The first response to Mulder's APB arrived at nine in the morning on the next day. Sitting at the large desk in the basement of his FBI office, Mulder listened to the heavy brogue on the other side of the line.
"Suhgeant Glogg, Suh, responding to yoh Ei-Pee-Bee. Puhleese Depaahtment Johnstown, Pennsihlvania. Yoh suspect was at a cuhnvenience stoh 'round 8 last night..."
Mulder wrote down the details.
The second call came shortly before noon. The new voice was clear and articulate.
"Agent Mulder? Lieutenant James Ryley speaking. SOPD. Yellow Springs, Ohio. There was a sighting for your suspect this morning, at 5 am, at a Store 24 on North Fairfield Road... May I ask what interest the FBI has with this individual?"
Mulder thanked him for the information.
Leaning back in his chair, laptop on his lap, he opened Google Maps, Blue Edition, designed for and used exclusively by the FBI. He entered the two locations and busied himself with the application.
Scully interrupted his concentration when she came in half an hour later. She had changed into black pants and dark blue turtleneck, and her copper-colored hair had acquired a slight curl.
"Looks like someone didn't shower," she said, pointing at Mulder's wrinkled suit that was clearly the same one he had worn the day before. Mulder reached for the printout she handed to him, ignoring her remark.
"I generated lists of people the two kids might have known," Scully explained as Mulder leafed through the printout. "Then, I cross-referenced them. Guess what? I couldn't find a single person who might have known both kids at the same time. Not one! I especially double-checked the people who the two boys had daily contact with. Hard to believe, actually. Harrisburg Pennsylvania isn't that big of a place."
Mulder handed the printout back to her.
"I know," he said. "Langly hacked into their Facebook accounts earlier and didn't find any common friends either. They weren't exactly the same class."
Scully gave him an annoyed look intended to say you could have told me you had that info earlier and you know hacking is illegal. Mulder looked back at her, opening his hands in an innocent gesture; you know me, I'm just doing my job.
Aloud, Scully said: "Good. At least I didn't miss anything."
She pulled up the folding chair, the only chair she ever had for her disposal in Mulder's office, and sat across from Mulder, who had gone back to fiddling with his laptop.
"There is another possibility, actually," she said. "Maybe no one put the cocaine in the boys' sneakers. Maybe they put it in themselves, not knowing it was cocaine. Athletes use talc or various other powders, against slipping or sweat or foot odor."
Mulder raised his glance from his laptop.
"Good thinking," he pointed out. "Irrespective, this still means someone must have provided the substance to only these two boys, or left it in a place where only they and no one else had access. Everything still points to a common source, whether it's a person or a location."
Scully nodded. Then her face lit up.
"Coca Cola!" she said in a sudden realization.
"You know what I like!" smiled Mulder. Then he gave her a playful nod. "Vending machine's right outside."
Scully ignored his joke. "No, Mulder, listen, this is starting to make sense! Tony bought lots of Coke. So did Dan. This doesn't necessarily mean either of them drank it. Coca Cola was originally derived from the Coca plant. Later, they started to produce the drink using technology that is a closely guarded secret. Still, an ingredient from the original coca plant continues to be used nowadays. They call it the a-ha ingredient. Presumably it no longer has any addictive properties. But the truth is, no one really knows what it is. The Coca Cola patent protects its secret, so the formula cannot be duplicated. Still, effectively, down to a chemical level, Coca Cola is composed of the same ingredients that make up cocaine."
Mulder wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "If you could make cocaine from Coke, why all the trouble of smuggling it illegally?" he asked.
"That's the thing," said Scully. "It's not that simple. There is hydrogen and oxygen in the air, but you can't just make water from them. It takes a chemical process to bind the two together."
"I thought making water from hydrogen and oxygen was a trivial exercise for a chemist," said Mulder.
"In the water example, yes, " said Scully. "But water only has three atoms in its molecule, and the process is relatively simple and well known. Processes for making complex organic substances are not. Theoretically, it's possible to turn Coke into cocaine. In practice, no one knows how."
"What you are saying," said Mulder, choosing his words carefully, "is that the kids may have discovered a way to synthesize coke from... Coke?"
"Maybe," said Scully. "Or maybe someone else did, and they were just the guinea pigs for it."
Mulder nodded slowly.
"Like Altova Labs in Chula Vista, California..." he finished her thought.
"Which brings me to my next point," said Scully. "I looked up Altova. Or, to be more exact, I tried to look them up. They are not listed in FBI's database as an existing legal entity. They have a website with basically only their logo. They have no listed address or contact number."
Mulder gave out a deep sigh.
"We've seen this before," he said gravely, "and we both know what it means."
"Yup," confirmed Scully. "Classified Government work."
Mulder turned his laptop towards Scully and pointed to his open Google Maps application.
"Earlier this morning," he said, "I received two responses to our APB. One was from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and the other was from Yellow Springs, Ohio. They both reported the sighting of a white male in his teens, wearing only one sneaker on his left foot. In both locations, he picked up a couple of bottles of Coke from small local stores, and ran off without paying. In Yellow Springs, there was a cop in the store. He ran after the boy, but couldn't keep up. The cop was apparently in great shape. Still, the kid ran faster than anyone he had ever seen."
"OK, clearly that was Dan," agreed Scully. "So, we at least know which way he went."
"And maybe where he is going," said Mulder. He pointed at the screen of his laptop. "Dan was here, in Harrisburg, at 3 pm yesterday. Around 8 pm, he was in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Around 5 am this morning, he was in Yellow Springs, Ohio."
Mulder had the software draw a line through the three locations. "It appears," he said, "that Dan is traveling West, along what looks like an exactly straight line. According to eyewitnesses, he is traveling on foot. If he continues along the same trajectory with the same speed, right now he would be around here."
He had Google Maps compute Dan's estimated location. The resulting map showed a blinking red dot near Altamont, Illinois.
Scully considered the numbers displayed in a table at the top of the map. "This can't be right," she said. "His estimated average velocity is a little less than 30 miles per hour. At this speed, he can't be traveling on foot."
"He is not traveling with a vehicle," said Mulder. "He doesn't have one. Also, with a vehicle, he would average at least 50-60 miles per hour, not 30. Besides, with a vehicle, he would need to stick to the roads, not travel in a straight line, which is exactly what he seems to be doing. Finally, the two eyewitnesses both confirmed that he ran. He is a runner, Scully. That's his style."
"Well, let's think realistically," Scully argued back. "The world record for sprinting is a little over 23 miles per hour for a 100 meter sprint. For long distance, the top marathon runners are averaging around 12 miles per hour at best."
"I don't know what to tell you, Scully. Facts are facts. Both he and Tony displayed unprecedented physical strength. I saw Dan jump 40 feet between two buildings whether you believe it or not. The kid was taking cocaine. That's why doping is illegal in sports."
"That's not what cocaine typically does to people," said Scully. "Cocaine addicts are feeble and mellow. The drug destroys their brains and atrophies their bodies."
"That's also not how people take cocaine," pointed out Mulder. "I don't know of any drug addict who absorbs his drugs through wounds on the bottom of his feet. This is not a drug abuse investigation. It's an X-file."
Scully looked at the map. "So, where is he heading?"
"I was coming to that," said Mulder. He had Google Maps extrapolate Dan's trajectory further West. Right before it hit the Pacific Ocean, the line passed though Chula Vista, California.
"The non-existent Altova?" said Scully, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"Care to join me for a trip?" asked Mulder, getting up from his desk.