Mulder walked into the worship hall wondering why he was even there. The police already talked to all of the people at the scene and one of them had seen anything. Truth be told, Mulder was stuck, which was something that happened rarely. The removal of the eyes could've had some cultural significance. Some Native American tribes removed the eyes from their dead to prevent the soul from re-entering the body. But Mulder didn't see how that was significant to the case. And what about the black rose? Was the killer just trying to be a famous case? These days in the media, it didn't even take a gruesome crime like this for a murderer to get their fifteen minutes. Maybe the killer wanted more than fifteen minutes. Maybe he wanted more than fame. He wanted to say something with this murder. But what was it?

"Agent Mulder," the voice of an old man behind him had interrupted his thoughts. Mulder turned and his eyes met a frail looking old man. "I've been looking for you. I was wondering if there was somewhere we might talk."

Washington D.C

Scully made her way into Skinner's office straight from the airport, well aware that she looked almost dead and she probably didn't smell very fresh either. Skinner told her to come into his office as soon as she arrived and told her that Tom Colton was dead. Scully let out an exhale of relief. Thank God it wasn't someone she actually cared about. Scully had seen enough good agents die recently: Pendrell, Spender, well, maybe Spender wasn't such a good agent, be he turned out to be better than Colton didn't he?

"I'm confused, sir," she told Skinner. "Why was I called off of a case for this?"

"It was specifically stayed in his will that, should he death come under mysterious circumstances, you would perform the autopsy."

"And what were the circumstances of his death?"

"Poor guy fell asleep at the wheel. We've talked to a waitress at a coffee shop he stops at and can piece together that he spilled coffee on himself as he was leaving and was driving home to change. He never made it.

"Oh."

"We'd like to close this case fairly quickly, so we wanted you to do the autopsy as soon as possible."

"I can do it this afternoon and be on a plane back to San Francisco in the evening."

"Excellent."

San Francisco

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Mulder asked. This had better be something good, he thought. He'd jut bought the man a cup of coffee, and he hoped he'd get his moneys worth.

"My name is Dr. Reyes. I believe you are familiar with a Top Secret government project called Litchfield?"

Mulder nodded. The Litchfield project had been something he and Scully had uncovered 6 years ago when they investigated simultaneous exsanguinations and discovered two girls on opposite sides of the country who looked exactly alike. They had been the latest spawn of a eugenics experiment gone horribly wrong. Clones had been made with extra chromosomes giving them heightened strength, intelligence, and psychosis. The males had been named Adam and the girls, Eve. Only four known clones from this project remained; the rest had committed suicide.

"You're telling me this is the work of one of the remaining clones? We locked them all away."

The Doctor shook his head. "The very name Adam 1 would terrify any scientist who worked on the project. Adam 1 was the prototype, the first successful clone. We learned one horrible thing from him: bodies can be cloned, souls cannot. Adam had no soul. He had no conscience. He emerged from his pod and ripped the throat out of the nearest man. The entire point of the project had been to create a super soldier. Adam 1 was beyond that. He was stronger, faster, incredibly intelligent, but his urge to kill went beyond psychosis. Even psychotic men will kill with some purpose. Whether is unreleased anger or they were never breast fed, or a mental disease, they all have some reason for their madness. Adam 1 killed simply because it amused him. He believed that he was more than an experiment, he was several rungs higher than humans on the evolutionary scale. He may have been right."

"Adam was, for lack of a better term, born, in the 1950's, right, Doctor?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Then he would be almost 50 now. Isn't he past his peak now?"

"Adam 1 had genetic manipulations none of the clones following him had. One of them enabled him to age much slowed than normal people. He probably wouldn't look older than 25 now."

"What other genetic manipulations did he have? I need to know what we're up against if we're going to stop this guy."

"Too many to count. He looks normal, but it's hard to tell for sure. We had very little time to study him before he orchestrated his own escape. We never found him. He was smarter than any of us. Smart enough to elude us for 50 years. We don't even know what he looks like. But we believe he's been moving across the U.S., killing at random. Are you familiar with the Zodiac murders?"

"The most famous unsolved serial murder case in American history. Are you saying this guy is the Zodiac killer. He was a kid when those things started."

"Precisely. Back then, children were presumed innocent. it was the perfect cover. Of course, times have changed, but he's still managed to kill without getting caught. And now he's a pattern killer again. And all the time, he's only amusing himself."

"How do I defeat him?" Mulder asked.

"You don't. I didn't come as an informant. I came to warn you to get off the case. You won't find him. You can't defeat him. You and the people you love will only wind up dead if you try. He probably already knows all about you. He probably knew all about you before you ever got on the case."

Mulder ignored him. "Who's his next target going to be?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It could be anyone I suppose. For that matter, it could be anywhere. He may decide to do the next one in Germany. For all you know, he's not even in the country anymore. He can do that. He's set up several identities for himself and has been taking money using methods so gradual and complicated that most of the banks and corporations he steals from don't even notice it's gone until years after he's taken it. He's got the intellectual and financial means to do whatever he wants."

"What's his weakness?" Mulder asked.

"We don't know. Theoretically, he's not invulnerable. Anything that can kill a normal human should be able to kill him. His resistance and pain tolerance may be higher, but bullets should be as effective on him or anyone else."

"How do I find him?"

"I told you agent Mulder. You don't want to."

"People will be in danger until he's apprehended."

"You can't apprehend him. You can't find him. And you sure as hell won't kill him."

"It's not a choice. It's my job. It's what I do."

"It could take years."

"Can you think of any other alternative to neutralizing him, doctor?"

"No."

"Then you've been enough help. Thank you."

Doctor Reyes got up and walked out of the restaurant, muttering to himself about what a fool Mulder was.

Mulder considered following him, but his cell phone rang.

"Yeah," he answered, still distracted.

"Mulder it's me." The voice on the other end was Agent Scully. "Tom Colton is dead. He was killed in a car accident early this morning. I just have to finish the autopsy and I'll be back down this evening, ok?"

"Ok."

"Any new leads on the case?"

"Not really."

"Alright, then. I'll see you tonight."

"Mulder, is something wrong?"

"No, it's just...we'll talk about it when you get down here."

Mulder pushed the end button on his cell phone. The agents always ended their phone conversations abruptly. After all, calling long distance on a cell phone was expensive, ad the federal government couldn't afford to be formal about trivial things like that.

Washington D.C.

Scully finished up the autopsy and put the body away. She considered writing up her report before she left for California, but decided against it because it would waste time and she could just use her laptop to write the report on the plane ride.

But there was one important thing she had left to do.