Lars Kepler - The Nightmare

“I was lucky,” Joona says.

“Right.”

He laughs and she comes up to him, circles him with fancy footwork and then stops. She reaches out with open hands and meets his eyes. She waves at him to come on, waggling her fingers. She’s wanting him to take her on for a round. He smiles as he understands her reference to Bruce Lee: the waving hand. He shakes his head but doesn’t break eye contact.

“I’ve seen how you move,” he says.

“Then you know,” she says shortly.

“You’re quick and you’ll get in the first blow, but after that-”

“I’m cooked,” she answers.

“It’s a good thought, but-”

She makes the same gesture again, a bit more impatiently.

“But you will come in much too hard,” he says, amused.

“No, I won’t,” she says.

“Try it and you’ll find out,” Joona says calmly.

She waves once more, but he doesn’t seem to care. He gets up and turns his back to her as he heads for the door. She goes straight for him to land a right hook. He bends his neck slightly and the blow sails over his head. As a smooth continuation, Joona spins around and draws his pistol while taking her down to the ground with a kick to the kneecap.

“I have to tell you something,” Saga says.

“That I was right, right?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She glares at him as she gets up.

“If you head in too hard-”

“I wasn’t heading in hard,” she says. “I held back because I’d just thought of something important.”

“I get it!” He laughs.

“I don’t give a shit what you think you get or don’t get,” she says. “My idea is to use Penelope as bait.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I started to think about how she wants to go somewhere else and then at the moment I was about to hit you, I got an idea. I couldn’t knock you out if I had to talk to you.”

“So talk,” he says.

“I realized that Penelope would be bait anyway, whether we’d be involved or not. She’d lure the hit man to her.”

Joona stops smiling and nods slowly.

“Keep talking,” he says.

“We don’t know for sure if the hit man can listen in to our communication, if he can hear everything we say via RAKEL… but it’s probable since he found Penelope on Kymmendo,” Saga says.

“Right.”

“He’ll find her one way or another, that’s what I think. He doesn’t care if she’s under police protection or not. We’ll do everything we can to keep her placement a secret, but it’s hellish to protect her without radio communication.”

“He will find her,” Joona says.

“That’s what I was thinking. Penelope will be bait, no matter what. The question is: Are we going to be ready when he comes? She gets just as much protection as planned, but if we put the stakeout guys from Span to watch the place as well, maybe we can catch this guy.”

“That’s entirely possible. You’re thinking in the right direction,” Joona says.

Carlos, Saga, and Joona are heading down the long hallway to Sapo headquarters. Verner Zanden is already waiting for them, and without unnecessary greetings, he speaks the minute they’ve shut the door behind them.

“Klara Olofsdotter at the International Prosecutor’s Office is in on this. I don’t have to tell you, this is a big stakeout for CID and Sapo. But who the hell are we trying to catch?”

“We know next to nothing about him,” Saga says. “We don’t even know if he’s working alone or if he’s part of a team of professional killers from Belgium, or Brazil, or even leftover operatives from the KGB or from the former Eastern bloc.”

“It’s not very difficult to listen in on our radio communications,” Carlos admits.

“This man knows Penelope’s being protected and it will be difficult to get at her,” Joona says. “But there are always small chances: at times a door must be opened, guards change, people bring her food, she’ll have to meet her mother, confer with a psychologist, and she’s planning to meet Niklas Dent from the NHS-”

Joona stops talking when his cell phone rings. He checks the display and clicks it to voice mail.

“Of course, our first priority is Penelope,” Saga says. “But even while protecting her, we feel we might have a chance to catch this man who’s murdered so many of our colleagues.”

“I don’t have to remind you that he’s extremely dangerous,” Joona says. “None of us will meet a more dangerous human.”

The secure apartment, at Storgatan 1, has a window that faces Sibyllegatan with a view over Ostermalm Square. There are no apartment buildings across the street and the closest building is at least one hundred meters away.

Saga Bauer holds the steel door open at street level for Dr. Daniella Richards to lead Penelope Fernandez from an iron-gray police bus. Armored Sapo guards surround them.

“This is the most secure aboveground apartment in all of Stockholm,” Saga explains.

Penelope doesn’t seem to notice her words. She just follows Dr. Richards to the elevator. Security cameras proliferate around the entry hall and the stairwell.

“We’ve put in motion detectors, an advanced alarm system, and two encrypted direct lines to Central Control,” Saga tells Penelope as the elevator heads up.

On the fourth floor, Penelope is brought through a heavy door to yet another locked door, which yet another uniformed officer opens, letting them into the apartment.

“This apartment has tremendous protection against fire,” Saga says. “It has its own electrical generator and its own ventilation system.”

“You’re safe here,” Dr. Richards says gently.

Penelope raises her face and looks at the doctor with an empty expression.

“Thanks,” she finally says, almost soundlessly.

“I can stay with you if that’s what you want.”

Penelope shakes her head. Dr. Richards and Saga wait for a long moment before they turn to leave.

Penelope locks the door behind them and then walks over to one of the bulletproof windows with a view of Ostermalm Square. The window is opaque from outside. She looks down and understands that some of the people moving about on the square must be police in disguise.

She slowly touches the window. She can hear nothing from the outside world.

The doorbell rings.

Penelope jumps and her heart starts to pound.

She walks over to the monitor, finds the intercom button, and presses it. The female officer’s face appears and she says that Penelope’s mother has arrived.

“Penny? Penny?” her mother’s anxious voice asks from behind the officer.

Penelope presses the combination to the door lock and hears the mechanism tick an answer before she can open the heavy steel door.

“Mamma,” she says quietly. The sound of her own voice drops into the apartment’s oppressive silence.

Penelope lets her mother into the room, then closes and locks the door. After that, she can’t seem to move. She presses her lips together and feels her body start to tremble. She forces all feeling from her face.

She glances up at her mother but doesn’t dare meet her eyes. She waits for her mother’s tirade and accusations because she wasn’t able to protect Viola.

Claudia has stopped and takes a slow look around.

“Are they taking good care of you, Penny?” she asks.

“I’m fine now.”

“But they have to guard you.”

“They are, so I’m safe here.”

“That’s all that matters,” Claudia says in words almost beyond hearing.

Penelope tries to swallow her tears.

“There’s so much I have to take care of now,” her mother says, and turns her face away. “I… I just can’t realize that I have to arrange Viola’s funeral.”