Робин Кук - Intervention

“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 allowing us to do our work? From my perspective, your wishes are relatively irrelevant, although, being a realist, a call from you to Jack’s boss might be sufficient to put us out on the street. But if that happens, we will go elsewhere.”

“Sometimes I am truly surprised at your naïveté,” 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 you to hear from him and to feel his passion, and I want you to do it not as two ships passing in the night, which would enable you to close your ears to him and wall up your heart. I want you to spend quality time with him. Being realistic, how much longer do you two think you will need to study the ossuary’s contents?”

Shawn looked up at Sana, who responded, “My input in this affair, as I mentioned, is going extremely well. Provided there are no surprises, a total of about a week at most.”

“It’s harder for me to say,” Shawn admitted. “It’s all up to how long the unrolling is going to take. My guess and hope is that after one or two more three-hundred-sixty-degree cycles, it will become one hundred percent easier. It’s been my experience that the original moisture caused more of a problem with the pages closest to the scroll’s surface. With that variable in mind, I’d say anywhere from one week to two months.”

“All right, then,” James said. “I’ll accept you people inviting Luke Hester as a houseguest for one week. But this must be, as I said, quality time. You must engage him and be interested in his life story, which has not been the easiest. The man has suffered but with the help of the Blessed Virgin has overcome his travail and torments. In other words, you must be hospitable to him as a true guest, like the child of one of your closest friends.”

“What’s being hospitable?” Shawn asked warily. In some ways, this caveat seemed too easy. In other ways, he thought it capable of driving him crazy. Shawn had never been good at small talk, except with attractive women in bars with the aid of alcoholic lubricant.

“I believe that is intuitive,” James said.

“How old is this man?” Sana said.

“I’ll leave that up to you to determine,” James said. “There is a disconnect between his age and his appearance. I found him very easy to speak with, and he is, as I said, quite charming and intelligent. Of course he might have some psychological scars from his difficult childhood, but they were not apparent at all when I interviewed him.”

“I hope you’re not sticking us with some young, proselytizing born-again Christian,” Shawn said. “I’m not sure I could take a week of that.”

“I mentioned he is charming,” James said. “I meant it. I’ve also told him the whole story about the ossuary, so you will have plenty to talk about. Now, what I’d like to know is whether we have a clear understanding of what the deal is here. I’m going to give him a mobile phone so he can call me. If he calls and complains that either of you is not engaging him appropriately, the deal is off. Is that understood?” James looked at both Shawn and Sana in turn, making sure he got clear acquiescence from both. The very last thing he wanted was for one of them, after the fact, to claim that they didn’t understand the deal. With a threat, the problem was that you had to be willing to carry it out.