NOT MY LOVER: ENIGMA - Deslea R. Judd - 
Chapter 5 - Part 2 of 4.

Please see Part 1 of this chapter for headers.
The whole story to date is available at 
http://fiction.deslea.com

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I arrived at Samantha's suite with an uneasy 
mind. 

Mare was in the kitchen, fussing with takeout 
when I let myself in and shut the door behind me. 
She looked up at me, shot me a smile, then went 
back to what she was doing. I watched her for a 
moment. I felt sick, watching her, knowing what 
had been done to her, and what I had to do to 
keep it from her. Not an hour ago I'd begged her 
to let me in - and now I had to shut her out. At 
least from this. 

I went to her and slid my arms around her from 
behind, holding her around her shoulders. She 
didn't pull away, but she protested, "Alex, the 
Dark Man will be here any-" 

"I don't care," I said. "I need to hold you." 

She sank back against me with a sigh. She crossed 
her hands over mine, holding onto me with 
unexpected force. I didn't want to think about it 
- I wanted to just revel in her, take comfort in 
her - but I couldn't help wondering how strong 
she really was. The strength Elena had 
demonstrated could have been merely a 
manifestation of puberty as Michael apparently 
believed...but maybe there was more. Much more. 
It was a frightening thought, especially when I 
considered the horrible legacy of the American 
Eves. Madness, homicidality, suicidality...my 
hold on her tightened. 

"I don't want to lose you," I murmured. I wasn't 
even sure if she'd heard. I half hoped she 
hadn't. 

"You haven't," she whispered, turning to face me. 
She slipped her arms around me. "You won't." She 
smiled at me with such fondness that the weight 
lifted from me - just a little. 

The door opened just then, and we looked up in 
unison. It was the Dark Man. I had the 
uncomfortable sense of being sprung by a 
protective father, but he didn't comment. He just 
nodded to us in greeting and shut the door behind 
him. We broke apart, but Mare kept her hands 
loosely at my waist. In an odd way, that made 
things better - even more than our discussion at 
the rink had. It was as public an acknowledgement 
as our lives would allow. 

She spoke. "What's happened?" 

He set his briefcase down by the door. "We've had 
a security breach. You and I left for D.C. at 
five-fifty this morning. Your security codes were 
used at six-forty-seven." 

Mare and I exchanged glances. We said at the same 
moment, "Elena." 

He watched us, frowning. "Say again?" 

"You're behind the times," I said grimly. 

"She was in our room," Mare explained, 
extricating herself from me, and his eyelids 
flickered when she said 'our'. "Alex found her on 
my laptop. He thought she was me." Just for a 
moment, I remembered kissing Elena's hair, and I 
felt vaguely guilty. "We only put together that 
it was her when he mentioned it this afternoon." 

"I was an idiot," I said abruptly. "She called me 
honey - she mustn't have known my name. God, I 
even said myself that I'd never seen you with 
your hair like that. Even half-asleep, I should 
have known better." 

"What did she say?" he asked, coming over to the 
kitchen bench. He picked up the takeout and took 
it to the table. Mare and I followed. 

"I doubt she expected me to be there, if that's 
what you mean. She knew about your meeting," I 
added over my shoulder to Mare. "She said she had 
to leave to drive down there. I probably scared 
the shit out of her." 

"Did she seem surprised?" he asked, setting down 
our food. 

"I don't know - I was getting dressed. I had my 
back to her. If she did, she had it under control 
by the time I looked at her. I'm lucky she didn't 
shoot me." Marita gave a wan smile, but she 
didn't seem amused. 

"She was on the laptop?" he said. "What was she 
looking at?" 

"She was looking at our report to you - our 
summary of information to date. I don't know what 
she saw before I woke up, of course." I held out 
a chair for Mare, then sat myself. 

"Was anything tampered with?" 

Mare shook her head. "Everything seems intact. 
She only looked." 

The Dark Man nodded, his expression thoughtful. 
"So she knows that we know." 

"Apparently." Mare's voice was tight; the lines 
of her body were tense. 

"So why doesn't she make herself known?" I 
wondered. 

The Dark Man shrugged. "Maybe she's trying to 
work out whether we're friends or foes." 

Mare said with an air of affront, "I'm her 
sister." 

"A sister she hasn't seen since infancy," I 
pointed out. "You can't blame her for being 
cautious." 

"I suppose." 

We ate in silence for a while. At last, the Dark 
Man said, "I have another development I need to 
speak to you about, as well. The two may be 
related." 

"What's that?" I said, taking our trash back to 
the kitchen. 

"There has been a series of arson attacks on 
abortion clinics," he said as I sat down again. 
"One in Anchorage, plus ones in New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and New York. Among the missing are 
six doctors - one from each clinic. Each of them 
is one of the Dr Gregors-" Mare and I exchanged 
glances, and the Dark Man nodded. "Yes. The ones 
who worked with Samantha and Elena." He slid a 
sheaf of grayscale photographs over the tabletop. 
"The surveillance footage at the Anchorage clinic 
survived the fire. We got an image of the 
arsonist." 

Mare picked them up and flipped through the pile. 
She held out a clear image so I could see it. 
"I've seen this guy. He was on the news the other 
day. He was picked up by a freighter on the 
Beaufort Sea. They said it was a miracle he 
survived." 

The Dark Man nodded. "Very good. What you don't 
know is that he was not rescued from a shipwreck, 
but from a crashed UFO - the one Edward has been 
tracking. The UFO engaged with an air force 
fighter plane, and they both went down." 

"I'm guessing this guy was the sole survivor," I 
said. 

"That's right." 

Mare spoke. "If he came from the rebel craft, 
does that mean he's an alien?" She spoke the 
words a little sheepishly, and I understood why. 
We knew they existed; we'd seen documents and 
been privy to some of the work...but there was a 
sense of the ridiculous about it that was too 
culturally ingrained. 

The Dark Man nodded. "It seems that way. The form 
he's taken is identical to that taken by other 
EBEs in the past." 

I blinked. "What do you mean, the form he's 
taken? Are you saying he can modify his 
appearance?" 

"Within limits. They can't radically alter their 
body mass - they could not, for instance, take 
the form of a small child. But when there's no 
need to modify their appearance, this is the form 
most of them seem to take." 

Mare looked from me to him, frowning. "Do we know 
why?" 

"I must confess that I don't. It may be that they 
are clones - much more advanced ones than the 
Gregors. Or maybe they have another form again, 
but this is the human blueprint they're exposed 
to in their training - in whatever orientation 
they receive prior to coming to this planet. I 
have no idea." Just for a moment, I saw a crack 
in the Dark Man's all-seeing, all-knowing facade, 
and I caught a glimpse of how big this whole 
thing really was. Even our own intrigue was 
probably just a minor cog in a huge machine. 
"Whatever the case, our information suggests that 
they have exceptional strength." 

I glanced nervously at Mare. I didn't really 
think she was some kind of shape-shifting alien, 
but the similarities sent my already-jangling 
alarm bells onto high alert. I changed the 
subject. "If he's torching the abortion clinics," 
I said hurriedly, "maybe he's the one carrying 
out the hits on the Gregors. The deal Samantha 
alluded to in her journals." 

The Dark Man nodded. "My thoughts precisely." 

Mare's eyes widened with alarm. "That means Elena 
could be in danger." 

"Yes," the Dark Man agreed, "Elena, or the first 
clone. Samantha's second-in-command. What was her 
name?" 

"Carolyn," Mare supplied. 

"Yeah," I said. "They're hiding the Gregors, 
after all. They could get caught in the 
crossfire." 

The Dark Man nodded. "Actually, I think one or 
both of them might be acting on this information 
in their own way. That's something that could 
lead us to them." 

"What do you mean?" Eagerly, Mare sat forward. 

"I took a look at the log you put on Mulder's 
email, Marita. Someone sent him the obituaries 
for four of the Gregors. He's been in Syracuse 
investigating the most recent death. I don't know 
who sent them, but I think it's at least possible 
that it was Elena." 

"Trying to get some protection for the Gregors," 
she suggested. 

"More than that. Trying to get him to take this 
guy down." I turned to the Dark Man. "What else 
do you know about this guy?" 

"Not a lot," he admitted. "I can find out, but 
I'm in biointelligence. Colonist 
counterintelligence has never been my field. I'll 
have to be careful who I ask - what I ask - 
especially now." 

"Why especially now?" Mare wondered. 

The Dark Man leaned forward in his seat. 
"Samantha's journals suggested that the execution 
of the Gregor clones was part of a deal. If 
that's the case, then it's being done with the 
consent of both the Colonists and the voting 
circle. I can't be seen to undermine that." 

I nodded in understanding. "How long will it 
take?" 

"I don't know. I might have to fly to Tunisia 
again. It could take time." 

"What can we do in the meantime?" I asked. 

"I'd like you to drive up to Syracuse, Alex. See 
what you can find out about the victim there. You 
might be able to tap into his associates. I'd 
also like one of you to plant some listening 
devices in Mulder's telephone and his apartment. 
If Elena or Carolyn are hoping to solicit his 
help, we might get something that way." 

"I'll handle that," Mare offered. 

"Mare," I began, but she shot me a withering 
look. 

"You can't go there, Alex," she said. "Not with 
your history with him. He'll kill you. If he 
catches me, I can play the mystery informant 
card." I didn't like it, but she was right; so I 
shrugged and held my peace. 

The Dark Man nodded, a look of grim satisfaction 
flitting across his features. "All right. Marita, 
you might as well sleep. You won't be able to do 
anything at Mulder's until he leaves for work 
tomorrow." 

She nodded. "I'll leave first thing. It'll only 
take me a couple of hours to get there." 

"And me?" I said. 

"You leave tonight. You might be able to get 
something from Dr Gregor's house. Here's the 
address," he said, handing me a card. He frowned, 
seemed to hesitate, then handed me another card 
as well. It contained just a telephone number. 
"If you're caught-" 


"I know," I said. "I'm on my own." 

"Not necessarily." He shot a glance at Mare. "I 
can't make any promises, but if you call this 
number, I'll do what I can." I was suddenly quite 
sure that this was something she'd asked of him. 

"Thank you," I said, pocketing them both. "I'll 
go straight away." I started to rise. 

Mare stayed me with her hand. "Be careful out 
there, Alex." 

I squeezed it. "I will." Then, conscious of the 
Dark Man, I said lightly, "Hey. Careful's my 
middle name." I raised my eyebrows at her. 

She laughed, and even the Dark Man raised a small 
smile; but they were sharing a worried look when 
I left them. 




As it happened, I didn't leave straight away 
after all. 

Walking to the parking lot, it occurred to me 
that that neither Mare nor I would be there for 
combat training the following day. Karen would 
probably have left her studio for the day, but I 
could always leave her a note. 

I made an about-face and detoured to the gym. I 
pushed through the double doors into the weights 
area, and trod up the stairs to Karen's studio. 
Rounding the corner, I heard voices. Raised 
voices. 

"He is an athlete!" I heard Karen say. "He's 
skated every day since he was fourteen years 
old." For a fleeting moment, I wondered who she 
was talking about, but of course, she was talking 
about me. I was practically the only skater in 
the place. "She does aerobics once a month," she 
was saying. "She should not be able to beat him. 
She shouldn't even come close." 

I drew closer, and risked pushing the door ajar. 
In the mirror, I saw Diana and Karen at the far 
end of the studio in workout gear, and I suddenly 
realised how Diana had known what Mare and I were 
doing in here all those months ago. She hadn't 
sensed it - she'd seen it before we broke apart. 
I made a mental note to be more careful in here 
in future. 

"She wouldn't be if you hadn't let her train with 
him! I never said you could do that!" Diana was 
wiping sweat from her face, still talking. "The 
whole idea of training him was so he could 
protect her! So she'd never have to protect 
herself!" 

Karen stared at her. "Do you know how screwed-up 
that sounds? Leaving her helpless with the work 
she does?" 

My thoughts precisely, but Diana's reply was 
enlightening. "She isn't helpless - that's the 
problem! If she ever had to call on it - if she 
ever had to use it-" she broke off. 

Karen said quietly, "What is she, Diana?" 

Diana looked away. "It's better if you don't 
know." 

"Better for you, you mean." 

"No - for you." Then, with foreboding, "You know, 
there aren't many of us left. Who know about it, 
I mean." 

There was a long pause; the lines of Karen's body 
were tense. At last, she said, "She doesn't know, 
does she?" 

Diana shook her head. 

"What about him?" 

"I wonder, Karen. Sometimes, I think he knows 
something, or senses it. It worries me." 

"Are you going to have him terminated?" I held my 
breath - that possibility hadn't even occurred to 
me. 

"I probably should, but no. He's Elizabeth's 
godfather. And I couldn't do that to Rita - she 
loves him." Even as I slotted the fragments into 
the puzzle alongside the information I already 
held, I felt a little rush of warmth at Diana's 
assertion of Mare's feelings - along with a flare 
of irritation that Mare couldn't tell me that 
herself. 

"Yeah." Karen leaned back against the wall with a 
sigh. "What do you want me to do about the 
training?" 

"I don't know. How's he doing?" 

"He can hold his own. I think he'll be fine. Do 
you want me to cut them loose?" 

Diana thought on this for a moment. "For physical 
training, yeah. Keep them going on the covert 
skills. Time is short." 

"Why?" Karen demanded. "What do you have planned 
for them?" 

"It's more a matter of what they might have 
planned for themselves." 

"You think they're going to turn rogue?" 

Diana shrugged uneasily. "I don't know. I would, 
if I were them." She looked away. "Sometimes I 
think that might be for the best." 

"For who?" 

"For everyone." 

With that, Diana pushed away from the wall and 
walked off in the direction of the locker room, 
and I left them. 




"How'd it go?" 

Mare's voice was sleepy. "We've got a direct line 
in to Mulder's. That guy is the most domestically 
challenged man I've ever met." 

I settled back, bringing the phone up onto the 
bed with me. "You've never met him." 

"Okay, he's the most domestically challenged man 
I've never met, then." I laughed a little at 
that. Her voice grew gentle. "I miss you, Alex." 

"Miss you too, Mare." Miss her - God, that was an 
understatement. After all that had happened the 
last few days, being away from her was the last 
thing I wanted. 

She smiled - I could hear it in her voice. "When 
will you be back?" 

"Tomorrow or the day after. I just have one more 
person to talk to, and then I'm done here." 

There was a rustling noise. She was pulling the 
covers around her. "Did you find anything?" 

I shook my head. "Not really. I didn't really 
expect to." 

"No, me either," Mare admitted. We fell silent 
for a moment, then she said, "You in bed?" 

"Yeah. You?" 

"Yeah." Then, more quietly, "I hadn't realised 
how much I was used to having you here. I keep-" 
she broke off. 

"What?" 

"It's silly. I keep - you know, holding myself. 
Like it's you." She laughed a little. "I feel 
silly telling you." 

"I've been looking for you, too, Mare," I 
confessed. "My arms feel empty." 

"I hate this place, Alexi. When you're here with 
me, all I see is the safety and the warmth we 
have in this room. But today, I was walking 
around the zones and I realised how horrible it 
really is. I felt like I was drowning in the 
deceit and the manipulation that people do here. 
I hate it." 

I nodded in recognition. "I feel it too, Mare." I 
went on with slow emphasis, "The warmth is us - 
what we have together. It doesn't matter where we 
are, you know." 

She was silent for a long moment. 

"Alex, are you asking me to turn rogue with you?" 

Was I? Even now, I'm not really sure. "I don't 
know. But we can't keep this up indefinitely. 
We're going to get caught." The discussion 
between Diana and Karen was fresh in my mind. 

"What if I say no?" she wondered. She sounded 
fearful. "What if I won't? What if I can't?" 

"I'm not going to leave you, if that's what you 
mean. I'm not giving you an ultimatum. But sooner 
or later, either they're going to kill me or I'm 
going to have to run." She breathed out into the 
phone - a shattered, wounded sound. "When that 
happens, you need to know in yourself whether 
you're willing to run with me." 

"Alex," she whispered. "I don't - I don't 
know..." 

I regretted raising it, hearing her quiet and 
fearful like that, and so soon after the fight. 
"Hey," I said. "Hey, we don't need to work that 
out now. Just think on it, okay?" 

I heard a rustling that might have been a nod 
against her pillow. "Okay." 

That was heavier ground than I'd meant to get 
into over the phone. I changed the subject. 
"Look, why don't you get away until I get back? 
It would do you good to be out of that place for 
a while." 

"Where would I go, Alex?" she asked. She sounded 
genuinely curious. 

"I - I don't know," I faltered. "There's 
Michael's apartment upstate. Save you the commute 
to work." 

"I'm not at work much for the next month or so," 
she said. "I'm working on a submission for a 
congressional inquiry. I've arranged to do most 
of it from home." Clearly, she felt that was a 
good thing, but I wasn't so sure. I felt more and 
more that the Den wasn't a good environment for 
her. 

"You could take a couple of days off, then," I 
suggested. "Go away with Diana and the baby, if 
she's free. Isn't there someplace you go? You 
know - just to be quiet and have space?" 

"Well, yeah," she admitted. "There's Wolfe Pond 
Beach, up on the Island. I used to go there to 
think all the time." 

"Well, there you go then," I said. "You could 
stay at your mom's." 

"My mother's? I thought you wanted me to go 
somewhere that would do me *good*." Her voice was 
tinged with reproach. 

I frowned. "Are you two fighting? I thought you 
just weren't talking much." A new thought 
occurred to me. "Is she pissed about you living 
at the Den?" 

There was more rustling, and the creaking of 
mattress springs. I imagined her propping herself 
up on her elbow. "No, she's been curiously silent 
about that, actually." 

"She hasn't said anything at all?" I said in 
disbelief. Larissa was both too conservative and 
too controlling to let that pass. 

Mare gave a wry laugh. "All she said was that I 
should be careful. Be safe. Stay on the Pill." 

I felt the blood drain from my face. "She said 
that?" 

"Pretty much. I was surprised. I was braced for a 
lecture." 

"Maybe she's finally realised you've grown up," I 
said, but the assertion sounded hollow. 

She snorted. "That'll be the day." 

I gave a thin, forced laugh. "I've got an early 
start, Mare. Can I call you tomorrow?" 

"Sure," she said easily. "Sleep well, Alexi." 

"You too, Mare. Goodnight." 

"Night." 

I put the phone back on the bedside table and 
rolled onto my back. I stared at the ceiling. In 
the dim light of the moon I could just make out 
the peeling paintwork. There was a gnawing 
sensation deep in my belly, inching out through 
my body in a leisurely, aching crawl. 

Samantha was right. About Michael, about Larissa, 
about Mare. Michael and Marita's whole 
relationship had been stage-managed with the 
specific intention of keeping her on the Pill. 
Jesus Christ, no wonder she was so fucked up. 
Every aspect of her life had been strategised and 
orchestrated, right down to her sex life and the 
taking of her virginity when she was eighteen. 
Probably would have been sooner if not for New 
York's statutory rape laws. Larissa must have 
been so fucking grateful when Marita moved into 
the Den after Michael's death. God forbid she 
retreat into grief-induced celibacy and quit her 
pills. 

I wondered how they'd gotten Elena to stay on 
hers. Maybe they never knew of her preference for 
women - it made sense that Elena might have 
concealed it, as part of her concealment of her 
relationship with Samantha. Maybe she quit them, 
and learned to control her strength and her 
emotions in other ways. It comforted me to think 
so. If that were so, that meant Mare could do the 
same - and that she needn't share in the tragic 
outcomes of the American Eves. 

I hoped so. But there was no way to be sure, and 
laying there in the dark of the night, I was 
afraid. 




"How was Syracuse?" Mare wondered as I closed the 
door behind me. 

"A wash-out," I said. I didn't want to talk about 
Syracuse. All I wanted to do was hold her. 

"I missed you," she said, rising from her seat at 
the dining table. Samantha's diaries, the laptop, 
and a reel-to-reel audio player were lined up 
neatly before her. 

"I missed you," I echoed, drawing her into my 
arms, lingering for a long moment. "Anything 
interesting your end?" 

She shook her head. "No. Mulder's been out of his 
apartment for a couple of days. I called the 
Hoover and Skinner's secretary said he'd been 
called away on a family emergency. No idea what 
that's about." She kissed me, then pulled away 
and went back to her seat. 

"But you're still monitoring?" 

She nodded. "We might get something off the 
incoming calls. You never know. I was just about 
to check his email." 

I sat down beside her. "Want me to keep scanning 
the tapes?" 

"Yeah. Thanks." 

"No problem." I took the headphones put them on 
my head. 

They didn't stay there for long. After a few 
moments she spoke. "Here's something." 

"What is it?" I wondered, setting the headphones 
down again. 

"A report from Dana Scully to Walter Skinner. 
There's been another Gregor death. In Germantown, 
Maryland. A Dr Dickens. It's him, though - she 
attached an image." She paused, eyes darting back 
and forth as she read down the computer screen. 
"They have some CIA guy helping them. Ambrose 
Chapel. Scully expresses some doubt over his bona 
fides." She shut the program down and opened 
another. "Let me run him through the Federal 
Employee Database - see what I can come up with." 

"Good thinking," I said. I pulled my chair closer 
and peered over her shoulder. 

A standard profile appeared on the screen, and I 
scanned it. Abruptly, Mare sighed. "Why am I not 
surprised?" 

"What is it?" I wondered, bewildered. 

She pointed, her fingertip hovering over the 
screen. "This Chapel guy used to report to 
Michael." 

"Michael? As in your Michael?" 

She nodded. "His last assignment was escorting 
some kind of sensitive equipment to Mattawa, 
Washington last spring. He's been on leave ever 
since." 

"The Fallen Angel team," I said. "It was in 
Mulder's files. It was supposedly an EBE, 
retrieved from the wreckage of a downed UFO. 
Michael actively sabotaged Mulder's 
investigation. Mulder believed the EBE had been 
executed when he reached Mattawa under some kind 
of international agreement." 

"Security Council Resolution 1013," she supplied. 
"Maybe this Chapel guy is helping our EBE. Hell, 
maybe he is the EBE. Maybe Chapel died on the 
Fallen Angel detail and this guy's been posing as 
him. The Dark Man did say he could take any 
form." 

I stared at her. "What are you saying - that the 
Fallen Angel wreckage was our guy as well?" 

She shrugged. "Makes more sense than there being 
two different rogue UFOs in the space of months. 
I mean, they don't exactly grow on trees. And he 
seems to have a tendency to crash," she added 
with a grin. 

"Maybe," I said. She had a point. 

"It doesn't matter much one way or the other, 
really," she said. "What matters is, our guy is 
running around killing Gregors, and he's zeroing 
in on this part of the country - and we know 
Elena is here as well, or was a few days ago." 

"We have to find the rest of the Gregors," I 
said. "We have to warn her." 

"But how?" she asked. "Mulder's away." 

"Scully," I mused. "Have you got a wiretap on 
Scully?" 

She nodded. "The Dark Man arranged it before he 
left." 

"Left?" I echoed. "Where did he go - Tunisia?" 

She shook her head. "Not sure, but I think it was 
local. He took his car. He got a call, went all 
enigmatic, and took off. You know what he's 
like." 

"Tell me about it," I said fervently. "So who's 
watching Scully - you, or his men?" 

"His men - shadow ops that not even Spender knows 
about. They'll make contact if we get anything. 
They're covering Mulder, too, now." Sure enough, 
looking at the pile of reels at my side, I saw 
that the dates ended the day before. Clearly, the 
Dark Man had decided that we needed backup. I was 
glad. 

"Good," I said. "Is there anything else I can 
do?" 

Mare shook her head. "I don't think so. There's 
not much we can do until there's activity with 
Mulder or Scully." The phone rang just then. 
"That might be them - I haven't given anyone else 
this number." 

I was closer, so I answered it. "Yes?" 

The voice that came through the receiver was 
punctuated with traffic noise. Surveillance van, 
I thought. "Sir? It's Unit 3, at Alexandria. Is 
this a secure line?" 

"Yes, go ahead," I said, nodding at Mare, whose 
eyebrows were raised in query. I held up three 
fingers, and she nodded in recognition. 

"I've just had a call come through on Fox 
Mulder's line. It sounds important. Would you 
like me to patch the recording through?" 

"Yes, please," I said, flicking the speaker 
button. "Go ahead, Unit 3." 

Scully's voice filtered through the speaker. 
"Mulder, it's me. I just left my apartment and I 
don't think I've been followed. I'm going to be 
staying at the Vacation Village Motor Lodge off 
the I-90 in Germantown. Now, by the time you 
reach me, I should have some very important 
information for you regarding this case." 

Mare and I exchanged glances. "Germantown," I 
said. "She's going back to look into the Dickens 
case." 

"Say again," the operative's voice echoed through 
the speaker. "I didn't copy." 

"It doesn't matter, Unit 3. Thank you." I rang 
off. 

Mare was already back at the laptop, tapping 
keys, brow furrowed. I came and stood at her 
side. "I've got an address here - from her report 
to Skinner," she said. "3243 Edmonton." 

"Was that where this Dickens guy died?" 

She shook her head. "No - it was on his 
briefcase. Where he worked, maybe." 

"That's an industrial district, I think," I said. 
"I don't think there'd be an abortion clinic out 
there." 

"It's the only Germantown lead we have." 

I sighed. "Okay. Let's go." 




"What a mess." 

Mare stepped gingerly around a green puddle on 
the concrete floor. It looked like antifreeze. 
You had to clean that up after you put it in your 
car, I remembered - it tasted sweet, so animals 
liked it, but they died horribly afterwards. But 
why would there be antifreeze inside an abandoned 
warehouse? 

Mare was a step ahead of me, physically and 
otherwise. "Look out for those green pools," she 
called over her shoulder. "They're acid." 

"How do you know?" I wondered, side-stepping a 
bench with a centrifuge on it. The centrifuge was 
broken. So was the bench. 

"Scully mentioned it in her report. It ate 
through one of her shoes." 

"Okay. Mental note not to step in acid, then." I 
moved cautiously around some black steel barrels. 
"Someone's turned this place over already." 

"Apparently," she said. "But the real question 
is, did they find what they were looking for?" 

I snorted. "I'll let you know when I work out 
what *we're* looking for." 

"We'll know it when we see it," she said mildly, 
but I didn't think she was as certain as she 
sounded. 

"I hope so." 

Ahead of me, Mare stopped short with a sound of 
disgust. "My God." 

I stopped too. "What is it?" 

She stooped, then rose, holding up a sealed 
plastic bag for my perusal. It had a tube coming 
out of the top. There was a mess of blood and 
green tissue inside, and something that looked 
horribly like a foetus in shape. It was 
twitching. Just for an instant, I felt 
overwhelming sadness and pity, so deep that I 
rocked on my feet. 

We both stared at it for a long moment, and at 
last, she spoke. "Please tell me that isn't what 
I think it is." 

"It can't be human. Nothing human could live in 
that." 

"You call that living?" she demanded. "Poor 
thing." 

"Maybe we should kill it," I suggested. "I doubt 
it's got much to look forward to." 

"I don't think I can," she said. 

"I don't think I can, either," I admitted. 
Killing an adult was one thing. Killing something 
that tiny and helpless was quite another. "Maybe 
it's already dead. It's detached from whatever 
that tube was connected to, after all. Maybe it's 
in rigor mortis." It helped to think so. 

She put it down where she'd found it. "Maybe." 
There was a sound outside the warehouse, and she 
grabbed for my hand. I caught it, and drew her 
back into the shadows behind the barrels. She 
whispered, "What was that?" 

"Not sure," I said. I drew my weapon. 

The door opened, and a figure slipped in. Light 
flitted over a familiar face before the door 
snicked shut behind her. Beside me, Mare relaxed 
a little. "It's Dana Scully." 

I felt a momentary pang. It was the first time 
I'd seen Scully since her ordeal, in which I'd 
had a substantial role. I felt fleeting 
satisfaction that she'd survived it. Her hair was 
longer and thicker than before, and although she 
was thinner than I remembered, she wasn't gaunt 
or pale. That pleased me. 

We watched as she picked her way through the 
mess. She inspected the same bag Mare had 
dropped. She stared at it, and she jolted visibly 
when she saw the twitching thing inside it. 

Just then, there was a sound - a movement behind 
one of the barrels on the other side of the room. 
Instinctively, Mare and I inched further back, 
but Scully took off after the sound. "Wait!" she 
called. Then, more dimly, "Stop! Federal Agent! 
Put your hands against the wall!" 

"You won't shoot me," we heard a man say. 

I braved a look through the gap in the door as he 
turned around. After a moment, I drew back. "It's 
him," I whispered. "One of the Gregors." 

"We are the last remaining," we heard him tell 
Scully. "Unless you protect us, we're already 
dead." 

Mare and I looked at one another in the dim 
light. "Go," I whispered. "We're not going to be 
able to get to them with her around." She nodded. 
We slipped out the door without a sound. 

"What now?" Mare asked, looking over her shoulder 
as we drove away. We passed the federal marshalls 
coming the other way. 

"Mulder," I suggested. "We might get something 
from his phone taps, or the email. Scully's going 
to have to explain herself to Skinner pretty 
quick - protective custody doesn't come cheap." 

"More hack work then," she said with a sigh. 

"That's about the size of it," I said ruefully. 
"It's going to be a long night." 

But as it happened, we got answers sooner than 
either of us could have anticipated. 




We stopped for dinner in Silver Spring, so it was 
late by the time we got back to Westminster. Mare 
had only just checked Mulder's email, and 
reported that the Gregors were in safe custody in 
Tileston, when the phone rang. She was closer 
that time, so she answered, and she listened for 
several moments before looking up at me, her hand 
covering the mouthpiece. 

"What's happened?" I wondered, crossing the room 
to stand beside her. 

"The executioner guy," she said. "The one who's 
after the Gregors. He's got Scully. Mulder's 
frantic." 

"He's back, then?" 

She nodded. "Yeah. He's got a woman with him. He 
seems to think she's Samantha. I assume that's 
the family crisis." 

I raised my eyebrows. "Carolyn?" 

"Most likely." She let go of the mouthpiece and 
said into it, "Okay. Patch the recording through, 
please." She flipped the switch to speaker, and a 
woman's voice filled the room. 

-- "I know this is hard for you, Fox." 

-- "No, it's not hard. It's unbelievable." 

"That stinks," I said in a low voice - low enough 
to follow what was happening on the recording. 
"Thinking he's got her back when she's long dead. 
That poor bastard." 

Mare nodded. "Yeah, it's tough." Her tone was 
kind. I supposed she of all people knew what it 
was to search for a sister. 

-- "No, no, you've explained only what you had 
to! I know next to nothing about these people you 
call your parents or about the man who wants to 
kill them." 

"The Gregors?" I whispered. Marita shrugged. 

-- "The men you've been seeking are the progeny 
of two original visitors, clones who have been 
attempting to establish a colony here since the 
late 1940's." Mulder's voice came, muffled, and 
then she continued, "The community, by necessity, 
is dispersed. There are clones identical to my 
parents living in virtually every part of the 
country. Through hybridization, they've been 
working to erase that aspect which has forced the 
community to scatter...their identical natures." 

"That explains a lot," Mare said, frowning. 

-- "And this man...why has he been sent to kill 
them?" 

-- "The experiments weren't sanctioned. It was 
considered a dilution of their species, a 
pollution of their race. So a bounty hunter was 
dispatched to destroy them and terminate the 
colony." 

"We know all this," Mare said abruptly. She spoke 
into the phone. "All right, that's fine, Unit 3. 
Keep us posted on the Scully situation." She rang 
off. 

"Well, we had it mostly right, then," I said. 
"This executioner - what did she call him? A 
bounty hunter? He's after the Gregors for their 
unsanctioned work. Carolyn went to Mulder to try 
and flush the Bounty Hunter out, but now the 
Bounty Hunter knows about her instead." 

"So he took Scully to try and barter for 
Carolyn," Mare supplied. "And meanwhile Elena is 
still as far away as ever." 

"She's probably in hiding," I said. "I don't 
think we'll find her until all this dies down. 
And that may be just as well, for her safety - 
and yours." 

She sighed, a sound of defeat. "It's just so 
frustrating, Alexi." Pulling away, she passed 
through the living area into the alcove that 
served as Samantha's bedroom. She sat down on the 
bed, her shoulders slumped. The lines of her face 
were tired and drawn. 

I followed her and sat down beside her. "Mare, 
you can't give up. We're closer than ever. She 
was in this very room, for God's sake." I put my 
arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against 
me, sighing again. 

"Why did she take so long?" she said at last. 

"I don't understand." 

"We've had those diaries for nearly six months 
now, Alex. Why hasn't she sought me out before?" 

I shrugged. "She probably only just found out 
they were gone. I doubt she checks the locker 
every day. She's probably been away somewhere - 
maybe working with Strughold in Tunisia. She 
probably only came back because of this business 
with the Bounty Hunter." 

Mare nodded, pulling away a little. "Maybe," she 
conceded. "Do you think she could be hiding out 
on the grounds somewhere?" 

I shook my head. "No. Maybe before she searched 
our room, but she'd have left right after that. 
She must have known we'd put together that it was 
her." 

"But how? I mean, she can't have foreseen-" she 
broke off, faltered, then went on awkwardly, 
"well, the way we argued about it." 

"No," I agreed. "I'm sure she didn't realise that 
it - that - that it was a first," I stumbled. 
"But there was the different clothes, different 
hair - she must have known there was a risk. I 
doubt she would have stayed to assess the 
fallout." 

"True," she murmured, and then she fell silent. 
It was the first time we'd alluded to what had 
happened between us that day. 

"It's frightening," I said at last. "Knowing 
someone was in our room." 

"Yeah," she said. "Mind you, she probably feels 
the same about us." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, we're working out of Samantha's suite. I'm 
sure Samantha's suite was just as intimate to 
them as ours is to us." She patted the bed with 
her hand. "They probably made love on this very 
bed." 

"I suppose. I never thought about it that way." I 
thought on this. "Do you think she visited here?" 

"Probably," Mare said, "but if she did, she 
covered her tracks. I've bug swept since then and 
haven't found anything." She seemed fairly 
complacent about it all. Clearly, she'd already 
considered this possibility and dismissed it as 
irrelevant. 

"Where would she go, then? Where is she now?" 

"I don't know. Maybe trying to get the Gregors-" 
she stopped, looking at me in recognition. 
"They're at the Federal stockade." 

I got to my feet and held out my hand. She took 
it, and I pulled her up. 

"Let's go." 

PART 3 IMMEDIATELY TO FOLLOW