During his time as Secretary of State, Buster had given countless lectures on the subject. Those on the periphery of society were more likely to turn to crime than those who lived a more comfortable life. And since immigrants were more over-represented than Swedes in the lowest stratum of society, then… Buster didn’t have the strength to follow the chain of thought through to its conclusion; he had been there far too often, without ever coming up with anything new. There could be only one conclusion – immigration itself was not harmful. What was harmful was failing to give people any hope for the future.
However, he was by no means as certain that the international terrorism that had now reached Scandinavia could be explained in the same way. The men who had recently been convicted were young and driven, and had made a living running their own businesses. They earned good money, and had lived in Sweden all their lives. Their parents had been part of the group of Swedes born overseas who had made a great success of their life in Sweden. So the frustration must come from a different source other than the usual criminality.
Eden Lundell had often asked where all this anger came from, and Buster thought it was a good question. How come those with their origins in the Levant, for example, wanted to commit acts of terrorism in Europe because European soldiers were fighting in Afghanistan? And even if you accepted that as an explanation, how could anyone convince themselves that it was okay to carry out a suicide bombing on a street full of civilians who have never set foot in Afghanistan, and who probably didn’t even have an opinion on the subject?
To Buster it was important not to mix up understanding an incident and justifying it. If he didn’t have the courage to comprehend what might explain a particular action, then he was doomed to fail in his task.
Ensuring the safety of Sweden was not the same as keeping Sweden Swedish. Whatever the hell ‘Swedish’ was supposed to mean.
His musings were interrupted by the arrival of Henrik Theander, head of counter-espionage.
‘You said it was urgent,’ Henrik said as he sat down.
Buster hesitated briefly, then decided he had no choice – he couldn’t just ignore what he had been told about Eden by MI5. He quickly summarised the information he had received from his British colleague.
‘Bloody hell,’ Henrik said when Buster had finished.
Buster could see that Henrik was badly shaken. It was obvious that something had to be done. But what?
‘What do we really think about all this?’ Henrik Theander asked. ‘Do we believe Eden is an Israeli spy?’
Buster spread his arms wide.
‘She was always a bit too good to be true, wasn’t she?’
‘What’s the situation with this Mossad agent who has entered the country?’
‘I’d like you to put him under surveillance right away,’ Buster said. ‘He’s staying at the Diplomat Hotel. If he approaches Eden, we need to know about it.’
‘No problem.’
‘And I want you to take over this case with immediate effect,’ Buster said.
It was hard to think of a worse time to expose the head of the counter-terrorism unit as a spy for a foreign power. On the other hand, it was a good thing that Eden had been working for Säpo for only a few months.
Henrik gave a humourless laugh.
‘That must be some kind of record,’ he said. ‘I mean, Eden has only just started.’
‘I don’t understand what the Brits were thinking,’ Buster said. ‘Letting us recruit a potentially lethal woman to one of the most sensitive posts in the country. That’s seriously poor judgement.’
‘True, but we don’t know if their assumptions are correct.’
‘No, and we have to cling onto that, and hope she isn’t a spy. Hope the Brits got rid of their strongest card for no reason.’
‘But didn’t you say that she was actually fired for some other reason, some mistake she made?’
‘Exactly,’ Buster said. ‘But he refused to tell me anything whatsoever about that.’
He had decided to inform no one except the head of counter-espionage. One or two investigators within the unit would probably have to be brought in, but Buster was happy to leave that up to Henrik.
‘Should we pull her out right away? As a preventative measure?’
‘I’ve thought about that, but Eden would get suspicious if we did something like that. When it comes down to it she prefers working in the field, close to the action. She actually made that a condition when we recruited her; she wasn’t prepared to sit in meetings and deal with admin all the time.’
‘Which is also worth noting,’ Henrik said. ‘In the light of what we’ve just been told, I’m not at all happy that she wants to be “close to the action”.’
Buster was supposed to be able to handle this kind of problem with a high degree of professionalism. But to be honest, he wasn’t at all sure what to do. He almost wished the Brits hadn’t told him anything about it.
‘By the way, how’s it going with the hijacking?’ Henrik asked. ‘Are you getting anywhere?’
Buster suppressed a sigh.
‘Eden’s running the whole thing. She and Sebastian are due to report back to me as soon as they know more.’
Henrik crossed his legs.
‘In that case, let’s hope Eden can sort this out.’
‘Absolutely,’ Buster replied.‘Anything other than total success is unthinkable.’
Deep down, he was wondering whether in this particular respect it was an advantage or a disadvantage if the head of counter-terrorism was a Mossad agent.
34 16:20
Not so very long ago, Fredrika Bergman’s civilian background had made it difficult for her to fit in with the police. Her colleagues had questioned the fact that she lacked police training, and suggested that she didn’t have the necessary qualities to bring to the table. She had called their bluff and won the game. The idea that an investigator had to look a certain way was no more than a myth. The assignment itself was the important thing. The assignment had to come first. If only people would follow that basic principle, then everything would be so much easier.
Sitting in the car with Alex on the way to see Karim Sassi’s mother, Fredrika thought that Eden Lundell and her colleagues were facing an undertaking which was unimaginably more difficult.
Protecting national security.
Every failure led to an outcry. The Swedish people demanded zero tolerance; no crime that seriously threatened the country’s safety should be committed under any circumstances. The thought of what it would mean if the same demands were made of the section of the police authority where she had worked made her head spin.
No bank robberies.
No rapes.
No murders.
A Technicolor dream. Completely unattainable. A total absence of criminality would require such an oppressive police force that no one would want to go on living.
After the terrorist attack in Stockholm in 2010, nothing had frightened Fredrika more than the immediate calls for Säpo and the government to take decisive action against terrorism.
Decisive action.
With his back to the wall, the General Director of Säpo had tried to get people to understand what they were asking for. A controlled society where everything that was written on Facebook was scrutinised, and where the private sphere virtually ceased to exist. A society in which Säpo would need to increase by several thousand per cent in order to have the capacity to deal with all the information coming in. Fredrika thought he had won that debate; he had done a good job. People agreed with him – no thank you, they didn’t want a controlled society.