Mikkel Birkegaard - The Library of Shadows

'Just a minute,' she said and disappeared again. The conversations stopped and everyone listened to the librarian's footsteps and the rattling of the door. There was a brief exchange of words before they heard the door close again and footsteps approaching.

'Whew, I just made it, didn't I?' said Pau, gasping for breath as he came into the room, his face red.

The librarian carefully shut the door behind her and the last two arrivals sat down. Everyone turned their attention to the man in the wheelchair.

'Welcome,' said Kortmann. The others murmured a greeting in return. 'I'm glad that so many could participate at such short notice. It can be risky to meet in times like these, but recent events have unfortunately made it necessary.' Solemn expressions marked the faces of those around the table.

'Last night Libri di Luca was attacked. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the bookshop, which has suffered significant damage. Iversen is in hospital due to burns and shock. We have Jon to thank that the shop didn't burn to the ground.'

Everyone expressed their approval with subdued whispers and nods towards Jon. Katherina clenched her teeth hard and fixed her eyes on the tabletop in front of her. She had never expected a hero's reception from Kortmann, but he could have at least mentioned that she'd taken part in putting out the fire. Surely the very fact that he was willing to be in the same room with her must mean that he trusted her, so why was he downplaying her role? Maybe he was unaware of how it had all happened. Kortmann had only heard the story from Jon and Pau, and it was impossible to say what version they had told him. She looked over at Jon, who didn't bat an eye.

'As you've presumably heard, Jon is Luca's son,' Kortmann went on. 'It's only recently that we've learned about him, or perhaps I should say that it wasn't until he turned up that we remembered that Luca even had a son. For that reason, it's only now that he has been made aware of the Society's existence, and he is not yet an active Lector.'

Everybody in the room looked at Jon as Kortmann spoke, but his expression didn't change, even when the discussion touched on his relations with his father.

'I'm personally very happy he has returned, especially now when we have need for reinforcements to defend ourselves, and I'd like to ask all of you to give him your unconditional support regarding the task he has agreed to resolve.'

'What task is that?' asked the man that Katherina had seen in the fiction section.

'I'll come back to that in a moment,' replied Kortmann. 'First I think you should all introduce yourselves and explain what sort of work you do, both within the Society and outside of it. We all know Pau, so we can skip over him.' Kortmann turned to his left and nodded at the librarian. She immediately sat up straighter and cleared her throat. Her glasses with the big frames now hung round her neck and a pair of blue eyes stared intently at Jon.

'Well, my name is Birthe,' she began, suppressing a giggle. 'As you've seen, I'm the librarian here. Usually I work at the check-out counter or in the children's section. I love being surrounded by children, and I'm so happy whenever I'm allowed to read to the kids – to sense how they become totally absorbed by the story, letting themselves just-'

Kortmann cleared his throat.

'Er, yes,' said Birthe apologetically and giggled again. 'We can always talk about that later. In the Bibliophile Society I'm the historian, which means that I try to map out the history of the Lectors and their expansion through the ages. I worked very closely with your father, such a lovely man. So full of life and humour.' She giggled with delight. 'Always friendly and helpful and-'

'Thank you, Birthe,' said Kortmann. 'Henning?'

The man from the fiction section leaned forward with his elbows on the table. The light from the fluorescent lamps revealed that his greying hair was very thin on top of his head, and little beads of sweat were visible on his scalp. His eyes kept blinking erratically like defective windscreen wipers, making him appear unnecessarily nervous.

'My name is Henning Petersen. I'm forty-two years old, and I work in a bookshop on Kultorvet.' His dark eyes flickered from Jon to Katherina. 'I'm single, as we say nowadays, and I'm fond of cooking and going to the theatre – in addition to books, of course.' He smiled self-consciously. 'I've been active for over thirty years, and I'm the Bibliophile Society's treasurer.'

He leaned back in his chair and nodded to the next person in line, a woman of about thirty who was holding hands with a man of the same age. Both were a bit stout. They radiated great joy, maybe because they were together.

'My name is Sonja,' she began in a bright, somewhat piercing voice. 'And this is my husband Thor.' She lifted his hand in triumph. 'I met him through the Society almost three years ago. We're both teachers. Thor works at a school in Roskilde, while I'm at Sortedam School right over there.' She gestured with her hand past Katherina. 'We don't have any specific tasks within the Society, but we always show up at the reading sessions, when it's necessary.' She turned to look at her husband. 'Your turn, Thor.'

Thor cleared his throat behind his big, full beard.

'I don't think I have anything to add – after that,' he said and gave a brief chuckle, while his wife chimed in with a shrill squeal.

The next person in line was a teenage girl who blushed bright red and looked down at her hands.

'My name is Line,' she said in a low voice. 'I only became a member a month ago, so…' She shifted her gaze to the next person, the man with the Asian features whom Katherina had seen in the non-fiction section. Narrow, rectangular glasses framed his dark eyes, which were turned towards Katherina. His Asian features made it hard to guess how old he was, but she thought he had to be in his mid-twenties.

'The name is Lee,' he said with no trace of an accent. 'I'll spare you my first name, since most people can't pronounce it correctly anyway. For my day job I work in the IT field as a software engineer, if that means anything to you. I try as much as possible to help the Society on that front, but it's not as if we're expanding via the Internet or using IT in that way,' he remarked, with regret in his voice. 'So I don't do much other than collecting data. Well, I guess that's all,' he concluded and nodded at Katherina.

She cleared her throat and was about to introduce herself when Kortmann cut her off.

'Thank you for the introductions. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to be here today. You all know Iversen, but we have three additional members in the Copenhagen area who were unable to make it. But they've all been told that Jon and Katherina will be paying them a visit in the near future as part of the investigation.'

'Could we now hear what this is all about, Kortmann?' asked Henning Petersen, clearly annoyed.

'Yes, you can,' said Kortmann, looking at Katherina for the first time that evening before he continued. 'The receivers feel thatwe are the source of what's been happening lately, that in thebest case scenario we may have a traitor among us.'

From his seat next to Kortmann, Jon had an excellent view of the reactions of everyone present. Lee's expression didn't change and he kept his eyes fixed on Kortmann, as if he were waiting to hear more. The teenage girl, Line, looked as if she didn't know how to react, and her flitting eyes sought help from the faces of the others. But there wasn't much help to be found there. The married couple stared at each other in shock, for the first time without smiles or romantic sentiment, while the librarian looked down at her hands, which were shaking slightly. Only Pau looked unconcerned. The whole situation actually seemed to amuse him.