'Then why are you talking to us now?'
'When you and Cotton left Copenhagen, I came straight here. I realized you would eventually find Cassiopeia. That's precisely why she was in Rennes two nights ago-to draw you in her direction. Originally, I was to stay in the background and you were not to know of our connection, but I changed my mind. This has gone too far. You need to know the truth, so I'm here to tell it to you.'
'So good of you,' Stephanie said.
Malone stared at the older man's hooded eyes. Thorvaldsen was right. He'd played both ends against the middle many times. Stephanie had, too. 'Henrik, I haven't been a player in this kind of game in more than a year. I got out because I didn't want to play anymore. Lousy rules, bad odds. But at the moment I'm hungry and, I have to say, curious. So let's eat, and you tell us all about that truth we need to know.'
Lunch was a roasted rabbit seasoned with parsley, thyme, and marjoram, along with fresh asparagus, a salad, and a currant dessert topped with vanilla cream. While he ate, Malone tried to assess the situation. Their hostess seemed the most at ease, but he was unimpressed with her cordiality.
'You specifically challenged de Roquefort last night in the palace,' he said to her. 'Where'd you learn your craft?'
'Self-taught. My father passed to me his boldness, and my mother blessed me with an insight into the male mind.'
Malone smiled. 'One day you may guess wrong.'
'I'm glad you care about my future. Did you ever guess wrong as an American agent?'
'Many times, and folks died from it occasionally.'
'Henrik's son on that list?'
He resented the jab, particularly considering she knew nothing of what happened. 'Like here, people were given bad information. Bad information leads to bad decisions.'
'The young man died.'
'Cai Thorvaldsen was in the wrong place at the wrong time,' Stephanie made clear.
'Cotton is right,' Henrik said as he stopped eating. 'My son died because he was not alerted to the danger around him. Cotton was there and did what he could.'
'I didn't mean to imply that he was to blame,' Cassiopeia said. 'It was only that he seemed anxious to tell me how to run my business. I simply wondered if he could run his own. After all, he did quit.'
Thorvaldsen sighed. 'You have to forgive her, Cotton. She's brilliant, artistic, a cognoscenta in music, a collector of antiques. But she inherited her father's lack of manners. Her mother, God rest her precious soul, was more refined.'
'Henrik fancies himself my surrogate father.'
'You're lucky,' Malone said, scrutinizing her carefully, 'that I didn't shoot you off that motorcycle in Rennes.'
'I didn't expect you to escape the Tour Magdala so quickly. I'm sure the domain operators are quite upset about the loss of that casement window. It was an original, I believe.'
'I'm waiting to hear that truth you spoke about,' Stephanie said to Thorvaldsen. 'You asked me in Denmark to keep an open mind about you and what Lars thought important. Now we see that your involvement is far more than any of us realized. Surely, you can understand how we'd be suspicious.'
Thorvaldsen laid down his fork. 'All right. What's the extent of your knowledge about the New Testament?'
An odd question, Malone thought. But he knew Stephanie was a practicing Catholic.
'Among other things, it contains the four Gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-which tell us about Jesus Christ.'
Thorvaldsen nodded. 'History is clear that the New Testament, as we know it, was formulated during the first four centuries after Christ as a way to universalize the emerging Christian message. After all, that's what catholic means-'universal.' Remember, unlike today, in the ancient world politics and religion were one and the same. As paganism declined, and Judaism retreated within itself, people began searching for something new. The followers of Jesus, who were merely Jews embracing a different perspective, formed their own version of the Word, but so did the Carpocratians, the Essenes, the Naassenes, the Gnostics, and a hundred other emerging sects. The main reason the Catholic version survived, while others faltered, was its ability to impose its belief universally. They grafted onto the Scriptures so much authority that eventually no one could question their validity without being deemed a heretic. But there are many problems with the New Testament.'
The Bible was a favorite of Malone's. He'd read it and much historical analysis and knew all about its inconsistencies. Each Gospel was a murky mixture of fact, rumor, legend, and myth that had been subjected to countless translations, edits, and redactions.
'Remember, the emerging Christian Church existed in the Roman world,' Cassiopeia was saying. 'In order to attract followers, the Church fathers had to compete not only with a variety of pagan beliefs, but also their own Jewish beliefs. They also needed to set themselves apart. Jesus had to be more than a mere prophet.'
Malone was becoming impatient. 'What does this have to do with what's happening here?'
'Think what finding the bones of Christ would mean for Christianity,' Cassiopeia said. 'That religion revolves around Christ dying on the cross, resurrecting, and ascending into heaven.'
'That belief is a matter of faith,' Geoffrey quietly said.
'He's right,' Stephanie said. 'Faith, not fact, defines it.'
Thorvaldsen shook his head. 'Let's remove that element from the equation for a moment, since faith also eliminates logic. Think about this. If a man named Jesus existed, how would the chroniclers of the New Testament know anything about His life? Just consider the language dilemma. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New was penned in Greek, and any source materials, if they even existed, would have been in Aramaic. Then there's the issue of the sources themselves.
'Matthew and Luke tell of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, but Jesus was alone when that occurred. And Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke says He uttered it after leaving Peter, James, and John a stone's throw away. When Jesus returned He found the disciples asleep and was immediately arrested, then crucified. There's absolutely no mention of Jesus ever saying a word about the prayer in the garden or the temptation in the wilderness. Yet we know its every detail. How?
'All of the Gospels speak of the disciples fleeing at Jesus's arrest-so none of them was there-yet detailed accounts of the crucifixion are recorded in all four. Where did these details come from? What the Roman soldiers did, what Pilate and Simon did. How would the Gospel writers know any of that? The faithful would say the information came from God's inspiration. But the four Gospels, these so-called Words of God, conflict with each other far more than they agree. Why would God offer only confusion?'
'Maybe that's not for us to question,' Stephanie said.
'Come now,' Thorvaldsen said. 'There are too many examples of contradictions for us to simply dismiss them as intentional. Let's look at it in generalities. John's Gospel mentions much that the other three-the so-called synoptic Gospels-completely ignore. The tone in John is also different, the message more refined. John's is like an entirely different testimony. But some of the more precise inconsistencies start with Matthew and Luke. Those are the only two that say anything of Jesus's birth and ancestry, and even they conflict. Matthew says Jesus was an aristocrat, descended from David, in line to be king. Luke agrees with the David connection, but points to a lesser class. Mark went an entirely different direction and spawned the image of a poor carpenter.
'Jesus's birth is likewise told from differing perspectives. Luke says shepherds visited. Matthew called them wise men. Luke said the holy family lived in Nazareth and journeyed to Bethlehem for a birth in a manger. Matthew says the family was well off and lived in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born-not in a manger, but in a house.
'But the crucifixion is where the greatest inconsistencies exist. The Gospels don't even agree on the date. John says the day before Passover, the other three say the day after. Luke described Jesus as meek. A lamb. Matthew goes the other way-for him Jesus brings not peace, but the sword. Even the Savior's final words varied. Matthew and Mark say it was, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Luke says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. John is even simpler. It is finished. '
Thorvaldsen paused and sipped his wine.
'And the tale of the resurrection itself is completely riddled with contradictions. Each Gospel has a different
