Section Eleven

I'm recording this in the Cloister of Santa Chiara. I've just been to the museum. I had to go there just to get away, to take stock. I know it costs, but it always feels so cool there, so welcoming, that it's just what I need. The old guy on the desk let me con him into accepting (not believing it for a minute) that I was a student, so it wasn't too expensive.
I always make a bee-line for the Farnese collection. The sheer antiquity and power and size of them just, for some reason, fill me with awe. I like that, somehow. I like the coolness of old stone. I like that ability to lose myself in something all-powerful yet remote. It takes me out of myself and away from our problems. And I reckon that we really are about to have some pretty heavy problems.
I need to take stock. We all need to take stock. But will anyone do anything? Jim seems the only guy in the team capable of making decisions. Different culture, I guess.
It might seem weird, and it certainly seems pretty strange committing this to tape, but I seem to be able to commune with those statues somehow. Some of them seem to have some sort of intelligence going back over the years, and when I come out again, it's like I've been having a conversation with hundreds of different voices and now, as I sit here, my head's buzzing with ideas...
Hang on, there's someone coming. The train started to slow. She checked that it was her station next. Put the machine in pause. Leapt up. Picked up the holdall and went for the open door like a sky-diver heading for the exit to the sky. One fell swoop for a woman...
Clunking up the stairs, she slipped the tape back into play. ...Sorry about that. This place is pretty peaceful, but it's still quite a tourist trap, albeit an extremely tasteful one. The way things are going, I think I'll have to make a break for it.
Where was I? Oh yes, the Farnese Collection. It seems incredible to be saying this. When I was a kid, my folks would've found it easier to drag me off to the dentist's than some museum. But now I'm hooked. My particular favourite is the Farnos Bull. If you're ever over here, try to get the chance to see it. It's - there's more people coming. Don't think I can talk now. Got to go quick.
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