Transcript

Panel 1

Kas is in the driver’s seat of a his car, scribbling down notes with the earpiece in even before leaving the campus.

McCallun (from headphones): It was difficult to get a hold of the box. Mez’rani’s reference got me through port authorities in Yumurtalik of all places. They had most of the material from Warwick’s assistant, Dorsey Sirratt.

Apparently he had absconded with the dig relics and Warwick’s notes, kept them on a boat in the Mediterranean until it washed up in the local wetlands earlier this year.

Panel 2

An overturned boat is run around in a marshy delta in Yumurtalik, Turkey. Authorities look through it carefully, taking notes.

McCallun (from headphones): No sign of Sirratt, and his own notes are… nonsense and fiction.

Panel 3

McCallun’s notes are sprawled between the car seats, including symbols that match circular designs that have been seen in other ancient ruins. Diagrams of wheel-like thick octagonal disks are annotated: most of the disks have a raised eight-pointed pin and a matching depression on the other side.

McCallun (from headphones): The objects inside… spectacularly curious. Each is cut from an obsidianite stone: the skill level matches the tools needed to create the under-tomb, but with greater precision. Barring identical end pieces, the six middle disks vary in diameter and are all cut with a pin central. I cannot fathom the meaning of the pictographs present or the purpose of the disks. The box, bronze, seems to be oxidized with a tellurium patina; I suspect a more modern construction, given the tellurium.

The disks themselves? They’re potentially unique and beyond significant to an understanding of pre-modern civilization.

Panel 4

Finally ready to go, Kas puts the car into reverse.

McCallun (from headphones): Some men came to the office today, they had questions about Sirratt and Warwick. They got… pushy, nothing I could report. They’re watching me now.

Panel 5

Kas pushes the car back into park as the Dictaphone gives more information, the clear recording distorted by a subtle cough that interrupts the verbose professor’s flow.

McCallun (from headphones): I need to copy the disks-

<Coughs interrupt>

If someone is looking for them, I can hide them at the office.

Kas: Now you tell me…

Panel 6

Leaving the car, students are milling around the campus, Kas heads back towards the archaeology department.

McCallun (from headphones): The men are hanging around, I’ve seen them on campus the last few nights.