Diablita II 
by Mariann 
musingscsm@aol.com 
 
Part 2
See part 0 for header information.


It was when they arrived at the hospital that things started to get sticky. The 
attending nurse had directed him to the room where Samantha was asleep, and
insisted that only Charles go to see her. With his colleagues waiting in the
lobby, he went to the room where he expected to find his daughter. Instead the
room was empty, though the nurse swore that she had seen her only five minutes
ago. 

It was then he made the critical decision to lie to the two colleagues that had 
came with him. They had no way of knowing that Samantha had disappeared, and it 
would be easy enough just to tell them she had passed away. It would seem to be 
an almost morbid decision for a father to make, but he had what he thought were 
good reasons. Perhaps she would be able to find a safe refuge and a new life
from the torments that had caused her to run away. And if she did meet death,
perhaps it was better then being a guinea pig for the rest of her life.

He had went back out to the lobby and told his colleagues of his daughter's
passing convincingly enough that they believed him. Arrangements were made for
him to dispose of the body, so there would be no evidence of the experiments
done on her left behind. With that they left to return to their families, and
let Charles deal with his own. 

After recounting the night's chaos in his mind, he decided there was nothing
more he could do at the hospital. He got into the car and head for home. It
felt like a very long drive, but it gave him time to deal with the loss of his
daughter before he arrived home. Charles was not the kind to let his emotions
show, even to his own family. Soon enough he was parking in front of his
house.

"Well?" Cassandra met him at the door, looking impatient and anxious at once.

"Where are the children?" He took his time taking off his coat and hanging it
up.

"Upstairs. I had the Wallaces bring Jeffery home. Why?"

Charles paused for a moment. He had to come up with a reason why Samantha had
not come home with him. If he stuck to his story that she had passed on,
Cassandra would expect there to be a funeral. That would not go over well with
his colleagues at all after he promised to take care of everything. Luckily for 
him, he had become quite well at lying from his job with the Syndicate.

"She's not coming back. A deal was made behind my back and they took Samantha
permanently. I couldn't prevent it."

Cassandra's anxiety and impatience quickly turned to anger. "You always use
that excuse!"

"Because it's the truth." He was getting more then a little irritated with his
wife. "Now listen, because this is how it's going to be. You have to tell the
children she died."

"I can't tell them that!"

"You can and you will. It's for their best interest." 

"Why?" She was very angry now, it was obvious in the glare she shot at her
husband. "So they won't realize what really goes on around here?"

"Precisely."

"They'll figure it out someday." Cassandra stood up and shook her head in
disgust. "Someday, Charles, your children will realize all the lies that have
been told in this house." 

"Where are you going?" 

"To lie to my children." 

Cassandra took her time climbing up the stairs. She couldn't believe that this
was happening, and was even more in disbelief over the lie her husband wanted
to tell the children. But there was a part of her that didn't trust her husband 
anymore, and she didn't want something else to happen because she interfered
with his little plan.

She slowly opened the door to the girl's room and looked in. Jeffery sat on the 
bed with Katherine, reading his younger sister a story. The young girl looked
very tired, but her red eyes gave away her distress. Jeffery had been brought
home from the sleepover shortly after his father left.  Cassandra felt it would 
be best for the children to be together during this upheaval. She had noticed
how her children had grown closer over the summer, their reaction to knowing
their parent's marriage was on the rocks. 

Jeffery set down the book when he noticed his mother. "Did they find her yet?"

Cassandra came into the room and stood before her children. The lie her husband 
had conceived tasted bitter in her mouth and she couldn't bring herself to say
it.

"Mom?" He looked up at his mother worriedly.

She hesitated for a moment. "Samantha isn't coming back...."

"Did the doctors take her?" Kit spoke up before her mother could say anymore. 

"What doctors?" Cassandra turned to look at her daughter with confusion etched
on her face. 

"The doctors that come at night." Katherine looked up at her mother with worry
in her pale blue eyes. "Are they gonna take me now?" 

Jeffery looked to his little sister in surprise. "You heard us?"

"Heard what?"

"A few nights ago Samantha was talking about these doctors taking her away at
night." He turned to his mother guiltily. "She said they were taking you too
and were gonna take Kit someday."

Cassandra blanched, realizing just why Samantha had tried to run away. The poor 
girl was tormented by the same abductions her adoptive mother went through, and 
she couldn't take it any longer. Nausea rose up into her throat with the
knowledge that Samantha had ended up being taken from a second family so the
abductions could continue. She felt like she was going to throw up, but her
children were watching her closely and waiting for an explanation. Before she
could knew it was happening, she found herself telling a lie of her own.

"No, that's not going to happen. No one's being taken anywhere again, I
promise."

"Then what about Samantha?" Jeffery pressed. "Where is she?"

Cassandra took a deep breath, lying was not her strong suit. "Your
sister....she was hit by a car...it was an accident...but she was killed."

Her son's coffee brown eyes widen. "She.....died?"

"Died? Like Mr. Snuffles?" Kit referred to the family pet hamster that had
passed away that spring. It was her only experience with death. Already her
little chin was trembling. "She's not coming back?"

"No, she's not coming back." Cassandra replied as gently as she could.

That was enough to make the little girl burst into tears. Jeffery moved over
and hugged his little sister, sniffling as tears made their way down his cheeks 
as well. Cassandra could feel the tears pricking her own eyes too. She had to
leave before she broke down completely. That was the last thing the children
needed to see right now.

"I'm sorry." The words felt empty and useless. "I have to go talk to your
father now...." 

Cassandra left the room and closed the door gently behind her. She had made a
vow early on that her children would never see her cry, nor would they see
their father hit their mother. There had been too many times she and her sister 
had seen both during their childhood. Lord knew she was trying to give her
children a better growing up then she had, but every day it seemed to get
harder. The strain of realizing this, coupled with the loss of her adopted
daughter, drove her to tears. She sat down on the top step and put her head in
her hands, letting her sobs come out silently. 

After she calmed down, Cassandra went downstairs to find her husband. She was
going to confront him with what the children had told her. The anger had taken
pushed away the grief, and the only thing she felt now was a hatred for her
spouse. When she found him in the kitchen, reading the newspaper as if nothing
had happened the rage tripled.

"You son of a bitch!" 

Charles looked up from the paper, no emotion on his face. "Is there a problem?" 

"I've put up with a lot Charles, but I swear to God if anything is done to
Jeffery or Katherine, it's over. We'll leave, and I'll make sure you never see
your children again!" 

"Nothing else will happen." He dismissed her flippantly and went back to
reading the newspaper.  

Cassandra forced down the urge to strangle her husband and left the room. He
obviously wasn't going to take her seriously, no matter what she said.
Hopefully he would never have to find out just how serious she really was. But
if anything happened to her children, he would. 

***

New York City
Six weeks later

The members of the Syndicate gathered in their home office in New York for a
meeting on a rainy day at the end of August. The elders had spent the past
several weeks gathering information to make a decision on the fate of one of
their most important projects. Today they were going to present the situation
to the younger members, for they would the ones doing all the work. All were
present, with the exceptions of C.G.B Spender and Bill Mulder. Spender was too
close to the situation to be objective, and was being distracted by Mulder
until he could come in, later when a decision had been reached. 

For the past year and a half the group had been developing a computer chip that 
was to be inserted into a person to give them immunity from the alien virus. At 
the beginning of the decade, the aliens had started putting chips into
abductees, for reasons the Syndicate did not yet know. It was their hope, after 
the chip had been proven effective in a human test subject, to replace the
alien chips with the immunity chips. Then, when the work on the first
alien/human hybrid was completed, and the aliens came to colonize the planet,
the human race would stand a fighting chance. This had been their reason behind 
agreeing to work with the alien colonists from the beginning...to buy time.

Strughold cleared his throat to bring the room of men to attention. "As you
already know, the chip has been finished for three months now. The test subject 
we had been preparing is now deceased, but the project must go on." 

"I knew we should've lined up a second candidate right at the beginning." One
of the usually silent elders piped up from the back of the room.

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty." Ronald Hutton, a newer member brought in to
oversee the manufacturing of the chip, mused in his deep, throaty voice.

"We've lost years of work..." Romero stated in his usual monotone. 

"Perhaps not." Strughold replied, a little too confidently.

"You've already found a replacement?" Calvert, the well manicured Englishman,
questioned Strughold.

"The answer is obvious. Use a subject who needs very little preparation."

"There's no one like that in the program...." Romero countered.

"Possibly Spender's daughter." Hutton looked to Strughold for a reaction.

He nodded his approval. "That was what we've come up with so far."

"She's just a child!" Calvert once again played the group humanitarian.

"But she was exposed to the alien genes before she was even born." Hutton
argued his case.

"That could work in our advantage..." This understatement came from Romero.

"And advantages were meant to be used." Strughold agreed.

"Your talking about this as if it's actually an option!" Calvert exclaimed. "We 
can't sacrifice a child's life for.."

"Tell that to Bill Mulder." Hutton cut him off.

"The child's DNA is approximately ten to thirteen percent alien." Strughold
trotted out the statistics. "The chance of survival would be much more likely
for her."

"When did we learn this?" Romero asked a question, which was a rare occasion.

"Before she was born. We've kept an eye on her the past few years. In case
something goes wrong with the hybridization project, we planned she could be
used in her mother's place."

"How nice of you to inform the rest of us!" Calvert's voice dripped with
sarcasm.

Strughold gave the Englishman a truly evil look and fell silent. He didn't
appreciate his colleague's attitude when they were trying to deal with an
important matter. Morals and ethics could be put on hold, if it was for the
benefit of the project.

Hutton took the moment of silence to continue to argue his case. "With a
younger subject we could also see if there are going to be any long term
difficulties."

"It's settled then." Strughold decided, the firmness of his tone letting the
others know this was how it was going to be. 

Romero was the first to speak up. "Spender won't agree to this..."

"He will."

The well manicured man shook his head slightly. "We thought Mulder would too." 

"Spender will be given a choice. If he chooses to make Mulder's mistake, there
will be similar consequences." 

Not many minutes after the group had reached their decision, Bill Mulder led
C.G.B Spender into the building. He had been asked to keep Spender out of the
way until the group had a chance to discuss some matters. However, Spender was
his usual suspicious self and seemed to have a pretty good idea that something
was not right.

"You're quiet tonight." Bill made a weak attempt at chit-chat. 

"Since when did we start meeting this late? I have a feeling the meeting has
already started." 

"They have no reason to start without us."

Charles gave a little smirk. "You're entirely too trusting, Bill."

Bill remained silent and stepped into the elevator. He might have appeared too
trusting, but he was a lot smarter then his old army friend thought. Charles
always acted as if he had something over on Bill and he would've been a little
disappointed to find out that he didn't. But it was more convenient for him to
let Spender and majority of the group think that. 

The two men got off of the elevator and made their way into the office. When
they entered the room, they found rest of the group waiting for them. Taking
their respective seats, they nodded briefly to acknowledge the others. 

"Mulder. Spender." Strughold nodded back to them each. "We've been waiting for
you."

"Traffic." Mulder explained briefly. "We apologize for staling the meeting." 

Spender nodded nonchalantly, not about to act apologetic when he still thought
there was something amiss. He fished a worn pack of Morleys out of his coat
pocket and lit up a fresh cigarette.

"Quite understandable." Calvert felt bad for both of the men.

"Now then, let's get right down to business." Strughold cleared his throat
slightly, a warning to the others to go along with what he said. "As you
already know, the subject that was to receive the chip prototype was killed
almost two months ago in a non-related incident. It is time to choose a
replacement, which is what we've been discussing while we were waiting."

"And...?" Spender exhaled a cloud of bluish smoke.

"And we've come up with a replacement...." Romero answered, a little annoyed
with Spender's cockiness.

"Who?"

Ronald Hutton looked Spender right in the eyes. "Katherine."

The smoking man appeared completely cool and collected on the outside, but on
the inside he was a little more shaken. He had known something was going on
when Bill Mulder made the thinly veiled attempt at keeping him away from the
meeting. Now he had to find a way to change their minds without compromising
his position in the group. Perhaps this was his punishment of sorts for losing
Samantha, but he was not about to just swallow it.

"Katherine Spender?" Mulder's feigned shock failed miserably, making it clear
this had come as no surprise to him. "Charles' daughter?"

"She was exposed to the alien genes in the womb, the chances of her surviving
are much greater then our original subject." Hutton tried to make the facts
sound reassuring.

"And it will save us several years worth of work...." Romero added, much more
fond of keeping right to the point.

"If her mother were to find out, she would take her and leave." Spender stated, 
cool and collected. 

"The experiments could continue on Cassandra no matter where she went." Mulder
decided to briefly play devil's advocate. "The aliens would be able to track
her location."

"Too risky." Romero gave a slight shake of his head. "We can't take that
chance..."

"Agreed." Strughold paused a moment, deciding it was time to bring out the part 
of his plan that the hadn't told any of the other members yet. "Which is why
the child must be separated from her mother." 

"We can't tear such a young child away from her parents! That's inhumane!"
Calvert objected.

"It's been done before..." Bill Mulder mumbled bitterly, thinking about his own 
daughter that had been taken and never brought back. 

"Not from her parents, just relocated away from her mother." Strughold looked
directly at Spender, waiting for a reaction.

"Cassandra is more strong willed then you think." A slight smirk crossed
Spender's face. "She wouldn't just let her child be taken and give up on trying 
to get her back."

"How could we stop her?" Hutton questioned the group. "Or stop the child from
trying to go back to her mother when she gets older?"

"There are ways." Strughold had obviously been thinking on this for awhile. "If 
Spender's wife was under the impression her child had passed on, she would have 
no reason to look for her. And it could be an understandable undoing to a
marriage..."

"You're asking me to sacrifice my marriage and fake my child's death?" This
time Charles couldn't keep the surprise completely out of his voice. He had
seen the Syndicate go to extreme measures for the benefit of the project, but
this was the most drastic by far.

"You have been given a choice, Spender." Strughold looked the smoking man right 
in the eyes. "Either you can relocate and have a chance to raise your daughter, 
or the Syndicate will step in and raise her for you."

Charles went silent and thought over the situation closely. His marriage was
already on the rocks, and the only reason he had stayed with Cassandra so long
had been the children. She was probably already thinking about leaving him, and 
if she did he would never see either of his children again. It wouldn't be too
much of a loss not to see his son, Jeffery had grown more resentful of his
father as he had grown older, but he did have an attachment to Katherine. 

His marriage to Cassandra had never been based on love, but he was not a
loveless man. He cared deeply for his children, even if it didn't seem to show. 
It was because of them that he worked so hard with the Syndicate, so they would 
have a future outside of death or enslavement. Despite his good intentions, his 
children had been taken away from him or turned against him. He couldn't have a 
paternal relationship with his eldest son as long as Bill Mulder was alive and
active in the group. Samantha was quite possibly gone for good, and even if she 
did reappear she would most likely resent her father as much as Jeffery did.
Katherine was the only one left, and it would be worth all the complications if 
he were able to stay involved in her life.

Finally he spoke. "What do you have in mind?"

(Continued in part 3)