(Chess tournament underway. Huge arena is filled with thousands of quiet observers as a RUSSIAN MAN and a 12-year-old American boy, GIBSON PRAISE, play. They hit the timer after each move.)

CUT TO:
(GUNMAN walks across catwalk above the players and begins to assemble gun.)

CUT TO:
(The boy, GIBSON, looks startled, like he hears something. Garbled voices sound as he scans the crowd, nervously. GIBSON looks up and behind him.)

CUT TO:
(Gun still being assembled.)

CUT TO:
(GIBSON turns back to the game.)

CUT TO:
(Rifle sights are aimed first at the RUSSIAN MAN, then at the boy, GIBSON.)

CUT TO:
(RUSSIAN MAN moves a piece.)

CUT TO:
(GUNMAN’s finger on the trigger.)

CUT TO:
(GIBSON stands up to reach and move his queen.)

GIBSON: Checkmate.

(GIBSON sits back down, leaning back as he does. GUNSHOT. Bullet hits RUSSIAN MAN in the chest, and he falls out of his chair knocking the chessboard off the table. Boy is surrounded by people. Crowd goes wild, screaming and running. GUNMAN disassembles his rifle quickly and leaves. GIBSON looks up to where the GUNMAN was.)

CUT TO:
(CSM running through the woods pursued by SECOND MAN. SECOND MAN fires at CSM and misses. CSM stops and looks up at the man chasing him. KRYCEK, the SECOND MAN, pulls off his ski mask. He aims his gun at CSM.)

CSM: Go on! Take your shot, Alex!

KRYCEK: Right there! I was … sent to bring you back.

(Pan over wall next to MULDER’s desk. Lots of newspaper clippings, including Duane Barry, MULDER’s "I Want to Believe" poster with a post-it note on the UFO "You are here" , and … a picture of MULDER and SCULLY standing in a doorway looking at some papers. SKINNER looks at the picture. He is holding a few file folders. MULDER enters. He is surprised to see SKINNER.)

MULDER: Wow, you know you’re going places in the Bureau when the Assistant Director tidies up your office for you. What’s up?

SKINNER: I was just, uh … looking.

MULDER: For anything special?

SKINNER: I came down to ask you something. I, uh, I guess I was nosing around – wondering about you -- your, uh, long-term plans.

MULDER: My long term plans? You got them right there in your hands.

(MULDER takes the files from SKINNER and crosses to a file cabinet.)

SKINNER: What do you hope to find? I mean, in the end.

MULDER: Whatever I hope to find is in here. And maybe I’ll know it when I find it. Is that what you came to ask me?

SKINNER: No. There’s a case – nothing I’d send you normally – a murder … an assassination of a Russian chess player. The shooter is former National Security Agency … one of ours. It’s got a lot of people upset. This kid, Jeffery Spender – Special Agent Spender – he’s been given the case. He’s running it.

MULDER: You give it to him?

SKINNER: No. It came as an order from somewhere outside the Bureau. His team’s assembled upstairs right now. He was very specific that you be excluded.

(MULDER slowly grins mischievously.)

(SPENDER is showing slow motion video of the RUSSIAN MAN getting shot. Several agents, including SCULLY, listen.)

SPENDER: Using a weapon registered to a US intelligence agency, the shooter fired one kill shot at Anatole Klebanow before being captured without incident a short distance from the scene. .

(MULDER and SKINNER enter. SCULLY turns to look up at MULDER.)

SPENDER: No motive has been established nor has the shooter offered up a statement or accomplice.

(SPENDER sees MULDER and stops.)

MULDER: (Mr. Congeniality) Please continue.

SPENDER: (not happy) The trajectory of the kill shot suggests the shooter acted alone, but we cannot yet rule out an accomplice or conspiracy. A single bullet was fired from a catwalk at a steep angle striking the target just right of the solar plexus.

MULDER: I’m … sorry, can you rewind the tape? Please. I’ll tell you where. Just take it back?

SPENDER: Let me get through this. If you have any questions, we can talk later.

MULDER: I don’t have any questions. No. I just think you’re wrong.

SCULLY: (quietly) Mulder … what are you doing?

MULDER: I don’t think the Russian was the target. I think it was his opponent.

SPENDER: His opponent, Agent Mulder, was a twelve year old boy.

MULDER: And a good chess player. Here, let me show you his best move, if you’ll just take it back.

(SPENDER reluctantly rewinds.)

MULDER: Okay, stop it there. Look what the kid does right here, right before the kill shot. Play. Do you see what he does? He just pushes back. You see that?

SPENDER: He just completed a checkmate. He’s pushing back because the game’s over.

MULDER: You described a steep trajectory for the kill shot. If the kid doesn’t push back at that precise moment he catches the bullet in the back of the neck, not the Russian.

SPENDER: May we move on here?

(A woman, tall, attractive, dark hair, mid thirties, AGENT DIANA FOWLEY is sitting across the room.)

DIANA: I think Agent Mulder is right. Looks like the boy sensed the shooter precognitively . If you rewind the tape you’ll see it.

(MULDER looks at DIANA, surprised.)

SPENDER: There’s no way. It’s impossible.

SKINNER: Just rewind the tape so we can all see for ourselves.

(SPENDER obeys SKINNER, this time rewinding to the point where the boy looks up and behind him. SPENDER and MULDER look at one another, then MULDER and DIANA share a look.)

(Outside under a bridge. KRYCEK and CSM approach the ELDERS including WELL MANICURED MAN.)

CSM: You look surprised. Is it that I’m here or that I’m alive?

FIRST ELDER: When we heard you’d been shot, we’d assumed the worst.

SECOND ELDER: There were reports you lost too much blood to have survived.

CSM: Obviously, you underestimated me. More obviously you overestimated the man you sent to do the job.

(KRYCEK looks uncomfortable.)

CSM: (lights a cigarette) Well, let’s say all is forgiven. Now, you have a job for me.

WMM: There’s been an incident … an unfortunate mistake.

CSM: Yes, I’ve seen. I’ve heard. I’ve read.

THIRD ELDER: The boy is a problem to us.

CSM: What would you like me to do … Shoot him dead … splatter his brains?

WMM: Dear God …

CSM: What’s the matter? Does this sort of business offend you?

FIRST ELDER: It’s in your interest … as in ours.

CSM: You think you know my interests?

FIRST ELDER: Can we count on you?

CSM: (pause) Yes.

(CSM walks away)

(Interior car. MULDER driving, SCULLY passenger, DIANA in back seat.)

SCULLY: How long have you been with the Bureau, Agent Fowley?

DIANA: Since ’91. I took an assignment in Europe after the wall came down when the director stepped up foreign terrorism concerns.

SCULLY: And they brought you on this because of a terrorism angle?

DIANA: No. I, uh, I requested a reassignment. There were things at home I decided I wanted to get back to.

(MULDER and DIANA make eye contact in the rearview mirror. SCULLY doesn’t notice.)

SCULLY: 1991. (to MULDER) That’s about when you started work on the X-Files.

MULDER: More or less, yeah.

(MULDER and DIANA look at each other again.)

(GIBSON is watching THE SIMPSONS on TV.)

HOMER SIMPSON: (placing gun on table) Uh... I'd better just put it down.
(gunshot flings a knife into a picture of Marge)
LISA SIMPSON: No offense, Mom, but that was pretty cool.
MARGE SIMPSON: Homer, I think you'd agree...

(MULDER, SCULLY, and DIANA enter. MULDER kneels down beside GIBSON.)

MULDER: Hi. My name is Fox. This is Dana and Diana. How are you doing?

GIBSON: I don’t mind it here. They get all the good TV shows. Where I live, in the Philippines all we get is Baywatch.

(MULDER looks back at the two women, then back to GIBSON.)

MULDER: What’s wrong with Baywatch?

(GIBSON looks closely at MULDER.)

GIBSON: You’ve got a dirty mind.

(MULDER doesn’t quite know what to say. Looks at Scully.)

SCULLY: (suppressing a smile) Your parents are going to pick you up on Friday, Gibson, to take you back home.

GIBSON: (to MULDER) I don’t want to play any chess.

MULDER: How do you know I want to?

GIBSON: ‘Cause you got that cheapo chess computer in your hand.

(MULDER has indeed been hiding an electronic chess game under his arm.)

MULDER: It’s not so cheap. Don’t you want to see how fast you can
beat it?

GIBSON: No.

MULDER: Maybe because you can’t.

(MULDER turns off TV. GIBSON doesn’t answer.)

MULDER: I’m right, aren’t I? You know what I’m talking about. You knew the moment I came in. That’s how you win, isn’t it … how you know what your opponent’s going to do? You get inside his head. You read his thoughts. That’s how you knew that man was going to shoot you … isn’t it?

GIBSON: I know what’s on your mind. I know you’re thinking about one of the girls you brought.

MULDER: Oh?

(SCULLY raises an eyebrow, DIANA gives a half smile.)

GIBSON: One of them’s thinking about you.

(SCULLY looks uncomfortable, DIANA interested.)

DIANA: Which one?

(GIBSON looks closely at MULDER.)

GIBSON: He doesn’t want me to say.

(MULDER chuckles VERY uncomfortably. He stands and faces the two women.)

MULDER: This kid’s going to need round-the-clock protection.

(MULDER quickly goes out into the hall. SCULLY follows.)

SCULLY: Mulder … (he turns to her) What was that all about?

MULDER: The kid’s no chess master. Under controlled conditions, I could probably beat him.

SCULLY: Mulder, he’s recognized internationally as a prodigy. He’s beaten Grand Masters.

MULDER: With the most unfair advantage. What he’s doing amounts to a kind of parlor magic trick.

SCULLY: Mulder, he was goofing on you. He was playing along. You’re positing that this kid can read minds.

MULDER: We’ve seen a number of these cases before, Scully.

SCULLY: We have seen cases, Mulder, of fakers and lucky guessers but no one that has ever been able to stand up to any kind of rigorous testing. (DIANA comes out of the room and watches MULDER and SCULLY.) No one who has gone so far as to claim that they can zero in on the mind of one person in a crowd of thousands.

MULDER: Maybe that’s why they want him dead.

SCULLY: Who? Who are you talking about?

MULDER: I’m not the mind reader.

SCULLY: Say that what you’re suggesting were even possible, who’d want to kill a kid whose abilities would offer you the ultimate advantage … I mean in business, in war, in anything?

DIANA: Maybe somebody whose business is in keeping secrets.

MULDER: Well, let’s test him. I think the kid will stand up. Let’s run a brain scan and a psych evaluation on him. (looking away) You know what to do, Diana.

(MULDER walks away down the hall. SCULLY and DIANA watch him go.)

SCULLY: So, you two know each other?

DIANA: It was a long time ago.

(SCULLY watches DIANA walk away.)

(SPENDER comes out of a cell and closes the door. MULDER approaches him.)

SPENDER: What are you doing here?

MULDER: I want to talk to the shooter.

SPENDER: I’ve just spent the last six hours talking with him. He’s not been what I would call forthcoming.

MULDER: (reaching for the door) Okay. Let me see what I can do.

SPENDER: (stopping him) I prefer you stay out of there. In fact, I prefer you stay out of this thing altogether.

MULDER: When I first met you I figured you were just ambitious. This morning, my opinion changed. I thought you were arrogant. Now I’m beginning to wonder what you’re protecting.

SPENDER: I’m just trying to run this right, not like some ridiculous paranormal free-for-all.

MULDER: You’re insulting me when you should be taking notes. Somehow, you got the big assignment but just because you’re wearing the suit doesn’t mean it fits. You’re lucky you’re not defusing some international incident kissing serious Russian ass and sending a lot of agents barking down a lot of bad leads. Now, the kid is the key to this and the shooter knows why. Excuse me.

(MULDER enters the cell followed by SPENDER. The GUNMAN sits casually on the bed, hand resting on his face.)

MULDER: What does it take to kill a kid? Money? Or just evil stupidity?

GUNMAN: I didn’t kill a kid.

MULDER: No … Thanks to the kid.

GUNMAN: Want to talk about heartlessness? Your squeaky friend there (indicates SPENDER ) … hasn’t given me any food or water for what – 16 hours?

MULDER: I won’t tolerate that. Spender, you got to get this guy some food. Come on.

(SPENDER stares at MULDER a moment with hatred, then goes out of the cell.)

GUNMAN: I’ve got nothing to say.

MULDER: Yeah … I read your bio. You’ve been trained. Special Forces. You were in Grenada, Zaire. You were inside Saddam’s palace with a hit squad when they started raining bombs down over it yet you failed to kill him as well.

GUNMAN: Like I said …

MULDER: (interrupting) Yeah, I know – you got nothing to say. (sits beside him on the bed) That’s okay. I’m a pretty good guesser. The kid reads minds. How’s that? Why don’t I tell him you told me that, and then let’s see how safe and snug you feel in here.

GUNMAN: What can you do for me?

MULDER: I don’t know. I might be able to get you immunity or, uh … get you into the witness protection program.

GUNMAN: Never happen.

MULDER: Think about it.

(MULDER gets up and leaves the cell closing the door behind him. As he walks down the hall, he passes SPENDER and a guard carrying a tray of food.)

SPENDER: What did you get? Did you get anything?

(MULDER, never pausing, grabs a bag of chips and a drink off of the tray and continues down the hall.)

MULDER: Just his attention.

(SPENDER and the GUARD stop and watch MULDER leave.)

(SCULLY and GIBSON holding hands walk through a door and down a hall.)

SCULLY: How you doing?

GIBSON: I didn’t like those tests. I didn’t like being in the machine.

SCULLY: Hmm … They’re a little scary, aren’t they?

GIBSON: You’re wondering, aren’t you?

SCULLY: About what? About you?

GIBSON: About that other girl.

(DIANA, holding a file, steps out of a room to meet them.)

GIBSON: She’s wondering about you, too.

(Later, GIBSON sits in a room facing six adults. Funny scene.)

DOCTOR 1: We’re going to show you a group of cards and as we look at them we want you to tell us what we’re thinking. Now, take as much time as you need.

(As each of the DOCTORS looks at a card with a picture of an object on it, GIBSON looks at the person and says the name of the object.)

GIBSON: Chair. Piano. Piece of pie. Light bulb. Smiley face. Statue. Cat.

(DIANA and SCULLY are watching through an observation window in another room.)

SCULLY: It’s amazing. It’s hard to believe.

DIANA: I’ve witnessed clairvoyants who were over 90% accurate and seen telepathy being demonstrated but I don’t know I’ve ever witnessed anything quite like this.

SCULLY: Where’d you see that?

DIANA: Agent Mulder and I spent some time in psychiatric hospitals. There were some patients serving criminal sentences who we felt had been misdiagnosed.

(In the other room, GIBSON looks at each of the DOCTORS in turn.)

GIBSON: … omelette. Coffee and a cruller. A nonfat latte. An english muffin. Grand Slam number two with double hash browns and a side of Canadian bacon.

(DOCTORS all laugh and clap.)

DOCTOR 1: (over his shoulder to SCULLY and DIANA) He just told us all what we ate for breakfast.

SCULLY: (not looking at DIANA, very tense) I have to disappear for a bit.

(SCULLY quickly leaves the room. DIANA watches her go.)

(Prison. GUARD slides a note to the GUNMAN through the door.)

GUARD: I was handed a note. Now I’m handing it to you.

(The note is written on the back of a Morley cigarette wrapper. "You’re a dead man.")

(Lone Gunman office, and home apparently. Sound of knocking. SCULLY is shown on a video monitor outside the door. FROHIKE is in pajamas. He is putting on a Kevlar bullet-proof vest.)

SCULLY: (on monitor) Is somebody going to let me in?

FROHIKE: Yeah. Yeah. Coming. Coming.

(To get the door open, FROHIKE must first unlock and unbolt seven very sturdy locks. Very funny. He opens the door and SCULLY enters.)

FROHIKE: Sorry. You caught me getting ready for bed. Come in. Come in.

SCULLY: Thank you.

FROHIKE: To what do we owe the pleasure at this late night hour?

SCULLY: I need your help.

LANGLY: (entering, also in pajamas with toothbrush in his mouth) With what?

SCULLY: You’ve all heard of Gibson Praise the chess wunderkind. These are a series of scans and neural electrical outputs of his brain and brain processes. (She places the images of GIBSON’s brain on a lighted viewer.) There seems to be some suspicion that he’s a fraud.

BYERS: Dorf on chess?

SCULLY: Well, apparently, he wins by reading his opponents’ minds.

FROHIKE: I love that.

LANGLY: And you want us to what?

SCULLY: Analyze the data … with an eye to the parapsychological.

FROHIKE: Ooh …. A walk on the wild side.

SCULLY: (not looking at them, switching off the viewer) First … I want you guys to tell me who Diana Fowley is.

BYERS: Diana Fowley? Geez, we haven’t heard that name in a while.

SCULLY: Then you know her.

BYERS: Well … yeeaaah.

FROHIKE: She was Mulder’s chickadee when he just got out of the Academy. Good-looking.

SCULLY: Well, she claims to have worked closely with him for a while.

LANGLY: She was there when he discovered the X-Files. She has a background of para-science.

BYERS: She got a legat appointment a while back … in Berlin. I always wondered why they split up.

(This has made SCULLY uncomfortable. She smiles tightly. Still not looking at the men, she turs the viewer back on.)

SCULLY: Well … Why don’t you boys see what you can find?

(Hospital. GIBSON is watching The Silver Surfer cartoon.)

SILVER SURFER: I must make my stand.
GALACTUS: Your stand will destroy you.
SILVER SURFER: Better to perish for what I believe in than endure forever as a traitor to life.
GALACTUS: Then, so be it.

(DIANA is watching GIBSON from another room through an observation window. GIBSON turns at looks in her direction at one point, then turns back to the TV. MULDER enters the observation room joins DIANA at the window and watches GIBSON also.)

MULDER: How’s little Karnac doing?

DIANA: Put a TV in front of him and he turns right into a normal kid. He’s the real deal, Fox. We tested him with Zener cards, random numbers, a variety of ESP tasking. He’s got ability to not just focus on a thought, but a multitude of thoughts at once.

MULDER: There’s something else. There’s something we’re missing here.

DIANA: That was a good catch on the videotape. I was impressed.

MULDER: (embarrassed, looking away) Oh, you would have caught it eventually.

DIANA: No. I’ve been too many years trying to get inside the head of too many Arab terrorists. I’m out of practice with this stuff. But you seem at the top of your game.

MULDER: That’s all I do. That’s all I’ve been doing for the last five years. Been my life, such as it is. (smiles)

DIANA: Sometimes I hear about you ... about the work you’re doing. And I think how it might have been if I’d stayed.

MULDER: Ah, we’d all be blown up by some terrorist bomb, no doubt, huh?

DIANA: I sense you could have used an ally, though – someone who thinks like you, with some background.

MULDER: Oh, you mean Scully?

DIANA: She’s not what I would call an open mind on the subject.

(They laugh.)

MULDER: She’s a, uh ... she’s a scientist. She just makes me work for everything.

DIANA: Yes, but I’m ... I’m sure there were times when two like minds on a case would have been advantageous.

MULDER: I’ve done okay without you.

DIANA: Hey ... I’m on your side.

(DIANA takes MULDER’s hand as they look at one another. Outside in the hall, SCULLY, carrying GIBSON’s file, approaches the door. Through the door window she sees MULDER and DIANA holding hands and smiling. Surprised, SCULLY keeps walking a few steps down the hall. She pauses, then turns and walks back the way she came without looking in the room again where MULDER and DIANA are still holding hands. SCULLY goes down to the parking deck and gets in her car. She sits quietly for about 15 seconds just thinking, then breathes deeply and pulls out her cell phone. She dials and exhales slowly.)

MULDER: (on phone, voice) Mulder.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it’s me.

MULDER: (on phone, voice, pause) Where are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) I’m, uh, I’m on my way to work. I was hoping I could show you something. Something about the boy.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, I’m at the psych facility with him right now. Why don’t you come by and show me?

SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Uh, no, I’d ... I’d prefer to show you at work if that’s okay.

MULDER: (on phone) Okay, what is it?

SCULLY: (on phone) I think you’ll be surprised. Very surprised.

MULDER: (on phone) I’m on my way.

(SCULLY hangs up and starts her car. As she drives away, she sees SPENDER pull up. He doesn’t see her. SPENDER sets his car alarm. As SCULLY’s car goes out of sight, we hear tires squealing as if someone is driving a little fast.)

(SPENDER gets out of his car and is addressed by CSM who is standing in the shadows.)

CSM: Agent Spender. I need to speak with you.

SPENDER: Who are you?

CSM: Somebody who’s taken an interest in you ... in this case of yours. This case I gave you.

SPENDER: What are you? CIA? NSA?

CSM: You’re a bright boy.

SPENDER: You said you had information.

CSM: Control the board. Know which men to sacrifice and when.

SPENDER: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

CSM: Don’t become part of someone else’s cause or crusade. Pursue your own self interest. Always.

(At the other side of the parking deck MULDER enters and sees them talking. He runs toward them, but CSM steps back and is gone.)

MULDER: Agent Spender! Agent Spender? (looks for CSM, but doesn’t see him) Who were you talking to?

SPENDER: I don’t know.

MULDER: You don’t know who you were talking to? You’re lying.

SPENDER: What’s your deal?

MULDER: I was told he was dead.

SPENDER: Well, obviously whoever it is, he’s not.

(SKINNER’s office. MULDER and SCULLY sit in front of the desk. SPENDER, DIANA, and a few other agents are gathered on the couches.)

SKINNER: (sitting down) You’re here to tell me a story.

MULDER: (to SCULLY) Tell him exactly as you told me.

SCULLY: (uncomfortable with what she’s saying) I’ve conducted some tests on Gibson Praise and have come up with some rather unexpected conclusions: ones which I myself have difficulty reconciling with what I know.

SKINNER: These are?

SCULLY: Neurological tests. Mapping of brain functions using a very high resolution EEG.

SKINNER: What did you find out?

SCULLY: The tests revealed something peculiar in an area of the brain that we are only beginning to understand. An area of the temporal lobe that neurophysicists are calling the "God nodule."

SKINNER: I hope I’m not going to hear that this kid is the next Christ child.

SCULLY: All of the boy’s brain processes are showing extraordinary activity in exactly this part of the brain. Which is not just abnormal or anomalous, but from what I know absolutely unheard of.

MULDER: There are corollaries – The individuals who have been responsible for great leaps forward in understanding in science. Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Stephen Hawking. All these men exhibited modes of thinking that are suggestive of access to special brain centers.

SKINNER: All right. So this kid is a human oddity. Tell me why anyone would go to such lengths as to kill him?

MULDER: This kid may be the key not just to all human potential, but to all spiritual unexplained paranormal phenomena. The key to everything in the X-Files.

SPENDER: Let me get this right --- We’re supposed to believe that this boy was going to be killed because of the X-Files?

MULDER: No, it’s bigger than that.

SPENDER: Uh-huh. Explain it to me. To us.

MULDER: I can’t. But the shooter can. The assassin that you have locked up ... in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

SPENDER: You want to give a murderer a free ride for the secrets to the pyramids? This is crazy. It’s nuts.

SCULLY: You mischaracterize what I’ve said. This would be quantifiable scientific proof of everything Agent Mulder and I have investigated over the past five years.

DIANA: How do you quantify the spiritual? It can’t be done. You ask for immunity for a killer on that basis, the Attorney General’s gonna go off. You’re allowed to investigate the X-Files as an indulgence. But draw the wrong kind of attention and they’ll close you down. Put an end to all your work. Something I happen to have an interest in myself.

(MULDER nods. SCULLY looks at him.)

SKINNER: Let’s everyone step out into the hall.

(All stand.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder, you stay put.

(MULDER sighs as everyone else leaves. SKINNER sits on the edge of the desk.)

SKINNER: She’s right, you know. The risk you’re taking, the long-term plans that you and I talked about…

MULDER: If what Agent Scully’s found is true and I have every reason to believe that it is, then the answers I might have spent a lifetime searching for may fall together like a million puzzle pieces.

SKINNER: You’d risk the X-Files?

MULDER: How soon can you call the Attorney General?

(Federal prison. MULDER and SPENDER enter the GUNMAN’s cell. GUNMAN wakes, startled. He’s nowhere near as cool and collected as he was earlier. In fact, he appears panicked and desperate.)

MULDER: The Attorney General’s heard my request for immunity.

GUNMAN: Heard it? You … Oh … You said that you could get it.

MULDER: She needs something more. Something to convince her that you’re not just playing games. Something that I can corroborate. I need answers from you.

GUNMAN: The kid is a missing link.

MULDER: To what?

(MULDER and the GUNMAN look at each other. They ignore SPENDER.)

MULDER: He’s genetic proof, isn’t he?

(GUNMAN nods slightly.)

SPENDER: Genetic proof of what? (pause) Genetic proof of what?

MULDER: The kid’s not superhuman. He’s just more human than human.

(MULDER exits the cell quickly. SPENDER follows.)

SPENDER: He’s what?

MULDER: Most of us have genes we don’t use. They lie there dormant, turned off. Science doesn’t know what they’re for, why they’re there or where they came from.

SPENDER: Right and you think this has something to do with that?

MULDER: There’s a long-held but unpopular theory tied to prehistoric evidence of alien astronauts.

SPENDER: You’re not going to go out there and say the kid’s part alien.

(MULDER gives SPENDER a direct look and keeps walking.)

SPENDER: You think that’s what you heard? You led him, Agent Mulder. Now you’re letting yourself be led.

(MULDER ignores SPENDER.)

(Street. Day. CSM comes out of a building. A car pulls up beside him. KRYCEK is driving, WELL MANICURED MAN rolls down the passenger window.)

WMM: We entrusted you. You failed.

CSM: Failed. Failed who?

WMM: Mulder has gone to the Justice Department. He has testimony about the boy.

CSM: That’s just part of the game.

WMM: It’s not a game, for God’s sake.

CSM: Sure it is. It’s all a game. You just take their pieces, one by one until the board is clear.

WMM: (under his breath) God ….

(WMM is not pleased. He rolls up the window. CSM lights up.)

(Night. Car pulls up to hotel. Interior hotel room. GIBSON is watching "King of the Hill" on TV. SCULLY sits in a chair watching him.)

COTTON: Hey, Missy! How about some sammiches? Hmm.
(Cotton and Bobby are both laughing at a woman.)
PEG: I hope you're all hungry.
HANK: Good-looking breakfast, Peg.
COTTON: Yeah. I see bacon, I see ham...

SCULLY: Gibson?

GIBSON: This is a great show. I wish we got this where I live.

Peg: Cotton, you are welcome to march yourself down to the Safeway …

(SCULLY comes over and pulls up a chair next to GIBSON.)

SCULLY: I’d like to ask you something.

Cotton: See, Bobby? Woman works, man loses his sausage.
Peg: You know, Cotton, I'd love to debate this with you but I am just a little too busy living here in the latter half of the 20th century.

SCULLY: How do you do it?

GIBSON: I just hear you thinking … like on a radio. And sometimes there are lots of radios. And I want to shut them off and watch some TV.

SCULLY: Is that why you like chess? ‘Cause it’s just one thought that you hear?

GIBSON: Yeah, but that’s not why I like it all the time.

SCULLY: Why else do you like it?

GIBSON: Because there’s no talking. Just thinking. It’s nothing like real life where people think one thing but they say something else.

SCULLY: (laughs softly) Is that what people do?

GIBSON: They’re so worried about what other people are thinking when the people they’re worrying about are worried about the same thing. It makes me laugh.

SCULLY: Why?

GIBSON: They make up all this stuff to believe but it’s all made up. Some people try to be good people but some people just don’t care. Like you.

SCULLY: You think I don’t care?

GIBSON: No, you don’t care what people think. Except for her. The other one.

(DIANA knocks and enters the hotel room.)

DIANA: I’m here to relieve you.

SCULLY: (to GIBSON) Well, we’ll talk about this later, okay?

(SCULLY crosses to the door.)

GIBSON: They want to kill me, you know.

SCULLY: (at door) Nobody’s going to do anything to you, Gibson. I promise.

GIBSON: I know you do.

(SCULLY takes her coat and leaves.)

[Closed captioning only
HANK: Well, that's the dangedest thing. I never heard of a solenoid just disappearing before.
DALE: I don't know. Sometimes things just disappear for no logical reason. One day my cousin woke up, his kidney was gone.]

(Prison. GUARD slides another note to the GUNMAN.)

GUARD: I’ve been handed another note.

(The GUNMAN looks at another Morley wrapper. This time there is nothing written on the back. The GUNMAN looks up just as the GUARD fires a gun through the slot in the door, killing the GUNMAN.)

(Hotel room. Later. DIANA is asleep. DIANA wakes, startled. GIBSON is not where he was sitting earlier.)

DIANA: Gibson?

(She sees GIBSON looking out the window.)

DIANA: What are you doing?

GIBSON: There’s a man with a gun.

(DIANA gets up and runs to GIBSON pulling him out of the way and pushing him toward the bed. She stays at the window.)

DIANA: Gibson, get down. Get back. Get back.

GIBSON: He didn’t come here to kill me. He’s aiming at you.

DIANA: Wha …

(DIANA stands up in front of the window, looks at Gibson, shocked, then faces the window. Window shatters as gunshot hits DIANA. She falls.)

(Next morning. Exterior of hotel. Crime scene - patrol cars, ambulances. MULDER and SCULLY arrive. They get out of the car and see a woman’s body covered with a sheet. They cross to the body.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder, Scully. They killed a US Marshal and then shot Agent Fowley.

(DIANA, unconscious, is carried out of the motel room and loaded onto an ambulance. MULDER, concerned, holds her hand briefly before being pushed back by the EMTs.)

SKINNER: They worked on her here for an hour. They couldn’t get a chopper in so they’re in radio communication with the hospital. She’s got weak vitals and a hole in one of her lungs, so they’re not optimistic.

SCULLY: What about the boy? Is he here?

(SKINNER shakes his head.)

MULDER: Where’s Spender?

SKINNER: He’s gone to Federal Detention. They found the shooter shot dead in his cell early this morning. We also found this.

(SKINNER shows them the blank Morley wrapper.)

(Day. Under the bridge. CSM and GIBSON wait for WMM and KRYCEK who drive up in the car. WMM gets out.)

WMM: (to GIBSON) Hello, young man.

GIBSON: Hello.

WMM: There’s nothing to be afraid of.

GIBSON: You’re a liar. Just like him.

(WMM is taken aback.)

CSM: (to WMM) You’ve never had the stomach for our business.

WMM: Just not for your practices.

CSM: I’m a necessity. The complement to your cowardice.

WMM: Your work is done now.

CSM: My work is just beginning.

(CSM begins walking away. WMM helps GIBSON into the back seat of the car, then gets in the passenger side.)

KRYCEK: (looking at the departing CSM) I got a nice, straight shot.

WMM: No. He’s useful. And you may need him in the future.

(As the car passes CSM, KRYCEK narrowly misses him. CSM exhales smoke slowly.)

(Hallway. SPENDER is briefing some other agents. MULDER angrily walks toward them.)

SPENDER: … secure the airports. Notify the parents and the Philippine government the boy’s missing, and …

(MULDER grabs SPENDER and holds him against the wall while rubbing the Morley wrapper in his face.)

MULDER: Who do you work for?! You work for him -- You and Old Smokey --- Is that who put this together?! You’re going down for this! I’m going to see you prosecuted for murder! You watch me! Watch it happen! Your days are numbered!

(MULDER leaves as angrily as he came. SPENDER watches him go.)

SPENDER: (quietly) You’re wrong, Agent Mulder. It’s your days that are numbered.

(MULDER’s apartment. SCULLY sits at MULDER’s desk on the phone. She looks exhausted. Beside her, MULDER is stretched out on the couch, his eyes closed, hands clasped on his chest. The room is dim. They are both dressed casually.)

SCULLY: (on phone) We knew there were risks going to the Attorney General.

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) You know what's coming down here.

SCULLY: (on phone) Yes, sir.

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) They’re serious about this.

SCULLY: (on phone) I understand.

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) I assume you’ll make Agent Mulder aware of this.

SCULLY: (on phone) Yes, I’m - I’m here with him now.

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) I'm making a case his personal involvement clouded his judgment but I don't know the Attorney General's listening.

SCULLY: (on phone) I’ll communicate that to him. Is there anything else – any other news?

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) You should know Agent Spender's going after Mulder full bore. He's been reciting some line about "Alien Astronauts." It makes you both look real bad.

SCULLY: (on phone) Right. Well, I’ll be here if you need to reach me.

SKINNER: (on phone, voice) I've got to get back in there.

(SCULLY hangs up.)

MULDER: (not opening his eyes) Any news on Diana?

SCULLY: (pauses and sighs) They have her on maximum pressers but she’s barely maintaining her pressure.

MULDER: What did Skinner have to say?

SCULLY: There are talks going on right now about reassignment.

MULDER: (looking up at her) For who?

SCULLY: Both of us. These talks included instructions from the Justice Department to close down the X-Files.

MULDER: This was all strategized – every move. I just couldn’t see it. It was all of a plan.

SCULLY: (sad and tired) Mulder, whatever you may believe, this time they may have won.

(X-Files office. CSM alone. He slowly lights a cigarette. Looks around the office. He goes to a file cabinet and removes the folder for Samantha T. Mulder. He puffs on his cigarette.)

(FBI building later, hallway. CSM walks out of the elevator and down the hall carrying the one X-File. SPENDER approaches from the other direction. SPENDER looks up, surprised.)

SPENDER: Can I help you?

CSM: (not expecting this) Actually, uh .. I can help you.

SPENDER: How did you get in here?

CSM: Access, Agent Spender. It’s about access. It’s what I can give you. It’s what can make you. It’s why I’m doing this for you.

SPENDER: Who are you?

CSM: I’m your father.

SPENDER: What?!

(Alarm bell begins ringing. CSM quickly leaves.)

CUT TO:
(X-Files office burning fiercely.)

(FBI building, later. Firemen everywhere. SKINNER speaking to some agents in the hall. MULDER enters in T shirt and jeans, SCULLY follows him looking very concerned.)

SKINNER: Mulder …

(MULDER ignores him and goes to elevator. It is full of firemen and equipment. MULDER goes to the stairs. Downstairs he passes another fireman as he enters the X-Files office. And stops in the middle of the room in shock. Everything is destroyed. "I Want to Believe" is just barely visible on the charred poster, the desk is destroyed, the file cabinets black. His nameplate has melted on the door. Water drips from the walls and ceiling. SCULLY enters and looks around at the damage.

She looks back at MULDER. He just stares at the destruction. SCULLY walks toward him and puts her hands on his upper arms.

No response. She lays her head on his chest, holding him.

They stand there as the camera pulls back.

Lights from the emergency vehicles outside flash through the windows above.

[Fade to black]

[THE END]