The man who had sat down at her table had intelligent eyes; he seemed calm and self-assured, yet Mia Krüger was not sure what to make of him. He wore a white shirt and a black suit that made him look like a businessman, but his crazy hair, black on the sides with a broad, white stripe down the middle, seemed to contradict the look. She saw how he had earned his nickname, Skunk.
Normally, she was good at this, reading people, but this young man exuded something she had never come across before. He was dressed up for the occasion like an actor. As if he wanted to be special and had put on these clothes in order to stand out from the crowd. She soon realized how wrong she was.
He could not have cared less about his appearance. He could look any way he wanted to, because he did not care what other people thought. He was himself, and if anyone had a problem with that, well, they could go to hell. Skunk raised the beer glass to his lips and smiled at her across the rim. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but for the first time in as long as Mia could remember, she had a feeling that here was a man she might actually, yes …
She did not finish the thought but emptied her own beer, put on her police face again and put the notebook and pen to one side.
‘So you’re not busy?’
He might be a bit cocky, but Mia did not mind.
‘I am, actually,’ she said.
‘I don’t usually do this,’ Skunk said, taking his eyes off her for the first time, and staring out of the window.
‘Do what?’
‘Talk to the police,’ he smiled, looking at her again.
‘No, we get that,’ Mia said. ‘Gabriel made it quite clear.’
‘Gabriel, yes.’ Skunk sighed, raising his glass again. ‘He went over to the dark side …’
‘According to him, you’re the one who went over to the dark side,’ she said as the waiter placed fresh drinks on the white tablecloth between them.
‘He said that?’ Skunk said.
‘I thought you were the villain? And that Gabriel is the one helping us?’
‘That depends on how you look at it.’
‘Of course.’ Mia smiled, taking a sip of her Guinness.
‘I don’t normally do this.’
Skunk took off his jacket and hung it carefully on the back of the chair.
‘So you say. Why are you here, then?’
‘Let’s call it conscience. Or, more accurately, curiosity.’
‘Curiosity?’
Skunk smiled. ‘You’re exactly how I imagined you.’
‘And how is that?’
Her head was starting to spin now. Mia had had quite a lot to drink, but she tried to stay in control.
‘Why don’t we stop pussyfooting around and get straight to the point?’
Skunk looked at her, and again Mia had the feeling that, if she had not been working, if the young man who had turned up out of the blue had not been absolutely crucial to the case she was investigating, then she might …
She dropped the thought.
‘Absolutely.’ Mia nodded.
‘Two things,’ he said, taking another sip of his beer.
‘Yes?’
‘One,’ he said, looking at her, ‘the location of the server.’
‘Where you found the film?’
‘Yes, but first you need to accept the following,’ Skunk said. ‘You know nothing and can do nothing.’
‘Me?’
‘I’m not saying this in order to patronize you, but this is technical. I know that you’re the best in your field, but let us say for a moment that I’m the best in mine, OK?’
‘Gabriel is very good,’ Mia said.
Skunk smiled. ‘Yes, Gabriel is good, but he’s way too nice. Do you know what a white hacker is?’
‘No,’ Mia said.
‘OK. Then you probably won’t know what a black hacker is?’
Mia shook her head again.
‘OK,’ Skunk said, draining his glass and looking at her. ‘How about another round?’
Mia nodded, and Skunk summoned the waiter.
‘OK, so where did you find the film? Where was the server?’ she asked.
‘I can’t say for sure,’ Skunk said, emptying his shot glass.
‘Why not?’
‘Because they always hide them. How technical are you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘How much do you know about computers?’
Mia decided to stop drinking.
‘OK, let’s pretend I know nothing. How would you explain it to me?’
‘The server where I found the film,’ Skunk said, taking another sip of his beer, ‘let’s say it was in Russia.’
‘OK?’
‘But it wasn’t,’ the young man with the stripy hair smiled again, and she could see now that he was a little tipsy.
‘Do you know anything about mirrors? About ghost IP addresses?’
‘Nothing.’ Mia smiled now, focusing on her pen and notepad.
‘You can hide servers.’
‘So you don’t know where you found it?’
‘Yes and no,’ he said, taking another sip of his beer. ‘No matter how hard they try to hide them, they leave behind traces, and what little I’ve found in Norway came from a house in St Hanshaugen.’
‘This server was there, in St Hanshaugen? That was where you found the film?’
Mia left her drinks untouched on the table.
‘Ullevålsveien number 61. I’ve checked it out. It used to be a bookshop.’
‘A bookshop?’
‘Second-hand.’
‘But now?’ Mia prompted him.
‘Yes, exactly, it used to be, but there’s nothing there now.’
‘You’ve checked?’
‘Yes, they used to sell antiquarian books. Old books. Books on the occult, as far as I could gather. You know, Satanists, that kind of stuff?’
He smiled archly across his beer glass.
‘But it has closed? There is nothing there now?’
‘Nothing at all.’ Skunk nodded slowly. ‘But …’
‘Yes?’
‘The evidence wasn’t clear. It could just be yet another decoy.’
‘OK,’ Mia said. ‘And the second thing?’
‘What?’
‘You said there were two things, one and two?’
Skunk put down his glass on the white tablecloth. ‘Yes. And that’s the worst part.’
Mia did not know what to think. Skunk seemed quite drunk, although he had only had a couple of drinks.
‘What is?’
‘You’ve seen the film, right?’ he said, leaning across the table towards her. ‘Have you – I mean, the police – found out what it’s really about?’
‘What do you mean, what the film is really about?’
‘You haven’t, have you?’
‘I don’t know. What if we haven’t?’
The waiter came over to them again. It was last orders, but Mia waved him away.
‘The film – the girl in the wheel – have you seen it?’
Her image of the hacker with the stripy hair on the other side of the table was starting to swim, and Mia was glad she had stopped drinking.
‘Of course. So what’s the second thing?’ Mia said as the lights in the bar were turned on around them.
‘What?’ Skunk said, his eyes glassy now.
‘Number two?’ Mia prompted him. ‘If the server was number one, then what’s number two?’
Skunk put down his empty glass on the white tablecloth in front of her.
‘It’s not a film,’ he said with swimming eyes.
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s not a film,’ Skunk said again, looking at her.
‘Of course it’s a film.’
‘No. It’s an extract from a live feed.’
‘What?’
‘A live feed. It’s live.’
‘What are you saying?’
Skunk raised his gaze from the table and looked at her gravely. ‘They streamed her on the Internet. Exhibited her.’
‘What?’ Mia exclaimed, as the waiter came over and told them it was closing time, that they had to leave.
‘It’s live,’ Skunk said again. ‘Someone filmed her over a period of time, streaming her live on the Net, probably making money in the process.’
‘But how?’ Mia asked, as the bouncer made his way towards them.
‘Time to go home,’ the bouncer announced with a smile.
‘How will I find you?’ Mia said when they were out on the cold pavement in Hegdehaugsveien.
The young hacker put on his jacket and pulled his beanie over his ears as a vacant taxi pulled up in the street in front of them.
‘You won’t,’ Skunk said, and winked at her.
‘Yes, but …?’
‘Tøyen,’ the hacker said to the cab driver before getting into the back and shutting the car door behind him.