‘Yes, I’d like to thank you for that.’
He drank carefully. Then he slowly put his glass
down on the table, placed it as if it were important
that the glass should stand in a particular spot on
the table.
‘Those gangsters should be shot,’ he said.
‘Really? Who?’
The Mohican directed a crooked finger towards
Harry’s paper. Harry turned it over. The front page
was emblazoned with a large photograph of a
shaven-headed Swedish neo-Nazi.
‘Up against the wall with them!’ The Mohican
smacked the palm of his hand down on the table,
and a few faces turned towards him. Harry
gestured with his hand to calm him down.
‘They’re just young men, Åsnes. Try and enjoy
yourself now. It’s New Year’s Eve.’
‘Young men? What do you think we were? That
didn’t stop the Germans. Kjell was nineteen. Oscar
was twenty-two. Shoot them before it spreads, I
say. It’s an illness; you have to catch it early on.’
He pointed a trembling forefinger at Harry.
‘One of them was sitting where you’re sitting
now. They don’t bloody die out! You’re a
policeman, you go out and catch them!’
‘How do you know I’m a policeman?’ Harry
asked in surprise.
‘I read the newspapers. You shot someone in
some country down south. That was good, but what
about shooting a couple here too?’
‘You’re very talkative today, Åsnes.’
The Mohican clammed up and gave Harry a last
surly glance before turning to the wall and studying
the painting of Youngstorget. Harry, understanding
that the conversation was over, waved to Maja for
a cup of coffee and consulted his watch. A new
millennium was just around the corner. Schrøder’s
would close at four o’clock because of a ‘Private
New Year’s Eve Party’, as the poster hanging on
the entrance door said. Harry surveyed the familiar
faces in the room. As far as he could see, all the
guests had arrived.
25
Rudolf II Hospital, Vienna. 8 June
1944.
WARD 4 WAS FILLED WITH THE SOUNDS OF SLEEPING.
Tonight it was quieter than usual, no one moaning
in pain or waking from a nightmare with a scream.
Helena hadn’t heard an air-raid warning in Vienna
either. If they didn’t bomb tonight, she hoped it
would make everything easier. She had crept into
the dormitory, stood at the foot of his bed and
watched him. There, in the cone of light from his
table lamp, he sat, so immersed in the book he was
reading that he didn’t heed anything else. And she
stood outside the glow, in the dark. With all the
knowledge of the dark.
As he was about to turn the page he noticed her.
He smiled and immediately put down his book.
‘Good evening, Helena. I didn’t think you were
on duty tonight.’
She placed her forefinger over her lips and went
closer.
‘What do you know about the night shifts?’ she
whispered.
He smiled. ‘I don’t know anything about the
others. I only know when you’re on duty.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, then Monday
and Tuesday. Then Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
again. Don’t be frightened, it’s a compliment.
There’s not much else to use your brain on here. I
also know when Hadler gets his enema.’
She laughed softly.
‘But you don’t know you’ve been declared fit for
action, do you?’
He stared at her in surprise.
‘You’ve been posted to Hungary,’ she whispered.
‘To the 3rd Panzer Division.’
‘The Panzer Division? But that’s the Wehrmacht.
They can’t enlist me. I’m a Norwegian.’
‘I know.’
‘And what am I supposed to be doing in Hungary?
I —’
‘Shhh, you’ll wake the others. Uriah, I’ve read the
orders. I’m afraid there’s not much we can do
about it.’
‘But there has to be a mistake. It’s . . .’
He accidentally knocked the book onto the floor
and it landed with a bang. Helena bent down and
picked it up. On the cover, under the title The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there was a
drawing of a boy in rags on a timber raft. Uriah
was clearly angry.
‘This isn’t my war,’ he said through pursed lips.
‘I know that too,’ she whispered, putting the book
in his bag under the chair.
‘What are you doing?’ he whispered.
‘You have to listen to me, Uriah. Time is short.’
‘Time?’
‘The duty nurse will be doing her rounds in half
an hour. You have to have your mind made up
before then.’