He looks at her neutrally. ‘I arrested Gabriella because we have convincing evidence she was connected to Jacob Seger and through him, a terrorist organization in Syria. But that I would think for a moment that either of you were terrorists is laughable. I was annoyed at you this summer. You ended up in the middle of one of our operations, which despite everything did end up successful. I would much rather you’d kept quiet, no doubt. But that’s just how the game is played. I’m not driven by revenge, Klara. Quite the opposite.’

She turns away and stares out into the darkness. She knows it’s true – that’s why she called him, because she knew somehow he’d do the right thing, despite what happened.

‘If I tell you,’ she says. ‘Will you promise to let us go? Do you promise to let Gabriella go?’

She thinks of the terrorist attacks barely a day away. She can’t let them happen. But she has to save her friends too.

‘Turn your back to me,’ he says.

Klara does, and he uncuffs her.

‘I promise,’ he says, stretching out a hand. ‘Same team?’

‘Same team,’ Klara says, taking his hand.

*

They take a detour through the expensive neighbourhoods of Bromma with their 19th-century wooden houses and apple trees, while Klara tells Bronzelius everything. All she knows. About Jacob and Yassim. The journey from Brussels, the rest stop in Germany, and that Yassim showed up in Malmö.

Here, Bronzelius nods. ‘Quite a scene at the central station there this afternoon. Shots fired. But what the hell, it’s Malmö. What I don’t understand is the Russian involvement.’

He falls silent and looks out the window at the idyllic neighbourhood around them, then he turns back to Klara again.

‘And you’re right about Gabriella,’ he says. ‘Someone was listening to her, but it wasn’t us. Can’t imagine it was MUST or FRA either – they don’t have the resources, and a Swedish lawyer wouldn’t be interesting to us or them, no matter how irritating she might be.’

‘The Russians,’ Klara says with a shiver.

The thought of Gabi being bugged all through the autumn, maybe even since this summer, is genuinely unnerving.

‘It was the Russians who really lost out after what you all did this summer,’ Bronzelius says. ‘Their whole apparatus was destroyed when you discovered what they were up to. It’s not unthinkable that they might want to fight back, mainly against Gabriella because she’s been the public face. They’ve gotten a hell of a lot more aggressive lately.’

‘So when Jacob called her from Beirut, they picked up the trail,’ Klara says. ‘Maybe they’re trying to stop a terrorist attack, just like us?’

Bronzelius shrugs. ‘Maybe. But I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than that.’