The X-Files Episode 12x14: Adam (Part Two)
So, here's Part Two:
Terence “Don’t Call Me Terry” Fletcher worked at Shiban’s Car Repairs, just on the edge of Rachel, Nevada. He didn’t speak to his father much after his parents’ break-up.
He almost banged his head on the car he was servicing when his friend Steph called “Terry, you have a visitor”. Steph had been at the garage just a few months longer than him; heavyset, gay, and with close-cropped hair, she always had her sleeves rolled up to show the tattoo with her long-time girlfriend’s name on.
“I told you not to call me ‘Terry’”, he complained as he heaved himself out from under the car. He brushed the dust out of his thick beard, and adjusted his back-to-front Nevada Wolf Pack cap, a tuft of his prematurely grey hair visible through its eye.
Steph gave him a friendly punch on the arm: “I know”, she laughed.
Terence was unimpressed to see his father standing nearby, with a woman whom he didn’t recognize.
“Dad”, he complained; “I told you not to call when I’m at work”.
“Don’t worry, Terry”, Steph called out; “almost the end of the working day; I’ll cover for you, and I can finish this job easily”.
It was approaching 5pm Nevada time.
Terence pulled off his oil-stained overalls; he had on a scruffy pair of jeans and a T-shirt underneath.
“I see you’ve got yourself a new girlfriend at last”, he muttered.
“Terence”, Morris sighed; “you act awfully immaturely for a grown man who’s well into his thirties”.
“I wonder who I get that from”, Terence shot back.
“Look, I understand that you’re still angry at me”, Morris answered; “but you have to know, Lois isn’t a bit on the side, she’s your half-sister”.
“I prefer to be called Yves”, Yves said, extending her hand; “long story, and if it makes you feel better, I’m not a big fan of our dad, either”.
“So, you’ve waited this many years to tell me about his half sister of mine?”, Terence replied, as he shook Yves’ hand. “What else have you kept from me, Dad?”
“You lived with me on that military base for all those years”, Morris chuckled; “you must realise I’ve kept many secrets from you, Chris and your Mum”.
“Secrets that my friends and I will keep trying to expose”, Yves added.
“Lois, Yves, whoever you are”, Terence replied; “you must have a lot of patience to spend time with my - our - Dad. You seem like a normal woman, so I’ll give you one tip: Don’t trust him”.
“Oh, I don’t”, Yves replied.
“Look, I appreciate you calling in on me for the first time in about a year”, Terence replied, “but I do have a wife … and a baby too, which you’d know if you were better at reading your WhatsApp messages”.
He climbed into his car, turned to Morris and said: “So, see you in another year, maybe?”
As Terence drove off, Morris turned to Yves, and replied: “See, my son hates me; was that what you were expecting?”
“I can’t say I was too surprised”, Yves sighed.
“I think we’re too late to see Chris today”, Morris chuckled; “we should find a motel to check into”.
“I get a separate room from you”, Yves said, firmly.
“You heard about my snoring, then?”, Morris laughed.
Yves rolled her eyes, but said nothing. She was getting fed up of her father’s jokes.
XXXXX
Adam 5 sat in Mulder and Scully’s lounge. Both agents weren’t letting him out of their sight.
“I know”, he said; “you don’t trust me; you think I’m going to slip you digitalis or something. I don’t suppose it will help to say that I’m not like the others”.
“Wait” said Mulder; “what happened to Eve 6 - did someone do a Manchurian Candidate job on you too?”
“You think I’m brainwashed?”, Adam 5 laughed; “no, I just seem to have ended up as the white sheep of the family. I don’t agree with what the others have done; all this unnecessary killing isn’t for me.
“But in case you’re wondering, they did get to Eve 6, and Adam 6; maybe others. Took out their psychotic urges, and put them to work in menial jobs, so they just want to serve others.
“I also have got the name of one of the MIBs who was involved in the brainwashing: A Morris Fletcher”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I’ve met him”, Scully replied; “he was at the Lone Gunmen’s funeral. In fact, I think you’ve met him, Mulder”.
“I’ve met a lot of MIBs” in my time, Mulder laughed.
“We only met him together briefly”, Scully replied; “that time we were trying to get into Area 51, and we got stopped; he was the one in charge. I took a while to figure it out, but Agents Doggett and Reyes did help me out, told me they’d got to know him too. They did say that he seemed like a shady character”.
Mulder and Scullys’ first encounter with Morris Fletcher was one they remembered as a brief incident. In reality, an anomaly in the space-time continuum had caused Mulder and Fletcher to switch bodies; in fact, it had done other things too. It had left one convenience store owner stuck in the floor of his own shop, through some sort of weird space-time relocation thing.
Morris had gone to live in Mulder’s flat, tidied out all of the porn magazines, and bought a water bed (the less said about that the better; Mulder never got used to the seasickness it gave him before it finally burst).
The space-time anomaly fixed itself in the same inexplicable way that it had started, the dead convenience store owner was mysteriously resurrected (though not even the late Professor Hawking could have said how). Most bizarrely, Mulder, Scully and Morris Fletcher were left with no memory of the incident. Mulder was left with no idea how the water bed got in his apartment, and had reluctantly written to Celebrity Skin to ask for any back issues so he could get his collection back.
Scully fiddled with the two coins she had found, inexplicably fused together, in their office, just after their first meeting with Morris, still none the wiser as to how they got there. Even Mulder hadn’t been able to come up with a good explanation.
“So, he’s brainwashing the Adams and Eves?”, Mulder asked.
“It seems that he thinks he can turn them into honest citizens” replied Adam 5; if he tracks them down”.
“We were told something about Sally Kendrick’s brain”, Scully added; “we know Sally Kendrick as the blueprint for all of the Eves”.
“Our creator”, Adam 5 replied; “and all the Adams were cloned for Kendrick’s dead husband, Simon Boswell. I think, in some twisted way, she was hoping that she could bring him back”.
“But what about her brain”, Mulder demanded.
“My understanding”, Adam 5 explained, “is that Sally Kendrick’s brain is being kept in a top-secret military facility, along with the minds of several people of exceptional intellect who have since died. I understand the mind of Professor Stephen Hawking is among them.”
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I’ve seen the place” explained Mulder; “brains in jars; it’s like something from a science fiction movie”.
“I’m assuming the Adams and Eves want the brain of their creator back?”, Scully suggested.
“Wait, I’m confused”, Mulder added; “why were two of them making a murderous appearance on a TV gameshow? Just for kicks”.
“They knew they’d get that compensation payout”, Adam 5 explained; “the group doesn’t exactly have a steady income, so they had to fund their own rescue mission somehow”.
“How big is this group you are talking of?”, Mulder asked; “our friend Ronald - Deep Throat as we referred to him - told us most of the Adams and Eves committed suicide. Our understanding is that he worked for the same group as my father, and Cancer Man; he would have had insider knowledge”.
“It would seem that the truth was so classified, even your Deep Throat wasn’t told the whole story”, Adam 5 replied, calmly; “several of the Adams and Eves were caught, and were disappeared. They tried to take the most violent of my sisters - Eve 6 - but she slit the throat of one of her captors, and forced the other at gunpoint to drive her away. Eventually, she ditched him in the middle of a desert”.
“So, the ones who were disappeared…?”, Scully asked; “they were…”
“Brainwashed”, Adam 5 replied; “that I know, but I believe the Adams have started rounding them up for deprogramming, as we speak”.
“Wait”, said Scully; “do you know what the government needs Sally Kendrick’s brain for?”
“Not even I can tell you that”, Adam 5 reluctantly admitted; “our psychic powers only extend to what the rest of the group are doing”.
“Won’t you get into trouble if the others find out you’re helping us?”, Mulder asked.
“I expect so”, replied Adam 5, getting up; “but if they can’t find me, then I should be okay. I’ll take my leave of you”.
With that, he walked out the front door, and Mulder and Scully didn’t see him again.
XXXXX
LOCATION UNKNOWN
Two eves, identical to Teena Simmons and Cindy Reardon, sat transfixed by the screen in front of them, as did two young Adams.
Adams and Eves 11 and 12 watched the screen as a calming voice told them:
“You will help society”
“You will no longer want to hurt others”
“You will turn the other cheek”.
The flashing images on the screen were mesmerizing, as they showed calming pictures; young kittens, flowers, pictures of people looking after others.
They were so transfixed, they did not hear the gunshots, and so were taken by surprise when five figures wearing headphones and dark glasses ran into the room, and forced them out of their seats.
As they frogmarched their rescuees out of the small theatre, Adam 9, Eve 8, Cindy, Teena, and Jackson removed their headphones.
Jackson looked down at the dead men in front of him; it was too bad that they’d perceived him as a Man in Black called Morris Fletcher.
The next task would be to see how far into the brainwashing process the Adams and Eves they had just saved were, and how much work they would need to do.
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The image of the five intruders played out on the security footage.
“We have no idea how this happened, Sir”, protested the young soldier who was playing back the footage. He tried not to let his superior’s insistence on smoking cigarettes bother him too much.
“I think I have some idea”, the Cigarette Smoking Man said, “I can see who helped them. I had my suspicion that he was still alive”.
He pointed to the image of Jackson.
“I don’t see what’s so special about him” replied the solider.
“He’s more special than you think”, replied the Smoking Man; “he has an ability to fool the eye, think that you see something different”.
“You said something about being still alive” replied the soldier.
“He’s my son” replied the Smoking Man; “and I thought I had killed him”.
“He must be quite important to you”, the soldier replied.
“He’s important to all of those” replied the Smoking Man, “who expect to survive an invasion that is getting ever closer”.
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US BOTANIC GARDEN
WASHINGTON, DC
“So, I never got to see Bobby without a shirt before”, Agent Einstein said, as she and Scully walked through the botanic garden; “maybe I’ll see him in speedos next?”
“It was years before I got to see Mulder in his speedos”, Scully mused; “do you know how he feels about you yet?”
“I did hug him yesterday”, Einstein replied; “it felt awkward, almost like hugging a scared animal. So, what’s the deal with this new killer?”
“It’s unfortunate our original file on this group got burned inside the basement office many years ago”, Scully grumbled; “Mulder always thinks our smoking friend had something to do with that”.
“The infamous Cancer Man I’ve always heard about?”, Einstein replied; “I heard he blamed AD Spender at one point”.
“The Adams and the Eves have a fixation with killing others”, Scully explained; “their usual modus operandi is to use digitalis”.
“You say they’re also part of a cloning experiment?”, Einstein asked.
“Something like that”, Scully muttered.
“So, I get to work on a homicide and an X-File”, Einstein laughed; “that’s amazing”.
“Do you see yourself as inheriting the X-Files one day?”, Scully asked, “or getting involved with the VCU, like Mulder was”.
“I don’t know”, Einstein replied; “the X-Files would be more interesting, like what if I suddenly became the focus of an X-File, like if something unexplained happened to me. What if I had you and Mulder investigating me?”
“Then you’d have first hand experience of how we work”, Scully laughed; “though I’m sure you’d be the first to agree, there will always be a rational explanation”.
“To be honest, I’d just be happy settling down with Bobby”, Einstein said, dreamily.
Scully’s phone beeped; a text message from Mulder.
“Looks like Mulder needs to speak to me urgently”, she excused herself.
“I’ll do another circuit of the garden”, Einstein replied; “maybe I’ll find some triffids, like in the book”.
“Good luck with Agent Miller”, Scully added.
XXXXX
Eve 6 sat in a room with the other brainwashed Adams and Eves. The woman staring back at them was like a mirror image of herself.
“So, you think you shouldn’t do any violence?”, she said; “think you can’t stand up to yourself, even? Do you not feel any animosity towards anyone?”
The Adams and Eves nodded their heads.
“Not even this man?”, Eve 8 asked, holding up a photograph of Fox Mulder.
“I met him a couple of times”, Eve 6 replied; “I sort of want to gouge his eyeball out with a spoon”; she chuckled as she said this.
“That’s interesting”, said Eve 8; “did you feel like this before you watched Hans Schwimmer’s latest film?”
“Not at all”, Eve 6 replied; “he’s a Mad Hatter; he came into my tea shop with Alice, wanting a tea party”.
It seemed that Eve 6’s unhinged personality was coming back, along with her natural psychosis.
“What do the rest of you feel about Fox Mulder?”, Eve 8 asked.
“It’s amazing what people find out about on the dark web”, Teena whispered to Edward; “like the subliminal message about Agent Mulder; he and his partner arrested us when we were kids”.
Edward nodded: “The man gets about, doesn’t he?”
“I’d kill him if I saw him”, one Adam shouted. There were a few murmurs of agreement.
“So, what if I told you, there are lots of people out there just like Fox Mulder?”, Eve 8 asked; “you don’t need to serve them; you need to stand up to them”.
It had taken her a few hours, and one pirated film, to get through to her brainwashed brothers and sisters.
XXXXX
“Christine!” said Morris, walking into the tattoo parlour.
His daughter had tattoos all the way up her arms; her low-cut black top showed another tattoo that read AREA 51 IS REAL. She had three nose rings, and several rings in both ears. She rarely travelled by plane, as going through the metal detector at airport security wasn’t much fun.
“What do you want?”, she demanded; “and it’s Chris”.
“Aren’t you happy to see your old man?”, Morris asked. He looked around at the small number of customers sitting nearby, many of whom had at least as many tattoos and piercings as his daughter.
“You should ask her for a Prince Albert” said a skinny man with blond spiky hair, and piercings all over his forehead, as well as garishly-coloured patterns up and down his arms.
“Stay out of this, Randy”, Chris replied; “and he’s my Dad”.
“I heard there was a circus performer out in Florida who has jigsaw puzzle tattoos all over his body”, Randy added; “maybe you’d like that instead”.
Chris rolled her eyes; if her Dad started looking like that, she would probably disown him completely.
“Look, Chris”, he said, ignoring Randy; “I can see you’re busy, but I wanted to see who you are, and introduce you to…”
“Yves”, his companion interrupted, “I believe I’m your half-sister”.
Chris cautiously shook Yves’ hand, and then told her: “You’re willingly hanging out with his man?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say ‘willingly’”, Yves muttered.
“I thought I’d surprise the family with a bit of a reunion”, Morris chuckled.
“Look, Dad”, Chris replied; “Terence phoned me earlier, said you’d been visiting, and warned me that you might show up here. I really don’t have a lot to say to you, but if you’re wondering whose fault I ended up like this, you should try looking in a mirror”.
“Chris, that’s not fair…”
“You never told us anything about what you do as a ‘Man in Black’”, Chris continued; “you kept secrets from your own family”.
“I’m sure I could fill you in on some of that”, Yves cut in; “I might be able to get you a few issues of The Lone Gunmen magazine”.
“Ah, yes”, Morris laughed; “the much-missed, but badly informed trio known as Melvin Frohike, John Byers and Ringo Langly”.
Yves rounded on her father: “Although at first I believed them foolish”, she snapped; “I came to gain respect for them, even their naïve friend Jimmy. I suggest you take those words back”.
“So, this is a real magazine?”, Chris asked; “I thought it was just an urban myth. So, my - our - Dad hasn’t been coming after you with one of his flashy things?”
“That was just a movie”, Morris laughed; “if I told you about the ways we really erase peoples’ memories…”
“Dad”, Chris interrupted; “I don’t have time for any of this; I’d say its nice for you to think of me, but that would be an overstatement”.
At that moment, Morris’ phone rang, and he answered it.
“Yes, Mr. Spender”, he said, after a few minutes, as Chris and Yves looked on.
“Well, it seems you’ve got your way”, he said; “I’ve been called away on some urgent business”.
“Don’t come back any time soon”, Chris muttered.
As Morris and Yves left the tattoo parlour, he turned to her and said: “You want to know what I do as a Man in Black, now’s your chance to find out. Time to request one of our private jets, as we have some travelling to do”.
“I’m guessing I have no choice in this”, Yves groaned.
“On the way”, Morris added; “I can tell you all about a woman named Sally Kendrick”.
XXXXX
“Bring me the brain of Sally Kendrick” said O’Malley; “it writes itself; maybe I could get back into the conspiracy theory business rather than being stuck in my current job”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other; they had figured out O’Malley would have been excited at what they had told him”.
“I could ask to join the Lone Gunmen editing team”, O’Malley continued, “if they’ll let me”.
“We’re more concerned with figuring out what they want to do”, Mulder frowned.
“You’ve been suggesting cloning Kendrick for the last few hours”, Scully reminded him.
“Just think about it”, Mulder replied; “the Eves were all clones of Dr. Kendrick, so what if they want to create more of themselves. Imagine it, Scully; it will be like…”
“An attack of the clones?”, Scully ventured.
“I’m so glad I finally got you into Star Wars”, Mulder smiled back at his partner.
“I can’t say I cared much for those prequels”, Scully muttered.
“We can either wait to see how the Government reacts”, Mulder suggested, “or see if we can stop them ourselves”.
“Mulder”, Scully protested; “how are you going to propose we do that?”
“This top-secret facility”, O’Malley replied; “you say you’ve been there before?”
“Yes”, Mulder replied; “and maybe we can get back in again”.
“Right”, said O’Malley; “I’m coming with you. This is an opportunity we can’t miss”.
“Mulder”, said Scully; “how exactly are we going to explain what we’re doing? If we get caught?”
“I was hoping you’d think of something”, Mulder said jokingly.
Scully sighed, but she wasn’t sure exactly what else to do. She didn’t think the base would have a phone line that she could just call. She wondered how the conversation would go: “You are about to get invaded by a clone army”; “yeah, right; I’m going to hang up now”.
XXXXX
“We’re ready for our mission now” said Eve 8; “nothing can stop us from getting Dr. Kendrick back”.
She started to usher the group of Adams and Eves towards the minibus that was waiting. Jackson also stood there, wearing the military uniform that he had been given.
David Greendale - Adam 5 - stood among the group, having quietly returned to them after his visit to Mulder and Scully.
“Adam 5” said Eve 8; “you didn’t drink that coffee I gave you earlier”.
“No”, Adam 5 replied; “I wasn’t thirsty”.
“Almost like you thought I’d put digitalis in it”, Eve 8 laughed; “why, if I had, you’d be about to die right now”.
Adam 5 laughed back: “Now, why would you do that?”
Quick as a flash, Eve 8 nodded towards Jackson. Adam 5 barely heard the gunshot, before he slumped to the floor.
“We need to be sure”, Eve 8 told Jackson, who moved towards Adam 5’s prone body.
As the crowd stood back, Jackson concentrated hard; after a few moments, Adam 5 exploded like something from Scanners.
“Almost like I knew you spoke to the F.B.I. Agents”, Eve 8 told the scattered remains that had once been David Greendale.
XXXXX
Adam 5 looked at the room around him. The woman speaking at the front looked familiar.
He quickly realized that she was Sally Kendrick; the original, and the blueprint for all the Eves. Around him sat a group of people, all of whom were seemingly mesmerized by the talk she was giving about eugenics.
Everything seemed to shift around him, and suddenly he was outside. He could feel the cold December weather, and he saw another familiar face passing him: Fox Mulder.
He watched as Mulder hailed a taxi, and drove away.
In death, it seemed that Adam 5 had gained knowledge of everything that had happened, and what was to be. He knew why Mulder was in town, and he knew when he was going to return.
If he could make himself stay in this place long enough, he could probably speak to Mulder, but he needed to know what to tell him.
As he read his paper, he confirmed that the location was Salem. The sudoku puzzle would have been a good way to pass the time, if he had a pen.
This wasn’t really what he had expected the afterlife to be like for him, but it was what it was.
“David Greendale has become unstuck in time”, he said to himself.
XXXXX
Scully drove the car, with Mulder in the passenger seat. They had just dropped off Tena again with Leyla Harrison.
Tad O’Malley sat in the back seat.
“So, do you think this story will help revive your career?”, Mulder asked.
“I hope so”, O’Malley replied; “brains kept in a secret vault, including goodness knows whose. Stephen Hawking’s, no doubt.”
“It has to involve cloning in some way”, Mulder mused.
“Bring back the most intelligent people on earth?” Scully replied; “Einstein, perhaps Descartes, and also Sally Kendrick?”
“Don’t forget out friend Hilda”, Mulder replied, “maybe it’s like that famous Star Trek episode, the Hawking one”.
“That was science fiction, Mulder”, Scully reminded him; “and I don’t think it was brains in jars, it was whole people bought back from the dead”.
“Who knows what the government is thinking”, muttered O’Malley; “maybe we should stop for coffee”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I think we should be okay for a quick stop”, Scully replied; “we didn’t take too long dropping off Tena”.
“I’ll give you a hand, Scully”, said Mulder, as they parked the car outside a Starbucks.
The place seemed reasonably empty, mostly because it was evening. They could set a record for how quickly they could get served.
“I’ll have a black americano”, O’Malley called.
“Three black americanos” said Mulder to the tired-looking barista; “name is Tad”.
As the barista started serving, he whispered to Scully: “I get tired of people asking me if Fox is my real name”.
They were suddenly distracted by the sound of an engine starting. Looking around, they saw their car driving away. Tad O’Malley had carjacked them.
“Forget the coffees”, Mulder muttered, as they ran out of the café.
“HEY!”, Scully shouted, waving her arms, but she knew it would do no good. It seemed that Tad O’Malley had his own agenda, and he wasn’t going to let the agents get in the way.
“Happens all the time here”, said the barista, stepping outside with a pack of Morley cigarettes; “we’ve had five carjackings just this year”.
XXXXX
From the point of view of the two military officers, Sergeant Chambers was escorting a small group of people through the military base.
“You two, help me with this group; we’re detaining them”, said the vision of Sergeant Chambers.
“They look like lost tourists, sir”, said one of the officers.
“Regardless, I’m going to take them in for questioning”, replied Jackson, keeping up his persona as a military man. He did after all have this sort of thing in his blood; his real father had been in the army, and his grandfather had been in the navy.
“Right away, men”, he said, more insistently.
As the two officers helped the fake Sergeant Chambers escort the bizarre group of people, they couldn’t help wondering why so many of them looked alike. They could only guess that they had stumbled up on a family of conspiracy geeks.
XXXXX
Mulder stuck out his thumb, hopefully. It was difficult for hitchhikers to pick up lifts in this area.
When a rental car did pull up, Scully looked surprised: “You”.
“Yves”, was all Mulder said.
“The famous Agents Mulder and Scully”, said Morris; “you can thank Lois, because she spotted you”.
“Yves”, his daughter grumbled.
“Well, are you going to get in?”, chuckled Morris; “or are you just trying to spot owls?”
Mulder barely knew Morris, as he only remembered meeting him briefly when he had stopped them getting into Area 51. The agents reluctantly got in.
“I can only assume you are looking for the Adams and Eves, same as us”, Morris asked.
“You’re a Man in Black”, said Mulder, from the back seat; “I suppose you’re going to use your flashy thing on me”.
“He’s also my dad”, Yves explained; “those things only exist in the films”.
“Or do they?”, Morris chuckled, as he started to drive.
“He was at the funeral”, Scully whispered; “Byers, Langly and Frohike; I’m not sure how seriously he takes National Security”.
Suddenly her phone buzzed, and she checked it.
“Everything okay, Scully?”, Mulder asked.
“An anonymous text message”, Scully replied; “it says Jackson is with the Adams and Eves”.
“Jackson, is that your son?”, Morris asked.
“None of your beeswax”, Mulder snapped.
“Whatever”, replied Morris; “just good to see that the bizarrely-named Fox Mulder and I are both co-operating with each other”.
Mulder looked at Scully; he could see what she was thinking.
Had Matthew been right?
Was her son really still alive?
XXXXX
The Cigarette Smoking Man checked his phone; looked like Scully had received his text.
The important thing was that nothing should happen to Jackson.
His favourite son.
XXXXX
“I’m not sure you’re supposed to be taking prisoners in here” said a guard, pointing his gun at the man who was to all intents and purposes Sergeant Chambers.
“But, Sir…”
“There’s been a new directive” replied Jackson, concentrating hard again.
Like with Adam 5, the guard exploded in a shower of blood. Jackson was getting good at this; maybe his powers were a little too good. Eve 8 nodded at Teena, and handed her a syringe.
Teena knew what she had to do; she just needed to find the right moment.
XXXXX
“You need to let us in”, Morris demanded to the guard on the gate; “there’s been a major security breach”.
“A threat to National Security maybe”, Mulder shouted.
“Mr. Fletcher” said the guard; “our very own Sergeant Chambers arrested every trespasser who was present on site. Also, are you aware of who that F.B.I. Agent in your car is?”
“Still the F.B.I’s most unwanted”, Mulder chucked; “Scully, if they think they saw the dead Sergeant Chambers, then…”
“You think that was William, don’t you?”, Scully asked; “with his apparent ability to fool the eye.”
“I’ll have to ask you all the step out of the car”, the guard ordered; “regardless of whether you are in the custody of Mr. Fletcher here”.
Scully and Mulder looked at each other; they weren’t sure if making a run for it would be a good idea this time.
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The Adams and Eves piled into the waiting minibus. Eve 8 clutched Sally Kendrick’s brain.
“We won’t let you fall into the wrong hands again, Mother” she said, in a soothing, but creepy tone.
They were too busy to notice Edward, who had volunteered to drive, tied up and gagged in the undergrowth. Edward could hear distant police sirens; he sensed they were coming for him, and that soon he would be back in prison, ready to complete his multiple murder sentence.
Jackson barely noticed the pinprick as Teena jabbed him in the arm with the syringe.
Tad O’Malley, at the wheel of the minibus, glanced at his motley crew of passengers through the rear-view mirror. They hadn’t noticed it was him at all.
His plan was almost complete.
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Skinner sat at home, with just his vision of Krycek, and a glass of port, for company.
“What is it you want from me?”, he demanded; “you should be dead”.
“You know me”, Krycek laughed; “I’m not that easy to kill”.
“You and Cancer Man”, Skinner snapped back; “I suppose you want to find some way to use me”.
“You remember the nanobots then?”, Krycek smiled.
“Yes”, Skinner shouted; “I do as you say, or you switch the nanobots inside me back on. That’s how you tried to control me before.”
“You thought you could just blow my brains out”, Krycek laughed, “you thought you could make it all go away”.
“What are you going to make me to this time, Alex?”, Skinner demanded; “go on, tell me”.
“I don’t know who you’re talking to”, said the Cigarette Smoking Man, appearing out of the shadows, “but your conversation has fascinated me. So, I heard Alex Krycek had access to nanotechnology; I didn’t realise he had used them on you. He always played things his own way”.
Krycek looked at the Smoking Man, then back at Skinner.
“Oops”, he said.
Skinner threw the glass of port at Krycek; it sailed through him, and smashed on the wall behind.
“You…” Skinner said; “I can make sure you don’t walk out of here alive”.
He searched around him.
The Smoking Man held up Skinner’s gun: “You were looking for this?”, he laughed; “I’ll let myself out, but I’ll be in touch”.
Still holding the gun, he exited the former Assistant Director’s flat.
Skinner shouted at him as he left, but he took no notice. This was too good an opportunity to miss.
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Tad O’Malley parked the minibus outside the remote woodland cabin, and ushered for the Adams and Eves to get out.
“This is a change of plan that I did not expect”, Eve 8 complained.
“It seemed like the best place for us to hide for a while”, O’Malley replied, not looking around; “I think we’ve outmanoevred the military people for now”.
As the group headed towards the cabin, Teena turned to Cindy: “Something’s not right; I can sense that Adam 9 is in trouble”.
“I have that feeling, too” replied Cindy, who was clutching Sally Kendrick’s brain in its jar; “it’s like I just know”.
“I think there’s something wrong here”, replied Jackson; “quick, follow me”.
O’Malley did not notice as they slipped away into the distance, rather than entering the cabin.
“It’s Adam 9” said Eve 6, as they entered the cabin; “it’s like he’s fallen down the rabbit hole. I have an excellent idea, let’s change the subject”.
O’Malley turned at this point, and the group inside the cabin saw his face. They spotted the wire under his jacket, too late.
“You…” said Eve 8.
O’Malley grinned, and the next thing the Adams and Eves saw was the blinding light, heard the loud explosion as the bomb strapped to his waist detonated.
Jackson, Cindy and Teena turned around when they heard the cabin explode; they had just made it to a safe distance.
They looked on impassively; Cindy and Teena had both killed Sally Kendrick, and they felt very little emotion at the sight of their own brothers and sisters being blown to pieces.
“I know what I need to do next”, said Jackson; “I think you both can handle yourself from here”.
Cindy and Teena both watched as he ran away into the forest, and then looked at Sally Kendrick’s brain in its jar. They both needed to make up their mind what to do next with it.
Cindy took Teena’s hand, and carrying the jar, they went on their way.
XXXXX
“Agents” said Spender; “being detained by the military once again is not a good look for the F.B.I., but I’ll overlook that in light of recent events”.
On the desk between him and the agents lay several pictures of the human remains from where Tad O’Malley’s bomb had gone off; it was a gruesome montage.
“William … Jackson” said Scully; “my son”.
“Agent Scully” said Spender, calmly; “the remains of several of these so-called ‘Adams’ and ‘Eves’ were identified, having D.N.A. and dental records very similar to those of the late Dr. Sally Kendrick, as well as those of a certain Tad O’Malley”.
Mulder and Scully nodded silently.
“However”, Spender added; “we have not identified any of the remains of Jackson van de Kamp”.
“You mean…?”, Mulder asked.
“Maybe he wasn’t even with them”, Spender suggested; “but you said it yourself; my - our - father shot Jackson in cold blood. I think it is unlikely that he is alive”.
“No remains were retrieved for Jackson”, Mulder reminded Spender.
Spender nodded, then replied: “Dismissed, Agents. Bear in mind that next time you are caught trying to enter a military base, the F.B.I., and especially Deputy Director Kersh, may be not so lenient. You are lucky that I didn’t mention any of this to him”.
“Thank you, Sir”, Scully replied, as she and Mulder left Spender’s office.
XXXXX
“I suppose you don’t want to see any more of me”, said Morris, as he and Yves got in the car together.
“Actually, there’s one thing I would like to do first”, Yves said, calmly; “I’ll give directions”.
The cemetery wasn’t far away; Yves led Morris to the simple gravestone in the corner, on which was inscribed:
MICHELLE RUNTZ
1935 - 1975
SURVIVED BY HER DAUGHTER LOIS
WE MISS HER EVERY DAY
Morris looked at the gravestone, and then at Yves.
“Did you ever love her?” Yves asked; “Mum”.
“Yves” replied Morris; “I you have to know, I always did love your mother”.
“Then, why did you leave when I was so young?”, Yves demanded.
“I got your name right”, Morris chuckled.
“That’s not the answer I wanted”, Yves snapped.
“You probably didn’t realise this”, Morris sighed; “but I made regular visits to your Mom, when you were younger. I only managed to come after you’d gone to bed. She’d show you asleep to me, said how you looked just like me”.
“I guess that all stopped when she passed away, and I had to go and live with my aunt and uncle”, Yves said, tears in her eyes; “but I never got to see you”.
“I didn’t think I could commit to bringing up a daughter”, Morris explained; “I was young, and it was before I met Joanne. Even then, I didn’t have enough time for Chris or Terry. I hope I was able to make enough time for you now, making up for what I did in the past”.
“It will take a lot more than that”, Yves frowned.
“Then, I’ll try” replied Morris; “I’ll keep trying with you”.
“You’ll try with Chris and Terry - Terence, too?”, Yves asked.
“Yes”, Morris replied; “I promise this time. How about giving your old man a hug?”
Yves accepted her father’s embrace, and then added: “I really hope you’re telling the truth this time”.
“Your Mom would be proud of you”, Morris replied.
XXXXX
A few days later, there was a knock at Mulder and Scullys’ front door. It was raining outside, quite heavily. Few would venture out to their place in these conditions.
The Agents looked at each other; once again they wondered who could be calling.
“Let’s hope its Skin Man this time”, Mulder laughed; “not another rogue Adam or Eve”.
Scully smiled, and opened the door, then she gasped in surprise at the rain-soaked figure who stood on the porch, looking almost like a drowned rat.
“Mom” said Jackson.
THE END
Terence “Don’t Call Me Terry” Fletcher worked at Shiban’s Car Repairs, just on the edge of Rachel, Nevada. He didn’t speak to his father much after his parents’ break-up.
He almost banged his head on the car he was servicing when his friend Steph called “Terry, you have a visitor”. Steph had been at the garage just a few months longer than him; heavyset, gay, and with close-cropped hair, she always had her sleeves rolled up to show the tattoo with her long-time girlfriend’s name on.
“I told you not to call me ‘Terry’”, he complained as he heaved himself out from under the car. He brushed the dust out of his thick beard, and adjusted his back-to-front Nevada Wolf Pack cap, a tuft of his prematurely grey hair visible through its eye.
Steph gave him a friendly punch on the arm: “I know”, she laughed.
Terence was unimpressed to see his father standing nearby, with a woman whom he didn’t recognize.
“Dad”, he complained; “I told you not to call when I’m at work”.
“Don’t worry, Terry”, Steph called out; “almost the end of the working day; I’ll cover for you, and I can finish this job easily”.
It was approaching 5pm Nevada time.
Terence pulled off his oil-stained overalls; he had on a scruffy pair of jeans and a T-shirt underneath.
“I see you’ve got yourself a new girlfriend at last”, he muttered.
“Terence”, Morris sighed; “you act awfully immaturely for a grown man who’s well into his thirties”.
“I wonder who I get that from”, Terence shot back.
“Look, I understand that you’re still angry at me”, Morris answered; “but you have to know, Lois isn’t a bit on the side, she’s your half-sister”.
“I prefer to be called Yves”, Yves said, extending her hand; “long story, and if it makes you feel better, I’m not a big fan of our dad, either”.
“So, you’ve waited this many years to tell me about his half sister of mine?”, Terence replied, as he shook Yves’ hand. “What else have you kept from me, Dad?”
“You lived with me on that military base for all those years”, Morris chuckled; “you must realise I’ve kept many secrets from you, Chris and your Mum”.
“Secrets that my friends and I will keep trying to expose”, Yves added.
“Lois, Yves, whoever you are”, Terence replied; “you must have a lot of patience to spend time with my - our - Dad. You seem like a normal woman, so I’ll give you one tip: Don’t trust him”.
“Oh, I don’t”, Yves replied.
“Look, I appreciate you calling in on me for the first time in about a year”, Terence replied, “but I do have a wife … and a baby too, which you’d know if you were better at reading your WhatsApp messages”.
He climbed into his car, turned to Morris and said: “So, see you in another year, maybe?”
As Terence drove off, Morris turned to Yves, and replied: “See, my son hates me; was that what you were expecting?”
“I can’t say I was too surprised”, Yves sighed.
“I think we’re too late to see Chris today”, Morris chuckled; “we should find a motel to check into”.
“I get a separate room from you”, Yves said, firmly.
“You heard about my snoring, then?”, Morris laughed.
Yves rolled her eyes, but said nothing. She was getting fed up of her father’s jokes.
XXXXX
Adam 5 sat in Mulder and Scully’s lounge. Both agents weren’t letting him out of their sight.
“I know”, he said; “you don’t trust me; you think I’m going to slip you digitalis or something. I don’t suppose it will help to say that I’m not like the others”.
“Wait” said Mulder; “what happened to Eve 6 - did someone do a Manchurian Candidate job on you too?”
“You think I’m brainwashed?”, Adam 5 laughed; “no, I just seem to have ended up as the white sheep of the family. I don’t agree with what the others have done; all this unnecessary killing isn’t for me.
“But in case you’re wondering, they did get to Eve 6, and Adam 6; maybe others. Took out their psychotic urges, and put them to work in menial jobs, so they just want to serve others.
“I also have got the name of one of the MIBs who was involved in the brainwashing: A Morris Fletcher”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I’ve met him”, Scully replied; “he was at the Lone Gunmen’s funeral. In fact, I think you’ve met him, Mulder”.
“I’ve met a lot of MIBs” in my time, Mulder laughed.
“We only met him together briefly”, Scully replied; “that time we were trying to get into Area 51, and we got stopped; he was the one in charge. I took a while to figure it out, but Agents Doggett and Reyes did help me out, told me they’d got to know him too. They did say that he seemed like a shady character”.
Mulder and Scullys’ first encounter with Morris Fletcher was one they remembered as a brief incident. In reality, an anomaly in the space-time continuum had caused Mulder and Fletcher to switch bodies; in fact, it had done other things too. It had left one convenience store owner stuck in the floor of his own shop, through some sort of weird space-time relocation thing.
Morris had gone to live in Mulder’s flat, tidied out all of the porn magazines, and bought a water bed (the less said about that the better; Mulder never got used to the seasickness it gave him before it finally burst).
The space-time anomaly fixed itself in the same inexplicable way that it had started, the dead convenience store owner was mysteriously resurrected (though not even the late Professor Hawking could have said how). Most bizarrely, Mulder, Scully and Morris Fletcher were left with no memory of the incident. Mulder was left with no idea how the water bed got in his apartment, and had reluctantly written to Celebrity Skin to ask for any back issues so he could get his collection back.
Scully fiddled with the two coins she had found, inexplicably fused together, in their office, just after their first meeting with Morris, still none the wiser as to how they got there. Even Mulder hadn’t been able to come up with a good explanation.
“So, he’s brainwashing the Adams and Eves?”, Mulder asked.
“It seems that he thinks he can turn them into honest citizens” replied Adam 5; if he tracks them down”.
“We were told something about Sally Kendrick’s brain”, Scully added; “we know Sally Kendrick as the blueprint for all of the Eves”.
“Our creator”, Adam 5 replied; “and all the Adams were cloned for Kendrick’s dead husband, Simon Boswell. I think, in some twisted way, she was hoping that she could bring him back”.
“But what about her brain”, Mulder demanded.
“My understanding”, Adam 5 explained, “is that Sally Kendrick’s brain is being kept in a top-secret military facility, along with the minds of several people of exceptional intellect who have since died. I understand the mind of Professor Stephen Hawking is among them.”
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I’ve seen the place” explained Mulder; “brains in jars; it’s like something from a science fiction movie”.
“I’m assuming the Adams and Eves want the brain of their creator back?”, Scully suggested.
“Wait, I’m confused”, Mulder added; “why were two of them making a murderous appearance on a TV gameshow? Just for kicks”.
“They knew they’d get that compensation payout”, Adam 5 explained; “the group doesn’t exactly have a steady income, so they had to fund their own rescue mission somehow”.
“How big is this group you are talking of?”, Mulder asked; “our friend Ronald - Deep Throat as we referred to him - told us most of the Adams and Eves committed suicide. Our understanding is that he worked for the same group as my father, and Cancer Man; he would have had insider knowledge”.
“It would seem that the truth was so classified, even your Deep Throat wasn’t told the whole story”, Adam 5 replied, calmly; “several of the Adams and Eves were caught, and were disappeared. They tried to take the most violent of my sisters - Eve 6 - but she slit the throat of one of her captors, and forced the other at gunpoint to drive her away. Eventually, she ditched him in the middle of a desert”.
“So, the ones who were disappeared…?”, Scully asked; “they were…”
“Brainwashed”, Adam 5 replied; “that I know, but I believe the Adams have started rounding them up for deprogramming, as we speak”.
“Wait”, said Scully; “do you know what the government needs Sally Kendrick’s brain for?”
“Not even I can tell you that”, Adam 5 reluctantly admitted; “our psychic powers only extend to what the rest of the group are doing”.
“Won’t you get into trouble if the others find out you’re helping us?”, Mulder asked.
“I expect so”, replied Adam 5, getting up; “but if they can’t find me, then I should be okay. I’ll take my leave of you”.
With that, he walked out the front door, and Mulder and Scully didn’t see him again.
XXXXX
LOCATION UNKNOWN
Two eves, identical to Teena Simmons and Cindy Reardon, sat transfixed by the screen in front of them, as did two young Adams.
Adams and Eves 11 and 12 watched the screen as a calming voice told them:
“You will help society”
“You will no longer want to hurt others”
“You will turn the other cheek”.
The flashing images on the screen were mesmerizing, as they showed calming pictures; young kittens, flowers, pictures of people looking after others.
They were so transfixed, they did not hear the gunshots, and so were taken by surprise when five figures wearing headphones and dark glasses ran into the room, and forced them out of their seats.
As they frogmarched their rescuees out of the small theatre, Adam 9, Eve 8, Cindy, Teena, and Jackson removed their headphones.
Jackson looked down at the dead men in front of him; it was too bad that they’d perceived him as a Man in Black called Morris Fletcher.
The next task would be to see how far into the brainwashing process the Adams and Eves they had just saved were, and how much work they would need to do.
XXXXX
The image of the five intruders played out on the security footage.
“We have no idea how this happened, Sir”, protested the young soldier who was playing back the footage. He tried not to let his superior’s insistence on smoking cigarettes bother him too much.
“I think I have some idea”, the Cigarette Smoking Man said, “I can see who helped them. I had my suspicion that he was still alive”.
He pointed to the image of Jackson.
“I don’t see what’s so special about him” replied the solider.
“He’s more special than you think”, replied the Smoking Man; “he has an ability to fool the eye, think that you see something different”.
“You said something about being still alive” replied the soldier.
“He’s my son” replied the Smoking Man; “and I thought I had killed him”.
“He must be quite important to you”, the soldier replied.
“He’s important to all of those” replied the Smoking Man, “who expect to survive an invasion that is getting ever closer”.
XXXXX
US BOTANIC GARDEN
WASHINGTON, DC
“So, I never got to see Bobby without a shirt before”, Agent Einstein said, as she and Scully walked through the botanic garden; “maybe I’ll see him in speedos next?”
“It was years before I got to see Mulder in his speedos”, Scully mused; “do you know how he feels about you yet?”
“I did hug him yesterday”, Einstein replied; “it felt awkward, almost like hugging a scared animal. So, what’s the deal with this new killer?”
“It’s unfortunate our original file on this group got burned inside the basement office many years ago”, Scully grumbled; “Mulder always thinks our smoking friend had something to do with that”.
“The infamous Cancer Man I’ve always heard about?”, Einstein replied; “I heard he blamed AD Spender at one point”.
“The Adams and the Eves have a fixation with killing others”, Scully explained; “their usual modus operandi is to use digitalis”.
“You say they’re also part of a cloning experiment?”, Einstein asked.
“Something like that”, Scully muttered.
“So, I get to work on a homicide and an X-File”, Einstein laughed; “that’s amazing”.
“Do you see yourself as inheriting the X-Files one day?”, Scully asked, “or getting involved with the VCU, like Mulder was”.
“I don’t know”, Einstein replied; “the X-Files would be more interesting, like what if I suddenly became the focus of an X-File, like if something unexplained happened to me. What if I had you and Mulder investigating me?”
“Then you’d have first hand experience of how we work”, Scully laughed; “though I’m sure you’d be the first to agree, there will always be a rational explanation”.
“To be honest, I’d just be happy settling down with Bobby”, Einstein said, dreamily.
Scully’s phone beeped; a text message from Mulder.
“Looks like Mulder needs to speak to me urgently”, she excused herself.
“I’ll do another circuit of the garden”, Einstein replied; “maybe I’ll find some triffids, like in the book”.
“Good luck with Agent Miller”, Scully added.
XXXXX
Eve 6 sat in a room with the other brainwashed Adams and Eves. The woman staring back at them was like a mirror image of herself.
“So, you think you shouldn’t do any violence?”, she said; “think you can’t stand up to yourself, even? Do you not feel any animosity towards anyone?”
The Adams and Eves nodded their heads.
“Not even this man?”, Eve 8 asked, holding up a photograph of Fox Mulder.
“I met him a couple of times”, Eve 6 replied; “I sort of want to gouge his eyeball out with a spoon”; she chuckled as she said this.
“That’s interesting”, said Eve 8; “did you feel like this before you watched Hans Schwimmer’s latest film?”
“Not at all”, Eve 6 replied; “he’s a Mad Hatter; he came into my tea shop with Alice, wanting a tea party”.
It seemed that Eve 6’s unhinged personality was coming back, along with her natural psychosis.
“What do the rest of you feel about Fox Mulder?”, Eve 8 asked.
“It’s amazing what people find out about on the dark web”, Teena whispered to Edward; “like the subliminal message about Agent Mulder; he and his partner arrested us when we were kids”.
Edward nodded: “The man gets about, doesn’t he?”
“I’d kill him if I saw him”, one Adam shouted. There were a few murmurs of agreement.
“So, what if I told you, there are lots of people out there just like Fox Mulder?”, Eve 8 asked; “you don’t need to serve them; you need to stand up to them”.
It had taken her a few hours, and one pirated film, to get through to her brainwashed brothers and sisters.
XXXXX
“Christine!” said Morris, walking into the tattoo parlour.
His daughter had tattoos all the way up her arms; her low-cut black top showed another tattoo that read AREA 51 IS REAL. She had three nose rings, and several rings in both ears. She rarely travelled by plane, as going through the metal detector at airport security wasn’t much fun.
“What do you want?”, she demanded; “and it’s Chris”.
“Aren’t you happy to see your old man?”, Morris asked. He looked around at the small number of customers sitting nearby, many of whom had at least as many tattoos and piercings as his daughter.
“You should ask her for a Prince Albert” said a skinny man with blond spiky hair, and piercings all over his forehead, as well as garishly-coloured patterns up and down his arms.
“Stay out of this, Randy”, Chris replied; “and he’s my Dad”.
“I heard there was a circus performer out in Florida who has jigsaw puzzle tattoos all over his body”, Randy added; “maybe you’d like that instead”.
Chris rolled her eyes; if her Dad started looking like that, she would probably disown him completely.
“Look, Chris”, he said, ignoring Randy; “I can see you’re busy, but I wanted to see who you are, and introduce you to…”
“Yves”, his companion interrupted, “I believe I’m your half-sister”.
Chris cautiously shook Yves’ hand, and then told her: “You’re willingly hanging out with his man?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say ‘willingly’”, Yves muttered.
“I thought I’d surprise the family with a bit of a reunion”, Morris chuckled.
“Look, Dad”, Chris replied; “Terence phoned me earlier, said you’d been visiting, and warned me that you might show up here. I really don’t have a lot to say to you, but if you’re wondering whose fault I ended up like this, you should try looking in a mirror”.
“Chris, that’s not fair…”
“You never told us anything about what you do as a ‘Man in Black’”, Chris continued; “you kept secrets from your own family”.
“I’m sure I could fill you in on some of that”, Yves cut in; “I might be able to get you a few issues of The Lone Gunmen magazine”.
“Ah, yes”, Morris laughed; “the much-missed, but badly informed trio known as Melvin Frohike, John Byers and Ringo Langly”.
Yves rounded on her father: “Although at first I believed them foolish”, she snapped; “I came to gain respect for them, even their naïve friend Jimmy. I suggest you take those words back”.
“So, this is a real magazine?”, Chris asked; “I thought it was just an urban myth. So, my - our - Dad hasn’t been coming after you with one of his flashy things?”
“That was just a movie”, Morris laughed; “if I told you about the ways we really erase peoples’ memories…”
“Dad”, Chris interrupted; “I don’t have time for any of this; I’d say its nice for you to think of me, but that would be an overstatement”.
At that moment, Morris’ phone rang, and he answered it.
“Yes, Mr. Spender”, he said, after a few minutes, as Chris and Yves looked on.
“Well, it seems you’ve got your way”, he said; “I’ve been called away on some urgent business”.
“Don’t come back any time soon”, Chris muttered.
As Morris and Yves left the tattoo parlour, he turned to her and said: “You want to know what I do as a Man in Black, now’s your chance to find out. Time to request one of our private jets, as we have some travelling to do”.
“I’m guessing I have no choice in this”, Yves groaned.
“On the way”, Morris added; “I can tell you all about a woman named Sally Kendrick”.
XXXXX
“Bring me the brain of Sally Kendrick” said O’Malley; “it writes itself; maybe I could get back into the conspiracy theory business rather than being stuck in my current job”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other; they had figured out O’Malley would have been excited at what they had told him”.
“I could ask to join the Lone Gunmen editing team”, O’Malley continued, “if they’ll let me”.
“We’re more concerned with figuring out what they want to do”, Mulder frowned.
“You’ve been suggesting cloning Kendrick for the last few hours”, Scully reminded him.
“Just think about it”, Mulder replied; “the Eves were all clones of Dr. Kendrick, so what if they want to create more of themselves. Imagine it, Scully; it will be like…”
“An attack of the clones?”, Scully ventured.
“I’m so glad I finally got you into Star Wars”, Mulder smiled back at his partner.
“I can’t say I cared much for those prequels”, Scully muttered.
“We can either wait to see how the Government reacts”, Mulder suggested, “or see if we can stop them ourselves”.
“Mulder”, Scully protested; “how are you going to propose we do that?”
“This top-secret facility”, O’Malley replied; “you say you’ve been there before?”
“Yes”, Mulder replied; “and maybe we can get back in again”.
“Right”, said O’Malley; “I’m coming with you. This is an opportunity we can’t miss”.
“Mulder”, said Scully; “how exactly are we going to explain what we’re doing? If we get caught?”
“I was hoping you’d think of something”, Mulder said jokingly.
Scully sighed, but she wasn’t sure exactly what else to do. She didn’t think the base would have a phone line that she could just call. She wondered how the conversation would go: “You are about to get invaded by a clone army”; “yeah, right; I’m going to hang up now”.
XXXXX
“We’re ready for our mission now” said Eve 8; “nothing can stop us from getting Dr. Kendrick back”.
She started to usher the group of Adams and Eves towards the minibus that was waiting. Jackson also stood there, wearing the military uniform that he had been given.
David Greendale - Adam 5 - stood among the group, having quietly returned to them after his visit to Mulder and Scully.
“Adam 5” said Eve 8; “you didn’t drink that coffee I gave you earlier”.
“No”, Adam 5 replied; “I wasn’t thirsty”.
“Almost like you thought I’d put digitalis in it”, Eve 8 laughed; “why, if I had, you’d be about to die right now”.
Adam 5 laughed back: “Now, why would you do that?”
Quick as a flash, Eve 8 nodded towards Jackson. Adam 5 barely heard the gunshot, before he slumped to the floor.
“We need to be sure”, Eve 8 told Jackson, who moved towards Adam 5’s prone body.
As the crowd stood back, Jackson concentrated hard; after a few moments, Adam 5 exploded like something from Scanners.
“Almost like I knew you spoke to the F.B.I. Agents”, Eve 8 told the scattered remains that had once been David Greendale.
XXXXX
Adam 5 looked at the room around him. The woman speaking at the front looked familiar.
He quickly realized that she was Sally Kendrick; the original, and the blueprint for all the Eves. Around him sat a group of people, all of whom were seemingly mesmerized by the talk she was giving about eugenics.
Everything seemed to shift around him, and suddenly he was outside. He could feel the cold December weather, and he saw another familiar face passing him: Fox Mulder.
He watched as Mulder hailed a taxi, and drove away.
In death, it seemed that Adam 5 had gained knowledge of everything that had happened, and what was to be. He knew why Mulder was in town, and he knew when he was going to return.
If he could make himself stay in this place long enough, he could probably speak to Mulder, but he needed to know what to tell him.
As he read his paper, he confirmed that the location was Salem. The sudoku puzzle would have been a good way to pass the time, if he had a pen.
This wasn’t really what he had expected the afterlife to be like for him, but it was what it was.
“David Greendale has become unstuck in time”, he said to himself.
XXXXX
Scully drove the car, with Mulder in the passenger seat. They had just dropped off Tena again with Leyla Harrison.
Tad O’Malley sat in the back seat.
“So, do you think this story will help revive your career?”, Mulder asked.
“I hope so”, O’Malley replied; “brains kept in a secret vault, including goodness knows whose. Stephen Hawking’s, no doubt.”
“It has to involve cloning in some way”, Mulder mused.
“Bring back the most intelligent people on earth?” Scully replied; “Einstein, perhaps Descartes, and also Sally Kendrick?”
“Don’t forget out friend Hilda”, Mulder replied, “maybe it’s like that famous Star Trek episode, the Hawking one”.
“That was science fiction, Mulder”, Scully reminded him; “and I don’t think it was brains in jars, it was whole people bought back from the dead”.
“Who knows what the government is thinking”, muttered O’Malley; “maybe we should stop for coffee”.
Mulder and Scully looked at each other.
“I think we should be okay for a quick stop”, Scully replied; “we didn’t take too long dropping off Tena”.
“I’ll give you a hand, Scully”, said Mulder, as they parked the car outside a Starbucks.
The place seemed reasonably empty, mostly because it was evening. They could set a record for how quickly they could get served.
“I’ll have a black americano”, O’Malley called.
“Three black americanos” said Mulder to the tired-looking barista; “name is Tad”.
As the barista started serving, he whispered to Scully: “I get tired of people asking me if Fox is my real name”.
They were suddenly distracted by the sound of an engine starting. Looking around, they saw their car driving away. Tad O’Malley had carjacked them.
“Forget the coffees”, Mulder muttered, as they ran out of the café.
“HEY!”, Scully shouted, waving her arms, but she knew it would do no good. It seemed that Tad O’Malley had his own agenda, and he wasn’t going to let the agents get in the way.
“Happens all the time here”, said the barista, stepping outside with a pack of Morley cigarettes; “we’ve had five carjackings just this year”.
XXXXX
From the point of view of the two military officers, Sergeant Chambers was escorting a small group of people through the military base.
“You two, help me with this group; we’re detaining them”, said the vision of Sergeant Chambers.
“They look like lost tourists, sir”, said one of the officers.
“Regardless, I’m going to take them in for questioning”, replied Jackson, keeping up his persona as a military man. He did after all have this sort of thing in his blood; his real father had been in the army, and his grandfather had been in the navy.
“Right away, men”, he said, more insistently.
As the two officers helped the fake Sergeant Chambers escort the bizarre group of people, they couldn’t help wondering why so many of them looked alike. They could only guess that they had stumbled up on a family of conspiracy geeks.
XXXXX
Mulder stuck out his thumb, hopefully. It was difficult for hitchhikers to pick up lifts in this area.
When a rental car did pull up, Scully looked surprised: “You”.
“Yves”, was all Mulder said.
“The famous Agents Mulder and Scully”, said Morris; “you can thank Lois, because she spotted you”.
“Yves”, his daughter grumbled.
“Well, are you going to get in?”, chuckled Morris; “or are you just trying to spot owls?”
Mulder barely knew Morris, as he only remembered meeting him briefly when he had stopped them getting into Area 51. The agents reluctantly got in.
“I can only assume you are looking for the Adams and Eves, same as us”, Morris asked.
“You’re a Man in Black”, said Mulder, from the back seat; “I suppose you’re going to use your flashy thing on me”.
“He’s also my dad”, Yves explained; “those things only exist in the films”.
“Or do they?”, Morris chuckled, as he started to drive.
“He was at the funeral”, Scully whispered; “Byers, Langly and Frohike; I’m not sure how seriously he takes National Security”.
Suddenly her phone buzzed, and she checked it.
“Everything okay, Scully?”, Mulder asked.
“An anonymous text message”, Scully replied; “it says Jackson is with the Adams and Eves”.
“Jackson, is that your son?”, Morris asked.
“None of your beeswax”, Mulder snapped.
“Whatever”, replied Morris; “just good to see that the bizarrely-named Fox Mulder and I are both co-operating with each other”.
Mulder looked at Scully; he could see what she was thinking.
Had Matthew been right?
Was her son really still alive?
XXXXX
The Cigarette Smoking Man checked his phone; looked like Scully had received his text.
The important thing was that nothing should happen to Jackson.
His favourite son.
XXXXX
“I’m not sure you’re supposed to be taking prisoners in here” said a guard, pointing his gun at the man who was to all intents and purposes Sergeant Chambers.
“But, Sir…”
“There’s been a new directive” replied Jackson, concentrating hard again.
Like with Adam 5, the guard exploded in a shower of blood. Jackson was getting good at this; maybe his powers were a little too good. Eve 8 nodded at Teena, and handed her a syringe.
Teena knew what she had to do; she just needed to find the right moment.
XXXXX
“You need to let us in”, Morris demanded to the guard on the gate; “there’s been a major security breach”.
“A threat to National Security maybe”, Mulder shouted.
“Mr. Fletcher” said the guard; “our very own Sergeant Chambers arrested every trespasser who was present on site. Also, are you aware of who that F.B.I. Agent in your car is?”
“Still the F.B.I’s most unwanted”, Mulder chucked; “Scully, if they think they saw the dead Sergeant Chambers, then…”
“You think that was William, don’t you?”, Scully asked; “with his apparent ability to fool the eye.”
“I’ll have to ask you all the step out of the car”, the guard ordered; “regardless of whether you are in the custody of Mr. Fletcher here”.
Scully and Mulder looked at each other; they weren’t sure if making a run for it would be a good idea this time.
XXXXX
The Adams and Eves piled into the waiting minibus. Eve 8 clutched Sally Kendrick’s brain.
“We won’t let you fall into the wrong hands again, Mother” she said, in a soothing, but creepy tone.
They were too busy to notice Edward, who had volunteered to drive, tied up and gagged in the undergrowth. Edward could hear distant police sirens; he sensed they were coming for him, and that soon he would be back in prison, ready to complete his multiple murder sentence.
Jackson barely noticed the pinprick as Teena jabbed him in the arm with the syringe.
Tad O’Malley, at the wheel of the minibus, glanced at his motley crew of passengers through the rear-view mirror. They hadn’t noticed it was him at all.
His plan was almost complete.
XXXXX
Skinner sat at home, with just his vision of Krycek, and a glass of port, for company.
“What is it you want from me?”, he demanded; “you should be dead”.
“You know me”, Krycek laughed; “I’m not that easy to kill”.
“You and Cancer Man”, Skinner snapped back; “I suppose you want to find some way to use me”.
“You remember the nanobots then?”, Krycek smiled.
“Yes”, Skinner shouted; “I do as you say, or you switch the nanobots inside me back on. That’s how you tried to control me before.”
“You thought you could just blow my brains out”, Krycek laughed, “you thought you could make it all go away”.
“What are you going to make me to this time, Alex?”, Skinner demanded; “go on, tell me”.
“I don’t know who you’re talking to”, said the Cigarette Smoking Man, appearing out of the shadows, “but your conversation has fascinated me. So, I heard Alex Krycek had access to nanotechnology; I didn’t realise he had used them on you. He always played things his own way”.
Krycek looked at the Smoking Man, then back at Skinner.
“Oops”, he said.
Skinner threw the glass of port at Krycek; it sailed through him, and smashed on the wall behind.
“You…” Skinner said; “I can make sure you don’t walk out of here alive”.
He searched around him.
The Smoking Man held up Skinner’s gun: “You were looking for this?”, he laughed; “I’ll let myself out, but I’ll be in touch”.
Still holding the gun, he exited the former Assistant Director’s flat.
Skinner shouted at him as he left, but he took no notice. This was too good an opportunity to miss.
XXXXX
Tad O’Malley parked the minibus outside the remote woodland cabin, and ushered for the Adams and Eves to get out.
“This is a change of plan that I did not expect”, Eve 8 complained.
“It seemed like the best place for us to hide for a while”, O’Malley replied, not looking around; “I think we’ve outmanoevred the military people for now”.
As the group headed towards the cabin, Teena turned to Cindy: “Something’s not right; I can sense that Adam 9 is in trouble”.
“I have that feeling, too” replied Cindy, who was clutching Sally Kendrick’s brain in its jar; “it’s like I just know”.
“I think there’s something wrong here”, replied Jackson; “quick, follow me”.
O’Malley did not notice as they slipped away into the distance, rather than entering the cabin.
“It’s Adam 9” said Eve 6, as they entered the cabin; “it’s like he’s fallen down the rabbit hole. I have an excellent idea, let’s change the subject”.
O’Malley turned at this point, and the group inside the cabin saw his face. They spotted the wire under his jacket, too late.
“You…” said Eve 8.
O’Malley grinned, and the next thing the Adams and Eves saw was the blinding light, heard the loud explosion as the bomb strapped to his waist detonated.
Jackson, Cindy and Teena turned around when they heard the cabin explode; they had just made it to a safe distance.
They looked on impassively; Cindy and Teena had both killed Sally Kendrick, and they felt very little emotion at the sight of their own brothers and sisters being blown to pieces.
“I know what I need to do next”, said Jackson; “I think you both can handle yourself from here”.
Cindy and Teena both watched as he ran away into the forest, and then looked at Sally Kendrick’s brain in its jar. They both needed to make up their mind what to do next with it.
Cindy took Teena’s hand, and carrying the jar, they went on their way.
XXXXX
“Agents” said Spender; “being detained by the military once again is not a good look for the F.B.I., but I’ll overlook that in light of recent events”.
On the desk between him and the agents lay several pictures of the human remains from where Tad O’Malley’s bomb had gone off; it was a gruesome montage.
“William … Jackson” said Scully; “my son”.
“Agent Scully” said Spender, calmly; “the remains of several of these so-called ‘Adams’ and ‘Eves’ were identified, having D.N.A. and dental records very similar to those of the late Dr. Sally Kendrick, as well as those of a certain Tad O’Malley”.
Mulder and Scully nodded silently.
“However”, Spender added; “we have not identified any of the remains of Jackson van de Kamp”.
“You mean…?”, Mulder asked.
“Maybe he wasn’t even with them”, Spender suggested; “but you said it yourself; my - our - father shot Jackson in cold blood. I think it is unlikely that he is alive”.
“No remains were retrieved for Jackson”, Mulder reminded Spender.
Spender nodded, then replied: “Dismissed, Agents. Bear in mind that next time you are caught trying to enter a military base, the F.B.I., and especially Deputy Director Kersh, may be not so lenient. You are lucky that I didn’t mention any of this to him”.
“Thank you, Sir”, Scully replied, as she and Mulder left Spender’s office.
XXXXX
“I suppose you don’t want to see any more of me”, said Morris, as he and Yves got in the car together.
“Actually, there’s one thing I would like to do first”, Yves said, calmly; “I’ll give directions”.
The cemetery wasn’t far away; Yves led Morris to the simple gravestone in the corner, on which was inscribed:
MICHELLE RUNTZ
1935 - 1975
SURVIVED BY HER DAUGHTER LOIS
WE MISS HER EVERY DAY
Morris looked at the gravestone, and then at Yves.
“Did you ever love her?” Yves asked; “Mum”.
“Yves” replied Morris; “I you have to know, I always did love your mother”.
“Then, why did you leave when I was so young?”, Yves demanded.
“I got your name right”, Morris chuckled.
“That’s not the answer I wanted”, Yves snapped.
“You probably didn’t realise this”, Morris sighed; “but I made regular visits to your Mom, when you were younger. I only managed to come after you’d gone to bed. She’d show you asleep to me, said how you looked just like me”.
“I guess that all stopped when she passed away, and I had to go and live with my aunt and uncle”, Yves said, tears in her eyes; “but I never got to see you”.
“I didn’t think I could commit to bringing up a daughter”, Morris explained; “I was young, and it was before I met Joanne. Even then, I didn’t have enough time for Chris or Terry. I hope I was able to make enough time for you now, making up for what I did in the past”.
“It will take a lot more than that”, Yves frowned.
“Then, I’ll try” replied Morris; “I’ll keep trying with you”.
“You’ll try with Chris and Terry - Terence, too?”, Yves asked.
“Yes”, Morris replied; “I promise this time. How about giving your old man a hug?”
Yves accepted her father’s embrace, and then added: “I really hope you’re telling the truth this time”.
“Your Mom would be proud of you”, Morris replied.
XXXXX
A few days later, there was a knock at Mulder and Scullys’ front door. It was raining outside, quite heavily. Few would venture out to their place in these conditions.
The Agents looked at each other; once again they wondered who could be calling.
“Let’s hope its Skin Man this time”, Mulder laughed; “not another rogue Adam or Eve”.
Scully smiled, and opened the door, then she gasped in surprise at the rain-soaked figure who stood on the porch, looking almost like a drowned rat.
“Mom” said Jackson.
THE END