Sovereign

Entry 14 - Interview with Raphael Heath (2) - 02/24

Sanders: Can’t I just use a photocopier?

Heath: We do not have any such electronic equipment in this facility. I thought you had observed this.

Sanders: Oh. Yeah.

Heath: But I granted you access to the documents, as I was ordered to.

Sanders: Fine. So you’re telling me that this interview wasn’t something they ordered.

Heath: No.

Sanders: So why did you call me?

Heath: Like I said, you had questions to ask, and I stopped you. So now I’m trying to help you, as they say, get things off your chest.

Sanders: You’re trying to help me.

Heath: Yes.

Sanders: What’s your angle?

Heath: I’m sorry?

Sanders: What are you playing at? What’s your ulterior motive? Because there is no way I’ll just accept that you want to help me after you’ve done everything to get in my way for the last two weeks.

Heath: …

Sanders: So? What do you really want?

Heath: (sighs) I want your help.

Sanders: What? My help?

Heath: I believe we can be of mutual assistance to each other.

Sanders: Okay…

Heath: The investigation you are carrying out…I thought it to be yet another form of the audits I have already been forced to undergo since the end of the Pine Street incident. I apologise for my earlier reaction. You could say I was…stressed. But now, I’ve come to reconsider your involvement in this case, and just how much of an advantage your presence has offered. Like they say, the closer you are to something, the harder it is to fully appreciate it. I’ve decided that I could use you as a…fresh pair of eyes. An uninvolved individual who could examine this situation without personal bias, and help to actually uncover what really happened.

Sanders: …

Heath: Why are you giving me that look?

Sanders: I’m sorry…but that’s the most you’ve said to me since I came in here two weeks ago.

Heath: I apologize if…

Sanders: Shh. You’re ruining the moment.

Heath: If you say so.

Sanders: Wait a minute…is this why you’ve been giving me those old reports?

Heath: It is my belief that the events leading up to the Pine Street incident began long before the apparition.

Sanders: In what sense?

Heath: The two reports I have given you are from the week just before the first sighting of the apparition. The third, which I would give you today, is from a days after the apparition. That alone was cause for suspicion. Usually, we deal with two to three anomalies a month. And by ‘we’, I mean the Division as a whole, not just us in Containment. But within just a week of the incident, we had three containments. The Scouts were working overtime in the weeks afterwards, and investigated over fifty claims of paranormal activity. When I mapped just how much had occurred in the months around the incident, I felt the need to re-evaluate everything that happened even before the incident. Ignoring how painful it was, the wendigo incident was the first that really stood out to me.