'Is he alive?' Mulder asked Scully who had been summoned to the Hospital. This was possibly on account of her medical training, but nobody really knew where the FBI were involved.
'Barely. He's got a serious head wound, the surgeons are still working on him. On top of that the blood work has just come back and for some reason they can't get a match on it. It's been sent back for them to try again. It'll be touch and go if he does survive.'
'Why?' queried Mulder.
'He needs whole blood, so much has been lost because of his injury, they're having to pump him full of plasma and saline to get a blood pressure reading.'
'Well our friend in there has certainly a few mysteries around him. If they hadn't closed the X-files down, he would be our next assignment.' Mulder looked glum. He had still not come to terms with the closure of his life's mission.
Scully frowned.
' What mysteries, you said he was just another crack pot out to get his name in the media.'
'Oh, if only,' replied Mulder. 'The building was tighter than a miser's wallet, it'd been searched by manpower, K9, and the usual electricals prior to the President's arrival.' He held up a typewritten report, it was barely a page long.
'Impressive,' retorted Scully.
'Not really,' her partner replied. 'The majority of it's FBI babble for 'We don't know how he got into the building, and we don't know where he was hiding.' The forensic people have just finished and there's no trace of where he was hiding. It's like he popped through a hole in the ceiling, but that's been checked as well.'
'The X-files are re-opened.' It was the voice of their boss, Assistant Director Skinner. 'I've put my neck on the line for this one, don't screw up on me.' He glared at the two agents.
'Did I hear your right there, sir? We're back on an X-file?' queried Mulder.
'Yes, you heard me right. It's unexplainable how he got into the building. I've re-opened the X-files and I'm putting you two in charge! We need to know where he's from and what he was trying to do.'
The attending surgeon approached them. 'Are you people in charge?'
'They are,' Skinner said and stalked away.
'We found these in his cerebrum cortex,' the surgeon said handing Scully two small evidence bags. One contained what was obviously the bullet discharged from the sniper's rifle, malformed by its passage into the stranger's skull.
The second held a small piece of circuitry. Scully raised her eyebrow to the surgeon.
'Don't ask me,' he replied. 'We found that in his speech centre; it looked like it had been implanted there.'
'Implanted?' Mulder questioned.
'Yes, it was hard-wired to his brain. It was definitely supposed to be there.'
Mulder blinked. 'Curiouser and curiouser said Alice. What was it there for?'
'Don't ask me, I'm a doctor, not a neural implant specialist.'
Mulder grinned at him. Scully made a disgusted sound.
'When you boys have finished playing? What is your prognosis on the patient?'
The surgeon shrugged his shoulders, 'About 25 – 75, your sniper did a good job, as usual. I suppose you want to see the patient?' He indicated for the Agents to enter the ICU.
The man was lying on an ICU bed, held in place by restraints, with his head heavily swathed in dressings. He had lines going into both arms and was on a respirator.
'We normally try to sedate patients with head wounds of this magnitude, however this one is either not receptive to the sedatives, or he's got a really strong will power. Not only is he fighting the sedatives, but also he's still breathing for himself. He should be out for the count.'
'How about withdrawing the respirator, and seeing how he copes? It's got to be better then keeping him strapped down.' suggested Scully.
'Sound good to me.' replied the surgeon; 'The straps are an order from your boss. They can go too.'
'Skinner?' queried Mulder.
'No, the man with the cigarette. He said that the man had to be kept restrained, until they come to remove him.'
The two Agents looked at each other.
'The Cancer man, what's he got to do with an attempted presidential assassination?' Scully exclaimed 'What ever it is, it's not going to be good for the patient.'
The surgeon had by this time removed the respirator from the man, who was now lying calmer in the bed. He was breathing well, and his colour had improved. The duty nurse was leaning over him checking his dressing when suddenly she leapt back, with a cry of surprise.
'What are you doing awake?' she demanded, for the man's eyes were wide open, scrutinising the room with a look of bewilderment.
'What beautiful eyes you have!' the nurse added with a smile. 'I think that's what we'll call you, eh, old blue eyes.'
'Still no idea of an identity for him?' questioned Scully, also looking into the man's deep midnight blue eyes. She felt that she could drown in them.
'No,' replied the nurse. 'There's nothing at all to ID him. No clothing labels. Not even any marks or scars that you could run through the computer. His skin is perfect, as are his teeth. No fillings, nothing. I just can't understand how a man of his age could not have any marks at all.'
Mulder grinned at the nurse's obvious puzzlement.
'Let my colleague have a look over him.' He grinned at Scully; he had seen her gazing into the man's eyes.
'She's a trained pathologist, she might pick up something that you've missed.'
Mulder went for coffee while Scully with the help of Nurse Taylor, checked the man over. On his return they had no real news.
'Nurse Taylor is right,' said Scully. 'I've never seen anything like it. He hasn't even got calluses from his shoes. The only thing I could find was some hardened skin on both hands. Looks like he uses some sort of double handed instrument, to cause them.'
'Where are his clothes?' asked Mulder.
Nurse Taylor left the room and returned a few minutes later with a hospital bag of clothing.
'The man with the cigarettes took some things with him when he left. They looked like shiny metal, a long thin bar, about so big.' She held her hands about nine inches apart. 'A smaller oval silver thing, and a round silver and gold thing. They were all in the pouches of the belt, except the long one, that was hanging on a hook.'
Mulder and Scully again exchanged a quizzical look.
'Who was that man? It's obvious that you two don't like him. I have a bad feeling about him. He wasn't interested in our patient, just what he was carrying,' said Nurse Taylor.
'Someone with a lot of power, not used for good either. What's this about him wanting to move our patient?' asked Scully.
'Yes,' said Nurse Taylor. 'When he was in earlier he said that Blue Eyes was going to be moved to some sort of military establishment, as soon as he was stable.'
'Well, we'll just have to make sure that they think he's not likely to survive, maybe he'll be left alone then.' Mulder scowled.
The three grinned at each other.
'Lets look at the stuff that the Cancer man left, shall we?' asked Scully.
They took the bag to a table at the nurse's station and tipped the contents out. Inside were assorted items of clothing. Although they had been inside the plastic bag for over a day now they still smelt clean. There were undergarments in what appeared to be cotton-like material. Long trousers in a muddy brown colour, a sandy coloured tunic and a dark brown full-length coat with a hood and loose sleeves. There was also a wide brown belt with an elaborate buckle arrangement and knee high heavy leather boots.
'There's not even a laundry label on any of the clothing! It looks to be homespun…not been made on a machine anyway. The weave is unusual; it's quite fine. Those boots must have cost a small fortune; they're hand made. Well worn though' Scully exclaimed after thoroughly examining all the items.
'But, no ID, no cash, and no credit cards.' Mulder pointed out.
'Maybe they don't use money where he comes from,' said Scully, giving Mulder a knowing smile.
'Har, har,' he retorted.
'Obi-Wan? Obi-Wan?' The two agents turned towards the man's bed. He was sitting up looking around.
'Obi-Wan?'
'That's a question,' declared Mulder.
'Yes, but what is he asking?' said Scully. 'It's okay, you're safe here, you're in a hospital.'
The man looked puzzled.
'Jab te ghogh, qut nuq?' he said.
'What?' exclaimed Mulder, turning to Scully 'I've never heard anything like that before.'
'We need to get it taped and down to the Linguistic Lab,' replied Scully. She left the room to liaise with them and to arrange for recording equipment to be delivered.
'Well just you and me pal,' Mulder said. 'Hi, my name's Agent Mulder, the lady who's just left is Agent Scully. We're federal agents, we're trying to find out why you made such a dramatic entrance into the hall where the President had just arrived.'
The man looked perplexed. 'Wuq, a ach?'
'This is going to be real fun, let's start with the basics shall we?' Mulder put his hand on his chest. 'Mulder, Mulder.'
He then pointed to the man, 'Come on pal, what's your name?'
The man looked bewildered, then his face brightened, 'Obi-Wan.'
'Well done. Now we're cooking on gas. Hello Obi-Wan.'
That seemed to have exhausted him and he sunk back onto his pillow. His face had paled, and he was sweating. Taylor bustled into the room, a look of concern on her face.
'I think you might have overdone it there, Agent Mulder. He's still very weak.'
'Yes, but at least we've got a name for him now, Obi-Wan. Strange.'
'I'll mark his record up. I still think Blue Eyes sounds better.' She chuckled at Mulder.
Scully returned to the room shortly afterwards to find Mulder sitting beside the patient's bed with a knowing grin on his face.
'Okay, what have you done? You're both looking very pleased with yourselves.'
'Hello, Dana. How are you?' It was the man, in a heavily accented and fragmented voice. She smiled in relief.
'Well, hello yourself. I'm fine, how are you?'
The man looked confused. 'Obi-Wan,' he said.
Mulder buried his face in his hands, laughing. Scully gave him a quizzical look.
'Sorry. While you were out he told me his name, so I've been giving a crash course in English. Unfortunately you asked the wrong question.'
'What was I supposed to ask?'
'What his name is. He's all upset now.'
Scully glanced at the man. 'What is your name?' she asked.
He smiled. 'Obi-Wan.'
She couldn't help but grin; he looked so pleased with himself.
'Very good, Obi-Wan, now you need to get some rest. Someone else will be coming in shortly to take over from us. We'll be back in the morning.'
Obi-Wan appeared to understand; at least he lay back onto his bed, and seemed to drift off to sleep. Twenty minutes later the night team arrived. Mulder briefed them, then he and Scully left the hospital.
'Do you fancy a coffee, Mulder? My place is closer.'
'Sure, why not.'
