The X-Files s04e17 Episode Script
Tempus Fugit (1)
Here you are, Mr.
Rebhun.
Another scotch and soda.
The only way to fly.
I used to be just like you.
Used to hate flying.
I mean, the moment I got on the plane, I'd be gripping those armrests like my teeth were being drilled.
Truth is, statistically, you could fly every day forthenext26,000years before you'd have an accident.
Do you believe that? Ooh, baby! Settle down.
What the hell is this? ##Happy birthday to you## # Happy birthday to you # # Happy birthday dear Dana # #Agent Scully# # Happy birthday to you # I didn't know it was your birthday, Scully.
Mulder, you have never remembered my birthday in the four years I've known you.
That's the way I like to celebrate 'em, is every four years.
- It's like dog years that way.
- Dog years? Thank you.
You're welcome.
Oh, I got something for you.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
- It's something that reminded me of you.
- What, an alien implant? Two, actually.
I made 'em into earrings.
Mmm.
"Apollo 11.
" Read the back.
"Commemorating Apollo 11 and the mission to the moon.
July, 1969.
" - I'm touched.
- It's, um- Excuse me.
Are you Scully and Mulder? Oh, promise me this isn't leading to something really embarrassing.
My name is Sharon Grafia.
I'm sorry to approach you like this, but I followed you.
- I was asked to find you if something happened.
- Excuse me? You have no good reason to believe me, but my brother, who I believe you know, he said you'd understand what to do.
- About what? - If he didn't make it.
- Excuse me.
Who are you talking about? - Max.
Max Fennig.
He was on his way here to deliver something that made him fear for his life.
Something he said the government would kill for.
But his plane, it went down two hours ago.
What we know right now is that the plane designated as flight 549 Lost radio contact tonight at 1900 hours EDT, and subsequently crashed into a wooded area approximately 30 miles from Albany, New York.
Local law enforcement and EMTs have been on the scene for just under two hours, but initial reports are they've found no survivors yet of the 134 passengers and crew listed on the manifest.
I wish I could tell you that we had more information about the crash site, but darkness and the terrain are gonna make it pretty slow going until morning.
We have a tape of the last radio exchange before 549 went down, which we're gonna play.
But I want to stress the need to keep everything you know or learn within the go team so that all information to the press comes from the I.
I.
C.
- You cued up, John? - Ready.
Copy, Tower.
please advise.
Do you see a need to adjust? Negative, 549.
Steady air speed of two-niner-six knots.
Maintain heading one-zero-zero at two-niner thousand feet.
Go ahead, 549.
What the hell is this? We've got something- some intercept.
My God! My God! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! And that's all she wrote.
Controllers tried to raise 549 on all available frequencies, but the pilots did not respond.
Okay, we've got an FAA charter leaving in one hour.
- Accommodations- - Excuse me, sir.
I'm Agent Mulder with the FBI.
Is there any indication or suspicion that flight 549 may have been forced down? - Forced down? - You can hear the pilot say "intercept" on the recording.
We have absolutely no data to support that.
No confirmation of other aircraft in the area.
- Unless you have something.
- No.
No.
But there was a passenger on that plane who was well-known to our government as an alien abductee.
- An alien abductee? - A man named Max Fennig.
A multiple-abduction victim.
What's known as a repeater.
- Hold on a second.
Please.
Can I have some quiet.
He predicted the accident.
From the sound on the tape, the plane may have been forced down.
- Forced down by who, or what? - I'm hesitant to speculate.
- Mulder- Your name's Mulder? - Yes, sir.
Let me tell you something.
Ive been doing this for 18years.
I thought I'd heard everything.
I'm looking through the manifest here, and there was no one named Max Fannigon flight549.
Fennig.
And there may be people who want to cover up this evidence.
Agent Mulder, is this an official FBI position? No, sir.
Because what you're suggesting trivializes this tragedy and casts these fine people and the work they have to do in a light that I think you'd be well-advised to avoid.
I think we all share the same goal here, sir, and that's to find out what caused that plane to crash.
And if any of the capable men and women in this room - find Dr.
Spock's phaser or any green alien goo, we'll be sure to give you all the credit.
All right then.
You sure know how to make a girl feel special on her birthday.
Have you ever seen anything like this? Where's the plane? They think it hit the ground at over 300 miles an hour on an almost vertical descent.
Meteorological data is being collected and analyzed, and so far they are attributing the crash to weather phenomena, to a rapid depressurization caused by a lightning strike or by something called a wind rotor coming off the Adirondacks.
But not to Max Fennig.
Even if he was on this flight, looking at this, he'd be in a hundred pieces.
They're gonna be lucky if they can I.
D.
half the bodies they find here.
He was on this flight, Scully.
I'm sure of that.
Well, say we do find him.
What's that gonna prove? I don't know.
Maybe that one man's life was worth sacrificing 133 others.
Is that a hand? - Is that a watch? - Yeah.
What does it read? - 8:01.
- So does this one.
What are they listing as the time of the crash? Uh, 7:52 p.
m.
- Just nine minutes' difference.
- It's gotta be a mistake.
Nine minutes.
Do you remember the last time you were missing nine minutes? Mulder, no one even reported the plane on radar.
These guys are just going off of estimates until they can recover the data recorder.
Yeah.
Something just occurred to me.
- What? - I don't think were gonna find Max Fennig after all.
Just a few minutes ago, you were absolutely certain he was on this flight.
Yeah, but I'm beginning to doubt whether he finished this flight with the rest of the passengers.
Hey! Get me a medic over here! This man's alive! This man's alive! Get me a medic over here! Somebody! Right there! Let's go, let's go! We need an airlift to a burn unit as soon as possible! This man needs oxygen and a saline I.
V.
! Sir, can you hear me? Sir? I've got what you asked for.
- All of those are from Max? - Every letter he ever wrote me.
You said to bring everything I had.
I'm still not sure why.
Sharon, we believe that there are things that you haven't told us.
- We need to know everything that you know.
- About what? About Max.
About where he's been.
About where he's traveled.
About exactly what it was he was carrying on that flight.
- Did you find Max? - No.
But we found a passenger with severe burns, severe cellular damage.
Burns that we wouldn't see unless the victim was exposed to a high level of radiation.
- Something Max was carrying? - We need to know what that was, Sharon.
If youre withholding any information, there could be severe consequences.
Mulder? Man's name was Larold Rebhun.
The manifest has him listed in seat 13-D, which is the aisle seat right here.
My guess is that Max Fennig was in 13-F, window seat.
But the manifest has a passenger in that seat as a- Paul Gidney.
It's an alias Max Fennig used in his letters when he went underground.
He had many aliases, in fact, one of which he used to get a job at the Rocky Flats Environmental Energy Site in Colorado where they handle and store uranium 235 and weapons-grade plutonium.
Do you think Max was carrying plutonium? Mulder, the burns on that passenger's face were deep-tissue radiation burns.
I don't know how else he might have gotten them.
- What would Max be doing with that? - I don't know.
He wrote hundreds, maybe even a thousand letters describing his abductions, but beginning in January, he started making vague references to a theft.
Now, it seems to me from reading it that he started to get the idea that he'd come on to something that was very dangerous.
So what caused this crash? If he was carrying fissile plutonium, Mulder, and it became exposed in the cabin, it very conceivably could have caused the crash.
You want to know what I think, Scully? I'm gonna tell you.
I think Max was abducted, sucked right out of this door at 29,000 feet, and the burns we're seeing are a result of that abduction.
- Mulder- - And all the evidence will point to this conclusion, but it will be dismissed because of its improbability, its unthinkability.
- Mulder- - The crash of flight 549 will go unsolved unless we prove it.
When Max is returned, he's going to tell us the same story unless someone gets to him first.
Mulder, Max is returned.
I found out a few minutes ago.
They found his body a short way from the wreckage earlier today.
You're positive of this? Traveling under the name Paul Gidney, seat 13-F, with the same burns as his seat mate.
There's still no explanation for this crash.
But you guys are willing to make a determination as to whether there was an explosion pre-impact or as we can see- But the data only points to an explosion after the aircraft- Did you make a positive I.
D.
on Max Fennig? Well, they've located the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
- And? - And the I.
I.
C.
is making a statement to the press saying that there was a complete systems malfunction on the plane.
In other words, there's still no explanation for what brought this plane down.
No, not yet, but they are taking a careful look at the emergency exit door.
And while they cannot explain the radiation readings, they are not ready to attribute it as the direct cause.
They're not able to, or they're not willing to? - Why can't you just accept the facts? - Because there are no facts.
What they're telling you, what they're gonna report, they're the opposite of facts.
A claim to ignorance of the facts.
Claimed steadfastly, ignorance becomes as acceptable as the truth.
What would you like them to report? That there is not one wristwatch on any of those bagged bodies.
The watches have been stolen.
- Are you accusing these men of covering evidence? - These men? No.
These men are trained to identify moving parts- hydraulics, electronics.
They're trained to reconstruct those parts in the past and arrive at the present.
But they can't do that because somebody has stolen the past from them.
Nine minutes of it.
Nine minutes that became a lifetime for those passengers and now for their families.
Someone has got to figure out what happened in those nine minutes.
Somehow, we've got to get that back.
- Louis Frish? - Yes, sir.
I just got the call from the C.
O.
Said you were coming out with some questions.
I'm Agent Mulder.
This is Agent Scully.
If youre here about the crash the other night, I already told the NTSB guys what I know.
- They were already out here? - Yes, ma'am.
Night of the crash.
Were you in the tower that night? Yes, sir.
Me and Sergeant Armando Gonzales.
- Did flight 549 show up on your radar? - Yes, sir, it did.
- Did you establish radio contact with them? - No, sir.
We would have no reason to contact a civilian airliner unless it crossed into military airspace.
Would there be a record of549 on your log? Yes, sir.
I know it by heart.
At 19:52, flight 549 dropped from an altitude of29,000 feet.
About 45 seconds later, we got an altitude reading of triple-X.
I've never seen anything like it.
Hope to never again.
- Then what did you do? - We called 549 and got no response.
Then we called A.
T.
C.
in Albany.
- And what was their response? - We just gave them the information, Last we'd heard.
Is there something else you're looking for? About nine minutes.
We've been traveling a long way.
Wasn't the initial report that there was no radar confirmation of the crash? Yeah.
That must have come after our briefing.
What did you tell them? What I was supposed to say.
Somebody's gonna figure out what's going on.
I don't ask.
I don't know.
I don't want to know.
If they find out the truth, do you think anybody's gonna take the heat for us? I'm not the only liar here.
If they come back here to talk to me, I'm tellin' the truth.
I'm not gonna have no blood on me.
Then you make me the liar.
Roger.
- I dont want any trouble.
Did they find her? - No, ma'am.
- We need some answers.
The place is a mess.
- We'll do our best, ma'am.
Hey, you're gonna have to take care of this.
- You're gonna have to pay.
- Excuse me? The room you rented for the woman? Well, she trashed it and split.
- Sharon Grafia? - It was under your name.
- Yeah.
- Look at this! And I don't know what kind of game she was playin' in here.
She blew the door right out of the jamb.
I doubt insurance will cover it.
Does your policy cover the acts of extraterrestrials? - We'll take care of it.
- Great.
Okay, Scully, hit me with your best shot.
- What do you think happened here? - I haven't a clue.
It looks an awful lot to me like this place fell from 29,000 feet.
- You think Max's sister- - Was abducted, just like Max.
Maybe it runs in the family.
- What happened here? - You're the experts.
Why dont you bring your team down here and work it out? - They've got their hands full.
- Yeah, coming up with all that inconclusive evidence.
I've come to tell you we've found some evidence.
Good evidence.
- About what caused the crash? - Possibly.
But I'm not ready to make an announcement.
Why not? I'm afraid I'd sound as crazy as you.
Is there someplace I can show you these? Someplace with a door? These lines you see here running outward from center- Those are what we call fatigue cracks, caused by cyclic stress on the fuselage.
- From what? - Wear and tear.
Most commercial planes have an average 20, 30,000 hours' flight time.
Except 549 was a new plane.
- Then what caused that? - I can't tell you that.
But I can tell you this.
The way all these cracks radiate from a central point Looks like the door's been shaken and blown outward, straight off its frame.
If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have known what to look for.
Sounds like what youre describing is physically impossible.
In normal operation, it could never happen.
Not this way.
But it did.
Hey, man, how ya doin'? Sorry about before.
It's, uh- I was way out of line.
I just- Ive just been letting this thing get to me, I guess.
Hey, Gonzales? - Did you find him, Sergeant? - He's not up there.
Thirty five thousand feet.
It's negligible.
Nothing to be concerned about.
Copy, Tower.
Please advise.
Do you see a need to adjust? Negative, 549.
Steady air speed at two-niner-six knots.
Maintain heading one-zero-zero at two-niner thousand feet.
Go ahead, 549.
What the hell is this? We got something- some intercept.
My God! My God! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! - Scully.
- Scully, it's me.
I just realized something.
The voice of the air traffic controller- I've heard it before.
- We've been up for 36 hours.
Can it wait till morning? - No, I know, I know.
I just need you to come over here and listen to this right now, okay? I'm on my way.
Don't scream.
Just listen to me.
Listen to me.
I'm the man responsible.
I'm the one that caused that plane crash.
Uh, give me a second.
You said you had someone who had some information? This is Louis Frish.
Sergeant Frish.
He's the air traffic controller you heard on the recording that you played for us the other night.
That was from Albany Control Center.
- It was the voice of a civilian air traffic controller.
- No, sir.
There seems to be more than a little discrepancy.
What youve been told, what you've been led to believe was built upon a lie that Sergeant Frish was asked to perpetuate.
Along with Sergeant Gonzales, who is now dead.
I was asked to lie.
I was ordered to lie about what happened to flight549.
- By whom? - My C.
O.
Flight 549 appeared on my radar at 1900 hours when we were asked to give its coordinates at 15-second intervals.
About two minutes past 30 degrees north, we saw a second aircraft enter 549's airspace in an intercept pattern.
It shadowed 549 for another ten minutes before we were asked to give a new set of coordinates.
A few seconds later, there was an explosion, and 549 disappeared from my radar screen.
I don't believe this man.
There's not one speck of forensic detail to support it.
No sign of an explosion, no flashing, no residues, no oxidation, nothing.
I'm telling you what I saw.
We shot down a civilian jet, knowingly and willingly.
I'm gonna tell you two something.
- I have a responsibility to the truth here.
- So do we.
This man can't testify to this story, not without evidence.
- The military's working to cover up that evidence.
- The story makes no sense.
Unless the aircraft that was fired on never appeared on his radar screen- a third, unidentified aircraft then engaged the civilian jet, which the sergeant never saw.
A stealth aircraft? Shot down by the intercept aircraft, which in turn may have caused the crash of flight 549, which means that the cause of this crash is not here but is out there somewhere at a second crash site.
- Somebody wouldve spotted it.
- No, they didn't know about a second aircraft.
Except the military.
Which means that this man's life is in danger because he can put the pieces together.
Then somebody has to get him someplace safe.
If theres a second crash site, Lets find it.
Mulder.
Hold on.
Mulder? - Louis, help me out.
- Don't take your foot off the gas.
- Is he gonna see us? - No.
We gotta get under him.
We're not gonna make it.
Somebody help me! please! Who's there? Oh, don't- Don't let them take me again! Louis! Louis! I want to ask you something.
This is where flight 549 went down.
As far as you know, there's been no substantiation of a second crash site? - Right.
- What if thats because there is no second crash site? Because that second aircraft never fell to the ground.
It came down somewhere around here.
- In Great Sacandaga Lake? - Yeah.
Traveling north to south, It's a shallow intercept.
Yeah, that's very possible.
Possible? Are you okay taking Sergeant Frish back to D.
C.
? - By myself? - Yeah.
- You just let me know what's going on, Mulder.
- As soon as I know.
- I saw the sign.
Are you Bearfeld? - Yeah.
I stopped by your place.
Nobody was home.
- Who are you? - Fox Mulder.
I'm with the FBI.
You got anything to do with what's going on out there? What's going on out there? Some kind of search-and-rescue operation or some damn thing.
I don't know.
- Where? - Out over at Democrat Point.
Some kind of hovering lights, just there and then gone.
Can you show me? No, no, no.
I need you to take me there.
- I'm just gonna get some things.
- Where then? I'm gonna ask for some kind of protective arrangement.
I need to talk to my agent in charge to get a feel for how to go on this, but I think it's pretty clear youre gonna want to talk to the right people.
- Do you think I'll be prosecuted? - For what? I gave the coordinates.
You didn't bring that plane down, Louis.
I lied.
I misled a federal investigator.
I misled you.
A hundred and thirty-four people, Sergeant Gonzales- they're all dead.
- It wasnt your fault.
- But I'm gonna have to live with it.
I watched that plane fall out of the sky.
It was just a dot on the screen, just a set of numbers.
But that wreckage- I can't get that out of my mind.
How those people died.
How easy it is to lie.
Just to say it was a dot on the screen.
Until you see it.
Look, I can't tell you how to feel, Louis.
But I can tell you that I will do everything I can to make sure you tell your story to somebody who will do the right thing.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Do you think it's safe to make a phone call? I'd like to tell my girlfriend that I'm whatever.
Yeah.
Um, just tell her you're okay.
Over there.
- How deep is it here? - Fifty.
Sixty, maybe.
Have you worked at this depth before? Not exactly.
What exactly is your experience? Once I, uh, I got a quarter off of the deep end at the "Y" pool.
Last call, folks.
Cocktail? - No.
- No, thanks.
We're being met here by a federal marshal.
You're probably gonna end up sleepin' in somebody's office.
You want a drink? You need a drink.
Yes.
- There you are.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
- Hey! Birthday girl! - Agent Pendrill.
How are you doing? I have something for you.
Where have you been? - I've been, uh, gone.
- Oh.
Uh, can I buy you a drink? No, you know, it's okay.
I've, uh- I'm with somebody.
Oh.
Let me buy him a drink too.
- No.
You know what? It's okay.
- No, no.
I insist.
- Bartender? Bartender? - Yeah? Set me up with a couple of birthday girl drinks here.
Can I have a couple of your finest- Get down! You've gotta keep breathing, Pendrill.
Do you hear me?
Rebhun.
Another scotch and soda.
The only way to fly.
I used to be just like you.
Used to hate flying.
I mean, the moment I got on the plane, I'd be gripping those armrests like my teeth were being drilled.
Truth is, statistically, you could fly every day forthenext26,000years before you'd have an accident.
Do you believe that? Ooh, baby! Settle down.
What the hell is this? ##Happy birthday to you## # Happy birthday to you # # Happy birthday dear Dana # #Agent Scully# # Happy birthday to you # I didn't know it was your birthday, Scully.
Mulder, you have never remembered my birthday in the four years I've known you.
That's the way I like to celebrate 'em, is every four years.
- It's like dog years that way.
- Dog years? Thank you.
You're welcome.
Oh, I got something for you.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
- It's something that reminded me of you.
- What, an alien implant? Two, actually.
I made 'em into earrings.
Mmm.
"Apollo 11.
" Read the back.
"Commemorating Apollo 11 and the mission to the moon.
July, 1969.
" - I'm touched.
- It's, um- Excuse me.
Are you Scully and Mulder? Oh, promise me this isn't leading to something really embarrassing.
My name is Sharon Grafia.
I'm sorry to approach you like this, but I followed you.
- I was asked to find you if something happened.
- Excuse me? You have no good reason to believe me, but my brother, who I believe you know, he said you'd understand what to do.
- About what? - If he didn't make it.
- Excuse me.
Who are you talking about? - Max.
Max Fennig.
He was on his way here to deliver something that made him fear for his life.
Something he said the government would kill for.
But his plane, it went down two hours ago.
What we know right now is that the plane designated as flight 549 Lost radio contact tonight at 1900 hours EDT, and subsequently crashed into a wooded area approximately 30 miles from Albany, New York.
Local law enforcement and EMTs have been on the scene for just under two hours, but initial reports are they've found no survivors yet of the 134 passengers and crew listed on the manifest.
I wish I could tell you that we had more information about the crash site, but darkness and the terrain are gonna make it pretty slow going until morning.
We have a tape of the last radio exchange before 549 went down, which we're gonna play.
But I want to stress the need to keep everything you know or learn within the go team so that all information to the press comes from the I.
I.
C.
- You cued up, John? - Ready.
Copy, Tower.
please advise.
Do you see a need to adjust? Negative, 549.
Steady air speed of two-niner-six knots.
Maintain heading one-zero-zero at two-niner thousand feet.
Go ahead, 549.
What the hell is this? We've got something- some intercept.
My God! My God! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! And that's all she wrote.
Controllers tried to raise 549 on all available frequencies, but the pilots did not respond.
Okay, we've got an FAA charter leaving in one hour.
- Accommodations- - Excuse me, sir.
I'm Agent Mulder with the FBI.
Is there any indication or suspicion that flight 549 may have been forced down? - Forced down? - You can hear the pilot say "intercept" on the recording.
We have absolutely no data to support that.
No confirmation of other aircraft in the area.
- Unless you have something.
- No.
No.
But there was a passenger on that plane who was well-known to our government as an alien abductee.
- An alien abductee? - A man named Max Fennig.
A multiple-abduction victim.
What's known as a repeater.
- Hold on a second.
Please.
Can I have some quiet.
He predicted the accident.
From the sound on the tape, the plane may have been forced down.
- Forced down by who, or what? - I'm hesitant to speculate.
- Mulder- Your name's Mulder? - Yes, sir.
Let me tell you something.
Ive been doing this for 18years.
I thought I'd heard everything.
I'm looking through the manifest here, and there was no one named Max Fannigon flight549.
Fennig.
And there may be people who want to cover up this evidence.
Agent Mulder, is this an official FBI position? No, sir.
Because what you're suggesting trivializes this tragedy and casts these fine people and the work they have to do in a light that I think you'd be well-advised to avoid.
I think we all share the same goal here, sir, and that's to find out what caused that plane to crash.
And if any of the capable men and women in this room - find Dr.
Spock's phaser or any green alien goo, we'll be sure to give you all the credit.
All right then.
You sure know how to make a girl feel special on her birthday.
Have you ever seen anything like this? Where's the plane? They think it hit the ground at over 300 miles an hour on an almost vertical descent.
Meteorological data is being collected and analyzed, and so far they are attributing the crash to weather phenomena, to a rapid depressurization caused by a lightning strike or by something called a wind rotor coming off the Adirondacks.
But not to Max Fennig.
Even if he was on this flight, looking at this, he'd be in a hundred pieces.
They're gonna be lucky if they can I.
D.
half the bodies they find here.
He was on this flight, Scully.
I'm sure of that.
Well, say we do find him.
What's that gonna prove? I don't know.
Maybe that one man's life was worth sacrificing 133 others.
Is that a hand? - Is that a watch? - Yeah.
What does it read? - 8:01.
- So does this one.
What are they listing as the time of the crash? Uh, 7:52 p.
m.
- Just nine minutes' difference.
- It's gotta be a mistake.
Nine minutes.
Do you remember the last time you were missing nine minutes? Mulder, no one even reported the plane on radar.
These guys are just going off of estimates until they can recover the data recorder.
Yeah.
Something just occurred to me.
- What? - I don't think were gonna find Max Fennig after all.
Just a few minutes ago, you were absolutely certain he was on this flight.
Yeah, but I'm beginning to doubt whether he finished this flight with the rest of the passengers.
Hey! Get me a medic over here! This man's alive! This man's alive! Get me a medic over here! Somebody! Right there! Let's go, let's go! We need an airlift to a burn unit as soon as possible! This man needs oxygen and a saline I.
V.
! Sir, can you hear me? Sir? I've got what you asked for.
- All of those are from Max? - Every letter he ever wrote me.
You said to bring everything I had.
I'm still not sure why.
Sharon, we believe that there are things that you haven't told us.
- We need to know everything that you know.
- About what? About Max.
About where he's been.
About where he's traveled.
About exactly what it was he was carrying on that flight.
- Did you find Max? - No.
But we found a passenger with severe burns, severe cellular damage.
Burns that we wouldn't see unless the victim was exposed to a high level of radiation.
- Something Max was carrying? - We need to know what that was, Sharon.
If youre withholding any information, there could be severe consequences.
Mulder? Man's name was Larold Rebhun.
The manifest has him listed in seat 13-D, which is the aisle seat right here.
My guess is that Max Fennig was in 13-F, window seat.
But the manifest has a passenger in that seat as a- Paul Gidney.
It's an alias Max Fennig used in his letters when he went underground.
He had many aliases, in fact, one of which he used to get a job at the Rocky Flats Environmental Energy Site in Colorado where they handle and store uranium 235 and weapons-grade plutonium.
Do you think Max was carrying plutonium? Mulder, the burns on that passenger's face were deep-tissue radiation burns.
I don't know how else he might have gotten them.
- What would Max be doing with that? - I don't know.
He wrote hundreds, maybe even a thousand letters describing his abductions, but beginning in January, he started making vague references to a theft.
Now, it seems to me from reading it that he started to get the idea that he'd come on to something that was very dangerous.
So what caused this crash? If he was carrying fissile plutonium, Mulder, and it became exposed in the cabin, it very conceivably could have caused the crash.
You want to know what I think, Scully? I'm gonna tell you.
I think Max was abducted, sucked right out of this door at 29,000 feet, and the burns we're seeing are a result of that abduction.
- Mulder- - And all the evidence will point to this conclusion, but it will be dismissed because of its improbability, its unthinkability.
- Mulder- - The crash of flight 549 will go unsolved unless we prove it.
When Max is returned, he's going to tell us the same story unless someone gets to him first.
Mulder, Max is returned.
I found out a few minutes ago.
They found his body a short way from the wreckage earlier today.
You're positive of this? Traveling under the name Paul Gidney, seat 13-F, with the same burns as his seat mate.
There's still no explanation for this crash.
But you guys are willing to make a determination as to whether there was an explosion pre-impact or as we can see- But the data only points to an explosion after the aircraft- Did you make a positive I.
D.
on Max Fennig? Well, they've located the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
- And? - And the I.
I.
C.
is making a statement to the press saying that there was a complete systems malfunction on the plane.
In other words, there's still no explanation for what brought this plane down.
No, not yet, but they are taking a careful look at the emergency exit door.
And while they cannot explain the radiation readings, they are not ready to attribute it as the direct cause.
They're not able to, or they're not willing to? - Why can't you just accept the facts? - Because there are no facts.
What they're telling you, what they're gonna report, they're the opposite of facts.
A claim to ignorance of the facts.
Claimed steadfastly, ignorance becomes as acceptable as the truth.
What would you like them to report? That there is not one wristwatch on any of those bagged bodies.
The watches have been stolen.
- Are you accusing these men of covering evidence? - These men? No.
These men are trained to identify moving parts- hydraulics, electronics.
They're trained to reconstruct those parts in the past and arrive at the present.
But they can't do that because somebody has stolen the past from them.
Nine minutes of it.
Nine minutes that became a lifetime for those passengers and now for their families.
Someone has got to figure out what happened in those nine minutes.
Somehow, we've got to get that back.
- Louis Frish? - Yes, sir.
I just got the call from the C.
O.
Said you were coming out with some questions.
I'm Agent Mulder.
This is Agent Scully.
If youre here about the crash the other night, I already told the NTSB guys what I know.
- They were already out here? - Yes, ma'am.
Night of the crash.
Were you in the tower that night? Yes, sir.
Me and Sergeant Armando Gonzales.
- Did flight 549 show up on your radar? - Yes, sir, it did.
- Did you establish radio contact with them? - No, sir.
We would have no reason to contact a civilian airliner unless it crossed into military airspace.
Would there be a record of549 on your log? Yes, sir.
I know it by heart.
At 19:52, flight 549 dropped from an altitude of29,000 feet.
About 45 seconds later, we got an altitude reading of triple-X.
I've never seen anything like it.
Hope to never again.
- Then what did you do? - We called 549 and got no response.
Then we called A.
T.
C.
in Albany.
- And what was their response? - We just gave them the information, Last we'd heard.
Is there something else you're looking for? About nine minutes.
We've been traveling a long way.
Wasn't the initial report that there was no radar confirmation of the crash? Yeah.
That must have come after our briefing.
What did you tell them? What I was supposed to say.
Somebody's gonna figure out what's going on.
I don't ask.
I don't know.
I don't want to know.
If they find out the truth, do you think anybody's gonna take the heat for us? I'm not the only liar here.
If they come back here to talk to me, I'm tellin' the truth.
I'm not gonna have no blood on me.
Then you make me the liar.
Roger.
- I dont want any trouble.
Did they find her? - No, ma'am.
- We need some answers.
The place is a mess.
- We'll do our best, ma'am.
Hey, you're gonna have to take care of this.
- You're gonna have to pay.
- Excuse me? The room you rented for the woman? Well, she trashed it and split.
- Sharon Grafia? - It was under your name.
- Yeah.
- Look at this! And I don't know what kind of game she was playin' in here.
She blew the door right out of the jamb.
I doubt insurance will cover it.
Does your policy cover the acts of extraterrestrials? - We'll take care of it.
- Great.
Okay, Scully, hit me with your best shot.
- What do you think happened here? - I haven't a clue.
It looks an awful lot to me like this place fell from 29,000 feet.
- You think Max's sister- - Was abducted, just like Max.
Maybe it runs in the family.
- What happened here? - You're the experts.
Why dont you bring your team down here and work it out? - They've got their hands full.
- Yeah, coming up with all that inconclusive evidence.
I've come to tell you we've found some evidence.
Good evidence.
- About what caused the crash? - Possibly.
But I'm not ready to make an announcement.
Why not? I'm afraid I'd sound as crazy as you.
Is there someplace I can show you these? Someplace with a door? These lines you see here running outward from center- Those are what we call fatigue cracks, caused by cyclic stress on the fuselage.
- From what? - Wear and tear.
Most commercial planes have an average 20, 30,000 hours' flight time.
Except 549 was a new plane.
- Then what caused that? - I can't tell you that.
But I can tell you this.
The way all these cracks radiate from a central point Looks like the door's been shaken and blown outward, straight off its frame.
If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have known what to look for.
Sounds like what youre describing is physically impossible.
In normal operation, it could never happen.
Not this way.
But it did.
Hey, man, how ya doin'? Sorry about before.
It's, uh- I was way out of line.
I just- Ive just been letting this thing get to me, I guess.
Hey, Gonzales? - Did you find him, Sergeant? - He's not up there.
Thirty five thousand feet.
It's negligible.
Nothing to be concerned about.
Copy, Tower.
Please advise.
Do you see a need to adjust? Negative, 549.
Steady air speed at two-niner-six knots.
Maintain heading one-zero-zero at two-niner thousand feet.
Go ahead, 549.
What the hell is this? We got something- some intercept.
My God! My God! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! - Scully.
- Scully, it's me.
I just realized something.
The voice of the air traffic controller- I've heard it before.
- We've been up for 36 hours.
Can it wait till morning? - No, I know, I know.
I just need you to come over here and listen to this right now, okay? I'm on my way.
Don't scream.
Just listen to me.
Listen to me.
I'm the man responsible.
I'm the one that caused that plane crash.
Uh, give me a second.
You said you had someone who had some information? This is Louis Frish.
Sergeant Frish.
He's the air traffic controller you heard on the recording that you played for us the other night.
That was from Albany Control Center.
- It was the voice of a civilian air traffic controller.
- No, sir.
There seems to be more than a little discrepancy.
What youve been told, what you've been led to believe was built upon a lie that Sergeant Frish was asked to perpetuate.
Along with Sergeant Gonzales, who is now dead.
I was asked to lie.
I was ordered to lie about what happened to flight549.
- By whom? - My C.
O.
Flight 549 appeared on my radar at 1900 hours when we were asked to give its coordinates at 15-second intervals.
About two minutes past 30 degrees north, we saw a second aircraft enter 549's airspace in an intercept pattern.
It shadowed 549 for another ten minutes before we were asked to give a new set of coordinates.
A few seconds later, there was an explosion, and 549 disappeared from my radar screen.
I don't believe this man.
There's not one speck of forensic detail to support it.
No sign of an explosion, no flashing, no residues, no oxidation, nothing.
I'm telling you what I saw.
We shot down a civilian jet, knowingly and willingly.
I'm gonna tell you two something.
- I have a responsibility to the truth here.
- So do we.
This man can't testify to this story, not without evidence.
- The military's working to cover up that evidence.
- The story makes no sense.
Unless the aircraft that was fired on never appeared on his radar screen- a third, unidentified aircraft then engaged the civilian jet, which the sergeant never saw.
A stealth aircraft? Shot down by the intercept aircraft, which in turn may have caused the crash of flight 549, which means that the cause of this crash is not here but is out there somewhere at a second crash site.
- Somebody wouldve spotted it.
- No, they didn't know about a second aircraft.
Except the military.
Which means that this man's life is in danger because he can put the pieces together.
Then somebody has to get him someplace safe.
If theres a second crash site, Lets find it.
Mulder.
Hold on.
Mulder? - Louis, help me out.
- Don't take your foot off the gas.
- Is he gonna see us? - No.
We gotta get under him.
We're not gonna make it.
Somebody help me! please! Who's there? Oh, don't- Don't let them take me again! Louis! Louis! I want to ask you something.
This is where flight 549 went down.
As far as you know, there's been no substantiation of a second crash site? - Right.
- What if thats because there is no second crash site? Because that second aircraft never fell to the ground.
It came down somewhere around here.
- In Great Sacandaga Lake? - Yeah.
Traveling north to south, It's a shallow intercept.
Yeah, that's very possible.
Possible? Are you okay taking Sergeant Frish back to D.
C.
? - By myself? - Yeah.
- You just let me know what's going on, Mulder.
- As soon as I know.
- I saw the sign.
Are you Bearfeld? - Yeah.
I stopped by your place.
Nobody was home.
- Who are you? - Fox Mulder.
I'm with the FBI.
You got anything to do with what's going on out there? What's going on out there? Some kind of search-and-rescue operation or some damn thing.
I don't know.
- Where? - Out over at Democrat Point.
Some kind of hovering lights, just there and then gone.
Can you show me? No, no, no.
I need you to take me there.
- I'm just gonna get some things.
- Where then? I'm gonna ask for some kind of protective arrangement.
I need to talk to my agent in charge to get a feel for how to go on this, but I think it's pretty clear youre gonna want to talk to the right people.
- Do you think I'll be prosecuted? - For what? I gave the coordinates.
You didn't bring that plane down, Louis.
I lied.
I misled a federal investigator.
I misled you.
A hundred and thirty-four people, Sergeant Gonzales- they're all dead.
- It wasnt your fault.
- But I'm gonna have to live with it.
I watched that plane fall out of the sky.
It was just a dot on the screen, just a set of numbers.
But that wreckage- I can't get that out of my mind.
How those people died.
How easy it is to lie.
Just to say it was a dot on the screen.
Until you see it.
Look, I can't tell you how to feel, Louis.
But I can tell you that I will do everything I can to make sure you tell your story to somebody who will do the right thing.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Do you think it's safe to make a phone call? I'd like to tell my girlfriend that I'm whatever.
Yeah.
Um, just tell her you're okay.
Over there.
- How deep is it here? - Fifty.
Sixty, maybe.
Have you worked at this depth before? Not exactly.
What exactly is your experience? Once I, uh, I got a quarter off of the deep end at the "Y" pool.
Last call, folks.
Cocktail? - No.
- No, thanks.
We're being met here by a federal marshal.
You're probably gonna end up sleepin' in somebody's office.
You want a drink? You need a drink.
Yes.
- There you are.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
- Hey! Birthday girl! - Agent Pendrill.
How are you doing? I have something for you.
Where have you been? - I've been, uh, gone.
- Oh.
Uh, can I buy you a drink? No, you know, it's okay.
I've, uh- I'm with somebody.
Oh.
Let me buy him a drink too.
- No.
You know what? It's okay.
- No, no.
I insist.
- Bartender? Bartender? - Yeah? Set me up with a couple of birthday girl drinks here.
Can I have a couple of your finest- Get down! You've gotta keep breathing, Pendrill.
Do you hear me?