The Search for Whit

While repairing Whit’s End’s malfunctioning answering machine, Jason and Eugene recover a broken message from Whit in Chicago. He says he has found something important at his archaeological site, brought it to Chicago for testing, and sent Jason a package for safekeeping. The morning mail contains a microcassette in Whit’s handwriting and a scrap of paper bearing only the words “The End.”

The cassette is Whit’s spoken archaeological diary. At its end, he describes ancient fragments that may constitute the most important discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls. He calls the find “the Q,” plans to tighten security, and intends to consult Professor Stephen Charles at a Chicago university. Then Whit hears someone enter, and the recording ends with a burst of speech that sounds like an unknown language.

Eugene explains that some scholars have proposed a lost Q document as a common foundation for the similarities among the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If Whit has found such a document, its importance would be extraordinary. Jason cannot reach any member of the Universal Encyclopedia board, so he and Eugene travel to Chicago and visit Professor Charles’s laboratory.

The laboratory has been violently ransacked. Charles’s teaching assistant, Gary Burkhead, says Whit and the professor had been followed, and someone had also broken into Whit’s hotel room. Both men kept the parchment secret from police because too many people already knew about it. While examining one of the larger fragments, they had discovered something that left them visibly shaken. Soon afterward, they vanished, apparently headed back to the Middle East.

At the hotel, Jason contacts old acquaintances and learns nothing about Whit’s location. Then Tasha unexpectedly arrives on official business. Because Jason has left the intelligence agency and Eugene has no clearance, she refuses to explain the operation. She confirms only that Whit flew to Tel Aviv and disappeared after leaving the airport. The agency does not know whether he is hiding or has been kidnapped.

Tasha orders Jason to abandon the search and leave Whit to the agency. Jason refuses to entrust his father to people who will not trust him with basic facts. During their argument, Tasha oddly mentions a fallen tree where they once sat at Trickle Lake. After she leaves, Jason realizes the reference is a warning: the tree had been covered with bugs, so Tasha is telling him that the hotel room is bugged.

Jason finally tells Eugene that Whit, Tasha, and he have all performed research and analysis for an American intelligence agency. The agency’s involvement has turned an archaeological mystery into something more dangerous, but it also strengthens Jason’s determination. He and Eugene fly to Israel to follow Whit’s trail themselves.

During the flight, Eugene discovers that the strange final sounds on Whit’s cassette become English when played backward. The complete warning includes Jason’s name and the puzzling phrase, “How I do is nothing great.” They spend the journey trying unsuccessfully to discover what it means.

In Tel Aviv, Alfred Brownlee, an old associate of Whit’s, meets them at the airport and warns that two violent organizations are watching. The Symposium publicly presents itself as liberal scholarship but wants to use Whit’s find against the claims of Jesus. First Things publicly claims to defend biblical tradition but wants the discovery destroyed. Brownlee says both groups seek power rather than truth and believe Jason will lead them to Whit.

Brownlee also reveals what drove Whit and Professor Charles from Chicago. The parchment says Jesus died without rising, that the disciples bribed Roman guards and moved his body, and that his bones can be found at a specific burial place. Eugene is shaken by the possible effect on his new faith. Jason reminds him that they still lack the facts and insists that finding Whit comes first. Their search begins at the archaeological site where everyone believes the parchment was discovered.