Christian Jungersen - The Exception

‘I’m trying to behave like a good person, but it’s such an effort. I’m so bitter.’

‘But Anne-Lise, darling.’

‘My head is bursting with fantasies about revenge. You have no idea! And they won’t stop. I can’t cope with it! I’ll never ever be my old self again!’ Anne-Lise’s lips are tightly closed and she sinks down on a spindly wooden chair.

Henrik sighs, drags a box along to the chair, sits down and puts an arm round her. He speaks to her gently. ‘You will be yourself again, Anne-Lise. Of course you will. It just won’t happen overnight, that’s all.’

‘No. Iben is right. Other people shape who I am. I can’t make myself into who I want to be. We all have it in us to be murderers and executioners and war criminals.’

Henrik’s arm tightens round Anne-Lise’s shoulders. ‘What are you saying?’

‘Henrik, for God’s sake. I wouldn’t be the woman I am now if I could choose. But Iben says we can’t choose. Other people determine who we are.’

Henrik shifts the box so he can sit facing her and takes her face in his hands. ‘Please, explain this to me slowly. Try to help me understand what you’re saying.’

Anne-Lise feels like throwing her glass of red wine on the storeroom floor.

‘It’s like this. Iben watches nature films and says that people behave the same way as animals. She says that there are patterns of behaviour that everyone conforms to because they are instinctive and predestined — psychological laws of nature. She’s been studying developmental biology and social psychology and research papers about the psychology of the perpetrator. And she has written two articles about evil called “The Psychology of Evil I” and “II”.

‘I hate those articles of hers and her lectures too. Iben’s outlook is so grim and black. I’ve heard her say things like: “The more I learn, the more convinced I am that we would all act in exactly the same way as the perpetrators if we had been in their situation.”’

‘I see. What do the others say to all this?’

‘No one in the office ever argues with Iben. And I realise now that she’s right.’

‘She’s wrong, you know.’

Anne-Lise mustn’t start sobbing now, when all their friends are within earshot. She tries to be as quiet as possible. ‘I don’t want to be like this, Henrik. I’m evil.’ She looks into Henrik’s face and senses him thinking: Oh God, will this never end? He deserves so much better.

‘Anne-Lise. You are not evil.’

‘But I wasn’t sorry to hear that the back of Malene’s head had been blown to bits, was I? If the others had died as well, I wouldn’t have minded. Does that sound like the “old Anne-Lise” — does it?’

Anne-Lise drives Henrik’s large, dark-blue car home from the wine tasting. He asks her to stop just before they reach the house where Anne-Lise’s parents live. Her mother has looked after the children, but he would prefer them to wait a little before picking them up.

‘I’ve thought about what you said. Remember what Malene did. She was the worst of them; nonetheless, she did something that Iben’s theories couldn’t explain in a thousand years.

‘To sacrifice your life for someone who is not your child — how would Iben get around that? She can’t. And if Malene can do something like that, then there is something in all of us that is both unpredictable and potentially good. It exists in you. And in me.’

They sit together in silence. Anne-Lise moves close to Henrik and rests her head on his shoulder. He puts his arm around her.

One week after the police interrogated everyone in the Centre about Rasmus’s death, Camilla starts pressing Iben to find out how the investigation is going. She feels nervous about her sessions with Dorte Jørgensen and is keen to know what is going on.

When Iben puts down the receiver, her hand is shaking. ‘I spoke to Dorte Jørgensen. The investigation is closed. Malene has written on her home computer that she was aware of having a split personality. She admits to having killed Rasmus.’

All work ceases. It seems unbelievable at first and then Malene’s image changes in an instant. They decide to phone again to make sure Iben hasn’t misheard. Anne-Lise makes the call.

Iben is shocked, but then, they all are. They had put together a shared memory of Malene, like a jigsaw puzzle. Now it has come apart and every piece takes on a new meaning.

The rumours about Malene spread rapidly through the world of human rights. Anne-Lise hears Iben speaking to one of the callers: ‘Naturally I’m deeply grateful for Malene’s self-sacrifice. Deeply. But I did wonder. It didn’t fit somehow. It’s understandable now. She was tormented by her guilt over having killed Rasmus. And, perhaps, she was mentally ill. That would explain a lot.’

Iben listens to the voice at the other end of the line, and continues.

Absolutely. What she did wasn’t the response of a healthy human being. In fact, her self-sacrifice in no way contradicts the theories I discussed in my articles in Genocide News on evil.’

Paul opens the front door with a bang and steps into the office, beaming happily at everyone. He’s barely over the threshold before he starts announcing his news. ‘At last, I can tell you all!’

‘Hi, Paul! Tell us what?’

‘It’s such a relief to be able to tell you. I promised not to whisper a word before it was official. Today’s the day! Morten Kjærum has accepted a post at the United Nations in New York. His directorship at Human Rights will be advertised soon, possibly as early as May.’

Iben gets in first. ‘Is it yours for the asking, then?’

‘So far, that’s impossible to tell.’

‘But you seem over the moon, right?’

Paul slings his jacket over one chair and sits down on another. ‘Put it this way: to be honest, the heavyweight contenders are Frederik and myself. I’m the boss for this place as well as a member of the board at the Centre for Democracy. We’ve been very active at DCGI, organising things like conferences and other stuff that’s kept us in the public eye — quite unlike the Democracy Centre. Take that successful Yugoslav conference at Louisiana — Frederik’s people didn’t have a chance, organisation-wise. It means that I have the edge. Also, Frederik removed himself from our board not long ago. One way or the other, he’s lost quite a bit of power.’

‘How long have you known this?’ Anne-Lise wants to know.

‘Two weeks.’

Iben, Anne-Lise and Camilla exchange glances. It’s suddenly clear to all of them why Paul has behaved so strangely over the past few weeks. They pretend to be pleased for him, but it doesn’t take Camilla long to see that the news is to their advantage too. Paul obviously wants to stay in charge of DCGI and will set about merging it with the DIHR as soon as possible.

Iben will get a whole crew of intellectuals with whom she can argue all day long.

Anne-Lise will have other librarians around her.. She’ll want that, even if she and Iben make a great show of getting on ever so well. Camilla can clearly see that Anne-Lise would love to have other colleagues to talk to. Now her dreams will come true, and without the hassle of looking for a new job.

Only one of them has any reason to worry and that person is Camilla herself. She knows that when this kind of place merges with another one, the bosses will always try to save on secretarial posts.

It’s only three o’clock but Iben starts clearing her desk. She seems very happy these days and has stopped staying late at the office every night. Apparently she sees rather a lot of Gunnar Hartvig Nielsen.

Her bag is packed and on her desk, when that seedy old fusspot Erik Prins ambles in. As usual he stops at Iben’s and Anne-Lise’s desks for a chat. He starts telling them about a new book he has come across. Talking about it reminds him of Iben’s articles.