Agent in Orange - SCP Foundation

The fluorescent lights cast a sterile glow over the interview room. The heavy door swung open, two guards walked in escorting the D-class inside. Dr. Elena Santos adjusted her glasses, her eyes narrowing with an intensity that belied her youth. She observed him carefully, catching the fluid grace in his movements: each step precise and purposeful. He didn’t have the shuffling gait or vacant stare typical of D-class personnel; this one seemed like he had a decent situational awareness.

"Please, have a seat," Dr. William Hayes instructed with a steady but firm voice. His weathered face bore the lines of a man who had spent decades in the Ethics Committee. At seventy-two, he was the most senior member present, carrying thirty years of experience like a mantle.

The D-class settled into the chair with perfect posture, with his hands resting calmly on the table.

"I understand you've invoked Protocol Epsilon," Dr. Hayes continued without breaking eye contact. "Just to be certain, do you know what that entails?"

"Of course," the man replied calmly. "It's the right of any Foundation personnel to request a meeting with the Ethics Committee."

Dr. Santos’s expression flickered between surprise and suspicion as she exchanged a look with Dr. Hayes. "It’s rather unusual for D-class personnel to be aware of Protocol Epsilon," she said with a sharp and challenging voice.

"That’s because I’m not your typical D-class." His gaze was piercing as if daring them to see through him. "I am Agent Marcus Chen, Omega-1 operative. I’m here to report serious ethical violations."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Dr. Santos’s eyes narrowed with the unmistakable glint of intrigue. "Let me get this straight, you claim to be a member of Mobile Task Force Omega-1? Law’s Left Hand?"

"Exactly," Chen affirmed. "And I'm currently undercover as a D-class."

Dr. Hayes's expression remained inscrutable. "We have no record of an Agent Chen in Omega-1," he stated, his voice carrying the weight of someone accustomed to unearthing the truth.

"My records were deleted," Chen replied calmly. "We'll get to that part shortly."

Dr. Santos leaned back slightly. "Please state the last mission you participated in, the name of your superior officer, and the team members involved," she requested with suspicion evident in her voice, her eyes never leaving Chen's face.

Chen responded without hesitation as if he was expecting this question. "We got an anonymous report that Dr. Helena Frost at Site-26 was supposedly running cognitohazard experiments on D-classes without following any of the safety protocols. So, we were deployed to find out if there was any truth to it."

He leaned back, his expression hard. “The entire thing was bogus. Dr. Frost was doing exactly what she was supposed to. Whoever filed that report had no idea what they were talking about."

He continued smoothly, "My superior was Commander Rowan Pierce. My teammates were Agents Lila Grant and Leo Park."

The tension in the room thickened as Dr. Hayes and Dr. Santos exchanged a glance. The mission, and every detail he described was indeed real, and classified.

Chen leaned back. His hands folded neatly in his lap with his gaze steady. "I know it’s a lot to take in. Let me start from the beginning."

Dr. Hayes’s pen hovered mid-air. Dr. Santos appeared as she was about to interrupt, but she decided to let him speak.

"Three months ago, you began investigating discrepancies in D-class intakes. The numbers didn't match court records or prison transfers."

Dr. Santos’s eyes widened. Dr. Hayes's pen paused mid-note. That investigation was highly confidential.

"You suspected that homeless individuals were being abducted to be used as D-class personnel" Chen went on. "But you needed proof. That's where I came in. My mission was straightforward: infiltrate as a homeless person, allow myself to be taken, and report back through official channels."

"A convenient narrative," Dr. Santos interjected, probing for inconsistencies. "Yet you've provided no real proof of your identity."

Chen smiled. "I understand your skepticism, Dr. Santos. I'd be concerned if you accepted my story without question. Allow me to detail the events and then you can decide."

After a long, deliberate pause he adjusted his position slightly, the orange fabric of his jumpsuit rustling softly. "I set myself up downtown, avoiding any established homeless communities. I figured isolated individuals would be preferred targets. For two weeks, I made myself visible but alone."

"On October 1st, a black van approached me. Two agents emerged; not contractors or low-level operatives, but elite Foundation agents. I've been with MTF units long enough to recognise our own."

"What happened next?" Dr. Hayes asked.

"They offered me hot food and shelter. Following protocol, I accepted. Once inside the van, I lost consciousness - sedatives in the ventilation system, most likely. I woke up in a white room. But it wasn't a standard D-class intake facility. There were two guards stationed inside - not regular security. They were Alpha-1. Their insignias are unmistakable."

A ripple of surprise passed through the room. Dr. Santos felt her pulse quicken. Alpha-1, Red Right Hand, was the O5 Council's personal mobile task force.

"You expect us to believe that the O5 had their elite task force overseeing a routine D-class intake?" Dr. Santos's skepticism was evident.

"That's precisely my point," Chen emphasised with a hint of excitement in his voice. "This wasn’t a routine intake. As far as I know, routine D-class intake involves death row inmates, not homeless civilians."

Dr. Santos’s face reddened as she realised she’d jumped in too aggressively, aiming to poke holes in Chen’s story before fully digesting his words; and inadvertently making an ass of herself. She quickly regained her composure, straightening in her chair. "What happened next?" she asked, her voice now measured.

"After a few hours, they escorted me to a chamber. A containment room of some sort, guarded by Alpha-1. They instructed me to enter and sealed the door behind me."

"What was inside?" Dr. Santos asked impatiently, slightly leaning forward.

"At first glance, nothing. But I started feeling it after just a few seconds. A pervasive emptiness, as if something was siphoning away my thoughts. I believe it was an anti-memetic entity that was trying to take away my memories." Chen paused for a second. "Later I found out that it was an erasure process, designed to delete not just memories, but the very existence of a person. It was erasing me from records, from the minds of those who knew me."

"Yet you remember," Dr. Hayes noted, his eyes narrowing, the question slipping out with a practiced calm. "How did you retain your memories if you were subjected to such an anomaly?"

"I was equipped with mnestics prior to the mission," Chen explained. "A safeguard against anti-memetic threats. They were concealed on my person."

Dr. Santos arched an eyebrow. "D-class intake protocols involve thorough searches. How did you manage to smuggle mnestics past them?"

Chen hesitated for a moment, a hint of discomfort crossing his features. "They were… strategically concealed. Let's just say Alpha-1's search isn't thorough in… some certain areas of the body. Smuggling them in wasn't pleasant, but it was necessary."

There was a moment of silence as Dr. Hayes studied him, then gave a small nod. "And how exactly did you find out you were being erased?"

"After being processed at this site as a D-class, I attempted to relay my mission code to the guards. It should have triggered immediate extraction. Instead, they looked at me as if I were insane. I tried with several others, all with the same result."

He paused for a second, then reached into his pocket and produced a photograph, placing it gently on the table. "This is a picture of me with my wife and children. Except now, I'm not in it. I've been completely removed."

Dr. Santos picked up the photo, her gaze sharpening as she examined it. The image showed a woman and two children, all smiling toward the camera, but there was an unmistakable gap - an empty space at the edge, subtle but profoundly unnatural, as though someone had been carefully edited out. The family seemed to lean slightly toward the gap, caught mid-pose, with empty air filling the space that Chen once occupied. She traced her finger along the edge of the image, lips pressed into a thin line.

Chen’s gaze lowered, his voice barely above a whisper. "They won't even remember me. It's as if I never existed."

Dr. Santos placed the photo back on the table, her fingers lingering for a moment before she looked up at Chen. The emptiness in the image was haunting, but pressing further felt futile; she doubted anything more could be uncovered from questioning it.

Clearing her throat, she shifted her approach. "Alright," she began, redirecting her focus. "Mnestics are tightly regulated," her tone scrutinising. "How did you acquire them without leaving a trace in our records?"

"As I mentioned, I was issued mnestics specifically for this mission," Chen replied. "But any documentation would have been erased along with everything else about me."

"How convenient," Dr. Santos murmured, though her eyes betrayed a hint of concern.

"You're welcome to verify." Chen said calmly. "Check your mnestic inventories. You'll find a discrepancy - a missing bottle that can't be accounted for. The anti-memetic could have erased the records, but it can't account for the physical absence of that bottle itself."

The committee members exchanged glances. Dr. Santos recalled a recent inventory audit that had indeed flagged a missing bottle.

"You've already begun investigating, haven't you?" Chen observed. "Let me guess, the security footage shows no unauthorised access, but there's a gap - a few seconds where the recording is missing?"

Dr. Hayes’s steady composure flickered with a hint of sharpness cutting through his usual restraint. He leaned forward. "How do you know that?" He asked sharply with each word deliberate.

"Because I took the mnestics." Chen explained. "There has to be camera footage of that, but the erasure process didn't just target me - it targeted all evidence of my actions. Now, there has to be a gap in the camera footage instead of the records of me taking the bottle." Chen smiled.

A heavy silence settled over the room, thick and unyielding. Dr. Santos felt her skepticism begin to fracture, a chill creeping into her thoughts as Chen’s words sank in. The implications, if he was telling the truth, were unsettling.

She glanced over at Dr. Hayes, seeking a grounding presence. He met her gaze, his posture steady, composed - but there, just barely visible beneath his calm facade, was the faintest glint of fear in his eyes. It was enough to confirm that the gravity of Chen’s words was not lost on him either.

"We'll need time to verify your claims," she said finally with a carefully measured voice.

"Of course," Chen replied with a calm demeanour. "But I suggest you act swiftly. There's no telling how many others have already been erased."

Dr. Hayes closed his notebook loudly. "Agent Chen, we will investigate this matter thoroughly. For now, you will remain under observation."

"I understand." Chen said, standing as the guards entered the room to escort him out. "Thank you for your time."

Dr. Santos stared after him, her expression taut, fingers curling and uncurling against the table. She turned slowly to Dr. Hayes, eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and simmering anger. Her lips parted, struggling for words that wouldn’t come, until finally, a breathy, shaken whisper escaped:

"What… the fuck?"

Dr. Hayes rubbed his temples, a rare sign of fatigue. "I don't like coincidences. The missing mnestics, the gaps in security footage - it aligns with some irregularities we've been noticing."

"If someone is abducting civilians and erasing agents, we need to act immediately," Dr. Santos urged, her analytical mind already formulating a plan.

"Elena," Dr. Hayes murmured gently as they gathered their documents, a quiet caution in his tone. "Be careful. If he’s telling the truth, we’re stepping into dangerous waters. This investigation may involve people you don’t want as enemies - people who don’t take kindly to being investigated."

She met his gaze, her eyes reflecting a steely determination. "I know, William. We've let O5 do a lot of shady things in the past, but abducting civilians as D-classes? Using anti-memetic anomalies to erase people from existence? We can't turn a blind eye on this."

Dr. Hayes held her gaze for a long moment. He nodded almost imperceptibly before looking away.

3 weeks earlier

"The judge is already arranged; the trial’s just a formality," the lawyer began with an even and detached voice. "You’ll be sentenced to death. The Foundation should step in afterwards, claiming you for their D-class program."

Marcus Chen, clad in an orange jumpsuit and restrained by handcuffs, sat across from his lawyer in the dimly lit, windowless room. His gaze was sharp, unyielding, as the lawyer slid a document across the table.

"Our agent did her part. She filed an anonymous report about herself" the lawyer said. "Omega-1 was sent in to investigate. These are the mission details." Chen leaned forward, scrutinising the paper, committing each line to memory.

"And the mnestics?" Chen asked with a calm voice.

"Handled,” the lawyer replied smoothly. "A bottle was stolen, and all relevant security footage has been erased. Their audits will flag it, no doubt."

The lawyer’s eyes flicked over his notes one last time before he looked Chen in the eye. "Remember, you don’t need them to completely believe you. Just enough to raise questions, stir their doubts, and start an investigation. The Foundation’s greatest weakness has always been its own paranoia. Their left hand doesn't trust their right, and the head trusts neither."

Chen gave a slight nod. "And once they start investigating the O5?"

The lawyer’s lips curled into a calculated smile. "The O5 will push back, hard. Their anger will ignite an internal conflict" he said. "We'll handle the rest."

Chen returned the smile, a spark of anticipation in his eyes. The Chaos Insurgency had waited patiently, biding its time, gathering its resources and embedding its agents in just the right positions within the Foundation’s ranks. Now, all they had to do was watch the Foundation turn on itself, tearing its own structures apart in pursuit of a conspiracy that didn’t exist.