From: martin@abacus.mc.duke.edu (Michele Martin) Message-Id: <9504100102.AA10950@abacus.mc.duke.edu> Subject: The Witness part 18 Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 21:02:07 -0400 (EDT) scene 25 Coroner' Building 1:45 am Mulder surveyed the examining room. It looked, if not totally spic and span, certainly much better than it had earlier. The combined efforts of Mulder, the MacLeods' and Natalie had managed to return it to some semblence of order. Mostly by sweeping everything into heavy duty garbage bags. The same bags that also contained Mulder's clothes. He didn't want to think too much about where his current outfit (sweats and a t-shirt) had come from. This was, after all, also the morgue. Nat had also managed to "discreetly" return Murdoc's body to it's bag, along with his head (yuck). They figured that since Natalie, the detectives, and the FBI agents were probably the only ones who'd be _looking_ at the bodies in this case, it was safest to pretend nothing had happened. Unless someone for some reason actually _wanted_ Murdoc's body. Now Connor MacLeod was assisting Natalie in identifying the other victims since he apparantly knew more of them than Duncan. Natalie had assured them that she'd record that a "Mr. MacLeod" had helped her with ids...and whomever read the report could draw their own conclusions. At any rate, that left Mulder with Duncan MacLeod. Again. This time, however, there was considerably less tension between them. They were both doing some "finishing" touches on the room. Mulder decided to try and find out more about these Immortals. Then perhaps he could figure out what he could reasonably report to his superiors. He had a sneaking suspicion, however, that the final answer would be 'nothing'. Maybe Scully could come up with some medical/scientific/genetic gibberish to explain the Immortals. She was pretty gifted in that area. "So, Mr. MacLeod..." "Call me Duncan..or Mac. I don't think 'Mr. MacLeod' really suits me," Duncan replied as he straightened one of the tables. "Okay, then. Duncan. How long have you been around? I take it you've met some pretty interesting people, seen alot of sights, etc...." "Well, I was born in 1592 in Scotland. I've travelled pretty extensively. Most of us have to move around alot. People start to get a little nervous when they've known you for, say, 30 years and you apparantly haven't aged at all...." "Aha! That explains Dick Clark," Mulder quipped. "So, I bet you know...or knew...some of the great names in history." "Yeah. I met a few. Funny thing is, though, you never know that they're going to be great historical people when you know them. I mean, you can go drinking with Wolfgang Mozart every night for a year and have no idea he's this great composer until 100 years after he's dead. That sort of thing. It's kind of weird. And you always have this urge to correct the tour guides and museum curators." "I bet. So, you can't die at all unless you lose your head? Does another Immortal have to take it or can anyone do it?" "Why? Are you planning to give it a try?" Duncan asked with mock menace. Mulder held up his hands as if to ward the highlander off. "Don't look at me. I have a hard enough time keeping hold of my gun--I'd probably cut off my _own_ head with one of those swords. Hmm. So it's only beheading. You're immune to everything else. Gunshots, drowning, fire..." "Well, that latter is pretty unpleasant. We feel pain and actually temporarily 'die'--like Connor and Murdoc--but we revive after our bodies heal. And if we're out of the 'danger' area. Immortals buried under tons of rock, for example, don't revive unless the rock is cleared away." "So you wouldn't be fazed by, say, glowing green mites sucking all the fluids from your body or toxic fumes from alien blood that cause your own blood to congeal or red-asparagus-like silicon life forms inhabiting your body and feeding off of it or liver-eating mutants or projective pyromaniacs or...." Mulder trailed off as he saw 'the look' cross Duncan's face. It was a familiar look. It was the look seen on the face of anyone who talked with Mulder for any appreciable length of time. "Um, what sort of things did you say you investigate, Agent Mulder?" Duncan asked hesitantly. "Oh, you know, your basic run-of-the-mill paranormal-related serial murders, homicidal aliens, rampaging mutants, cults, UFO sightings, things that go bump, splat, and gurgle in the night. That sort of thing," Mulder answered with his best "spooky" smile. "And I thought _my_ life was a bit on the bizarre side." Suddenly, Mulder remembered something he'd wanted to ask earlier. He pulled out a drawing of the tattoo Paul had seen on the man...the _vampire_ that had attacked Scott earlier that evening. "Do you recognize this?" he asked as he handed the drawing to Duncan. He could tell immediately that Duncan did recognize it, but that he was hesitant to say anything about it. "Well, actually..." "Off the record. I just have this insatiable need to know. Gets me in trouble all the time. Like the cat in that proverb. Then again, satisfaction...." "Off the record, you say? I don't know...." "I could always tell Knight you know about it and let _him_ ask you." Duncan considered it for another minute, then sighed exasperatedly. "It's a Watcher tattoo." "And Watchers are?" "Mortals who...watch...Immortals. Keep track of their doings, who's alive, who killed who, etc. There's usually one watching just about every Immortal versus Immortal contest. Most Immortals don't even know about them." "They watch your fights? And Scully complains that _my_ tastes in visual entertainment are twisted." Mulder shook his head. At that moment, Connor and Natalie reentered the room. "Thanks for you help, Connor," Natalie said. "Oh, don't mention it. Always a pleasure to help out a beautiful lass such as yourself," Connor began. Duncan groaned. "What if, say, a vampire gets really mad at you because you're, oh, I don't know, hitting on his girlfriend and sucks all the blood out of your body? Would you remain an Immortal or come back as a vampire or be some sort of super Immortal vampire?" Mulder asked nonchalantly. "You know, I don't recall that that's ever happened. It would be _very_ interesting to find out," Duncan replied, pointedly staring at Connor. Natalie stifled a laugh. Mulder was glad to see her beginning to regain some of her normal composure--the evenings events had affected her more strongly than most of the rest of them. Most of the others had some sort of paranormal strangeness in their lives that sort of made them less sensitive to the bizarreness that had unfolded here earlier. For Mulder and Scully, it was their constant exposure for things that were on the far side of normal. Admittedly, they didn't usually encounter so much at once, but it was really all in a day's work. Well, only sort of. "I wonder if Nick and Shanke...I mean, Sam, have any idea what we should do now. About Scott's kidnapping, that is. He seemed like such a nice young man, I'd hate for anything bad to happen to him. Agent Mulder, you're a government man...." Natalie began. "That's what it says on the paycheck." "...what do you think will happen to Scott. If these are US government people who've got him," she finished, wisely ignoring his remark. "Do you want the truth?" "I'm not sure..." "Well, in my experience, there are certain elements in positions of authority in the US government who are, shall we say, not particularly enamored of tossing out the welcome mat to any and all parties from the rest of the universe who want to come and visit us. And I've run into a few other ETs myself....don't look at me that way...who are not the sort of people you'd really want stopping by for tea. Now, I'm pretty sure that Paul isn't anything like those other beings, but I don't think those governmental elements I mentioned are quite so discriminating. I also believe there are some in our government conspiring with the more malevolent ETs, and I don't think they'd be overly fond of Paul, who seems to be pretty powerful and pretty convinced of the evil of their activities. Apparantly, he's met some of these other ETs before and pretty much told them to clear out and leave us alone until we're ready to face them on equal terms." Duncan, Natalie, and Connor considered what he'd said. He was pretty sure that some of the implications of his little soliloquey disturbed them. Well, it disturbed him as well. "In other words, you're saying that if they get both Paul and Scott..." Duncan began. "...they'll put us in cages for the rest of our lives," finished Paul. He, Scully, Sam, Nick and Jenny entered the room. Scully was holding what appeared to be a sketch of some sort. She silently handed it to Mulder. He looked at the face--a very familiar face. His mouth tightened in anger. Now his suspicions, and his fears, were confirmed. He looked at Paul and Jenny, uncertain whether to voice his beliefs, knowing they were already very worried and frightened. But he also didn't want Paul deluding himself and trying to buy Scott time by giving himself up if worse came to worse. Because now he knew it would accomplish nothing. Nothing but Paul's death. "No. Not these people. If they catch you both....they'll kill you." Jenny gasped in horror as Paul's eyes widened in shock at Mulder's blunt statement. He continued, "I know this man and how ruthless he is." He laid the picture down on the table nearest him. "Who is he, Mulder?" Scully asked. "I know I've seen him around, but I wasn't sure..." "I don't know his real name. I just call him...Cancer Man." "Do you think he'll kill Scott?" Paul asked hesitantly. "No. Not yet. He's probably going to want to keep a hold of Scott so he can lure you into some sort of trap. Maybe make a deal, which he will, of course, immediately double cross you on." "It's happened before. So Sam and Nick were right--we have to rescue Scott ourselves." Mulder nodded in agreement. He just wish he knew _how_. These men were highly skilled and highly dangerous. And going up against them would not be easy. He looked around at the others gathered in the room. Sam was having a conversation with no one--at least, that's the way it looked. Mulder figured he was talking to 'Al'. Duncan and Connor were examining the picture. Suddenly, Connor spoke up. "I think I know this man." "You do?" Mulder asked, surprised. Oh no, he didn't mean.... "Yes. In fact, I'm sure of it. Agent Mulder, he's one of us! He used to go by the name of Hanson. He's got some kind of age makeup on so he looks older...though I guess you'd say he _is_ pretty old...but I know it's him. And we've got a score to settle..." Connor had that glower back in his eyes. "You might get a chance to do just that. Sam says he's got a plan that utilizes all of our...unique...abilities. Thinks that we'll just overwhelm them by sheer force of strangeness. That's why we came back here. He said he was going to reveal his plan when we were all gathered here," Nick said. Everyone looked expectantly over to Sam, who was finish up his conversation with his invisible friend. "Who is he talking to, Paul?" Jenny asked. "It's a little hard to explain...I'll tell you everything after we rescue Scott. We have to trust him," Paul answered. "But it's all so weird...." "Weirder than being married to an extraterrestrial?" Jenny smiled weakly at that. "Okay, Al and I checked out my plan with Ziggy," Sam began as he approached the rest of 'the group'. "Ziggy?" Nick asked. "It's an AI computer back at the Project. Anyway, Ziggy thinks there's a 87.6% chance that this will work." "Only 87.6?" said Mulder doubtfully. Sam shrugged, "It's better than what we had before. And I'm sure it will work. First thing we have to do is find Scott. Now, Paul says he can track Scott's sphere with his own, but Scott doesn't have the sphere. However, if we give the sphere to Nick, who can fly and has extrasensitive hearing......" Sam began to outline his rather complex, but somehow brilliant plan, Mulder began to smile inwardly. It sounded so crazy it might actually work. And he'd give anything to see the look on Cancer Man's face when it did.