Arnaldur Indriðason: Operation Napoleon

As it became more distinct she realised that there was a figure lying on top of it. He was flat on his back, lashed down, his arms splayed and his legs bound together, as if he were being crucified. His eyes were fixed on the opening which was slowly but inexorably drawing closer. It was Ratoff. Kristín saw that he was stripped to the waist; his torso smeared in blood, his face criss-crossed by lacerations. He approached the void at a snail’s pace, struggling with all his might to free himself, straining at the bonds that tied him down, straining to sit up. But his cries of terror were drowned out by the overwhelming din of the engines and the boiling turbulence of the air, and his bucking, screaming progress was reduced to a mesmerising dumb show.

The three men completely ignored him, paying him no more attention than an item of freight. As the aft door completed its slow yawning, Kristín watched them take refuge at a point further inside the plane. She gazed and gazed, watching Ratoff rolling closer to the lip of the mechanised rollers, savouring the loathing which blazed up inside her. She felt once again the ache in her side where her flesh had been punctured, saw Elías in his clutches begging for mercy, saw Steve collapsing with a bullet in his face.

As Ratoff drew near, she rose up, forgetting herself so far as to step out of her hiding place and walk to meet the pallet. She could not take her eyes off the monster who had shot Steve without the slightest provocation; she was drawn to him as if magnetised.

A bone-chilling gust of wind battered and tore at her, the air frozen and thin, but she did not hesitate as she made her way to Ratoff and looked down at him while he writhed and struggled to free himself from his bonds. With horrified fascination she took in the ingenious cruelties they had inflicted on him: his fingers bloody at the ends where the nails had been extracted, both thumbs missing, his nose broken and black holes where several teeth had been kicked in, a patch of skin flayed from his chest. She felt not a single twinge of compassion. The rollers screeched relentlessly onwards.

Ratoff was staring at the approaching void in agonised horror when Kristín reached him. Seeming to sense her presence, he reluctantly tore his eyes from the door. His face twisted in a grimace. Disbelief, confusion and desperation could be read in his eyes. He jerked and winced as his body was racked by a spasm of pain, then seemed almost to laugh, before bursting into a trembling, shaking fit of coughing.

‘Never cross Carr,’ Ratoff whispered when she bent over him. Blood bubbled through his split lips. ‘Take it from me. Do I look convincing? Never cross Carr.’

Kristín did not speak. The pallet crawled on as she watched.

‘I must… Kristín, isn’t that your name? I must say, you’re…’

Kristín did not hear how the sentence ended. The noise was deafening now and Ratoff writhed in yet another hopeless attempt to break free.

‘Help me!’ he croaked at her. ‘For Christ’s sake, untie me.’

She looked down at him, followed him a little further, then stopped. She no longer felt anger or hatred towards him. She felt nothing. She was drained of all emotion. The pallet continued its measured progress, as a coffin might pass through a curtain, and she watched it tilt, pause, then fall as Ratoff vanished into the black void. When the aft door began to close again, Kristín remained standing as if rooted to the spot. Her strength had run out, she was on the point of collapse, overwhelmed by the full weight of all the nights without sleep, all the horrors she had witnessed. She no longer cared about anything any more and she flirted briefly with the idea of simply disappearing, of stepping into the black eternity while the opportunity presented itself. It would be so easy to let herself fall, to put an end to her ordeal, to the pain and exhaustion and guilt over Steve, to silence the accusing voices in her head, telling her over and over that it was her fault he had died.

The feeling passed.

A great stillness and quiet fell again inside the hold once the aft door had closed. Asking herself how much of this scene she should tell Miller, Kristín turned, only to find herself face to face with a tall, imposing, elderly man, wearing the uniform of a US general. Behind him stood three other men, the same three that she had just seen shepherd Ratoff out of the aft door. Miller too was standing beside the tall man, who now held out his hand to her.

‘Kristín, I presume,’ Carr said.

C-17 TRANSPORT PLANE, ATLANTIC AIR SPACE,

SUNDAY 31 JANUARY, 0630 GMT

Carr took a seat with Kristín and Miller in the C-17’s cramped flight cabin. Kristín did not know what had become of the other men, nor how many other people were on board. No one had been introduced, nobody had a name; she felt she was in a world of nameless shadows.

A cup of coffee was handed to her. She could not remember when she had last eaten – perhaps at Jón’s farm, perhaps not. She had no idea what day it was, what week or month, nor how long she had been awake. All she knew was that she was on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic. And Steve was dead.

‘Colonel Miller’s trying to convince me that you know nothing about the sensitive contents of this German plane which we have gone to great lengths to retrieve,’ Carr said. ‘He says there aren’t enough Icelanders in the world.’

‘Who are you?’ Kristín asked. She was too shattered and depressed to take in much about this man. He was just another in the string of shadowy figures she had encountered over the last forty-eight hours.

‘That’s of no importance.’

Never cross Carr, Kristín thought. Behind her eyelids burned the image of Ratoff lashed to the pallet.

‘Are you Carr?’ she asked.

‘As far as we’re concerned, the mission’s over. We just need to tie up a few loose ends and…’

A man appeared at the door, entered the cabin and bent to whisper a few words in Carr’s ear. Carr nodded and the man went out again.

‘You shit,’ Kristín muttered in a low voice.

‘Excuse me?’ Carr said.

‘You fucking American shit.’

His grey eyes appraised her coolly from behind his glasses. She read nothing in his gaze – neither amusement nor offence. ‘I can understand how you feel,’ he said.

‘Understand?’ she laughed. ‘How could you understand anything?’ As Kristín’s indignation rose, she caught the look of alarm on Miller’s face. He tried to caution her but Carr silenced him.

‘You are murderers. You have violated every law and standard of decency. You disgust me – so don’t claim to understand how I feel,’ Kristín went on.

Carr waited patiently until she was finished. ‘For what it is worth, I regret what was done to your brother and his friend,’ Carr said. ‘It should never have happened.’

Kristín moved faster than Carr had expected but it was all over in seconds: she sprang out of her chair and struck him in the face so hard that his head rocked back. Miller shouted at her – she had no idea what – and two men materialised behind her and forced her down into her seat. Carr rubbed his cheek, which was already turning a mottled red.

‘You saw what became of Ratoff, I assume,’ he said calmly.

‘Is that supposed to appease me? Seeing that sadist wheeled out of the plane?’

‘He overestimated his usefulness and was punished. I didn’t see you trying to help him.’

‘You shit!’

‘Don’t, Kristín,’ Miller warned. ‘That’s enough.’