The Bomber

by Liza Marklund

  ‘I dressed very carefully that day, in a blouse and freshly ironed trousers and loafers. This time I was the first person out waiting for her, I wanted to make sure I had a place right next to the door.

  ‘I hadn’t seen Christina in a long time, just glimpsed her from a distance when she came to inspect work on the stadium. That wasn’t going well, from what I had heard. They were no longer sure if it would be ready on time. Now she was here, even more radiant and sharply defined than I remembered. She spoke passionately about the Olympic Games and our proud Olympic organization, and she praised the workers and the people who had helped the work go so smoothly. Then she called forward the manager who had made sure that this building was ready on time and that the result was so excellent, and she called out Kurt’s name, and applauded him, and everyone applauded, and Kurt got up and went over to Christina, he smiled and shook her hand, and she put her hand on his arm, and they laughed. But all sound had vanished. Those bastards, those bastards …

  ‘That evening I went to the store and got a second box of dynamite, and a pack of electronic detonators. The box was full of little cardboard charges this time, one hundred grams each, little pink cardboard tubes that looked like sweets. In fact, you’ve got some of them strapped to your back. The box contained two hundred and fifty of them. I’ve used quite a few, but there are still lots left.’

  She sat in silence for a while. Annika took the opportunity to rest her head in her hands. The tunnel was completely silent, apart from the faint hum of the lights in the roof. They’re not calling my mobile any more, Annika thought. Have they given up looking for me already?

  Beata started talking again and Annika straightened up.

  ‘I was off sick quite a lot during the last year. I’m currently part of the team of project leaders that goes round and inspects the work being done in all the various training centres. For the past two months I’ve been based out at Sätra Hall, which is where the pole-vaulters will train. So you can see the humiliation I’ve had to endure, going from leading the construction of the flagship stadium to looking after tiny details in a load of old sports halls. I no longer have time to establish any sort of proper communication with my workplaces. The buildings mock me, just like the men do. Stefan Bjurling was the worst. He was a foreman for the subcontractor looking after the work at Sätra Hall. He would start grinning the moment I tried to talk to him. He never listened. He called me Stumpy, and ignored everything I said. The only time I ever heard him mention me was when the men asked where they should put some rubble. “Give it to Stumpy,” he said. He made fun of me, and that lovely building joined in. The sound of that was unbearable …’

  Beata fell silent, and sat quietly for so long that Annika started to feel uneasy. Her muscles were aching with tiredness, and she had a bad headache. Her arms felt heavy as lead, that paralysing feeling that normally crept up on her at half past three in the morning. She had worked the night shift often enough to recognize the feeling.

  She thought of her children, wondering where they were, if they were missing her. I wonder if Thomas will find the presents, she thought. I didn’t have time to tell him that I hid them in the wardrobe.

  She looked at Beata. She was sitting with her head in her hands. Then Annika turned her head slowly and glanced at her bag, some way behind her. If only she could get hold of her phone and tell them where she was! There seemed to be a signal, even though they were in a tunnel. She could be free just quarter of an hour later. But that wasn’t going to happen – not as long as she was tied up, and not as long as Beata was there. Unless Beata fetched the bag for her and covered her ears while she made the call …

  She started, suddenly remembering an article she had written two years ago. It had been a beautiful early-spring day, and loads of people were out on the ice—

  ‘Are you sitting there dreaming?’ Beata asked.

  Annika jumped, and smiled.

  ‘No, not at all. I’m looking forward to the next bit,’ she said.

  70

  ‘A couple of weeks ago Christina organized a big party in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall. It was the last big party before the Games, and everyone was invited. I was really looking forward to it. The City Hall is one of my best friends. I often climb the tower, going up all those stairs, letting the stone walls dance beneath my hands, feeling the draught from the little openings in the walls. Then I stand and catch my breath at the top, and we share the view and the breeze together. It’s quite astonishingly beautiful.

  ‘I got there far too early, and quickly realized that I was overdressed. But it didn’t matter, my partner for the evening was the City Hall itself, and it took care of me. Christina would be there, and I was hoping that the forgiving atmosphere of the building would help sort out all our misunderstandings. I mingled among the crowd, drank a glass of wine, and talked to the building.

  ‘Suddenly the level of conversation in the hall grew to an excited chatter, and I knew that Christina had arrived. She was received like the queen she was, I stood on a chair so I could get a better view. It’s hard to explain, but Christina gave off a sort of aura that made it look like she was always under a spotlight. It was fantastic; she was such a fantastic person. Everyone wanted to say hello to her, and she nodded and smiled. She had time for everyone. She shook hands like she was campaigning to be American president. I was quite a long way back in the room, but she was slowly working her way in my direction. I jumped down from the chair and lost sight of her, because I’m so short. But suddenly she was standing there in front of me, beautiful and elegant in her own spotlight. I felt myself start to smile, from ear to ear, and I think I may actually have shed a tear or two of joy.

  ‘ “Welcome, Christina!” I said, holding out my hand. “How wonderful that you can be here!”

  ‘ “Thank you,” she said. “Have we met?”

  ‘Christina’s eyes met mine and she smiled. I could see she was smiling, but the smile changed, and her face died. She had no teeth. There were worms in her mouth, her eyes had no whites. She was smiling, and her breath was dead, rotten. I felt myself pull back. She didn’t recognize me. She didn’t know who I was. She didn’t realize I was her crown princess. She was talking, and her voice came from an abyss, muffled and slurred like a tape being played too slowly.

  ‘ “Shall we move on?” she boomed, and the worms crawled out through her head and I knew I had to kill her. You can see that, can’t you? You must understand that? That she couldn’t be allowed to live? She was a monster, an evil angel with a halo. Evil had consumed her, eating her up from the inside. My house was right: she truly was the embodiment of evil on earth. I hadn’t seen it before, the others hadn’t seen it, they had just seen what I had, her successful façade and glowing aura and bleached hair. But now I could see, Annika, I could see her real essence, she showed me what a monster she really was, she stank of poison and rancid blood …’

  Annika felt an almost unbearable urge to throw up. Beata opened a can of Coca-Cola and took some small sips.

  ‘I really ought to drink Diet Coke because of the calories, but it tastes so horrid. What do you think?’ she asked Annika.

  Annika gulped.

  ‘You’re absolutely right,’ she said.

  Beata smiled.

  ‘My decision helped me to survive the evening, because the nightmare wasn’t yet over. Do you know who she chose to be her Prince, her partner at dinner? Of course you know, don’t you? You published a picture of them together. All of a sudden everything fell into place for me. I realized the point of the treasure I had accumulated at home. The big box was for Christina, and the small charges were for anyone who followed in her wake.

  ‘My plan was simple. I started following Christina; sometimes I got the feeling that she was aware of me. She would look round anxiously as she got into her great big car, always with that laptop under her arm. I was really curious about what she wrote on it, if she wrote anything about me, or maybe about Helena Starke. I knew s
he often went to see Helena Starke. I would wait outside and watch her leave early in the morning. I realized that they were in love, and I knew it would be fatal for Christina if word got out. Which is what made it so simple, at least in theory. Quite a lot of things get messy when you put them into practice, don’t you find?

  ‘Well, on Friday night, when I saw Christina and Helena leave the Christmas meal together, I knew the time had come. I went back to my house and got my biggest and best treasure. It was heavy. I put it on the passenger seat beside me. In the footwell was a car battery I had bought at the OK petrol station out in Västberga. I got the timer from IKEA, they’re the sort you usually use to deter thieves from approaching empty summer cottages.

  ‘I parked among the cars over where you’re parked. My bag was very heavy, of course, but I’m stronger than I look. I was a bit nervous. I didn’t know how much time I had, because I had to get everything ready before Christina left Helena’s flat. Luckily it all went smoothly. I carried the bag to the back entrance, switched the alarm off and unlocked the doors. It looked like it was going to go wrong when someone saw me go in, he was heading to that awful underground club. If I’d been left in charge of the project I’d never have allowed an establishment like that to start up so close to the stadium.

  ‘That night the stadium looked magnificent, it was shining for me in the moonlight. I put the box down in the north stand. The text looked almost luminous in the darkness: Minex 50 × 550, 24 kg, 15 pcs 1,600 g. I put the tape down next to the box. It would be so easy to set it up: just press in the metal tag at the end of one of the sausages, and run the wire off towards the main entrance. That’s where I put the battery and arranged the timer, just like I’d practised. Where did I practise? In a gravel pit outside Rimbo, in Lohärad parish. The bus only passes through twice a day, but I was never in any hurry. I only set off small charges, one little tube of sweets at a time. There’s still plenty left.

  ‘When I had finished my preparations I went and unlocked the main entrance, then I came out through this tunnel. The entrance from the stadium is right at the bottom of the arch, way below the main entrance. The main lift goes down that far, but I took the stairs. Then I hurried across to Ringvägen, I was worried I was already late. But I wasn’t – quite the reverse, actually. I spent a long time waiting in a doorway on the other side of the street. When Christina came out I dialled her number on my mobile. They wouldn’t be able to trace me, I use pay-as-you-go. They won’t be able to trace the call I made to your car yesterday either, by the way.

  ‘It was easy to persuade Christina to come to the stadium. I said I knew all about her and Helena, that I had pictures of them together, that I was going to send them to Hans Bjällra, the Chairman of the Board, if she didn’t come and meet me. Bjällra hates Christina, everyone in the organization knows that. He would have been only too happy to have a chance to humiliate her. So Christina came, but she must have thought twice about it. She came on foot, over the footbridge from Södermalm, angry as hell, and it took quite some time. For a while I didn’t think she was going to turn up.

  ‘I was standing waiting for her inside the main entrance, hidden in the shadows behind one of the sculptures. I was ecstatic, as was the venue. My stadium was with me, it agreed with me. I wanted to do the right thing. Christina was going to die in the very place where she had crushed me. She would be blown away in the north stand of the Victoria Stadium, because that was what happened to me. When she arrived I would hit her on the head with a hammer, the classic construction worker’s tool. Then I would drag her to the stand, wire her up, and, as my pink plastic snakes wound round her body, I would explain why she was here. I would tell her I had seen her monster. My superiority would shine like a star in the night sky. Christina would beg for forgiveness, and the explosion would be the culmination of everything.’

  Beata fell quiet for a moment, and drank some more Coke. Annika was ready to faint.

  ‘Unfortunately it didn’t turn out like that,’ Beata said quietly. ‘The truth will out. I don’t want to be a hero. I know there are people who think what I did was wrong. That’s why it’s important for us not to lie. You have to write what really happened, and not try to make it better than it was.’

  Annika nodded, quite honestly.

  ‘It all went wrong. The hammer blow didn’t knock Christina unconscious, it just made her angry. She started screaming like a stuck pig, saying I was useless and mad and that I had to leave her alone. I hit her wherever I could reach with my hammer. One blow hit her in the mouth, knocking several teeth out. She screamed and screamed, and I just kept hitting her. People bleed quite a lot from their eyes. In the end she fell over, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. She screamed and screamed, and to make sure she didn’t get up again I smashed her knees. That wasn’t nice, just hard work, really difficult. You can see that? She wouldn’t stop screaming, so I hit her on the neck. When I tried to drag her up to the north stand she clawed at my hands, so I had to smash her elbows and fingers as well. In the end we got to the stand, to the place where she had stood that day when she crushed me. I was sweating, because she was quite heavy, and she just wouldn’t stop screaming. By the time we reached my little armoury, my arms were shaking badly.

  ‘I put her between the pillars and started to fasten the explosives with the tape. But Christina didn’t understand that it was time to give up, that her role was now to listen. She wriggled like the snake she was, and managed to get to the nearest flight of steps. She started rolling down the stand, screaming the whole while. I was starting to lose control of my work, it was awful. I got hold of her and hit her in the back, I don’t know if I broke it.

  ‘In the end she was quiet enough for me to tie the sausage-shaped explosives round her. It wasn’t very neat. And there was no time for forgiveness or reflection. I quickly pressed the metal plug into one of the sausages, and ran off towards the battery. The timer was set for five minutes, but I shortened that to three. Christina was screaming, she didn’t sound human, she was screaming like the monster she was. I stood down by the main entrance and listened to her death song. When there were only thirty seconds left she managed to get two of the sausages off her, in spite of her broken limbs. That shows how inhumanly strong she was, don’t you think?

  ‘Unfortunately I couldn’t stay and watch the end of the drama. I missed her final seconds, because I had to take cover in my grotto. I was halfway down the stairs when the pressure wave hit, and I was shocked by how powerful it was. The damage was immense; the whole north stand was destroyed. That wasn’t my intention, you understand. I didn’t want to damage the stadium. Whatever had happened there wasn’t the building’s fault …’

  Annika could feel tears running down her face. She had never written anything so revolting in her whole life. She felt on the point of collapse. She had been sitting still on that uncomfortable chair for several hours now, and her legs were aching so much that she wanted to scream. The explosives on her back had started to get really heavy. She was so tired she just wanted to lie down, even if it meant the dynamite blowing up and killing her.

  ‘Why are you crying?’ Beata said suspiciously.

  Annika took a deep breath before replying.

  ‘Because it was so hard for you. Why couldn’t she just let you do the right thing?’

  Beata nodded, wiping away a tear of her own.

  ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Things are never fair.

  ‘It was easier with Stefan, pretty much as I planned. I gave him responsibility for getting the referees’ changing-room ready by Christmas. The choice of location was simple. That was where I first met Stefan, and where he told me I would be frozen out by the workers at Sätra Hall. And I knew he’d do the work himself.

  ‘Stefan used to bet on the horses, and took every opportunity to work overtime. He would make sure he was the last one on the site, then would doctor his timesheet. He must have been doing it for years, no one had ever checked up on him. He could work quickly when he w
anted to, albeit pretty sloppily.

  ‘On Monday I went to work as usual. Everyone was talking about Christina Furhage getting blown up, but no one spoke to me. I wasn’t expecting them to either.

  ‘That evening I stayed behind in the office, doing my paperwork. When everything went quiet in the hall I did a quick circuit and saw that Stefan Bjurling was working in the changing-room at the far end of the building. So I went to my locker and got out my gym bag. Inside was my treasure, the rolls of sweets, the yellow-green wire, the tape, and the little timer. This time I had no hammer; that had turned out far too messy. Instead I got some rope, the sort you use for children’s swings, and so on. The rope round your neck is from the same coil. While Stefan was drilling in the far wall, I went in and put the rope round his neck and pulled. This time I was much more determined. I wouldn’t tolerate any screaming or fighting. Stefan Bjurling dropped the drill and fell backwards. I was ready for that and used the momentum of his fall to pull the rope tighter. He lost consciousness and I had quite a bit of trouble hauling him onto the chair. I tied him down and got him ready for his funeral. The tubes of sweets, the detonator wire, the timer, and the torch battery. I fixed it all to his back and then waited patiently until he came round.

  ‘He didn’t say anything, but I noticed his eyelids starting to twitch. So I explained to him what was going to happen, and why. Evil’s time on earth was over. He was going to die because he was a monster. I explained to him that many more would be following him. I still have a lot of treasure left. Then I set the timer to five minutes and went back to my office. On the way there I made sure all the doors were unlocked. That way it was easy for the Bomber to have got in. When the bomb went off I pretended to be shocked and called the police. I lied to them and said that someone else had carried out my work. They took me to Accident and Emergency at Södermalm Hospital. They said they wanted to talk to me the following morning. I decided to carry on lying for a bit longer. It wasn’t the right time to tell the truth then, but it is now.