Chapter 4 x-x-x-x-x Look, Elvis is dead, the government is not hiding UFOs, and there are no Indians in the Oxbow. -- Professor Lillian Stone. x-x-x-x-x Albert Hosteen's house Tohatchi, New Mexico 9:00am "I really don't care what my son said. Eric is far too trusting even after what happened to him." Leonard Hosteen, Albert's son and Eric's father, said angrily, "The last time the two of you were here, our home was ruined. Ruined by military men looking for you two. My son was beaten. My father was terrorized. He is in the last few days of his life and I am sure as hell not going to let you people kill him." "I understand your concerns Mr. Hosteen." Scully tried to reassure him, "But we only need a few minutes of your father's time. Eric told me he was looking forward to seeing us." "Mr. Hosteen, we're just here to ask your father about his work with Dr. Sandoz and an artifact the doctor has." Mulder added. While Scully was standing with Leonard near the hall to the bedrooms, Mulder sank into a chair near the front door after entering the home. Scully noticed he was paler than he was the previous day; had more energy during their conversation last night than right now. "My father should have been resting and concentrating on his health, not helping some overpaid teacher at a fancy East Coast school. Didn't do either of them any good." "What do you mean by that?" Scully asked as she watched Mulder use the hem of his tee-shirt to mop the sweat from his brow. "Your Dr. Sandoz, or whatever his name is, was found dead just off the reservation. He was beaten and robbed. The Reservation Police and the New Mexico State Troopers have been all over here looking for a suspect. They even spoke with Eric two days ago. That's probably why he was so quick to help you, you'd think he was a suspect if he didn't." "We didn't know anything about Dr. Sandoz." Scully was still watching Mulder. He weakly shrugged his shoulders. "Just a few minutes with your father is all we are asking. You can be there, your son can be there, you can tape record our session, whatever you want. With Dr. Sandoz dead, now Albert is the only connection we have to the artifact." A voice came from the bedroom, "I want to see them Leonard. If you don't let them come in, I'll have to come out." Leonard sighed deeply, turning to the bedroom. "You do anything to upset him, anything to exhaust him and I swear I'll throw the two of you out of here myself." Scully and Mulder followed him. "I don't think he'd have a hard time tossing you out." Scully whispered to Mulder, "Are you sure you're O.K.?" "It's just hot in here," Mulder pointed to the open windows, "and you know I love the air conditioning." "I want to get you checked out when we're finished here." Scully smiled as she entered Albert's bedroom and saw the old man sitting up in his bed. "My friends from the F.B.I., it is so good to see you." "It's good to see you too Albert. I saw you in the hospital a few days ago and you look much better now." "I had work left to do. You look very nice Agent Scully." Albert pointed to Mulder, "You don't look too good though." "Thanks Albert," Mulder grumbled, "I'm glad we came a couple thousand miles to hear that. Aren't you Agent Scully?" Mulder sank into a dining room chair transplanted into the bedroom. Scully sat on the foot of the bed while Leonard watched at the door warily. "We want to ask you a few questions about Dr. Sandoz and the artifact, if that's O.K." "Leonard, why don't you go into the kitchen and get what the F.B.I. came to see." Albert dismissed his son. "You have the artifact?" Scully and Mulder asked simultaneously. "It was on my night stand when I returned from the ceremony. I'm glad I had it and not Dr. Sandoz." "How did he contact you?" Scully asked. "Eric has taken some classes over at UNM. One was on the internet. He made a home page about the Code Talkers. Dr. Sandoz found me on Yeehaa." "Yahoo." Leonard corrected his father as he returned with the artifact. As Scully took the artifact from Leonard, she heard Mulder's chair crash to the floor. She raced to his side as he started a seizure. She pushed the chair away from him and tried to position his head so his airways were clear. "Get that out of here." Scully pointed behind her at what she hoped was the artifact. "Get it away from him." She turned her attention to her partner, "Mulder, hold on." "I'll call 911." Leonard took the artifact and started out of the room. "He didn't look well." Albert added. Scully wasn't happy with the past tense but grew more concerned when Mulder's nose started to bleed. "I need some toweling." she called to Leonard. As the seizure subsided, Scully noticed it was not blood coming out of Mulder's nose. It was darker and thicker than blood. "Skip the toweling. Do you have a glass jar or some sort of clean glass container?" Leonard returned with a roll of bounty towels and a drinking glass. "The ambulance should be here in a minute. What's wrong with him?" Scully took the glass and set in on the floor. "Come on Mulder," she whispered to him, "you may have had your proof all along." She gently lifted and tilted Mulder's head toward the glass. The accumulated fluid on his face, along with some caught in his nose, flowed into the glass. "What's that?" Leonard asked. Scully could hear the ambulance in the distance. "I think it's what made him sick." She carefully eased his head back to the floor. "Mulder, it's me. Can you hear me?" Mulder took a few deep breaths, his eyes still closed. "What happened?" "Ambulance is coming..." "No hospitals." "I'll keep you safe Mulder," Scully heard the EMTs rap on Albert's door, "but you need to go." x-x-x-x-x Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital Intensive Care Unit Gallup, New Mexico 12:00am Scully finally left Mulder's bedside. "Langly, it's me. Accept the charges." She called to him as the operator connected her Jordan Cochran collect call. After Langly agreed, she ordered him to turn off the tape. "Hang on." Scully heard the blond gunman fiddle with some of the equipment. She stifled a yawn just before he returned. "What's up? It's late." "Mulder's back in the hospital." She looked at her partner sleeping in an isolated section of the ICU. Without knowing what exactly what fluid came from Mulder, she ordered that he be treated with "all precautions". "I didn't see his name on any databases." "I used the name you gave us. Waved around my badge and now they think he's a witness being protected in a local murder. I need you guys to pull anything you can get on the murder of an American University professor named Sandoz." "Sure. What can we do for Mulder?" "I have an idea. He's not in any shape to agree to this but do you think Byers could get down here and watch him while I return to D.C." "Why do you need to come back?" Byers was on the line after all. "As I said, I have an idea and I need to get some data from his office and access to a lab. It's a stretch but I don't know what else to do." She heard someone banging away on a keyboard, "Guys, he's in bad shape. He had a seizure today and something bad happened during it. I don't know what else I can do." "I should be able to get there sometime tomorrow morning, but I don't..." "All I need is for someone I trust to be here with him and right now, you guys are it." "You make that sound like a bad thing." Langly was a little offended. "Just get here. Please." She gave the pair the address of the hospital and hung up. Before she returned to Mulder's side, she pulled a small glass container she "borrowed" from the E.R. when Mulder was admitted. While she pretended to be engrossed in filling out Ben McKenna's hospital forms, she transferred the fluid from Albert's drinking glass to the container. Her mind flashed back to the Dr. Sacks at NASA Goddard and prayed that Mulder wasn't facing a similar fate. # # #