CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

They all anxiously awaited the arrival of the journal. It didn't arrive the next day but did arrive the following day. It looked exactly like all of the others.

"Well, honey. Go ahead and open it." She just stared at it, looking from Major to Luke, then to Major's father, Jalen.

"Elena, do you want us to open it?" asked Jalen. She looked at him, then back at the journal, and shook her head.

"No. No, I'll open it. I'm just trying to figure out why my mother would have kept this one journal. One out of dozens that we went through. But I know the answer. She knew what was in this and tried to keep it from me."

"It could contain something dangerous, baby. I mean, if your mother knew what was in this, if she read it or knew about it, then maybe she was trying to protect you." Major didn't believe a damn word he was saying. He just hoped Elena believed him.

She untied the leather tie that secured the cover and slowly opened the worn, yellowed pages. She read several pages quickly, noting that it was just about what the plans were for the dig, then found what they were looking for.

She paled, leaning back in her chair as she lay a hand on her abdomen. May moved around the table to sit beside her. She pushed the book away, shutting it.

"Honey, you're not helping us here. What does it say?" asked Major.

"It's not about relics. It's not about anything that we believed it was. It's something much different that explains why they were looking in Egypt."

"You're killing me here, Elena," said Hex. "What is it, honey?"

"Mummies. Two mummies."

"Mummies? Okay, how is that different? It's Egypt. There are mummies for everyone, some famous, some not. What makes this so different?"

"My father and Dr. Goldmeir believed that the mummies were the bodies of Jesus and Mary Magdalene."

"What?" frowned Luke. "How? I mean, why? Why would they believe they were mummified?"

"I'm not sure, but it explains why Egypt. If someone believed that their bodies should be preserved and buried together, Egyptians were the experts at mummification. Perhaps they thought if they put the mummies in a tomb, away from the Romans, they would be safer.

"But think of the implications of this if it's true."

"What do you mean?" asked Major.

"It would prove whether or not Jesus was crucified. It could prove what killed Mary. It would, could offer DNA evidence that might show a lineage for Jesus and Mary. It's long been speculated by some theologians that they were in a relationship and had a child together."

"I don't think I like where this is going," said Luke. "Do you understand the number of people that would be angry about finding this? We're talking churches, particularly the Vatican and the Roman Catholic church, templars, scientists, so many more."

"If Daphne was right, and she thinks it could be sitting in her auction house, this will be an absolute fiasco, media circus frenzy!" said Eric.

"Do you think whoever wanted me knew that it was mummies? Or do you think they believed it was the Ark and Veil?"

"That's something we won't know until we find them," said Major. "This only confirms that we need to make sure Daphne does not stick her nose into the warehouse of the auction house. If someone has made the connection between you two and where she works, this could blow up in her face."

"He has something written here. It's a passage of some sort." She flipped through a few pages, May still reading over her shoulder as she did. "I found it. It's from an alleged firsthand account of a Roman guard that converted to a believer."

We trudged through the blistering desert sun for weeks, unsure of where we were going. The caravan is not aware of what we haul, and we mustn't let them know. It could be the death of all of us. To get his body away from the Romans, we had to move swiftly and leave no trace. If it is to be believed, the Egyptians will help us conceal them forever.

"Is it possible?" asked Hex.

"I don't know," said Elena, shaking her head. "We know that when Jesus's tomb was opened, he was gone. It was believed that no one had entered before Mary Magdalene and another Mary. The story says that an Angel told them to enter and spread the word that Jesus lived. He was gone. But did he rise and live, or was he dead and removed? The Bible would say the former."

"What does your gut tell you, honey?" asked Major.

"My gut says I'm a ‘gotta see it to believe it' girl. I don't know. I want to believe in what the Bible tells me. I mean, there's a piece of me that says it tells me I'm part of something greater than what I can see, hear, and feel. Then the science part of my brain says I believe the bodies were removed."

"But Mary Magdalene didn't die until years later," said May.

"That's the other problem," said Elena. "Did they hold his body until she died? Or did they mummify him and get her later? If I'm reading this information correctly, it sounds as if they had both bodies."

"You know, the people looking for that diary may not be religious at all. It could be quite the opposite. They might be trying to prove that everything we knew from the bible is wrong and basically start a war with religions all over the world," said Eric.

"Who would want to do that?" asked Elena.

"Scientists, academics, those who believe the world was created by ancient aliens, not God. This would make the world have a whole new something to fight about," said Eric.

"What did he actually find? Where did he get all this information, and why, why on earth would my mother hide this diary?" asked Elena.

"It could be that she knew what would happen," said May. "Your mother isn't an uneducated woman. I'm sure she was well aware of what would happen if the information leaked out. Your father was a well-known archaeologist, and so was Dr. Goldmeir. A find like this from the two of them would have turned the world of archaeology on its ear."

"Look, we need to find out if they actually had something in those tunnels or if it was all a dead end," said Luke. He looked at Elena, shaking his head. "Sorry. Poor choice of words."

"It's alright," she smiled. "I understand. The problem is there's no way for us to determine if there was anything in there or not. By the time this would have occurred, mummification stopped around the fourth or fifth century A.D., and there were no pharaohs any longer. I just don't know what to do."

As quickly as she expressed the thought, Brix came running into the room.

"I have Daph on the phone. She stuck her damn nose where she wasn't supposed to!"

"I did not!" she yelled at the room. "I mean. Maybe. Look, I just went into our database again to see if anything was up yet. It says there are two non-Egyptian mummies in their original sarcophagi that will be auctioned off. It says the mummies have, and I'm quoting, ‘extraordinary historical significance which will be discussed at the auction.'"

"Damn," muttered Major.

"I'm going to try and get into the warehouse," said Daphne.

"Damnit, woman! Do not do something so fucking foolish!" yelled Brix. Elena looked at him, giving a small grin.

"She doesn't respond well to that tone," she whispered.

"Fuck me," he growled. "Daphne, please do not do that. Someone is probably watching you, and it's too much of a risk."

"The only people watching my every move are my parents! They're driving me crazy sitting here, and I'm sick of having dinners with men they believe are good son-in-law material."

The room was suddenly deathly quiet. Brix swallowed, staring at the phone, then at everyone else.

"I-I'm not encouraging them," said Daphne. "I don't want to have dinners with them, but as long as I'm here, I'm being forced to. I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Yes, you do," said Brix. "Come here."

"I'm not even sure that security would allow me to leave, Brix. Even when I try to go outside and walk around, they're following me like dogs. I'm grateful that they're here, but I have no privacy at all."

"I can come and get you," said Brix. He looked at the others in the room, and Luke nodded.

"We can send him on the jet and be there by tonight," he told Daphne.

"Can I have twenty-four hours to think about it? I don't want to hurt my parents. I know they're scared for me after what happened with my sister, but they're really making me crazy."

"Claim to have the flu," smiled Elena. "Stomach cramps, diarrhea, anything that will allow them to leave you alone in your rooms."

"That's a good idea," she smiled. "Alright. I'll try that today. I want to come there. Just give me some time to deal with them."

"I understand," said Brix.

"No, you don't, Brix. I want to be there, not here. I'm all my parents have left. They're getting older, and they worry for me."

"I get it, really," he said.

"Okay, I'll keep in touch, but someone needs to be at that auction or figure out what they actually have."

She ended the call, and Brix looked at the others, unsure of what to say.

"Brix, she's telling the truth," said Elena. "Her parents are very protective of her after her sister died. It's not what you think."

"Is that right?" he frowned. Major gave him a stare that said for him to back off. "Sorry, Elena. What is it you believe I think?"

"I think you believe it's about race. You think because you're from mixed heritage, that she and her parents care. They're not the kind of people who would care about something like that and more than that, neither would Daphne. They don't care."

"Don't they?" he frowned.

"Brix," she laughed. "Her parents are black. Daphne is adopted. She is a white European woman, but her parents are West African." He opened his mouth several times to speak, nothing came out. As the others smirked in his direction, he finally was able to utter one word.

"Oh."