Mulder followed the truck off the interstate, and into the Bethesda city limits. He tailed it all the way into the campus of Janus Biomedical Research, which was located in a heavily wooded area five miles away from Interstate 95. While it may have been true that the medical conglomerate was close to the Naval hospital, it was also true it would take longer to get there by car than by helicopter. Whoever built and designed the medical research campus wanted to be certain no one could accidentally stumble onto its grounds.

Mulder followed the eighteen wheeler down a paved road and into a clearing. The medical research facility was sprawled out over at least one hundred acres of ground in an open clearing. Five buildings were assembled on the plot in an inverted horseshoe. The driveway for deliveries forked off to the right, and Mulder was prepared to follow the truck when a young security guard stepped out of the guard kiosk and in front of the car. "Can I help you, sir?" he asked when Mulder rolled to a stop.

Mulder had hoped that it would not have come to this; not that he wasn't ready for it, and he certainly expected it. He just didn't have the time or patience for delays.

"What was that?" asked Mulder as he rolled down his window. "I couldn't hear you - window was rolled up." "Are you aware you're on private property, sir?" asked the young guard. Out of the corner of his eye, Mulder could see that the truck he'd followed was stuck negotiating a turn. He could also see that once the driver gained his bearings, he would be down the road, and out of site. He had to act quickly.

"Uh, yeah," Mulder replied. "It's ok - my wife works here." "And where is that?" the guard asked. Mulder pointed to the building to his right, which was in the direction of the truck. "Building one over there." "That's not building one, sir, " the guard replied, "building one's over there." The guard pointed to the building to Mulder's left. "Is that not the first building on the right?" asked Mulder. "Yes, but..." the guard began "Then that's building one. My wife works in building one, which is the first building on the right. That's what she said." The guard looked at Mulder for a minute. "What did you say your wife's name was, sir?" "I didn't," Mulder replied.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mulder could see the truck make another attempt at the turn. One more try, and the drive would be able to negotiate the turn, and drive out of sight.

"Listen, son, " Mulder began, You got a wife?" "No," the guard replied. "A girlfriend?" "No" "A boyfriend?" the guard shook his head....

"...A life?" Mulder thought to himself. After a quick glance, Mulder could see that the truck was beginning to straighten its wheels...

"Ok, son - look ," Mulder began. "Today is my anniversary. Thirty-Five years. Do you know how long that is? Long enough for you to be a far-off thought in the back seat of a PT Cruiser. And right now, all I'm thinking about is surprising my wife of thirty-five years so that, if I'm lucky, she'll surprise me with something I want, which, quite frankly, is none of your business..." "Well, sir, " began the guard, "If you'll just give me her name, I can call her..."

Mulder looked him straight in the eyes. "You don't understand the whole concept of the word 'surprise,' do you, son?"

Mulder could hear the truck pull away in the distance. He knew the longer he kept this up, the slimmer his chances would be of finding that truck again.

"Look, " Mulder pleaded, "Five minutes - I'm in, we're out. Tell you what; I'll even pull back around this way to make sure you can say 'Hi!' to the little lady." "You have to, " replied the guard, "it's the only way out." "I knew that, " replied Mulder.

The guard paused and looked at Mulder. "OK - five minutes. Make it quick." "Thanks," Mulder said as he put the car in gear. "Your grandparents must be so proud of you."

Mulder pulled away, and immediately parked in front of the first building on the right. He made sure that the guard saw him get out of the car, and made extra sure the guard's back was turned when darted behind the building.

Mulder's back hugged the outside wall of building number five as he carefully made his way to the back lot. Hearing voices as he neared the building's corner, he stopped and pressed his back even harder against the brick stucco. There were two drivers in the yard; one was talking about the day's shipment, the other was commiserating about the long night he had driving back and forth from Alexandria and how the sleeper cab door was jammed. The driver had not had any sleep that night because he could not get into the sleeper compartment. The words, "liquidation shipment" came up frequently in their conversation. After five minutes, the drivers left the yard to go on their breaks. Mulder listened closely to hear if there were any other people in the yard. Satisfied that the coast was clear, he peered around the corner.

Something (or rather, someone) forced him to jerk his head back into its hiding place.

Mulder was able to catch a glimpse of a man in heavy blue coveralls and a baseball cap as he exited the rear sleeper compartment of the truck cab. Muder wasn't able to see his face; the man quickly darted onto the loading dock, and went into the building.

Something about the man's movements triggered a sense of deja vu that he quickly dismissed.

Mulder made a run for it, and found his way into the storage building. It was a large industrial space filled with empty, heavy-duty plastic pallets stacked about ten feet high. To his left, there was a row of what looked like refrigeration units. Each of the doors to these units had hazmat signs on them with the universal symbol for liquid nitrogen. Each of the doors were not locked with the latest security gadgets but with a standard, heavy duty padlock. Mulder had to laugh at the absurdity of their choice. Mulder looked to his right, and saw the black containers that were on the truck. He walked over to inspect them, and found each one had a shipping manifest taped to it.

The letterhead read, "Janus Pharmaceuticals, Alexandria, VA."

He scanned the manifest, looking for some kind of a clue that would help him in his search. The only thing that stood out to him seemed to be some kind of a catalogue or list number. The container he was looking at was simply listed as DOL1013.

When Mulder looked down at the container again, he noticed the lid was loose.

It was an open invitation for him to see what was inside. He accepted it, and removed the lid.

What Mulder saw inside the container sickened him more than anything he had seen in all his years on the X-Files.

Horrified by what he saw, he did not hear the drivers come back into the storage area, nor did he hear the man in the blue coveralls come up behind him. He tasted blood as the stranger's hand clamped over his mouth; his vise-like grip splitting his lip was it was crushed against his teeth and gums. He dragged Mulder back behind the pallets, and put his face very close to Mulder's head. The stranger's voice had a familiarity it never should have had as he whispered harshly into his ear.

"Keep your mouth shut if you want to see your daughter alive."