Eva came in as the trio departed, and handed Úrsúla a mug of coffee and a doughnut.

‘Nothing but chaos?’ she asked through a mouthful of her own doughnut.

Úrsúla laughed. ‘No, not at all. I want to be able to help everyone, but I’m struggling to balance state regulation with the interests of parents who can’t get a passport for their child because they’ve come up with an unacceptable name. I can’t stand this nanny-state shit.’

‘So you’re going along with the Rúnar’s decision to shut down the naming committee?’ 107

‘Oh, yes.’

Úrsúla dipped the doughnut into her coffee and bit into it. Its sweetness barely balanced the sour taste of the coffee, which had clearly spent far too long on the hot plate.

‘Could you fix me a coffee machine for this office?’ she asked, and Eva immediately tapped a note into her phone. ‘One of those that just makes one cup at a time and won’t give me endless environmental guilt.’

Eva grinned.

‘You’re getting the knack of all this luxury. First a car and a driver, and now a personal coffee machine!’

‘That’s right,’ Úrsúla said. ‘I’ve got used to the ministerial sauce, the ministerial car and the ministerial rubbish. All I need to complete the set is the ministerial coffee machine.’

They were still laughing as the door opened and Óðinn came in, knocking as he did so.

‘What’s so funny?’ he asked.

Úrsúla shook her head, and Eva’s expression instantly became deadly serious as she muttered an excuse. He looked at them inquiringly, one after the other, as if ready to stave off some blast of aggressive laughter, then moved closer to Úrsúla’s desk and placed a sheet of paper on it.

‘It’s a press statement about this rape accusation,’ he said. ‘It’s the usual stuff: the ministry regrets and the minister will ensure … blah, blah. I’ll send it out if you’re happy with it.’

Úrsúla took the sheet of paper and scanned it.

‘I’d have liked to have met the journalist to discuss this with him. Statements like this are a way of buying time, avoiding giving an answer,’ Úrsúla said, and could see from Óðinn’s expression that he didn’t agree with her.

‘I would strongly advise that we stick to the statement,’ he said. ‘We do need to buy ourselves some time so we can find out how far this case has gone. I don’t think it’s advisable to discuss things with journalists at this juncture.’ 108

‘What do you think, Eva?’ Úrsúla asked, in the faint hope of some support from that direction.

But it didn’t matter what either of them had to say. She was determined to meet the journalist. Because that journalist was Thorbjörn.

44

Stella’s pulse pumped as she jogged down the stairs towards the ministry’s back door, even though there was no chance that anyone could have seen her putting the waste paper in the bag unshredded. This late in the day the building was half empty, and it wasn’t as if anyone kept tabs on her work. The creepy guy was waiting by the container, as they had agreed. She hurled the bag of shredded paper into it and handed him the other two bags, glancing up at the building to check that nobody was watching from any of the windows.