Baltimore

The Sunday evening traffic of people returning home from their weekend excursions was compounded by road repair work. It is after dark by the time Reyes reaches the University of Maryland Medical Center. She is tired and hungry and distressed that it is almost a day since Scully's abduction and the investigation has found nothing significant and useful that might help find Scully.

With the help of her cell phone and a cooperative Medical Center operator, she is able to find her way through the maze of hospital complex hallways to the research lab where Scully has been doing her DNA work. She finds room D934 and reads the sign next to the door:

Dr. W. Westlake
Diagnostic Genetic Assays Laboratory

Before Reyes can knock, a moving figure can be seen through the small frosted glass window of the door and the door opens a crack. Reyes holds up her badge to the crack, "FBI agent Monica Reyes. I think I spoke to you by phone about an hour ago."

The door is opened all the way by graduate student Karen O'fein. "Come in." Karen locks the door behind them and somewhat self-consciously explains, "We're told to keep the doors locked at night. Sometimes people wander over here from the hospital wing." Karen turns to face Monica and stands wringing her hands. She asks hopefully, "Any sign of Dana?"

Karen is young and frail and Reyes can understand her concerns about security, Monica herself had felt uneasy walking through the mostly deserted corridors of the hospital research wing. Reyes replies, "No reports on Dana's current location have been received." Monica glances left and right, "Are you the only one around?"

Karen nods, sending strands of her fine dark hair dancing along the angles of her pure white cheeks. "It is always quite here on Sunday nights."

Reyes is looking around the lab, trying to guess which of the half dozen work benches might be the one where Scully did her lab work. Monica is annoyed with herself and mentally corrects herself- where Scully DOES her lab work. "Why are you here on a Sunday night?"

Karen shrugs. "Its a good time to get work done. I'm trying to complete my research and graduate. I already have a postdoc lined up in Oregon." At that moment Monica's stomach lets out a world class growl. "Hey, would you like a snack and some tea?" Monica nods but is busy looking at all of the interesting items in the lab and remains silent. Karen leads Monica to her desk at the end of a lab bench. "We are not allowed to eat in here, but I can get away with anything on weekends. Dr. Westlake goes out sailing 50 weekends of the year." She has an electric water heating pot on her desk and several bags of dried fruit and nuts. Karen opens a drawer and finds a second mug and some packages of tea, "These are the choices," She holds up the packages for Reyes to look at.

Reyes notices one packet mysteriously labeled "Orange Dust" and says, "I have to try this one." She reads the label while Karen pours the mug full of hot water. Monica rips open the packet and places the tea bag in the mug. Karen pulls a second chair over from the adjacent desk and they sit down. Monica munches fruit and nuts while they talk.

The entire room looks sparkling clean. Reyes asks, "Why the rule about not eating in here?"

Karen explains, "We do use some nasty chemicals, like DNA intercalators that can cause mutations, but nobody who works in this lab is a slob, so it is safe to eat in here."

Reyes realizes she has dropped some nut crumbs and they are perched conspicuously on the shelf of her breast. She flicks off the crumbs and wonders if she qualifies as a slob. She asks, "What if somebody had an accident and spilled some of these intercalators? I mean, how much would it take to cause a mutation?"

Karen is impressed by Monica's statuesque figure. She looks down at her own more modest bosom and tries to imagine if it might be possible for even a few food crumbs to gain purchase there. She tries to explain about intercalators, "Intercalators are not like radiation, you have to ingest them, not just be near a source. But they are like radiation in that there is no safe level of exposure. Just one intercalator molecule in the wrong place at the wrong time could cause a mutation that might trigger a cell to change, maybe causing dangerous cell growth, cancer."

The idea of microscopically small quantities of a chemical causing a possibly lethal toxicity slackens Reyes case of the munchies. She picks up the mug of tea and sips. "This is good tea." They discuss varieties and brands for a minute then Reyes says, "On the phone you indicated that you know Dr. Scully."

"I've known her for two years." Karen smiles wistfully and looks off into space. She reminisces, "Dana was impressed by the odd teas I find. She and I would make up alternative names for them. We called this one 'agent orange'."

Reyes asks, "Did Dana tell you that she used to be an FBI agent?"

Karen nods, "Yes, we got to know each other well, but I got the feeling that she was a lab geek and did not do the sort of things you do...field work."

Reyes smiles at Scully's modesty. "Dana never shied away from field work. She was a field agent for years; she just never gave up doing lab work at the same time. She's probably the most versatile agent the FBI ever had."

Karen nods. "I don't think there is a molecular biology technique she doesn't know about. I've learned a lot from her."

"Do you know what Dana's research was involved with?"

"Yes." Karen stands up and leads Reyes to one of the desks in the lab. "This is Dana's desk."

Reyes taps the keyboard of the computer on Scully's desk. A password dialog window comes up on the screen.

Karen says, "Hey, don't you need a search warrant or something?"

Reyes takes out her cell phone and tries to contact Skinner. "No, not really. If we are going to get Dana back, I need any information that might help us find where she has been taken. Its a safe bet that she would not object to me accessing her computer files in an effort to investigate her abduction"

Skinner answers the call, "Skinner."

Reyes turns away from Karen and speaks to Skinner, "Reyes here. I've got Scully's computer in Baltimore. Doggett told me you can hack her password."

Skinner says, "Give me the number on the keyboard."

Reyes flips over the keyboard and reads off, "KY2230745GRZ7a."

Skinner repeats the number back and then says, "Give me 5 minutes."

Reyes looks at her watch, puts her phone in her pocket and turns back to Karen. "Dana was abducted by armed men just about 24 hours ago, but we have learned nothing about where they took her."

Karen says, "On the phone you mentioned it happened at some UFO thing?"

"A MUFON meeting in North Carolina," Reyes replies. "A group of UFOlogy enthusiasts."

"Ya, that's it. Dana was laughing about it all week while she was putting together her presentation. For a whole week she kept saying things like, 'Mulder's a sucker' and 'Mulder has flaky friends in low places'." Karen points to a picture of Mulder on a nearby book shelf. "He came into town about six months ago and took Dana to dinner."

"Mulder and Scully worked together at the FBI." Reyes picks up the small framed photo of Mulder.

"That's what Dana told me, and something about Mulder's obsessions being the cause of her getting kicked out of the FBI."

Reyes returns the picture to the shelf, "Dana was not really kicked out. She was given the chance to resign and the FBI helped get her a new job. Do you know the nature of her work?" She does not add that it was Mulder who got kicked out.

"We're all working together on Dr. Westlake's Army contract. Dana is our contact with the lab up at Fort Detrick. I'm sure she knows aspects of the work that I'm unaware of."

Reyes asks, "You did not hear that Dana terminated her consulting work with the Army last week?"

Karen nods. "Dana said it was a temporary leave, that she was going to be doing some traveling and speaking for a while. She left for North Carolina on Friday. She said she was going to make a bit of a vacation out of it."

"Did Mulder call and speak with Dana last week?"

Karen shakes her head. "Not that I know of, but I probably wouldn't know. You still have not told me exactly what happened to Dana. Is this Mulder character a suspect?"

"No." She shows Karen a picture of one of the clones that abducted Scully. "This is the suspect. Look familiar?"

"No. Who is it?" Karen asks.

Reyes' phone rings and she answers the call, "Reyes."

It is Skinner calling back. "Try this: Majestic-hybrid."

Reyes enters "Majestic-hybrid" into the password dialog and gains access the operating system. "I'm in," She tells Skinner.

Skinner instructs Reyes, "Establish a connection with the internet and leave it running. We will take-over the machine and download everything from this end."

"Let me know if you find anything about her contacts with the College Park lab." Reyes confirms the internet connection.

Skinner says, "The Materials Research Center at the College Park campus seems to be a dead end. Nobody there seems to know Scully. The computer data is on its way. Later."

Reyes pockets her phone and turns back to Karen. "We are trying to find out if Dana was collaborating with anyone at the College Park campus."

Karen says, "Sometimes Dr. Tekalni comes up from the College Park campus to work with Scully. And I know Dana had been going down to her lab a lot for a while, too."

"What does Tekalni work on?"

Karen shrugs. "Its fairly mysterious. Something to do with nanotechnology. She and Dana kept talking about atomic microscopy. I think Tekalni was reading the structure of molecules in some of Dana's samples by atomic force microscopy."

Reyes asks Karen to write down "Tekalni" so that she is sure of the spelling. "When was the last time Dr. Tekalni was here?"

"Hmm. Its been a while. A couple of months ago she was here every week but she has not been here for about a month."

Reyes logs off of the computer. The hard drive indicator light kept flashing as the techs in Washington copied its contents. "Did Scully seem nervous or upset about anything this past week?"

"She seemed a bit giddy. I figured she was excited about having a chance to talk about her work, but all she did was joke about those MUFU guys...she did not seem to take them seriously. You know, I think she has a soft spot for that Mulder guy. Maybe she was just excited to be meeting him in North Carolina."

"Thanks for your time." Reyes hands Karen a card. "If you think of anything else, like maybe a name Scully might have mentioned recently...anything unusual recen-"

Karen cut in, "There is one thing I have been wondering about. After her work with Dr. Tekalni wound down, Dana ordered some unusual enzymes and then did a bunch of sequencing runs. I saw her collect a sample of her own blood and I think she was using her own DNA as a control. Why would she do that? We have standardized human genomic DNA in the freezer. When I asked her she just said, "I know my own DNA like the back of my hand. What is that supposed to mean?"

"I guess she's just used to using her own DNA." Reyes remembers some of the medical school "war" stories Dana had told her about and speculates, "I think she started doing research as an undergraduate. Back then they may not have been used to all the conveniences that are available to molecular biologists now."

Karen shakes her head. "You know what I thought? I wondered if Dana is sick or something. I know some people who experiment on themselves. I thought, maybe she is trying to treat herself for some genetic disease. She started reading all these papers about genetic engineering." Karen points to a stack of journal articles on Scully's desk.

Reyes heads to the door, "Try not to worry about Dana. As far as I know she is in perfect health. I think she was going to talk about some biowarfare topic and the people at Fort Detrick found out and stopped her."

Karen sounds shocked, "You think she was abducted by the Army?"

"Its a logical guess. My partner is heading for Fort Detrick, with luck he'll find her there getting a lecture about government secrets" Reyes is just making up a story for Karen and is in a hurry to go, hoping that she can locate and speak with Dr. Tekalni. Reyes turns the bolt to unlock the door and exits to the hallway. "Thanks for dinner and your help, Karen."

Karen follows and locks the lab with a key. "I'll walk out to my car with you. Sometimes its creepy down there at night."

They take an elevator down to the underground parking garage. Reyes asks, "Have you ever been out to Scully's house?"

Karen gets into her car. "Ya. She had the whole lab out there when she moved in. Why?"

"Nothing much. It just occurred to me that maybe she has a house mate or a boy friend or something."

"I don't think so. She has often said how quiet it is out where she lives. I think she gets lonely out there. She's often in here with me working on the weekends. You know, I don't think she has a real life. I hope I don't end up like that."