A/N: Semi-Charmed – thanks for the spelling tip-off. It was rather an important one! I've made corrections to the relevant chapters now.
Chapter Eleven
And Mary Magdalene was there… sitting opposite the tomb.
Matthew 27:61
After Philippe had taken her through a torturous route of endless passages, they began descending infinite stairs.
"I won't need to go to the gym tonight," Sennett complained.
"You never go to the gym," Philippe retorted.
"Okay, so I wouldn't need to now!" she grumbled again.
"You were the one who wanted to bury yourself under this place," Philippe shrugged in his Gallic fashion.
"It's funny you should say that…" Sennett said dryly.
"We're almost there. We'll need to use torches now," he said, giving her a small one and switching on his own.
"You think of everything!" Sennett said admiringly.
"You'd be amazed how many musty corners there are in the Louvre where you need these," Philippe replied.
They were walking down a narrow stone corridor that came to an abrupt end in a set of heavy, padlocked doors.
"Doesn't anyone wonder what is in this place?" Sennett asked curiously.
"You're assuming anyone actually comes down here. The Louvre is an old castle. It's full of secret passageways and hidden rooms and hidey holes. They get locked up and locked off so the nosey public don't go wandering around getting themselves lost," he said, looking meaningfully at his cousin, a glare that was lost in the dark of the passageway.
"I anticipated this," Sennett said, pulling a strange looking key out of her bag.
"What is that?" Philippe inquired.
"Skeleton key," Sennett replied, "I pinched the one from our department at Oxford. There are a lot of old locks at Oxford too."
"You are kidding me," Philippe said, shaking his head, "Do you know how to use that?"
"How do you think I get access to all the ancient texts I want to read that the silly Oxford library keeps locked up? It takes ages to get permission to look at one. I take shortcuts," Sennett confessed in a whisper.
"Don't whisper, it gives me the creeps down here," Philippe complained, "And you're a deviant, Sennett."
It didn't take Sennett long to break open the large padlocks.
"I can see you have accomplishments I wasn't aware of, Sennett," Philippe said sardonically.
"You know we're all descended from the black sheep of the family," Sennett replied mischievously.
Sennett pushed open the door and swept her flashlight rapidly over the floor. There didn't appear to be any trip alarms. She had a feeling their time was limited anyway. There was every chance that these modern day, fake Priorists were still monitoring the tomb.
As she thought of it, suddenly she saw it. It was huge and carved from white marble turned ivory with time. On the top of the enormous sarcophagus was a peaceful looking figure of a woman with long, flowing hair. It had a strange effect on Sennett. It made her feel very calm.
"There's a light switch here," Philippe said, not having seen the tomb yet.
"Leave it off. There are people who wouldn't want us here and they may have put alarms into the room. We'll have to work fast," Sennett said, digging a candle stub out of her bag and some matches.
The candle threw out an amazing amount of light into the small room. She heard Philippe draw in his breath when he saw the tomb.
"Magnificent! What an amazing piece of work," he said, his eye for art coming to the fore, "Who would be interested in monitoring this room?" he asked inquisitively, catching on to what Sennett had said.
"A very strange group of people who have tried to reawaken and remake an old myth; they call themselves the Priory of Sion," Sennett explained, dripping some wax on the floor nearby in order to stand the candle out of the way.
"The what?" Philippe repeated in amazement.
"Exactly! They are totally obscure. Their real origin and purpose, if they existed at all, is lost in the mists of time. A modern group is now posing at the Priory and they are dangerous in their own way, if only for their misguided fanaticism. They would die to protect the secret we are now about to debunk," Sennett replied coolly, "Now help me with this lid."
"You know, I always knew you'd end up getting involved in some mighty peculiar business some day what with studying church history and ancient texts and so on. It's impossible to avoid fanatics in that line of work!" he complained, helping her push at the heavy lid.
"That is very true," Sennett said, pushing with all her might.
To her surprise, although the lid was heavy, it did slide relatively easily. Sennett had been afraid that the two of them would be unable to move it by themselves.
"Whose tomb is this?" Philippe asked.
"If I told you, I'm not sure you would believe me," Sennett replied.
"Try me," he said.
"Mary Magdalene," Sennett said.
"You're right. I don't believe you," Philippe said.
Sennett made a slight rumbling noise of frustration in her throat. "Fine but don't interrupt!" she commanded.
Sennett picked up the candle and shone it into the deep cavity. She should not have been surprised but she was. Inside was an ancient stone ossuary identical to those used in the Middle East during Jesus' lifetime to store the bones of the dead. The ossuaries were not very big, only large enough to fit in the long bones of the legs, and this one was swamped in the large sarcophagus.
"I'll have to climb in," Sennett said.
Again she did a sweep of the bottom of the sarcophagus for any trip alarms. There didn't appear to be any.
Philippe gave her a leg up into the sarcophagus and she landed next to the ossuary.
She knew from her readings on Biblical archeology that there was not a good chance that the bones would be in good condition; the older the bones, the harder to extract reliable DNA. If she could get a reasonable sized bone, there was a much better chance the results would be complete or close to it.
Carefully she lifted the stone lid of the ossuary. Her heart was thumping in her chest. Was she really about to see the remains of one of the most well-known women of history? The bones of someone who had seen and known and talked with Jesus the Christ Himself? The idea was overwhelming but Sennett could not allow herself to be overwhelmed. She had to move fast.
Philippe was shining his torch down into the tomb to allow Sennett see better. She could almost feel his anticipation.
Her heart stopped when she saw the old, brown bones gleaming in their stone home. She was an amateur paleontologist at best, only knowing what she had read in innumerable articles, but she could tell the bones were too small and gracile to belong to a man.
"I can't believe it," Sennett breathed softly, "Can it really be you, Mary Magdalene?"
Quickly pulling on a white cotton glove and taking a plastic bag out of her pocket, Sennett carefully reached between the long bones of Mary's arms and legs to the smaller bones scattered on the bottom of the ossuary. She was willing to provide evidence to debunk a myth but she was not prepared to desecrate a tomb more than necessary. Carefully Sennett picked out a reasonably sized fragment of rib and one of the metatarsal bones from Mary's feet.
To her astonishment, she noticed a reddish gleam near the skull.
"Shine your torch closer, Philippe," she said breathlessly.
She was right, there was actual hair! The hair would help enormously with completing the DNA sequence accurately. Carefully, she placed several hairs in the plastic bag with the bones. She sealed the bag immediately to prevent contamination and put it in the deep inner pocket of her jacket. It felt strange to have the bones of so ancient and so famous a figure so close to her. It felt surreal, in fact.
After taking one last lingering look at Mary's fragile bones, Sennett respectfully closed the ossuary again. "Rest in peace, Mary," she whispered.
Sennett climbed out and she and Philippe closed the lid of the sarcophagus again.
"I almost don't believe it," Sennett confided to Philippe.
"I'm sure by tomorrow I'll have convinced myself this was all a dream," Philippe agreed but with an odd awe in his voice. He was even less used to transversing time than Sennett who had spent so much of her life mentally in another era.
Sennett was just about to blow out the candle when they heard it. There was a stealthy step and then the door flew back. A middle aged man was staring at them down the barrel of a gun.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded harshly in their native French.
Sennett barely paused a beat. "We wanted to worship at the tomb of the Magdalena," Sennett said humbly, lying quickly and easily.
"How do you know that's what this is?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm a friend of Robert Langdon's. He told me, he entrusted me with the secret. I'm helping him research his next book which will prove the Merovingian line," Sennett said, knowing for certain that Langdon was a friend of the Priory even if not a member. He had told her part of the incredible story when he had asked for her help with the research.
"You know Langdon?" the man said, relaxing slightly.
"Ring him and ask him," Sennett said, handing the man her phone, "My name is Sennett Langlois."
He looked at her suspiciously but took the phone and scrolled through her directory. He found Langdon's number and rang it. Fortunately, it was still early enough for Langdon to be up.
The man conversed with Langdon in English.
"I am Marcel St Clair, one of Sophie's relatives. Do you know a Sennett Langlois?" he said gruffly.
He listened while Langdon spoke at the other end. Sennett and Philippe exchanged a glance.
Marcel handed Sennett the phone for her to talk to Langdon.
"Sorry Robert, I just had to see for myself. The tomb is so beautiful! I've got my cousin Philippe with me, the one who works in the Religious Art Department of the Louvre. He got me in here," Sennett said.
Philippe could hear an excited burst of talking at the other end.
"Yes, I'm sure he'd be happy to help you with your research too and to let you in to visit the tomb whenever you like," Sennett said, glancing at Philippe.
Philippe obviously didn't care what she said, so long as Marcel stopped pointing a gun at them.
"You need to tell Marcel to put his gun away and let the other Priory members know that we are helping you," Sennett said.
After a few moments, she handed the phone gingerly back to Marcel who listened to Langdon for a few minutes before saying goodbye and hanging up.
Marcel gave the phone back and put away his gun. "You check out with Langdon and Sophie trusts Langdon implicitly," he said gruffly, "You have to understand that we are very protective of this tomb."
"I understand," Sennett said soothingly, stepping outside into the corridor, "I'll check in with Langdon first if I need to come back again."
"I think that would be wise," Marcel said, snapping the padlocks shut again.
Marcel escorted them back out onto the street and then disappeared into the shadows.
After he had gone, Sennett turned to her cousin. "Sorry Philippe," Sennett apologized, "That was my worst case scenario but I thought the chances were pretty slim that anyone would know we were there. I guess they are more vigilant than I would have guessed."
"You won't need to go back again, will you?" Philippe asked nervously.
"No, I have what I need. Mind you, I think I will remember tonight for the rest of my life," Sennett laughed.
"You're an accomplished liar as well as a deviant," Philippe observed with mock severity, "I think you are a thoroughly disreputable character."
"Well, then I fit in with the rest of the family. Come on, I owe you and your wife dinner," Sennett said with a laugh, taking him arm. Only Philippe would have allowed her to lead him into an adventure like that. That's why she loved him.