The Edge of Armageddon by David Leadbeater Read Free Book Online Page B

filtered through breaks in the clouds, bathing the docks and the nearby river in pale gold. Those men that Dahl could see went about their business as usual. He’d imagined the dock area to be dark and dingy but apart from the warehouses the area was clean, and not particularly crowded. Nor was it busy, as the major shipping areas were across the bay in New Jersey. Still, Dahl saw large, battered containers and a long wide vessel stationary on the waters and enormous blue-painted container cranes that could traverse the length of the quay on rail tracks and collect their containers with spreaders.
    Warehouses sat to the left, along with a yard full of more brightly colored containers. Dahl pointed to a building one hundred and fifty feet away.
    “That’s our boy. Smyth, Kenzie, come forward. I want Lauren and Yorgi behind us.”
    He moved off, focused now, concentrating on getting one assault behind them before they moved on to the next . . . and then the next until this nightmare was over and he could return to his family. Newly painted doors were dotted along the side of the building, and Dahl raised his head at the first window.
    “Empty office. Let’s try the next.”
    Minutes passed as the group crept along the side of the building, guns drawn, trying window after window, door after door. Dahl noticed with frustration that they were beginning to attract attention from the local workers. He didn’t want to spook their quarry.
    “C’mon.”
    They hurried along, finally reaching the fifth window along and taking a quick look. Dahl saw a wide space cluttered by cardboard boxes and wooden crates, but close to the window he also saw a rectangular table. Around the table sat four men, heads down as if they were talking, planning and thinking. Dahl dropped down and crouched with his back to the wall.
    “We good?” Smyth asked.
    “Possible,” Dahl said. “Could be nothing . . . but—”
    “I trust you,” Kenzie said with a modicum of sarcasm. “You lead, I’ll follow,” Then she shook her head. “You people are really that mad? Just burst in there and start the shooting first?”
    A man was approaching, squinting at them. Dahl raised his HK and the man froze, hands shooting up into the air. The decision was made mostly because the guy stood in the direct eye line of anyone inside the warehouse. Less than a second passed before Dahl rose, spun, and smashed a shoulder against the outer door. Smyth and Kenzie were with him, reading his thoughts.
    As Dahl entered the spacious warehouse, four men jumped up from the table. Guns rested by their sides, and they withdrew them now, firing indiscriminately at the incoming strangers. Bullets flew everywhere, shattering the window and smashing through the swinging door. Dahl dived headlong, rolling, coming up firing. The men from the table scrambled away as they shot back, shooting over shoulders and even between their legs as they ran. Nowhere was safe. Errant gunfire filled the cavernous space. Dahl scrabbled on both elbows until he reached the table and upended it, using it as a shield. One end shattered as a high-caliber round passed straight through.
    “Shit.”
    “Are you trying to get me killed?” Kenzie muttered.
    The big Swede changed tactics, picked up the huge table, and then launched it through the air. The tumbling edges caught one man around the ankles, sending him flying and his gun scudding away. As Dahl approached fast, Kenzie’s voice made him slow down.
    “Careful with these little fuckers. I’ve worked all over the Middle East and seen a thousand of ’em wearing vests.”
    Dahl hesitated. “I don’t think you can just—”
    The explosion rocked the warehouse walls. The Swede flew off his feet, airborne, and smashed into the already devastated window. White noise filled his head, the overwhelming buzz of tinnitus, and for a second he couldn’t see. By the time his vision started to clear he was aware of Kenzie crouched before him, patting his