“It was my pleasure,” James answered.

After easily passing through security with Jack vouching for James, the two rode up in the elevator.

“I’ve found my zealot to work on Shawn,” James announced as they exited on the eighth floor.

“Really!” Jack commented. He was surprised. “So quick. When you described the kind of person you would be looking for, all I could think of was Good luck. I thought it would take months.”

“I have resourceful secretaries.”

“You must.”

They came to the door to the laboratory Sana and Shawn had been assigned, and Jack knocked. Shawn, who 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.