Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,156

in order to set off the virus several things have to come together at once. The commands need to be carried out at a precise time, for example."

"The best thing we can do now is carry on with what we've been doing," Martinsson said. "We need to warn the institutions that they're in danger of an attack so that they can double up on their security procedures. Alfredsson will handle the rest."

Martinsson scribbled a few words on a piece of paper. He looked up at Wallander who bent over to read them: The threat against Modin is serious.

Wallander nodded. Whoever had been spying on Modin from the road between the fields had known how important he was. He was in the same situation that H枚kberg had been in.

Wallander's phone rang. Hansson was calling to let him know that the search for his attacker had not yet yielded any results, but they would continue unabated.

"How is Nyberg doing?"

"He is comparing fingerprints."

Hansson was still out near Back氓kra, where he would stay for now. He didn't know where H枚glund was.

They ended the conversation. Wallander tried to phone H枚glund, but her phone had no signal.

There was a knock on the door and Wallander went to unblock the door. Irene came in with a box.

"Here's the food," she said. "Who's supposed to take care of the bill? I had to pay the delivery man out of my own pocket."

"I'll take care of it" Wallander said and stretched out his hand for the receipt.

Modin ate. Wallander and Martinsson watched him in silence. Then Wallander's phone rang again. It was Elvira Lindfeldt. He went out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

"I heard on the radio that shots were fired in an incident near Ystad," she said. "And there were policemen involved. I hope that wasn't you."

"Not directly," Wallander said vaguely. "But we have a lot going on right now."

"It made me worried, that's all. I had to ask. Now of course I'm getting curious, but I won't ask any more questions."

"There isn't much I can tell you," Wallander said.

"I understand that you don't have a lot of free time at the moment."

"It's too early to say. But I'll be in touch."

When the conversation was over Wallander thought about the fact that it had been a long time since anyone had worried about him. Let alone cared about him.

He went back into the room. It was 5.40 p.m. Modin was still eating. Wallander and Martinsson left to get some coffee.

"I forgot to tell you that I cross-checked the list of names I got from Sydkraft. But I didn't find anything."

"We didn't expect to," Wallander said.

The coffee machine was on the blink again. Martinsson pulled out the plug and then put it in again. Now it was working.

"Is there a computer program inside the coffee machine?" Wallander said.

"Hardly," Martinsson said. "Though I guess you can imagine more sophisticated machines that would be controlled with tiny computer chips."

"What if someone went in and changed the program? Could they change it so that tea came out instead of coffee? And milk when someone wanted latte?"

"Of course."

"But how would it get triggered? How could you get it to start?"

"Well, you could imagine that a certain date has been entered in. A date and a time, perhaps an interval of an hour. Then the eleventh time that someone presses the button for coffee, the virus is triggered."

"Why the eleventh?"

"That was just an example. It could have been any number that you had chosen."

"Is there anything you can do once that change occurs?"

"You could pull out the plug and restart it," Martinsson said. "You can hang out a sign saying the machine is broken. But the program that runs the machine would have to be replaced."

"Is this what Modin is talking about?"

"Yes, but on a larger scale."

"And we have no idea where Falk's coffee machine is."

"It could be anywhere in the world."

"And that would mean that whoever sets off the chain reaction wouldn't need to be aware of it."

"It would be an advantage if whoever it was were nowhere near where the virus first arises."

"So we are looking for the symbolic equivalent of a coffee machine," Wallander said. He walked to the window and stared out. It was already dark. "I want you to do something," he said. "I'd like you to write a memo about what we just talked about. The threat of a global financial collapse. Get Alfredsson to help you. Then send it on to Stockholm and all