They’re on the highway headed towards Stockholm when Bronzelius’s phone rings. His answers are short, and he asks no questions: ‘I understand… Yes… That’s understood.’
After he hangs up he turns to Klara and meets her eyes.
‘That was my boss,’ he says. ‘MUST, military intelligence, wants you in Bromma. My guess is that your friends are already there.’
‘But you’re not going to do what he says,’ Klara says. ‘Why not?’
‘Maybe I’m tired of being a good cop?’ he says. ‘Maybe I’m tired of sneaking around and letting the wrong people end up hurt.’
‘Like last summer,’ Klara says.
‘Do you know who you were talking to on the soccer field?’ he asks.
Klara shakes her head. ‘A Russian?’ she says. ‘We’ve had them after us this whole time. I suspect they’re behind the evidence against Gabriella.’
‘Gregorij Korolov is his name,’ Bronzelius says. ‘He arrived in Sweden this afternoon. I know because he’s a major player. The kind Säpo keeps an eye on whenever he’s around. But he’s a professional so he managed to evade our surveillance team almost immediately. And because he has a diplomatic passport, there’s nothing we can do other than throw him out. But I would love to know what this is about, why you were standing on a soccer field in Bergort with a well-known Russian spy. Why did military intelligence take an embassy intern to Bromma Airport? Why do they want you there?’
Klara can’t make head or tail of him or his motives. This summer he threatened her and allowed ruthless Russian interests to foment riots in the suburbs of Stockholm just to gain some advantage in an endless spy war. Now he says he’s willing to help her.
‘I don’t trust you,’ she says. ‘It must have felt good to arrest Gabi.’
He looks at her neutrally. ‘I arrested Gabriella because we have convincing evidence she was connected to Jacob Seger and through him, a terrorist organization in Syria. But that I would think for a moment that either of you were terrorists is laughable. I was annoyed at you this summer. You ended up in the middle of one of our operations, which despite everything did end up successful. I would much rather you’d kept quiet, no doubt. But that’s just how the game is played. I’m not driven by revenge, Klara. Quite the opposite.’
She turns away and stares out into the darkness. She knows it’s true – that’s why she called him, because she knew somehow he’d do the right thing, despite what happened.
‘If I tell you,’ she says. ‘Will you promise to let us go? Do you promise to let Gabriella go?’
She thinks of the terrorist attacks barely a day away. She can’t let them happen. But she has to save her friends too.
‘Turn your back to me,’ he says.
Klara does, and he uncuffs her.
‘I promise,’ he says, stretching out a hand. ‘Same team?’
‘Same team,’ Klara says, taking his hand.
*
They take a detour through the expensive neighbourhoods of Bromma with their 19th-century wooden houses and apple trees, while Klara tells Bronzelius everything. All she knows. About Jacob and Yassim. The journey from Brussels, the rest stop in Germany, and that Yassim showed up in Malmö.
Here, Bronzelius nods. ‘Quite a scene at the central station there this afternoon. Shots fired. But what the hell, it’s Malmö. What I don’t understand is the Russian involvement.’
He falls silent and looks out the window at the idyllic neighbourhood around them, then he turns back to Klara again.
‘And you’re right about Gabriella,’ he says. ‘Someone was listening to her, but it wasn’t us. Can’t imagine it was MUST or FRA either – they don’t have the resources, and a Swedish lawyer wouldn’t be interesting to us or them, no matter how irritating she might be.’
‘The Russians,’ Klara says with a shiver.
The thought of Gabi being bugged all through the autumn, maybe even since this summer, is genuinely unnerving.
‘It was the Russians who really lost out after what you all did this summer,’ Bronzelius says. ‘Their whole apparatus was destroyed when you discovered what they were up to. It’s not unthinkable that they might want to fight back, mainly against Gabriella because she’s been the public face. They’ve gotten a hell of a lot more aggressive lately.’
‘So when Jacob called her from Beirut, they picked up the trail,’ Klara says. ‘Maybe they’re trying to stop a terrorist attack, just like us?’
Bronzelius shrugs. ‘Maybe. But I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than that.’
The car has stopped at the small hill in front of the airport, just behind the taxis and the gates.
‘They’re at hangar four,’ Bronzelius says.
Klara turns towards him. ‘Well then,’ she says. ‘Time to finish this. But there’s one thing I’d like to show you first.’