8ABX12 Badlaa

Doggett: Things that land in your inbox, huh, Agent Scully?

Scully: Good morning. I'm sorry I'm late. I didn't get a chance to look at the case file. The traffic's terrible.

Doggett: Beltway's a nightmare. Takes longer to get crosstown than it does a plane ride from India... which is where our victim flew in from last night — Bombay.

Scully: Who are we talking about?

Doggett: Hugh Potocki. Importer/exporter from Minneapolis. Laid over in DC on his way home, when all this blood drains from his body.

Scully: Did the ME see it? The body?

Doggett: Yeah. Tox test ruled out haemorrhagic fever, Ebola, anything exotic. Something killed this man but it doesn't seem to be any foreign disease.

Scully: No sign of forced entry?

Doggett: No. No one was seen coming or going from this room. The maid found the body 20 minutes after a bellman left Mr Potocki here. Whatever happened, happened fast.

Scully: So, basically what you're saying is that nobody knows anything.

Doggett: But then I guess that's why it's in your inbox. So, what do you think, Agent Scully? Haunted hotel room? Alien invaders? Sloppy vampires? There is one small thing. The cops missed it their first time around. [He pulls back the covers of the bed to reveal a small bloody handprint]

Scully: A child's print.

Doggett: Yeah. That's what it looks like. You know there was a ring of thieves when I was back in New York, they used kids for B&E jobs.

Scully: Mmm...

Doggett: Squeezing in through cracked windows, that kind of thing. But this, this is beyond.

Scully: Well, from what I see, Agent Doggett, from the way this man died... I doubt it was a kid who did this.

Doggett: Thanks. I'm not quite ready yet to lose all my faith in humanity.

Scully: But regardless, I'd say it's wise you keep an open mind.

---

Doggett: Big fellow, isn't he?

Scully: Big is a relative term, Agent Doggett. It took three strong men to wheel him in here. He tipped the scale at 402 pounds.

Doggett: Uh, Hugh Potocki was a big man, big appetites. Loved big cars, big houses, big business. Divorced twice. He carried two alimonies, one with child support. Never missed a payment. In fact, he seems to have spoiled his wives and kids.

Scully: I'm missing the point.

Doggett: It seems he loved big women, too. Considering the evidence and motives we can probably rule out his ex-wives as suspects.

Scully: Well, considering what I found here today I'd say I have to agree. Tissue damage. Massive trauma to the lower intestine and the rectal wall.

Doggett: Is that from something going in or coming out?

Scully: Well, unfortunately there's so much damage that it's hard to tell. I took MRIs, which reveal further shredding throughout the abdomen and, uh, into the stomach area.

Doggett: India's a major transit point for the Golden Triangle. This guy flew in and out of India half a dozen times over the past 18 months.

Scully: Are you suggesting that he's a mule? A courier of heroine or opiates? Drug dealer?

Doggett: Fills a latex balloon with heroine, swallows it. We've all seen this kind of thing before, but what if somebody got to him en route, forcibly extracted the drugs, tearing it from his stomach?

Scully: Well, I'd say, uh, that's a good theory, Agent Doggett, not to mention a graphic one, but there would have been traces left of drugs in his system. Nor does it account for the blood loss that this man experienced.

Doggett: Then we're right back where we started. Nobody knows anything.

Scully: Not exactly. I ran a decay analysis to determine the time of death. Liver temperature, build-up of gases, extent of rigor — routine stuff. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives us a range.

Doggett: What's the range?

Scully: 24 to 36 hours.

Doggett: Well, that's just wrong.

Scully: Well, it would mean that Mr Potocki here would have died before he left Bombay.

Doggett: No. It would mean that a dead man boarded a plane in India, changed planes in Paris, hailed a cab at Dulles, and then checked into a downtown hotel and tipped the bellman. In my experience, dead men don't tip, Agent Scully.

Scully: I told you to keep an open mind.

---

Doggett: [on phone] Yes. Thank you. Sorry to wake you. Good bye. [He hangs up]

Scully: Bad connection?

Doggett: Consulate in New Delhi. Three weeks ago an American businessman was found dead inside his hotel room. Take a look. [He shows Scully several documents] A Mr Albert Brecht of Spokane. The reports have been hard to piece together. The medical records are in Hindi. Death certificate's in Farsi and the news accounts are in... I don't know — letters I've never seen before, but I did get you a translation of Mr Brecht's autopsy results. [He pulls out another document] Internal trauma. Tearing in the abdomen. You're the doctor — it sounds like the same MO, doesn't it, Agent Scully?

Scully: Look at this. Albert Brecht's passport was a recent issue and it has his weight at 205 pounds whereas here, an Indian medical examiner has him listed at 238 pounds just two hours after his death.

Doggett: Well, if there's one thing people lie about, it's their weight.

Scully: Well, that's a pretty big lie. I mean, that's a 33 pound discrepancy.

Doggett: Well, he was a big man, that's for sure.

Scully: Yeah. As was our DC victim. All the better for accommodation.

Doggett: Accommodation?

Scully: Well, something has to account for the weight gain, Agent Doggett. What if, whatever it is that killed these men entered and exited them of its own free will? I mean, something... small... with small hands... living... inside the victims as a... as a stowaway of sorts.

Doggett: You know I agree that having an open mind is important to crime solving, but... this theory of yours requires an openness that I'm... I'm just not comfortable with.

Scully: I understand, Agent Doggett and I can't prove it... but I bet that if we had weighed Hugh Potocki when he first arrived here from Bombay that he would have been 33 pounds heavier than his corpse.

Doggett: It's a theory, Agent Scully, but to my mind and... pretty much the rest of me, it... doesn't work.

Scully: I appreciate your resistance but so far this evidence supports it.

Doggett: Except one thing... Even if there was something living inside of Hugh Potocki when he arrived here from Bombay... you said that Mr Potocki was already dead.

---

Doggett: The first dead body I saw, I was 19 and a marine. This boy... criminy.

Scully: Yeah. That's not all he claims he saw.

Doggett: That's what the cops told me. That's why I thought we should come down here.

Scully: He said he called his dad in, because there was something in his room. I asked him to describe it. He said that it was a munchkin. That it had no legs. And that it was keeping itself up with its arms.

Doggett: Well, that's a pretty good trick considering what I just found upstairs. Palm prints in the boy's bedroom. They match the one's we found in Potocki's room. And that's the good news. It just doesn't serve your theory because this thing didn't get in here in anybody's body. It came in through the bedroom window.

Scully: How can you be sure?

Doggett: There was another print on the sill outside the locked window. And somebody must have closed it after this thing got in.

Scully: Right. Which is exactly what the boy said that his father did. But it's the father that I have a problem with here. I mean he had none of the massive haemorrhaging that we found in Mr Potocki. In the coroner's initial report, he makes it sound like the guy died of a cerebral embolism. The one salient detail in the external exam were the eyes... in which only the blood vessels are broken. Unless that's just the first stage.

---

Scully: [to medical recorder] This is Special Agent Dana Scully. I am a medical doctor about to perform an unauthorised procedure on a body. The, uh... the subject is a Caucasian male. Age, uh... I don't remember at this particular time. His height is about six feet. And his weight is... quite possibly subject to change. I suppose distension could be due to decomposition gases... but that seems unlikely. [She makes an incision, starting at the base of the distended abdomen and going up to the sternum. Something in the abdomen begins moving. Startled, Scully backs up and knocks the equipment cart over, everything crashes to the floor, including her gun] Oh. [A small bloody hand reaches out of the incision]

---

Dr Burks: They're called Fakir — ascetic masters bound to acts of self-torture to attain enlightenment. We shot this video when I was travelling through India back in the late 70s... Oh, man, look at my hair back then.

Scully: Agent Mulder consulted with Dr Burks on occasion and I have to admit that I've been sceptical of him in the past but he does have certain insights.

Doggett: Well, we could use some insights.

Dr Burks: Uh, well, I'm embarrassed to admit but I'm not sure I know what the heck's going on here.

Scully: These ascetic masters... they have abilities?

Dr Burks: Oh, absolutely. And abilities similar to those you told me about on the phone have been ascribed to what are know as Siddhi mystics. The Siddhi are a very mysterious and particularly powerful order of Fakirs. These Siddhi, they pass on their secret practices from father to son gaining occult powers with each generation.

Doggett: What kind of powers?

Dr Burks: Powers of the mind. Powers that help them manipulate reality. Powers that allow them to become invisible or tiny as an atom.

Doggett: Well, I hope they're tiny. Where, whoever it is, is going.

Scully: Chuck... Could one of these Siddhi mystics make you believe that he vanished in a room when in fact, he's standing right in front of you?

Dr Burks: Totally. Or disguise themselves, appearing in front of you as, well, virtually anyone.

Doggett: I'm sorry, Dr Burks, you're a... you're a professor of what?

Dr Burks: I run the Advanced Digital Imaging lab at the University of Maryland. And, I dabble.

Doggett: You dabble. [to Scully] Well, this has been... insightful. [He leaves the room]

Dr Burks: Doesn't surprise me.

Scully: What?

Dr Burks: It's hard to believe in something when you can't understand it.

---

Dr Burks: Agent Scully?

Scully: Chuck. Thank you for, uh, coming down here again.

Dr Burks: Not at all. Uh... I'm just a little curious. I mean, it's always Mulder who'd been doing all the calling and...

Scully: This, uh... this case, I'm just... I'm trying to see it the way that Mulder would and... please have a seat.

Dr Burks: Of course. So, what's seems to be the problem?

Scully: You described these, uh, Siddhi mystics as being religious men.

Dr Burks: Extremely. They believe their powers derive directly from the divine.

Scully: So, presumably using those powers for murder would be in opposition of that?

Dr Burks: Worse. It would violate the very foundation of ascetic life. It would endanger their eternal soul.

Scully: Which got me thinking that, uh... if these Siddhi hold so fast to their orthodoxy then what would cause them to break their faith?

Dr Burks: I don't know.

Scully: Something human? Revenge?

Dr Burks: Well, maybe, um. [Scully hands him a Bombay Observer newspaper page, the headline reads; Vishi Disaster - 118 Die in Chemical Plant Disaster]

Scully: This is... an American chemical plant in a village in India called, uh, Vishi. It's just outside of Mumbai which is a better known to us as Bombay. About six months ago the plant inadvertently released a small cloud of methyl isocyanate gas. 118 of Vishi's mostly indigenous population were killed. But it wasn't very well reported over here. I spent all night cross-checking the victims of the disaster. And one... finally caught my attention. [She indicates a smaller article detailing another victim on the Vishi Disaster] Now, I'd say, right here. It's an 11-year-old boy... whose father is described as being a holy man of the Chamar caste.

Dr Burks: The beggar caste. Fakirs and mystics are.... well, often of low birth.

Scully: Do you think that this boy's father could be a Siddhi mystic like you described?

Dr Burks: He could be. But if he's out for revenge then why is he killing the people that he's killing?

---

Scully: She came out to call her son in for dinner. That's all we know.

Doggett: What are we doing here, Agent Scully 'cause I'm not sure.

Scully: What are we doing? A woman died of mysterious circumstances not three blocks away from a previous victim. External signs are a direct match. That woman's eyes.

Doggett: I saw her eyes. But dollars to doughnuts there wasn't anything that crawled up inside her. Now, I think we're reaching here and I don't know how to say it, but maybe you're seeing things that you want to see.

Scully: Are you questioning my integrity?

Doggett: No, I'm questioning the whole damn case. From your so-called expert, to the evidence you've chosen to ignore, to the fact that your approach has got us no closer to seeing a pattern or a motive or even catching this killer than we were when we started.

Scully: I asked you to keep an open mind.

Doggett: Yeah, well, I try to keep an open mind but it tends to shut my eyes.

Scully: There is something here, Agent Doggett. And I'll admit that it's hard to accept. But there is a motive and there is a pattern and there is a reason and we will see it... but not working like this.

Doggett: Yeah, well... I hope somebody sees it. [He starts to leave. Scully turns at the sound of Trevor climbing over the wall into the yard]

Scully: Trevor. Trevor, I'm Dana Scully...

Trevor: What happened?

Scully: Your father's in the house. I'm going to take...

Trevor: Where's my mom?

Scully: Trevor.

Trevor: He was here. The little man. I saw him. He... he followed me.

---

Dr Burks: Agent Doggett? Where is he? Is that him?

Doggett: If you mean the janitor yeah, that's him, right in there.

[Dr Burks begins setting up a video camera on a tripod]

Dr Burks: Agent Scully called and said that... you had arrested what might be an honest to goodness Siddhi mystic.

Doggett: Well, Agent Scully jumped the gun on that one. The only thing extraordinary about this man is he doesn't speak... to anyone.

Dr Burks: Well, where is Agent Scully?

Doggett: She left, after four hours of attempting to interrogate this guy. Unless he jumps up and does something mystical in the next ten minutes, we're releasing him. What are you doing?

Dr Burks: The man sitting there may not be the man sitting there. No one may be there at all, in fact.

Doggett: Not in the next ten minutes, there ain't.

[Dr Burks looks at the image on the camera]

Dr Burks: Oh, wow. Agent Doggett? You got to take a look at this. [He folds out the viewscreen so Doggett can see what the camera is recording, it shows an empty chair where Mr Burrard should be sitting]

Doggett: Come on. It's a trick.

Dr Burks: Yeah, but not of the camera.

Doggett: Wait, if... if he's not there...

Dr Burks: He could be anywhere.

---

Quinton: Do something!

Scully: Quinton, what's the matter?

[Scully and Mrs Holt see Trevor in the room with Quinton]

Quinton: It's him! It's the little man!

Scully: Who? Trevor?

Mrs Holt: All right, now you boys, you just stop playing around.

[Scully takes out her gun and aims it at Trevor]

Scully: Okay, don't move. Stay where you are.

Mrs Holt: Wait, wait what are you doing?

[An emotionless Trevor keeps walking towards Scully]

Quinton: Stop him! Shoot him!

Scully: I can't. [There is the sound of gunshots and Doggett runs into the classroom, gun drawn]

Mrs Holt: Oh, my god.

Doggett: What is it, what happened? Agent Scully! Scully. [He looks down at the figure on the floor, it is the beggar man, now dead]

---

Doggett: You going to be okay, Agent Scully? I got a drift of what happened in there... to you. I mean, sort of.

Scully: I shot a young boy.

Doggett: The good news is, you're wrong.

Scully: But it's what I saw. With my eyes, anyway. Do you know what it's like not to be able to trust your own eyes?

Doggett: Then why'd you shoot him?

Scully: Because it's what the boy saw. And in an instant I realised that it's what Mulder would have seen or understood. Because that's just how he came at things... without judgement and without prejudice and with an open mind that I am just not capable of.

Doggett: It's been a long night. Give yourself a break. This whole thing doesn't make any sense.

Scully: No... it did. In some way, it did.