ALEX? Part 4
They parked at the warehouse, and got out of the car. Cornwall ran up to Marita.
"It's about time! I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing lady, but I'm not impressed! Now you tell me who you're really working for, because it sure as hell isn't Krycek!"
Alex stepped between Marita and Cornwall. "Did you get all the samples?"
"Who the hell are you?" He looked closer. "Hey, wait a minute, I know you. You're from the FBI." He looked over at Marita. "You Bitch! You set me up!"
The doctor lunged towards Marita. Alex grabbed the Cornwall's right arm, and twisted it behind his back. Within seconds he had the man on the ground, straddling him, with one knee on the doctor's back, the other knee on his left arm. Still holding the right arm, Alex used his free hand to grab the doctor by the hair, and pulled his head back.
He leaned his head closer to Cornwall's ear. "No one's here to set anyone up. Now, did you get the samples?"
"I'm not telling you anything. The only person I was obligated to was Krycek. Not some blond whore and fucked up G-man."
He twisted the doctor's arm. The man yelled out in pain.
"I am Krycek!"
"Fuck off. Krycek's dead."
"Look Doc, Three years ago I was sent to kill you. You were standing in your kitchen, cooking some kind of pasta and sipping on your brandy. I watched you beg for your life, while you pissed your pants, and cried like a baby. You told me you could be useful to me. You said that a killing a man with your kind of knowledge and skills, would be a waste, and that I may need you someday. I let you live because of that, and only because of that. "
"This isn't possible!" Said Cornwall, struggling to get up.
"I don't care if you believe me. All I'm concerned with is that you do what you're told, and make yourself useful, like you promised me you would. Otherwise, I'm taking back my gift, and it won't be a quick assignation like last time. You've had three years of leisure in a nice cabin, fishing everyday on your boat. I figure you owe some interest. Now, decide. Are you going to co-operate, or do I start doing my own experiments?"
The doctor went limp. "I got the samples."
Alex let the man up. "Have you started the process?"
Cornwall dusted the dirt off himself. "No. I was waiting for further instructions. Besides, no one told me what template."
"Adult male. Come on, let's get this started." Alex turned to Marita. "I'd understand if you don't go in. I know you don't like looking at those things."
"No, I'm fine." He was right though. She didn't like these types of places.
"You sure?"
"Yes. Let's just get this done." She followed him inside.
There use to be a dozen of these warehouses around the country. When they thought the colonists were transporting them, the leaders of their organization ordered all of them destroyed. By the time Spender realized they'd been double-crossed, only a couple remained. He spared them from destruction, not knowing what to do with them, but too greedy to risk letting go of any power they might give him one day. She wondered how Alex was handling the idea that the man, who he blamed all these years for damning his soul, was now partly responsible for saving it.
They passed by the templates to the workstation where the samples were kept. She tried her best to avoid looking at them. When cloning first started it would take months. A mother could give birth to a natural child before a scientist could finish cloning one. Cloning adults came afterwards, but again, the process was long and tedious. Gradually, advancements led to the making of what they called templates.
Templates enabled them to clone different genders of different ages to the point were all human genes were similar. The unique DNA of a particular human, alien, or both, would be added later. This streamlined the process drastically. What use to take months, now took only weeks. They were practical, but horrifying to look at.
Because complexion is a variation, their skins were translucent. You could see all the partially formed body parts inside. The bones were gel like, not having the data for size and strength. The worst was their faces, particularly the eyes. Colorless, but still developed, with no solid skin covering them, the eyes made them look like they were awake, watching everything that was going on.
It took Cornwall several hours to input all the data and start the process. They sat in silence for most of it, watching him. Eventually, he finished.
" All done." Said Cornwall. "Couple weeks from now, that gelatinous blob will look just like Alex Krycek."
"Good." Said Alex. "If that's the case, in a couple weeks, you can forget this ever happened."
"Of course," the doctor added with a smug grin, "that doesn't mean it will be Krycek. It won't have his memories or personality. In fact, without the proper brainwave manipulations, that thing will practically be a vegetable. It would have to learn how to walk and talk, just like a baby would. If Krycek set you up to do all this as some kind of resurrection scheme, it won't work."
Marita gave Alex a worried glance. She still wasn't clear on how he planned to pull all this off. Alex didn't seem worried at all.
"You just worry about the body, doc. I'll take care of everything else. I'll check back in a couple days. You run, I'll find you. Remember that."
"I'm not going anywhere. I'll fulfill my bargain. Besides, I want to see what you do with it."
Alex walked out of the church, cursing the fact that Scully was Catholic, and not some other denomination that knew the value of a simple quick ceremony.
He thought he'd never get out of there. The ceremony lasted forever. At least he got some pleasure, watching Mulder desperately try not to yawn. Luckily, his recent heart attack gave him an excuse to leave shortly after he signed the certificate. He started walking towards his car when he heard Skinner's name being called.
"Assistant Director Skinner?"
Alex turned around. He saw a young man with red hair. He couldn't have been older than 20, maybe 23. The kid was sweating. He never saw him before, and didn't think Skinner knew him.
"Yeah?"
"Assistant Director Skinner?" He asked again.
"Yeah?" Alex replied, again.
The young man went up to him, looked around, and stuttered, "I, uh, got the tape."
"What did you say?"
"You know the tape." He held out his shaking hand like a gun. "Pow pow?"
"And you are?"
He backed up and twisted the bottom of his T-shirt. "You d-don't need to know who I am. Meet me outside your apartment tonight at 7:00 I'll let you know what I w-want for it then "
Alex laughed. This guy didn't have a clue about what he was doing.
"Look kid, you don't want to do this."
"7:00." The kid looked around again, and ran off.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Scully asked, as they walked in the door.
Mulder didn't respond. He placed the baby bag down on the coffee table.
"Mulder?"
"I'm sorry. What?
"The day. Was it as horrible as you thought it would be?"
"Uh, No." He looked down at the ground, and rubbed the back of his head. "No, it wasn't. Say, did Skinner seem okay to you today?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. He just seemed distant."
She raised her eyebrows. "Mulder! It's Skinner. It's who he is. If he weren't distant, then that would be different. Besides, the man just had a heart attack. I'm amazed he was up to this in the first place."
He gave her a half smile. "Yeah, I guess."
"Are you okay?"
Mulder sat down on the couch. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Will started to fuss.
Scully sighed. "I think he needs changing."
"Well it's not going to be me. A morning at a church, and an afternoon with your brother, gets me off poop duty for a while."
As Scully took Will to his room, Mulder took the framed baptism certificate out of the bag. He went to place it on the mantle, beside the congratulations cards Scully received for Wills birth. As he set it down, one of the cards fell to the floor.
He picked it up. It was from Skinner. He checked the card again, and looked at the certificate.
He peeked his head into Will's room. "Hey, I'm going out for a while.
"Where are you going?" He heard Scully call, as he walked down the hallway.
"I just have some things to take care of." He called back. He grabbed his keys and left.
Alex waited. The little shit was late. He better not take too long. They were leaving tomorrow, and he had one last thing to do in Skinner's apartment. He wanted this to be over so he could get everything else done this evening, before it got dark.
He looked down the street to the car, where Marita was watching him. He could get her to go up there and do it, but he preferred she didn't go up there at all, never mind alone. Skinner might be unwilling to harm his own body, but Marita didn't have that protection.
A couple minutes later, the kid pulled up in an old Ford Tempo. He opened the passenger door.
"Get in" He ordered.
"You don't want to do this."
"Don't tell me what I want to do. Get in."
Alex didn't move. "Look, It's obvious you aren't that experience in this sort of thing. Haven't you given any thought to the idea that your blackmailing a man you know is capable of murder? I'm giving you a chance here kid."
"What I saw was vigilantism. The man had a weapon. I did some research. You're not going to kill me. You're not the type. Now get in."
Alex shook his head and got in the car. Before the kid could start the engine, Alex pinned him to the seat, and pressed his gun into the kid's forehead.
"Your research was wrong." He said.
"Oh fuck! Shit! What the hell are you doing?" the kid screamed.
"Shut up! You have no clue what type I am. I'd kill you right now, if I didn't think it would be such a pain in the ass to clean up the mess. Now tell me how you got the tape. Who gave it to you?"
"No one! I just took it!"
Alex dug the gun in deeper, "Don't lie to me! How'd you get it?"
"Honest! I just took it! I work in archives and sometimes, when I work nights, I go to the surveillance room to pick up the older tapes. No one was there that time. The whole thing happened while I was in the room. I saw everything. I decided to take it. Oh shit! I thought I could use it to get some money. Please! It's the truth."
"Where's the tape now?"
"In the trunk."
"Did you make copies?"
"Yeah. Three. They're in the trunk too."
Alex lowered the gun. "You kept all the tapes in one place?"
"You said it was obvious I didn't know what I was doing." He squeezed his eyes shut. "Are you going to shoot me?"
"Not yet, but if you mention this to anyone, and I mean anyone, I'll find out, and then I'll shoot you." Alex grabbed the keys and got out of the car. He found all the tapes in a backpack inside the trunk.
He threw the keys back inside. "Get out of here, and remember, anyone."
The car sped off. Alex shook his head, and laughed. That was too easy. He looked down to Marita, signaled that everything was okay, and headed up to Skinner's apartment.
Mulder sat in his car across the street from Skinner's apartment watching, stunned. Any doubt he had before was gone. Somehow, Krycek had gained control over Skinner's body.
He watched the car drive away, and saw Krycek entering the building. He waited a minute, got out of his car, and followed him inside.
As Alex was unlocking the door to Skinner's apartment, he heard the elevator open. He saw Mulder walking down the hallway.
Alex forced a smile. "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"Oh I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I'd stop in and see how you were doing." Mulder smiled backed.
"Fine. Um, I was just going in to pack. I'm leaving first thing in the morning, remember?" He opened the door Mulder followed him inside.
"Oh right. Where are you going again?"
"Puerto Rico." He lied.
As he shut the door, Mulder slammed him against it, dug into his pocket and brought out the gun.
"What the hell are you doing?" He yelled.
Mulder put the gun up to Alex's head. "Cut the crap Krycek! I know." He backed off, still holding the gun on Alex. "I don't know how you did it, but I'm going stop it. No way am I allowing a bastard like you come back from the dead."
Alex turned around, and glared at Mulder. "Why not? You did it."
Mulder lowered the gun, punched Alex in the face, and brought the gun back up.
Alex looked at him, and grinned. "Go ahead Mulder, shoot."
Mulder tighten his grip on the weapon.
" Don't get me wrong, I still have use for this body, but I think I can handle losing it a bit early." He looked around the room. "Skinner on the other hand-"
"Where is he?" Mulder demanded.
Alex shrugged. "Around here somewhere."
As Mulder turned his head to look around the room, Alex tackled him. The gun dropped. Both men went to the ground. Fists flying, they struggled to retrieve the weapon. Alex, being on top, was able to direct more blows, but Mulder was closer to the gun. In less than a minute, Mulder was holding the gun, again.
Alex backed away. Mulder stood up. Alex smiled as Marita appeared in the doorway, pointing her gun at Mulder.
"Hand it over." She ordered.