Chapter Six

He didn’t have the pyramid.

Mulder’s thoughts were cut short by a sudden wailing shriek cutting through the air.  Out in the corridor a flashing red light appeared.  Inside the small side room the lights flashed a couple of times then came on steadily.  Mulder tore his attention from the glowing tube that held the body of his immediate boss, Walter Skinner, and followed the Well Manicured Man and his father as they strode purposefully out of the room.  The source of the flashing red light was in the control room and the place was suddenly a hive of activity.

The Well Manicured Man approached the young man he’d spoken to before.  The man nodded in acknowledgement and gestured towards the screen.

“We’ve got a trace on Scully’s implant.”  He said a trifle breathlessly.  “She’s inside the building.”

“What?”  Bill Mulder exclaimed.  Mulder froze.

“How did she get in?”  The Well Manicured Man asked with ill-concealed anger.

“I walked.”  A familiar female voice said loudly from behind Mulder.  He spun around to see Scully there with a serious looking gun aimed at the Well Manicured Man.  The people in the room went for their guns but Scully spoke before they could.  “Everyone just stay where you are or I will kill him.”  The gun stayed rock steady. 

“You had us all worried, Miss Scully.”  The target of aim told her.  “We thought you were dead.”

“Not as dead as you’ll be if anybody moves.”  She replied.  “Mulder, come and stand behind me.”  He wasn’t going to wait for a second invitation.  “I need your keys.”  She said urgently as he drew level with her. 

“But..”

“Your keys.”  She hissed and his fumbled in his pocket for them.

“You wont get out of here.”  Bill Mulder stated warningly as Scully took her left hand off the gun and held it out towards Mulder.  He immediately put the keys onto her palm and Scully brought the hand holding the gun around to keep his hand between hers. 

“Wont we?”  She asked with a smile.  The yellow stars were already spreading over them and in an instant the spot they had stood was empty.

“I’m sorry.”  The young man was already muttering.  “I’m not sure how she got in.”

“I’d have thought that was obvious.”  The Well Manicured man cut in derisively.  “The pyramid was attached to Agent Mulder’s keys.”  His eyes were frosty as they returned to the place the two agents had been standing when they disappeared.  A bleak smile crossed his face.  A pity he’d failed to recruit Agent Scully when he’d had the chance.

XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX

They were only inside the vortex for a few seconds.  The journey achingly sweet for the wanderers who knew only that they were together.  The next moment they consciously knew, they were standing facing each other in a dim and musty smelling corridor.  If Mulder hadn’t been so focused on Scully he would have appreciated that for the first time today he was in a corridor that had character… and plants, dead ones. 

Scully smiled up at him and he reached a hand out to touch her face. 

“I wasn’t sure that you were real.”  He said softly after a long moment.  “I saw you dead.” 

“I’m sorry.”  She replied.  “I didn’t know he was going to do that.  I tried to find you to tell you.”

“Does your mother know?”  He asked, worried.

“Yes.”  She reassured.  “I managed to reach her.”  He nodded, pleased that she had. 

“What happened?”  He asked, lowering his hand.  “Where have you been?”

“There’s no time to explain it all.  We’ve still got to get Skinner out of there.” 

“Skinner!”  Mulder exclaimed.  “They were doing something to him.  They were asking him about the pyramid.”

“Not the light.”  Scully’s expression became horrified.  Mulder nodded grimly.  She looked angrily at no one in particular and then at the keys still gripped in her hand.

“I wish we’d never known about this thing.”   She just stood there for a long moment.

“Where are we?”  Mulder asked and Scully looked around the corridor.

“Safe, for now.”  She told him.

“But your implant.  They said they could trace you with it.”  She was shaking his head before he’d even finished.

“They can’t trace it.  We’re being sheilded.  They can’t find you either, not the one in your head or the one on your arm.”  She gestured.  He’d forgotten about those, but now white hot anger flashed through him.

“How come you know about that?”  He demanded.  She touched a calming hand onto his arm.

“You have to trust me for a while longer, then I’ll explain everything.” 

“Trust you?  What’s going on?”  He was insistant.

“Do you remember what the pyramid is?”  She asked as calmly as she could.

“I know what Davidson claimed it was.  An alien communicator.” 

“That’s not what it is.”  She told him.  “It’s gives out a signal that is picked up by it’s partner pyramid and you can use it travel between the two points.” 

“Travel?” He questioned.  “Though the vortex, like we just did?  Hang on.  If your implant can’t be traced how come they managed to before you arrived in the control room.”  Scully smiled.

“I went in there by piggy backing on the pyramid signal, in order to get us out the operators had to wait until the signal from my implant overlaid with the signal from the pyramid.  It was a calculated risk.” 

“The pyramid was on my keychain.”  Mulder stated flatly.  “That was your hiding place.  I was your trojan horse to get inside the institute.”  He sounded bitter.

“It’s not like that Mulder.”  Scully insisted.  “I didn’t trust the people I was going with.  I didn’t want them to get the pyramid until I knew that I could trust them.”  She sighed.  “I took the risk of going in there to get you out.  They were going to kill you.” 

“Kill me?  My father offered me a deal to work for them.”  Mulder exclaimed.  Scully frowned.

“You didn’t take it?”  She said horrified.

“I didn’t get a chance.” 

Scully sighed deeply and looked at her partner.  He looked tired and mournful. 

“Come on.”  She told him and led the way down the corridor.  He followed her in silence until she stopped in front of a heavy wooden door.  From inside the room filtered the classical music of Bach and Mulder stiffened at the memory of it.  Scully knocked politely. 

“Come in”  A low voice told them.  Scully locked her eyes with Mulder’s for a long moment as she held her hand on the door knob.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.”  She said quietly and opened the door.  Mulder frowned and trailed after her into the room.  The room was a mass of shadows and turned the haphazard piles of books and files into alien shapes in the extremities of the room.  The bookcases around the edges of the room were filled beyond capacity, hence the overspill onto the floor.  Mulder’s eyes lingered over everything until they moved to the single point of illumination and met the eyes of a man behind the desk.  The man exhaled a thin stream of smoke and held Mulder’s gaze steadily.  Mulder’s eyes flew to Scully, who was standing across the room looking even more distant.

“What’s going on?”  Mulder demanded.

“We’re still inside the institute.”  Scully said softly.

“What?”  He exclaimed.

“Welcome to my office, Agent Mulder.”  The smoking man smiled.  Mulder shot Scully a venomous glance to which she tried not to react and then focused on the man.

“Will someone answer my questions.”

“Not at this time.”  Was the only answer he received.  “Except to say that we,”  he indicated Scully in the definition.  “are the only chance against the colonists.”

“You’re in it with Them.”  Mulder threw the statement at Scully.

“Mulder don’t be stupid.  Do you really think that I would do that?”  She demanded from him.  “I’ve trusted you in the past, now you have to trust me.”

“Blind faith?”  He asked bitterly.

“If that’s what it takes.”  She acknowlegded. Their eyes met and they fought it out on a different level.  Finally Mulder came to a conclussion.

“Alright Scully.” 

“Good.”  She smiled and turned to the smoking man.  “We’re going to go and find Skinner.”

“Where is the pyramid?”  He asked.

“I have it.”

“Perhaps I should take it to the Phoenicia.”  He took a drag off the cigarette.

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