Lightning fast, Joona grabs the young man’s wrist, twists it, and takes away the knife. He gently puts it down on the table.
The room is silent. The men look at each other, and then Daniel Marklund shrugs.
“Usually I only deal with the computers,” he says apologetically.
“They’re going to raid us any moment,” Joona says urgently. “Tell us why you went to Penelope Fernandez’s place.”
“Just dropping by to say hi.”
“Daniel,” Joona says darkly. “This knife business could lead you to a prison term. But right now I have more important things on my plate. Don’t waste my time.”
“Does Penelope belong to the Brigade?” Saga asks quickly.
“Penelope Fernandez?” Daniel Marklund smiles. “She’s against us. She’s made that perfectly clear.”
“So what’s the connection?” Joona asks.
“What do you mean, she’s against you?” Saga puts in. “Is there a power struggle going on?”
“Doesn’t Sapo know anything?” asks Daniel with a tired smile. “Penelope Fernandez is a complete pacifist. She’s a firm believer in democracy. So she doesn’t like our methods-but we like her.”
He sits down on a chair in front of two computers.
“Like her?”
“We respect her.”
“Why?” asks Saga. “Why should you-”
“You guys really don’t know how much some people hate her, do you? Why don’t you just Google her name? People have said some really brutal things about her, and there are always people who go too far.”
“What do you mean, ‘go too far’?”
Daniel gives them a testing look. “You do know she’s disappeared, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Saga replies.
“That’s good,” he says. “Though I really don’t expect the police to make much effort to find her. That’s why I went over to her place. I wanted to check her computer to see who might be behind this. I mean, there was a group, the Swedish Resistance, who sent a message to their members this past April telling them to kidnap ‘the communist whore Penelope Fernandez’ and make her into a sex slave for the movement. But take a look at this.”
Daniel Marklund clicks a few keys on one of his computers and turns the screen to Joona.
“This one is connected to the Aryan Brotherhood.”
Joona takes a quick glance through a vulgar chat page about Aryan penises and how they are supposed to execute Penelope.
“But I don’t think these groups are involved,” Joona says.
“Not them? Then who? The Northern Brotherhood?” Daniel speculates, now eager to help. “You need to get going! It’s not too late!”
“How do you know?”
“You guys are always so slow. This time I caught a message on her mother’s answering machine. That’s got to give you an edge. You’re not too late yet.”
“You caught what?” Joona asks.
“She tried to call her mother yesterday morning,” the young man answers as he scratches through his dirty hair.
“Penelope called?”
“Yes, it was her.”
“What did she say?” Saga asks breathlessly.
“Sapo doesn’t have a monopoly on listening in to phone calls.” Daniel gives a crooked smile.
“What did Penelope say?” Joona repeats, raising his voice.
“People are after her,” Daniel says.
“Exactly what did she say?”
Daniel gives Saga Bauer a glance and asks, “How much time do we have left?”
Saga looks at her watch. “Three or four minutes. Maybe.”
“Then listen to this,” Daniel says as he clicks a few keys on the second computer.
There’s a hiss in the speakers and then there’s a click and Claudia Fernandez’s voice-mail message comes on. Three brief tones are heard followed by crackling noises due to a very bad connection. Underneath all the noise, one can hear a faint voice. A woman’s voice. It’s hard to make out what she says. A few seconds later, a man yells, “Get a job!” Then the connection is gone.
“Let me try again with the filters on,” Daniel mumbles.
“We’re running out of time,” Saga warns.
Daniel moves a dial, looks at crossing sound curves, and replays the recording.
“This is Claudia Fernandez. I can’t answer the phone right now, but please leave a message and I’ll call back as soon as I can.”
The three tones sound different this time. The crackling is now a weak, metallic crinkling in the background.
And Penelope’s voice is clear.
“Mamma, I need help. People are after me-”
“Get a job!” a man’s voice says, and then it’s silent.
32
Saga Bauer looks at her watch and says they have to go. Daniel Marklund makes a halfhearted joke about manning the barricades, but there is fear in his eyes.
“We’re going to hit you hard,” Saga says. “Hide that knife. Don’t make any resistance. Give up at once, hands high, and don’t make any sudden moves.”
She and Joona leave the tiny room.
Daniel watches them go, and still sitting in the desk chair, dumps the bayonet knife into the wastebasket.
Joona and Saga wend their way through the labyrinthine headquarters of the Brigade and exit onto Hornsgatan. Saga rejoins Goran’s task force. They’re gathered in Nagham Fast Food and are chowing down on french fries. Their eyes are shining and hard as they wait for orders.
It comes two minutes later as fifteen heavily armed security police pour from four black trucks. The SWAT team forces all the entrances open and floods the inside with tear gas. Once they trample in, they find five young people sitting on the floor with their hands over their heads. They’re led outside cuffed with plastic strips.
The security police take the Brigade’s weapons into custody: one old military pistol, a Colt, as well as a decorative rifle, a shotgun with its barrels bent, and a carton of cartridges. Additionally four knives and two throwing stars. They were fairly poorly armed.
Driving along Soder Malarstrand, Joona picks up his cell phone and calls his boss. After two rings, Carlos answers, pressing the Talk button with his pen.
“How do you like the Police Training Academy, Joona?” he asks.
“Not there.”
“I know, since-”
“Penelope Fernandez is still alive.” Joona interrupts him. “She’s running for her life.”
“Who says so?”
“She says so. She left a message on her mother’s answering machine.”
Carlos’s end of the connection falls silent. Then he draws a deep breath.
“Okay. She’s alive. All right… what else do we know? She’s alive, but-”
