"They aren't answering. What the hell is going on?" He can't hide his irritation as he continues to press redial on his cell phone. Mulder's been trying to reach Skinner, Monica or Gibson to no avail.
It's been several hours since he and Scully received the cryptic call from Alexi and the frustration of not reaching their allies is eating away at them. Their friends have disappeared and a son they had hoped to meet is in danger.
"Mulder, we can't do nothing—I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin." Scully leans against the motel room wall. She looks smaller than the dynamic doctor and research scientist that she is.
"You're right, come on, it's time to get to the bottom of this."
The two gather up their coats and Mulder takes a small revolver out of his briefcase and tucks it into his ankle holster. They leave the motel room and ask the agents on security detail to follow them back to the Boulder field office where they can access the FBI database.
As they drive down the arterial, Mulder looks in his rear view mirror and barks, "Now Scully!" He makes an abrupt turn on a side street and floors the rental car. The vehicle swerves around the corner and he maneuvers it into a wide driveway with hedges on either side. The shrubs act as just enough cover to obscure them from the street and they watch the FBI agents speed by.
Mulder backs the car out of the driveway and heads in the direction of the NYP as Scully looks over her shoulder.
"That was too easy, they can't be that incompetent. Where are we going Mulder? What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking we're the good guys and because of that we should win."
"I'll ask the questions!" he snaps. "Stop looking at me that way." Alexi pulls Miya by the arm down the dimly lit hallway. He's wound up tight and even in the poor light she can see he is pale and his breathing is labored.
"Where are you taking me? What have you done with Marita? She's done nothing to you, you need to let us go?" Miya pleads.
"Stop it! I told you, I won't hurt you or your friend, but if you don't shut up, I'll have to force you to be quiet. This will be over soon, but you need to cooperate. If someone gets hurt, it'll be your fault. Do you hear me? I can't explain now, but I'll eventually let you, your friend and the girl go." Alexi can feel the pounding of his heart echo inside of his head. He knows the pain will finally subside, but only after he injects himself with a sedative. It's time to get going, they will be waiting for him and it is always awkward to be the last to arrive.
She studies his face and looks into his eyes and sees anguish in them. "Alexi, please, I can be your friend. I can help you."
He stiffens and the look of pain turns to sadness. He stops in front of a door without a handle and runs his hand over a small light that is fixed on the wall. The door opens and he pushes Miya in with enough force that she stumbles forward. The door clangs shut.
She manages to stay upright as she grabs the edge of a metal table for balance.
"Thank God!" Marita says as she rushes towards her friend and hugs her. "Thank God you're all right!"
SAC Paulson hangs up the phone, crosses her arms in front of her and reaches one hand up to chew on her thumbnail. It's a habit she kicked that has suddenly come back to taunt her.
She knows she has no choice if she wants the additional money deposited in her off shore account. It's the remainder of what's owed to her and there is no way she's not going to get it.
Taking her service weapon out of the desk drawer, she slips it into her jacket pocket. She knows the risks and tells herself it is worth it, after all the former VP had made it clear, she was doing a great favor for them and she would be rewarded generously.
Paulson snaps the light off and walks out the door. She takes the elevator to the lobby and just as she was told, a black town car is waiting for her. One of the three men inside gets out of the vehicle and opens the car door for her and she slides into the back seat. The man sitting next to her smiles at her smugly as the car pulls away from the curb.
"It's unfortunate, but these clones are unpredictable. It seems Alexi has chosen to fail. We cannot allow this to happen." The man sitting next to her says.
"I agree and you know I'll do whatever it takes…" Agent Paulson starts to say, but the man in the front seat finishes her sentence for her.
"You'll do whatever it takes to get paid." He laughs and she turns slightly red at the remark.
"I don't need your condescending bullshit so just drop it, okay? I got Nelson to cooperate and play the part of victim so your clone could take over. I made sure he was covered on the school grounds when he went to pick up those kids, and I'm lying through my teeth for you. If you have a problem with me, just say so." She bristles with anger.
"No problem. You get to be the hero." The driver says. "You eliminate them and make it look like the clone did it. After you kill him, like I said, you'll be the hero. We appreciate your help in keeping our hands clean."
"Terminating the collateral wasn't my idea, but I agreed to it so let's just get on with this, okay?" Paulson brushes her hand against her gun and feels a prickle of fear as she considers her circumstances.
After ditching the FBI agents, Mulder and Scully drive directly to the NYP. The short phone call they had from Alex Krycek's clone was unsettling and both of them feel edgy.
"Mulder?" Scully asks. There is no need for her to elaborate. Neither of the former FBI agents is feeling optimistic about the situation as they leave their parked car.
"We have to get some help in accessing some information. I think I know where there might be a couple of future FBI recruits." Mulder is walking toward the boy's dorm and Scully shakes her head in disbelief as he approaches Will's roommates. The boys are conveniently shooting hoops outside.
"Hey Jamal, can we talk?" Mulder waves the boys down. "I need a favor, any chance we can use your computer?"
"Uh sure thing, but why you want to use a couple of kids computer, you must have something a lot better then the wannabe equipment we have."
"The truth is, we could use a little help breaking a code and I bet you boys are just the ones to do it. It has to do with your room mate."
"Are you asking us to do something illegal?" Nick asks.
"Look, it isn't wrong if you're helping someone. I'm not trying to justify myself, but this isn't a joke, lives are at stake." There's an urgency in Mulder's tone, he needs to get his point across to the two boys.
Jamal looks at Nick with reassurance and says, "Look man, it isn't like we are hacking into the mainframe to change our grades. This here has to do with Will. What do you say?"
Nick nods his head.
"Okay, so my man Nick here he can do it… and them some."
The boys run up to their room and retrieve Nick's laptop. They head over to an isolated group of picnic tables and sit down. Nick starts to bring up a wireless connection, when Mulder stops him and hands him a myoptic fiber flash drive. Nick smirks when he sees it and plugs it into his laptop. The monitor begins to search and data files begin to roll up the screen.
"They won't open without a passcode. You think you can crack it?"
"Oh yeah." He mutters. "Jamal, look at this. What sequence you think we should try? How about this one?" He says tapping away at the keys.
"It looks like a standard security level. This wall is lame." The boys continue to discuss the file and encryption for a few minutes, when a huge grin appears on each of their faces.
The smile spreads to Mulder. "Let's start by opening files that were created in the last month."
"Whoa… what is this? Am I looking at something that could be interpreted as a federal offense?" Nick asks looking like the proud owner of a shiny new car.
"Mulder?" Scully says under her breath. "Where did you get this?"
"From Gibson. It belongs to Aimee Paulson and by the looks of it I guess she's moonlighting."
The four of them stare at the data as Nick continues to open files, breaking them up into blocks of readable text.
"Yo, Nick, what's that?" Jamal says looking at a list of data. "Man, I think I know what it is… enlarge that sucker… do you see it?"
"Jamal, what is it? What are you looking at?" Scully asks with tentative curiosity.
"See this, now look, it's a…."
"…map!" Scully finishes his sentence. They look over Nick's shoulder and study the symbol-covered image on the screen. Mulder is the first to see it, coordinates on a grid that point to the DoD's storage facility. "Looks like X marks the spot, come on boys and girl, let's go find the clubhouse."
Miya drinks some water, and can feel the questions the other two women have boring down on her.
"He doesn't want to hurt us, that much I know for sure." Miya is careful not to expose too much.
"He must have told you something. What does he want? Who's giving him his orders?" Marita asks. She wonders why she isn't being more forthcoming. Possibly because of Petie, but Marita is suspicious that something else is going on.
"No, he didn't tell me very much. I was kept in a small room most of the time." Miya lies.
"Well, what is this place, did you get to see any of it?" Petie asks.
"We're in a warehouse of some kind. It looks like it had heavy equipment in it. These rooms are underground. I walked by three other doors, there must be at least four rooms."
Marita looks at the two other women. "Do you think we can escape?"
"I don't know, but…" Miya starts to say as the lights go out.
"Petie, Miya grab a chair… Get on either side of the door." Marita says in a hushed tone.
They do as she says, poised to use the chairs as weapons. They hear a loud crash outside of the room and the sounds of knocking and thumping on their door are next.
The noises stop and it becomes silent and still. In the darkness, the three women look at each other uncomfortably and are startled when the door is suddenly flung open. Petie swings her chair at the figure and misses when it is abruptly jerked backwards.
"Petie, for God's sake it's me… Will!" I'm not going to hurt you.
"Will?" She cries and drops the chair. She runs to him as John Doggett peers into the room.
"Hey now, friend, not foe. Jesus Christ, that's some welcome wagon!"