9.
The ringing of the phone jarred him awake, and he rolled off the couch clumsily before scrabbling for the receiver. "Mulder," he grunted, rubbing at an elbow he'd knocked against the coffee table.
"Mulder, it's Skinner."
"Sir," Mulder muttered, reflexively sitting a little straighter on his couch. "How are you?"
"Were you told that they found Cassandra Spender?" Skinner asked, ignoring the question.
"What? No, sir, no one told me. How is she?"
"She's dead, Mulder. She died last night, purportedly in her sleep, at a secure facility."
"Why are you telling me this, sir?" Mulder asked.
"The circumstances in which she was found, and her sudden death make me think this is something you'd be interested in."
"I'm not on the X Files anymore, sir. In fact, I'm on 'leave' at the moment."
"Yes, I heard about that," Skinner said, sounding slightly irritated. "She was found at the Potomac Yards in Arlington. A group of people appear to have been burned alive again, Mulder, and she was the only survivor."
"Again?" Mulder breathed, feeling his heart thump loudly in his chest.
"Cassandra wanted to talk to you, Mulder, but evidently word never got through to you."
"Evidently," Mulder agreed shortly. "Why are you telling me all of this, Skinner?"
"I wanted to know what your take on it was. And why they would murder Cassandra Spender?"
"You know what my take would be, and I couldn't tell you why they would kill Cassandra," Mulder said bluntly.
"Cassandra?" Scully's voice asked from behind him. "Cassandra Spender?"
"Hold on," Mulder muttered into the phone, turning to face Scully. "They found Cassandra, but she died last night," he said gently.
"Oh god," she whispered.
"Mulder, you still there?" Skinner was asking into the phone.
"Yes, sir."
"There is one other thing. A man was found this morning, apparently also burnt alive and hidden in the basement of the building complex where he worked. Forensics estimates his death to be two to three days ago. The strange thing is, his staff and other people who've been interview swear they saw him yesterday, and spoke to him."
"Other than also being burnt, what's his connection to Cassandra?"
"There isn't one. But he's closely related to a Doctor Openshaw, who was one of the victims at the Potomac Yards. They're linked through a vested interest in genetic research, specifically the field of immunology."
"I'd love to help you, sir, but at the moment I'm busy with another situation," Mulder said.
"Another situation?" Skinner asked suspiciously.
"Yes," Mulder said. "One that's a bit tricky to just ignore at the moment."
Sounding highly suspicious, Skinner said goodbye, leaving Mulder with the phone in his hand and Scully standing at the other end of the room, watching him warily.
"That was Skinner," Mulder said unnecessarily.
"I guessed," she said.
"It looks like an X File," he added.
She quirked an eyebrow, but other than that she didn't move. Mulder sighed, rubbing his face with his hands to try and get rid of the last vestiges of sleep. "Scully," he started, only to be interrupted by a loud knock on his front door, followed instantly by a gusty wail from the baby still in the bedroom.
"I'll get the door," he said instead.
"I'll get the baby," Scully said, disappearing into the bedroom.
Mulder sighed and pulled his jeans on over the boxers he'd slept in, figuring it was still early so opening the door without a shirt would be relatively acceptable.
His visitor knocked again, loudly, and Mulder felt a flash of irritation spark through him at the demanding rhythm. "I'm coming," he called before curling his fingers around the door handle and pulling the door open. His eyes widened, and then narrowed in anger.
"Krycek," he hissed.
"Well, are you going to invite me in or not?"
"What the hell are you doing here, Krycek?" Mulder demanded, staring at the man standing on his doorstep.
"I don't think you want to have this conversation where anyone can hear it," Krycek said amicably. Despite the conversational tone lacing Krycek's words, there was a wild urgency in his eyes and movements which made Mulder's heart thud with concern.
"Why should I listen to you?"
"Because you want to hear what I've got to tell you," Krycek said confidently. "Trust me, Mulder."
Without waiting for the invitation, Krycek pushed past Mulder, to where Scully was now standing pointing a gun at him. "What the fuck are you doing here, Krycek?" she demanded curtly.
Krycek smiled. "This isn't the way you treat someone who's going to help you," he admonished.
"You don't help, Krycek, you destroy."
"No, I survive," Krycek corrected. "There is a difference. And I have helped you, I made sure you got the baby, didn't I?" he said petulantly.
"You led us to the baby?" Scully demanded instantly. "Why?"
"Because we're all part of the answer," Krycek said cryptically. "You, Mulder, your baby, and me."
"What answer?" Mulder demanded.
"How it ends. Who wins."
"I think you can start at the beginning," Scully ordered, "and explain everything once and for all."
"Put the gun down, Scully, it's not like I can do anything with two of you here," he said calmly, shrugging the armless shoulder to emphasise his disadvantage.
"No," Scully said bluntly. "Tell me how we're part of it, and what exactly it is that we are a part of."
Krycek glanced pointedly at Mulder, who shut the door and moved over to the couch. Following his example, Krycek also found a spot, Scully seating herself last, the gun still pointed at Krycek.
"It's story time, children. Listen to Uncle Alex," he smiled.
"Just get on with it, Krycek," Mulder snapped, losing the last of his patience.
"The 'it' that you want defined, Scully, is the cure."
"The cure to what?" Scully asked.
"The virus. The black oil. The beginning of what will be the most destructive plague known to mankind. Mankind will cease to exist if this plague is unleashed."
"So how are we all part of it?" Mulder asked.
"Each of us is immune. Mulder and I picked up the immunity in Tunguska, you in Antarctica, and the baby through you and Mulder. Inherited junk DNA coding for proteins which are, effectively, the anti-virus. DNA that we ceased to use thousands of years ago. Nobody knows exactly why, Scully, but this baby is immune."
"That's not possible, Krycek," Scully said flatly. "My ova were taken from me before I received the vaccine in Antarctica. Adam was conceived by an ovum taken years before I received the vaccine."
"But Mulder was immune," Krycek said softly. "And the unidentified proteins in your system were a result of the procedure they used to activate the same DNA within your ovum before they took them."
"Then why did she react to the virus?" Mulder demanded. "Why need another vaccine if she already has these proteins in her blood stream?"
"Proteins break down. These proteins disappeared long ago, didn't they, Scully?"
She nodded.
"Your baby has his DNA permanently activated to produce these proteins. You've seen them, haven't you Scully, in the test results Frohike gave you?" Krycek asked, but he didn't need her affirmative nod to continue. "The combination of Mulder's immunity and your ova with its activated DNA produced a child that is immune to the effects of the black oil. Your child possesses something the Syndicate has been working to synthesise for nearly fifty years."
"Specific immunity doesn't work like that," Scully argued, "you don't just inherit it."
"You think it doesn't, but this immunity does," Krycek disagreed. "This is the same virus that turns a human into an alien. Give its anti-virus the same benefit of a doubt, Scully."
"It's not possible, Krycek!" she argued.
"Believe what you want, Scully, but for some reason Mulder's immunity did something to the ova fertilised by his sperm, and some of the babies are all naturally immune to the virus. They are the first, and the only. And I need to know why."
"They?" Scully whispered.
"Two more," Krycek said, his voice surprisingly gentle. "But you won't get to them, Scully. You never will. One was immune, the third wasn't. Both of those children were disappeared; even I don't know where they are. I was lucky to find this one."
"They're my children!" Scully hissed.
"And you've got one of them," Krycek responded coolly. "You've got one of your children, Scully, which is more than you should have ended up with, had everything gone to plan. Especially since he's immune."
"Why let us take him then?" Mulder questioned.
"They didn't. You were never supposed to know about them."
"Then why do we know about them? And why do we have him?"
Krycek shrugged. "Fairy godmother. Someone who supported your cause. Someone who felt sorry for you, maybe."
"You?" Scully asked doubtfully.
Krycek shrugged. "I just made sure he got to you, before the Rebels or the Colonists found out about him."
"What's your stake in this, Krycek?" Mulder asked quietly.
"Me? I'm in this because it's personal," Krycek said simply.
"Personal?" Scully asked cynically.
Krycek looked at her pointedly. "I take dying as personal. I take having my planet over run by aliens who eat you from the inside as personal. I take losing my arm as personal. Take your pick, Scully, but it's personal."
"Why, Krycek," Mulder drawled, "I didn't know you had a heart."
Krycek chuckled bitterly. "This has nothing to do with heart, Mulder, and everything to do with survival. You, Scully, your son and your little group of associates is the best chance this planet stands at surviving. I'm smart enough to realise it, and desperate enough to tell you that."
The baby had cried again, when Krycek had finished his explanation, and Scully had risen uncertainly to her feet to go tend him.
"Noisy little tyke, isn't he?" Krycek grinned.
"She doesn't believe you," Mulder said, "and I'm not sure if I do either."
Krycek shrugged. "Believe what you will, but time's running out."
"What do you mean?"
"The Rebels are attacking. They're going to destroy us, before the Colonists can take us as hosts and slaves. They were the ones who made sure Cassandra Spender lived, and that the Colonists were made aware of her existence."
"Why is Cassandra so important?" Mulder asked.
"She was the first successful human-alien hybrid. What the Colonists want to use as slaves. Cassandra was going to be bait, and when the Colonists came to claim Earth, the Rebels would attack. But the Rebels will kill us before they let the Colonists get us," Krycek said calmly.
"So you killed Cassandra."
If he hadn't been watching Krycek so closely, he wouldn't have caught a glimpse of a flickered emotion which he couldn't identify, but as it was Mulder wasn't sure he'd seen it.
"She had a hard life," Krycek said. "She understood the stakes even better than you do, Mulder. She knew it had to be done."
"You're a murderer, Krycek," Scully hissed from the doorway, drawing both Mulder's and Krycek's attention toward her.
"And this must be your son," Krycek said, ignoring the comment as he stared at the baby cradled in Scully's arms. "The baby in which lies our only hope for survival."
Scully's arms tightened visibly around the baby, and an uncertain fear strained her lips. "What do you want from us, Krycek?" she asked softly.
Krycek smiled, and there was a trace of what appeared to be sympathy in his smile. "I'm here to make sure the child – Adam – stays safe."
"Adam?"
"I think it was Parenti's idea of an irony," Krycek said, shrugging. "Adam. The first."
Mulder swallowed and stared at the baby.
"We have to go," Krycek said.
"What?" Mulder and Scully demanded together.
"One of the Consortium was murdered two days ago," Krycek said, "and there has been significant evidence planted at his home to suggest that you were involved."
Mulder raised his eyebrows. "What?"
"You're being framed, Mulder, a joint effort by the Spender family, and it will be successful. The punishment you get for stealing one of his project," Krycek said dryly, shrugging toward the child still in Scully's arms. "Unless you want to find yourself in prison – where it's very easy to have suicide committed for you, apparently – you're going to have to leave."
Mulder ran a strained hand through his hair. "Give me one reason to believe a single word that you've just uttered," Mulder demanded.
"I don't have any proof," Krycek admitted, "but if you want to hang around and find out you're more than welcome to. I will suggest, though, that Scully then takes the baby and gets as far away from here as possible, because the Rebels will, and probably have already through infiltration, learnt about Adam. They will want him, because he holds the only hope against the Colonists virus."
"Mulder?" Scully asked uncertainly.
He licked his lips. "I don't trust you, Krycek."
"I know."
"But if Krycek is telling the truth, Scully, we should go."
"Where?"
"Somewhere near the ocean," Krycek said firmly. "Trust me, we want to be real close to the water in case the Rebels do find us."
"We?" Mulder repeated warily.
"I've invested more time than I should have making sure you got hold of the kid, Mulder, and I'm not about to let you lose him now. Besides, you want me with you, Mulder. I know more about the Rebels and the Colonists than you do, and I know how to get away from them."
"Why should we listen to you?" Mulder asked again.
"You don't have to," Krycek conceded, "but what will you gain from listening? If we leave now, and in the next few days you discover that what I'm telling you isn't true, what have you lost? Nothing. You're in control the entire time; I'm just along for the ride. On the other hand, if what I'm telling you is true, then you've got a lot more to lose by hanging around here and waiting for the FBI to arrest you."
Mulder looked across at Scully, who was watching him with her brow furrowed.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"It could explain why Kersh let us off so easily," she murmured. "He didn't need to fire us; we were set up from the beginning."
"I'll let the Gunmen know we've gone underground."
"I'll go pack Adam's things," Scully murmured quietly.
Mulder stared at the doorway through which she'd disappeared for several seconds.
"Six years, Mulder, and you're still staring after her," Krycek commented.
"I do not stare after Scully."
Krycek raised an eyebrow.
"If you're lying, Krycek, or you double cross us, your other arm will not be the only appendage I cut off," Mulder said calmly.
