Sunday, March 27, 2005

Agents Skinner, Reyes and Doggett are interviewing MUFON conference attendees and collecting evidence in the conference hall. Skinner completes a phone call to Washington and notices Agent Reyes waiting to talk with him. He puts his phone in his inside jacket pocket and smells his not too clean under arms. He wonders if the Manager would let him slip into a room for a shower. It had been a mad dash to catch the first available flight out of Washington after the report of Scully's abduction. Skinner briefly wonders why he still lets himself be manipulated by Mulder. He does not want to admit to himself that he is still highly protective of Scully, probably protective to an unseemly extent. Still, Scully had left the FBI on good terms with almost everyone and few would question his loyalty to her. Not that he would change even if someone did question his actions.

Reyes shows Skinner three digital cameras, "We have a dozen excellent photos of the armed intruders in the act of abducting Scully." Skinner does not trust himself to speak in a civil tone as he thinks about Mulder endlessly involving Scully in his UFO crusade. He takes one of the cameras from Reyes and tries to figure out its controls. Monica can see the tense line of Skinner's mouth and bunched muscles of his jaw. She restrains herself from explaining the control switches on the camera and lets Skinner read the labels on the controls for himself.

Doggett approaches Skinner and Reyes and holds up an optical disc. "This disc holds Dana's presentation." On the flight out from D.C. they had discussed the idea that someone had wanted to keep secret what Scully was going to speak about at the MUFON conference. "All the witnesses report that there was no attempt to take the disc."

Skinner shakes his head, "This goes deeper than what Scully had to say. Who ever is behind this has no fear." He looks intently into the LCD display of the camera and continues to scan through the stored images. It is a small display window so he is holding the camera up close to his face.

Reyes glances at Doggett, smiles, winks and mutters, "Who ever...or what ever."

Skinner scowls at Reyes over the edge of the camera and he sounds pissed, "What do you mean by that, Agent?

Reyes maintains her bright student's smile. She is always happy to reveal things to her boss, particular since she knows Skinner is confident enough to never feel like he is being made to look stupid when he does not know everything. She explains, "Sir, look closely at the images of the 'men' who took Scully." Skinner does as she suggests and slowly looks through the images that are stored in the camera a second time.

Doggett is looking through a printout of those registered at the motel. He looks up from the papers and sees Monica waiting patiently for Skinner to finish studying the images. Monica looks from Skinner to John and gives a slight nod to indicate that he would not be interrupting if he spoke. He tells Monica, "Scully's name is not on this registration list."

Reyes is not surprised. She says, "According to Richard Wells, Dana drove in last night for the talk and was not planning on staying here over night." At one level of her mind, she can accept the idea that Scully would not want to stay at the MUFON conference any longer than it took to give the talk. Reyes does not yet doubt that Mulder had talked her into giving the "alien" presentation. Scully had been working for years to build her professional credentials as a medical researcher and the last thing she would have been looking for was a gig at a MUFON event.

Skinner stops looking at the images stored in the camera and holds the camera so that Reyes and Doggett can see one of the images, "Recognize anyone?" he asks sarcastically. They all recognize the Lone Gunmen in the image, pictured sitting beside a swimming pool. The three FBI agents share looks that say, 'I should have known!' If Mulder can find a way to get into trouble, the Lone Gunmen are expected to be nearby.

"I did not notice anything unusual about the men who grabbed Scully." Skinner turns the camera's LCD screen back towards himself and scrolls back to the last images in the memory, the images of the abduction.

Reyes holds out her hand, "May I have the camera, Sir?" Skinner glares at her then decides not to look at the images a third time and hands over the camera. "I missed it at first, too. That LCD is too tiny for a good view." She takes the camera over to the podium and does a wireless download of the images from the camera into the iMac Mini that is connected to the room's big screen projection system. "Let's enlarge the images." She hits some keys on the keyboard and a picture of Scully being dragged out of the conference hall fills the screen. "There." She switches to another image. "There." And a third, "And there." She cuts parts of the three images out and pastes them all into a blank page, side by side. Now it is clear that the men all look identical.

Doggett whistles. "Clone troopers, Princess Leia." He moves to the computer, "But you missed something." He returns the computer to one of the original full-sized images of the abduction and points to Mulder's profile at the edge of the image. "There's Mulder, just watching the whole thing go down."

Skinner asks, "Did they take Mulder, too?"

Reyes shakes her head, "No. The witnesses are all very sure: only Scully was taken. Those early reports of a third van being involved in the abduction were from confused witnesses. From what most of the witnesses report, it is clear that the third vehicle was the Lone Gunmen and Mulder following after Scully."

Skinner grabs the printout of names from Doggett and reads down the list. "Ya, Mulder was here, alright." He points to a name on the list, "Charles Mantle. That's Mulder, room 242." He squares his shoulders and looking at Monica and John is struck by how they resemble two race horses pent-up at the gate. "Reyes, get these images FTPed back to Washington. Doggett, see if Mulder left anything in his room. I want to know what he thought he was up to. I'm putting an APB out on the Lone Gunmen. Those bozos stick out like a sore thumb and I'm betting Mulder is still with them." As the two younger agents bolt to comply with Skinner's requests, the Assistant Director is glad to have them both on the case. Briefly he thinks of cats and lives and wonders how many lives Dana and Fox still have banked in their accounts.