Message-Id: Date: Tue, 11 Jun 96 22:24:40 -0700 (PDT) From: jekel@cts.com (Julie Jekel) Subject: "Top Secret" part 9 TOP SECRET a Lois and Clark/X-Files/Quantum Leap crossover Metropolis Scully bit her lip in frustration. In the time they had been speaking with Clark Kent and Lois Lane, they had managed to find out almost nothing, except that they both insisted that Superman's abilities were genuine. She had thrown out other theories as to the origins of his 'powers' but both of the reporters had dismissed them all, although they refused to explain their certainty. The most irksome thing about it was that it was her, not Mulder, who was getting incredulous stares in response to her questions. Of the two, Kent was more trusting and forthcoming, which was rather a surprise. The records they had checked before coming to Metropolis seemed to indicate that he was the one with more to hide. But it was Lois who responded most sharply to their inquiries and sometimes refused to answer at all. "You have to understand," Clark tried to explain his fiancee's hostility, "the last government agent who wanted to speak to us about Superman was Jason Trask. He tried to kill both of us to get to him, so you'll have to forgive us if we're a little suspicious." "I have no intention of trying to kill either of you," Mulder tried to assure them. "Is that why you did your best to drive us crazy with your phone calls?" Lois snapped in return. "No, that's just an inescapable part of his personality, I'm afraid," Scully interjected unexpectedly. Three pairs of eyes focused on her in surprise and the tension in the room broke as Lois burst out laughing. "Thanks, Scully," Mulder replied dryly, glancing at his partner in amused approval. She seldom made jokes at all, especially not when they were on a case, but it had succeeded in breaking the ice. She shrugged, not really sure where the remark had come from. "Is there any way we could speak to Superman?" Mulder asked. The two reporters glanced at each other, some sort of wordless communication passing between them. Clark shrugged. "Sure, I guess." He stood. "I'll go see if I can find him." Mulder held up a hand to stop him and Kent hesitated nervously. "Is something wrong?" "There's just a few more questions I want to ask you," the agent replied calmly. "Why doesn't Ms. Lane go to find him?" "Well, I..." he stammered. "Clark's so much better at getting in touch with him than I am," Lois explained quickly for him with a bright smile which hopefully concealed the fear that Mulder's words had sparked. "Really?" was the deadpan reply. "According to records, Ms. Lane, Superman has never failed to reach you when you were in danger--" "Are you planning to put me in danger, Agent Mulder?" she asked sharply, her dark eyes once again shooting knives at the two. Ignoring her comment, Mulder continued, "--and he has also been known to appear at your behest when your life is NOT in jeopardy. Quite frequently, actually." There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as the two journalists again exchanged a meaningful glance. Finally, Clark nodded reluctantly and sat down. Lois pursed her lips and reached for the doorknob. "This may take a while," she informed them curtly as she left. Scully watched her go, intrigued. The two of them were definitely hiding something, and if she was reading Mulder right, he suspected pretty much the same thing that she did. Now, they just had to confirm that mutual suspicion. "Well, Mr. Kent," Mulder began, leaning back in his chair. "You have a rather intriguing history." "What do you mean?" Clark asked warily. "Before coming here, I did a little research into your and your fiancee's backgrounds, and I noticed a number of holes in yours." "Holes?" "For instance, the fact that there is no record of your adoption by the Kents. And the date you list as your birthday coincides with a number of UFO sightings in the general area of Smallville, Kansas, which, if I remember correctly, is your hometown." "What does any of this have to do with Superman?" Clark tried to change the subject. "I'm getting to that," was the calm reply. "When you were around twelve years old, there was a mysterious fire at the Kent farm. Somehow the it was put out before the fire department arrived on the scene, but your parents refused to make any effort to determine the cause, insisting that it was just an accident, and not important. Shortly after that, you began wearing glasses, although there are no records of an eye examination being conducted. In fact, you have apparently never had a physical in your life, since the name of the doctor listed on your school records does not exist. Or if he does, he doesn't practice anywhere near Smallville." "Why are you telling me this?" "People who have nothing to hide don't keep secrets, Mr. Kent," Scully contributed, watching him for any change in demeanor. Clark shifted his attention to the female agent and then back to her partner, sensing that he was trapped. "Look, can we discuss this in a minute? I have to..." He gestured towards the door, looking embarrassed. "You know." "Change clothes?" Mulder asked innocently. "Perhaps into a pair of blue tights with red speedos worn on the outside?" He was cornered, and he knew it, but he was also still hesitant to straight out admit the biggest secret of his life. He hadn't even done that with Lois--she'd figured it out herself. But then, so had these two, apparently... His gaze drifted from one to the other of the two agents. They were both clearly very bright, and far enough away from the situation to be objective. And he had a sneaking suspicion that he'd be hard-pressed to think of an excuse they would believe. Fortunately, he had good instincts, and those instincts were telling him that not only could these two probably be trusted, but that they would not be endangered because no one would suspect them of knowing. Smiling weakly, the reporter sat down again. "How did you figure it out?" "So you admit that you're the person who's been masquerading as Superman?" Scully asked. Much to her surprise, he laughed. "Yeah, I can admit to that. It sure beats being asked if Superman is masquerading as me." He chuckled again at the female agent's raised eyebrow. "I suppose you'll want to see proof that I can do what I say I can?" "It would be appreciated." Mulder nodded in agreement, grinning. "Yeah, I could deal with a demonstration." Clark sighed. "Well, all right, but not here. My identity IS still a secret, you know." "How many people actually know?" Mulder asked. "My parents and Lois, pretty much." Scully nodded, a rather disturbed look on her face. He seemed to be telling the truth, which, unfortunately, made it more likely that his powers WERE real, since many more people would have to be in on a hoax this big to pull it off. "Look," Clark asked, "Can I go out and tell Lois what's going on? She's probably getting worried that I haven't excused myself yet." Mulder inclined his head in agreement. "Where should we go from there?" "To my apartment, I guess. I think I can get Perry to give Lois and me the rest of the day off. You two can come with us, or follow us in your car, whichever you prefer." "All right." "I have just one question..." Scully interjected. Clark turned his attention to her. "What ever DID possess you to take up tights, anyway?" she asked. "Well, my mom made them for me." "All right. Whatever possessed HER then?" "She said it cuts down on wind resistance and..." He blushed, much to their surprise. "...that I wouldn't have to worry about people paying much attention to my face." Scully colored a little as well, wishing she hadn't asked. Mulder just grinned. "I'll have to remember that the next time we go undercover, huh, Scully?" "If you do, you can _forget_ about taking me along," she warned him. Clark smiled, his hand resting lightly on the doorknob. "I'll be right back," he assured them as he closed the door behind him. As soon as he stepped back into the newsroom, Lois was at his side. "What happened?" Her fiance took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "They know." "What?" she asked, alarmed. "But, how?" "I'm not sure...I think that Mulder did a background check and then just put two and two together." Lois frowned slightly. "You would think I could have done that," she muttered under her breath. It still irked her occasionally that it had taken her so long to figure out that the two men she loved were one and the same. Clark smiled fondly at her. "Well, if you think about it, Lois, you weren't exactly in a position to be objective." She returned the smile. "Good point." Her face sobered as she sat down at her desk, pondering the new complication that had been thrown into their already-eventful day. "So, what do we do now?" "They want a demonstration." His fiancee's eyes widened in alarm. "Here??" "No, I convinced them to go back to my apartment with us." "What about after that? Do you think we can trust them to keep your secret?" Lois was very concerned. Clark frowned thoughtfully. "I think so. They seem trustworthy. We might have to give them a good reason to keep it a secret, though. I just wish I had some way to get their minds off it, at least for a while..." The other reporter sighed, her eyes drifting to her computer screen. Only an hour ago, she had been faced with the exciting prospect of making a vital discovery about a Top Secret government time travel project, and now, she was trying to think of a way to distract two overly-savvy FBI agents! Something clicked in her mind and her eyes widened. FBI agents would have government clearance... "We do." "What?" "We DO have a way to distract them." She opened the drawer of her desk and pulled out a sheaf of computer-printed pages. "I am willing to BET they would be interested in investigating Project Quantum Leap." "But do you want to share it with them?" he asked, curiously. Lois nodded as she took the precious tape and file out of another drawer, adding it to the biography and notes. "It might be the only way we can get in there." Mulder and Scully glanced up as the reporters re-entered the room, their arms full of papers. The agents frowned, puzzled. What were THOSE for? "I was wondering if you two could help us with something that we've been working on..." Lois explained, dumping her armload on the table of the conference room. Clark set his pile down beside hers, a pile which included a small tape reel. Mulder jumped a little, both startled and excited at the sight. Could it be the one..? The reporters sat down and Lois picked up the tape and file. "This morning, a man came into the newsroom and handed these to me. He told me they were something that should never have existed." "What does this have to do with--" Scully began. "We need your help," the reporter interrupted, anticipating the question, "BECAUSE you know. If you didn't, we couldn't risk showing you everything we have because of how we obtained it, and there's a good chance we wouldn't be able to do anything further on this investigation. So, just take it as a sign that we've decided to trust you." The two agents were silent, mollified. Lois continued. "We listened to this tape, and this is what we got." She handed Mulder the transcript. "The words in parentheses are side comments that Clark heard on an ultrasonic frequency." A broad, pleased smile spread over Mulder's face as he read the paper. "Scully, this is the tape I told you about!" Scully stared at him. "You're kidding." "You KNEW about the tape?" Lois asked incredulously. He nodded vigorously, still smiling. "One of my sources informed me that a Top Secret tape from the Project Blue Book days had been stolen from a Metropolis warehouse. From the information you have in this transcript, this must be it." "What makes you say that?" Clark asked, curiously. The agent pointed to the first of the parenthesed comments. "That would have to be Al." "Al?" "A holographic projection of a man from Sam's present who acts as an observer and information source on his Leaps. He can only be seen and heard by Sam..." He glanced up at Clark, amused. "And apparently Extraterrestrials." "Leaps?" Lois asked. By this time, the shift in conversation had brought some things back to normal--everyone in the room was now staring at Mulder in disbelief. He nodded in response to her question, then proceeded to reach down and unlace his left shoe. "Mulder, what are you doing?" Scully asked, now thoroughly bewildered. "Explaining," he replied, coming back up with the shoelace in his hands. "Sam Beckett theorized that time was like a piece of string--one end of it was your birth, the other was your death. If you could somehow find a way to ball the string up in your hand, all the points of your life would touch other points, enabling you to move, or 'quantum leap' from one point to another within your own lifetime." As he explained, he demonstrated the theory on the shoelace. "But apparently the Project malfunctioned. They believe it was taken over by some sort of higher power, who requires Sam to fix something that originally went wrong in history before he can move on to another time." "So...you're saying that the tape was of Dr. Beckett being interrogated while he was in 1966?" Clark asked. Mulder nodded, bending down to re-lace his shoe. "But then, why does the tape say it is an interrogation of Maxwell Stoddard?" Lois asked, confused. "Because..." came the strained reply from the still-bent-over agent. "That's another aspect of the Project--apparently...when Sam Leaps into somewhere, he bounces someone else...out." He came up again, his brown hair, disorderly and his face flushed from being upside-down for so long. The other three people in the room stifled the urge to chuckle at the very unprofessional appearance of his cranium. "Whoever he can best accomplish his task as, apparently," he continued obliviously. "While he is there, those around him see him as the person he has replaced, while that person goes into the future and is kept in the 'Waiting Room' at the Project for the duration of the Leap." Lois leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples, not quite sure what to do with this flood of information. "Mulder, forgive me but WHERE on EARTH did you get all this???" Scully asked. "I read about Dr. Beckett's theories in the Lone Gunman, then discovered he'd actually put them to use when we met him." Scully tried to scan her memory for any recollection of meeting a time-traveler named after a playwright, but drew a complete blank. "We did?" He nodded. So much for trying to jog her memory--he was just going to have to tell her straight out. "On that case in Toronto--he Leaped into Detective Schanke." "He did? Mulder, what are you talking about? That was probably one of the most normal cases we've ever had!" That prompted a torrent of supressed laughter from her partner. "No it wasn't, Scully, believe me! You just weren't allowed to remember it." "I wasn't ALLOWED to remember?" "I'll explain later," he assured her, turning back to the now very puzzled but curious Lois and Clark. "Yes, you'll have to do that, Lois interjected with a smile. Mulder groaned silently. He should have known better than to bring up THAT case in front of two reporters, ESPECIALLY two who knew there were unusual things in the world. "Do you have anything else?" HE changed the subject this time. Nodding, she pushed the biography and her notes over to him. The agent only afforded a cursory glance to the biography. "Can I hang on to this for a while and read it in the car?" They nodded, and he turned his attention to the notes written in Lois's clear hand. He whistled, impressed. "You actually managed to get into the Project's computer system?" Clark shrugged. "It's not too hard when you can go through possible passwords faster than the system can boot you out." "I imagine. Wish I could do that." Mulder flashed his partner an offbeat smile, which she echoed. Yes, sometimes it would be nice to be able to beat the system they were fighting like that. "I don't suppose you would happen to know who Ziggy is, would you?" Lois commented wryly. To their surprise, he nodded. "The artificial intelligence computer that runs the project." "ZIGGY is the COMPUTER??" "Yep." Mulder picked up the bio again and flipped through it to see how many pages long it was. "Kind of a funny name for a computer," Clark commented. "Kind of a funny name for _anyone_," his fiancee added. "Or anyTHING for that matter." "So what do we do now?" Scully asked. In the back of her mind, she was still trying to unravel the puzzle Mulder had handed her. How could she not be ALLOWED to remember a case? Besides, she DID remember it, and nothing remarkable had happened...had it? "Well, we could try to find the warehouse this was stolen from," her partner replied, grinning at her. She responded with a glare, knowing full well that this was what he'd wanted all along. Of course, neither of them had expected it to fall into their laps like this. "Do you know where it is?" he asked the two reporters. Clark nodded hesitantly. "I have an idea...there is a warehouse around here where Trask was keeping my ship and some other things related to Project Blue Book. But I think it's been cleared out by now." "Well..." Mulder stood and picked up his coat. "There's only one way to find out." TO BE CONTINUED... JJ --> Leaper, Chancer, Knightie, developing X-Phile :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: MAKE THE LEAP IN FIVE--Help bring Quantum Leap to the big screen by 1998! SAVE STRANGE LUCK--It may be cancelled, but we can bring it back! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: There are no coincidences in life, only connections we haven't yet seen.