Chapter 10

I spent the rest of the weekend reading Lucian's two notebooks and visiting my dad's grave. He did write about me, several times. One entry confirmed what Larry and Clef had talked about, meaning that I'd known of the Foundation nearly my entire life. As for how I felt about Lucian personally, I grew to love him through his writings. Granted I couldn't remember much, if anything he wrote about, but I could tell he was a hard working man who cared about his family like dad did.

As I read more, the realized both dad and Lucian invested time into SCP 049. Lucian quite possibly more so than dad.

2-10-/

He requested to see me again. I don't know why the Plague Doctor appears to have some kind of fascination with me, but it's beginning to worry me. Dad tries to dismiss it, like it's nothing. But I can't help but feel something is wrong. It makes me wonder if 049 and Radical Larry are somehow linked. The Plague doctor requests me, while the old man asks for Carson. It just doesn't make sense.

What could they possibly want with us? Dad's given Carson an amnestic, blocking her memories of "Uncle Larry". I personally objected to this. If Larry hasn't done anything to hurt her, Carson could've been the perfect link between him and the Foundation. We could've gotten so much information from their interactions, but now all of it's lost. I'd try asking the old man, but interaction with him is strictly forbidden. Which now I'm left wondering: How does Larry keep finding her? If I get the chance, I'll have to ask.
-L. O'Reilly

Lucian brought up an interesting point. How did Larry keep finding me? I made a mental note to ask when I got back to Site 19. But now I was even more suspicious of the Plague Doctor. Why didn't he tell me about Lucian if Dr. Cool didn't? All these questions and no answers was rather frustrating. I put the journals aside for the time being as I tried to think of a logical explanation for all this.

And on top of the discovery of Lucian, I had to deal with the revelation that Dr. Cool wasn't just my legal guardian, but apparently my biological uncle. Surely he had to have known about that. I mean c'mon, I looked like my mom but had dad's eyes. If he didn't know, how could he have missed it? And then again if he did know, why keep it a secret?

Then I was angry. Dr. Cool had known about Dr. Kondraki being my godfather, I was sure of it. He had blocked my real guardian out of my life for what seemed to be no reason. The one man who could answer my questions-

A horrible thought came to mind.

Maybe that was WHY he didn't let Kondraki see me. Not for legal purposes or whatever piss poor excuse Cool would give. But because of what Kondraki had known about my family.

And then that thought led to another.

Did Dr. Cool kill my brother?

No. He couldn't. He wouldn't. My guardian was a hard man, but he wasn't a murderer, surely. Anyone he did kill was ultimately for the good of all. I tried to push the thought away, but I couldn't. The thought was repulsive and made me sick. Dr. Cool was ambitious, but definitely not a murderer…

But then again, there were a lot of shady incidents in the past. Dr. Cool was the youngest O-5 council member to date. He hadn't been the first choice of the Council either. But his competition had either disappeared or died in SCP related incidents. This of course roused the suspicion of the O-5 Council, but when confronted all of Dr. Cool's alibis added up. The charges against him were dropped due to lack of evidence. Even so, some, like Kondraki, didn't trust him.

Furthermore, Lucian was a soldier, not a researcher. Surely he was no threat to Dr. Cool's power…

But then I became aware of who could've been!

"Dad…" I thought.

My father was a researcher. Granted not in the same way or same areas that Cool was, but the O-5 Council took a lot of his research seriously. Could Dr. Cool have killed my brother to make my father give up his potential place in the Council? And more importantly, how did 049 play into all of this? What did he know? If he was there when the Chaos Insurgency attacked my dad, why was he there? His angle didn't make any sense…

I went back to Site 19 that Monday. I had it off but I needed to find Dr. Clef. If anything I needed to thank him for this. My only hope was that I wouldn't run into Dr. Cool, if he was even still at the site.

"Ah Carson!"

I turned and let out a sigh of relief. It was Clef. He was grinning ear to ear when he saw my relieved expression. I tried to smile back but there was a lot on my mind.

"Okay spill it" I came out with it, "You knew about Project Lucian, at least that it existed! How?!"
"Let's take this to my office, Miss O'Reilly. Cool's got eyes and ears all over the place".
"Does he know?"
"Nothing official. But he suspects you talked to Kondraki".

I cursed under my breath as I followed Clef back to his office. He closed and locked the door behind us. I had an uneasy feeling about all this. Regardless, I sat down in one of the chairs. Clef, as usual, leaned against his desk.

"You wanna know how I knew about it?" he asked.
I nodded. "No more secrets. No more lies. I don't need to be told everything, but I need some stretch of truth here".
"Understandable. Well, I know some things, but not everything. Your father simply asked for my help with his project".
"Did you know Lucian?"
Clef nodded. "I did. Smart young man, brilliant really. He loved the Foundation but was far more dedicated to his family than anything else".
"I take it Cool knew Lucian as well?"
"Don't see how he couldn't have known him. Lucian was in his mobile task force".
"So he did kill my brother".
"Kill your brother? Where in god's name did you get that idea?"
"Well think about it. Rumor has it that Cool kills all runner ups for his place on the O-5 Council. Maybe he killed Lucian to send dad a message and to keep him silent about any suspicious activity".
"I swear, Carson, you have one wild imagination. No, Cool did not kill your brother".
"But he disappeared while under his command".
"Disappeared, yes, but killed? No. A body was never recovered".
"He could've hidden it".
"Doubt it. If he wanted to kill your brother to send your dad a message, your dad would've turned around and reported him. Derrick wouldn't have cared about the consequences. Lucian was his son and he would've found a way to avenge him without even touching Cool had he murdered him. Derrick was a lot of things but stupid enough to have gone after Cool for Lucian's death, no. How far have you gotten in to Lucian's journals?".
"Not very far. I just started reading them Saturday".
"Read a little further into the second journal. I think you'll be able to draw your own conclusions about what happened to Lucian. But when you do, tell no one. Not even your homicidal statue friend 'cause god knows he has the biggest mouth".
"Didn't plan on it".
"Good. Now what I recommend is reading the journals completely through, at least the second one. They may hold hints about Lucian's disappearance. Do not let anyone associated with O-5 Command get their hands on those notebooks. Protect them with your life if you have to".
"Got it".
"After you're done reading them, go to the Plague Doctor. I'm very sure he can clarify everything that Kondraki, Cool, and I can't. I promise…we'll figure this out".
"I know".
"That's all I can tell you for now. Good luck Carson".
"Thanks Dr. Clef…for everything I mean".

He nodded as he unlocked the door and let me out. I knew who I needed to see next, but first I had a lot of reading to do…