سعی کن به خاطر بیاری دقیقاً چه اتفاقی افتاد

Chapter two

Try and remember exactly what happened

Blood ran out from under Carlsson’s body. Two police officers were on their knees beside him. People in the crowd screamed. Police cars and an ambulance arrived.

Monika remained calm. She was thinking about the few moments before Carlsson fell. The SS Vaxholm had stopped near the City Hall. There had been a sudden light on the boat. Monika hadn’t heard anything like a shot. But she had heard something just as Carlsson fell. It was a loud metal sound, like money falling to the ground.

An ambulance took Carlsson to hospital and the police started to clear the crowd away.

Monika walked away from the City Hall. As she went across the Central Bridge she saw the SS Vaxholm disappearing in the distance. The narrow streets of the Old Town were full of tourists. Monika made her way along Stora Nygatan, which means ‘the Big New Street’, even though it is over six hundred years old, then she turned off into a narrower street. She stopped at a dark doorway, took a plastic card out of her bag and pushed it into a hole in the door. The door opened and Monika went in.

Inside the large old building there was light and lots of activity. This was the offices of the SMI, Swedish Military Intelligence. The shooting of Kurt Carlsson would keep the SMI very busy. Without speaking to anyone, Monika went into her office. Her face looked white and worried. Someone had tried to kill Carlsson, and she hadn’t done anything to stop it.

Monika sat at her desk and looked around her small office. There were two photographs on the desk. Monika picked up one of the photographs and looked at it.

It was a picture of her parents. Monika’s mother and father were smiling, and they looked happy. Monika had taken the photo when they were on holiday in Spain, ten years ago.

Soon after their Spanish holiday Monika’s parents had died in a car crash. Monika was sixteen at the time of the accident. She had felt terrible and had missed her parents very much. She had gone to live with her grandmother just outside Stockholm. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters, and had sometimes been very lonely.

The telephone on her desk rang. It was Blom, her boss.

‘I’m in my car on the way back to the office,’ he said. ‘Carlsson’s alive and he’s going to be OK.’

‘That’s good news,’ Monika said.

‘I want to see you as soon as I get to the office,’ Blom continued. ‘You were one of the people who were closest to Carlsson when he was shot. Try and remember exactly what happened.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Monika replied and put down the phone. She felt both happy and angry. Happy because Carlsson was alive. And angry because of Blom’s words.

‘Try and remember exactly what happened,’ Blom had said. He had spoken to her as if she was a child. But she wasn’t a child! She was the youngest and the best agent in the SMI!

After her parents’ death she had worked hard at school, and had been very good at languages. She had also been very good at sport. After school Monika had joined the army. Ten months later she had finished her basic training as the best soldier of the year. The army then sent her to the USA, where she trained with American soldiers for a year. She had learnt to parachute and to scuba-dive.

Back in Sweden she was chosen to join the SMI, partly because she spoke Russian and Spanish, as well as Swedish and English, of course. She was sent to South America where she had done difficult and dangerous work for the SMI. While there she had saved the lives of two Swedish tourists who had been kidnapped by terrorists.

Monika picked up the telephone and rang the shipping company which owned the SS Vaxholm. She quickly found out that an English football team were on the Vaxholm. The team was called Millham United, and came from London. Millham United were in Sweden as part of a tour of Scandinavia. They were on the SS Vaxholm for a sightseeing trip around Stockholm’s many islands. Monika made another phone call.

‘Strand Hotel. Can I help you?’

‘Yes. My name’s Monika Lundgren. I’m a journalist on the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. I believe the Millham United team are staying at the Strand.’

‘Yes. That is, they were staying here. But they’ve just left. They’re on their way to Finland.’

‘Do you know how they’re travelling?’ Monika asked. ‘By ferry. On the Mariella.’