Shadows/Transcript

===SCENE 1===
HTG INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
PHILADELPHIA, PA
HOWARD GRAVES' OFFICE
(Pan along the desk. We see Howard Graves' name plate and a plaque that reads 'One to-day is worth two to-morrows Ben Franklin', pictures of Howard Graves with past and present presidents. LAUREN KYTE takes the pictures of Howard and Clinton off the wall and looks at it while crying. A co-worker, JANE, enters)
JANE: Lauren, I've been looking everywhere! (Lauren puts the picture down) Are you all right? You want some water?
LAUREN: No, I'm fine.
JANE: Oh honey, it's been a couple of weeks now. Do you want to talk?
LAUREN: No. Really, Jane, I'm OK. It's just that I don't know a lot of people who have died, that's all. I've never known anyone that's killed themselves.
JANE: Oh, maybe after everything gets packed away it will get easier. There won't be a constant reminder. Here's your paycheck. (Jane hands it to Lauren.) Come on... go home.
LAUREN: Ok. (Jane leaves. Lauren is about to leave and the plaque of Ben Franklin's saying moves on the desk. Lauren goes over and picks it up. She takes it with her and leaves.)
===SCENE 2===
NIGHT - ATM MACHINE
(Lauren is at the machine and makes the deposit of her paycheck. She is attacked by two men who take her into an alley. She screams)
===SCENE 3===
TWO HOURS LATER
(Two teens are walking by the same alley. A male and female. The male sniffs in the large garbage dumpster and waves the stink away. He looks up and sees a fire escape.)
MALE: Hey... I know a great place to crash... up that fire escape. Come on. I'll give you a boost.
(He hikes the girl on his shoulders as she tries to pull it down, but it's jammed. A body falls from above to their left and another body falls from the fire escape ladder. They are the two attackers of Lauren Kyte and the girl screams. They both run off.)
===SCENE 4===
BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL
BETHESDA, MD
(Mulder, Scully and another man walk into the morgue where two corpses lie under sheets on the slabs. On the other side of the room there are two women and a man standing there.)
MAN: Agent Scully, Agent Mulder, Chief Blevins assures us of your cooperation. We regret any inconvenience at this extreme hour.
WOMAN: We hope your expertise in extraordinary phenomena matters will help us in our investigation.
MULDER: You're not FBI, are you?
SECOND WOMAN: Have you ever seen anything like this before? (She hands Mulder and chart and pulls the sheet off one of the corpse's body. His arm flinches) Abnormal post mortem muscle reflex. Both corpses are still responding to high levels of electrostatic charge.
SCULLY: Any sign of external legions or surface burns?
SECOND WOMAN: None.
MULDER: Time of death? (She doesn't answer, just looks at the other two in the corner.)
SCULLY: Well, it can't be long. The body's still warm.
SECOND WOMAN: Somatic death occurred sometime over 6 hours ago. Their body temperatures have yet to drop below 98.3 degrees.
MULDER: Where did you find them? (No answer) Look, at least tell us the mode of transport. That might tell us why the bodies haven't cooled. (Still no answer from them) Hey, you called us down here. If you want some answers you have to give some. (The man finally answers)
MAN: They traveled 60 minutes by air.
MULDER: Thank you.
SECOND WOMAN: The most troubling aspect of their deaths is the throat area. (She walks over to an X Ray screen.) Larynx, esophagus, and hyoid bone all have been crushed like chalk. There is no evidence of tissue damage. It's as if their throats were crushed... from the inside. (Mulder and Scully take a close look at the X Rays of the men)
MULDER: Who are these guys? (No answer)
SCULLY: If you've conducted your investigation, why consult us?
WOMAN: Because of your work on the X Files. Have you ever seen anything like this?
MULDER: Ah, uh. Never.
MAN: Well, thank you for your time Agent Mulder, Scully. If any inquiry into this meeting be made, we request full denial.
MULDER: I'd say you people already suffer from full denial. (Mulder and Scully leave)
===SCENE 5===
HALLWAY
(Scully and Mulder walk down the hall outside the morgue.)
SCULLY: You lied. You have seen this before, I can tell. You lied to them.
MULDER: I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.
SCULLY: Who do you think they were?
MULDER: NSA, CIA, some convert organization Congress will uncover in the next scandal. It's not important who they are but what they have and I'm sure they have no idea because they pulled us in. I have X Files. Each case with an element of what we saw tonight. Residual electrostatic charge, internal mutilation without any external causality - but none has all the elements combined in one case.
SCULLY: How can the esophagus be crushed without the neck even being touched?
MULDER: Psychokinetic manipulation.
SCULLY: Psychokinesis? You mean how Carrie got even at the prom?
MULDER: The Russians were doing studies on it. The Chinese still are. Their findings are kept secret. (They get into an elevator)
SCULLY: Ok, I'm intrigued. How can we investigate, we have nothing to go on. (Mulder puts his arm around her shoulders and brings his eyeglasses up and exhales on them. There is a perfect fingerprint on each lens.
===SCENE 6===
HTG INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES - NEXT MORNING
(Lauren walks into work and scans the newspaper on a desk. Mr. Dorland's secretary comes up to her, scaring her.)
SECRETARY: Just getting in, Lauren? Mr. Graves used to let you get away with that but Mr. Dorland is in charge now. I was wondering if I could have a minute with him. (The secretary looks at his appointments. She pencils in as she talks)
SECRETARY: Tomorrow... at 3.
LAUREN: Can I see him today? It's really important. (Secretary's coffee cup topples spilling coffee all over her desk. They both start to wipe it up. Mr. Dorland comes out of his office)
MR. DORLAND: Is everything all right out here?
LAUREN: Can I speak with you?
===SCENE 7===
DORLAND'S OFFICE
(Lauren enters and Dorland shuts the door. Dorland motions to the chair in front of his desk)
DORLAND: Please. (Lauren sits)
LAUREN: I'm here to give my two week's notice.
DORLAND: Lauren, Jane told me about your crying in Howard's office and I wanted to tell you that you aren't alone. As a matter of fact, we share something special. Howard and I started this company 10 years ago and as long as I've known him he had no interest besides work. So we became like family. I was his brother and you were like a daughter to him. So, of course, I feel very close to you and I want to take care of my family. Stay, Lauren. Please, the company needs you. Especially now. (He reaches down and takes her face in his hands.) I won't let you leave, Lauren. (A bracelet on his wrist tightens and he flinches, taking his hands from Lauren.)
LAUREN: What's wrong? (Dorland finally loosens the bracelet.) I can't. I have to leave. I can't be here anymore.
DORLAND: You've got two weeks. (Lauren leaves his office.)
===SCENE 8===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, DC
(Mulder is looking at a computer screen with a picture of one of the corpses.)
MULDER: Mohamed Amalaki. Convictions: Illegal possession of firearms. Illegal possession of explosives. Falsification of export licenses. (Scully walks around him with a file and puts it on his desk)
SCULLY: He has ties to extremist group operating in the US. The Isfahan. They take their name from a city in Iran. Recently they've been working out of Philadelphia.
MULDER: That's 60 air minutes.
SCULLY: I'll talk to the Philly P.D.
===SCENE 9===
BROAD STREET - PHILADELPHIA
(Mulder and Scully are in the alley of Lauren's attack with a cop)
COP: It was last Wednesday night. I was on routine patrol. This is where we found them.
SCULLY: Who discovered their bodies?
COP: Nobody. It was about 10. I was on patrol. Just saw them hanging around. The folks that come around here, they don't witness very much. You hear what I'm saying? (Mulder walks off, Scully and the cop still talking. Mulder sees an anxious woman at the ATM. She leaves and he looks at it.)
===SCENE 10===
FBI OFFICE
(On the surveillance film from the ATM, we see an older man taking money out.)
MULDER: A daily visual record is made of everyone who makes a transaction.
SCULLY: We'll just have to interview everyone who was at the machine before 10 last night.
(We see Lauren at the machine and being dragged off by the two attackers at 9:45.)
MULDER: There. Back up.
SCULLY: (reading in her file) Lauren Kyte. 858 Franklin, Bensalem. Why would the Isfahan being robbing someone for 40 bucks at an ATM machine?
MULDER: Look at that. (He stops the film and there is a ghostly flash across the screen. Hovering over them.)
SCULLY: It's another person.
MULDER: Maybe, maybe not.
SCULLY: Well, the resolution is too poor. It won't help much to enhance it.
MULDER: That leaves only one person we know we can talk to.
===SCENE 11===
LAUREN KYTE'S HOUSE
(She's in the process of moving. She is going to wrap glass things in newspaper when the plaque from Howard's office catches her eye on the mantle. She picks it up. She is startled by a knock on the door. She looks through the keyhole. It is Mulder and Scully)
LAUREN: Hello?
MULDER: Miss Lauren Kyte, please. (She opens the door and Mulder flashes his badge.) I'm Agent Fox Mulder and this is Agent Dana Scully. We're with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Do you mind if we come in?
LAUREN: Um, I was just in the middle of ...
MULDER: Thank you. We won't be long.
(He squeezes through the door way and past Lauren into the house. Scully enters and smiles at Lauren, who closes the door behind them. Scully shows pictures to Lauren)
SCULLY: Have you seen either of these two men before?
LAUREN: No.
SCULLY: Take your time.
LAUREN: I'm sorry. I've never seen them before.
SCULLY: I'm afraid you have. (Scully shows her another picture) This is a surveillance picture from your ATM. (It's a picture of Lauren and the attackers. Their faces clear.)
MULDER: Can you tell us what happened that night?
LAUREN: Um... These guys, I was depositing my paycheck. They grabbed me, I got away. I ran. I just didn't want to file a report.
MULDER: They were found dead. (She has a reaction. Scully gives her another picture)
SCULLY: Have you ever seen this person before? (It's the still frame from the surveillance video of the spectral image)
LAUREN: No. I'm sorry. I can't tell you.
MULDER: Does that mean you know?
LAUREN: It means I can't tell who it is.
MULDER: When you can tell me, this is the number where I can be reached at anytime, ok?
LAUREN: Ah hum. (Mulder and Scully leave)
===SCENE 12===
OUTSIDE
(Mulder and Scully walk to their car)
SCULLY: A woman her size breaking free and out running those men?
MULDER: And somehow crushing their necks? (They get into the car and put on their seatbelts. Lauren is seen looking at them through her window.)
SCULLY: She knows who the other person in that photo is.
MULDER: Packing, running away, from what? ( The parking brake goes off, the car is put into reverse, and the doors are locked. Mulder tries to brake, put the car spins backward.)
SCULLY: What the hell's going on?
MULDER: Hang on! (He turns around and steers the car speeding backward, trying to brake. The car is hit in the intersection by another car. It comes to a stop) You ok?
SCULLY: Yeah. (Mulder looks over at the other driver, shaking his head wondering what happened. Lauren is still looking out the window and she pulls the drapes when Mulder sees her.)
===SCENE 13===
GARAGE
(Mulder is crouched at the side of the dented car. Scully walks up.)
SCULLY: Hi.
MULDER: Hi. The paramedics check you out?
SCULLY: Yeah. I'm fine. Except I have a waiting-in-line-at-the-DMV-sized headache.
MULDER: Mine's more IRS sized.
SCULLY: They check out the car?
MULDER: Yeah, it's brand new. Only a 100 miles.
SCULLY: Then someone tampered with it while we were in her house.
MULDER: Mechanic said everything is in proper order. Nothing cut, nothing greased. Check out the lights.
SCULLY: They are on.
MULDER: They're not. The filaments are heated due to massive levels of electrostatic charge. Just like the bodies at the morgue. And isn't it interesting that Lauren Kyte was present at both incidents?
SCULLY: She was in our presence the entire time we were at her house.
MULDER: What if it's possible somehow to raise a body's electrostatic charge to levels we've been seeing and use that energy to affect objects?
SCULLY: If a person could generate that much energy, their body would break down. They'd start glowing like those lights.
MULDER: Well there's evidence of this all through the X Files. Furniture moving untouched, objects levitating, unexplained electrical discharges. Frequently people who have psychokinetic power are unaware of their own capability.
SCULLY: Are you saying Lauren Kyte crashed our car?
MULDER: Either that or a poltergeist.
SCULLY: They're here... (imitation of the little girl from the movie, "Poltergeist")
MULDER: They may be.
SCULLY: Oh, come on Mulder, look at the tangible evidence. Two Mid-East extremists are killed trying to assault a woman working for a manufacturer of parts for the Defense Department. While we questioned her our car is sabotaged. Now in both those cases, someone else may have committed those acts. Maybe the same someone we saw in those ATM photos. The mystery isn't psychokinetic energy, it's her accomplice. (They both notice the lights of the car are out.)
===SCENE 14===
HTG INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
(Lauren drives into the parking lot and gets out of her car. Mulder and Scully are sitting in their new rental, Mulder with binoculars, Scully going through papers.)
SCULLY: She's clean. No arrest, not even a traffic ticket. The only thing is, she's in deep with her credit card company... $15,000. (They look over at Lauren, mad at a sign painter painting over Howard Graves' parking spot with a new name, Tom Braidwood (Who happens to be a second unit director and Frohike on the show)
LAUREN: No, no. (She grabs the stencil out of the painter's hands) I'll talk to somebody, just go.
MULDER: A little upset over losing a parking space, wouldn't you say? So, who is Howard Graves anyway?
===SCENE 15===
FBI HEADQUARTERS
(Scully is pouring over the microfiche film. Scully gets Mulder's attention and they read an article from a newspaper. Howard Graves Suicide Creates Shock.)
MULDER: She was his secretary. That's three people dead in the last month all associated with Lauren Kyte. (The newspaper article says Howard slashed his wrists in a bathtub.)
===SCENE 16===
CEMETERY - DAY
(Mulder and Scully pull up to the cemetery to see Lauren put flowers on a grave. They watch her as she sadly walks away from the grave site. They get out of the car and go to the grave she put flowers on. It's Howard Graves'.)
MULDER: You don't see too many bosses graves without people dancing on it.
SCULLY: Look at this one. (There is another maker next to Howard's that reads, \'93 Sarah Lynn Graves September 8, 1966 to August 3 1969". There's a groundskeeper planting flowers nearby.)
MULDER: Excuse me, Sir? Is there an office here so that I can get information on those people?
GROUNDSKEEPER: I attend every funeral. I'm the last person to see them put to rest.
MULDER: Do you know how Sarah Lynn is related to Howard Graves?
GROUNDSKEEPER: His daughter. They were at home one day and he didn't latch the pool gate. She drowned. His wife left him a year later. She's buried in a plot in the Northeast corner.
MULDER: Thank you, Sir.
GROUNDSKEEPER: You're welcome. (He leaves. Mulder and Scully go to Sarah's grave again.)
SCULLY: She was only three years old.
MULDER: If she'd lived, she'd be Lauren's age. (Scully looks at Mulder and he looks at her.)
===SCENE 17===
DARKROOM
(Mulder is developing pictures)
===SCENE 18===
SCULLY'S APARTMENT
(Scully is typing into her laptop)
SCULLY (VOICE OVER): Further investigation into Lauren Kyte's personal history reveals an estrangement from her family. Phone records confirm no contact with her parents for the last two years. Her actions observed during surveillance (Go back to Mulder looking at photos taken during the surveillance as Scully continues speaking) indicate a strong relationship between Lauren Kyte and her employer, the late Howard Graves. (Back to Scully typing) Was this relationship somehow the motivation for his suicide? How are the attack and the subsequent murders of the Isfahan agents related, if at all? I am certain that the answers to these questions lie in finding the identity of Lauren Kyte's accomplice. (Back to Mulder looking at the negatives of the photos. One is of Lauren Kyte's house, the next of her front window. There's a figure standing in the window.)
===SCENE 19===
CRIME LAB
(The photo of the figure in the front window is being put on the computer and manipulated. The framing of just the window of the photo is enlarged and we see the figure is Lauren Kyte, but right behind her is another figure. Mulder and Scully are with the computer operator.)
SCULLY: Enhance it by 10. (He does.) That's Howard Graves. He's alive.
MULDER: Not necessarily.
===SCENE 20===
LAUREN KYTE'S HOUSE - NIGHT
(Lauren is asleep in the bed. Her cat is sitting on the end of it and hisses and takes off. We can hear banging. Lauren wakes up. She is scared. The stairs creak. Lauren slowly goes to her closet and gets out a bat. She slowly moves to the door, opens it and looks into the dark hallway. She enters the hallway and the pounding gets louder and we can also hear a man saying, 'No.' She walks down the hallway and there are other voices too, I can't make out what is said besides, 'No.' Then a reverberating 'Don't do this to me.' Lauren moves to the bathroom. The door is ajar and she pushes it open with the bat as we hear, 'No. Stop. No, no, no. Please!' She guardedly moves into the bathroom and turns on the light. The shower curtain is closed. The man's voice is now crying. Lauren pulls open the shower curtain and there is a tub full of water, with a cloud of red in the middle. It grows and soon the entire tub is full of blood.)
LAUREN: Oh, Howard. (The tub drains)
===SCENE 21===
NATIONAL BUREAU OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS
PHILADELPHIA, PA
(Scully and Mulder walk down a flight of steps in a stairwell.)
SCULLY: I think Howard Graves faked his own death.
MULDER: Do you know how difficult it is to fake your own death? Only one man has pulled it off, Elvis.
SCULLY: He and Lauren Kyte are in on something. Maybe an illegal deal through his company. Something the CIA was interested in.
MULDER: You may be right. (They get to the door to the office of Ellen Bledsoe, ME.)
SCULLY: Wait, you think I'm right?
MULDER: Sure, all you got to do is prove that Howard Graves is still alive. (He knocks on the door.)
===SCENE 22===
ELLEN BLEDSOE'S OFFICE
(We see a dour black woman's face, Ellen Bledsoe, I presume.)
ELLEN: Howard Graves is very dead.
SCULLY: May we see the autopsy report, please? (Ellen tosses it across the desk)
ELLEN: Knock yourself out. (Scully reads the report)
SCULLY: Cause of death... arterial hemorrhage...
ELLEN: 4 to 6 liters of blood down the tub.
SCULLY: Well there seems to be some blood work missing here.
ELLEN: We only do that when we suspect homicide.
MULDER: I don't suppose you ran any dental conformation?
ELLEN: What for? It was him.
SCULLY: How did you know?
ELLEN: It said so on the toe tag.
MULDER: Who made positive ID on the body? (Scully looks through the report again.)
SCULLY: Lauren Kyte.
MULDER: But Howard Graves was cremated. There would be no way to run a dental check or to get a DNA sample.
SCULLY: Yes, there is. His body's tissues and organs were donated.
===SCENE 23===
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL
(Mulder and Scully and another man in a lab coat are standing in a hallway looking through a window to the Cryogenics lab while the man talks. There are lots of people working in the lab.)
MAN: Howard Graves is in 5 different people. They harvested his organs immediately after death. His kidneys were sent to Boston, his liver to Dallas, and his corneas to Portland, Oregon. They've all been transplanted. Because of his age, we could only cryo-preserve the dura matter, the membrane of the spinal column. We have Mr. Graves' hospital records, we'll extract a sample, run a test and in a couple of hours... confirm the identity of the donor.
===SCENE 24===
HTG INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
PHILADELPHIA, PA
(There's a party going on. Balloons, champagne hats, lots of people, music, etc.)
JANE: I knew you would rush, so I made sure to have your check before you leave. (She hands it to Lauren) Oh, I'm going to miss you. (They hug. Jane gets teary eyed. Lauren smiles and gives her a glass of champagne.)
LAUREN: What? Here.
JANE: Bye.
LAUREN: Bye. (Lauren walks away from her. She goes to her desk which has all her stuff in a box. She puts her desk nameplate in it. She takes the box and starts to leave, but turns and goes into Howard's office instead, careful to see no one was watching her.)
===SCENE 25===
HOWARD GRAVES' OFFICE
(The office is bare of all personal effects from the beginning of the show. The bare furniture is all that's left. Lauren looks around the office and is startled when the door shuts. She turns and sees Dorland leaning back to the door and smiling.)
DORLAND: You're going to leave without saying goodbye? Well, I've come to say goodbye... to wish you luck, and to leave you with this little thought... I know Howard told you and if it ever gets out, I won't waste my time trying to pin the source. I'll go straight to you.
LAUREN: And you'll do to me what you did to Howard? I know you had him killed.
DORLAND: Why would you say that?
LAUREN: He told me. (She takes her box off the desk and goes to the door, but Dorland grabs her. They jostle and Lauren gets out of the office and walks away. She walks into the party and uses the phone)
===SCENE 26===
UNIVERSITY OF PA OFFICE
(Mulder and Scully are reading and fidgeting. Mulder's cell phone rings. While he answers it, the lab guy enters and talks to Scully.)
MULDER: Mulder. (Cut between Lauren and Mulder)
LAUREN: It's Lauren Kyte. How soon can you get to my house?
MULDER: Why?
LAUREN: Please hurry. (She hangs up and takes her box and leaves. Dorland stands in Graves' office doorway watching her)
SCULLY: The tests are conclusive, the dura matter does belong to Howard Graves. He is indeed, very dead. (Mulder gets up and walks away)
===SCENE 27===
LAUREN KYTE'S HOUSE
(Lauren walks down stairs. She has her suitcases and puts them on the dining table. She finishes up packing up things at her desk. A car with a man and a woman pulls up outside her house. They get out and walk to the front door. Inside, Lauren is pacing. There's a knock on the door. She is relieved and walks across her empty house to the door. She opens the dead bolt. It slides closed again.)
LAUREN: Just a second. (She opens it again, she hears a noise behind her. She jumps out of the way of a kitchen chair that moves across the house and wedges itself under the door knob. The door flies open and the man and woman enter. The man has a switchblade in his hand.)
MAN: Go run the bath. (Lauren falls back into the living room floor.)
LAUREN: Get out of here! (The bulbs in the lamps around the room shatter. The man grabs Lauren and a table slams into him. She gets away. The only light in the room is coming from the window. A spectral presence moves from the dining room to the front door where the woman sees it and tries to get out of the house.) No! (The woman is flung to the door. Her neck is crushed. Lauren screams no as the woman falls to the ground. The man gets out from between the table and fireplace and runs to the door but is flung back on the floor. He looks all around. He stands up. He gets punched in the face, drawing blood but there are no hands. It's like Lauren can't move from where she stands. She screams some more. Mulder and Scully drive up outside. They hear screams from inside the house and race to the front door. Mulder pushes the woman aside as he opens the door. He looks into the living room and the man is hanging from nothing in the middle of the room. Lauren is crying. The man falls to the floor as Scully enters the house, gun drawn. They look at Lauren whimpering in a crouched position on the floor.
===SCENE 28===
INTERROGATION ROOM
(Mulder is sitting across the table from Lauren as Scully leans against a window ledge.)
SCULLY: You know, you're not under arrest. You're just here for questioning. The sooner you talk to us the sooner you get to go home. (Pause) What happened to those people tonight? (Lauren's not saying anything) Do you have any idea who they might be. Why did they attack you? (Mulder picks up a picture and walks around the table and shows it to Lauren)
MULDER: Do you know who this is? (The man from the beginning, the non-talker at the morgue walks in)
MAN: Scully, Mulder... He'll keep an eye on her. (He motions to an officer who enters the room after him.) Come. Now. (Scully and Mulder leave the room with him and the woman from the morgue is there too.)
WOMAN: You've seriously compromised our investigation.
MULDER: We were following leads pertaining to an X File.
MAN: I want to know every detail of your activities concerning this case.
SCULLY: What case? You're the ones who've been withholding information. (They all fall silent.)
MULDER: Then we have nothing more to talk about. (Mulder and Scully walk away. The woman and man follow them to the hallway.)
WOMAN: We believe HTG Technologies was selling restricted parts to the Isfahan. Partial serial numbers from their manifest were recovered in the wreckage of a July bombing of a Navy transport van.
MULDER: How's Lauren Kyte involved?
MAN: We don't quite know. Your actions impeded our investigation.
WOMAN: In any case, we don't have enough evidence to hold her. If she doesn't talk, she goes free and we lose our chance to break this company.
MAN: I could make her talk.
MULDER: My advise to you. Don't get rough with her.
LATER
(The door to the interrogation room opens.)
WOMAN: That was a waste of time. (The woman and man walk out. The woman keeps walking. The man regards Mulder and Scully off screen.)
MAN: Your turn. (He leaves. Scully and Mulder walk into the room.)
===SCENE 29===
INTERROGATION ROOM
(Scully and Mulder enter.)
SCULLY: Lauren?
LAUREN: I won't talk to you, either.
MULDER: Ok, then you're free to go. (Lauren looks up surprised and gets up from her chair. Scully throws a surprised look in Mulder's direction as Lauren walks by her. Lauren pauses at the door.)
LAUREN: I can't go back to that house.
MULDER: Why? Because of Howard Graves?
LAUREN: He's dead.
MULDER: I know. He's watching over you, isn't he?
LATER
(A tape recorder is rolling)
LAUREN: I don't know if you've ever been a secretary. Sometimes your boss can talk as if you weren't even in the room, which can hurt, you know? Sometimes... you're all he has to talk to. Which is how it was all the time with me and Howard. One night, late, I went into his office. He was crying, more scared than sad. The Pentagon contracts were being canceled, the company was going under, he felt personally responsible for each of his employees... seeing and feeling their fear every day... it really wore him down. Then this one time, Dorland came with that group... that Mid East group... Isfahan, that terrorist group. They'd buy parts at an outrageous price. Not just once, but for as long as they could get away with it. That night Howard was crying, he'd just found out the Isfahan had just claimed responsibility for killing a couple of sailors in Florida. He was never the same. And I thought that was why he killed himself. But he didn't... I saw ... Howard showed me how Dorland had him killed. Made it look like a suicide because he see Howard was going to put an end to the deal.
MULDER: So now Howard is protecting you?
LAUREN: It sounds so ridiculous.
SCULLY: But you believe it.
LAUREN: He was closer to me than my father. I told him that. I still feel his presence. Sometimes... I even smell his aftershave. If you just could've ... seen ... the things I've seen... I just... want all that to go away. I'm leaving. Maybe he can move on. (Scully gets up from the table and go to Lauren.)
SCULLY: That's not enough. You've been given the chance to tell him again. Take it. Tell him you love him, by showing him, by... helping us finish his unfinished business. Lauren, how will you ever be able to rest if he never can? (Lauren nods.)
LAUREN: Ok. (Scully nods too.) I'm a mess. I'm um, going to wash up. (She leaves.)
MULDER: What are you doing Scully? You don't believe.
SCULLY: Mulder, there's no such thing as ghosts or psychokinesis. I'm sure there's an explanation. But I believe that she believes. And my priority is to get her to help us stop Dorland.
MULDER: Well we may have just sacrificed our best opportunity to observe spectral phenomena.
SCULLY: I'm giving us a chance to solve a case that's tangible instead of chasing after shadows.
(Scully leaves leaving Mulder to ponder.)
===SCENE 30===
STAIRCASE
(Lots of FBI come down the stairs, Mulder with them. He goes to Lauren standing by a car. Scully approaches.)
MULDER: You ready? (She nods. Scully addresses the troops)
SCULLY: All right, everyone. We have a warrant to search the premises for evidence of the sale of restricted manufactured parts. The evidence may be in the form of falsified export licenses, parts manifests, communiques. It could be on computer disks or hard copy.
MAN: (from morgue and interrogation room) Once there, when in doubt, ask. We need this to be clean. This is the culmination of a year long investigation. If we don't come out of there today with something proving a connection to the Isfahan, this guy could walk.
SCULLY: Lets go. (The man break up. Lauren walks with Scully.) Now, it will most likely be in Dorland's office. We'll conduct the search, but we need you to guide us so we need you to be strong, okay? (Scully opens the back door of the car for her. Lauren gets in. The cars pull out.)
===SCENE 31===
HTG INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
(The FBI walk into the office. Scully walks in with them with her badge.)
SCULLY: Everybody stay calm. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ma'am, could you step away from those files, please?
(The FBI moves people around and out of the way and others start looking in files, drawers, reports, etc. Dorland comes out of his office. Scully and Lauren walk by him into his office. Mulder stays outside with him.)
DORLAND'S OFFICE
(Scully puts things into a box. Lauren searches through his bureau and books.)
LATER
(The man and woman from the morgue go to Mulder and Scully.)
WOMAN: This is all we could find.
MULDER: We don't have him. He's not even breaking a sweat. (Dorland is standing in a corner with the employees, engaging in small talk. The man walks up to Mulder.)
MAN: Our case is blown. A wasted year. This guy is going to walk. (The man and woman leave.)
===SCENE 32===
DORLAND'S OFFICE
(Scully walks to the door and out with a box of things taken from his office as Mulder enters)
SCULLY: Let's get out of here. (Mulder walks to Lauren still at the bureau. She is distraught.)
MULDER: Lauren, it's over. We have to go. (She looks around the room as Dorland enters.) What we're looking for isn't here. (Lauren takes a letter opener from the desk and smashes the glass in a picture frame and takes out the photo.)
DORLAND: Look! She isn't an agent. I've been more than cooperative and I don't want to be combative, but she has no right destroying my personal property. (Lauren takes a painting from the wall and opens the back. Nothing but a painting.
LAUREN: Destroying property? What about that van that blew up and killed those servicemen?
DORLAND: Oh, I don't know what you're talking about you stupid bitch! (Lauren rushes Dorland with the letter opener.)
MULDER: Lauren, No! (Dorland pushes her away and he is pushed against the wall by Howard. The door slams shut. Dorland starts gasping at his neck. He can't breathe.
LAUREN: Don't kill him. Help us find it! (Dorland slides to the floor. The track lighting explodes. The bulbs in the lamps explode. Mulder grabs Lauren.)
MULDER: Get down. (Outside the office, Scully hears the commotion and runs back to Dorland's office door. It's locked.)
SCULLY: Mulder! (Inside the office, it's dark and we hear Scully yelling. Pictures fly from the wall. Drawers open and papers fly around the room. The letter opener hovers in front of Dorland's face. It turns and flies into the wall. It slits the wallpaper about two feet and stops. The noise and flying papers die down and Scully bolts into the room. She looks around at the mess.)
SCULLY: My God. (Mulder walks across the wall to wall paper to the wall and takes a floppy disk out from behind the wallpaper.)
MULDER: I guess what we're looking for is here.
===SCENE 33===
LAUREN KYTE'S HOUSE
(A moving trailer is hitched to Lauren's car. Scully, Lauren and Mulder walk to it. Lauren is carrying a box.)
SCULLY: The US Attorney's office is going after Dorland with everything they've got. Including the murder of Howard Graves.
LAUREN: I'll come back to testify. (She puts the box in her trunk.)
MULDER: Where are you going?
LAUREN: Away from here. (Lauren gets into the drivers seat and starts the car.) Thanks. (She drives off.)
MULDER: Boy, she's in a rush to get out of here.
SCULLY: Out of here, or away from the ghost of Howard Graves? (They walk to the car.)
MULDER: Hey, Scully. Do you believe in the afterlife?
SCULLY: I'd settle for a life in this one.
MULDER: Have you ever seen the liberty bell?
SCULLY: Yes. (They get into the car and fasten their seat belts.)
MULDER: You know, I've been to Philadelphia a 100 times and I've never seen it.
SCULLY: You're not missing much. It's just a big bell with a big crack, and you have to wait in a long line.
MULDER: Yeah, (Mulder starts the car and drives off) but I'd really like to go.
SCULLY: Why now?
MULDER: I don't know. How late do you think they stay open?
===SCENE 34===
LAUREN'S NEW WORKPLACE
(Howard Graves' plaque with Ben's quote is on her desk. She brings a report to her new head secretary.)
HEAD SECRETARY: Miss Kyte, I asked for this 25 minutes ago.
LAUREN: I know. I'm sorry.
HEAD SECRETARY: Maybe that's the way they work back in the East, but here in the Midwest, punctuality is a virtue. (She takes the report and goes back to what she was doing. The coffee cup on the secretary's desk starts shaking. Lauren is nervous. The secretary sees it and covers it with her hands.) We really need to find a new office space. Every time a truck goes by the whole building shakes. (She takes a sip of her coffee. Lauren is relieved.) That's all Lauren. (Lauren goes back to her desk. She smiles at the plaque.)
[THE END]
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