his watch. It was always slow, but there was a
wonderful inscription from the Military High
Command on the back.
‘Alright,’ Wright said, flicking through the rest of
the papers. ‘Yes, here. Andreas Hochner was one
of four held during a raid on an arms dealer in
Johannesburg in December. On that occasion a
coded order list was found. One of the ordered
items was a Märklin rifle, bound for Oslo. And a
date: 21 December. That’s all.’
There was silence, only the whirring of the
overhead-projector fan could be heard. Someone
in the dark coughed. It sounded like Bård Ovesen.
Wright shaded his eyes.
‘How can we be sure that Hochner is the key
person in our case?’ Ovesen asked.
Harry Hole’s voice came out of the dark.
‘I talked to an Inspector Isaiah Burne in
Hillbrow, Johannesburg. He was able to tell me
that after the arrests they searched the flats of those
involved and found an interesting passport in
Hochner’s. The photo was of himself, but the name
was completely different.’
‘An arms dealer with a false name is not exactly
...dynamite,’ Ovesen said.
‘I was thinking more of one of the stamps they
found in it. Oslo, Norway, 10 December.’
‘So he’s been to Oslo,’ Meirik said. ‘There’s a
Norwegian on the company’s list of customers, and
we’ve found spent cartridges from this super-rifle.
So Andreas Hochner came to Norway and we can
assume a deal went ahead. But who is the
Norwegian on the list?’
‘The list does not, unfortunately, give a full name
and address.’ Harry’s voice. ‘The customer in
Oslo is listed as Uriah. Bound to be a code name.
And, according to Burne in Johannesburg, Hochner
is not that interested in talking.’
‘I thought the police in Johannesburg had
effective methods of interrogation,’ Ovesen said.
‘Possibly, but Hochner probably risks more by
talking than by keeping his mouth shut. It’s a long
list of customers . . .’
‘I’ve heard they use electricity in South Africa,’
Wright said. ‘Under the feet, on nipples and . . .
well. Bloody painful. Could someone switch on
the light please?’
Harry: ‘In a case which involves the purchase of
chemical weapons from Saddam, a business trip to
Oslo with a rifle is fairly trivial. I think,
unfortunately, the South Africans are saving their
electricity for more important issues, let’s put it
that way. Apart from that, it’s not certain that
Hochner knows who this Uriah is. And in the
absence of any information about Uriah, we have
to wonder: what are his plans? Assassination?
Terrorism?’
‘Or robbery,’ Meirik said.
‘With a Märklin rifle?’ Ovesen said. ‘That would
be like shooting sparrows with a cannon.’
‘A drugs killing maybe?’ Wright suggested.
‘Well,’ Harry said. ‘A handgun was all that was
needed to kill the most protected person in
Sweden. And the Olaf Palme assassin was never
caught. So why a gun costing over half a million
kroner to shoot someone here?’
‘What do you suggest, Harry?’
‘Perhaps the target isn’t a Norwegian, but
someone from outside. Someone who is a constant
target for terrorists, but is too strongly protected in
their home country for an assassination to succeed
there. Someone they think they can kill more easily
in a small, peaceful country where they reckon the
security measures will be proportionate.’
‘But who?’ Ovesen asked. ‘There’s no one in the
country who fits that profile.’
‘And there’s no one coming,’ Meirik added.
‘Perhaps it’s longer term,’ Harry said.
‘But the weapon arrived two months ago,’
Ovesen said. ‘It doesn’t make sense that foreign
terrorists would come to Norway two months
before they’re due to carry out a mission.’
‘Perhaps it’s not foreigners, but a Norwegian.’
‘There’s no one in Norway capable of doing what
you’re suggesting,’ Wright said, groping for a
switch on the wall.
‘Exactly,’ Harry said. ‘That’s the point.’
‘The point?’
‘Imagine a high-profile foreign terrorist who
wants to take the life of a person in his own
country, and this person is going to Norway. The
secret services in the country where he lives
follow his every move, so instead of taking the risk
himself he contacts a group of like-minded people
in Norway. The fact that they may be amateurs is
actually an advantage as the terrorist then knows