Fredrika sincerely hoped not.
And yet she could see it all so clearly. How one problem led to another, like concentric ripples spreading out across the water.
If this was the start of something new, there was good reason to wonder how it would end.
6 14:01
They gathered in one of Säpo’s conference rooms. Eden Lundell chaired the meeting, which included investigators, analysts and Alex Recht from the police. Alex reported on the results of his own brief inquiries: four unregistered pay-as-you-go SIM cards. The same person had probably made all four calls, but that was all they knew at the moment.
‘When will you find out where the calls came from?’ Eden asked.
The case of Zakaria Khelifi was already long gone. The here and now was what mattered; four bomb threats, four potential targets.
‘Within the next few hours,’ Alex replied.
The situation was critical. Decisions had to be made immediately. If they were taking the threats seriously, they had to act soon.
Eden had taken an immediate liking to Alex, which was very unusual for her. She was normally very cautious about opening up to people she didn’t know, but it was different with Alex Recht. Sebastian had said he was like her; perhaps there was some truth in that.
‘What steps would you want to take?’ Eden asked Alex. ‘Setting aside the threat to Rosenbad, how would you handle this?’
Alex frowned. That was another thing Eden liked about him; he thought before he spoke, in spite of the urgency of the situation. Panicking rarely helped, and it annoyed Eden that so few people she had met during her career understood such a simple premise.
‘I don’t like the fact that the threats mentioned specific times. Nor do I like the fact that they came in through four separate phone calls, and that voice distortion was used. And I don’t understand why someone would go for targets as diverse as the Royal Library and Åhlén’s department store.’
‘So what’s your conclusion?’ Sebastian asked.
Alex looked at him. ‘That we need to evacuate all the locations immediately, and if nothing happens, we simply lift the restrictions.’
‘I agree,’ Eden said.
She gestured towards one of her colleagues. ‘Do it – evacuate all four locations. Try to handle it discreetly.’
Alex smiled at her. ‘Unfortunately I don’t think all the discretion in the world will do any good. There’s going to be a hell of a fuss.’
‘That can’t be helped.’
Sebastian raised his hand to indicate that he had something to say.
‘Yes?’ Eden said.
‘You don’t think this could be a diversionary tactic?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘At nine thirty tomorrow morning, parliament will open the most controversial debate of the year. And we have just decided to dedicate all our resources to investigating no less than four bomb threats targeting completely different locations.’
Rain was hammering against the window pane behind Eden, but she hardly noticed it. How could she have missed something so obvious?
‘Parliament,’ Alex said. ‘It’s not my call, but don’t you think they should cancel the debate? Or at least postpone it until we know what this is all about?’
Sebastian placed a hand on Eden’s arm.
‘I agree. An hour ago, we said that we didn’t think tomorrow’s debate merited increased security arrangements, but now our assessment has changed. That means the debate should be cancelled or postponed.’
Eden moved her arm away.
‘That’s GD’s decision. All we can do is supply the information and make decisions.’
Säpo’s General Director was always known within the organisation as GD. Everyone knew his name was Buster, but he was only ever referred to as GD.
‘Of course.’
Eden glanced at the clock. Time was passing much too quickly. She wished she could put her finger on the hands and stop them from moving.
The decision to evacuate the four targeted locations was made just fifteen minutes later by the commanding officer of the Stockholm city police, together with the general director of Säpo. The city police would handle the practical arrangements and ensure that the buildings were emptied. Alex could feel his pulse rate increasing as he ran back to his office along the corridor.
Peder Rydh would have loved this, he thought. And Fredrika would have been the one reminding us to stop and think.
The four bomb threats overshadowed every other news item. The journalists had a hundred questions, but the police had no answers. In the shadow of the tumult that followed the evacuation of the four locations, there was a brief interval during which the police were able to evacuate the parliament building as well, and search the whole place with sniffer dogs. Just after four o’clock, the press caught up with the story, and parliament was besieged with reporters.
The big question was whether to advise the postponement of the debate. Eden Lundell was right; it wasn’t her decision. It was an issue for other branches of Säpo to consider, and Alex assumed that it would then be up to the director to make a recommendation. But what did Alex know – after all, he had once turned down the opportunity to work within the country’s most secret security service. They had no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the threat was actually directed at parliament, even though it was tempting to jump to that conclusion.
Alex couldn’t stop thinking about Eden Lundell. He had heard her name before, but they had never met. How was that possible? How could she have been working for the National Bureau of Investigation for several years without their bumping into one another?
Eden was not a police officer, but she had gone through the formal leadership programme, and had far better qualifications than most. It was clear that she had no objection to getting her hands dirty. She wasn’t the classic desk jockey who avoided the practical aspects of the job and buried themselves in admin. Eden Lundell had real presence, and Alex caught himself thinking that he would really like to work with her.
He went straight up to his office, picked up his jacket and went out again. He didn’t want to sit there wondering what was going on, he wanted to be on the spot. His boss looked surprised when Alex called by and said that he was on his way to parliament. It wasn’t about the need to control things, it was simply a desire to be in the thick of the action. And to try to understand what was going on.
One of the squad cars was parked on Polhemsgatan. Alex unlocked the door and climbed in. It was pouring down, and he got soaked even though he hurried.
As he glanced in the rear-view mirror, he saw Eden scurry past; she ran across Polhemsgatan to a car parked a little way down the street. Was she going to parliament as well? If so, she could travel with Alex. But Eden was fast. She was already in the car and had started the engine. Alex didn’t move. Perhaps she wasn’t going to parliament at all, but to another meeting.
When Eden drove away, Alex was still sitting behind the wheel. They were the ones who had assumed that parliament was a target for the person who had made the threats. They were the ones who had created this sense of confusion. As he turned the key, he couldn’t help wondering if that had in fact been the aim: to cause havoc.
7 16:03
It was obvious that the bomb threats had frightened people. Fredrika Bergman and her colleagues in the Justice Department who had offices in Rosenbad were evacuated along with everyone else. Fredrika slipped her documents into her bag and was given a temporary workstation in the Foreign Office building on Fredsgatan, where she would continue to work on Zakaria Khelifi’s case. She was acutely aware of the anxiety engendered by the threats, and spoke to several of her colleagues on the phone. No one had heard anything new, no one had any idea what it was all about.