The door opened as Skinner's secretary walked in and deposited a bulging batch of files into the IN tray. When it closed behind her, the room was no longer empty.

Scully emerged from behind a file cabinet and approached Skinner's desk.

It took forty seconds to find the file that she was looking for.

It took five minutes to read.

She read it three times to make sure that she understood it.

She darted for the door. She paused with her hand on the doorknob.

Her eyebrow slightly raised, she returned to Skinner's desk.

Agent Pendrell was waiting for Scully in hall

"Come on," Scully said as he trailed in her wake, "We're going to Mexico."

His jaw dropped.

Scully, misinterpreting completely, spared him a glance. "If you're that hungry we can stop and get some food first."

"What? It's Memorial weekend. And where are were going to get the money?"

"No worries," Scully let drift over her shoulder. In her hand she flashed a VISA Gold card: Skinner's.


Sonoran Desert, Mexico

The mesa towered over the surrounding desert like some medieval castle. It was over two hundred feet high and roughly a mile in circumference. The rock comprised the natural fortress were stained hues of pink, green and white: a layer cake of color.

It took Mulder almost an hour before he reached the crest of the bowl shaped valley. In the distance, he saw a figure. As he approached, the features resolved themselves into a woman bent over bits of pottery. She wore hiking boots, khaki shorts and a red t-shirt that read, "Evolve or Die" emblazoned across the chest.

"Are you searching for the lost land of Mu?" Mulder called to her.

As the woman stood, the sun flashed off of the rock hammer that had R. Cottrell etched on the exposed head. Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils twitched slightly. "Are you some kind of idiot?"

"Agent Fox Mulder. FBI."

Her nose sniffed.


Scully and Agent Pendrell drove through the desert in a rented red Mercedes, top down.

"I refuse to ask again why we are here." Pendrell squinted in the bright sun.

"Relax, 'Mr. Skinner,' we're supposed to be on holiday remember?" Scully rubbed some lotion on her hands. "You should really put some of this on you know," she said to him.

He glanced back from the road and snorted at the offered sunblock. "No thanks. I've heard stories about the way you two work you know. Why is it that you two are the only ones in the whole department who never go in with back up?"

"Have you ever tried filling out a report requesting assistance to find the Lost Land of Mu?"

He glanced back over at her, then back to the road. His fists tightened around the steering wheel. "I hate field work."