Blomkvist said nothing. He was reserving judgement until he knew what this was all about. She punched in the code on the street door. They took the lift to the fifth floor, to an apartment with the name Martinsson on the door.
"We've borrowed the place for tonight's meeting," she said, opening the door. "To your right, into the living room."
The first person Blomkvist saw was Torsten Edklinth, which was no surprise since Sapo was deeply involved in what had happened, and Edklinth was Figuerola's boss. The fact that the Director of Constitutional Protection had gone to the trouble of bringing him in said that somebody was nervous.
Then he saw a figure by the window. The Minister of Justice. That was a surprise.
Then he heard a sound to his right and saw the Prime Minister get up from an armchair. This he had not for a moment expected.
"Good evening, Herr Blomkvist," the P.M. said. "Excuse us for summoning you to this meeting at such short notice, but we've discussed the situation and agreed that we need to talk to you. May I offer you some coffee, or something else to drink?"
Blomkvist looked around. He saw a dining-room table of dark wood that was cluttered with glasses, coffee cups and the remnants of sandwiches. They must have been there for a couple of hours already.
"Ramlosa," he said.
Figuerola poured him a mineral water. They sat down on the sofas as she stayed in the background.
"He recognized me and knew my name, where I live, where I work, and the fact that I'm a workout fanatic," Figuerola said to no-one in particular.
The Prime Minister glanced quickly at Edklinth and then at Blomkvist. Blomkvist realized at once that he was in a position of some strength. The Prime Minister needed something from him and presumably had no idea how much Blomkvist knew or did not know.
"How did you know who Inspector Figuerola was?" Edklinth said.
Blomkvist looked at the Director of Constitutional Protection. He could not be sure why the Prime Minister had set up a meeting with him in a borrowed apartment in ostermalm, but he suddenly felt inspired. There were not many ways it could have come about. It was Armansky who had set this in train by giving information to someone he trusted. Which must have been Edklinth, or someone close to him. Blomkvist took a chance.
"A mutual friend spoke with you," he said to Edklinth. "You sent Figuerola to find out what was going on, and she discovered that some Sapo activists are running illegal telephone taps and breaking into my apartment and stealing things. This means that you have confirmed the existence of what I call the Zalachenko club. It made you so nervous that you knew you had to take the matter further, but you sat in your office for a while and didn't know in which direction to go. So you went to the justice minister, and he in turn went to the Prime Minister. And now here we all are. What is it that you want from me?"
Blomkvist spoke with a confidence that suggested that he had a source right at the heart of the affair and had followed every step Edklinth had taken. He knew that his guesswork was on the mark when Edklinth's eyes widened.
"The Zalachenko club spies on me, I spy on them," Blomkvist went on. "And you spy on the Zalachenko club. This situation makes the Prime Minister both angry and uneasy. He knows that at the end of this conversation a scandal awaits that the government might not survive."
Figuerola understood that Blomkvist was bluffing, and she knew how he had been able to surprise her by knowing her name and shoe size.
He saw me in my car on Bellmansgatan. He took the registration number and looked me up. But the rest is guesswork.
She did not say a word.
The Prime Minister certainly looked uneasy now.
"Is that what awaits us?" he said. "A scandal to bring down the government?"
"The survival of the government isn't my concern," Blomkvist said. "My role is to expose shit like the Zalachenko club."
The Prime Minister said: "And my job is to run the country in accordance with the constitution."
"Which means that my problem is definitely the government's problem. But not vice versa."
"Could we stop going round in circles? Why do you think I arranged this meeting?"
"To find out what I know and what I intend to do with it."
"Partly right. But more precisely, we've landed in a constitutional crisis. Let