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

some of the fastest in the world, and the monitors were state of the art.
    The two stood over Tara’s shoulders and stared at the screen that proclaimed a match had been found.
    “I’m not sure what this means,” she said, clarifying her earlier statement. “The translation is either gibberish, incomplete, or is some kind of riddle.”
    Sean peered at the lines and read them silently to himself.
    “One to the north, into the belly of the beast. May it rest with him forever. One to the east, may it find safe harbor in the high tower of the seekers of light.”
    A pall fell across the room. The only sound came from the exposed air ducts near the ceiling, twenty feet above, as cool air poured from the vents.
    “One to the north and one to the east?” Alex asked. “What could that possibly mean? And what is the it it mentions?”
    History wasn’t necessarily his strong point, nor was figuring out the meaning of ancient texts. In translation and technology, there were few better than he and Tara. Riddles, it seemed, weren’t his strong suit.
    “Where was this tablet found?” Sean asked in response to the younger man’s question. He directed it at Tommy.
    Tommy pulled out his phone and scrolled down the screen until he came to the email from Nehem. He read through some sentences and then said, “Looks like he was working an excavation of some important person’s tomb; in the valley just outside of Jerusalem.”
    “Important person? Like a governor or a king?”
    “No,” Tommy shook his head. “Seems that Nehem believes he discovered the tomb of a Hebrew high priest. The tablet in these images was found with the priest’s remains.”
    “I don’t suppose he sent you any dating they might have done with the body.” Sean looked hopeful, but he was realistic. If Nehem had just discovered the grave, it was unlikely he’d had time to date it.
    “No. But according to the email, Nehem believes it to be the tomb of a high priest named Tovar.”
    Sean considered the new information while Tara sent the translation to a nearby printer. She stood up and walked over to it, grabbed the newly printed sheets, and brought them back to Sean and Tommy. “Just in case you need to take these with you.”
    She smiled and sat back in her seat and continued to analyze the tablet’s translation.
    “Tovar?” Sean wondered out loud.
    “Already on it, Mr. Wyatt,” Alex said. His fingers flew across the keyboard faster than anyone Sean had seen. The kid was easily typing a hundred words per minute.
    “Please, don’t call me that.”
    His comment didn’t slow Alex at all. “Sorry, force of habit, Sean. It’s how I was raised.”
    Sean smirked. Pushing forty years of age didn’t bother him, but he still had a few years of thirties left and was in no hurry to give that up for the title of Mr. Wyatt and a seat at a bar where 1980s music played all the time. Not yet anyway. Alex was a good kid. Sean cursed himself in his mind. The fact that he and Tommy referred to Alex and Tara as kids validated the fact that he was worthy of the title.
    The computers hummed as the internals worked at the speed of light. Less than ten seconds later, Alex motioned for the other two guys to come over to his side of the table.
    “I think this might be our high priest.”
    He pointed at the screen covered in images of ancient scrolls. In the right-hand sidebar, the text translations were displayed in plain English. In several places, the name Tovar was highlighted in yellow.
    “What are all these old scrolls and documents?” Sean asked.
    “I’m not sure,” Alex confessed.
    “I am.” Tommy leaned closer. “I’ve seen these scrolls before. They were found at the Hebrew monastery at Qumran.”
    Sean frowned. “Dead Sea Scrolls?”
    “Sort of,” Tommy shrugged. “These aren’t part of the collection of the actual Dead Sea Scrolls. These are something else. But I recognize the signs of aging and the way they’re written. The library that