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Chapter 6

   At 5:37, a black car pulled up to the house of Gregory Klutz, and Mulder, Scully, and Sam stepped out. Robert and Al appeared from thin air a second later, and as everyone else took off for the woods, Scully went up to the house.
   The air was warm and fresh with the scent of maple. The sun beat down from the sky above, but as she stepped onto the porch, the sun went away, and she could concentrate on more important things.
   She knocked on the wooden door. It was very thick, so she decided to knock harder to make sure the person inside could hear her. No one came, but she knocked two more times before getting a response, that of a round man opening the door. He was 5'3" and heavily built. According to his file, he worked as a demolition man, tearing down buildings and anything else that he was paid for. He wore a tank top and Bermuda shorts, and his hair was greasy, making it look as if the man hadn't bathed in a week. She took out her identification and flashed it.
   "Mr. Gregory Klutz?" she asked.
   The man stared momentarily at her badge, then looked up at her and said, "Yes?"
   "My name is Dana Scully; I work for the FBI. Mind if I come in and ask a few questions?"
   Gregory looked behind him. Scully peered into the room and found it littered with trash. "What's the matter?" he asked. Clearly he didn't want to show someone his dirty house unless he had to.
   "A man robbed a few banks and we believe he's hiding out somewhere in these woods."
   Gregory fiddled with his hands, seeming to make a decision. He looked over his shoulder once more and said, "All right, you can come in. Please excuse the mess; I haven't had the proper time to clean up."
   The door opened up to the living room. To the right was an arched entrance to the kitchen, which was dirtied with unclean dishes, and a little further along the right wall was another wooden door. Scully had no idea where it led, but she didn't find it important to find out.
   Nearly across the room was a recliner chair with bits of Cheetos stuck in the nooks and crannies, and in front of it was a twenty-one-inch TV on a TV tray. After sitting down into the chair, Gregory grabbed the remote from one of the arms and turned the TV off. Scully looked around for a chair to sit in, but even the sofa was covered in Honey Bun wrappers and an assortment of boxes. She opted to stand and make this a short visit.
   "Mr. Klutz," she said. "As I understand it, you own the five hundred acres of woods out there."
   Klutz nodded. "That's right."
   "Do you go out there very much?"
   Gregory looked out a window near the TV. "Only to chop wood; I normally stay within the vicinity of the house. I bought the woods about five years ago for privacy, and I never leave except to get groceries or gas or to go to work."
   "As a demolition man," Scully stated.
   "That's right."
   "So if someone were to enter your property and say, build a temporary encampment, you wouldn't notice?"
   Klutz shook his head. "I'm afraid not; unless that encampment was in eye sight."
   "And if someone were to build a house and live on your property, you wouldn't find out about it?"
   Again, Klutz shook his head. "As long as I'm not bothered, I don't know anything that happens out there."
   "I see." Scully looked around the room once again, then turned back to Gregory and said, "Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Klutz."
   "No problem, ma'am," he replied, and as Scully left the house, Gregory turned the TV back on.

* * *


   "It's over there," Robert said to the search party. Al scanned the area with his control mouse to confirm that. He then turned to Robert and said, "Why didn't you tell me about Mulder and Scully? You knew what was going to happen to them, and you said nothing?!"
   "I knew you'd find out," Robert replied. "Besides, after three years in Viet Cong, I thought you would have been able to realize when I was holding something back."
   Al grumbled. "Yeah, well, if you're so divine"--he said the word mockingly--"then why don't you take us to Hayes himself? Or better yet, take care of the situation?"
   "That's not my mission. I was to guide Sam through the timeline to have him fix all the things that were to never happen. Just like I couldn't save Jacqueline Kennedy, I can't fulfill this mission...but I can get involved."
   They came upon the area pointed out by Robert and Al. As suspected, a stream flowed nearby, which really was an extension to a pond in the vicinity. The stream went from one end of the pond to another, and as everyone looked into the stream, they could see schools of fish swimming about.
   "That explains how Barry could survive out here," Mulder said.
   Sam added, "Not to mention all the birds out here." He turned to his holographic partner. "How fresh is the water?"
   Al looked over at Robert, but he held his hands up in silence. The question wasn't directed at him, so he wasn't going to answer it, so Al tapped his hand link and said, "The pH level is suitable for human and animal consumption, and there is very little contamination. Other than the occasional body waste dumped by the fish, the water's pretty fresh."
   Mulder bent down by the edge of the stream and scooped up something from it with his index finger. He looked it over, then whipped out some latex gloves and a plastic bag and took a sample of what he had found.
   "This appears to be the same clay found on Hayes' shoe," he said.
   "It is," Robert replied. "And Agent Mulder, I think you'd better watch your back."
   "Why?" But Robert never answered. Suddenly, from behind him, Barry Hayes jumped on Mulder and wrestled him to the ground. To the amazement of the onlookers, Hayes' left arm turned into a large metal spike, and he tried to impale Mulder with it. Sam was immediately on top of Hayes, but it looked like it would take more than two men to tackle him.
 

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