“No bitter aftertaste?”
“Not at the time. That came later. Same thing with Special Forces. You’re under the sort of pressure normal people never experience. And after a while you start to think that the rules for normal people don’t apply to you. In E14 it started with a bit of gentle manipulation. Exploitation. A few little breaches of the law. And ended with moral questions about life and death.”
“So you’re saying that those rules do actually apply to people with jobs like that?”
“On paper...” Bohr tapped his thigh with his finger. “Of course. But up here...” He tapped his forehead. “Up here you know you’re going to have to break a few rules in order to protect them. Because it’s your watch, the whole time. And it’s a lonely watch — us watchers only have each other. No one else is ever going to thank us, because most people never know that they’ve been watched over.”
“The rule of law—”
“Has its limitations. If the rule of law had its way, a Norwegian soldier who raped and murdered an Afghan woman would have been sent home to serve a short sentence in a prison that would have seemed like a five-star hotel to a Hazara. I gave him what he deserved, Harry. What Hala and her family deserved. An Afghan punishment for a crime committed in Afghanistan.”
“And now you’re hunting the man who killed Rakel. But if you follow the same principle, a crime committed in Norway should be punished according to Norwegian law, and we don’t have the death penalty.”
“Norway might not, but I have the death penalty, Harry. And so do you.”
“Do I?”
“I don’t doubt that you, along with the majority of people in this country, have a genuine belief in humane punishment and fresh starts. But you’re also human, Harry. Someone who’s lost someone you loved. Someone I loved.”
Harry sucked hard on his cigarette.
“No,” Bohr said. “Not like that. Rakel was my younger sister. Just like Hala. They were Bianca. And I’ve lost them all.”
“What is it you want, Bohr?”
“I want to help you, Harry. When you find him, I want to help you.”
“Help me how?”
Bohr held up his cigarette. “Killing someone is like smoking. You cough, you don’t want to, you don’t think you’ll ever be able to do it. And deep down I never believed the guys in Special Forces who said that killing an enemy is the ultimate kick. If Rakel’s murderer is killed after he’s been arrested, you need to be beyond all suspicion.”
“I pass the death sentence, and you’re offering to be the executioner?”
“Oh, we’ve already passed judgement, Harry. Hatred is burning us to our foundations. We’re aware of it, but we’re already alight, and it’s too late to stop it.” Bohr tossed the cigarette butt on the ground. “Shall I drive you home?”
“I’ll walk,” Harry said. “I need to air out the chloroform. Just two questions. When your wife and I were sitting by Smestaddammen, you aimed at us with a laser sight. Why, and how did you know that’s where we would go?”
Bohr smiled. “I didn’t know. I often sit in the basement keeping watch. I make sure the mink don’t take any more cygnets from the two swans who live there. Then the pair of you showed up.”
“Mm.”
“The second question?”
“How did you get me out of the car and up all those stairs this evening?”
“The way we carry anyone who’s fallen. Like a rucksack. That’s the easiest way.”
Harry nodded. “I suppose it is.”
Bohr stood up. “You know how to get hold of me, Harry.”
Harry walked past City Hall, crossed Stortingsgata and stopped in front of the National Theatre. He noted that he had walked past three open, lively bars without much difficulty. He got his phone out. A message from Oleg.
Anything new? Head above water?
Harry decided to call after he’d spoken to Kaja. She answered on the first ring.
“Harry?” He could hear the concern in her voice.
“I’ve been speaking to Bohr,” he said.
“I knew something was going on!”
“He’s innocent.”
“Really?” He heard the sound of a duvet scraping the phone as she rolled over. “What does that mean?”
“That means we’re back at square one. I can give you a full report first thing tomorrow, OK?”
“Harry?”
“Yes.”
“I was worried.”
“I noticed.”
“And now I feel a bit lonely.”
A pause.
“Harry?”
“Mm.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
He ended the call. Tapped O for Oleg. Just as he was about to press the Call button he hesitated. He clicked the message symbol instead and typed: Call you tomorrow.
31
Harry was lying on his back on top of the duvet, almost fully dressed. His Dr. Martens boots were standing on the floor beside the bed, his coat draped over the chair. Kaja was lying under the duvet, but right beside him with her head on his arm.
“You feel exactly the same,” she said, running her hand over his sweater. “All these years, and nothing’s changed. It’s not fair.”
“I’ve started to smell of BO,” he said.
She stuck her face into his armpit and sniffed. “Rubbish, you smell good, you smell of Harry.”
“That’s the left one. It’s the right one that’s changed. Maybe it’s age.”
Kaja laughed quietly. “You know research has shown that it’s a myth that old people smell worse? According to a Japanese study, the aroma component 2-nonenal is only found in people over forty, but in blind tests the sweat of older people was found to smell better than people in their thirties.”
“Bloody hell,” Harry said. “You’ve just theorised away the fact that I smell like shit on the other side.”
Kaja laughed. The soft laugh he had been longing for. Her laughter.
“So tell me,” she said. “You and Bohr.”
Harry was granted a cigarette and started at the beginning. He told her about Roar Bohr’s cabin, and how Bohr had overpowered him in the room below them. About coming to in the empty premises that used to belong to E14, and his conversation with Bohr. He repeated it more or less in detail, minus the last part. The offer to carry out the execution.
Oddly, Kaja didn’t seem particularly shocked that Bohr had executed one of his own soldiers. Or that he had kept watch over her both in Kabul and here in Oslo.
“I thought you might freak out a bit when I told you you’d been under observation without knowing it.”
She shook her head and borrowed his cigarette. “I never saw him, but sometimes I just had a feeling. You see, when Bohr found out I’d lost my older brother the same way he lost his younger sister, he started to treat me a bit like a surrogate younger sister. It was only little things, like the fact that I got a bit more backup than the others when I went out on jobs beyond the secure zones. I pretended never to notice. And being watched is something you get used to.”
“Do you?”