In Baltimore, businessman George Usher arrives at his office building. He is watched from a storm drain by someone who then sneaks into the building by climbing through the elevator shaft into the ventilation system, and kills Usher by removing his liver. Usher's murder—the latest of three—is assigned to careerist FBI agent Tom Colton (Donal Logue), who turns to Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) for help. Colton is baffled by the lack of entry points and the apparent removal of the livers with bare hands. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) notes their similarity to earlier murder sprees from 1933 and 1963. At the scene, he notices an elongated fingerprint on the air vent, which he finds to be similar to some documented in the X-Files. He concludes that because five murders occurred during the earlier sprees, the investigators should expect two more.