Smile! Nod!

"Yes. Il Duce make Italy strong."

"A very good quality in a leader, sir. We could learn a thing or two."

"Hm." He stamps their entry papers. "Be safe. Ethiopia dangerous. Even for American."

"Thank you, sir. We will be as safe as we can."

"Thank you very much, sir. We'll be in and out as quickly as we can."

The Italian military presence in Massawa is overbearing, with soldiers and their transport, from cars and trucks to camels, choking the roadways near the port. Many local buildings have been commandeered for use as barracks, with many temporary shelters also having been set up both inside the city limits and outside it.

The architecture is mixed. Ottoman buildings are predominant, but they see some Western-style buildings, including St. Mary’s Cathedral and the Banco d’Italia.

I Hate This.

Nearly all the hotels have been filled with soldiers. The investigators attempt to book a room at the Hotel Internazionale, which caters to Europeans, but discover that the soldiers have raised the prices well above their price range. So they must go to a cheaper hotel.

The Hostel Arido is located on the outskirts of Massawa. The walls are thin boards; the wind whistles through them night and day. The windows have no glass, letting in all manner of biting insects at night.

Do we have... ANY protection against insects. Should we hang something over the window at least.

"Fellas, I have the sense we should have perhaps prepared more extensively for coming here. Maybe hired a local guide."

"Um. I speak Italian? I don't know if that helps?"

"That is absolutely going to help, yeah."

They are slightly less doomed than previously assumed.

Anemone buys a map of the region.

Dallol village is a very small outpost of civilization — if it could even be called such — over the Eritrean border, in Ethiopia proper.

Mersa Fatma is a small port farther down the coast from Massawa. Like Massawa, it’s in Italian Eritrea rather than Ethiopia proper. It’s the next logical stepping-stone to Dallol, the site of the 1924 dig. Dhows travel regularly between Massawa and Mersa Fatma.

There is a railway from Mersa Fatma to Massawa.

The newspapers aimed at Europeans inform them that:

-Benito Mussolini demanded an apology from Abyssinia (independent Ethiopia) over the Welwel incident, a border clash between Italian and Abyssinian troops, calling it a "sudden unprovoked aggression."
-Parliamentary elections were held in Portugal. The National Union was the only party on the ballot and claimed 100% of the vote.

Wow I Hate That

The investigators manage to obtain provisions and desert-related supplies, in spite of them being more expensive because of the Italian military. 

Anemone brought a motorcycle and four military-grade bicycles that are capable of riding on desert sand.

She has her two guns. She has some ammo for them. She has Magnificence. She has her tent because She Thinks They Might Need It. She has some very light stuff like her binoculars and her watch camera and her sewing kit and her flashlight and her small first aid kit. She has her forgery tools. She has a bicycle and motorcycle repair kit. She has quinine. She has a map and a compass. She is leaving behind the books except for the Kebra Nagast, the book on Aksumite Cults, and Unaussprechlichen Kulten. She is taking the warding stone and telling Frank to keep the fire extinguisher and stay with his plane and keep the entire library from burning down if one of the books catches fire. She has fifteen days' supply of water, gasoline, and food.

A rosary for good luck, a notebook, a flashlight, and a pocketwatch camera.

Handgun, rosary for good luck.

Zoe has a pocket knife, a shotgun, ca igarette lighter, pocketbook, handkerchiefs, compact, gloves, first aid stuff, urbex stuff, and a motorcycle.

Lev is not so much with the possessions. He can carry extra water.

They wake up in the morning and take a dhow, which is a kind of ship, to Mersa Fatma. They disembark on the docks.

Mersa Fatma is a small town dominated by two large buildings: to the East, the large looming headquarters and warehouses of the Compagnia Mineraria Coloniale; to the West, an ancient nunnery. Most of the houses in Mersa Fatma are boarded up like no one lives there, and there are many fewer people than the streets seem to be built for.

(News stories of the day: Flooding of the Tiber drove 1,000 residents of Rome from their homes; death of Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, a famous Indonesian trade unionist.)

Wow uh. Glad we didn't stay in Rome.