would have caved in. Blomkvist is... possibly necessary. But Erika Berger could only be an innocent bystander.
He looked steadily at Sandberg. He hoped that the young man would not develop into a psychopath.
"How much do the Nikolich brothers know?"
"Nothing. About us, that is. I'm the only one they've met. I used another identity and they can't trace me. They think the killing has to do with trafficking."
"What happens to them after the hit?"
"They leave Sweden at once," Nystrom said. "Just like after Bjorck. If the murder investigation yields no results, they can very cautiously return after a few weeks."
"And the method?"
"Sicilian style. They walk up to Blomkvist, empty a magazine into him, and walk away."
"Weapon?"
"They have an automatic. I don't know what type."
"I do hope they won't spray the whole restaurant - "
"No danger of that. They're cold-blooded, they know what they have to do. But if Berger is sitting at the same table - "
Collateral damage.
"Look here," Clinton said. "It's important that Wadensjoo doesn't get wind of this. Especially not if Berger becomes a victim. He's stressed to breaking point as it is. I'm afraid we're going to have to put him out to pasture when this is over."
Nystrom nodded.
"Which means that when we get word that Blomkvist has been shot, we're going to have to put on a good show. We'll call a crisis meeting and act thunderstruck by the development. We can speculate who might be behind the murder, but we'll say nothing about the drugs until the police find the evidence."
Blomkvist took leave of the presenter of She just before 5.00. They had spent the afternoon filling in the gaps in the material. Then Blomkvist had gone to make-up and subjected himself to a long interview on film.
One question had been put to him which he struggled to answer in a coherent way, and they had to film that section several times.
How is it possible that civil servants in the Swedish government will go so far as to commit murder?
Blomkvist had brooded over the question long before She's presenter had asked it. The Section must have considered Zalachenko an unacceptable threat, but it was still not a satisfactory answer. The reply he eventually gave was not satisfactory either:
"The only reasonable explanation I can give is that over the years the Section developed into a cult in the true sense of the word. They became like Knutby, or the pastor Jim Jones or something like that. They write their own laws, within which concepts like right and wrong have ceased to be relevant. And through these laws they imagine themselves isolated from normal society."
"It sounds like some sort of mental illness, don't you think?"
"That wouldn't be an inaccurate description."
Blomkvist took the tunnelbana to Slussen. It was too early to go to Samir's Cauldron. He stood on Sodermalmstorg for a while. He was worried still, yet all of a sudden life felt right again. It was not until Berger came back to Millennium that he realized how terribly he had missed her. Besides, her retaking of the helm had not led to any internal strife; Eriksson had reverted happily to the position of assistant editor, indeed was almost ecstatic - as she put it - that life would now return to normal.
Berger's coming back had also meant that everyone discovered how incredibly understaffed they had been during the past three months. Berger had had to resume her duties at Millennium at a run, and she and Eriksson managed to tackle together some of the organizational issues that had been piling up.
Blomkvist decided to buy the evening papers and have coffee at Java on Hornsgatan to kill time before he was to meet Berger.
Prosecutor Ragnhild Gustavsson of the National Prosecutors' Office set her reading glasses on the conference table and studied the group. She had a lined but apple-cheeked face and short, greying hair. She had been a prosecutor for twenty-five years and had worked at the N.P.O. since the early '90s. She was fifty-eight. Only three weeks had passed since she had been without warning summoned to the N.P.O. to meet Superintendent Edklinth, Director of Constitutional Protection. That day she had been busily finishing up one or two routine matters so she could begin her six-week leave at her cabin on the island of Husaro with a clear conscience. Instead she had been assigned to lead the investigation of a group of civil servants who went by the name of "the Section".