Read Online The Jerusalem Creed: A Sean Wyatt Thriller by Ernest Dempsey - Free Book Online Page B

step back, turning to leave the room.
    Nehem’s mind raced. What was he insinuating? He thought fast, and one terrifying truth kept rearing its head in his eyes.
    “I have no family,” he said finally. “My wife died years ago. I am all alone now.”
    Mamoud stopped instantly and slammed his fist on the table. “Lies!” he yelled, his voice echoing through the high ceilings.
    A tear formed in Nehem’s left eye. His head kept moving back and forth in one last attempt to deny his captor. “Please. I beg of you.”
    “No more begging, Nehem.” Mamoud still faced the other direction, keeping his back to the older man. “I will torture your daughter until every last ounce of her will succumbs to me. I will give her over to my men first, before the old techniques are employed. They will have their way with her, at my insistence. And I have many, many men in my service. When they are done, Sharouf here will begin his work. And he is very, very good at what he does. Xerxes himself would have paid dearly for his services.”
    There was no holding back the tears now for Nehem. They flowed freely like two broken dams. “Please. She’s all I have in this world. Do whatever you want to me, but don’t hurt her. Please.” There was surrender in his voice. Mamoud had heard it before, many times. He always got what he wanted. That was the simple way of it. People could hold out sometimes, but in the end, everyone had a pressure point that could be used.
    “Tell me what the tablet says, and I will spare your daughter. Lie to me, and I will personally take her as part of my harem, for a while. After I’m done with her, all the other things I said will come to pass. Now,” he spun around and stared through his hostage, “are you going to tell me what the tablet says, or do I need to send Sharouf to the university where your daughter works?”
    Nehem swallowed hard, tears still streaming down his already wet face. They hung momentarily in the tangles of his beard before falling to his thighs. He nodded. “Yes. I will tell you. But I have your word? No harm will come to her?”
    “I swear it to Allah,” Mamoud answered.
    The old man paused. He didn’t care what they did to him, but he couldn’t risk any harm coming to the only family he had left on the planet, even at the cost of the rest of civilization. She would find a way to survive, somehow.
    “The translation is a riddle.”
    Mamoud took another step closer. Sharouf’s eyes widened behind Nehem’s back.
    “Go on,” the wealthy Arab said.
    Nehem’s eyes began to dry out, and he wiped his face clean of the tears with his sleeve. “I don’t know both locations with any certainty. But from what I understand about the translation, the objects you seek were taken to two places, far apart from each other.”
    “The first?”
    “Again, I honestly do not know for certain. I only discovered the tablet shortly before your men showed up. I’d been working on the translation day and night. I only unraveled it this morning.”
    “You’re sure you did the translation correctly?” The question left little room for doubt. If Nehem were trying to stall or fool Mamoud in any way, the consequences would be most dire.
    The prisoner swallowed again. “Yes. I am sure. But the riddle is vague. I can only offer a guess as to where it might lead us. I need more time to figure out the first location.”
    “More time?” Mamoud looked at Sharouf. “Find the girl. Bring her to me.”
    Nehem shot out of his chair. The second he did, Sharouf’s hand smacked down on his shoulder and forced him back into the seat with a thump. “I am not lying to you, Mamoud. I know what you would do to her. Please, the tablet translation is only part of the puzzle. The riddle lends a clue, but there is more.”
    “What do you mean, more?”
    Nehem’s breath came quickly in big heaves. “The tablet is a grid of twelve spaces. When you put the symbols into the different spaces, it produces a