MULDER: Conceivably.

SCULLY: The National Weather Service last night reported atmospheric conditions in this area that were possibly conducive to lightning.

MULDER: Possibly.

SCULLY: It is feasible that the truck was struck by lightning, creating the electrical failure.

MULDER: It's feasible.

SCULLY: And you know, there's a marsh over there. The lights the driver saw may have been swamp gas.

MULDER: Swamp gas?

SCULLY: It's a natural phenonemon in which phospine and methane rising from decaying organic matter ignite, creating globes of blue flame.

MULDER: Happens to me when I eat Dodger Dogs. How can a dozen witnesses including a squad of police vehicles in three counties become hysterical over swamp gas?

SCULLY: Isn't it more plausible that an exhausted truck driver became swept up in the hysteria and fired at hallucinations? I mean, after all, the road can play tricks on you.

MULDER: Yeah, it can play tricks on you. But not like this.

MULDER: I started these stopwatches at the same time. [read 37 and 28 secs]

SCULLY: What are you suggesting, that Gulf War Syndrome is caused by UFOs?

MULDER: UFOs are frequently witnessed by soldiers during wartime.

SCULLY: Mulder, the only UFOs people are likely to see are secret military aircraft.

MULDER: What if that's what made the soldiers in Iraq sick? The exhaust or fuel from a classified aircraft or its weapon.

LANGLY: So, check it out, Mulder, today I had breakfast with the guy who shot John F. Kennedy.

MULDER: Is that so?

LANGLY: Old dude now, but yeah. Says he was dressed as a cop on the grassy knoll.

BYERS: And, Mulder, listen to this. Vladmir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Russian Social Democrats? He's being put into power by the most heinous and evil force of the 20th century.

MULDER: Barney?

BYERS: The C.I.A.

BYERS: You don't believe that the C.I.A., threatened by a loss of power and funding because of the collapse of the cold war, wouldn't dream of having the old enemy back?

SCULLY: I think you give the government too much credit.

SCULLY: I mean, the government can't control the defecit or manage crime…what makes you think they could plan and execute such an elaborate conspiracy?

BYERS: That's just one method. They use this magnetic strip to track you. Whenever you go through a metal detector at an airport, they know exactly how much you're carrying.

MULDER: Hey, Byers, it is a federal crime to deface money.

SCULLY: This strip is an anti-counterfeiting measure.

LANGLY: How come it's on the inside? Other countries put that strip on the outside.

BYERS: What are they hiding?

MULDER: What do you know about the Gulf War Syndrome?

LANGLY: Agent Orange of the 90's.

BYERS: Artillery shells coated with depleted uranium.

MULDER: Have you heard of any classified planes being flown during the Persian Gulf War?

BYERS: Why would you need to expose a secret plane to an air force that runs to Iran whenever you take to the air?

MULDER: What about UFO activity during that period?

LANGLY: Yeah, UFOs caused the Gulf War Syndrome, that's a good one.

BYERS: That's why we like you, Mulder, your ideas are weirder than ours.

SCULLY: Where did you obtain this information?

MULDER: Let's just say it's a source with a deep background.

SCULLY: I want to know all about him.

MULDER: All I know is that he's guided us away from harm.

SCULLY: How do you know that? We work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and we're being bugged. What does that tell you?

MULDER: That tells me that not everything is as it appears to be.

SCULLY: Exactly. And for all we know, this "deep background" is the one responsible for the bug.

MULDER: He's never lied to me. I won't break that confidence.I trust him.

SCULLY: Mulder, you're the only one I trust.

MULDER: Then you're gonna have to trust me.

SCULLY: Please, will you just hear me? I have never met anyone so passionate and dedicated to a belief as you. It's so intense that sometimes it's blinding. But there are others who are watching you, who know what I know and whereas I can respect and admire your passion, they will use it against you. Mulder, the truth is out there but so are lies.

MULDER: The photograph was a fake. At least you're not insulting me further by feigning appalled surprise.

DEEP THROAT: On the contrary, I think a compliment is in order. That photo was performed by our very best.

MULDER: I thought you were my ally.

DEEP THROAT: Oh, I am.

MULDER: Yeah, imagine if Eisenhower told the rest of the Allies that D-Day would take place in Belgium.

DEEP THROAT: Mr. Mulder, I place my life in great jeopardy every time we speak. I've been a participant in some of the most insidious lies and witness to deeds that no crazed man could imagine. I spent years watching you from my, uh, lofty position to know that you were the one I could trust.

MULDER: Then why did you lie to me?

DEEP THROAT: I needed to divert you. You and Scully are excellent investigators and your motives are just. However, there are still some secrets that should remain secret - some truths that people are just not ready to know.

MULDER: Who are you to decide that for me?

DEEP THROAT: [And] a lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths. Mulder. When a shark stops swimming, it will die. Don't stop swimming.

MULDER: Called every weigh station and bureau office west of Colorado. Tied up an airphone for three hours. I don't speak Japanese, but I think some businessman told me to stick a piece of sushi where the sun don't shine.

MULDER: Y'know, think about it. This truck drove across America. People it passed on the road probably thought it was hauling auto parts or furniture. Y'know, livestock, whatever. Nobody would have suspected it was hauling a craft from another world.

SCULLY: Oh my God.

MULDER: It was an extraterrestrial biological entity… alive.

SCULLY: Where'd it go?

MULDER: I think we were just witness to a rescue mission.

SCULLY: God, Mulder, I can't stop shaking. What we just saw - did it fit the profile?

MULDER: Are you asking me if it was real? Did we just have a close encounter?

MULDER: No, it was another hoax.

SCULLY: So they created this elaborate show just to deflect us again. I mean, wouldn't it have been easier just for them to -

MULDER: Just to kill us? Yeah, I wondered that myself. Maybe they're using me against myself like you said before. That I want to believe so badly that I'd just accept the obvious conclusions and walk away.

DEEP THROAT: I know how badly, how… very badly you want to look through that window… But it would be pointless. It's dead. After the Roswell incident in 1947, even at the brink of the Cold War, there was an ultrasecret conference attended by the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Britain, both Germanies, France and it was agreed that should any extraterrestrial biological entity survive a crash, the country that held that being would be responsible for it's extermination. I, uh… have the distinction of being one of three men to have exterminated such a creature. I was with the C.I.A. in Vietnam. A UFO was sighted for five nights over Hanoi. The marines shot it down and brought it to us. Maybe… it didn't know what a gun was or perhaps they don't show emotion but that… innocent and blank expression as I pulled the trigger has haunted me… until I found you. That's why I come to you, Mr. Mulder, and will continue to come to you to atone for what I've done. And maybe sometime, through you, the truth will be known. You're awfully quiet, Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: I'm wondering which lie to believe.