Episode 2X06
Air date: October 21, 1994
Written by: Paul Brown
Directed by: Michael Lange

Guest Cast

WASHINGTON, D.C.
11:23 P.M.

It's raining and dark when Mulder arrives home. He turns on his phone machine, and hears the message from Scully. She describes what happened in the supermarket when she scanned Duane Barry's implant. Then he hears glass breaking, Scully gasping, and then her voice crying out, "Mulder, I need your help! Mulder!" He grabs his coat and rushes out.

When Mulder arrives at Scully's building, the police are already there. He sees the broken window, blood on the window frame. In Scully's apartment, police are taking fingerprints, and photographs of the broken telephone, the spots of blood and hair on the coffee table. Then he hears the voice of Mrs. Scully, who is at the front door, trying to get past the police. Mulder goes to her and tells her that Scully isn't there. "Where is she?" she asks. "Where is she?"

DENY EVERYTHING

11:46 P.M.

Mulder talks to Mrs. Scully, who says she'd had a dream about her daughter being taken away. She says she was going to call Dana, but was afraid it would scare her. "She would have laughed at me anyway. She doesn't believe in that kind of thing, you know."

FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C. 8:03 A.M.

In Skinner's office, a meeting is taking place on the Duane Barry case. The Cigarette Smoking Man is sitting in the corner, observing. Krycek, Mulder, and several other agents sit around the conference table, while Skinner paces around the room. Mulder suggests that Duane Barry might have located Scully by means of the implant she was carrying, but the other agents are skeptical. Skinner tells Mulder to turn over his files to HRT. Mulder resists - he wants to brief them himself. Skinner tells him he's too close to the case - he's been up all night, orders him to go home and get some sleep. Then, to Krycek, "Make sure he gets home safely." Krycek seems a little disconcerted, but he nods, and goes to Mulder and urges him to come with him. Krycek leaves, as Mulder stands there, looking lost. Cigarette Smoking Man sits in the corner, smoking.

ROUTE 229
RIXLEYVILLE, VIRGINIA 11:23 A.M.

Duane Barry drives down a country road, Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" playing on the radio. He's driving fast, a little erratically, turning suddenly. A patrol car pulls out of a turnoff, siren and lights flashing. Duane Barry pulls over. The patrolman walks up to the car and asks Duane Barry to turn off the radio. Barry is uncooperative, keeps insisting that he has to be somewhere, he can't stop. In the patrol car, the APB on Scully's car comes over the radio. The patrolman sees the hospital bracelet on Duane Barry's wrist, blood and hair on it. He draws his gun and tells Barry to put his hands up and step out of the car. Barry refuses. "Please, for your own sake, don't stop Duane Barry." Scully begins to pound on the inside of the trunk. Duane Barry grabs his gun and shoots the patrolman. Duane Barry gets out and checks the trunk, where Scully lies, gagged.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
VIDEO PRODUCTION UNIT 3:11 P.M.

Mulder and a video technician study the patrol car video of Duane Barry's shooting of the patrolman. They zoom in on a shot of the open trunk, and see Scully inside. "She's alive!" Mulder exclaims.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
4:03 P.M.

Mulder listens to the tape of himself talking to Duane Barry in the travel agency. He's asking Duane Barry where the abduction site is, and Barry replies, "A mountain... went up... up... ascending... ascending to the stars." Krycek enters, bringing coffee for Mulder and himself. "How'd you sleep?" Krycek asks. "I didn't." Mulder goes across the room to a shelf of books and finds a phone book, Krycek following. He finds an ad for a tram ride up to Skyland Mountain with the legend, "Ascend to the Stars." Mulder tells Krycek to get his car and meet him downstairs.

In the parking garage, Krycek talks on his cell phone, telling his contact that Mulder thinks Scully's been taken to Skyland Mountain. "I'll hold him off until they locate her." He breaks off the call quickly when he sees Mulder coming. They get in the car and drive away. As they leave, we see the Cigarette Smoking Man sitting in his car watching them.

ROUTE 221
WARRENTON, VIRGINIA 5:43 P.M.

Mulder is driving. Exhausted from staying up all night, he dozes off and the car drifts into the other lane. A head-on collision with a semi truck is narrowly avoided when Krycek shouts at Mulder to wake him. Krycek tries to get Mulder to let him drive, but Mulder insists he's fine. Krycek points out, "You know, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island - they were all linked to sleep deprivation. The US Department of Transportation estimates that over 190,000 fatal car crashes every year are caused by sleepiness." Mulder replies, "Did they say how many people are put to sleep listening to their statistics?"

They arrive at Skyland Mountain. The tram operator says that the tram is shut down during the summer - Duane Barry arrived about 45 minutes ago, and is now driving up to the summit by the back road. Mulder insists on taking the tram up to the top, despite the tram operator's reluctance. Mulder tells Krycek to stay with the tram operator, and not to let him stop the tram.

As the tram approaches the summit, Krycek pulls out his gun and cold cocks the tram operator, then, pausing to smooth back his hair, shuts down the tram. Ignoring Mulder's demands over the intercom to know what's happening, he uses his cell phone to call his employer. "I've got him stalled up there. I'll hold until you advise."

But Mulder is not willing to wait. He climbs out of the tram through the roof hatch, and seems to be about to start climbing the cable. Krycek, observing this on a video monitor, restarts the tram. Mulder nearly falls off, barely clinging to the side of the tram. He manages to climb back onto the roof and rides there the rest of the way to the summit.

At the summit, now in darkness, Mulder finds Scully's car sitting empty, radio still playing. He sees blood on the steering wheel. He pops the trunk open, and finds Scully's cross necklace inside. He sees a bright light from a craft rising over the crest of the mountain, and hears Duane Barry laughing. He finds Duane Barry exulting: "I'm free!" They took Scully instead of him this time.

SKYLAND MOUNTAIN SUMMIT
8:46 P.M.

Search and rescue teams have arrived, and are searching the moutnain for Scully, while paramedics patch up Duane Barry inside the lodge. After the medics leave, Mulder begins to interrogate Duane Barry, who insists that Scully was taken by aliens. "Ask them! They know all about it." He sees three men standing out in the hall through the window blinds - it's Krycek, and the two men seen previously in Duane Barry's flashback, when he talked about the government's involvement with the aliens. But when Mulder turns to the window, the three men are gone. Mulder sees the blood and hair on Duane Barry's hospital bracelet, and becomes enraged, begins to choke Duane Barry. After a moment, he forces himself to stop, and pushes Duane Barry back into his chair. He leaves the room to cool off, leaving Duane Barry coughing and gasping for breath.

In the hallway, Mulder asks Krycek if there had been anyone else out there. Krycek says no. Then Mulder tells him that nobody is to go in or out of that room, and walks away.

Mulder stares out a window into the darkness. He sees an image of Scully on a table, a strange grid of lights on her arm. He sees a drill coming down towards her, and her stomach being inflated by a mysterious device. The thought of what might be happening to her torments him.

He hears a noise from Duane Barry's room. He hurries back, and sees Krycek sitting with Duane Barry. Angrily, he gestures Krycek to come out, and berates him for going in there. Krycek says that Duane Barry was gagging and couldn't breathe. Mulder insists, "No one is to interrogate the suspect - except me." He asks if what Duane Barry said about Scully. "He started whistling 'Stairway to Heaven'," Krycek replies.

Skinner arrives, angry with Mulder for disobeying orders. Someone calls out, "Call the paramedics!" Duane Barry is choking. Skinner, Mulder, and Krycek watch as the paramedics work on him, but soon he stops breathing.

FBI ACADEMY MORGUE
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA 6:07 A.M.

Mulder is standing at the side of Duane Barry's body on an autopsy table. When the pathologist arrives, Mulder asks for a copy of her report. She says that toxicological tests haven't been completed yet, but her preliminary finding for cause of death is asphyxiation. When Mulder asks to see the toxicological results when they're finished, she tells him he must go through military channels - Quantico is under military jurisdiction, and she's not an FBI pathologist.

DOWNTOWN WASHINGTON, D.C.
6:16 A.M.

Krycek meets with the Cigarette Smoking Man in his car in a parking garage. The Cigarette Smoking Man puts out his cigarette in Krycek's ashtray. Krycek asks, if Mulder's such a threat, why not eliminate him. "That's not policy," the Cigarette Smoking Man replies. "Kill Mulder, and you risk turning one man's religion into a crusade." Krycek asks about Scully, to be told she's been taken care of. "How?" "We tell you only what you need to know." Krycek says he thinks he has a right to know. "You have no rights, only orders to be carried out. If you have a problem with that, we'll make other arrangements." The Cigarette Smoking Man leaves. Krycek stares ahead, looking unhappy and unsatisfied with the conversation.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.

In Skinner's office, Mulder is being debriefed by several agents. Skinner reads from the autopsy report - Duane Barry is thought to have died from being strangled. Mulder admits choking Duane Barry briefly, but insists Barry was alive when he left the room. Skinner says Krycek confirms Mulder's story, but they're still not satisfied. OPC wants both Mulder and Krycek to take a lie detector test immediately.

In the hallway, Mulder grabs Krycek's arm and asks to borrow his car keys. Krycek protests that they're due at OPC, but Mulder insists he has to go somewhere first. Reluctantly, Krycek gives him the keys and watches thoughtfully as Mulder leaves.

OFFICE OF SENATOR RICHARD MATHESON
11:45 A.M.

Mulder meets X in the stairwell. X tells him he's wasting his time - the senator can't help him. No one can. "They have only one policy. Deny everything."

Mulder returns to Krycek's car, discouraged. Then he finds the Cigarette Smoking Man's cigarette butts in the ashtray. And he knows he's been betrayed.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C. 8:11 A.M.

Mulder has come to Skinner with a report detailing his suspicions of Krycek. He accuses Krycek of impeding a federal investigation, and possibly of the murders of Duane Barry and the tram operator. Skinner asks his secretary to have Agent Krycek report to him immediately. While they wait, Mulder shows Skinner the cigarette butts he's found, and says the Cigarette Smoking Man's group abducted Scully. Then Skinner's phone rings. He says that Krycek didn't come to work that morning, and his home phone has been disconnected. Mulder is furious, but Skinner tells him there's nothing he can do. "What can you do?" Mulder asks. "There's only one thing I can do. As of right now, I'm reopening the X-Files. That's what they fear the most." But, with Scully gone, it's a hollow victory.

Mulder meets Scully's mother by a fountain. She says she had the dream again, about Dana being taken away. Mulder shows her the cross of Scully's that he found. "It's something I never considered about her. If she was such a skeptic, why did she wear this?" "I gave it to her on her fifteenth birthday." Mulder tries to give it to her, but she tells him to keep it. "When you find her, you give it to her."

Mulder returns to the top of the mountain and stands, staring out into the night.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
CHRIS CARTER