New Jersey State Park

New Jersey

Saturday, 13.17 hours

Ardeth Bey walked behind Iwan, smiling at his joke. His long hair was tied in a ponytail and his beard was neatly trimmed. He met Iwan in West Borneo not a long time ago and became the best of friends. Iwan was a ranger in Randaran Forest, worked for the ministry of forestry and wildlife to guide some US scientists of the Naval Medical Research Unit to uncover mysterious disease. The disease caused death to primates in the forest, especially the orangutans in the reservation. While Ardeth had been hired by the ministry to take photographs and to bring evidence of environmental damages by illegal cuttings of trees and wood smugglers. They both ended up uncovering a much deeper plot and conspiracy that involved a giant pharmaceutical company in the US, A&H Corp. Ardeth could never forget that he owed his life to Iwan back there. So as to express his gratitude he brought Iwan to the US to show him the forests but not after showing him around Egypt, his homeland. They had been going around the US as tourists for almost a month now and they had plan to go to Canada’s National Park to go on a river rafting and camping on the wild once the tour in the US was completed.

Suddenly Iwan stopped and turned back at him, "I think we better take a break, I’m hungry. How about you?"

Ardeth took his backpack and put it on the ground. "Me too. Let’s sit over there." He pointed at a big tree with big roots coming out of the ground.

They both sat and relaxed for a while. Iwan started munching his sandwich. "You know, Ardeth, I could live like this forever."

"What do you mean." Ardeth frowned, but still smiling at him. He too was eating sandwich.

"Well, first of all, I love spending time in the forest without thinking of illegal cuttings and smugglers. I could really enjoy the beauty. And secondly, I don’t have to spend any money for any cost."

Ardeth only shook his head and drank some water from his canteen. They chatted for a little longer under that tree and then continued trekking.

Two hundred meters later…

"I have to pee, Iwan." He took off his backpack once more and went off the track."

"Ardeth, you have a bad habit."

"I know… I drink too much, eh?" He smiled and was about to walk further.

"No, no, no…. That’s not what I mean. In Indonesia, you don’t go peeing anywhere you like in a forest. We believe that there are spirits who guarded the forests and mountains. The guardians of the forests or mountains. They dwell in here and around." He moved his hand above his head while talking. He looked very serious.

"You should respect them, Ardeth. You should respect the nature, or nature will turn its back on you."

Ardeth sighed deeply, "I do respect nature, Iwan. I just don’t believe in spirits living in trees and mountains. It’s called animism, my dear friend. You know I only believe in Allah."

"I know. I’m just reminding you, ‘cause I care about my friend. I don’t want anything bad happened to you. I’m a moslem too, but I respect old beliefs, for they were here long before."

Ardeth smiled and shrugged, then walked away, murmuring "Thanks for your concern, my friend."

Iwan looked at him and started saying, "Assalam Mualai’kum, the spirits of the forests. I’m Iwan, and my friend Ardeth is going to pee. Please don’t disturb us for we do not mean to disturb you. Thank you."

With that, he sat on a rock and waited for Ardeth to come back.

A moment later he heard Ardeth coming back, and was surprised to see his face.

"Ardeth, what happened? Why are you so pale? You didn’t see any….." He didn’t finish his sentence for he was afraid of the possibility.

Ardeth didn’t answer him. He sat on the ground across Iwan and took a deep breath. He motioned Iwan to be calm.

"I’m OK. Don’t worry."

"But.. why….."

"I found a dead body, Iwan. Down there."

"What?! Where?!"

"Down there, about 2 or 3 meters off the track."

"2 meters? Why the hell did you go that far away?" Iwan asked in disbelief.

"I found this." He showed him a wallet. Iwan took it.

"When I picked it up, I smelled something rotten, so I looked around. I think we better go to the authorities, Iwan. If you wanna look, go look now. You’ll see why I was so shocked."

Iwan’s eyes widened, "You mean… someone I know?"

Ardeth shook his head, "No, Iwan….. the cause of death. Go now and see, but don’t touch anything."

Iwan frowned and hurriedly went to see the body. He was back a minute later with a pale face and was hyperventilated, "Yes, definitely the same as the five Randaran men who died in Borneo, Ardeth. Do you think it’s the same cause?"

Ardeth nodded.

"I thought so too." Iwan nodded approvingly. His mind wandered for a while, remembering the accounts in his homeland.

Ardeth broke the silence, "I’m going back down to station 3 to get the ranger and let him call the cops. We haven’t trekked that far, so I can get him fast. You stay here and …." He barely finished the sentence when Iwan started speaking.

"And what? Guard the body? Oh come on, Ardeth…."

"Then you go to the ranger, I’ll stay here with the body. I don’t want to miss another evidence, Iwan. Last time in Borneo, those murderers got off so easily because of lack of evidence. Now, that we have one, I’m not gonna let them steal it away from us again."

"OK, OK. I’ll go to the ranger. I’ll be back soon." Iwan hurriedly grabbed his backpack, but tossed it again to the ground. It would be foolish to carry it running around the forest, he thought. He flew like an arrow down hill to the last ranger station they passed this morning.

Ardeth watched him go, then sat on the rock and started to examine the wallet he had found. He had no time to do it earlier. It was made of genuine leather, and looked expensive. He opened it and searched for the ID card. Once he found it he read it carefully and inserted it back inside the wallet where it belonged. He did that with every paper he found. He put the wallet inside his jacket and waited for Iwan. His mind started wandering back to Randara Forest, West Borneo.

He remembered very well, just like it happened only yesterday when he saw the bodies of the dead orangutans in the forest. He saw no fur on them, only disgusting reddish skin. The longer he had stayed in the forest the more he got used to seeing it, and he had seen it not only on the dead orangutans but also on the living ones. It was some kind of skin irritation that soon followed by death. However, he had never seen it on human skin. When the five Randaran people died of it, he had not arrived yet.

He also remembered that he and Iwan found that the deaths were caused by illegal medical and chemical research on primates. He remembered how they both had gone in and out the forest every day to gather evidences only to get captured and beaten up. All the evidences were destroyed, leaving them and the police nothing to go against the corporation. The anger inside him started to rise up. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes.

"I knew it’s not over yet." He whispered to himself and let out a long sigh.

Santa Anna Hospital

Atlantic City

Saturday, 13.20 hours

"Detective, I know this is your jurisdiction. I just want to help my friend find her daughter before it’s too late." Scully was standing face to face with Detective Calhoun. While Mulder was nowhere around. He said he was going to check out the woods for the Jersey Devil. He was obsessed with the case.

"I understand that, Agent Scully, and we appreciate your help. But dr. Ronald Mitchum’ s case is not yours to dig. Neither you nor your partner has any rights to come and stealing information around here. These people complained to us."

Scully tried to be patient, "I’m sorry about that, Detective, but I did that because we thought there’s a connection to both cases. If only I can just see the records, maybe I can show it to you. I’m also a medical doctor. Something weird is going on in here."

"Agent Scully. The head of this hospital already made it clear to us that you are disturbing their routine activities. I don’t have to tell you that disguising as one of the staff and went through the hospital archives is bad enough for your reputation. You are lucky they don’t sue you. If you can only believe that only dr. Mitchum has the access of the records you required, I don’t have to go through non of this embarrassing moments."

Scully’s patience ran out, she looked at him in the eyes and said, "Detective Calhoun, you don’t investigate a case by believing everybody’s words."

She left the hospital and drove her car. She was totally pissed off. She couldn’t believe she got caught so easily. She had been going over through the records she found in dr. Mitchum’s office when she was busted. She had told the assistant that she was the temporary replacement for dr. Mitchum’s practice. Never she thought that the assistant would call up to check. She said OK to her and asked her to go directly to the room. She was definitely tricked. However, she had seen a glimpse of the paper she had been holding. Molly Parker’s name was written on it. If they said they don’t have the records, that was totally a lie. They must have had something to hide. She became more convinced that the disappearance of the doctor had a connection with Molly Parker’s kidnapping.

She was surprised this morning when she found Molly’s medication in the bathroom. It consisted of unlabelled capsules. She had taken one and sent it to the lab for further analysis.

Scully decided to call up Mulder and tell him about her unpleasant experience with detective Calhoun.

"Mulder." The voice at the another end said.

"Mulder, it’s me. Where are you?" Scully said.

"I’m still at the Park." He answered. "Guess what, somebody found dr. Ronald’s body around here."

"He’s dead?" Scully couldn’t believe what she heard. She better told Mulder about her experience in the hospital today, he would be very much interested.

"You better come down here, Scully. You’ll find something interesting with the body."

Jersey State Park

Saturday, 13.50 hours

"Not you again." Detective Calhoun looked very annoyed when he saw Scully arrived at the scene.

"I told your partner here what happened in the hospital and asked him not to interfere with our job."

"We don’t mean to go over your jurisdiction, Detective. But as I told you, Agent Scully here is experienced in doing autopsy on corpses with strange conditions such as this one. We just wanna help."

"We have our own coroner, Agent Mulder. Thanks for your offer, though. Now, if you excuse me, I have jobs to do." Detective Calhoun went away as quickly as possible. He was obviously pissed off.

"Come on, Mulder. He’s right, this is not our case. Let’s go." Scully was about to move her foot to step, when she heard Mulder calling out to two men and ran towards them.

"Hey, you. Wait up." He called out.

Scully came after him. The two men waited for them. Scully noted that one of them was tall and quite attractive. When she got closer, she realized that he was not an american. Both of them were not.

Mulder showed them his badge, "Can I asked you a couple of questions, Gentlemen?"

The tall man, shrugged, "Sure." When he noticed that Scully was joining, and showed them her badge, he nodded to her and smiled.

They were asking standard questions which were already asked by the cops, so Ardeth and Iwan answered quickly.

"Did you notice something very odd to the skin?" Mulder asked the question to Iwan. Ardeth shot him a quick glance.

Scully noticed this and she watched Ardeth’s movement more closely.

"Yes, we did." Iwan answered.

"What do you think happened to him, Agent Mulder?" Iwan continued.

Ardeth turned his back and faced Iwan, "Come on, Iwan. Let’s not keep the good Agents for your stupid questions. They have works to do. Let’s go back to the hotel."

"Where are you staying, Mr. Bey, in case we need more information on this case." Scully asked.

"We’re staying at The Galaxy Gateway, probably until Tuesday."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other as the two men walked away.

"Galaxy Gateway, eh? What a coincidence." Mulder said. It was the same hotel they were staying.

"Mulder, I think they know something we don’t." Scully said as they were walking back to their rented cars. "That Ardeth Bey is acting strange, as if he doesn’t want Iwan to say too much."

"You watched him that closely, huh?" Mulder commented as he entered his car. Before Scully could say anything he closed the door.

Scully smiled and walked to her car. Mulder car passed, and he opened the window.

"I have to go on an errand, I’ll meet you at the hotel."

"I need to check up on Jenny too. See you then." Scully said.