Scully had returned to the main reception. "Is Mr. Wayne on the premises at the moment? Would he be available to me just now?"

The receptionist smiled as before. "Mr. Wayne makes himself available to all government and law enforcement representatives at all times." The smile was sincere and impenetrable. "I'll get you a copy of the form you need to fill in." She reached down to a drawer out of sight.

"Oh no," Scully laughed. "I just wanted a few minutes. It isn't really that important."

The receptionist held up the three-part form, white and printed on the front with pink and yellow copies adhered tightly behind. "This is the form the DoJ asked us to hand out. They need to know everyone official who wants to speak the boss."

Scully sighed aloud. "So it would be easier to speak to him if I was an investor?"

The receptionist leaned forward. "It would be easier if you turned up at the ball tonight in a hot dress. Then he'd see you straight away." There was a tiny note of disapproval in her voice.

"I'll take the form," said Scully. She turned to look for a pen then remembered she had left her purse upstairs. "Thanks. I'll bring this right back."

:::

Kyle was leaning in to the cubicle of one of the younger interns. Scully nodded acknowledgement then looked for her cellphone in her purse. No messages from Mulder; no missed calls. The little 'W' at the top center of the screen at least reassured her that she had a signal at last.

"It looks like something's going down," said Kyle nodding to the window.

Scully turned to the largest pane of glass. Certainly the regular sirens that passed by almost casually had become a cacophony of emergency wails, and the flicker of blue and red lights played on the upper columns of the grand building opposite.

"What is that across the street?" she quizzed.

"The Hermitage," Kyle replied with a shrug. "You know? Like a museum and art gallery combined. One of Gotham's many pretences at culture and importance." She picked up a paper plate featuring a Danish pastry and sniffed it.

Scully's phone chimed into life. She flipped it open. "Mulder?"

"No," said a woman's voice. "It's Watson. We met earlier. I got your number from the delegation packet. Something's come thru on the scanners. I can't come, I'm off-duty and Alice is with me. Can you take a look?"

"Yes," Scully replied. "Is it at the museum? There's a lot of activity there already."

"Yes? Are you still at the Wayne Building? Maybe you should just stay there if everyone else is already on it."

Scully met Kyle's gaze. The young woman's eyes sparkled with anticipation. Scully found herself tempering her side of the conversation.

"What is it?"

Watson sighed. "It's weird. There are a lot of descriptions. Like an animal. A cat-like thing. Big. Dark. Black?"

"Don't you mean a panther?" She said the word while staring at Kyle.

"Uh uh. Bigger." The sounds of the freeway crowded in on the call.

Scully sighed, her eyes flickering to Kyle, then to the floor. Kyle seemed very amused and made no pretence of not listening.

Scully thought carefully. "Maybe I will stay here," she said to Watson. "If this is some kind of decoy, we'll need someone with a clear head over here."

"And if it's the real deal?"

"If it's really a big…" Her eyes locked with Kyle's. ""Cat." Kyle raised her eyebrows comically. Scully felt her nose wrinkle. "If there's an animal in there, G.C.P.D. will be able to handle it."

Scully hung up and pointed the cellphone at Kyle. "Just keep at what you were doing. There's a disturbance at The Hermitage. Don't let it bother you."

"Come on, Dana," laughed Kyle. "There's an animal loose in the museum. I already got three emails about it. Even in Gotham that'll make the news. Better than this tax shit. I've got a Polaroid camera. Let's go take pictures." She turned to her own desk.

Scully sighed. "Ms. Kyle... Selina. Do yourself a favor and stay away from a building with that many guns pointed at it."

"Huh." Kyle shrugged and threw the Danish pastry in the trash. "I thought you would be more fun, Dana. What do you do up in DC all day? Collect lunch receipts?"

Scully scowled. She never explained the X Files to strangers and certainly not her very particular babysitting duties. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Surely you don't have a monster mystery every week?" Kyle sat down at her desk and folded her arms across her chest.

:::

Now it was dark. Scully tried to persuade herself that staying back in the Wayne Building was the better idea. She could question Selina further. Running across the street to the museum was something that Mulder would do.

She showed her credentials at three checkpoints; the final officer dressed in the military style of the least subtle SWAT teams.

Square black vans were parked up around the four Italianate bronze lions that fronted The Hermitage. She looked for the tactical numbers and chose the lead vehicle.

Inside, yet another meeting was taking place, but this time there were more weapons on display. No-one took notes. The squad Captain was pointing at four-color printouts pinned to the mandatory flipboard. "Straight lines from East to West," she said. "One team at street level, one upstairs."

"Can I say something?" Scully interrupted. All the faces turned to frown at her.

"This is a closed meeting, Miss," said the Captain. "You can do interviews later."

"It's Scully. Special Agent Scully. I'm just what you need for this situation."

"I need men and women who can keep quiet and pull a big trigger when it's called for."

Scully sighed. "I'm an expert in exobiology. I can identify whatever that thing turns out to be."

"Exobiology? Isn't that space aliens? What are you trying to do here?"

"Exobiology is about creatures out of their normal habitat. If you have a panther in there, how it behaves is my field." She nodded calmly to convince herself as much as anyone else.