"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Regina." Researcher Dominguez sat down in front of the desk belonging to the head of the Site-55 Ethics Committee. He scooted his chair closer. "I'm really glad you were able to squeeze me in today."
"It sounded really urgent. I heard you speaking to my secretary and just couldn't turn you away," Regina Woolf replied calmly. "What's going on, Jose? Everything alright?"
"I'm fine its just—"
"Something happen to Maggie? Or God forbid, the kids?" Woolf placed a hand on her chest, leaning over her desk and using her other hand to grab Dominguez's own.
"No, thank goodness. But it's something I'm glad you're sitting for." He chuckled nervously as Woolf retracted her hand.
"Well, then by all means. I'm all ears, Jose."
"Its just… I— well, I…. its a lot for me to process. But you see, I recently found out about this group of personnel who are doing unspeakable things to my fellow employees. I don't know a lot about them, but from what I have pieced together they appear to be some rogue human resources people who have somehow taken it upon themselves to prevent people from leaving. The things they do… they make me fear for my well-being." Dominguez jittered back and forth as he spoke.
"Oh no. I can see why that would upset you, Jose. Can you tell me a little more about what happened so I can better help you and look into it?" Her voice was calm and gentle, like a mother reassuring her child that there was no monster under the bed.
"Well, you see, this all started when one of my coworkers said he wanted to retire and spend more time with his grandchildren. The next day, someone from Human Resources shows up at the office and asks to speak with him. She took him to the lab room next to my personal office, which I was in at the time. I overheard her telling him that the Foundation does not offer retirement plans and that quitting is ill-advised, especially considering his chronic health conditions. I didn't even know about that and I've been working with him for ten years. How did this HR person know?" Dominguez chewed at his right index fingernail, biting all the way down to the nail plate.
"The Foundation keeps medical records of all its employees. This is standard for an organization such as this."
"Right, but what bugs me is that they knew he was intending to quit before he even put in his four weeks notice."
"Well, Jose, rumors can spread quickly among chatting personnel. Though it may seem suspicious, I prefer to view it as a concerned coworker looking out for their peers. Nothing weird about that, is there?" Woolf folded her hands and offered a genuine smile.
"I suppose… but… I don't know. Something about what happened after doesn't seem right to me."
"What happened after?"
"He put in his four weeks notice. Everything seemed to be normal after that. We started planning a farewell party for him, but suddenly, he finds out both of his grandchildren have cancer. Both of them. And then he conveniently gets an email telling him that the Foundation would be happy to extend its medical coverage to them under his insurance, and all he has to do is stay."
"Did he accept?"
"Of course he did. God, what kind of crazy person wouldn't? The Foundation's medical care system is the best in the world. I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if we had the cure for cancer locked away in a cell somewhere."
She clicked her tongue. "It's good he accepted then."
"Right, but… there's something bothering me."
"What is it?"
"My department, the Department of Intake, deals with bringing in anomalies and conducting initial research into them to classify them and ship them off to the appropriate teams. Basically we act as—"
"I am familiar with your department, Jose." Woolf cut him off gently.
"Well, a few months back we were sent a teddy bear that when hugged, released radiation. We called it the 'Cancer Bear'. Very creative, I know. But anyway, we classified and sent it off. I didn't think twice about it, at least not until I found out that both of his grandchildren had been diagnosed with cancer at the same time. It seemed weird to me. So I decided to check in on the SCP file we created for the Cancer Bear," he paused. Dominguez summoned all the courage he could for his next breath. "And much to my surprise, the file is locked under 'Fire Suppression Department Clearance'."
"I see," Woolf stood up, walking to the door of her office which she then shut before sitting back down as Dominguez continued to talk.
"So now here I am, paranoid that there is a bunch of rogue HR personnel violating ethics and giving people's grandchildren cancer as a ploy to get them to stay. It makes me wonder, will this happen to me when I inevitably want to move on with my life?" Dominguez bit at the same nail he had been chewing at earlier. Finding nothing to bite, he instead bit down on the sensitive skin, drawing some blood. He flinched at the taste of iron, but did not otherwise react.
Woolf sighed, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She turned to type something at her computer, then returned her attention to Dominguez.
"I can understand why you'd be confused and even frightened about what you have discovered, but I can assure you there is nothing to be concerned about. The actions you have described have been carried out by highly trained professionals."
"Highly trained professionals? What? Aren't you concerned you have a bunch of rogue employees doing this kind of thing?" His eyes widened like plates.
"These are not 'rogue employees' as you put it, Jose, these are members of the Fire Suppression Department."
"You mean to say it's real? And there are real people doing these kinds of things?"
"Yes. We are aware of their existence. We have analyzed their actions and found them to be in line with the Foundation code of ethics." A notification dinged on Woolf's computer. She briefly turned away from Dominguez to read it, then looked back to him.
"Do you not look into their cases? How is any of this ethical?!"
"We don't need to look in on every one of their cases. We've looked in on thousands, and they're always ethically sound."
"This is clearly non-ethical! That's insane!" Dominguez stood up, pounding his fist on the desk.
"But it isn't. We've made sure of it. Are you familiar with the trolley problem?"
"I… yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" He replied, sitting down again and gripping the chair's armrests tightly.
"Allow me to posit you this question then; is it ethical to sacrifice one person for the sake of thousands? If yes, then why must the problem be reduced to death? Is it ethical to make one person work their entire life, happy, healthy, and well taken care of, and the result is thousands of people are saved?"
He didn't know how to respond, so he didn't. He merely stared as Woolf continued.
"Would it not be unethical to stand by and do nothing while someone, say, a nuclear physicist, makes a grossly selfish decision to pursue their dream of traveling the country in an RV rather than finish their life's work? Yes, it's their decision, and their dream, but now their work goes unfinished. Now their cog in this machine goes absent. Then, because we did nothing to retain them, millions suffer." Woolf folded her hands on top of her desk, glancing over at the clock on the wall.
"But you can find a replacement. You can train someone new to do their old job and have them continue. There's no need for all this skullduggery!" He was on the verge of tears, both of anger and misery.
"Training people takes time and resources. Time and resources the Foundation simply cann—"
"Bullshit. The Foundation has plenty of money to go around. I know this place is a money pit funded by all the world's governments and God knows what else." Dominguez's words dripped with venom as his bloodshot eyes stared at the woman in front of him.
"If you would have allowed me to finish, Jose, I am sure your concerns would be assuaged. As I was saying, the Foundation simply cannot afford to squander its talent. The world does not wait for us. We cannot bend it to our will as you believe. But a human being, on the other hand, is much more flexible. A human being is willing to twist. To bend. To endure. That is why the Foundation chooses to instead retain its personnel no matter the circumstances." Woolf spoke in the same calm tone of voice as she typed away at her computer, which further irritated Dominguez.
"So that's it, huh? We're just cogs in the Foundation's machine?" Dominguez stood once more, ready to storm out of the room.
"That's all you and I ever were." Woolf removed her glasses and held them up to the light, noticing they were smudged. She reached to the right of her desk for a microfiber cloth.
Dominguez scoffed.
Just as he was going to say something, two men burst into the room holding a can of aerosol amnestics attached to a face mask. One held the container up to his face as the other restrained him. Within moments, Dominguez was out cold.
Without a word, the men picked him up and carried him out of Woolf's office, who merely sighed and wiped the lenses of her glasses with the cloth.
