The Einstein Pursuit Read Online Free PDF

come through his work, but it had trickled down to other aspects of his life as well. He carried an iPhone. He owned an iPad. More importantly, he knew how to use both. He streamed music through his computer, downloaded movies frequently, and even kept a hard-to-find folder on his hard drive labeled ANATOMICAL STUDY – only the images had less to do with physiology and more to do with naked bodies in motion.
    But his favorite technological advancement was his ability to peruse Swedish newspapers the instant they were published. He would read everything from sports to obituaries to the latest social gossip. He always started at the website for the
Dagens Nyheter
, one of Stockholm’s two daily newspapers, and then followed links from there.
    The incident at the laboratory was front-page news.
    He gasped when he saw the headline.
    According to the article, a devastating fire had swept through a warehouse, destroying a lab and killing everyone inside. Strangely, no one was sure why the staff had been working so late or what type of lab it was. The article explained that it had no apparent affiliation with any pharmaceutical company or biological research facility in the country, but they hoped the ongoing investigation would eventually make a connection. Police were unwilling to release an official body count, but they confirmed that more than twenty victims had been found so far.
    Sahlberg was saddened by the news.
    Even though he did not know the purpose of this particular lab, the death of any scientist in Stockholm was sure to affect him personally. Sahlberg had never married, but a tragedy at a facility in his hometown was nearly certain to involve someone from his other family – his
scientific
family. He was sure he would soon learn that someone in the fire had either worked for him or with him, or was associated with someone who would fit into one of those categories. The research community was surprisingly close-knit, despite its worldwide distribution.
    He immediately checked his email. He was searching for any first-hand information from his colleagues back home. All he saw were standard messages from the various mailing lists he subscribed to. He breathed a momentary sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the feeling was short-lived. He knew it was far too early to assume that no news was good news, so he went back to his browser and searched for more details.
    Stockholm’s other major newspaper,
Svenska Dagbladet
, echoed the details from the other report, with one notable addition: an unnamed source in the fire department said that the scene had the look and feel of a controlled burn, intentionally contained to this specific building.
    Sahlberg’s mind raced with questions.
    The scientists were murdered?
By whom?
    For what possible reason?
    No longer in the mood to eat, he decided to walk off the growing tension in his shoulders with a quick lap around his neighborhood. He figured the exercise in the warm summer air would do him some good.
    Despite his advanced age, Sahlberg didn’t need any assistance to get around. He still walked with the brisk stride of a man in his early thirties. Maybe even his twenties. Whatever the case, he was far more nimble than anyone his age had a right to be. When people asked him for his secret, he always smiled and answered truthfully: genetics.
    As an expert in that field, he knew it to be true.
    Strolling past the rows of homes that dotted his street, he thought back to the first few years after his arrival. Back then, the community was mostly Germanic. He couldn’t walk more than a few feet from his house before being overcome with the smell of curing sausages or fresh-baked streusel. God, he loved that smell. At least on the days when the air wasn’t heavy with the soot from the area’s mills.
    Today the air was clean, but the only smell he could detect was the faint waft of garbage that had cooked too long inside the neighborhood’s waste cans. It was trash day, and he could