About 1000 miles south of DC

Thursday

5:57pm

He had returned to his car, but he hadn't left yet. He'd been trying to come down from his adrenaline rush when the phone on the passenger seat went off. It wasn't his phone. It was Mulder's. It WAS Mulder's, he thought with a grim smile.

The phone wouldn't stop ringing so in the end he decided to answer the call.

"Yeah?" he barked.

Silence. Then after a few second there was a female voice. "Who's that? This is Agent Mulder's phone, why isn't he answering it?" The woman sounded suspicious.

"Oh, Mulder's just stepped out. Want me to get him for you?" Wesley McNamara was nervous. But he tried not to let that nervousness in his voice.

"Actually tell him to call me back. Are you his informant?"

"Yeah, I guess that's me. I'll let him know."

"Thank you." Scully disconnected the line. She was relieved, but not completely at ease.

McNamara stared at the cell's display. *Scully*, he read. Scully had phoned. Who the heck was Scully? He searched his memory. It did sound familiar. Then his face brightened up with a smile. Mulder's FBI partner, that's who Scully was. He just never expected *Scully* to be a woman.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him. After some time, when Mulder didn't return her call, she'd get worried. The phone could be traced. He had to get rid of it. It was the only way someone could find out where to look for Fox Mulder. The best way to prevent that was to destroy the phone.

He got out of the car, stepped to the edge of the cliff again and threw the phone as far as he could. When it bounced on the rocks he could see it was shattering into thousands of pieces. Satisfied, Wesley returned to his car, started the engine and left.

Alison DuBois' home

Friday

4:52 am

Numbers flashed in her head. 160. 372. 127. 190. Then a road was visible, and a road sign which read: Greenwater. Then the dream of before kicked in. Only this time she could hear what was being said.

The two men were standing at the cliff again. "Here, take these binoculars", the blond man said handing them to the brown haired man – the one that must be Fox Mulder. The latter took it and settled his gaze in the pointed out direction.

"And what's that supposed to be?" – "Doesn't it look to you like the debris that could belong to a UFO?", the blond man asked in mock surprise, but the mockery in his voice was lost on the other man. "And what exactly does look UFO-ish to you?" he asked.

"Hold on, I'll get my other bin's from the car and then I can guide you." He ran off to the car.

The other man – Mulder – was still scanning the surroundings. Steps could be heard behind him. He put down his bin's and started to turn around.

All he saw in a blur was something being swung at him and connecting his torso with such force that he stumbled and went over the edge, tumbling down the steep rocky hill. Then everything went black.

Alison awoke with a start. It was just about 5 a.m. She was confused. Why was she having these dreams? That man obviously existed and was in need of help. But was it something that already happened or that was to happen?

After a while Alison managed to get back to sleep.

She was looking down the slope, trying to make out the still figure that was lying some distance down, sprawled into the rocks. She was watching it for several minutes. "The fool", she thought. "Did he really think he could arrest my father and discredit him without having to pay the price?"

She went back to the other man's car, checking the glove box and boot. Somewhere a phone rang. On the passenger seat she saw it. For a split second she wondered if she should pick it up. It kept ringing and the name *Scully* appeared on the display. Finally she did pick up. "Yeah?" Silence. Then: "Who's that? This is Agent Mulder's phone, why isn't he answering it?"

Alison sat up in her bed as if stung by a scorpion. It couldn't be. That would mean it had already happened. Now the agent was somewhere in a desert, injured, and nobody was even looking for him.

She picked up the phone. It was almost 6 a.m. She dialled the number from which Skinner had phoned her back. After letting the phone ring for almost 2 minutes, she was about to hang up when finally someone picked up the phone.

"Skinner", she heard his voice at the other end.

"Mr. Skinner, it's me again, Alison DuBois", she started. "I had another dream... it was him she spoke to."

"Mrs. DuBois, I don't know what you're talking about", Skinner replied, confused.

"You remember I phoned you yesterday asking if you have an Agent called Fox Mulder?" she reminded him.

"Ah, yes. I do."

"Well, you told me his partner phoned him but a friend of his answered and told her he was okay."

"That's true", Skinner confirmed.

"She talked to the person who pushed Mulder off the cliff. Mulder is out there, badly injured. You need to find him."

Skinner was silent. He didn't know whether to believe what he heard or dismiss it. It sounded so unreal, somebody dreaming something that happened. But then Mulder was working on the x-files, and lots of things had happened that were somewhat unexplainable.

"But where do we have to look for him?" Skinner asked almost in desperation.

"You don't know where he went to?" Alison asked back. "No, he didn't... wait, maybe he told his partner. I'll call you back."