Jeff Marcus couldn't comprehend what had happened at first. He heard himself scream, then saw Mulder struggle against the goon holding him. He smelled and tasted the metallic tang of his own blood. His hand automatically came up to the gushing wound in his stomach, his legs collapsed under him and tears streamed down his face.
'Holy mother-fucking Christ! I've been shot,' some remote voice in the back of his head supplied helpfully. Another voice, which sounded remarkably like his mother, reminded him that that was no excuse for bad language.
Distantly, he was aware that the goons and their boss had left. He thought they'd said something, but everything felt like it was coming at him down a very long tunnel.
"Shit!" he heard Mulder exclaim, and then he felt a huge amount of pressure on his wound. White hot pain sliced through him, causing him to scream again. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Marcus, but I've got to put pressure on it. I know it hurts like a bitch."
"Guess you don't think I'm the double agent anymore, huh?" Marcus rasped, and laughed softly at the look on Mulder's face (he stopped laughing immediately when he found it hurt too much).
"Either that or you just got fired," Mulder tried to joke back.
"And here I always thought your paranoia was just an exaggeration."
"You should know by now, Agent Marcus, that all those Spooky Mulder rumors are a drastic underestimation."
"Yeah, well, live and learn."
Scully took a couple of cleansing breaths as the elevator climbed upward, her back ramrod straight against the elevator wall. She just wanted all of this to be over. Skinner stood just in front of her, but, thankfully, he was remaining as stoic as ever.
As the doors slid open and they walked down the corridor to Skinner's office, Scully felt as if all eyes were on her. She wanted to yell at them to stop, but instead she kept her head raised high and her eyes straight ahead.
When they got to his office, things did not improve. All movement from the task force agents stopped and they just stared at her. It was like a stupid dream from high school.
"What new information do we have?" Skinner's commanding voice cut through the silence, snapping everyone back to reality. All activity resumed, and a few agents stepped forward to give him updates.
Scully walked deeper into the office and was heading toward the evidence board when a hand touched her shoulder. Spinning around she came face to face with Agent Adam Dell.
"It's good to have you back, Agent Scully."
She couldn't pinpoint why, but the way he said it made her feel slightly uncomfortable. "Thank you. I'm sorry about Agent Marcus."
He nodded, sadness briefly crossing his features. "It's part of the job."
"Dell," Skinner said, walking over to them, "you're with me."
"Where are we going, sir?"
"To pick up Johnny Spilano."
Johnny Spilano looked around the interrogation room he'd been placed in twenty minutes ago. If they made him wait five more minutes he was going to lawyer up, even if the only shysters he knew worked for his dad.
He was about to start yelling at whoever was behind the two-way mirror when the door to the room finally opened. A tall bald man walked in, followed by a slightly shorter man with spiky blonde hair.
"Johnny Spilano? I'm Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and this is Special Agent Adam Dell. We have some questions for you."
"Anything to help the FBI," Johnny said cheekily. 'If they wanted me to be nicer they should have talked to me right away instead of making me stew,' he mentally grumbled to himself.
"I'm glad to hear that," Skinner said, ignoring Johnny's tone and taking a seat across from him. "What can you tell us about the whereabouts of Special Agents Mulder and Marcus?"
"What is this? A 'Where's Waldo' game?"
"This is not a joking matter, Mr. Spilano," Agent Dell reproved from where he was standing, leaning against the wall.
"Right." Johnny really hated cops - no sense of humor. "Look, I have no idea what you guys are talking about."
"Can you account for you whereabouts for last night and this morning?"
"Last night I was at my girlfriend's apartment, all night. This morning I was at the school library, studying like a good little boy." He was starting to resent this conversation. "Does this have something to do with my dad's case?"
"Do you know where your brother is currently?"
"Tony?" 'Oh God, baby brother better not be doing anything stupid.' "As far as I know he's at home. My mom's been pretty torn up recently." Johnny glared at the Feds, as if to say it was all their fault that his mother was upset.
Skinner pushed a cell phone towards him. "Would you mind calling him and verifying that?"
"I would, actually." Johnny pushed it back towards him.
"I thought you wanted to cooperate with our investigation, Mr. Spilano."
"Well, I've now decided you can take your investigation and shove it up your ass! Haven't you done enough to my family?"
"Do you think your father doesn't deserve to be punished, Johnny?"
Johnny felt himself hesitate and knew it had been too long not to be noticed. "My dad didn't do anything to anyone who didn't deserve it!" he replied vehemently, hoping it made up for his initial reaction. "He did a better job at keeping peace in our neighborhood than you Feds ever did."
"It's gotta make you angry then that he's been locked up." Johnny nodded, before realizing what he was doing and stopped abruptly. "Angry enough that you would want to do something about it?"
"No!" He burst out of his chair. "God, don't you feds do your research? I'm not a part of that world."
"Maybe not, but you still have the name. I bet you could get a lot of people to do your bidding on that alone."
"They don't respect the name, they respect power!"
"And who holds the power now? You're the oldest son."
"I never wanted it! I'm not the one he - "
Skinner nodded. "We need to know where your brother is, Johnny."
"I want to talk to my father."
Angelo Spillano looked as much a man in charge in his orange jumpsuit as he did in a 3-piece suit. Johnny looked like a little boy sitting across from him.
"What are you doing here, son?"
"The FBI brought me in today." Johnny surreptitiously glanced across the room, towards where both Skinner and Dell stood, and Angelo nodded in understanding. "They wanted to know about two missing agents."
No one else would have seen it, but Johnny saw the surprise in his father's eyes. "Do they think you have something to do with it?"
"I think they're more focused on Tony, but I'm sure they think I had a hand in it as well."
Johnny watched as his father went through his mental calculations. "Okay. I want you to answer all of their questions and then go back to school."
"Dad! What about Tony? He's family."
"And I'm your father. I'm telling you to go back to school. I'll deal with the situation with Tony. The boy never could listen."
"Dad..."
"Send the agents over here."
Johnny stared into his father's eyes, torn between listening to what he said and wanting to run to Tony. "Okay. Do you need anything?"
"No, son."
Johnny resignedly walked away. "He wants to talk to you," he said over his shoulder as he kept walking right out the door, forcing himself not to look back.
Skinner didn't speak, but took up the seat Johnny had just vacated, Dell standing behind him.
"I want some guarantees before I talk."
"Agent Dell, where are you going?" Skinner asked when he noticed that the agent was heading in the opposite direction of the car.
"I missed a call - I just have to return it really fast."
"Do it in the car!" he barked, looking at Dell like he was crazy. "We need to move on this new information."
Skinner missed the fearful look in Dell's eyes as he looked down at his phone and bit his lip, before climbing into the car.
Scully leaned her head against the bathroom stall as she waited to see if she was about to lose any more of her lunch. She'd been so grateful the dizzy spells had stopped, but they'd been quickly followed by morning sickness, so she had very little time to celebrate.
When she was sure the worst of the nausea had passed, she forced herself to her feet. Straightening her suit and flushing away the evidence of her illness, she left the stall. She was in the process of rinsing her mouth when the door opened.
Glancing up, Scully was relieved to see it was Kim. "Agent Scully, AD Skinner is back. He asked me to find you. I think they've got something."
Kim had to run to catch up with her.
Tony was finding it hard not to panic. They were surrounded by FBI agents. His contact hadn't been able to give him enough warning to get them out, and now they were trapped.
'No,' Tony told himself firmly. 'I can get out of this. I just have to be smart about this, just like Dad taught me. I have at least one hostage left, maybe two. They can get me out of this. And if not... well the red-headed bitch is here now. At the very least, I'll take her out at the same time.'
"Go get the two G-men,” he ordered. “I think they should be here for this party."
"AD Skinner. You didn't wait for an invitation before visiting my humble abode. That's not very polite. I thought they raised fibbies better than that."
Skinner almost admired that Tony Spilano still sounded like he was in charge of the situation. "At the moment, we are waiting for your invitation to come inside, but I don't know how long that will last."
"It will last as long as you want your two agents to survive. Any attempt to come in here and their brains will be my new wallpaper." Tony's voice had raised steadily throughout his threat, until Skinner was tempted to pull the phone away from his ear. "You don't want that do you, Walt?"
"No, I don't. So I am going to need proof that they’re still alive before we go any further."
There was a rustle, and then nothing for a couple of seconds before, "Hey, Skinman. Nice of you to come by."
Skinner had never been so pleased to hear Mulder's sarcastic tone in his life. From close by, he heard Scully strangle a sob, so he knew she was listening as well.
"Mulder, this is not what I meant when I told you to let us handle things."
"You have no idea how much I wish I'd followed your orders."
"I knew you'd see the light eventually. Is Agent Marcus okay?"
"He needs a doctor. Soon."
"Okay. Is there anything else you can tell me?"
He heard the click of a safety being turned off over the line. "No, sir."
"All right, Mulder. Don't do anything stupid."
"I've been hearing that a lot lately. Sir?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't let anyone else do something stupid."
Skinner glanced in Scully's direction. 'Message received, Mulder.'
"Okay, that's enough," Tony's voice broke in as he took back the phone. "There's your proof."
"Thank you, Tony," Skinner said, slipping back into hostage negotiation mode. "It’s good for you that they're both still alive. I can help you more if they stay that way. Tony, we need to get Agent Marcus out of there. He needs a doctor."
There was a long pause. "Okay, Walt, I'll tell you what. I'll let you get your boy here out, but I want something in return."
"What?"
"If you want Agent Marcus, I'll trade him... for Agent Scully."
Next: Chapter 9
