The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

"He's unimportant. A locksmith with a criminal record who's probably being paid to open your door."



"Name?"



"Protected source?"



"Naturally."



"Lars Faulsson. Forty-seven. Alias Falun. Convicted of safe-cracking in the '80s and some other minor stuff. Has a shop at Norrtull."



"Thanks."



"But let's save the secrets till we meet again tomorrow."



The meeting had ended with an agreement that Blomkvist would come to Constitutional Protection the next day to set in train an exchange of information. Blomkvist was thinking. They were just passing Sergels Torg in the city centre.



"You know what? I'm incredibly hungry. I had a late lunch and was going to make a pasta when I got home, but I was waylaid by you. Have you eaten?"



"A while ago."



"Take us to a restaurant where we can get some decent food."



"All food is decent."



He looked at her. "I thought you were a health-food fanatic."



"No, I'm a workout fanatic. If you work out you can eat whatever you want. Within reason."



She braked at the Klaraberg viaduct and considered the options. Instead of turning down towards Sodermalm she kept going straight to Kungsholmen.



"I don't know what the restaurants are like in Soder, but I know an excellent Bosnian place at Fridhemsplan. Their burek is fantastic."



"Sounds good," Blomkvist said.



Salander tapped her way, letter by letter, through her report. She had worked an average of five hours each day. She was careful to express herself precisely. She left out all the details that could be used against her.



That she was locked up had turned out to be a blessing. She always had plenty of warning to put away her Palm when she heard the rattling of a key ring or a key being put in the lock.



I was about to lock up Bjurman's cabin outside Stallarholmen when Carl-Magnus Lundin and Sonny Nieminen arrived on motorbikes. Since they had been searching for me in vain for a while on behalf of Zalachenko and Niedermann, they were surprised to see me there. Magge Lundin got off his motorbike and declared, quote, I think the dyke needs some cock, unquote. Both he and Nieminen acted so threateningly that I had no choice but to resort to my right of self-defence. I left the scene on Lundin's motorbike which I then abandoned at the shopping centre in alvsjo.



There was no reason to volunteer the information that Lundin had called her a whore or that she had bent down and picked up Nieminen's P-83 Wanad and punished Lundin by shooting him in the foot. The police could probably work that out for themselves, but it was up to them to prove it. She did not mean to make their job any easier by confessing to something that would lead to a prison sentence.



The text had grown to thirty-three pages and she was nearing the end. In some sections she was particularly reticent about details and went to a lot of trouble not to supply any evidence that could back up in any way the many claims she was making. She went so far as to obscure some obvious evidence and instead moved on to the next link in the chain of events.



She scrolled back and read through the text of a section where she told how Advokat Bjurman had violently and sadistically raped her. That was the part she had spent the most time on, and one of the few she had rewritten several times before she was satisfied. The section took up nineteen lines in her account. She reported in a matter-of-fact manner how he had hit her, thrown her on to her stomach on the bed, taped her mouth and handcuffed her. She then related how he had repeatedly committed acts of sexual violence against her, including anal penetration. She went on to report how at one point during the rape he had wound a piece of clothing  -  her own T-shirt  -  around her neck and strangled her for such a long time that she temporarily lost consciousness. Then there were several lines of text where she identified the implements he had used during the rape, which included a short whip, an anal plug, a rough dildo, and clamps which he attached to her nipples.



She frowned and studied the text. At last she raised the stylus and tapped out a few more lines of text.



On one occasion when I still had my mouth taped shut, Bjurman commented on the fact that I had several tattoos and piercings, including a ring in my left nipple. He asked if I liked being pierced and then left the room. He came back with a needle which he pushed through my right nipple.



The matter-of-fact tone gave the text such a surreal touch that it sounded like an absurd fantasy.



The story simply did not sound credible.



That was her intention.



At that moment she heard the rattle of the guard's key ring. She turned off the Palm at once and put it in the recess in the back of the bedside table. It was Giannini. She frowned. It was 9.00 in the evening and Giannini did not usually appear this late.



"Hello, Lisbeth."



"Hello."



"How are you feeling?"



"I'm not finished yet."



Giannini sighed. "Lisbeth, they've set the trial date for July 13."



"That's O.K."



"No, it's not O.K. Time is running out, and you're not telling me anything. I'm beginning to think that I made a colossal mistake taking on the job. If we're going to have the slightest chance, you have to trust me. We have to work together."



Salander studied her for a long moment. Finally she leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling.



"I know what we're supposed to be doing. I understand Mikael's plan. And he's right."



"I'm not so sure about that."



"But I am."



"The police want to interrogate you again. A detective named Hans Faste from Stockholm."



"Let him interrogate me. I won't say a word."



"You have to hand in a statement."



Salander gave Giannini a sharp look. "I repeat: we won't say a word to the police. When we get to that courtroom the prosecutor won't have a single syllable from any interrogation to fall back on. All they'll have is the statement that I'm composing now, and large parts of it will seem preposterous. And they're going to get it a few days before the trial."



"So when are you actually going to sit down with a pen and paper and write this statement?"



"You'll have it in a few days. But it can't go to the prosecutor until just before the trial."



Giannini looked sceptical. Salander suddenly gave her a cautious smile. "You talk about trust. Can I trust you?"



"Of course you can."



"O.K., could you smuggle me in a hand-held computer so that I can keep in touch with people online?"



"No, of course not. If it were discovered I'd be charged with a crime and lose my licence to practise."



"But if someone else got one in... would you report it to the police?"



Giannini raised her eyebrows. "If I didn't know about it..."



"But if you did know about it, what would you do?"



"I'd shut my eyes. How about that?"



"This hypothetical computer is soon going to send you a hypothetical email. When you've read it I want you to come again."



"Lisbeth  - "



"Wait. It's like this. The prosecutor is dealing with a marked deck. I'm at a disadvantage no matter what I do, and the purpose of the trial is to get me committed to a secure psychiatric ward."



"I know."



"If I'm going to survive, I have to fight dirty."



Finally Giannini nodded.



"When you came to see me the first time," Salander said, "you had a message from Blomkvist. He said that he'd told you almost everything, with a few exceptions. One of those exceptions had to do with the skills he discovered I had when we were in Hedestad."



"That's correct."



"He was referring to the fact that I'm extremely good with computers. So good that I can read and copy what's on Ekstrom's machine."



Giannini went pale.



"You can't be involved in this. And you can't use any of that material at the trial," Salander said.



"Hardly. You're right about that."



"So you know nothing about it."



"O.K."



"But someone else  -  your brother, let's say  -  could publish selected excerpts from it. You'll have to think about this possibility when you plan your strategy."



"I understand."



"Annika, this trial is going to turn on who uses the toughest methods."



"I know."



"I'm happy to have you as my lawyer. I trust you and I need your help."



"Hmm."



"But if you get difficult about the fact that I'm going to use unethical methods, then we'll lose the trial."



"Right."



"And if that were the case, I need to know now. I'd have to get myself a new lawyer."



"Lisbeth, I can't break the law."



"You don't have to break any law. But you do have to shut your eyes to the fact that I am. Can you manage that?"



Salander waited patiently for almost a minute before Annika nodded.



"Good. Let me tell you the main points that I'm going to put in my statement."



Figuerola had been right. The burek was fantastic. Blomkvist studied her carefully as she came back from the ladies'. She moved as gracefully as a ballerina, but she had a body like... hmm. Blomkvist could not help being fascinated. He repressed an impulse to reach out and feel her leg muscles.



"How long have you been working out?" he said.



"Since I was a teenager."



"And how many hours a week do you do it?"



"Two hours a day. Sometimes three."



"Why? I mean, I understand why people work out, but..."



"You think it's excessive."



"I'm not sure exactly what I think."



She smiled and did not seem at all irritated by his questions.



"Maybe you're just bothered by seeing a girl with muscles. Do you think it's a turn-off, or unfeminine?"



"No, not at all. It suits you somehow. You're very sexy."



She laughed.



"I'm cutting back on the training now. Ten years ago I was doing rock-hard bodybuilding. It was cool. But now I have to be careful that the muscles don't turn to fat. I don't want to get flabby. So I lift weights once a week and spend the rest of the time doing some cross-training, or running, playing badminton, or swimming, that sort of thing. It's exercise more than hard training."



"I see."



"The reason I work out is that it feels great. That's a normal phenomenon among people who do extreme training. The body produces a pain-suppressing chemical and you become addicted to it. If you don't run every day, you get withdrawal symptoms after a while. You feel an enormous sense of wellbeing when you give something your all. It's almost as powerful as good sex."



Blomkvist laughed.



"You should start working out yourself," she said. "You're getting a little thick in the waist."



"I know," he said. "A constant guilty conscience. Sometimes I start running regularly and lose a couple of kilos. Then I get involved in something and don't get time to do it again for a month or two."



"You've been pretty busy these last few months. I've been reading a lot about you. You beat the police by several lengths when you tracked down Zalachenko and identified Niedermann."



"Lisbeth Salander was faster."



"How did you find out Niedermann was in Gosseberga?"



Blomkvist shrugged. "Routine research. I wasn't the one who found him. It was our assistant editor, well, now our editor-in-chief Malin Eriksson who managed to dig him up through the corporate records. He was on the board of Zalachenko's company, K.A.B Import."



"That simple..."



"And why did you become a Sapo activist?" he said.



"Believe it or not, I'm something as old-fashioned as a democrat. I mean, the police are necessary, and a democracy needs a political safeguard. That's why I'm proud to be working at Constitutional Protection."



"Is it really something to be proud of?" said Blomkvist.



"You don't like the Security Police."



"I don't like institutions that are beyond normal parliamentary scrutiny. It's an invitation to abuse of power, no matter how noble the intentions. Why are you so interested in the religion of antiquity?"



Figuerola looked at Blomkvist.



"You were reading a book about it on my staircase," he said.



"The subject fascinates me."



"I see."



"I'm interested in a lot of things. I've studied law and political science while I've worked for the police. Before that I studied both philosophy and the history of ideas."



"Do you have any weaknesses?"



"I don't read fiction, I never go to the cinema, and I watch only the news on T.V. How about you? Why did you become a journalist?"



"Because there are institutions like Sapo that lack parliamentary oversight and which have to be exposed from time to time. I don't really know. I suppose my answer to that is the same one you gave me: I believe in a constitutional democracy and sometimes it has to be protected."



"The way you did with Hans-Erik Wennerstrom?"



"Something like that."



"You're not married. Are you and Erika Berger together?"



"Erika Berger's married."



"So all the rumours about you two are nonsense. Do you have a girlfriend?"



"No-one steady."



"So the rumours might be true after all."