He stared at the dice as though he couldn’t believe it. But it really was an X. With odds of one in twenty, that side, like all the other sides, should be a highly unusual outcome. Now it was the second time in two weeks.

But it didn’t matter. The die had been cast, and he had no choice but to head over to the bookshelf once more and take down the notebook with a big X on its cover.

In it were 120 neatly written pages, each with a unique side mission he had to complete. It could be an addendum to the main mission, like grabbing a trophy or hurting one of the victim’s colleagues, too. But it could also be another full-on mission, with all that entailed.

He had designed them himself, with the help of the dice, and while some of the side missions were relatively straightforward and harmless, some were detailed and completely insane and could potentially end everything.

Here too, a pre-roll was needed to determine the number of dice. But since there were 120 missions, he might need as many as twenty dice, which was why the white icosahedron was going to decide again.

A seven.

He took out seven six-sided precision dice, shook them all together for more than a minute and then rolled.

A two, a five, another five, a six, a three, a one and one more six.

He added up the seven numbers, picked up the notebook and flipped to page 28.

The side mission was an addition to his main mission at ICA Maxi and had a description that was only two words long.

Eyewitnesses required.

28

Computer can’t read camera memory card.

The Google search couldn’t be described as anything other than a last-resort cry for help in Fabian’s attempts to access the contents of the digital camera he’d found in Einar Stenson’s attic. If you could even call them real attempts, given that he had no hope of succeeding.

He had not been surprised to find that the batteries were empty, had leaked and started to rust. After all, the camera had been left in a damp attic for at least five years. But even after cleaning it meticulously with cotton buds drenched in vinegar and changing the batteries, it had refused to come to life.

At that point, he’d taken the memory card out and cleaned it and the terminal it connected to, but to no avail. He’d then tried inserting the memory card into his computer’s card reader, which had prompted a discouraging message to appear on the screen:

J:\DCIM\100CANON is not available.

The file or catalogue is damaged and can’t be read.