From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: Specialist Skills - 1/4 Date: 9 Apr 1996 23:21:34 GMT Legally: The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've borrowed them for fun not profit. This story: I'm happy for the story to be circulated uncommercially, intact and with my name still attached. This one's a XFile. I've brought back an old villain. Unlike Krycek this one doesn't even look good in leather. Yes, it's Tom Colton - if you've seen videos / reruns recently you'll see why he's an easy target! There's also a hefty dose of one sided UST. Violence and language level about comparable with the show. Thanks to Sarah and Matt for acting as guinea pigs/translaters for this story. ========== Specialist Skills - Part 1/4 Patrick Haynes rested his head on the arm of his couch. He'd been debating going to bed. It was an important game tomorrow and he was their key player. But lying in bed awake wouldn't do him any good. Might just as well sit up and watch TV. He looked out into the driveway, some kind of noise out there?. No, just something he'd picked up from the old film he was watching. Listened again. A thud and a crash and the sound of splintering wood. He ran to the hallway and saw the ordinary looking young man who'd apparently barged the door in. Haynes prepared to charge him down. The last thing Patrick Haynes heard was the cough of a silenced gun. The last thing he saw was six hazy pairs of arms reaching out to hold him as he hit the floor. ---------------------- Monday morning and Dana's car was still in the garage. Mulder flicked some more of the shower water from his hair. At least he'd remembered he was picking her up before he actually got to the office. Should be an easy week, they'd actually got back early on Friday, case closed. The only things they had scheduled were paperwork and reading and preparing for Court appearances. Other cases were all on hold waiting further information or further incidents. That was the worst bit about the job, having to wait for a killer to kill again or a kidnapper to kidnap again. Scully slumped into the car. She didn't look happy. She'd looked happy when he'd dropped her off on Friday afternoon. She'd given him strict instructions only to call her in the event of an emergency. She's even defined the term emergency. The only sweetener had been a dazzling smile, the smile he'd die for, the smile he'd even try to do as he was told for. Looked like her intended weekend of having fun and getting a life hadn't been that much fun after all. Mulder studied her from the corner of his eye. He suppressed a smile that was threatening to form and was disgusted with himself for being pleased at her gloomy expression. Served her right for being so smug and superior about her plans on Friday. He felt suitably ashamed for thinking such uncharitable thoughts. He had to ask. He didn't want to. He knew he didn't have a choice. It was expected. "So Scully how was your weekend?" He knew the answer, but since they were still in the process of getting back on speaking terms, it might be wise to be polite. Or would it be wiser to keep quiet? Not sure. Anyway if she didn't want to talk she'd say it was fine and he could let it drop. She took a deep breath. Mulder cringed, she wanted to talk about it. "Hopeless. He was an idiot, a complete no hoper. I don't know what I saw in him in the first place." Mulder did. Blond, blue eyed, all American college boy good looks, built like a quarterback. Serious money from his job as a Consultant at the John Hopkins. Scully had been wrong about Mulder, he knew he hadn't gone after brainless bimbos, he'd gone after brainy bimbos, quite a different matter. Failure was one thing, he could handle that. Bambi's choice of men was, at least, her choice. But, Detective White, different matter all together. She had made a play for him and he'd tried, not very successfully to fend her off. He hadn't done anything < well, apart from a bit of innocent flirtation > and he'd ended up feeling guilty as hell. Guilty about what? Scully had retaliated in the most appropriate way possible. But she had actually gone after someone who looked like a real possibility. Mike, who looked like the GQ poster boy. Mike the wealthy Doctor. She sighed, "no not really, he wasn't an idiot, he certainly wasn't a no hoper, I wish he had been. He was just." She paused and sighed again. "Just so dull. How come I never get to meet a man with a sense of humour?" Mulder squirmed. She carried on. "I guess it's more to do with me than it was with him. I've forgotten how to date, how to do smalltalk. I mean it's not like I can make polite conversation about my work to break the ice. I suppose a lot of Agents feel like that but it's worse with our stuff. It's not like even other Agents take what we do seriously." More squirming from Mulder. She was oblivious to his discomfort, relieved to get it off her chest. There were things to be said that you just can't say to your mother, or your dog. "You know, I got so bored, I nearly went to bed with him just so I didn't have to talk to him." Mulder noticed that he got rather close to the car in front before his foot slammed onto the brake. She turned to him and spoke again. "You date people, don't you?" "Occasionally," he replied, his hands shifting uncomfortably on the steering wheel. "So what do you talk about? Not work?" "Not work. Anything except work." "Family?" "Anything except work and family." "UFO's?" She said quizzically. "Anything except work, family and UFO's. Oh and no government conspiracies either." "You see. That's what I mean, you're excluding such a big chunk of your thoughts. It all ends up so shallow. Don't you think?" He forced a smile. "Hey, superficial's my middle name." She shrugged. "Now you're just angling for me to call you 'Super'." He smiled with relief and hoped she wasn't going to say anything else about her weekend. That had all been a little too close for comfort. Soon after they started working together he had promised himself that if they ever found themselves in bed with one another it would only be on very strict conditions. It would not be in the aftermath of some life and death situation where too much adrenaline had flowed. It would not be because one of them had been in tears and the comforting had gone too far. It would be because they were happy and safe and they wanted one another so bad that they really didn't care what effect this might have on their jobs at the Bureau. And he was happy in his knowledge that such an odd set of circumstances would never come about. And so he could train his mind not to get the wrong ideas. Mostly. Eventually they got to the office. He scanned the motley collection of emails. An appointment with the Assistant Director at 9. An appointment for a one to one meeting, no Dana Scully. He tried to remember what he'd done. Skinner was a good boss but if this was about their current cases, Scully would be at the meeting. Same if it was about a new case he wanted to assign. No Scully meant it had to be bad news. The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast, well, drank a hearty cup of coffee and headed to Skinner's office. There were Agents who Mulder could work with. There were even Agents that Mulder didn't mind talking to. There were Agents who just looked nervous when Mulder was in the vicinity. The two Agents in the elevator fell into none of those categories. Mulder prayed to no particular deity that they wouldn't say anything. It was almost inevitable that no deity felt obliged to respond to the prayer. Oh good. So original. The theme tune from Ghostbusters. Mulder watched the numbers on the control panel and wondered why elevators moved slower if you were in a hurry to get out of them. Just forget about it, ignore it. Skinner's probably already on the warpath, he doesn't need to hear you got into a squabble on the way to the meeting. A ringing voice. "So. Been for a ride with any little green men lately?" Mulder didn't need to respond, so he didn't. The second voice chimed in. "How about a ride with some little redhead then?" Mulder wasn't in the right frame of mind for this. He turned sharply around and spoke softly. "I assume you're not in training for a guest spot on Letterman, and you don't amuse me so why don't you forget the audition." The look was sharp enough to make them pause for a split second and that was long enough for the lift to come to a halt. He heard their nervous laughs as he walked away. He stood at the door for a few seconds to get his head composed and his tie straight before he went into the AD's office. No point asking for trouble, Skinner told him to sit down. Mulder concentrated on a pen at the edge of Skinner's desk. Mulder listened to Skinner and tried to make sense out of what was going on. Skinner was still complimenting him on the outcome of the last case, he hadn't even mentioned the alternative conclusions put in the final report by him and Scully. Mulder kept waiting for the 'but'. Skinner questioned Mulder on the cases that were in the pipeline and seemed happy about their status. Mulder kept waiting for the 'however'. At last Skinner got to the point. "VCS are short of people at the moment. We've got a team out in West Virginia and they've just loss their Agent in Charge, Mark Foster. His wife's given birth, a month early." Skinner gave a shrug. Mulder tried to sound lighthearted. "Women. They can be so inconsiderate." Skinner was relieved, Mulder obviously wasn't going to kick up too much fuss. "Good. I need you out there fast. The senior Agent on the case is Tom Colton, he'll be able to brief you. Foster can be contacted by phone but I'd sooner you only use him as a last resort." Mulder swallowed. Colton. He ran through his options. A holiday? Sick leave? God knows Colton made him sick. Tell the truth? "I think you should know Sir, Colton and I don't really get along." Skinner considered the statement for an instant then moved on with his briefing. "I wouldn't expect you to. Colton's strictly by the book and he's ambitious. Won't do him any harm to work with someone with a bit of," Skinner paused looking for a suitably neutral phrase, "imagination." Mulder shifted nervously and tried to think of something to say. Volunteer for surveillance? A wiretap? Resign? Skinner tried to read Mulder and failed, the AD continued quickly. "Colton's not going to cause you any trouble. He's ambitious. The threat of a bad report on his record will keep him in line but if you really don't want to work with him you can send him back once the handover's done." Mulder reran Skinner's remark a couple of times before he understood what it meant. He sat up straight again and almost smiled with embarrassment. He kept his face and voice neutral as he replied. "No. I'm sure it won't come to that." But Skinner was a student of body language and this time Skinner knew he'd read Mulder. "Agent Mulder. You didn't think that I would put Colton in as AIC and ask you to go and work for him did you?" He paused, noted Mulder's half smile that said more about his discomfort than his good humour. "I know you have little respect for authority but I didn't know you took me for a fool." "No Sir. I'm sure one fool in the office at a time is plenty." Skinner closed the meeting. "Foster's out for two weeks. If the case is still active you can choose whether to hand it back to him or carry on. You will need Agent Scully out there, the forensic reports are rather strange. In fact if we'd had them at the start of the enquiry I might have sent you the case straight away." Mulder turned to leave then hesitated at the door. "Thanks." Skinner nodded. As Mulder closed the door, the AD shook his head and returned to his papers. ------------ Mulder threw his jacket over the chair in his office and picked up the phone. "Scully. It's time to go pack again, we've got a new case. West Virginia." "The headless corpses?" "Yes, you've seen the reports?" "Yeah. The autopsy reports were in my in tray, VCS wanted an urgent second opinion. You're saying they are handing it over to us?" "Officially we're working for VCS." Scully went very quiet. Tom Colton had been a friend at the Academy. Had been a friend was the appropriate phrase. Colton had enlisted her help when they encountered Tooms for the first time. Colton nearly got her killed. Colton was the senior Agent on the case now that the AIC, Mark Foster had taken leave to be with his wife. "Scully? You still there?" "Yes. This is Colton's case isn't it?" Mulder relaxed, a glimmer of good humour broke into his voice. "Our case. It's just we've got help assigned on this one." End of Part 1/4 ====== =========================================================================== From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: Specialist Skills - 2/4 Date: 9 Apr 1996 23:31:36 GMT Legally: The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've borrowed them for fun not profit. ============== Part 2/4 The drive to West Virginia disturbed Mulder less than his drive to work first thing that morning. He had decided that from now on, conversations in the car would be limited to three subjects. Work. Football. And arguing over what music to put on the radio. He'd had too much time on his hands at the weekend. So much time he'd spent last night awake trying to make sense of it. Come on, he was a psychologist after all. He could put himself in the shoes of maniacs and predict their next action. All he had to do was look at himself and understand his behaviour. He should have known better than to try it. He was a bit too good at the analysis game for his own good. He was introspective and self absorbed enough, without attempting self analysis. He had had a very uncomfortable night. Thinking back through his adult life reviewing his relationships, or more accurately lack of them. It had never bothered him, he had known that his obsessions drove him too hard to let him have a normal life. There were plenty of encounters of course. It was only in the last couple of years that his love life (sex life he corrected himself abruptly) had come to such a dead stop. It was embarrassing. He had been startled to find that of the women he had found himself in bed with in the recent past only Kristen had left an impact on his brain. Kristen the friend of the vampire trio. Kristen the murder suspect. Kristen who had been an understanding face when he was trying to hide from Dana Scully's disappearance. When had he become quite such a mess? When had those encounters become quite so trivial and superficial? The answer was easy. They always had been. It had just taken him this long to spot it. So why did it bother him now? That was easy too. He was getting older, it wasn't just women who had biological clocks. And he had spent a lot of time with Dana Scully. The first explanation bothered him not at all. The second bothered him a lot. He had dissected a few of those encounters between himself and Dana. He had written off the incidents that stemmed from life and death situations. That would be cheating, too much adrenaline, too many endorphins. He looked for the other incidents. He remembered a diner that sold Barbecue ribs. Seeing Scully across the table with a smear of sauce on her lip. Reaching over to dab it away. An impulse. An irrational impulse. He'd covered his tracks well, moved rapidly on to next subject, he'd even got out of the place pretty quick to chase after those kids. Scully wasn't annoyed with him. Amazing. A sexual harassment charge would have been reasonable in the circumstances. She probably wouldn't do that though, not after what they'd been through together. Just quietly request a transfer. It had taken him a couple of weeks before he'd convinced himself that wasn't coming either. Why hadn't she reacted? There was only one possibility. Pity. Since when had he been chasing the pity reaction? Since their first case together when he'd told her about his life? No, surely not as far back as that. He remembered the first time he suspected he had actually gone after that reaction. Just back from Puerto Rico. Scully had rescued him at the Observatory at Arrecibo. He was back on duty at some pointless wiretap job. He'd rewired the tape systems. "I've still got my work. I've still got myself. I've still got you." Yuck. All he needed was the sad violins. And he'd got a reaction. She'd squeezed his hand. It had felt wonderful, too wonderful to admit to. Pathetic. Chasing pity. Was that really what he was reduced to? He thought of Modell and his mind games and the relief he'd felt at her touch. Pity was a pretty poor substitute. A poor substitute for what? Scully looked over at her silent partner. Looked at his eyes. So many things he said with his eyes. So many things he kept hidden. She tried to get his attention. "So Mulder. You in there today?" He jumped. "Just thinking." "Well try and think without looking so sorry for yourself , it's off- putting." He swallowed. Not even pity then. She read him far too well. Scully looked him over and tried to work it out. Finally she said it. "I don't understand you Mulder. Skinner makes you AIC but you're still nervous of working with Colton, and you're not scared of anything. Colton's a pushover." Mulder shrugged. Nope, she couldn't read him after all. He saw his escape. "No. I'm not worried about him. Thinking about Tooms maybe, but not nervous of Colton." Scully was pleased and relieved. Good. At least that cleared the air. Mulder was pleased and relieved. Good. At least she hadn't found out what he was brooding over. --------------- It was evening by the time they checked into the motel. They drove out to meet Colton and the other three Agents at a local steakhouse. Mulder scanned the team. His team? He'd really prefer to send them all back to DC and handle this with Scully. But Skinner wouldn't be pleased. Scully wouldn't be pleased. He tried to smile, he recognised the four already at the table. He'd also recognised the uncomfortable silence that hit the table when he arrived. Agent Jameson, Agent Marston, they were ok. He could work with them. Had done before. Agent Laing was Colton's partner. Mulder didn't know him very well. He tried not to believe in guilt by association. And of course, Colton. It wasn't just that Colton had accused him of being insane. In fact in some ways Mulder didn't mind that, Colton at least had the guts to say to his face some of the things that others only said behind his back. It was that Colton had actually had so little regard for him that he had pulled the surveillance team off Tooms and nearly got Dana Scully killed. But that was nearly three years ago. Colton was older and wiser? Mulder thought of himself, just older perhaps. Mulder did a rapid series of hellos and introductions. Scully was chattier. Working with other people, out of the pressure cooker might make a nice break. Mulder had been strange all day. Ordinary people to work with. An ordinary case. Sounded like a holiday. They ate their meal. Mulder made Colton recount the evidence they had acquired. The less time he spent with Colton the better. And if he had to spend a meal sitting next to him at least Colton could make it worthwhile. From time to time, Mulder looked around the table for extra information or confirmation from another Agent. The victim who had been the original reason for the FBI team's involvement was a Nobel prize winning physicist, an employee of a major Defence contractor, visiting the town for one day. Killed after the presentation he'd given at the University. Beheaded. The physicist's body had been found in his hotel room but not his head. Scully listened to the case briefing and in the lulls she gossiped with Gina Marston. Gina was also an old friend. Just like Colton. Unlike Colton, Gina was still a friend. They chatted about mutual friends. Gina studiously kept clear of her favourite subject, nagging Dana about Mulder. The next two victims had died five nights later. One was a star of the local ball team. Found decapitated and with no hands. The other was an opera singer, a promising young soprano. Head and lungs removed. Mulder tried to relax. Was grateful for how good he was at feigning the right body language. Mused idly on the idea that when he left the Bureau maybe he'd go into acting. He wanted to read the case files. Reread the autopsies. He wanted to leave. He watched the clock surreptitiously until he could make his escape. Scully moved quickly to his side as he stood up to go. He shuffled nervously as she said her goodnights. Mulder wished that she'd either stay with them or come back with him, watching her hanging around in the middle was just making him feel self conscious. Scully tapped his arm to get his attention. "Are we going then," she said perkily, "I thought you were in a hurry to read the notes again." Mulder sighed exasperated and they headed back to the hotel. "So Mulder, do you reckon Colton saw the funny side of you getting appointed as AIC on the case?" "He didn't smile once all evening." "Precisely." She said breezily. Safely alone with Scully, Mulder let himself relax for a moment. Then, he cleared his throat and started on the case. "The murders were all straightforward gunshot wounds, so the killing isn't the main thrill for the perpetrator. We have male and female victims, different ages, different racial groups. The link between the victims is that they are all at the top of their professions. We have to assume the mutilations are to steal their powers. What else do we have?" < Steal their powers.> Scully frowned, he had a way of phrasing things that she still found faintly disturbing. "The second two victims died at almost the same time. The killer must have moved fast to get between the scenes." "How close do we have the times of death." Scully didn't need her notes to answer that. "One of them died between 11pm and 1am, the other between midnight and 4am. Twenty miles apart." "So, it could be a single murderer." "Pardon? You were contemplating two killers?" "I wasn't contemplating anything. Anything else we know?" "The violence and strength involved. It's not clear how the victims were decapitated but it wasn't with an axe or a saw, the head was pulled off the body." Mulder nodded. "But no marks that might indicate the use of clamps or straps on the body. Nothing to indicate a device of some sort being used to do it." "Some bruising," Scully confirmed, "but you're right about the marks. However the killer did it he didn't make it obvious." "And nothing at the crime scenes that looked like it might have been used to remove the head." "So it's portable or it got overlooked by the scene of crime team." "Or it was done with bare hands." Scully shrugged. The suggestion was outrageous. The ball player wasn't exactly a frail specimen, the person who twisted his head off would need incredible strength. Like the man who'd been sent to kill the clones of Samantha Mulder and those Doctors. Surely Mulder couldn't be looking for alien involvement in these murders. "Mulder. I don't think you should be jumping to conclusions on this. We haven't seen the bodies. Interviewed the witnesses. Visited the crime scenes." "Who's jumping to conclusions?" Scully nodded apologetically. They said goodnight and went off to their rooms. ------------ The FBI team had been offered and gratefully accepted the chance to use office space in the local police head quarters. A positive luxury compared to trying to work from a cramped hotel room. At the Lab that morning Scully had run her hands through the evidence bags again. She had felt a small lump in the lining of the dead singer's jacket. She rummaged her way through the bloodstained cloth and found a tiny pendant watch. She could only guess that the watch had come off its chain and that when the dead woman put it into her pocket it had fallen into the lining. And it had stopped when the woman's blood had got into the mechanism. The watch had stopped at 12:45. Another clue for the time of death. Sometime before 12:45. The autopsy had suggested midnight to 4am. This pushed it midnight to 12:45. Scully tried to defend her new evidence to the other Agents. How did she know that it was the blood that stopped it? They were right of course, she couldn't know, not for sure. But the battery was still sound, it had been the tiny electrical contacts that had failed. Scully was pretty much convinced that the singer had been wearing the watch that day, when the body was found the neck chain with the broken clasp from the watch was on the floor by her neck. The singer wouldn't have actually put on a broken necklace when she got up that morning. It could all just be coincidence but it was a pretty big coincidence. Mulder got bored with the wrangling. He turned to Scully. "I think you're right. We maybe couldn't use it in court but it will help us to focus and prioritise the work. We'll work initially from the assumption that time of death was midnight to 12:45 in the case of the singer and 11pm to 1am on the ball player." Scully looked sharply back at him ready to tell him that she could fight her own battles. Then noticed the coolness in his eyes and remembered that in this case the person who was judging the outcome of those battles was Mulder. She stopped. Mulder continued. "One of the possibilities we have to consider is that we are looking for more than one killer." Scully looked vaguely uncomfortable, he'd managed to get that thing about two killers back on the agenda. She felt like she'd fed him the opportunity, playing straight man to his funny man act wasn't her preferred style. Mulder reckoned she'd probably make him pay for this later. Mulder looked at the startled, silent faces of the other Agents and wished they'd start arguing and get it over with. Scully took pity on the other Agents and on Mulder. "Why the more than one? The MO is pretty extraordinary even without multiple killers. Or are you suggesting a copycat?" Mulder was relieved at the feed in that Scully had given him. "Not a copycat. It's a difficult crime to copycat, the full details haven't been published and the sheer physical strength involved makes it unlikely. And the fact the two deaths were at about the same time, it's just too much to be coincidence. How long does it take to do that twenty miles between the two murder scenes?" Agent Marston had done that check. "At that time of night about 45 minutes, maybe a little quicker if he was speeding. But it's unlikely that he would speed and draw attention to himself, particularly if he still had the head of the victim with him and his clothes had to be in an awful state." Mulder nodded appreciatively. Scully took up the discussion. "And if we accept the modified times of death, we have to assume that the killer would have had no time to get cleaned up. And very little time to actually do the killings. But we're relying crucially on the time of death evidence and that's never 100% trustworthy without eye witnesses." Mulder continued the thread. "Time of death isn't the only thing we've got. The physicist and the singer both let their attackers into their rooms, no signs of forced entry. And they both had spyholes and chains on their doors so they actually chose to allow the killer in. They didn't see the attacker as a threat. The ball player's door got broken down. He clearly didn't like the look of whoever showed up. And you need to look at the extraordinary physical effort involved in the decapitations. Not easy to repeat so quickly. Most killers need time to rebuild the adrenaline. Spree killers just use guns." Gina Marston asked the follow up. "So you think we need to find two people working together on the planning?" Mulder hesitated, he really didn't want to say what he thought. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath, he didn't actually care whether Colton and the others thought he was insane or not, so he might as well say it. "I suspect there may be more than two. The bruising to the victims suggests that only hands were involved in holding the bodies. I think several people may be involved at each scene. Some holding the body some the head." The silence that followed didn't surprise Mulder. The words 'lead balloon' came into his mind. He gave them a few minutes to settle. End of Part 2/4 ========== =========================================================================== From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: Specialist Skills - 3/4 Date: 9 Apr 1996 23:41:34 GMT Legally: The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've borrowed them for fun not profit. === Part 3/4 Irrespective of whether there was one killer, two killers or several killers the day's work was pretty clear. More witness interviews. More digging into other recent murders in the area. The team knew that at least two other headless corpses had been found in the last three months but these had been assumed as gang attacks. Only the choice of victims on the latest three cases and the sudden escalation had reopened the discussions. They divided the work up and prepared to head their separate ways. Tom Colton's partner, Mark Laing had watched Mulder intently. As Mulder turned away, Laing moved quickly to his side. "Mulder. Could we talk for a minute?" Mulder nodded and waited for Laing to say something. When Laing just stood shuffling. Mulder took the hint and they walked away to another office away from the other Agents. Mulder turned to face Laing. "So?" "The witness who saw a man at the front door of the singer's apartment at 5 in the morning." Laing stopped. Mulder rummaged through his memories of the interview notes and replied. "The woman who saw a man, average height, average weight, brown hair and who didn't see the face?" "Yes," said Laing tentatively. "That wasn't all she said." "Go ahead." "She said she saw six other people as well, but she couldn't really see them because they were invisible." Mulder took a deep breath, if this was Colton's idea of a joke, it was not amusing. With an effort of concentration, he kept the irritation out of his voice. "Six invisible people. So how did she see them?" "She claims to be psychic, she saw their auras." "So why isn't this in the interview notes?" Laing looked uncomfortable. "Agent Colton said we'd look like nuts if we wrote it in." "Why? It's not like claiming you saw six invisible people, you're just reporting what a witness said." Laing looked even more uncomfortable. "Colton said if someone picked up on it we'd get stuck on some wild goose chase and we'd all end up on the front cover of next week's National Enquirer." Mulder nodded, he knew exactly who Colton meant by 'someone'. He asked if there was anything else missing from the file. Laing said no. Mulder told Laing that he and Scully would reinterview the witness. As they headed back the main office. Mulder heard Colton's voice breaking through, indiscreetly loud. "So we're working on a real case. Spooky shows up and one day later we're in the middle of an X- File. He's out of the twilight zone. I don't know how he manages to stay on the payroll." "Agent Colton. May I talk to you?" Mulder's voice cut through the atmosphere like broken glass. Colton followed Mulder away from the group. Mulder spoke sharply. "Is there anything missing from the witness reports?" Colton winced and went into a speech of self justification. Mulder didn't interrupt. Just waited for Colton to run out of steam. Finally Mulder replied, controlled measured words. "The statement should be in there. Even if only to demonstrate that her other comments may be unreliable as the witness could be suffering from delusions." Colton cringed again, that wasn't an argument he could win. Mulder waited and then moved to next business. "So Agent Colton about the conduct of the case. Which aspect of the assignments we need to do today do you disagree with?" Silence. Mulder picked up again. "Is it the list of people I've asked you to see that you object to or the additional questions I've asked you to include in the interviews." Silence. Mulder finished the discussion. "I don't mind being wrong. I don't mind being told it either. But if you want to criticise the way we are tackling the case, take it up with me or Agent Scully." Colton mumbled back. "I'm sorry. It won't happen ...." Mulder interrupted sharply. "Whether you're sorry or not is a matter of complete indifference to me, just make sure the other witness reports are accurate." Mulder and Colton went back to the main office. Colton went and hid behind the coffee machine. Scully walked over to Mulder to find out what happened. Laing was leaning against a desk waiting for some comment. Mulder turned quietly towards Laing. "Don't worry about it. You've got to keep questioning. I'll let you know what we get from your witness. The trouble with having an open mind is people keep trying to fill it full of crap." Scully raised an eyebrow as she looked at her partner. After all this time together, he could still surprise her. ------------ The Agents headed out on their various assignments. Scully and Mulder went to see the woman who lived down the hall from the soprano. Mulder let Scully make the early running. Except for the invisible accomplices she'd seen following the average looking man into the apartment, her story was perfectly credible. The accomplices weren't quite invisible of course, else of course she couldn't have seen them. They were just faint, transparent almost. But very visible to their witness. Did she see the singer let the man in? No she thought the man had just knocked and the door opened, she didn't see her neighbour. Had she seen or heard anything earlier in the evening? Well she might have heard someone chatting at the doorstep with her neighbour, another woman, late at night, before midnight. She might have heard a loud thump a little while later. Scully and Mulder's matter of factness about the transparent people encouraged the witness to keep talking. They drew everything they could from her. Even down to the descriptions of the invisible visitors. They thanked the woman and left. As they got back to the car, Mulder opened the discussion. "So Scully, what do you think?" "I really don't know. She didn't seem to be lying. She seems to think it's all true. Drugs. Delusions. I just don't know." Mulder shrugged. "No, me neither. It's awfully like some of the spectral phenomena we've got on file." He paused to give Scully the chance to send him a suitably withering glance. Then he carried on talking. "But catching ghosts is tough. So maybe we should go after the average man who was there at 5 in the morning and the woman who might have showed up at midnight. Then we can get them to lead us to their invisible friends." He looked back at her innocently and waited for Scully to nail him. She sighed. "Come on Scoobie Doo, time for us to get some lunch." They puzzled over the woman's story. Believe all of her story or not. If they were to believe any of it, it put another twist on the time of death. Mulder and Scully ran over the evidence until another story emerged. Maybe the woman who visited the apartment at midnight had shot the singer soon after she arrived. Meanwhile her average male partner was across town killing the ball player. The man rejoined his partner to remove the singer's head at 5 in the morning. A lot of suppositions but nothing inconsistent with the evidence. And only one outrageously strong attacker to explain. Scully preferred this version of events. And even if the whole of the witness's story was just the invention of a confused mind it was still a good interpretation of the other evidence they knew they had. Back at the office they swapped notes. The information that Gina Marston and Paul Jameson brought back on the other murders in the area looked significant. One of the corpses had been seriously investigated. A Doctor who taught pharmacology at the local Medical School. Then someone on the investigating team had noticed the side business that the Doctor was running, producing pills for the free market. The police Homicide squad had lost interest, handed it onto their Drugs team. Another of the headless corpses had been identified as a nationally renowned thug, a big league hitman. Generally thought of as one of the best. The local police and the Feds had just assumed that time had caught up with him, mostly they were just glad to hear he was dead. Those first two heads had not been pulled off, they had been cut off. Mulder tried to pay attention to the reports from the other Agents. He was trying to remember that he was supposed to be coordinating the enquiry not just playing it by ear the way he would if he was working just with Scully. He actually wanted a few minutes to collect his thoughts. He remembered a trick he'd picked up when he was still a rising star of the Bureau and he still pretended to analyse case evidence the same way other people did. He decided to get them to write up the key facts on the white board. He knew that it would keep them busy while he worked on the jigsaw puzzle in his head. He reran the descriptions of the spectres the witness had seen. The dead hitman was one of them. Six feet four to six feet six, blond hair. A coincidence? Was he just seeing paranormal phenomena in the middle of a conventional case? If these other Agents weren't around he'd quite happily tell Dana Scully his theory. It was a lot more solid a hunch than some of the stuff that they'd taken fliers on in the past. How did he explain it to these others? Did he care what they thought? He could say what he suspected and maybe it would help them solve the case. As he didn't believe he had that much credibility he concluded he really had nothing to lose. Mulder waited until the debate amongst the other Agents had slowed down. Went to the board and added a few more lines. All five victims were at the top of their professions. The killers were taking the heads. Many traditional stories of cannibalism told of how the brains were eaten to seize the victim's powers. Since the death of the hitman, the physical power involved in the attacks had increased, a move from cutting tools to bare hands. The killers either now had more strength or believed they had and that was having the same effect. The killers had broadened the targets for their attacks and become more discriminating. They were trying to collect more specialised skills. The room fell into an embarrassed silence. Mulder sighed silently, closed his eyes for an instant, he didn't want to care about their reaction but it was hard to ignore. Mulder was just glad he hadn't completely followed his instincts and written down all the other stuff about the spectral accomplices to the crime. How, the hitman they had killed had joined their team. And how the hitman had even brought five of his own victims with him to assist. At least Mulder reckoned that five of the people thought to have died at the hitman's hands matched the descriptions given by their strange witness. Yes, he could just imagine standing up and justifying that leap of faith to the other Agents. Dana Scully looked at the board. "So how do we use that to identify the killers?" Mulder started breathing again. Easier territory. Maybe he could make them work with him again if they were actually looking at the practical tasks that followed. He looked gratefully at his partner and started to outline the profiles of the suspects that had formed in his head. Chances were that that the killers did have contacts with some kind of drugs gang. The choice of the early victims was the choice of someone who moved in those circles. The later victims though were an interesting mix of science, sports and the arts. The singer and the physicist had opened their doors to let their killers in. A woman perhaps, the woman their strange witness had heard at the front door of the singer's apartment. Someone from the University perhaps where the physicist had spoken and the soprano had studied a couple of years earlier. The physicist had only been in town for a day or so and didn't know many people. This was someone who both victims had met on some reassuring, friendly basis. Perhaps someone who helped look after them at the University auditorium in which both had performed. A man, the average looking man who had acquired the strength to pull the heads off lifeless bodies. A friend of the woman at the University. Contacts with the local gangs. A sports fan. Finally another Agent decided to start talking, Laing turned carefully to look away from Colton and made a suggestion. "Could be PCP users. That could account for the surges of abnormal strength." That broke the ice. Ideas started to flow. Principles were agreed. An easy task, provided you accepted the premise that all five decapitations were by the same killers. You didn't need to take seriously that stuff about cannibals, because they all knew that there had been plenty of serial killers who had those sort of ideas. A plan emerged. They sorted out the actions for the following day. Mulder slumped back into a chair. Coffee in one hand, donut in the other. He looked at the white board of clues and the schedule they'd agreed. Considered what they might be missing. "Cannibalism?" Colton couldn't resist the temptation to hold court while Mulder was out of the way and this time he had the sense to keep his voice down. "Looks like someone took Hannibal Lecter too seriously." Laing responded first. "It's not only been in fiction, remember Dahmer." "Sure." Drawled Colton. "Except we're not talking about a lone psycho, there's supposed to be at least two of them. We're going to rely on the evidence of a woman who sees invisible people. And they are stealing their victims' powers." Colton mimicked Mulder's matter of fact, neutral voice. Unfortunately for Colton, his voice carried a bit better than he'd anticipated. Mulder's voice came straight back at him. "So if you meet any ball players, who sing soprano and can spin a line about quantum mechanics you'll know you've found the bad guy." The other Agents smirked as Colton's face reddened. Dana Scully looked sweetly at Colton. "Don't worry Colton. The killer only goes for people with special skills, at least you know you're safe." Hours of interviews. Reviews of police files. People known to be in contact with local drug gangs. Looking for links, common names. And as the hours turned into days the names of their suspects emerged from the fog of data. End of Part 3/4 ========= =========================================================================== From: jhumby@mail.rmplc.co.uk (joann) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: NEW: Specialist Skills - 4/4 Date: 9 Apr 1996 23:50:06 GMT Legally: The interesting characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox as brought to life by DD, GA and the XFiles writers. I've borrowed them for fun not profit. ========= Part 4 and Final Mulder and Scully sat and planned their campaign with the other Agents. Really it was too good to be true, the match to the profiles, the work the man and woman were engaged in. The woman was studying for a Doctorate in anthropology and was working at the University auditorium as an assistant in the evenings to pay her way. Her boyfriend was a pharmacology graduate student, suspected by some of the local police of having a special interest in designer hallucinogenic drugs. It was almost too easy, but turning it from suspicion to an arrest to a conviction wasn't going to be easy at all. More evidence was needed. Most of what they had wasn't evidence, really it was just guesswork, not suitable to go to Court with. But they might be lucky and get physical evidence from the homes or offices. And a lot could depend on the speed of the arrests and the effectiveness of the interrogations. They needed to get the couple before the couple realised they needed to sharpen up their stories. They ran through the risks. They knew that both of their suspects could be armed. If the story of the events that the Agents had pieced together was true, then they had both already killed. Even unarmed, one of them, or both of them was capable of extreme physical violence. For the first time in the case, Mulder was actually grateful for the presence of the four other Agents. With some generous interpretation of the witness report, they managed to summon up enough evidence to convince a Judge to issue a warrant to search the couple's apartment and their offices. They talked themselves out of insisting on backup. Just made the local police aware that they would be calling in for assistance if the hunches proved right. Six against two sounded like good odds. The search of the apartment was a disappointment. Having an unusually large collection of books devoted to ancient tribal magic rituals and cannibalism was neither illegal, nor for an anthropologist, even particularly weird. They worked out their assignments. Marston and Jameson to keep watch at the apartment. Laing and Colton to go to find the woman at the Anthropology Faculty. Mulder and Scully would visit the Pharmacology Labs. After a pause to program each others cellular numbers into the speed dials they went their separate ways. Scully parked outside the bland concrete face of the Pharmacology building. The only task was to identify if the suspect was in the building. If he was, then they would call the other Agents and move in together. Mulder was doing the talking. They needed to be as inconspicuous as possible to find out if the suspect was there without tipping him into running. Scully was feeling distinctly conspicuous in her FBI uniform of tailored suit and coat. She thought about previous cases they had worked on and wished she'd had the foresight to wear jeans and a shirt this time. Stealth clothing. Invisible on the University campus. Her phone squeaked. Mulder looked back from the Reception desk. He was almost ready to give up. Their suspect wasn't in his office, nor the Lab and hadn't been seen so far that day. Of course he could be somewhere else in the building but the probabilities were falling fast. Scully tilted her head and Mulder moved quickly back to her side. "It's Laing. Looks like both our suspects are in the Anthropology Building." Mulder nodded an acknowledgement and they ran out of the door and back to the car. They headed across the campus. Recognised the matched pair of blue Taurus's already parked in front of the building. Jameson and Marston must already have joined Laing and Colton inside. The Agents looked over the thumbnail sketch of the building that the Security Guard had scribbled for them. Split up the job. Mulder asked Jameson and Marston to watch the exits The other four Agents headed up through the building. Heading to the floor that housed the museum of artefacts and the library. Colton looked over at Laing. This had been a tough case for them. They'd never really hit it off as partners and this looked like the last straw. When Foster had to go home to be with his wife and new born child, Colton had looked forward to taking over. A team of six, not a big operation by Bureau standards. But he'd have been coordinating the work of the scene of crime team, the forensics, the local police assistance. It would have been a good case to have on his record. He'd managed that kind of operation before. Things hadn't gone too well the last time out but he'd fought his way back. He deserved a break. It was bad enough that he hadn't got appointed as AIC. But bringing in Mulder. That was just an insult. Even Skinner must have known just how impossible this was. Ok, so Skinner was Assistant Director and probably was only vaguely aware of Colton's track record, but even so. He was going to need to talk to his Supervisor when he got back. Was this just some way of telling him he wasn't going anywhere in the FBI? Colton was willing himself to concentrate. The situation was dangerous. Well it was if that long list of suppositions and guesses that Mulder had characterised as evidence was correct. And Mulder did have a reputation for these wild hunches that paid off. Colton thought about Dana Scully. He'd always liked her, at the Academy he'd admired her sharp mind and lively sense of humour. She was harder now. Working with Mulder had put her life in danger and made her hard. Yet she still defended him. Why? Colton moved down the corridor of the museum store. Gun in hand. Knowing that Laing would be approaching the same room from the opposite side. Tried to listen for voices, footsteps, anything that would indicate that the room was occupied. But he was still having trouble concentrating. Suddenly a crash, a howl from Laing. Colton pushed his way into room. Laing was against the wall, semi conscious, blood trickling from a wound at the back of his head. He looked as if he'd been thrown there. Colton looked at the work bench at the far end of the room. A line of skulls, fresh ones nestled between the ancient relics. He looked at the average man and the average woman stood by the bench. He looked at the outlines of other people lined up behind them. A tall man with blond hair was smiling at him. A tall man who Colton could see right through. Colton felt his hand shake. The woman walked over to Laing, the tall transparent man accompanied her. She lifted the injured Agent's body and with the tall man's translucent hands wrapped over hers, threw Laing at Colton. Colton tried to move but he was frozen to the spot. Tried to scream but his voice had failed him. Just watched as Laing's body crashed in front of him. Just watched as the average man and the average woman started to walk towards him accompanied by their transparent friends. A voice from behind him startled Colton back to some sort of awareness. "Federal Agents. We're armed. Stay exactly where you are." Fox Mulder's voice was followed quickly by another one that Colton recognised as Dana Scully. "Colton, get out of the way. We've got them covered." Colton didn't move, just kept staring. Finally he became dimly aware that Dana was talking to him. "Tom. Get out of the way. We've got them covered. Just get down." Colton wasn't sure how often Dana had said those words to him, but eventually he understood her directions and dropped to his knees, pushing himself back to scurry through the door back into the corridor. Scully and Mulder held their guns steady on the two killers, all four were now just holding position. Colton could hear Dana talking. "Tom. You have to get the other Agents up here. Get your phone. Press the third memory. Get Marston and Jameson." The words were stroking him, soothing him. At last, he did as he was told. It took a few minutes for Marston and Jameson to arrive and a few minutes more for them to finally get their suspects handcuffed and secure. When Colton eventually looked back into the room. He saw only the two killers and the other Agents. Scully relaxed her vicelike grip from her gun, the palms of her hands were sore and red. She wondered if she'd have blisters in the morning. She stared unhappily at her hands. Time to go back to Quantico training, she thought sadly. Definitely not how to hold a gun. Mulder coughed a couple of times to clear his throat. Mouth dry from continuous chanting of a silent mantra. Please don't move, please don't move, please don't move, please don't move. This time one of his prayers had worked. Scully quickly checked over Laing. He was fully conscious now. Broken ribs, a broken arm, concussion maybe. The Paramedics arrived to take him away. Colton was standing by the bench staring at the heads of the victims. The brains had been removed. Eaten? And now some kind of pickling process was underway. Mulder went over to Colton's side. "Looks like we got rather more evidence than I actually wanted. Come on, time to leave." -------- Two days later with the loose ends mostly tied up, Scully and Mulder drove back to Washington. Mulder had almost felt sorry for Colton. Colton had been on a 'nice', ordinary murder hunt and it had turned into a X-File. It had been a couple of hours after they left the campus before Colton had even been able to speak again. Mulder almost felt sorry for him, but only almost. As he talked to Scully, Mulder's voice was calm, placid, matter of fact. "He froze. He could have got Laing killed." Scully was surprised to find herself in the position of defending Colton. "He was under a lot of pressure, he's not the first Agent to freeze in those circumstances." Mulder wanted to ask her how many Agents she reckoned had found themselves in circumstances where they confronted a pair of killers accompanied by a team of spectral accomplices. He didn't ask. He really didn't want to hear a rational explanation right now. "Of course he's not the first. It happens. But what do you suppose they'll do to him if he tells them about the two solid and six transparent killers he saw coming at him." Scully snorted her reply. "Well, I'd have thought you'd back him up on that." She immediately regretted it. He spoke a little quicker. "How many viable targets were there in that room? How many people worth holding a gun on?" "Two." She said briskly. "Right. So that was who we went after." "But it was less of a shock to us, Colton doesn't have that kind of experience." Mulder grinned and tapped the steering wheel cheerfully. Scully rolled her eyes in disgust. She hadn't planned on feeding his imagination with a suggestion that she'd seen the figures. The fumes from the designer drugs that the pharmacy student had been brewing in the same room could have left them all open to suggestion. They drove on. Listening to the radio. Let Colton and the case drop for a while. She had to ask. She didn't want to. She knew she didn't have a choice. It was necessary. She hoped she already knew the answer. It had been a good case really, Laing was only kept in the hospital overnight. Quick, reasonably clean and the court appearance would be easy. And Mulder had been good at it. That didn't surprise her. They had taken over cases before, controlled the operations. But this was different, this was official. Skinner would be asking Mulder about it when they got back. Asking him if he wanted to move back to VCS and maybe start getting on with his career. They'd both joked about that in the past. Getting out of the X-Files and getting lives. He wouldn't, would he? "So how'd you enjoy being the AIC?" "I didn't." He said searching for the bag of sunflower seeds. "It was like I was constantly on a leash." "You were supposed to be keeping them on a leash, not yourself." He half smiled and picked up the conversation. "I guess it's more to do with me than it was with them. I've forgotten how to work with a group, how to do smalltalk. I mean it's not like I can make polite conversation about previous cases to break the ice. I suppose a lot of Agents feel like that but it's worse with our stuff. It's not as if even other Agents take what we do seriously." Scully frowned for a minute. Mulder carried on. "You know, I got so bored, I nearly sent them back to DC just so I didn't have to talk to them." Her frown turn into a glimmer of recognition, she'd had this conversation, or one very like it, before. He turned to her and spoke again. "You work with other people, don't you?" "Occasionally," she said softly. "So what do you talk about? Not paranormal phenomena?" "Not paranormal phenomena. Anything except paranormal phenomena." "Mutants?" "Anything except paranormal phenomena and mutants." "UFO's?" He said, starting to smile. "Anything except paranormal phenomena, mutants, UFO's and government conspiracies." "You see. That's what I mean, you're excluding such a big chunk of your experience. It all ends up so shallow. Don't you think?" She kept back the smile. "Hey, superficial's my middle name." He shrugged. "Now you're just angling for me to call you 'Super', which of course I will do." She turned her head away to look out of the window and started to smile. "Do you actually remember everything I ever say to you?" He didn't reply just looked distractedly at the road ahead. She tried again. "Mulder?" "Sorry, I forgot what you asked me." She looked out of the window again. < Damn, how did I walk into that one.> She smiled at the road outside. They argued over what to listen to on the radio. END Thankyou for reading it - hope you enjoyed it. Joann.