"Frenzy"
By Kirsten Kerkhof

Chapter 1

Villa Isabella
Rome, Italy
14-04-1541, 1.32 pm

	"Lovely!" Laurenzo thought while he overlooked 
the green meadows. The sun was shining and the sky 
was blue. A beautiful spring day.
	"The perfect spring day!" he corrected himself. 
He congratulated himself on the success that was his: 
wealth, love from his lovely wife and two young 
daughters and to make it even better also the best spring 
he could remember.
	He went back inside. His house was in one of the 
richest neighbourhoods of Rome. All around them was 
wealth and happiness. For him too. Yes, he had to admit, 
the year 1541 was extraordinarily good for him and his 
family.
	Laurenzo di Mondo was a slenderly built man of 
34. He was a merchant and the times were good. Five 
years ago he had married the young and intelligent 
Isabella, the daughter of the wealthy merchant Giocondo 
de Venezia and the dowry Isabella had brought, together 
with his own fortune, ensured them of a care-free life. 
He hoped that his wife who was pregnant again, would 
give birth to a son. He loved his little daughters very 
much but as everyone knew, a son was needed to carry 
on the family name and properties to next generations.
	He walked into the patio. His wife, dressed in an 
expensive brocade and silk gown was embroidering in 
the shade. The real work of course was done by 
craftsmen, she needn't worry about that, but she enjoyed 
it and helped her pass the time. Next to her sat a friend 
and they were engaged in a lively conversation. He 
walked up to the women, gave his wife a kiss and 
greeted the other woman politely. Then he went inside. 
There was something he had been thinking about for 
hours and he was determined to find out what exactly it 
could be.
	His wife had seen it, but after a moment of 
carefully studying the object she became frightened and 
she ran out of the room.
	"Very well ..." he thought.
	He ordered a servant to get him a glass of wine 
and then he went to a table in a room where he usually 
did business. On that table, which was decorated with 
beautiful woodcarvings were papers, a writingset with 
ink and two books in which he wrote down the 
agreements. And now there was one of the most 
fascinating and mysterious objects he had ever seen.
	It had been brought by merchants who worked for 
him and it looked like a dragon on a stone globe. The 
dragon was made out of jet-black wood and the eyes 
were of a certain stone, probably turquoise, the nails of 
its toes ivory. The globe was, Laurenzo remarked, made 
of Lapis Lazuli and of a very good quality. The whole 
object rested on three little lion's paws of the same 
material as the dragon itself. However, what struck him 
most of all were three tiny holes in the globe and a small 
gold pin with a turqoise bead on the dragon's back.
	He took the object and turned it around in his 
hands. It was not nearly as heavy as he had expected. 
Both ebony and Lapis Lazuli are heavy and he decided it 
should be hollow. His face fell.
	"Hollow", he thought, "That obviously reduces 
the value ..." He was a born merchant.
	He wondered where it could have come from. As 
one of the formost merchants of Rome - despite his age - 
he had seen many strange things and he knew the styles 
of whatever he saw. Yet, this was entirely new to him.
	He watched the object very closely again and 
while he did that he accidentally pushed the gold pin on 
the top.

Elko, Nevada, USA
14-04-1996  

	The sun was shining with all the power it had. 
The rooms in the house were bathing in a sea of sunlight 
and it was quite warm already, even though it was still 
rather early in the morning. Jack knew it was going to be 
a promising spring.
	"Hmm, a good spring," he thought, "that may just 
be a good summer as well."
	That would be perfect because he, his wife and 
his two sons were going on holiday to Disney-World in 
California and he'd rather be too warm than too cold in 
summer. Now, here at home in Elko everything was 
perfect, he thought.
	He went outside where his wife Sandra was 
reading a book.
	"What are you reading?" he asked.
	"'The Name of the Rose'", she answered. "Great 
book, is set in the Renaissance. Very fascinating!"
	"Didn't they make that into a movie?" Jack asked. 
"With Sean Connery, isn't it?"
	"Yes, I think so", Sandra said who then returned 
to her book.
	"Where are Thomas and Jimmie?" Jack asked.
	"At the neighbour's", Sandra replied. "They're 
playing the latest computer game it seems. With Jason."
	Jack went inside. Since a week there had been an 
object on the desk in his study and he couldn't figure out 
what it was. He was an antiques dealer and the object 
had caught his attention in a sale of the properties of a 
family of Italian origin. He had made sure that it would 
eventually get to him, actually he wanted to give it to his 
wife as a birthday present in a month, but now he was 
still busy figuring out what it could be. Sandra would 
undoubtedly ask and he thought it nice if he could at 
least give her an answer.
	He picked up the object. It was an ebony dragon, 
sitting on a Lapis Lazuli globe. It was clearly a very old 
and rare sculpture and especially for its age of an 
extraordinarily good quality. The dragon was very 
detailed and the eyes of Lapis Lazuli were splendid in 
contrast to the black wood. In the back of the dragon 
was a little gold pin with a clasp in which most probably 
had once been a stone - precious or not. As far as he 
could see this was the only defect the dragon had, even 
the ebony lion's claws weren't damaged. One dragon's 
claw was missing a nail, Jack saw. In the globe he saw 
three holes. That reminded him of something. He knew 
that!
	He took a book from the cupboard about Italian 
art. In the part about the Renaissance he knew there was 
something about a black dragon on a blue globe.
	"I hope I'm lucky", he thought. Bad luck, they 
didn't mention more than that there were three similar 
dragons existing in the world.
	He picked up the object again. Clearly a 
showpiece and the undamaged condition proved it had 
hardly ever been touched.
	"I wonder why?", he said to himself. He thought 
it a piece you would want to show to people but it 
showed no traces of such a treatment.
	Wait! He thought he was able to read something 
on the globe. It looked like Arabic but it was 
microscopic. He knew that this course in Arabic would 
come in handy! He held the dragon close to his eyes and 
without remarking it he accidentally pushed the gold 
pin.
	He fell face down onto his desk, the dragon fell 
into the box it had been delivered in and on Jack's desk a 
large red stain was forming.

XxXxX

Chapter 2

FBI Headquarters
Washington D.C., USA
02-07-1996, 11.42 am

	The sun was shining hot. In the streets near the 
FBI Headquarters it was incredibly warm and people 
were moving about in the streets wearing summer 
clothes and looking for every little bit of shade there 
could be found.
	Inside, in the basement, the airconditioning had 
failed again and special agent Fox Mulder wondered 
why they had to hate him that much that they had given 
him an office in the basement. Well, just the bare fact 
that after more than four years he still had that office 
was a downright miracle itself to many other agents. The 
fact was that Mulder worked at the so-called X-Files, 
cases about unsolved and unexplained phenomena. The 
FBI didn't like that, to say the least. A good agent like 
Mulder - he was one of the best - could be of much more 
use in other investigations and they tried whatever they 
could to close the X-Files. However, Mulder had 
dedicated his life to investigating the X-Files and he 
tried just as hard to keep them open. Once it had gone 
wrong and they had been able to shut it all down, but he 
wasn't going to let that happen again.
	For some time the FBI had thought what they 
could do to close the X-Files and make Mulder do more 
useful things. They had found the ideal solution: they 
made special agent Dana Scully his partner. Scully was 
a scientist and she was very sceptical about everything 
that couldn't or wasn't proven by science. Her 
assignment: report on the cases Mulder and she 
investigated and if possible debunk the X-Files and 
Mulder.
	However, debunking wasn't on Scully's mind 
anymore and Mulder had found out that the woman he 
had originally seen as somebody who was going to 
make his work impossible was actually the one he had to 
thank for still having the X-Files. Despite her ever-
sceptical attitude she slowed Mulder down and she 
protected him from making himself utterly ridiculous, 
enthousiastic as he sometimes could be.
	And now, on this hot summer day, he was waiting 
in his office for Scully to come. On his desk was his tie 
and on the chair was his coat. He tried to cool down a bit 
by waving a folder. At such a moment he cursed the suit 
he always wore. He wondered what Scully would look 
like.
	"Perfect, as ever", he had to admit when she came 
in. She was slightly red from the warmth but her clothes, 
a rust-coloured skirt with a white blouse looked 
impeccable. As nearly always.
	"I see you didn't go for summer clothes either, 
Scully!" he said cheerily.
	Scully put her bag on the desk and 
simultaneously caught a few papers and books that fell 
to the ground. She put them on Mulder's desk but let 
them go when they started to fall again.
	"My God, Mulder!" she said, "Can't you get this 
airco fixed? How can you stand this heat?"
	"A very good afternoon to you too, Scully!" 
Mulder said. Scully smiled.
	"So", she said, "Tell me what have you got this 
time?"
	Mulder smiled and Scully's courage fell. She 
knew this smile: it meant that Mulder had gotten hold of 
a case he was interested in; a case other FBI-agents 
wouldn't want to touch with a three-meter-long pole. An 
X-File.
	"Do you like art?", Mulder asked. Scully looked 
at him. She had to admit she was always  ready for 
everything when she entered this office, but this was 
something new.
	"Mm, depends," she said carefully, "What do you 
mean?"
	Mulder had gotten out of his chair and he put on 
some strong gloves. Now Scully was completely lost. 
Mulder took a little box filled with wood wool and 
tissue-paper. The top was open and he took out an object 
covered in tissue-paper. Scully went to see what it might 
be.
	"What is that?" she asked while she watched 
Mulder carefully uncovering the object. It was quite a 
hard thing to do wearing the gloves and Scully 
wondered what it could be if he needed that kind of 
protection.
	Out of the layers of tissue-paper a beautiful object 
appeared. Scully was enchanted.
	"It's beautiful ..." she said, "What is it and where 
does it come from?"
	The wood and stone of the dragon on the globe 
were highly polished and the eyes were almost sparkling 
in the light. Scully felt it would be even more beautiful 
had there been any daylight in Mulder's office.
	"This is something I would like to have on my 
mantle-piece!" she said. "Look, it's missing a nail!"
	Mulder had the object in his hand and turned it 
around carefully.
	"You're right," he said, "that's a pity!"
	"Why are you wearing those gloves?" Scully 
asked, who saw nothing about the dragon that Mulder 
had to protect his hands for. She did see, however, that 
he cautiously kept his hands away from a gold pin in the 
dragon's back.
	"Why I'm wearing these gloves?" Mulder said, 
"Just watch this!" He put the dragon on the three little 
paws and said: "Back off, Scully!"
	He got away from the dragon himself as well so 
that he could just reach the gold pin.
	He had barely touched the pin when from the 
three holes in the globe three metal spikes suddenly 
appeared, each about four centimeters long.
	Scully started. She hadn't expected this. Using a 
metal pencil-sharpener Mulder pushed the spikes back in 
again. A 'click' could be heard and the gold pin went 
back to its normal position. He repositioned to dragon 
which had moved when the spikes had shot out and then 
he took off the gloves.
	"So, what did you think, Scully?" he said. They 
sat down again.
	"What does this mean, Mulder?" she asked. She 
carefully studied the beautiful head of the dragon again.
	"This means our new case." Mulder said. "The 
spikes are hollow, filled with poison. The sculpture is 
over 500 years old, but clearly still dangerous, because 
just over two months ago an antiques dealer was found 
dead and this object is believed to be the cause. By the 
way there are three of those dragons in the world, all 
here in the US."
	"Mm-mm, oh ..." he heard Scully say. He looked 
at her. She was looking at the head of the sculpture, 
fascinated.
	"Did you hear what I was saying, Scully?" he 
asked.
	"Oh yes ... eh, what?" Scully looked at him. She 
looked dazed. "What did you say?"
	"Scully, are you okay?" Mulder asked. This 
behaviour was not something he knew of her. He saw 
her return to the dragon. He got up and stood next to her. 
He got down on his knees so that his head was on the 
same level as hers. He followed her look. She was 
staring to the eyes of the dragon.
	Mulder looked at them himself. The dragon's eyes 
were made of turqois, that wasn't even a sparkling stone. 
He admitted they were beautiful but still. He looked at 
Scully again and what he saw alarmed him. This wasn't 
just interest, this was hypnosis in its purest form.
	"Scully" he said softly. Nothing.
	"Scully!" he said loudly now. Still nothing 
happened. She kept staring at the eyes of the dragon.
	"Shit!" Mulder thought. "This is some cool way 
to start an investigation!"
	He took the gloves, put them on and then pulled 
the dragon quickly off the desk. He had to get Scully out 
of that hypnosis, one way or another.
	At first Scully didn't move. She was still sitting in 
the position she had been in while staring into the eyes 
of the dragon. Then she slowly straightened her back 
and turned in Mulder direction. She was completely lost. 
She got up en walked towards one side of the office, 
constantly keeping Mulder in sight. He saw she reached 
for her gun. She was angry. With him!
	"Dammit!" he thought. He had expected 
everything of his career, but to be shot by his own 
partner in his own office, just because of this stupid old 
wooden dragon had never been on his short-list for 
possible career-endings.      
	Scully's movements went in slow-motion. Mulder 
saw she had almost gotten hold of her gun. He knew she 
was a good shot and he didn't doubt  she would hit her 
target once again. She had shot him once; to protect him 
from his own actions, she had shot him in the left 
shoulder. But now he knew she wasn't interested in his 
shoulders. Her target was between his shoulders and 
then slightly higher: his head.
	All these thoughts rushed through his head while 
he was taking a decision. He knew she had black belt in 
karate, but nevertheless he grasped one of her arms. She 
was stronger than he had reckoned with and she freed 
herself easily, now no longer in slow-motion. Again he 
took one of her arms and slapped her on the cheek. He 
hoped this would get her out of the hypnosis. She 
staggered and hesitated for a moment, turned towards 
Mulder and in one movement took her gun. Then it all 
went black in front of her eyes. Mulder had knocked her 
out.

	After about fifteen minutes Scully woke up.
	"Well, partner," she heard Mulder say. "This 
could have been a very peculiar end to the X-Files!" His 
voice sounded far away. Her head was buzzing and 
thumping. She had a headache. A splitting headache! 
She opened her eyes and closed them right away. The 
light hurt.
	"Here, drink something", Mulder was talking to 
her and she forced herself to get back to life and open 
her eyes. And to keep them open. Somehow it worked 
out the way she wanted it.
	She took the glass of water Mulder was offering 
her.
	"What happened?" she asked.
	"Eh, you seemed to be hypnotised by that 
sculpture", Mulder said. "Maybe I should ask you. What 
happened to you?"
	"Don't know", Scully moaned. Her headache was 
as if atomic bombs just kept on exploding and her jaw 
was swollen and very sensitive when she accidentally 
touched it. She looked at Mulder.
	"You knocked me down?" she asked astounded.
	"Yes lady," Mulder said. "It was either you 
getting a fist to your jaw or me getting a bullet in my 
head. You seemed pretty determined to make sure that 
Assistent Director Skinner had gotten rid of me 
forever!"
	Scully looked at Mulder. His voice had a certain 
tone of reproach in it, but his eyes showed no such 
feelings. It was a look of amazement and concern. 
Scully felt she started to blush and she looked at the 
ground.
	"I'm sorry ..." she said. She felt terribly guilty.
	"You're not going to take that thing with you, 
Scully!" she heard Mulder say. His voice sounded 
normal once again and when she looked at him she saw 
that his concernment had disappeared. She felt relieved 
and smiled slightly.
	"Do you want to investigate this case further or 
shall we ask other agents to take it up?" Mulder asked.
	"No," Scully said, "Now I want to know what's 
behind this thing!"
	Mulder smiled and put the box with the dragon in 
a corner of his office. He decided to get rid of this thing 
as quickly as possible. It was much too dangerous!
	"Eh, if it's alright with you, I'm going home, 
okay?" Scully said with her hand on her jaw. "I'll see 
you tomorrow."  

XxXxX

Chapter 3

Plane to Nevada, USA
03-07-1996, 8.14am

	The following morning the two agents took a 
flight to Nevada. Scully was asleep and Mulder was just 
looking at nothing, thinking of nothing. He looked aside 
to Scully. The consequences of what had happened 
yesterday were still visible on her face: on her cheek a 
light red spot where he had slapped her the first time and 
her jaw was slightly red too. The swelling had almost 
disappeared. She must have put some ice on it when she 
had gotten home. With make-up she had masked the 
rest.
	He thought of what had happened, just a few 
hours ago. My God, he had been so frightened! Mulder 
smiled. He had never thought he would be so scared of a 
woman. And it turned out to be his partner!
	"Maybe that's just the point!" he thought.
	The dragon was at his appartment. It was 
evidence so it had to be kept safe, and he thought his 
appartment might just be the safest place to keep it.
	Scully woke up.
	"Where are we, Mulder?" she asked. 
	"We have about 45 more minutes to go before we 
arrive in Nevada." Mulder answered. "Here, read the 
reports on the case and tell me if you notice anything 
strange."
	Scully took the reports and started to read them. It 
appeared that there existed three dragon figures, all of 
which were in America. Since the mid-fifteenth century 
reports were made about the dragons and their strange 
influence on people. Women seemed to be most 
vulnerable to their powers though the occasional man 
could fall victim to them as well.
	Ever since the fifteenth century the dragons were 
lethal, either through hypnosis or because of the 
poisonous spikes and the most recent victim had been a 
Jeremiah Smith in Fallon, Nevada, who had been 
murdered by his wife after he had bought her a dragon. 
In the incident the dragon had been smashed.
	Scully read a few more cases that were virtually 
identical. Six cases in which the woman had gone 
berserk and had killed her husband in sometimes 
horribly cruel ways. The women weren't of much use to 
the investigation themselves, in one case the woman had 
been shot by the police, but a striking feature was that 
every time such a dragon was present.
	Scully read the reports two, three times. She 
shook her head.
	"You asked me if I noticed anything strange in 
those cases? I have to say that I think them quite clear. 
Of course the qualities of the objects are unexplainable 
but the cases themselves seem to me as clear as glass."
	"Exactly. And that's why I don't understand why 
they came to us", Mulder answered.
	"What are we going to do? Where exactly are we 
going to?" Scully asked. She had become used to sitting 
in a plane at the beginning of an investigation and hardly 
knowing anything except where they were going to and 
even that might sometimes be uncertain. But, as Mulder 
said, this is X-Files territory: you start with nothing and 
you have to try to fill in that nothing as usefully as 
possible. So she supposed this was just one of the 
dangers that came with the job, just like having to carry 
a gun or share a car with Mulder when he was driving. 
	"We're going to the place where the last victim 
was found", Mulder answered her question. "See what 
we can find."
	"I hope I'm immune to the dragons now", Scully 
said to herself. Mulder looked at her and asked:
	"What did you say, Scully?"
	"I wonder if those dragons still influence me. It 
could be dangerous to sit next to me!" she said while she 
looked at Mulder innocently.
	"Don't worry. I'm armed. I'll take my chances!" 
Mulder said grinning.

	The two men who were in Mr Jeremiah Smith's 
house looked around.
	"Are you sure he'll be able to help us?" one man 
asked the other.
	"I don't know!" the other man said irritated. "The 
only thing I know is that he comes highly recommended. 
He should be one of the best."
	"I heard he's a bit ... eh ... unconventional, 
Johnson", the first man said hesitatingly. The man called 
Johnson looked at him. He was angry.
	"Daniels, I told you I don't give a damn about 
how he is. And moreover they said that if there was 
someone who could shed some light on this bleepin' 
case, it should be him and ..." Johnson turned towards to 
door as Mulder entered the room.
	"Who are you?" Johnson asked.
	"Special agent Mulder and this is agent Scully. 
We're with the FBI", Mulder said while he flashed his 
badge.
	"I didn't know they had sent in the FBI as well", 
Daniels said.
	"Maybe you should have done your homework", 
Scully thought. She wasn't saying it aloud of course, she 
didn't want Daniels to hear it. They might have to work 
with them for some time to come and a quarrel wasn't 
exactly benificial for a quick solution of the case. She 
was determined to keep everything as peaceful as 
possible!
	In the hallway footsteps approached the door and 
they heard voices. A man and a woman entered the 
room.
	"Ah, detective Green", Johnson said to the man. 
"Thank you so much for coming!"
	"Danielle?" Scully said who couldn't believe her 
eyes. The woman who was with Detective Green stared 
at Scully and looked equally amazed.
	"Oh no! Dana? What the hell are you doing 
here?" the woman asked.
	Mulder watched the women and he noticed he 
wasn't the only one.
	"You know her, Scully?" he asked.
	"Yes. Was with me at the Academy", Scully 
snapped. She looked at the other woman in a hostile 
way. "Her name is Danielle Schimmer: the greatest bitch 
of the Academy! I feel sorry for your partner, Danielle!" 
she grinned maliciously.
	Mulder didn't know what to do or what to say. 
This side of Scully's personality and past was entirely 
new to him and he didn't like what he saw.
	"Well, Dana, have you ever told your partner 
what kind of creature he's stuck with?" agent Schimmer 
said cynical. "Yet, there's is one thing I have to admit:" 
she smiled wickedly. She looked at Mulder and gave 
him a wink. "At least you've got a better taste for men 
than you had at the Academy!"
	"At least that's something in my favour, Danielle. 
You see, I can't think of a single thing in your favour!" 
Scully answered. Her eyes shot fire. The women seemed 
to want to devour the other one alive.   
	Mulder looked at the other men in the room. They 
were speechless. Mulder felt exactly the same. He had 
never thought Scully could react in such a manner. He 
tried to be tactful:
	"Ahum. Perhaps, if the ladies have ended this 
small reunion, we could get on with what we were asked 
to do ...? Mm?" He felt like he was in a pond filled with 
piranhas: one wrong move and he was history.
	Scully and Schimmer looked in his direction. Still 
angry - with each other - Schimmer said:
	"You're right, agent ..."
	"Mulder, Fox Mulder" Mulder said coolly.
	"You're right agent Mulder", Schimmer answered 
and after giving Scully a last furious look she walked 
towards detective Green who started his part of the 
investigation.
	Mulder walked towards Scully. He felt 
embarrassed.
	"Scully, I thought ..." he began, but Scully 
interrupted him:
	"Mulder, not now, okay? I'm sorry for my 
behaviour but we'll talk about this later. Let's just get on 
with our job." She was still cross. Mulder hoped they 
didn't have to work with Green and Schimmer for a very 
long time because this was getting nowhere. On a case 
agents had to trust the others, not willing to help the 
other into the nearest hospital as quickly as possible. He 
sighed. This case was weirder than he had ever 
experienced!

XxXxX

Chapter 4

Highway to Hawthorn
Nevada, USA
04-07-96, 9.48am

	The following day, after investigating the house 
of Mr J. Smith the six agents were on their way to the 
place of an earlier fatal incident in which a dragon had 
played a role. This case was peculiar because the victim 
was a woman, which was strange in this investigation.
	They had taken two cars. Mulder, Scully, and 
Daniels were in one car while Green, Schimmer, and 
Johnson had taken the other one. Scully and Schimmer 
hadn't thought the other worthy of a single glance after 
the incident, though Scully had told Mulder she was 
glad she had been patient enough to let her fingernails 
grow, something that had sent the shivers down his 
spine. He had never been as glad as now when he heard 
that Green and Schimmer were to occupy themselves 
with another investigation and now they were only 
driving with them to deliver some data and get to a 
airport as quickly as possible.
	After Green and Schimmer had left, Mulder and 
Scully were in one car and Johnson and Daniels were in 
the other one. Mulder was driving. The silence in the car 
was oppressing. Scully knew she had been unreasonable 
but somehow she just hadn't been able to bring herself to 
working with Schimmer. Not even after so many years.
	Mulder wanted to ask her about the incident, but 
he didn't know how. He had been completely knocked 
down by the situation, but now he wanted an 
explanation. He looked at Scully who after a few 
moments looked back. She immediately looked down.
	"Scully?" Mulder said. "Can you please tell me 
what that was yesterday?"
	"Eh ... this problem between us ...", Scully began. 
She seemed nervous. "This has been going on for years. 
Let's say it was ... hate at first sight." She looked at 
Mulder who raised his eyebrows.
	"Hate at first sight? I know about love at first 
sight, but hate?"
	"Well, it works kind of the same as love at first 
sight", Scully said. "We came into the classroom on the 
first day, we didn't know each other and still we both 
thought: you're gonna get slugged and I'm the one 
who's going to slug you!"
	"You didn't know each other?" Mulder asked.
	"No, we had never seen each other before. But 
anyway, one way or another we managed to make it all 
the way through. We didn't have much contact although 
I guess I punched her in the face at least five or six 
times, she did the same to me, by the way."
	"You punched her in the face?" Mulder asked, 
both amused and amazed.
	"Oh yes, and to be honest, I kind of liked it. The 
problem was that she wasn't in a terribly good health at 
the time, so I always got blamed for the fights. Even 
when it wasn't my fault. That was usually enough for a 
new fight. And something we couldn't stand either was 
the fact that amid this all we were supposed to be best 
friends!"
	"What do you mean?" Mulder asked.
	"She's only two days older than I am, her father 
was a navy captain as well and look at our names: we've 
got the same initials! D.S.! That was enough reason for 
most people to decide we should be friends. At any rate, 
the fights took place outside the Academy, of course."
	"Of course!" Mulder said sarcastically. He was 
angry. Scully spoke with sadistic pleasure about these 
moments and he was almost ashamed to hear it. "Would 
you have punched her in the face again had you gotten 
the chance?"
	"No", Scully said. Mulder felt relieved. It was 
going to be fine after all!
	"I would have torn her face open with my nails. 
From her eyes to her throat!" Scully said icily. Mulder 
felt the shivers down his spine once again but they came 
in much larger numbers now. What a case!

	The two agents and Johnson and Daniels arrived 
at the crime scene. Around the house was a yellow-black 
ribbon. Mulder knew it all too well. It was used to mark 
a crime scene. He and Scully walked towards it and he 
raised the plastic to go past it while Scully showed her 
badge. They were given permission to enter the house.
	In the house there were quite some people. One 
of the men approached them.
	"Agents Mulder and Scully. FBI", Mulder said. 
He showed his badge and Scully did the same. "I recall 
our phone call that we were asked to assist on this 
case?"
	"Oh yes, I remember", the man said and he shook 
Mulder's hand. "Inspector Evans, Reno Police 
Department. I heard you knew more about this case 
already."
	"That's correct", Scully said. "We have 
investigated another identical case, but we hope that this 
case will give us more information regarding the motive 
and the circumstances."
	"Mm, there isn't very much I can tell you", Evans 
said. "At about six o'clock this morning we received a 
call from the boy who delivers the local newspaper here. 
He had seen some broken windows." Mulder looked into 
the direction the inspector pointed out. The room was a 
chaos and the windows were smashed. "When we 
arrived we found the body of the woman, Mrs Debby 
Manning. She had been shot with a double-barrel 
shotgun, not a chance to survive at such close distance. 
The murderer has fled and isn't found yet but we'll find 
her."
	"Her? You know it's woman?" Scully asked.
	"Yes, it's Mrs. Manning's best friend. Mrs. Lucy 
Hausholder." Evans said.
	Meanwhile the agents had walked to the room 
and Evans showed the evidence which proved that there 
couldn't have been more than nine feet between the 
victim and the barrel of the gun.
	"How was she hit? What was the way she was 
shot?" Scully asked. She was a medical doctor and using 
information about the wounds they might be able to 
draw conclusions. However, she didn't need to do that 
now:
	"Plain through the head", Evans said. "She could 
not be recognized. We could only identify her right 
away because of her clothes."  
	Mulder felt uneasy. This was something that 
could have happened to him too, three days ago. Scully 
saw it and blushed a bit. Evans looked at them. He didn't 
understand.
	"Are you okay?", he asked.
	"Inspector Evans," Mulder said, who wanted to 
avoid this awkward subject. "Can we have a look 
around?"
	"Of course", Evans said. He didn't get it, but 
obviously he didn't need to either.
	Mulder and Scully walked through the house. 
Except for the living-room where the tragedy had taken 
place, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Mulder had 
returned to the living-room and Scully decided to do the 
same.
	"Well, it seems pretty clear to me", she said. "The 
woman gets influenced by the dragon, shoots her friend 
quite convincingly through the head and flees when she 
sees what she has done. Didn't the neighbours hear 
anything?"
	"It is clear, Scully, but the circumstances may not 
be exactly the way you describe them." Mulder said 
while he looked up. He had kneeled down and looked at 
the smashed bits of the dragon. He held the report in his 
hand. He opened it. "The neighbours haven't heard 
anything because on the left, the house isn't occupied 
right now and the other neighbours are on holiday. For 
the rest, I think I can make an educated guess about 
what might just have happened the other night." He 
picked up a few pieces of the dragon and played with 
them in his hands. Then he put them back on the ground 
and got onto his feet.
	"Who owned the dragon?" Scully suddenly asked. 
Mulder looked at her and then opened the folder to 
check. 
	"It was Mrs. Hausholder's!" he said. "Did you 
know that, Scully?"
	"Well, no, but I suddenly thought it might have 
been hers. You see: Mrs Hausholder is the one who 
flipped. The murder has taken place in Mrs Manning's 
house. As for a reason, I think we can safely assume that 
Mrs Manning smashed the sculpture, probably to break 
the hypnosis ..."
	"Just like I tried with you, results well-known to 
this agent!" Mulder said.
	"Kind of, yes. I don't think you would smash your 
own sculpture, certainly not an old and expensive item 
like this, just because your friend seems to feel a little 
uneasy. In that case you would just remove it, like you 
did with me. The consequences are exactly the same, but 
that's beside the point. I thought that Mrs Hausholder 
could have brought the dragon to show it to her best 
friend, she then got hypnotized and Mrs Manning, who 
didn't feel attached to the thing, smashed it in order to 
attempt to break that hypnosis. We don't have to guess 
about what happened: Mrs Hausholder gets the gun, 
which she apparently knew where to find and shoots 
Mrs Manning. Then she realizes, or not, what she has 
done and flees."
	"Well done, agent Scully", Mulder said 
admiringly. "It's pity we can't ask any of the two right 
now."
	"Maybe we can", Scully said. "I've got the 
address of Lucy's sister. She often goes there when she 
has problems. We can always see what we can find."
	She walked outside, to the car and Mulder 
followed her.
	"Wow!" he thought.

XxXxX

Chapter 5

Mrs Davis's house
Fallon, Nevada, USA
04-07-96, 4.02pm

	Lucy Hausholder's sister was a woman of about 
40. She lived quite close to where Mrs Hausholder lived 
and it was strange that she hadn't heard anything about 
the incident yet.
	"Lucy has indeed been here", she told. "She 
seemed rather confused. Why? Has something 
happened? Something has happened, hasn't it?"
	"I'm afraid so, Mrs Davis", Mulder said. He 
found this hard, every time he had to do it. "Your sister 
has shot her friend, Mrs Manning."
	Mrs Davis was bewildered. She looked at the two 
agents. It was clear that she couldn't believe it.
	"How ... when ... why?" she faltered. "When did 
it happen?"
	"Last night, we think", Scully said. "The body of 
Mrs Manning was found this morning and everything 
points towards your sister."
	"I don't know what to say ..." Mrs Davis said 
softly. She was shocked. "I really can't begin to imagine 
why she could have done such a horrible thing. You 
know, Lucy and Debby have always been inseparable. 
They have known each other since childhood. And now 
this ..." She shook her head.
	"The reason why we came to you, Mrs Davis, is 
because we heard that your sister would sometimes 
come to you when she had some sorts of problems", 
Scully said. "She was here this morning. You might 
know something more."
	"I'm not sure if I understand what you mean", 
Mrs Davis said.
	"The striking feature of this and other murders, 
for this isn't the only murder that has taken place in 
these conditions, is an old Italian sculpture. There used 
to be three of them and your sister bought one too."
	"What kind of sculpture?" Mrs Davis asked.
	"An ebony dragon on a globe made of Lapis 
Lazuli", Scully said.
	"A globe of what?" Mrs Davis asked.
	"A blue stone globe", Mulder explained.
	"Oh yes, she showed it to me. It was beautiful", 
the woman said. "In fact, I liked it so much that I made 
sure I could buy one myself!"
	Mulder and Scully looked at each other. This was 
major trouble!
	"Can we see the dragon, please?", Mulder asked.
	"Sure. I'm very proud of it. I was very lucky to 
lay my hands on this particular one. It came from some 
dealer from Washington D.C. Unfortunately it wasn't 
really intact, but that's no problem!" Mrs Davis got up. 
"It's in the next room. Come with me."
	The two agents followed her.
	"Please stop me if I go crazy again!" Scully said 
softly. Mulder smiled. Meanwhile they had come to the 
other room and Mrs Davis went to a cupboard. Then she 
suddenly stopped.
	"What's wrong?" Scully asked.
	"The dragon. It's gone!" Mrs Davis said. "Lucy 
must have taken it!"
	"Oh shit!" Mulder said. He had blurted  out the 
words and he apologized.
	"But you are right, Mulder", Scully said. "Mrs 
Davis, thank you very much for your time and help but 
I'm afraid we have to leave."
	"Of course", the woman said. "Please let me 
know about my sister when you find her. Let me know if 
she's okay."
	Mulder nodded and followed Scully who got into 
the car and turned on the engine.

	Scully was behind the wheel and floored the gas 
pedal. The car was going much faster than was strictly 
speaking allowed here. Mulder looked at the speed.
	"I see you've adopted my style of driving, 
Scully!", he said.
	"Please stop me before I ever do that, Mulder!" 
Scully said. "I'm just doing this because I don't like it 
one bit."
	Suddenly Mulder thought of something. 
Something very practical and very important.
	"Do you know where you're going?" he asked.
	Scully released the gas pedal, looked at Mulder 
and started to laugh.
	"No. To be honest I completely forgot to check 
where Lucy Hausholder could have headed!"
	"Well, agent Scully, what do we do now?" 
Mulder said, smiling.
	"Don't know ..." Scully grinned. This was utterly 
ridiculous!
	Meanwhile the car had come to a stop and the 
two agents looked at each other. Neither knew what to 
do. Then Mulder's cell-phone rang, he took it out of his 
pocket and turned it on.
	"Mulder" He listened and said: "Yeah, thanks 
very much!" He turned the phone off and turned to 
Scully while he put the phone in his pocket.
	"I knew we had some useful allies, Scully. I know 
where she is. She was last seen at a ware-house in 
Virginia City. Let's get moving!"
	"Are they sure that's where she is?" Scully asked.
	"At least they know more than we knew just a 
few seconds ago!"
	"Touché!" Scully said. She made a U-turn and 
pushed the speed-limit.

	The ware-house was just outside the town. It had 
become dark and the building looked a dark, menacing 
monster the way it stood there.
	"She was supposed to be here", Mulder said.
	"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Scully 
said, who took out her flashlight and gun and started to 
walk towards the entrance of the building. Mulder did 
the same and followed her.
	The light of the flashlights made a weird light in 
the large empty rooms of the ware-house. The building 
seemed long since deserted and the silence was 
deafening.
	"I don't think she's here", Scully whispered. "The 
lights aren't on and for a mad person she much too 
silent, if she is here."
	"She's here all right, Scully!" Mulder whispered. 
"I'm sure of that."
	"Mulder, insane people aren't as silent as she is, 
if she's here! It's a scientific fact and even if you don't 
want to believe science, just check out an institution for 
the insane, you'll see for yourself! ... Okay, Mulder, 
what have you got now?" she asked. Mulder sat on his 
knees and held something in his hand. Scully looked 
down to see what it was. The object was brightly lit by 
Mulder's flashlight. It was a metal spike.
	"This comes from the dragon, Scully. I'm 
absolutely certain. Look, the spike is hollow and when I 
showed you the dragon it struck me that there was a 
little ring around every spike. Just like this one!"
	Scully pointed her flashlight to the spike. She had 
to admit he was right. Lucy Hausholder was here!
	Scully turned around, suddenly alert. She shone 
her flashlight through the empty room where they were 
and Mulder did the same. Nothing! The agents walked 
in the direction of another room.
	"Watch your back, Scully!" Mulder whispered. 
"She may be insane but in this condition she's cunning!"
	They walked past shelves that had once been 
packed with all sorts of merchandise but were now only 
packed with dust. Something small rushed past Scully's 
leg and she started.
	"What was that?" she asked.
	"Mouse", Mulder said. He was walking behind 
Scully and to relieve the tension that was building in the 
room, she asked:
	"Is this your perception of 'Ladies First', 
Mulder?"
	No answer.
	"Hey, Mulder!?" she said. Then she got a very 
painful blow on her hands. She shrieked and dropped 
her flashlight and gun. Suddenly the lights went on and 
she saw Mulder sitting on the floor with his arms around 
his right leg and an expression of pain on his face. She 
walked towards him.
	"Are you okay? What happened?" she asked.
	"Something hit me on the shin! I lost my gun and 
flashlight. Nothing's broken, but my God, did it ever 
hurt!"
	He looked at her hands that were completely red 
with a blue-ish streak over the back of the hands where 
the stick or something had hit her. "What's wrong with 
you? I heard you scream!"
	"I was hit on the hands", Scully said who only 
now saw what the impact of the blow must have been. "I 
lost my weapon as well. I dropped it when the blow 
came. Wait, I'll go and find ..."
	"You're going nowhere, lady!" a woman's voice 
sounded behind them. Mulder and Scully looked. 
Behind them was a woman who had a gun pointed at 
them.
	"That's your gun, Mulder!" Scully said softly. 
"Lucy Hausholder, I presume?" she said.  
 	"That's right, agent Scully!" Lucy grinned. "I 
guess I'm lucky today."
	"What do you mean?" Mulder asked while he 
tried to get up. Somehow he managed to do it. But it 
hurt. A lot.
	"Now I've got four agents!" the woman said 
cheerily.
	"Four?" Scully asked. Then she thought of 
something. "Johnson and Daniels are here as well, 
Mulder! She's got them too!"
	"Very good. You are smart, even for a stupid 
little agent like yourself!" Lucy said sneering. "Come 
here!"
	Mulder and Scully did what they were told. It was 
no use defying her. Lucy picked up a rope and tied them 
back to back together and fastened the end of the rope to 
a pillar in the middle of the room. They were powerless.
	Lucy disappeared, then she came back as if she 
had forgotten something and said:
	"Have to clear up some mess."
	Scully looked at Mulder.
	"What does she mean?"
	"Don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about our 
two colleagues ..."
	Scully started. "You mean she's going to ..." Two 
shots interrupted her. She became furious.	
	"The bitch! How could she do such a thing?"
	"Calm down, Scully. We have to make sure she 
doesn't get upset even more. We know now that she's 
doesn't care about anybody's life, that she's perfectly 
willing to shoot people." 
	It sounded like a death-sentence.
	The woman came back in and picked up Scully's 
gun. She walked towards Mulder and placed the barrel 
of Scully's gun on his temple. Mulder shut his eyes and 
Scully looked the other way. She didn't want to see this!
	"Cut it out, agent Scully! I'm not going to shoot 
him. Not yet, that is, as long as you're cooperating!" 
Lucy said. She was angry. She gave Scully Mulder's 
gun. "There's something wrong. Load it again using the 
bullets that are in the gun. And don't try anything funny 
or your partner gets his brains blown out!" She untied 
Scully.
	Scully did what she was told to do. Her hands 
were trembling and she had to do her best to do 
everything correctly. She was scared to death that even 
the slightest hesitation would give Lucy enough reason 
to pull the trigger. She would never forgive herself.
	She pulled through. Experience and sheer luck - 
in this situation - helped her to fix the gun. She gave it to 
Lucy who threw Scully's gun to the other side of the 
room. Then she untied Mulder as well and forced the 
agents to stand up.

XxXxX

Chapter 6

Ware-house
Virginia City, Nevada, USA
04-07-96, 11.15pm

	She pushed the agents towards the other ware-
house. Mulder felt angry. With the woman but also with 
himself. Like a couple of beginners he and Scully had 
been surprised by her. And moreover they had lost their 
guns! He looked at Scully. She too had a tight-lipped 
expression on her face.
	"Sit down!" Lucy ordered. She gave Scully a set 
of hand-cuffs. "Cuff him!"
	Scully wanted to get up to get to Mulder but she 
got pushed in the back which caused her to fall.
	"So how the hell do you want me to get there?" 
she asked angrily. Without waiting for an answer she 
crept towards Mulder.
	"Don't put your hands behind your back!" Scully 
whispered. Mulder got the idea. Maybe the woman 
simply wouldn't notice that he didn't have his hands 
behind his back. This would largely increase the chance 
of escaping for him and Scully. They were lucky, Lucy 
was much too confused to care about such a minor thing. 
For her it was enough that the agents were cuffed.
	"I would be able to hand-cuff someone in the 
dark, but I never thought it would be you!" Scully said 
to Mulder while she closed the cuffs quickly and 
skilfully. Mulder pulled at them.
	"Well done, Scully. They did a great job teaching 
you", Mulder joked. He didn't know why he and Scully 
were joking right now. Maybe because they felt this 
evening wouldn't be over yet. Because they knew it was 
going to become even worse.
	"Thanks, M ..." Scully began, but at that moment 
she was roughly pulled back at her shoulder.
	"Hands behind your back!" the woman ordered. 
Scully did so. She didn't want to irritate Lucy more than 
she had already done. She felt the hand-cuffs around her 
wrists and heard them being shut. Unlike Mulder she 
wasn't able to go anywhere now.
	Mulder sat in a corner of the room while Scully 
and Lucy were in the middle of the ware-house. Scully 
was sitting on her knees and looked straight ahead. Lucy 
seemed nervous and looked around. She appeared to 
have lost something. Then she looked at something 
close to Mulder. Mulder looked in the same direction.
	Next to him was one of the dragons. He sweared 
under his breath. Those damned things followed them 
wherever they went! And this was his dragon: he saw a 
nail was missing. He remembered that just a few days 
ago he had thought them beautiful. He still had to admit 
it was great craftmanship, but he couldn't think of more 
in their favour. He had never before hated an object as 
much as he hated these dragons right now.
	Lucy walked up to Mulder to get the dragon.
	"She needs her daily amount of hypnosis again!" 
Mulder thought sarcastically. To relax the strain on his 
painful right leg he had stretched it and this proved to be 
a fatal mistake, because when Lucy tried to get the 
dragon she tripped over his leg and fell against the 
sculpture that smashed into pieces.
	For a moment she didn't move. Then she slowly 
rose. She was angry. With him! And with Scully! Lucy 
looked at Mulder and then at Scully who had turned her 
head to see what the noise was about.
	"You'll pay for this!" Lucy whispered furiously. 
She was frantic. "Agent Mulder, I'm afraid you just 
made a terrible mistake!"
	"What are you going to do?" Scully asked. The 
expression on her face had completely changed. From 
decisive and determined her expression had changed to 
nervous and scared. Mulder could easily imagine why. 
He was in a much better position than Scully, sitting in 
semi-darkness and having at least some control over his 
movements. Scully on the other hand was sitting on her 
knees with her hands behind her back, in the middle of 
the room, at the mercy of whatever the woman would 
do.
	"Well, agent Scully," Lucy said. "What I'm going 
to do?"
	Mulder had been looking at the fragments of the 
dragon, but the next sound startled him like nothing 
before: Lucy cocked the gun. He looked at Scully who 
doubled up at hearing the sound.
	"You know, young lady," Lucy said to Scully. 
"They say that maybe it is even best to be first. You 
should die bravely and believe me, when they have 
started the hanging you lose all courage. So that's why 
you can go first!" She pointed the gun at Scully's head.
	"Ah, agent Mulder is paying attention too!" Lucy 
said as she looked at Mulder who was horrified. At the 
same moment she pulled the trigger.
">>CLICK<<" 
	Nothing!
	Mulder had kept his hands over his ears and his 
eyes tightly shut. His partner's execution was definitely 
the last thing he would ever want to see, but now that 
nothing had happened he opened his eyes and watched 
the two women.
	Scully was still sitting on her knees, but now the 
tears were running over her cheeks and she had closed 
her eyes. She bit on her lower lip. She was scared. 
Scared to death.
	Mulder felt furious and he was about to get up 
and attack Lucy when she fired the second shot.
 
">>CLICK<<"
	Again nothing!
	Lucy was confused and amazed and looked at the 
gun. Mulder used this moment of inattention to get up 
and in a single blow he knocked Lucy out. Her head hit 
a shelf first and then she fell on the floor. She didn't 
move. Mulder looked at the woman. Then he heard a 
sob behind him, turned around, walked up to Scully and 
kneeled down.
	She held her head slightly backwards and her 
eyes were closed. Her cheeks were wet with tears.
	"It's over, Scully!" Mulder said softly. She didn't 
react. Mulder took the keys to the hand-cuffs and 
released her and then himself.
	"Scully!" he said softly. "It's over. It's okay!"
	She opened her eyes. Her lips trembled and then 
she broke down and cried. Mulder took her in his arms 
and let her cry. He stroked her hair and her face. He 
knew this was the tension coming out: the tension you 
felt when two shots were being shot on you. Two shots 
that didn't fire. The tension of inhuman luck that exactly 
those two bullets had already been fired.
	After a few minutes she calmed down. Mulder 
took some tissue-paper and gave it to Scully who dried 
her eyes and cheeks. Her make-up was ruined and her 
eye-liner had made long black stripes under her eyes and 
on her cheeks. She looked wretched.
	"How do you feel?" Mulder asked.
	Scully looked at her clothes.
	"You see the ladders in my tights?! That bitch! 
That's 10 dollars torn to shreds!"
	Mulder was stunned. If he would ever be able to 
understand women ...
	Scully looked at him and laughed a bit when she 
saw the expression on his face.
	"I'm sorry," she said. "I ought to have two bullets 
in my head and all that I'm talking about are my tights 
..."
	"I don't know if I'll ever completely understand 
you, Scully ..." Mulder began.
	"Don't waste your time on that, partner!" Scully 
interrupted him. She got on her feet, staggered for a 
moment and then held on to a shelf for support. Her legs 
were numbed and they refused to give the necessary 
support.
	"You okay?" Mulder asked.
	"Yeah, it's just that I don't feel my legs anymore 
so it's a little bit shaky", Scully answered while 
removing her shoes. "This is much safer and those tights 
are ruined anyway."

	The two agents walked to the car.
	"Do you know that it's said that the moment you 
look death in the eye, your entire life is like a film, 
passing before your eyes?" Scully said.
	"I read something about that, yes," Mulder said. 
"Why?"
	"That's correct", Scully said.
	"Oh, really? And?" Mulder asked, slightly 
amused. He was amazed that it was Scully who wanted 
to discuss this non-scientifical subject. "What was it 
like?"
	"Not a chance to win an Oscar!" Scully said. "I 
can do much better than that ...!"
	Mulder started to laugh and Scully, who looked at 
him and realised what she had just said, started laughing 
too.
	"Come", Mulder said. "Let's see if, together with 
the dragon, they stole my video as well."

XxXxX

Chapter 7

Agent Mulder's office
FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C., USA
09-07-1996, 1.31pm

	Five days later Mulder was in his office. He had 
finished the report on the case and right now he was just 
doing nothing. He had a pencil in his hand and turned it 
around and around. Scully had taken the week off, 
something he could have done as well, but he preferred 
handing in the report first and then considering taking 
some time off.
	He thought about the case. And about Scully's 
behaviour. He had seen, at least that's how he described 
it himself, the reverse side of Scully's personality: an X-
File 'an sich'. He was not going to report that, but still 
he wondered what the influence of the dragons might 
have been.
	Just when he considered using the remaining two 
days to clean up his office, the pencil dropped on the 
ground. He ducked under his desk to try and find the 
pencil.
	"Care to take me to lunch, partner?" A very 
familiar and equally unexpected voice sounded at the 
door.
	He painfully bumped his head when he tried to 
get up as quickly as he could.
	"Scully! I didn't expect you to be back so soon!" 
he said. "OUCH!" He felt the swelling on his head.
	Scully smiled, put her bag on the desk and, like a 
deja-vu, had to catch some falling papers and books 
again. But this time she couldn't be bothered to catch 
them and after momentarily looking at Mulder let them 
lie on the ground.
 	"You're enthousiastic to see me again", she said. 
"I seem to recall some other reactions, not so very long 
ago." She thought about the time she and Mulder had 
just been teamed up. They didn't trust each other then: 
Mulder didn't trust her because he thought she was only 
sent here to debunk the X-Files, and she didn't trust him 
because she couldn't share his sometimes 'far-out' 
theories. She still found that difficult from time to time, 
but they had come to trust each other blindly. "How's 
your video?"
	"Still mine!" Mulder said. "I thought you were 
going to take the whole week off."
	"I was," Scully said, "But sitting there drove me 
crazy and besides, when I'm here I'm not thinking about 
what happened all the time."
	"You shouldn't have come, though ..." Mulder 
said.
	"What do you mean?" Scully said, both curious 
and suspicious.
	"I was just going to use these two remaining days 
to clean up this mess!" Mulder grinned and he looked 
around in his office. It WAS a mess!
	"Mulder, are you okay?" Scully asked.
	Mulder heard the ridicule in her voice and said:
	"These are the X-Files, Scully. Unexplained 
phenomena are our speciality!" and he took his wast-
paper basket and threw in some shells of sunflower 
seeds. Then he took his coat and together with Scully 
walked out. 

The X-Files * Count-Down