mulder -- it's me -- i'm on the roof. no. i haven't. i've just climbed twelve floors. i'm hot and thirsty and i'm wondering, to be honest, what i'm doing here. i know that. but the threat was called in for the federal building across the street. mulder. when a terrorist bomb threat is called in, the logical purpose of providing this information is to allow us to find the bomb. the rational object of terrorism is to promote terror. if you'd study model behavioral pattern in virtually every case where a threat has turned up an explosive device. if we don't act in accordance with that data -- if you ignore it as we have done -- the chances are great that if here actually is a bomb we might not find it. lives could be lost -- mulder? jesus, mulder. i know you're bored in this assignment, but unconventional thinking is only going to get you into trouble now. you've got to quit looking for what isn't there. they've closed the x-files. there's procedure to be followed here. protocol. now what? so much for anticipating the unforeseen. had you. oh yeah. had you big time. i saw your face, mulder. there was a moment of panic. i just did. you're buying. something sweet. scully. where are you, mulder? is that you pounding? nice try, mulder. c'mon. open the door. mulder? tell me this is a joke. hang on. i'm gonna get you out of there. i need this building evacuated and cleared out in ten minutes! i need you to get on the phone and tell the fire department to block off the city center in one mile radius around the building -- don't think! just pick up the phone and make it happen! this is special agent dana scully. i need to speak to s.a.c. michaud. he's got the wrong building -- mulder found it in a vending machine. he's locked in with it. mulder. move away from the door. we're coming through it. can you defuse it? let's go, mulder. what are you doing? mulder -- -- mulder! get in the car! there's no time! they're asking for you, sir. all i told them was the truth. they have divided us, mulder. they're splitting us up. i meet with the opr day after tomorrow for remediation and reassignment. i think you must have an idea. they cited a history of problems relating back to 1993. because they wanted me to invalidate your work, your investigations into the paranormal. but i think this goes deeper than that. they're not doing this, mulder. i left behind a career in medicine because i thought i might make a difference at the fbi. when they recruited me they told me women made up nine percent of the bureau. i felt this was not an impediment, but an opportunity to distinguish myself. but it hasn't turned out that way. and now, if i were to be transferred to omaha, or wichita or some field office where i'm sure i could rise, it just doesn't hold the interest for me it once did. not after what i've seen and done. there's really no reason left for me to stay anymore. maybe you should ask yourself if your heart's still in it, too. i'm sorry. good luck. no. are you drunk, mulder? is that before or after you got the idea to come here? i thought you may have gotten drunk and decided to come here to talk me out of quitting. go home, mulder. it's late. mulder -- what are you doing? this is one of the firemen who died in dallas? and you're looking for? i can tell you that without even looking at him. conclusive organ failure due to proximal exposure to source and flying debris. this body has already been autopsied, mulder. you can tell from the way it's been wrapped and dressed. oh my god. this man's tissue. there's some kind of cellular breakdown. it's completely edematous. and there's been no autopsy performed. there's no y incision here; no internal exam. i don't know what killed this man. i'm not sure if anybody else could claim to either. you knew this man didn't die at the bomb site before we got here. you're saying the bombing was a cover-up. of what? mulder, this is going to take some time, and somebody's going to figure out soon enough we're not even supposed to be here. i'm in serious violation of medical ethics. yeah. i can't really talk right now. evidence of a massive infection. i don't know. mulder -- i've got a hearing tomorrow -- mulder -- i can't -- i'm already way past the point of common sense here i wasn't planning on it. particularly after spending a half hour in cold storage this morning. but i got a better look at the blood and tissue samples i took from the firemen. something i couldn't show to anyone else. not without more information. and not without causing the kind of attention i'd just as soon avoid right now. the virus those men were infected with contains a protein coat i've never seen before. what it did to them it did extremely fast. and unlike the aids virus or any other aggressive strain, it survives very nicely outside the body. that i don't know. but if it's through simple contact of blood to blood, and if it doesn't respond to conventional treatments, it could be a serious health threat. may i? i don't know, mulder. he didn't mention a park. i don't see any evidence of an archeological or any other kind of digsite. not even a sewer or a storm drain. the bone was porous, as if the virus of the causative microbe were digesting it. no. it didn't show up on any of the immunohistochemical tests -- it looks pretty green for this climate. all the equipment is brand new. do you live around here? you're not supposed to talk about it? who told you that? i think you better tell us. well, we're fbi agents. i don't know, mulder. that's the first question to answer, if we're going to find them. about a hundred miles of nothing in each direction. we've got two choices. one of them is wrong. i don't know why i think they went right. this is great. this is fitting. i've got to be in washington d.c. in eleven hours for a hearing -- the outcome of which might possibly affect one of the biggest decisions of my life. and here i am standing out in the middle of nowhere texas, chasing phantom tanker trucks. -- of what exactly?! they haul gas in tanker trucks, they haul oil in tanker trucks -- they don't haul viruses in tanker trucks. what do you mean by haul? what are you not telling me here? mulder -- i don't believe this. i don't fucking believe this. y'know, i've been here. i've been here one too many times with you, mulder. pounding down some dirt road in the middle of the night. chasing some elusive truth on a dim hope, only to find myself standing right where i am right now: at another dead end -- what do you think it is? this is weird, mulder. any thoughts on why anybody'd be growing corn in the middle of the desert? cool in here. temperature's being regulated. i think we're on top of something. i think these are some kind of venting. i hear the humming. like electricity. high voltage maybe. what do you think those are for? yeah? what are you doing? mulder?! mulder! where'd they go? i apologize for making you wait -- i've brought some new evidence with me these are fossilized bone fragments i've been able to study, gathered from the bomb site in dallas. yes. that the bombing in dallas may have been to destroy the bodies of those firemen, so their deaths and the reason for them wouldn't have to be explained -- yes. i know. nothing completely conclusive -- i hope to. we're working to develop this evidence -- agent mulder. in his haste, mulder had neglected to lock his door. scully is pushing it open. she's still in the same clothes. she looks beat. her eyes meeting mulder's. a gaze that says bad news. salt lake city, utah. transfer effective immediately. i already gave skinner my letter of resignation. i can, mulder. i debated whether or not to even tell you in person, because i knew -- you're on the verge, mulder -- please don't do this to me -- i have. i did. it's done. i'm contacting the state board monday to file medical reinstatement papers you don't mulder -- you've never needed me. i've only held you back. i've got to go. why was i assigned to you? to debunk your work. to reign you in. to shut you down. ouch!!! i think. something stung me. something's wrong. i'm having -- lancinating pain -- my chest. my. motor functions are being affected. i'm. my pulse feels thready and i've got a funny taste in the back of my throat. no -- it's -- i've got no allergy. something. this. mulder. i think. i think you should call an ambulance. cold. where are we? i can't. i can't go any farther. mulder. had you big time. mulder. what is it you find incredible? no, they don't. i don't believe the fbi currently has an investigation unit qualified to pursue the evidence in hand.