Good question. Naturally, we take the security of the installation very seriously indeed, the site manager said.
Amongst other things weve applied to be classified as a high security area, which would give our security personnel additional powers. And were also planning a big exercise together with the National Rapid-Response Unit. Security is our main priority …
Black suddenly turned his head and met Rebeccas gaze. Then he leaned to the side and whispered something to the Ice Queen, which made her look in Rebeccas direction as well.
The woman put her hand on Blacks upper arm and leaned forward. She whispered something, so close that her lips were almost touching Blacks ear. She went on whispering for a few seconds, before slowly pulling back. Whatever it was the Ice Queen had said, it seemed to amuse both of them, and Rebecca couldnt shake the feeling that they were obviously talking about her.
She forced herself to ignore them and shifted her focus back to the site manager.
Well, the big moment has arrived, he suddenly announced in English. Id like to invite our Managing Director, Mark Black, to step forward and press the button.
The crowd of spectators parted to let Black through to the observation window.
One employee handed Black a small box with a large red button, and Black spent a minute or so posing with this over-emphatic symbol as the cameras flashed.
I hereby declare this installation open, he then said.
He pressed the button and down in the control room all the screens suddenly came to life.
He should have left at once, thanked them for their help and just toddled off home. Instead he had let them show him the plans. They told him about the electrified fence, the cameras, the guards patrolling the area. He had listened with half an ear. But he noticed one thing very clearly. None of them had said a word about how they were going to get past it all, which could have had two obvious explanations:
Either they didnt quite trust him and wanted to know if he was onboard before sharing their ingenious plan with him.
Or, much more likely: these amateurs didnt actually have a plan …
Two years ago he had broken into a similar establishment, but that one had been considerably smaller, much less protected, and hed also had the help of Rehyman the genius to get past all the obstacles.
Well, what do you think?
He saw the expectant looks on their faces and for a moment he wondered if he should hold back slightly to soften the blow. But there was no point. These muppets needed to hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Seriously? Youre all fucking mad! He shrugged. Do you really think youre going to be able to get in there? He put his finger in the middle of the control room. And even if by some miracle you do manage to get through, what are you going to do there, and – maybe even more importantly – how are you planning to get out again?
Never mind about that, Muscleman Jeff said in a way that made HPs alarm bells ring even louder. Hed definitely seen the bloke before, but where?
If you help us get inside, well take care of the rest, Nora said.
The Source said youd be able to do that, he said youve done stuff like this before, Hasselqvist added. That youre some sort of expert in this area …
HP nodded.
Maybe … He turned it all over in his head for a few moments. Sure, it was tempting, and certainly felt very familiar. But, to start with, he already had a shit load of his own problems to deal with, and, whats more, he trusted this little trio about as much as they trusted him.
The horse doctor seemed more or less okay, but Hasselqvist was a slippery fucker, and the gorilla made him feel uneasy in more ways than one.
But at the same time they had something he might be able to make use of, something that might actually help him understand his own situation.
He took a deep breath.
Okay, if Im even going to consider helping you, I want something in return first …
You mean apart from us saving your life … ? Nora said before either of the others had even opened their mouths.
HP shrugged his shoulders. A vein was starting to throb in the mountain of muscles forehead. They glared at each other for a few seconds.
This Source of yours … HP drew a pair of weary quotation marks in the air. I want to talk to him directly …
No-one talks directly to the Source, Hasselqvist interrupted. Weve only met him once, all communication is done …
Nora raised her hand and he fell silent at once.
So what does he look like? HP did his best not to sound too curious.
There was a brief silence, then Nora shrugged.
Ordinary … she said, and held up her hand again, this time to stop the other two from protesting. Short hair, average height, not quite forty. A typical suit, Id say …
HP nodded.
Do you know what his role is in the Game?
Not exactly, but Kent and Jeff have a theory …
She turned to Hasselqvist.
Well … its just a feeling. Some of the phrases he uses. I think hes involved in the technical side of it. Communication, servers, something like that. The plans contain a whole load of technical details. Dont they, Jeff?
The mountain of muscle hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly.
These plans are like the ones we use at work for IT projects. If he was involved in construction, thered be ventilation ducts, plumbing, stuff like that, but theres nothing of that sort on these plans. Only details of the IT infrastructure …
So you think the Source is some sort of IT guru? Someone who was involved in setting the whole thing up? A tingling sensation was slowly spreading from HPs stomach.
The two men nodded.
And how do you know you can really trust him?
Were not stupid, HP … Nora replied. Obviously we were suspicious as well to start with, but the Source has delivered on everything. He brought us together, hes supplied plans, information about Sentry and PayTag, and – not least – he helped us locate and get hold of you before you were killed or arrested. Hes taken big risks for our sake, and it doesnt feel like hes lying. All of that put together means that weve decided to trust him, even if were still wary. But, like Kent said, we only met the Source once, right at the start. So we couldnt take you to him even if we wanted to …
I see … HP looked down at his lap for a few seconds while he tried to sort out his poker face.
He needed to look a bit disappointed, make it seem like he was backing down.
I need to think about it, he said. Just for a couple of days. How can I contact you?
Here!
Jeff took out a mobile phone and put it on the table.
Pay as you go, cant be traced. Call the number for dry cleaning in the contacts and leave a message.
Okay.
HP picked up the phone, then stood up and headed towards the door.
Hang on, Hasselqvist shouted, and he stopped. Dont forget your medicine.
Hasselqvist tossed a white plastic container to HP.
Well done, Kent, Nora said. Id forgotten that. Take two a day for five days, HP.
Okay, thanks. He waved the pills in farewell and tried to keep a straight face. Ill be in touch!
She was sitting outside one of the meeting rooms in the main building, slowly turning a bottle of water in her hands.
The press had left, leaving just a few of the politicians and various managers from both the Fortress and Sentry.
Right now they were having lunch further along the corridor, and a short while ago Black and the Ice Queen had both left the gathering to hold a conference call in the small room behind her.
She glanced at the time. Kjellgren and Thomas ought to be there any minute now.
For the third time in the past five minutes she took out her mobile.
No new messages, from either Kjellgren or Micke.
She pressed the call button again, but just like last time was put straight through to Mickes voicemail. Not that that was particularly unusual …
For the last week or so shed hardly had time to talk to him at all, maybe even longer than that.
Often neither of them got home till late, and then they just crashed out on the sofa.
She hadnt told him about her meeting with Uncle Tage, and only selected details about the safe deposit box. Shed said it contained a few old papers: marriage and birth certificates, a few worthless shares. He hardly ever asked her about what she got up to these days. He was probably trying to prove that he trusted her. And she was repaying the confidence by lying to him again …
She looked at the time, then took a little tub of pills from her bag, checked they were the right ones and fished out one tablet. She glanced around quickly before swallowing it down with a swig from the bottle.
Using antidepressant medication is nothing to be ashamed of, Rebecca …
Yeah, right!
That statement might make sense in the reality her doctor lived in. But in her world you couldnt show the slightest sign of weakness.
But in her private life, she at least she knew it wasnt her fault alone that her relationship with Micke wasnt working.
She had actually taken on her job at Sentry for Mickes sake, to be in the same world as he was, and she had done her best to understand what he was involved in. But it wasnt entirely straightforward trying to follow all the technical ins and outs. A whole load of different companies and official bodies were having problems with various targeted hacker attacks, she had understood that much.
DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service – was something she knew about from the time the police website had been attacked. Someone, or several people, had managed to get hundreds, and possibly thousands, of different computers to fire a mass of requests at the same server at exactly the same time, so many that it eventually stopped working.