Washington

“Have you noticed how strange Mack Sherman’s been acting lately?”

Dana Scully turned to stare incredulously at her partner, her winter coat in one hand. “Mack Sherman? The janitor?”

Mulder nodded, reaching for his own coat. “I caught him carrying on a conversation with thin air earlier today, when I went to get that stain off my tie.” He shrugged it on and turned to help her with hers.

“So? The man’s nearly seventy-five and works alone. Why shouldn’t he talk to himself?”

“But that’s just the thing. He wasn’t talking to himself. He was talking to someone named Al. Someone who, I might add, was standing IN the wall.”

Scully sighed and started out the door with Mulder close behind her.

“So he’s a little old to have an imaginary friend. Your point?”

“He wasn’t an imaginary friend.”

“I’m dying to hear what you *do* think it was.”

“A ghost?” Mulder regarded her as if waiting for the inevitable disagreement. He’d been hoping the comments he was making would jog her memory, but so far had been unsuccessful. Too bad he couldn’t just tell her outright what had happened, but he knew she wouldn’t believe a word of it. She’d probably think he’d lost his mind.

Mulder’s mouth turned up a bit in amusement at the thought, and Scully found herself wondering once again how the man could look so sincere and so mischievous at the same time.

She shook her head in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me you think Mack Sherman is a medium?” By this time they had reached the elevator and Scully pressed the ‘up’ button. “That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think, Mulder?”

Interesting choice of words, considering she didn’t remember. Well, he’d just have to keep trying.

“Not really. Take a look at this.” He held a sheet of printer paper towards her as the doors slid open and they stepped inside.

“What is it?”

“An e-mail message I got.”

Reluctantly she took the paper and perused it. “Okay, so one of the warehouses you would love to dig through was broken into by some scientist. What does that have to do with Mack Sherman?”

“Actually, Scully, it says the warehouse was broken into by someone Dr. Beckett’s security clearance. Sam Beckett himself disappeared some time last year.”

“Disappeared is not necessarily synonymous with dead.”

Mulder had a secretive smile on his face. “I know. But from what I know of his disappearance, he wouldn’t be able to use it himself, strictly speaking, even if he is still alive.”

“What DO you know of his disappearance?”

“Not much. Only that he was working on a Top Secret time travel project for the government at the time, and his colleagues say he is now traveling through time borrowing other people’s lives and faces.”

“I’m not going to even ASK where you got that information or whether you did anything to verify or clarify it. I still don’t see the connection.”

“Well, the connection is that Mack Sherman was talking about a warehouse when I caught him talking to himself.” He jabbed at the paper emphatically with his finger. “THIS warehouse. And from the sound of what he was saying, he was the one who did the break-in.”

“Why would Sherman risk his job by using the security clearance of a missing scientist to break into a top secret warehouse, Mulder? What does a janitor need with government secrets?”

“Scully, the tape that was stolen was from Project Blue Book, back in the sixties. Don’t ask me how, but it must have been somehow connected to this Dr. Beckett.”

“Even if it was, that still doesn’t give Sherman a reason to take it.”

“People do things without reasonable explanations all the time, Scully.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, but unless you can give me either proof that Sherman broke into this warehouse or a better reason he would want to, I don’t believe it.”

“He said he did, Scully, doesn’t a confession count as proof?”

“How do you know he wasn’t putting on an act for your benefit? To get attention? You do have a bit of a reputation, Mulder.”

“He couldn’t have been putting on an act for me hen he didn’t know I was watching.”

“You were spying on him?” The elevator door slid open and she stepped out into the lobby of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, with her partner close behind.

“People don’t usually talk to ghosts in public, Scully. If he’d known I was there, he probably would have waited until I left.”

Scully rolled her eyes. “Your logic escapes me.”

“I just thought it might be worthwhile to check it out.”

His partner shook her head emphatically, exiting the building and turning her footsteps towards the parking garage. “Not now. I’ve already let you talk me into going to Metropolis to investigate Superman this week. At least you have something that looks like a case there.”

“Are you actually admitting he’s real, Scully?” Mulder’s eyes twinkled. “I thought you were firmly convinced he was a publicity stunt.”

“I still am. Movies make people seem to fly all the time–I’m sure a profitable major newspaper could afford the necessary technology.”

“What about Nick Knight?”

The stare Mulder got in response to that question was one of complete bewilderment.

“What does a Toronto homicide detective have to do with any of this? Besides, we solved that case–why bring it up now?”

It had already been pretty obvious that his not-so-subtle hints were not going to restore her memory about the earlier case, but that clinched it. If she couldn’t make the connection between Nick and flying, the vampire’s hypnotic suggestion was obviously still very much in place.

He shrugged. “Just wanted to make sure you were really listening.”

“Fine. Can we get going now?”

“Sure.”

The rest of the walk to the car passed in silence, and when they reached it, Scully unlocked the door and slipped into in the driver’s seat. Thankfully, Metropolis was only a couple of hours south of DC in Virginia. She wasn’t sure she could concentrate on driving if she was trying to follow Mulder’s leaps of logic at the same time.

“Oh, by the way…”

Scully buckled her seat-belt and turned exasperated eyes to her partner. “What now?”

“That warehouse I mentioned? It’s in Metropolis.”