He, Jhana-Merise, and Arama had been flying all night from Peru. That Sister Helen had furnished them with passports and him a work visa brought a smile to his face, and deeper respect for the maverick she was. It even helped him look at the man on the cross with renewed interest—that he could inspire such action in the cause of a young girl’s destiny. Truth was, that man had inspired a religion, so why not passports and a work visa.

In the time Jhana-Merise spent at the convent, Vincente read about cuneiforms and codes in sacred texts. The scrutiny, science, and passion he discovered in those who’d explored these things seemed to be grounded in plausible reality. Like the idea of past lives his wife, and now Jhana-Merise, had exposed him to. And so, he presented what he’d found to Helen a few days before he got on the plane. He believed she would be open to the discussion. He was right.

Helen wasn’t surprised Jhana-Merise had said there was a hidden tablet in the desert. After all, Helen had said, Moses was in possession of two tablets, who’s to say there weren’t others yet to be discovered?

Vincente closed his eyes, picturing Helen’s sweet face, and thought of the last thing this holy woman had said to him before he left with his daughter.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together. And a little child shall lead them.

The faith he’d called a “useless devotion” upon his wife’s death took on a different light in those meetings with Sister Helen. There was a world beyond the one he’d been preached to about. A world this nun had deep interest and curiosity in as well. A world that held, as possible, the belief that we are more than we know, and there are many willing to risk their lives for it.

Jhana-Merise leaned her head against her father’s side, opened her eyes and smiled, as if she’d heard what he’d been thinking.

He kissed her gently on her forehead.

She reached out to Arama sitting in the aisle seat.

The plane’s wheels hit the ground with a thud. They’d landed at Dulles.

Vincente gazed at his daughter. She was a delicate and powerful being. He looked at his own rough-hewn hands and still felt much the brute. But within the gap of those opposites he knew something was reaching to be born.

50

50

Arama stood at the door to Isabel’s apartment. She’d not warned her sister she was coming. And while her unexpected arrival would make Isabel furious, that she brought two others would test their already fragile relationship. But Arama believed once she reminded her sister of the importance of their mission she would understand.