"The Mount of Olives. We've come around the east side, and now we're skirting the southern edge."

Jake turned left onto a small street lined with sand-colored low-rises, many decorated with crudely drawn planes or cars, indicating an occupant had made hajj to Mecca. Boys chased b.a.l.l.s. Dogs worked patterns around the boys. Women shook rugs, lugged groceries, swept stoops. Men conversed on rusted lawn chairs.

My mind flashed an image of the Palestinians parked outside l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie-des-Neiges. I told Jake about them, and paraphrased some of the things Morissonneau had said.

Jake opened his mouth, reconsidered, closed it.

"What?" I asked.

"Not possible."

"What's not possible?"

"Nothing."

"What is it you're not telling me?"

All I got was a head shake.

The predawn premonition of tragedy rolled over in my brainpan.

Jake made another turn and pulled into a clearing behind the village. Ahead and to the left, stone stairs descended to what appeared to be a school. Boys stood, sat, or pushed and shoved on the steps.

"Is Morissonneau's death related to-" To what? I had no idea what we were doing. "To those men?" A sweep of my hand took in the hockey bag, the village, and the valley below. "To this?"

"Forget Muslims. Muslims don't give a rat's a.s.s about Masada or Jesus. Islam views Jesus not as a divinity, but as a holy man."

"A prophet like Abraham or Moses?"

"A messiah, even. According to Muslims, Jesus didn't die on the cross, he was taken alive to heaven, from where he will return."

That sounded familiar.

"What about Allah's Holy Warriors? The radical fringe?"

"What about them?"

"Wouldn't the jihadists love to lay their hands on the bones of Jesus?"

"Why?"

"To ransack Christianity."

A blackbird swooped to earth as we parked. We both watched it hop through garbage, wings half-spread, as though uncertain whether to stay or go.

Jake remained silent.

"I have a bad feeling about Morissonneau's death," I said.

"Don't look to Muslims."

"Who would you look to?"

"Seriously?" Jake turned to me.

I nodded.

"The Vatican."

I couldn't help laughing. "You sound like a character in The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code."

Jake didn't say anything.

Outside my window, the bird pecked roadkill. I thought of Poe. The thought was not uplifting.

"I'm listening," I said, settling back.

"You're a product of Catholic schooling?"

"I am."

"Nuns teach the New Testament?"

"They were hall of fame on guilt, but bush league on scripture."

"The good sisters teach you Jesus had siblings?"

"No."

"Of course not. That's why the James ossuary's got the pope's panties in a twist."

The metaphor was jarring.

"The RC Church has a hard-on for virgin birth."

I didn't even want to think about that one.

"And it's stupid. The New Testament is full of references to Jesus' siblings. Matthew 13:55: 'Is not his mother called Mary and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?' Mark 6:3 repeats the same thing. In Galatians 1:19, Paul refers to his meeting with 'James the Lord's brother.' Matthew 13:56 and Mark 6:3 both indicate that Jesus had sisters."

"Don't some biblical scholars interpret these as references to half-siblings, maybe born to a previous wife of Joseph before his marriage to Mary?"

"Both Matthew 1:25 and Luke 2:7 state that Jesus was Mary's first-born son, though that does not rule out prior children of Joseph. But it's not just the Bible that refers to Jesus' siblings. The historian Josephus talks of 'the brother of Jesus-who was called Christ-whose name was James.'"

Jake was on a roll.

"In Jesus' time, virginity after marriage would have been unthinkable, a violation of Jewish law. It just wasn't done."

"So James and the others might have been later children of Mary."

"Matthew's gospel plainly states that, after Jesus was born, Joseph knew knew Mary." Jake came down hard on the word "knew." "And Matthew wasn't talking handshakes and cookies. He used the word in the biblical sense. Mary." Jake came down hard on the word "knew." "And Matthew wasn't talking handshakes and cookies. He used the word in the biblical sense.

"Though Joseph isn't the only candidate for Daddy of Jesus' siblings. Once Jesus grows up, Joseph totally disappears. You never hear about the guy."

"So Mary might have remarried?"

"If Joseph died or left, it would have been expected."

I understood the dilemma for the Catholic Church.

"Whether by Joseph or by some other man, the implication is that Mary gave birth to other children. And one of them was James. So if the James ossuary is real, it throws into question the whole concept of perpetual virginity, and perhaps, by a.s.sociation, the concept of virgin birth."

Another Jake snort.

"Saint Jerome and his cronies cooked that one up in the fourth century. Jesus' pal Mary Magdalene became a prost.i.tute. Jesus' mother became a virgin. Good women don't have s.e.x. Bad women do. The idea appealed to the misogynist male ego. The concept became dogma, and the Vatican's been championing it ever since."

"So if the James ossuary is real, and the box actually belonged to Jesus' brother, the Vatican has some explaining to do."

"You bet. The idea of Mary as a mama is a mega-problem for the Vatican. h.e.l.l, even if the box means only that Joseph had other kids, that's still a problem. It suggests that Joseph impregnated his wives. And, again, the Vatican's credibility is screwed."

The blackbird had been joined by others. For a few moments I watched them squabble over carrion rights.

Okay. The James ossuary blew the lid on Mary's virginity. I could see how the Vatican would be concerned about that. I could see how Christian or Muslim radicals might want to get their hands on the box. Same argument Morissonneau had presented. Save the faith. Wreck the faith. But how did the ossuary link to the Masada skeleton? Or did it? Had the two finds coincidentally surfaced at the same time?

"What does the James ossuary have to do with Morissonneau's skeleton?"

Jake hesitated. "I'm not sure. Yet. But here's an interesting sidebar. Oded Golan worked as a volunteer at Masada."

"For Yigael Yadin?" I asked.

Jake nodded, again checked his surroundings. I wanted to probe the connection between Max and the James ossuary, but Jake gave me no chance.

"Let's go."

"Where?" I asked.

"The Jesus family tomb."

20.

BEFORE I I COULD REACT COULD REACT, JAKE CLIMBED FROM THE TRUCK. THE blackbirds cawed in protest and flapped skyward. blackbirds cawed in protest and flapped skyward.

Reaching behind the seat, Jake transferred items from his pack to the zipper compartment of my hockey bag. Then he shouldered the bag's strap, scanned the area, locked the driver's-side door, and set off.

I trailed behind, a cascade of questions whirling in my brain.

The Jesus family tomb? If authenticated, such a find would be huge. CNN, BBC, around the globe mammoth.

What proof did Jake have?

Why had he waited until now to tell me?

How did this tomb relate to the bones I'd carried from l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie-des-Neiges? To the James ossuary?

I felt fearful.

I felt awestruck.

I felt totally jazzed.

Ten yards downslope, Jake stopped on a ledge.

"We're standing on the edge of the Kidron Valley." Jake indicated the gorge at our feet. "The Kidron meets the Hinnom just south of here, then veers west."

I must have looked lost.

"The Hinnom Valley runs south from the Jaffa Gate on the west side of the Old City, then eastward along the south side of Mount Zion until it meets the Kidron. The Kidron separates the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city." Jake pointed. "Over there. Know much about the Hinnom?"

"Not really."

"The place has quite a colorful history. In the pre-Christian era, babies are supposed to have been sacrificed to the G.o.ds Moloch and Baal in the Hinnom. The Jews turned the valley into a city dump-garbage, anything deemed unclean, including the bodies of executed criminals, were burned there. In later Jewish literature the valley was called Ge-Hinnom, and in the Greek of the New Testament, Gehenna. Because of the trash fires, the Hinnom provided imagery for a fiery h.e.l.l in the Books of Isaiah and the New Testament. Gehenna is the source of the English word 'h.e.l.l.'"

Jake stuck a thumb at an ancient tree at my back.

"Judas is supposed to have hanged himself there. According to tradition, his body fell from that tree and was disemboweled."

"You don't believe that's the actual tree-"

A small bird darted between us, moving so fast I couldn't make out its color. Jake threw up an arm, and a boot slipped. Pebbles shot downward.

My adrenals opened fire.

Regaining his footing, Jake continued with a question.

"According to the Bible, where did Christ go after his crucifixion?"

"Into a tomb."

"He descended into h.e.l.l, and on the third day rose again. Right?"

I nodded.

"At the time that was written the Hinnom was constantly burning and had taken on the popular image as the place 'down there' where the wicked would be cast into the flames of destruction. h.e.l.l. h.e.l.l Valley. The biblical reference is to burial in a location in or near the Hinnom."