Page 38 of Major

“You’re killing me here, Elena,” said Hex. “What is it, honey?”

“Mummies. Two mummies.”

“Mummies? Okay, how is that different? It’s Egypt. There are mummies for everyone, some famous, some not. What makes this so different?”

“My father and Dr. Goldmeir believed that the mummies were the bodies of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.”

“What?” frowned Luke. “How? I mean, why? Why would they believe they were mummified?”

“I’m not sure, but it explains why Egypt. If someone believed that their bodies should be preserved and buried together, Egyptians were the experts at mummification. Perhaps they thought if they put the mummies in a tomb, away from the Romans, they would be safer.

“But think of the implications of this if it’s true.”

“What do you mean?” asked Major.

“It would prove whether or not Jesus was crucified. It could prove what killed Mary. It would, could offer DNA evidence that might show a lineage for Jesus and Mary. It’s long been speculated by some theologians that they were in a relationship and had a child together.”

“I don’t think I like where this is going,” said Luke. “Do you understand the number of people that would be angry about finding this? We’re talking churches, particularly the Vatican and the Roman Catholic church, templars, scientists, so many more.”

“If Daphne was right, and she thinks it could be sitting in her auction house, this will be an absolute fiasco, media circus frenzy!” said Eric.

“Do you think whoever wanted me knew that it was mummies? Or do you think they believed it was the Ark and Veil?”

“That’s something we won’t know until we find them,” said Major. “This only confirms that we need to make sure Daphne does not stick her nose into the warehouse of the auction house. If someone has made the connection between you two and where she works, this could blow up in her face.”

“He has something written here. It’s a passage of some sort.” She flipped through a few pages, May still reading over her shoulder as she did. “I found it. It’s from an alleged firsthand account of a Roman guard that converted to a believer.”

We trudged through the blistering desert sun for weeks, unsure of where we were going. The caravan is not aware of what we haul, and we mustn’t let them know. It could be the death of all of us. To get his body away from the Romans, we had to move swiftly and leave no trace. If it is to be believed, the Egyptians will help us conceal them forever.

“Is it possible?” asked Hex.

“I don’t know,” said Elena, shaking her head. “We know that when Jesus’s tomb was opened, he was gone. It was believed that no one had entered before Mary Magdalene and another Mary. The story says that an Angel told them to enter and spread the word that Jesus lived. He was gone. But did he rise and live, or was he dead and removed? The Bible would say the former.”

“What does your gut tell you, honey?” asked Major.

“My gut says I’m a ‘gotta see it to believe it’ girl. I don’t know. I want to believe in what the Bible tells me. I mean, there’s a piece of me that says it tells me I’m part of something greater than what I can see, hear, and feel. Then the science part of my brain says I believe the bodies were removed.”

“But Mary Magdalene didn’t die until years later,” said May.

“That’s the other problem,” said Elena. “Did they hold his body until she died? Or did they mummify him and get her later? If I’m reading this information correctly, it sounds as if they had both bodies.”

“You know, the people looking for that diary may not be religious at all. It could be quite the opposite. They might be trying to prove that everything we knew from the bible is wrong and basically start a war with religions all over the world,” said Eric.

“Who would want to do that?” asked Elena.

“Scientists, academics, those who believe the world was created by ancient aliens, not God. This would make the world have a whole new something to fight about,” said Eric.

“What did he actually find? Where did he get all this information, and why, why on earth would my mother hide this diary?” asked Elena.

“It could be that she knew what would happen,” said May. “Your mother isn’t an uneducated woman. I’m sure she was well aware of what would happen if the information leaked out. Your father was a well-known archaeologist, and so was Dr. Goldmeir. A find like this from the two of them would have turned the world of archaeology on its ear.”

“Look, we need to find out if they actually had something in those tunnels or if it was all a dead end,” said Luke. He looked at Elena, shaking his head. “Sorry. Poor choice of words.”

“It’s alright,” she smiled. “I understand. The problem is there’s no way for us to determine if there was anything in there or not. By the time this would have occurred, mummification stopped around the fourth or fifth century A.D., and there were no pharaohs any longer. I just don’t know what to do.”

As quickly as she expressed the thought, Brix came running into the room.

“I have Daph on the phone. She stuck her damn nose where she wasn’t supposed to!”

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