Mulder's hotel room
Mulder woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringing in his ear. As usual, the TV was still on and the file he was reading lay on the bed next to him. "Mulder."
"Hey Mulder, Byers left a message, said you needed to talk to me. Don't have much time, dude, gotta get back to the game. What's up?"
"Langly?" Mulder asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah it's Langly, who'd you expect? Wake up, man, I only have a few minutes."
"Sorry." Mulder sat up and flipped the switch, closing his eyes against the assault of light. "I need to know about a game. At least it might be a game, I'm not sure. Scully thought I should talk to you, since you're the game guru."
"Game guru, cool. I like that. So, what do you need to know?"
"Do you know of any games where the player is a serial killer?"
"Geez, Mulder, there's a bunch of them. Can you give me something a little more specific? What's the killer do? How does he kill his victims? Dude, there's a game out there for every conceivable kind of murder."
"How about one involving the alphabet as a way of choosing victims?"
"No shit? You got one like that? Oh man, Mulder."
"So there is a game like that?"
"Yeah, it's called AlphaSlayer. Remember, I showed it to you about a year ago, when I first found it on the Internet. Frohike wussed out of our poker game and we went cruising to kill some time..."
"I knew this guy's MO was familiar! You don't happen to have the web address?"
"Offhand, no. Just do a search, it's the only one out there."
"Thanks, Langly. Good luck with the game."
"You too, Mulder."
7:00 AMPotosi Sheriff's Dept.
Lee and Officer Stanton dragged themselves into Mulder's office, still half-asleep. They didn't usually get called in so early on a Sunday and neither was too thrilled. "Don't you ever sleep, Mulder?"
"No. Go get some coffee, I've found out how our boy picks his victims."
Stanton went out to start the coffee, while Mulder pulled out his notes and his laptop. "Here, check this out." He pulled up the AlphaSlayer website and pointed to the screen. "He's playing a game, only his version's not virtual."
Lee sat down and began to read the rules of the game. Stanton handed him a cup of coffee, but Lee was wide-awake now. He read with amazement the simple, but gruesome rules before him. "God, Mulder! This is sick! They allow this stuff on the Internet?"
"Freedom of speech, Sheriff."
"I don't think this is what our forefathers had in mind." Lee shook his head and sat back from the screen. His experience with computers was limited, mostly running background checks and playing the occasional game of Solitaire. He'd thought about getting one for himself, but after seeing this, he wasn't so sure he wanted to bother. "Says here that the victims have to live within a reasonable driving distance of the killer's home and they all have to have a web page with a guest book. To confirm a kill, you have to sign the guest book with a specific signature, then email the game master with the site address, so it can be confirmed and credited to your kill sheet. Jesus Mulder! This is sickening."
Mulder frowned and nodded in agreement. "Take a look. This is why we couldn't find a connection to Caroline Blair at first. He probably listened to her on the radio and if we pull up the station's web site..." he typed in the address he'd memorized just a few hours earlier. "Here she is, on the DJ page. Scroll down to the guest book and look here's our boy's entry." He pointed to an entry made the day before Caroline's body was found, a single, red, skull and crossbones. "I've pulled up pages for all the victims, same message, all dated the day before the bodies were found." Mulder pulled up each page and showed Lee the same message on every one.
"Oh my God. But Mulder, what about the other part of that rule, the part about being a reasonable driving distance? How can you figure that out from these pages? Sure, Caroline Blair's had business address listed and so did Alice Nichols, but the rest of them didn't."
"I wondered about that myself, then I noticed that the radio station's server was StLoNet.com. I checked it out and that's where I found the home pages of all our victims." Mulder typed in Faith Olinger's name. "From there, all you have to do is take their names, do a people search on any of the big search engines and voila." On the screen in front of him, Lee saw Faith Olinger's name, address and phone number.
"Jesus H! I don't believe it, Mulder. How in the Hell did you come up with this?"
"Something my partner said to me last night. I should know better than to leave home without her."
"Guess so! Good thing you talked to her last night."
"Yeah, she keeps me honest."
Mulder smiled into his coffee cup, something that did not go unnoticed by both Lee and Stanton. Lee thought about making a comment, then decided to just let it go. If Mulder wanted to add anything, he was sure he'd do it in his own time. Besides, the quickest way to get on a cop's nerves was to say something stupid about his partner. He figured that Fibbies might feel the same way.
"OK, so now we know how he finds his victims, all we have to do is figure out who's next and get to her before this nutcase does."
"Way ahead of you." Mulder pulled a pad of paper out from his briefcase. "I was able to find eight names starting with the letter g. Taking the hometowns of the other victims into account, I think the first three are our best bets." He pushed the pad toward Lee and Stanton. "Gail Hammond lives in Arcadia, Ginger Loethan in St. Clair and Gloria Martin in De Soto."
"What about the other five on the list? Shouldn't we try to get to them, too?"
"Of course, we'll need to contact local police where they live and have them alert these women, just in case. So far, he's only gone after women in this area of Missouri though. Look, two of these women live in Illinois, one in Alton and the other in Granite City. The other three live in Missouri, but they're all in towns north of Interstate 70. So far, our boy hasn't gone North of Interstate 44 and since he's been dropping off the corpses in the forest, my guess is he isn't going to stray too far, as long as he has a supply of victims so close at hand. Stanton, I want you to call the local authorities in the areas where these five women live. Let them know what we've found and ask them to take the necessary precautions to protect these women."
Stanton reached for the list and left the room.
"In the meantime, we need to contact the Sheriffs' offices in Arcadia, St. Clair and De Soto and have them explain what's going on to these three women. They're going to need protection. If this guy holds true to form, he should be going after one of them in next few days."
9 AMScully's apartment
Scully woke up with a start and looked at the clock. *Oh shit! I've got to call Skinner. * She reached for the phone, but found it gone. *What the...* She started to get up, only to be stopped by the sound of footsteps. Reaching for her gun, she slid her feet onto the floor and tried to stand up. Dizziness made her fall back down on the bed, so she pointed her gun toward the door, resting it on her cast for stability. "Who's there? I'm a federal agent and I'm armed."
Through the door walked Byers, arms raised, eyes wide. "It's just me, Scully."
Scully put the gun back on the nightstand. "You scared me. What are you doing here and where is my phone? I need to call Skinner. He's got to be wondering why I'm not in yet."
"Take it easy. Dr. Childers said I should take the phone out so it wouldn't wake you up. He also said that it would be a good idea for someone to stay with you, just to run interference, while you got some rest. I've already called Skinner. He's going to check in later on, to see how you're feeling. Besides, it's only Sunday, remember? Now, are you hungry?"
"Let me guess, you made me breakfast, too?
"Well, not yet. What do you want to eat?"
"You don't have to do that, I'm fine, I'll just get up..." Scully tried to stand, only to find herself back down on the bed, closing her eyes to stop the room from spinning. Byers stifled a laugh.
"Maybe just some toast and a tea to start, Dana?"
11:45 AMPotosi Sheriff's Dept.
Gail Hammond, Ginger Loethan and Gloria Martin had been located. They were understandably shaken and more than willing to accept any help offered by the authorities. All that remained was the waiting.
Mulder studied the AlphaSlayer site, trying to find anything that might put a name to the killer. He sent a copy of the player list and the name of the webmaster, through the FBI databases, to track down the people behind the screen names. With any luck, the killer would be listed among the current players, not that he really expected it to be that easy.
11:51 AMScully's apartment
Byers managed to get Scully to eat a few pieces of toast with raspberry jam and drink a cup of Earl Grey. He'd gotten her to take the painkiller, but she was refusing to take the sedative, saying that she just wasn't ready to go to bed. He knew better. "Dana, you're exhausted. Take the pill and get some sleep. I'll be right here if you need anything."
"No, really John, I'm fine," she said, picking up the TV Guide. "Hey, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is on AMC at noon. Want to watch?"
Byers let out a sigh. "OK, but only if you promise to take the pill and get some sleep when it's over."
"We'll see."
"No, Dana, not 'we'll see'! We watch the movie, then you take the pill. You've got to get some sleep."
"John, I'm fine. Stop 'muldering' me."
"I am not 'muldering' you! Have you looked in the mirror lately, Dana? You look awful."
Scully glared at him. "Gee thanks, John, you sure know how to turn a girl's head."
"I'm serious. Come here, I want to show you something."
Holding his arm for support, she allowed him to walk her to the bathroom and watched as he flipped on the light. "Look at yourself. Your color is all wrong and you've got bags under your eyes. I didn't say anything yesterday, because you seemed to perk up when we were out and because I didn't want to discourage you from talking, but you look even worse today. To be honest Dana, you're scaring me."
Scully looked at her reflection. He was right, she looked horrible. She wanted to argue that it was just the shock to her system from the broken hand, but she knew it was more than that. "OK, you win. I'll take the pill, after the movie." She paused and looked at herself a second longer. "Did I really look this bad yesterday?"
Byers frowned and nodded. "Back to the couch?"
Scully sighed. "Lead on, MacDuff."
Byers took her to the couch, covered her legs with an afghan and placed a drink within her reach. Scully just shook her head as he fussed. "You would have made a wonderful mother, John."
He stood over her, putting both hands on his hips and delivering his best look of exasperation. "Between Langly, Frohike and you, I certainly have enough experience dealing with infants, don't I? Now shut up before I decide to send you to bed without your movie!"
4 PMLone Gunmen HQ
"Frohike."
"Hey, Frohike, I need a ride dude."
"I thought you had one already."
"Yeah, well, I did, but Mannie's kid got sick and we had to stop the game early."
"OK, where are you?"
"Great. I'm just up the street from Byers' favorite bookstore. How 'bout I meet you there?"
"Be there as soon as I can."
"Thanks, Frohike."
3 PMPotosi Sheriff's Dept.
Results from Mulder's search were starting to come in. Of the thirty-five screen names returned so far, none lived within what he would consider reasonable driving distance of the surrounding area. The closest person identified lived in Chicago, about a five-hour drive away, too far out of the comfort zone he'd established in his profile. There were still another twelve waiting to be identified. Among the names identified, was Michael Fustian of Orlando, Florida, the webmaster of the AlphaSlayer site. He called Mr. Fustian, to arrange a meeting for the next day. Then, he called the airport and booked a 6:45 flight out of Saint Louis that evening.
Mulder gathered up the papers scattered on the table and put them in his briefcase. On his way out, he stopped by Lee's office.
"You're going to Orlando? What if this guy hits again? Mulder, I'm gonna need all the help I can get to pull this off."
"I need to talk to Fustian, Lee. Right now, he might be in the best position to fill in the missing pieces. If our man is playing AlphaSlayer with real victims, chances are it's because the virtual game became too restrictive."
Lee raised his hand and started to protest.
"Look, I'll be back tomorrow night. He's not going to kill this soon. He'll need a few more days to track his newest victim."
Lee rubbed his eyes and shook his head, then dropped the hand to his desk. "OK, Mulder, you're the one with the expertise here. If you say we've got a few days, then I won't argue with you."
"I know this is difficult, but the ball's in his court. If we can get a name, we just might be able to stop him before he takes another life."
20 minutes later...Mark Twain Motor Lodge
Mulder picked up his phone and hit the 'Scully' button. He tried to remember when it had gone from simply being a programmed number to the 'Scully' button. *Probably one of those things that happen when you're not paying attention. Kind of like falling in love with your partner. * He waited for the connection, only to be greeted by the irritating sound of a busy signal. "At least I know you're not in the shower this time."
Grabbing his toiletry kit from the bathroom, he tossed it in the suitcase. He looked around the room to be sure he wasn't leaving anything he might need in the next twenty-four hours. When he was certain he had everything, he closed the suitcase and took it out to the car.
45 minutes later...
The phone answered him with yet another busy signal. He looked at the phone with frustration. "Damn, Scully! What are you trying to do, set a world record for phone conversation?"
He dropped the phone on the seat beside him. He'd decided about fifteen minutes ago, that she must be talking to her mother. Scully wasn't much for making extended phone calls, but Maggie...she was another matter entirely. Once Maggie decided to express herself, you had to just settle in and listen. She reminded him of that Snicker's commercial. "Not going anywhere for a while?" He decided he'd buy Scully a bag of Snicker's bars to put by the phone for Maggie's next call.
4:30 PMBrendan's Book Nook
Langly walked up the street to Brendan's. Figuring that it would take Frohike a little while to get there, he decided to go inside and see what he could find. The bell jingled as he entered and he heard someone call out a greeting from the back of the store.
"I'll be out in a few. Call me if you need anything."
"OK."
Langly wandered back to see if Brendan had acquired any old government conspiracy books. He found a few dealing with the Kennedy assassination and pulled them off the shelf. He was still reading when Frohike came in the door thirty minutes later. "Find anything interesting?"
"No," he said, holding up the book he was reading. "Check this out, the guy claims that Jackie shot JFK to get revenge for his affair with Marilyn Monroe."
Frohike took the book and read the passage. He laughed and shook his head. "Oh man, we gotta pick this up for Byers. You ready to go?"
"Yeah, let's get this and go home; I'm beat."
They walked up to the register, but no one was there to ring up the book. Langly dropped it on the counter. "Hello?"
"Hold on, I'll be right there."
A minute later, Brendan came out from the back room. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I was trying to price out some of the books I just bought. Sometimes I lose track of the time. This be all for you today?"
"Yeah, this is it."
Brendan rang up Langly's purchase and handed him the bag. He looked at Langly, then at Frohike, trying to place their faces. "Have I seen you two before? You look familiar."
Langly folded the top of the bag and stuck it under his arm. "Yeah, we were in here a few days ago with a friend of ours. He's the one who bought that dream catcher you had in the back room."
Brendan raised his eyebrows. "I knew I'd seen you before. Is your friend here? I have something I'd like to give him."
"No, he's not, but we'll be seeing him this evening."
Brendan reached under the counter and pulled out the diary. Giving it a wipe with his shirt, he handed it to Langly. "Would you mind giving this to him? I found it the other day. It's the diary of the man who owned the dream catcher. Pretty creepy stuff. I thought he might like to read its immediate history. Might change his mind about hanging that thing up."
"Sure, thanks. What do I owe you for it?"
"Nothing, I don't sell old diaries, it would just end up in the trash."
"OK, thanks, I'll see that he gets it."
5:15 PMScully's apartment
The smell of smoke everywhere. Overwhelming. No heat, no flame. The almost intolerable smell clinging to everything. Walls close in and hallways become impassable. Can't breathe. "Where's the door? Mulder, where's the door?" No reply. Looking around, seeing nothing. The walls disappear from sight, but they're still there. Can't get out. Footsteps coming, the smell is getting stronger. More footsteps. Two, maybe three sets. Hide. Where? Footsteps in front, footsteps behind. "Mulder, is that you?" No reply. Hands grab. Laughter. The smoking man appears. Struggling, trying to break free. The hands tighten their grip. "LET ME GO!" More laughter. Smoking man takes a last drag, then tosses the butt to the floor. "You didn't think we were going to let you just walk away from us, did you Agent Scully? That's not how our little game is played. But then, you haven't been following the rules, now, have you? Haven't you heard? Resistance is futile." Nods to the owner of the arms. Smoking man lights another cigarette. Takes a drag, then exhales slowly. "Game over, Agent Scully. My regards to your sister." A soft 'fwooop' from behind. Stabbing pain in the back of the neck. "Nooooooooo!!"
Scully woke up sobbing. She reached up to wipe her eyes, forgetting the cast on her hand, and smacked herself in the head; crying out in pain, frustration and residual fear. Byers heard the cry and ran into the bedroom.
"Dana, are you all right?"
Scully didn't answer; she rubbed her head and avoiding looking at him. He reached out and gently pulled her hand away from her face. A bright red welt had already begun to form over her right eye. Byers touched the welt.
"I'd better go get some ice for that, it's starting to swell."
Scully reached for the tissues, dried her eyes and blew her nose. Byers returned, ice pack and a cup of tea in hand. He placed the tea on the nightstand and put the ice pack on her head. She took the ice pack from his hand and held it in place. "What happened, Dana?"
"Another one. I had another one," she whispered.
"Want to talk about it?"
"No." She paused and looked at the clock. "It's six? Did Mulder or Skinner call?"
Byers shook his head. "They may have tried, but the phone's off the hook. I didn't want anything to disturb you."
"Put it back. Mulder's probably been trying to call. I don't want him to think that anything's wrong. When he does call, you're not to tell him about any of this."
"He needs to know, Dana. He's not going to be too happy when he finds out you've been keeping these nightmares a secret."
"You let me handle Mulder. He doesn't need to know right now."
Byers looked up at the dream catcher. He did a double take, then stared at it; a frown appearing on his face.
"What's wrong, John?"
"Nothing, must be my imagination. I could have sworn I saw your dream catcher... glowing."
"Glowing?"
"Yes, glowing. Like I said, must be my imagination."
"Now I know you've been hanging out with Mulder too long."
5:20 PMLone Gunmen HQ
Langly tossed the bag on the table and went in to take a shower. It had been a long weekend and the only thing he wanted right then was to wash off the hours of sweat and get into some clean clothes. "Hey Frohike, how long do you think Byers will be staying at Scully's?"
"I don't know. As long as she can stand him, I suppose. Why?"
"Think we should take that book to him?"
"Nah, it'll still be here when he gets back. I doubt he'll be taking too much time to read anyway; you know how he gets when someone is sick."
"Yeah, you're right. OK, I'm gonna hit the showers."
"Thank God."
Langly took off his shirt, rolled it into a ball and threw it at Frohike, hitting him square in the face. Frohike kicked it back into the hall.
"Punk ass."
6:45 PMScully's apartment
Byers reached to answer the phone.
"Don't you dare, it might be Mulder. The last thing I need is for him to hear your voice on the other end of my phone."
He pulled his arm back and waited for her to pick up the receiver. She let the phone ring one more time, before answering. "Hello."
"Geez Scully, it's about time you got off the phone! I've been trying to get through all afternoon."
"Sorry Mulder, my mom called."
"That's what I figured. How is Maggie?"
"Oh, um...she's fine. Where are you? The connection sounds funny."
"I'm on a plane to Orlando. I found the guy that runs the AlphaSlayer site, so I'm flying down to meet with him. Hopefully, he'll be able to give me something useful."
"Are you going to be there long?"
"No, just until tomorrow evening. I'll be back in Potosi around six tomorrow. Are you OK? You don't sound right."
"I'm fine, Mulder. Just need a little sleep."
"Are you having trouble sleeping? More nightmares?"
"Nothing to worry about, I'm sure everything will work itself out once you're home. Speaking of which...."
"It's going to be a few more days. If this guy stays true to form, he should make his move by the middle of the week. I'm thinking Wednesday might be the day. I need to stay here and help Lee out, Scully."
"Of course you do! I'm not asking you to come home and take care of me, Mulder. I just miss having you around."
"I miss you, too."
They sat quietly, listening to the other breathe, glad for the connection. There was so much to say, but neither could find the words. "Did you pick up those leave forms?"
Scully smiled. "Not yet. It's only Sunday, Mulder, remember? Anyway, I don't think getting some time off is going to present a problem. With all our accumulated vacation time, we could take the next few months off, with pay."
"Just a few months? I was hoping for a lot longer than that."
"You wouldn't last two weeks without an x-file to investigate, Mulder. Who do you think you're trying to kid?"
"You know me too well, Agent Scully. I'm not sure if that's good or bad."
"It's good, Agent Mulder, trust me."
"Always." Mulder heard a familiar ding, then the captain asking that all cell phones, CD players and computers be turned off. He thought he heard something about turbulence, too, but he wasn't paying too much attention. "Hey Scully, I'll have to call you back later. They need all the cell phones off now."
"OK, I'll talk to you later. Bye."
"Bye."
Scully leaned over to place the receiver back on the phone. She leaned back on the couch and sighed.
"Feel better now?"
She jumped at the sound of Byers' voice.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"No, it's OK; I just forgot you were here."
"I think I've just been insulted."
"No, John, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." She turned to look at him and caught the grin on his face. Realizing that he was teasing her, she relaxed back into the couch. "Yes, I feel much better now."
"Good enough to eat something?"
"You're as bad as my mother!" She shook her head, then realized that she actually was hungry. "What did you have in mind?"
8 PMScully's apartment
Byers and Scully settled down on the couch, to watch Harvey on AMC. Having another old movie fan in the place was nice, no fighting over what movies to watch and no threat of finding anything starring Jackie Chan. Nick Clooney was busy giving the viewers some behind-the-scenes items of interest on the film, when the phone rang.
"Hello."
"Good evening, Agent Scully. How are you feeling?"
"Good evening to you too, sir. I'm fine, I just wish everyone would stop treating me like I'm an invalid."
"Byers is there to make sure you don't do any more damage to that hand, Scully. If I find out that you're giving him a hard time, I'll call for reinforcements. I'm sure your mother would love to stop by and help you out. Mulder, too." Skinner smiled as he heard her let out a sigh.
"Et tu, sir?"
Skinner let out a laugh. "Feeling a little…paranoid…Agent Scully?"
"Comes with the territory, sir."
"I guess it does, Scully, I guess it does. Put Byers on."
Scully handed the receiver to Byers, who gave her a puzzled look. Scully shrugged her shoulders.
"Hello…yes…I see. I'll see that she gets there." Byers paused for a moment, then a huge grin crossed his face. "I'll remember that. Good night." Byers hung up the phone and sank back into the couch to watch the movie. Scully stared at him. He tried to avoid looking at her, but failed miserably. "What?"
"Well, what did he say?"
"He wants me to take you to your doctor's appointment on Wednesday."
"And…?"
"That's all."
"Come on, John, I saw that silly grin. What else did he say?"
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"He said if you gave me any trouble, that I had his permission to kick your ass."
Scully noted the self-satisfied expression on his face and decided to let her comeback slide. Every once in a while, you had to let them win or they became sullen and no fun at all. "Shut up and pass the popcorn."
10 PMDolphInn, Orlando
Horribly cute images of dolphins adorned the lobby and hallways of the DolphInn. Mulder thought he might gag from the motif. The ridiculous name was bad enough, but images of Flipper at Disney World, complete with the stupid mouse-ear hat, was more than anyone over the age of six should have to endure.
He slipped the key into the lock and said a silent prayer before opening the door. *Please, let the room be dolphin-free. * As the door swung open, he saw that his prayer had been heard and answered. The room was standard issue; brown flowered bedspread with matching drapes and ugly tan carpeting. *Thank you. *
After tossing his bag on the bed, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, only to see the low battery light blinking. He frowned, then rummaged through his bag to find the recharging unit. "I know, Scully, if I'd plug this in at night I wouldn't have this problem." He considered calling her back using the hotel phone, but decided against it. It wasn't that late, not for him anyway, but he didn't want to risk waking her up; she'd sounded so tired earlier. Instead, he reached for the remote control to see what kind of offerings the TV Gods had in store.
11 PMScully's apartment
Her fight had been valiant, but in the end, Scully had to concede the battle. The pill Byers had made her take an hour earlier, finally won. "You win, I'm going to bed."
"Excuse me? Could you repeat that, please?"
"I said, I'm going to bed."
"No, the first part."
*You little creep! You're sounding more and more like Mulder every day. * She sighed heavily and adopted her best 'put upon' look. "You win. Happy now?"
"Yes. Those are two words I don't get to hear very often."
Scully raised her eyebrow at him. "Glad I could be here to give your ego a boost." She placed her good hand on the arm of the couch and tried to push herself up off the cushion. About halfway up, a wave of dizziness caught her by surprise and knocked her back down. *This is really getting old. * John got up and moved toward her. Taking her arm, he helped her up. As she stood, he put an arm around her waist, for support.
"Looks like you're the one that needs the boost right now."
"Ha ha. Don't quit your day job, John."
3:02 AMScully's apartment
"Scully, I've got to go now, the captain's asking for all cell phones to be turned off. I'll talk to you later."
"Is there something wrong?"
"I don't know…"
A loud noise, then the sound of the phone hitting the floor.
"Mulder?"
Scrambling sounds, screaming.
"MULDER!!"
More screams. BOOM!!! Then nothing.
"MULDER!!!!!!"
Scully woke up screaming once again. Byers ran in from the living room, stumbling in the dark, until he could find the light switch. She was sitting up, holding her head in her hands, sobbing. He approached her carefully, not wanting to startle her.
"Dana? It's John, are you OK?"
Scully shook her head back and forth. "No," she whispered. "Help me up, I need to check on something."
He walked over to the bed and helped her stand. She was shaking and unsteady, so he put an arm around her. She slipped an arm around his waist and put her head on his chest. "I need to check the news."
He nodded and led her, slowly, to the couch, then turned on CNN.
"What are we looking for?"
"Plane crash."
He already knew the answer, but he had to ask. "Anywhere in particular?"
"Somewhere between St. Louis and Orlando."
He nodded his head and stared at the screen with her. She had her arms wrapped around herself as tightly as possible. He wanted desperately to hold her, but he stayed where he was. "Dana? Want me to check the Internet? It might be faster."
She looked at him and nodded, then turned back to the screen.
He went to the computer and searched everywhere possible. No reports of any plane crashes in the continental U.S. Breathing a sigh of relief, he told her the good news. "All clear. Not a single crash reported."
He logged off and returned to the couch. This time, he did put his arm around her. "He's fine, Dana. Knowing Mulder, he's probably asleep in front of the TV in some cheap hotel. Want to call him? You know he won't mind."
"No, you're probably right. It was just a dream, nothing more." She looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks for being here, John."
He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "No problem." *Anything for you, Dana. Anything at all. * "How 'bout we put you back to bed and see if you can sleep now."
5:45 AMDolphInn
CRASH!!!
Mulder jolted awake, nearly falling out of bed. *What the Hell? * He walked over to the window and pulled back the drapes. Rain was coming down in sheets. Lightning hit all around, followed immediately by a thunderclap. Mulder frowned and rolled his eyes. "Another lovely trip to Florida. I thought this was supposed to be the Sunshine State."
Completely awake now, he decided to forego a shower in favor of checking out the breakfast fare at the hotel. He wandered into the bathroom and gave his face a perfunctory swipe with his razor. Managing to complete that task unknicked, he returned to the bedroom to get dressed. As he finished, he unplugged the phone from the recharger and slipped it into his pocket. Tossing the recharging unit back into his suitcase, he briefly considered calling Scully, but decided to wait a few more hours. Or at least until he'd had breakfast.
6:30 AMScully's apartment
She'd been awake for only twenty minutes. Her first thought was to wait until she was sure that Mulder was awake and had eaten something, but after a twelve minute wait that seemed to last two-hours, she picked up the phone.
"Mulder."
"Did I wake you?"
"No, I just finished breakfast. I'm on my way back to the room to pack and kill a little time before I have to meet with Fustian. Hold on, I have to open the door."
She could hear the sound of the key being inserted in the lock and Mulder pulling on the door.
"Sorry about that, the door sticks a bit, you need both hands to get it opened. You should see this place Scully; it looks like Flipper's wet dream. Dolphins everywhere. There's even a mural of a dolphin at Disney World. Kind of makes me want to buy stock in the companies that don't advertise dolphin-safe tuna."
"Sounds horrible."
"Are you OK, Scully?"
"I'm fine now, Mulder. You didn't call back last night... then I dreamed that your plane crashed. I was up at three this morning watching CNN; just to be sure it was a dream. It's so stupid, but I just had to call to hear your voice."
"Scully, this is really starting to concern me. Have you gotten any sleep in the last four days?"
"I'll be OK, Mulder, this will pass; it always does."
"I don't know, this one seems to be lasting a lot longer than the others. Why don't you see if Maggie can come stay with you for a little while, just until I get home."
"Mulder, I'm a grown woman. I refuse to go running home to mother every time I have a bad dream."
"OK, OK, don't bite my head off! It was just a suggestion."
Scully lowered her head, saying nothing.
"Scully?"
"I'm still here, Mulder. I'm sorry, there was no reason for me to snap at you like that."
"It's all right, I'm no prize after a few bad nights, myself."
"Mulder, your grasp of the understatement never ceases to amaze me."
"If you like my understatement, wait until you see my new and improved innuendo. The critics are raving. Roger Ebert gave me a big 'thumbs up.'"
"So that's what killed Siskel!"
"Ouch! Oh Scully, that was a low blow and...never mind."
"Wise place to stop, Mulder. You don't want to go there right now."
"Maybe later?"
"We'll talk, after you get home."
"Hmmm. Sounds like I'd better catch me a killer, before you change your mind."
"Mulder."
"Yes, Scully?"
"Call me later?"
"I promise. Don't work too hard today."
"I won't."
10AMHome of Michael Fustian
Fustian walked out into the living room and handed Mulder two lists. Mulder started scanning the pages. "OK, the first page is the list of current players. The other is the list of players who have registered, but are not currently hunting. As you can see, I ask each player to register using his or her real name, city and state of residence. I tell them it's a matter of helping to confirm kills, but really, it's a matter of nosiness on my part. I want to know where the nutcases live, so I can stay as far away from them as possible."
He laughed at his own joke. Mulder raised his eyes, gave him a half-smile and returned to reading the lists. Fustian reminded Mulder of Langly. They had the same taste in glasses, a similar build and the same lousy sense of humor. But, where Langly had the long flowing tresses of an aging hippie, Fustian had short, spiked, bleached hair. *Separated at birth? *
"Yeah, well…uh…anyway, it's all there. Is there anything in particular I can help you with other than these names?
"Do you keep track of the signatures each player uses to confirm a kill?"
"Sure, each player has to register a symbol before starting the hunt, that way no one is duplicating signatures. Saves a lot of confusion when I'm tallying up the kills each week. After a while, they just start to blend together, you know? Messed me up good before I started making everyone register. One time, I had three guys using a…"
Mulder held up his hand. "Mr. Fustian, could you show me the signatures, please."
"Yeah, sure. Sorry, I don't get a chance to talk to many real people anymore. Guess it's a hazard of running a website. I spend all my time with virtual friends instead of having a life with actual ones. Come on, it's on a disk in the other room." He led Mulder through the house, to a room in the back. The room was stacked from floor to ceiling with books, printouts, CDs and miscellaneous computer equipment. The computer sat against the far wall. Above it hung a gruesome poster advertising AlphaSlayer.
Mulder's eye darted about, taking in every detail of the room. His eyes stopped on the poster. Fustian noticed what had caught Mulder's eye and grinned. "Pretty cool, huh? My brother had it made for me as a Christmas present last year. He figures we can use them as advertising, if we ever get the game released on CD-ROM. We've already got one company interested, but there are still a lot of the bugs to iron out." He rummaged through a drawer, pulled out a disk and placed it in the disk drive.
"Charming. Mr. Fustian, doesn't it bother you that someone is out there playing your game, using real people as prey?"
"Look Agent Mulder. People have been committing murder for centuries; it's not a new phenomenon. Games allow us to act out our rage in a safe environment. They're cathartic, not harmful. It wouldn't matter if my game was out there or not; this guy would still be killing people. He's just decided to use my game as a guideline to act out the killings. If it wasn't mine, it would be someone else's game, or book, or movie, or TV show. You know how it is, everyone's a victim, and no one takes any personal responsibility for anything."
"Aren't you failing to accept responsibility just by saying that, Mr. Fustian? In effect, you've just proven your own point."
"I believe in free will, Agent Mulder. I'm not twisting this guy's arm and making him commit these murders, am I? I take full responsibility for the content of my site. There's a disclaimer on the home page, stating that this is solely for entertainment purposes. Sure, every so often, I get an angry email, calling me every name in the book, for hosting such a despicable site. I answer, echoing their concerns, but defending my right to exist. I take responsibility for my actions, I don't have to accept it for the actions of others." He turned away and pulled up the signature file. "Here you go, names in one column, signatures in the other. They're in alphabetical order, but if you tell me what signature you're looking for, I might be able to get you there faster."
"A red skull and crossbones."
"Plain red skull and crossbones? No special features, like glowing eyes or dripping blood?"
"Just a plain red one."
Fustian nodded his head and shook his finger in the air. "I think I know right where that one is." He scrolled down the list quickly, stopping when he reached the name he was looking for. "Is this it?"
12:15 PMOrlando International Airport
The phone rang four times before being answered. The voice on the other end was out of breath and sounded more than a little frazzled. "Yeah...uh...Sheriff's Department, Stanton speaking."
"Hi Stanton, it's Mulder. What's wrong? You sound like you just ran the fifty-yard dash."
"I did. It's a mess here right now, Mulder. Two of our men were injured in a car crash a few hours ago. Sheriff Dryden had to take Annie over to the hospital to be with Mitchell and our only other officer is home with pneumonia. I'm alone here until the Sheriff gets back."
"Back up, would you Stanton? You've lost me. Take it from the top, but slow it down this time. First, who's Annie?"
"Right." Stanton paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "OK, Annie's the lady who answers the phone for us. You can't miss her; she's usually right here when you walk in the door. She's married to Mitchell."
"OK. Now, what happened?"
"Warren and Mitchell were out on patrol this morning. Some dumb ass kid in a pickup ran a stop sign and broadsided the car. The kid's fine, just some cuts and bruises. His pickup is totaled though. Stupid kid was worried about being late to class, that's going to be the least of his worries now. Anyway, Warren's gonna be all right. He has some good-sized cuts on his face and arms; Doc had to take a few stitches to close up a couple of 'em. Mitchell's messed up pretty good though. The impact set off the airbag and the damned thing broke three of his ribs and punctured a lung. Doc says he'll recover, but he's not going to be back anytime real soon. Annie will be back later in the week. She was shaken up pretty bad, so Sheriff told her take a few days off. It's a good thing they don't have kids yet, I don't think she's gonna be in any shape to take care of much of anything tonight."
"How did the air bag break his ribs? I thought those things were aimed at the upper chest and face, not at the ribcage."
"You've never seen Mitchell drive, have you? Strangest damned driving style I've ever seen. You know how you can adjust the steering wheel on most cars? Well, he sets the thing down as low as possible. Darn thing practically skims the top of his legs. When the pickup hit them, that airbag just sucker punched him right in ribcage. Good thing it was there though, probably saved his life."
"I'm glad he's going to be all right. Look, tell Sheriff Dryden that I may have found our killer. My flight leaves here in an hour, I'll give him a call as soon as I get back."
"Will do, Agent Mulder. Have a safe flight."
2:10 PMFlight 1121, en route to St. Louis
Mulder checked his watch for the fifteenth time in as many minutes. He'd gone over the case in his head a dozen times since the plane left Orlando and he needed a break. Picking up his phone, he dialed the only person he knew would help take him out of work mode for a moment.
"Scully."
"Scully, it's me. You busy right now?"
"No, I'm just doing a little cleaning around this pigsty we call an office."
Byers shook his head at her and mouthed 'liar.' He sat down next to her on the couch. "I'm telling," he whispered, as he reached for the phone.
Scully frowned and turned her head so that the phone was out of his grasp. "Grow up!" she hissed, covering the receiver so that Mulder wouldn't hear.
Byers snickered, got up and went into the kitchen, not seeing the glare that would have let him know she was not amused.
"What was that, Scully?"
"What was what?"
"Sounded like you were talking to someone."
"Oh, that was just Lowell dropping off the mail."
"He's early today, isn't he?"
"So what if he is! Look Mulder, was there some reason you called or are you just here to discuss the promptness of our mail delivery?"
"Geez, sorry! No, no reason. I just needed a break from the case. Tell you what, I'll call you back later."
"Whatever, Mulder."
Scully disconnected loudly. Mulder stared at the phone, feeling confused and a little hurt. "What did I do?"
Checking his watch, again, he decided to spend the last thirty minutes of the flight working out his frustration doing the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine. It wasn't exactly the Sunday New York Times, but it would have to do.
2:15 PMScully's apartment
Byers heard her slam down the receiver and debated whether or not to leave the relative safety of the kitchen. His better judgment told him to stay put, maybe wash the few dishes in the sink or mop the floor, anything to give her time to cool off from whatever it was that Mulder had said to make her angry. She'd been on edge all morning and he wasn't terribly anxious to get in her way. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why she'd ended the conversation so abruptly. Finally, curiosity won out over better judgment. He entered the living room and found her staring out the window. "Is everything OK?"
She turned around quickly, grabbing the windowsill for support as she did. The set of her brow reminded him of the adage 'Curiosity killed the cat.' Right now, he was feeling very much like that cat and wishing that he'd decided to mop the floor. "No, everything is not OK. What the Hell did you think you were doing trying to grab the phone away from me earlier? What kind of stupid, childish behavior is that? Damn it, Byers, I'm not a child. If I want to tell a lie once in a while to protect my privacy, then that's my choice. I will not stand for you or anyone else passing judgment on the way I choose to handle my affairs."
She pushed off the windowsill and started toward the couch. *Or is she starting toward me, * he wondered. The phrase 'fire in her eyes' crossed his mind. It was not a phrase he'd ever truly understood; he understood it now.
His every inclination was to step away from her. Far away. Her gait was unsteady though, so he held his ground, hoping it was the couch she was aiming for. About halfway to the couch, she faltered. He moved to help her, but the daggers her eyes threw convinced him otherwise. "Fine, I'll be in the kitchen if you need me. I'd suggest you take your time getting to the couch, so you don't fall and do anymore damage to yourself."
"Jerk."
*Bitch. *
He looked behind him, quickly. *Tell me I didn't say that out loud. * Scully had just reached the couch and was paying no attention to his departure. *Whew. *
Once in the kitchen, he began taking inventory of the food on hand. They were low on a few miscellaneous items, so he decided to use that as an excuse to take a short hike. They'd been together a little too much and a break might be just the thing to calm her down. *Won't do me any harm either. * "I'm going to the grocery store. Do you want anything?"
"No."
"All right. I shouldn't be more than a half-hour, forty-five minutes. Mind if I take your car?"
"Fine. Whatever."
"Are you sure you don't want anything? Some ice cream, maybe?"
"Was 'no' not clear enough? For crying out loud, will you just go already?"
The next thing she heard was the door closing and the lock being secured from outside. No 'good-bye', no nothing. *Why am I being such a bitch? * A cold chill ran up her spine, making her body shake uncontrollably. Tears of anger, frustration and exhaustion poured down her cheeks. *Mulder, come home. Please. *
2:30 PMPay phone outside of a grocery store
"Frohike, what are you and Langly doing for dinner tonight?"
"I don't know, haven't thought about it. Why?"
"Scully's losing it. Maybe I'm losing it. I can't tell anymore. Look, could you guys come over tonight. I'll tell her I thought we could use the company before one of us kills the other or something like that. She's getting worse, Frohike and I don't know what to do for her."
"That bad?"
"Yeah, that bad."
"We'll be over around five. Want us to bring anything?"
"After the way Scully was looking at me before I left...you might want to consider wearing a cup and a bullet-proof vest."
4:30 PMPotosi
Mulder tossed his bag and briefcase onto the dresser. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he briefly considered calling Scully. After thinking back on their most recent conversation, he decided he'd leave that alone for a few more hours; he had too much work to do and too little time to do it in. He decided to go down to the sheriff's office to update Lee on his findings.
4:45 PMScully's apartment
Scully had said little to Byers about the boys joining them for dinner. In reality, she'd said little to him at all since he'd returned. Part of her was irrationally angry with him for issuing an invitation without consulting her; the other part was looking forward to seeing some new faces, even Frohike's. Trying to reconcile her split feelings was taking all of her energy. An apology was in order from one of them and she was pretty sure she was the one. She watched him as he set the table, well aware that he was doing his best to avoid looking in her direction. "John?"
He stopped, took a breath, and without turning to face her, answered. "What, Dana?"
She waited to see if he would look her at her way. When it became clear that he wasn't going to turn around, she started again. "John, would you please look at me?" He turned, then slowly raised his eyes to meet hers. "Thanks." She paused, looked down at her hands, then up at him. "About earlier…I'm sorry. I know you were just teasing, just trying to lighten up my mood; I was out of line."
"It's OK, Dana. My timing leaves something to be desired." He walked to the couch and sat down beside her. "I'm sorry about inviting Langly and Frohike over without asking you, but we need a break from each other and I didn't know who else to call. Mulder's out. You were adamant about not calling your mother. The only other person was Skinner and I didn't think you'd want him to see you right now either. Frankly, if he'd been here earlier, I'm not sure I could have stopped him from calling Mulder. I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing by not calling him."
"Please don't call him, John. He seems to be sure he's got a line on the killer and that the case will be resolved this week. He'll be home soon and I'll tell him everything then." Noting the skeptical look he was giving her, she added, "I promise."
"What did he say to you anyway? I heard you slam down the phone."
"Oh. He didn't say anything, that's just it. He asked a perfectly innocent question and I just flew off the handle. I think he just wanted to hear my voice and I…"
"Went postal?"
"Yeah, went postal."
"You need to fix that, you know. He's going to obsess over that conversation and find some way to turn it into another Mulder Guilt Trip, if you don't."
"I know. I'll call him later."
Byers reached behind him and picked up the phone. "Call him now."
Scully took the phone and placed it back down. "Help me up. I'd like to change before the guys get here. I'll call him from the bedroom."
He stood up, helped her off the couch and into the bedroom. She stopped him at the door. "I think I can take it from here. If you hear a 'thump', that'll be your cue to come pick me up off the floor." He laughed and let go of her arm.
"Change first, then call Mulder. If I don't see you in about fifteen minutes, I'm going to stick my head in to make sure you're all right. I'd like to able to do that without worrying about catching you undressed; I still haven't recovered from the zipper incident."
"Gee, and I so wanted to wear those jeans tonight. Maybe Frohike can help this time."
"Go ahead, I'm sure he'd love to be of assistance."
Knock, knock, knock.
"Look, there's your humble servant now. I'll send him right in to give you a hand with that zipper."
"Don't even think about it. Remember, I have a very protective Mulder in my corner."
"Bring him on, Dana. I can take him." He held his arms open and shrugged his shoulders. Dropping his arms back down, he laughed. "Get in there already, so I can open the door."
He waited until her door closed before answering the knock. There stood Frohike, clean-shaven and bearing flowers. Langly had brushed his hair and had even pulled it back into a ponytail for the occasion. Byers pushed the door open and motioned for them to come inside.
"Thanks for coming over, guys."
Frohike scanned the room. "Where's Scully?"
Byers motioned for them to follow him into the kitchen. He didn't want to chance Scully overhearing this part of the conversation. Opening the cabinet under the sink, he pulled out a vase and filled it with water. He put it down on the counter and pushed it toward Frohike. Taking the hint, Frohike removed the paper from the bouquet and placed the flowers in the vase. "In the bedroom, changing. She may be a little while; she needed to call Mulder. He called earlier and she blew up at him."
Langly snickered. "What'd he do?"
"Nothing, that's what I was trying to tell you earlier. She just went crazy for no good reason. I thought she was going to kill me for teasing her this afternoon. If her gun had been nearby, she might have. That's why I called. She seems stable now, but wait until you see her. Her color is all wrong, she's still not getting any sleep, in spite of the medication, she's dizzy all the time and the nightmares are getting worse. Last night, she woke up screaming because she'd dreamt Mulder had been killed in a plane crash. I had to bring her out here to watch CNN, while I went on the Internet to see if there had been any plane crashes. I'm telling you, she's on the verge of a breakdown and I don't know how to handle it."
"I gotta tell you, Byers, you're not looking too good yourself. You want one of us to trade off with you tonight so you can get some sleep? I can hang out here, if you want, Frohike's on night watch, so I'm free."
"Thanks, Langly, but no. She'd never go for it. We've established a certain comfort level. Besides, if we do that, she'll think we've taken this on as a chore and not as an act of friendship. I can't chance doing something I know will upset her. Her emotional state is unstable, at best, I don't want to be the one to push her over the edge."
Scully's bedroom
After she finished getting dressed, Scully picked up the phone and dialed Mulder's number.
"Mulder."
"Mulder, it's me."
"Hi."
"About earlier...I'm sorry, I...I'm sorry, you didn't deserve to be yelled at like that."
"It's OK."
"You're mad at me."
"No, Scully, I'm not mad at you. I'm worried, I think you're keeping something from me."
"I told you, I'm fine. The nightmares are keeping me up and I'm losing sleep, that's all. They'll pass, just like they always do. This time's just lasting a little longer than most, that's all."
"I want to believe that, Scully."
"But..."
"But... I'm having trouble. Maybe it's because I'm here and you're there and I can't look at your face when you tell me you're fine." Mulder looked up to see that Lee had come into the office. "Hey Scully, can I call you back later? Lee's here and I really need to go over the information I got from Fustian."
"Sure, I'll be here."
Scully put down the phone. Feeling a little better, now that she'd apologized, she prepared for the evening ahead. Getting up from the edge of the bed, she was hit by another one of those irritating waves of dizziness. Using the nightstand for support, she stood still and waited for it to pass. This was beyond annoying at this point. She'd taken both medications before, with no ill effects and she was eating properly, thanks to Mother Byers. True, she wasn't getting enough sleep, but that still didn't account for the constant dizziness. As bad as it was in the living room, it seemed to get worse whenever she tried to get up from the bed. Giving up, she sat back down on the bed and decided to ask Byers for some help. The last thing she wanted to do was appear weak in front of Frohike and Langly, but she was out of options. She tried to call out, but soon realized that they couldn't hear her. So, she did the next best thing; the one thing she knew he would hear. Picking up the book she'd long since given up trying to read, she hurled it at the bedroom door. It hit with a loud bang. As soon as the book hit the door, she heard the sound of chairs being pushed back, followed by running. *Five, four, three, two...* The door flew open.
"Dana, are you all right?"
Scully gave him a little smile and slumped in defeat. "I can't stand up. When I do, the room spins. Would you mind?"