SCENE 4
(FBI briefing room. SPENDER is showing slow motion video of the RUSSIAN
MAN getting shot. Several agents, including SCULLY, listen.)
SPENDER: Using a weapon registered to a US intelligence agency, the
shooter fired one kill shot at Anatole Klebanow before being captured without
incident a short distance from the scene. .
(MULDER and SKINNER enter. SCULLY turns to look up at MULDER.)
SPENDER: No motive has been established nor has the shooter offered up a
statement or accomplice.
(SPENDER sees MULDER and stops.)
MULDER: (Mr. Congeniality) Please continue.
SPENDER: (not happy) The trajectory of the kill shot suggests the
shooter acted alone, but we cannot yet rule out an accomplice or conspiracy.
A single bullet was fired from a catwalk at a steep angle striking the target
just right of the solar plexus.
MULDER: I’m … sorry, can you rewind the tape? Please. I’ll tell you where.
Just take it back?
SPENDER: Let me get through this. If you have any questions, we can talk
later.
MULDER: I don’t have any questions. No. I just think you’re wrong.
SCULLY: (quietly) Mulder … what are you doing?
MULDER: I don’t think the Russian was the target.
I think it was his opponent.
SPENDER: His opponent, Agent Mulder, was a twelve year old boy.
MULDER: And a good chess player. Here, let me show you his best move,
if you’ll just take it back.
(SPENDER reluctantly rewinds.)
MULDER: Okay, stop it there. Look what the kid does right here, right
before the kill shot. Play. Do you see what he does? He just pushes back.
You see that?
SPENDER: He just completed a checkmate. He’s pushing back because
the game’s over.
MULDER: You described a steep trajectory for the kill shot. If the kid
doesn’t push back at that precise moment he catches the bullet in the
back of the neck, not the Russian.
SPENDER: May we move on here?
(A woman, tall, attractive, dark hair, mid thirties, AGENT DIANA FOWLEY
is sitting across the room.)
DIANA: I think Agent Mulder is right. Looks like the boy sensed the
shooter precognitively . If you rewind the tape you’ll see it.
(MULDER looks at DIANA, surprised.)
SPENDER: There’s no way. It’s impossible.
SKINNER: Just rewind the tape so we can all see for ourselves.
(SPENDER obeys SKINNER, this time rewinding to the point where the boy
looks up and behind him. SPENDER and MULDER look at one another,
then MULDER and DIANA share a look.)
SCENE 6(Interior car. MULDER driving, SCULLY passenger, DIANA in back seat.)
SCULLY: How long have you been with the Bureau, Agent Fowley?
DIANA: Since ’91. I took an assignment in Europe after the wall came
down when the director stepped up foreign terrorism concerns.
SCULLY: And they brought you on this because of a terrorism angle?
DIANA: No. I, uh, I requested a reassignment. There were things at home I
decided I wanted to get back to.
(MULDER and DIANA make eye contact in the rearview mirror.
SCULLY doesn’t notice.)
SCULLY: 1991. (to MULDER) That’s about when you started work on the X-Files.
MULDER: More or less, yeah. (MULDER and DIANA look at each other again.)
SCENE 7
(GIBSON is watching THE SIMPSONS on TV.)
(MULDER, SCULLY, and DIANA enter. MULDER kneels down beside GIBSON.)
MULDER: Hi. My name is Fox. This is Dana and Diana. How are you doing?
GIBSON: I don’t mind it here. They get all the good TV shows.
Where I live, in the Philippines all we get is Baywatch.
(MULDER looks back at the two women, then back to GIBSON.)
MULDER: What’s wrong with Baywatch? (GIBSON looks closely at MULDER.)
GIBSON: You’ve got a dirty mind.
(MULDER doesn’t quite know what to say. Looks at Scully.)
SCULLY: (suppressing a smile) Your parents are going to pick you up on
Friday, Gibson, to take you back home.
GIBSON: (to MULDER) I don’t want to play any chess.
MULDER: How do you know I want to?
GIBSON: ‘Cause you got that cheapo chess computer in your hand.
(MULDER has indeed been hiding an electronic chess game under his arm.)
MULDER: It’s not so cheap. Don’t you want to see how fast you can beat it?
GIBSON: No. MULDER: Maybe because you can’t.
(MULDER turns off TV. GIBSON doesn’t answer.)
MULDER: I’m right, aren’t I? You know what I’m talking about.
You knew the moment I came in. That’s how you win, isn’t it …
how you know what your opponent’s going to do? You get inside
his head. You read his thoughts. That’s how you knew that man
was going to shoot you … isn’t it? GIBSON: I know what’s on your mind.
I know you’re thinking about one of the girls you brought. MULDER: Oh?
(SCULLY raises an eyebrow, DIANA gives a half smile.)
GIBSON: One of them’s thinking about you.
(SCULLY looks uncomfortable, DIANA interested.) DIANA: Which one?
(GIBSON looks closely at MULDER.) GIBSON: He doesn’t want me to say.
(MULDER chuckles VERY uncomfortably. He stands and faces the two women.)
MULDER: This kid’s going to need round-the-clock protection.
(MULDER quickly goes out into the hall. SCULLY follows.)
SCULLY: Mulder … (he turns to her) What was that all about?
MULDER: The kid’s no chess master. Under controlled conditions,
I could probably beat him.
SCULLY: Mulder, he’s recognized internationally as a prodigy.
He’s beaten Grand Masters.
MULDER: With the most unfair advantage. What he’s doing amounts to a
kind of parlor magic trick.
SCULLY: Mulder, he was goofing on you. He was playing along.
You’re positing that this kid can read minds.
MULDER: We’ve seen a number of these cases before, Scully.
SCULLY: We have seen cases, Mulder, of fakers and lucky guessers but
no one that has ever been able to stand up to any kind of rigorous testing.
(DIANA comes out of the room and watches MULDER and SCULLY.)
No one who has gone so far as to claim that they can zero in on the mind
of one person in a crowd of thousands.
MULDER: Maybe that’s why they want him dead.
SCULLY: Who? Who are you talking about? MULDER: I’m not the mind reader.
SCULLY: Say that what you’re suggesting were even possible, who’d want
to kill a kid whose abilities would offer you the ultimate advantage … I mean
in business, in war, in anything?
DIANA: Maybe somebody whose business is in keeping secrets.
MULDER: Well, let’s test him. I think the kid will stand up. Let’s run a
brain scan and a psych evaluation on him. (looking away) You know what
to do, Diana.
(MULDER walks away down the hall. SCULLY and DIANA watch him go.)
SCULLY: So, you two know each other?
DIANA: It was a long time ago.
(SCULLY watches DIANA walk away.)
SCENE 9
SCULLY: How you doing?
GIBSON: I didn’t like those tests. I didn’t like being in the machine.
SCULLY: Hmm … They’re a little scary, aren’t they?
GIBSON: You’re wondering, aren’t you? SCULLY: About what? About you?
GIBSON: About that other girl.
(DIANA, holding a file, steps out of a room to meet them.)
GIBSON: She’s wondering about you, too.
(Later, GIBSON sits in a room facing six adults. Funny scene.)
DOCTOR 1: We’re going to show you a group of cards and as we look at
them we want you to tell us what we’re thinking. Now, take as much time
as you need.
(As each of the DOCTORS looks at a card with a picture of an object on it,
GIBSON looks at the person and says the name of the object.)
GIBSON: Chair. Piano. Piece of pie. Light bulb. Smiley face. Statue. Cat.
(DIANA and SCULLY are watching through an observation window in another room.)
SCULLY: It’s amazing. It’s hard to believe.
DIANA: I’ve witnessed clairvoyants who were over 90% accurate and seen
telepathy being demonstrated but I don’t know I’ve ever witnessed anything
quite like this. SCULLY: Where’d you see that?
DIANA: Agent Mulder and I spent some time in psychiatric hospitals.
There were some patients serving criminal sentences who we felt had
been misdiagnosed.
(In the other room, GIBSON looks at each of the DOCTORS in turn.)
GIBSON: … omelette. Coffee and a cruller. A nonfat latte. An english
muffin. Grand Slam number two with double hash browns and a side of
Canadian bacon. (DOCTORS all laugh and clap.)
DOCTOR 1: (over his shoulder to SCULLY and DIANA) He just told us
all what we ate for breakfast.
SCULLY: (not looking at DIANA, very tense) I have to disappear for a bit.
(SCULLY quickly leaves the room. DIANA watches her go.)
SCENE 11 (Lone Gunman office, and home apparently. Sound of knocking.
SCULLY is shown on a video monitor outside the door.
FROHIKE is in pajamas. He is putting on a Kevlar bullet-proof vest.)
SCULLY: (on monitor) Is somebody going to let me in?
FROHIKE: Yeah. Yeah. Coming. Coming.
(To get the door open, FROHIKE must first unlock and unbolt seven very
sturdy locks. Very funny. He opens the door and SCULLY enters.)
FROHIKE: Sorry. You caught me getting ready for bed. Come in. Come in.
SCULLY: Thank you.
FROHIKE: To what do we owe the pleasure at this late night hour?
SCULLY: I need your help.
LANGLY: (entering, also in pajamas with toothbrush in his mouth) With what?
SCULLY: You’ve all heard of Gibson Praise the chess wunderkind. These are
a series of scans and neural electrical outputs of his brain and brain processes.
(She places the images of GIBSON’s brain on a lighted viewer.) There seems to
be some suspicion that he’s a fraud. BYERS: Dorf on chess?
SCULLY: Well, apparently, he wins by reading his opponents’ minds.
FROHIKE: I love that. LANGLY: And you want us to what?
SCULLY: Analyze the data … with an eye to the parapsychological.
FROHIKE: Ooh …. A walk on the wild side.
SCULLY: (not looking at them, switching off the viewer) First … I want you
guys to tell me who Diana Fowley is.
BYERS: Diana Fowley? Geez, we haven’t heard that name in a while.
SCULLY: Then you know her. BYERS: Well … yeeaaah.
FROHIKE: She was Mulder’s chickadee when he just got out of the Academy.
Good-looking.
SCULLY: Well, she claims to have worked closely with him for a while.
LANGLY: She was there when he discovered the X-Files.
She has a background of para-science.
BYERS: She got a legat appointment a while back … in Berlin.
I always wondered why they split up.
(This has made SCULLY uncomfortable. She smiles tightly. Still not looking
at the men, she turs the viewer back on.)
SCULLY: Well … Why don’t you boys see what you can find?
(Hospital. GIBSON is watching The Silver Surfer cartoon.)
(DIANA is watching GIBSON from another room through an observation window.
GIBSON turns at looks in her direction at one point, then turns back to the TV.
MULDER enters the observation room joins DIANA at the window and watches
GIBSON also.) MULDER: How’s little Karnac doing?
DIANA: Put a TV in front of him and he turns right into a normal kid.
He’s the real deal, Fox. We tested him with Zener cards, random numbers,
a variety of ESP tasking. He’s got ability to not just focus on a thought,
but a multitude of thoughts at once.
MULDER: There’s something else. There’s something we’re missing here.
DIANA: That was a good catch on the videotape. I was impressed.
MULDER: (embarrassed, looking away) Oh, you would have caught it eventually.
DIANA: No. I’ve been too many years trying to get inside the head of too
many Arab terrorists. I’m out of practice with this stuff. But you seem at
the top of your game.
MULDER: That’s all I do. That’s all I’ve been doing for the last five years.
Been my life, such as it is. (smiles)
DIANA: Sometimes I hear about you ... about the work you’re doing.
And I think how it might have been if I’d stayed.
MULDER: Ah, we’d all be blown up by some terrorist bomb, no doubt, huh?
DIANA: I sense you could have used an ally, though – someone who thinks
like you, with some background. MULDER: Oh, you mean Scully?
DIANA: She’s not what I would call an open mind on the subject. (They laugh.)
MULDER: She’s a, uh ... she’s a scientist. She just makes me work for
everything.
DIANA: Yes, but I’m ... I’m sure there were times when two like minds on
a case would have been advantageous. MULDER: I’ve done okay without you.
DIANA: Hey ... I’m on your side.
(DIANA takes MULDER’s hand as they look at one another. Outside in the
hall, SCULLY, carrying GIBSON’s file, approaches the door. Through the
door window she sees MULDER and DIANA holding hands and smiling.
Surprised, SCULLY keeps walking a few steps down the hall. She pauses,
then turns and walks back the way she came without looking in the room
again where MULDER and DIANA are still holding hands. SCULLY goes
down to the parking deck and gets in her car. She sits quietly for about
15 seconds just thinking, then breathes deeply and pulls out her cell phone.
She dials and exhales slowly.) MULDER: (on phone, voice) Mulder.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it’s me.
MULDER: (on phone, voice, pause) Where are you?
SCULLY: (on phone) I’m, uh, I’m on my way to work. I was hoping I
could show you something. Something about the boy.
MULDER: (on phone) Well, I’m at the psych facility with him right now.
Why don’t you come by and show me?
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Uh, no, I’d ... I’d prefer to show you at work
if that’s okay. MULDER: (on phone) Okay, what is it?
SCULLY: (on phone) I think you’ll be surprised. Very surprised.
MULDER: (on phone) I’m on my way.
SCENE 13(SKINNER’s office. MULDER and SCULLY sit in front of the desk.
SPENDER, DIANA, and a few other agents are gathered on the couches.)
SKINNER: (sitting down) You’re here to tell me a story.
MULDER: (to SCULLY) Tell him exactly as you told me.
SCULLY: (uncomfortable with what she’s saying) I’ve conducted some
tests on Gibson Praise and have come up with some rather unexpected
conclusions: ones which I myself have difficulty reconciling with what I know.
SKINNER: These are?
SCULLY: Neurological tests. Mapping of brain functions using a very high
resolution EEG. SKINNER: What did you find out?
SCULLY: The tests revealed something peculiar in an area of the brain that
we are only beginning to understand. An area of the temporal lobe that
neurophysicists are calling the "God nodule."
SKINNER: I hope I’m not going to hear that this kid is the next Christ child.
SCULLY: All of the boy’s brain processes are showing extraordinary activity
in exactly this part of the brain. Which is not just abnormal or anomalous,
but from what I know absolutely unheard of.
MULDER: There are corollaries – The individuals who have been responsible
for great leaps forward in understanding in science. Newton, Galileo, Einstein,
Stephen Hawking. All these men exhibited modes of thinking that are suggestive
of access to special brain centers.
SKINNER: All right. So this kid is a human oddity. Tell me why anyone would go to such lengths as to kill him?
MULDER: This kid may be the key not just to all human potential, but to
all spiritual unexplained paranormal phenomena. The key to everything in
the X-Files.
SPENDER: Let me get this right --- We’re supposed to believe that this
boy was going to be killed because of the X-Files?
MULDER: No, it’s bigger than that.
SPENDER: Uh-huh. Explain it to me. To us.
MULDER: I can’t. But the shooter can. The assassin that you have locked
up ... in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
SPENDER: You want to give a murderer a free ride for the secrets to the pyramids?
This is crazy. It’s nuts.
SCULLY: You mischaracterize what I’ve said. This would be quantifiable
scientific proof of everything Agent Mulder and I have investigated over the
past five years.
DIANA: How do you quantify the spiritual? It can’t be done. You ask for
immunity for a killer on that basis, the Attorney General’s gonna go off.
You’re allowed to investigate the X-Files as an indulgence. But draw the
wrong kind of attention and they’ll close you down. Put an end to all your
work. Something I happen to have an interest in myself.
(MULDER nods. SCULLY looks at him.)
SKINNER: Let’s everyone step out into the hall.(All stand.)
SCENE 16 SCULLY: Gibson?
GIBSON: This is a great show. I wish we got this where I live.
(SCULLY comes over and pulls up a chair next to GIBSON.)
SCULLY: I’d like to ask you something.
SCULLY: How do you do it?
GIBSON: I just hear you thinking … like on a radio. And sometimes there
are lots of radios. And I want to shut them off and watch some TV.
SCULLY: Is that why you like chess? ‘Cause it’s just one thought
that you hear? GIBSON: Yeah, but that’s not why I like it all the time.
SCULLY: Why else do you like it?
GIBSON: Because there’s no talking. Just thinking. It’s nothing like
real life where people think one thing but they say something else.
SCULLY: (laughs softly) Is that what people do?
GIBSON: They’re so worried about what other people are thinking when
the people they’re worrying about are worried about the same thing.
It makes me laugh. SCULLY: Why?
GIBSON: They make up all this stuff to believe but it’s all made up.
Some people try to be good people but some people just don’t care. Like you.
SCULLY: You think I don’t care?
GIBSON: No, you don’t care what people think. Except for her. The other one.
(DIANA knocks and enters the hotel room.) DIANA: I’m here to relieve you.
SCULLY: (to GIBSON) Well, we’ll talk about this later, okay?
(SCULLY crosses to the door.) GIBSON: They want to kill me, you know.
SCULLY: (at door) Nobody’s going to do anything to you, Gibson. I promise.
GIBSON: I know you do.(SCULLY takes her coat and leaves.)
SCENE 18
(Hotel room. Later. DIANA is asleep. DIANA wakes, startled. GIBSON is not where he was sitting earlier.)
DIANA: Gibson?(She sees GIBSON looking out the window.)
DIANA: What are you doing? GIBSON: There’s a man with a gun.
(DIANA gets up and runs to GIBSON pulling him out of the way and pushing
him toward the bed. She stays at the window.)
DIANA: Gibson, get down. Get back. Get back.
GIBSON: He didn’t come here to kill me. He’s aiming at you. DIANA: Wha …
(DIANA stands up in
front of the window, looks at Gibson, shocked, then faces the window.
Window shatters as gunshot hits DIANA. She falls.)
SCENE 19
(Next morning. Exterior of hotel. Crime scene - patrol cars, ambulances.
MULDER and SCULLY arrive. They get out of the car and see a woman’s
body covered with a sheet. They cross to the body.)
SKINNER: Agent Mulder, Scully. They killed a US Marshal and then shot
Agent Fowley.
(DIANA, unconscious, is carried out of the motel room and loaded onto an
ambulance. MULDER, concerned, holds her hand briefly before being
pushed back by the EMTs.)
SKINNER: They worked on her here for an hour. They couldn’t get a chopper
in so they’re in radio communication with the hospital. She’s got weak vitals
and a hole in one of her lungs, so they’re not optimistic.
YEEHAA!
INGET MURRAY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND
INGET MURRAY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
(SCULLY and GIBSON holding hands walk through a door and down a hall.)
CENTERVILLE, VIRGINIA
(Night. Car pulls up to hotel. Interior hotel room. GIBSON is watching
"King of the Hill" on TV. SCULLY sits in a chair watching him.)