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Carlton Hotel, Landsey, Georgia.
July 24 1995, 8.18pm
Every year it was the same. Julia leaned back into the plush green velvet of the sofa and looked again toward the door. Every year they vacationed together in the same week. The same hotel - at least, it might as well have been. The hotel was always old, always expensive, always the same type of fake olde-worlde luxury. Precisely the opposite, Julia knew, of the hotels he had visited with her mother.
She should be glad her father chose to vacation with her at all, Julia chided herself, reaching for her low-alcohol drink again. After all, the senator's lifestyle left him little free time, and she was twenty-two now - old enough for him to wash his hands of her. But since her mother's death in 1980 their July vacations had become a tradition. In the beginning, before the house was sold, it was because he didn't want to be surrounded by memories of her in the week she died; later, they simply chose that week for their vacations. Since Julia left home for college, it was almost the only week she got to spend time with him.
Julia checked her watch again. His phone call was taking longer than expected. She looked around the room again: the walls were papered with a velvet pattern that recalled an English manor house, a room where country gentlemen might enjoy port and cigars. The furniture added to the impression: plush sofas and large easy chairs, low Victorian-style tables, thick rugs over a polished wood floor. Only the bar, with its tall stools and rows of bottles, its ash trays with garish advertising slogans and the collection of shining pint-glasses, seemed at odds with the decor.
Julia could remember her mother surprisingly well, considering how young she had been when they lost her
A stray draft made her shiver. She glanced over to the French window. It seemed tightly shut. It was odd, though, that her clearest memories of her childhood were the times she had spent alone. Odd, because she had not been a solitary child
She turned her eyes to the French window again. The light in that area seemed odd. There was a polished brass handle which would open the French windows onto the terrace. The brass was so shiny it seemed to be glowing.
Julia shook her head, telling herself she was imagining the glow. Preoccupied, she stood up and walked slowly over to the window. She had found a clearing in a wood once, when she was six years old. The wood had been forbidden to her, but one day she had braved her parents' anger and skulked away to explore. The clearing was hidden - she could remember scratching her face when she forced her way through the bushes. All flowers and sunlight. A beautiful, secret place.
Unconsciously, she reached out a hand to touch the glass of the window. She barely noticed the cold, or how easily the locked door swung open at her touch. Trance-like, she stepped across the threshold
***
CASE: #XGE 079365
DATE: 25 July 1995
SUBJECT: Suspected kidnap of Julia Bryant
FIELD REPORT (interim): Agent Dana ScullyPage 2 of 2
as the last known location of the other alleged victims is identical in every case. There appears to be no other connection between the alleged victims. However, it seems clear we are not dealing with a simple case of kidnap.
In the absence of any mundane explanation, Agent Mulder believes we must look for a paranormal root to these events. At this stage of our investigation, I cannot concur.
***
though at least, Scully reflected as she retrieved the second page from the fax machine, he hasn't mentioned aliens yet. It could only be a matter of time.
It was an odd case. The two of them had been sent out to investigate what appeared to be a straightforward case of abduction, or kidnap, though none of the usual indications of kidnap had so far been found. Indeed, the only thing about the case that seemed unusual was that the two X-files agents had been assigned in the first place. Until, when they investigated, they had discovered that the girl, Julia Bryant, was not the first who had disappeared from the hotel. Thus far, they had been told about two others.
It wasn't that Mulder and Scully hadn't been assigned to stranger cases. It was that this case seemed so normal. Three missing persons, no sign of violence, no indications of kidnap, nothing - in Scully's opinion, to indicate any supernatural or extraterrestrial element at all. Yet, not only had Asst. Director Skinner assigned this case to the X-files with no apparent reason, he had also demanded the interim report Scully had just sent. What was going on?
Shaking her head, Scully made her way back to the car. Mulder was still at the Carlton Hotel. He had wanted to stay and look around the place, to soak up the vibes, although of course, he hadn't put it that way.
Scully didn't know it yet, but Mulder's speculation about a supernatural element involved in the case was about to be confirmed.
***
Carlton Hotel
25 July, 10.29pm
How could a young woman disappear by walking through a French window from a bar full of people? No one had witnessed her abduction, no one had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, yet her father, Senator Bryant, insisted she had been kidnapped. Fox Mulder disagreed. There was no ransom demand, no individual or group claiming responsibility. The lack of any indication of violence was characteristic of the many cases of alien abduction he had investigated, but he had dismissed that theory as well. In his opinion extraterrestrials might take a group of people together, or several unconnected people from different locations, but this case Three people, different times, exactly the same location.
Mulder was convinced that the best way to investigate this case was to study the location, rather than - as Scully would have it - to search for some connection between the victims in the hope of finding a motive. The location was the connection, after all.
Walking from the hotel reception into the bar - the scene of the "crimes" - he reviewed the facts of the case once again in his mind. He knew Scully thought him too quick to cite the paranormal. She didn't seem to see that occasionally it was the only explanation that would fit all the facts. Though even Mulder's open mind had not yet formed any plausible theory, paranormal or otherwise.
Mulder sat on one of the tall bar stools and turned to face the French window. The bar was empty - closed for the day (despite the manager's strenuous objections) to permit their fullest investigation. The bar could have been reopened that evening, but so far, Mulder hadn't bothered to authorise it. If his hunch about the case was correct, reopening the bar would endanger others.
He became aware of a sound - for a moment he thought it was his imagination - a low pitched growl, but quiet, very quiet. Mulder's attention was suddenly drawn to the ground outside the French windows. Had he really seen light there? Automatically, he looked at his watch, noting the time: 10.31pm. The sound was gone.
Mulder walked quickly to the French window, reaching out to grasp the handle.
"Don't do that."
Startled by the voice, Mulder spun round. He had thought he was alone. But the voice belonged to a man, standing right behind him.
The man strode past Mulder, opened the glass door and stepped through. The door began to swing shut behind him.
"What are you doing?" Mulder demanded. He pulled the door open, intending to follow the stranger, only to jerk his hand away with a yelp.
The man turned, his stern face clearly visible in the lights of the bar. "I warned you."
"It's hot!" Mulder looked down at the brass handle the man had grasped so easily, nursing his injured hand.
"No," the man informed him. "It's cold. Approximately one hundred degrees below zero centigrade." The ghost of a smile touched his lips. "Of course, it's rapidly getting warmer."
"How is that possible?" Mulder could now see the coating of frost on the handle. He wondered why he hadn't seen it before. Then he realised the incongruity of it. Frost - in summer. Indoors. He stepped over the slightly raised threshold. Mulder shivered. It was cold.
Outside the French windows was a white stone terrace. The man walked slowly around the terrace, close to, but not touching the low stone wall. He was wearing a dark grey suit, similar to Mulder's own; his shoes made no sound as he walked. He did not answer Mulder's question.
"Who are you?" Mulder demanded, determined to be answered. After all, this man was technically trespassing on a crime scene.
"Steel," came the monosyllabic reply.
"And I am Sapphire." The woman who spoke appeared as unexpectedly as Steel had. She was a beautiful blonde, wearing an ankle-length blue dress in some chiffon-like material. She held out her hand and Mulder took it without thinking.
«He is Fox Mulder, American, 34 years old »
"Special Agent Fox Mulder, FBI." She still held his hand, so he fumbled in his jacket with his still-painful left hand, belatedly producing his Federal ID.
«In good health. Life expectancy »
«Sapphire.» Steel's thought cut her off abruptly. «Does he know anything?»
«Not yet. There's something special about this one, Steel.»
«What?»
"I'll tell you when I know." Sapphire released Mulder's hand, smiling briefly at him. "May I see that?" she asked.
Mulder, seeing no harm in the request, offered his ID card. She touched it, but did not take it from him.
"FBI?" Steel questioned.
Sapphire released the card. "Federal Bureau of Investigation," she explained. «Law enforcement.»
"Ah." Steel's tone spoke volumes of contempt.
Mulder, having recovered his composition, decided it was time to assert himself. "You two are trespassing on a crime scene. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Crime?" Steel turned to Mulder. Steel was an appropriate name: the man's eyes were grey and hard.
"Three people have disappeared "
"Five," Steel corrected calmly. "And there will be more."
"What do you know about this?" Mulder chose to ignore - for the moment - Steel's correction of the number of missing.
"Not much. But we will soon. And you're interfering."
***
From the car in the hotel parking lot, Mulder and Scully watched as the lights went out, one window at a time. The restaurant, the bar the lights in reception dimmed, and the hotel sign above the door remained defiantly aglow. Casting a final glance up at the black shape of the hotel, Scully started the car and drove away.
"Well?"
Scully shrugged. "Sapphire and Steel. They sound like code names from a bad sixties spy drama." She glanced at Mulder. "What do you think?"
Mulder looked at the road ahead. "My first reaction," he said, "was to assume they're either both mad, or somehow involved in all this."
"Past tense, Mulder?" Scully noted. Does that mean you've changed your mind?" Her thoughts were plain: Here comes another crazy theory ?
"I'm not sure. It's still the easiest assumption," Mulder replied. "But I've been going over everything in my mind. Something doesn't quite fit."
***
Carlton Hotel
11.30pm
In the deserted bar of the Carlton Hotel, the lights slowly grew brighter, like a stage as the curtains open. Sapphire stood, motionless and silent, in the open doorway of the French windows.
"Anything?" Steel asked her. He stood a few paces behind.
"Nothing," she told him, her voice low. "Just a balcony."
Steel nodded. "Now go through."
Sapphire hesitated, then stepped across the threshold. Her eyes widened, and she walked forward a few more steps. As she moved around, her eyes began to glow a brilliant blue. "Steel, it's there's life here." She spoke slowly, as if uncertain.
"Life? Human life?" Steel demanded.
But Sapphire hadn't finished. "Yes, there are people here. And there's something else. This is a room, Steel. It's not outside at all. There's a table, right here." She held her hands flat above the ground and leaned forward a little, as if testing the strength of a surface. Except the surface wasn't there. Or, at least, it wasn't visible.
"And chairs " Sapphire continued. "And here - " she held up her hands as if to a wall, "there's glass. I think it's some sort of cabinet." Abruptly she turned to face Steel. "Is this what you found here?"
"No. You know we sense different things, Sapphire. I found a room, but none of the details." Moving for the first time, Steel walked up to, but did not cross, the threshold. "What are you seeing, Sapphire? The past?"
Sapphire shook her head: a brief, deliberate gesture. "I'm not seeing, precisely. It's more like remembering."
"The past, then," Steel concluded impatiently.
Sapphire, not answering, walked over to the "table" again. She ran her fingers lightly along the invisible surface and for an instant her eyes glowed blue again. "It's synthetic, Steel," she said. "Entirely synthetic. It must be the future that's here."
"How is that possible?" Steel asked.
"I don't know." Sapphire held up a hand. "The walls Steel this makes no sense. This is very old. The past and future are somehow mixed up here."
"Mixed up with the present " Steel repeated. He stepped out onto the terrace. "You said there are people here. Are they the ones who disappeared?"
"Yes " Sapphire said dubiously. Then, "No. I can't " She stopped, listening.
«Sapphire »
«There's no sense of identity, Steel.» It was a sudden realisation. «Just images.»
«Images of people?»
«No,» Sapphire interrupted, uncharacteristically abrupt. «An image of an animal a cat.» She was walking around as she communicated. «And here, an image of flowers Here, a broken bottle » Sapphire stopped, facing her companion. "It's all very confusing, Steel," She said aloud.
***
The Alban Motel, room 205.
11.47pm
"He was right," Scully commented, still holding Mulder's injured hand. "This is the result of cold, not heat."
"It still hurts like hell," Mulder told his partner. "Scully, that man, Steel; he touched the handle without any trouble at all. Right after it burned me. How is that possible?"
"If he knew what to expect " Scully speculated. "Mind over matter is a fairly well documented phenomenon."
"And then to tell me the exact temperature the handle was at?" Mulder persisted.
"Mulder, you've only got his word for that," Scully pointed out reasonably. "And even if he was correct, what possible connection can that have to our case? We're here to investigate a kidnap, Mulder."
"Steel told me five people have disappeared, not three," Mulder reminded her.
Scully looked up at him. "Well, that at least should be verifiable. We can do some further checking in the morning."
***
"Are you ready?" Steel asked. He stood beside the bar, facing the French windows.
"Yes," Sapphire answered. She was standing to one side. They needed to see how people had disappeared from the bar, so Sapphire was to reverse time to allow them to see the last disappearance. If, as they thought, something had happened moments before they arrived, it would not be too difficult for her: only a few hours had passed.
Sapphire looked across to Steel. "You'll have to watch for it," she instructed. "I can't do two things at once."
"I'll watch," Steel agreed.
Sapphire clasped her hands together then slowly, deliberately relaxed. Her eyes began to glow as she brought her power to bear, searching for the event in the past.
Steel watched the ghost-like figures of Mulder and Scully re-enter the room, backwards; saw Mulder left alone as Scully backed out; looked on as the shadow of Fox Mulder repeated in reverse his conversation with Sapphire and Steel except this time he spoke to empty air, as Steel could not be in both the past and the present simultaneously. As Mulder left the bar and slowly backed out of the room Steel watched the French windows carefully.
There was a flash of light from the "room" outside the windows and for an instant Steel saw the details Sapphire had sensed there. Then the figure of a man appeared and slowly backed away from the French windows. The man appeared to be in his late thirties, wearing blue jeans and a casual jacket; there was a camera case slung over his left shoulder. As Steel watched, noting every detail, the man backed out of the bar, constantly glancing around.
«That's enough, Sapphire,» Steel sent.
Slowly, the room returned to normal.
***
The Carlton Hotel,
26 July, 4.00pm
"We know nothing more than when we started, Mulder," Scully insisted. She was more than a little irritated. Scully had spent nearly all of the morning in front of a computer screen searching for something - anything - that might connect the missing people or identify the others that Mulder was so certain they had overlooked. It was work she was used to, but nevertheless the hours of fruitless research had tired her.
"Scully, I know there's very little we can prove," Mulder admitted, but we do have some things to go on."
"What? Ghost stories and strange men? Mulder, that's what I call nothing."
"We know it's not a kidnap," Mulder pointed out.
The two agents had returned to the hotel to discuss their findings. It was not, in Scully's opinion, the best policy to talk about a case at the scene of the crime, but in this instance the surroundings were congenial enough and Mulder wanted to watch the place. The hotel was the only connection between the crimes they had found. Mulder had a second reason, one he hadn't mentioned to Scully. He still had no idea what connection - if any - Sapphire and Steel might have to the case, and he wanted Scully to be able to verify their existence, if nothing else.
Mulder and Scully were sitting - unknowingly - almost precisely where Julia Bryant had been waiting for her father the night she disappeared.
Scully lifted her cup of coffee, then put it down without tasting it. "How do we know that?"
"No ransom demand, no communication at all," Mulder told her. "I checked that much with the senator first thing. Combined with the other two missing, I think we can afford to assume that the motive is neither political nor financial."
"Sounds reasonable," Scully agreed. "But it leaves us without any real leads."
Mulder looked at Scully curiously. She seemed distracted. He had the impression she was making the comments expected of her, rather than really contributing to the discussion. She was probably just tired, he told himself, while resolving to keep an eye on her, just in case.
"Another coffee?" he asked her.
Scully glanced down at her mug. "Sure," she shrugged.
Mulder rose and went over to the bar. "I found out why we were assigned this case," he said over his shoulder while he waited for their drinks. "At least I think so. The senator knows Senator Mattheson. For some reason he asked for us. Apparently we have a reputation for discretion." The thought was quite amusing, considering the subjects of some of their cases. Mulder paid for their drinks, and turned back to Scully.
She was standing near the French windows, her back to him. She hadn't been listening to a word he'd said.
"Scully?" he raised his voice a little.
No answer.
***
The grounds of the Carlton Hotel,
4.08pm
"At the moment, there's no way I can tell more," Sapphire said. She was sitting on the low stone wall surrounding the terrace, her eyes following Steel as he walked around the perimeter, passing through the wall which, though it was invisible and intangible, they both knew it was there.
"We know so little," Steel told her. "You tell me there's no malevolence here, but we both know that Time is being misused. We know the source is terrestrial, but we can only guess that it's human. We have to stop this thing: before something disastrous happens, but we can't until we know what it is."
"I know all that, Steel," Sapphire answered.
"The trigger, Sapphire. I need to know what sets that thing off."
Sapphire stood up slowly, moving to join Steel near the closed and locked French windows. Through the glass, they could both see the few people who were in the bar.
"Steel, I don't know what triggers it," Sapphire said. "I can tell you it's probably related to the images I saw, but I don't even know that for certain. All I know is what it isn't."
"What isn't it, then?" They had been over this before.
"It isn't something we can trigger. We tried last night. So it must be designed to trap human life. Perhaps something more specific than that " Sapphire turned quickly to face her partner. «Steel!»
«What is it?»
Sapphire was not listening. She was looking beyond him, her eyes glowing bright blue. «It's here » The quality of her telepathic voice changed, another voice somehow combining with hers. «Reach out. Think back, child, think back. Once more. That's right. Come »
Steel noticed the sudden drop in the temperature. He snapped his fingers in front of Sapphire's face. "Sapphire! Come back!"
" Steel?"
«Hold time for me. I need to know what's happening in there.» Steel marched over to the French windows.
***
"Scully, what are you doing?" Mulder caught her arm, forcing her to turn away from the windows. He shivered. It seemed very cold.
Scully blinked. "Mulder?" she said. Her voice was quiet and blurry, as if he had woken her from sleep.
"What are you doing?" Mulder repeated. He led her back to their table.
Scully shook her head to clear it. "I don't know," she confessed. "I'm just tired. For a moment I thought " Her voice trailed off.
"Thought what?" A movement at the window attracted Mulder's attention briefly, then he turned back to Scully. "Come on, Scully, it could be important."
"It will be important." The voice was Steel's.
For a moment Mulder wondered how the man always managed to appear out of nowhere then, remembering the movement he had ignored, turned his attention back to Scully.
"Who ?" Scully still sounded a little vague.
Without waiting for an invitation, Steel selected a chair and joined than at the table, sitting between Mulder and Scully. "I want you to tell me everything that just happened," he said. "What you did, what you were thinking, everything. Even if you think you imagined it."
Mulder answered for her. "Why?"
"Mulder, I can speak for myself," Scully objected.
Of course she could. Mulder was not sure what had been behind his uncharacteristic interruption. "Scully, this is Steel. The man I told you about last night," Mulder said.
"What happened?" Steel asked again.
"Why does it matter?" she asked, apparently more curious than anything else.
"Would you just tell me, please."
Scully was silent for a moment, then began to speak. "I'm not really sure. Mulder was talking, and I couldn't concentrate. I was thinking about about coffee. When I was a child I spilled a pot over the kitchen floor and scalded myself. I was trying to be helpful and pour the coffee before my mother got there. The next thing I remember I was standing over there and Mulder was pulling on my arm."
"That must be the trigger, Steel." Sapphire approached from the open French windows. Mulder had a moment to wonder how she had heard Scully from outside, and she continued. "A memory opens the door. That would explain the images I saw. And why there was such a strong sense of the past."
"It could be," Steel agreed. "Tell me, Agent Scully, is there anything else you remember? Anything?"
"Dêja-vu," she answered, with a self-depreciating smile.
"What do you mean, Scully?" Mulder asked her.
"It felt like I'd been there before, or something. Just an odd feeling. It's nothing, Mulder."
«Did she somehow sense your suspension of time?» Steel asked his partner.
«I wasn't that clumsy, Steel,» Sapphire replied. «Perhaps it's literal. The same moment repeating for her.»
"Perhaps you should tell us what's going on," Mulder suggested.
"I don't think so," answered Steel.
«Steel, it won't hurt to tell him something.» Sapphire sat down with them at the table.
"Then you tell them, Sapphire."
Steel's words, clearly a reply to something they had not heard, made Mulder realise the thing he had been missing. Of course the two of them were telepathic! It explained some of the strangeness in their behaviour.
"This room is being used as a kind of trap," Sapphire told them, she sounded something like a schoolmistress giving a lecture. "Steel and I were sent to stop it. Time shouldn't be used in this way."
"A trap? For what purpose?" Mulder asked.
"An experiment of some kind. I was able to find out that much when you triggered it just now."
Scully shuddered. An experiment. There was a personal association there that she was unlikely to forget.
Mulder caught her movement. He, too recalled those events. Scully had almost died "Do you know who's behind it?" he asked, somehow dreading the answer. Perhaps he had been wrong to dismiss alien abduction so quickly.
Sapphire's answer was not what he expected. "All I can tell you," she said, "is that the source is here. And it's mortal. Beyond that we need to investigate further."
It was all too much for Scully. "Mulder, How can you even listen to this! It's nonsense."
Sapphire and Steel exchanged a glance.
"But what if it's not, Scully. What if there's really something out there? We can't lose this opportunity - " Mulder knew Scully would never accept Sapphire's story. To him, however, even if Scully was correct, it was important to hear her theory before rejecting it. If it was possible that human technology was behind this
Scully opened her mouth to argue again, but Steel spoke first. "There's no opportunity here, Agent Mulder. This experiment has to be terminated, before anything goes wrong."
Mulder disagreed. "The potential for study is - "
Steel interrupted him again. "Study! Agent Mulder, this thing uses Time. Every person taken into the experiment is another opportunity for Time to break through to this place. That risk can't be taken."
«Steel, it's human nature to want to learn.»
«The fool has no idea what he's dealing with.»
«That's not his fault »
"But you can't - "
"Agent Mulder." Steel spoke as if to a child. "Your opinion doesn't count. Sapphire and I have been sent to deal with this, and that's what we'll do."
Mulder was silent.
He talked about time as if it were alive, Scully noticed. There was a distinct inflection to his use of the word, as if he meant it as a title, or a proper name. Even so, the whole thing seemed preposterous, and she refused the questions that filled her mind.
***
After the two FBI agents left them, Sapphire took a seat in the bar and looked up at Steel silently.
«Don't tell me, Sapphire.»
"We can't seal the trap and retrieve those people," Sapphire told him.
"Our priority is to seal it," Steel said. "Those people are expendable, if necessary."
"But we have to try, Steel."
"How? I can force it open, but only if you help me. And if you're supporting me, you won't be able to bring them out before it closes."
"Steel there is one way."
"No!" he said emphatically, clearly knowing what she meant.
"Do we have a choice?"
***
The restaurant of the Carlton Hotel,
5.00 p.m.
"Mulder, time isn't a sentient being," Scully insisted. "That's what they seem to think. And if you believe them "
Mulder pushed his empty plate away and prepared to argue. "Let me say it for you, Scully. It's as crazy as believing in UFOs. Or silicon-based life. Or maybe a genetically mutated man who crawls down ventilation ducts and feeds on human liver? Scully, can you really tell me this possibility is more insane that anything else we've investigated?"
"Mulder, it's not even science fiction. It's pure fantasy. The things Steel said I'll admit he was convincing, but it contradicts everything we know about space and time. There is nothing to prove any of this."
"Except three missing persons." Mulder called over the waiter and ordered coffee.
When the waiter was out of earshot, Scully replied. "Mulder, those missing persons are our only concern here."
Mulder waited a few moments before replying. "Scully, I know how it sounds. I'm willing to consider some extreme possibilities, but I'm not ignorant of science. There are things here I can't explain. Don't we owe it to our investigation to explore all theories?"
"Only the plausible ones, Mulder. Can you imagine Skinner's reaction when he reads a report of this one?"
Mulder smiled at that. "It'll be no worse than some of the other reports I've turned in. Scully, I do know when to keep a theory to myself."
The waiter returned with their coffee. Mulder waited until he left, then went on, "Scully, let me ask you: If you dismiss everything Sapphire said, how do you explain what happened to you in there?"
"I was just daydreaming, Mulder "
"No, that's not it. You left the table and went to the window. Afterwards you told me you didn't remember moving. I called you several times, but you didn't hear. I had to pull you away before you'd respond to me at all. That's more than just daydreaming." He offered her coffee with a gesture.
Scully nodded to accept the coffee - she needed it - then continued to argue. "Mulder, I was tired. The human mind blocks out all sorts of things. The fact that I don't remember crossing the room means nothing."
"It does when it's you, Scully."
It was then that Scully saw Sapphire enter the room. Mulder saw her look up and turned around.
"Agent Mulder," Sapphire began, "I'd like to speak with you both, if I may."
"Of course." Mulder gestured to a chair, and Scully moved over to make room.
"I realise you don't believe what we told you," Sapphire said. "I want to try to convince you."
"Why?" Asked Mulder.
"Steel and I have to seal this trap and, if possible, retrieve the people it's taken," Sapphire explained. "I think we have the same goals to that extent. Normally, we would do it alone, but in this case we need help. Someone else has to trigger the trap before we can seal it."
Mulder was immediately suspicious. "Back in the bar, Steel implied that Scully and myself are irrelevant to whatever you decided to do. Now you're suggesting otherwise. I think you should explain."
He glanced at Scully: she rolled her eyes. Mulder didn't need telepathy to read her thoughts, but he had already decided to hear what Sapphire had to say.
"Steel and I are have certain abilities. Abilities that will enable us to seal this trap before it's too late. However, if we do it alone, we don't think we'll be able to free those already trapped. There are limits, Agent Mulder, to what any mind can achieve."
Mulder leaned forward, interested. "What abilities?"
"Do you recall when we first met, Agent Mulder?" Sapphire asked. "When we shook hands, I use the physical contact to learn a great deal about you. It's what you would think of as telepathy, but I can usually pick up the future as well as the past."
"You can't prove that," Scully pointed out.
"I could," Sapphire told her, "but you wouldn't want me to. Knowledge of the future is a burden, not an advantage, and if I tell you about the past, you may quite rightly point out I might have found the information elsewhere."
Mulder reached for the coffee pot to refill his cup. He was somewhat disturbed by Sapphire's words. Was she serious? Could anyone read the future form a single moment's contact? Because he wasn't paying attention, his hand struck the handle of the coffee pot. Before he could catch it, the pot overturned, spilling hot coffee across the table and over Scully's clothing. Scully reacted fast, knocking her chair over as she jumped up.
And Sapphire acted. It was difficult to reverse time while allowing the two humans to be aware of the reversal. The events reversed slowly, Scully sinking back down as the chair righted itself, the coffee pouring itself back into the pot as slowly as a dripping tap. Sapphire allowed time to slide back to normal just before Mulder's hand came into contact with the pot.
Mulder's hand froze in place for a second. Then he changed his mind, staring at the coffee pot almost comically. "Did that really happen?" he asked.
Scully said, "It did, didn't it?"
Sapphire agreed. "As I said, we have certain abilities. Agent Scully, we really do need your help. I won't say anything more. If you decide to assist us, we'll be in the bar." With a smile, she rose and gracefully left the room.
"Some sort of hypnosis " Scully said, watching Sapphire leave.
"Scully, even you can't think that," Mulder argued, deliberately sceptical.
She shook her head. "No, I don't. But the alternative is even more incredible."
"What if she really can control time," Mulder wondered. "This could be our chance to find out how "
***
Carlton Hotel bar,
5.48pm
"It's a simple idea," Sapphire explained. "It uses a memory, of childhood I believe, to draw each subject in. The memory is expanded in the subject's mind until it's the only thing they're capable of thinking of. That activates the physical trap."
"I don't understand," Mulder said.
"You don't have to," Steel commented.
Sapphire, however, tried again to explain. "The images in the memory become so strong that the person literally inhabits them. That's not exact "
Scully was shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I can't accept that."
"What we need," Steel continued, clearly impatient, "is one of you to trigger the trap for us. You'll be in no danger. Once the trap is open, we can go in and terminate it."
"Just think of a memory?" Mulder asked.
"No," Steel shook his head. "What we're dealing with is an intelligence. It requires memory, yes, but it has to be a natural progression of thoughts. We can't just knock at the door."
Mulder glanced at Scully across the table. I suppose I should do this then," he said slowly.
"Mulder, this is crazy," Scully objected.
"Scully, if these people are insane, nothing will happen and we'll be able to dismiss this line of inquiry. If they're right, we have to help."
"I'm not questioning you're logic, just your grip on reality," she told him.
***
Carlton Hotel
27 July, 12.20 am
It was night, and the lights in the hotel bar were dim. Mulder and Scully had returned to the hotel this late, at Steel's request, because, he said, what they were going to do was better done with no witnesses. The darkness created a somewhat spooky atmosphere, Mulder thought, fully aware of the irony.
They both listened as Sapphire told them again what they should do. Scully was impatient with the whole idea. She had not been able to give Mulder a satisfactory explanation for the events of the afternoon, but her logical mind would not admit the possibility that Sapphire and Steel were simply telling the truth. No one could control Time. It simply wasn't possible. Even Mulder's assertions of time loss in UFO abductions were unsubstantiated, and it was that, she knew that had eventually brought him here. The thought of another piece to fit that puzzle was too much for him to resist, even when the circumstances as fantastic as this.
Steel positioned himself a few metres away from the French windows; Sapphire stood even further away, where she would be able to see everything that happened. Scully, feeling more than a little foolish, moved to stand opposite Steel, watching Mulder carefully.
Mulder was leaning back on the bar, trying to relax. It was difficult to let his thoughts flow naturally: he knew too much about what they were attempting to do. The notion that his thoughts were being read was not comforting. He checked his watch: 12.20am. If Sapphire was somehow going to control time, if they lost time somehow, he wanted to be able to substantiate it, if only for himself. He saw Scully smile slightly and knew she had guessed his intention.
Time loss. A common characteristic of UFO abduction experiences. He remembered the guilt he had felt after Scully's abduction and remembered his sister
And the images were there. Just as he had told Sapphire, the memory was always with him, waiting any random thought to evoke it. A board game on the carpet, their game of Stratego in progress; then his irritation as the power cut out, robbing him of the TV show he had been waiting for. Red light shining through the blinds. An intense light under the door the slowly turning handle the door opening Samantha's childish scream
Scully watched in disbelief as Mulder walked slowly toward the windows. His eyes were partly closed: he seemed unaware of them watching him. His face was blank as if in sleep. Scully had to fight the urge to stop him as he slowly reached out with his left hand towards the brass handle. In that instant, evidence or no, she believed it all.
Steel's voice was like a whipcrack. "Now, Sapphire!"
And Scully thought she saw a glow coming from the blonde woman's eyes. She blinked and looked again. no, her eyes really were glowing with some light of their own. And she saw Mulder reach out for the brass handle
There was a sound, a low-pitched growl, gradually becoming louder. Steel moved forward, as if to block Mulder's way, but he stopped a short distance from him. Sapphire remained completely still, her eyes becoming even brighter.
There was a light beneath the door, but there didn't seem to be a source.
Mulder reached for the brass handle.
«Sapphire, we need to go further back. Just a few seconds.»
Scully saw Mulder reach for the handle once more. Suddenly, without having moved through the intervening space, he was further away from the windows, walking forward, his hand about to reach out. And
And Steel stepped into Mulder's path, grasping the handle and opening the glass door in his place. The light became almost blinding, Sapphire's stretching of time turning what should have been a flash into a sustained glare, forcing Scully to look away, squeezing her eyes shut in defence. Whatever Steel did in that moment, Scully didn't see it.
«Steel?»
«Wait, Sapphire.»
She waited, somehow maintaining that frozen moment.
«It's done, Sapphire. Take us back.»
That strange, sourceless light was gone instantly, and Scully was able to look again. There was silence. Mulder was standing face to face with Steel, the two men almost touching. He stepped back quickly.
"That was incredible," Mulder commented, glancing first at Scully, noting the relief on her face, then down at his wristwatch. His cursory glance at the time became a double-take. "Scully, how long did that take?"
Scully began to raise her own hand.
"No, not from your watch. Guess," Mulder insisted.
Scully frowned. "I'm not sure. Ten minutes, maybe more."
"What does your watch say?"
She checked. "Twelve fifteen."
Mulder showed her his watch. "Mine agrees. Scully, you saw me check the time before we started. It was twelve twenty."
"Mulder, that's impossible."
"Not at all," Sapphire told them, stepping forward, Steel by her side.
Mulder turned to them. "I expected to lose time. Somehow we've gained it. How is that possible?" he asked.
"Lose time?" Steel repeated sharply.
"Wait a minute!" Scully interrupted. "Before we start talking philosophy again, what happened just now? What about the people who went missing?"
Sapphire stepped forward. "After Steel terminated the experiment, I reversed Time to five minutes before we began. We have that much time before they return."
"Return how?"
"Through that door," Steel said. "Just the way they left." «Sapphire, what did he mean about Time?»
«I don't know. We should hear it, but not now.»
"Will they be all right?" Mulder asked.
"There's no way to know. Agent Mulder, Steel and I would like you to explain why you expected to lose time. Would you be willing to talk to us later?"
Mulder, surprised by the question, nodded. "Later."
"Then we'll leave now."
***
CASE: #XGE079365
DATE: 28 July 1995
SUBJECT: Carlton Hotel Disappearances
REPORT: Agent Dana ScullyPage 4
the local hospital. However none of the five appeared to remember anything regarding where they were and indeed all seemed unaware of the passage of time. Miss Bryant voluntarily underwent hypnosis in an attempt to retrieve these buried memories, but without success.
The individuals calling themselves Steel and Sapphire cannot be traced in any records available to this agent, under any identity.
In the absence of further evidence to support or refute the assertions of these individuals, we cannot take further action in this matter.
We are therefore unable to identify the perpetrators of this crime, but with the safe return of all five victims, I recommend this case is filed, unsolved.
*
FILE: #XS001795
REPORTING AGENT: Fox MulderPage 2
It is difficult to draw conclusions regarding Sapphire and Steel. The safe return of the individuals abducted from the Carlton Hotel makes it difficult to dismiss their other claims, yet the truth of their statements is impossible to verify scientifically. I can only offer my own opinion that they described the truth as they know it.
As to the supernatural abilities they appeared to possess, again I can offer no substantial proof. The events described above were witnessed by another agent, Dana Scully, and I can substantiate that my watch did lose five minutes in Sapphire's presence. No other physical evidence exists.
After the events described, Agent Scully and myself discussed the subject of alien abductions and time loss extensively with Sapphire and Steel. Agent Scully volunteered what information she could remember concerning her own abduction. I began to suspect, at that point, that the abilities Sapphire demonstrated to us are not all she possesses.
A search of all records available to me, including the X-Files, revealed no trace of these two individuals. A new X-File on the subject was opened by this agent, 28, July 1995.
***
Somewhere.
Time unknown.
"It was too easy, Steel. You've said yourself that the experiment was self terminating. We found no threat at all."
"Are you saying we need to return, Sapphire?"
"No. I'm saying there was no need to send us at all."
"There must have been. Our resources are too valuable to send us to waste our time."
"I know, Steel. I think the trap, the experiment was just a subterfuge."
"Covering up what?"
"I think we were sent there so we'd meet those two people. I told you I sensed something in the man Is it possible, Steel? That this whole thing was arranged so wed speak with them "
"And hear about aliens using Time "