I spend the night trying to help Arthur and Charlotte get into the N.A. member site. I even create my own false identity and attempt to fast-track myself past the virtual bouncers. But Charlotte was right, the moderators seem to know that we’re a threat and block and ghost us at every turn.

In the morning, Siaka’s busy helping Bran pack for Brittany. The older Flame-finger wants to see his sons but doesn’t want to lose precious research time. So Siaka makes sure the C2C platform works on his laptop, and packs a briefcase with Flame-finger journals, letters, and documents for Bran to go through while he is at home.

Just after lunch, Bran phones to say goodbye.

“I’ll come back as soon as Kate needs me. I can do my research as well from Brittany as I can in Paris.”

“You don’t have to justify leaving,” I reassure him. “I’ve been put full-time on research here in the library while everyone else is out combing the streets for clues. I guess that with the mounting danger, Kate wants to keep me tucked safely away.”

“You sound frustrated,” Bran says. “Don’t be. Wait as long as you can to die. Kate will let you know when your help is essential.”

“I know,” I say. Which I do, but still wish I were with them.

Bran says goodbye and that he’ll see me soon and passes the phone to Siaka.

“Is he leaving you anything to work on?” I ask.

“Nope. Feeling a bit useless. He left me a few photocopies of journals from Flame-fingers in Peru and Argentina that I need to translate before entering them into the system. But I thought I’d pick up one of his family’s books tomorrow, just in case there’s something there.”

“Just one book?” I ask.

“We’re only allowed to take books one at a time from The Archives. Security reasons.”

“Ah, the famous Archives!” I say. “When are you going? I’d love to come along.”

“I seriously doubt it would work. Revenants can’t enter. I know you’re no longer a numa and not yet a bardia, but the whole being-dead thing makes me think you’d get fried by the magical door on the way in.”

I stick a marker in the book I’m researching and close the cover. “Hold on. There’s a magical door that fries people?”

“It’s not really a door,” he says. “It looks like part of the wall in the excavations around the Cluny Museum. But when you use the right key, a signum bardia for example, or for Flame-fingers our mere presence, the wall opens into a tunnel. It’s that opening that’s magically protected. It’s been known to get very hot when someone tries to force their way in.”

“Now I really want to try it.”