Title: Thirty-six Part Two   Five years later…   The young man at the end didn’t bother trying to look out of the bars of his cage as the sound of a cage being unlocked a short distance away disturbed the early-morning sounds of the group of captives waking from their sleep.   ‘Twelve. Male, day one.’   He could always tell the new arrivals. They screamed, struggled and, eventually, begged. This one was no different. The noise was, as always, in the small room, uncomfortably loud.   He was just grateful it wasn’t his cage being opened. He knew his number. Thirty-six. Every time he heard it snapped out by one of the white-coated men who ran the lab, he shuddered. He learned quickly that it was pointless to fight, painful to struggle and impossible to resist.   He measured the day by the lights coming on, the liquid food, warm and bottled, pushed against the cage bars, the first of three bottles a day. Later, another bottle, the mixed blessing of being visited by a group of men in white coats, another bottle, the second disturbance of those who wore masks, latex gloves and white coats then the lights going off. He had no way of measuring how many of these days there had been, but, after a while, he ceased to worry about that. Or anything else.   **************   The smoke curled thickly around the room, leaving the few non-smokers in the room breathing with difficulty.   ‘The police have opened an investigation into the clinic. We’re going to have to close it down.’   There were general murmurs of agreement and Spender got to his feet. He decided not to ask whether the speaker meant the investigation or the clinic. He made an instant decision.   ‘We have one last client, then it closes.’ He sighed, then lit another cigarette. ‘A pity. It was very profitable.’   A British accent cut through the dimly-lit room. ‘What about the police investigation?’   ‘I’ll deal with that.’ Spender left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.   ***************   Skinner grumbled, leaving the game blaring from the TV and got up, opening the front door with a scowl on his face.   Mulder’s offering of a grease-stained brown paper bag thrust at Skinner didn’t appease him. Mulder frowned. ‘Is this a bad time Sir?’   ‘I’m missing the game. What do you want?’ Skinner’s words were tossed over his shoulder as he walked back into the sitting room via the kitchen, where he dropped the paper bag on the countertop.   ‘I’ve had an idea about the case.’   Skinner shook his head. ‘Not now Mulder. After the game. Siddown.’ He waved his hand at the armchair, his mind already back on the game being played on the large-screen TV in front of him.   Frustrated, sighing theatrically, Mulder sat, his hand snaking out to the six-pack on the table in front of him.   Archly, Skinner said: ‘Yes Mulder, you may have a beer. Only one if you’re driving.’   Mulder chafed silently both at the words and the delay to his day. Thankfully, his scant knowledge of the rules of the game being played told him there were only a few more minutes of the game to go. He hoped that Skinner wouldn’t want to watch the post-match programme, which, he knew, could go on as long as the match itself.   He squirmed and sighed as loudly as he could until eventually Skinner snapped, getting up and grabbing Mulder’s arm, pushed him into the kitchen, dropping him onto a wooden chair. ‘Okay, get on with it.’   Mulder pulled a sheet of paper from inside his jacket. ‘If it’s an animal lab, why don’t they order any animals. I mean, a rat can’t live *that* long.’   Skinner walked back into the sitting room, flicked the ‘record’ button on the VCR and resigned himself to an afternoon of listening to Mulder’s theories on what was supposed to be an easy case. The telephone interrupted them.   ***************   CRASH!!!!!!!!! The glass panel in the door shattered under the impact.   Voices echoed through the room, loud and commanding. POLICE, NOBODY MOVE!!!!!!   The young man from cage thirty-six shrank back against the rough wooden post he had been chained to. He curled into a foetal ball, trembling silently, knowing that any sound was likely to attract attention.   There were gunshots, screams, shouts and, eventually, only sounds he couldn’t hear. Still he didn’t move, even though he felt people moving in the area around him. Someone passed close by him but, seeing nothing in the shadows, simply walked past. The young man, crouched on the rain-soaked jetty let out the breath he had been holding and kept still and silent.   After a while, the people left and the young man uncurled, resigned to his fate. Alerted by the movement in the shadows, one of the men walked across to the end of the wooden planking and looked across. ‘Walter!’   The sudden appearance of the stranger startled the young man and he huddled as far back against the post as he could.   ‘What is it?’   The chains rattled and the occupant watched as hands fiddled with the keys they held. The chains loosened and the two men looked at each other.  Fox knelt beside the pale shivering younger man. ‘Hi. It’s okay. We’re gonna get you out of here.’ He reached down to lift the boy to his feet and saw the bloody dressing, soaked from the rain.  ‘Paramedics!’   ‘How the Hell did they miss this one?’   A placatory voice said gently: ‘Fox, it’s okay.’   ‘Get the paramedics out here Walter. Now, okay?’   Footsteps faded away and Fox leaned in again. ‘It’s okay. I’m a police officer. What’s your name?’   Emerald eyes, dull and wary, stared back at Fox as he smiled reassuringly.   Fox smiled. ‘Don’t worry. Let’s just get you out, okay?’   The two paramedics wheeled a trolley to the jetty and Mulder stepped back. He flinched at the sight as the shivering boy was lifted,  and he shivered at the sound of whimpering as the bloodstained dressing covering the stump of the boy’s truncated arm scraped on the trolley’s metal frame.   Mulder put a hand on one medic’s shoulder as they covered the naked young man with a blanket and strapped him onto the trolley. ‘We didn’t know that kind of thing was going on here.’   ‘Probably not until recently. The others weren’t hurt. Just scared. They’ll check him out in the ER.’ The man paid little attention to his patient as he started an IV and laid the plastic bag on the trolley beside the young man’s hand.   Mulder walked out to the ambulance and watched as the last victim of the lab was lifted into the vehicle.   ***************   Fox scanned the list. ‘Alex…something. I can’t read the handwriting, but it’s the only name left.’   Walter shrugged. ‘At least the staff can call him something.’   Fox nodded. ‘I wonder how he got there.’   Walter frowned. ‘No Fox! Do *not* go there.’   Fox pouted, looking hurt, puppy-eyes downcast. ‘Look Walter, all the others said they were snatched off the street either early morning or late at night. I just wondered if we should ask…’   Walter shook his head, effectively ending the conversation. ‘I said NO Fox! Let the kid have some peace and quiet. It doesn’t help the investigation.’   ‘It *might*!’ Fox persisted, missing the warning signs for a few seconds then finally catching them and falling silent, fiddling with his lapel.   **********************   Alex watched as his body was examined minutely. He heard the clinical tones and words and saw his body being turned, heard the exclamations of horror as his internal injuries were discovered, the blood trickling from between his buttocks, onto his thighs, staining the white sheet under him. He felt nothing of the cleaning, stitching and continued examination of his body. Only when he was injected with a painkiller and a sedative did he close his eyes and settle into an uneasy rest.     **********************   Walter strode off, heading for the car outside.   He answered his phone, one hand on the car door. ‘Skinner.’ He was already running back into the building as the call ended.   The man walking on the other side of the road cursed silently as his target headed back inside the station building, not breaking his stride as he headed for the subway. He would have plenty of time to work out a plausible excuse for his failure on the journey back. Not that any excuse Cardinale would be able to come up with, he knew, would prevent his employers from taking his failure out on him.   ****************   Spender closed his phone, lit a cigarette and walked quickly into his meeting. On the way, he made another call.   *******************   Fox walked purposefully into the hospital and checked the wall map for the correct floor. He ran up the stairs, aware of his hand shaking. The phone ringing in his jacket pocket made him jump and he almost missed his step, stumbling as he answered the call. ‘Detective Mul...um, hi Walter…no I’m in the mall…um, okay…uh, Walter, I’m not at the mall…I’m…yeah…okay.’ Fox closed his phone, drew in a deep breath and continued on to the floor he had been making for.   ********************   Skinner sighed as he walked down the subway steps. ‘I don’t have time.’   Spender held out a small envelope. ‘Then I won’t delay you.’   Skinner took the white envelope between his fingers as if it were likely to explode. Only when he was sitting in the underground train did he tip the contents into his hand. A key, and a small slip of paper with an address on. Sighing, he pulled out his wallet and tucked the piece of paper around the key then pushed it into his wallet.   ****************   Flashing his badge, he smiled his usual knockout smile at the receptionist, who shook her head. ‘Sorry, no visitors.’   Fox sighed. ‘Look, he’s a witness, I need to see him NOW!’   The young woman looked at Fox. ‘Detective, I can’t just…’   Fox interrupted immediately. ‘Then get someone here who can.’   The woman gave in and got up. ‘Wait here.’   Fox leaned on the desk and waited. The scream which rent the faintly-clinically scented air had him running down the corridor before it had faded.   He stopped in the doorway of a bare room, skidding on the highly-polished floor, grabbing the doorframe for support.   Alex lay on the bed, strapped down seeming from head to toe, his body straining against the leather straps which held him in place. His head thrashed and he screamed again as a needle pricked his upper arm, and his body fought the drug which coursed through his body quickly, aided by his adrenaline-fuelled heart rate. But the fight was one he was going to lose, and his moans subsided as his body stilled.   ‘What happened?’   One of the nurses looked across. ‘You a relative?’   Fox shook his head, flashing his badge. ‘No, I’m here to interview him.’   The nurse shook her head, letting out a deep breath. ‘You can’t. His dressing needs to be...’   Fox walked across and looked down at the unfocussed eyes, dull and exhausted. ‘Hey there.’ He wasn’t too surprised when there was no response. He decided to get a coffee and return when Alex was likely to be more awake.   *******************   Fox looked down at the bed. Alex’s arm was lying on on a folded green sheet, the dressing half on and half off. Fox gulped a deep breath and looked away. As he did so, something in Alex’s ear caught the light and Fox leaned down.   ‘Nurse, what is that?’   The nurse peered at Alex’s ear, then straightened up, shaking her head. ‘I don’t know. I’ll page someone.’   ‘Detective Mulder, get out here now!’   Fox spun round and looked directly at a very angry Detective Walter Skinner. ‘Um, hi Walter.’   ‘Don’t ‘hi Walter’ me Detective Mulder!’   Fox swallowed hard. One of the ways he knew he was in trouble was when Walter called him ‘Detective’. He didn’t even think Walter realised he was doing it.    ‘There’s something stuck in Alex’s ear…’   The doctor who had walked in a moment earlier corrected him. ‘Ears. There’s some kind of earplug embedded in his ear. Looks like it goes pretty deep. I’m gonna need to sedate him…’   Fox huffed. ‘Poor kid. He must have been terrified, not being able to hear anything. Didn’t anyone check?’   The doctor stepped back, putting his hands up, startled at Fox’s angry tone. ‘I just started my shift.’   Fox waited until he left with the nurse, then leaned down, making sure Alex realised he was there. ‘Walter, watch the door.’   Walter shook his head. ‘No Fox, wait until the doctor comes back.’   Fox reached into Alex’s ears, one at a time, flicking the amber-colored plugs out of the boy’s ears with his fingernail, careful of the soft flesh surrounding them, then pulled the remaining straps off Alex’s limp form, looking meaningfully at Walter.   ‘We can’t take him Fox and you know it. Now come on.’   ‘They’ll kill him Walter. You said so!’   The older man looked into the room, regretting his honesty over the content of his earlier phone call. ‘Perhaps they’d be doing him a favour.’   Fox turned his back very deliberately on his partner and began to unhook the remaining straps securing Alex to the bed. His hand was instantly covered by Skinner’s own. ‘Fox! We. Can’t. Take. Him. Now hurry up!’   The sharp tone stirred Alex into a confused wakefulness. ‘Please…’   Fox leaned down. ‘What is it Alex?’   Skinner felt a shiver run down his spine at the whispered response. ‘Please don’t hurt me sir. I’ll do what you want.’   Fox turned his attention to Walter. He pouted, forced tears into his eyes and put a hand on Walter’s forearm. ‘Please Walter?’   ‘What the Hell is going on? Who are you?’   The angry redhead, white coat billowing behind her, swept into the room.   ‘We’re taking him outta here.’   ‘Like Hell you are! Are you a doctor? This man needs…’   Walter paused, taking a deep breath. ‘Look, Doctor…Scully, this man is a witness and his life is in danger.’   ‘Yeah, it is. He’s lost a lot of blood and had a massive trauma.’   Fox nodded. ‘We noticed. Now, Miss…’   ‘Doctor!’ Dana Scully snapped.   Fox rolled his eyes. ‘We’re leaving. Where do we sign?’   Ignoring him, Dana pushed Walter away from Alex’s side. ‘Do you have the first idea of the kind of care this patient needs?’   Keeping his voice calm, Walter shook his head. ‘Tell me. Quickly.’   Dana turned, exasperation on her face. ‘You’re not serious?!’   Walter nodded. ‘Well?’   Dana sighed heavily. ‘You’ll need to learn how to change his dressing, check his wounds…’   Walter shrugged. ‘I’ve done a little first aid.’   Dana scoffed. ‘Oh that’ll help. You’re gonna need supplies.’ She turned, scribbling a list. ‘Keep this. When you need to re-stock just give it to your pharmacist.’   Walter looked at Fox who was leaning against the doorframe, barely containing his amusement. ‘Make yourself useful.’ He held out the list and waved it at Fox.   Fox left quickly and collected the supplies the doctor had listed, his fingers drumming impatiently as the pharmacist gathered the items together and calculated the total cost.   ********************   The doctor finished unwrapping Alex’s arm and nodded to Walter. ‘Let’s see you in action.’   ****************   ‘What is this place Walter?’ Fox’s eyes widened in amazement at the house they had pulled up in front of.   ‘It’s…never mind.’ Walter said, cutting the engine and getting out of the car. He went round to the passenger door and reached out his arms. Alex crawled to him immediately, and was lifted carefully out of the car and up the steps of the apartment building. ‘Let’s get inside Alex, okay?’ Walter’s smile and gentle tone soothed Alex, who had found the journey frightening and uncomfortable and was grateful to be lifted from the blanket-covered leather seats he had been stretched out across. ‘Fox, leave the bags for now. Get inside.’   Fox noticed that Walter’s tone had hardened considerably. Nervously, he nodded. ‘Okay. Give me the keys.’   Walter reached out his hand, his forearm supporting Alex’s shoulders. ‘It’s the bright silver one. Careful with it. There isn’t a spare.’   Gingerly, Fox ascended the steps and inserted the key. It turned instantly, and the door swung open. The smell of musty air hit their nostrils and Fox walked in, Walter following.   Fox flicked on a light switch and was rewarded with instant soft light. He walked into the kitchen and turned on a tap. The water flowed strongly, splashing him slightly. He leaped back, wiping himself down. Crossly, he muttered: ‘Great.’   Walter settled Alex into the smaller of the two upstairs rooms, covering him with a soft comforter. Alex fell asleep almost immediately.   Continued in Part Four...   Home Send me feedback on this fic Return to the X-Files Fic Index Return to the West Wing Fic Index