Lars Kepler - The Nightmare

“I’ve got to get to Marklund before that happens.”

“Then you’d better hurry.”

Joona backs out, turns, and drives up the ramp.

“How much of a hurry?” He turns left onto Kungsholmsgatan.

“They’re on their way now.”

“Show me the entrance to the Brigade’s headquarters and then you can head back to the station and pretend you don’t know anything,” Joona says.

“What’s your plan?”

“Plan?”

Nathan laughs.

“Well, the plan is to find out why Marklund went to Penelope’s apartment,” Joona explains. “Maybe he knows something about what’s going on.”

“But-”

“It’s no coincidence the Brigade tried to break into her apartment just now. That’s what I believe. Sapo thinks that the extreme left is planning some kind of attack, but-”

“They always think that. It’s their job,” Pollock says, smiling.

“Anyway, I’m going to talk to Daniel Marklund before I drop this case.”

“Even if you get there before Sapo’s boys, do you think the Brigade wants to talk to you?”

Saga Bauer presses thirteen bullets into the magazine and then shoves it into her large black Glock 21. Sapo is about to storm the Brigade’s headquarters.

Saga is in a minivan parked at Hornsgatan, just outside the Folk Opera. She’s with three colleagues; all are dressed in civilian clothes. In fifteen minutes they’ll head over to Nagham Fast Food and wait for the SWAT team.

For the past month, rumors have come back to Sapo that left-wing extremists are on the move. Perhaps it’s more than rumors, but Sapo’s best strategists have now decided many of these groups have joined forces to plan something really big, perhaps some explosive sabotage. Given the recent theft of explosives from a military facility on Vaxholm Island, they believe it’s a real possibility.

The strategists have also connected the murder of Viola Fernandez and the attempt to blow up Penelope Fernandez’s apartment to this planned attack.

Sapo believes the Brigade to be the most militant and violent of the left-wing fringe groups. Daniel Marklund belongs to their innermost circle, and Sapo’s logic follows that since he tried to break into Penelope Fernandez’s apartment, he might be the assailant who attacked Detective Inspector Joona Linna and his technician.

Goran Stone is smiling as he puts on his heavy protective vest.

“Let’s go get those fucking cowards!”

Anders Westlund laughs but can’t hide his nervousness. He says, “Shit, I hope they resist. I really want to take out one of those communists!”

Saga Bauer is replaying the memory of Daniel Marklund being caught outside Penelope Fernandez’s apartment. Verner Zanden had assigned Goran Stone to the interrogation. Stone had come on strong to startle something out of Marklund, but that strategy had backfired. Marklund had requested legal representation and then clammed up.

The car door opens and Roland Eriksson slides in carrying a bag of marshmallow banana candy and a can of Coca-Cola.

“Damn, I’m jittery. I’ll shoot the second I see a gun,” Roland says, and they can hear the stress in his voice. “Things can go so fast and the only chance you have is to shoot them first-”

“We will follow my plan,” Goran Stone says firmly. “But if shooting breaks out, you don’t have to aim for the legs.”

“Shove it right into their mouths,” Roland yells.

“Take it easy,” Goran says.

“My brother’s face-”

“We know all about it, Roland, shut the fuck up,” Anders says. He’s also very nervous.

“A firebomb right to the face!” Roland repeats in a loud voice. “Eleven operations later and he can-”

“Can you handle this?” Goran asks sharply.

“Sure, what the fuck!”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m fine,” Roland answers quickly. He looks out of the window and scrapes his thumbnail sharply over the lid of his tin of snuff.

Saga Bauer opens the door slightly to let some air into the van. She accepts this is the right time for a raid and there’s no reason to wait. Even so, she still wants to understand the connection to Penelope Fernandez. What was her role in the Brigade? And why was her sister killed? Too much was still not clear. She desperately wants to talk with Daniel Marklund again, look him right in the eye and ask a few direct questions. She’d tried to bring this up with her boss. She wants answers before they go in on this raid. Especially if there is a question about who will be alive afterward.

This is still my investigation! she thinks angrily as she climbs out of the van into the suffocating heat of the sidewalk.

“The SWAT team will go in here and here.” Goran Stone stabs his finger on an architectural drawing of the building. “We’re here and maybe we’ll have to get in through this theater-”

“Where the hell did Saga Bauer go?” Roland asks.

“Maybe she got her period and needed a Tampax!” Anders says with a smirk.

Joona Linna and Nathan Pollock park on Hornsgatan and quickly scan a bad printout of the picture of Daniel Marklund. Then they get out, make their way through the heavy traffic on the street, and enter the door of a small theater. The Tribunal Theater is an independent theater group-with income-pegged ticket prices. Plays from Oresteia to The Communist Manifesto have been performed within its walls.

Joona and Nathan continue swiftly down the wide staircase and over to the combined bar and box office. A woman with a silver ring in her nose and straight hair dyed black smiles at them. They nod in a friendly way but walk right past her without a word.

“You guys looking for someone?” she yells as they start walking up a metal staircase.

“Yes,” Pollock says, but his voice is low.

They enter a messy office crowded with a copier, a desk, and a bulletin board from which newspaper clippings hang down. A thin man with matted hair and an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth sits in front of a computer.

“Hi there, Richard,” Pollock says.

“Who are you?” asks the man absentmindedly as he returns his gaze to his screen.

They continue past the actors’ dressing rooms-past racks of carefully hung costumes and makeup stations. A bouquet of roses droops on one of the tables.

Pollock takes a quick look around and then points. They walk up to a steel door with a stenciled sign: ELECTRICAL ROOM.

“It’s supposed to be in here,” Pollock says.

“In the electrical room of a theater?”

Pollock doesn’t answer but picks the lock as fast as he can. They look inside a cramped space with an electrical meter, a cupboard for props, and stacks of boxes. The ceiling light doesn’t work. Joona clambers over paper bags filled with old clothes. There is a new door behind some extension cords hung across the ceiling. Joona pushes it open and finds a hall with bare cement walls. Nathan Pollock follows him. The air is stagnant and it smells like garbage and damp dirt. In the distance, they can hear the faint backbeat of music. On the floor, there’s a flyer featuring Che Guevara with a lit fuse at the top of his head.

“The Brigade’s been hiding out here several years now,” Pollock says softly.

“I should have brought some cake for our little visit,” Joona replies.

“Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“The only thing I worry about is whether Daniel Marklund will be here.”

“He’ll be here. He’s almost always here.”

“Thanks for your help, Nathan.”

“Maybe I should go in with you anyway?” Pollock asks. “You’ll have only a few minutes before Sapo storms the place. It could get dangerous.”