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“So where’s the C-14 lab?” I asked “In Paris?”

“Non, ain”

“Oxford? That’s one of the places that tested the Shroud of Turin, right?”

“Wrong again I think you will not guess We send the teeth to Miami”

“Miami? Florida? Why on earth?”

“Because the world’s biggest C-14 lab is there Beta Analytic They have offices in Europe — and Asia and Australia — but they’re just offices The only lab is in Miami They have two AMS systems and fifty-two liquid scintillation counters”

“What’s a liquid scintillation counter?” Before he could answer, I waveddoes it take? A week? A month?”

“Pas du tout—not at all! Days One or two days, after they get the saoat bone froet the results”

“That’s faster than I can grade a batch of test papers,” I said “Must be expensive”

“Not so bad This will cost eight hundred euros Twelve hundred US dollars Sure, it’s a lot But if these are the bones of Christ, that’s a small price to pay to find out, n’est-ce pas?”

“Jesus!” Miranda exclaihed at her unintended double entendre “Just iin Mary on toast can fetch thirty thousand bucks…”

“Excuse in Mary? Toast? What are you talking about?”

“The Sacred Sandwich” Noo steps behind “Don’t you pay any attention to the world outside the Body Farreat joys in life was giving rilled cheese sandwich and then she notices the BVM—”

“The what?” Three steps

“The BVM — the Blessed Virgin Mary A portrait of Mary’s face was scorched into the bread So the wohtstand for ten years Then she sells it on eBay Sorand”

“That’s so bizarre,” I said, “on so many levels” A host of questions popped into my ie? Didn’t Mary mold? But I decided there was no future — no hile future, at least — in delving further into the Sacred Sandwich “I am amazed, and know not what to say”

“I say, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the pickles,’” she cracked “Anyhow, if somebody will pay thirty K for the BVM on loaf bread, think what the bones of Jesus ht, Stefan?”

“Non, never” He smiled ironically “People who shop on eBay can afford a sandwich sacré, maybe, but not the bones of God”

It was a juxtaposition of ancient and modern, in more ways than one

Avignon’s hospital was a cos located severalthe city The contrast between the ; it was deeply disorienting, given how far back into the past I’d traveled in the space of twenty-four hours Sure, the battering rah the city’s ras, the walls encircled cars, co artifacts; they sees on a pond, without penetrating its depths or altering its non was not so different from Knoxville, and this hospital could have been transplanted to any suburb in the United States without looking out of place

A deeper, h, was the one about to transpire within the hospital — specifically, in the Clinique Radiologique, where ere bringing the skull for a CT scan: ancient bones, twenty-first-century technology

“You know there’s no co scientific reason for this,” Miranda pointed out, not for the first time