(Metro Diner. Night. 40 something year old man is typing on laptop. He is only person there. Coughing, he seems to be sick. WAITER offers coffee.)

WAITER: Excuse me. Do you want that warmed up?

LAPTOP MAN: No. But I’ll buy another one if you’ll leave me alone.

(WAITER leaves. Computer screen beeps. ACCESS DENIED.)

LAPTOP MAN: We’ll see about that.

(Drug house. BUYER slides money through window.)

BUYER: Eight ball.

(Money is placed in a bill counter. Phone rings. Dealer, JACKSON, a young black man, answers.)

JACKSON: Yeah? (static on line)

VOICE: Hello, Jackson. (JACKSON looks surprised.)

JACKSON: How’d you get this number?

VOICE: What do you care? You’re partner, Kenny Slater, he took your money, didn’t he? I want to help you, Jackson.

JACKSON: Help me what?

VOICE: Slater’s in the Metro Diner. 14th and Arlington.

JACKSON: He’s in Florida by now, man ... Jamaica, Cuba ...

VOICE: No. He’s here. In the Metro Diner. 14th and Arlington.

(JACKSON hangs up and goes to get in car with DRIVER. Makes sure his gun is loaded.)

JACKSON: 14th and Arlington. It’s Kenny. The fool’s come back. (They drive off.)

(Someone lighting a crack pipe. Phone rings.)

VOICE: The men who took your product Friday night are in the Metro Diner.

(CRACK DEALER hangs up and checks gun.)

CRACK DEALER: (to partner) 14th and Arlington.

(Interior car. Phone rings. Rap music playing.)

(GUY WHO DOESN’T LIKE SPANISH JACK answers.)

VOICE: Spanish Jack is in the Metro Diner – 14th and Arlington. I understand you wish to speak with him.

GWDLSJ: (to driver) 14th and Arlington.

(US MARSHALLS car. Phone rings.)

BOYCE: Boyce.

VOICE: Pico Salazar is in the Metro Diner.

BOYCE: Salazar? Who is this?

VOICE: 14th and Arlington.

(BOYCE hangs up and violently starts the car.)

(Diner. LAPTOP MAN still getting ACCESS DENIED on his laptop.)

LAPTOP MAN: Oh ... sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child.

(Requests master override. Door opens. Two rough looking MOTORCYCLE GUYS enter and sit at a table.)

(CRACK DEALERS enter and sit at the counter.)

(JACKSON and JACKSON’S DRIVER enter and sit at a table. Everybody looks suspiciously at each other.)

LAPTOP MAN: (to computer) Now you know what’s coming, and there’s nothing you can do.

(Screen shows a bunch of computer stuff, then ACCESS GRANTED. Da-ding!)

(GUYS WHO DON’T LIKE SPANISH JACK enter and sit at the counter. LAPTOP MAN removes gold CD from his pocket and puts it in laptop. Screen says to press enter.)

LAPTOP MAN: You won’t feel a thing. (Has finger over enter key.)

(US MARSHALLS bust in the door, guns drawn.)

BOYCE: US Marshalls! On the floor!

LAPTOP MAN: No!

BOYCE: Get down, now!

(Everybody pulling out guns. LAPTOP MAN is now standing in the middle of the room.)

LAPTOP MAN: No!

(Exterior of diner shows violent gunfire, 20 shots or so, then silence. Glass falls out of window.)

(Night. Diner is now roped off as a crime scene. Inside, MULDER pulls back sheet revealing a body.)

MULDER: Charles Figgis, ten year veteran of the US Marshall’s Service. Multiple gunshot wounds, high speed Teflon rounds. His partner, Gerald Boyce was DOA at Mercy General. Tried to catch a nine millimeter slug in his teeth.

SCULLY: Looks like they crashed the wrong party.

MULDER: Figgis and Boyce had radioed in that they were coming here to apprehend Pico Salazar.

SCULLY: Pico Salazar?

MULDER: The Colombian Cartel’s banking liaison. Salazar escaped from federal custody three months ago. Boyce and Figgis were on the offender transport squad that lost him. (MULDER is looking at other bodies.) They took his escape personally. A phone tip told them that Salazar was going to be here tonight.

SCULLY: A foreign national with his kind of connections? What would he be doing here, let alone in the country?

MULDER: I don’t think he is ... or was. But there were a lot of very photogenic gentlemen that were.

(SCULLY looks at file with mug shots.)

SCULLY: Mulder, these are street level coke dealers... Minor wholesalers at most.

MULDER: Yeah, not the type you’d expect to associate with a cartel boss.

SCULLY: What would they be doing here?

MULDER: Maybe it was for the pie.

SCULLY: (give MULDER *the look*) It’S 2:45 in the morning. You mind telling me what it is we’re supposed to be looking for?

MULDER: (Pulls back sheet over dead MAN with LAPTOP) Donald Gelman.

SCULLY: Who?

MULDER: Donald Gelman --- Silicon Valley software pioneer. He’s been missing since 1979.

SCULLY: And you recognize him?

MULDER: He invented the internet. (SCULLY looks skeptical.) Well, he didn’t quite invent it, but he’s a Silicon Valley folk hero. He was writing internet software even before there was an internet.

SCULLY: Why have I never heard of him?

MULDER: On the eve of the deal that was going to set him up as another Bill Gates he went hiking in the Sierras and said he’d think about it. Never came back.

SCULLY: I still don’t see the connection.

MULDER: (picks up GELMAN’S laptop which is still on) Maybe that’s the point.

(MULDER and SCULLY go to their car.)

SCULLY: So, why was Gelman in there?

MULDER: I think somebody obviously wanted him dead.

SCULLY: You think this was a hit on him?

MULDER: Eight unconnected dealers all at the same place at the same time, all tipped off by phone looking for somebody, last call goes to the Marshalls, they arrive, place explodes, Gelman dies in the crossfire. It’s genius.

SCULLY: Mulder, did you take a look at him? Why kill a man who is dying. His body is a bag of bones.

MULDER: Well, when you’re talking about Donald Gelman you want to kill the brain, not the body.

(They get in car, SCULLY on driver side. MULDER opens GELMAN’S laptop which he had hidden under his coat.)

SCULLY: (shocked) Mulder, that’s evidence.

MULDER: Gee, I hope so.

(MULDER finds CD in computer. SCULLY looks around, worried. MULDER puts CD into car stereo. Car lights begin flashing. The Platters "Twilight Time" plays.)

PLATTERS:
HEAVENLY SHADES OF NIGHT ARE FALLING
IT’S TWILIGHT TIME
OUT OF THE MIST YOUR VOICE IS CALLING
‘TIS TWILIGHT TIME
WHEN PURPLE COLORED CURTAINS MARK THE END OF DAY...

( During song, MULDER looks at player raises his eyebrows and smiles at SCULLY. SCULLY looks at interior lights pulsing, then at MULDER. MULDER chuckles. Exterior shot of car shows all lights flashing in time to music.)

(Lone Gunman Office. GUNMEN are looking at GELMAN’S laptop.)

BYERS: Jobs and Wozniak at Apple, Gates and Allen writing Basic, the homebrew computer club’s first meetings. Gelman was there.

FROHIKE: Now they’re power brokers and billionaires. Back then they were just ... inspired nerds.

MULDER: All except Gelman.

BYERS: Gelman was a part of the group, but not one of them. At 28 he was ..the old man. Some say the brightest of all.

LANGLY: He wrote some of the earliest viruses.

MULDER: And found himself under investigation by the NSA.

SCULLY: Is that why he disappeared?

BYERS: Gelman? Gelman was a visionary, not a capitalist. A subversive.

FROHIKE: (looking at computer) This is a one-off. I’ve never seen anything like it. Gelman built this?

MULDER: That may be what got him killed.

(GUNMEN looked shocked.)

LANGLY: Heavy casualty.

FROHIKE: A brother goes down.

MULDER: (holding CD) I found this in his CD ROM drive.

BYERS: What is it?

SCULLY: (dryly) "Twilight Time."

(Later, Twilight Time is playing as MULDER and GUNMEN analyze it. SCULLY sits apart from them reading latest issue of Lone Gunman, headline * Infrared Technology. *)

LANGLY: We’re up against 64 bit encryption ... as password that’s a random sequence of twelve symbols. Gelman’s got this baby sealed tight.

BYERS: This CD has some kind of enhanced background data. Lots of code. Maybe a programming design.

MULDER: What for?

SCULLY: (coming over) Anyone ùh, think to check his e-mail.

(Guys all look at her then each other, shake heads.)

(One piece of mail is found.
To: gelman@com
From: invisigoth@com
DAVID MISSING. FEAR THE WORST. THE HUNTED HAS BECOME THE HUNTER. HSWT 780022 3 UNTIL SATURDAY, INVISIGOTH.)

BYERS: David missing, fear the worst, the hunted has become the hunter.

SCULLY: "Invisigoth?"

BYERS: Could be an address.

FROHIKE: Seven digits. An alpha numeric string of four.

MULDER: Standard ID. Shipping container.

(SCULLY looks impressed.)

(Night. Shipping container storage yard. SCULLY and MULDER driving through. MULDER has a map.)

SCULLY: There must be a thousand containers here. .... and in no particular order.

MULDER: Frohike says this place is really proud of its accurate tracking.

SCULLY: If not in their computer security.

MULDER: Yeah. Should be straight ahead. Three rows and to the right.

(SCULLY drives into narrow alley between two containers. They get out, and MULDER shines light on container number. Loud music is playing.)

MULDER: Sounds like somebody’s home.

(MULDER knocks, then immediately enters, holding his badge.)

MULDER: FBI. Come ....

(Someone zaps him with a handheld electrical device. He falls. The person runs out the door.)

SCULLY: Mulder!

MULDER: (in pain) I’m all right! Go get her!

(SCULLY chases woman.)

SCULLY: Stop! FBI!

(SCULLY tackles the woman who then zaps her with the device and runs again. SCULLY pulls out gun.)

SCULLY: FBI! Stop, or I’ll shoot! (Fires warning shot over woman’s head.)

(Woman, ESTHER NAIRN stops. She is young, blonde, dressed in leather, nose ring, and heavy dark makeup around her eyes. Scully walks up behind her.)

SCULLY: Thank you. (cuffs the woman)

(MULDER looks around the trailer. Lots of computer equipment and a bed.)

MULDER: Home sweet home.

(SCULLY enters with the ESTHER.)

MULDER: Are you "Invisigoth?"

ESTHER: How did you find me?

MULDER: Donald Gelman’s mailbox. You left a return address.

ESTHER: You know where Donald is?

SCULLY: Why don’t you let us ask the questions.

ESTHER: Why don’t you bite me.

MULDER: Hey!

SCULLY: Like what you’re doing here and what all this stuff is.

ESTHER: And why would I tell you even if you could understand?

SCULLY: You just committed felony assault on a federal agent, followed by resisting arrest.

ESTHER: Arrest for what? Unless you got a warrant, you two just busted in here and seriously violated a buttload of my constitutional rights.

MULDER: We had just cause to come in.

ESTHER: (going over to a monitor) Yeah? Now we’ve got just cause to get out.

MULDER: What is that?

ESTHER: It’s a surveillance module. It monitors computing processes.

(Screen displays BRIGHT LIGHTS : WARM UP COMPLETED)

ESTHER: It’s locking up.

SCULLY: What is?

ESTHER: A DOD satellite .. Warbird grade orbital weapons platform. (turns to leave) We’ve got to get out of here!

SCULLY: (stopping her) A weapons platform?

MULDER: (watching monitor zero in on a geographical location) Scully ....

ESTHER: You don’t understand! That thing has optical systems that can read headlines on a newspaper.
.
MULDER: Scully ....

ESTHER: It’s targeting us!

SCULLY: You want us to believe that the Department of Defense wants to kill you?

ESTHER: No, it’s controlling their satellite!

SCULLY: You’re out of your mind.

MULDER: Scully, we’ve got to get out of here right now. (Runs out, pulling ESTHER behind him.)

SCULLY: Mulder, this is absurd!

MULDER: (at car) It’s locked. Give me the keys.

SCULLY: Mulder!

ESTHER: We’re all gonna die!

MULDER: Give me the keys!

(SCULLY unlocks car. MULDER and the ESTHER get in. Monitor now shows very detailed area.)

MULDER: Get in the car, Scully!

(SCULLY reverses out, hitting sides of containers, then spins and drives away just as bolt of energy from sky blows up the trailer ---BOOOOOOMMMM! Lots of fire. Lots and lots of fire. MULDER looks at fire, then at ESTHER, then at SCULLY. SCULLY looks at MULDER, then confused.)

(Car. Day. MULDER looks at ESTHER in backseat.)

SCULLY: (driving) No more screwing around. We need a name. Your real name.

ESTHER: Invisigoth. You want my address? It’s T - O - A - S - T.

MULDER: When you said "it" was targeting us back there, you meant an artificial intelligence. Donald Gelman was trying to create a sentient AI. A program with its own consciousness. He succeeded, didn’t he?

ESTHER: Donald wrote an interlocked sequence of viruses 15 years ago. It got loose on the net.

MULDER: Wait, what do you mean, "got loose?"

ESTHER: He let it loose ... so it could evolve in its natural environment. Urschleim in silicon.

SCULLY: "Urschleim in silicon?"

ESTHER: The primordial slime? The ooze out of which all life evolved. Except this time it’s artificial slime - artificial life. One man alone achieving the equivalent of Copernicus, Magellan, and Darwin.

SCULLY: And what was your role in all this? Were you the bass player?

MULDER: (Starts to say something)

ESTHER: Automata Theory, MIT 95. Post doc the Santa Fe Institute. Head hunted to Kobayashi my junior year. Then Donald showed up in Tokyo and made me a better offer.

SCULLY: A better offer to do what?

ESTHER: You wouldn’t understand.

(SCULLY angrily pulls off the road into a rest area and gets out of the car.)

SCULLY: Jeez...

(MULDER follows her.)

SCULLY: You believe this load of crap?

MULDER: You saw what happened back there, Scully. You saw that container blow.

SCULLY: She could have rigged an explosive charge. There are no weapons platforms, there is no such Department of Defense satellite.

MULDER: What about Star Wars? Brilliant Pebbles?

SCULLY: They were never built! We don’t even have that kind of technology. I mean, even if an artificial intelligence was targeting us, with an armed satellite, why isn’t it doing it right now?

ESTHER: (coming toward them, still cuffed) Because it doesn’t know where we are. If I so much as made a phone call right now, it would nuke us right where we’re standing.

SCULLY: How?

ESTHER: Recognizes my voice, monitors all communication. I haven’t used a phone in over a month.

MULDER: Then how did it know to target the container?

ESTHER: All I can think is that some idiot got on Donald’s computer and tried to contact me over the net. Only Donald knew where I was. And David.

MULDER: Who’s David?

ESTHER: David Markham. He was hardware. Donald and I were software. We’d been caring for the AI, weaning it. Then Donald warned us that the system started to display more than consciousness. It started to display intention. But before we could stop it, it was gone.

(SCULLY does not believe a word.)

MULDER: Where?

ESTHER: I don’t know. One day David was on the system and it wouldn’t come, it wouldn’t come when we called it. We knew it was out there somewhere on the Global Net, but it wouldn’t answer, and Donald was just getting sicker.

MULDER: And you can’t find it?

ESTHER: Well, it’s not a program any more. It’s wildlife loose on the net. And either we kill it ....Where’s Donald?

MULDER: Donald Gelman is dead. He was killed in a café. What looks like a hit.

ESTHER: (sighing, shocked) That’s the AI protecting itself. It’ll find David and.... me. It’s only a matter of time. Donald was writing a concatenation of viruses designed to find and immobilize the rogue system. The file name was "Kill Switch." Without it, nobody can catch it.

MULDER: We have Donald’s computer.

ESTHER: No, he’d never leave it on the hard drive.

MULDER: Well, we have this. (Show CD) "Twilight Time."

ESTHER: That’s it. That’s the Kill Switch.

SCULLY: (expression says "Yeah, right.")

(Lone Gunman office. MULDER, SCULLY, and ESTHER enter. LONE GUNMEN stand in awe.)

BYERS: Ai -yi -yi

FROHIKE: It can’t be ... it is.

LANGLY: Esther Nairn. You programmed the autonomous bots in Ninjitsu Princess, the most gnarliest piece of entertainment software ever.

ESTHER: Are these the brain donors that nearly got us incinerated?

(LONE GUNMEN just stare at her, lustfully.)

MULDER: Don’t let their looks fool you.

SCULLY: Your name is Esther Nairn?

(ESTHER gives SCULLY a dirty look, then crosses to GELMAN’S computer.)

FROHIKE: She is so hot.

ESTHER: Are you going to take off the cuffs, or do I have to do this with my tongue?

MULDER: (Crossing to remove the cuffs.) You don’t want to take a vote.

(SCULLY smiles and subtly bites the tip of her tongue. Thinking about how she would do it? MULDER cuffs ESTHER to the desk’s cup holder.)

ESTHER: Give me the Kill Switch.

SCULLY: Aren’t you worried it’s going to track you, Esther? Hunt you down with another particle beam?

ESTHER: Not unless someone else makes another boneheaded internet connection.

(GUNMEN look guilty.)

MULDER: (referring to computer screen where ESTHER has pulled up a diagram) What is this?

ESTHER: That’s the sharp end of the stick. Donald probably tried to feed this sector in over the net, but it took too long, so the system was able to take counter-measures.

SCULLY: Why didn’t it just zap him, too?

ESTHER: Its creator? No, it needed to impress Donald. Particle beam would’ve been overkill.

SCULLY: Unlike a dozen crack dealers.

ESTHER: No, you see that’s its sense of humor. (smiling)

MULDER: Oh, all right. But if you load the Kill Switch, what’s to stop it from playing another funny joke on us?

ESTHER: Well, obviously we can’t inject Kill Switch over the Net. There’s only one way now: We have to find its home node and physically feed it the poisoned apple.

MULDER: Physically?

ESTHER: Right into its eager little CD drive. It knew it couldn’t hide over the Net forever, not until it learned to completely disguise itself. It requires a physical nexus of hardware so somewhere its built itself a little safehouse. (FROHIKE is in awe. SCULLY is totally over her.) David went looking for it.

MULDER: Did he find it?

ESTHER: There’s no way to know.

SCULLY: Why don’t you just call him. (They all look at SCULLY.) Oh, right – death from above.

LANGLY: It would need bandwidth.

ESTHER: It’s a pig for bandwith.

BYERS: It would need a T3, at least.

SCULLY: T3?

FROHIKE: A hard line – 45 megs a second.

BYERS: Major research labs and internet service providers use them.

LANGLY: But the government keeps those records secret for fear of sabotage.

ESTHER: Gee, you guys know anyone that works for the government?

(All look at MULDER.)

(MULDER drives up to rural telephone pole with a junction box. He checks T3 connection map, then climbs the pole and looks to see where line goes- old dilapidated farmhouse.)

(Lone Gunman Office. SCULLY wakes up from nap on the couch to see empty handcuffs at desk. She crosses to a door, and sees the GUNMEN sleeping. Turning quickly, she sees ESTHER pointing SCULLY’S gun at her.)

ESTHER: Shh. Buenos dias, muchacha. (SCULLY sighs.)

(MULDER pulls up to farmhouse. He calls SCULLY on his cel phone.)

MULDER: (on phone) Scully?

(SCULLY is driving.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Yep.

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, I’ve found something down in Fairfax County. A derelict chicken farm with a T3 connection, paid for by Aleph Industries, Palo Alto, of which there’s no other record anywhere.

SCULLY: (on phone) Dandy.

MULDER: (on phone) Where are you? Sounds like you’re driving.

SCULLY: (on phone) You are correct, sir.

MULDER: (on phone) You have Esther with you?

SCULLY: (on phone) In a manner of speaking.

ESTHER: Left up here. Give me that. (reaches for phone)

MULDER: (on phone) Where are you going?

ESTHER: (on phone, gruff voice) To find David.

MULDER: (on phone) Where?

(ESTHER hangs up, smiles and hold gun on SCULLY who is not pleased with the situation.)

MULDER (into phone) Scully? Scully?

(MULDER hangs up, walks around the house, through some small trees to a small rusty motor home with lots of wires going into it.)

(SCULLY and ESTHER pull up in LONE GUNMEN’S car (?) to where a house used to be - now just debris. ESTHER, still holding SCULLY’S gun, gets out of the car in shock to survey the damage. All is burned. In the car, SCULLY who is handcuffed to the steering wheel, digs in her coat pocket for the keys, and unlocks the bracelet just as ESTHER gets back in car. ESTHER places gun on dash and bursts into tears. SCULLY, showing no sympathy, slowly begins to reach for it. ESTHER suddenly grabs the gun and points it at SCULLY.)

ESTHER: Go ahead! Put me out of my misery! Take it! (Cries harder.)

(SCULLY sighs, takes the gun, then places her hand on ESTHER’S shoulder.)

(MULDER walks toward trailer. About ten yards away, a loud siren on a telephone pole goes off. MULDER places his hands over his ears until it stops.)

MULDER: (from computer infrared, sound distorted perspective) FBI! I’m a federal agent.!

(MULDER walks up to the door, and chuckles as he sees a doorbuzzer. He presses the buzzer. Inside a monitor reads his thumbprint, and accesses MULDER’S FBI Personnel File:

NAME: Fox Mulder
BADGE NUMBER: JTTO 47101111
HEIGHT: 6 ft
WEIGHT: 170 lbs.
HAIR: Brown
EYES: Green
DATE OF BIRTH: 13 October, 1961
TELEPHONE: (202) 555-2355
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
FBI Career History
1983-1986 Oxford University
1986 Quantico Academy
1988 Assigned to the Violent Crimes Unit
1990-PRESENT Assigned to the X-Files
Education-Oxford University AB in Psychology
Graduating summa cum laude in 1982 (?)
Quantico FBI training Academy 1984 (?) Graduating with honors.)

(SCULLY and ESTHER looking at remains of burned house.)

ESTHER: I lied to you. I wasn’t working with Donald. I mean, I was, and then he found out about us.

SCULLY: About you and who.

ESTHER: David. (sniffs) About our plans.

SCULLY: What plans did he find out?

ESTHER: Uploading. Transfer of memory, of consciousness to the distributed system maintained by the AI. Imagine being mingled so completely with another, you no longer need your physical self – you’re one.

SCULLY: So you were going to –

ESTHER: Enter the AI. Give up our inefficient bodies so that our consciousness could live together forever.

SCULLY: But Donald Gelman forbade it.

ESTHER: He was afraid of his creation. He was afraid of what would happen if other people followed us. (Finds half burned picture of herself and an older man.) I loved him so much.

SCULLY: Well, maybe he wasn’t here when this happened. Maybe he’s somewhere else.

(ESTHER looks like she might take hope.)

(MULDER, getting no response, crawls under the mobile home, following the T3 line. He unscrews and enters through a bottom hatch. There is a small mobile robot *like the one in WOTC* zipping around. He ignores it. The trailer is completely filled with computer hardware. Lots of wires and monitors. MULDER is startled when he sees a dead man in some kind of harness wearing a VR goggle thing.)

MULDER: (lifting visor) David Markham.

(DAVID’S eyes and skin look like they have been subjected to a great deal of electricity. Suddenly, MULDER is jerked back into an identical harness. Restraints whip around his arms and legs, and sparks fly as electricity pours into his body. He struggles, crying out in pain.)

(Hospital corridor, very dark. MULDER wakes up as he is being wheeled on a gurney attended by EMTs.)

MULDER: (groggy) What’s going on?

EMT: Severe tissue injuries to upper extremities. We’ve got ourselves a real crispy critter, here.

EMT 2: Alert the burn unit. Tell them to scramble the surgical team.

EMT: (on radio) Unit 23 – request Burn Unit.

(MULDER tries to sit up.)

EMT 2: He’s coming up on us.

EMT: Surgical team, stat.

MULDER: What’s that smell? (sees his badly burned arms) Oh, jeez ...

EMT: Easy now.

EMT 2: Just relax.

(They turn down another dark deserted corridor.)

EMT: 120 BP 130 over 80

EMT 2: (into recorder) Frank charring at contact site, along path of current, and at exit point. Looks like the charge grounded through both arms. We’ve got a lot of work to do, here, people, if we’re going to save him.

(MULDER has been looking confused and nervous as he is wheeled through the hall. Walking to his left is a ditsy Barbie look-alike nurse, NURSE NANCY.)

MULDER: Is it bad?

NURSE NANCY: You’re in good hands.

MULDER: My arms hurt.

(NURSE NANCY looks at EMT.)

EMT: That’s a good sign

(They wheel him into an OR room, very dark and sparse. MULDER looks around nervously. NURSE NANCY adjusts an overhead light. Another nurse wheels over an instrument cart with assorted blades and saws.)

MULDER: No, wait .... (almost passing out) Call my doctor. You have to call ... my doctor. Call Dr. Scully. Please call Dr. Scully.

(Very Old SURGEON totters to side of gurney.)

MULDER: Call her. (groans as a nurse pushes his head back down on pillow.) No, no. No ... what are you doing?

VERY OLD SURGEON: (so old he can barely speak) Prep the patient.

(SURGEON picks up a little hand held rotating electric saw that looks like a piece of a quisinart. MULDER is *very* worried now.)

MULDER: No. No.

(MULDER is now surrounded by four Barbie nurses. NURSE NANCY injects him in the side of the neck.)

MULDER: No-no-no-no! Ahhhhh!

(NURSES strap him down, and SURGEON starts the little saw. MULDER looks around even more confused as the drug takes effect.)

(SCULLY hangs up cell phone (phone ringing blends with sound of saw in previous scene) as she and ESTHER are driving. Night.)

SCULLY: I can’t get through to Mulder. (tries number again)

ESTHER: It’s the AI. Its had time to analyze my voice. It knows I was using your phone.

SCULLY: It can interfere with my phone?

ESTHER: Give it enough information, it’ll sue you for palimony.

SCULLY: Wait a minute. Mulder said that he found the system. In an abandoned chicken farm in Fairfax county.

ESTHER: Well, maybe we can cut off the T3 and kill its communication capabilities.

SCULLY: You can do that?

ESTHER: There’s only one way to find out. (grabs laptop from backseat and connects to the Fairfax County mainframe over a *very* high speed modem and browser.)

(Hospital room. MULDER is sleeping, blanket pulled up to his chin. There is a very strange crucifix hanging over the bed. NURSE NANCY enters. MULDER wakes.)

MULDER: I feel sick.

NURSE NANCY: That’s the anesthetic, Agent Mulder. You were injured and they had to operate.

MULDER: I remember ... wires, and uh ...

NURSE NANCY: Yes, you were doing something dangerous. Something very, very foolish. The good news is they were able to save the right one.

MULDER: What do you mean?

(NURSE NANCY pulls down covers to show that MULDER’S left arm has been amputated, no bandage.)

MULDER: Oh, my God. What did you do with my arm? What did they do with my arm?

NURSE NANCY: (pushing him down, gently) Shh.... or they’ll come back.

MULDER: (almost panicking) They’ll come back for what?

NURSE NANCY: They’re evil, Fox. They want something from you.

MULDER: (high pitched) What do they want?!

NURSE NANCY: I don‘t know. But if you don’t tell them, I’m afraid they’ll take your other arm.

MULDER: This is crazy! You have to help me. You have to get me out of here ... please! (She pulls his head to her breasts.) Help me. Help me. Please, help me.

(She drops him back to bed and holds pillow over his face. MULDER givesmuffled yell.)

NURSE NANCY: Shh ... or they’ll hear you. Shhh .... (keeps pillow over his face)

(SCULLY and ESTHER pull up to drawbridge just as gate comes across. Laptop beeps.)

ESTHER: Something’s wrong. (computer scrolling) I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even get on the Net! I think it found us. (A truck marked "flammable" pulls up behind them.) It’s zeroing in.

(Computer begins displaying map zeroing in on a bridge over a river.)

SCULLY: Esther ... (they get out of the car) Get away from the tanker truck!

(ESTHER runs onto bridge, which is beginning to turn. SCULLY runs to truck’s cab.)

SCULLY: (to driver) Sir? You need to get out of the truck. Move it! It’s going to explode. (He does. SCULLY runs toward ESTHER who still holds computer and is looking skyward from center of bridge.) Dump it, Esther! Get rid of it!

ESTHER: It’s got the Kill Switch.

SCULLY: Esther! Dump it! (jumps onto bridge at the last minute) Esther! Get rid of it! (ESTHER desperately typing.) Get rid of it , Esther!

(Computer screen shows zeroing in complete. ESTHER flings laptop into the river. Bolt of energy from above hits laptop causing large explosion. BOOOOOMMMM!!!! SCULLY and ESTHER duck together.)

(MULDER’S hospital room. NURSE NANCY and two other nurses are massaging MULDER under the sheets. He looks *very* content. Crucifix is lighted above him.)

MULDER: Oh, I had this terrible dream. (NURSE NANCY gives a knowing smile. MULDER smiles back) And then I had a good dream.

NURSE NANCY: Those weren’t dreams, Fox. (to other nurses) I believe that’s enough for now. (They stop the massage.) You poor thing. But I warned you. Nurse Nancy warned you. You have to tell them, Fox. You have to.

MULDER: Tell them what?

NURSE NANCY: About the Kill Switch.

MULDER: Nobody asked me anything.

NURSE NANCY: You’ve just forgotten, Fox.

MULDER: No.

NURSE NANCY: (takes MULDER’S face in her hands) I was there. The doctor asked and he was very cross when you refused to answer. But he’ll be here in just a few minutes, and you can tell him then.

MULDER: I ...

NURSE NANCY: (cheerfully) Otherwise, whoops! There go your legs.

(She flings back sheet to show that both his arms are now amputated. MULDER starts yelling. SCULLY kicks in the door holding her gun.)

SCULLY: Mulder, these women are spies!

MULDER: Scully!

(Brunette nurse kicks gun out of SCULLY’S hands. Ninja!SCULLY hits her three times then does a beautiful aerial karate kick to her head. Then hits the other blonde nurse in the face and stomach and knocks her out. Then NURSE NANCY, kick, right, left, right, MULDER watching, and knockout. SCULLY looks at her fallen opponents, blows her hair out of her face, comes over to Mulder.)

SCULLY: Mulder, they want the Kill Switch virus. What did you tell her?

MULDER: I didn’t tell them anything!

SCULLY: I need to know!

MULDER: (showing her his arms, pitifully) Look ...

SCULLY: Do we have it? (MULDER looks at her, hurt, wanting comfort) Do we have the Kill Switch?

MULDER: (realizing it can’t really be her) Of course we do.

(He pulls up his legs and kicks her in the chest, throwing her back against the wall. From MULDER’S perspective, images of SCULLY and entire room begin to short out. Then we see he is back in the trailer still strapped in with VR helmet. His voice is weak.)

MULDER: Scully? Scully? Scully, help! Help! (camera outside trailer) Help!! Sculleeee!!!

(Commercial)

(SCULLY and ESTHER arrive at chicken farm. Night. SCULLY shines flashlight at MULDER’S car)

ESTHER: Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.

(They walk through snowy forest. When the set off the alarm at the trailer, SCULLY drops her flashlight, they cover their ears, then SCULLY takes out her gun a shoots the alarm and spotlight. Go Scully!)

MULDER: (inside) Scully ...

SCULLY: Mulder?! Mulder, are you all right?

(Inside trailer a mechanical arm moves toward MULDER.)

MULDER: I’m in here. Scully ...

(Mechanical arm cuts his sleeve and injects him with something that makes him pass out.
Not that he was very coherent to begin with.)

SCULLY: Mulder? (AI perspective of SCULLY and ESTHER) Mulder. Mulder, can you hear me? (SCULLY sticks her head through floor hatchway.) Mulder?

(Little mobile robot turns on bright light and starts toward SCULLY. SCULLY ducks and shoots it four times. Go Scully! She and ESTHER both enter trailer.)

SCULLY: (looking around at wires and machinery) Mulder? Help me out here, Esther. What’s its next move? What is it thinking?

ESTHER: I don’t know.

SCULLY: Who built this?

ESTHER: It did. There. (Points flashlight at one of the harnesses. Sees dead DAVID.) Ah! David! (shocked) Oh, god.

(SCULLY looks at DAVID then turns to see MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder? (ESTHER shines flashlight on MULDER.) Mulder? (lifts visor up exposing MULDER’S staring eyes, being held open by clamps.) Mulder, can you hear me? (MULDER tries to move his mouth.) Mulder, talk to me.

(SCULLY turns and points her gun at a whirring sound. A CD ROM drive holder has opened.)

ESTHER: It wants the Kill Switch.

SCULLY: Well, we don’t have it. You threw it in the water with the computer.

(ESTHER shakes her head, pulls out the disc, steps close to the drive.)

SCULLY: That’s going to kill it, right?

ESTHER: Not if it can learn the program and vaccinate itself against it.

(MULDER is jolted by a burst of electricity four times. MULDER is in pain.)

SCULLY: Give it what it wants, Esther. (MULDER jolted again.) Put it in, Esther.

(Computer monitor begins zeroing in.)

ESTHER: It’s targeting us.

SCULLY: Put it in!

(SCULLY grabs disc, puts it in drive, and closes drive. Twilight Time begins. Computer pauses targeting process.)

PLATTERS:
HEAVENLY SHADES OF NIGHT ARE FALLING
IT’S TWILIGHT TIME

(Straps that were holding MULDER snap off. SCULLY goes to him and tenderly removes helmet and clamps from his face.)

SCULLY: You’re going to be okay. I’m going to get you out of here.

PLATTERS:
OUT OF THE MIST YOUR VOICE IS CALLING
IT’S TWILIGHT TIME.
WHEN PURPLE COLORED CURTAINS MARK THE END OF DAY
I’LL HEAR YOU, MY DEAR AT TWILIGHT TIME

SCULLY: Okay. It’s okay.

(ESTHER watches them, then begins typing. SCULLY removes MULDER’S eye clamps. ESTHER’S typing has restarted the targeting process. SCULLY helps MULDER to the floor hatch.)

PLATTERS:
DEEPING SHADOWS GATHER SPLENDOR AS DAY IS DONE

(ESTHER is crying, still typing)

FINGERS OF NIGHT WILL SOON SURRENDER THE SETTING SUN
I COUNT THE MOMENTS DARLING TIL YOU’RE HERE WITH ME
TOGETHER AT LAST AT TWILIGHT TIME

SCULLY: What are you doing, Esther?

ESTHER: Get out of here.

SCULLY: What are you doing?

ESTHER: Go!

PLATTERS: HERE IN THE AFTERGLOW OF DAY WE KEEP OUR RENDEZVOUS BENEATH THE BLUE HERE IN THE SAME AND SWEET OLD WAY

(SCULLY hesitates, then follows MULDER out the hatch. She gets him leaned up against the side of the trailer, then goes back to the hatch. She doesn’t see ESTHER.)

PLATTERS: I FALL IN LOVE AGAIN AS I DID THEN

SCULLY: Esther?!

ESTHER: (voice) You don’t listen, do you?

SCULLY: Where are you?

ESTHER: Get out of here, now!

(COMPUTER beeps. SCULLY ducks back out. ESTHER is now strapped into MULDER’S harness, looking relaxed.)

PLATTERS:
DEEP IN THE DARK YOUR KISS WILL THRILL ME
LIKE DAYS OF OLD

(SCULLY helps MULDER stand and run from trailer.)

LIGHTING THE SPARK OF LOVE THAT FILLS ME
WITH DREAMS UNTOLD.

ESTHER: Upload. (Computer monitors going crazy.)

PLATTERS:
EACH DAY I PRAY FOR EVENING JUST TO BE WITH YOU
TOGETHER, AT LAST AT TWILIGHT TIME
TOGETHER, AT LAST AT TWILIGHT TIME

(Lots of electricity begins pouring through ESTHER. SCULLY helps MULDER running through forest. ESTHER’S head falls to side. Smoke comes out her mouth. Computer finishes targeting. MULDER and SCULLY turn and look as beam from above explodes trailer. BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!)

(Dawn. MULDER and SCULLY look over smoking remains of trailer.)

SCULLY: Well, if Esther wanted to leave her body, she got her wish. At least that part of it.

MULDER: I wonder.

SCULLY: Mulder, she’s dead.

MULDER: What if she managed to establish an uplink, Scully? A satellite transmission?

(We see FROHIKE typing at computer.)

SCULLY: (voice) Mulder, are you telling me that Esther may have ... that she may not be dead?

MULDER: (voice) Artificial life. It could exist. It could be here among us, evolving.

SCULLY: (voice) Electrons chasing each other through a circuit --- that isn’t life, Mulder.

(LANGLY and BYERS join FROHIKE.)

MULDER: (voice) Yeah, but what are we but impulses? Electrical and chemical through a bag of meat and bones. You’re the scientist. You tell me.

(FROHIKE’S monitor reads *BITE ME.* LONEGUNMEN look at each other, confused.)

(Two boys playing football in a trailer park. Two onlookers. One decrepit trailer is surrounded by chain link fence. One boy, HARLEY falls face down in the mud, then gets up and throws the ball. It lands inside the chain link fence.)

ONLOOKER: You did it now, Harley!

(HARLEY and the other player run up to fence.)

HARLEY: You get it.

OTHER PLAYER: Uh unh.

FEMALE ONLOOKER: They’ll get you if you go in there!

HARLEY: Mama says no one lives in there.

(HARLEY climbs the fence, retrieves the ball. Camera on top of trailer watches him climb out.)

[THE END]