"Snapshot 29:Endgame" By Dawson E. Rambo Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and any other tangentially mentioned characters were created by Chris Carter, and remain the copyrighted property of him, TenThirteen Productions, and Fox Television, a unit of 20th Century Fox, Inc. All characters are used without permission, and no infringement is intended. Archivists : Sure. Just make sure to keep my email address and this entire text as is without changes. Please see the end notes. Enjoy! --------------------------------------- "Oh mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law Lawmen has put an end to my running and I'm so far from my home Oh mama, I can hear you crying you're so scared and all alone... Hangman is coming down from the gallows and I don't have very long the jig is up the news is out they finally found me...." Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully exited via the rear door of 22 Mon Bar Road, moving as quietly as possible. They both felt dozens of pairs of eyes on them, and they were both nervous. They made their away around to the front of the house, side by side, each of them lost in their private thoughts, but somehow managing to keep the silent connection between them open and humming. "I feel naked without a gun," Mulder whispered. "Yeah," Scully said, just as quietly. "Me, too. But we've got enough guns in the woods to even the score just a little." "God, I hope so," Mulder said. *** Scimitar had taken out almost half the SEALs. He hadn't injured any of them permanently, but they would all wake up with various bumps, bruises and scratches. He had detected Mulder and Scully exiting the house almost instantly, and he had moved into position to trail them as quietly as he could. He knew exactly where they were going, but it still paid to be cautious. Soon, he thought. Very, very soon. *** It took Scully and Mulder less than five minutes to make it to the wooded area behind Zack's house. Every window was dark, the house silent. Almost in unison, they glanced at their watches. 11:58. Time. The next one hundred and twenty seconds moved as slowly as molasses in January. At two seconds past midnight, the back door opened and Zack stepped out. He was dressed almost exactly like the two FBI agents, his only nod towards individuality and personality his running shoes. They were white with blue stripes, and Mulder was amused to see that they were the brand that had the little lights in the heels, the kind that blinked whenever the wearer took a step. It'll be easy to follow him, Mulder admitted to himself, and then immediately realized the full implications of that thought. Zack moved like a ghost; before either agent was aware of it, he was beside them, a very enigmatic smile on his face. "The game continues," he whispered. "You realize we're surrounded?" "Yes..." Mulder admitted, chastising himself for once again underestimating the boy genius; he should have known that Zack would have the area totally scoped out. "But it's all our people." "No," Zack whispered. "Not all of them." He reached into the pocket of his cotton pull-over sweatshirt and returned with what looked like a hand-held computer, a palm-top like an Apple Newton or a USR Pilot. He flicked it on with his thumb, and both Scully and Mulder moved to peer over the boy's shoulder. The display was unlike anything either agent had ever seen. Strange symbols appeared on the screen. They were not letters in any alphabet Mulder or Scully had ever seen, and they didn't look anything like the standard computer icons either was used to. "What is it?" "A portable Hamion scanner," Zack answered. "But if you don't know the language, it's useless to anyone else." He pointed at the screen. "These groups of signals represent the military unit that landed at Billings earlier today. This group is, I assume, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team." He pointed to two other symbols. "This one has been out in the woods for almost three days. I have no idea who he is. But this last one was out in the woods for the last sixty or so hours." Zack paused. "He's no longer with us. This one..." he pointed back to the first of the two unknown symbols, "killed him about two hours ago." "Where did you get this?" Mulder wanted to know. "I built it. It's a really long story, Mulder... but I built it out of parts that I scavenged from... well, a place that you will never know about, and never should. But this is nothing...this is useless if you don't know how to read it, and I'm the only person in the world that knows how to read it." Mulder felt the eagerness in his body, a distant, electric tingling that ran up his arms and legs into his chest, making his skin feel alive and charged. "Can you teach me?" Zack shook his head. "We don't have time. If we get out of this alive, I'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know, Mulder." He cast a glance around, and said a little louder, "Ready boys? Time to go!" With that, Zack turned and started walking deeper into the woods. The two FBI agents stared after him for a moment, and then moved to catch up. *** Scimitar grunted. The boy was good. If he cooperated, he had a future in Israel. The Mossad could use an asset like him. Think of the applications of the technology the boy held in his hand... let alone the thoughts that ran through his mind! Silently, he started to trail the trio. *** "Report!" Skinner ordered. "Subjects sighted, moving into the woods. We're following," the SEAL commander radioed back. "Ground element out." "HRT Team, take flanking positions," Skinner ordered. "Copy," the HRT commander replied. *** Chief Gunner's Mate/Guns Jon Cochran heard something beeping in his pack and stopped dead in his tracks. Noise discipline was one of the SEALs most sacred commandments. If you could hear something on you moving, sloshing or beeping, so then could your enemy. "Juliet six, this is eight," he radioed. "Six, go." "Getting some electronic noise here. Preparing to secure it." "Proceed, eight. Six, out." Cochran moved slowly, reaching his hand into the side pocket of his equipment vest and returning with a small electronic device the size of a pack of playing cards. He looked at the display and swore softly. "Shiiiiit. Bad Joss." "Six, eight," he radioed again. "Six, go." "We have a problem." *** "What?!" Skinner shouted into the radio. "Confirm that!" By sheer blind luck, one of the Navy SEALs had brought along a small gamma particle detector. At one time SEAL Team Six had been the primary recovery agency for any US nuclear weapons lost at sea. That, at least, was the unclassified portion of their mission; their more covert, clandestine assignment was to recover nuclear weapons from countries trying to violate the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. As such, the portable gamma-ray detector was an indispensable tool. It had been a smile from God that the unit had been turned on. "Confirmed," SEAL Six came back. "Five units confirm presence of gamma-level radiation. Not enough to pinpoint it, but there's something here...without a doubt." Skinner toggled his radio. "All units, all units. The Navy has detected abnormal levels of gamma-type radiation. There is the possibility that there is a nuclear weapon in the area." He paused, and then added (quite unnecessarily, ) "Proceed with caution." Releasing the transmit button, Skinner swore loud and long. An alpha unit. It had to be an alpha unit. Who had them? Skinner racked his brain, trying to remember details from his counterterrorism briefing, attended months ago. The United States did. So did the old Soviet Union. Intelligence reports stated that most of the man-portable zero-fused nuclear Alpha Packs were in the possession of the Strategic Rocket Forces. France was rumored to have them, but no one had ever been able to confirm it. Israel. Israel had them. Quick as a shot, Skinner moved to his briefcase. Grabbing the secure, scrambled cellular, he dialed from memory. "NMCC Duty Desk, Duty Officer speaking, sir," the voice answered. "This is Assistant Director Walter Skinner, FBI. I need a secure patch through to the Mossad." "Sir, we are currently in the middle-" "Damn it, I know that! I'm the commander on the ground here! Just do what I tell you, and do it NOW!" *** Mossad Headquarters "David, it's for you," the communications officer said. David Gurion looked up from the status display he'd been studying, his face twisted into a frown. "At this time of the morning? Who could it be?" "It's the American FBI," the comm officer said. "On a secure line." David felt something slick and moist twisting in his stomach. "Hello?" he asked, in English. *** "I don't have time to fuck around, David." "Walter!" "Listen to me, David. You have an alpha unit on the ground in Montana." How did he know? David wondered. As if reading his mind, Skinner answered. "We detected faint gamma-ray emissions in the ops area. Don't like to me, David. This isn't the time for it. I need to know why Mossad has an agent on the ground trailing two FBI agents, a SEAL team, one of my HRT teams and a sixteen year old boy!" David considered lying to his old friend, but in the end, the reality of the situation they were both dealing with brought some sense and focus to the Mossad agent's mind. "The boy has something we want, Walter. Something we need." "What is it?" David sighed. "A device. A device that came from beyond the stars." He paused. "A device that will let us go back in time and destroy all the enemies of Israel." Skinner felt his heart lurch in his chest. "What's the fuse, David? What's the timing on the fuse?" David sighed again. "Zero, Walter. It's only to be used if we can't get the box back. We can't allow that to fall into any other hands." He paused. "You know why." Skinner thought quickly. "David...if I can guarantee that the box will be destroyed if we recover it...will you..?" David didn't hesitate. "Walter...you must give me your word. If you do not...there is no telling what the government of Israel will do if they feel that box is in the hands of our enemies." Skinner also did not hesitate. "David, you have my personal word of honor. If it costs me my career, my pension... my life, I will destroy that box if we recover it." David Gurion nodded, even though he knew Skinner couldn't see his face. "Very well. Have your teams tell my agent this..." And then David Gurion gave a phrase in Hebrew that Scimitar would know could only have from Mossad. "Thank you, David," Skinner said. "One more thing, my friend." He hesitated. "Two, actually. The first is that the unit is American made. It's a Mark II Mod IV Alpha Unit. It went missing from your Seal Beach weapons stowage depot about six years ago. So, if things go bad, some of your men should be able to disarm it. It's not an actual zero fuse, but it might as well be. It has a thirty-second fuse. Enough to let the agent get far enough away so that they think they might have a chance. The second thing...our agent." "What?" "Scimitar." "Shit! He's a fanatic!" "Yes...yes, he is. I suspect that your dossier on him is quite complete. Be aware that he may not give up the ghost even if it means that he has to die in a nuclear fireball. Be prepared for the worst, my friend." "I'm on the ground in Montana, David. If it goes...we won't speak again." "Go with God, Walter." *** "All units, all units," Skinner radioed. "We have confirmation. There is a Mossad agent on the ground in the operations area carrying a man-portable nuclear device. Proceed with caution." *** It took twenty more minutes of trudging through the forest. Finally, Zack stopped and pointed. "There." Mulder pulled up alongside the boy and looked. Zack was pointing at a large outcropping of rock. It looked as though someone had chopped off the top sixty feet of a mountain somewhere and dumped here in the middle of the Montana woodlands. "It's in there?" Mulder asked. "Yes. In a specially constructed...container, if that's the word." "Well, lead on, McDuff." *** "All SEAL Units, this is Six," the Commanding Officer radioed. "Take up flanking positions around the...cave. Whatever it is. I want complete coverage, all avenues of fire. "B" element, set up a security perimeter. Nothing gets in or out. Move, people." The SEALS scurried hither and yon, eager to get this particular operation over with. *** "Here it is, " Zack finally said. Mulder moved, once again, up alongside the boy and stared at what he had searched his entire life for. Evidence of life beyond the stars. Hard, physical proof. Something he could take to court, to a congressional hearing, something he could take public. The...container looked to be some kind of energy field. The box was in the middle of the field. Soft golden rays slowly pulsed around it, like an electric heartbeat, enough to light the small cave. "Force field?" Mulder asked. "Sort of. It combines some of the concepts of stealth technology, as well as energy dampening. Basically, unless you're looking right at it, you can't see it. If you were to weigh this rock before and after the box was in it, the reading would be the same. To any electronic or physical measuring device, it's invisible. It's even invisible to film. Can't take a picture of it while the field is on. The perfect hiding place," Zack concluded. "Hide it in plain sight!" "How did you get it here?" Scully wanted to know. Zack grinned. "Well...to coin a phrase, I `beamed' it here. People are not the only thing that this box can move through space-time. Just like on Star Trek, only different. It left Fort Meade about six months ago, and appeared here, protected." "That's amazing," Mulder whispered. Turning to Zack, he asked, "Now what?" Zack glanced at his watch. "I suspect that we'll have some visitors very shortly, Mulder. We'll have to ask them." *** Skinner was pacing the hotel room. "Report!" he demanded again. "No movement. They've been in there for just over six minutes. Nothing so far. Do you want us to move in?" Skinner considered this. "No. Hold positions for now." *** "Show me what it can do," Mulder demanded. "I will, Mulder." Zack paused. "You see, I'm leaving. And I'm not coming back. At least...not to this world." Mulder turned to face the boy. "What are you talking about?" Zack smiled, that enigmatic little grin that made Mulder want to slap his face. "On another world, another dimension, if you will, the Zack Tarses there has been put through some of the same...things that I have. Only the people in charge of this sort of thing on that world didn't have as much...restraint as the ones on this world did. "That Zack is dying. He's having what amounts to a metabolic meltdown. He has less than..." Zack glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes to live. We've arranged this..across space and time, the other Zack has agreed to take my place on this world, Mulder. The last use of this box on this world will be for he and I to exchange places. "After that, it will be destroyed." "I don't think so," said a voice in heavily-accented English. The trio turned to see a form slowly coalescing in front of them. At first it was a shimmer, and then it took form, slowly solidifying into the shape of a man. "Ah..." Zack said, a smile on his face. "Scimitar! I see you finally decided to join us!" *** "Oh my God, Mulder," Scully whispered. "He's carrying an Alpha Unit." "What?" Mulder asked. He normally slept through his counter- terrorism briefings. "It's a nuclear weapon," Zack announced. "That's correct," the man said. "Who are you?" Mulder demanded. Then a thought dawned on him. "Are you from...from where this box came from?" The man laughed, as did Zack. "No," the boy giggled. "This is Scimitar, perhaps the most famous agent in the Mossad. He's here to get the box." Turning to the intelligence agent, Zack continued. "Sorry to disappoint you, but the box is going nowhere." Scimitar frowned. "If you know my name, boy...then you know what I must do. Why I am here." He smiled sadly. "Why I have no choice." Zack turned to face him fully and worked the small device in his hand. A field, much the same as the one surrounding the Box itself, suddenly surrounded Scimitar. "Even if that thing goes off, the field will contain it," Zack explained. "Nooooo!" Scimitar screamed. He took a step and then stopped, his face a rigid mask of pain. "You cannot do this!" Zack turned to Mulder and pointed the device again. Mulder felt something enveloping his body, and found that he too, was unable to move. "Agent Scully," Zack said. "I have no idea how this...field will affect an unborn child. So I have chosen you to help me fulfill my destiny." Scully nodded. "I understand." She was grateful that Zack wasn't going to put their child in danger. "What do you need me to do?" "Scully! No!" Mulder protested. "Mulder, shut up. He has us exactly where he wants us!" Mulder fell silent. "First, get the device in Scimitar's left pocket." Scully walked over to the agent. "How can I..." "You can reach in...but he cannot reach out. Just reach in and take it." Scully did as she was bade and reached inside the field. As her arm crossed into Scimitar's space, she felt nothing, but the hairs on her arm stood up. She found the small device in his pocket and backed away, holding it close to her chest. "Where did he get it?" Zack grunted. "As far as I can tell, a ship crashed in the Nagev desert during the Six Day War. This device was recovered from the scene. It does allow transportation across small distances, kind of like transporting. That is the reason that Scimitar has been the most successful agent in the history of the Mossad. Even his superiors don't know about it..." "You know too much to live, boy," Scimitar said. "That's exactly why I'm going to die." "How did you know about it?" Mulder asked, stalling for time. "I noticed a specific Hamion signature vanishing and reappearing on a regular basis. It didn't take much brain power to figure it out. And since this," he said, holding up his own device, "can scan Hamion signatures across time, I went back and noticed it staring about two years after the Six Days War. The rest was just educated guesses." Mulder grimaced. God... "But enough of this," Zack said, glancing at his watch. "Time for me to go. Scully, this is what's going to happen. When the new Zack arrives, I'm taking these two devices, and The Box with me. All that will be left will be the New Zack. The force fields will vanish." "But the bomb..." Scully said, indicating Scimitar's Alpha Unit. "Yes..." Zack sighed. "There is that. But I assume that since the Box will be gone, there will be no need for Mr. Scimitar to detonate it?" "None," Scimitar said. "But these two have seen my face. I must kill them." Zack stopped and turned to face the intelligence agent. "I don't think so, Mr. Scimitar." Scimitar laughed, a harsh barking sound. "As if you could stop me." Zack walked closer. "Listen to me...if you harm one hair on either of their heads, I will come back. I will come back in time to yesterday, and I will kill you. But, since I have already left and come back, I know that you have not, and will not." "But that...that..." Scimitar said, trying to wrap his mind around what the boy was telling him. "That's not possible." Zack turned to Scully. "Well, Dr. Scully? Is it possible?" "Yes," she said. But not probable, she thought, but didn't say. "My sister?" Mulder asked. Zack turned. "Yes...your sister. I know where she is, Mulder. I will go see her, and if she wants to come back, I will send her to you. But...you must understand. There are literally billions of worlds out there. She might have found a place where she is happy, where she is safe and secure. She may not want to come back. But I promise that I will go find her and tell her of you...and your quest. And your child," he added, casting a pointed glance at Scully. "Thank you," Mulder said, knowing he was powerless to do anything else. "Time to go," Zack said, moving towards The Box. *** Chief Gunners Mate/Guns Cochran glanced at his gamma-ray detector and frowned. "Six, eight," he whispered into his radio. "Six, go eight," "The...device has moved." "What?" "It's...inside the cave, sir." *** "WHAT?!?!?!?!?" Skinner was tempted to through the radio against the wall. "How did he..." "SEAL Six, this is Skinner. Move in. You have a GO order for anything that is not Mulder, Scully or the boy." He paused, wanting his next words to carry the weight of his emotions. "Take them out. Terminate with extreme prejudice." *** "'A" element...GO!" SEAL Six radioed. The seven member of "A" element, Juliet Platoon, SEAL Team Six, US Navy, moved as a single integrated unit. Like black widow spiders, they swarmed through the night, making their way to the cave's entrance. Six of them lined up, one behind the other, in classic attack formation. The seventh held a 1-million candlepower flash-bang grenade in his hand, the pin already removed. All that held the detonation spoon against the side of the grenade was his Nomex-gloved hand. The last man in the stack gripped the shoulder of the man in front of him, signaling that he was ready. The fifth man repeated the process, and it went up the line until the first man in the stack felt his shoulder being squeezed. The lead man, SEAL Six himself, nodded and smiled at the man holding the flash bang. He made the finger sign for "One..." and then "Two..." When SEAL Six made the sign for "Three..." the grenade would toss the grenade into the mouth of the cave. A second later, after the concussive explosion and blinding flash had dissipated, the SEALs would swarm the cave. They had a valid GO order to shoot to kill any unfriendly. In less than a second, the cave would become a house of death. *** Several things happened at once. The grenade rolled in, bounced twice, and came to rest against one of the rock outcroppings. Zack turned to see what had made the noise, his mouth twisting into a single word. "Nooooo," he screamed. To everyone else in the cave, time stopped. Zack typed a button on his device. Time froze. Scully couldn't move. Mulder couldn't move. Scimitar was frozen in place. The only person that was still mobile was Zack. Calmly, he walked over to the grenade, picked it up, and tossed it outside. Walking back towards the box, he typed rapidly on his keyboard. Smiling, he turned and faced Mulder and Scully. His mouth did not move, but Zack spoke nonetheless. Scully heard his voice in her head, like a record that had been sped up. Alvin and Chipmunks, she thought. Aaaaaalvvviiin! Sorry, Dave! "I'm sorry that I have to do this to you both," he said, in their heads. "But I must go. This world has nothing for me anymore. Tell my parents that I love them, and that I will keep watch over them. Mulder, your quest will continue. The Hamion Vortex that I will be opening in a few moments will forever match your two signatures to my own. I will know where you are at all times in this world. When necessary, I will give you a guiding hand towards the truth that you seek. But it is not here, not now. You still have a long journey ahead of you, a journey of discovery, of treachery, of deceit. One of your favorite phrases is "Trust No One." Believe that. There are but two people you can trust. "One of them will be your wife someday. The other is the one you know as "Skinner." The third will be born around Thanksgiving of this year." `The one I know as `Skinner'?' Mulder thought. "We are all in a subspace domain right now," Zack explained. "And the final truth can now be told..." "I am not human. I have not been human for two years. I am something...more, now. I can control time and space, mine and yours. Do not weep for me, Mulder, for I go to find something better, something new and exciting." Zack paused, if that was the word, since he was not speaking. "I will miss you all." He touched a button, and the four of them returned to normal space-time again. "The truth is out there!" he said cryptically. "And I will help you find it, Mulder!" They heard, "Shit!" from outside. Then there was a huge, blinding flash, followed by a wave of concussive energy that knocked all four of them out cold. *** When Mulder came to, he awoke to see the barrels of four automatic weapons pointed at his face. "Mulder, FBI," he managed to gasp. The guns pulled back slightly, but not totally. Mulder sat up and looked around. Scully was still out cold, about five yards away. Moving towards here, he screamed, "Medic! Medic!" A man made his way inside the cave, moving to Scully. Mulder moved to the smallest inert form, Zack. "Zack? Buddy?" he whispered. The form on the ground slowly opened his eyes. "Mulder," he whispered. His face was sallow, his eyes glassy and far away. His smile was enigmatic, as always. "We did it," he whispered. And then the person known as Zack Tarses, the person a later autopsy would reveal had died of severe liver damage, the person that fingerprint comparison with his NSA file would reveal was the Zack Tarses that had lived on Earth for sixteen years, but was not the person that was born on this planet as Zachary Tarses, coughed twice. And died. **************** THE END **************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Renegade" Words and Lyrics (C) by Tommy Shaw. From the A&M cassette & CD "Pieces of Eight" Copyright (c) by A&M Music. Used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended. Author believes that quotation of short lyrical excerpts constitute "Fair Use" under the applicable court decisions regarding such use. "Joss" is Chinese for "Luck." End Notes : Well, that's it, folks. There is one final piece of the "Snapshot" saga, an epilogue that I will post in a few days. After that, I will be taking two weeks off, and then I will start my next saga, "Umbra." Some statistics : This story, which had originally started out as a vignette, has grown to over one hundred thousand words, (more than novel length,) and over five hundred thousand individual letters. Printed out in manuscript form (Courier New font, Size 10, double-spaced,) fills over four hundred pages. I always said that I wanted to be a novelist, and now I am one. I want to take this opportunity to once again thank all the people that have written me in support of this story, and I look forward to keeping you all as fans for my next series of stories, including "Umbra," a MSR that starts out as a Scully-Other. Details about that story a little later... It has been one of my deepest personal honors to write this story. Chris Carter and the folks at 1013 productions have created a pair of main characters, and a cast of supporting characters that have no equal. It has been an honor to write for them, to put words in their mouths, thoughts in their heads, and actions in their movements. They were borrowed with deep love, and returned (hopefully,) intact. Once again, thank you to all the people who have written with words of encouragement, support and just plain thanks. I hope that this story has made you laugh, smile, frown, cry...any emotion is cool. To quote Stephen King, "Boredom...however, would be a bummer." See you soon! drambo@azstarnet.com Tucson, Arizona April 20, 1997 This story is dedicated to all the fans.