The face in the window disappears and they hear steps on the wooden deck yet again. This time, the steps are continuing along the paved path toward the front of the house. As the front door is opened, Bjorn dashes to the kitchen. He quietly sets the knife on the counter as he turns the key in the lock, pushes the door open, and rushes out.
Penelope follows at his heels. Theyre running through the garden in the cool morning air, across the lawn, past the compost pile and into the forest. Fear forces Penelope to keep up her stride as it lashes the panic in her chest. She ducks underneath thick branches and leaps over low bushes and rocks. Soon she hears Bjorns panting beside her. And behind them, she senses their pursuer: a man attached to them like a dark shadow.
Hes following them to kill them.
She remembers a book she read. A woman from Rwanda was telling how shed managed to survive the genocide by hiding in the woods and running every day. She ran the entire time the killings were going on. Her former friends and neighbors were hunting her with machetes. We imitated the antelopes, shed written. We who survived in the jungle lived by imitating the flight of the antelopes from their hunters. We ran in unexpected ways, split apart and kept changing directions to confuse our pursuers.
Penelope knows that she and Bjorn should be smarter. Theyre running without a plan, which will help their pursuer but not them. She and Bjorn are not clever. They want to go home, they want to find help, they want to contact the police. Their pursuer knows all this. He understands them and knows they want to find safety in the company of other humans or find a way to reach the mainland.
Penelope snags her shorts on a branch and rips a hole in them. She staggers a few steps but keeps going. She feels the pain as a burning loop around her leg.
They must not stop. She tastes blood in her mouth. Bjorn stumbles through a thicket. They have to circle a muddy, water-filled gap left by an uprooted tree.
In her flight next to Bjorn, a memory springs up unbidden. She had been as frightened then as she is now. It was in Darfur. She remembers the look in peoples eyes. Some eyes showed people so traumatized they could not go on. Others refused to give up the fight and kept going. What should have been children came to Kubbum one night. They held loaded guns. She would never forget the fear she felt that night.
21
The main office of Swedens Security Service, Sapo, is on the fourth floor of the National Police Board headquarters. Its main entrance is on Polhemsgatan. The room smells of dust and warm lightbulbs, and pale light falls into the room from a small window facing the courtyard. A whistle can be heard from the exercise yard of the jail, located on the roof of the building. The head of the department of security is Verner Zanden. Hes a tall man with a pointed nose, coal-black eyes, and a deep bass voice. He sits now on a chair behind his desk with his legs wide apart, and hes holding up a calming hand. Standing in this unusually depressing room is a young woman named Saga Bauer. Shes an investigator and her groups antiterrorism expert. Saga Bauer is just twenty-five years old. Stripes of green, yellow, and red cloth are braided into her long blond hair. She looks like a wood sprite standing in the stream of light in a dark forest. She carries a large-caliber pistol in a shoulder holster under her unzipped exercise hoodie. NARVA BOXING CLUB has been printed on it.
Ive led this entire effort for more than a year, shes pleading. Ive been on stakeout for twenty-four hours at a time-
This is something entirely different, her boss says with a smile.
Please, please You cant just bypass me again!
Who says Im doing that? A technician from CID is seriously wounded and an investigator has been attacked. That apartment could have exploded and-
I know. I need to get over there now-
Ive already sent Goran Stone.
Goran Stone? Ive been here for three years and I havent closed a case yet! This is my field of expertise! Goran knows nothing at all about-
He did a good job with the underground tunnel case.
Saga swallows hard and then she replies, That was also my case. I found the link to-
But it got dangerous and I still believe I made the right call.
Sagas cheeks turn red. She struggles to collect herself. I can do this. This is what Ive been trained for-
Yes, but Ive made a different call.
Verner sighs and props his feet up on the wastebasket next to his desk.
You know my record. Affirmative action had nothing to do with my being accepted here, Saga says, as calmly as shes able. I wasnt part of a quota. I was top of my class in all the tests. I was best at sharpshooting. I have investigated two hundred and ten different-
I just dont want anything to happen to you, Verner says softly, and his coal-black eyes meet hers.
But Im not a doll, Im not a princess, or some elf!
But you are so so
Verner lifts his hands helplessly.
All right, what the hell, lets do it. You be the lead preliminary investigator. But Goran Stone is part of it and I want him to keep an eye on you.