Location: Palace of the Secret Services of the New World Order
Time: 01.08.23 – 16:05 UTC
Setting: Minister’s private office; routine administrative phase prior to the activation of an interstellar transmission.
The Minister of Secret Services remained seated at his desk. For an indefinite time he wrote documents, folding each sheet and slipping it into an envelope, which then disappeared into a tube protruding from the desk. This was how the Minister of Secret Services, also known as the Minister for the Cult and Promotion of Atheism, sent out his orders: no one knew their origin or their author. Once read and transferred into the SAI at the London central hub, several blocks away, everything was burned. It was the SAI that made the important decisions—impersonal, impartial, objective, and unquestionable for the entire population.
In the distance, Big Ben tolled—one… two… three… four… five. Five times. It’s five p.m.
The preliminary work is complete; it is time to summon the biological entity, the Minister thought.
He opened a drawer, but stopped almost at once. Before him, in the empty space at the centre of the room, a holographic projection came to life. There was no sound. The scene formed from a single point of light that expanded steadily.
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The glow widened until it revealed a vast chamber—more precisely, the interior of an immense limestone cavern, its pale stone lit from within. At the far end, where the light failed to reach, a figure emerged from the darkness: entirely dressed and armed in black, a large bow in his right hand. He wore a dark bodysuit beneath black armour, and his face was hidden by a black hood. He stepped into the centre of the lighted chamber.
He said nothing.
The Minister did not appear surprised. Rather, he was afraid: he knelt, his posture one of obedience and fear.
The holographic image drew the archer into sharp focus. His right arm lifted with deliberate slowness, and as his hand opened, a sphere of light formed in his palm—the Earth.
The globe turned gently on its axis, its image widening to reveal Europe, then Italy, the Abruzzo region, the mountains of L’Aquila, and finally the city’s historic centre. The walls of the archiepiscopal library appeared in perfect clarity.
The projection moved through the stone entrance and continued into the inner rooms. After a brief blur, the cataloguing system appeared superimposed, as though integrated into the very architecture of the library itself. The image stabilised on a large book bound in red cloth, with a glowing label on its spine bearing the following text:
The Minister noted down the information in silence.
The archer, without any movement other than his steps, walked back in the direction from which he had come, a black figure swallowed by black shadow. The projection closed in on him, shrank to a dark point, and vanished.
Arken Solem was alone once more.