Ferrante set his copy down.
"She is requesting archive access," Cavallo said. He was writing.
"She is requesting a great deal more than that," Luccesi said. It was the first thing he had said since sitting down.
His voice was very even. "She is simply doing it in the language of a standard field report."
Ferrante looked at him. "You've read the pre-civilisation accounts."
"I have read nothing else for twenty-two years."
"And."
Luccesi picked up his copy of the report. He set it down again. He looked at the painting of the Judean hills on the wall across from him.
"And," he said carefully, " the accounts describe, with reasonable consistency across seven independent source texts spanning four distinct linguistic traditions, an underground space of extraordinary organic vitality in the southern Negev region.
Containing trees, water, and what the texts refer to variably as The Sleeper. The One Before. And He Who Was."
He folded his hands. "The accounts also describe, consistently, a wall."
The room was quiet.
"The entity," Sabatini said. His voice was careful in the way of someone being afraid to break their pre-conceived World View. "The entity in the report."
"Yes," Luccesi said simply.
Sabatini looked at his copy of the report. Then at the table. Then at Ferrante.
"How long," Ferrante said to Luccesi, " Have we known the accounts existed ?"
"The archive has held them for one hundred and fourteen years."
"And before the archive ?"
"The texts themselves predate our acquisition of them by an indeterminate period. The oldest material we have dated, places the source documents at a minimum of four thousand years. The oral traditions behind the written accounts are older."
He paused. "Considerably older."
Ferrante was quiet for a moment.
"Who else has access to those materials."
Conti spoke for the first time. "No one, currently. General scholarly access to the pre-civilisation sub-section was restricted in 1987. The relevant texts are held in Case 14 of the restricted archive.
I am the only person who has read them in their entirety in the past twenty-two years."
She did not say this with any particular emphasis. She said it the way she said everything -- as a fact, stated because it was relevant, in the voice of someone who has long since stopped expecting facts to be received comfortably.
· · ·
Ferrante nodded once.
He reached to the side and drew a second folder toward him -- thicker than the report, the kind of folder that had been assembled in a hurry and showed it.
Opening the folder, "The team," he said. "Walk me through the team."
Sabatini had the same folder. He had compiled it himself between 4 and 6 in the morning. He opened it to the first page.
"Site lead: Amara Osei. Thirty-four. Ghanaian national, Accra origin. Eleven years of fieldwork across eleven countries, primarily pre-civilisation and proto-historic sites. Academic record -- Oxford, then UCL, doctoral thesis on pre-Semitic oral transmission and its material culture correlates.
Fluent in English, French, Twi, and functional Arabic. ICOMOS contract issued in her name seven months ago following our acquisition request." Sabatini turned the page.
"Unmarried. No children. No institutional affiliations beyond ICOMOS and a visiting fellowship at the British Museum that lapsed three years ago.
Emergency contact listed as--" he looked up briefly "--a grandmother. Accra address."
Luccesi had not looked at his folder. He was looking at Sabatini.
"Continue," Ferrante said.
"Site director: Yosef Mizrahi. Fifty-three. Israeli national, Jerusalem origin. Mizrahi Jewish background, secular by practice.
Thirty years of fieldwork, primarily Israeli and Jordanian sites. The standard authority on Negev subsurface survey in the region -- our first-choice Israeli liaison for any southern desert work.
Holds the permits for this site. The permits, I should note, cover excavation to sixty metres. We are at forty-three."
"Professionally fine," Cavallo murmured, without looking up from his notes.
"Research assistant: Rania Aziz. Twenty-nine. Egyptian national, Cairo origin. Epigrapher and ancient language specialist.
Translation work published across fourteen peer-reviewed journals -- her work on proto-Semitic inscription has been cited by three of our own archive scholars." Sabatini paused.
"Her translation of the Khalidi fragments in 2021 is the one we currently use as our reference document for second-millennium pre-Semitic script." He turned the page.
"She has, in the course of her career, submitted three separate access requests to our restricted archive. All three were declined on standard grounds."
Ferrante looked up.
"Standard grounds," he said.
"Insufficient institutional affiliation."
A silence. Not long. The kind that means something has registered.
"Structural surveyor: Shai Oren. Twenty-six. Israeli national, Tel Aviv origin. Contracted by Mizrahi specifically -- they have worked together on four previous sites. Youngest member of the team.
His structural assessments of the primary excavation site are --" Sabatini glanced at the page "-- thorough. He has filed seventeen ceiling reports since the team descended."
"Seventeen," Cavallo said.
"For the record," Sabatini said. "His notes indicate some concern about secondary fracture propagation in the eastern quadrant. Not urgent."
Luccesi made a sound that was not quite a word.
"Controlled demolition: Khalil Nassar. Forty-four. Jordanian national, Amman origin. Twenty-two years in subsurface clearance and controlled demolition, primarily Negev-adjacent sites.
Three prior engagements in this specific region -- he knows the ground better than anyone else on the team. Muslim background." Sabatini turned the page.
"Quiet on record. Very little published. No institutional affiliations. ICOMOS calls him specifically for work that requires precision in conditions where imprecision has permanent consequences."
"And the last."
"GPR operator: Dawud Barakat. Thirty-seven. Lebanese national, Beirut origin. The subsurface anomaly that flagged this site was his read -- his GPR interpretation identified the organic signature at depth that initiated our acquisition request.
He is, by ICOMOS assessment, the best ground-penetrating radar operator in the region for anomalies of this type. Muslim background. He does not grandstand. He proves with his expertise."
Ferrante closed the folder.
"Six people," he said. "In a garden forty-three metres below the Negev Desert. With -- " he looked at the report.
"-- A living entity of unknown origin and a wall covered in inscription that our archive has been expecting for one hundred and fourteen years." He was quiet for a moment.
"Six people who do not know what they have found."
"Five," Conti said.
Everyone looked at her.
She had not moved. She was looking at the folder in front of her -- not Sabatini's assembled dossier, her own folder, the one she had brought from the archive. Thicker than anyone else's.
Even the paper looked Old at first glance.
"Five people who do not know what they have found," she said. "The site lead may be a different matter."
"Osei?" Ferrante said. "On what basis ?"
Conti opened her folder.
Author's Note:(Here we are with the Vatican Dicastery Convening finally for the meeting for the discovery of our MC :). Things will soon start heating up and we'll see our first blatant supernatural character soon)