Unusual Suspects - Plot

Plot

In 1989, a SWAT team conducts a raid on a Baltimore warehouse. Inside, they find a naked and disoriented Fox Mulder in a box, shouting, "They're here!" Three men attempt to flee the scene and are captured; they are revealed to be the Lone Gunmen. As they sit in a city jail, they begin blaming each other for the predicament they have found themselves in. Detective John Munch interrogates John Fitzgerald Byers, who tries to explain what happened.

Byers, a public affairs officer for the FCC, had attended a computer and electronics convention. There, Byers followed a beautiful woman who passed by his booth; he also passed by booths manned by Melvin Frohike and Richard Langly, who were both selling stolen cable television. When Byers bumped into the woman, she introduced herself as Holly and claimed that her daughter had been kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, who was in the Baltimore area.

Holly possessed a piece of paper with "ARPANET/WHTCORPS" written on it. Byers realized that the words refer to the Defense Department's computer network, which she requested he hack into. Byers, then an unquestioningly loyal government employee, complied after great reluctance. He found an encrypted file on her daughter, named Susanne Modeski. Just then, a man whom Holly claimed to be her boyfriend passed by Byers' booth — Mulder.

Byers and Holly recruited Frohike to help them decipher the file. Both Byers and Frohike decided to assault Mulder, but didn't do it when he introduced himself as an FBI agent. Returning to his booth, Byers found his FCC colleague being arrested for the hacking he committed. Frohike convinced Byers not to turn himself in, and recruited Langly to help them hack into the FBI database to learn more about Holly. They discovered that "Holly" is actually Susanne Modeski, and that she was wanted for acts of murder, sabotage, and terrorism at a weapons facility in New Mexico.

Holly/Susanne admitted her deception, but claimed that she was scapegoated for trying to leave her job at the weapons facility. There, she had been working on ergotamine, an aerosolized gas that causes paranoia and anxiety. Susanne claims that the government planned to test the gas on civilians in Baltimore. After deciphering the file, the Lone Gunmen found that she was telling the truth, learning the location of the gas. Susanne also found evidence that she had a tracking device put in a tooth, which she pulled out.

The four of them headed to the warehouse, where they found the gas stored inside asthma inhalers. Suddenly, Mulder arrived to arrest them, but two dark-suited men came to take Susanne. They fired at Mulder, hitting the boxes behind him and exposing him to the gas. The exposure caused Mulder to strip naked, hide in the box, and hallucinate about seeing aliens in the warehouse. Susanne shot the men and escaped. More men then arrived, led by X, who intimidates the Lone Gunmen. Byers confronted X, asking him about his actions and mentioning the supposed cover-up of the John F. Kennedy assassination. X's unconvincing denial - "I heard it was a lone gunman" - becomes the origin of the trio's name. X then leaves, just as the police arrive and arrest the Lone Gunmen.

Detective Munch does not believe Byers' story, but it is soon corroborated by Mulder. After the Lone Gunmen are released, they encounter Susanne after she has failed to get the press to believe her story; she tells them to reveal the truth to as many people as possible. Susanne is then captured by X, who leers at the Lone Gunmen as he departs with her. Later, the three of them meet Mulder in the convention center and explain what happened to him.