אמת The three Hebrew letters—aleph, mem, tav—from right to left, spelled EMET. Truth. Truth is what had brought The Golěm to Prague. And Truth is what Dr. Gessner had revealed to him earlier tonight—a detailed confession of the atrocities that she and her partners had committed deep beneath Prague. Their crimes were abhorrent, and yet they paled in comparison to what was planned for the near future. I will destroy it all, he told himself. Reduce it to rubble.

