11:00. I.25, Utah State Line.
"It was incredible, Scully! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it." Mulder had taken off his jacket and tie and was driving with his white shirtsleeves rolled up. His eyes were aflame with excitement as he spoke. "It was like, a big metal ring with a couple of lights and all these big symbols around the edge. But, the centre of the ring was full of water, or what looked like water, all shimmering with light. The thing is, though, the ring was standing erect and none of the water fell out. Next thing, a group of people just strolled out of it, literally coming from no-where, and all of them bone dry!"
Scully, who had been getting changed on the back seat, climbed through to sit in the passenger seat. "Mulder," she said thoughtfully, "do you remember that guy I was seeing not long after joining you on the X-Files?"
"Who, Junior Einstein?" Said Mulder with a smirk.
Scully gave a slightly embarrassed smile; 'Junior Einstein' wasn't the worst of the names he had been given. "Yes, him. I went with him to a Physics lecture at Harvard and they described pretty much the same thing."
"What was the lecture?"
"Wormholes!"
"What, Black Holes?" Asked Mulder, turning to look at his partner.
"The lecture was actually about Particle Physics and Superstring Theory, but the subject of Wormholes came up. Apparently, the latest train of thought is that Wormholes and Black Holes are a much more common phenomenon than was previously thought." She paused for a second to gather her thoughts. "The point is, you just described exactly what the lecturer theorised the Event Horizon of a Wormhole would look like. If what both of you described is correct, somebody has worked out how to open a stable Wormhole!"
"That was clever of them!" Said Mulder looking into the rear view mirror.
"It was a lot more than clever Mulder! That level of technology is so much more advanced than we are."
Mulder looked at her again. "Are you saying its Extra Terrestrial?"
"It has to be! To open a stable Wormhole without vaporising half the planet would require a clear and definitive understanding of Particle Physics down to its absolute point values. We just don't have that level of understanding yet."
"Somebody does, I know what I saw Scully!" Mulder checked the rear view mirror again and slowly added more pressure to the accelerator pedal.
Scully noticed what he was doing and looked into the side mirror. In the distance on the road behind them, she saw the silhouette of a vehicle. "Are they following us?"
"I think so! I've increased our speed from fifty to eighty and they're pacing us."
An electronic trilling came from Mulder's cell phone and, after pulling it out of his jacket pocket; he pushed it onto a hands-free cradle on the dash and pressed the green button. "Mulder!"
"It's Langley!" Said a voice from the loud speaker. "We got something here that you'll want to know about."
"I'm a little busy right now!"
"You'll want to hear this! An old friend of yours has surfaced again."
"Who?"
"Krychek!"
"Krychek?" Said Mulder as he and Scully exchanged glances. "Where?"
"He used one of his hidden accounts to buy a ship, the Southern Pride! It's moored in Chicago's East Side Harbour! But get this, he's also got himself a load of scientific equipment and had it delivered to the same place."
"What kind of equipment?" Asked Scully, feeling that this was more her area.
"Mainly analytical equipment. Stuff for taking things apart, seeing how they tick and then putting them back together again. He's had the ship for a while, a couple of months at least, but the hardware is a fairly recent purchase."
"How did you get on to him?" Asked Mulder.
"He got his equipment from our supplier!" Said Langley with a chuckle. "Can you beat that? We got into the supplier's system through a back door we installed when we upgraded his system for him. We just back-tracked from there."
"Thanks guys, you did good again!"
"One more thing, Mulder! You'd better get your foot down. Word is that everyone's favourite smoker is also out for him."
"Cancer Man?"
"The one! We don't think he knows where he is yet, but it's only a matter of time. Krychek must be in a hurry 'cos he isn't covering his tracks as well as he usually does. We got a lucky break, finding him the way we did, but tracking him was easy enough. If we could do it, you can bet your bottom dollar that old CGB could do it too."
"I'll keep that in mind! Thanks guys." Mulder pressed the red button on the phones keypad and checked the rear view mirror again. "Buckle up Scully!" He said when he saw the dark shape of the following vehicle rapidly gaining on them.
