“By the way,” Jack yelled, “I’d hold off telling James about the mito DNA until it’s confirmed.”

“That’s probably the merciful thing to do,” Shawn agreed.

Jack was about to leave when he thought of something else. Since yelling from the doorway was potentially disturbing to others in the lab, he returned to the office and approached Shawn. Jack could see Sana in the gowning room in the middle of changing.

“I forgot about the Palestinian woman that also matched,” Jack said. “What on earth does that say?”

“Good question,” Shawn said, rolling back his chair. He quickly stuck his head into the gowning room and asked Sana her opinion.

“She has to be a direct matrilineal relative of the woman in the ossuary,” Sana said. “It’s possible, because the half-life for a single nucleotide mutation or SNP for mitochondrial DNA is two thousand years. That would be my guess,” Sana said, completing her dressing.

“Did you hear that?” Shawn asked Jack, letting the gowning-room door close.

“I did,” Jack said. “It’s curious to think about. I wonder if she has any idea, or if anyone had an idea. It even makes me wonder if she’s a Christian or a Muslim.”

“Maybe one of us should look her up sometime,” Shawn said, “although I can’t help but have the feeling the less she was told, the better.”

“It’s a curious idea,” Jack said. He then took his leave for the second time. As he rode down in the elevator, another associated thought passed through his mind. One aspect of alternative medicine he had not even touched on was faith healing, and the reason was that he gave it even less chance of being efficacious than some of the other methods. A few times, while idly channel surfing on the television in his old life, he’d briefly watched as TV evangelists put their hands on supposed patients’ foreheads, which would cause the people to fall back, limp yet cured. Yet if someone had the same DNA as the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, Jack couldn’t help but wonder if she could heal others.

The elevator reached the first floor, and Jack got off. Almost immediately, thoughts about faith healing evaporated from his mind, replaced by thoughts concerning the antibody levels in JJ’s body.

Chapter 29

29

4:44 P.M., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008
NEW YORK CITY