DEPARTMENT OF ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
DIRECTORATE SURVEILLANCE DIVISION — AUDIO ARCHIVE
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FILE: AL-DANTE-57 / INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (PARTIAL)
CLASSIFICATION: LEVEL 5 — RESTRICTED
ACCESS: SURVEILLANCE, HISTORICAL RECON, DIRECTORATE REVIEW
DATE: 1957-03-14
LOCATION: Safehouse Facility, Washington D.C.
MEDIUM: Reel-to-reel magnetic tape (Vault Transfer No. 212-A)
STATUS: Partial transcript — portions degraded, portions redacted
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[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Interrogator (Field Officer ███████):
“Name for the record?”
Subject (ARC-DANTE-01):
“Dante.”
Interrogator:
“Family name?”
Subject:
“I have none worth writing.”
Interrogator:
“You’re in the District without papers. You’ve been seen attending meetings. Explain your political leanings. Are you with the Party?”
Subject:
“No party. I don’t march well with crowds.”
[Pause — tape hiss]
Interrogator:
“You’ve been observed in multiple residences over the last decade. Neighbors say you never age. You deny that?”
Subject:
“I deny knowing my neighbors. People remember poorly.”
Interrogator:
“Do you understand why that sounds like evasion? Men disappear when they dodge questions in this town.”
Subject:
“Men disappear for less.”
[Chair scrape, extended silence — five seconds]
Interrogator:
“Tell me about the woman. Beatrice. She was seen with you. Where is she now?”
Subject:
“… She is gone.”
Interrogator:
“Gone where?”
Subject:
“You already know. Ask the collectors. They keep accounts. They break bones when the sums don’t balance.”
[Tape distortion — three seconds white hiss]
Second Voice (unidentified, likely ARC-VIRGIL-01):
“You won’t get him to say it. He won’t put it in your ledger.”
Interrogator:
“Who the hell is—”
[Audio garbled, voices overlap. Segment redacted ██████████████████]
Subject (ARC-DANTE-01):
“… She dies every time. You don’t need to know more.”
[Silence — 11 seconds, steady hum on tape]
Interrogator:
“Are you claiming you’ve lived through… more than one lifetime with her?”
Subject:
“No. I’m claiming you weren’t there. That’s all.”
[End reel — tape stops abruptly]
POST-INTERVIEW NOTES (Filed 1957-03-16)
Subject gave no confirmation of anomalous nature.
Casual acknowledgment of Beatrice’s death consistent with known homicide (loan-shark collectors, alleyway, 1957-03-11).
Apparent secondary speaker (ARC-VIRGIL-01) present though no entry recorded at door. Analysts divided on whether voice is artifact or intrusion.
Subject released under cover story (misidentified civilian, communist suspicion cleared). Surveillance resumed.
DIRECTORATE FOOTER:
This transcript is considered foundational evidence of anomaly persistence into 20th century. Exposure of ARC-VIRGIL-01 voice constitutes earliest confirmed audio capture.
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END OF FILE — AL-DANTE-57 (INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT)
DEPARTMENT OF ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
DIRECTORATE SURVEILLANCE DIVISION — INTERNAL MEMO
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FILE: MEMO-DANTE-57A / POST-INTERVIEW FIELD REPORT
CLASSIFICATION: LEVEL 5 — RESTRICTED
AUTHOR: Field Officer ███████
DATE: 1957-03-17
LOCATION: Washington D.C. Safehouse
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SUBJECT: REFLECTIONS ON ARC-DANTE-01 INTERVIEW
Directorate,
Per directive, I submit personal notes following the March 14 interrogation of ARC-DANTE-01. These are not for inclusion in the official transcript, but as addendum for review.
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
The subject unnerves in ways not captured on tape. He did not flinch under questioning. He did not sweat. He looked at me with something that felt older than I was, older than the case itself.
When asked about Beatrice, his voice broke not with anger but with exhaustion — as if he had answered the same question for centuries. I could not shake the feeling that I was not the first to sit across from him in that chair, nor would I be the last.
THE SECOND VOICE
The second voice on tape — analysts argue anomaly or intrusion — was heard in the room. I am not mistaken. It came from the far wall, though no one stood there. Subject did not react. Only after the voice faded did he look at me, as though testing whether I had heard it too.
My pen shook when I wrote the log after. For the record, I did hear it.
PERSONAL RESPONSE
The Directorate tells us to observe, not to feel. But in that room, with his silence pressing in, I felt small. Like a clerk scratching questions at the margin of a book already written.
He knows something about endings. He carries it like a burden. And though the official report says we learned nothing, I disagree:
We learned that nothing will make him speak plainly. Not threats, not sympathy. He has outlived both.
CLOSING NOTE
If Beatrice dies every time, as he said — then we should prepare to see her death again. I find myself dreading it, though it is not my mandate to care.
I request reassignment after this rotation. Not for fear of him — but for fear of watching.
— Field Officer ███████
DIRECTORATE FOOTER:
This memo preserved despite author’s reassignment request being granted. File retained as early documentation of the “Soap Opera Effect.”
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END OF FILE — MEMO-DANTE-57A
DEPARTMENT OF ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA
DIRECTORATE SURVEILLANCE DIVISION — SUPERVISORY MEMO
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FILE: MEMO-DANTE-57B / RESPONSE TO FIELD OFFICER REPORT
CLASSIFICATION: LEVEL 5 — RESTRICTED
AUTHOR: Supervisor ██████████, Regional Command — Eastern Sector
DATE: 1957-03-21
LOCATION: Washington D.C. Directorate Office
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SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO MEMO-DANTE-57A (ARC-DANTE-01 INTERVIEW REFLECTIONS)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Field Officer ███████’s request for reassignment following the March 14 interrogation of ARC-DANTE-01 is hereby approved. Effective immediately, subject will be rotated to non-anomalous counterintelligence operations until further notice. Personnel file updated.
SUPERVISORY COMMENTARY
The Directorate does not require its agents to editorialize on anomalies. Our mission is not to feel, not to speculate, not to humanize. The subject (ARC-DANTE-01) presents as human, yes — he eats, bleeds, and walks the city like any other. Yet his persistence across centuries is the anomaly, and only that matters.
Your reflections on his demeanor (“older than the case,” “carrying endings”) are noted only as evidence of psychological drift. They fall under what medical has begun terming the Soap Opera Effect. You are not the first to succumb to it, nor will you be the last.
DIRECTIVE
Future interviewers are to treat ARC-DANTE-01 with the same posture as any civilian suspect. Questions will be asked; answers will be weighed. We do not require his cooperation, only his consistency. His silence is data enough.
References to “the second voice” are to be logged, but not sensationalized. ARC-VIRGIL-01 remains uncontainable; your testimony that you heard him is filed, but no operational changes will be made.
CLOSING NOTE
This file (ARCH-DANTE-01) was the Directorate’s first case in 1898. It will likely outlast us all. Agents are not expected to endure it indefinitely. They are expected to serve their rotation, file their reports, and move on.
You did your part. That is enough.
— Supervisor ██████████
Regional Command, Eastern Sector
DIRECTORATE FOOTER:
Preserve normalcy. Protect humanity. Control the anomaly.
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END OF FILE — MEMO-DANTE-57B