The Leopard(193)
‘She’ll lead us to perdition, Harry.’ Hagen paid, took his items and marched out of the shop into rainy, wind-blown Grønlandsleiret where people rushed past with upturned collars and downcast faces.
‘You don’t understand. Bratt managed to find out that two days ago Lene Galtung emptied her account in Zurich. Two million euros. Not a staggering sum and definitely not enough to finance a whole mining project. But enough to bridge a critical phase.’
‘Idle speculation.’
‘What the hell else is she going to do with two million euros in cash? Come on, boss, this is the only chance we’ll get.’ Harry stepped up the pace to stay level with Hagen. ‘In the Congo you don’t find people who don’t want to be found. The fucking country is as big as Western Europe and consists largely of forest no white man has ever seen. Go for it now. Leike will haunt your dreams, boss.’
‘I don’t have nightmares like you do, Harry.’
‘Have you told the next of kin how well you sleep at night, boss?’
Gunnar Hagen came to an abrupt halt.
‘Sorry, boss,’ Harry said. ‘That was below the belt.’
‘It was. And actually I don’t know why you’re hassling me for my permission. You’ve never considered it important before.’
‘Thought it would be nice for you to have the feeling you’re the man in charge, boss.’
Hagen fired a warning shot across Harry’s bows. Harry shrugged. ‘Let me do this, boss. Afterwards you can give me the boot for refusing to obey orders. I’ll take all the flak, it’s OK by me.’
‘Is it OK?’
‘I’m going to resign after this anyway.’
Hagen eyed Harry. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Go.’ Then he set off again.
Harry caught up with him. ‘Fine?’
‘Yes. Actually it was fine from the very beginning.’
‘Oh? Why didn’t you say so before then?’
‘Thought it would be nice to have the feeling I was the man in charge.’
PART NINE
83
The End of the World
SHE DREAMED SHE WAS STANDING BEFORE A CLOSED DOOR and heard a cold, lone bird’s cry from the forest, and it sounded so peculiar because the sun was shining and it was hot. She opened the door . . .
She woke up with her head on Harry’s shoulder and dried saliva in the corners of her mouth. The captain’s voice announced they were about to land in Goma.
She looked out of the window. A grey stripe in the east presaged the arrival of a new day. It was twelve hours since they had left Oslo. In a few hours the Zurich flight with Juliana Verni on the passenger list would land.
‘I’m wondering why Hagen thought it was alright to shadow Lene like this,’ Harry said.
‘He probably valued your cogent arguments,’ Kaja yawned.
‘Mm. He seemed a bit too relaxed. I reckon he’s got something up his sleeve. There’s some guarantee he’s got they won’t bollock him for this.’
‘He might have something on someone in the Ministry of Justice,’ Kaja said.
‘Mm. Or on Bellman. Perhaps he knows you and Bellman were having a relationship?’
‘Doubt it,’ Kaja said, peering into the dark. ‘There are hardly any lights here.’
‘Looks like a power cut,’ Harry said. ‘The airport must have its own generator.’
‘Light over there,’ she said, pointing to a red shimmer north of the town. ‘What’s that?’
‘Nyiragongo,’ Harry said. ‘It’s the lava lighting up the sky.’
‘Is that right?’ she said, pressing her nose against the window.
Harry drank his glass of water. ‘Shall we go through the plan one more time?’
She nodded and straightened her seat back.
‘You stay in the arrivals hall and keep an eye on the landing times. Make sure everything is going to plan. In the meantime I’ll go shopping. It’s only fifteen minutes to the centre, so I’ll be back in plenty of time before Lene’s plane lands. You watch, see if anyone is there to collect her, and stay on her tail. As Lene knows my face I’ll be outside in a taxi waiting for you. And should anything untoward happen, you ring me at once. OK?’
‘OK. And you’re sure she’ll stop over in Goma?’
‘I’m not sure of anything at all. There are only two hotels in Goma that are still functional, and according to Katrine there’s nothing booked, neither in Verni’s name, nor in Galtung’s. But the guerrillas control the road to the west and north, and the closest town south is an eight-mile drive.’
‘Do you really believe the only reason Tony has brought Lene here is to milk her for money?’