Free The Einstein Pursuit by Chris Kuzneski Page A

truth. Almost everyone in law enforcement – local police, FBI, ATF and so on – carried a badge or some sort of ID. But Payne only found cash. No wallets. No credit cards. No personal items. These guys didn’t want to be identified.
    He took a moment to examine their high-tech pistols. The palm-print scanners were almost perfectly integrated. The only thing that gave them away was a slight thickening of the grip and a noticeable change in texture. The scanner was smooth and shimmery; the rest of the grip was pebbled and dull. He had seen biometric locks before, but nothing like this. Even the prototypes he had used in the military were clunky and cumbersome.
    But not these.
    These were streamlined and sophisticated.
    They were damn near perfect.
    Payne glanced through the shattered window and saw the lower station getting closer. He had less than a minute before they reached the bottom. He had to work fast.
    He looked up at the couple in the second tier. ‘Ma’am, I’m going to need the strap from your purse.’
    She nodded nervously and threw the purse to him.
    ‘Sorry about this.’ He ripped off the strap before he tossed the purse back to her. He shifted his gaze to the teenager. ‘Same with you. Throw me your backpack.’
    The teen tossed his bag without hesitation. Payne removed the bungee cord that held the bag closed and used it to tie the larger gunman’s hands to the bench. He did the same to the smaller thug using the strap from the purse. He knew the knots wouldn’t hold for ever, but it was better than nothing.
    ‘Listen to me,’ he said to the passengers. ‘Everything’s going to be fine, but I need you to stay in here with these two until the police arrive. There are more gunmen in the station, so it’s safer in here than there. Understood?’
    ‘Yes,’ the husband replied.
    ‘Good. Do you have a cell phone?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Call 911 and tell them there’s been a shooting on the Monongahela Incline. Tell them you need the police and multiple ambulances. You don’t need to explain anything else or identify anyone. Just make sure these two are taken into custody. Okay?’
    ‘Okay,’ the husband said.
    Payne ran through the best-case scenario in his head. The couple would call 911, and the police would arrive inside of ten minutes. That gave him enough time to get Sahlberg clear of the lower station. He knew they would have to speak with the authorities eventually – and he wouldn’t mind being there for the interrogation of the two men tied up in the cable car – but he had questions of his own that had to be answered first.
    ‘What about me?’ the teenager shouted. ‘What can I do?’
    Payne stared at the young man. He was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. It was clear the kid was relishing this. ‘Did you enjoy the fight?’
    ‘Hell, yeah! That was some
Call of Duty: Black Ops
shit!’
    ‘Do you want to learn how to fight like me?’
    ‘Fuck, yeah!’
    ‘Then quit playing video games and join the navy.’
    The lower station was a two-and-a-half-story building sitting at the foot of Mount Washington, across the street from the Station Square shopping complex. Made of brick and painted auburn, it had a peaked roof with a turquoise spire and was designed to capture the feel of the old-time train stations of the past century. The structure might have looked spacious from the outside, but its appearance was deceiving. The back half of the building was used to shelter the two loading bays from the elements, and the rest was little more than a waiting area, a set of two staircases that led to the cable cars, and a second floor with a few small offices.
    Other than that, it was mostly storage space.
    On a busy weekend or during rush hour there would have been a line of people waiting for their chance to board at the lower station. There would have been little time, if any, for Payne and Sahlberg to make their way to the exit before panic set in and all hell broke