Read Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Using a maintenance entrance he knew from years of patrol, Julien led Camille into the Louvre’s service tunnels beneath the Cour Carrée. The walls were old stone, patched with modern conduit. Somewhere above, thousands of visitors moved through the galleries, unaware of the museum’s deeper life.

They reached a padlocked door marked Archives techniques – 1939–1945. Julien broke the lock with a crowbar from a maintenance cart.

Inside, metal shelves held black ledgers. Camille ran her torch along the spines until she found the right year. She opened a ledger and compared the list from the casket.

“Here. These numbers are marked as destroyed. But the writing is different — see? The word ‘destroyed’ was written over something else. Under ultraviolet, I could recover the original.”

Julien photographed every page.