damn certain Old Smoky wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet between his ears. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, I want to let you know that if anything happens to either of those two kids you're tailing, you're finished. They'll be worth a lot to our cause in a few years. We need them alive if we're going to fight the future."

Reggie shrugged again, glaring. He turned to move away from the other man. He didn't need this kind of shit now. Sure, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully seemed like good kids, but they were dumb as fuck if they thought they could best the likes of Spender. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Deep Throat frowned, "When your finished with this job, make sure you get a message to me with the kids location and what state they're in. Sign it as 'X' to hide your identity. You will find that I'm a much fairer man to work with then my friend Carl"