Byers






The military and information systems expert of the Lone Gunman cabal, Byers looks like a professor who has wandered into a CIA rendezvous by mistake. His neat beard and dapper suits seem out of place among his grungier colleagues, but his sharp mind and no-nonsense demeanor attest to an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theory and current speculation on everything from the Kennedy assassination to the latest in DNA research. In "One Breath," Byers unerringly recognizes and describes the bizarre recombinant chemistry that lies at the heart of Dana Scully's disease, and quietly expresses sympathy to Mulder. He occasionally indulges in a wit as sardonic as Mulder's, as when he tells him, "That's why we like you, Mulder: Your ideas are weirder than ours." Unlike co-conspirators Langly and Frohike, he is the least liable to crack a joke or even a smile, but his calm intelligence lends authority and believability to the unlikely trio's offices.