‘He hasn’t been answering his phone since he called on Saturday to pile on the pressure to cancel the whole thing.’

‘Ah. Oh, well.’

‘Well, what?’

Rúnar sighed and cleared his throat. ‘To tell you the truth, I was surprised that you were picked for the ministry. I imagined that Edvard would be next in line, but the more I think it over, the clearer the reason gets.’

‘They needed a woman in government…’ Úrsúla began.

Rúnar snorted. ‘It’s convenient that you’re a woman, but I don’t 160think that’s the heart of the matter. I have the feeling – I’m not saying I’m right; this is more a hunch on my part – that you were chosen because you have no particular political ambitions.’

‘So I get to be the sacrificial lamb – the minister who cancels the South Coast Highway – because I wouldn’t stay in politics anyway? I can afford to be unpopular?’

‘That’s it. It’s about sparing Edvard and the other golden boys, who are supposed to be the face of the party when elections come around next year. Of course the Independence Party also has its golden boys and they’re protected carefully.’

This was far from what the prime minister had said when he had offered her the job, and not exactly in line with the praise he had heaped on her for her previous roles.

‘Thanks for confirming my suspicions, but I wish you’d have dropped me a line and warned me off,’ Úrsúla said.

‘I’ve more faith in you than I have in myself,’ Rúnar replied. ‘And that’s been my opinion since you graduated with excellent grades, as well as leading the student debating team to victory and organising a national fundraising effort for … what was it – the Red Cross?’

‘All the same. You could have warned me,’ she said.

Rúnar sighed.

‘Would you have taken any notice, Úrsúla?’

She laughed. Of course not. She would have ignored every piece of advice; just the same as she always had.

66

‘I have a special assignment for you,’ Úrsúla said as soon as Gunnar appeared in her office. She gestured for him to take a seat and sat in a chair opposite him, leaning forward and looking him in the eye. ‘I’d completely understand if you don’t want or don’t trust yourself to do it. OK?’ 161

Gunnar nodded. His curiosity had already been piqued; he guessed it was something to do with her lover, the journalist she sneaked off to meet.

‘I know that everything about your job is bound by confidence, but I’m still asking you not to breathe a single word of this to anyone.’

‘Of course I won’t.’

‘I’m dropping a state secret into your lap, if we can put it that way,’ she said, fixing Gunnar with an intense stare as he sat a little straighter in his chair. ‘The prime minister has asked me to find a way to knock the South Coast Highway on the head, because it turns out that one of the individuals behind the financing is Ingimar Magnússon. And nobody wants to have anything to do with that gentleman.’