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Chapters (85)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Joakim Zander
  3. THE FRIEND
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Dedication
  7. Epigraph
  8. 1
  9. 5 August
  10. 21 November
  11. 5 August
  12. 21 November
  13. 5 August
  14. 21 November
  15. 12 August
  16. 21 November
  17. 14 August
  18. 21 November
  19. 17–22 August
  20. 22 November
  21. 24 August
  22. 22 November
  23. 7 September–16 October
  24. 22 November
  25. 16 October
  26. 22 November
  27. 20 October
  28. 22 November
  29. 20 October–13 November
  30. 22 November
  31. 13–14 November
  32. 22 November
  33. 14 November
  34. 22 November
  35. 14 November
  36. 23 November
  37. 14 November
  38. 2
  39. 23 November
  40. 14 November
  41. 23 November
  42. 14–15 November
  43. 23 November
  44. 15 November
  45. 23–24 November
  46. 15 November
  47. 24 November
  48. 15–21 November
  49. 24 November
  50. 21 November
  51. 24 November
  52. 23 November
  53. 24 November
  54. 23 November
  55. 24 November
  56. 24 November
  57. 24 November
  58. 24 November
  59. 24 November
  60. 3
  61. 24 November
  62. 24 November
  63. 24 November
  64. 24 November
  65. 25 November
  66. 25 November
  67. 25 November
  68. 25 November
  69. 25 November
  70. 25 November
  71. 25 November
  72. 25 November
  73. 25 November
  74. 25 November
  75. 25 November
  76. 25 November
  77. 25 November
  78. 25 November
  79. 25 November
  80. 25 November
  81. 26 November
  82. 26 November
  83. 26–28 November
  84. Acknowledgements
  85. An Invitation from the Publisher

The car has stopped at the small hill in front of the airport, just behind the taxis and the gates.

‘They’re at hangar four,’ Bronzelius says.

Klara turns towards him. ‘Well then,’ she says. ‘Time to finish this. But there’s one thing I’d like to show you first.’

25 November

Bromma Airport

A new sound is audible just outside the cell Jacob is sitting in. The rumble of engines.

‘Your plane,’ says Myriam serenely. ‘That’s what you’re hearing out there. We’ve arrived at your last chance now.’

Jacob has laid his head on the table, too exhausted to even sit upright, but he straightens now and looks at Myriam. She’s moved over by the door, her eyes still on him.

‘You’re bluffing,’ he says. ‘You can’t send a Swedish citizen to Egypt.’

‘Is your experience with me thus far that I bluff?’

His head is spinning now. ‘I don’t have the chip,’ he says. ‘But I know where the terror attacks are going to take place. And I know when.’

He can’t sacrifice Yassim or risk himself.

‘I’ll tell you if you promise to hand us over to the police instead of sending us away,’ he whispers.

Myriam walks slowly over to the table, sits down opposite him. ‘It’s a start,’ she says. ‘You can stay if you tell me.’

He tells her everything he knows about the attacks against the Opera House in Stockholm, Gare du Midi in Brussels, the airport in Rome and Harrods in London. It’s not much. Just the places and time, 19:00 on 26 November, tomorrow. That’s all Klara wrote in her text when they were on their way to Stockholm.

Myriam writes it down in her notebook and looks at him when he falls silent.

‘Is that it?’ she asks. ‘Is that really all you have? No names or details? Nothing more?’

‘That’s it,’ he says. ‘I swear that’s all I have now. I can get you the rest, I promise. But surely that has to be enough for you to prevent it, put in extra guards, keep people away from those places, whatever you have to do?’

She looks at him indifferently. Then she stands up, walks around the table, unlocks his handcuffs before pulling him onto his feet and fastening his hands behind his back.

‘Time to go,’ she says, pulling him through the steel door to a big hangar where a small, white aircraft is waiting with its engines running.

One of the bearded men comes towards her. ‘Not a sound,’ he says, shouting over the noise of the engines. ‘He’s a clam. Also, barely conscious. That George Lööw won’t say anything either, just keeps demanding a lawyer and shit like that. I don’t think he really understands the situation.’

‘Get them on board,’ Myriam says. ‘I have what we need right now, the rest we can figure out.’