DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything except Jacinta Federico, and her weird
family and friends.
Oh, and PLEASE, PPLLEEAASSEE review..((
December 10, 2002. 6:40 P.M.
"Merlder." Mulder groaned, waking up from a deep sleep and answering his phone. He been asleep since 3 that afternoon. Scully and Federico had gone to the NYC Public Library to see what documents they could pull up on Roswell.
"Mulder? It's Byers."
"Hey." Mulder said mindlessly, as he pushed back the lacey curtain of the front door to identify who just rang the bell. Federico's family had gone shopping, and Mr. Federico was at work, leaving Mulder alone in the house, to "Defend the Fort." It was Scully and Federico.
"Forgot my keys!" Federico shouted through the glass.
"Whatchya' got By'rs." Mulder continued, as he unlocked the door, strolled back into the living room and flopped on the couch.
"Not so much me as Langly."
"Oo(h)?"
"Yeah."
"Oo(h)."
"Mulder? Are you okay?"
"Whah? Oh, no. I'm fine. I uh.....just uh..woke up................." He admitted for lack of a better excuse.
"Ah. Well. We found out why our decoder is so useless."
"Yeah. But we can't discuss it over the phone," Frohike broke in using the other line, "We think someone's been tappin' into our equipment. Can you meet us at Rockefeller?" Mulder managed to shake him self awake, as Federico and Scully hung up there coats and sat down with two mugs of hot chocolate.
"Uh. Yeah. Um. What time?"
"Now."
"Sure."
Click.
Darn! They ain't gonna be happy campers!, Mulder thought inwardly as he smiled mischievously outwardly.
"What." Scully demanded unhappily.
"We need to meet Langly, Byers and Frohike at Rockefeller now. They've got news about they're decoder that they don't wanna discuss over the phone."
"Like, now-NOW?" Federico asked.
"Yeah. Now-Now."
Scully heaved a sigh, collected the hot chocolate and dished out their coats again.
They looked out along the stores, but saw no Gunmen. They went nearer the rink, where they saw the trio stick out like sore thumbs. They sat on a bench along the ring for resting ice skaters, looking at a computer. Really, it wasn't suspicious at all.
Mulder had seriously hoped that their FBI badges would have gotten them free admission to the rink itself, but the whole my-contact-is-waiting-for- me-on-a-bench-by-the-rink-and-I-need-to-go-and-see-him thing didn't actually go over very well. In the end, Mulder wound up paying for the three of them, the two women have conveniently left their wallets at home, a near sin in the feminine rules of conduct, which was to be reviewed later once as Mulder had decided to get them to pay him back.
"It's OKAY. I've got you. Easy does it. That's right. Step. And slide. Step. And Slide. There you go. You're getting it."
"WOAH!!!!!!!!EEWWERWRW!!!!!" Strange sound escaped Federico as she clutched Scully for dear life on the ice-skating rink, nearly pulling both Mulder and Scully down with her.
Regaining her balance, Scully proceeded to coach poor Federico.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"She can't unless you actually let go of her and the railing." Mulder whizzed passed them- backwards.
"Show-off. ERSEERWWEE!!!!!"
"Relax! It's okay. Just keep you balance. That's the key."
"One with the skates. Be on with the skates." Mulder taunted, grinning ear- to-ear, as he spun around them impatiently, throwing Federico completely off balance.
"Can I slap him now?" Unfortunately MMulder was out of earshot anyway. "I'd feel safer knowing if I go down you go down too."
"Thanks."
"You know what I mean, Scully."
"How do you wanna ensure that? Federico. Oh, no. Wipe that smile off your face. Mulder! Wanna be her new coach?"
Approximately 20 minutes later, Federico and Scully, (and Mulder, although he didn't count since all he did was do annoying spinny things), arrived at the Lone Gunmen's perch.
"Your prisoner, Federico?"Langly eyed the handcuffs Federico had locked herself and Scully into.
"I'll take her prisoner if you don't want her!"
"Shut-up Frohike."
"Pardon, Dana."
"SCully."
"Well, pull up a chair, you two." Byers smiled, and offered his seat.
"Can you unlock me now?"
"Oh, darn it. I think I checked in the key with my purse."
"ALL the way back over there?"
"Yeah. Sorry, Scully."
SIGH.
"I'll just stay here." Mulder smiled. "Unless you want me to come along."
"NO!" Federico would not here of it.
Another 20 minutes later, Scully and Federico had returned, with the handcuffs off.
"Whatchya' got?" Scully smiled at the laptop.
"Instant recap: You may be wondering why the heck our handy-dandy computer decoder ain't loadin' the new letters as fast as you'd hope. After all, the key combinations are simple enough. But not all of these letters are infact letters."
"I'm lost."
"You know that African tribe, that communicates using a series of clicking- sounds, Federico?"
"Uh, yeah. I think they're the Khoisan?"
"That's right. Well, there is evidence that another tribe, the Xhosa, have adopted several of the Khoisan clicking-sounds. For example, Spelt properly Xhosa look like this....." He bent over the computer (pushing Langly aside) and typed something in. " '!Xhosa' "
"That exclamation point represents a click that properly comes before it......."
"Okay. That;s swell, but what are you getting at?"
"This little translator we have searches for whole languages. This document isn't in one language."
"Cut to the chase, Frohike."
"Believe it or not, this is in Khoisan."
"Wait." Federico was confused. "Then the document is in one language."
"Ah, 'tis where your wrong."
Federico pleaded with the only pleading-glare she knew how to give.
"This is in Khoisan. The letters represent in this document symbols, which in turn represent words from the Khoisan language."
"I thought that language was near impossible to document phonetically."
"It is. And we're not talking about a writing system. Sorta. Well."
"You were kinda right when you mentioned make-shift languages." Byers interrupted Frohike.
"Yeah. Whoever did this little bit of work was pretty darn good at keyboard characters and make-shift languages." Langly chimed in .
"What C.G.B. Spender managed to do here was get a native Khoisan speaker, get him to transfer all the words he needed to use in a form of keyboard characters, type em out, then switch those characters around to match up with letter and number combinations." Frohike smiled.
"Spiff." Scully sank into the bench.
"So how do we translate it?" Mulder spat out a sunflower seeds, which unfortunately resulted in its jamming between the "q" and the "w" on Langly's keyboard.
"Darn you're eating habits, Mulder." Langly roared, trying to pry the shell loose without getting tiny bits stuck further into the gear.
"Oh bother." He spat out one more, which in turn got stuck to a Christmas ball on the tree looming over head.
Frohike watched it fly over to the tree as if in slow motion. Time restored to its natural state, he happily pronounced "Bulls eye."
"What we have to do," Byers interjected, "is find the guy who did it."
"Where is this guy?"
"Unknown." He responded to Federico with a sigh. "But chances are he's hanging pretty close too the Smoking man."
"Why's that?" Scully sounded only remotely interested.
"Well, If Smoking man ever had any hopes of reading this document over, he'd have to get this man to translate it. And apparently, he wanted to read pretty recently."
"Oh?" Mulder spat a sunflower seed that took up residence on Frohike's jacket. Mulder pretended not to notice.
"Yeah. Unless you happen to the steal the files," Langly quickly shot a glance at Federico, who pretended to know nothing about the matter, "You've gotta check them out according to Conspirator Policy 101."
"Ah." Sunflower seed skyrockets and gets caught in an innocent passerby's skates.
"What first told you this was even Khoisan?" Scully skeptically inquired. (Big surprise there.)
"There was one little tiny error in their coding." Frohike tapped something into the computer. "To help along the translator, the tail end has something encrypted in German. The words roughly translate to----" Frohike smiled as Scully peered over his shoulder to read. She in turn paid him no heed, and simply read out: "Khoisan proverb?"
"Yeah. Apparently there was a quote in there, one which the idiot who translated this decided to credit in German."
"Could he be that stupid?" Federico reasoned.
"Sure. Look at Doo-hike." Langly smiled.
"Frohike, you moron."
Byers decided this was a good time to step into the picture again." What probably happened was that the guy who translated this did all footnotes in German. But because our decoder only scans for whole languages one page at a time, and that footnote happened to be the only thing on the final page, that was the only footnote that registered."
"So. Who do we go for this?"
"That's pretty tricky." Mulder piped up. "But if this was checked out recently, he could be in the vicinity. Chances are he is an immigrant from Africa, or an African student who learned the language fluently enough to embark on this project while studying in Africa, most likely on an anthropological course on indigenous peoples."
"Psychology buff strikes again." Langly paused to rest his eyes, which were currently burning out of his head.
"So....Lets look through the database...." Langly hacked away a short period later. "Okay. Only two people in this database speak Khoisan. The first is a male living in Quebec.........The second is a lady residing in.........NYC."
"Let's see the address, Langly."
LAngly flew like mad searching. Finally coming across it, Mulder took down the information and frowned.
"Down the village. We might have time to go tonight?"
Federico nonchalantly shrugged, and Scully was busy admiring the pine needles that so gracefully dangled from the tree. A.K.A. she was really bored. Who said hacking was interesting. Whatever the case, Mulder took their silence for a yes.
"Stay here. We'll be back shortly."
"You're gonna cost us money, man. There'll be many a skating session before you get back."
"I'll reimburse y'a, Langly. We'll go as fast as you can. We can. My mind's scrambled."
"It's always been that way Mulder," Scully slyly commented as she brushed past glaring Mulder.
Half an hour later they stood outside the door to Ms.Kahmpii's office.
"Eh....Let me go in guys, okay?"
"Why? You have a plan?"
"Actually, that's a sentence fragment, Scully."
"Mulder, just because Krycek told you that you had good grammar, doesn't mean you should go around correcting everyone else's grammar."
"Scully, it surprises me that you could know so little. I-"
"I'll take that as a yes." Federico took this as her opportunity to go in.
"I-Only do this so that the streets will be a place where one can speak and enjoy conversation the way the English language was meant to be spoken."
"Mulder-"
"Can I help you?" The receptionist looked up at Federico with a smile, and a look that read, you-might-wanna-make-this-snappy-cause-I'm-overworked-and- underpaid-and-my-emploryer's-making-me-work-over-time-tonight-look.
"Ehm....Yes, I'm looking for Ms.Kahmpii?"
"Yes. She's currently busy at the moment, so whom shall I say is calling?"
"Ehm.....Just tell her that a friend of C.G.B. Spender's is calling, it's urgent."
The receptionist smiled.
"Most of the cases we deal with are." The Like-tonight-she-had-to-upgrade- her-new-computer-game-and-that's-the-only-reason-why-I'm-still-here-look was shot over at Federico.
"Just let me know when I can see her. Thanks." She sat down quietly.
Eventually, the door swung open, and the receptionist returned from Ms.Kahmpii's office.
"You can see her now."
"Thank you."
She closed the door behind her. The room was painted a light crimson color, and was adorned with beautiful gilded, bronze book holders, and immense mahogany bookshelves. The desk was of a lovely cherry wood, as were the plush-wine chairs, and the desk had its back to a large window, set off by light golden curtains.
"Hello. Please, have a seat."
"Thank you."
"My secretary tells me you're a friend of C.G.B. Spender?"
"Yes."
"Mhm. And what is your name?"
"Alexia Krycek." She cringed at the thought, though she suppressed it with a smile.
"I see. What can I do for you, Ms. Krycek."
Cringe. CRINGE.
"Mr. Spender asked that you decode these documents?" She handed them to Ms. Kahmpii over the table, trying to act natural.
"Let's take a look," She nodded reassuringly at the files. Several minutes later she added, "Oh. I didn't expect to see these again so soon."
"So there recent?"
"I only translated them several months ago. Tell me, why does Mr. Spender need these?"
"He didn't say. All I know that there is some sort of emergency."
"I'm surprised he didn't come himself. He usualllly does...."
"He couldn't. He's been called out of town, I believe something relating to this crisis has happened."
"Well, where shall I send them to him?"
"I'll bring them. He told me that no one was to know where he was, but that I should take the files personally to him."
"I see. When do you need them by?"
"As soon as possible."
There was a silence.
"Tonight?"
"Tonight! Tomorrow isn't enough time!"
"I know this is incredibly short notice, but this is a matter of utmost importance!"
"Incredibly seems to be an insufficient word!" Then she looked around a moment, and heaved a sigh, saying, "Let's see what we can do...." She turned to face her computer.
Federico amused herself by playing with the hem of her shirt.
"How's it going?" She asked, going behind Ms.Kahmpii to see the screen.
"Excellently. It appears my computer only took a total of 10.10 seconds to start up." She glared over her shoulder.
Federico wandered about the room.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Yes. You can give me some peace and quiet to work, and stop asking your questions at intervals of 10 seconds."
Federico gave an annoyed glance around. She leaned back in her chair and stared at Ms. Kahmpii.
"I'm going to have to ask that you stop staring." She stated not looking away from her computer.
"What else have I to do?"
"Amuse yourself."
"With what?"
"I can't concentrate with you staring."
"You should be able to."
"Ms. Krycek, please find something to do."
"But you said there was nothing."
"I told you to stop asking questions."
"You're the one that started."
"Ms. Krycek, are you finished?"
"But this is amusing."
A glare was shot, and Federico returned it with a sly smile.
"I'll be waiting outside." She said still smiling.
"Thank you."
Four hours later, Federico walked outside into the hallway, the decoded documents in her hand.
"Guys? Wake up." She shook Mulder and Scully, who were asleep hunched on the floor, awake.
"You have them?"
"Yup."
"Let's just hope that The Gunmen are still there." Mulder started for the door.
"Where are they!?" They'd been skating around the rink forever looking for them.
"EMERPH! EK!"
"I don't know Mulder." They ignored Federico.
"Let's-FEDERICO!!" They went skating to catch Federico who had mastered the step and slide part of skating, but not the brakes section.
Scully grabbed Federico two seconds before she crashed into the railing. The force of the sudden stop caused them to fall.
"I hate the effects of inertia." Scully complained straitening up, and helping Federico to her feet.
"As I was saying, Lets try the front desk."
"Hi. We're looking for-"
"I'm sorry, sir. Buy are you looking for-" The clerk looked at his note, "The Tinmen?"
"The Tin- Yes." Scully smiled and took the note. She managed to read through Langly's horrific handwriting.
" 'Went back. See you later. You owe me 4 periods. -The Lone Gunmen ' "
"To the boardinghouse! Avante'!"
Did Federico never tire?
"Eh, Federico?" Scully interjected, catching her by the shoulder. "How about something called sleep. You and me----"
"----You and I."
Scully pretended not to hear Mulder.
"You and ME have been to the city twice today, and if your gonna say you ain't tired----"
"I ain't gonna say ain't, cause ain't----"
"Ain't in the dictionary, I know that, Mulder." She turned back to Federico. "If your gonna say you ain't tired, I don't believe you."
Federico gave a wry smile and nodded. "Agreed. Little shut eye never hurt anyone."
"You've the idea now. Let's stop an' get some donuts."
"Fine by me!"
"Great. Let's get gain distance between us three and the rink, eh?"
"We three, actually."
"MULDER!"
Langly frowned at the answering machine and it's blinking lights. The phone had been ringing, but if anyone actually expected him to pick up.......
"HI, this is Federico? I'm calling to speak to The Tinmen. The man at the rink said you had left us a note. Lucky for us, Scully can read Langly's handwriting better than Mulder and I-------------" "ME!" "MULDER! Shut- up!.......Sorry, Tinmen, Mulder's on a grammar kick. We'll drop by in the morning. The files are decoded, and we wanna see what you make of it. Talk soon. Bye."
Federico hung up and lazily wandered into the living room. She sat down, wrapping a blanket around her tightly. Two sneezing fits later, she asked Mulder to go see if the boiler needed water to be added to it.
"It's full." He reported.
"Then could you raise the heat? Thanks."
"Alright..........But it IS 100 degrees in here."
Federico gave a slight laugh.
"He's right......" Scully admitted. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Little woozies all."
Scully felt her head.
"You're running a temperature. Lay down."
"I'm fine Scully. Real-----"
"Lay down," she insisted more forcefully. With a rolls of her eyes, Federico laid down on the couch.
Scully ran a compress for her, and smiled as she applied it.
"Thanks, Mommy." Federico smiled.
"You're welcome......"
"You'd better stay here tomorrow. Mulder and I are going to take a flight down to D.C. for two days, dig up some info. In the Pentagon. According to those files you got decoded, Pentagon should begin to be our main focus."
Mulder opened his mouth to correct her grammar, but Scully caught him, and he closed his mouth, using his better judgment.
"No. Please, I'll be fine, I'll come."
"No."
"Really----I----"
"No!"
"Ah, let the girl go."
"Mulder! Are you----"
"See he agrees!"
"Who's the doctor here?"
"I----"
"----Mulder!"
"------Never mind."
"-----You're staying home, Federico. And that's all there is too it."
Federico rolled her eyes and sank back.
"Yes, Mommy."
The next morning, Federico was awakened by the sound of her door opening.
"Scully?"
"Sorry. We were trying to sneak out undetected. Our flight's gonna leave. Go back to sleep."
"Call me, guys."
"We will," Mulder assured her.
Federico waved them goodbye as they left. Something was not quite right. Hm. Deja vu of Madeline?
Oh, and PLEASE, PPLLEEAASSEE review..((
December 10, 2002. 6:40 P.M.
"Merlder." Mulder groaned, waking up from a deep sleep and answering his phone. He been asleep since 3 that afternoon. Scully and Federico had gone to the NYC Public Library to see what documents they could pull up on Roswell.
"Mulder? It's Byers."
"Hey." Mulder said mindlessly, as he pushed back the lacey curtain of the front door to identify who just rang the bell. Federico's family had gone shopping, and Mr. Federico was at work, leaving Mulder alone in the house, to "Defend the Fort." It was Scully and Federico.
"Forgot my keys!" Federico shouted through the glass.
"Whatchya' got By'rs." Mulder continued, as he unlocked the door, strolled back into the living room and flopped on the couch.
"Not so much me as Langly."
"Oo(h)?"
"Yeah."
"Oo(h)."
"Mulder? Are you okay?"
"Whah? Oh, no. I'm fine. I uh.....just uh..woke up................." He admitted for lack of a better excuse.
"Ah. Well. We found out why our decoder is so useless."
"Yeah. But we can't discuss it over the phone," Frohike broke in using the other line, "We think someone's been tappin' into our equipment. Can you meet us at Rockefeller?" Mulder managed to shake him self awake, as Federico and Scully hung up there coats and sat down with two mugs of hot chocolate.
"Uh. Yeah. Um. What time?"
"Now."
"Sure."
Click.
Darn! They ain't gonna be happy campers!, Mulder thought inwardly as he smiled mischievously outwardly.
"What." Scully demanded unhappily.
"We need to meet Langly, Byers and Frohike at Rockefeller now. They've got news about they're decoder that they don't wanna discuss over the phone."
"Like, now-NOW?" Federico asked.
"Yeah. Now-Now."
Scully heaved a sigh, collected the hot chocolate and dished out their coats again.
They looked out along the stores, but saw no Gunmen. They went nearer the rink, where they saw the trio stick out like sore thumbs. They sat on a bench along the ring for resting ice skaters, looking at a computer. Really, it wasn't suspicious at all.
Mulder had seriously hoped that their FBI badges would have gotten them free admission to the rink itself, but the whole my-contact-is-waiting-for- me-on-a-bench-by-the-rink-and-I-need-to-go-and-see-him thing didn't actually go over very well. In the end, Mulder wound up paying for the three of them, the two women have conveniently left their wallets at home, a near sin in the feminine rules of conduct, which was to be reviewed later once as Mulder had decided to get them to pay him back.
"It's OKAY. I've got you. Easy does it. That's right. Step. And slide. Step. And Slide. There you go. You're getting it."
"WOAH!!!!!!!!EEWWERWRW!!!!!" Strange sound escaped Federico as she clutched Scully for dear life on the ice-skating rink, nearly pulling both Mulder and Scully down with her.
Regaining her balance, Scully proceeded to coach poor Federico.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"She can't unless you actually let go of her and the railing." Mulder whizzed passed them- backwards.
"Show-off. ERSEERWWEE!!!!!"
"Relax! It's okay. Just keep you balance. That's the key."
"One with the skates. Be on with the skates." Mulder taunted, grinning ear- to-ear, as he spun around them impatiently, throwing Federico completely off balance.
"Can I slap him now?" Unfortunately MMulder was out of earshot anyway. "I'd feel safer knowing if I go down you go down too."
"Thanks."
"You know what I mean, Scully."
"How do you wanna ensure that? Federico. Oh, no. Wipe that smile off your face. Mulder! Wanna be her new coach?"
Approximately 20 minutes later, Federico and Scully, (and Mulder, although he didn't count since all he did was do annoying spinny things), arrived at the Lone Gunmen's perch.
"Your prisoner, Federico?"Langly eyed the handcuffs Federico had locked herself and Scully into.
"I'll take her prisoner if you don't want her!"
"Shut-up Frohike."
"Pardon, Dana."
"SCully."
"Well, pull up a chair, you two." Byers smiled, and offered his seat.
"Can you unlock me now?"
"Oh, darn it. I think I checked in the key with my purse."
"ALL the way back over there?"
"Yeah. Sorry, Scully."
SIGH.
"I'll just stay here." Mulder smiled. "Unless you want me to come along."
"NO!" Federico would not here of it.
Another 20 minutes later, Scully and Federico had returned, with the handcuffs off.
"Whatchya' got?" Scully smiled at the laptop.
"Instant recap: You may be wondering why the heck our handy-dandy computer decoder ain't loadin' the new letters as fast as you'd hope. After all, the key combinations are simple enough. But not all of these letters are infact letters."
"I'm lost."
"You know that African tribe, that communicates using a series of clicking- sounds, Federico?"
"Uh, yeah. I think they're the Khoisan?"
"That's right. Well, there is evidence that another tribe, the Xhosa, have adopted several of the Khoisan clicking-sounds. For example, Spelt properly Xhosa look like this....." He bent over the computer (pushing Langly aside) and typed something in. " '!Xhosa' "
"That exclamation point represents a click that properly comes before it......."
"Okay. That;s swell, but what are you getting at?"
"This little translator we have searches for whole languages. This document isn't in one language."
"Cut to the chase, Frohike."
"Believe it or not, this is in Khoisan."
"Wait." Federico was confused. "Then the document is in one language."
"Ah, 'tis where your wrong."
Federico pleaded with the only pleading-glare she knew how to give.
"This is in Khoisan. The letters represent in this document symbols, which in turn represent words from the Khoisan language."
"I thought that language was near impossible to document phonetically."
"It is. And we're not talking about a writing system. Sorta. Well."
"You were kinda right when you mentioned make-shift languages." Byers interrupted Frohike.
"Yeah. Whoever did this little bit of work was pretty darn good at keyboard characters and make-shift languages." Langly chimed in .
"What C.G.B. Spender managed to do here was get a native Khoisan speaker, get him to transfer all the words he needed to use in a form of keyboard characters, type em out, then switch those characters around to match up with letter and number combinations." Frohike smiled.
"Spiff." Scully sank into the bench.
"So how do we translate it?" Mulder spat out a sunflower seeds, which unfortunately resulted in its jamming between the "q" and the "w" on Langly's keyboard.
"Darn you're eating habits, Mulder." Langly roared, trying to pry the shell loose without getting tiny bits stuck further into the gear.
"Oh bother." He spat out one more, which in turn got stuck to a Christmas ball on the tree looming over head.
Frohike watched it fly over to the tree as if in slow motion. Time restored to its natural state, he happily pronounced "Bulls eye."
"What we have to do," Byers interjected, "is find the guy who did it."
"Where is this guy?"
"Unknown." He responded to Federico with a sigh. "But chances are he's hanging pretty close too the Smoking man."
"Why's that?" Scully sounded only remotely interested.
"Well, If Smoking man ever had any hopes of reading this document over, he'd have to get this man to translate it. And apparently, he wanted to read pretty recently."
"Oh?" Mulder spat a sunflower seed that took up residence on Frohike's jacket. Mulder pretended not to notice.
"Yeah. Unless you happen to the steal the files," Langly quickly shot a glance at Federico, who pretended to know nothing about the matter, "You've gotta check them out according to Conspirator Policy 101."
"Ah." Sunflower seed skyrockets and gets caught in an innocent passerby's skates.
"What first told you this was even Khoisan?" Scully skeptically inquired. (Big surprise there.)
"There was one little tiny error in their coding." Frohike tapped something into the computer. "To help along the translator, the tail end has something encrypted in German. The words roughly translate to----" Frohike smiled as Scully peered over his shoulder to read. She in turn paid him no heed, and simply read out: "Khoisan proverb?"
"Yeah. Apparently there was a quote in there, one which the idiot who translated this decided to credit in German."
"Could he be that stupid?" Federico reasoned.
"Sure. Look at Doo-hike." Langly smiled.
"Frohike, you moron."
Byers decided this was a good time to step into the picture again." What probably happened was that the guy who translated this did all footnotes in German. But because our decoder only scans for whole languages one page at a time, and that footnote happened to be the only thing on the final page, that was the only footnote that registered."
"So. Who do we go for this?"
"That's pretty tricky." Mulder piped up. "But if this was checked out recently, he could be in the vicinity. Chances are he is an immigrant from Africa, or an African student who learned the language fluently enough to embark on this project while studying in Africa, most likely on an anthropological course on indigenous peoples."
"Psychology buff strikes again." Langly paused to rest his eyes, which were currently burning out of his head.
"So....Lets look through the database...." Langly hacked away a short period later. "Okay. Only two people in this database speak Khoisan. The first is a male living in Quebec.........The second is a lady residing in.........NYC."
"Let's see the address, Langly."
LAngly flew like mad searching. Finally coming across it, Mulder took down the information and frowned.
"Down the village. We might have time to go tonight?"
Federico nonchalantly shrugged, and Scully was busy admiring the pine needles that so gracefully dangled from the tree. A.K.A. she was really bored. Who said hacking was interesting. Whatever the case, Mulder took their silence for a yes.
"Stay here. We'll be back shortly."
"You're gonna cost us money, man. There'll be many a skating session before you get back."
"I'll reimburse y'a, Langly. We'll go as fast as you can. We can. My mind's scrambled."
"It's always been that way Mulder," Scully slyly commented as she brushed past glaring Mulder.
Half an hour later they stood outside the door to Ms.Kahmpii's office.
"Eh....Let me go in guys, okay?"
"Why? You have a plan?"
"Actually, that's a sentence fragment, Scully."
"Mulder, just because Krycek told you that you had good grammar, doesn't mean you should go around correcting everyone else's grammar."
"Scully, it surprises me that you could know so little. I-"
"I'll take that as a yes." Federico took this as her opportunity to go in.
"I-Only do this so that the streets will be a place where one can speak and enjoy conversation the way the English language was meant to be spoken."
"Mulder-"
"Can I help you?" The receptionist looked up at Federico with a smile, and a look that read, you-might-wanna-make-this-snappy-cause-I'm-overworked-and- underpaid-and-my-emploryer's-making-me-work-over-time-tonight-look.
"Ehm....Yes, I'm looking for Ms.Kahmpii?"
"Yes. She's currently busy at the moment, so whom shall I say is calling?"
"Ehm.....Just tell her that a friend of C.G.B. Spender's is calling, it's urgent."
The receptionist smiled.
"Most of the cases we deal with are." The Like-tonight-she-had-to-upgrade- her-new-computer-game-and-that's-the-only-reason-why-I'm-still-here-look was shot over at Federico.
"Just let me know when I can see her. Thanks." She sat down quietly.
Eventually, the door swung open, and the receptionist returned from Ms.Kahmpii's office.
"You can see her now."
"Thank you."
She closed the door behind her. The room was painted a light crimson color, and was adorned with beautiful gilded, bronze book holders, and immense mahogany bookshelves. The desk was of a lovely cherry wood, as were the plush-wine chairs, and the desk had its back to a large window, set off by light golden curtains.
"Hello. Please, have a seat."
"Thank you."
"My secretary tells me you're a friend of C.G.B. Spender?"
"Yes."
"Mhm. And what is your name?"
"Alexia Krycek." She cringed at the thought, though she suppressed it with a smile.
"I see. What can I do for you, Ms. Krycek."
Cringe. CRINGE.
"Mr. Spender asked that you decode these documents?" She handed them to Ms. Kahmpii over the table, trying to act natural.
"Let's take a look," She nodded reassuringly at the files. Several minutes later she added, "Oh. I didn't expect to see these again so soon."
"So there recent?"
"I only translated them several months ago. Tell me, why does Mr. Spender need these?"
"He didn't say. All I know that there is some sort of emergency."
"I'm surprised he didn't come himself. He usualllly does...."
"He couldn't. He's been called out of town, I believe something relating to this crisis has happened."
"Well, where shall I send them to him?"
"I'll bring them. He told me that no one was to know where he was, but that I should take the files personally to him."
"I see. When do you need them by?"
"As soon as possible."
There was a silence.
"Tonight?"
"Tonight! Tomorrow isn't enough time!"
"I know this is incredibly short notice, but this is a matter of utmost importance!"
"Incredibly seems to be an insufficient word!" Then she looked around a moment, and heaved a sigh, saying, "Let's see what we can do...." She turned to face her computer.
Federico amused herself by playing with the hem of her shirt.
"How's it going?" She asked, going behind Ms.Kahmpii to see the screen.
"Excellently. It appears my computer only took a total of 10.10 seconds to start up." She glared over her shoulder.
Federico wandered about the room.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Yes. You can give me some peace and quiet to work, and stop asking your questions at intervals of 10 seconds."
Federico gave an annoyed glance around. She leaned back in her chair and stared at Ms. Kahmpii.
"I'm going to have to ask that you stop staring." She stated not looking away from her computer.
"What else have I to do?"
"Amuse yourself."
"With what?"
"I can't concentrate with you staring."
"You should be able to."
"Ms. Krycek, please find something to do."
"But you said there was nothing."
"I told you to stop asking questions."
"You're the one that started."
"Ms. Krycek, are you finished?"
"But this is amusing."
A glare was shot, and Federico returned it with a sly smile.
"I'll be waiting outside." She said still smiling.
"Thank you."
Four hours later, Federico walked outside into the hallway, the decoded documents in her hand.
"Guys? Wake up." She shook Mulder and Scully, who were asleep hunched on the floor, awake.
"You have them?"
"Yup."
"Let's just hope that The Gunmen are still there." Mulder started for the door.
"Where are they!?" They'd been skating around the rink forever looking for them.
"EMERPH! EK!"
"I don't know Mulder." They ignored Federico.
"Let's-FEDERICO!!" They went skating to catch Federico who had mastered the step and slide part of skating, but not the brakes section.
Scully grabbed Federico two seconds before she crashed into the railing. The force of the sudden stop caused them to fall.
"I hate the effects of inertia." Scully complained straitening up, and helping Federico to her feet.
"As I was saying, Lets try the front desk."
"Hi. We're looking for-"
"I'm sorry, sir. Buy are you looking for-" The clerk looked at his note, "The Tinmen?"
"The Tin- Yes." Scully smiled and took the note. She managed to read through Langly's horrific handwriting.
" 'Went back. See you later. You owe me 4 periods. -The Lone Gunmen ' "
"To the boardinghouse! Avante'!"
Did Federico never tire?
"Eh, Federico?" Scully interjected, catching her by the shoulder. "How about something called sleep. You and me----"
"----You and I."
Scully pretended not to hear Mulder.
"You and ME have been to the city twice today, and if your gonna say you ain't tired----"
"I ain't gonna say ain't, cause ain't----"
"Ain't in the dictionary, I know that, Mulder." She turned back to Federico. "If your gonna say you ain't tired, I don't believe you."
Federico gave a wry smile and nodded. "Agreed. Little shut eye never hurt anyone."
"You've the idea now. Let's stop an' get some donuts."
"Fine by me!"
"Great. Let's get gain distance between us three and the rink, eh?"
"We three, actually."
"MULDER!"
Langly frowned at the answering machine and it's blinking lights. The phone had been ringing, but if anyone actually expected him to pick up.......
"HI, this is Federico? I'm calling to speak to The Tinmen. The man at the rink said you had left us a note. Lucky for us, Scully can read Langly's handwriting better than Mulder and I-------------" "ME!" "MULDER! Shut- up!.......Sorry, Tinmen, Mulder's on a grammar kick. We'll drop by in the morning. The files are decoded, and we wanna see what you make of it. Talk soon. Bye."
Federico hung up and lazily wandered into the living room. She sat down, wrapping a blanket around her tightly. Two sneezing fits later, she asked Mulder to go see if the boiler needed water to be added to it.
"It's full." He reported.
"Then could you raise the heat? Thanks."
"Alright..........But it IS 100 degrees in here."
Federico gave a slight laugh.
"He's right......" Scully admitted. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Little woozies all."
Scully felt her head.
"You're running a temperature. Lay down."
"I'm fine Scully. Real-----"
"Lay down," she insisted more forcefully. With a rolls of her eyes, Federico laid down on the couch.
Scully ran a compress for her, and smiled as she applied it.
"Thanks, Mommy." Federico smiled.
"You're welcome......"
"You'd better stay here tomorrow. Mulder and I are going to take a flight down to D.C. for two days, dig up some info. In the Pentagon. According to those files you got decoded, Pentagon should begin to be our main focus."
Mulder opened his mouth to correct her grammar, but Scully caught him, and he closed his mouth, using his better judgment.
"No. Please, I'll be fine, I'll come."
"No."
"Really----I----"
"No!"
"Ah, let the girl go."
"Mulder! Are you----"
"See he agrees!"
"Who's the doctor here?"
"I----"
"----Mulder!"
"------Never mind."
"-----You're staying home, Federico. And that's all there is too it."
Federico rolled her eyes and sank back.
"Yes, Mommy."
The next morning, Federico was awakened by the sound of her door opening.
"Scully?"
"Sorry. We were trying to sneak out undetected. Our flight's gonna leave. Go back to sleep."
"Call me, guys."
"We will," Mulder assured her.
Federico waved them goodbye as they left. Something was not quite right. Hm. Deja vu of Madeline?