The Third Day

“I’m certain of it. How many more of those things do you have?”

“Three.”

“I’d be prepared to hand them over, though the more difficult question will be where you got them in the first place. To the Romans, the Germans are uncultured barbarians, and anyone from lands beyond Germany is probably even worse.

“Let’s face it,” Lavon continued, “Two thousand years ago — or right about now, as strange as it is to say — our ancestors were crawling around the forests of northern Europe wrapped in animal skins. The Industrial Revolution is a long way off.”

“Mine weren’t,” said Markowitz.

I gave him an odd glance, but let his comment pass.

“Couldn’t we have picked up some technology along the way?” asked Bryson.

“Sure, but where? I had to tell Publius that we came to Judea around the eastern part of the Black Sea. The Romans already occupied the western side — modern Romania and Bulgaria — and I couldn’t run the risk of saying we had traveled though some place this guy might have actually seen in person.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“To the east you either have steppes, home to nomadic horsemen, or the Caucasus, the domain of wild mountain tribes. We’re unlikely to have picked up any advanced science from either group.”

“What about China?” asked Bergfeld. “They had advanced technology for the era, and the Silk Road went — ”

I had to interrupt. Complex webs of lies eventually spun out of control, a phenomenon that had allowed me to make a nice living over the past few years. The closer we stuck to the truth, the less risk we would run.

Bryson, though, was no longer paying attention. He stared down at his chip, which still glowed bright red.

“I think I’ve figured out what happened: Scott must have reprogrammed the machine. I configured the chips with an automated recall feature. We had to have that anyway for the first live animal tests, and Juliet insisted that she retain some way to retrieve me later on, even though we had proven that the technology operated precisely according to its design parameters.”

“OK, but how does that impact our situation now?” I asked.

“You were right in your suspicions earlier today, Mr. Culloden: there’s no way Juliet would have voluntarily permitted him to come back here. Since he undoubtedly knew that, he would have altered the recall feature to keep her from bringing him straight back to Boston as soon as he arrived in this world.”

“I would imagine he’d want to go back at some point,” said Lavon.

“True; but he would have wanted to stay through Sunday. The young man was quite a fan of Dawkins, especially his latest work.”

Several years earlier, Richard Dawkins, an English biologist, had written a book entitled The God Delusion. At last count, it had sold over a million copies.

“He would have seen this as a golden opportunity,” said Bryson.

“To do what?” said Sharon, “to show that we Christians are all fools?”

Bryson nodded. “I cautioned him that a true scientist must keep his mind open to the objective evidence, whichever way it falls, and not try to demonstrate anything, one way or the other.”

“That’s what all scientists are supposed to do, isn’t it?” asked Markowitz.

Bryson laughed. “It’s a nice theory,” he replied. “But I believe it was Planck who said that no one is ever converted to a new idea in science. It is only after the generation who clung to the old idea eventually dies off that the concept finds broad acceptance.”

“He spoke of religion?”

“No,” said Bryson, “quantum mechanics; which was, as my wife undoubtedly explained, a most outrageous notion at the time.”

He paused for a moment; then peered into Bergfeld’s eyes.

“As I said, I cautioned Scott to keep both his eyes and his mind open. I must ask you the same question: are you, Sharon, prepared to act in accordance with the evidence we encounter?”

She didn’t reply.

“If we see — if you see — the disciples carting the body out of the tomb, are you prepared to face what follows?”

“That there is no God?”

“No, we’d still have no proof of that either way; but we would see that the Jesus of your childhood wasn’t the deity you sang to in Sunday school.”

Sharon stared down at the table. She didn’t say anything, but in her heart, she had to have recognized his point.

Though I consider myself a pretty rational person, most of the time at least, I had to consider the same thing. Perhaps some things were better off not known.

Chapter 24

While the others continued to debate, I poured myself a second cup of wine and then reached into my bag to extract a small rubberized bud, which I managed to slip into my ear just before two men strode into our room as if they owned the place.

That was because they did.

It took me a second to recognize the centurion Publius, since he had stripped off his armor and donned a clean white tunic.

The other man, a Roman named Volusus, had served as the fort’s commander for past two years. A slave followed in their wake with another jug of wine and two additional goblets, though as soon as he filled them, he scurried out of the room.

Lavon and I both stood and beckoned the two Romans to take our seats, but they chose to remain standing.

Publius got straight to the point. “I have explained what your companion did for my man,” he said to Lavon.

I spoke through Robert to ask Publius how the soldier was doing, and whether his wound had remained free of infection.

Fortunately for my image as a miracle worker, it had.

“He is doing remarkably well for a wound of that severity,” replied Publius. “In fact, I have seen no others who have survived such an injury.”

“We must have more of those bandages,” said Volusus.

Lavon’s warning had been prescient. I had no choice but to reach into my bag and pull out two. I offered them both to the commander.

“Tell him these are all we have. I am keeping only the last one for ourselves in case we encounter an emergency.”

Volusus looked puzzled. “Can you not make more?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot. I brought these from our country, where we buy them from skilled artisans. I have seen no others since we left, months ago.”

The two Romans exchanged odd glances. We learned later that both men had served in Germany. As Lavon feared, at no time had they ever heard of advanced civilizations in the unknown territory beyond.

Hoping to divert their attention, I held up the remaining bandage. “Tell them that they must save these for the most severe cases. And they must never open the package until they are ready to use it.”

“Why not?” Publius asked.

“It reacts with the moisture in the wound, or in the air,” I explained. “If it is exposed too early, it will not function properly. Also, tell him that only the white side may have direct contact with the injured body part; only the white side.”