“You’re both with the Crispin Museum?” asked Jane.

“And they’re very unhappy about what I’m planning to do here,” said Maura.

“It’s destructive,” said Robinson. “There has to be some other way to get this information besides cutting her open.”

“That’s why I wanted you to be here, Dr. Robinson,” said Maura. “To help me minimize the damage. The last thing I want to do is destroy an antiquity.”

“I thought the CT scan last night clearly showed a bullet,” said Jane.

“Those are the X-rays we shot this morning,” said Maura, pointing to the light box. “What do you think?”

Jane approached the display and studied the films clipped there. Glowing within the right calf was what certainly looked to her like a bullet. “Yeah, I can see why this might’ve freaked you out last night.”

“I did not freak out. ”

Jane laughed. “You were as close to it as I’ve ever heard you.”

“I admit, I was damn shocked when I saw it. We all were.” Maura pointed to the bones of the right lower leg. “Notice how the fibula’s been fractured, presumably by this projectile.”

“You said it happened while she was still alive?”

“You can see early callus formation. This bone was in the process of healing when she died.”

“But her wrappings are two thousand years old,” said Dr. Robinson. “We’ve confirmed it.”

Jane stared hard at the X-ray, struggling to come up with a logical explanation for what they were looking at. “Maybe this isn’t a bullet. Maybe it’s some sort of ancient metal thingie. A spear tip or something.”

“That is not a spear tip, Jane,” said Maura. “It’s a bullet.”

“Then dig it out. Prove it to me.”

“And if I do?”

“Then we have a hell of a mind bender, don’t we? I mean, what are the possible explanations here?”

“You know what Alice said when I called her about it last night?” Frost said. “‘Time travel.’ That was the first thing she thought.”