The body of Owen Sanders, one of four young African-American males who had been reported missing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was discovered near a construction site. There was no evidence of homicide. Agt. Scully was called by Assistant Director Walter Skinner to a pre-dawn meeting at A. D. SkinnerÆs office in the Washington Bureau headquarters. Attending the meeting was Dr. Simon Bruin of the Center for Disease Control. Dr. Bruin explained that CDC now suspected disease, rather than kidnapping, as the cause of the disappearances. Dr. Bruin showed Agt. Scully a photograph of Sanders, who appeared to have lost all pigmentation following his disappearance. Agt. Scully was assigned to conduct an autopsy and arrive at a quick, decisive analysis of the case.

While conducting the autopsy, Agt. Scully was joined by Agt. Mulder. Agt. Mulder suggested that the disease theory might be a means of diverting attention from the deaths of young black men. He began examining the evidence collected with SandersÆs body: hair, clothing fibers, and soils.

Meanwhile, Marcus Duff, an immigration counselor, met with recent immigrant Samuel Aboah at AboahÆs Philadelphia apartment to review AboahÆs petition for naturalization. Duff found the apartment unusually dim; he had to ask Aboah to turn on a light. Duff suggested to Aboah that once Aboah achieved citizenship, he would be able to bring all of his family members to the United States. That suggestion appeared to impress Aboah in an unusual and inexplicable manner.

In the laboratory at Bureau headquarters in Washington, Agt. Mulder met with Agt. Pendrell, who had found among the evidence collected with Owen SandersÆs body a thorn-like seed from a rare species of West African passion flower. Agt. Mulder phoned Agt. Scully to pass along Agt. Pendrell's findings. Agt. Scully informed Agt. Mulder that cerebropathic glycocide, which had been found in the seed, is a depressant, potentially lethal in large doses. Toxicology, however, had showed no trace of the substance in SandersÆs blood, and the body could only have metabolized the substance if the victim had not died immediately. Agt. Scully reported to Agt. Mulder her own finding that SandersÆs pituitary gland, which controls many essential bodily functions including the production of pigment, was necrotized.

That night Agt. Mulder approached Marita Covarrubias outside the United Nations Building in New York City. He showed Covarrubias the seed and explained its origins. Covarrubias initially denied having knowledge relevant to the case. Agt. Mulder reminded Covarrubias that she had made an overture to him. He insisted she tell him anything she knew. Tacitly, she acquiesced.

Late that same night, at a deserted bus stop in Philadelphia, Alfred Kittle, 17, was pierced in the neck by a thorn-like seed. Kittle became disoriented and paralyzed. A bus stopped, but receiving no response from the immobilized Kittle, the driver drove away, assuming that Kittle was drunk. Samuel Aboah then arrived at the bus stop. Sometime afterward, Kittle disappeared.

The next morning, Agt. Scully interviewed the bus driver at the bus stop. The driver reported having seen nothing to explain KittleÆs immobility. Agt. Mulder arrived at the bus stop and showed Agt. Scully a photograph, filed with the FAA by the Port Authority of New York, of another black man who had died in the lavatory of a plane originating in Burkhina Faso. This victim, too, exhibited depigmentation. The Burkhina Faso Embassy had demanded an autopsy of the body, but the cause of death remained undetermined. Agt. Mulder expressed his conviction that if he and Agt. Scully found Kittle, they would find another seed.

Philadelphia police officers began circulating a picture of Kittle. During that process, two officers spoke briefly to Aboah at the door of his apartment. Kittle was at that time inside Aboah's apartment, paralyzed but apparently conscious. After the officers left the building, Aboah pulled an ivory tube from deep inside his throat.

Agts. Mulder and Scully solicited the help of immigration officer Marcus Duff. At DuffÆs office, the agents asked Duff to cross-reference passenger manifests from the Burkhina Faso plane with applicants for permanent residence status in the United States. Duff initially resisted the agentsÆ request; he became interested when the agents mentioned a potential public health crisis. Having identified Samuel Aboah as a passenger on the flight, Agts. Mulder and Scully went to Aboah's apartment and waited for him in their car. While waiting, Agt. Scully continued to study possible disease theories. Agt. Mulder remained skeptical of a disease theory. As the agents argued, Aboah arrived home on a pickup truck full of workers. Approached by Agts. Mulder and Scully, Aboah fled. Agts. Mulder and Scully pursued him into a dead-end alley with no obvious means of egress. Agt. Mulder found that Aboah had wedged himself into a seemingly impossibly tight drain pipe.

At the Mt. Zion Medical Center in Philadelphia, Aboah was examined by Agt. Scully and Dr. Bruin. He was found to be asymptomatic. Agt. Scully suggested more tests. Marcus Duff arrived at the hospital, having been called by Agts. Mulder and Scully to act as a translator for Aboah. Duff resisted taking on that task and suggested that Aboah had fled when approached out of a justifiable fear of police. Agt. Mulder again announced his opinion that medical tests would reveal little.

Through arrangements apparently made by Marita Covarrubias, Agt. Mulder interviewed Alpha Diabara, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Burkhina Faso, in DiabaraÆs office. Agt. Mulder confronted Diabara with his knowledge that Diabara had attempted to have the investigation of the death on the plane terminated. Diabara described for Agt. Mulder the teliko, a mythic creature believed in by the Bambara people. According to Bambara belief, the teliko hides in impossibly small places and emerges only at night. Diabara related his own memory of the teliko. As a child, Diabara believed he had witnessed a creature with straw-like hair and water-like eyes, who had swept him into the air. Diabara expressed his belief that the teliko had killed his cousin.

At the Mt. Zion Medical Center, Agt. Scully and Dr. Bruin examined AboahÆs head x-ray, noting an unidentified mass in the throat. Agt. Scully suspected a possible bone growth; Dr. Bruin believed it might be a removable object. AboahÆs PET series revealed that Aboah had no pituitary gland. Dr. Bruin declared such a finding impossible. Agt. Mulder arrived at the hospital and discovered that Aboah had disappeared. Aboah escaped by hiding in the narrow drawer of a food trolley.

In a parking garage, Aboah approached Marcus Duff as Duff was getting into his car. Duff assumed that Aboah had been released from the hospital and offered him a ride. Aboah got into DuffÆs car, concealing the same long ivory tube he had earlier removed from his neck.

At the Mt. Zion Medical Center, Agt. Mulder found fibers from Aboah's shirt in the food trolley. Agt. Scully received word that Duff's car had been found abandoned. Meanwhile, in a deserted alley, Aboah inserted a barbed needle taken from the ivory tube deeply into the nose of Duff, who was paralyzed. A uniformed officer later discovered DuffÆs body.

Driving from the hospital, Agt. Mulder explained to Agt. Scully that murder was merely incidental to AboahÆs intentions. Aboah, in Agt. MulderÆs opinion, was a member of a tribe of sub-Saharan albinos, who as a result of genetic mutation lacked pituitary glands and survived by taking those of others. Agt. Scully countered that Agt. Mulder was basing a theory on a folktale. The agents speculated as to why such a person would come to the United States. Passing a demolition site near Liberty Plaza, they stopped their car, remembering the asbestos fibers on Owen Sanders's body.

Agts. Mulder and Scully entered the demolition site with lit flashlights. Aboah was watching them. Aboah blew a thorn-like seed through the tube, piercing Agt. MulderÆs neck. Agt. Mulder became disoriented and dropped his firearm. Agt. Scully, unaware of Agt. MulderÆs condition, crawled into a ventilation shaft, seeking Aboah. Aboah watched her go by. His skin had become almost completely depigmentized. In the shaft, Agt. Scully discovered the body of Kittle. She then encountered Agt. Mulder, who was paralyzed and unable to speak. Aboah pursued the agents. Agt. Scully fired at him and missed; Aboah retreated. Agt. Scully kicked open a vent and discovered depigmentized bodies in an abandoned office. She pulled Agt. Mulder down into that office and laid him on the floor. On her cell phone, Agt. Scully called 911 and requested immediate EMS and police assistance. While the 911 operator noted Agt. ScullyÆs badge number and made her repeat the address, Aboah approached Agt. Scully from behind. Agt. Mulder spotted Aboah and signaled Agt. Scully with his eyes. Agt. Scully shot and wounded Aboah.

Aboah was apprehended and charged with five counts of murder. Agt. Scully summarized her case findings in her field report.