"I'll sum up so that I am absolutely certain that I understood you correctly," the Prime Minister said. "You suspect that there's a conspiracy within the Security Police that is acting outside its constitutional mandate, and that over the years this conspiracy has committed what could be categorized as serious criminal acts."
"Yes."
"And you're coming to me because you don't trust the leadership of the Security Police?"
"No, not exactly," Edklinth said. "I decided to turn directly to you because this sort of activity is unconstitutional. But I don't know the objective of the conspiracy, or whether I have possibly misinterpreted something. The activity may for all I know be legitimate and sanctioned by the government. Then I risk proceeding on faulty or misunderstood information, thereby compromising some secret operation."
The Prime Minister looked at the Minister of Justice. Both understood that Edklinth was covering his back.
"I've never heard of anything like this. Do you know anything about it?"
"Absolutely not," the Minister of Justice said. "There's nothing in any report that I've seen from the Security Police that could have a bearing on this matter."
"Blomkvist thinks there's a faction within Sapo. He refers to it as the Zalachenko club," Edklinth said.
"I'd never even heard that Sweden had taken in and protected a Russian defector of such importance," the P.M. said. "He defected during the Falldin administration, you say?"
"I don't believe Falldin would have covered up something like this," the Minister of Justice said. "A defection like this would have been given the highest priority, and would have been passed over to the next administration."
Edklinth cleared his throat. "Falldin's conservative government was succeeded by Olof Palme's. It's no secret that some of my predecessors at S.I.S. had a certain opinion of Palme - "
"You're suggesting that somebody forgot to inform the social democratic government?"
Edklinth nodded. "Let's remember that Falldin was in power for two separate mandates. Each time the coalition government collapsed. First he handed over to Ola Ullsten, who had a minority government in 1979. The government collapsed again when the moderates jumped ship, and Falldin governed together with the People's Party. I'm guessing that the government secretariat was in turmoil during those transition periods. It's also possible that knowledge of Zalachenko was confined to so small a circle that Prime Minister Falldin had no real oversight, so he never had anything to hand over to Palme."
"In that case, who's responsible?" the P.M. said.
All except Figuerola shook their heads.
"I assume that this is bound to leak to the media," the P.M. said.
"Blomkvist and Millennium are going to publish it. In other words, we're caught between the proverbial rock and hard place." Edklinth was careful to use the word "we".
The P.M. nodded. He realized the gravity of the situation. "Then I'll have to start by thanking you for coming to me with this matter as soon as you did. I don't usually agree to this sort of unscheduled meeting, but the minister here said that you were a prudent person, and that something serious must have happened if you wanted to see me outside all normal channels."
Edklinth exhaled a little. Whatever happened, the wrath of the Prime Minister was not going to come down on him.
"Now we just have to decide how we're going to handle it. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Perhaps," Edklinth said tentatively.
He was silent for so long that Figuerola cleared her throat. "May I say something?"
"Please do," the P.M. said.
"If it's true that the government doesn't know about this operation, then it's illegal. The person responsible in such a case is the criminal civil servant - or civil servants - who overstepped his authority. If we can verify all the claims Blomkvist is making, it means that a group of officers within S.I.S. have been devoting themselves to criminal activity for a long time. The problem would then unfold in two parts."
"How do you mean?"
"First we have to ask the question: how could this have been possible? Who is responsible? How did such a conspiracy develop within the framework of an established police organization? I myself work for S.I.S., and I'm proud of it. How can this have gone on for so long? How could this activity have been both concealed and financed?"
"Go on," the P.M. said.
"Whole books will probably be written about this first part. It's clear that there must have been financing, at least several million kronor annually I'd say. I looked over the budget of the Security Police and found nothing resembling