MISPRISION

Misprision: (pronounced, miss-prizz-ee-on); adjective; Middle English, a mistake, misdirection or a misunderstanding, deliberate concealment or deflection in the release of information - from Old French 'mesprendre' to mistake, ... was still in common usage in 16th century England.

Chapter Eight

8.40 am former offices of Dr Lev, Zeus Genetics.

Doggett pulled up in front of the ruined building. Parts of the rubble were still smouldering, but all emergency vehicles and personnel had long since departed. He glanced at Mulder.

"Where do you think we should start?" He asked.

"I think we need to look underground," Mulder said, "it seems to me that the Consortium has a thing for hiding in the sewers like rats."

"Didn't see any signs of underground offices when we were here before." Doggett said. "Not that we really looked that hard." He acknowledged.

"Might not be a place that you can see from within the main building, we should keep a look out for any possible entrance in the grounds." Mulder observed.

"Why don't you and Doggett take the back of the building while Conrad and I check out the front?" Skinner said. "That way we can cover more ground in a shorter time."

Mulder nodded and, after getting out of the car, ran to the rear of the building with Doggett close behind him.

Conrad allowed Skinner to lead the way, uncertain exactly what it was they were looking for. A few feet from the front entrance, just off to the left, Skinner spotted what appeared to be a metal casing set into a slightly raised bank of grass. It closely resembled a drain covering, but it did seem a slightly odd place to put one. For one thing it was not laid flat, flush with the ground, which he would have expected. For another thing there was no indication in writing on the metal casing of the manufacturer, or of the designation of the outlet.

Skinner made a sign that they should continue with caution. Conrad nodded in agreement as he watched his friend kneel before the 'drain' to give it a closer inspection. Skinner ran his hands over the covering trying to see how it might open. As he did so he made a discovery. There was a faint indentation in the top left hand corner of the cover. As he looked carefully again he could make out two words scratched into the slight recess.

"Napier's Constant." He read, "That sounds familiar."

As he spoke he pressed against the words, and was surprised that the entire covering slid to the right, revealing a key pad of the kind used to unlock doors with a code. Conrad's eyebrows rose in surprise, but he made no comment.

At that point Mulder and Doggett came into view. Conrad waved them over, then he knelt beside Skinner and looked to see the notation his friend had spotted.

"Bizarre!" He said. "Not exactly the place you'd expect to see that."

Mulder appeared behind him and, having read the words he too squatted down beside his former boss.

"Bizarre it may be, but this is not the first time I have seen or heard reference to Napier's Constant in the context of the Consortium's genetic and medical research." He said

Skinner raised a questioning gaze to him.

"When we were trying to unravel the information from the DAT tape," Mulder said, "Scully and I went to an abandoned mine. There were old workings which had been sealed behind heavy doors all governed by key pads such as this one. Victor Klemper had told us to use Napier's Constant to gain access to vast numbers of files in the complex. We only managed to open one door, but what we found was astonishing."

"I remember." Skinner said.

It had been, after all, one of their first encounters with the level of menace that Spender was prepared to use to protect his secrets.

"So are we ready to key in the code and see what happens next?" He asked.

All three of his companions answered in the affirmative and Conrad keyed in the number of Napier's Constant. 2-7-1-8-2-8.

As they watched, a green light showed at the base of the key pad, and the entire fake drain covering retracted about a foot into the bank before sliding to the right, revealing a subterranean staircase which was well lit. They felt cool air emanating from the tunnel in front of of them which seemed to indicate that whatever was down here might still be operational, despite the level of destruction in the laboratories above ground. Doggett and Skinner immediately drew their guns. Mulder automatically reached for the one he no longer wore and gave a rueful grin to his two former colleagues.

Guess you'll have to be the advance guard and the good Doctor and I get to ride shotgun, with no actual shotguns." He quipped.

Skinner grunted in agreement and, waving them to follow him, led the way down into the depths below. At the base of the stairs the tunnel continued. The level of lighting increased and the area broadened. They found themselves in a long hallway with doors leading off. None of these doors had any visible locks on them so they tried each in turn. The first two seemed to be store rooms lined from floor to ceiling with racks containing video tapes, all labelled and neatly stacked. The third room held numerous paper files on carousels, similar to those found in hospitals. Inside the fourth room they met their first indication that this facility was still partially operational. There was a bank of CCTV monitors flickering as they showed their images to a single man. At least the man was supposed to be watching the monitors - currently, however, he was asleep, eyes shut firmly, head back against the head-rest of his chair, mouth wide open, snoring loudly.

Doggett took the safety off his gun and stepped around to one side of the sleeping man. he looked at the console in front of him. it seemed they had caught a lucky break. The first four monitors showed the entrance way and the area above ground. If the man in the chair had been on the ball he'd have raised the alarm well before they had managed to make an entry. There were sixteen screens in all, though eight of them were blank. The top and bottom rows were, however, functioning perfectly.

Having checked the top row Doggett now looked at the bottom row of monitors. One showed an empty laboratory, equipped but unmanned. The next showed a store-room, the third revealed a woman pacing anxiously and wringing her hands. The final monitor was focused on a room which contained a clear cube like structure at its centre. It was this last which drew Doggett's attention. Mulder, however, was intent upon the previous monitor and the woman.

Her face was partially covered by shadow, but as she turned towards the monitor again he could see her features more clearly and his heart leaped in his chest. It was Samantha!

He let out an involuntary exclamation. He knew, somehow, that this really was his sister, not a clone. She was the real thing. To find her here after all this time, after even he had given up believing that she had survived, believed instead that she had 'gone into the starlight'. After all that, to realise how wrong he had been was a shock of the greatest magnitude.

Skinner saw Mulder's reaction and barely blinked an eye as he left the room. Skinner too now, was looking aghast at the final monitor. What shook him was the action occurring in the cube like chamber.

Within the chamber were three men. One damnedly familiar figure in a wheelchair, one tall, pale and insipid looking man in a white coat, and one whose face was currently hidden from view. This man was lying naked, prone, bound to an object which resembled an operating table, his legs raised in stirrups as if for a gynaecological examination. Reaching forward to the console in front of the monitors, Skinner pushed the volume control for the final room. When the sound reached them they all flinched, not least the man sleeping in his chair. Without stopping to think Doggett cold cocked him , though he had the presence of mind to remember his gun safety was off and used his bare hands instead. Relieved to have averted a near disaster he removed his tie and used it to secure the guard, before returning his attention to the monitor.

Skinner had never heard so much screaming from one man. Even in Vietnam. He paled at the sound, and at the implication that it carried with it. Whoever that man on the operating table was he was clearly not nicely anaesthetised. It was obvious that he was being tortured by Spender and the other man. Who he was and why they were torturing him was unclear since Spender's head still obscured their view of the victim.

Then the screaming became only one of the sounds coming from the monitor. They heard Spender speaking to the man on the table as he grasped his wrist.

"Are you satisfied now?" They heard him ask. "See what you have done here? Sasha, you are your own worst enemy. Why can't you be more like Kolya?"

As he spoke he jerked the wrist of the man he'd called Sasha. Skinner looked carefully at the torso of the bound man and gasped.

"It's Krycek!" He exclaimed, feeling sickened that a part of him was actually pleased that the former agent was in such a predicament.

Doggett, Skinner and Conrad stood transfixed for some minutes as they observed Krycek's response to Spender's taunting and watched in horror as the old man signalled for his companion to resume the torture. As they watched Krycek's body respond to the terrible stimulation each of them felt sympathetic twinges of pain and disgust.

It took only a minute for Skinner to move, but it felt like eons. Then he was running out of the door and down the hallway to the room with a number twenty on the door.

Doggett and Conrad followed him closely. As they reached the door they could clearly hear the sounds of torment from within. 'No one could withstand such pain and not go mad.' Skinner thought, feeling sickened at the noise, knowing what was causing it. There had been, he admitted, many times in the past when he'd wished to exact such a penalty from Krycek himself. Hearing the reality, though, as opposed to what his imagination had conjured, was too terrible.

As he reached for the handle to the door he found himself pushed aside by a woman who burst out of the adjoining room. Mulder trying desperately to hold her back.

"Samantha, you can't go in there, " Mulder was saying, "please don't."

It was too late to stop her, however, as she reached the door and wrenched it open.

"Don't try to stop me Fox." She said. "I can't allow these men to do this any longer."

So saying she entered the room and made straight for the transparent cube at its centre. One by one they followed her through the airlock until they stood inside the chamber of horrors itself.

Conrad moved behind the man in the white coat and gave him a quick chop to the side of his neck, felling him instantly. Not stopping to check his victim, he turned his attention to the controls the man had been manipulating and cut the power to the current that was flowing ferociously through the man on the table. Skinner took great delight in putting his cocked gun to Spender's head and pulling the chair back away from the table.

Krycek's body slumped down onto the table beneath him. A distressed gurgling sound escaped him, but that was at least better than the ear-splitting screams he'd been emitting.

Samantha stood behind him, gently stroking his shaved head and murmuring.

"It's all right Alex. It's all over now." She crooned, soothingly.

Whether or not he heard her, Alex relaxed completely and, unsurprisingly, after the level of torture his body had endured, he lost consciousness altogether.

end of chapter 8

Chapter 9

Many thanks to Ursula for sterling efforts to kill the typo....above and beyond the call of duty. Any mistakes still remaining are my fault not hers.

Feedback is welcomed at any time

sharonmarais@sam27.demon.co.uk

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