From: mrkeller829@gmail.com   
      
   =====o============================o=====   
   "Chermera" by Mary Ruth Keller Part 33  of 45   
   E-mail: mrkeller@eclipse.net, mrkeller829@gmail.com   
   PG-13   X-File: Myth-arc   Disclaimed in Part I   
   Already sent to Gossamer   
   =====o============================o=====   
      
   Chapter VII –  Once Upon A Time    
      
   -----o----------------------------------o-----   
      
   The Butler enters, pushing a cart with breakfast on it. He presses a button   
   that rolls back the curtains over the display screen, elevates a round table   
   and Number Two's chair, in which Rover is sitting. After setting the tray on   
   that table, the Butler    
   elevates an empty chair, rings a hand bell, then raises the platform on which   
   Number Two stands. Number Two walks over to his chair and stares at Rover,   
   then turns to the Butler.   
      
   Number Two: Wait! (tastes the food) Remove it! (paces and stares back at   
   Rover) I told you to remove it!   
      
   The Butler puts the breakfast back on the cart.   
      
   Number Two: (speaking into the orange phone) Remove that thing, too. (points   
   at Rover in the chair) I'm not an inmate! Say what you like. You brought me   
   back here! I've told you the last time you're using the wrong approach. I do   
   it my way or you find    
   somebody else. (looks over at the Butler) Leave the coffee. (puts the orange   
   phone back on the desk) The coffee, leave it!   
      
   The Butler puts the coffee back on the table.   
      
   Number Two: (speaking into the orange phone again) How many times do I have to   
   ask? (the chair with Rover descends and the Butler leaves with breakfast on   
   the cart)   
      
   Number Two sets the screen to show The Prisoner having breakfast in his   
   cottage. Number Six is eating and pacing in his front room.   
      
   Number Two (to The Prisoner's image on the screen): Why do you care. Why do   
   you care? You're even relaxed. Why do you care? (Number Two walks back and   
   picks up the yellow phone) Number Six please.   
      
   The Prisoner: (walks over to answer the beeping phone) Why do you care? I know   
   your voice.   
      
   Number Two: I've been here before. Why do you care?   
      
   The Prisoner: You'll never know.   
      
   The Prisoner hangs up the phone, leaves the cottage, claps his hands twice as   
   the door closes.   
      
   Number Two: (to the screen) Wait and See.   
      
   The Prisoner meets another inmate and demands to know his number, rattling off   
   numbers from one on up as the other inmate becomes increasingly agitated and   
   tells him not to inquire.   
      
   Number Two flips through The Prisoner's progress report as various scenes of   
   The Prisoner's attempts at escape play on the screen.   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: I intend to escape and come back, wipe this place   
   off the face of the earth, incinerate it, and you with it.    
      
   (more scenes: destroys a speaker, holds up a Tally Ho)    
      
   Is this what they did to you? Is this how they started to break you before you   
   gave them what they were after?    
      
   (more scenes: runs from Rover)    
      
   I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed,   
   debriefed, or numbered.   
      
   Number Two: (puts down the progress report, picks up the orange phone)   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: I want to call a witness. A character witness.   
      
   Number Two: Degree Absolute. I require approval.   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation   
   of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages.   
      
   Number Two: If you think he's that important there's certainly no other   
   alternative! You must risk either one of us!   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: Who's standing beside you now? I intend to discover   
   who are the prisoners and who the warders.   
      
   Number Two: I am a good man. I *was* a good man. But, if you get him, he will   
   be better and there is no other way. I repeat no other way!   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned.   
      
   Number Two: Degree absolute and tonight, please.   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed,   
   briefed, debriefed, or numbered.   
      
   Number Two: A week? That's not long enough. You don't want to damage him.   
      
   Recording of The Prisoner: My life is my own.   
      
   Number Two: Very well. Tonight!   
      
                            Once Upon A Time   
      
   -----o------------------------------------o-----   
      
   Over the Midwest   
   Delta Flight 1344   
   Sunday, June 21, 1998   
   10:31 am   
      
   Fox Mulder twisted against the lap belt, then opened his eyes. He and his   
   partner had the three-seat row to themselves, so Scully had claimed the   
   middle, while he had taken the aisle. They had both drifted into sleep shortly   
   after take-off, but not    
   before she had spent a half an hour studying the genetic maps in the back of   
   the Cavalli-Sforza. He had watched her sifting through the thick pages,   
   comparing blood type distributions, then adding further comments to a numbered   
   list in one of her spiral-   
   bound notebooks, but he felt no need to disrupt her studies with a joke or   
   tease. The knowledge she was acquiring for herself might come in handy on a   
   case in the not-too-distant future. But, shortly after the food service carts   
   had ceased trundling up    
   and down the narrow aisle, she had flipped the lined sheets and the   
   black-jacketed tome closed, rested the short stack on the padding of the free   
   window seat, then closed her eyes. She turned to move her back away from the   
   stiff cushions before she    
   settled in, her forehead bumping his shoulder occasionally as she passed with   
   an occasional sigh into a light sleep.   
      
   He had expected to be up reviewing the events of the previous few days,   
   turning them over in his mind until he saw the pattern that would pull their   
   investigations into a single thread. But her deep, regular inhalations after   
   the endlessly long stretches    
   of the intertwined case shifts had set him nodding as well. Now, as he focused   
   into consciousness, he realized she had turned toward him to keep her spine   
   clear of the seat, which left her piled next to his arm. He gazed down at the   
   auburn crown, which    
   was all he could see of her face. Having her this close-by was comforting, not   
   only because it put his mind at ease for her personal safety.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)