The Map
Agent Doggett is let into Mulder's motel room by a maid who hands him a card key so that he can lock the door when he is done. Doggett notices that the maid's hand is shaking as she hands him the magnetic key card. He guesses that she is probably an illegal immigrant and totally freaked out to have police and FBI swarming around. He tries to paste a friendly smile on his face and asks her, "How many of these magnetic keys are active for this room?"
The door lock starts to emit a buzzing sound and the maid steps through the door way and presses a button on the inner side of the lock, silencing the noise. Doggett moves through the door to try to see what the maid is doing. There is not much space in the narrow entry way to the room and Doggett ends up sandwiched quite close to the maid. He reads her name tag, P. Viray.
The maid tilts her head up at an angle. Doggett stands more than a foot taller than she does. She meets his eyes for the first time and seems to relax a little when she sees his smile. She replies in her excellent second-language-English, "When they coded this card in the office just now, it became the second. Mr. Mantle has the other. Please bring this one back to the office when you are done, Sir."
He assures her, "I will, Ms. Viray." She moves to leave, but he asks, "Did you speak to Mr. Mantle or notice if he was with anyone else, maybe other guests?"
The maid stops in the hallway and turns back to look at him again. She shakes her head and replies, "No, Sir."
"Okay, thanks." The maid departs down the hallway and Doggett lets the room door swing shut. He quickly collects Mulder's belongings: shaving kit, a change of clothes, a small gym bag. Doggett puts all of Mulder's items into the bag. He leaves his business card on the desk in case Mulder returns. Just as Doggett leaves the room, agent Reyes comes down the hall. Doggett holds up the bag, "Mulder travels light." The door lock starts to buzz and Doggett hits the warning buzzer kill switch on the inside of the door.
Reyes wants to have a quick look around Mulder's room so she moves past Doggett, brushing her hip against him as she goes through the doorway. She resists the temptation to make a snide comment about Mulder never having encumbered his life with any excess baggage, but she is tired of expressing editorial comments on Mulder's fanaticism and single mindedness. Doggett watches Monica inspect the room and wonders if she will see anything that he missed.
She lets Mulder off the hook with a flippant jab, "Its the incredible lightness of UFOlogy. THEY," she says with a drawl, making reference to space aliens, "have serious weight restrictions, so if you hope to hitch a ride to Aldeb'rin you need to pack light and keep your affairs in order." She bends over to peer into the lower cabinet of the wooden chest that holds the room's television set. She glances over her shoulder to make sure that John is watching her tush. "You look tired, John." She gestures to the bed and asks, "Would you like to lay down for a few minutes?"
Doggett grins, "I've never had a desire to get into Mulder's bed."
Monica laughs, but finding nothing in Mulder's room, she exits into the hallway. As she passes close to Doggett she winks at him and mutters quietly, "Mulder's not here, I am."
Doggett thinks -Oh, you know that I noticed, Monica!-
The doors from the hallway to the guest rooms are set to give a warning buzz each time they are opened. To shut off the buzz, either a cutoff button inside the door must be pushed or the magnetic key must be inserted in the outside key reader. A sign on each door explains that this is a reminder for guests to take their key and lock the door. Doggett uses the key to shut off the buzzer and then the two agents walk down the hall and past the fire extinguisher. Doggett says, "You know its Aldeberon." He enjoys watching her try to act stupid; she really can't do it at all.
"There must be an "Aldeb'rin"...somewhere" She sings quietly, "Somewhere, out there, reflected as pale moonlight."
Reyes reaches into her coat pocket, "Nothing was in his rental car except this map." She hands a road map to Doggett and he hands her Mulder's bag.
They go down the stairs and stop in front of the rental car. Doggett looks up at the sky and says, "I wonder why it just occurred to me to wonder if we and Scully still share the same big sky."
Reyes is pleased that John so closely follows her thoughts. "I had the same feeling a few minutes ago, as if she had just slipped away, further away than she has ever been before."
Skinner is telling an employee of the rental company to lock the car again. "I know the car is due back at your lot by 5 O'clock, but I want you to leave it here until you hear from the FBI. I've already asked the motel manager to let it stay here. If Mulder comes back, he may need a car."
Skinner and an FBI electronics technician join Doggett and Reyes on the sidewalk in front of the rental car. Doggett is spreading the road map on the hood of the car and Reyes is looking through Mulder's belongings in the bag. Skinner says, "The GPS tracker is in the rental car and we'll leave a video unit in Mulder's room."
Doggett looks up from the map. "I doubt if Mulder will come back. There was nothing of interest in his room...tooth brush and a pair of boxers. Only strange thing is this map. Its a map of Maryland." Doggett studies the map intensely.
The technician clears his throat. Doggett looks up, reaches in his pocket and hands the magnetic key for Mulder's room to the technician, "Room 242. Take the key back to the office when you are done."
The technician leaves to install a video camera in Mulder's room. Doggett starts to fold up the map but makes a mess of it. Skinner asks rhetorically, "What was Mulder thinking when he set up this crazy operation?"
Reyes takes the map from Doggett and neatly folds it while replying to Skinner's question, "Strangely, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Scully was behind this, with Mulder doing all he could to protect her." In a few seconds she has smoothed all of the map's creases and has it neatly folded to the one panel showing College Park. Doggett and Skinner look at each other and shrug; wondering how the FBI got along before there were female agents.
Reyes says, "There is what looks like a small pencil mark near College Park." She points to the map, "And these numbers along the margin match the mile counts between College Park and BWI airport."
Skinner says, "I want to know anyone in College Park that has a connection to either Scully or Mulder. Check the airlines and see if Mulder has a flight booked." Agents Reyes and Doggett take out their phones and start making calls.
