Gregory "Greg" Pincus was the regional manager of a branch of the VinylRight Corporation in Chicago, Illinois.
Pincus was to his employees, by all accounts, a respectable, well-meaning boss and had a flawless and highly regarded record with VinylRight. Unbeknownst to most, however, he was, in truth, a giant insect-like creature who would use his supervising position to covertly amass a throng of literal mindless drones by ordering workers to his office, where he would turn them into zombies by puncturing the back of their neck with his proboscis, injecting them with a toxin that clinically kills the host, but put leaves the now mindless body functional for him to exercise control over via telepathy. Through these mental powers, which Mulder later likens to a praying mantis' ability to hypnotise prey, he was able to make the zombies and himself appear human by manipulating the perception of those around him, to the point where the thralls were capable of mimicking higher functions such as speech or driving, but only under the guise of light and if the viewer had no reason to suspect otherwise. His reasons for doing so are left unclear.
Also unexplained are recurring singular instances of one employee at his workplace eventually recognizing Pincus' actual appearance and secret actions, who, driven to the point of obssession, have all tried to stop his activities by attempting to reveal his true nature to the public or outright killing him, all being met with failure due to police intervention.
History[]
Greg Pincus' human disguise
Greg Pincus' verifiable background began when he started working for VinylRight in 1988. Over the span of ten years, there were four separate incidents of mostly gun-related violence, the latest of which was in Kansas City in 1994, in or close to VinylRight locations, all of which had Pincus present at the time, where the offender would refer to something "Hiding in plain view", "Hiding in the open", "Lurking in the open" or most commonly, "Hiding in the light". In fact, there had been at least three other shootings in which a variation of the phrase was used, including one at a church in Lakeland, Florida, on August 9, 1992, where a deacon named Jerrold Resnick, believing an "evil presence" was hiding among the parish" entered Sunday mass carrying four pistols and shot at churchgoers, claiming the "afflicted" could be identified by their lack of bleeding before committing suicide in police custody the next week. Pincus not only admitted to having travelled to Lakeland in the past, but notably claimed to have "relatives" living there.
On May 10, 1998, Gary Lambert, one of his employees, saw Pincus in the office while telemarketing and saw rapid glimpses of his real form, along with the deafening buzz of his wings. Over the course of the next day, Gary compiled Pincus' past movements around the country, apparently finding out about the disappearances that followed whenever he moved on, and sent an audio tape containing an announcement warning of a "monster" at the VinylRight office and calling for its murder to a local radio station, who instead forwarded it to the company mentioned in it. The FBI, in the form of Special Agent Mulder, was subsequently called in and asked to investigate the threats against the company.
Meanwhile, Pincus, using the opportunity to begin all over again, calls in workers in alphabetic order for interviews under the guise of conducting an internal investigation, to get to know his employees. Gary witnesses as two of his colleagues, Nancy Aaronson and Mark Backus, enter his office, and emerge as discolored, white-eyed zombies after he had heard screams no one else picked up one. This proves to be Gary's breaking point, as he then flees the premises and returns the following afternoon with an assault rifle, demanding to be broadcast on TV so he could show the world that a monster walked among them. Mulder arrived at the building shortly after to talk to Pincus, but was held at gunpoint by Gary, who proceeded to split the hostages into humans and non-humans, which was comprised of Pincus, Nancy, Mark, and another man. Distracted with the revelation that Mulder was with the FBI, Mark tries to attack Gary, who shoots him and tells everyone that he didn't kill Mark Backus, but that he had been dead for hours and furthermore, had been acting under the control of his actual killer, Greg Pincus. With Scully's help, the FBI were able to storm the office without endangering any more hostages by cutting the power. Now in the dark, Gary demanded Mulder take another look at Pincus, finally seeing the monster Gary was talking about in his place, just as SWAT entered and gunned Gary down.
Mulder was able to link Pincus to five previous X-files and gathered evidence by stalking employees potentially at risk of being turned into "zombies", as the temporary closure of the VinylRight office disrupted Pincus' usual collection measure. During one such stake-out, Mulder unsuccessfully tried to save Gretchen Starns from Pincus as he invaded her home, being turned into a zombie and testifying against Mulder at Pincus' behest, telling Assistant Director Skinner he had a "madman" FBI agent. Meanwhile, Scully finds evidence supporting Mulder, as an autopsy of Mark Backus' body revealed that he had been dead for at least a day longer than previously thought and also had three strange wounds on the back of his neck.
Mulder was forcibly brought to a psychiatric hospital for a psychologial examination and strapped to a bed by a zombified nurse, who administers a sedative and opens the window after Mulder claims there was a monster outside. Pincus entered, crawled across the ceiling, and was about to infect Mulder when Scully burst in, shot Pincus twice before he smashed through the window and fled. When reporting to Skinner the next morning, Scully stated that she remained skeptical of the whole incident, but was adamant there was an intruder in Mulder's room. It is noted that Greg Pincus, alongside five VinylRight employees and the night-shift nurse, had disappeared from the area, meaning that, as key witnesses, the case against Mulder had been dropped. The fluid found in the punctures on the body could not be identified, but also gave credence to Mulder's theory and thus gave way to his release from the mental ward.
Greg Pincus remains at large and is seen to have relocated to Camdenton, Missouri to work for a different telemarketing company, where yet again, an employee catches sight of Pincus' monstrous form. (TXF: "Folie à Deux")