From bobdobbs@flash.net Mon May 12 07:02:04 1997 Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Unofficial Channels (1/1) From: Zachary Carleton -------- REVISION UPDATE - MAY 1997 XFILES FANFIC ARCHIVISTS: Please remove any other versions of this story from your archives. PLEASE ARCHIVE! Title: Unofficial Channels (1/1) Author: Robin Starveling Rating: PG (Language and Adult Situations) Classification: XA - X-Files/Angst Spoilers/Timeline: This tale is after "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," and a snippet of that episode and "Avatar" are inferred. Keywords/Misc Descriptions: This is a "plotter" story, not a "shipper." There is NO romance. It deals with conspiracies and VietNam. Skinner & his wife Sharon appear as well as the Cigarette Smoking Man. There is some Mulder angst and Skinner angst. Point Of View: 3rd Person Limited; lending towards Scully's perspective when she is there. "Camera" switches to Mulder when she is not. Summary: Evidence collected through unofficial channels brings Mulder and Skinner to a deadly confrontation, while Scully fends for her own, protecting Skinner's wife Sharon. DISCLAIMERS: The following contains characters owned by Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions. The intent is fan fiction. It is my understanding that Carter and 1013 are under legal restraints NOT to accept unsolicited ideas or manuscripts and this is not written to be considered for the series. If ideas or concepts contained herein are found in similar X-Files episodes in the future, I publically relinquish any rights to seek legal action against Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen or related organizations and corporate entities regarding my publically expressed USENET Newsgroup post. This is for entertainment purposes only. I give my permission for this to be sent to newsgroups & archives as long as this header stays with the work. Events and characters below are fictitious. Any similarity to persons or events living, dead or undead are purely coincidental. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. The Earth Is Flat. Feedback of any sort is appreciated. Please write to bobdobbs@flash.net if you have the inclination. _____________________________________________________________________ Unofficial Channels a short story in tribute to The X Files by Robin Starveling _____________________________________________________________________ FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner had been missing for four days, and Scully had reason to believe that his wife Sharon's life was in danger. She told Mulder it was women's intuition, but even though he never questioned her, Scully had the feeling that Mulder knew it was more than that. They sat together in the Bruckmire hotel on the fourth floor. Mulder had gone off on his own in search of some clue, some lead that would direct him to Skinner. There was no trace. Skinner had not told Sharon. Or rather if he did, she was very good at playing dumb. "He had reported to work Monday, but left early. He did not tell his secretary to cancel appointments or reschedule anything. He left no word. When he hadn't returned to work on Tuesday, that's when I felt it necessary to call you." "Walter hasn't behaved like this since we ended our separation. Do you think he's having a sleep disorder again?" "You would know better than me, Mrs. Skinner." "Please. Sharon." "Alright," Scully laughed despite herself, "Only twelve hours cooped up together in this hell hole and we're on a first name basis." She put her hand in Sharon's, "Call me Dana." "I have to tell you Dana, even if I did know where my husband was, I couldn't tell you. But to be quite honest he hardly ever brought work home, at least not openly. He held it inside like a pressure cooker. I'm so scared! To finally get him back after all these months only to lose him again!" "I know." Sharon hesitantly reached out to hold Scully, and she wrapped her arms around Sharon. "We'll find him," she said as Sharon let go the tears. _____________________________________________________________________ It was a long shot, but Mulder was out of options. He knew of a pool hall which he had been told long ago Skinner used to hang out. It was all he had. He sat in the parking lot for an hour, after having had his fill of the jukebox and the cigarette smoke inside. He sat on the trunk of his car, his trenchcoat flapping in the night wind. No trace. No clues. He had nothing. Mulder pulled out his keys and went to the driver's side of the car. As he opened the door, he noticed what appeared to be a scratch on the door, just below the window, as if someone had tried to jimmy the lock. It was a brand new rental. He paused a second and then dismissed it. It was dark. His eyes were probably playing tricks on him. As he closed the door and put the keys in the ignition, he felt a gun pointed at the base of the back of his neck, and the hammer clicked back. "Don't look back. Drive." "Ah, Assistant Dir-" His mouth was covered over by a gloved left hand. "I could break your neck right now." You could shoot me too, thought Mulder dryly, pick one. "Your car could be bugged. Just drive." He let go of Mulder's mouth. He pulled out slowly, and as they got onto the main thoroughfare, Mulder looked in the rearview mirror, and behind Skinner's balding head he saw headlights directly behind them. "I told you not to look back." "Gotta use the mirror, stranger. Gotta see behind me." He turned left, and as he suspected, the headlights followed right behind them. "Predictable." "What do you mean?" "Either you didn't ditch them, or I didn't," Mulder took a nondescript right. "I've been tracking you since this morning." "And they would have gotten you long before now. They're my tail. I'll lose them. Get down." Mulder knew Washington D.C. well, but then he imagined so did they. After another right and two more lefts, Mulder pulled a Mario Andretti at a stoplight, and the chase was on. _____________________________________________________________________ "Did you hear that?" Scully had stood up to reach for the tissues, and then cocked her head towards the window. "We're four flights up, Dana." "I know." She tossed the box of tissues to Sharon, and pulled out her gun. The glass shattered, and Scully let a few shots go at the window. A painful scream fading to the ground brought a determined grimace to her face. "We're leaving. Now!" The hotel door swung open and Scully immediately shot half a clip in that direction. Thankfully it was three men dressed in black fatigues. The adrenaline rush she was suddenly getting wouldn't have stopped for a maid. Sharon stood up and flanked behind her. "Follow me." Scully headed for the door. "Oh I know the drill." They stopped at the doorway, and quickly examined the three dead men. Scully scanned the hallway. No signs of activity. Quiet. For some reason she didn't like that. There should have been other FBI agents patrolling this floor. "You know how to use one of those-" she looked over at Sharon and it was like she read her mind. Sharon had already grabbed an AK47 and snatched some rounds from the bodies. "Not my choice of weapon, but Walter insisted I know how to use one. These have quite a kick, don't they?" "We need to get to the car." "Is that wise? They might have rigged it." Sharon followed Scully down the hallway. "Then why bring these boys in if they were gonna blow us up? But you're right. They'll be expecting us to go downstairs. Which means we have to go up." "And go where?" "Can you jump?" "In these heels? Are you kidding?" They turned a corner and saw three more men in black fatigues, who spotted them at the same time. Scully stepped back, motioning for Sharon to get down. They were both ready to shoot as they rounded the corner, but just as Scully saw the first one, gunshots from behind the men took them down immediately. "That should be the last of them! Come on out!" It was a female voice, but not one that Scully recognized. "I don't think so!" "Doctor Scully! You either follow me, or wait until their reinforcements arrive. My name is Diane Kelley, CIA." "Why should I trust you?" "As the man your partner called Deep Throat once told him, I'm all you've got." Scully looked down at Sharon, who looked back up at her hopefully, "She sounds nice." "We're not going on a shopping spree with her Sharon. This is your life we're talking about." "You've got thirty seconds to decide, Agent Scully, then I'm leaving with or without you." _____________________________________________________________________ "The highway. Nice going." "You got a better idea, Sherlock?" They were easily doing ninety, and Mulder had the accelerator down on the floor. Any second he was expecting the local police to make this even harder, but he needed some distance. He needed some time. He needed a diversion. "What the hell are you doing back there?" Skinner was ripping the backseat's upholstery with some kind of sharp object. "Ah, yes here we go. You think they'd change their tactics, I found one of these in my car last week." He ripped out a small wiretapping device, rolled down the window and threw it out." "That may not be the only one." "It's not. The other one is under your seat. Kinda hard to get to it while you're driving." "Sorry to disappoint you, stranger. Look. They apparently know who you are, and they obviously know who I am. Can we cut the crap?" "Not yet." In the rear view mirror he saw two dark vehicles keeping pace with him. The rental was pushing 120 now, and dodging the traffic was getting near impossible. One of the cars was right on his tail right now. An exit was coming up. "You gotta seatbelt back there?" "Yeah, why?" "Too late." Mulder slammed on the breaks. The car behind him hit hard at their back, Skinner almost flew into the front seat. Mulder then made a hard right, and through three lanes of traffic, used their momentum to barely make the exit. That left one car trailing them. "Goddammit Mulder you trying to kill us?" "Let's just say they got me a little mad." _____________________________________________________________________ CIA Agent Diane Kelley was impressive. She had a large black bag as her only arsenal, and was wearing blue jeans, black gloves (she probably took from one of the black fatigues she killed) and a tank top. Except for the CIA I.D. badge which she wore on her belt, she looked like a tourist, but with a slight Canadian accent in her voice, and the blazing red hair cut short except for the back, she was quite a piece of work. "Your boss opened a big can of worms, Agent Scully. My job is to help close it again, with as few deaths as possible. I'm to keep you two alive under any circumstances." They were on the roof now, and in the distance Scully could see a helicopter heading towards them. "Is that our limo?" She pointed up at the sky. "Nope," Kelley pulled a device out of her bag and let loose a long wire at high speed towards another building, "This is." She secured the wire to the roof, and began to help Sharon by wrapping a harness around her and connecting her to it. "Once you're there, disconnect the harness with this latch! I only packed one of these in my purse and we all have about two minutes to cross it. I'm going last. Got it?" "That's a purse?" asked Scully in amazement. Sharon nodded. Scully couldn't keep her eye off the copter. It was closing in fast. "So hit THIS red button to send it back to us. Got it? Stay on the fire escape on the other side till we get across. If we don't make it, run like hell." She pushed Sharon off the roof, and gravity slid her to the other side. She hit the red brick wall with a thump. "Damn. Shoulda warned her about that. No brakes." "Got any anti aircraft artillery in that bag?" As requested, Sharon disconnected the harness and hit the red button. It flew out of her hands and back to the hotel roof. "No talk, Doc." Diane slipped Scully into the harness. "Disconnect here. Hit the red button to send it back to me. We're not out of the woods yet. I'm counting on you to trust me, or I'm dead. Got it?" "Got it." She jumped before Diane could push her. Sharon caught Scully on the other side. She disconnected the harness and hit the red button. "Hurry! They're almost here!" Kelley didn't have time to hook herself up to the harness. She made a flying leap for the wire and caught it with her gloved hands. By the time she got to the other side the gloves were sizzling, with smoke coming from them. She ripped them off. A mortar shell hit the hotel building where they had been standing. "Down!" Kelley screamed and they were running down the fire escape. "Damn! Those guys want us all dead!" Sharon slipped a few steps and in retaliation, took the time to throw off her high heels. "No. Actually, they're after me. It's the ones IN the hotel who wanted you." "Why are they after you?" Scully asked. "I'm in the CIA! What a silly question." _____________________________________________________________________ "Any more bright ideas, Agent Mulder?" "You've got a gun man! Use it!" Skinner rolled down the back window and started taking potshots at the car behind them. He hit the windshield but it just bounced off. "Dammit! They're bullet proof!" "Well that makes one of us! Aim for the tires!" Skinner aimed low and was about to shoot when Mulder banked a hard left, almost throwing Skinner out of the car. "Watch it will ya?" "Sorry if you don't like my driving have my license revoked!" "I might just do that!" Skinner repositioned himself and aimed low. He missed the tires. He must have hit the engine. The black car blew up in a blaze of glory! The two men cheered. Mulder put up his right hand and Skinner gave it a high five. "Man! This is better than the Super Bowl." "We're not in the final quarter yet, stranger. Or did you forget the other bug?" Skinner climbed over the seats to the front of the car, and started digging under Mulder's seat for the wiretap device. Mulder mused, "While your down there, mind checking me for prostate cancer? I haven't had my checkup recently and-" "Very cute. Are you always this chipper when your life is on the line, Agent Mulder?" "If you did a little field work with me and Scully, you'd know." "Got it!" With a rip he pulled the wire tap and threw it out the window. Then after taking a look at Mulder and the spedometer, which was still easily 60mph in the city, he quickly strapped the safety belt on. "I think you can stand at ease, Agent Mulder. We lost them." "If they were following me. Then they know I left Scully with your wife. I gotta reason to break speed limits, sir. Or do you disagree?" "You left Scully with my wife?" "What are you worried about? Scully's not a lesbian!" _____________________________________________________________________ They were in Scully's car. They had to pull a dead body off the hood that Kelley had left there earlier, but they were now on the road. Sharon was in the back, breathing heavy. Scully was driving. Kelley lit a cigarette. "Do you mind?" Scully asked. "Look I just saved your butt and you won't let me smoke in your car? Sometimes the only thing that gets me out of tight situations is the knowledge that when it's all over, I can smoke." "Can I have one?" Sharon asked. "You're hyperventilatin' back there. Sure it's okay?" She nodded. Kelley lit one and gave it to her, "Want one Agent Scully? Or should I say doctor? I can never tell." "No thank you." "Doctor then." "Mind telling me what the CIA has to do with my boss in the FBI?" "Simple. Last Monday Skinner made a call to my boss. They're old friends. I'd tell you his name but then I'd have to kill you. ..That's a joke." Silence in the car. "Well it gets alotta laughs at the water cooler." "Just cut the crap." "Okay. He calls my boss because my boss has evidence that would explain quite a few things about Vietnam." "Like what?" "I don't know. If I knew the guys IN the building would have been after me instead of you." "And why was that copter after you?" "Like I said! I'm CIA! One thing at a time." Sharon was coughing. "It would help if you rolled down the window back there." "Thanks." "Where am I going?" "Well I could go for an omlete right about now. You think Denny's is open?" "I'm just driving! I don't know where I'm going. Where you want us to go?" "You gotta backup place to stow Ms. Skinner?" "Yes there's a backup plan but we can't go there with you in the car." Kelley exhaled audibly and rolled her eyes, "You still don't trust me." "No I do not. Where were the other FBI agents?" "They were called away." "Without alerting me?" "A situation occurred downtown and all available agents were sent in." "I would have heard on my radio." "Where's your radio, Doctor?" "I-I must have left it in the hotel room." "You never had a radio, Dana." "It was swiped just before you entered the hotel room. I saw it on my surveillance monitor across the street. It's why I went in." "How many of the FBI agents were in on the siege?" "Probably just two or three of them but that's all you need. You have some major black sheeps in the Federal Bureau of Invesigations, doctor." "Oh, and you don't?" "NO. We DO not. Unless you count me. I'm about as black sheep as we get in the CIA and I still wear a business suit during business hours." "HAh! That I'd like to see." "My husband would call this a catfight! Will you two listen to yourselves? Scully you said it earlier, this is MY life we're talking about right?" "Right." "I say we can trust this woman. Take me to the backup plan." "Sharon! Look - " "Like I said I know the drill. This is not the first time I've been through this. As the wife of an FBI agent I've been put under protective custody before. This is however the first time I've gotten this close to dying! Please Dana. Listen to Ms. Kelley." "Thank you, Mrs. Skinner." "You're welcome." "Alright! We'll go there now. But I'm warning you Agent Kelley. One false move, and I'll give you a third eye socket." "Don't have to scare me doctor. I know you shot your own partner once. I will not behave irrationally in your presence." _____________________________________________________________________ "Mind telling me what this is all about?" They were a few blocks away from the wreckage of the Bruckmire Hotel. Something had blown a big gaping hole in the top story, but Mulder noticed Scully's car was gone, so they could only assume the women had escaped somehow. Investigating the scene would have been too dangerous for either of them. They knew they couldn't stay this close to the hotel for long, but for the moment they were safe. "I spoke to a friend of mine in the CIA. Louis Williams." "Chief of the Domestic Terrorist Section?" "You're not supposed to know that, Agent Mulder." "Word gets around." "He said he had a lead on some important information about Vietnam. Why some men came back in body bags who shouldn't have gone out that way. We both served together over there. He couldn't officially follow up on the lead because it was out of his jurisdiction, and asked if I could find someone in the FBI to do it for us." "And?" "And I found me." Mulder was awestruck. "YOU?? Sir, with all due respect!" "I know what you're going to say Mulder-" "YOU are the one always telling ME I should operate through proper channels." "THEY KILLED US over there! They killed hundreds, maybe thousands of men, experimenting with drugs that were supposed to make us the perfect killing machines. There was a platoon who reportedly shot at each other. Everything was quieted and back here at homeside the families of the deceased were told they died with honor, but I was over there, Mulder! They shot each other in a blood bath that we heard about but could never prove it occurred. I found the proof. I can prove who was responsible, and how they did it!" "That happened over twenty years ago!" "You weren't THERE Agent Mulder. Those responsible must be held accountable. If I can get the tape back to Williams, we're home clear and finally the souls of those men can be at peace." "That's not going to happen Agent Skinner and you know it." They both turned and faced Skinner's superior, the one Mulder knows as Cancer Man. "With all due respect, sir. Yes it will." "I have the street surrounded. You won't get a block away from here." "Yes they will." A voice came from behind them. Suddenly, Mulder found himself in a stalemate situation. "Louis?" Skinner walked up to his friend and shook his hand, but his friend had a sad look on his face. "You shouldn't have done it, Walter. You should have sent someone else to do it." "It was something I felt I had to do personally. I thought you would understand." "I do." The shot was at point blank range. Skinner looked into Louis' eyes in horror, and slumped to the ground. "NO!!!" Mulder ran to Skinner's body, pulling his gun out with one hand and touching Skinner's neck with the other. He trained the gun on Louis first, then quickly turned it to Cancer Man. They both stood there with guns drawn on each other. Skinner painfully pulled the DAT tape out of his coatpocket and Mulder took it from his hand. He was still alive, but not for long thought Mulder. He had to get him to a hospital. "So once again, Agent Mulder. You hold a hand in the card game. It's just an ace, but what an ace." "You think this is all a game, don't you sir? Treating people's lives like play dough?" "You have no idea how close that statement you just made is to the truth." "Shut up, Hunt. Or should I say Bloodwood?" Louis Williams' gun was drawn on Cancer Man still, but had half an eye on Mulder, who now had his gun drawn on Williams. "Just how many names do you have, old man? We don't have enough proof on you yet, but your days are numbered." There was no blood. Mulder just realized that Skinner wasn't spilling any blood. "Yeah. I got the hand, sir." Mulder turned and faced Cancer Man. "You've already killed Skinner. He's dead." "I didn't kill him," Cancer Man smiled, "he did." "No. You killed him alright. Just like you killed all those men in vietnam. Didn't you?" "I was in vietnam." "Another lie!" Both of the men were holding guns to Cancer Man now. Williams took a step closer, "You never were in Vietnam. There's no records. Or do you have another story to tell us? You keep making up lies and pretty soon you don't know what is the truth anymore, do you?" "My name is not on that tape." Mulder kicked the gun out of Cancer Man's hand and grabbed his tie, "Then whose name is on it?" "Agents! Delta formation!" "Your birdies left the nest sir." Williams put his gun to Cancer Man's neck, "My birdies made them fly away." "TALK! I've had an opportunity before to blow you away and I let it go. Don't expect me to let it go again." The Cancer Man started to laugh, "You cocky son of a bitch. You think you have it all don't you? You have a mother. You had a childhood. There was one thing that Frohickie told you that night that was right." "Frohickie?!" Mulder lifted Cancer Man up and threw him against the car. "What have you done with Frohickie?" "Nothing! But I was listening to you that night when he told you my sob story. How I was responsible for every from assassinations to the Olympics and how I wrote stories to sell in pulp fiction. There was only one thing that night that he said that was the truth, Agent Mulder. Your first word. Your father told me that your first word was JFK. He told me that when we were in the barracks. All the rest of it was a lie." "Big words coming from the king of lies." Mulder's gun was at Cancer Man's temple. "What do you want on your tombstone, sir?" "I never had your kind of life, Agent Mulder. I never had anything to call my own, except a little power. And that's worth nothing." "Who's on that tape!" "My boss!" Cancer Man gulped. With that he signed his fate. He closed his eyes and waited for the son of his old friend to finish his life. That bullet never came. "You were right, Louis," Skinner was on his feet and walking towards them. He was holding his gut in pain, but otherwise seemed fine. "He fell for it. Maybe you CIA boys aren't so dumb after all." "You alright?" "That pop gun of yours packs quite a wallop at point blank range." "Had it made specially for this, but it had to have some kick or it wouldn't have been believable." "I've punched you harder!" Skinner put his hand out for Williams to shake. "We should do this more often," Williams shook Skinner's hand. Then Mulder's, "It was nice working with you Agent Mulder. You're a good interrogator. We'll play 'good cop bad cop' some time, alright?" "Y-You want the tape?" "Why? There's nothing on it." Williams and Skinner gave each other a high five, and Williams walked away into the night. "You... YOU BASTARDS." Skinner turned to look at Cancer Man with a face of amusement, "Granted it won't hold up in court, because we got it out of you under duress, but Williams has this conversation on tape now. I think you've worn out your welcome in the FBI, sir. It's only a matter of time before your boss knows you squealed on him. Come on Agent Mulder," Skinner walked off towards the hotel. Mulder stepped in behind him. Cancer Man straightened himself up, trying to regain a resemblance of cool demeanor, but inside he was shattered. It was all over. "You're both walking dead men!" Cancer Man called after him, "What do you want on YOUR tombstone, agent Mulder?" Mulder looked back, and Skinner stopped and turned around as well. He threw the empty DAT tape at the Cancer Man. "No regrets." Mulder said. _____________________________________________________________________ END OF UNOFFICIAL CHANNELS a short story in tribute to The X-Files by Robin Starveling -- Operation Cobweb http://www.flash.net/~bobdobbs/xfiles