April 16, 11:48 P.M.
Special Agent Delbert Albritton looked up as his office door opened. People rarely came down to this remote corner of the building, and usually only because they had lost their way or had bad directions. He couldn’t remember the last time someone came to see him. And never this late. It was why Albritton preferred to burn the midnight oil.
The man who entered his office was tall and wore a plain gray suit and quiet tie. He wore no name badge, but Albritton knew who he was. He’d heard stories about this man, and some of those stories scared him more than the cases Albritton investigated in his underfunded, one-man division.
“Can I help you, sir?” asked Albritton.
The tall man glanced down at the folder that had landed on Albritton’s desk less than an hour ago. The folder lay open to show photocopies of official reports from the Craiger sheriff’s department, and surveillance photos of several dozen people, including a pretty girl with red hair. The man considered the contents; then he reached down, slid a fingernail under the edge of the folder, and closed it.
“What are you doing?” asked Albritton.
The man gave him a small, cold smile. “This case is closed. There’s no need for any further action.”
“But I just got it.”
The tall man fished in his jacket pocket for a pack of Morley cigarettes, shook one out, clicked on the flame from a steel lighter, and took a long drag.
“Excuse me,” said Albritton, “they don’t let us smoke down here. The ventilation is bad.”
The man exhaled blue smoke. “We can get the ventilation fixed, agent.”
He glanced down at the closed folder.
“Be seeing you around.”
And he left, leaking smoke from his nostrils like a dragon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Chris Carter, Gillian Anderson, and The X-Files team. Thanks to Josh Izzo at Fox for helping me navigate the minefields. Special thanks to my editor/publisher, Erin Stein, and my fellow X-Files chronicler, Kami Garcia. Thanks to Ted Adams of IDW Publishing for first inviting me in to play in the world of aliens, monsters, and conspiracies. Thanks to Ashleigh Ammari for Japanese translations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times–bestselling author and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner. He writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, and steampunk, for adults, teens, and middle grade. His works include the Joe Ledger thrillers, Rot & Ruin, Mars One, and Captain America, which is in development for a feature film. He writes comics for Marvel, Dark Horse, and IDW and is the editor of such high-profile anthologies as The X-Files, V-Wars, Out of Tune, Baker Street Irregular, Nights of the Living Dead, and Scary Out There. He lives in Del Mar, California. Visit him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com, or sign up for email updates here.