He spent the next fifteen minutes drawing out a grid of his own to mirror the one Nehem had left, inserting the corresponding Hebrew letters into different areas and substituting them for the odd symbols.
As he followed the directions left by the Israeli archaeologist, Sean watched intently. An eerie silence hung in the room, and every time a sound came from outside, whether it was a door slamming shut or a neighbor yelling, all three men started and looked toward the entrance. At one point, Sean walked over and secured the door, locking the deadbolt and the lock on the doorknob. He knew that these measures wouldn’t hold up to someone who wanted to get in badly enough. Still, it was enough to slow them down by a few seconds. In a fight, a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death.
He patted the ankle holster carrying his weapon of choice, a compact Springfield XD .40-caliber. It was a habit he’d adopted years ago. Even though he could feel the gun there, it always reassured him to feel it with his hand. Normally, he’d rather have a full-sized weapon, as they were more accurate and just felt better in his hand, especially when fired. This particular situation called for concealment, though. Since he was officially a government agent again, he would likely have no trouble with the Israelis for carrying a firearm, but if he had his choice, Sean would prefer not to have to use it.
Satisfied he’d done what he could with the door, he returned to the workstation where Tommy worked diligently with the code. Karem stood directly over him now, looking over his shoulder like a little kid watching a magic trick.
“If you want, you can start speeding this up by translating these to English,” Tommy said to their guide. He never looked up from his work but slid a nearby pen over to the left side of the desk.
Karem nodded. “Good idea.”
He grabbed the pen and a piece of paper off the floor and shifted to Tommy’s left. Karem started working on the translation, putting the word clusters in the order they found them on the grid. Rather than a direct substitute of letter for letter, the symbols produced different word groupings, which were more representative of the original language. Some of the letters were dummy letters, sounds that would have been included in the primary language but now would be left out, especially when changing to English.
As he jotted down the meanings, he crossed out letters he deemed irrelevant and connected letters he thought might go together. After five minutes of working, though, things still didn’t seem to coalesce.
“I don’t understand,” Karem said, frustrated. “This just looks like nonsense.”
Tommy was almost finished with his part of the task and glanced over at the work Karem had done so far.
Sean looked over it as well, standing behind the other two. His eyes narrowed to slits. “You’ve got it,” he said evenly, trying not to sound too excited.
Tommy and Karem looked back at him over their shoulders. “What are you talking about?” the Israeli asked. “It’s just a bunch of gibberish.”
“No,” Sean shook his head and pointed at a particular section. “Take the top line, go across, and then down. Tommy, if I’m not mistaken, it looks like that’s forming the name of the oldest Buddhist temple in the world.”
Tommy cocked his head and stared at the sheet. Sure enough, it was plain as day. “I don’t know why I didn’t see that.”
“Well, it’s a strange name,” Sean said in an attempt to make his friend feel better about not seeing what appeared obvious to him.
“Yeah, but it’s one I know. Heck, I’ve been there before.”
Karem still seemed lost. “Are you certain that is the name you’re looking for?”
“It makes perfect sense,” Sean said. “Think about it. The riddle suggests a place to the east with the seekers of light.”
Tommy’s eyes widened at the epiphany. “Of course. Buddhists are seekers of enlightenment.”
“Bingo.”
“And this place,” he tapped the paper, “has a high tower.”
“Lots of towers, actually.”
“Right.”
Karem interrupted again. “So you’re saying that what Nehem was looking for is at the Buddhist Temple of Borobudur?”
“It would appear so, professor,” Sean answered.
“But why there?”
Silence soaked the apartment again as the three men pondered the question. Karem had a good point. Why would a relic of Jewish history be hidden there?
“Maybe the answer lies in figuring out what it is he was looking for,” Tommy said, breaking the dead silence once more.
“Fine,” Karem agreed. “How are you going to do that?”
“Easy,” Sean said, staring at the floor to the right of the desk. “It’s been right in front of us the entire time we’ve been here.”
The other two followed his eyes down to where a print of a painting lay among the debris. It was a picture similar to some Sean had seen when he was a boy in church. The artist had painted the image of the Israelite high priest in full regalia as he offered a sacrifice. His arms were extended high to the heavens, his head tilted back, and his eyes gazing into the sky. On his head was a fluffy white hat with a golden crown around the base. Sean immediately recognized the white linen ephod, or robes, that the priests of the time wore. In the background, thousands of people kneeled reverently. But none of that was what drew the attention of the three men in the apartment. They all stared at what the priest wore over the ephod.
The shining golden breastplate hung over the priest’s chest, supported by golden chains that went over his shoulders. Additional chains secured it around his waist to keep it stable as he performed the rituals required of his position. Sean knew he’d recognized the pattern of the stone tablet before. It looked almost identical to the breastplate, except that the one the priest wore featured twelve stones, each of unique color and clarity. Two additional stones in the priest’s hands caught Sean and Tommy’s attention.
In the right, a stone as black as onyx; in the left, a stone that looked like white quartz, smoothed down into an oval shape. The artist’s rendering displayed an odd glow hovering around the hand holding the darker of the two stones.
“The Hoshen,” Sean said in a hushed tone, breaking the silence that once more pervaded the room.
“And the Urim and Thummim,” Tommy added, referring to the stones in the priest’s hands.
The two looked back at the sheet Nehem had drawn and then down again at the print.
Karem looked perplexed. “Why would Nehem be looking for those things? They are sacred, hidden thousands of years ago by the priesthood.”
Sean and Tommy turned to him with questioning eyes. “How do you know that?”
He shrugged. “It’s the only explanation. When the Babylonians invaded the Holy City, they took everything of value. The temple was ravaged and looted of most of its treasures. The priesthood had set security measures in place in case of an invasion. The Ark of the Covenant was the first priority. They built a contraption into the temple that would allow the Ark to drop down below ground. It worked with counterweights made from heavy bags of sand.”
“Stay on track, Karem. What else do you know about these things?” Sean pointed at the print again.
“Honestly, not that much. There are only legends, myths really, that surround the whereabouts of the Hoshen and the two sacred stones.”
Sean crossed his arms and waited. Tommy mimicked him, coercing Karem to keep talking.
When he did, he stuttered at first but gained clarity as he went on. “From…from what I have learned about those objects, they were a form of divination the high priest used to gain insights into important matters of state.”
“Divination?” Sean asked. “You mean, like, they would use it to get answers from a supernatural source?”