Free The Einstein Code by Tom West Page A

fired a single round at the box and the lock gave, the boom of gunfire reverberating around the office.
    He eased back the lid. The box was quite empty. He stood, breathing heavily, hands on his hips. Shaking his head, he turned to Kate and Lou, who had been forced to sit with their backs to a wall
furthest from the door of the office, their hands tied behind them. Stepping across the office, Pete stretched his neck; the muscles around his jaw twitched.
    The blast shook the office.
    Three of the windows shattered, the glass spraying the floor. The light, swinging on its cable, flickered off, then on again.
    Pete stumbled and managed to grab the edge of the desk. The plain-clothes guy was not so lucky; flying across the room, his head hit the wall near the door.
    Pete glared at the bald guy. ‘What the fuck was—?’
    A second explosion ripped through the warehouse and a jet of flame shot past the entrance to the office at the top of the stairs. Pete didn’t wait a moment, darted for the door, surveyed
the warehouse floor and was dashing down the metal stairs. The bald cop spun round and followed him, grabbing the stair railing.
    Three heavily armed men in black body armour, faces obscured by balaclavas and night goggles ran across the floor of the warehouse towards the bottom of the stairs.
    The area was engulfed by flames. Towards the far end of the warehouse, oil drums were ablaze. The bald cop only made it to the third step.
    ‘Stop. Drop the gun,’ one of the assault team shouted.
    The cop ignored him and peeled off a couple of rounds before he was ripped apart by a shower of machine-gun bullets.
    Kate and Lou struggled to pull themselves up, but with their hands tied behind their backs it was almost impossible.
    ‘Help!’ Kate yelled and struggled to stand. They could see sparks and orange dust in the air beyond the windows and caught a glimpse of the flames. The air hung heavy with the stench
of burning oil. They heard shouts, gunfire, a heavy object tumbling down the metal stairs. Then came the thump of boots on the rungs.
    Two men dressed in SWAT gear crashed into the room. The lead figure held a Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun at waist level, his partner swung a Remington ACR assault rifle one-eighty.
    Kate pulled herself in close to Lou. The unconscious plain-clothes guy begun to stir and get up off the floor. A third member of the assault team stormed through the door into the office, saw
the man staring at him and swung round his gun, the barrel pointed at the middle of the man’s forehead.
    ‘Down!’ yelled the leading SWAT officer, his voice muffled. The man put up his hands, sprawling on his front like an insect. Lowering his machine gun, the team leader stepped
over.
    ‘I’m here to help you.’ He gripped Lou by the upper arm and pulled him to his feet before turning his attention to Kate. The man’s partner nonchalantly pushed the
Remington across his back, glanced quickly at the third man now covering the door and pulled a black folding knife from a pouch on his belt. Crouching beside Kate, he sliced the cord around her
wrists before turning to Lou.
    ‘Who are . . .?’ Kate started to ask.
    ‘Let’s get you out.’ The man turned as his colleague dragged the plain-clothes guy to his feet and pushed him hard through the door.
    Down on the warehouse floor, flames flickered along the walls, a sheet of burning oil spread from the stairs to the rear doors. As they reached the bottom of the staircase, a third explosion
thundered through the shattered building, propelling Kate and Lou to the floor. Kate cried as a searing pain shot up her arms.
    ‘Get up . . .’ the commander of the team said urgently.
    The air was being sucked out of the building. Lou and Kate felt the breath squeezed from their lungs, the backs of their throats so raw they couldn’t swallow.
    Kate was aware of being pulled to her feet by someone and caught a glimpse of Lou rolling on the floor, his face black with