Yeah, that sounds bad.

In a different way than she expected Rome to be bad tho.

"So we were going to ask around and see if anyone remembers Ayers, right? But this place is nearly a ghost town."

"I thought we were going to go to Dallol. Iguess we could also ask whether anyone remembers Ayers, but this sounds hard given that Lev is the only one of us who speaks Italian, we don't know who might remember him, and also it was ten years ago."

"We might as well ask around while we're here. The ancient nunnery seems like a better place to start intruding on the locals than the looming headquarters, in any case."

"Yeah i'd rather check out the nunnery." Even though it's PROBABLY evil let's be real. "Less bad than accosting random people on the street."

There is a woman sitting at the front desk. She says something in Italian.

Lev translates. "Hello. Are you travelers?"

"Yes, we are. We're looking for an archaeologist friend of ours. He came here quite a while ago, though, and hasn't written recently, so we're not very sure where to look for him. Last we heard, he was digging for something in Dallol."

Man, Anemone is kind of rolling her eyes at herself for wandering up to random people and being like 'Hi. I am looking for an archaeologist who was probably here idk a decade ago. Do you know anything?' but like what else are they gonna do other than just head straight to Dallol?

Lev translates this, and the nun replies with:

"Well, I'm afraid you won't have much luck. There hasn't been an archaeological dig in Dallol since 1926."

"What happened in 1926?"

"A volcano erupted and destroyed the entire dig."

Honestly, this is already way more information than she was hoping for. Accosting random people with questions about things that happened ten years ago doesn't usually go this well.

He was uncertain about asking around but thank fuck they did.

Thank you, Berhane, for telling us this PROMPTLY and not letting them go FOUR HOURS BOTH WAYS without revealing that the thing they are looking for doesn't exist.

One person in Ethiopia knows how to do their job! (And this isn't even really part of hers!)

Yeah, she thinks this cannot actually be described as doing her job. One person in Ethiopia is helpful above and beyond the call of duty.

"Unfortunately, as I understand it, they all died except for one of the archaeologists."

Lev is making a face as he translates.

"Well that's terrible. - do you know who the survivor was?"

"Bartolo Acuna. I don't know what he's up to now. He was negotiating with the CMC-- they were the ones who supplied the expedition."

His face is becoming even more of a face.

She jots this down. "Thank you. Perhaps we can get in touch with him and learn more about what happened."

"The CMC is -- the company with the warehouses here?"

"Yes. Twenty years ago they mined potash in Mersa Fatma. But five years ago they discovered potash elsewhere, in a place that is less likely to kill white people. No offense. So there is only a small staff remaining."

"That makes sense. Thank you very much for the information."