Diablita II 
by Mariann 
musingscsm@aol.com 
 
Part 3
See part 0 for header information.


***

Labor Day Weekend - Thursday Night
9:02 PM

Cassandra sat down on the living room couch to relax after putting Katherine to 
bed. It was going to be an early morning, but she needed a little time to
unwind before bed. She was looking forward to spending the holiday weekend at
her sister's cottage on the coast. Jeffery and Katherine loved visiting their
aunt and playing on the beach. With all that had happened that summer, they
deserved to have some fun. Not too mention their mother needed a little
vacation as well.

Before she had time to get into the police drama playing on the television, the 
phone rang. She sighed and went into the kitchen to answer it. Charles was
supposed to have been home two hours ago, but there was still no sign of
him.

"Hello?"

"Cassandra, I'm calling from the office." Charles voice came over the line.
"There's been a meeting called at the last moment. I'm going to be home
late."

She sighed heavily. "How late is late?"

"Don't wait up. If worse gets to worse I'll join you and the children at
Maria's tomorrow afternoon."

"Every time we try to do something as a family..."

"I know, but it can't be help." Charles cut her off.

"Well, I'm leaving at seven tomorrow morning, whether you're here or not."

"That's fine. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

"Okay. Goodbye." Cassandra ended the call without a lot of feeling and hung up
the phone.

She should've been more upset then she was. But Cassandra was at a point that
she didn't care one way or another what her husband did anymore.  Her marriage
was over all but legally, and Charles certainly seemed to know that as well. He 
acted like he didn't care either.

What Charles didn't know, was that he was returning home alone on Sunday night. 
Cassandra had already talked to her sister and made arrangements for her and
the children to stay there until she got on her feet. She would get a job and
find a place for her family to live. It was the best option they had. If she
stayed in the situation she was in now, she was certain she would go insane.
And now that it was beginning to affect the children her instincts told her it
was time to leave.

A few minutes later she went upstairs and told Jeffery to get to bed. They had
an early morning ahead of them, not too mention the last weekend of their old
life. Cassandra went to bed and tried not to think about it. However, that was
easier said then done, and she spent a while tossing and turning. But
eventually, around ten-thirty that night, sleep came.

12:18 AM - Friday

Katherine slept peacefully in her bed, holding on tightly to Mr. Perkins. He
still had the silver bracelet on, an expensive collar for a stuffed dog. In the 
last month, Samantha's belongings had been moved out of the room and now it
looked like she had never been there. But little Kit remembered her sister, and 
the promise she had made. In the little girl's mind, even death would not
interfere with Samantha keeping her promise. 

There was a soft tapping sound on the window, and a dim light shined into the
room. Kit stirred and looked up sleepily. 

"Samantha?"

The light brightened and she could see the vague shape of a human behind it.
Someone was out on the part of the roof that hung over the small, dilapidated
front porch but Kit was not alarmed in the least. In fact, she was excited.
Sometimes Samantha would sit outside their window at night and watch the stars
when she couldn't sleep.

"Samantha!" She jumped out of bed and ran over to the window, expecting to see
her sister. 

The window creaked open and Katherine climbed out of it and onto the porch
before she could see who had opened it. Instead of Samantha, Bill Mulder was
standing there, looking surprised. The child and the man blinked at each other
for a moment, neither expecting to see the other. 

"Hey!" Kit frowned. "You're not Samantha!"

If there was ever any doubt in Bill Mulder's mind of Spender's involvement in
his daughter's disappearance, it was now gone. But he didn't have time to think 
about that at the moment. He had not anticipated that the child would come out
and greet him. 

"Well, no, I'm not. But I know where she is." Bill lied, wishing it was the
truth. 

Katherine looked him up and down warily with her big blue eyes. She had seen
him before, with her father and the other men that visited their house
sometimes. At the same time, Mulder noticed she looked a lot like Samantha had
at that age. 

Finally the child spoke. "You're one of daddy's friends."

"Yes, I am." Bill bent down to look the little girl in the eyes. "Your Daddy is 
waiting for you out in the car."

Mulder move towards her and Katherine took a step back, clutching her stuffed
dog tightly. On the second try, she allowed herself to be picked up. He carried 
her over to the edge of the roof, and nodded at the Englishman waiting on the
ground.  

"Be careful, Bill." Calvert warned his colleague.                               

Bill knelt down and carefully handed Katherine to Calvert. The little girl made 
no attempts to get away. She recognized the other man, and knew from experience 
that she didn't have to fear him. 

Mulder jumped off the roof. "Let's go!"

The two men hurried to the car parked across the road. Mulder got behind the
wheel of the black sedan, and the well manicured Englishman went into the back, 
taking the little girl with him. 

It wasn't until Katherine realized that the car was empty that she spoke up,
looking upset. "My daddy's not here!"

Bill threw the car into park and made a hasty retreat to the main entrance/exit 
of the base. It was a quiet night and sounds carried in the darkness, even in a 
car a scream could've been heard. The last thing they needed was the child
throwing a fit and drawing attention to them. 

Calvert glared at Mulder in the rearview mirror, not appreciating him making
the situation worse by telling the child lies, then turned back to their
charge. "It's okay..."

Kit sniffled. "I wanna go home!"

The drive to the train yard was short, but they still couldn't risk something
going wrong. Calvert took a small syringe loaded with a heavy atheistic out of
his pocket. He had hoped this would not be necessary, but there wasn't much of
a choice now. Something had to be done before the child went into a full blown
fit. 

The little girl looked out at the window, starting to panic. A pang of guilt
hit the Englishman, but he tried to tell himself maybe it would be less
traumatic for the child this way. He quickly stuck the needle into Katherine's
small arm and depressed the plunger. 

"Ow!" Kit yelped, then almost immediately fell unconscious. 

Calvert gently laid her across the seat and covered her with his coat. It was
then he noticed the stuffed dog laying in the girl's limp arms. It obviously
meant something to the child, and when Bill Mulder wasn't looking, he slipped
it into the small leather bag he had brought with him, to return it to her
later. 

4:03 am

A few hours later, Charles Spender showed up at the train yard. A short string
of box cars sat on one of the unused track, and it was the middle car that he
entered. It looked like a normal enough boxcar on the outside, but the inside
showed it was anything but normal. The interior was set up like a large
operating bay, various medical equipment lining the walls. 

On this particular night his youngest daughter was the patient, and little
Katherine lay on a operating table amid various monitors. An IV tube came out
of her small arm, and a heart monitor beeped in a quiet rhythm. It was a
disturbing site for any father to see, and Spender's only consolation was that
this would benefit the project. 

He went to his daughter's side, joining up with Mulder, Calvert and Ron Hutton. 
They were silent for a few moments, watching the doctors begin to insert a
large needle into the child's neck. 

Spender was the first to speak. "How are things going?"

"No problems so far." Hutton replied without taking his eyes off the doctors.
"They're putting the chip in now."

"It took you long enough to get here." Bill Mulder shot a sideways glance at
Spender.

"I had some things to take care of at the office." He gave a slight glare at
Mulder before turning his eyes back to the surgery. "Did you get her here
without being noticed?"

Calvert nodded. "Everything went as planned."

Katherine's eyelids fluttered briefly as the chip passed from the needle into
her neck. Spender felt concern rise up inside of him, though he didn't let it
show. The procedure was almost certainly painful, and he didn't want his
daughter to have to suffer. 

"Is she conscious?"

Hutton looked over a print out coming from one of the machines. "None of her
vital signs point to it, so I would say no."

"Even if she remembers tonight, that will be taken care of." Mulder reminded
them. 

The attending doctors began to sew up the hole left by the large needle. The
head surgeon joined the men, peeling his gloves off.

"Is the procedure done?" Hutton questioned him.

"Yes." The doctor looked back to his patient briefly. "We'll keep the subject
in a controlled coma. Her body needs to rest for several days to adjust to the
chip." 

Spender looked down at his unconscious daughter, noticing how vulnerable she
looked at the moment. "I'll need several days to tie up the loose ends here." 

"I will accompany her to Washington, Spender." Calvert assured his colleague.
"You won't have a thing to worry about on this end." 

"Calvert is right." Hutton agreed. "We'll make sure it all goes to plan. All
you have to do is handle your end." 

6:19 am

Cassandra woke up to find Charles sleeping in her bed. There was a touch of
disappointment that he had come home in time to leave with rest of the family,
and a touch of annoyance that he hadn't even bothered to wake her up when he
did make it home. She sat up and blinked sleepily at the clock.

She groaned a little when she saw it was almost twenty past six. The alarm had
been set for five-thirty, but Charles must've turned it off before she heard
it. It wasn't the first time he had done that to her. 

Oh well, she sighed softly and got out of the bed to check on the children. It
looked like they weren't going to leave at seven after all. She was glad she
packed the car the night before, so they had a chance of getting on the road by 
eight. 

Cassandra woke up a cranky Jeffery, telling him to stop whining and get
dressed. Then she went into Katherine's room, expecting to the do the same.
Instead she found the bed and empty and the window open. 

Katherine was gone. 

A scream escaped from her and she ran down the stairs in a panic. Horrible
thoughts whirled in her mind. Katherine taken by the aliens and never brought
back. Katherine taken by a kidnapper who would leave her small body dead in a
field. Or maybe they would never find her at all. The thoughts were too much to 
bear.

Charles heard Cassandra's panicked flight down the stairs and got out of bed.
It was time to slip into his role and start the carefully orchestrated ballet
of a fake investigation that he had set up the night before. 

"What's wrong?" He called as he headed down the stairs. "What is it?"

"Katherine!" A frantic Cassandra replied, picking up the phone. "She's gone!
Someone took her!"

Charles took the phone out of her hand. "Let me handle this. I know people who
have jurisdiction over the local police." 

"Then call them!" She replied shrilly. 

"What's going on?" Jeffery came downstairs, dressed and with his back pack in
hand. 

Cassandra did not reply, instead she raced back up the stairs. Jeff blinked in
surprise, then looked to his father for the answer. For a change, Charles did
not have to lie to his son.

"Your sister is missing." That was all he was going to say, and picked the
phone before more questions could be asked.

Jeffery stood there in shock as his mother came back down the stairs. She was
dressed hurriedly in jeans and a sweatshirt. Her hair was messy and she didn't
have her makeup on. They looked to Charles for some sort of answer from the
head of the house. If there was a moment that he felt guilt for he was about to 
do to his wife and son, it was looking at them right then. 

But, the guilt quickly passed, as it always did for him. He covered the
receiver of the phone and started the ball rolling. 

"They're on their way." Charles lit Morley and took the first drag. "Try to
calm yourself, Cassandra."

"Calm? My child is MISSING and you want me to be CALM!?"

"Missing?" Jeff butted in, looking upset himself. "Kit's missing?"

"Oh don't worry, honey..." Cassandra grabbed her son tearfully. "We'll find
her..."

And late that night they did find Katherine, dead in a field about three miles
off the base. Or at least, that was the story C.G.B. Spender had crafted to
tell his family. He had trotted out half of the syndicate and some local police 
officers for his theatrical portrayal of an investigation. They made a show of
examining the crime scene and then went off in supposed search parties.

Now that it was over, someone had to tell Cassandra and Calvert had been chosen 
for the job. In a way he was relieved to be doing it. Anyone else, even
Spender, might not have worried about doing it kindly. It was the least he
could do for this woman. It tore at him to have tell her that her child was
dead, but it might as well be true. Mother and daughter would never see each
other again.

Calvert entered the Spender house and climbed the stairs up to the bedroom. It
was well past eleven, but he knew Cassandra would not be asleep. He knocked on
the door lightly, then opened it slowly. She was sitting on the bed with her
head in her hands. 

"Cassandra?"

She straightened herself and looked at with him tired, red, teary eyes. 

"I'm so very sorry..."

"We'll find her." Cassandra brushed away a few stray tears. 

He sat down beside her on the bed, not able to deliver such a severe lie
standing up. "We already did...about an hour ago. Your husband sent me to-"

"No, it couldn't..." She cut him off quickly. "You didn't...she can't be....is
she?"

Calvert nodded slowly, he couldn't bring himself to say the words. 

Cassandra covered her face with her hands and broke down into sobs. "My sweet
baby girl..." 

"I'm so sorry..." The words felt so useless and empty he wasn't sure even why
he had said them. 

"Where...where is she now?" 

"Your husband is with her. he said he'd take care of her..."

"I want to see her..." Cassandra started to get up. "I need to see her..."

"No.." He put a hand on her arm and gently pulled her back down onto the bed.
"Don't do this to yourself, Cassandra."

Her eyes flicked over him briefly and she began to sob again, this time
breaking down all the way. Calvert put his arms around her carefully and held
her. It was at that moment he vowed he would watch over little Katherine in her 
mother's absence. 

And may God have mercy on his soul for his involvement in this cruel plan. 

***

Tuesday

The funeral for Katherine was small and quiet. The pastor from the local
Baptist church did the graveside service, though the Spenders had not been part 
of his congregation. They had never been part of any congregation, for that
matter. And in this dark time, there was no religion for the family to fall
back on.

Not that it would've helped anyways. 

When they finally made it home, the family spilt up in three directions.
Cassandra immediately went up to Katherine's room, in deep mourning for her
baby. Charles got in the car and went for a drive. And Jeffery, he decided to
go take a walk. 

There was a coolness in the air that was unusual for the season. But there were 
so many questions in Jeffery's head he barely noticed it. He just walked along, 
not really sure where he was going, but realizing now just how painfully alone
he was without his sisters. 

It wasn't too long before he reached the fence that surrounded the base. A few
feet back from it was a slab of cement that had been fresh just a few months
ago. He sat down in front of it, sadly gazing at the three sets of handprints
etched into the hard concrete.

How could everything in his world change in just one summer? It just didn't
seem right or fair, especially to an eleven year old kid who couldn't even
begin to grasp the question of why bad things happen to good people when most
adults couldn't either. 

Jeffery laid his hands over Samantha's prints in the cement, which were larger
then his own hands. He smiled slightly, remembering teasing her about her big
hands. He didn't remember much about her arrival at the Spender house, just
that he was jealous to no longer be the only child. But somehow, in just a few
short years she had went from his mortal enemy to his friend and confidant.

He then traced over Katherine's tiny prints. When he had first seen his newborn 
baby sister three years ago, Jeffery had asked if they could trade her in for a 
puppy. Once she was able to talk and walk, he decided maybe little Kit wasn't
so bad after all. He wondered what she would've looked like when she got older, 
with her huge blue eyes and dark hair. Somehow, he just knew that she would've
been beautiful.

The memories were running through his mind rapidly now, mostly of the last
summer he had shared with his sisters. Chasing lightning bugs and sitting on
the roof of the porch to watch the stars. Scaring them with a snake he had
caught, and then teaching them to hold it without being afraid. Going downtown
to see a movie and sneaking into an R rated one instead. So many little things
he had taken for granted, and would never experience again.

Jeffery sat out by the handprints until dusk. It was hard to leave, knowing his 
sisters wouldn't be waiting for him at home. But he forced himself to go back,
his mother didn't need any extra worries. 

(Continued in part 4)