Title: The Answer Is Out There
*NOTE* This cross-over takes place shortly after the X-Files movie...meaning
that the X-Files have been reopened, but in this reality, Mulder and Scully
still report to AD Skinner (and as it is a Matrix cross-over, I may change
things as I will...after all, it's not even real...)
Ch. 2
"And that's it? Yes, thank you very much, goodbye." Scully switched off her phone. The local office had taken the superintendent's statement and had had him talk to a sketch artist. All that had been accomplished in ready order, a rarity in any government agency to be sure, but they still knew so little. The few details and added characters left new questions with no new answers. The familiar feeling of running into a dead end struck her as she watched Mulder scrounge around the reports, desperately searching for some overlooked clue.
"So, what's the verdict from the Chicago bureau?"
"You know the answer to that, Mulder. Find anything in there?" Mulder smiled and tossed the file up and over his head. Papers scattered all around the hotel bed as he collapsed back on it. Scully bent to retrieve the papers while Mulder rubbed his eyes and kicked the wall in sheer frustration. A minute after Scully had finished collecting the papers, someone knocked on their hotel suite. Mulder answered it and came back with two new files in his hands.
"Faxes from the Chicago office." He mumbled as he dropped into the chair next to her. "So, let's see, hmm, Mr. Prescott's written statement, picture of our 'Agent Smith' care of their sketch artist, and...what the hell?" Scully looked up sharply as Mulder excitedly spread the papers for her to see. Held together by a paperclip, there were pages on their suspect.
"Oh my God, Mulder, look at this. Arrest warrant, inventory of objects removed from suspect's apartment...where did all this come from?" They both read on in silence. The case file was still on the lean side, but it held more details than their file had. How was it possible that the federal file would have less than a city file? Scully couldn't believe that communication between federal and state agencies was this bad. Between federal bureaus, yes, but not state and federal.
"So, we have a little more to go on, but it's still not much. I was kind of hoping that that was Frohike with more information from his computer intelligence...hacker...user guy." He rubbed his eyes, trying to soothe the sores from his glasses. On cue, another knock sounded.
"If that's Frohike, I'm handing in my resignation now, Mulder."
"But wouldn't that prove the existence of telepathy or at least prescience?" Mulder walked over to the door once more. Sure enough, behind the door stood Scully's least favorite Lone Gunman. Perhaps the only consolation was that he was not alone. Behind him, Byers and Langly shifted nervously, as was their wont when they actually left their dark cavern of a home.
"It's a good thing for you that you got us involved. Wait 'til you see this," Frohike waved another manila folder as he passed Mulder heading right for the table to occupy the recently vacated chair next to Scully. Byers and Langly followed, but they were too busy fussing with the curtains and checking around for bugs. Even for them, the Lone Gunmen were acting rather paranoid.
"What's the matter guys? You couldn't cash in all those coupons at the local McDonald's any more?" Scully watched bemused as they kept running around.
"Honestly, if you wanted a free meal, you should join the Bureau. The hotel has room service." Mulder joined in Scully's obvious mirth. Despite having taking similar precautions once or twice in his own life, Mulder couldn't contain his amusement at seeing the trio triple-check the phone and the television.
"I think we're okay." Byers and Langly hovered over Frohike as he opened the file for the two agents. "Take a look at this." The top sheet in the file had what looked like a transcript from a computer chat room. There was only one person talking, but aside from that, the printout had recorded several commands that another had entered. The conversation was entirely simple, one-sided, and just perfect for an X-File. Scully took the paper aside while the others scanned the rest of the contents.
CONTACT INTIATED...
Wake up, Neo...
The Matrix has you...
[Ctrl X]
Follow the white rabbit.
[Esc]
Knock, knock, Neo.
HOME COMPUTER SHUTDOWN
Other than that short blurb, Scully couldn't make heads or tails of the garbled mixture of symbols and letters that preceded it. Not one of the four men in the room paid any attention to her confusion.
"Hey, Scully, take a look at this." She dropped the paper and swept it aside to glance at the pages they had selected as important. The first sheet had a picture from a security camera. In the corner, there were digits to indicate the film had been taken a year ago and a glimpse of the company logo. The focus was blurry, but the logo was large enough for Scully to read. 'Metacortex'.
"Look at this guy," Frohike pointed to the thinner man who was dressed in a suit of a slightly lighter color than those of the men leading him away. "That's your guy, right?" The agents nodded. It wasn't clear enough to be definite, but for all intents and purposes, the man in the picture was their suspect.
"And look who else is there. Recognize this guy, Scully?" Mulder pointed to one of the men dressed in the black suits. Upon closer inspection, she did recognize him.
"He looks just like his sketch. That is uncanny, Mulder. I've never seen anyone look that much like their picture, not ever." Mulder nodded as he scanned the photo. Taking the opportunity, Scully did the same, trying to pull from it the details anyone else should have missed. Their suspect, Anderson, looked frightened. Fear and apprehension were written in his stance; he appeared to be dragging his step, trying to hold out as much as he could without really fighting. The men holding him appeared curiously removed and uncaring about their charge. Scully took the photo as they moved on to the next piece of important evidence.
"This was lifted from a police radio the same night as that printout you just read." The bulletin was in regards to the sighting of a violent criminal. A short list of the suspect's alleged crimes was given; the list included many of the same cyber-terrorist charges that Anderson had attributed to him, but this woman, known as 'Trinity', had crimes predating his by almost a decade. Also, there were murder charges, breaking and entering, and destruction of public property. The last few broadcasts told the officers heading to apprehend the criminal to use extreme caution in securing the perimeter, but under no circumstances were they to arrest the subject on their own. A specific order was given for them to wait until federal authorities arrived.
"Federal authorities? Agent Smith, right?" The Lone Gunmen each nodded but at the mention of the name 'Smith' they each shuddered. "Well, did they get this person or not?"
"Not, and it was more than just a miserable failure," Byers handed Scully a report that was sent through to a 911 operator. The caller was perfectly coherent, and he identified the injuries to the dispatcher in an orderly fashion. The transcript of the call placed it only fifteen minutes after the bulletin had gone out. The caller reported four officers down at Wabash and Lake.
"Four officers? In less than fifteen minutes? What kind of artillery was this Trinity carrying?" To answer her question, Langly slid over another report, this one reading "CHICAGO CORONER'S REPORT" in bold letters at the top. There were four one-sheet pages giving a brief for the police records. Only one of the officers was shot; the other three had been killed, but the wounds were inflicted without weapons.
"These three," Langly tapped the three reports, "were literally beaten to death. The funny thing is, two were dropped with broken necks after each one only received one blow. The third had his arm broken before having his neck snapped backwards."
"Killer whiplash, that's the cause of death?" Mulder laughed, and Scully joined, but the Lone Gunmen only smiled, still nervous.
"Well, essentially, yes. When they tell you guys not to try and arrest these people, do me a favor and listen, okay?" Langly managed to give a half-hearted laugh at his own joke.
"Yeah, I'd hate to see a hot chick like Scully here all roughed up," Frohike winked at the object of his affection, to which Scully groaned. To change the subject, she shifted the papers to reveal the next document they had selected as most important. This was the complete rap sheet for Trinity. This one contained the Chicago SWAT team's report of a raid on a building in the downtown area where she and her fellow conspirators were discovered. Again, there were losses on the police's side, but this time, there was one suspect casualty, an unidentified young male. There was also a report detailing the capture of yet another terrorist and the summary turnover of said terrorist to higher authorities. There were no transfer papers for this criminal.
"Is this the last time they have anything on this woman?"
"No, I have some more security camera stuff that you may want to see. But believe me when I tell you, even for you Mulder, you won't believe it until you see it." A thick wad of pictures taken from a videotape was pulled out from under Byers' coat for the agents to flip through. The first photo was the first of several blows to rock them over the next few minutes. In the photo, Anderson was standing just inside of a metal detector, but that hadn't generated the shock; it was his posture, not to mention his outfit. The last picture of Anderson that Mulder and Scully had seen had portrayed him as scared; the new picture, being much clearer than the old, displayed none of that fear. Anderson held himself tall, almost cocky. His dark sunglasses hid his eyes, and the black trenchcoat spoke of a serious change in attitude.
"Okay, watch this," Frohike took the photos, held them on one side, and flipped through them as fast as he was able. The pictures melted together into a jumpy but tangible flipbook. Scully watched in mute wonder as Anderson opened his trenchcoat to reveal the largest arsenal of weapons that she had ever seen carried on one man. The last pages left off showing Anderson knocking one guard down and pulling out two of his guns to finish off the rest.
"Where did you get this?"
"A guy I knew, and I can't say anything more. Not now anyway." Mulder's ears perked up at that.
"What do you mean? Did something happen to him?" Mulder's usual excitement for this kind of lead was evident in his hurried tone.
"Why do you think we're out here and not just sending this by wire?" Byers peered through a crack in the curtains while Frohike explained to the expectant agents. "He handed me these personally not twenty hours ago. All of ten hours ago, I found out he was dead. Don't ask any questions, I didn't. I think we know why he was killed." The Lone Gunmen nodded along with Mulder, but Scully could only sigh.
"Must everything lead back to government conspiracies?" Instead of answering, they shoved more pictures under her nose. The next set of stills were taken only about every twenty seconds from what looked like a camera mounted over the doorway behind the metal detector that they had seen in the first set of stills. Over a period of less than five minutes, the pictures detailed the complete destruction of most of the support columns in the lobby. From the narrow scope, Scully was able to tell that the team of security personnel had been killed because the last photo taken showed two non-security, unscathed, black-clad figures entering the elevator.
"How in the hell..." Scully whispered. The photos were enough to add more to their pile of questions, but one important connection had been formed. The previous reports of Trinity's crimes, the police bulletin, the coroner's report, all of them did have something to do with their subject. In the last photo, as the two disappeared behind chrome elevator doors, Scully could see their faces quite clearly. If the photo attached to the rap sheet was accurate, then the woman standing next to Anderson was Trinity. But how...
"I know, right? How are they connected?" Scully looked up as she nodded to Langly. "Well, you saw the computer thing, right? Frohike's guy said that was a message sent to this guy's home computer and that the message was sent in the some weird way or something. Frohike said the guy was really freaked out about it." Langly turned to look at Frohike for his help.
"This guy is elite, and he was freaking out when I saw him. I couldn't translate anything he said to you, but basically it was something outstanding. That's why he brought it to me personally." Frohike's tone was usually somber as he remembered his recently deceased contact.
"So, the case is a little more complicated. What does Anderson's connection to this criminal have to do with our case? She's an accomplice, maybe even the one who got this guy into trouble in the first place. How does this help us find him?"
"Well, technically, we don't have to find him." Mulder rubbed his forehead as the others turned to listen to this explanation. "Skinner said that the NSA handed this to the FBI for the purposes of attaining a better profile of this guy. We catch him, that's great, but it's not our highest priority, especially given this information. I think we should follow Langly's advice and not arrest this man." A new set of frowns went around the table. Mulder returned the frowns with a puzzled glance of his own. "What?"
"Did you say the NSA handed you guys this one?"
"Yeah, why?" Byers flipped through the files and pulled out a newspaper clipping detailing the attack on the building that they had just seen destroyed in the stills. The article was surprisingly brief considered the serious nature of the crime.
"That building was under military control. Those SWAT-type guys were actually reserves in the armed forces. The article doesn't say what branch and not even Frohike's guy could find out. There would no way the military would give anything to the NSA."
"Yeah, the military doesn't fraternize with the civilian agencies." Langly chuckled at Scully's quip, but Mulder's attention was locked on Byers almost as if he expected more. He was not disappointed, but the source was Frohike.
"You're more right than you know. I could get into it, but we could be in serious trouble here, so I'll skip the details." Frohike nodded to Scully for emphasis, and she in turn said one quick prayer of thanks. "Basically, this is another case of the you-know-who's calling themselves whoever they needed to be in order to fool as many people as necessary to get the job done."
"Well, this wouldn't be the first time the government has used the military to do their dirty work." Mulder sneered, his disgust shared by Scully. "So, the guys in the suits do work for the government, but why then do Anderson and Trinity go after this building? What connection do the suits have with this particular military building?" Byers glanced at his cohorts who each got up to check the window for themselves.
"Sorry, Mulder, you're on your own here. We're getting out of here before whoever did give you that file finds us too." The Lone Gunmen disappeared with such celerity that neither Mulder nor Scully had any time to even utter a cry of surprise or protest.
"What was that all about?" Mulder shook his head as he closed the door.
"It doesn't matter right now. We have more information, and we can use it."
"Have you come up with anything more for you profile?"
"No, there isn't enough to give me a real clue as to this guy's motivation. I look at the pictures we have and the one from Metacortex, and I see one thing. Then I look at these," he waved a hand at the makeshift flipbook as he went on, "and I see and entirely different guy. Something big happened between those two photos, something major. There just isn't anything I can think of right now to justify this change."
"I noticed." Scully tossed the original file from the home office on top of the new pile of additional information. "So, what's the plan?"
"I was hoping you would figure that one out. I would, but I would hate to be accused of following a plan that would only support one of my crazy theories." Scully smiled, giving a slight, helpless nod.
"Here's what I can figure, Mulder. We either hunt for the suspect and/or suspects, hunt for this Agent Smith and/or his cohorts, or we can go snooping around this building's ruins. I doubt the first two will lead us anywhere, but we'll be at the disadvantage of not having a forensics team with us if we opt for the third choice."
"Then it's a manhunt, is it?"
"I guess so, but I don't know how we would go about it." A peculiar smile crossed Mulder's face, a mischievous smile that Scully had seen too often to forget or ignore. He was about to suggest something about which she would be skeptical.
"You saw how that girl was dressed, right?" She nodded, crossing her arms and waiting for him to drop the last bomb. "Well, then let's go shopping."
"What?"
"Tell me, Scully, do you wear a size ten or a size eight?"
"Excuse me?" The grin on Mulder's face only spread.
"We can't go into the clubs with this on." He flapped his suit coat.
"Clubs? Mulder, what are you talking about? What clubs?"
"Where else do you find men and women only wearing black leather?"
End of Chapter 2