The X-Files

Monongahela. We're en route with a male cardiac, age 62. ETA in 12.

Copy. ETA in 12. Crash unit standing by.

How's he looking, Leonard?

Up to his ass in alligators.

- Is he going into arrest? - No, he's not.

- What did you do? - Aspirated his chest.

He has a tension pneumothorax pressing on his heart. ltjust looked like a cardiac.

- Nice catch. How did you know? - Because he's dying of cancer.

It's already eaten through one lung.

That's amazing. How did you know, Leonard?

Leonard?

Leonard?

Leonard?

Oh, God!

Leonard!

Hello?

Pretty cosy. Who'd ever wanna leave?

Whoever got locked in here last night, I guess.

That would be one Leonard Morris Betts, age 34.

But it should be noted that when Mr Betts arrived here last night he was sans head.

He was decapitated.

He was an emergency medical technician for this hospital.

- A very good one, apparently. - What about the morgue attendant?

Somebody cold-cocked him and stole his clothes.

He didn't see who. No alarms tripped, no sign of a break-in.

- It's weird, huh? - What are we doing here?

Did I mention Mr Betts had no head?

Yes. So? You're not suggesting that a headless body...

...kicked its way out of a latched morgue freezer, are you?

Are you? Because I think it's obvious this is a bizarre attempt at a cover-up.

- Meant to conceal what? - Body snatching for profit?

There's a shortage of cadavers at medical schools.

An unscrupulous medical supplier might pay top dollar.

But why take a headless one and leave top-dollar bodies behind?

Sir? Those video grabs you asked for. We found something.

These are from the emergency-room camera, taken at 4.13 this morning.

There's your perpetrator, in the stolen uniform.

You can't see very much on these. What's all this stuff here?

Bad video. The security system isn't exactly state-of-the-art.

What did he do with the corpse he stole?

Maybe he was forced to abandon it.

We combed the facility. Where could he hide a body where it couldn't be found?

I'll show you.

All hospitals operate some form of medical-waste processing.

This unit disposes of surgical remains.

Amputations, excised tumours... They're ground up and heated with microwaves...

...and the result is a sterile soot that's used as road fill.

Then there's nothing for us to find.

That depends how often they dispose of their waste.

Hopefully, only once every few days.

We're in luck.

Are you sure about this? If you're not sure,

I don't see any reason to disturb all this stuff...

- (squishing sound) - Mulder, I need help. Your arms are longer.

Oh. I think I got the toy surprise.

Leonard Betts.

That's his head...

...but where's his body?

Maybe he didn't dispose of the body. Maybe he got it out of here somehow.

Why take time to dispose of the head?

Maybe there's an answer here. Something you should check out.

We know he died in an automobile accident. What more is there to know?

Maybe nothing, but it's all we got.

You should find a place to examine Bette's head.

- While you do what? - Check his house. I wanna see how he lives.

- Lived. - Lived.

Case number 226-897. Leonard Betts.

As remains are incomplete, all observations refer to a decapitated head.

Weight: 10.9 pounds.

Remains show no signs of rigor mortis or fixed lividity.

Nor do the corneas appear clouded...

...which would seem inconsistent with the witnessed time of death, 19 hours ago.

I'll begin with the intermastoid incision and frontal craniotomy...

...then make my examination of the brain.

Oh! God!

- (man) Which one? - (Mulder) This one here.

- Thanks. I'll lock up. - OK.

- Mulder. - (Scully) It's me.

I've run into kind of a unique situation here.

- What did you find? - So far, not much.

I did a PET scan on Leonard Bette's remains.

Actually, four times now. And each time the images come out degraded...

...like it's fogged somehow.

- Like the security footage. - This is cutting-edge technology here.

The technicians say the machine is working perfectly.

The only thing that could account for the image distortion is some form of radiation.

But I don't see how or where it could be emanating from.

- What did your examination uncover? - I haven't performed an examination yet.

Why not?

Well, because I, uh...

...I experienced an unusual degree of postmortem galvanic response.

- The head moved? - It blinked at me.

I know exactly what it is.

It's residual electrical activity stored chemically in... in the dead cells.

Blinked or winked?

You're afraid to cut into it.

Scully, you're not saying that it's alive, are you?

No. I am certainly not saying that at all.

But has it crossed your mind that it's not quite dead, either?

- What do you mean? - I'm standing here in Bette's apartment.

Whoever we saw in those video grabs, his clothes are strewn all over the floor.

Made himself at home. Maybe he was home.

- Leonard Betts. - Yeah.

- Without his head. - Yeah.

Mulder, I don't even know how to respond to that.

I'm gonna put the building under surveillance...

...just in case whoever it is comes back.

I'll be in touch.

Michele?

Michele Wilkes?

- Yes. - I'm Fox Mulder. I'm with the FBI.

You're responsible for the disposition of Leonard Bette's remains.

He didn't have any family. No friends either, as far as I could tell.

- Except you. - I liked him.

But I wasn't really his friend. He didn't let people get that close.

I'm not sure I could call myself his partner. Mostly I stayed out of his way.

- What do you mean? - He was an amazing medical technician.

He could diagnose illness better than any doctor I've ever seen.

You know how they say some people can just look at you and tell you what's wrong?

Leonard could do that. Especially with cancer. He should have been an oncologist.

He used to volunteer weekends at the cancer ward.

Read to patients, stuff like that.

Did you ever notice anything about him? Anything odd?

No. Well, he never got sick.

That was pretty amazing, doing what we do.

- He was the picture of health. - Was he ever injured on the job?

No. Never.

I mean, until...

Oh, yeah.

I'm sorry.

I don't know what all this has to do with someone stealing Leonard's body.

It almost sounds like you're investigating Leonard.

No, no... Thanks for bearing with my questions. I appreciate your time.

This is biopolymerisation, a high-tech mummification process.

The remains are dipped in the epoxy.

Once it's cured, the specimen can be sliced for examination.

Or you got yourself a nice paperweight.

At any rate, we should have some autopsy answers for you soon.

I'm starting with an anterior slice from your Mr Betts...

...one favouring the frontal lobe.

- Well, this is certainly strange. - What?

- There's something wrong with the image? - In a manner of speaking.

Here, see for yourself.

Oh, my God. His entire brain looks like one giant glioma.

- He had cancer? - He was riddled with it.

Every cell in the sample. Every cell in his entire head and in his brain...

...was all cancerous. It's completely pervasive.

- Could you live in this condition? - Live?

This man would have been long dead before reaching such an extreme metastatic stage.

How do you explain it?

Maybe the polymerisation process distorted the sample somehow.

Maybe we're not really seeing what we think we're seeing.

Maybe we're just seeing it clearly for the first time.

- What are you suggesting? - Let's get a slice to go.

Monongahela, 136, en route with a male not responding to CPR.

Please advise.

Dispatch, somebody pick up, please.

Allegheny Catholic, 208. I know you're up to your ass in alligators...

Michele?

Leonard?

Let's go here.

Michele! Come on!

It seems to be working. Good call, 208.

- Thanks for the tip. - (Bette's voice) Glad I could help.

Oh, wow. I've never worked with a sample of human tissue before.

What exactly were you looking to find?

- I'll tell you if we find it. - Excellent.

Are you ever asked to defend this as a legitimate scientific process?

Only if you're not happy with the results.

Chuck did pioneering work in Kirlian photography in the US.

Although I prefer the umbrella term "aura photography".

By applying high-frequency electricity...

...I am able to photograph an organism's coronal discharge.

- Coronal discharge? - Coronal discharge. Life force.

"Chi" is an accepted fact in most Eastern cultures.

And the theoretical basis of holistic medicine, of acupuncture.

What is its application here?

It may account for the fogging of your PET scan of Leonard Bette's head.

You know, with this equipment, I have been able to capture phantom images...

...of whole leaves that were cut in half...

...or the vestigial image of a lizard's tail long after it's been cut off.

Which, you have to admit, is pretty cool.

It looks like we got somethin' here.

Oh, yeah.

Now, I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but...

Oh, yeah. There's definitely some kind of energy happenin' here.

Chuck, would you believe that this man's head had been decapitated?

- Oh, come on. No way. - Way.

Are we happy with the results?

Those sure as hell looked like shoulders to me.

I don't even know how to explain that photo, or even what it proves.

What if it proves that Betts is alive?

- Mulder! - You said he was riddled with cancer.

What is cancer but normal cells growing rapidly out of control...

...usually caused by damage to their DNA.

- Where is this going? - Let me tell you.

What if the cancer was not caused by damaged DNA?

If the cancer was not a destructive factor, but was rather the normal state of being?

Even if that were possible, he's been decapitated.

What if this man's life force, his chi, whatever you want to call it...