Página PrincipalSpecial Appearance by: Richard Belzer
Guest Starring: Signey Coleman, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood
Internal dating: This episode is a flashback, set in May 1989
Fells Point Industrial Park, Baltimore, MD. Outside a warehouse a SWAT team prepares to enter the building. They move up the stairs of a warehouse filled with stacks of cardboard boxes. One man spots a pool of blood with his flashlight. There is no body present. They find more blood spots. The Lieutenant hears a groan and shines his flashlight on the body of a man hidden underneath a cardboard box. He is naked and shivering and he covers his head with his hands.
One SWAT man moves into another area of the warehouse. As the wooden door is pulled up and there is movement. The SWAT team points their guns and the men stop, raise their hands and say "don't shoot". It is Frohike, Langly, and Byers. The SWAT team makes them lie on the floor face down. The Gunmen are all handcuffed.
The naked man is heard screaming "they're here, they're here". It is Fox Mulder.
Homicide Unit, Baltimore City Police Department, May 1989. We see Byers behind bars, the tips of his fingers stained with black ink. Langly and Frohike are in the same cell. Byers, however, is taken into the interrogation room where he is question by Detective Munch. Byers states for the record that he is "John Fitzgerald Byers, born 11/22/1963. I was named after JFK - before the assassination my parents were going to call me Bertram." Byers explains that he works for The Federal Communications Commission where he is "versed in computer networks". He tells Detective Munch that he was attending a computer technology show at the Baltimore Technology Convention Center. That is where it all began.
The scene fades to a flashback - the interior of a modern convention center. Byers has a fishbowl filled with red, white, and blue buttons that say "We're You're FCC" on them. He offers buttons to two passing hacker dudes. A woman walking down the aisle catches his attention. She approaches Byers and he fumbles with the bowl, asking her if she "would like a button". She turns and leaves, obviously troubled. Byers tells the other person manning the booth - Ken - he is going on break and follows the woman.
The woman passes a booth for Frohike Electronics Corporation. Frohike tries to sell her a cable black box but is interrupted by the occupant of the next booth - Langly. In the background there is a sign which says "Langly Vision". Langly attempts to sell the woman the exact same product - a cable black box. The two men argue as the woman walks away.
The woman's purse is knocked and the contents fall to the floor. A lipstick rolls toward Byers. He bends to pick it up and helps the woman retrieve the rest of her belongings - one of which is a photograph of a young girl. He hands the photo to the woman and tells her "You just look like you could use some help".
They talk over coffee and the woman explains how her daughter was kidnapped by her psychotic ex-boyfriend six months ago. The only clue she has leads to Baltimore. She shows Byers a slip of paper on which is written: //ARPANET/WHTCORPS. She asks Byers if he can access this - it may be a means of finding her daughter. She introduces herself as "Holly". "Just like the sugar packet," Byers notes, tapping a sugar packet on the table.
They return to the FCC booth and Byers types in the address, surprised to discover it is a database for the Department of Defense. Holly asks him if he can hack into the database and when Byers replies that he cannot, she turns to leave. He pauses and then types in a few commands which log him into the database, telling Holly, "You didn't see this".
They look up Susanne Modeski, the name of her daughter, and a cryptic file is downloaded. Byers prints it out but Holly suddenly spots someone outside the booth. She tells Byers she must hide. Her ex-boyfriend has found her. Byers looks out the booth and sees a much younger Fox Mulder. Byers and Holly hide in Frohike's booth. Frohike suggests just "kicking his ass", but Frohike and Byers end up simply following Susanne's "ex-boyfriend" through the convention.
In a back hallway Mulder confronts Frohike and Byersand identifies himself as a Federal Agent. He is looking for a woman. He shows the two men a picture - it is Holly. He tells them that she is wanted by the FBI. Mulder's 1989 cellular phone rings and Frohike and Byers return to the convention. Byers coworker, Ken, is being escorted by military personnel for hacking into the DOD's database. Frohike prevents Byers from turning himself in.
The two men approach Langly during a D&D game with "The World's Coolest Hack". Langly agrees. The three men go to Byers' hotel room where they access the FBI database. They find Fox Mulder's file and the current case he is working on - Susanne Modeski, an employee at the Army Advanced Weapons facility who is wanted for blowing up the lab and killing four people. The picture on the screen is the face of the woman known as "Holly".
Susanne Modeski, aka "Holly", enters the hotel room and tells the Gunmen that this story is a lie told by the government to protect themselves. She is Susanne Modeski. The story about her missing child was a lie she told to get their help. She explains that she is "an organic chemist for a top secret division of the Advanced Weapons Facility" and that the reason she lied is because of the plot to distribute the ergotamine-histamine gas she developed. "E-H for short. It's an aerosolized gas - in small doses, it causes anxiety and paranoia in its subject." She goes on to detail a conspiracy within the government to randomly test E-H on the public. Susanne asks the men to help her decipher the page of code. A gun falls out of her handbag and onto the floor.
The Lone Gunmen agree to help her. The four head to the convention center where they appropriate a supercomputer. Scanning in the document they decipher its contents, verifying Susanne story and that "the first EBO [Engineered Biological Operation] will occur in the Baltimore area within one week's time." The document provides the location of the gas at a warehouse located at "Fells Point, lot number A-9000".
Byers sees an odd notation at the end of the file. "Subject Modeski currently monitored around the clock. Covert electronics installed per Dr. Michael Kilbourne, 11/6/88." Dr. Kilbourne is Susanne's dentist. She quickly leaves and heads for the ladies room, taking a pair of pliers on her way out.
The Lone Gunmen enter the ladies room to find Susanne has pulled out her molar with the pliers. Back in Frohike's booth they discover a small electronic device imbedded in the tooth. They head to the warehouse and look for lot A-9000. Susanne cuts the box open to reveal small containers of asthma inhalers which contain the gas. Fox Mulder approaches Susanne and The Lone Gunmen. He tells Susanne she is under arrest. Two men in suits enter immediately enter. Mulder points his weapon at them and issues a warning. The two men ignore him and open fire, puncturing the inhalers. Mulder is sprayed with the contents.
Susanne shoots the two men with her gun. There is the sound of footsteps and a rolling door. Men enter, Mr. X leading the way. He orders the men to "sanitize it". The men begin to zip up the bodies and clean up the blood. Mulder watches from his position on the floor and the images of the men melt into hallucinations of aliens. Byers demands to know what is going on. Mr. X refuses to answer his questions and simply tells them that "On November 22, 1963 we got away with it. They say it was a Lone Gunmen." Mr. X tells the crew of men that "no one touches this man" as he looks at Mulder on the floor of the warehouse. The scene is sanitized and Byers angrily insists that Susanne was right about everything, even JFK's assassination. Mr. X tells him that the shot was fired by "a lone gunmen." Mr. X leaves as police sirens sound in the distance.
Homicide Unit, Baltimore City Police Department. The flashback ends, and Byer's interrogation is over. He is returned to his cell. In the morning all three men are released. On his way out Byers overhears Detective Munch state that Agent Mulder's car was found at the train station. He surmises that Susanne stole Mulder's car and used it as a diversion. "The Baltimore Guardian is three blocks from the train station," Byers tells Frohike and Langly.
They head toward The Guardian and find Susanne leaving the newspaper. She tells the men that "they didn't believe my story." She implores Byers, Frohike, and Langly to tell the story and "reach as many people as you can with it. That's your weapon. That's how you'll help". A pay phone rings in the background. "No matter how paranoid you are, you're never paranoid enough," she states, turning to walk down the street. A black car screeches to a halt and a man forces her into the car. As it drives by, Mr. X looks out the window.
Back at the convention center Frohike, Langly, and Byers sit in the middle of the littered floor. Mulder enters and asks them "what the hell happened last night?" Byers replies: "The first thing you need to know is: secret elements within the United States government seek to surveil us and control our lives as individuals It all started less than two days ago, when I first met a woman who" The scene fades.
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