Ground Zero (The X-Files) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of the labs supposed to contain dangerously high levels of radiation. Was that just government propaganda?”
    Carrera pulled the door shut again and favored Scully with a tolerant smile. “No, it’s true—under normal circumstances. But as you can see, things aren’t normal in Dr. Gregory’s lab. Nothing any of us can understand…not yet, anyway. There should not have been any radioactive material here; yet we found high levels of residual radiation in the walls, in the equipment.
    “But don’t worry, those thick concrete blocks shield us out here in the hall. Nothing to worry about—if you stay away from it. But you’ll need a much closer look. We’ll let you continue your investigation. Come on.”
    She turned, and they followed her down the corridor.
    “Let’s get you both suited up.”
    23
    THREE
    Teller Nuclear Research Facility
    Tuesday, 11:21 A.M.
    The thick outfit made Mulder look like an astronaut. He found it difficult to move, but his eagerness to investigate the mysterious death of Dr. Emil Gregory convinced him to put up with the difficulties.
    Health-and-safety technicians adjusted the seams of his anticontamination suit, pulling the hood down over his head, fastening the zipper in back, then sealing it with another flap Velcroed over the top to keep chemical or radioactive residue from seeping through the seams.
    A transparent plastic faceplate allowed him to see, but condensation formed on the inside, and he tried to control his breathing. Canisters of compressed air on his back connected to a hood respirator that echoed in his ears and made it difficult to exhale. The joints in his knees and elbows ballooned as he tried to walk. 24
    GROUND ZERO
    Mulder felt detached from his surroundings, armored against the invisible threat of radiation. “I thought lead underwear went out of style with bell-bottoms.”
    Standing next to him, still clad in her stunning blouse and skirt, the dark beauty Rosabeth Carrera stood with her hands at her sides, looking uncertain as to what she should do. She had declined to suit up in anticontamination gear and accompany them onto the scene.
    “You’re free to go in and look around as much as you’d like,” Carrera said. “Meanwhile, I’ve arranged for the paperwork to allow you free access to the site—you’ll have a ‘needto-know’ clearance for this case only. The Department of Energy and Teller Labs are eager to find out what caused Dr. Gregory’s death.”
    “What if they don’t like the answer?” Mulder said. Swathed in her own billowing hood in the anticontamination suit, Scully flashed him a warning look, one of the usual glances she gave him when he followed his penchant for blundering down a dangerous road.
    “Any answer’s better than nothing,” Carrera said. “Right now all we have are a bunch of disturbing questions.” She gestured up and down the hall where the offices of Gregory’s coresearchers had been sealed off. “The background radiation in the rest of this building is perfectly normal, except in Gregory’s office. We need you to find out what happened.”
    Scully asked, “I know this is a weapons research laboratory. Was Dr. Gregory working on anything dangerous? Anything that could have backfired on him? A prototype for a new weapons system perhaps?”
    25
    THE X-FILES
    Carrera crossed her arms over her small breasts and stood confident. “Dr. Gregory was working on computer simulations. He had no fissile material whatsoever in his lab, nothing that even remotely approached the destructive potential that we see here. Nothing at all deadly. The equipment was no more dangerous than a videogame.”
    “Ah, videogames,” Mulder said. “Could be the heart of our conspiracy.”
    Rosabeth Carrera gave them each a handheld radiation detector. The gadgets looked just like the kind Mulder had seen in dozens of 1950s B-movies of uncontrolled nuclear tests that accidently created mutations whose bizarreness was limited only by