Nisei

SCENE 1
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE

(A railroad train horn blares as it pulls down it's tracks, passing a number of cars at an intersection. A group of kids ride up to the barrier on their bicycles.)

GIRL: Hurry up!

(As they watch the train go by, they gasp in awe. At the back of the train, a man waves to them. They all happily wave back.)

CHILDREN: Hi!

(The man stands in the doorway to the train as it makes its way to a train station. He then steps out, unhooks a boxcar and motions to the conductor.)

MAN: All clear!

(Getting back on the train, they pull out. After an undetermined amount of time, the boxcar, leaking smoke from the top, sits in nightfall. Also on top is a satellite dish hooked to the ceiling. The number of the boxcar is "eight-two-five-nine-four." A number of blue cars pull up to the boxcar and various Japanese men get out. A Japanese doctor named Takeo Ishimaru steps out of the boxcar and greets his fellow scientists, speaking Japanese. They all bow to one another. Ishimaru then walks to one of the cars and drives off as the four other Japanese men board the boxcar. Inside a boxcar is a glass sliding door barrier, cutting it off from the entrance. Sitting on shelves are containers and various other equipment. The four men, dressed in medical garb and wearing gas masks, begin to dissect something as they talk in Japanese to one another. One of the men goes over to an IV unit, where a green liquid, fed through a tube, goes into the being's arm. As a camera watches the entire process, the autopsy is cut short when the door to the outside of the boxcar bursts open and heavily armed men wearing gas masks run in and fire upon the doctors, shattering the glass. The other soldiers make a formation and fire into the room, shattering the rest of the glass and riddling the doctors with bullets. The doctors cry out in pain as they are gunned down in cold blood. The men make their way into the room and package up the dead being having been dissected in a bodybag. The dead alien being.)

SCENE 2
FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON D.C.

(Mulder puts his feet on the desk, watching a video, as Scully opens the door and looks in at him.)

MULDER: Come on in.

(He motions to her. Scully walks in and closes the door. She walks over to him.)

SCULLY: What are you watching?

MULDER: Something that just came in the mail.

(Scully nods to the screen.)

SCULLY: That's not your usual brand of entertainment.

(Mulder, picking at his nails, smiles, laughing slightly.)

What is it?

MULDER: According to the magazine ad I answered, it's an alien autopsy. Guaranteed authentic.

(Scully looks at the screen. It is the alien autopsy that was being conducted before. The view of the camera obstructs the view of the body, the doctors standing in the way.)

SCULLY: You spent money for this?

MULDER: Twenty-nine ninety-five, plus shipping.

SCULLY: Mulder, this is even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network.

(She walks over to the screen.)

You can't even see what they're operating on!

MULDER: But it, it does look authentic.

(He walks over to the television and stands next to her, carrying a remote control.)

I mean, the setting and the procedures. I mean, it does look as if an actual autopsy is being performed, doesn't it?

SCULLY: Well, technically, I don't know why they would be wearing gas masks.

MULDER: Well, maybe it's this green substance they seem to be extracting from the subject.

(He points to it.)

Can you identify that?

SCULLY: Olive oil? Snake oil? I suppose you think it's alien blood.

MULDER: It's widely held that aliens don't have blood, Scully.

SCULLY: I guess that begs the question, if this is an alien autopsy...

MULDER: Where's the alien.

(Scully nods.)

But what, what's so intriguing to me is the striking lack of detail here.

SCULLY: Well, What do you want for twenty-nine ninety-five?

MULDER: No, that, that autopsy you saw on TV was so fake precisely because it tried to show too much.

SCULLY: And this is real because it doesn't?

MULDER: Yes, and because, uh...

(He presses fast-forward and the footage speeds up.)

Because of this.

(The autopsy continues at a quickened pace until Mulder presses play. The camera shows the back door bursting open and the men running, commencing firing. The footage turns to static. Scully seems a bit taken aback by that.)

SCULLY: Who's selling these tapes?

MULDER: Some guy in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Claims he pulled it off the satellite dish at two in the morning.

(He walks to his desk. Scully is puzzled.)

SCENE 3
ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

(Mulder and Scully pull into a driveway of a house and get out. The street is relatively quiet, save for a dog barking. As Scully walks around to the door, Mulder walks around back and up the back steps and notices two stickers on the front steps reading "Rat Tail Productions" and "Leave Packages Here." He continues up the stairs and knocks on the ajar door, swinging it open. Scully walks back over to him.)

SCULLY: Front door's been boarded up.

MULDER: Back door's been busted open.

(Mulder undoes his holster and takes out his gun, pointing to the sticker.)

Hope nobody left the rat out.

(Making their way inside, Scully draws her gun as they walk through the kitchen. Splitting up, Scully looks inside a production lab as Mulder checks the other end of the hallway. Scully walks into the bedroom to find a man with a pillowcase tied around his head.)

SCULLY: Mulder, in here.

(Mulder and Scully approach the body. The man is laying on his stomach, his hands tied around his back.)

He's still warm.

(They hear a door slam and Mulder looks down the stairs to see a man run by. Mulder quickly follows him and opens the back door to see a man running away.)

MULDER: Federal agent!

(The Japanese man hops the fence to the adjoining yard as Mulder gives chase, hopping the fence as well. The man, carrying a brown leather satchel, hops the next fence and runs after him. Ducking under a porch to another house, the man kicks over something as he turns, the bloodhound barking at him. As he tries to scale another fence, Mulder grabs him and pulls him down.)

Come on down.

(The Japanese man kicks the gun out of Mulder's hand with a traditional karate noise, then kicks Mulder three times in the chest, each time shouting. Mulder falls back into the doghouse, and the man tries to jump the fence again. Mulder pulls his gun out of his ankle holster and shoots a glass bottle in the recycling bin next to the man, startling him. The man looks back at Mulder as he stands.)

I got tired of losing my gun.

(The man jumps down, faced with no alternative. Mulder picks up his first gun and holsters it, still having his second gun trained on his attacker.)

Okay, now face the fence.

(The man does not move.)

Face the fence!

(The man continues to glare as if not understanding.)

What's your name?

(The man speaks some Japanese.)

You speak english?

(The Japanese man utters some more Japanese.)

Great.

(Mulder motions for the bag.)

Give me the bag.

(After a second of no response, he motions again.)

Give me the bag.

(The man growls and Mulder takes the satchel.)

Okay, let's go.

(The man remains obstinate. Mulder cocks the handle.)

Let's go!

(The Japanese man utters another Japanese word and raises his hands, walking slowly past Mulder. Mulder follows closely behind him.)

SCENE 4
SUBSTATION C; ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

(As police officers and clerks scuffle around and talk, phones ringing and voices all at once, Scully walks down the hallway over to Mulder, who is standing by a window looking into the interrogation room where the Japanese man sits.)

SCULLY: Either they can't locate an interpreter, or the interpreter they located didn't interpret the instructions and got lost somewhere. I don't know which.

MULDER: Did you try the F.B.I. field office?

SCULLY: Somehow, this is a tall request in Allentown this time of night.

MULDER: Well, look at this... a beacon in the night.

(Scully turns and looks at what Mulder is looking at, Skinner walking towards them.)

SKINNER: Agent Mulder, Scully.

SCULLY: This is a surprise, sir.

MULDER: You don't, uh, speak Japanese by any chance, do you?

SKINNER: I wish I could, it might save us all some embarrassment.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

SKINNER: I'm up here with a federal attorney trying to sort out a little international mess. He said you made an arrest tonight.

MULDER: A murder suspect, yeah.

SKINNER: Yeah, I'm afraid you're gonna have to release him.

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SKINNER: According to the Japanese Diplomatic Corps, the man you arrested is a high-ranking diplomat.

(Mulder points to the window.)

MULDER: This man, sitting in here?

(Skinner walks over and looks into the window.)

SKINNER: That's Kazuo Sakurai.

MULDER: Oh, I didn't get his name. I was too busy getting my ass kicked.

SCULLY: What about the murder victim or the paperwork?

SKINNER: It's all gonna be handled by some other agency. What are you two doing out here, anyway?

(Scully sighs, throwing her hands up in the air slightly.)

MULDER: Tracking down a video piracy thing.

SKINNER: I suggest you keep your nose clean and head back to Washington, Agent Mulder... before someone takes another swipe at it.

(Skinner walks past them, brushing past Mulder. Mulder scoffs a little and looks through the window with Scully at Sakurai. Sakurai looks back. Outside, they walk out, talking.)

SCULLY: I don't know, Mulder, it just doesn't track. What would a Japanese diplomat be doing in that house with a dead man with his head stuffed in a pillowcase?

MULDER: Obviously not strengthening the international relations.

SCULLY: Well, what do you want to do now, drop it?

MULDER: No, I paid my twenty-nine ninety-five, Scully. I think I'm entitled to a few more answers, don't you think?

(Mulder opens the trunk to the car and digs through the contents.)

SCULLY: What are you doing?

MULDER: I just remembered a piece of evidence from the crime scene that I forgot to turn in.

(He pulls out the brown leather satchel and closes the trunk. Opening it up, he pulls out a folder. Handing a paper to Scully, he looks at a picture of a ship making it's way along a coastline. Closing the folder, he looks at the picture.)

SCULLY: What are those?

MULDER: They look like satellite photos.

(He flips to the next one, of the ship at various positions going through a canal.)

What would he be doing with these?

SCULLY: What would he be doing with a list of Mutual UFO Network members in the greater Allentown area with the name Betsy Hagopian circled?

(She looks at the paper, which has the names :Steven Zinnzser, Betsy Hagopian, Edna Cooper and their addresses down. Hagopian's name is circled. Mulder looks around, then the two agents look at each other.)

MULDER: Maybe he was going to fit her for a pillowcase too. Why don't you stick around, get a motel room and check it out in the morning?

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

(He folds up the papers and stuffs them into the satchel.)

MULDER: I'm going to go back to D.C. like a good boy, like Skinner told me to do, and show these to a few friends of ours.)

(He walks around the car as Scully watches.)

SCENE 5
THE LONE GUNMEN'S OFFICE; WASHINGTON, D.C.

(Langly looks at the picture under a high-powered magnifying glass as his compatriots watch on.)

LANGLY: The name of the boat is the Talapus. Just got to love those German optics.

MULDER: So you're saying that's from a German satellite?

BYERS: No, the optics are German. The technology is probably ours, but the satellite is most likely Japanese.

FROHIKE: Launched from South America.

MULDER: Got to love that global economy, huh?

LANGLY: Where'd you get this, Mulder?

MULDER: Japanese diplomat.

(Langly, holding the picture, and Byers walk away from the table.)

FROHIKE: I'm surprised. The Japanese are very secretive about their espionage capabilities, and extremely careful with their intelligence data.

(Langly turns on a lamp and Mulder walks over.)

MULDER: What exactly are they spying on there?

BYERS: The Talapus was a salvage ship out of San Diego.

(He and Frohike walk over. Langly starts looking at the picture under a regular magnifying glass.)

They spent months looking for a Japanese sub that went down in World War II. It was rumored to be carrying a load of gold bullion.

MULDER: Did they find it?

LANGLY: Not according to all the reports, but looking at this photo here, the ship never returned to San Diego.

MULDER: Why do you say that?

(Byers shows him the picture of the ship in various locations along a canal.)

BYERS: In the rest of these satellite photos, they track the ship through the Panama canal.

(He flips to the next picture of the ship docking at a naval base.)

All the way to Newport News, Virginia.

MULDER: The naval shipyard.

(Byers nods.)

FROHIKE: But why would they go there?

(Mulder thinks about it.)

MULDER: Well, maybe what they found wasn't a Japanese sub.

SCENE
JAPANESE EMBASSY; WASHINGTON, D.C.

(Kazuro Sakurai walks out of the embassy building and over to a waiting limo. The driver opens the door for him.)

DRIVER: Good evening, Mister Sakurai.

(Sakurai gets in and the driver closes the door. The doors suddenly lock and Sakurai looks across the dark cabin to see a Red-Haired Man lean over towards him. The driver gets into the car and adjusts the front rear view mirror, seeing Sakurai gagging, being choked to death by piano wire. The driver makes no attempts to help at all as the grunting from the back grows louder.)

SCENE 6
BETSY HAGOPIAN'S HOUSE; ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

(Scully pulls up to Betsy Hagopian's house and looks at a sheet. Getting out, she sees a MUFON sticker on the door window. She knocks on the door window and a woman opens the door.)

SCULLY: Hi, Betsy Hagopian?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: No, I'm sorry, Betsy's not here right now.

SCULLY: Is there some way that I can get in touch with her?

(Lottie looks at her strangely.)

I'm sorry, um...

(She starts digging through her pockets.)

My name is Dana Scully.

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: I know you.

(Scully looks at her strangely.)

SCULLY: No, I think you must be mistaken.

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: We saw you. Penny? Penny, come here.

(A woman walks up besides Lottie and looks at Scully, immediately recognizing her.)

SCULLY: I'm, I'm afraid I'm not who you think I am.

PENNY NORTHERN: Oh, my God. She's one.

(Lottie nods slightly.)

SCULLY: One what?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: One of us.

(Scully walks inside. Penny makes a call on the phone.)

SCULLY: There must be some kind of mistake, I, I work for the F.B.I., and I'm here conducting a murder investigation.

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: A murder?

PENNY NORTHERN: Cathy? I'm here at Betsy's. Can you call the group and get everyone over here right away?

(She hangs up and looks at Scully.)

SCULLY: A man named Steven Zinnzser was murdered about two miles from here.

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: Penny, do you hear that?

PENNY NORTHERN: Steve Zinnzser was murdered?

SCULLY: Did you know him?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: He was a member of our chapter.

SCULLY: But you understand, I'm, I'm not a member, I'm an F.B.I. agent.

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: That's what you said.

SCULLY: But at the door, you said that I was one of you.

(Lottie and Penny look at each other, then look back.)

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: Did you have an unexplained event in your life last year? Were you missing for a period of time that can't be accounted for?

(Scully stares at them in shock.)

SCULLY: Why did you ask me that?

PENNY NORTHERN: I think you better sit down, Miss Scully. I think there are some people you're going to want to meet.

(Cars start to pull up outside.)

SCENE 7
U.S. COAST GUARD HEADQUARTERS; NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA

(Mulder is walking with an officer down a hallway.)

COAST GUARD OFFICER: The Talapus.

MULDER: It's a salvage ship registered in San Diego. According to the harbor master, you went out to meet the boat when customs wouldn't allow it into port.

COAST GUARD OFFICER: Oh, yeah, that's right. But it wasn't customs preventing her landing, it was the D.E.A.

MULDER: The D.E.A.? Why, what was the problem?

COAST GUARD OFFICER: They were searching for contraband if I remember correctly. The boat came through Panama. There was some concern that her crew might have picked up a shipment.

MULDER: Did they find anything?

COAST GUARD OFFICER: We were never aboard. I think there was a question of confiscating the boat if the crew were to be arrested.

MULDER: Were they?

COAST GUARD OFFICER: Apparently not. We were called off and the, uh, boat put out to sea the following morning.

(Mulder stops and looks out the window.)

MULDER: Well, that doesn't make any sense.

(The officer stops and looks at him.)

COAST GUARD OFFICER: Excuse me?

MULDER: The Talapus came nonstop from Panama. She would have had to stop to refuel, wouldn't she?

COAST GUARD OFFICER: I don't have all the details in my head.

MULDER: Would you do me a favor? Would you see if there's any paperwork on this? See if there's a heading or a destination for the Talapus.

COAST GUARD OFFICER: That might take some time.

MULDER: That's all right. I'm happy to wait.

(The officer looks away, clears his throat and walks away.)

SCENE 8
BETSY HAGOPIAN'S HOUSE; ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

(The room is filled with women now. Scully is at the center. They are all seated.)

SCULLY: But I've never met any of you. I, I've never seen any of you before in my life.

(Lottie walks in, carrying a cup of coffee, and sits down next to Penny on the couch.)

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: You may not remember. You've only had one experience.

PENNY NORTHERN: Most of us here have been taken many times.

(Scully looks around at the various women staring at her.)

SCULLY: Taken? Uh, taken where?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: The bright white place.

(Scully stares at her. Suddenly, her memory flashes out to her lying unconscious in a bright white room. But the flash is brief. A woman named Diane leans forward in her chair.)

DIANE: You remember it, don't you?

(Scully closes her eyes.)

SCULLY: I don't know.

DIANE: There are men there performing tests.

(Scully opens her eyes and looks at her. A memory flash juts out, one of a drill barreling down towards her. Scully stares at her interrogator.)

SCULLY: What men?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: They don't reveal themselves. They take our memories away, but somehow, they start to seep back.

PENNY NORTHERN: Some may have come back to you, but they didn't make sense.

(Scully starts to tear up.)

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: Do you know about regression hypnosis?

SCULLY: Yes, I'm...

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: Have you ever considered it?

SCULLY: I'm sorry. I don't think I'm ready to discuss this.

(Diane stands.)

DIANE: You're afraid to remember, aren't you?

(She sits down in front of Scully.)

It's okay. We were all afraid at first.

(Scully's eyes wander around the room.)

SCENE 9
U.S. COAST GUARD HEADQUARTERS; NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA

(The coast guard officer comes back with a clipboard but Mulder is nowhere to be found.)

COAST GUARD OFFICER: Agent Mulder?

(Perplexed, he walks away. Meanwhile, outside, Mulder walks along the loading docks, past foremen and forklifts.)

MAN: We're gonna need about five more pilots here, Greg...

(Mulder runs past service elevators and such and over a yellow bridge connecting the various buildings to each other over the large tankers and boats. Stopping and looking down from his view, he sees various things, including a ship marked the "Ocean Wrestler." Continuing along, he makes his way around and sees a long, white ship. After making his way over there, he jumps over the railing and onto the ship. Breaking the glass pane to the door to the cabin with his forearm, balled up in his sleeve, he turns the doorknob on the inside and walks in. Looking around, he checks the drawers to a desk and rifles through the papers. Finding nothing, he opens a door to an adjoining cabin and finds a blue raincoat marked "Talapus." Mulder makes his way to the lower cabins and tries various doors before moving through the boiler room and over to the bathroom before hearing cars approaching. Running to the nearest window, he sees various cars pull up and armed SWAT team members pull up, loaded for bear and scouring the ship. They open every door in sight and down every stairwell, searching for Mulder who is nowhere to be found. As a number of them run by, Mulder runs up a stairwell to the bridge and hides behind a lifeboat. Despite one of his attackers searching, he manages to go by unhidden and jumps into the icy water as a steamboat whistle blares.)

SCENE 10
BETSY HAGOPIAN'S HOUSE; ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

(Scully continues to listen to the MUFON members. Penny is now standing.)

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: I don't know, when I opened that door and saw you standing there? It was like a revelation. The image of your face was so clear to me.

SCULLY: But why is it that I don't remember you?

PENNY NORTHERN: All you remember in the beginning is the light, and then sometimes the faces of the men who perform the tests.

(She sits. Scully stares at her until her memory returns briefly and she sees some kind of tube attached to her belly button during the tests, exactly like Mulder had imagined when Scully was abducted. Her stomach is inflated, being filled with air. It grows very large as two figures, presumably aliens, watch in the background. Scully looks away from Penny and Lottie.)

SCULLY: How do you know that you're not mistaking me for somebody else?

(Lottie looks over to Diane.)

DIANE: You have the mark, don't you?

(Scully looks over at her.)

SCULLY: What mark?

DIANE: Here.

(She sits down backwards in front of Scully and pulls down the back of her shirt, revealing a small scar on the back of her neck.)

On the back of your neck.

(Scully looks at it, then closes her eyes.)

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: We all have them. It's where they put the implants.

(Lottie nods to the other women, who all take out various capsules, medicine bottles and containers, each holding an implant inside. Scully looks at them, her feelings building inside her.)

SCULLY: I really have to go.

(She stands and heads for the door.)

I just came...

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: To see Betsy.

(She stands next to Penny. Scully turns around.)

SCULLY: Yes. To see Betsy Hagopian. Why are you all at her house, where is she?

(Penny looks at Lottie nervously.)

SCENE 11
DEPT. OF ONCOLOGY; ALLENTOWN MEDICAL CENTER

(Penny, Lottie and Scully look through a window to an adjoining room where Betsy Hagopian is lying on a table connecting to a machine, undergoing treatment. A female doctor stands over her.)

SCULLY: What's wrong with her?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: Betsy's in the advanced stages of an undiagnosed cancer ailment. Her body's full of tumors that won't respond to any kind of treatment.

SCULLY: And you think this is the result of her abduction experiences?

PENNY NORTHERN: They've been taking Betsy since she was in her teens. This is what's going to happen to all of us.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

LOTTIE HOLLOWAY: I don't know if you understand this or not, Dana... but we're all going to end up like Betsy.

PENNY NORTHERN: We're all dying... because of what they do to us.

(Scully watches as the doctor adjusts Betsy on the table.)

SCENE 12
U.S. COAST GUARD HEADQUARTERS; NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA

(A ship is hard at work out at sea, scouring the waters for Mulder with searchlights. Inside of a warehouse, lights appear. Mulder climbs out of the water and up a flight of stairs. He then runs, checking behind him often, over the bridge and sees the warehouse being heavily guarded, lights shining brightly from inside. Another car pulls up and more SWAT team members get out and start talking to the others. As they talk, Mulder sneaks behind them and over to the side of the warehouse. Skulking carefully, he runs up a ramp and climbs up the side of the building to a window. Rubbing off the fog, he looks in to see a number of scientists and technicians working on a giant craft of some sort under a large plastic sheet. As the technicians, draped in containment suits, work on the machine, Mulder looks away, trying to comprehend what he has just seen.)

SCENE 13
MULDER'S APARTMENT; WASHINGTON, D.C.

(A disheveled Mulder walks to his door and is about to put the key in the hole when he finds the door swings open, ajar. He carefully draws his gun, peeks inside and shoves it open quietly. The room is dark and messy, in total disarray. He tries the light switch a few times, but it does not work. Slowly making his way to the doorway to the main room, his eyes search rapidly.)

SKINNER: Think they found what they were looking for?

(Mulder turns around and aims at Skinner, sitting on his chair.)

MULDER: I don't remember giving you a key.

SKINNER: I came to see you. Obviously, I was late for the party.

(He stands and slowly approaches Mulder.)

MULDER: Yeah, I guess I should really fire my maid, shouldn't I?

SKINNER: Put the gun down, Mulder. Somebody else might get hurt.

(Mulder sighs and lowers the gun.)

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SKINNER: Kazuro Sakurai, the diplomat that you detained yesterday?

MULDER: Our murder suspect.

(Skinner closes the door.)

SKINNER: He didn't make his flight last night. This morning, his body was found floating face-down in the C and O canal.

(Mulder looks away.)

I think we can assume he wasn't diving for pearls.

(Mulder laughs.)

The Japanese government believes that he was murdered for the contents of a briefcase that he was carrying... a piece of evidence that wasn't logged in the time of his arrest.

MULDER: What do they think was in it?

SKINNER: I've got the state department breathing down my neck, Mulder. The Japanese are set to prosecute this outside of diplomatic channels, so let's cut the crap.

MULDER: Am I being accused of murder?

SKINNER: Where's the briefcase?

MULDER: Agent Scully has it.

(He walks into the main room, followed by Skinner.)

She has it in the trunk of her rental car.

SKINNER: And where is she?

MULDER: I don't know, I haven't spoken to her since I left her in Allentown.

SKINNER: Then you better find her, because whatever you stepped in on this case is being tracked into my office and I don't like the smell of it.

MULDER: Mind if I tidy up a bit in here first?

(He sits. Skinner steps towards him.)

SKINNER: This is bigger than me, you, or the F.B.I., Agent Mulder.

(Mulder looks up at him. Skinner walks to the doorway, exhales loudly and turns around.)

I hope you've got other names in your phone book because I'm taking myself off the hook on this one. You're on your own.

(They stare at each other, then Skinner walks out. Mulder leans back, looking out the window.)

SCENE 14
OFFICE OF SENATOR RICHARD MATHESON; WASHINGTON, D.C.

(A woman opens the door to Matheson's office and nods to Matheson, who is sitting at his desk, writing. Mulder walks in and the woman closes the door.)

RICHARD MATHESON: Hello, Fox.

MULDER: Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.

(Matheson stands, walks over to him slowly and shakes his hand.)

RICHARD MATHESON: I understand you're in a difficult position.

(Mulder looks at him strangely.)

Don't look so stunned. I'm on the intelligence committee. Secrets are the only real currency we deal in.

MULDER: Then you already know what I'm up against.

RICHARD MATHESON: Perhaps better than you do, which I assume is why you've come here.

(He steps behind his desk.)

MULDER: I need your advice on how to proceed.

RICHARD MATHESON: Return the satellite photos.

MULDER: I'd be implicating myself.

RICHARD MATHESON: A good chess player knows which pieces to sacrifice... and when.

(He sits.)

MULDER: But I can't afford to become entangled in a murder investigation. Not now.

RICHARD MATHESON: Why?

MULDER: Because of what I've seen. Because it would give them time to bury it all where I might not find it again.

RICHARD MATHESON: Do you trust me, Fox?

(Mulder stares at him and sighs.)

Then let me earn your trust with the truth.

(He motions for Mulder to sit.)

MULDER: I'm listening.

(Mulder sits. Matheson walks around the desk and sits down in the chair next to him. They lean in as Matheson takes out a piece of paper.)

RICHARD MATHESON: Several weeks ago in Knoxville, Tennessee, four Japanese nationals were murdered. All prominent doctors apparently engaged in a highly classified project.

MULDER: What kind of project?

(Matheson stares at him.)

The autopsy of an extraterrestrial lifeform, was that part of it?

RICHARD MATHESON: I can't tell you. Some secrets do remain secret, Fox, even to me. I was only just now given the names of the murdered scientists.

(He hands him the paper. The names are "Naofumi Sakaguchi, Shigow Takguchi, Masomaru Shimizu, and Daisuke Nishibaba.")

Their credentials, however, are a matter of public record. Past deeds which may illuminate present treacheries. Your time is limited... before you become, as you say...

(He starts around the desk.)

Entangled in this past the point of being about to fully understand or expose it.

MULDER: What am I onto here?

RICHARD MATHESON: Monsters begetting monsters.

(Mulder stares at him, then down at the paper.)

SCENE 15
X-FILES OFFICE; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON D.C.

(Mulder sits at his desk, flipping through papers, wearing his glasses. He sighs and there is a knock on the door. He takes off his glasses and stands. He opens the door and peeks out, then opens it, allowing Scully to step in.)

MULDER: Scully.

SCULLY: Why is the door locked?

MULDER: I got something to show you.

(He closes the door.)

SCULLY: Do you have any idea where I've been?

MULDER: Allentown?

SCULLY: I went to go see those MUFON members to find out about that woman, Betsy Hagopian.

(Mulder sits.)

MULDER: Oh, what'd you find?

SCULLY: I found out that she's dying along with a lot of other women who claim to be dying too.

(She takes out a small glass capsule containing an implant.)

All of them who say that they have these implanted in them.

(Mulder takes the jar and looks at it.)

It's the same thing I had removed from my own neck.

MULDER: But you're fine, aren't you, Scully?

SCULLY: Am I? I don't know, Mulder. They, they, they said that they know me, that they've seen me before. It was freaky. They know things about me, about my disappearance.

MULDER: That is disturbing. But I don't think you should freak out until we find out what this thing is.

(The phone rings. Mulder picks it up.)

Mulder.

(He listens and hangs up as Scully picks up the capsule.)

I got a fax coming through.

(Scully picks up a picture of a number of Japanese doctors.)

SCULLY: What is this?

MULDER: That's a group of Japanese medical officers taken during World War II.

(Scully points to the man in the far bottom left of the picture.)

SCULLY: I've seen this man before.

MULDER: No, I don't think so. Not unless you were in Japan in the last fifty years.

SCULLY: No, I... I've seen him before.

MULDER: His name is Doctor Takeo Ishimaru, he's been dead since 1965. He was the commander of an elite section of the Japanese medical corps known as "seven thirty-one," a unit now known to have experimented on human subjects. They performed vivisections without anesthesia...

(He shows her a picture of a man whose face was cut off and whose chest had been sliced open and was sewn shut.)

Tested frostbite tolerance levels on infants...

(He flips down another picture of two nurses handling two children.)

Exposed innocent prisoners of war to diseases, the plague.

(He flips down yet another picture of a stack of bodies.)

Like their Nazi counterparts, they were never brought to justice.

SCULLY: What are you doing with this?

MULDER: Four of the doctors you see in this photo were on that videotape I showed you, performing that autopsy.

SCULLY: Yeah, but they were in full surgical dress, you couldn't tell one from the other.

MULDER: Somebody could, because those same four men were murdered yesterday, found here right on U.S. soil.

(The fax machine beeps and Mulder walks over to it. Scully follows.)

SCULLY: Murdered for what?

MULDER: That's what I'd like to know.

SCULLY: Well, murdered by whom?

MULDER: Possibly our government.

SCULLY: Our government? For what possible reason?

MULDER: For continuing their work. The work the Nazis were doing, trying to create an alien-human hybrid.

SCULLY: Mulder, that is still a fantasy.

MULDER: Scully, after all you've seen... after all you've told me you've seen. The tunnel with medical files, the, the beings moving past you, the... the implant in your neck, why do you refuse to believe?

SCULLY: Believing's the easy part, Mulder. I just need more than you, I need proof.

MULDER: You think that believing is easy?

(They stare at each other. She sighs. The fax machine beeps.)

Well, we have proof.

(He takes the sheet out.)

I identified what those five photos were tracking. A ship that pulled a UFO off the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. A UFO that's in a warehouse right now being guarded by military US personnel...

(She looks at the picture of an overhead picture of numerous boxcars.)

A UFO that was probably carrying that E.B.E. we saw in that autopsy tape.

SCULLY: What am I looking at?

MULDER: Part of our government's secret railroad. Train cars used to carry test subjects.

(He takes his coat and puts it on.)

Used to conduct that autopsy we saw being performed.

SCULLY: Where did you get this?

MULDER: From someone like you who wants proof...

(He takes the picture and puts it in his coat pocket.)

Who's also willing to believe.

SCENE 16
FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.

(Agent Pendrell, head of the Sci-Crime Lab, looks through a microscope at the implant. Scully stands next to him.)

PENDRELL: Hmmph. Amazing.

SCULLY: Do you know what it is?

PENDRELL: Looks like some kind of microprocessor.

SCULLY: So you're saying that this is manmade?

PENDRELL: What else would it be? I mean, it's definitely state of the art.

(He smirks and types in a few commands on a keyboard. The screen on the monitor switches to that of a microscopic layout of the implant.)

The microlithology's extremely complex. I've never seen anything even close to this density.

SCULLY: Any way of finding out who manufactures it?

PENDRELL: Uh, there are a few companies out in San Jose, couple in Boston. Could be any one of them.

SCULLY: What are these chips used for?

PENDRELL: Video games, brake systems... they're finding new apps everyday. I just read about one being designed to help the severely disabled operate computers using brainwaves.

SCULLY: How?

PENDRELL: Through direct electrochemical interface with the cerebral cortex. Pretty incredible, huh?

SCULLY: Yeah.

(Scully speaks quietly and stares blankly at the computer screen, deep in thought.)

SCENE 17
QUINNIMONT, WEST VIRGINIA

(A train whistle blares far off as the courtyard with the boxcars is relatively peaceful. Mulder climbs up a ladder heading to the roof and makes his way down the building where he sees a number of boxcars. Taking out a pair of binoculars, Mulder watches for signs of life when he sees a single man walking. Still looking, he sees a boxcar with the number "eight-two-five-one-seven" written on top. Mulder recognizes the boxcar and looks to his right to see a white van pull up. He ducks down as two other limousines pull up next to it. As Mulder watches through his binoculars, Japanese men run to the white van and open the back doors, talking Japanese. A being steps out in a white containment suit, being led to the boxcar by the Japanese escorts. The being's face is clearly not human, but has more alien features than anything else. Mulder looks on, stunned. He then runs under a system of large pipes, possibly above-ground water mains, and then up a flight of stairs. He then runs over to the side and sees the congregation. A Japanese escort walks over to the first limousine and talks to the man waiting, who opens the door. He gets in and the cars start to pull out as the boxcar starts off. Mulder runs and hides from view behind a column, then runs after the boxcar, to no avail. He pants and starts running the other way.)

SCENE 18
X-FILES OFFICE; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON D.C.

(Scully watches the mail-order tape in fast-forward mode as the Doctor Ishimaru plugs in numbers on a keypad on the tape. As Scully watches curiously, the man takes off his mask. Scully pauses it when she gets a clear view of his face. She then rewinds it to get a clearer, close-up view. Her eyes widen as memory returns to her. The past. A bright light. Three doctors stand over an unconscious Scully, who starts to open her eyes. They are talking Japanese. Another doctor, with mask off, leans down to her. He is Ishimaru. She tilts her head and looks at him blankly as he ties his mask on. The phone ringing startles her back out of memory. She picks it up.)

SCULLY: Scully.

(Cut to Mulder, walking at the trainyard.)

MULDER: Hey, Scully, it's me.

SCULLY: Where are you?

MULDER: A trainyard in Quinnimont, West Virginia. A group of Japanese men just put someone in one of those boxcars we saw in the satellite photos.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: I thought you said that it was our government's railroad.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Something serious is going down here, Scully.

(He stops at his car.)

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: The thing they put in the train? It was alive.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder...

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I got to get on that train. It's hooking up with a Canadian passenger train outside Cincinnati.

SCULLY: Mulder...

(He gets in the car. Cut to Scully as she looks over to the monitor.)

...I was right about Doctor Ishimaru. He's not dead. In fact, he's on your videotape.

(Cut to Mulder. He buckles his seatbelt.)

MULDER: Well, that's where you know him from, then.

(Cut back to Scully.)

SCULLY: No, that's not where I know him from at all.

(Cut to Mulder. He turns his head, wondering what she meant.)

SCENE 19
EDWARDS TERMINAL; QUEENSGATE, OHIO

(The Japanese escort walks in and heads for the bathroom, passing a man with glasses as he enters. At a vending machine, a certain Red-Haired Man watches him intently.)

ANNOUNCER: Your attention, please. All passengers on Canadian Northwest Express for Vancouver, prepare for boarding on Track Four.

(Doctor Ishimaru looks at his ticket and starts walking.)

All passengers on Canadian Northwest...

(In the bathroom, the Red-Haired Man drags the escort's lifeless body into a stall, then locks the door, straightens his tie and fixes his hair, and leaves the bathroom. He nonchalantly walks towards the track, looking back briefly at the bathroom. Mulder pulls up in front of the terminal and runs in and over to the desk.)

MULDER: Express train to Vancouver, what track is it on?

TRAIN STATION CLERK: It just left.

(Mulder groans.)

MULDER: When, when did it leave?

TRAIN STATION CLERK: You just missed it. It just pulled out of the station.

MULDER: Thanks.

(He starts off.)

SCENE 20
MULDER'S APARTMENT COMPLEX

(Scully, shuffling through her keys, walks down the hallway.)

X: Agent Scully.

(She turns around in shock to see X standing a little down the hallway. He walks towards her.)

SCULLY: What are you doing here?

X: Have you spoken to Agent Mulder?

SCULLY: No, why?

X: He's in danger.

SCULLY: How do you know?

(He walks to her.)

X: He's tracking a train. You can't let him get on it.

SCULLY: I don't know what you're talking about.

(She opens the door and steps inside. Before she can close the door, he slams it open.)

X: You've got to get word to him.

SCULLY: Why should I trust you? You've lied to us before.

X: You're wasting time. Do you understand?

(She stares at him.)

SCENE 21
OVERPASS

(Mulder pulls up to the overpass and runs onto it as the train slowly approaches him. His phone rings and he answers it.)

MULDER: Mulder.

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder, don't get on the train.

(She looks at X. Cut back to Mulder.)

MULDER: Why not?

SCULLY: Because they know where you are...

(Cut back to Scully.)

...and they know what you're doing.

(She stares at X while she talks. Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Who told you that?

(Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Look, Mulder, it's just too dangerous.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: Who told you, Scully?

(Cut to Scully. X stares back at her, eyes full of power. Cut back to Mulder as he turns and looks at the train.)

It's coming, Scully.

(Cut back to Scully. She turns away from X.)

SCULLY: Let it go.

(Cut to Mulder.)

MULDER: I can't.

(He turns and climbs over the railing, waiting for the train to pass under him. Cut to Scully.)

SCULLY: Mulder, don't get on the train.

(Cut to Mulder. The phone is away from his ear, but we still hear Scully over the sound of the train speeding under Mulder.)

Mulder. Mulder!

(Mulder jumps down and lands harshly on the roof of the boxcar, dropping his phone. He reaches for it as it slides off the side of the train. Cut to Scully, who hears static.)

Mul...

(She looks at X. Cut to Mulder, who struggles to maintain his balance atop the train.)

[TO BE CONTINUED ...]