The Old Man from Scene 24

SCENE 24

(Cave entrance. MULDER and SCULLY make their way through the narrow passageway at the mouth of the cave. They're led there by the old Indian Woman. At the end where it opens up into a living space, an old white-haired man sits there waiting for them.)

(MULDER enters first followed by SCULLY.)

CSM: What's the matter, Agent Mulder?

(CSM / C.G.B. SPENDER takes a drag of the cigarette through the hole in his trachea.)

CSM: You come to see the wise man but you look as if you've seen a ghost.

MULDER: You're no wise man. You're a Dead Man. Just like Krycek and X.

CSM: You see a Dead Man, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: I hoped and prayed you were dead you chain-smoking, son of a bitch.

(MULDER looks more than a little shocked to see CSM still alive.)

CSM: 

You waste your time. Ask Mulder. 

He knows the futility of hopes and prayers. 

He knows The Truth now.

(SCULLY looks confused at what CSM'S saying. CSM zeroes in on this immediately and begins to exploit it as he's done so many times before.)

CSM: You have told her The Truth haven't you, Fox? I helped you find it.

MULDER: You didn't help me. You sent me to that government facility knowing exactly what I'd find.

CSM: And now you refuse to Speak it. 

Not to Scully, not to anyone. 

You've even refused to testify what you learned ... even though it would have saved your life. 

You damned me for my secrets ... but you're afraid to Speak The Truth.

(CSM takes another drag from his cigarette.)

MULDER: You call me afraid? Look at you sitting here alone in the dark like a fossil.

(CSM exhales a puff of smoke around him.)

CSM: It's the final refuge. The last place to hide from those who are insidiously taking power now.

SCULLY: Who?

CSM: The Aliens!

They fear this place ... its geology. Magnetite. Like that which brought down the original UFO in Roswell. Indian wise men realized this over 2,000 years ago. They hid here and watched their own culture die. The Original Shadow Government.

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