Andy McNab - Zero hour

'Got a better idea? People aren't exactly falling over themselves to help us, are they? We could be here for days waiting for this twat to get sober.'

Back on the street, I studied my map. 'That way.'

There were no signs to tell us we'd arrived, but it wasn't long before we found ourselves on Pusher Street. It was like we'd crossed the border between the fairy kingdom and the land of the trolls. The atmosphere changed abruptly. These were mean streets. Cannabis fumes hung more heavily in the air. Aggressive-looking skinheads, some hooded, stood round flaming metal barrels, furtive and menacing. I watched a young guy approach one group and be steered down an alley. Their job seemed to be to direct buyers and keep an eye out for police.

Everywhere I looked, pit-bull terriers wandered unleashed.

'It's an old Russian trick.' Anna nodded at a dog that should have had tattoos on its front legs. 'They're trained to whisk the stash away from a police raid.'

Large canvas parasols covered makeshift stalls. I stepped under one and eyed the merchandise. Lumps of cannabis and bags of skunk were displayed on a tree trunk and a wooden barrel. I showed the stallholder Lilian's picture and asked in English if he'd seen her. He was about her age. He was dressed in grimy old German Army gear that hadn't been washed since Stalingrad.

As he started to answer, a skinhead with a black sweatshirt strode over from one of the braziers. 'Fuck off!' He yelled it straight into my face and gave me a shove. I nodded and retreated, hands raised. Too many hard faces were glaring at me to play it any other way, too many pit-bulls at their heels. So much for the Summer of Love.

My anxious sister clasped my arm and guided me away.

I tried my best to look scared, and part of me was. 'If she's shacked up with one of those arseholes, Anna, we could have a problem.'

There were hundreds of buildings in Christiania and Lilian could have been holed up in any or none of them. Almost all the businesses, shops and restaurants were located in Christiania City. A network of footpaths and bridges connected the sprawling residential sectors. North of where we were, the town gradually gave way to woods.

The main barracks had been converted into an apartment building called the Ark of Peace. It was the largest halftimbered house in northern Europe, and housed more than eighty people. Then there were another eighty-five acres of old army buildings, run-down trailers and modern self-build wood and brick cottages. Even if everyone was at home, it would take the two of us days to cover the ground.

'We're going to have to split up, Anna. Are you OK with that?'

'No problem.'

I unfolded my map. 'Why don't you start at this vegetarian restaurant, the Morning Place, and the after-school centre, the Raisin House, and carry on down the road into the green residential area? I'll do the bars and clubs round Pusher Street. If we get jack-shit, we RV back at the bar at last light anyway.' I touched her face. 'Any drama, just run.'

Anna gave me a hug and I watched her disappear down the street. Just a few yards away, two roaming dogs suddenly had a turf dispute that erupted into a full-blown fight. Their owners ran over with chains to subdue them. I was in no doubt of what kind of welcome we'd get if we did track Lilian down.

The Opera was a music-venue-cum-community-centre in an old brick-layered building at the top end of Pusher Street. The Cafe Oasis was on the ground floor. Above it was the information office.

I went inside and tried the girl at the till. 'She might have cut her hair. She might have dyed it.' I doubted Lilian would have spent her hard-saved cash on a visit to the stylist, but if she had fallen foul of a trafficking gang there was no telling what look they'd have opted for, and I needed to get people's brains in gear. I scanned the other customers while I was talking. You can concentrate so hard on looking for the next person to quiz or the next bar to go into that the target could walk straight past without you noticing.

The girl shook her head.

I stuck my head inside the music venue. A high ceiling supported by tall, decorated wooden pillars and a red and white dance floor in the shape of a starburst gave it a circus feel. Sofas and armchairs were arranged living-room style along the furthest wall, in stark contrast with the shit and rugs outside. The place was deserted.

I went upstairs to the information office. I drew a blank there too, but at least the guy suggested pinning up a photocopy. I hadn't brought any. I thanked him and said I'd come back later if I'd had no luck.

The Children's Theatre and the Jazz Club also shared the building. Nobody was in either of them. Immediately across the road was a clothes and ethnic handicrafts store, and Marzbar, an Internet cafe. I visited them both, keeping my eyes skinned.

A long, three-storey grey-stone building that had once been the garrison's arsenal now housed the music venue, Loppen – the Flea – along with a restaurant, a gallery, some hobby workshops, a youth club, and, down by the entrance, the Infocafe and the Christiania post office. It took me more than an hour to cover every option with Lilian's picture.

Back out on Pusher Street, I went into the Sunshine Bakery, the laundry, and behind these, the community kitchen and a bar called the Monkey Grotto. Nothing. I just hoped that people would be starting to hear about the two dickheads bouncing about trying to find a girl. Maybe it would get to the gangs before we started turning up the temperature tonight.

I dropped into another bar, Woodstock, a bit further on, and the tattooist opposite. I bought a grilled-vegetable sandwich in a small gallery and eating-place next door. I moved on to Nemoland, a cafe and outdoor music venue, with a bar inside and outside, bench tables and parasols, an outdoor stage, and a bistro serving Thai food. There were palm trees, Greek- and Chinese-style decorations, lots of blue bench tables, but not one sniff of recognition of Lilian from the locals.

I began to think it might be time to take another route. Plan B was double-edged. It might lead us straight to Lilian – or fuck us up so completely that we'd never get anywhere near her.

I headed for the RV just before last light. Noisy revellers, a lot of them already the worse for wear, were streaming into Christiania for a night of music, drink and drugs. Outside in the city, the street-lights would be burning. Here in the free town, bare bulbs hanging behind windows struggled to do the same job.

Moving as fast as I could without drawing attention to myself, I jinked down a series of lefts and rights, stopping only once to check the map. I ran into Anna on the way.

'Anything?'

'Nothing. But I did get a call from Moscow. He's found out the end user.'

'A company?'

She shook her head. 'A country. The radar is for the Pantsyr-S1E and heading for the Iranian military. You know what an S1E is?'

'Yeah – ground-to-air missile. Tarasov's making the boards for the missile systems.'

We carried on towards the RV arm in arm. Guys with radio comms and roll-ups the size of RPGs lingered in the shadows, their pit-bulls snarling at their heels.

We eventually got bored with pushing our way through groups of dithering tourists and local teenagers toking their heads off and darted down a side street.

A figure stepped out from the shadows, a white guy in his early twenties in a black leather jacket and old army cargoes. His head was shaved. Even in this light I could see his eyes were bloodshot and out on stalks.

'You want cannabis?'

'No.'

'Cocaine? Heroin?'

It sounded like a threat rather than an invitation to sample tonight's special.