"Hmm?  What?" Driveling started, suddenly realizing that he wasn't on the receiving end of yet another refutation.

"How is all of your... drivel... about church history supposed to fit into Da Vinci's The Last Supper?" Michael repeated his question.

"Oh, yes!" Driveling said, sensing that he might finally have an opening to press his point.  "The proof!  Right here in The Last Supper!"

Driveling tapped the keyboard of his laptop, which had gone into sleep mode while Michael was speaking.  The image of Da Vinci's famous painting appeared on the screen.

"Notice," Driveling said, "that Jesus is here surrounded by all his disciples with pieces of the bread of the Last Supper on the table before them.  But look closely at the figure to his immediate right and at the V-shaped space between them, as well as the M-shape formed by the outlines of their figures."  Driveling zoomed in on the iamge.

Michael and Bev looked at the area Driveling was talking about.  They weren't sure what they were looking for.

"What are we looking for?" Michael asked.

"Look closely," Driveling encouraged them.

Bev stared at the figures in the painting.  "I don't see anything..."

"Look closelier," Driveling said, leaning in.

Michael examined the image before him.  "I still don't see..."

"Look more closelier," Driveling said, starting to sound annoyed.

"I don't..." Bev started to say.

"Oh, come on!" Driveling growled.  "Doesn't the figure to Jesus' right look more like a woman than a man?"

Bev looked at the figure.  "I don't know," she said.  "The figure has long hair..."

"But so does Jesus," Michael interjected, "and so do a lot of the other obvious male figures in the painting."

"But this figure at Jesus's right also has no beard!" Driveling pressed.

"True," Michael replied, "but neither do a couple of figures on the other side of Jesus.  At least, they don't look like they do."

"Then look at the figure to the right of the figure to the right of Jesus," Driveling prompted.

"Who's that supposed to be?" Bev asked.

"Saint Peter," Dreiveling answered, "the first Pope.  Now, do you notice how he's jabbing his left hand toward the neck of the figure leaning toward him, as if he's about to slit her throat?"

Bev and Michael leaned in toward the image.  "Well, maybe," Michael finally said, "but Peter could just as easily be resting his hand on... um, 'her' shoulder."

"The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Mary both depict Peter as being hostile toward Mary Magdalene," Driveling said. "In Thomas Peter tells Jesus to send Mary away since women are 'not worthy of life.'  In Mary Peter rebukes Mary for saying that she had had a vision of Jesus that the other male disciples didn't know about.  Also, in the Gnostic tractate Pistis Sophia, or 'Faith-Wisdom,' Mary actually says to Jesus, 'I am afraid of Peter, because he threatens me and hates our gender.'  All this reflects how the church has sought to hide the secret of the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene.  Peter is depicted here as trying to kill Mary because the truth is a threat to the church."

"Now that you mention it," Michael said, looking closelier at the image, "I do seem to see something odd about Peter."

"Aha!  So you do see it!" Driveling crowed triumphantly.  "The evil sneer on his face.  The threatening gesture toward Mary..."

"Actually," Michael said, "I seem to see something above Peter's head... something hidden in the shadows of the wall in the background... as if Da Vinci had first painted something and then painted over it..."  Michael zoomed in more closely on the image.  "Something... there."  He traced his finger around the space above Peter's head.

"What?" Driveling asked, confused.  "What do you see?"

"Let's try lightening the image a little bit," Michael said, "and we end up with... yes.  I was right."

"What?" Driveling demanded.  "What is it?"

"This," Michael said, drawing in a helpful outline...

..."rabbit ears."

"WHAT?!" Driveling thundered.

"I see it now," Bev said, "and those things on the table before Jesus and the disciples...

...look not so much like pieces of bread as they do... eggs..."

"Wha...?  You... buh..." Driveling sputtered.

"Rabbit ears and eggs," Michael said, sitting back.  "Da Vinci concealed the secret of the Easter Bunny in The Last Supper."

"And the ears above his head," Bev said, "must mean that... Saint Peter... is really... Peter Rabbit!"

"That South Park episode was true," Michael marveled.  "Saint Peter really was a rabbit..."

"No, NO, NO!" Driveling finally exploded.  "Da Vinci didn't hide the secret of the Easter Bunny!  Saint Peter wasn't a rabbit!  The secret in The Last Supper is the secret of the Holy Grail!  The V-shaped space between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is the chalice, the ancient symbol for the female womb!  The M-shape formed by their outlines stands for Mary, Magdalene and married!  This proves it!""

Michael looked at Driveling, who was sweating profusely.  "No, it doesn't," he said.

"What do you mean, it doesn't?" Driveling roared.  "You can see it right here, in plain view.  Look, here's the V-shape between them...

...and here's the 'M' formed by their outlines..."

Driveling turned back toward Michael and Bev.  "Your bad puns on my last name aside, this proves conclusively that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, that the Holy Grail is her womb, and that everything else I said earlier about the church covering it up is true!"

Michael looked at Driveling.  "Sorry," he said, "that's not what it means."

"Well, then, Mr. 'Academic Alphabet Soup,'" Driveling replied mockingly, "you tell me what it means."

"Fine," Michael said.  "Firstly, the symbols you mention are indeed there in The Last Supper, but they're not at all what you or Dan Brown imagine.  As I told my family earlier today, and as you and Ms. Darwish also would have heard since you bugged our room, the 'V' is one of the three symbols on the cryptex that we found and represents a descending bird or dove... the Spirit of God in classic Christian symbolism.  By itself I suppose the 'V' could be mistaken for some other symbol, but you and Dan Brown both missed the significance of its placement in The Last Supper.  Tell me, Mr. Driveling," Michael said, "what do you notice about the placement of the point of the 'V'?"

Driveling looked at the image.  "Well... it comes down to where the arms of Jesus and... um, Mary... meet, at the surface of the table," he finally said.

"Yes," Michael replied, "the flat, level surface of the table."  Michael drew again on the image.  "And what do you notice of significance in the joining of the 'V' with the surface of the table?"

Driveling's eyes grew wide.  "My gosh!" he exclaimed, not believing what he was seeing.  "It's the ancient symbol of the Incarnation from Chapter 22, of the dove alighting on the waters, of the joining of heaven and earth!"

"Precisely," Michael replied.  "And, of course, what do you end up with when you stand it up and make it walk?" he added, turning the laptop on its side.

"The Sacred K!"  Driveling whispered in amazement.

"Yes, the Sacred K," Michael replied. "Da Vinci did indeed hide clues to the secret of the Holy Grail in The Last Supper, but he wasn't pointing to Mary Magdalene's womb or any alleged bloodline of Jesus.  He was pointing to the true Holy Grail... the secret guarded by the People of the Southwind."

"But... but then what of the 'M' formed by the outlines of Jesus and the figure I thought was Mary?" Driveling asked.  "If it doesn't stand for Mary, or Magdalene or married, then what does it stand for?"

Michael smiled an odd little smile.  "Monolith."