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I shook my head. “I just got here, sir.”
“Okay, Alex, do you want to brief them on the situation?”
Alex nodded and opened his laptop.
“Over the last few years, archaeologists have been excavating a site just north of the Dead Sea. They believed it to be the true location of the city of Sodom, and they were right. Several artefacts have been excavated and tested, and the excavation which was initially restricted to a certain area, has now received funding and the go ahead to cover a larger area. This is not good news, and we're unsure of how this got past the board. The London office is looking into that now."
I looked at Branson. "The Concordia don't want Sodom excavated? Wasn't it destroyed?"
Branson sighed. "It was, supposedly. And it's not exactly great PR for the guys upstairs, so they don't want humans digging around more than necessary, but it's not only that."
I listened as Alex continued his briefing, my mind racing to connect the dots. The excavation of the city of Sodom had triggered alarm bells within me. It wasn't just any ancient city; it was a place known for its wickedness and ultimate destruction. The fact that Concordia was now involved meant that there was more to this situation than met the eye.
"Alastor, we suspect that there may be supernatural elements at play here," Alex said. "We've received reports of strange occurrences around the excavation site — unexplained phenomena, unusual energy readings, and even reports of sightings of demonic entities. These aren't just modern sightings; they go all the way back to around 900BC."
"You think the humans have found something they shouldn't?" I asked.
"Not yet," answered Alex. "But we've had researchers keeping an eye on the city for a few decades, and I have an idea that there might be something hidden there that we don't want humanity to discover."
I frowned. "Like what?"
"Like a certain scroll." Alex turned his laptop around and showed us a photograph of what looked like a metal pipe.
I commented as much, and Alex shook his head. "It's a copper scroll found in a cave near Qumran in Israel. If I'm right, and the other scroll is at Sodom, this is what it would look like."
“Wasn’t that copper scroll the one that’s supposed to be a treasure map?” Lily asked, leaning forward. I raised my eyebrows. “What?” She shrugged. “I like treasure as much as the next broke stripper.”
I shook my head, waiting for Alex to continue.
He nodded. “Lily’s kind of right. The copper scroll found in Israel lists sixty-four locations where gold or silver treasure has supposedly been hidden. The treasure is rumoured to be whatwas taken from the First Temple before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE.”
"Ok, so what about the one you think is at Sodom? Another treasure map? I can't see why the Concordia would be that bothered about that. And wouldn't it have been destroyed along with the city?"
"I don't think the one at Sodom is a treasure map. I think it was hidden there after the city was destroyed. And I think it was hidden by Solomon himself."
I blinked. "Solomon as in...?"
“King Solomon, builder of the First Temple, enslaver of demons, first sorcerer. Yes, that would be the one.”
“What’s in the scroll, Alex?” I asked, leaning forward with a mixture of dread and excitement beginning to stir inside me.
“We’re not entirely sure. Solomon was supposedly vastly wealthy, but I don't think this is a map. I think this is a description of one of his rituals."
"I thought we had all Solomon's rituals?" asked Lily. "You can print them off the internet. Thankfully no one ever manages to get them right or have the power to actually summon the demons involved, but they're definitely up there."
"You can't use the full rituals to summon demons unless you have Solomon's ring," I explained quickly to Lily. "Other than the protective circle, the rituals are triggered by the runes on the ring itself, which has never been found."
"I think this is a ritual we haven't seen before," said Alex. "What worries me is why Solomon would conceal it in the ruins of a destroyed city, separate from his other writings."
I looked over at him. "You think it's buried with the ring?"
Alex nodded. "I think it's a real possibility."
The room fell silent as we absorbed Alex's words. The idea that the hidden scroll might be connected to Solomon's ring was both intriguing and unsettling. If the scroll did indeed containa previously unknown ritual, it could hold immense power. And if it was buried with the legendary ring, who knew what dark forces could be unleashed upon the world?
Branson leaned forward, his expression grave. "If that's the case, then we have to act swiftly. The power it holds is unimaginable. We can't let this fall into the wrong hands. The repercussions would be catastrophic. Alastor, I want you to lead a team to Sodom and retrieve that scroll, if it exists."
"Understood," I replied firmly. "I‘ll depart for Sodom immediately, but how do we even know where to start looking? The site must be a vast area, and if this scroll is as important as we suspect, it could be hidden anywhere."
