[Tape recorder clicks on]
[Wind whistling ominously: we’re outside]
[Heavy boots approach]
DAVE
(into radio) This is Delta team, sector 11 all clear, confirmed.
[The radio beeps in confirmation]
[Footsteps continue]
[A rustling sound behind them. They spin around, rifles drawn]
[Beat]
DAVE
…I’ve got nothing.
HEIDI
Confirmed.
[More walking.]
HEIDI
Christ, I hate patrol.
DAVE
Ha, this is nothing. You should’ve been here the first couple of years. Nasty business.
HEIDI
That’s what they tell me. Can’t imagine it being that much worse, though, really.
DAVE
(chuckles) You’ve been here, what, a couple of weeks?
HEIDI
A month.
DAVE
And you’ve had how many proper contacts?
HEIDI
…What counts as a “proper” contact?
[Beat. She sighs.]
(reluctantly) Just one.
DAVE
Time was they’d be every other day, and that was just the ones we knew about. Still. You don’t hear me complaining abou–
[He stops abruptly]
HEIDI
(panicked) What?!
DAVE
(flat, slow) I need you to tell me what I’m seeing.
HEIDI
(confused now) What?
DAVE
Just do it. I – want to be certain.
HEIDI
Uh… okay. Er, looks like an cassette player. Pretty banged up. Er, do you want me t–
DAVE
No! No, no. Don’t touch it.
…I was certain we’d got them all by now. Especially in this sector…
HEIDI
Perhaps it’s new!
DAVE
God, I hope not. That would be… Well, it might be nothing. Or it might be very bad.
HEIDI
So what do we do, smash it?
[Beat]
DAVE
Leave it. Note the location in the log and if it’s still here when Echo team come through, well, then we start to worry.
[Footsteps as Dave starts to leave]
[Heidi lingers, writing in her clipboard]
DAVE
(calling) Fall behind, left behind, rookie!
[Heidi gives a little frightened gasp and scarpers to catch up]
[Footsteps fade into the distance]
[Something scuttles close on two many legs, poking around the tape recorder]
[It suddenly flees, scared off by something]
[The wind continues howling, louder and louder, until it reaches a breaking point]
[The world tears –]
[And then a deep breath, and another:]
ARCHIVIST
YES. MORE.
[Click.]
ANNOUNCER
The Magnus Protocol returns 27 February 2025, wherever you get your podcasts.