Messiah: The First Judgement (Chronicles of Brothers) Read Online Free PDF

the guard. Five seconds later, he was pushed roughly back towards the door. The first soldier gestured for him to remove his belongings from the tray. Seething, Nick bent down and stowed them back in his bag. He held his camera tightly.
    The taller soldier gestured to Nick to follow him through the door. There he found himself in an enormous antechamber, surrounded by at least twelve separate smaller chambers containing the most magnificent collection of antiquities he had ever laid his eyes on. Egyptian, Etruscan, Persian, Assyrian, and Chaldean artefacts, Arabian mosaics and frescos, Greek and Russian icons, original works by Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, Perugino. Priceless treasures.
    But ahead of him was the largest chamber. Nick stepped inside, his attention caught by a diorite statue to his right. He frowned. It seemed strangely familiar ... Now he remembered. Its photograph had been circulated throughout Europe on Interpol’s red list of looted Iraqi antiquities. Fascinated, he moved nearer. Hundreds of volumes of manuscripts lay stacked from floor to ceiling. He caught sight of a stone tablet lying inside a glass case. He stared at the tablet, enthralled at the wedge-shaped depressions.
    ‘The lost legacies of ancient Mesopotamia ... the priceless collection of cylinder seals...’ He stared at the tablet, mesmerized, feeling in his pocket for his camera. Slowly, carefully, he lined up the palm-size digital camera directly with the tablet. ‘Unbelievable.’
    Slim manicured fingers snatched the camera firmly from his grasp.
    ‘No photographs here, Mr De Vere. You must abide by our conditions.’
    Nick swung around to find himself staring down into a pair of flashing brown eyes. He bowed his head respectfully.
    ‘Your Majesty...’
    ‘We don’t suffer fools gladly, Mr De Vere. Please make sure you respect our agreement, or I can assure you that all licences that we, the Jordanian people, have approved for your work shall immediately be revoked.’
    Nick studied the princess before him. She seemed young ... much younger than in any photograph he had ever seen of her – twenty-two, he guessed, definitely not more than twenty-four. She was petite and slim, fine-boned, her high cheekbones and regal features framed by gleaming black tresses that fell past her shoulders. She was understated, dressed only in a pair of faded jeans and white cotton T-shirt, the only sign of inordinate wealth the slim diamond Audemars Piguet watch on her left wrist.
    She watched him surveying her, and a slight smile flickered across her mouth.
    ‘The cuneiform tablets with the missing parts of the epic of Gilmagesh, the earliest written words, a bronze relief from 4000 BC – worth a hundred Mona Lisas,’ the princess of Jordan uttered softly, as though reciting a sacred doxology.
    ‘Our government returned to the state of Iraq thousands of stolen antiquities that had been smuggled into Jordan during the war in the early 2000s,’ she continued. ‘The sacred vase of Warka, the statue of Entemena, the remainder we bought back, for hundreds of millions of dollars, off the black market in Switzerland. They emerged everywhere: Teherani bazaars, Paris. A US Airport.’ She hesitated. ‘We were patient. Most of the looted treasures eventually surfaced in London.’
    She looked directly into Nick’s piercing grey eyes.
    ‘The world’s largest centre for trade in Islamic art,’ Nick murmured. ‘Uncle Lawrence...’
    The princess nodded.
    ‘Lawrence St Cartier’s network of contacts was extremely useful to the royal house. We now own the largest and most important collection of illuminated manuscripts in the world, apart from the Vatican’s.’
    She continued walking. ‘In 180 BC, the Nabateans were bequeathed this monastery by an ancient caste of priests connected with the Royal Courts of Egypt. Egyptian governments throughout the centuries have held its historical heritage in high esteem and continue to honour its present