There hadn’t been time to elaborate on what Nehem meant by his warning. The men were outside his apartment and on their way up. With only seconds to spare, he was able to get the email away to his friend in the United States. At least Mamoud’s men had possessed the decency to knock. They gave him the chance to give himself up or they would break down the door. He chose to go easily, thinking that it would be better for him in the long run if he didn’t resist.
When Mamoud’s men entered the apartment, led by the one he called Sharouf, the group of mercenaries ripped through everything in the apartment while Nehem sat idly by in his desk chair, watching helplessly. They’d taken the tablet, which he knew there was no possible chance he could hide. The three-thousand-year-old piece of stone was taken from his tiny breakfast table where he’d placed it on a towel. Part of his plan was to keep it in plain sight, knowing that the only people who could translate it were his friend in America and himself. Had he claimed to not know the whereabouts of the tablet, the men might have simply killed him right then and there.
“Is there anything else?” the one called Sharouf had asked.
Nehem had slowly shaken his head and watched as the other men finished tearing apart his belongings.
When they were satisfied they had what they needed, they’d put a pillowcase over Nehem’s head and taken him down to their van. The next day, he’d woken up in this cramped little storage room.
Over the days that he’d been held hostage, Nehem knew what Mamoud Al Najaar wanted. He knew that the wealthy young Arab wanted the symbols to be interpreted, and he knew why. Nehem may have just been an archaeologist, but he was no fool. The reasons why someone would want the relics he searched for could be many in number. If anyone who’d studied the Bible or the Torah took note of the relics, they could easily wonder what possibilities awaited if the two were found and reunited.
Of course, neither Scripture discussed what happened to the Hoshen and the Urim and Thummim when the Babylonians came. Both sacred texts seem to just cease mentioning the items, much like the Ark of the Covenant.
Nehem knew exactly what Mamoud wanted to hear. Unfortunately, he didn’t know enough about the man to come to a logical conclusion. All he could do was hope that Tommy could figure everything out before it was too late.
Nehem tapped on the keyboard and moved the mouse around, pretending to examine the grid on the screen. Next to the monitor, the stone tablet sat like a heavy, priceless paperweight on the desk’s surface.
He was pretending because everything he’d done up until now was part of a plan to stall. Nehem didn’t tell Mamoud that he had already figured out the riddle in the symbols. He’d discovered the translation shortly before sending Tommy the email. He didn’t actually need his friend’s help. He had all the same technology. But Nehem didn’t entirely trust the Internet, either. If he sent an email out with specific locations and with the translation of the riddle on the stone, it could be hacked and spread around the world within an hour.
There were going to be enough hurdles. Worrying about a thousand treasure hunters didn’t need to be one of them.
So instead of including the key to the symbols on the tablet, and the way in which they could be used with the grid, Nehem played it safe and sent copies to Tommy, knowing that the American would be one of the few people in the world with the software powerful enough to break down the extensively complicated cipher. Along with that, he’d left another clue that Sharouf and his men had missed.
Nehem suppressed the laughter that tried to escape from his lips, aware that the cameras were always watching for any unusual behavior. Even in a dire situation like the one in which he presently found himself, he could see humor in some things.
He moved the mouse around again and picked up a pencil, pretending to write down something important. They were meaningless symbols, but the men behind the cameras didn’t know that. Nehem already had the solution to the code, and to the grid. He knew exactly where to look for the first of the two relics, though where it was hidden once they got there could prove to be tricky. At the moment, that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Mamoud believed he was working on a solution, and that he would be able to provide it within the next twenty-four hours.
Nehem wrote down another phrase in Old Hebrew and set the pen down again. The newest lettering spelled out an insulting line, directed at his captors. They would never know what it meant anyway.
When his twenty-four hours were up, he would present the solution to the first part of the riddle to Mamoud, and not a minute sooner. All Nehem could do was hope that he’d bought his friend enough time to catch up, if Tommy was even on the trail at all.
He wondered where the American might be and whom he had with him. Nehem put his hands over his head and stretched. A yawn escaped from his gaping mouth. His eyes wandered over to the clock on the computer monitor.
His deadline was hours away. He said a silent prayer that his friend would hurry.
10
Tommy’s finger traced the arrows on the sheet of paper. He’d put it down on the desk and waited for Karem and Sean to return from the bedroom so he could show them what he had found.
“These symbols fit into the grid to spell out different possibilities. The riddle was only half of the solution.” He relayed his theory to his friend and waited to hear what Sean had to say.
Sean examined the paper and nodded slowly. “Finally,” he said, relieved. “That makes perfect sense. The riddle, though revealing, was vague about actual locations. You think this spells out where to go next?”
“It has to,” Tommy said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. The riddle gives a clue, but the grid will tell us exactly where to look. That’s why it was so hard to figure out. We only had half the information.”
Karem had been standing by, listening to the two. “Does this mean you know where Nehem is?”
“No,” Sean said. “But it gives us some insight as to where we should look next. If someone who wants what he was looking for took him, they will force him to lead them to it. Nehem left us this clue so we can track them down.” He hoped he was right. The truth was, Nehem and the people who took him could be anywhere at that moment. He wasn’t about to tell Karem that, though.
Sean turned his attention back to his friend before the Israeli could say anything else. “You think you can figure that thing out?”
Tommy stared at the paper. “I think so. It’s almost like a three-thousand-year-old word jumble.” He found a blank piece of paper and set it next to the drawing.
“Based on the key that Tara and Alex discovered, if we apply the letter sequence to the symbols on this sheet, we should be able to get several different combinations of words in Old Hebrew. Once we have those, we can take a picture and send it to the lab for the kids to analyze.”
Karem stepped forward. “You mean you two don’t read Old Hebrew?”
Sean and Tommy stopped what they were doing and turned back to their guide. They simultaneously shook their heads.
“No,” Sean said. “Do you?”
“Sean, I am the director of antiquities and head curator of one of the most prized museums here in Israel. I have access to rooms and galleries that even high members of state don’t have.” He grinned at the other two. “In short, of course I can read it.”
Tommy smiled and motioned him to come closer. “Perfect. Get over here.”