The Einstein Pursuit Read Online Free PDF Page B

hear the hum and whirl of the garbage truck from two streets away. Sahlberg smiled, knowing that the odor would be gone by the time he returned.
    He walked away from the river, where the houses gave way to apartments and condominium complexes. He stopped briefly at one of the neighborhood’s small parks. It wasn’t that he needed the rest – even in the heat he had yet to break a sweat. Instead, it was the class of preschoolers who had invaded the playground that had caught his eye. He watched for a while as they played. They chased each other everywhere, an endless cycle of constant motion as they climbed up the jungle gym and slid down the slide. Up the stairs and down the slide. Over and over again. Kid after kid after kid. As they did, they laughed and giggled without a care in the world.
    How refreshing
, Sahlberg thought.
    Nothing worries them at all
.
    They have no fear of the future.
    Suddenly he was struck by the dichotomy of the last hour: the joy of these children and the lives they had in front of them versus the horror of the lab fire and the lives of his peers cut needlessly short. His physical tension was gone, but his anger and curiosity remained. So much so that he decided to head back home to search for answers.
    As he rounded the street corner nearest his house, he noticed something peculiar. A delivery truck was parked at his curb, and two men in jumpsuit uniforms were walking toward his front porch. The first man approached empty-handed, followed by a man carrying a large package. But when they arrived at the door, they didn’t knock or ring the bell. Instead, they peered through the slit windows on either side of the door as if they were casing the joint.
    Sahlberg slowed to a halt. The sight of two strangers on his front porch – either of whom could have delivered a package on his own – tripped an alarm in his mind. Something about this didn’t seem right. With his heart pounding in his chest, he ducked behind a row of hedges to see what they did next.
    The first man picked the lock on the front door while the second man concealed the crime with the large box in his hands. As soon as the door was open, he placed the package on the porch and pulled a pistol from his jumpsuit. He waited for his partner to draw his own weapon before the two of them slipped inside the house.
    Sahlberg gasped at the sight.
    Who were these men? What did they want with him?
    Less than a minute later, they reappeared in the doorway. The first man shook his head toward the delivery truck and pointed left. Then he pointed to himself and motioned right. As they hustled from Sahlberg’s house, two more men stepped from the truck. They were dressed in suits and had shoulder holsters.
    Until that moment, Sahlberg hadn’t even known they were there.
    Now he knew they were after him.
    Sahlberg had to act fast. He cut through his neighbor’s yard and retreated to the relative safety of a nearby market. He knew it wasn’t perfect, but at least he wasn’t by himself.
    ‘Mr Matty, how are you!’ shouted the twenty-something behind the counter. Sahlberg had known the young man since he was a child, back when
Mattias
had been too difficult for the boy to pronounce. He had been Mr Matty ever since.
    ‘I’m fine,’ he lied. ‘Except I seem to have left my cell phone at home. Would you mind terribly if I made a call? Local, of course.’
    ‘No problem at all,’ the young man said as he handed Sahlberg a cordless phone. ‘Help yourself.’
    Sahlberg grabbed the phone and stepped away from the counter so he would not be overheard. Then he dialed a number from memory. At a time like this, there was only one person he thought he could trust. He only hoped the stranger would listen.
    The call was connected on the second ring.
    ‘Please don’t hang up,’ Sahlberg pleaded. ‘Someone is trying to kill me.’

7
Payne Industries Building
Pittsburgh, PA
    During his highly decorated military career, Jonathon Payne had survived