“Sorry, doctor,” said the sturdy gentleman who came in and closed the door behind him. “I’m still getting used to the layout of this place.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said the doctor good-naturedly. “You’re not that late.” In fact, MacLean had arrived exactly when he had been expected to, which happened to be twenty minutes late. Dr. Benson was still irritated with this procedure, but that could not be helped. There were other problems to deal with, now. Moving had set them all behind schedule, although mercifully MacLean did not seem to be affected by it. “Right, we’ll begin where we left off.”
MacLean looked confused. “Left off?”
Have we met before? You seem familiar. I think I knew someone who looked a lot like you.
“Yes, that’s right. You remember this office, don’t you? We’re the Times? You volunteered to help us expose the SCP conspiracy, remember? We were discussing your experiences with the Foundation, and why you left it. Why don’t you tell me a bit about the Taskforces?”
MacLean still looked confused. “What about them?”
Benson gave MacLean a quizzical look. Had the nursing staff overdosed him? “Well… What were your relationships with other Taskforce members like?”
MacLean continued to look confused. “Relationships? Oh!” His expression changed to something more suggestive of comprehension. “They were… it was… I don’t know. Well…”
Benson crossed his arms and waited.
“…Look, while I was an MTF, there were a lot of accidents. More people I knew died in the first few years with the Foundation than in my entire life before that. I… kind of got into the habit of not knowing people. I didn’t try to learn more than their names, or be their friends, or… anything. I just didn’t want to deal with all the deaths and transfers. I know that’s not healthy, the shrinks used to tell me that all the time, but it’s the choice I made anyway.”
“So, you were not close to the other MTF members.”
“Yes. No. Kind of… Look, there was a point at which I decided I had to stop being emotional about them, okay?”
“And what was this point?”
“Is that important?”
“I think it is.”
“I think it isn’t. Is this why you called me here?”
Dr. Benson paused, trying to decide if this issue was worth pursuing. “…Yes, this is why I called you here. I want to know what you remember, MacLean.”
I don’t want to remember anything. Ironically, I think I remember this last escapade more clearly than the others…
MacLean looked like he might argue, but subsided and let out a sigh. “…Fine. It started with… there was… We got called in on a mission to capture this guy who was running around in a walking tank…”
