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Flight into Egypt 7:
Going Home
Author:
Vickie Moseley
Going Home: Chapter
11 Seeing You Again in all the Old Familiar Places
New
World Industrial Park
Richmond,
VA
June
10, 2005
9:15
am
A
weather-beaten For Sale or Lease sign greeted them at the
end of the drive. Weeds
were already pushing up the asphalt of the once expansive
parking lot. Ivy
ran rampant along the concrete planters and up the smooth
exterior of the structure.
The sun glared off the windows, but as Mulder
looked at the building, he could see where several seals
were broken, allowing moisture to give the glass a smoky
appearance. The
place looked like a futuristic ghost town.
"You
said there was a particle accelerator here?" Wright
asked, a little taken back.
"Yeah.
It was sort of hidden in plain sight, for lack of a
better term. They
had it in a lab on the third floor," Mulder replied.
"And
you think this guy's been holding up here?"
"Just
a hunch, Jeremy. He's
got no place to go. You
read the file. I
don't think he needs 'soft light' any more.
I think he just needs to be completely away from
people."
"Well,
this is sure the place for that," Wright muttered
just under his breath.
"Shouldn't we be calling for back up?"
"We
don't even know for sure if he's up there," Mulder
pointed out. "Let's
take a look around first.
You call out the cavalry too many times to chase
wild geese and they aren't so fast to show up when you
really need them."
Wright
looked worried, but reluctantly nodded.
The
front door was padlocked. Mulder looked around and motioned for Wright to follow as he
headed to the back of the building, away from the parking
lot. A
rust-stained pad of cement showed where dumpsters had once
stood. A grey
service door rested in the middle of the concrete wall and
Mulder approached it.
Crouching down, he fingered the seam of the door
right next to the functional metal handle.
"It's been jimmied," he said to Wright
and then tugged on the handle.
"This is how he's getting in."
Wright
reached to his back and unsnapped his holster.
Mulder waited patiently and then pulled the door
open, stepping into the darkened stair way just inside.
Only
the light from the narrow windows gave any illumination,
but Mulder could hear a faint hum that seemed to echo off
the cinder block walls of the fire stairs.
Motioning with his index finger, he pointed up.
Wright nodded and followed Mulder up the steps.
At
the first landing Wright stopped and motioned toward the
door that led to the office space.
Mulder looked up the steps, certain that they would
find Banton on the third, and top, floor of the building.
Still, it was only good procedure to check out all
the floors. Grudgingly,
he allowed Wright to take the lead and they systematically
began searching the first floor.
All
the doors to the offices stood open, all the spaces vacant
of furnishings. A
few light covers hung down from the ceiling and a cracked
window had let rainwater stain a patch of carpet.
Beyond the occasional pile of rubble left in a
vacated office, there was nothing to be found.
The
second floor was a little more revealing.
In one of the offices, obviously an executive
suite, they found a pile of blankets on the floor.
Cans of soda and bottled water littered the area,
as well as a few empty fast food bags serving as trash
bins. "He's
been here recently," Mulder noted, showing a wet ring
on the bookshelf when he lifted a soft drink can.
"You
think he's still here?"
"Do
you hear that hum?" Mulder returned and Wright
nodded. "I
think he's managed to connect the accelerator to the
electrical grid again."
Wright
walked over to the wall and flipped the light switch.
Nothing happened.
"I don't think the power's on in here."
"The
accelerator pulled so much power it was on its own
transformer," Mulder replied.
They
made their way up to the third floor.
The hum was louder there and the air crackled with
electricity. The
hair on the back of Mulder's neck raised in warning.
"Jeremy, I think we may want that back up
now," he hissed as he stood staring at the door on
the opposite end of the long hallway.
Wright
pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.
Putting the phone to his ear, he shook his head and
then brought the phone down to look at the display.
"Shit.
No service."
"Probably
from that," Mulder said, pointing to the strobing
effect of lights coming from the window of the far door.
"Maybe
I can get reception outside.
Just stay put," Wright ordered and quickly
headed back down the stairwell.
"Yeah.
Sure thing," Mulder muttered, creeping further
down the hallway.
When he made it to the door, he threw himself flat
against the wall and then shuffled closer.
As he reached the door, it suddenly opened.
A gloved hand grabbed him around the neck and he
was pulled into the room amid the surreal light show.
"Agent
Mulder," the shaky voice rasped. "Long
time, huh?"
"Dr.
Banton, what are you doing?" Mulder growled.
He reached to take hold of Banton's hand around his
neck, but the scientist pushed his hand aside.
"You
don't want to risk touching me, Agent Mulder," Banton
said sadly. "I
don't want to hurt you."
"You
didn't mind hurting those other people," Mulder
pointed out as Banton slowly let go of his throat.
He was shocked at the scientist's appearance.
The man had been haggard when they'd found him ten
years ago but the skeleton standing before Mulder could
barely stand. His
eyes were red-rimmed, as with a drug addict, but Mulder
knew that wasn't the case.
In those eyes he saw a madness that comes from
living with terrible, unending pain.
"Those
other people deserved what they got," Banton said
cryptically. "Do
you know what I've been through, Agent Mulder?
The tests, the torture?
Every day to wake up hoping that it might end, that
all the pain might finally kill me.
And then, they didn't come.
I thought they'd forgotten me.
After a couple of days in my prison, I found I
could escape. They
had vanished, every one of them.
So I left. I
wasn't afraid of my shadow anymore.
They had successfully harnessed my 'powers',"
he sneered. "They
turned me into a monster, more of a monster than I'd
already become! So,
finding myself on the opposite side of the world, I got on
a ship hoping to make it home. When that quake and tsunami hit -- "
"It
changed your power. The disturbance in the earth's magnetic field disrupted your
own magnetic field."
Banton
rewarded Mulder with a small grin.
"I always knew you were smart, Agent Mulder.
No one else on the ship felt the quake, we were on
the high seas and we sailed right over it.
But I felt it. It knocked me unconscious.
When I came around, I knew what I had to do."
"You
killed a person on board," Mulder interjected.
Banton
nodded sagely. "It
was an accident. But
it was a fortuitous accident because it alerted me to my
new powers. And
it allowed me to formulate my plan."
"All
those people you've murdered, they were all involved in
your work here, weren't they?" Mulder asked, watching
Banton move toward the instrument panel along the wall.
"I
thought at least one of them would have made inquiries.
At least one of them would have given a damn what
happened to me. But
no one did. No
one."
"They
thought you were dead," Mulder tried to explain.
"They thought you'd been disintegrated by the
dark matter."
"Oh
sure, that was the easy out.
Where was Chris? I suppose he got rewarded for betraying me," the
scientist hissed.
"Actually,
I think he was murdered for his part in your abduction,
Dr. Banton. I
think his body was the one placed in the accelerator for
Agent Scully and me to find."
Banton
swallowed hard and shook his head.
"No matter. It's over. I can
leave now."
"Leave?
And go where?" Mulder asked.
Banton
favored him with a dead-eyed smile.
"Where I should have gone a long time ago.
I'm just sorry you're going to be making the
journey with me."
He turned and flipped more switches, the hum in the
room becoming much louder.
"Banton,
what the hell are you doing?" Mulder demanded.
"Finishing
the clean up, Agent Mulder.
There will be a big hole, but nothing will remain
of the monstrosity I've become.
Maybe some will learn their lesson." He walked calmly over to the door and pulled off the glove on
his right hand. Taking
hold of the knob, his touch effectively welding the door
closed.
"Wait!"
Mulder cried. "I don't want to die!
I'm not ready to die!
I have a family!"
Banton
threw his head back in a bitter laugh.
"That was very foolish of you, Agent Mulder.
Don't you understand?
They take everything!
Your life, your work, your loved ones.
They take and take and take and all you have left
is the hope of ending it all.
That's what I'm giving you -- hope that death will
be better than this hell I've been living for 10
years!"
"No!"
Mulder yelled. "Look Banton, I thought that way once, too, but it
doesn't have to be like that.
I thought they took everything, first my sister and
then my father and my mother and the woman I love, my son,
everything. But
I got most of it back.
I got back more than I'd lost.
Please, I don't want to lose what I finally
have!"
Banton
looked over at the counter on the wall of instruments.
It read 20 seconds and counting.
"There's no time," he said with a sad
shake of his head.
"Get
this door open! Please,
there's time. We
can make it. You
can make it. We'll
figure something out!"
After
a moment's thought, Banton walked over to the door.
Grasping the handle, he pulled with all his might.
The door tore from its welded lock with a scream of
abused metal. The
opening wasn't large, but it was enough for Mulder to
squeeze through.
"Come
with me," Mulder pleaded, as he crawled through the
opening.
Banton
smiled and shook his head no.
"This is my life, my wish.
You go back to yours."
Mulder
raced to the stairwell, the hum so loud in his ears that
he feared for his eardrums.
He hit the door to the fire escape running dead out
and grabbed the top railing just as the explosion hit.
Jeremy
Wright was standing in the middle of the forgotten parking
lot, trying to get someone to listen to him. "Look, we have a dangerous fugitive cornered in a
building on the edge of Richmond.
Send a SWAT team -- "
The
blast knocked the young man off his feet, sending him
sailing through the air to land in a heap some five feet
from where he was standing.
Horror blossomed on his face as he took in the
building, now crumbling before his eyes.
"Mulder!" he cried out and ran around
back toward the door they'd found open.
As he ran, he disconnected the previous call to the
Bureau and dialed 9-1-1.
"This is an emergency.
There's been an explosion at the New World
Industrial Park in Richmond, Virginia, on Staples Mill
Road about two miles south of the I-64 interchange.
Send fire and ambulance, we have at least one man,
possibly two inside.
Hurry!"
St.
Mary's Hospital
5801
Bremo Rd.
Richmond,
VA
3:45
pm
Scully
hit the Emergency Room like a small invading force, her
mother and Charlie close behind her.
Walter Skinner was standing in the waiting area
talking to Agent Wright.
Without issuing a greeting, Scully got to the
point.
"Where
is he, what's his condition?"
"Dana,
settle down. The
ambulance just got him here.
The doctors are still with him, no one is telling
us anything," Skinner tried to appease her.
"What
the hell happened?" she demanded, spinning to level
her glare at Jeremy.
"You said there was an explosion?"
"We
went to the building that used to house Polarity Magnetics.
The place looked deserted but the back door had
been jimmied open. When
we went inside there was a hum -- an electrical hum, like
under high power lines.
We went up to the third floor and we could see
lights coming from one of the offices at the end.
Mulder told me to call for back up but there was no
reception up there. I
went down to the parking lot; he was keeping an eye on the
door in case Banton decided to leave.
While I was on the phone, about five minutes later,
the place went up."
The young man was trying so hard to look
professional, but it was obvious that he was shaken to the
core.
"I
lost my father when I was 9, Ms. Scully.
If I had any part in this, so help me God -- "
"Jeremy,
you did every thing you needed to do," Scully assured
him. She
turned to Skinner. "Where
was he found?"
"In
the stair well, according to the Fire Department.
They had to remove a lot of rubble to get up to
him. He was
pinned by some fallen I-beams and there was glass from the
overhead lights. They
wouldn't give me any word on his condition, they just
loaded him as fast as they could and came here.
The site of the explosion is a madhouse, Homeland
Security and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are duking
it out in the parking lot but the Fire Chief told me there
was no radioactivity noted in the area Mulder was found.
They couldn't get closer to the lab and no one
could find Banton. I gave up trying to find out more and followed the ambulance
here. Dana,
I'm sorry we couldn't reach you sooner."
"We
were at the ballpark," Scully said, the words
catching in her throat.
"He was supposed to meet us there.
I was starting to get worried, I'd just tried his
cell phone when you called."
A
nurse opened the double doors leading back to the
examination area and Scully saw her opening.
She ran through the door, almost knocking the poor
nurse over in her haste.
She looked around wild-eyed and saw an orderly
moving a gurney with nurses and doctors surrounding it.
"I'm
looking for Fox Mulder," she called, hoping to be
heard over the noise of the busy ER.
"You
can't be back here, Miss.
You have to go to the waiting room," the nurse
she'd plowed into was taking her arm and leading her back
toward the door.
"No,
please, where is Fox Mulder.
Please, I need to see him," she tried again.
One
of the nurses accompanying the gurney let loose of the
bedrail and walked toward her.
"Are you his wife?" she asked.
Scully
couldn't breathe for a second.
The words wouldn't come.
"I'm -- I'm his -- "
"I'm
sorry, unless you're immediate family, you have to wait in
the lounge outside. Someone
will be out to talk to you shortly."
"He's
the father of my children," Scully murmured, tears
streaking down her face as she watched them move the
gurney into the elevator and disappear from sight.
"Miss,
you have to leave, now," the first nurse said
sternly.
Scully
bit her lip to keep from crying out.
Her chest was so tight she thought sure she was
having a heart attack right there.
She stumbled through the ER doors and into the
waiting arms of her mother where she finally succumbed to
her sobs.
6:45
pm
With
only a modicum of Federal intervention perpetrated by
Assistant Director Walter Skinner, the small band of
people awaiting word on Fox Mulder were allowed up to the
surgical floor. The waiting room was nicely appointed, with comfortable
chairs and couches and a big screen television.
The TV was tuned to CMT, the country music channel
-- a choice made by Scully's brother Charlie after the CNN
headline news had replayed the explosion in the deserted
industrial park one time too many for the family's mental
health. Last
report had listed two casualties from the explosion and
Maggie had been the one to tell Charlie to 'turn the
damned thing off!'
Scully
had stood for almost the whole time, staring out the
window. When
Bill arrived just before 7 o'clock, he was the only one
brave enough to approach her.
"Tara
and Karen have the kids at Mom's for now," he said
quietly, not daring to touch her.
She was standing so stiff, her arms wrapped around
her torso; he couldn't help but think her muscles would be
sore in the morning.
"Thank
you. Thank
you for taking care of them for me, Bill."
Her
brother nodded, swallowing hard.
"They'll be fine, Dana.
Every thing will be all right."
He
immediately regretted his words, afraid she might take
offense. But
her face crumbled and she drew in a sob.
"He can't die.
I love him too much.
He can't die," she said through her tears.
Bill
wrapped his arms around her shoulders, drawing her to him.
"He won't die.
He loves you that much, too," he said, kissing
her head.
"Oh
Billy," she sobbed. She was about to say more but he put a finger to her lips.
"He's
a good man, Dana. I can see how much he loves you, how much he loves the kids.
He's not my first choice for a brother-in-law -- or
whatever. But
you never were that interested in football players and I
think Drew Brees is probably a little young for you,"
he teased. At her confused look he grinned.
"Quarterback for San Diego."
She
grinned back at him through her tears.
"To be honest, Mulder would probably want me
to hook up with someone from the Redskins, if anyone.
That way he could get tickets to the games."
She pulled away a little and looked back to the
door leading to the 'consultation rooms', where the
doctors met with the families of the patients after
surgery. "I
just wish we'd hear something."
As
if on her word alone, the door opened and a nurse in
blue-green scrubs stood in the doorway.
"Is there a Ms. Scully here?"
Maggie
stood, but Dana smiled and shook her head.
"I'm Dana Scully."
"We
received a fax from the FBI.
Apparently, as far back as 1995, you hold Mr.
Mulder's medical power of attorney?" the nurse asked.
"Yes,
I did -- I do," Scully stammered.
"The
doctor is available to speak with you now.
If you'll just follow me."
to
be continued in Chapter 12
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