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“I’ll go see her at a decent hour After she’s had a chance to take the kids to school She’ll be glad we got these guys, but it’ll be tough for her to hear, too She’s still a wreck”

“I’et back froood work’ I’ll do my part at the trial”

“Thanks, Doc Stay safe”

I laid the phone down and picked up et hot, but not for another hour or so, and the warood cradled in arden, in Avignon, in the case at hand “Sorry, where e?”

“The Institute for Biblical Science Newman, the scientist”

“Oh, right Can you tell if he’s an actual, for-real scientist? Not soht a PhD online?”

Descartes shrugged “I don’t knohere he got the PhD, or how good it is, but he’s atoDNA from the cow that was almost perfect He—”

“Wait They’re not just breeding cows, they’re cloning cows?”

“Oui Cloning Trying, but they do not succeed yet”

Alar with this preacher, Reverend Jonah — the guy ants to switch on the doouys want the bones from the Palace of the Popes? Why?” But I already knew the answer, even before I finished the question “Good God, they’re hoping to get DNA froh-tech Second Co of Christ”

“Sure,” said Descartes “If you can clone a cohy not Jesus?”

I set down my cup and raised my arms “Because it’s crazy and ied DNA in those bones — not nuclear DNA, not the kind you’d need for cloning Maybe, maybe, there’s mitochondrial DNA, but that’s just little pieces; it’s not the whole set of blueprints”

“You are sure of this?”

“Very sure Besides, it’s not unique to individuals It gets passed down froeneration Your mitochondrial DNA is identical to your mother’s, Inspector And to her mother’s And her mother’s mother’s”

Descartes considered this “Jesus had the same mitochondrial DNA as his mother, oui?”

“Oui, Inspector”

“So: the sain birth, then, n’est-ce pas?”

“But ,” I practically shouted “It’s scientifically impossible”

He shrugged “All it takes is another miracle, et voilà”

I wanted to take him by the collar and shake him “Damn it, Descartes, these aren’t even the bones of Jesus!”

“Ah, you are wrong, Docteur — they are the bones of Jesus There is scientific proof, remember? The carbon-14 report from Miami The bones are two thousand years old”

“That was total bullshit, Inspector Stefan faked that You know that”

“But the preacher, he does not know He has faith in this report If we tell him it is bullshit, he won’t believe us He will say we are controlled by demons”

Despair clutched atthe unthinkable Is the crazy preacher right about the end of the world? Is it time?

CHAPTER 32