Should any organism displaying traits consistent with SCP-610 be 
sighted near this perimeter then the established protocol requires it 
be engaged at range with small arms until immobile then dispatched 
using incendiary weapons and munitions from as great a distance as 
possible. Any living thing coming in physical contact with an 
organism infected with SCP-610 is considered expendable and is to 
be immediately terminated and incinerated. Any persons coming 
within three meters of SCP-610 infected life are to immediately 
withdraw from the area, be isolated from the rest of their team, and 
subjected to medical examination using only remote techniques to 
determine if infection has occurred and appropriate steps taken 
based on that determination. 


At present the known infection vectors for SCP-610's spread seem 
to be focused on physical contact. Drone movements within heavily 
infected areas have returned air samples containing minute 
particulate which when exposed to organic compounds will result in 
the spread of SCP-610. The results of these particular tests have 
revealed that most require several days to manifest if at all, with the 
exception of direct contact with exposed lung and liver tissue. These 
particular tests show a rapid rate of growth which requires 
incineration of the testing environment no more than twenty-four 
hours after initial exposure, with even a two-hour mishap risking a 
compromised facility event. Given that this kind of rapid growth only 
occurs in organic material existing outside the human body, this 


"| figured he wasn't just being nice," Harper said. "I'll go pull the 
Foundation's records on the Roosevelts." 


That required a trip down to Central Records, a cavernous labyrinth 
of yellowing documents larger than most libraries, located in the 
bottom four floors of the basement. Only Level 5 personnel were 
permitted to freely traverse the stacks, and in some areas even they 
needed an escort. Harper thumbed through the card catalog, 
locating the reference numbers for each personnel or person-of- 
interest file for individuals from the Roosevelt family. As it turned out, 
there were a large number relevant individual files, plus a collective 
file on the entire family. He wrote the numbers on an index card and 
set off to locate the files. 


After a productive forty-five minutes of searching, Harper returned to 
the tank with a thick stack of files. Muir and Monica were already 
hard at work poring over their own files, so Harper set down his 
materials and got to work. 


The collective file on the family included a detailed genealogy of the 
Roosevelt family, reaching back to the two patriarchs (Johannes, 
head of the Oyster Bay branch of the family, and James Jacobus, 
head of the Hyde Park branch). Each family member's dates of birth 
and death, marriages, occupations, and descendants were listed, as 
was whether or not there was an individual file for that person. 


The first individual file on the stack was for Theodore Roosevelt 
(specifically the one living between 1855 and 1919, as "Theodore" 
was a name that appeared many times in the family tree). Best 
known to the world-at-large as the 26 President of the United 
States, he had also been a friend to the Foundation during the 
organization's early days in the late 19t century. There were a 
number of rumors that floated around about him from time to time, 
that he had helped push the United States into the Spanish- 
American War on behalf of the Foundation, that the Foundation 
opposed his being made Vice President (which would have gotten 
him "out of the way" politically had McKinley not died), that the 
Foundation helped make him Vice President and that McKinley was 
shot on Foundation orders to place him in power, even that he was a 
member of the Foundation, and plenty of other often contradictory 
speculation. The truth was in the file Harper held in his hands. Of 


course, none of what was in the file turned out to be particularly 
relevant to the details of the investigation at hand, even if TR was 
involved in a war the Foundation had fomented with a device used 
ninety years later to kill an Overseer. 


The second file, oddly enough, was completely empty. The name 
was "Cornelia Roosevelt", and according to the collective file on the 
family, she was the daughter of James Alfred Roosevelt, the older 
brother of TR's father. The information relating to Cornelia was also, 
for the most part, missing from the genealogy in the family file. 
Harper set aside the file, scribbling a question mark in his notes next 
to her name. 


Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 324 President of the United 
States, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920); had dealings 
with the Foundation as ASN during the First World War, and as 
President, during the Second. 


Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), niece to Theodore, wife of Franklin 
D., and First Lady of the United States; person-of-interest with no 
direct dealings to the Foundation. 


Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (1887-1944), son of TR, Brigadier General 
in the United States Army, Assistant Secretary of the Navy 
(1921-1924), Governor of Puerto Rico (1929-1932), Governor- 
General of the Philippines (1932-1933); had numerous dealings 
with the Foundation in each capacity. Harper found it interesting that 
a total of five members of the extended Roosevelt clan had served 
in the post. Considering the significance the position had held as a 
conduit between the early Foundation and the American 
government, the number of Roosevelts who had interacted with the 
Foundation made some degree of sense. 


Theodore Douglas Robinson (1883-1934), nephew of TR and 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1924-1929); had dealings with the 
Foundation as the ASN, and suspected of being one of the first 
supporters of the Chaos Insurgency. 


Henry Latrobe Roosevelt (1879-1936), third cousin to TR and 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1933-1936); fought in the Spanish- 
American War and had dealings with the Foundation as the ASN. 


Henry Latrobe was also suspected of having sympathies to the 
Chaos Insurgency. Harper wondered whether Theodore Robinson's 
and Henry L. Roosevelt's alleged Chaos Insurgency sympathies had 
resulted in the Foundation both the distancing of the organization 
from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, and for some of the 
hostilities that would later arise between the American military and 
the organization. 


Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt (born 1915), son of Theodore 
Roosevelt, Jr., Foundation agent embedded within the Central 
Intelligence Agency; served as the head of CIA's Technical Division 
from 1960-1961. He was part of the joint CIA/Foundation MKULTRA 
Project, and was listed as having been one of the primary advocates 
within CIA of attempting to poison Fidel Castro (on behalf of the 
Foundation). He'd since retired, and the file gave Harper no reason 
to believe he was involved in the current conspiracy. 


Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (born 1916), grandson of TR and cousin to 
Cornelius Van Schaack, Foundation agent embedded within the 
CIA. Kermit Jr. had coordinated the 1953 Iranian coup, another joint 
CIA/Foundation operation. Though retired by the 1979 Iranian 
Revolution, Kermit Jr. still occasionally consulted with the 
Foundation as an expert on the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic 
Revolution. 


Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. (born 1918), grandson of TR and 
cousin to Cornelius Van Schaack and Kermit Jr., United States Army 
intelligence, CIA officer. Though never a formal member of the 
Foundation like his cousins, Archibald Bulloch Jr. was listed as 
having been a "friend to the Foundation" throughout his entire 
career, including during his WWII service in North Africa, Iraq, and 
lran, and as CIA Chief of Station in Istanbul, Madrid, and London. 
There was a note stating that he had refused to assist the 
Foundation when it was at odds with the CIA, as well as refusing to 
supply classified documents without official approval from the CIA/ 
Foundation liaison. He was now retired, having recently published a 
memoir. 


"Tim, we have something,” Monica said, interrupting Harper's 
genealogical and biographical thoughts. He walked over to where 
Monica and Muir sat. 


"The drunk who killed your family," Muir began. 


"Tristan Arnold," spat Harper. The name was hard cut into his 
memory. 


"Right, him," Monica said. "His parents died in a house fire when he 
and his twin brother were six, after which the two of them went into 
foster care." 


"Now, as adults, their lives diverge substantially," Muir explained. 
"Both enlisted in the Army. Tristan was dishonorably discharged, 
and lived the remainder of his life out of a bottle." 


"His brother, Benjamin, on the other hand," Monica continued, "was 
honorably discharged after two tours, then went to work for the State 
Department's Diplomatic Security Service as a bodyguard. That is, 
until he was transferred to—" 


"—the Global Occult Coalition, where he loyally served as the 
personal bodyguard for Regional Deputy Director Bain, until 
deciding to go on a shooting spree yesterday, killing GOC Regional 
Director Strauss and O5-3," finished Muir. 


Harper looked from Muir to Monica. "So the brother of the man who 
killed my family ten years ago," he asked slowly, "is yesterday's 
assassin?" 


"| mean, it's a small world, but this can't be a coincidence," Monica 
said. She handed over two photographs. One, a yellowing 
newspaper clipping, showed a somber man at Tristan's funeral. The 
other was a security camera still that showed the same man, ten 
years later, wearing an earpiece and sunglasses as he ushered Bain 
into a building. 


"After my family died, | stopped turning down the promotion to 
Section Chief," Harper breathed. "Someone, now involved in this 
plot, arranged for my family to die so I'd take the promotion?" 


Muir asked, "That was before we started working together; who was 
putting pressure on you to take the job?" 


Harper thought back, "The Counterintelligence Director at the time - 


Erik DeVoe. But he was getting pressure from someone on the O5 
Council. | kept resisting because my kids were in elementary 
school..." 


"Could this Mr. Bain be involved?" Monica asked. 


"It's possible," Harper replied. "He stood to gain directly with his 
boss' assassination, and the shooter was his own bodyguard." 


"And he killed the assassin himself," Muir pointed out. 


"Follow that lead," Harper said. "One of the files | pulled from Central 
Records was gutted." 


"Completely empty?" Muir asked, surprised. "Nobody - not even the 
Overseers - are supposed to completely remove the contents of any 
file not containing a memetic hazard or infohazard." 


"Yeah, Troy, | know," Harper said. "And this was a personnel file, so 
it should have been fine. It's probably nothing, since the individual 
was born back in the 1870s, but I'm going to head over to the 
National Archives to try and reconstruct the non-sensitive 
genealogical and biographical information." 


"Alright," Muir said. "Out of curiosity, whose file was it?" 


"Cornelia Roosevelt." 


National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. 
Monday, 26 December 1988, 1400 hours local time 


Most people who visit the National Archives Building go to see the 
original copies of the American Declaration of Independence, 
Constitution, and Bill of Rights. While famous, impressive, priceless, 
and interesting documents, they represent only the tiniest fraction of 
the records maintained and stored by the National Archives and 
Records Administration. Though few tourists wandered beyond the 
Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, any member of the public 
could become a certified researcher and gain access to the 
documents stored within. Though not the only reason for an ordinary 


citizen to become a certified researcher, many genealogists took 
advantage of NARA's countless records (census records, 
Congressional private claims and private legislation records, court 
records, immigration records, military records, passenger lists, 
passport applications, post office records, and many other archived 
records) in order to construct detailed family histories. Of course, 
many of these documents were not made public until at least seven 
decades after their creation. 


This did not present a problem for Harper, however. His notes 
indicated that Cornelia Roosevelt was born circa 1867, which meant 
that the records from at least the first sixty years of her life would be 
available. Just because the records were available did not make the 
task easy, however. It took several hours of laboriously sifting 
through documents to begin to assemble a portrait of who this 
woman had been. 


Cornelia Maria Roosevelt, daughter of James Alfred Roosevelt, was 
born in New York City in February of 1867. She was one of five 
children, she suffered from asthma, much like her older cousin 
Theodore (who would later become President). Both as a child and 
as a young woman, she was described in several contemporary 
accounts as having a fascination with the natural and social 
sciences. In 1893, she married Jonathan Franklin Dark, a wealthy 
young British banker and investor who did business with her father 
through his firm, Roosevelt & Son. Cornelia and Jonathan 
maintained two houses, one in Westminster and one in Arlington. 
After Jonathan died under mysterious circumstances in April of 
1898, Cornelia disappeared without a trace in August of that year. 


Harper was reading a newspaper article about the couple's unusual 
disappearance when he spotted a photograph of the woman. The 
resemblance was uncanny - far too close to be a coincidence. And 
she'd married a man named "Dark"... Harper made a photocopy of 
the picture, gathered his notes, and walked quickly back to 
Command-02. 


"| have it," Harper told Muir and Monica. "Look at this!" He set down 
the photograph of Cornelia Dark. 


"Is that—?" asked Monica. 


Harper nodded, laying a more recent photo next to it. "Dead ringer, 
isn't she?" 


"Damn," Monica said. "| hope | look that good when I'm a hundred 
and ten." 


Muir rubbed his chin as he read though Harper's notes. "Jonathan 
Franklin Dark," he grunted. "Wasn't he the son of 'Old Man Dark’, 
one of MC&D's founders?" 


"The same," Harper said. "No wonder the Central Records file was 
emptied. That's a hell of a skeleton to keep in the closet all these 
years." 


"Yep," Muir agreed. "While you were out, Monica and | did manage 
to link Bain to the conspiracy. Turns out he paid both Arnold 
brothers in numbered Swiss accounts, only to transfer the money 
back out again once each brother kicked the bucket." 


"Greedy bastard," Monica quipped. "But it is evidence the Powers 
That Be can take to the GOC if they want to mend fences. After all, 
Bain did whack one of their Regional Directors." 


"We have enough to go to the O5 Council," Harper decided. 
"Monica, head up to the seventh floor and arrange a secure meeting 
with the following Overseers..." 


« Part XI | HUB | Epilogue » 


Conspiracy, Epilogue 


Checkmate 


Commana-02, Washington, D.C. 
Monday, 26 December 1988, 2130 hours local time 


This time, it was Harper waiting for Seven in the darkened 
conference room. Alone, she entered the dimly lit room to find the 
counterintelligence officer facing her from by the window, casually 
smoking a cigarette. "Ma'am," he said quietly. 


"Mr. Harper," Seven replied. "Do you have a status report on your 
investigation?"