Professor Stephen Charles

Professor Stephen Charles is a Chicago scholar who works with John Avery Whittaker on the supposed Q document. Behind his academic role, however, he is partnered with artifact smuggler Alfred Brownlee. The two men operate rival organizations as cover for their black-market treasure hunting. They pursue Whit to a hidden tomb in Israel, where an ancient parchment appears to point toward the bones of Jesus. Charles and Brownlee arrive armed and threaten to leave no witnesses. Their expected discovery instead becomes evidence of an old attempt to discredit the resurrection: the coffin holds forged parchments rather than bones. Charles uses scholarship, secrecy, and deception in pursuit of valuable artifacts, making him especially dangerous because his respectable position hides criminal motives.