Indiana Jones and the Secretof the Sphinx Read Online Free PDF Page A

took the device out of the crate. It had thick screws protruding from the areas that would fit over the eyes, ears, and mouth. The halves were closed by a pin that slipped into the clasp from above. Sokai removed the pin and swung the halves open to reveal corkscrew spikes inside. They were black and crusted with dried blood.
    "And you intend to use that on me?"
    "If I must," Sokai said. "But I hope it won't come to that."
    "Don't hold your breath."
    "Very funny," Sokai said. "And very brave, in the face of being made progressively deaf, dumb, and blind. Ah, I see that I have your attention now. That is how it works—first one ear goes, and then the other. Then the tongue is ruined. Finally, because most of us prize our sight above all, first one eye is taken, and then comes the great darkness. But don't despair. Most nuts crack before it comes to that."
    Sokai looked sympathetically at Indy.
    "Or, you can avoid all of this unpleasantness and simply tell me the secrets of Qin's tomb," Sokai said. "I am particularly interested in getting in and out alive, as you apparently have."
    "Go fish."
    Sokai called to his aviators. When they came, he spoke softly to them in Japanese.
    "Hai," they each said and bowed curtly before beginning their work. They seized Indy's hands, wrenched them behind his back, and attempted to bring his wrists together so they could bind them with a cord.
    "What's wrong?" Sokai demanded when they were unable to bring Indy's hands together.
    "The gaijin is strong," Lieutenant Musashi complained.
    "How strong could he be?" Sokai snorted. "He's twenty years older than you, and he's been on prison rations for nearly a week."
    "Yes, Sokai Sensei," she said. "We will try harder."
    In the struggle, the lieutenant's hat was knocked from her head, and a cascade of silky black hair fell from beneath it.
    "Why do you look so surprised?" Sokai asked. "Did you not think the lieutenant's features were overly fine, that the voice was a little too feminine?"
    "I knew she was a woman," Indy said. "But I didn't know she was this beautiful."
    Then Sokai snapped his fingers.
    Warrant Officer Miyamoto struck Indy on the back of the head with his fist, hard enough so that Indy saw stars. Pushing Indy into a chair, Miyamoto seized a wrist in each hand, grunted, and brought them together while the lieutenant bound them with cord.
    "Good," Sokai said and drew close. "Hold his head."
    He opened the nutcracker wide, screwed the spikes out, then clamped it over Indy's head while the others held him still. Indy fought until the helmet was closed. He could feel the tips of the spikes scraping against his eyelids, his ears, and his bottom lip when he moved even slightly. The only direction he could move his head, he soon found, was backward.
    "There," Sokai said. "All set. Are you comfortable, Dr. Jones?"
    "No," Indy mumbled.
    "Of course you're not! Who would be?"
    The soldiers stepped away while Sokai moved behind the chair and placed a hand on the screw handle that drove the spike over the right ear. Sokai slowly turned the handle.
    "This is how it begins," Sokai said. "The anticipation of so much unnecessary pain. The sound of the screw turning, so close to your ear, followed by the feeling of the spike as it touches your outer ear—there, you jumped, you must have felt it—and then the awful agonizing seconds as it travels into the ear canal toward the tender membrane of the eardrum. And when the eardrum breaks, there is acute pain and a roaring sound—ironic, from an ear that has gone permanently deaf."
    "You're enjoying this too much," Indy tried to say without stabbing his lip or driving the spike farther into his ear, but it came out unintelligible.
    "Sorry," Sokai said. "You had your chance to—"
    Indy kicked out, catching the edge of the bench with the toe of his right boot. The bench tipped over, and as it did, a corner crashed into the lamp, bursting the globe and extinguishing the flame while dousing the room with