American Elsewhere - By Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,146

time, so no one got the idea that we were preparing statements.

ERIC BINTLY: So how do they know this isn’t a prepared statement right now?

MICHAEL DERN: I think it’s likely they’ll understand we haven’t had the time to prepare anything.

ERIC BINTLY: How do they know that? These aren’t the most understanding guys in the world, am I wrong? Are we just promising them that we’re making it right after she left?

MICHAEL DERN: You know you’re on tape, right?

ERIC BINTLY: Yeah, yeah. But how do they even know when she left?

MICHAEL DERN: Eric, I’m going to level with you right now and say that… they have a lot more ways of keeping track of things out here than you’d expect.

ERIC BINTLY: Like what?

[SILENCE]

ERIC BINTLY: Cameras? Mikes?

[SILENCE]

ERIC BINTLY: Jesus Christ.

MICHAEL DERN: Let’s just start from the top. Start from your return from your…

ERIC BINTLY: From my vacation?

MICHAEL DERN: Sure, let’s call it that.

ERIC BINTLY: Well… it wasn’t that long ago, but… things had obviously changed. We’d made huge advances. They had, I mean. I hadn’t been there for it. They’d actually simulated bruising several—

MICHAEL DERN: No, Eric, what they want to know about is Laura. Tell them just about her. Just Laura.

ERIC BINTLY: Okay, okay. Let me think. Now… now, there were marked differences in how she, uh, acted since when I left and when I came back. I was only gone a couple of weeks. But I could tell… something was off. Something was wrong, I guess. She was… [PAUSE] Can I ask you something, Mike?

MICHAEL DERN: Me? Sure, I guess.

ERIC BINTLY: Did you… think I went crazy?

MICHAEL DERN: I’m sorry?

ERIC BINTLY: When they sent me away. Did you think I’d had a, a psychotic break? Because I don’t. I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am.

MICHAEL DERN: That’s not really what we’re asking about.

ERIC BINTLY: Yeah, but, see, it kind of is. You think Laura’s disappearance is an aberration. You think it’s unusual behavior. But I’m not so sure it is. Maybe it’s something else.

MICHAEL DERN: So you think it’s perfectly reasonable to just jump in your car, with no preparation at all, and leave, all the way out here in the desert?

ERIC BINTLY: I’m not saying it’s reasonable. I’m saying… there might be other factors at play. Listen, Mike, I know that, on paper, I am a wildly untrustworthy witness. I am an untouchable, really. I’m here solely because Dick likes me, and I know it. But… that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

MICHAEL DERN: Wrong about what?

ERIC BINTLY: About the lens. About what it does.

MICHAEL DERN: I know what the lens does.

ERIC BINTLY: You know what it does on paper. But it does more than that.

MICHAEL DERN: For God’s sakes. You sound like Steven.

ERIC BINTLY: And maybe we should have listened to Steven. I mean, he had problems with it well before all this happened. Before I… left. Before Laura.

MICHAEL DERN: Okay. Fine. Keep telling me about Laura. What was different about her?

ERIC BINTLY: Well, she used to be… to look quite… vivacious. There was an aliveness to her. You know? She used to run laps around the mesa like it was nothing. But when I saw her again, she looked unhealthy. She looked tired. Like something was being pulled out of her.

MICHAEL DERN: That was noted. We did two physicals, nothing showed up.

ERIC BINTLY: Right, and you attributed it to exhaustion. Which is a rational thing to do. But Dick was working just the same amount, right? And he didn’t look that exhausted. And yeah, yeah, maybe it was all the meditation and the green tea. Jasmine green tea. But I don’t think so.

MICHAEL DERN: So what was it?

ERIC BINTLY: I wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure. But sometimes while I was talking to her, she’d suddenly look to the side, like she’d seen something, but nothing was there. Or she’d wince, like she’d just heard something loud or grating, right in her ear. It was like… me.

MICHAEL DERN: Like you?

ERIC BINTLY: Yeah. Like how I was. That was why you all thought I was crazy. Because I… saw things.

MICHAEL DERN: You said you saw the members of the research team in random places throughout the facility.

ERIC BINTLY: Yeah. I saw them. And we thought it was a hallucination. I did, too. But maybe not.

[SILENCE]

ERIC BINTLY: And maybe Laura was seeing and hearing things, too. Things that were actually there.

MICHAEL DERN: But things only she could see. Right. I’m gonna go ahead and remind you, one more time,