"I don't know you, but somehow I feel like we're family."

The man turned slightly. "Agent Mulder, I didn't expect you here."

Mulder stood six paces behind Cancer man, his right hand holding the gun, leaning his left arm on a boulder. "Well, an unmarked BMW in the middle of the Mexican desert is a little conspicuous."

"You can put down the gun," he said, turning back to look at the early morning sky. "You don't need it."

"No probably not," Mulder said, slipping his gun into his holster. "Especially since your driver just had a rather nasty argument with the windshield."

C-man tapped some ash on the ground.

"It was a bit obvious, don't you think?"

"It got you there, or rather here."

"Sorry to disappoint you. But I'm still alive. What was it? Compression bomb? Nuclear weapons?"

"Would I be standing here watching if it was?"

"That's sacred land!" Mulder began, "Doesn't it bother you that you're destroying ancient burial grounds and villages? You could have tested somewhere else!"

Cancer man stepped down from the rock outcrop. "Frankly Mr. Mulder, you are beginning to irritate me. And unfortunately for you, you aren't where you should be."

"I'm afraid of heights."

"I don't think your friends share your sense of vertigo. Maybe the trap worked after all."

"Scully?" Alarmed, Mulder looked towards the mesa. "Whatever it is you're doing, stop it. Call it off now!"

"In an unprecedented agreement with Mexico we are able to use some of their land to test new ground penetration weapons to use against the chemical weapons factory in Iraq. It was merely unfortunate that two agents on holiday happened to be present."

"Looking like idiots searching for the lost land of Mu," finished Mulder. "I didn't come because I fell for the bait. I came because a friend of mine saved my life." He raised his gun. "And that's why you're going to call it off. Now."

"The charges are already laid," he said. "It's up to the pilots now," he gestured up into the lightening sky. He turned back towards Mulder. "You really care that much for a dirt bowl with a bunch of broken clay pots."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand. Let's just say I owed a shaman a favor."

C-man shook his head slightly, staring at Mulder. "Ah, here we are," he said as a light approached in the sky.

The Craft swept in low over the site once more. The explosives had been deployed within the specified time constraints, and now the test could be completed: by laying the primary charger.

The Craft pulled into its final run.

That was when Mulder and Cancer Man saw double.

The other ship came out of nowhere. It was twice the size and twice as fast. The lead Craft faded in a flare of light, and then there was only the Mother Craft.

Cancer Man's lung dart hung loosely from his bottom lip, adhering by the saliva. As the moisture evaporated, it fell, end over end to land in the dust at his feet, extinguished.

Mulder lowered his gun. "You know, I don't think someone else likes how you're using their ships."