Shortly afterwards, the entry phone rings. ‘Police here.’
Iben has an urge to warn them: ‘Be on your guard! You might be attacked when the door unlocks,’ but doesn’t want the man to think that she’s neurotic.
While Malene and Gunnar go to the hall, Iben looks for a way to defend herself. Zigic mustn’t find her knife if he does a body search this time. She runs to Gunnar’s desk, finds a roll of tape and quickly tapes the knife underneath the middle of the three armchairs. Zigic won’t look there.
She has just enough time to put the tape back and return to the sofa.
Malene screams. The next moment the front door slams and then, with a kind of cracking noise, it is pushed open again.
Iben’s heart starts hammering. Driven by an instinct to jump, she runs to the window. They are on the fourth floor, but it doesn’t matter. What else can she do? She turns her head to scan the room while she pulls back the handles on the largest window.
Nenad is at her side in an instant. She tries to put up a fight. But he easily throws her to the floor and orders her to lie face down with her hands behind her neck. It will be so much worse this time. They will take no chances. She chokes on her sobs. It’s hard to cough in such an awkward position.
Gunnar and Malene are led in and ordered to lie on the floor in the same position as Iben. They are all searched. The men are much less relaxed this time, tougher and more efficient. Even so, they play with Malene and search her repeatedly. Denim Suit is so rough that Malene cries out with pain and fear until she is told to shut up.
Zigic jams his hand up hard between her legs, but looks at Iben when he speaks. ‘You wish you got that, don’t you?’
She knew it was coming. She knows what he is like. Gunnar and Malene had no idea. I should have acted, Iben tells herself. The phrase sticks. I should have acted. I should have acted.
From somewhere above her she hears Zigic parroting a woman’s voice, meant to be Iben’s. ‘Oh, dear! I think I’ll just run away from Mirko Zigic.’
She raises her head a little. He brings a heavy boot down on the back of her head.
Something cracks — like when a pair of poultry shears cut through a strong chicken thigh. Pain suddenly shoots into every part of her face. Iben screams in agony. In front of her eyes the pale, mottled surface turns a deep red.
Zigic kicks her in the side. ‘Shut up. I tried to be kind and take it easy on you. You didn’t want to cooperate, did you? You forced me to treat you differently.’
Nenad has spotted the computer. The open email with its attached file makes him whistle excitedly, which attracts Zigic’s attention.
Iben raises her head cautiously and turns it sideways to shift its weight from her broken nose. Now the coffee table is in her line of sight. She can see Nenad is talking and pointing to the screen, and Zigic is smiling, obviously pleased. The new position of her head slows the flow of blood to a steady drip. Iben watches the drops and tries to forget the pain by thinking ahead. Zigic will have to move his prisoners somewhere else, she thinks. Sooner or later Gunnar’s neighbours will call the police. And besides that, the police station will begin to worry about the lost radio contact with their men, who are probably lying dead downstairs.
Where will Zigic take them? Some secret place where he can hold them indefinitely. He will need to torture them until he knows who might have seen the file or made copies of the disk. He will make the outside world seem utterly distant and meaningless to them. Will he want all three of them? Three prisoners are harder to control than two, or one. Will Zigic pick them out one by one to find out if they know anything, then kill them if they don’t? If he decides to get rid of someone right now, who will he choose?
Zigic lifts the laptop’s keyboard and fiddles with the small hard disk until it comes out. He puts it in the breast pocket of Nenad’s jacket and addresses him in Serbian.
Then he turns to his three captives. ‘OK, now I have one copy of the file. Where are the back-up copies?’
No one answers.
‘OK. Listen hard. If there turn out to be any other copies in existence after my visit to Denmark, then things will look bleak for you. Bleaker than you can imagine.’
Zigic is in no hurry to leave the flat. ‘Even if I can’t come back to kill you personally, someone else will. And don’t think it is just you who’ll die. Your families will die too and anyone close to you.’
This little speech sounds calm and considered. It is so tempting to think that once he has secured the files, all will be well.
‘Listen, if you want to get out of this, pray to God: “Dear God, please, please help us to remember to tell Mirko about every little thing. And please God, don’t let us make any tiny little mistake in anything we say to Mirko!” You get my message? You understand?’
‘Yes.’
Zigic has had enough. ‘Right. We’d better get out of here, but before we go, tell me this. Are there any more copies of the file kept anywhere else in this flat?’
‘No.’
‘Good. Next question. We are going to take you to a place we know. Is there anywhere we should stop off on the way, any other copies hiding elsewhere?’
Gunnar speaks up. ‘Yes. I have a copy in my office.’
Iben thinks this a very good idea. The reception at Gunnar’s office at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is open around the clock and is well guarded. The building has long corridors, ideal for escape.
Zigic turns to him. ‘Is that so? At your office everyone will stay in the car, except for you and one of my men.’
He moves until his boots are immediately in front of Gunnar’s face. ‘And if you can’t produce a file, we’ll kill one of the girls. Immediately. This time, think carefully before answering. Is there a copy of the file in your office?’
‘No,’ Gunnar cries.
Iben is so disappointed in him. He has fallen into Zigic’s trap. It’s because he doesn’t dare not to trust the prison guard. Gunnar needs to believe in the only reassuring option, which is that they might survive if they cooperate.
Denim Suit has done the rounds of the flat. He returns with a broad grin on his face, waving a used condom, and Nenad joins him in fooling about with it. Denim Suit finally empties the contents over Malene’s head.
Iben wants to let Gunnar know he mustn’t worry about taking responsibility. ‘I have a back-up copy. I left it in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for safe keeping.’
Zigic moves towards her and repeats his threat. ‘We’ll check. And remember, if it isn’t as you say, I’ll kill one of your friends. So it’s your turn to think carefully and answer me. Do you have a file copy in the Ministry?’
‘Yes.’
When Malene hears this, she gasps and shouts at Iben: ‘No, you don’t!’
Iben slips into Danish. ‘Malene, you’ve just killed me by saying that.’
‘What?’
‘He’ll kill me now. If I haven’t got a file he’ll kill me here. You’ve just told him to.’
Iben’s outburst makes Malene break down. She starts crying again.
Zigic kicks Iben. ‘You’re not to speak Danish. If you do, I’ll have your families killed.’
Malene tries to speak in English but is crying so hard she is incomprehensible. ‘But what else … Iben, oh, Iben … when they don’t find it, it’ll be me who …’
Zigic laughs. He walks towards Iben. Somehow, he draws his handgun. It is suddenly there, in his hand. It is the first time she has seen it. A little click as he releases the catch.
Gunnar speaks quickly. ‘Iben. That copy I gave you. Is that what you did? Deposited it in the Foreign Affairs Ministry?’