Part Six

All hell broke loose inside the dual rooms. Mulder’s face had gone stark white, alerting his former partner and colleagues and the historians that something was dreadfully wrong. A phone call to Margaret Scully echoed in Mulder’s ear, the ring unanswered. Touching base with Skinner confirmed their worst fears.

Both Mrs. Scully and the baby were missing, and all signs pointed toward a double kidnapping.

Scully was ashen and trembling. Doggett was snarling orders into the phone, and Reyes was attempting to comfort the bereaved parents.

Glancing around her at the havoc wrought so swiftly, Sydney made a decision. She collected Nigel’s cell phone and ducked out the door. It had been knocked free of its connection and had rung once, and only once. In the aftermath of the bad news, she was assured that no one would notice she was gone until she was well beyond reach. With one hand she dialed an order to end the call forwarding altogether; with the other, she grabbed the doorknob to the stairwell.

Gut instinct told her that their killer wasn’t going to be easily found by high tech means. He wanted a return to the past. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t employ a little technology to suit himself.

Thumbing a small plastic wheel set into the side of the cell phone, she murmured, "Bingo!" There on the display was the phone number for the last call. It was an unfamiliar number and the time stamp was unmistakable. A quick dial and she recognized the same modulated voice. She half-ran, half walked down the stairs, glad at least that she was carrying a fair amount of cash and was wearing flat, rubber-soled shoes that would mask the sounds of her departure.

"Very good, Sydney. I knew you wouldn’t fail me."

"Where’s the baby and the woman?" she demanded. "You send them home safely, I help you. Otherwise I assume they’re already dead and you get nothing."

The chuckle at the other end of the line set her teeth on edge. "Don’t patronize me. We both know the rules to this little game. You give me what I want, you get the woman and the baby. You fail, they die. They die badly, I might add."

Poker playing was nothing compared to the bluff she threw back at him. "Not a prayer, buster. You kill them, you get squat. How about a trade? I come with you, and I stay with you, until you get what you want. You have my word, and you have me."

She wasn’t naïve enough to believe it would be that simple. She was merely buying time.

But she didn’t notice the shadow that trailed her into the parking garage. The figure slipped silently in behind her, folding out of sight behind the driver’s seat of her jeep as she pulled away.

Go to Part Seven.


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