“I believe I know where this is going. Did Morris take full credit for acquiring the jar?”
“…Most of it. He acknowledged my help in disabling it, but that’s all. He didn’t bother mentioning that the only reason he was even able to come out of that room to look for me was because the fog and the cold-creatures that lived in it dispersed once the jar was sealed up.”
“Did you mention his behavior in your report?”
“No. I couldn’t. It would have been my word against his, and he knew it. As it was, he got to play the heroic researcher who found a new addition to the SCP archives. In exchange, he recommended me for promotion.”
MTFLs actually don’t have a higher survival rate than MTFTs. MTFLs who lead from the front actually have a much lower survival rate. I sometimes wonder if Dr. Prick knew that.
“You were not happy with this?”
“It was to keep my mouth shut about the MTF team he’d led on a suicide mission and then ditched when he got cold feet, no pun intended. Of course I wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t have much choice. The Overseers were glad about the new number they could add to the list and thought the MTFTs could be replaced with time.”
I took up smoking after that mission. I think my reasoning was something along the lines of “I have a life expectancy measured in months, so who cares about cancer?”
“Do you think they would have reacted the same way if you had returned alone, without Morris?”
MacLean sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe they would have taken me out of the MTFs and made me an Agent. I still doubt they’d have been broken up about the lost personnel.”
They never were. How long do you have to work at the Foundation before you learn not to care?
“I see.” Dr. Benson leaned back in his chair and looked at his watch. “Well… I think that’s enough for today. We can continue tomorrow. Thank you for your time, Mr. MacLean.”
MacLean nodded and stood up. “Yeah… thanks for listening.”
