“Exactly,” said Moore. “Theknowledge.” Moore’s voice was strangely calm and collected. “Think for a moment what this revelation would do.” He paused. “It would upend every religion.… Think about it, my friends. There would be wars fought over this beyond any the world has ever experienced.”
Cash stared at Moore. The narrow little priest seemed to be in the grips of a profound sorrow.
“This knowledge was never meant for us,” Moore went on quietly. “It will… take from humanity that which is most precious… as it has just robbed me.” His voice dropped a notch.
He reached down and picked up the artifact. Cash watched him, unable to formulate her thoughts. She sensed, on a profound level, that he was right. She glanced at Colcord and saw the same immobility, the same uncertainty, in his own face.
The priest, holding the artifact, slowly extended his arm out over the gunwale of the canoe and held it above the surface of the lake.
“Yes?” he asked.
Cash and Colcord stared. Finally, Cash said. “Do it.”
Moore let go, the artifact falling into the water with a soft splash. The strange purple-white roundness of it was visible for a beat as it sank before it disappeared into the depths of Solitary Lake.
