Scully beat Mulder to the office again the next day. When he arrived, she was beginning to unload the contents of a large cardboard box.
"More of Alex's stuff?"
"No- better than that. The municipal police found it abandoned on a park bench in the mall yesterday- some tourists tipped them off."
"And it is of interest to us because…?"
"They tracked the owner down from the inscription in the address book- Dr. Alan Rickman."
Mulder moved closer to the table where she was standing. "Any journals? Computer disks?"
"No- although I can't say I expected to find any. Whoever went through this stuff knew about the disk. That's what they're after." As if to prove her point, she retrieved a can of Colgate Shaving Cream from the pile. She unscrewed the end to reveal a false bottom- and a cache of $100 bills.
"So, we're back to square one."
"Not exactly. These photographs and letters might give us a lead on where to look next."
Scully gathered a pile of papers from the stack and handed them to Mulder. They sifted through them noiselessly for more than an hour.
"Mulder, look at this." Scully said, holding out a picture for him to examine. The paper had begun to yellow and curl at the edges, but the faces of the subjects were still clearly defined. It was a group of eight men (one of them a younger Rickman), standing in lab coats, arranged as if standing for a yearbook snapshot.
Mulder put on his glasses and examined it more closely.
"Oh my God, Scully!" He said in a tone of disbelief." That man standing next to Dr. Rickman- he was the man Alex was joking with at the Gulag in Tunguska."
"Mulder, are you sure?"
"Positive,Scully." He flipped the picture over and scanned for names or other information, but came up empty. "Damn! We have to find out who these men are!"
"Let me see." Scully held the photo up to the light."Are those ID badges?" she pointed to a grainy line just above their shirt pockets.
"I don't know. Let's get this down to the image enhancement lab and have it checked out!"
Mulder hurried off down the hall, and Scully followed him to the crime lab.
Ellen Collier, a slight, middle-aged woman was working in digital imaging. Scully was unusually quiet. The memories of Agent Pendrell were still so fresh- it was hard for her to come here and find someone else.
Though not as personable as Pendrell, Agent Collier proved just as effective. After only a few minutes she had the picture enlarged on her computer monitor. The magnification had reduced the writing to mere blobs.
"Can you make anything out?", Mulder asked impatiently.
"Not yet." She tweaked the image again. " I think this is going to take a while. Why don't you let me call you in your office when I have it finished."
Mulder would clearly rather have stayed, but Scully marshaled him out into the hallway.
"It won't do us any good peering over her shoulder. Maybe we can find something else in Dr. Rickman's belongings."
Reluctantly, Mulder returned with her to the office. They had only been working for a few minutes when the phone rang.
"Agent Mulder?" It was Agent Collier.
"I worked the image out. It was a name all right: Sergei Arntzen"
Scully gasped. "Arntzen! That's the alias Krycek was using!"
Mulder hurriedly typed the name onto his computer. Miraculously, it came back with a match.
"Sergei Arntzen."He read off the screen. " Naturalized US citizen, originating from Russia...pathologist...assigned to something called 'the Argonaut Project'. I wonder what that could be…"
Mulder typed in a query, but this one came up fruitless. Frustrated, he punched in a command for Arntzen's file to print.
Mulder grabbed his coat and keys. "Look over this Scully." he said ,tossing the printout her way, " I need to hit up some friends for some information."
The offices of the Lone Gunmen always looked the same- a cheerful jumble of papers, computer wires and empty pizza boxes. There was something comforting about the mess, as if it were a burrow against the evils of the outside world. As he expected, Mulder found all three "gunmen" huddled around another amazing discovery. They may not have been the brightest people Mulder knew, but they were among the most helpful and genuine- qualities Mulder had come to prize.
"Mulder. I'm so glad you're here!" . Langly rose from his chair and started toward Mulder with a stack of paper. "Look what Frohike just downloaded off the Internet!"
Mulder took the pages and perused them for a moment.
"Looks like a stack of rocks to me."
"That's what They want you to believe." Frohike called from his perchnear the computer.
"Photographs from the Mars Rover mission" Langly explained. The parenthesis motion he made with his hands underlined his disbelief.
" Now, " Byers said, taking the paper from Mulder's hands and holding it under a pair of cheap cardboard 3-D glasses." Do you see it?"
"See what?" Mulder asked, gamely taking a look.
"It's a mining camp."
"That 'mission crisis' just after the rover landed?" Frohike chimed in." Planned. It gave NASA time to unload."
" Unload what?"
Langly took a breath in preparation for his explanation, but Mulder cut him off.
"This is very interesting, but I came for some help."
"Always glad to be of service" Byers said, setting down the picture.
"I need any information you can find on Sergei Arntzen- a Russian pathologist working around D.C. in the late 60's."
"Specter?"Langley asked no one in particular.
"No, Charring Cross." Byers corrected, equally cryptic.
"You're both wrong" Frohike said, reaching under a stack of newspapers and magically pulling out just the file he was looking for.
"Sergei Arntzen worked on the Argonaut project." He flipped open the folder to reveal the same group shot Scully had found among Rickman's things.
"The Argonaut project?" Mulder's eyes betrayed his interest.
Byers took over. "The Argonaut project was part of the Pentagon's secret research into developing the perfect soldier. The main thrust of inquiry at the time was overcoming biological weapons. The Argonaut project was primarily concerned with resistance to communicable diseases. However, branches in the research covered every imaginable ill: poison ivy, sleeplessness, the common cold..."
"They've had a cure for the common cold since 1972." Frohike interjected.
"...All in the name of building a better soldier."
"Do you have any more information about this 'Arntzen'?" Mulder pressed.
"Sure," Frohike offered him the file." The personnel records are all here...What do you want to know?"
Mulder took the file and perused it. Near the end he did a double take as he read something shocking. "Mind if I take this with me?"
"Actually, we'd rather-"
"Thanks!" He rushed out before they could stop him.
Mulder pulled up in front of Katy Krycek's house just as she was coming home from work. He grabbed her arm as she reached for the door.
"Just one minute Katy ARNTZEN." He spat.
She spun around to face him, her eyes betraying equal parts fear and defiance. "What do you want from me Agent Mulder?"
"Want? The truth at long last!" He shoved the file into her face.
"Did this just slip your mind?"
"You asked me about Alex- not my father!" She lowered her eyes and waited for his response.
What could he say? It was true, of course, she hadn't actually lied...
"Your father really was a spy."
"What if he was?" She said furiously," Why do I have to live my whole life under his shadow." Her face screwed up in concentration as she fought the tears that seemed forever on the brink of falling. This time, they broke through. "I didn't want you to know because..." her voice trailed off. "Something about you...I wanted you to...to...just think good things about me. So many people...judge you for it. Even though it isn't your fault. I thought the guilt would kill me sometimes"
Katy looked at Mulder with her wide, innocent eyes,"And now poor Nick has to face it too. Sometimes I hate Alex for it...for getting him involved in something like this... They treat Nicky like some sort of bad seed at school. He's always fighting- He's just so angry. I try to punish him, but its hard...hard, because I know how he feels."
She had been speaking more to herself than Agent Mulder, but directed her next words to him." You don't think that just because your father is evil...it makes you evil too?"
"No." No, I don't...Katy…Mrs. Krycek- I know exactly what you mean." Mulder swallowed, stunned by the sudden sense of connection that he shared with the weeping woman. He wished that he could tell her why he understood. He slipped an arm around her shoulder.
"We'd better go inside ." Katy said quietly. "I'm giving my neighbor a show."
She unlocked the door and slid inside. "Nick! I'm home!" She called into the strangely dark house.
There wasn't any answer.
"Nicky?" Katy called out for her son a second time, her voice several octaves higher than before. Mulder was momentarily forgotten.
Katy ran up the stairs."Nick! Where are you?"
Sensing her concern, Mulder wandered through the first floor of the house. It was empty.
"Nick!" Katy's voice sounded more and more desperate as she came back downstairs.
"Maybe he's still at school?" Mulder tried to reassure her.
"No!" Katy was frantic now," I talked to him before I left work. He was here. He said he was watching TV" She ran out onto the front porch."Nick!"
"They already picked him up dear." Her nosy neighbor called from across the street.
"They?" Mulder turned toward the woman.
"Those men from the FBI. They said you were expecting them."
Katy looked at Mulder, but he could only shrug. The look of terror and dread that crossed her face was wrenching.
"I'll call." He said softly. "Maybe Scully arranged something and didn't tell me. Just try to stay calm."
Mulder dialed Scully to ask if the Bureau had sent anyone over, but her he already knew the answer: Just like Mulder's sister, Nick was gone- spirited away to atone for his father's sins.
Scully came as soon as she got the call. Her dislike of Mrs., Krycek was temporarily put aside. She tried to calm the other woman as they waited for the FBI Kidnapping unit to set up. Of course, Mulder had decried it all as a waste of time, but at least it felt like they were doing something.
Scully was prepared to stay at the house, but Mulder insisted it should be him. She didn't like it, but she understood. She didn't have to ask why Mulder was so interested in Nick Krycek being found. Just like Samantha...she could practically hear the thought repeating in his brain.
Mulder returned to his apartment to collect his clothes and some toiletry items for his stay. He was surprised that Scully hadn't put up more of a fight. To tell the truth, he would have been a little relieved to let her take his place. He and Katy had gotten so...close. He couldn't let something happen between them. Not now.
He was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn't notice the door to his apartment standing ajar until he had already begun to turn the knob.
Instinctively, he drew his gun and eased slowly around the door. Smoke. Small elegant curls drifting up from a dark figure facing away from the door.
" What in the hell are you doing here?" He spat, without loosening his grip on the pistol.
" I'm here on a mission of mercy." The figure replied, perfectly composed. "I'm here to save you from making a very big mistake."
" I don't want your help."
The man took another drag on his cigarette." Nevertheless, you need it. Getting quite cozy with the wife of our dear friend Krycek, aren't we?"
He was baiting Mulder. He didn't really want an answer.
"What did you do with Nick?"
"Nick?" He casually blew a puff of smoke toward the ceiling." Oh, yes. The little boy...Nothing, I assure you."
Mulder charged toward him." You liar." He held the gun up to the intruder's what? He thought. He had tried to kill him once, but he couldn't. Could he now?
"You lying son of a bitch!"
The man casually brushed the pistol away." Katy Krycek has drawn you into a very dangerous game, Agent Mulder. If you knew what was good for you, you would give the computer disk to me now."
"Disk, what disk?" Mulder feigned innocence.
The man smiled darkly." Very well, if that is how you wish to play..." The man stood up from his seat." I know you don't approve of my..."work", but it is necessary. If those files were released, the results could be disastrous for many innocent people."
"Disastrous for you- because you and the men you work for would be exposed."
"Disastrous for everyone...the Cold War isn't over Agent Mulder, consorting with spies..."
"Katy's father was a spy- not her."
"It's been my experience that the apple never falls far from the tree."
Mulder was furious now. Why couldn't he pull the trigger?
"I'm reminded of some very good advice, Agent Mulder" the man was heading toward the door." Advice which has, I believe, saved your life many times. He flipped his cigarette butt onto the wooden floor and ground it beneath his feet. "Trust no one. The Kryceks are good- they fooled even me- but its the people closest to you are always the first to betray."
With that, he left.
Mulder was still standing in the darkness holding his gun at an empty chair. He inhaled deeply. Had he forgotten to breath. He knew the
man couldn't be trusted...but he had raised doubts. Could Katy be lying? Scully had accused her of "schmoozing up to him", but it hadn't really been that way. She had fought him. He remembered her tear-stained face- so desperate and afraid. It had to be genuine, and why wouldn't it be? Nick was gone. How could the cigarette smoking man explain that? No, Katy was a victim: first of her father and then of her faithless husband. If she had enemies in the Consortium, she was in danger.
He headed back to his car without gathering any clothes. The enemy had found its way into Katy's home before. She wasn't safe there. She would have to stay with him.