As the standoff between Scully and Skinner continues (from 3X01),
Mulder bursts through the front door of his apartment and orders
Skinner to drop his weapon. Skinner complies, then produces the
computer disk containing the Defense Department's top secret files
on extraterrestrial life. He realizes the disk is the only leverage
the trio has in bringing Mr. Mulder's killers to justice, and
insists on keeping it himself. Mulder and Scully examine an old
group photograph of Mr. Mulder with his government colleagues. With
the Lone Gunmen's help, Mulder and Scully identify a man named
Victor Klemper from the group. Klemper is a Nazi War criminal and a
participant in Operation Paper Clip, a U.S. government operation
that provided safe haven for war criminals in exchange for their
scientific knowledge. Before the agents interview Klemper, Scully
learns that her sister Melissa is in critical condition at a nearby
hospital. Fearing an ambush by assassins, Scully joins Mulder in his
quest to locate Klemper.
The agents elicit little information from the elderly Klemper,
except that the group photo was taken at the Strughold Mining
Company in West Virginia, and his mention of Napier's Constant, the
base of all natural logarithms.
When the agents visit the ramshackle mine, they discover heavy
metal doors built into the rocky walls of the mountainside. The
agents gain access by entering Napier's Constant into an electronic
keypad. Inside, they find a seemingly endless row of filing cabinets
containing files and tissue samples on hundreds of U.S. citizens.
Their search is interrupted when a U.F.O. drops from the sky.
Simultaneously, a government hit squad surrounds the building.
Mulder comes under fire and runs for cover. He and Scully find an
escape route and make their way to safety.
Skinner pays a visit to the hospital where Melissa is being
monitored. There he meets Mrs. Scully, and Albert Hosteen, who prays
for Melissa's recovery. Skinner is alerted to a shadowy figure
monitoring the room. In a darkened stairwell, he is attacked by
Krycek and his accomplice. They overpower Skinner and steal the
computer disk.
Mulder and Scully make a second trip to question Klemper, but
when they arrive, they are informed by the Well-Manicured Man that
Klemper is dead. Mulder recognizes him as one of the people in his
father's group photograph. The Well-Manicured Man recounts how, in
1947, a spacecraft was reportedly recovered in New Mexico. This
event coincided with the formation of Operation Paper Clip. Mulder
suspects that Klemper was experimenting with the creation of a super
race-a hybridization of humans and aliens. The files stored in the
mountain, Mulder realizes, are vaccination records on hundreds of
millions of Americans who received smallpox vaccinations-a DNA
database of virtually everyone born since the 1950s.
Skinner threatens to expose the Cigarette-Smoking Man if any harm
should befall Mulder or Scully. He reveals that Albert Hosteen-who
read the computer disks-spread the contents amongst his Navajo
people in the ancient oral tradition, chapter and verse, file for
file.
Later, Mulder visits Scully at the hospital, and learns that
Melissa passed away during surgery.
