Strange Encounter - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Valerie Jones
Last updated: 04/26/2007 02:10:46 AM

Chapter 3

Dana stood a little to the side, watching Mulder and quietly and trying to disguise her frustration. She was seriously beginning to doubt the wisdom or usefulness of this particular wild goose chase. Especially when it seemed to be going absolutely nowhere.

Mulder was flipping through the reports he’d gathered, occasionally scribbling something down on a pad beside him. After a moment, he realized Dana was there and looked up.

"Find anything?"

Dana crossed her arms. "Two of the ambulances reported missing within the time period we’re interested in remain unaccounted for."

"Where were they taken from?"

Dana sighed. She could already tell it was going to be one of those days. "Amber Lakes, Michigan and Reno, Nevada." Mulder’s head snapped up at that last.

"Come on, Mulder. They didn’t take her to Area 51."

"How do you know?"

Dana chewed her lip, counseling herself to patience. In her opinion, Area 51 was a modern myth. "Why would they steal an ambulance in Nevada and then drive all the way to Iowa to pick her up? You can barely make the drive in the time between when she was found and when the NSA took her, anyway." She moved over to lean against the corner of his desk. "It’s far more likely that they used one of these closer ones." She pointed to his list. "If they used a stolen ambulance at all. They might have repainted one of their own vehicles."

Mulder grinned. "Why Scully, how paranoid of you." Dana threw him a dirty look.

Mulder stood, taking his jacket from the back of his chair and putting it on. "C’mon, let’s get some lunch."

Mulder’s idea of lunch turned out to be a chilidog from the stand that usually occupied the street corner just opposite the FBI building. They took their food and walked toward a tiny park that was surprisingly empty for the midday hour.

"Mulder, what are we doing?"

"Hopefully, going on a lunch date." His smile was guileless. Dana had one very short moment of full-blown panic before she decided that he simply could not be implying what he sounded like he was implying. Then that, of course, left the question of what he really did mean. She let out the last of her tension in a sigh, and resigned herself to following Mulder off into the unknown once again.

They wandered up to a typical, well-worn picnic table and Mulder sat down. Dana settled across from him and started into her dog with gusto. She was hungry.

Mulder stared at the mound of relish and onions. "Y’know, I never imagined you as the type to like chilidogs with the works," he said.

Dana grinned at him through a mouthful. "Nectar of the gods." He chuckled.

"Agent Mulder?" Dana started at the soft voice directly behind her, and was gratified to see that Mulder was startled, too. She turned to find Ororo Munroe watching them with keen interest. She nodded at Dana. "Agent Scully."

"Ms. Munroe." Mulder stood to greet her. "Would you like to have a seat?"

Ororo nodded and seated herself next to Dana. "I am sorry I left your apartment so abruptly last night," she began, and Dana threw Mulder an accusing look. He had somehow managed to forget that little detail when she’d asked him how his evening had gone. "But it would not have been wise to distract your watchers any longer or they might have become suspicious."

"My watchers?" Mulder leaned his elbows on the table, lunch forgotten.

One slim eyebrow twitched. "You were unaware?"

He shrugged. "I guess I should have expected it. Are we free to talk here?"

She paused, then nodded. "Yes. For the moment, at least."

"Then can I ask a few questions?"

Ororo smiled, and her regal demeanor returned in force. "Of course, though I doubt it would do anything but waste precious time."

Dana saw anger flash in Mulder’s eyes. "The last time we spoke, you said that you would tell me more about yourself."

Ororo nodded. "I did. And I will. But I cannot afford to tell you very much."

"Why not?" Dana asked.

Ororo turned towards her, and Dana was impressed by the calm determination in her eyes. "Because your government has... powerful allies. If they were ever to learn too much about us, they would not stop until they had found us. I will not put my people at such risk."

"What kind of allies?" Mulder asked with such conversationality that Dana knew he was actually foaming at the mouth in excitement. It made him a horrible card player. He got so unreadable you knew he had to have a fantastic hand.

Ororo shook her head. "I do not know the details."

"I don’t believe you."

Ororo’s eyes widened in surprise at his blunt response, but she responded calmly, "There are enough people who know a little bit that my companions and I have been able to catch a glimpse of the truth. Perhaps we are wrong. But I will not risk lives on that possibility."

Dana filed that "companions" away for later consideration. They had seen only one companion so far.

Silence enveloped them for a moment. Dana found herself developing a modicum of respect for Ororo, though she was still a long way from either trusting or believing her.

"Tell us about your friend," Dana suggested. "I examined her myself. She appeared to be... invulnerable, for lack of a better term."

"And why did the people that touched her skin collapse?" added Mulder.

Ororo looked between them, considering. Then she seemed to consent to the requests. "Rogue is... special. She has a mutated chromosome that causes these effects."

"A mutant?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"She was born that way, Agent Mulder," Ororo said patiently.

"But how was her genetic structure changed?" Dana could no longer hold back her curiosity. Her brief glimpse of a water-breathing humanoid and the other strange variations she’d seen since joining the X-Files had made the topic of human mutation into, in her opinion, the real reason to keep the files open. "Is it a controlled mutation?"

"I do not know the origin of the X-factor, Agent Scully. And no, it is not controlled."

"The ’X-factor’?" Dana glanced at Mulder. "Why does everything weird have to have an ’X’ in it?"

"Please!" Ororo was beginning to sound annoyed. "I will have to leave soon. I came to ask you more about this man you said would know where Rogue is." She watched Mulder as she spoke.

Mulder nodded. "Cancer Man. But I told you that I don’t know how to find him. He finds me."

"Can you give him reason to come looking for you?"

Mulder considered the question and Dana’s stomach sank. He was going to do something foolish and probably dangerous, as well. She would never admit it to him, but the Cancer Man scared her.

"I might." He clasped his hands together on the table. "But how will that help? I can’t arrange a meeting or anything."

Ororo smiled grimly. "All I ask is that you lead us to him, Agent Mulder."

Fox Mulder shivered in the bitter cold of the parking garage and wrapped his coat more tightly around himself. He had called Scully from the plane, to give her the good news. It had taken some digging-only slightly illegal digging-and another trip to Paine, Iowa, but he had actually come up with a solid lead on Rogue’s whereabouts. And now he fumbled with his car keys, trying to delay as long as possible in the hopes that a certain person would choose that moment to act. Mulder wasn’t certain why, but he believed Ororo when she assured him that she and her friends would be able to keep up with him. Though he hadn’t yet seen anyone, and it had been two days since they’d talked.

Mulder finally unlocked the door and swung it open, tossing a manila envelope with its valuable contents onto the front passenger seat. He turned to get in, and found himself facing the Cancer Man across the roof of the neighboring car.

"What do you want?" Mulder demanded, trying to put as much loathing into his voice as he could. A little attitude would hopefully cover his sudden excitement.

In answer, the Cancer Man bent his head to light the cigarette in his mouth.

A pair of finger snatched the cigarette away. "Tsk tsk, miseur. Dese are very bad for you." The man, who Mulder could only assume had come from under one of the cars, turned the cigarette around and put it in his own mouth. The tip glowed orange, reflected in a pair of jet black Ray Bans. Cancer Man only stared at him, taken aback for the first time in Mulder’s memory.

"Who are you?" Cancer Man demanded when the other didn’t move. He backed up a step as if intimidated, but that didn’t seem right. Mulder had never known the man to act afraid of anything. He took another step, and Mulder suddenly understood. He began to shout a warning as Cancer Man reached into his coat, but the red-haired man had noticed. As Cancer Man drew a small black pistol, the other man’s hand swept across in a blocking motion that struck the Cancer Man’s arm just below the wrist. The shot was deflected toward the ceiling, and the loud explosion in the underground garage left Mulder’s ears ringing. With the other hand, the man landed a blow to the Cancer Man’s solar plexus. He took the gun away as the older man folded up, coughing. It was quick, neat, and very efficient.

Mulder closed his car door and hurried around the neighboring car to where the man stood holding the Cancer Man in what Mulder knew from experience was a rather painful arm lock. The purple-haired woman he had seen with Ororo walked up at about the same time, confirming what Mulder already suspected. This man was also one of Ororo’s "friends".

The Cancer Man stared at Mulder, a murderous rage boiling in his eyes. "Who are these people, Agent Mulder?" Cancer Man demanded.

Mulder shrugged. "We haven’t been introduced."

Cancer Man’s face became a mask. He stared at the purple-haired woman who stared back with flat disinterest.

"You wan’ get on wit it, cherie?" the man asked the woman. Mulder identified his accent as Cajun, which added to his curiosity. The French Quarter of New Orleans wasn’t a very big place to begin with, and was shrinking steadily due to the influx of the newer city around it. Real, homegrown Cajuns were hard to come by these days.

The purple-haired woman glanced at her partner, her expression one of faint disgust. "I only needed to see him." She turned and began to walk away.

"An’ jus’ what, exactly, am I s’posed t’ do wit him?" the man called after her.

The woman’s pace didn’t change. "Break his legs and throw him into the nearest sewer," the answer floated back. Then she stepped into the shadows beyond the exit ramp and was gone.

Mulder glanced in surprise at the man. Who were these people? Even Cancer Man’s expression had flickered at her suggestion, and Mulder fancied that he had seen a flash of fear.

The man glanced at the Cancer Man still caught in his grip. "Well, miseur, since ’Ro’d be upset if I did dat..." He smiled and loosened his grip. "I guess it’s y’ lucky day." He released Cancer Man completely and stepped back.

"You’re just going to let him go?" Mulder asked.

"F’ now." To his surprise, the man turned the gun he still held around and offered it back to Cancer Man, butt first. Mulder was fairly sure it was still loaded. So was the Cancer Man, to judge by his expression. He accepted the gun like it might suddenly turn into a viper in his hand, and then slowly put it in his jacket pocket. He seemed to regain his composure and his confidence with the motion.

"You have no idea what you’re tangling with here, boy," he said. Mulder could hear the threat clearly, and was glad that it wasn’t directed at him this time.

The other man smiled wryly. "I don’ care, neither."

Cancer Man blinked at him, as if surprised to find someone that wasn’t intimidated by him. Then he turned slowly and made his way toward the elevators. He did not look back.

The man standing beside Mulder turned and handed him a piece of paper. "Here."

"What’s this?" Mulder looked at the paper and saw an unfamiliar address written in flowing cursive letters that he would bet had to be Ororo’s.

"Don’ go home, Agent Mulder," the man said. "Meet us dere in twenty minutes."

"Why? What’s going on?"

"We goin’ t’ get Rogue, o’ course," he answered. Then he turned and walked away, passing quickly between the cars until the shadows had swallowed him as well. Mulder could only stare after him. He had the strangest feeling that these people were part of an even bigger mystery than the one Mulder had devoted himself to.

"The truth is out there," he muttered to himself, and went to his car.