Christian Jungersen - The Exception

Zigic turns to Iben. ‘You. Are you ready to come in with me?’

Iben answers at once: ‘Yes.’

Maybe she sounded too eager. Zigic turns to Gunnar. ‘You know where it is too, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you’ve got a night pass to this place?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. You should worry more about your pals than that bitch next to you. You come with me. And you know what happens if anything goes wrong? Anything at all?’

‘Yes.’ So it isn’t Iben who will have a chance to knife Zigic and flee from him in the long corridors of the Ministry. It is to be Gunnar. Unarmed.

Iben winks at him when he climbs out. It’s all she can do to try and tell him that he must feel free to do whatever he can, because when he returns to the car Iben and Malene will either be dead or gone.

Denim Suit gets out too. He starts pacing up and down restlessly away from the car. Perhaps he’s beginning to worry.

Malene moves to sit next to Iben. Nenad watches them. His gun looks different from anything Iben knows. Longer than other handguns, the muzzle cross-section is square and there is a bulge below the stock in front of the trigger.

He keeps an eye on them, but can’t see everything. Iben’s knife is hidden in her underwear, across her buttocks. She scratches her bum. The next moment she has the knife in her hand, hidden behind the back of the driver’s seat.

Malene sees it. Her face turns to stone, but she stays quite still.

Iben watches the pulse on Nenad’s neck. It beats in a slow rhythm. Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum. It is alive. Nenad’s life is there. She stares. Da-dum. Nenad is good at computers. He likes his coffee and biscuits. Nenad treated Iben’s nose with real care. There it is. That small beating thing, the spot that her knife must hit. Just there. And his life will be spurting out of him.

She leans forward, shifting the knife to her right hand behind the back of the driver’s seat. Her leg muscles stiffen in readiness to leap.

She waits. The best possible moment may not be now. Maybe it will never come. Maybe Denim Suit will return any second.

It might have been Malene’s quickened breathing that alerted Nenad, or the frightened look on her face. He moves over, craning to see. He will soon find out what Iben is hiding.

She throws her body across the small car and raises the knife with both hands. She plunges it in, straight into the life-sustaining pulse.

His blood sprays all over Iben and the car. His eyes roll up. His lips draw back over his teeth and his arms begin to shake. Still his eyes stare at her. Then slowly fade. He falls.

She grabs the gun from his lap. Denim Suit, who had been about ten metres away, must have heard something and runs back to the car. Iben doesn’t lower a window, just shoots at him through the rear window. She only touches the trigger, but a volley of shots rings out. It is some kind of miniaturised machine gun.

Malene’s face is white. She might be about to faint. Iben shouts at her, ‘Get out! Out! Out!’

Iben shouts, ‘Run!’

Malene runs.

Iben searches Nenad’s pockets, but can’t find a spare car key. She’ll have to get out and run too.

She’s only gone a few steps when Zigic and Gunnar come out through the brightly lit main door of the Ministry. Zigic sees her. He doesn’t turn towards Gunnar, but thrusts the knife sideways with an instant backhand stroke. The blade is driven precisely into the centre of Gunnar’s chest and he slumps to the ground.

Malene has reached the other side of the short channel of dark water flowing between the complex of Ministry buildings and draining into the harbour canal. She shouts that she has seen a taxi. Iben runs after her, following the waterway.

She is in time to see the taxi on the far side of the Ministry compound. Despite Malene’s flailing arms and shouting, the cab drives off.

Zigic is closing in on her. It is the worst conceivable place for running. The cobbled quayside is deserted. Tall, dark warehouses on one side; on the other, the black, freezing water of the canal. Where can she hide? There is nothing. She runs on.

Zigic is fast. Iben turns to shoot at him, but after a short burst the magazine is already empty. It is much smaller than a real machine gun. She throws it into the snow and runs.

Only one brightly lit object stands out against the dark — a large, white shape: a houseboat. It is moving away from the quay. The mooring ropes have been pulled in and its decks seem completely abandoned. It is about to sail away, to leave them, but it is slow. They can still leap on board.

Iben overtakes Malene, whose arthritic feet must be hurting her badly. A few seconds more and then Zigic will be almost on top of them and everything will be over for them both.

Iben reaches the dock and leaps. She lands on the deck. Now, rescue Malene. There’s only one short moment to spare. She turns to reach out for her friend.

Iben has a vision of a scene set in Gunnar’s flat. Malene and Gunnar are together, damp with sweat, in his bed.

Does she hesitate for just a moment too long before reaching out? She doesn’t know. How long before she acts? Two seconds, or three? She doesn’t know. Perhaps she doesn’t hesitate at all.

And now the distance is too great. Malene can’t jump.

She screams.

Iben stands under the bright spotlight on the small area of the deck. In front of her, a white steel wall with one door set in it. She pulls at the handle. It’s locked.

What? Fucking what? The houseboat is only three metres from the quay, moving so slowly it’s practically standing still.

She runs the few steps to the other side. The deck is barred there and she can get no further. She runs back. Barred again. She hammers on the door.

This boat will not mean freedom and survival. It is a floating cage. She climbs up a ladder welded to the white wall. She hangs onto the boat’s flank, illuminated, like a black dot on a huge sheet of paper. She is just a few metres from Zigic’s gun.

She keeps climbing while she looks over her shoulder. She watches. Zigic stops a few metres behind Malene. He raises his gun and aims. Iben moves on up, but it takes time to climb so many small rungs.

He is so close she can see his finger bending to press the trigger.

He has her now.

Iben shows up in good time. Today looks like one of the first proper days of spring. The brilliant sunlight brings out every crack in the pavement where she stands. Weeds will soon push up through the gaps.

Malene’s parents are the only other people who are present. Like Iben, they wait in silence, staring down the long one-way street. Cars should be coming into sight soon.

Over the last five days Malene’s mother has phoned Iben almost every evening. Malene’s parents arrived in Copenhagen yesterday and Iben went to meet them.

Not one day will pass when Malene’s parents won’t wonder why it was their daughter and not Iben. Even now they must lie awake at night, thinking that it should have been Iben.

As for herself, Iben watches Animal Planet and eats bowls of ice cream with marshmallows night after night. She thinks about what Malene did. In bed she twists and turns and thinks about what she herself did.

A green car shows up at the bottom of the street. Malene’s father and mother wave. When the car draws near them Iben recognises Malene’s aunt and her three children, whom she has met on her visits to Kolding with Malene.

Another thing that Iben has been pondering: Should she go into therapy again? But then, how will it help now?

More cars pull up. She must not be so nervous. Zigic can no longer come anywhere near her.