Free The Einstein Code by Tom West Page B

ash. The left leg of his trousers was alight. She went to cry out, but
no sound came from her mouth and Lou disappeared from view.
    Lou felt something heavy and rough-edged slamming against his leg and he almost gagged when he saw his clothes were alight. He dragged himself up and stumbled forward, felt his knees give way
and started to fall again. Strong arms caught him just in time, an arm around his shoulders, guiding him to the left then the right, around a stack of rusted oil drums. He glimpsed a patch of
black; the night beyond the warehouse, a place where the air was clear and clean and chill and wet. He felt as though he had to get there at any cost, as quickly as he possibly could. That simple
patch of sky and the cold wet seemed to him like a distant heaven waiting for him. With a final burst of energy, he shoved aside the pain and the terror and stumbled into the open air.

17
    ‘Oh my God,’ Kate exclaimed, stumbling over into a patch of grass and weeds. She was shaking, a foul taste in her mouth, and all around – hanging thickly
– the cloying stench of burning oil.
    For a moment she couldn’t make out the moving shapes around her. She caught a glimpse of Lou not far away; he was getting to his feet unsteadily. She stood up, took one pace, felt a hand
on her shoulder and spun round.
    ‘Kate.’
    In the dark she couldn’t tell who it was, just an outline of a man. A beam of light from a torch carried by one of the others cut through the night and for a second she saw a large figure
dressed in black. Her eyes adjusted. The man was six-three with broad shoulders. He was pulling off the SWAT balaclava to reveal a head of damp blond curls, a broad face, prominent cheekbones,
large brown eyes. There were black rings of soot around his eye sockets, but Kate recognized him instantly.
    ‘I don’t believe . . . !’
    The man smiled, almost comically, white teeth against the soot and the black uniform.
    ‘The strangest things happen, Kate Wetherall.’
    Kate broke into a smile and fell into the man’s arms, clutching him around the waist. ‘Adam . . . It really is you . . . What the hell . . .?’ She pulled away and held his
forearms. He made her feel tiny.
    ‘What the hell am I doing here? After what just happened, I wonder about that myself! It’s a long story.’
    Kate spun round to Lou. He was standing five yards away. She ran over. He was panting, his face filthy with soot and sweat, his hair matted and clinging to his skin. He looked stunned, like a
wild animal cornered and on the verge of panic. He smelled of burned fabric.
    ‘Lou! You OK?’ Kate grabbed his shoulder. ‘Lou? Your pants were burning. Is your leg all right?’
    He looked up, nodded raggedly and winced. ‘Yeah.’ He ran a hand along the outside of his thigh down to his knee. ‘I think so. I feel like somebody’s hit me all over with
a mallet . . . no, make that two mallets. But aside from that . . .’
    The man called Adam had walked up behind Kate. Lou looked up and saw him.
    ‘You won’t believe this, Lou,’ Kate began. ‘This is Adam Fleming.’
    Lou looked blank.
    ‘We go back a long way,’ Fleming said. He had a deep voice, cut-glass, Eton and Oxbridge.
    ‘We were . . . friends, at Oxford,’ Kate said.
    Fleming raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought we were a bit more than friends, Katie.’
    She produced an uncomfortable laugh. ‘I think I need to make some introductions. Lou, Adam. Adam, this is my husband, Lou Bates.’
    ‘Ah, apologies. I knew you were both here. The dossier told us doctors Kate Wetherall and Lou Bates were coming into Norfolk International, and we expected trouble, but I had no idea you
were . . .’
    Lou raised a hand in a gesture of friendship. ‘No probs. We’ve only been spliced a week.’
    ‘Congratulations. You nearly had a very short marriage.’
    ‘You saved our lives,’ Kate said.
    Fleming looked away towards the flames lapping around the framework of the old warehouse.