The
Holy Blood Altar, an elaborate shrine whose centerpiece is said to contain
three drops of Jesus Christ’s blood, has for centuries adorned the west choir
within the walls of a small, unassuming Catholic cathedral in Rothenberg,
Germany. From the time of the Middle Ages the cathedral was little more than a
tiny rest stop along the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela until an amazing
confirmation was made there. The capsule within the shrine did indeed contain
human blood.
When the blood was tested and found to
match a sample of tissue taken from the Shroud of Turin, the Vatican, fearing
desecration of the altar, immediately put an end to all testing and ordered the
story suppressed. A powerful group of Catholic clergymen, believing their
intervention would bring about the second coming of Christ, defy the Church.
Starting small at first then building in numbers, they, together with prominent
financial and political figures, resurrect an ancient, covert alliance known as
‘In hoc signo vinces.’ (In this, be
victorious.) Although forbidden by both papal and international law, the
group has but one goal: with the budding new science of bio-reanimation, it
plans to clone Jesus Christ, regardless the cost.
Maria Rose, Jewish student and
legendary UCLA campus beauty, is chosen to be the surrogate mother. Staggeringly
beautiful, she is also strong willed and conniving, pulling fellow student Todd Riley into the fray in order to fulfill a ‘Vinces’ stipulation: The child must
have both a surrogate mother and father.
From the moment the project begins,
strange things start to happen.
