Chaos Theory Read Online Free PDF

but she still hit the steps awkwardly, and tumbled down six or seven of them before she ended up beside one of the Explorer’s rear wheels.
    The hotel’s front doors shattered and plate glass burst out everywhere. The press caught the worst of it, and a female reporter screamed as a scimitar-shaped piece of glass sliced off her left cheek and part of her chin. A cameraman raised his hand to protect his face, only to have it hacked off like a knuckle of lamb. One of the hotel’s doormen was thrown face-forward, as if he were diving, and was impaled through the chest by the brass stanchion that held up the velvet rope.
    The explosion lasted only a fraction of a second, but it seemed to Adeola to go on for ever. Blood came running down the hotel steps, and the air was filled with pungent brown smoke and whirling paper and tatters of clothing.
    She tried to sit up. Rick was right beside her, with a pattern of scratches on his face. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked her.
    She could hardly hear him. ‘I think so.’
    ‘Keep low. There could well be another one. We have to get you out of here.’
    He stood up. Immediately after the bomb had gone off, there had been an eerie silence, broken only by the tinkling of falling glass. But now a woman started to scream, wildly and hysterically, and a man started to shout out for help, and suddenly there was a cacophony of voices, like a choir from hell – begging, pleading, moaning, whimpering, crying out in pain.
    Rick opened up the Explorer’s door and helped Adeola into the front passenger seat. As he did so, she saw a jumble of images. People staggering aimlessly up and down the hotel steps, their hair sticking up like clowns’, smothered in blood. Bits of luggage and bits of bodies scattered everywhere.
    As Rick climbed in beside her and started the engine, she looked out of the window and saw Reuben lying face down on the steps. His eyes were open and he seemed to be grinning at her. It was only when Rick backed the Explorer up that she saw that both of his arms and both of his legs were nothing but bloody stumps, and that he was grinning at nothing at all.
     
    They pulled out of the forecourt and sped south-east on Al Rigga Road. Fire trucks and ambulances and police cars were already heading towards the Taj Hotel, their lights flashing and their sirens blaring.
    ‘Nesta?’ said Adeola. ‘Charles, Miko, Jimmy – did you see any of them?’
    Rick checked his rear-view mirror. ‘They’re OK. They’re right behind us.’
    ‘Oh, God. Reuben!’
    ‘Rube saved us. Rube the Cube. If he hadn’t jumped on that bastard—’
    ‘Who do you think did it?’
    Rick looked at her. ‘Who do I think did it? Who have you managed to upset in your three and a half years as diplomatic representative for DOVE? The Somalis? The Eritreans? The Palestinians? The Israelis? The Sudanese? The Chinese? The Taiwanese? You’ve upset just about everybody on the entire goddamned planet!’
    ‘Well, I’m going to find out who did it,’ vowed Adeola. Her voice was shaking. ‘I’m going to find out who did it and I’m going to make them pay.’
    Rick said, ‘Come on, you’re in shock.’
    ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to get my revenge for this.’
    ‘Hey, don’t forget, blessed are the peacemakers.’
    Adeola stared at him defiantly. ‘In that case, this is where I stop being blessed.’

Five
     
    N oah was in the kitchen stirring a pot of gazpacho when his cellphone played the Dead March from Saul . As usual, his blue-fronted Amazon parrot joined in.
    ‘ Marilyn ,’ he snapped, ‘will you for once in your life shut your goddamned beak?’
    ‘Noah? It’s Silja.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Silja. I was remonstrating with my parrot. Hey – I thought you were in Britain?’
    ‘I was supposed to be, for the new James Bond picture, but there have been so many delays. I came back Friday for my sister’s wedding.’
    ‘I never knew you had a sister. Older or younger?’
    ‘Older.’
    ‘Shoot