- Mulder: Why weren't we told the truth?
- Cigarette Smoking Man: We didn't know the truth. What we knew only would have slowed you down.
- Mulder: But innocent people could be infected! What you knew could have prevented that!
- Cigarette Smoking Man: How? In 1988 there was an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in Sacramento, California. The truth would have caused panic. Panic would have caused lives. We controlled the disease by controlling the information.
- Mulder: You can't protect the public by lying to them.
- Cigarette Smoking Man: It's done everyday.
- Mulder: Hey, listen Scully, I need to know how this happened. I want you to start documenting everything you can get your hands on. People have to know about the cover-up.
- Scully: The public?
- Mulder: It's a public health crisis.
- Scully: Mulder, we can't leak this. Not until we know more. The futigive that you're looking for, he might not even be infected.
- Mulder: Yeah, but what if he is?
- Scully: If this gets out prematurely, the panic is gonna spread faster than the contagion. Mulder, we can't let this be known.
- Mulder: What if someone dies because we withheld what we knew?
- Scully: What if someone dies because we didn't? There'll be a time for the truth, Mulder, but this isn't it.