The Foundation Files
Evaluation Report
Subject: Trish Scarborough
Submitted by: Archibald Hudson
Period of Observation: 3 months, with the past two weeks consisting of full, 24-hour per day scrutiny
Overview:
Subject Trish Scarborough is a native of New York City, where she has resided for most of her life prior to recruitment by the Cipher Bureau. She has travelled widely, both as a tourist, prior to recruitment, and then as an agent.
That the Cipher Bureau saw her as an asset is, in our view, unsurprising. She possesses considerable strength and dexterity (owing to years of rigorous physical training, a program that she came to as a personal decision, not one mandated by the exigencies of service). She is also linguistically skilled, able to pick up languages through a process of immersion rather than through study. Her time in the Soviet Union, for instance, has given her a degree of fluency in Russian.
Subject Scarborough also demonstrates sharp awareness of her surroundings, a necessary skill in her capacity as agent for the Cipher Bureau, but one worth underscoring all the same. On more than one occasion, while we have had her under surveillance during her recent period of activity in Europe, she has spotted and evaded her observers, despite our agents’ best efforts. Picking up her trail again has involved considerable difficulty, and this itself is testament to her abilities.
Side note: field agent George Oslo should undergo further training in espionage shadowing as soon as possible.
Due to the above, contact with subject Scarborough has been, at this stage, no more than indirect and brief. We feel confident, however, in stating the following: subject Scarborough’s patriotism is authentic, but is increasingly colored by misgivings about the decisions and motivations of her superiors. Her now-considerable experience in the field is a major contributing factor to these doubts, and to an increasingly jaundiced worldview. Given what she would experience as an agent of the Foundation, should she be recruited, this psychological armor will prove useful.
We will sound one note of caution. She will always be asking questions. It will be up to her handlers to make sure she is asking the correct ones.
Recommendation:
Our overall assessment is that subject Scarborough would be a valuable asset to the Foundation. Her increasing unhappiness with orders from the Cipher Bureau, manifested by a rising tendency to take unsanctioned action, makes her almost perfectly primed for an approach by the Foundation. Subject Scarborough’s potential is immense, and even with the caution we have expressed, it is this agent’s opinion that to pass up on that potential would be a significant missed opportunity. We believe her relationship with the Cipher Bureau is approaching the breaking point. We therefore strongly recommend that we initiate recruitment as soon as possible.
Archibald Hudson
by David Annandale
