Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Science of Behaviour and Mind
Dr. Anderson: “I saw nothing that would lead me to believe that Taylor poses a risk to his allies or to innocent people.”
Agent Richardson: “What about Ms. Bell?”
Anderson: “You want to know if she poses a risk to innocent people?”
Richardson: “That’s a good question as well, Dr. Anderson, but I was wondering more about her relationship with Taylor.”
Anderson: “They are close. Affectionate. The hope that Ms. Bell would be more inclined to listen to someone she liked and trusted was, in fact, the reason Taylor was asked to speak with her.”
Richardson: “And how did that work?”
Anderson: “From what I could tell, it had both positives and negatives. Yes, Ms. Bell was more cooperative with Taylor than I expect she might have been with anyone else from the US government, but both of them were also emotionally compromised, much like teenagers in the throes of their first love.”
Richardson: “What do you mean by that?”
Anderson: “I mean that Ms. Bell and Taylor exhibited every sign of mutual attraction and that it has the potential to complicate any working relationship they might establish. Is this really an issue that needs expert testimony? As far as I know, we knew about this before we even arrived at the island.”
Richardson: “Ms. Bell has claimed that she was sexually assaulted.”
Anderson: “While a prisoner here at Manhanock Island? I strongly suspected that this was the case.”
Richardson: “I mean last night. By Taylor.”
Anderson: "That seems unlikely."
Richardson: "Nevertheless, that's what she claims."
Anderson: “I have no evidence that any such incident took place. What I personally witnessed was Ms. Bell making sexual advances towards several men, including Taylor. Her behaviour is not unusual for a victim of sexual violence, of course, but to a layman, it would appear that she was initiating any intimate contact.”
Richardson: “So you are saying that Taylor simply didn’t realise that he was going further than Ms. Bell was comfortable with?”
Anderson: “I do not know which specific incident that you mean, but from everything I witnessed, Ms. Bell was sexually aggressive toward more than one person, but primarily toward Taylor. As far as I could tell, Taylor did not act on his interest in Ms. Bell last night and I do not believe that anything happened between them more than a kiss they shared in the mess hall of the guards' barracks. Ms. Bell is not very good at dealing with rejection and if she experienced any hesitation on Taylor's as rejection, I can imagine that she would react... poorly.”
Richardson: “I see. In your professional opinion, is Ms. Bell capable of assisting with a federal investigation, as an informant or intelligence asset?”
Anderson: “I have not yet been able to evaluate her current state properly.”
Richardson: “Based on your limited experience of her so far?”
Anderson: “Assuming that her psychiatric situation is no better than my preliminary investigation suggests, I would not think so, no.”
Richardson: “What do you mean, Doctor?”
Anderson: “I mean that considering the mental trauma that Ms. Bell has suffered, it would be unreasonable to expect her to function as a covert operative for anyone. She does not trust anyone from Onyx Rain and, frankly, I do not think it is reasonable to expect her to. She will tell anyone who pressurises her anything she wants him to hear or anything she believes will lead to a better chance of walking free. She may even lie when it would be more rational to tell the truth, but it would be all but inhuman for her to emerge from her ordeal without serious trust issues.”
Richardson: “So you think she’s useless as an informant?”
Anderson: “I think it would be a mistake to try to ask any such task of her so soon. She needs time with people she trusts, socialisation and real psychological assistance for months before she can function remotely like a real person. Frankly, I think that the US government owes her all of the above.”
There is a silence for a while. Agent Richardson clears his throat.
Agent Richardson: “Assuming an operational situation that made her assistance imperative, how would you evaluate her potential as an intelligence asset?”
Anderson: “Ms. Bell? As of now? She considers any representative of the US government her enemy and she is more likely to try to deceive her enemies than to provide them with aid and assistance. I would honestly consider any information she gave unreliable and I would avoid any operation that depended on her cooperation. Mind you, I am not arguing that she should not be considered as an intelligence source for the future. Just that it would be a inhumane and irrational to force her into any kind of hazardous situation immediately when she gets out of isolation after almost two decades of terrible imprisonment.”
Richardson: “Are you saying that she may have lied to us in her statement?”
Anderson: “I think Ms. Bell needs extensive psychological assistance and that before that time, she is in no way capable of distinguishing between truth and fiction. She is not mentally healthy enough to function as a spy or covert operative.”
Richardson: “And she’s lying to us?”
Anderson: “Lying implies a degree of premeditation that I do not believe applies to someone who has suffered the trauma that Ms. Bell has survived.”
After a period of silence, CPT Trevino sighs and addresses Dr. Andreson.
‘Tex’ Trevino: “Aw, hell, let’s just put anythin’ to do with Ms. Bell to one side for a spell an' address the more pressing issue. In your professional view, do you think Taylor can be relied upon to take orders or is he just gonna do whatever he feels like doing, damn the consequences?”
For a long while, the only sound in the oak-panelled study is the ticking of an old grandfather clock. Dr. Anderson seems deep in thought and no one else says anything to interrupt him. When he finally speaks, he looks directly into the cold eyes of ‘Tex’ Trevino.
Anderson: “You want me to tell you whether you should kill my patient?”
Tex: “I don’t rightly know if he’s your patient, now. Sure, you monitored his psychological state at Project Jade Serenity, like all them rest of the trainees, but he never came to you for no treatment, did he?”
Richardson: “We just want your professional analysis of Taylor’s mental state and whether he is dangerous to others. I don’t think it’s unfair that we should have an expert’s opinion available to us when making plans for the future.”
Anderson: “If you need to know whether Chase Taylor kills indiscriminately, you can put your minds at rest. He does not.”
Richardson: “Yet he confessed to two murders he committed last night. To us and, he said, to you. He said he didn’t want you to get in any trouble trying to defend him or make excuses for him. ‘Jes’ tell the truth, doc’ is how he put it.”
Anderson: “You asked for my professional opinion. As you can clearly see in my case files on Taylor, his sense of personal responsibility is overdeveloped. In layman’s terms, while he is quick to rationalise away any failings of others and eager to believe the best of them, he sets himself impossible standards to live by. And when he inevitably fails to live up to his own strict standards of morality, Taylor tends to view his failure as a terrible sin, not merely a consequence of him being human.”
As he talks, Dr. Anderson surreptitiously glances at the three men listening to him to gauge their reactions. He can tell that Wendell Dao really wants to be convinced that Taylor is trustworthy and on their side, probably because the two men had established an immediate rapport when they met at DHS headquarters. Agent Richardson is maintaining a stoic demeanour, but Anderson guesses that he has scant sympathy for Taylor, probably more because of his disregard for organisational policy than for the violence as such.
‘Tex’ Trevino’s blue-grey eyes are entirely empty of either sympathy or dislike and will probably remain exactly as neutral and disinterested even if he decides that the only way out is to murder all the witnesses to the events on Jewell Island.
Anderson: “If we were looking for a simple explanation, his relationship with his father might be a compelling one, but I do not suppose you care one way or another for the whys of the matter. Rather more to the point is that Taylor feels personally responsible for any harm that happens in his vicinity, because he believes that it is his God-given duty to protect anyone and everyone.”
Tex [smiling]: “I’m sure his momma is overjoyed he took his early Sunday School lessons so well to heart, but what I can’t figure is how you get from being properly God-fearin’ to assassinating an unarmed man while being ordered to stand down. Seems to me your boy Taylor gone from the kind of backwoods Christianity that makes lil’ boys take cold showers instead of tuggin’ on their tiny peckers, to the sort of fire-and-brimstone variety that makes some folks consider bombing Planned Parenthood clinics.”
Anderson: “I do not claim to be any kind of expert on the legal aspects of self-defence, but as far as I am aware, Chase Taylor killed two people last night. The commander of an armed revolutionary force against the US government, who had kidnapped federal agents and was in the process of trying to kill Taylor and others. And the man who organised the mutiny and was responsible for planning acts of terrorism on US soil, had kidnapped federal agents and was in the process of giving coded orders to terrorists armed with military weaponry when Taylor shot him. I am sure you know much better than I how that works, legally. All I can tell you is that in my professional judgment, Taylor is constitutionally incapable of indiscriminate killing. He uses lethal force sparingly, with great regret and only to prevent greater harm.”
Richardson: “Is that what we ought to tell Warren Otis’ family?”
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Last edited by Icelander; 03-06-2018 at 01:53 AM.
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