Chapter 14
Everybody heard only Mulder's half of the conversation, but it wasn't like they needed to know more. They didn't need to.
A minute later Fowley was finished. Scully, as everyone expected, spoke first. "Mulder, whatever she asked of you…"
"It's done."
It took a moment for everyone to absorb this not just because of what it implied but because of how Mulder sounded and looked. For those who'd known him for decades to just a few days, he had always sounded like he was willing to fight. Even after all the tests of the last few days, he still sounded full of energy.
All of that was gone now. More than that was how he appeared. He was in his fifties, but he'd had the look and force of a man ten years younger. In the space of a minute, he looked his age plus another five years.
Diggle knew what was going through Mulder's head. "I know what you're going through right now and I get it completely. But you can't let them to do this to you."
"Less than two weeks ago, I was willing to turn the world upside down to find Oliver's son," Mulder said absently. "What kind of human would I be if I wasn't willing to do the same to save my own?"
"So let us help you," Felicity told him. "You know what we're capable of and you know what our resources. We can get to him—"
"They've already got him."
It took a couple of seconds for everybody to get what this meant. "Have they…" Scully couldn't finish.
"They've had them under surveillance for the last two weeks." Mulder said. "Diana tells him unless I follow her instructions to the letter, they will execute them. Any of you try to help they will make sure that they will suffer excruciating pain and a grievous sexual violation before that." He paused. "Apparently they have very specific people for this mission."
Even Marita seemed a little stunned at this last revelation.
"We can stop them," Cisco said with confidence he wasn't quite sure he felt.
"There's a clock on this," Mulder told them. "In five minutes, Fowley is going to text me a set of coordinates. I will meet her there at midnight to surrender myself. At that time, she'll send a separate set of coordinates to Scully where William will be. If anyone else in our circle, connected with any law enforcement agency or with any superpowers intervenes in any way, not only will William's parents die, but" it took a major effort for him to get out the last words "so will William."
They'd all gone through variations of this before. Some of them had actually met far more cruel people. It didn't make it any less of a kick in the teeth.
Alex stated the obvious. "These people are liars who have no impetus to honor the deal once they have you. Hell, Waller and Luthor might have them to do it to send a message to the rest of us regardless."
"I'm well aware of that," Mulder still sounded detached from all this. "But it's irrelevant. I have to do this."
Scully was shaking her head. "In what universe do you think I would let you?"
Mulder turned to Scully. "I have far too much blood on my hands already. If you honestly think I'm just going to let them kill our son-"
"I have already lived through this before," Scully said as calmly as she could manage. "When you went back to Oregon. When I found you in New Mexico. When you left us when the threat came. I'm not going to raise our child without you. Not again. I don't want that. He wouldn't want that. Even if they don't kill me the minute I get him back, I'd be even more useless than I was then."
The dazed look in Mulder's eyes was lifting a little, but his tone hadn't changed. "We saw what they're capable of."
"We had no intention of lying down before. These kinds of threats just inspire us to do our best work," Felicity told them with far more confidence than Cisco had shown a couple of moments before."
"You spent our entire career at the Bureau ditching me," Scully told them. "Now it's one thing if you want to do it to me. But if you really think you can do it to our son…"
"Not to mention she knew where you when she called," Diggle reminded them. "She knows were going to be involved regardless."
"You don't think they're prepared for that?" Mulder countered.
"Well, we'll just have to prepare for their being prepared." Felicity said. "And for their being prepared for our being prepared. And for our being prepared for their being prepared for our being—"
"If you keep going like that, they'll have gotten away with it by then."
As was always the case no one had noticed Oliver had entered the room. Barry and Kara were right behind him.
"Mulder, you're barely able to stand up on your own," Kara reminded him. "I seriously doubt you'd be able to get wherever they send you under your own power – assuming I'd let you, that is."
"Not to mention it's really selfish of you," Barry added. "Do you really expect us to just let the one person possible of preventing an alien apocalypse walk into certain death? That is something that only people like us are allowed to do, and there's usually after three or four hours of our friends and family saying: 'You're insane if you think we'll let you do this!'"
Mulder was kind of unnerved at just how lightly the three heroes who were helping him seemed to taking this particular threat. "This is the Syndicate. They've already demonstrated that have immense wealth, power and reach, not to mention control of the U.S. military."
Oliver shrugged. "Typical Wednesday."
"Really? Because here it's Tuesday," Barry told them.
"That must be a Central City thing, because it almost always happens on Monday for us," Kara told them.
"You think they coordinate their schedules that way?" Barry asked casually.
"They always seemed to have some kind of coordinated plan," Oliver said.
"Maybe they have some kind of rotation somewhere we're not aware of," Kara said calmly.
As the three leaders of their respective teams casually talked about the massive threats planned schedule, Mulder's depressed air was replaced by that of bewilderment. "I have to tell you Scully," he said in an almost normal voice "if you asked me what the kind of conversation superheroes had when they met up, this really wouldn't have been something I thought they'd talk about."
"I guess one global conspiracy really is just like another," Scully admitted. "It's a job, like anything else."
"Only there's no pay," Cisco told them. "Or you know health care."
"Which when you don't have superpowers really sucks," Felicity turned to Alex. "Out of curiosity, what's the deductible at the DAO?"
"Standard government issue." Alex told them. "Actually it's worse than most of them because they really have to do some contorting to explain benefits for some of the injuries we have to deal with."
"It can't be worse than the Bureau," Mulder said.
"Have you ever tried to give an expense report on gas mileage to the North Pole?" Alex said.
"No, but I spent six months in small claims court with a snowmobile rental company," Mulder admitted. "They just wouldn't accept a flying saucer had destroyed their property."
"Did the accountants at the Bureau bring this claim up when they tried to shut us down the last time?" Scully asked.
"It was the one that involved the most detailed explanation," Mulder acknowledged. "I have a feeling the next few months are going to beat that one all to hell."
11:47 P.M.
LEBANON, KANSAS
If Mulder had been inclined to think about the way Fowley was handling this aspect of this, he might have thought that she had a very twisted sense of humor. The coordinates that she had sent him were at the exact geographic center of the Continental United States – the very definition of the middle of nowhere.
Kara had been a little surprised when she learned where they were going, but she refused to explain why. "Let's just say I'm hoping that this is an inside joke to your ex and not a pointed reference to who you're working with," was all she would say. Nobody was inclined to press.
A couple of minutes later Detective West with an Amber Alert that had been launched than two hours earlier in Casper, Wyoming. A fourteen-year old named William Van De Kamp had last been seen after basketball practice at high school. None of his friends had seen him and his parents had reported him missing. There were faint hopes that as long as the Van De Kamps was with the police they'd be safe. Mulder and Scully knew just how much control these people had over law enforcement. All it would mean was a few more dead bodies.
Mulder assumed that since Fowley had known his phone number that they were also under surveillance. Felicity and company were more than happy to get them around that particular obstacle, but for the moment Mulder wanted to give as much leeway that he was going along with the conditions that the Syndicate was setting.
So he had driven out to the Central City airfield where a jet charted by ARGUS was waiting for him to take them to an airfield in Topeka. A car would be there waiting to get him to the outskirts of Lebanon where Fowley said she was going to take him into custody.
While he was doing that Kara and Barry had decided that saving the life of an innocent child took priority over whatever baggage they were going to need to work out. Kara had decided that she would sweep the area and see if the Syndicate was nearby. Barry had offered to assist, but she had demurred.
"When we need you, I'll send up a flare," she told them. "This is where air support takes priority over pure speed. Besides, we need as many people trying to figure out where they've taken William."
"Any other reason?" Oliver asked, a little pointedly.
"For now, let's just say it's a family matter."
The implication was clear even if the logic wasn't. They knew who Supergirl's secret identity was; Kara was trying to find out if they knew her cousin's as well. Even now, all of them were willing to let this remain a secret.
"I have to ask Mulder," Kara said through the earpiece she was using. "Do you think they're just going to go through the motions of taking you prisoner or they'll just shoot you on the spot?"
"I wish it were that simple," Mulder said.
"Since when does any part of them remotely approach simple?" Alex asked in Central City.
"You know that expression 'they want you for your mind'?" Mulder told them. "If you read the files carefully enough, you know in my case they may be true. After the abnormal brain activity that nearly killed me in the fall of '99, Scully found me in a sub-corridor in the DOD. I'd just been the victim of major brain surgery."
"I know I'm going to regret asking this, but just what were they trying to cut out?" Cisco asked Scully.
"The last time I spoke with that man Kritschgau, he told me that because of his infection with the virus and subsequent exposure to an alien ship, Mulder had been rendered genetically alien," Scully told them. "Even after all these years, I'm still not willing to go that far. What Mulder and I do agree on is that kind of brain activity that was important to the alien experimentation. Definitely something worth killing to get."
"I think it's the other way around, Mulder," Felicity said dryly. "Everybody wants you, either for your body or your mind."
"And they're not even asking for dinner first," Mulder said cheerfully. "They've had so many chances to kill me over the years…"
"Most of which you were more than willing to let them have," Scully reminded them.
"…and just as many when that black-lunged incarnation of evil was no longer in the picture." Mulder said in a more serious tone. "If Fowley is still in the picture – and she practically rushed me into the Syndicate arms when my brain started to sizzle and pop – I have to think that this might be one of the reasons I'm still alive."
"I've read the file," Caitlin pointed out. "Whatever brain activity you were suffering from was rendered inactive when you were brought out of your coffin."
Mulder shook his head. "Ever since I came back to civilization, Scully insisted I have a CAT scan every six months. My brain-scans have all been normal, but every so often they see a sign of a blip of anomalous activity. Nothing else shows up on further tests, so they say I'm fine. As much as I want to agree with them, I have to say I think it's just as likely that that whatever happened to me may just be lying dormant, waiting for something – or the Syndicate – to reactivate it."
Even for those who dealt with alien life on a regular basis, some of them were having trouble wrapping their heads around this part of the case files. Even Kara wasn't sure she could accept the idea that everything that had to do with the origin of life – never mind the teachings of just about every single religion on Earth - could somehow have come from an alien ship. Mulder being turned into someone genetically alien simply by exposure to rubbings from parts of that ship was easier to believe by comparison.
"Guys," Kara said suddenly. "I hear something. Two, three miles out at the max. There's a car coming."
"All right," Mulder said. "Get as far away as you're comfortable with."
Nobody was comfortable with this part of the plan. They knew that the Syndicate no doubt had the ability to monitor radar probably for the entire country, which meant they'd be able to find Supergirl no matter how high up she flew. Combined with what they already knew about the surveillance capabilities that meant that for this to work Mulder had to at least appear that he was obeying their orders. That didn't mean any of them liked it.
It wasn't hard to find what was coming. It was the only vehicle on the road at this hour heading in Mulder's direction. This told them nothing. There could be anybody or anything in this vehicle, from a team of mercenaries to an Alien Bounty Hunter to pretty much anything that the various superhero teams had seen. Not that this was what truly bothered Scully. Diana Fowley was in that car. For her, that was bad enough.
It didn't take long for Mulder to see the vehicle itself. There were no streetlights, but he could tell it was a Humvee. Wonderful. Military style vehicles never boded well in his experience. At the very least, Fowley knew that her presence and threats alone weren't going to be enough to assure he went quietly. At worst, it meant that she was expecting him not to be alone, and was preparing for a fight.
The vehicle came to a stop about a hundred yards away from him. The passenger side opened, which told Mulder enough about what he should do. But he knew that he had to keep playing this out.
Age had been kind to her; he had to admit that much. There were lines in her face and gray in her hair, but otherwise Diana Fowley hadn't changed that much since the last time he'd seen her more than sixteen years ago. He expecting to feel something – this was the woman who he had spent the rest of his life with, sort of. But he didn't feel sadness or anger or even hurt that she had just kept on betraying. This was the woman who'd helped him find his destiny once. And now the best he could manage upon learning that she was still alive was complete indifference. Even that, given the scope of her betrayal, was far better than she deserved.
Even given the terms of this meeting, Fowley remained still. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded.
"I haven't seen you in seventeen years, Fox; I need a minute."
Mulder actually laughed. "You're actually trying to turn this into some grand reunion? We've been through this before, Diana and I remember all too well how it ended."
"I told you the truth."
"Don't bother with the company line. I remember the last conversation we had. You had aligned yourself with the traitors so we could be together. The only reason I didn't throttle you on the spot was because I couldn't move. "
Fowley actually looked remorseful. "If I could've done things differently, I would have."
"There's only one thing I wish had turned out differently," Mulder snarled. "If that bastard had worse aim when he fired. So cut the crap and let's get this over with!"
The look of regret didn't change, which if anything was even worse.
"I followed your instructions. Now do something none of those bastards ever did and keep your word."
She remained implacable. Reluctantly, she took out her phone and texted.
CENTRAL CITY
"Here they come." Felicity told them.
Scully's spine stiffened. Had anybody in the conspiracy been the messenger she'd never have trusted them. The fact that it was Fowley made her even more inclined to believe this was a trap. But they had to follow through.
"They are clever. Its latitude and longitude," Cisco told them. "
"What's so clever about that?" Alex asked.
"It's a motel. In Roswell, New Mexico."
Scully went cold. "How long it will take you to do some kind of scan?"
"It's going to take some work." Felicity told them. "It's often the beaten path. No traffic or security cameras. I'm going to need to do some BTU and geothermal scans to narrow it down."
"He's in Room 11."
Everybody was surprised to hear this. "What makes you so sure?" Felicity asked
"It's the Santa Ana motel off Route 13."
Now everybody was floored. "How the hell did you know that?" Alex voiced
"When Mulder and I were first on the run – after we thought that the Smoking Man was once and truly dead – that's the motel we stayed at." Scully said. "They're not just holding our son prisoner there; they're sending us a message."
"No matter how hard you try, you can never get away from us," Felicity was actually a little pale at this. "I really hope Covarrubias knew about this. I would really like to keep my promise to her."
"Get in line," Caitlin said in a voice so cold Cisco actually wondered if her hair would start turning white again.
"First things first," he told them. "Barry, time to follow through before they change their mind."
12:02 AM
"It's done."
"How do I know you kept your word?" Mulder demanded.
"The same way we know you came alone to this meeting," Fowley actually sounded a little harsher now. "In any case, it really doesn't matter. We both know there's no way you're ever going to know for sure."
Mulder surprised himself by chuckling. "You know, being an enforcer doesn't suit you any better than being love-struck, Diana."
"In my case, I don't have to be." The locks on the back doors clicked and three men in suits got out.
"Would you like to shoot me now or wait til you get home?" Mulder said dryly.
"You know how this works, Fox," Fowley said. "It's not going to end that cleanly. Get in the car or be hauled in kicking and screaming. It doesn't make a difference to them."
"Or to you?"
"What do you care?" Fowley actually sounded a little hurt by this.
"Well, given that I basically made my career of making things harder for everyone associated with me," Mulder started, "but what the hell. If ever there was a time to cross something off my to-do list, it's now."
He calmly and quietly walked over the car. "I guess calling shotgun would be overkill."
If Diana was surprised by his change of attitude, she kept it to herself. But then she'd always been a master of stoicism. "I know you've tried to prepare for this, Fox. I may have been off the grid but I'm well aware of the company you're currently keeping."
"You made very clear what the consequences would be if I disobeyed," Mulder started.
"You never gave a damn about consequences when you were in the Bureau. I don't see why that would have changed now that you have actual superheroes on your side." Fowley's voice was at its coldest. "And we both know you never cared about your own well being."
"You've put a gun to my son's head; don't you try to take the high road," Mulder matched her tone.
"You've forgotten who I work for, and just how low we're willing to stoop," Fowley reached into her pocket. "And I damn well know that I'm not only talking to you."
Mulder felt a tug on his hand. Inwardly, he cursed himself. He had been so focused on his ex he had forgotten the mercenaries. Everybody had known they would search him and Cisco had made the transponder on him just obvious enough that they would find it, but they had thought the DEO tracking device that Alex had provided – one that had been made with alien technology – would prove invisible to the Syndicate's methods.
Now one of them was holding the transponder and another was holding a device that didn't look like you could get it at Sharper Image. Mulder remained absolutely stoic. He was going to help him.
"To any and all vigilantes, metahumans and aliens who might be observing this little exchange," Fowley told them. "We're well aware of how you plan for these little operations. So we threw in a sweetener. There's a device attached to the motel we've secluded William. It's based on bio-recognition. Should anyone other than Scully enter the building, we've attached 200 pounds of C4 – enough not only to annihilate William but anyone who happens to be within a five-mile radius. We know how fast your friends can be; trust me, they won't be fast enough to save everyone around."
"I knew you'd sold your soul years ago," Mulder snarled. "I didn't know you'd actually decided to become a devil."
"That of course, is the obvious trap. There are others but we'll leave those for you to find out," Now there wasn't even a trace of humanity in her voice. "Still want to ride up front?"
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
Barry had already brought Scully to the motel by the time Fowley had finished her announcement. By now they knew that there were five heavily armed men in the motel with a terrified William in the corner of the room. Barry had been prepared to start vibrate through the walls to get them out when they got the rest of the message.
There was, of course, an obvious solution – Scully would enter the motel room and in that split second Barry would move fast enough to get her and William out of the room before it could acknowledge his presence. It would be tricky, but he'd managed far more impressive feats over the last year. The problem was, of course, the last part of that statement. This Syndicate had already demonstrated that they were far more than capable of handling anything that Supergirl and the Green Arrow were capable of and this last message clearly meant that they were ready for the Flash. What was waiting for them on the other side of the wall?
Scully looked utterly terrified for the first time Barry had met her, and he knew damn well it had nothing to do with whatever traps might be on the other side. It wasn't entirely about her son's life being in danger either. It had to do with the fact that she was about to come face to face with the child she'd given away when he was a baby. What was the possible of death compared to that?
"You're sure it's him," she asked.
"The boy matches the description of the missing child," Barry reminded her. "As to whether he's actually your son or just another trick, none of us have any way of knowing it until we get him out of there."
Scully stood there. "Get to a safe distance."
"You talked Mulder of making a decision this rash a few hours ago," Barry countered. "Do you really expect me not to do the same thing?"
"A safe distance for you means a lot less than it would for any of your friends," Scully shot back. "But make no mistake I am going in there alone. Now I could make all the logical arguments in the world here – that has been my job for a very long time – but I don't have too. I'm supposed to do this."
"You've spent the last week arguing about the importance of free will." Alex said.
"This has nothing to do with fate and everything to do with being a mother," Scully said simply. "I wasn't a mother for very long, but everything I did was to protect my son – right up until I gave him away. It was the worst decision I ever made, but I still did it. Because a mother's job is to protect her child. That's what I did then, and that's what I'm going to do now. So let me do this."
How could Barry argue with this? He'd spent his entire childhood cursing himself for not being able to protect his mother. He'd abandoned his job because he'd failed to protect his father. He knew how much his parents loved him, and he wasn't going to stand in that way.
"I'm not that going that far," he said.
And he didn't for him – about half a mile. "Let me know the instant she opens the door."
Scully realized that if she took much longer there was an excellent chance the Mulder name was going to die right here. She knew that all of this was based on the flimsiest of premises – that Diana Fowley, of all people, was telling the truth – but a teenage boy was being held prisoner because of their actions and regardless, she couldn't let him die.
So she walked up to the door and touched the handle. She knew there was some kind of technology involved that you wouldn't normally associate with a motel like this – she could hear some kind of whirring and circuits clicking – but she still didn't believe it would actually happen until their was a click and the door opened.
Two armed men greeted her. Mulder would probably have a hell of a one-liner for this Scully thought. All she could say was: "You know why I'm here."
There was a long enough pause in which she seriously considered the possibility that they were just going to kill her anyway – it's what these people did, after all. Instead, they just shrugged and let her into the room. She didn't think for a second that leaving was going to be as easy.
She knew the second that she walked in it really was him. It wasn't just the fact that the boy had her eyes and Mulder's hair. It was just something about the way he looked at her. It was her William, their William, and it took every bit of steel in her spine to stop from running to him and begging for his forgiveness.
Swallowing every bit of emotion in her body she simply said: "Let him go."
It somehow didn't surprise her in the least that one of the other men room – clearly the one in charge – looked at her and said: "It isn't that simple."
"In what universe is any part of this simple?" Scully found herself saying.
"The two of you don't leave until we get verification."
Scully had been doing this for a long time, but even a neophyte to the workings of the Syndicate would've understood the subtext of this. The men with guns were waiting to here from Fowley that A, Mulder was dead or B, they were in a secure location. In the latter case, 'secure' would mean beyond the reach of any of their new friends which also would mean Mulder was dead. She knew this, and Fowley knew she knew.
William, however, was clearly unaware if the machinations going on around him, and looked utterly terrified. Given what he'd been through already, this was beyond understandable. It was also far from the ideal time to enlighten him. So Scully decided to play doctor.
"I'd like to examine your hostage." She hated herself for sounding so detached but the last thing this situation needed was emotions.
"What makes you think you can make demands?"
"You've got all the weapons and all the cards. The least you can let me do is see if he's hurt."
There was another long pause. "Do anything stupid…"
"I'm well aware of what happens in these situations." Scully said brusquely and walked as slowly as she could manage to William.
There was no recognition as he looked at her. "Who are you?"
There was a question that she had no easy way to answer. "I'm here…to get you out of this." She couldn't have sounded more milquetoast if she tried.
"What the hell is going on?"
Another question where no answer would make William feel any better. "It's very complicated." That was perhaps an even worse answer than the previous one.
"What did I do?'
The first question she could answer honestly. "Nothing."
"You're kidding," William said. "This isn't random. You don't get drugged, hauled in a vehicle, and surrounding by this many people for a normal kidnapping. Ever since that woman talked to me afterschool, everyone's treated me like I'm some kind of royalty. I can't even throw a decent curveball!"
Now was not the time to notice that William sounded exactly like his father with that remark. "Just stay calm," Scully said. "In a little while this will be over?"
"Are my parents okay?"
Scully knew very well that William was referring to the people who raised him and not the ones who were currently doing everything in their power to get him out alive. It didn't mean the comment cut any less deeply. "They're doing everything they can to help you," she said before she could stop herself.
Fortunately William was too afraid to try and read anything into this remark.
"Shut up both of you." The man in charge said.
Scully was more afraid of saying anything to tip of her son than pissing off the men with the guns at this point. She shut up.
12:21 AM
"So how exactly does this end?" Mulder demanded.
They'd been on the road for nearly ten minutes. Mulder knew very well that no matter where they drove there was no way that the tech support team in Central City could lose them. Even if somehow they did, he had complete faith that Supergirl would be able to find him if he just raised his voice an octave above its normal pitch. But he wasn't going to do anything to put Scully or his son's life in any more danger than they already were.
"The way it was supposed to sixteen years ago," Fowley told him. "With you on a slab and your brain exposed to the air."
Mulder shook his head. "And here I was thinking the Syndicate had actually learned from his mistakes."
"Trying to transfer the genetic material from your mind to his was a dumb idea," Fowley told him. "He was too old and too weak from everything that had happened before. But there was no one high enough left in the ranks to argue with him."
"So why did you let him do it? Were you hoping it would save me or kill him?"
"You know damn well that it didn't do either," Fowley said casually. "I waited as long as I could to hope the procedure alone would kill the bastard. When it was clear that both of you were going to keep breathing, I got the hell out of there."
Mulder looked down. "You never helped Scully at all, did you?"
"I arranged for her to get the key to the DOD but I wasn't stupid enough to do it myself. By the time that smoking bastard was conscious again, I had made an arrangement with Krycek to get out of the country."
"Just when I thought the rat-bastard couldn't sink any lower," Mulder said. "And the body they found."
"Alex still had connections with the criminal element in Russia. Do you really want to know all the gory details?"
"I'm about to meet my end, Diana; I think I'm entitled to one person in the Syndicate being completely honest with me." The bitterness was back. "When were you recruited?"
There was a silence so long Mulder genuinely thought Diana wasn't going to answer. "Most of the time you don't know when you've been recruited. You honestly think you're doing the right thing; trying to bring the truth to light. They do kill a lot of the truth-seekers; we were always right about that. But some of them, after they've found enough information – they're led into a meeting. They are told some version of what's going on – a beautiful lie that offers meaning and hope to their nefarious actions. That what they're doing will save the world. And that your talents can be used to help save it. If you make a choice." She paused. "He came to you with an offer just like that once, didn't he?"
There wasn't much point denying it. The Smoking Man had done just that after Kritschgau had come to him and Scully was on her deathbed. He'd been given a cure for Scully's cancer and seen his sister again. His job at the Bureau had been imperiled in a way it wouldn't be again until he was forced out. He was offered everything, if he'd just sell his soul. Even almost twenty years later, Mulder didn't want to admit how close he'd come to accepting.
"Yeah. I turned him down." Mulder said.
"You're very lucky that you exposed Blevins," Fowley told him. "There were orders to kill you before you left the meeting. Naming Blevins threw them into chaos for just long enough."
"So they decided to kill him instead," Mulder said.
Fowley shook her head. "Blevins gave that order. Before they could recall it, the Smoking Man had been shot."
"Why didn't they let him die?"
"Why would they?" Fowley asked. "They might have grown impatient with his methods, but he still had too much power. They just took him off the board for awhile. No one thought it would fool you for a minute. There wasn't even a body."
Mulder had just wanted to buy that he was gone, celebrate the fact his partner was in remission. And frankly, he was too busy doubting everything he'd spent a lifetime believing to care that much. "Is that when he recruited you?" he asked instead.
Fowley just nodded. "He said he had a plan that would get me back on the X-Files."
"And let me guess, he was maddeningly vague with the details."
"He told me what was going to happen to Gibson. I didn't think he was going to make it that real." She paused. "When I was in the hospital, that's when he made his real offer. And when he made it, he was standing by the machines that we're keeping me alive. So you can stay on the moral high ground, but keep in my mind when I made my choice, I had far fewer options than you did."
He had to admit, this seem an awful lot like something Smokey would do. "Well, he's gone now. Why are you still with the enemy?"
Fowley hit the brakes. When she turned to him, all her calm was gone. "Are you really that thick, Mulder?" she shouted. "Get it through your head. They are coming. They have the numbers. They have the power. What are our choices? You've seen what the Resistance does. Is that really a side you want to ally with?"
"So we just surrender?" Mulder asked.
"We don't have to surrender, Mulder; we can't unite. Our world is on the verge of collapse in some form soon. We should be flattered that the colonists still think this planet is worth having!" Fowley looked at him deeply. "Look at the world, Mulder. On our current course, how long do you think this planet still has? Seriously? Our country can't agree on how to power its cars; do you really think Earth could get together to fight an interplanetary force? We're trying to save this planet. Is it the right way? Is it the best way? Even I don't think so. But do you really think its fine as it is?"
"And billions of people being slaughtered is the Syndicate's solution?" Mulder demanded
"Half the world thinks the Rapture will happen in our lifetime. The world's running out of space and people are using up natural resources at an even faster rate. Every other story out of Hollywood is a dystopian tale. Civilization is telling us they want the world to end rather than make an effort to fix it. Don't complain because it's not coming the way they want it." Fowley started the car again.
Mulder was quiet for a couple of minutes. This really was the last thing he had expected to hear. And frankly, there was far too much realpolitik in it to dismiss just because he hated the messenger.
"Is that your defense?" he finally asked.
"At least we have one. The rest of the world is just fiddling." Fowley said. "But try to see the bright side, Mulder. You are going to help save the world. Try not to complain because it's not the way you wanted it."
ROSWELL
The armed man looked at his phone. "They're clear."
Scully heaved a sigh of relief. "So we can leave."
"You'll be escorted to a safe location."
Scully didn't like that and was about to start making noises for Barry to come back.
"I would really be careful about what you say next."
Ice flowed through her veins. She knew that voice. She had heard just a few days earlier in the attack at Magenta Labs.
"I realize you got here a lot quicker than you have any right to," The Joker said. 'Before you complain about the ride back, keep in mind you want to come back in one piece."
