Jones raised an eyebrow. 'What kind of clue?'

'I barely gave it any thought until now, but when Petr started talking about the use of mandrake as an ancient Roman drug, it opened my eyes to a possibility.'

'Just a second,' Payne grumbled. 'What's this mandrake stuff you keep talking about? Some kind of exotic poison?'

'Not exactly,' answered Boyd as he burst into the office. Ulster arrived a few seconds later, his cheeks bright red from exercise. 'Mandrake is a plant with a forked root that closely resembles the human body. Because of this resemblance, many early cultures believed the plant possessed magical powers. That's how it got its name. Mandrake is an abbreviated version of the original Latin term, mandragora mandragora, which means the plant is part man and part dragon.'

Maria continued, 'As I was saying, I think I found some evidence that might shed some light on the crucifixion. I'm pretty sure there's an anomaly in one of the carvings.'

Boyd said, 'An anomaly? What kind of anomaly?'

Instead of answering, she hit play on the VCR, then moved aside so everyone could witness the tragedy that was about to unfold. Images from the Catacombs rolled past like tanks toward a defenseless village. In her heart she knew the closer the camera got to the archway, the sooner Christianity was going to take a serious blow.

'To be honest, I'm surprised that one of us didn't notice this earlier. Focus on the archway. Look at the different scenes of the crucifixion. Do you notice anything that looks out of place?'

The two lowest blocks showed Jesus getting nailed to the cross and being hoisted into the air by a team of Roman soldiers. The next pair depicted Christ as he hung from the cross, blood pouring from his hands and feet onto the rocky ground below, a sign over his head that read, "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum." "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum." The crowns, the two stones that sat near the top of the arch, revealed the events right before his death: the moment he drank wine vinegar from the end of a hyssop stalk and the instant his head fell to his chest in acceptance of death. The crowns, the two stones that sat near the top of the arch, revealed the events right before his death: the moment he drank wine vinegar from the end of a hyssop stalk and the instant his head fell to his chest in acceptance of death.

'I'm sorry, my dear, this is pointless. I just don't see anything anomalous.'

'Then look closer!' she ordered. 'Ignore what you think you know about the crucifixion and view these carvings as a brand-new story. What's the artist telling us about this moment?'

With a prolonged sigh, Boyd inspected the scenes even closer. In his mind it was hardly necessary, since the images were burned into his brain like a cattle brand. But in his heart he somehow hoped the videotape would reveal something his eyes had missed in the Catacombs. Possibly a name or a face that he'd somehow overlooked. Or even the location of another scroll.

Ulster gasped. 'Oh my Lord, look at the ground in the fifth carving!' To make his point clearer, he ambled to the TV and pointed to the block directly to the left of the laughing man. 'Look beneath my finger, near the base of the cross.'

Payne studied the image. 'Looks like a flower.'

'Not just any flower,' he corrected. 'That's a very specific specific flower.' flower.'

'Specific? In what way?' Payne studied the rest of the archway and slowly realized the image appeared in only one carving: the scene where Christ was drinking from the hyssop stalk. Oddly it was the only panel that had any any background scenery at all a fact that spoke volumes to Payne and the rest of the group. 'Wait a second! Are you telling me that...?' background scenery at all a fact that spoke volumes to Payne and the rest of the group. 'Wait a second! Are you telling me that...?'

Payne glanced at Maria, and she nodded, letting everyone know that Ulster had found the clue that she was referring to. The flower in the picture was unmistakable to her and anyone who was familiar with the odd-looking species. It was Mandragora Mandragora officinarum officinarum, better known as mandrake, the plant that fueled the most popular narcotic of the Roman Empire.

One that was on the verge of changing the course of religious history.

For the second second time in the past two thousand years. time in the past two thousand years.

52

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest organizations in the world, with an estimated worth in excess of one trillion dollars. In addition to their priceless art collection, they own more stock, real estate, and gold than 95 percent of all countries on earth. Yet, amazingly, the Church swears they're broke, claiming they're the caregivers for more than a billion people around the world, which has prevented them from stockpiling the assets that most experts insist they have. In fact, some Vatican officials have stated that the Church is losing losing money every year and has been operating in the red for nearly a decade. money every year and has been operating in the red for nearly a decade.

Benito Pelati laughed the first time he heard that rumor because he knew the truth about the Vatican's finances. He knew about their diverse accounts with the British Rothschilds, Credit Suisse in Zurich, and the Chase Manhattan Corporation. He knew about the gold ingots they kept at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and the various depositories in Switzerland. Knew this for a fact.

Hell, he had seen the books himself, compliments of his best friend Cardinal Bandolfo.

Until a few months ago, the Supreme Council was run by Bandolfo, a charismatic public speaker who could've convinced the Keebler Elves to buy Girl Scout cookies. Neither slick nor grating, he had a way of expressing his views in such an eloquent fashion that the rest of the Council rarely contradicted him. It was the only reason that the Vatican turned to Benito when they needed things done outside of legal channels. Half the Council admired Benito for his tactics and his results; the other half despised him. In the end it was Bandolfo who always convinced the Council to call on Benito again and again.

But that was about to change. It had to. Three months ago Bandolfo passed away.

As Benito walked into the room, the look on their faces told him everything. The Supreme Council was upset. Upset with the situation. Upset with the negative publicity. And most importantly upset with his results. What had started off as a single death had turned into a major crisis. Now the onus was on him to explain. In person. And the fact that Benito had refused to meet with them Wednesday had made things worse. Especially with Cardinal Vercelli.

Vercelli, a native of Rome who was now in charge of the Council, preached that rules had to be followed in order to preserve the sanctity of the Church. Even so, he knew that Benito was so well-respected in the Italian community mostly because people didn't care about his criminal ways as long as he got the job done that it would be foolish to take him on without provocation. So he opted to wait, all the while praying that Benito did something so reprehensible, so unforgivable, that the Council had no choice but to dismiss him.

Simply put, Vercelli was waiting for a day like today. A day when he could pounce.

What he didn't know was that Benito was waiting, too. Waiting to launch a surprise attack on Christianity.

It would make for an interesting meeting.

'As all of you know,' Benito told the Supreme Council, 'the first note arrived at Cardinal Vercelli's office on Friday, July seventh. The demands were quite simple: one billion dollars or confidential information about the Church would be leaked to the media. We get nonspecific threats like this every day, so His Eminence did nothing wrong by putting it into the system.'

Vercelli spoke from the head of the table. 'I did everything by the book.'

That included contacting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an intelligence agency that operates out of the Vatican and has been compared to the Russian KGB. Five hundred years ago it was known as the Holy Inquisition. Now it was simply called the CDF.

Benito added, 'In addition to the CDF, His Eminence felt it would be appropriate to bring in an outside handler, someone with the Council's best interest in mind.'

All the cardinals in the room nodded. They knew why Benito was there and what he could do for them. The CDF was required to report directly to the pope, whereas Benito had the freedom to do what the cardinals wanted. It was a luxury that the Council had used many times before.

Benito continued, 'The second letter arrived on Saturday, and it was much more specific than the first. It said an offshore bank account had been set up for a wire transfer. If their demands weren't met in forty-eight hours, they would go public with the first clue.'

'What kind of clue?' asked the Spanish cardinal who was taking notes.

'They didn't say. But they hinted that their price would escalate as the clues advanced. They also threatened to harm a Council member so we would take them seriously.'

He glanced around the room, letting his words sink in. Everyone knew what had happened to Father Jansen, the priest who used to take the minutes at every meeting. Still, this was the first time that his death was put in the appropriate context. Jansen had been killed as a warning.

'If they had chosen one of you,' Benito said, referring to the cardinals on the Council, 'there would have been a full investigation by the CDF, Vatican security, and the Italian police. Financial accounts would've been locked, and we would've been forced to issue a statement. By choosing Father Jansen, they got their point across without making a major scene.'

Vercelli cleared his throat. 'If you think crucifying Father Jansen isn't a major scene '

'Not compared to a cardinal. Believe me, it could've been much worse. What if they had chosen you instead? Don't you think that would've received more publicity than Father Jansen? His murder, as brazen as it was, let us know that we were dealing with professionals. These weren't street hoodlums looking to make a quick buck. These were men who knew the inner workings of the Vatican. Men who knew our system. Men who we should fear.'

Vercelli stated, 'Which is why I called you on Monday. With your intimate knowledge of the criminal mind, I figured you'd be the man to stop the bleeding. At least that was my hope.'

Benito ignored the insult. He'd deal with Vercelli later. 'We received our third note on Monday, twelve hours after Father Jansen was discovered. Their asking price went up to 1.1 billion dollars. The message stated that four people would be crucified in the four corners of the world, each one bringing more attention to the sins of the Church sins that we buried in Orvieto.'

'Orvieto?' asked the Austrian cardinal, the youngest member of the Council. He'd been brought in when Bandolfo passed away. 'What did we bury in Orvieto?'

'The past,' the Spaniard grumbled. 'We buried the past.'

While the cardinals whispered among themselves, Vercelli sensed the opportunity to make a speech. He was well-versed in Church history and liked to show off his knowledge.

'When the papacy split in two, the holy father found shelter in the hills of Orvieto. He stayed there, secretly, for many years and was often joined by the wealthiest families in Europe, Catholics who feared for their lives due to their alignment with us. As you might imagine, the demand for those spots was very high, exceeding the space available. In time, the Church brokered a compromise: entrance to the city was sold to the highest bidder.

'Later, once the factions settled and the papacy returned to Rome, there was plenty of rancor between the sides, enough to pressure the Church into making some questionable decisions. You see, while these wealthy patrons were hiding in Orvieto, dozens of them passed away. Something needed to be done with the bodies, so the Church stored them in a series of ancient tunnels that we'd found hidden in the plateau.'

The Austrian gasped. 'The Catacombs of Orvieto?'

Vercelli nodded. 'Over the years, the legend picked up a wave of momentum. What was nothing more than an underground mausoleum grew into a tomb of mythical proportions.'

'Come, come,' the Brazilian teased. 'That isn't true, and you know it. You have been telling the same story for so many years that you're starting to confuse our fiction with the real facts.' He turned toward the Austrian. 'We have no one to blame but ourselves. If we had come clean in the very beginning, we would have ended the myth once and for all. The Italian cardinals wanted to protect the secrecy of Orvieto, just in case another schism occurred and we were forced back into hiding. The only way to do that was to pretend that they were never there. And it was that denial that got them into trouble.'

'In what way?' the Austrian asked.

'In every way! We are the Catholic Church, not the U.S. Senate. We simply don't know how to lie. I'm telling you, it will be our downfall.'

Everyone laughed, thankful for some humor in an otherwise tense meeting.

But Vercelli ended the levity. 'The problem occurred when the families left Orvieto. They hoped to bury their ancestors in their family plots, just like they'd done for centuries. However, the decision makers at the Vatican felt it would be in everyone's best interest if the bodies remained in the Catacombs, at least until the Church was sure that the schism was settled.'

The Brazilian chirped in. 'Simply put, we kept the bodies as ransom. The families promised to stay quiet about Orvieto, and we promised to guard their loved ones for eternity. At least that's what we told them. Two months later the main entrance collapsed, and we didn't have the manpower to rebuild it. That's when we decided to wash our hands of everything. From that point on, the Catacombs no longer existed to the Roman Catholic Church. We eliminated them from our records and denied that they had ever existed in the first place.'

'Just like that?' the Austrian asked.

The Brazilian nodded. 'You must remember, all of this took place several hundred years ago, well before any of us were born. I'm sure the holy father had a good reason for his decision, one that undoubtedly helped us get through the greatest period of turmoil in our history.'

Vercelli glanced around the room, making sure no one had anything else to say. 'The question we must ask ourselves is whether we need to keep this secret for any longer. I, for one, don't understand why anyone would think that this story was worth a billion dollars. Furthermore, I don't understand why Benito was unable to handle this problem on his own.'

He stared down the table at Benito. 'As far as I can tell, you're the only person who stands to lose anything here, since you put your reputation on the line years ago when you swore to the media that the Catacombs never existed... Isn't that right?'

The temperature in the room seemed to rise several degrees as the cardinals waited for Benito's retort. They knew he would say something probably loud and persuasive but none of them could've anticipated his response. Never in a million years did they expect Benito to turn on them and attack everything that they stood for. Never in their wildest dreams did they expect to hear something so scandalous that it made a billion dollars seem like the bargain of the century. Then again, none of them knew the secret that he possessed.

Or how long he had been waiting to use it.

53

Dr Boyd paced around Ulster's office, trying to comprehend the mandrake carving on the archway. If Maria's discovery was legitimate, then they were close to proving the biggest fraud of all time. Close to shattering an entire belief system. Close to killing the most popular religion on the planet. And the anxiety was starting to get to him.

'Don't you see what this means?' he barked at no one in particular. 'The Romans Romans were the ones who started Christianity. Not the apostles or the Jews or even Jesus himself, but the bloody Romans! Can you believe that? Tiberius actually pulled this off.' were the ones who started Christianity. Not the apostles or the Jews or even Jesus himself, but the bloody Romans! Can you believe that? Tiberius actually pulled this off.'

Payne said, 'But why? Why would Tiberius do this? That still still doesn't make sense to me.' doesn't make sense to me.'

Boyd stopped moving. 'Tell me, my boy, what do you know about organized religion?'

'Religion? It's a set of beliefs that a person has about God.'

Boyd nodded. 'And what do you know about the origin of religion?'

'Not much. I know the basics about Christ from Sunday school but nothing more.'

'Actually, my boy, I didn't mean Christianity. I was referring to the origin of religion, not not the genesis of a particular faith... Do you know why religion was started? To put it simply, religion was created for control. At the rudimentary level, religion is simply an organized system of control used by the upper hierarchy to keep the masses in line. Consequently, he who possesses the ear of God is a the genesis of a particular faith... Do you know why religion was started? To put it simply, religion was created for control. At the rudimentary level, religion is simply an organized system of control used by the upper hierarchy to keep the masses in line. Consequently, he who possesses the ear of God is a very very powerful man.' powerful man.'

'Makes sense,' Payne conceded.

'Yes, it does. So much so that men of intelligence have been using this for centuries, wielding the wrath of God as a weapon and using it to achieve supremacy over the masses. Of course this method of control isn't permanent, for the world has a way of changing everything over time. Evolution, war, and technology have played their parts during history, eroding the fabric of society just enough to make sure that nothing human is permanent.

'Hundreds of years passed before ancient Egypt crumbled and with it its widespread belief that Ra was the creator of the universe. Then came the Greeks and their notion of Zeus. The Incas had Viracocha. The Mayans had Hunab Ku. The Vikings had Odin and the great hall of Valhalla. Each of these deities was revered for centuries by legions of devoted followers, yet today they're viewed by society as antiquated notions from our uncivilized forefathers.'

'Out of curiosity,' Payne wondered, 'what does any of that have to do with Tiberius?'

'Everything, my boy, everything! You see, the religious structure of ancient Rome came directly from Greece, stolen from the heights of Mount Olympus. In fact, there's a term, interpretatio Romana interpretatio Romana, meaning the Roman understanding of things. Its roots can be traced to the third century bc, when the Romans pilfered the Greeks' religion and made it their own. One minute Zeus was the ruler of the cosmos, the next it was Jupiter same god with a new Roman name. Poseidon became Neptune, Hades became Pluto, Eros became Cupid, and so on.'

Boyd looked around the room to make sure that everyone understood.

'Of course this type of transition has an incubation period. Just because a government wants its people to follow its official religion doesn't mean they're going to do it especially since most Roman citizens weren't even born in Rome. You see, ancient Rome was the original melting pot, a merging of several different cultures under one imperial flag. Alas, unlike the United States where its people longed to come to America, most families in the Empire had no choice. The Greeks, Gauls, Britons, and Jews were all conquered and assimilated into the Roman culture, as were the Egyptians, Illyrians, and Armenians. My Lord, by the time Tiberius came into rule in 14 ad, the Empire stretched from the North Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.'

'The lands of snow and sun,' Maria stated. 'That's what Tiberius wrote in the scroll. He said Rome needed to do something drastic because the Empire had gotten too large for its own good.'

Payne asked, 'And the something drastic was to fake the crucifixion of Christ?'

Boyd nodded, glad that Payne was starting to grasp the big picture. 'As I mentioned earlier, men of intelligence have used the power of religion for centuries. It's one thing to threaten the masses with punishments of the flesh; it's quite another to threaten eternal damnation. Tiberius was never able to wield this ultimate power since most Roman peasants especially those who lived on the fringes of the Empire never believed in the same gods as he. Therefore, he never fully had control over them. Or their wealth.'

'OK,' Payne said, 'now I'm beginning to understand. The only way he could unite everyone was to get them to support the same thing. And since they'd never unite for the sake of Rome, he knew he had to give them an alternative. Something they could believe in.'

Boyd nodded. 'Tiberius started Christianity for one reason only: to gain control. He knew all about the unrest in Judea and figured the best way to placate the Jews was to give them the Messiah that had been prophesied. Then, once the Jews started to believe in Christ, he was going to take their Messiah away, which would allow him to grab control of this new religion.'

'But how?' Ulster asked. 'Wouldn't Jesus have to be in on things?'

Boyd shook his head. 'Not if they drugged him like Jonathon suggested. Think about it. Jesus would have awoken in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and his disciples would've told him that he had died on the cross and the Lord brought him back. Furthermore, if skeptics needed evidence of Jesus's identity, they could've done what was described in the Bible because that part of the crucifixion probably wasn't faked.'

According to John 20:2527, Thomas told the disciples that he wouldn't believe in Christ's resurrection until he could place his finger in the holes of Jesus's palms and his hand in the wound in Jesus's side. Eight days later Jesus reappeared, giving doubting Thomas the opportunity.

'OK,' Payne said. 'Let's pretend you're accurate. Tiberius faked Christ's death for the good of the Empire. What would he have done next?'

Maria answered for Boyd. 'After giving them their new God, Tiberius planned to strengthen their unity by giving them a common enemy to fight against.'

'A common enemy? What enemy?'

'Rome,' she answered. 'Tiberius actually wanted them to unite against the Empire.'

Boyd smiled at the irony. 'Don't you see? For this to work, Rome couldn't roll over and play dead. They had to fight back with everything or in this case what Tiberius allowed them to fight with or else people would've caught on. That's one of the main reasons that he wanted Paccius to run things in Jerusalem. Not only could he trust him, but he knew his general had the experience to throw a battle or two to Christianity, which in turn would be a victory for Rome.'