"Glad you got out of Ethiopia. Things are looking bad there in the papers." Is that a lie? He's pretty sure his mouth is just making polite sounds on autopilot.

"Absolutely. Mussolini is just awful. I hope we can avoid a war."

"If nothing else, imagine what that would do to the dig site."

"It was pretty torn apart by King Ezana, unfortunately. I'm afraid it wouldn't hurt the situation much. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know. Checking in before the rush. Something seems to be ramping up all through Europe, you know."

"It really does. --Louise is consulting Miss Donovan on some fine points of translation of the Revelations of Dagon. So the rest of us have absolutely nothing to do. I've been looking at historical churches and catching up on my reading."

"You know, I keep getting conflicting ideas of how relevant Dagon is to all this. Sure, there's the Prisoner stuff, but everything else seems just thematically weird. How are the churches? Anything as interesting as the one back by the site?"
 

"Entirely of non-occult interest, I assure you. Louise believes our God is the Prisoner of Dagon. I am not sure of the evidence for it myself-- there have been a lot of leads that didn't pan out. But it is worth investigating."

"When is Miss Fauche meeting with Miss Donovan? We wouldn't want to interrupt."

"Oh, they're constantly in their offices together. I think Miss Donovan likes the distraction."

"Can't be helped, then. Ah, well. Glad to know you're here now rather than being surprised with it in the middle of -- well -- oh, you're done!" He gestures from Mordred to Inaaya. "Surely you remember--"

"I do! Hello, Miss Khadpo."

"Hello, James! Unfortunately, Louise is too busy to talk with you, she's busy with Miss Donovan."

"Working on the finer points of translating the Revelations of Dagon," Oswald adds helpfully.

"Sounds interesting! I'm glad she gets to do it."

"You never did end up giving me that report on Dallol."

"There wasn't much there," he says. "Ayers had left a note on renouncing all flesh, and promptly left to die in the desert. We turned back, it wasn't worth the heatstroke."

"Did you end up inspecting the site? There must be something that wasn't buried under a pile of rubble."

"The bodies of the workers who'd been excavating the place before the eruption and a few fragments of the structure, all heavily damaged."

"Unfortunate. Seems like Ethiopia was a waste for both of us. Should we keep your visit quiet?"

"It'd be appreciated, thank you."

A bird promptly lands on Oswald's head.

"I assume that Captain Walker wants to take a look at how all the businesses are doing without drawing too much attention. --Nice hat, Michael."

He pauses for a moment and then notices the feeling of tiny bird claws. "Oh. Uh, yes." Ineffectual waving.

"I was just telling Michael that I'm terribly bored. I've been catching up on my reading and looking at historical churches in a strictly nonprofessional capacity."