was sitting at the center table with his back to the door, leaped up and opened it.
James entered with some trepidation of what he would find, and his fears were quickly validated. In front of him were the bones of the ossuary laid out on the table in anatomical positions. Even though he trusted in his heart they were not the bones of the Blessed Virgin, having them so irreverently displayed seemed to him a sacrilege similar to how he felt when he’d watched Shawn and Sana dump the ossuary into the dirty trunk of the taxi. James found himself trembling.
“What on earth is the matter?” Shawn questioned, sensing James’s discomfiture.
“These bones,” James managed. “It seems so disrespectful. It’s like staring at someone naked.”
“Should I cover them with some gowns while you are here?” Shawn questioned.
“It’s not necessary,” James insisted. “It was just the initial shock.” Instead of looking at the bones, James directed his attention to Shawn’s work area at the end of the table, where he had the first of the three scrolls immobilized and his Rube Goldberg cold-humidifying device set up along with a stack of glass panes. It was obvious that his unrolling the scroll was proceeding at a snail’s pace.
“Are you having trouble?” James asked, bending over to look at the script on the several pages that had been unrolled.
“It’s a painstaking process,” Shawn agreed.
“It’s very beautiful Aramaic script,” James commented. “Have you learned any more?”
“After the first two very enlightening pages, the text has devolved to an autobiography of Simon’s childhood and his early progress of becoming a magician. It seems that he had very early success.”
“How’s Sana making out with her mitochondrial DNA work?” James asked. He looked through the glazed door into the gowning room and then through a second glazed door into the laboratory itself. James could see Sana scurrying about with an intent expression on her face.
“If you want to go in, you’ll have to gown and glove and put on a hood. She’s being very careful about contamination. As far as her progress is concerned, I haven’t the faintest idea. When we arrived this morning, she went directly in there after changing into her scrubs. My sense is that she’s doing just fine. If not, I’m sure she would have been back in here to complain. Thanks to Jack, she’s got a terrific lab to work in, with all the latest equipment.”
James rapped loudly on the gowning-room glass door in hopes of attracting Sana’s attention. He could tell it was immediately successful, because she suddenly stopped moving and lifted her head as if listening. James rapped on the glass again and caught her attention by waving. She waved back. Then James waved for her to come back into the outer office, which she immediately did.
“Good morning, James,” Sana said as she poked her hooded head into the office. “Or is it afternoon already?”
“It’s afternoon,” James said. “And would you mind joining us for a few moments? I have a proposition to share with you people.”
Sana hesitated, realizing she’d have to change her scrubs if she passed beyond the gowning room. Recognizing that was hardly much of an inconvenience, she stepped beyond the door she was holding ajar and let it close behind her.
“What kind of proposition?” Shawn asked warily.
“Yes, what do you have in mind?” Sana questioned, while pulling off her hood.
“First, let me ask how you are doing in there?” James questioned. “I see Shawn is making headway, if not at the speed he’d prefer.”
“I’m doing extremely well,” Sana said. “The lab is truly twenty-first-century and conveniently designed to maximize productivity. I’m already going to be at the extraction phase this afternoon with the centrifuges. Right now my pulp sample is in the solvents with the detergent to break open the cells and the proteinases to denature the proteins. At this rate, I could be at the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, stage as early as tomorrow.”
“No need to fill me in on the details,” James said. “It’s all Greek to me!” Everyone laughed, even James. “Second of all, I’d like to thank you for such a wonderful evening last night, and say that the food was out of this world.”
“Thank you, Father,” Sana said, blushing to a degree.
“I wish I could say the same about the company,” James added, with a chuckle to indicate he was trying to be humorous. “I’m joking, of course, but I was disappointed to learn that my wish for the Blessed Virgin to be left out of this affair is not going to happen. At least not at this time. Am I right in this assumption, Shawn?”
“Absolutely. I don’t know how to be more clear. Last night I must confess I was bombed, and for the life of me I cannot remember everything I said. For that I apologize, but I believe I was quite clear about my intentions in relation to the ossuary and its contents.”
“Clear, indeed,” James said. “Clear enough for me to spend a good amount of time thinking and praying for guidance after leaving your home last night about what I should do to try to change your mind. First of all, I personally have given up trying to do it myself. We are too familiar with each other, as evidenced by your calling me lardo.”
“Good God!” Shawn cried, slapping his forehead. “Don’t tell me I called you lardo.
How disrespectful. I’m terribly sorry, old friend.”
“I’m afraid you did,” James said. “But you are forgiven, as I have done far too little to diminish its sad appropriateness. Going beyond that, I have decided to allow you both to continue your studies of the ossuary contents, with one caveat.” A small, derisive smile appeared on Shawn’s face. “What makes you think you are
“Sometimes I am truly surprised at your naivete,” James said. “First of all, you still don’t seem to recognize that ultimately the proof of these bones being those of the Blessed Virgin must rely on Simon Magus telling his assistant, Saturninus, that it was so.
From a theological perspective, which is what this is all about, you are basing your argument on the worst possible source. If all Simon wanted to do was trade the bones for Peter’s healing powers, there would have been no need to make the extra effort to get the real ones. Any female bones would have sufficed, which is what I believe these bones are. They are the bones of a random first-century female, not the Blessed Virgin’s.”
“I counter that argument with Saturninus’s statement about Simon being disappointed that the bones themselves didn’t mystically convey to him the healing power. If they weren’t definitely the Virgin’s bones, he wouldn’t have suspected or hoped that they would have done the trick themselves.”
“I’ve given up debating this affair,” James said, holding up his hand. “As I said earlier, I have relinquished trying to change your mind myself. But as for my power to stop you, consider this. Unless you accept the caveat I alluded to, I plan to go to the authorities today. That sounds like a desperate move, but I am desperate for the Church and myself.
I will declare the ossuary a hoax and you a thief so that instead of being an accessory, I will more likely be considered a hero for risking myself to expose this faithless attack on the Church.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” Shawn said, but without much confidence. After all, had he been caught in a web similar to James’s, he might very well do the same thing. For as much as the ossuary affair was a win-win for him, for James it was clearly a lose-lose.
“I’m going to contact the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology today, let them know how you abused their original courtesy to you, and let them contact their counterparts in both the Italian and Egyptian governments, who will not take kindly to your antics, and who will demand you be arrested, and you, too, Sana. Whether there will be an extradition, I don’t know, but surely the ossuary and its contents will immediately be returned, as will the codex and Saturninus’s letter.”
“You’re extorting me!” Shawn cried.
“How would you characterize what you are doing to me?”
“This is outrageous,” Shawn continued.
“What is the caveat you spoke of?” Sana questioned.
“Thankfully, we have one sensible individual as part of the conspiracy,” James said.
“The caveat is very simple and quite innocuous. I have found a charming, even radiant, young man who has in effect devoted his life to Mary and has been living in a Marian monastery for nearly the last eight years. I want
