The Resurrection File (54 page)

Will pressed in. “Was there, in fact, great laughter and joking and merriment when the words ‘murderer' and ‘fraud' were uttered at that party?”

“Someone may have been laughing.”

“Several people?”

“Perhaps.”

“Almost everyone?”

“I didn't count noses.”

“Did your wife begin laughing so heartily that tears welled up in her eyes?”

“I think she may have had too much to drink.”

“In fact, there were gales of laughter at that party as you and your scholarly friends made fun of my client—Reverend Angus MacCameron?”

“Angus MacCameron deserves ridicule from the scholars of the world—he took that chance when he decided to write that ridiculous article against me.”

“But you think the article—and the allegations—were ridiculous?”

“Absolutely!”

“As did your friends at that party?”

“Anybody with scientific sophistication believes MacCameron is a joke.”

“Including all your friends at that party?”

Reichstad leaned back in the witness chair. He smirked slightly and rotated his head and his neck, as if he were relieving a cramp.

“We were joking—yes. It was a party.”

“So then—you lied, under oath, when in your deposition you testified in these exact words,” and with that Will Chambers read from the transcript of Reichstad's deposition:

There was a voice raised from a corner of the room…it sent chills down my spine, and it literally broke my heart…

The voice shouted out, ‘Murderer! Murderer!'…

That other voice said ‘fraud!'”

“I did not lie!” Reichstad shouted out.

“Was that statement that I just read from your deposition—was it the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” And with that, Will lifted up the affidavit from Kathleen Aberscrombe and displayed it prominently in front of Reichstad.

“Maybe my deposition testimony was not entirely accurate in all its details,” Reichstad finally responded. “I had gotten very little sleep. You were badgering me. I may have made mistakes. I had been very busy with a complicated research project before coming to the deposition.”

“A ‘complicated research project'? In other words, you become more of a liar the busier you get—is that what you are saying?”

Sherman howled out an objection, but Judge Kaye beat him to the punch.

“That's enough! Mr. Chambers, I've given you plenty of rope. But you are getting perilously close to hanging yourself—and your client. That question is ordered stricken. The jury will disregard it.”

Will nodded, apologized to the court, and then positioned himself directly across from Reichstad and smiled at him as he launched into his next cross-examination attack.

“When you testified under oath at your deposition, you said that you had identified for me every single book that you had ever authored. Were you being truthful?”

“Of course. Don't be insulting.”

“Did you list for me a little book you authored called
A New Quest for Jesus?”

“I'm not sure.”

Will showed Reichstad a copy of his typed curriculum vitae that had been given to Will at the deposition. Reichstad's lawyers had represented that the résumé, drafted by Reichstad, contained all of his professional credentials and publications.

Reichstad glanced at the document for a moment.

“Apparently I inadvertently omitted that book from my résumé.”

“Was it merely inadvertent?”

“Yes, naturally.”

“Not intentional?”

“No!” Reichstad responded with irritation.

“You know who Warren Mullburn is?”

Reichstad studied Will Chambers for a moment before he responded. He straightened up a little in the witness chair, squaring his shoulders and trying to look bored and uninterested in the questions.

“Do you know who he is?” Will repeated.

“Of course. Most of the civilized world has heard of Mr. Mullburn. He is quite famous. Books. Screenplays for science-fiction movies. The world's third richest man. Inventor of various geological devices for the discovery of oil. And on and on.”

“But you know him better than most. You have met with him.”

“Perhaps.”

“Your research center, in fact, has been funded by millions of dollars from one of his subsidiary corporations. You would admit that?”

“What does that have to do with this case, Mr. Chambers? I object.”

J-Fox Sherman leaped up and joined in his client's objection.

The judge asked where the questioning was going.

Will Chambers gave three simple words—concise enough to let Judge Kaye understand the legal justification, but without tipping off the witness. Will simply said, “Motive for bias.”

“Overruled,” the judge barked.

“Has your research center received millions of dollars of funding from one of Mr. Mullburn's corporations?”

“Yes. He believes in the advancement of science.”

“Does he also believe in gaining a share of Saudi Petrol Company, Saudi Arabia's leading oil company, and one of the largest oil interests in the world?”

“He is in the oil business. Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, OPEC has never permitted Western nations to participate in OPEC meetings; and Saudi Petrol Company has never permitted shared ownership with a Western corporate interest. Are you aware of that?”

“I do read the financial pages. So I suppose I knew that.”

“Is it a fact that you reported your progress on the 7QA discovery to Mr. Mullburn?”

“Yes. He is a controlling shareholder of our research venture. That is entirely appropriate.”

“And Mr. Mullburn was pleased that you had concluded that 7QA disproved the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?”

“Well, he felt that my interpretations would open up new human understanding.”

“Mr. Mullburn was pleased—because he had announced his conversion to Islam shortly before meeting with Muslim religious leaders in Vienna, Austria, and the Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus—reject him as the Son of God. Correct?”

Now Reichstad was taking more and more time between his answers. He searched Will Chambers' face in some kind of psychic effort to divine where Will had learned so much about his partnership with Mullburn.

“As a convert to Islam, I suppose he felt gratitude that we had finally disproved that Jesus was one with God, theologically.”

“And the Islamic leaders in the oil-producing countries—those clerics who exert indirect influence within OPEC—they would have been particularly pleased with the fact that Mr. Mullburn's well-financed research center, the one that you operate, had supported a major element of the Islamic faith—that Jesus was a human prophet, not a divine Son of God. Correct?”

“Fine. Yes. Everyone here would probably agree with that. That proves nothing.”

“And in addition to being helped by Warren Mullburn, you have also benefited from the assistance of Kenneth Sharptin, Undersecretary of the Department of State, who along with Mr. Mullburn has encouraged the 7QA project?”

Judge Kaye jumped in as he saw the scope of the case now broadening to include the Executive Branch.

“How far are you taking this, Mr. Chambers? Are you asserting some kind of concerted agreement among a high-level State Department official, an oil magnate, and Dr. Reichstad regarding this papyrus fragment?”

“It is my position, Your Honor, that both Kenneth Sharptin and Warren Mullburn provided my client's opponent with an opportunity, and a motive, to misinterpret, and exploit, the incomplete nature of the 7QA fragment.”

After a few seconds of silence, Judge Kaye looked at Will and said, “You are on very thin ice. I don't want to hear any half-baked conspiracy theory against a high-ranking State Department official that you cannot absolutely prove. You have been warned.”

Will quickly glanced toward the rear of the courtroom. Jack Hornby was still sitting in his favorite perch at the back. But now he was leaning forward on the bench in front of him; his eyes were trained on Will.

As Will turned back to Reichstad, and continued his questioning, his voice was slow, deliberate, and powerful, as it filled the courtroom.

“Is it a fact that you obtained help from Undersecretary Kenneth Sharptin? And by help I mean this: that he used his considerable diplomatic power to obtain special permission from the Israeli government—the Israeli Antiquities Authority to be precise—to enable you to dig along the St. Stephen's Gate wall of Old Jerusalem in an effort to locate the tomb whose location is mentioned in 7QB?”

“Is this really necessary?” Reichstad said in a pleading voice to the judge.

“Answer the question!” Judge Kaye commanded.

“Yes. The State Department was of some assistance in getting that permission for me and my research team. As a matter of fact, we are ready to start digging any day now.”

“You would agree that such a dig is most extraordinary?”

“Certainly. We expect to find nothing less than the remains of Jesus of Nazareth. I would say that the word ‘extraordinary' is barely adequate.”

“And for permission for such a dig along the old wall of Jerusalem to be granted within just a week or two of the request by you—that also is extraordinary?”

“Of course. That is obvious.”

“And the dig will take place right next to a Muslim cemetery, and just a short way from the Temple Mount area, where mosques are located that are held sacred by the followers of Islam.”

“All that is true, yes. Yes.”

“All of that makes this proposed dig of yours politically and religiously sensitive to say the very least—making it even more extraordinary that permission was granted so very quickly. Wouldn't you agree?”

“This is such a waste of time. I have admitted how extraordinary it all is. So what?”

“Well, it all seems to come down to this: Undersecretary Sharptin must have placed
extraordinary
diplomatic pressure on the Israeli authorities to get permission so quickly for your excavation. Is that the fact—or not?”

“I don't know. I am not an expert in foreign relations.”

“But you have attended a number of functions, meetings, and conferences sponsored by the State Department since the 7QA discovery, correct?”

“Yes. As well as those sponsored by a hundred other organizations and agencies.”

“I'm just concerned with the State Department functions. Just those. At those, the Undersecretary was present, and he praised your 7QA interpretation as something that boosted the Administration's ‘cultural reconciliation' policy in bringing together the Islamic East and the Christian West?”

“For peace. It is all for peace. Peace among mankind. The way you say it, you make it sound very sinister, Mr. Chambers.”

“Perhaps. Maybe I've gotten carried away. When we think of one of the world's richest men, owner of the world's fifth-largest oil interest, funding a religious antiquities project that will disprove the divinity of Jesus at the same time he is courting OPEC and Islamic leaders in an effort to join the OPEC oil monopoly—when we think of the Undersecretary of the State Department praising that very same religious antiquities project and bending over backwards to arm-twist Israel into giving you special permission for the excavation that you expect will disprove the resurrection of Jesus forever—which looks for all the world like a massive public-relations gimmick for the Administration's ‘cultural reconciliation' project to bring the Islamic East in closer harmony with America. When you think of all of that—all those little pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle on a card table, all fitting together that way—doesn't that look sinister to you?”

“Only a paranoid conspiratorialist would think that it is sinister.”

“Then am I being paranoid in suggesting that, in addition to whatever other financial benefits you have received from Warren Mullburn—and apart from the special benefits you have received from Undersecretary Sharptin—and even apart from becoming a world-renowned scholar whose picture is on the cover of magazines around the globe, and on the prime-time talk shows, as the man who debunked Jesus. Apart from all of that, is it paranoid to suggest that deep down, you really wanted to interpret 7QA the way you did because of your disdain for traditional Christianity, and for conservative Christian Bible scholarship?”

“That is the most absurd thing you have said today—and you have said some very absurd things in this case! I am a scholar in my field. I am a scientist. I have no agenda except for the truth. Unlike your client, who uses his medieval religious beliefs to obscure and distort the truth.”