Henke had said that Micke was just playing with her, that there was a hidden agenda behind his interest. But she couldn’t recall Micke ever asking any strange questions or behaving oddly, with the possible exception of that time when she was about to take a closer look at his phone.
The entire thing was just one big bloody mess, impossible to make any sense out of. She couldn’t actually be bothered to even think about it. It was more important to focus on work, today of all days.
She got changed, packed her gym clothes, and got ready to leave. A quick session in the gym before she started her shift was guaranteed to make her more alert and help her clear out her head.
On the way out she checked the answering machine.
Two messages.
The first was from her, and she clicked quickly past it as soon as she heard the opening words.
The second was from Micke.
“Hello, it’s me. Give me a call, I just wanted to hear your voice. I’ll try you on your cell. Big kiss.”
She wasn’t really sure she liked “big kiss” messages on her answering machine.
It was a bit too intimate for her liking. But on the other hand, it had been her choice to give him her home number. She checked her cell. Yes, he’d called while she had it switched off.
A similar message on her cell.
Maybe she could call him after the gym—if she had time, of course.
She also had one more message on her cell:
“Hello, this is Selander from the Bomb Squad. Just wanted to let you know that the device in Tanto was definitely viable, but the detonator wasn’t charged. So, dangerous, but still relatively harmless. Whoever it was wanting to get at your brother wasn’t trying to kill him, in other words. Just thought you’d like to know. Bye!”
Dangerous, but harmless . . .
So what did that mean for Henke and his story?
She didn’t actually know.
♦ ♦ ♦
Bergsundsgatan near Hornstull. HP was sitting astride the moped, paparazzi-style. The Goat wasn’t the sort to bear a grudge, unless the dope-addled idiot had actually forgotten that HP had totaled the last one. Either way, borrowing the moped had been no problem. The Saab was getting close to its use-by date, and two wheels were better for moving about in the city. No problems with parking, all escape routes open.
The spray can was in one jacket pocket, a sock with a billiard ball inside it in the other. He was ready for a little rendezvous with Mr. Fifty-Eight!
Hasselqvist with a q and a v had arrived a few minutes ago, parking his crappy old banger outside the front door. In a couple of minutes HP was planning to pay him a little visit . . . But just as he was getting off the moped he suddenly noticed that Fifty-Eight was coming out again.
The guy jumped into his car and drove away quickly.
HP had no trouble keeping up. The moped could do at least eighty, and it wasn’t actually possible to do more than that in the city, even if the traffic had been lighter than it was that evening.
Fifty-Eight headed north over the Western Bridge and turned off at Lindhagensplan, and HP couldn’t help shivering as they passed the overpass where both he and Hasselqvist had carried out their assignments.
Fucking spooky!
The Traneberg Bridge followed, then Ulvsundavägen out toward Bromma. Still no problem keeping up; the guy was driving nice and steadily. Presumably he didn’t want to be caught, and had a schedule to stick to. Maybe even an important meeting?
HP had noticed his pulse gradually getting faster.
As they headed in among the run-down industrial buildings surrounding the airport he was feeling increasingly confident. Something big was on the go!
♦ ♦ ♦
“Okay, fall in, Alpha One and Two.”
Vahtola made her usual quick entrance and the room fell silent at once.
“Things get serious this evening. The US secretary of state is paying a surprise visit to see her EU counterparts. The conflict in Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear program are evidently on the agenda. ETA is 02:00 Swedish time, plus or minus ten minutes. You won’t be surprised to hear that the threat level is deemed to be high, so we need to be ready for anything.”
She glanced at the gathering of bodyguards to gauge their mood. Nods of agreement, no one was particularly surprised by her announcement. For the past week there had been rumors that something big was in the offing.
“Our colleagues in the regular force will take care of road closures. They’ll be stopping all traffic between Arlanda and the Grand as soon as we start to move,” she went on. “All traffic prohibited in both directions, as well as no parking on Sveavägen, Hamngatan, and Kungsträdgårdsgatan. We’ll also be getting reinforcements from the National Rapid Response Unit, two plus eight in full regalia.”
Scattered laughter from the group.
The Rapid Response Unit’s fondness for war games provided plenty of ammunition for jokes. Specially designed uniforms, heavy weaponry, and other gadgets that definitely weren’t part of standard police equipment. They never seemed to suffer the efficiency savings imposed upon other units. But in spite of their fetish for gadgets, the RRU were a welcome addition to a job like this one.
“Runeberg is already in position with Alpha Three to coordinate with the Secret Service guys. And as you know, Alpha Four is already covering the Grand. We’ll be setting off from here at 22 hours, six vehicles, divided as follows . . .”
♦ ♦ ♦
In through the archway of a run-down brick building, into a closed courtyard. HP didn’t dare follow him in. After making sure there were no other exits from the yard, he settled down to wait a short distance along the road.
Four minutes later police van 1710 came rolling out of the archway.
And behind it as it headed north clattered the Goat’s moped.
♦ ♦ ♦
The highway was almost completely deserted. Even though the roadblocks weren’t actually in operation yet, the traffic seemed unusually light. It took them just thirty minutes to reach Arlanda. Six vehicles: two Volvos, two Suburbans, and the two armored BMWs that were going to carry the secretary of state’s entourage.
She and Wikström were going to lead the convoy, as per instructions. The regular police were going to provide additional patrol cars and motorcycles, mostly for form’s sake. Then there would be two vans with soldiers from the RRU.
Not a bad motorcade, as the men from the Secret Service called it.
They looked professional, there was no denying that. Fit, quietly spoken, all of them in neatly pressed suits and with the obligatory earpiece in one ear. A couple of them were still wearing sunglasses, even though night had fallen.
Evaluating glances, short nods of acknowledgment between colleagues. No time for small talk, everything was already planned, checked, and agreed.
The pickup would take place out on the apron, then they’d head out through Gate 1 and take the 273 road toward the E4 expressway. They would enter Stockholm at Norrtull, follow Sveavägen to Sergel’s Square, turn left into Hamngatan, then right into Kungsträdgårdsgatan, all the way to the Grand, where Alpha Four and another group from the RRU would take over.
Pretty much the whole of Blasieholmen surrounding the Grand Hôtel had been cordoned off for the past few hours, and the dogs from the Bomb Squad must have done a couple of circuits on overtime to get the area secure in time.
According to Vahtola, the visit had been confirmed a couple of days before, but the information had been kept within a very limited circle for security reasons.
The Stockholm Police and thus also the evening tabloids had been kept at arm’s length until the last minute.
The regional police chief evidently wasn’t happy, but what could he do? He just had to make the best of it and open his coffers. That night’s roadblocks alone would require something like two hundred officers from the regular police. The question was: Would that be enough?
♦ ♦ ♦
The
y were taking the long western loop around Solvalla, heading toward Rissne. HP glanced at the fuel gauge. Half a tank left, and he wondered exactly how far that would get him?
He was starting to have trouble keeping up, and the police van was now a couple of hundred meters ahead of him. He had to lie almost bent double over the handlebars to squeeze every last bit of speed from the moped. The Rissne junction was coming up. If Hasselqvist turned right onto the E18 expressway, that would probably be the end of it.
Fuck it, he should have brought the car after all!
♦ ♦ ♦
They had thirty minutes to wait, and she took the opportunity to go to the toilet. When she was done she spent a few minutes with her cell.
She had tried calling Henke on his new number just an hour or so after he left. She had been thinking of apologizing for her outburst, making an attempt to patch things up as best she could. But of course he hadn’t answered. Now that she’d had time to think about it, she wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to him after all. If he had seemed a bit crazy before, that had been nothing compared to today’s little performance. Clearly he still had that damn Game on his brain, because he certainly wasn’t in Thailand. But how the hell did he know about Micke, and what was all that stuff about a stolen police van?
No, she’d had her fill of miscellaneous lunacy for the day, and she had to focus on her job. She decided to replace the phone call with a dutiful text message.
Sorry for before, know you mean well / Becca
There, she’d done her job as big sister. Nice to get it out of the way, anyway.
She took the chance to call Micke, but he didn’t pick up at home. She’d have to try his cell.
♦ ♦ ♦
They didn’t turn off onto the E18, just carried straight on, before making an unexpected stop at the gas station below the shoe boxes lining the heights of Rinkeby.
Hasselqvist filled up the police van and HP took the chance to do the same with the moped. So, what next?
Nothing, it turned out. The guy bought a paper and settled down to wait in the parking lot.
HP toyed with the idea of creeping over and getting the bastard. Playing a round of twenty questions, like he’d been planning to do in the guy’s flat. But this wasn’t the right place. Too many people and far too well lit. Besides, Fifty-Eight was sitting in a police van. If anyone saw them fighting, the place would be crawling with cops within minutes, and that wasn’t exactly his dream scenario . . .
He’d just have to sit it out.
♦ ♦ ♦
She had tried calling Micke several times now, and had texted him to call her, but without any response. For the first time ever. Micke was the sort of person who always had his cell on him, as if he had some sort of obsessive need to be reachable all the time. So why was he suddenly not answering?
Of course there could be loads of reasons. Poor reception, empty battery, maybe he was in the cinema . . .
So why not just let it go?
Okay, it was hard to admit it, but even though she had already rejected the whole idea, she couldn’t quite shake the thought that Micke might be mixed up in the Game.
Maybe it was because of the notes? Their message was pretty clear—someone like her didn’t deserve to be happy. And maybe they were right?
Henke’s story didn’t exactly contain any firm evidence, but there was at least one thing she could check out. She dialed the number of the Norrmalm police station and this time she was in luck. The call was picked up by Mulle.
“Number 1710, you say?” he muttered once she’d explained why she was calling.
He leafed through some papers, then the phone clattered, and she heard him call to someone down the corridor.
“Windahl, 1710, do you know where it is?” She couldn’t hear the answer, then the phone clattered again, and Mulle was back.
“The lads here say it’s in the workshop, but it looks like the keys have gone missing from the cabinet.”
21
END GAMES
THIS WAS SERIOUSLY shit. They’d spent almost two hours hanging around here now. It was way past midnight and HP was starting to get pissed off with this particular game.
The tension he’d felt earlier had long since evaporated and he was getting cold from sitting for so long without moving in the damp night air.
So what should he do now?
Either give up on the whole thing and turn back, wait until tomorrow and pay another house call to Hasselqvist. Or carry on waiting until his ass took root on the seat of the moped.
He’d give it another thirty minutes, then try to come up with a new strategy.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Boeing 757 landed five minutes early and taxied over to the private part of the airport. A couple of minutes later the plane had come to a stop and the dark-colored vehicles were heading over to pick up its eminent passengers.
Rebecca and most of the escort waited outside Gate 1.
They’d watched the plane land and one of their colleagues kept them informed of progress on the transfer to the cars. But in spite of the anticipation around her, she couldn’t quite shake a sense of unease. She needed to get hold of Micke, find out what was really going on.
“Alpha 102, loaded and ready. We’re rolling.”
“Understood, Alpha One,” the operator back at headquarters said.
“Okay, let’s move,” Wikström said, putting the car in gear and pulling off behind the marked police car that was to lead the convoy.
♦ ♦ ♦
Five minutes left until his deadline. He had just started to stretch his legs, getting ready to set off, when the lights of the police van suddenly came on. Seconds later it pulled away and HP hurried to get the moped started.
It took the Kymlinge link road toward Kista, and for a moment HP wondered if Fifty-Eight had been ordered home to the mother ship on Torshamnsgatan. But he drove past the access road and carried on toward the E4.
“Shit,” HP muttered inside his helmet when he realized where they were heading.
Once the police van set off along the highway he’d be fucked. A whole evening completely wasted.
♦ ♦ ♦
They had already reached Märsta. Not a single car anywhere; they were able to race along. One hundred and thirty was the agreed speed, and the patrol car in front of them was following orders to the letter.
Wikström eased off the accelerator slightly to let the marked car get a hundred meters or so ahead. That would give him enough room to maneuver and make it easier for Rebecca in the passenger seat to keep an eye on the road ahead without being constantly blinded by the patrol car’s flashing blue lights.
Stora Wäsby, then Upplands Väsby.
As they swept on she could see the light of the flares the police had let off on the access roads to stop the traffic. The patrol car, then Rebecca and Wikström, then a van full of Rapid Response Unit troops. Behind that, one Suburban and both of the BMWs, then the rest of the convoy, scarcely even visible in the rearview mirror.
Bredden, Rotebro, not long before they hit the outskirts of Sollentuna.
♦ ♦ ♦
When he first saw the flares he was confused. Red sparkling things that reminded him of fireworks, spread out across all the lanes. And in the middle of it all stood a cop car parked up with its blue lights flashing.
Had there been an accident?
But Fifty-Eight didn’t let that put him off; he rolled up to the roadblock, flashed his lights, and was waved through by the cops.
HP rode up as close as he dared and braked sharply, in an effort to see at least which direction Hasselqvist was thinking of heading in. But to his surprise 1710 turned sharp left and headed down the exit access road from the southbound lane of the E4. What the hell was the stupid fucker playing at?
He was heading the wrong way, against the flow of traffic!
The van carried on slowly down the access road toward the expressway, but just as it was about to disappear from sight
it seemed to stop.
HP waited for a minute or so, but seeing as the van was just sitting there he quickly made a decision. Something was going on, he was convinced of that now.
The expressway looked like it had been blocked off, and not just at this junction. He hadn’t seen a single vehicle go past on the E4 for more than a minute since he had been standing up above. Fifty-Eight hadn’t so much as nudged the brakes when he saw the cops and the roadblock, so evidently he had been expecting them.
Whatever the Game had in mind for Five-Eight and that cop van, it was obviously connected to whatever was going on with the expressway, and the only way HP was going to find out what was happening was to get down there himself.
He turned the moped and headed back toward Kista. After a hundred meters or so he cut the lights and pulled to a stop on the hard shoulder. A quick glance back to check that the cops at the roadblock weren’t looking at him. Then he headed right into the dark forest.
♦ ♦ ♦
Norrviken passed by on the right, and there were no junctions for a long while. The expressway was completely empty; there was no sign of movement anywhere apart from the reflections from the flashing blue lights, and she suddenly found herself thinking of the words of a song she used to listen to years before.
Turn my world again, the radio’s playing our song
Stockholm lies deserted and the world holds its breath
♦ ♦ ♦
Branches were whipping at his face as he stumbled through the trees.
“Brilliant fucking idea, this, HP, going for a little walk in the woods in the middle of the night,” he muttered to himself, just before he fell flat on his face over a protruding root.
He got up, brushed the soil and pine needles from his clothes, and carried on, swearing quietly, toward the E4. Suddenly the forest opened up into a corridor cleared for some power lines, and on the far side, through the narrow strip of remaining trees, he could see the lights of the motorway.
Almost there, he just had to grit his teeth and carry on.
Game: A Thriller Page 29
