"He tried to kill me," Salander said in a low voice.
"That doesn't sound good. I have to go. Do you want me to come back and look in on you again?"
Salander thought for a moment, then she signalled yes. When he was gone she stared at the ceiling. Zalachenko has been given crutches. That was the sound I heard last night.
Sandberg, the youngest person at the meeting, was sent out to get some food. He came back with sushi and light beer and passed the food around the conference table. Gullberg felt a thrill of nostalgia. This is just the way it was in his day, when some operation went into a critical phase and they had to work around the clock.
The difference, he observed, was possibly that in his day there was nobody who would have come up with the wild idea of ordering raw fish. He wished Sandberg had ordered Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberries. On the other hand he was not really hungry, so he pushed the sushi aside. He ate a piece of bread and drank some mineral water.
They continued the discussion over their meal. They had to decide what to do. The situation was urgent.
"I never knew Zalachenko," Wadensjoo said. "What was he like?"
"Much as he is today, I assume," Gullberg said. "Phenomenally intelligent, with a damn near photographic memory. But in my opinion he's a pig. And not quite right in the head, I should think."
"Jonas, you talked to him yesterday. What's your take on this?" Wadensjoo said.
Sandberg put down his chopsticks.
"He's got us over a barrel. I've already told you about his ultimatum. Either we make the whole thing disappear, or he cracks the Section wide open."
"How the hell do we make something disappear that's been plastered all over the media?" Nystrom said.
"It's not a question of what we can or can't do. It's a question of his need to control us," Gullberg said.
"Would he, in your opinion, talk to the press?" Wadensjoo said.
Gullberg hesitated. "It's almost impossible to answer that question. Zalachenko doesn't make empty threats, and he's going to do what's best for him. In that respect he's predictable. If it benefits him to talk to the media... if he thought he could get an amnesty or a reduced sentence, then he'd do it. Or if he felt betrayed and wanted to get even."
"Regardless of the consequences?"
"Especially regardless of the consequences. For him the point is to be seen to be tougher than all of us."
"If Zalachenko were to talk, it's not certain that anyone would believe him. And to prove anything they'd have to get hold of our archives."
"Do you want to take the chance? Let's say Zalachenko talks. Who's going to talk next? What do we do if Bjorck signs an affidavit confirming his story? And Clinton, sitting at his dialysis machine... what would happen if he turned religious and felt bitter about everything and everyone? What if he wanted to make a confession? Believe me, if anyone starts talking, it's the end of the Section."
"So... what should we do?"
Silence settled over the table. It was Gullberg who took up the thread.
"There are several parts to this problem. First of all, we can agree on what the consequences would be if Zalachenko talked. The entire legal system would come crashing down on our heads. We would be demolished. My guess is that several employees of the Section would go to prison."
"Our activity is completely legal... we're actually working under the auspices of the government."
"Spare me the bullshit," Gullberg said. "You know as well as I do that a loosely formulated document that was written in the mid-'60s isn't worth a damn today. I don't think any one of us could even imagine what would happen if Zalachenko talked."
Silence descended once again.
"So our starting point has to be to persuade Zalachenko to keep his mouth shut," Nystrom said at last.
"And to be able to persuade him to keep his mouth shut, we have to be able to offer him something substantial. The problem is that he's unpredictable. He would scorch us out of sheer malice. We have to think about how we can keep him in check."
"And what about his demand...," Sandberg said, "that we make the whole thing disappear and put Salander back in an asylum?"
"Salander we can handle. It's Zalachenko who's the problem. But that leads us to the second part - damage control. Teleborian's report