CHAPTER 13

 “All right,” Mulder’s tone had not changed in the least since this entire episode had started, “let’s go over this one more time.”
 

Carter groaned, “that’s what you said the last three times.”

 It was as if the FBI agent had not even heard the comment, “let’s discuss the matter of alien involvement in the cloning process at Area 51.”

 Jack’s attention perked up, “Mexicans? Are you sure you’re not with the INS?”

 “Very funny,” as usual Mulder did not laugh. “You know very well I mean aliens from outer space.”

 Jack developed a confused look as he asked Carter, “are Mexican’s from outer space?”

 Sitting back down in the chair backwards, with his legs spread around the back rest, Mulder suddenly eased up a bit, “come on Colonel. You can tell me what it is you got under that mountain of yours. Crashed space ship from Roswell? Secret lab where you work on the aliens to make hybrid human clones?”

 “Ok, Ok,” Jack broke down and became humble.  “Fox, can I call you Fox?”  Whether it was all right or not, Jack would never know since the FBI guy did not let on.  “I’ll level with you. You see we got this big circle under that mountain and it looks kind of like a toilet flushing when you turn it on. You walk through it and you find yourself in Oz, or somewhere near. And you wouldn’t know an alien if he walked up and shook your hand!”

 Agent Skully mumbled something under her breath but Jack could not quite make it out. It sounded like something approximating, “isn’t that the truth.”

 Mulder on the other hand just laughed, “that has got to be the silliest cover story I have ever heard, Colonel O’Neill.” 

 The knock on the interrogation room door made Mulder drop his smile, “occupied!”

 The knock came again so Mulder got up and answered it this time. He was about to chew out whoever it was until he saw the stern, no nonsense look, of the man on the other side. Mulder had to look up at him and found that even with the silly fishing cap on, this guy was physically impressive. Mulder cleared his throat, “can I uhh… help you?”

 Teal’c was large enough to nearly take up the entire door. He looked to the back of the room where he saw his comrades. He gave them a nod, “I was told by the Lord of this facility that the key to winning the freedom of my compatriots was to procure an item known as a lawyer.”

 “Hey T,” Jack called out, “good to see you buddy. So?”

 Reaching down the hall, the Jaffa grabbed something and pulled it into view. It was a woman with short red hair, mousy in demeanor, and obviously rattled. She had on an extremely short skirt which she quickly pulled at and twisted straight just before doing the same with her business jacket. She was almost shaking and so small compared to Teal’c that it looked as if he would have little problems lifting her entirely off her feet.

 Teal’c nodded to those in the room, “and so I have procured just that O’Neill.”

 The lawyers first attempt at speaking came out only as a squeak. Then she coughed and tried to appear business like, even in her obvious trauma. She put her hand out to Mulder, “hi, I’m Alley McBeal, and I’m their attorney.” 

 She cleared her throat again, “and if you don’t mind I’d like to confer with my clients in private.”

 It looked like the FBI agent would just say no. He was obviously thinking very hard on the matter. Carter watched him like a hawk and then realized this Mulder guy was actually looking at Teal’c, very carefully. That was making Sam very nervous.
 As unexpected as it was sudden, the Agent broke down, “come on Skully let’s go get some coffee.”

 On the way out the door he shook both McBeal’s hand, and that of Teal’c. Skully simply gathered her papers and, as she passed McBeal, she mumbled, “nice skirt.”

 “Thank you,” Alley said politely as she stepped up to the table and tried to pretend this wasn’t happening. She waited till the FBI were out of ear shot before she mumbled, “bitch.”

 When the door closed Carter relaxed as Jack complained, “now does somebody mind getting these handcuffs off?”

 Down the hall of the police station, as they walked to the drink machines, Skully did nothing but complain, “I don’t get it Mulder! You went to all that trouble to drag those two in and you’re…”

 Fox stopped and thrust his hand out against the wall in front of her. She stopped abruptly and looked carefully at his arm before growling in his face. Mulder remained calm, “don’t worry Skully. I’m not going to let those two keep on violating the constitution. Besides we have a microphone running in there. We’ll learn everything we need to know.”

 As they began walking again, Dana thought that over, “violating the constitution? You mean like detaining people illegally and questioning them without an attorney? Stuff like violation of fourth amendment rights to search and seizures without due process of law? That kind of thing?”

 Mulder reached the drink machine and began shifting through the junk in his pocket looking for spare change, “exactly Skully. I’m sure they do all of that. The constitution says the government doesn’t have the right to keep secrets from the people.”

 That made Dana think and when she finally had the answer, “Mulder, no it doesn’t.”

 “Oh come on Skully,” he started dropping coins in the slot, “you have to look at the spirit of the document itself. You can’t get too technical with things like that.”

 She crossed her arms, “oh really? So who gets to decide what the spirit of the document is?”

 Mulder simply shook his head and had one of those superior looks, “the government of course.”

 When he got his drink from the machine he added, “besides, do you know who that big guy was back there?”

 Dana groaned and slapped her forehead, “don’t tell me. He was an alien, right?”

 “Don’t be silly Skully. If he was an alien I would have known it.”  Mulder smiled, “I got to shake hands with T Man C.”