'Good question,' he admitted. 'But I do have an answer. Take a look at the canister we found in Orvieto. Remember the engraving I showed you? I chose not to tell you at the time, but that's a very specific symbol assigned to Tiberius by order of the Roman senate.'

'For what purpose?'

'In his later years, Tiberius became something of a recluse, opting to live on the Isle of Capri, which was a terrible inconvenience for the senate. All decisions had to be delivered over land and sea, and that was a risky proposition. Therefore, the senate devised a way to seal their documents in metal, then added an extra safeguard by assigning a specific symbol to Tiberius. When it appeared on a chambered document, such as the one we found, it meant the information was written by Tiberius's own hand and too critical to be read by a messenger.'

Maria considered the information and accepted it. Two scrolls written by Tiberius, found over a thousand miles apart. Unfortunately, that still didn't explain Boyd's outburst and failed to clarify the connection to Christ. 'Professore, not to be rude, but what did the document say?' not to be rude, but what did the document say?'

'The Bath scroll was addressed to Paccius, the top general in Tiberius's army. You see, the general and his troops had been sent to the Britains to survey the land explored by Julius Caesar several decades before. It was a critical mission, one that would spark further expansion of the Empire. Alas, while Paccius was there, something happened back in Rome, for Tiberius sent a fleet of his fastest ships to locate him and request his immediate return.'

'What had happened?'

'The document didn't say, simply hinting at "a swelling among the slave ranks of Galilee that needs to be profited from."' Boyd paused, letting that information sink in. 'But if you think about it, history gives us a pretty solid clue as to what was taking place. What significant event occurred in that territory less than a year later?'

The color faded in Maria's tanned face. 'The crucifixion of Christ.'

'Exactly! Now maybe you're beginning to understand the importance of this.'

She nodded, trying to retain her focus. 'What else did it say?'

'Tiberius said if he died before Paccius's return, then Paccius should complete the plot by using the records that would be stored in the newly built haven at Orvieto. He said the plans would be "locked in bronze and sealed with the Emperor's kiss." Obviously a reference to the engraved canister that we found.'

'But since the scroll was still sealed, we can assume that Paccius returned before Tiberius's death, right? They had a chance to talk in person?'

Boyd shrugged. 'That's an assumption at best. You must remember that both canisters were found sealed. Not only the one in Orvieto but the one in Bath as well.'

'So what are you saying? Paccius never got the message?'

'That's one possibility. Another is a duplicate set of messages. I figure, why dispatch a single canister when you're sending an entire fleet to locate someone? What if the message ship sank? The scroll would've been lost forever. So for safety's sake, why not send two scrolls or more?'

Maria nodded her acceptance. It seemed like a reasonable theory. 'What does history say about Paccius? What happened to him?'

'For some reason, his death was never chronicled. One minute he was the second most powerful cog in the Roman Empire, the next minute he was gone. Vanished, without a trace. Of course, his disappearance could mean many things. He might've died in the Britains or drowned at sea on his journey home. Or he might've sailed directly to Judea in order to carry out the emperor's wishes.' Boyd shook his head in confusion. 'Whichever it is, I do know this: Tiberius was a tactical genius, known for his brilliant mind and precise planning. And according to this scroll, he figured out a way to use Christ as a pawn in the most ruthless plot of all time.'

'How in the world did he do that?'

Boyd took a deep breath, struggling to find the appropriate words. How do you challenge someone's belief system without upsetting her?

'Maria,' he stuttered, 'why do you believe Christ is the Son of God?'

'Why? It's what I was taught as a child. It's what I was raised to believe.'

'But you're no longer a child. You reached the age of independent thought long ago. At some point you started challenging your parents. Whether it was Santa Claus or politics, you eventually questioned what you were taught.'

'Yes, but '

'But what? You should draw the line at religion? If anything, religion should be the first concept that you challenge because it's the most personal thing that a person can have. Religion is what you believe, not what you're told. It's what you feel, not what others expect.'

'But I believe in Christ! I've studied the Bible, gone to Mass, and spoken to several priests. And guess what? I believe in God and Jesus Christ. It just feels right to me.'

His tone softened. 'If I challenged your faith, would it bend under the weight of my words?'

'Not a chance. I believe what I believe. Your comments aren't going to change that.'

'And what about evidence? Would your faith crumble in the face of new evidence?'

She pondered the word evidence. evidence. 'Does this have something to do with the scroll? You have new evidence about my religion?' 'Does this have something to do with the scroll? You have new evidence about my religion?'

'Our religion. I'm a Christian as well.' religion. I'm a Christian as well.'

'So this isn't about the Church? This is about Christ?'

Boyd nodded, unwilling to look her in the eye. 'And the news isn't good.'

Maria didn't know what he meant, yet the claws of doubt started ripping at her faith. If the scroll's message was as devastating as Boyd insinuated, there was a chance that her entire belief system was about to be shattered. 'What does it say? I need to know what it says.'

Boyd took a deep breath. 'You realize, once I tell you, there's no turning back.'

'We reached that point long long ago. Please, tell me what the scroll says.' ago. Please, tell me what the scroll says.'

'I will, but first you must realize their writing style was different than ours. Run-on sentences were common. They just rambled on incessantly, rarely stopping for changes in subject.'

Maria knew all about it because Boyd was doing it at the moment. 'Just read it, sir. Please.'

'OK, OK. This is what Emperor Tiberius wrote.'

Tiberius Caesar Augustus to my heirs and successors.

The matters of wealth, whether trivial or colossal, rest on our shoulders, the task of all rulers, past and present, for all eternity. By doing my duty, I have filled the coffers of this great land, seizing a share from all citizens that is rightfully Rome's, recording their riches while eliminating the Empire's burden, alas their gifts are not sufficient, for Mercury thirsts for more. Upon conquering the Britains, the vastness of our domain will be detrimental, the management of snow and sun, lands more varied than Cupid and Mars, will further divide the lives of our people, the rich shall welcome the gifts from abroad as the poor suffer from the onus of our foreseeable debt. To avoid the impending poverty of our citizens, I have concluded that drastic measures must be taken, the scarcity of 'Hold up! What does any of that have to do with Jesus?'

Boyd sighed at her impatience. 'Nothing directly, but indirectly it has everything to do with him. The scarcity of wealth in the Empire forces Tiberius to hatch this drastic scheme. According to the text, it is the central reason for his plot against Christ.'

Maria half nodded, still unsure of the scroll's opening section. 'That part about seizing a share from all citizens was he talking about taxes?'

'He was indeed. Tiberius was known as a top-notch fiscal administrator. Most historians feel that economic policy was the strength of his reign, at least until his mental demise. At the end of his emperorship, he was something of a loon.'

'And when he wrote about the Empire's burden, he was talking about balancing the budget?'

'Exactly.'

Maria impressed herself. She understood more than she'd originally thought. 'What was that thing about the Britains? You read something about winter and summer, and I got lost.'

'Not winter and summer,' he corrected. 'Tiberius mentioned snow and sun. He said, "the management of snow and sun... will further divide the lives of our people." Meaning once they conquered the Britains, the Empire would be too large for its own good. Rome would stretch from the land of snow, Britain, to the land of sun, Egypt. And in Tiberius's opinion, that was too much for their economy to handle.'

'But if Tiberius knew Britain was going to hurt the Empire in the long run, why go after it?'

'He claims it was for Mercury, the Roman God of Commerce. Tiberius said that Mercury thirsted for more. I guess that's his way of saying he didn't have a choice in the matter. He felt the gods would grow unhappy if Rome became content with what they had.'

'Even if acquiring more was a bad thing?'

Boyd nodded. 'But the greed doesn't stop there. You haven't heard anything yet.'

To avoid the impending poverty of our citizens, I have concluded that drastic measures must be taken, the scarcity of public wealth must be avoided at all cost, as a failure to maintain the excellence of the Empire would be attributed to a delinquency of leadership, a claim that would insult the accomplishments of Augustus before.

Word has arrived from the east that the latest Messiah has surfaced, a man, unlike the dozens that have come before him, he who reeks of piety and selflessness, a charmer blessed with throngs of disciples, power of persuasion, the gift of miracles. Tales of healing and resurrection emerge from the desert with the regularity of scorpions, but twice as deadly, for insects are easily squashed. Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee, speaks of pride swelling among the slaves, rebellions against Roman authority, gathering of masses near Capernaum. Some feel that this threat should be extinguished, eliminated through force of will and power of sword, disposed of in its infancy like the sons of Bethlehem. But I am not one to concur, why kill a cow that has been presented by the gods? Milk it, and its sweet nectar can nourish for a lifetime.

Boyd paused, allowing Maria to absorb the message of the scroll's middle section.

She said, 'There's no doubt that this is about Jesus. The reference to healings and resurrections, the gathering of masses in Capernaum. That's where his ministry was located, right next to the Sea of Galilee.'

He nodded. 'The Old Testament referred to it as the Sea of Chinnereth, but you are right. Jesus used Capernaum as a gathering place for his flock.'

'I can't believe this. We're holding a document that refers to Christ in the present tense. This is so wrong! I mean, it compares him to a cow that should be milked!'

'But to Tiberius, Jesus wasn't God. He was a dangerous con man. Like he mentioned, dozens of men had already come forth and claimed to be the Messiah, and most of them had throngs of followers as well. So to Tiberius, Jesus was just another in a long list of frauds.'

'I guess so, but... I don't know. I don't know how to feel about this.'

'Don't feel, my dear. That's not your job. Your duty is to examine. Try to distance yourself from the message, especially from the part I'm about to read. If you don't, you'll be completely consumed by its message, because it's worse than you can possibly imagine.'

If the hungry are promised bread, they'll fight until their bellies are full; this much is assured by history, written by the action of men and the nature of their spirit, but a question plagues my slumber: does it matter where the feast comes from? Would a starving man turn down a meal if it is offered by his enemy? Perhaps, for fear of poison, but what if the food is presented in a manner that he'd welcome? Would the bread not be accepted with outstretched hands? I proclaim it would. Yea, the people of Judea are famished, clinging to hope and the promise of salvation, completely ignorant of Roman gods and the rightful way to live, they look for the promised one to emerge from their flock, the one who is truly their Messiah. This cannot be prevented; no war, no punishment shall remove the coming of the one from their scripture; they search for him, they pray for him, they wait for him and shall anticipate him until his arrival has been trumpeted by the masses. Why not give him to them? Let us feed their hunger with our choice of food, allowing them to feast on the coming of their savior, they can drink in their Christ and revel in his teachings, words that shall threaten us not, for we know he is merely a pawn that we have lifted to the level of Jupiter.

For such a ruse to succeed, there must be no doubt among the Jews; they must witness an act of God with their own eyes, a feat so magical, so mystifying, that future generations will sing of its splendor for eternity, ending their search for the coming Messiah once and for all, for they will think he has already come. Belief in his presence must be widespread, not birthed on the fringes of their sun-drenched land, passed from traveler to traveler in rumor alone, it shall begin in their greatest populace, spread from the heart of Jerusalem like an unstoppable plague, devouring everyone in Judea like a hungry beast. Once this occurs, once no doubt of the Christ remains, Rome shall be in a position to profit, using the Jews' unyielding faith against them and their riches to our advantage. We will mock their beliefs in public while collecting their donations in private; we will order them to worship Roman gods, knowing they will cling to their Messiah like children to a teat, but this is what we want, for the more they worship a fake God, the weaker they shall become, and from this weakness, we shall profit, yea, we shall control their bodies and their spirits as well. For the good of all things Roman, we shall begin at once, using the Nazarene as our tool, the one I have chosen as the Jewish Messiah.

Farewell, 29th August Boyd pushed his notebook aside after reading the passage, and braced for her response. In truth, he half expected a dozen questions about the text or a volatile shouting match where she challenged everything that he had said. But what he got was the exact opposite. Maria remained quiet, distant, the color in her cheeks completely vacant, her bloodshot eyes filled with moisture.

There was no need to clarify anything. Maria grasped the scroll's significance on her own.

Amazingly, if the message on the scroll was accurate, then the miracle of Jesus Christ and the foundation of Christianity were based on the biggest scam of all time.

26

The office was bare except for some furniture and a few filing cabinets. No personal touches of any kind. It was the type of room that would make Nick Dial quit his job if he had to call it his own. Yet it was exactly what he expected in a Tripoli police station.

Omar Tamher walked in with photos of the autopsy and spread them across the desk. Sheepishly, Dial took out his bifocals and hooked them over his ears, somehow embarrassed that he couldn't see well enough on his own.

'Nick, what do you think? Any similarities to Denmark?'

Dial nodded, even though this was his first time with the pictures. 'Jansen had the same body type as Narayan. Roughly the same height and age. Both men were in good physical condition, which tells me they weren't chosen at random. They were picked for a reason.'

'Why do you say that?'

'If you were looking for an easy target, would you choose these guys? No, you'd go after someone who was older or injured. Someone you could overpower. Maybe even a female. But a young guy in good shape? Not likely. Too many things could go wrong.'

'Anything else?'

'These wounds are consistent with Jansen's. Spikes were driven through the wrists and feet while he was unconscious. Too much screaming otherwise.' He pointed to one of the autopsy photos, a close-up of Narayan's left wrist. 'See how the wound spreads away from the spike? The same thing happened in Denmark. The body weight is too heavy for the rods to handle. Something had to give, and it wasn't going to be the spikes. In time the surrounding tissue starts to tear, same with the veins, tendons, etc. A very messy way to die.'

Tamher nodded. 'The coroner said the chest wound was the fatal blow.'

Dial sorted through the pile until he found a close-up of Narayan's rib cage. 'Looks identical to Jansen's. Probably done with a spear. At least that's what the Bible tells us.'

'And the vandalism? Any theories?'

He shrugged. 'They didn't paint anything in Denmark, even though there were plenty of walls nearby. That suggests that the arch was an impulse act, not a premeditated one.'

Tamher frowned. 'They used a brush, Nick. That seems planned to me.'

'Maybe, maybe not. The brush could've been in the back of their van or in the toolbox where they kept their spikes. I mean, you didn't find any ladder marks, did you? That means they weren't completely prepared for the painting.'

'True, but...'

'Listen, I'm not ruling out the possibility. It might be an important clue or nothing more than a killer marking his territory. I can't tell you how many bodies I've found that were soaked in somebody else's piss.'

'Really?'

Dial was surprised that Tamher had never seen that in Libya. Then again, maybe it was a European thing. 'We'll know more once we find the next vic. Patterns will start to emerge.'

'The next one?'

'You don't think they're done, do you? Not with the Holy Ghost waiting in the wings.'

'The Holy Ghost?'

'You know, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? There's bound to be a victim for him. And after that, who knows? They might start on the Hail Mary.'

Tamher frowned as he took a seat behind the desk. Dial could tell that something was bothering him so he put the crime photos down, waiting for Tamher to fill the silence. It was a tactic that worked on cops and criminals alike.

'Why did they come here? We're a Muslim nation not a Christian one. Where do we fit?'

'Beats me,' Dial admitted. 'Then again, maybe the killers were looking for some R & R after they dumped the body. I've traveled all over the world to every continent on the globe, but I've never seen a country like this. Libya is simply gorgeous.'

Tamher beamed with pride, which was what Dial was hoping for. He knew how crucial it was to stay on Tamher's good side. Without him, his access to the crime scene would disappear.

'Unfortunately, it's way too early to label these as Christian murders. I wish that wasn't the case, but what choice do we have? The fact is that Narayan wasn't a Christian he was a Hindu so this might not be about religion.'

'You don't really believe that, do you?'

'Not really. Then again I don't know what to believe.'

In Dial's mind the only common thread between the murders was the way that they killed. These men were kidnapped, shipped to a specific location, and then crucified like Jesus Christ. But why? What were the killers trying to say? What did these guys have in common?