I can’t cope with this, Fredrika thought. Not another story without a happy ending. If that happens, I’ll never come back to the police.
She interrupted her own train of thought. The fact that she would never go back to the police had been self-evident since the day she left. Hadn’t it?
Surely I’m not sitting here missing the most stressful job I’ve ever done?
‘How are we fixed as far as the media goes?’ Eden asked.
‘We’re up shit creek without a paddle,’ Sebastian said.
‘Have we confirmed which flight has been hijacked?’
‘We did that over an hour ago, Eden.’
So where was I? Fredrika wondered; she’d missed that too.
Energy. They needed energy. Otherwise they weren’t going to make it. Fredrika almost felt as if the area behind her desk was a trench on the edge of a battlefield, where she was hiding away because she was too tired to fight.
‘Zakaria Khelifi’s phone,’ she said.
‘Exactly,’ Sebastian said.‘One of the numbers that has had repeated contact with the mobile both before and after the date when Zakaria allegedly acquired it belongs to a guy called Jerker Gustavsson. He’s a car mechanic, and we initially dismissed the contacts with Zakaria as being of no interest to us.’
‘Is he a close friend of Zakaria’s?’ Fredrika asked.
‘I don’t think so. They spoke only a few times from the point when we started monitoring Zakaria’s calls, and it was always to do with Zakaria’s car, or his girlfriend’s car.’
‘How many times do you call your mechanic?’ Fredrika said, never having called a garage in her life.
Sebastian laughed.‘Good question. Perhaps Zakaria had a real old banger?’
‘Just like the person who had the phone before him.’ Fredrika said.
‘That’s the kind of thing we need to ask him,’ Eden said. ‘We haven’t got time for any guessing games at this stage. I don’t care how late it is, I want someone to go and question this guy. That’s more important than speaking to Zakaria’s girlfriend.’
Alex suddenly appeared from nowhere. His face was pale and set, his eyes blank.
Fredrika felt upset and afraid at the same time.
Are you going to have to cope with another loss, my friend?
‘He called,’ Alex said.
His voice was so loud that others working in the open-plan office could hear him.
‘Who?’ Eden said.
‘Erik.’
He covered the last few yards in no time, and stopped by the desk.
‘He called you?’ Eden was unable to hide her surprise.
‘From the cockpit?’ Fredrika asked.
‘No, from first class. He said that Karim has gone crazy.’
Alex relayed what Erik had told him with such precision that Fredrika’s heart ached. He had memorised every word, because if they never spoke again, he wanted to be sure he didn’t forget what his son had said.
‘Washington,’ Eden whispered when he had finished.
Alex nodded. ‘That means there’s no longer any doubt.’
It was true. It was hardly a coincidence that Karim had said Washington instead of New York. The person who had sent the email to the Germans had been right: Karim was intending to crash the plane in the capital city of the USA.
Fredrika looked away. Shit. She had felt compelled to question Karim’s involvement, but to what purpose?
Eden changed tack.
‘What advice did you give Erik?’
Alex stood there in silence.
‘You told him to take over the plane.’
‘He’d already been thinking along those lines,’ Alex said. ‘But if he hadn’t come up with the suggestion…’
‘Then you would have done.’
‘Yes.’
‘We need to inform the Americans,’ Sebastian said.
‘Let’s wait until we hear from him again,’ Eden said. ‘Or if we think too much time has passed without any word from him. I spoke to GD, and he agreed that Erik should try to take control of the plane if there’s no other option.’
‘One more thing,’ Alex said, and Fredrika could feel him trying to catch her eye.
‘What?’ Eden said.
He had built up their expectations by now; in just a few seconds he had been transformed into the man who knew more than anyone else.
‘Karim Sassi can’t have made any of the bomb threats yesterday.’
‘Has that been confirmed?’
Eden’s voice had a sharpness that made the windows vibrate.
‘I asked one of my team to check where Karim was when the calls were made from the Arlanda area. His wife says they were at a parents’ afternoon at the children’s nursery for several hours, so he was a long way from the airport. We’ve tracked his mobile, and she’s telling the truth. He wasn’t at Arlanda yesterday.’
Where did that leave them?
He hadn’t made the threats, but he had spoken to the person who did, and for some as yet unknown reason he had held one of the phones.
‘He’s still involved,’ Eden said, underlining the one thing they could be sure of.
Karim Sassi was on the hijackers’ side.
And he had been in contact with whoever made the bomb threats the previous day.
51 FLIGHT 573
Three feet from the door to the cockpit. He had stopped there, unable to make himself go any further. The stress surged through his body, paralysing him in mid-movement.
Erik Recht had never once struck another person in the whole of his adult life. It just wasn’t part of his make-up. You didn’t do that kind of thing, and that was that. A fundamental principle that marked the dividing line between right and wrong.
And now he couldn’t make himself do what had to be done.
The passengers in first class watched him as he turned around and disappeared into one of the toilets. He was still carrying the plastic bag containing the bottle of wine, and he placed it on the floor before sinking down onto the toilet seat and massaging his temples.
Think. He had to think.
This was ridiculous; was there no alternative? He tried to imagine what would happen. How he would enter the cockpit, take out the bottle and smash it down on Karim’s head. Several times, if necessary. He would keep on until he was certain that Karim would be out of action for as long as necessary to allow him to carry out an emergency landing.
He missed Claudia more than ever, wanted her to be there. To take his head in her hands, look into his eyes and say:
‘You can do this, Erik.’
He thought about calling his father again. Loneliness had never been Erik’s thing. He had loathed it in the past, but now he feared it. He had decided not to tell any of his colleagues about his plan. At least not yet. The conversation with Fatima in the toilet was still fresh in his mind. It would take time to convince his colleagues that Karim was involved, time they didn’t have. Erik had to go back into the cockpit and take control of the plane. That was the only thing that mattered. Everything else could come later.
He thought about Fatima again. She was still in the cockpit.
That could definitely be a problem.
What would she think in the seconds before Erik managed to explain? Would she actually jeopardise the whole thing, step in to protect Karim? He didn’t want to end up in a situation where he had to deal with Fatima as well.
Erik got up, turned the tap and quickly sluiced his face in cold water. He dried himself with a paper towel. It was now or never. He wouldn’t save anyone’s life if he stayed here, locked in the toilet. Karim would have the opportunity to explain, but not right now. For his own sake and everyone else’s, he had to be removed from the controls.
Resolutely, Erik picked up the plastic bag and opened the door. His legs were trembling as he stepped into the first class cabin.