| “We’ve done it in the past, Scully. How do you think the Lonegunmen get all the information that they have?” “Mulder, you’re expecting a teenage girl to be able to hack into a government website? Do you know how hard those things are to get into?” Scully said. Mulder was about to respond when he heard something crash from inside the room. Scully dropped the magazine on her chair as she and Mulder stood up. Mulder reached for the door handle of the room when it burst open. He and Scully jumped out of the way. “I did it!” Piper exclaimed, jumping up and down. She raced back towards Max’s bed and sat down. “You were saying.” Mulder said. Scully ignored him and entered the room. “Well, that didn’t take long.” Scully said, walking behind Piper to get a better view of the computer screen. Mulder closed the door and joined Piper and Scully. “Doesn’t take long when you know what you’re doing.” Piper responded. “Yeah, well let’s see what this site has to say before you get all excited.” Max added in. “Despite what information is on the site and whether or not it proves to be important does not lessen the fact that I hacked into a government site.” Piper said proudly. “Yeah, well wouldn’t be the first time.” Max muttered. “Look, I wouldn’t talk about hacking into anything around other people. Got it?” Mulder said. Piper and Max nodded. Max began scrolling down the large black screen that was in front of her. A few words were typed here and there but it was nothing fancy. “I could design a better website.” Piper commented. “Yeah, so could I.” Max agreed. “I don’t think the government goes for glamour when they put these things up.” Mulder said. “Hey, what’s that?” Scully asked, pointing to the only picture that appeared on the page. “Only one way to find out.” Max said. She dragged the cursor over to the image and clicked on it. The site took a few seconds to load but it eventually did. “This is a top secret construction plan.” Mulder said, after reading the contents of the page. “They’re using the idea of concession stands and better paths as a cover.” “What do you mean?” Piper asked, unable to understand what the page was saying. “The government is building new buildings for research.” Scully answered. “What kind of research?” Max questioned. “It looks as if they want to monitor the animals, their lives, the water, the atmosphere, the plant life, everything that’s around.” Mulder responded. “What for?” Piper wondered. “Who knows.” Max responded. “Why wouldn’t they tell anyone about this?” “It’s supposed to be secret so that no one will disturb the buildings. They don’t want anyone to know about it.” Scully explained. “So they’re promising the park to have easier, more accessible access to the beach and more concession stands and bathrooms but they’re not going to deliver? How are they gonna cover that up?” Piper questioned. “It looks like they’re just going to tell the people that there was a loss of funding and therefore construction will stop.” Mulder said. “Well, that’s bull.” Piper said. “This goes way beyond the government just being bad words. They’re building these buildings to test animals.” Max read. “To test them? What is that supposed to mean?” Piper asked. “Supposedly they’re going to be injecting them with human diseases and testing antidotes as well as releasing some of these animals to the wild in order to see how they interact with the diseases.” Max explained. “That’s just down right cruel!” Piper exclaimed. “And that’s why they’re doing it here.” Mulder said. The three of them looked at him strangely. “They can get away with it. They choose a small park in the middle of a small, nice community knowing that no one is going to suspect a thing.” “Yeah, well we’re going to do something about it!” Piper yelled. “Piper, you can’t exactly go up to these people and say ‘hi my name is Piper, I hacked onto your website, now stop building’.” Mulder said. “Then what are we supposed to do?” Piper questioned. “Guys, I know that you don’t all believe this…” Max began. “But something happened to me out in those woods because the animals knew they were in trouble and it’s my job to help them.” Scully sighed. “Well, Jeff said that he did want you guys out there with us.” “Who’s Jeff?” Piper wondered. “A snake expert.” Mulder responded. “He’s helping us out on the case.” “So, Max, as soon as your leg is better, we’re going out into the woods.” Scully explained. “And what happens until then? You think people are just going to stop dying?” Piper said. “Well, Piper, we don’t know what’s going to happen because we don’t know what’s causing this. We’ve searched both crime scenes thoroughly and on numerous occasions. There’s no evidence. There’s nothing we can do except hope and wait. Besides, Max should be better by tomorrow…the bite wasn’t that bad.” Scully explained. “Yeah, but try getting her parents to comply after what happened before.” Piper added in. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Mulder said. An announcement came over the intercom. “Visiting hours are now over.” A female voice said. “I guess that’s it for us.” Piper said. “Well, Max, I hope you feel better soon.” She said, leaning over to hug her friend. “Bye Max.” Scully said, exiting the room. “Bye.” Max said after her. Mulder nodded his good-bye and followed Scully. Piper was about to leave when she heard Max call her name. She turned to face her. “You think I can get Napster on this?” Piper walked over to Max’s bed and unplugged the laptop. She closed the top and tucked the laptop under her arm. “Get some rest.” Piper said before leaving. Chapter 5 Grant Hospital July 5, 2001 11:27 AM Piper walked through the busy halls of the hospital. Nurses, doctors, patients, and their families bustled about. Piper looked behind her as she walked, making sure no one suspected her. She wore her backpack on her back but it was its size that concerned her. Inside she had food that Max had requested, the laptop, wires, games, a CD Player, her entire CD Collection, among other things. But despite the heaviness of her backpack, Piper continued towards Max’s room. She stopped in front of the door, looked both ways down the hall, and then entered the room. “Finally.” Max commented as Piper closed the shades to the window in Max’s room that overlooked the hallway. “You try fitting all this crap in one backpack without looking conspicuous.” Piper said, walking over to her bed. “You could have told them that it was just books.” “Yeah, a teenager carrying around books in the summer, that’s really believable.” “Did you get what I asked for?” Piper nodded while beginning to take out one item at a time. “You would not believe how bad the food is here.” “I know, you told me.” Piper said. “I mean, I don’t understand how Erin, John, and Jo could stand working here all this time.” Max continued, ignoring Piper. “They never mentioned how bad it really was.” “Maybe that’s because every time any of them brought up the hospital we’d make them shut up.” Piper reminded her. Again, Max ignored her. “And not only is the food terrible but the service is even worse. The nurses are all always cranky…” “Maybe that’s because they have to put up with patients like you who never stop complaining.” “That wasn't funny. Did I mention how bad the food was? If I have to eat green Jello one more time, I’m gonna kill someone. I don’t even like green Jello. And the mystery meat that they had the other night was definitely sketchy.” “Hence it’s name.” “Yeah, well they should call it shady meat.” “I thought it was sketchy, not shady.” “It’s both. So what did you bring me?” Piper pulled out a Tupperware container and handed Max a plastic fork. “The macaroni salad that you so graciously requested. There’s pizza, fruit punch, ice tea, chocolate chip cookies, and fudge in the bag.” Piper answered. |