Marked for Life (30 page)

Then he got up and pulled the mask over his head.

“We'll wait until the police cars have left the area. Then we must work quickly. The quicker the better. In, shoot, out. Do you remember?” he said and smiled.

It was the first time in ages she saw that smile.

* * *

The police cars started and slowly rolled across the gravel back toward the gates. Four plainclothes but well-equipped policemen remained by the house. As soon as the gates had been closed, they moved to prearranged positions.

“You two on the sides, you in front of the house, and me at the back,” said one of the policemen to his colleagues. “Understood?”

“Yes,” they all answered in chorus.

“Right, to your posts. Report back exactly two hours from now.”

* * *

And exactly two hours had passed before the wardens discovered her. The braided strips of cloth had tightened round her neck, cutting off the respiratory passages. Her first thought was a feeling of relief. Then came the panic but it was too late. You couldn't change your mind.

She had taken her final decision and there was no going back. It was impossible to get out of the noose. She knew that. Even so, she struggled. She kicked out, stretched her naked toes, put her hands against the strip of sheeting and pulled. She struggled to the very end.

When the wardens pushed into the cell they just stood there and stared at her hanging from the bars on the window.

Lena Wikström hung there without moving and stared back at them, lifeless.

CHAPTER
FIFTY-FOUR

“OKAY,” SAID DANILO
, and let go of the top of the wall. The cars had left the area.

He landed in front of Jana and pushed the backpack under a bush.

“You first. Here.” He cupped his hands. “I'll lift you up.”

She put her pistol inside her waistband at the base of her spine. She put her right foot in Danilo's hands and her hands on his shoulders.

“Ready?” he said.

She nodded in answer.

“Okay, one, two, THREE.”

Danilo pushed up her foot and she got hold of the top of the wall with both hands and swung herself over. It was a long way down to the ground, and she made a hard landing. She crouched down beside a couple of almost bare bushes and made herself as invisible as she could, immediately tried to get an overview of the area, listened for sounds and looked for any movement.

Danilo landed with a thud. He immediately crouched down beside her and drew his pistol.

“Can you see the camera?” he whispered and pointed at a surveillance camera up on a pole opposite the entrance to the house.

“It's an IP camera which can see at a very long distance, roughly like a telescope. Never show your face for one of those, it registers details and facial characteristics at more than one hundred meters. So you must always knock out the cameras first. We didn't use to have to think about that, but it's new times now,” said Danilo.

Then he pointed at the policemen who surrounded the house.

“There's one in front, one behind, two on the sides. Watch out for them. If they see you, you've had it, understand?”

She nodded.

“When I shoot at the camera, run to the house. Keep in the shadows.”

“I know what to do.”

“Okay, okay.”

Danilo got up and pulled the hood further down over his face. He took a deep breath and then stepped right out onto the lawn with the gun aimed at the surveillance camera, and fired.

When Jana heard the shot, she quickly ran across the grass up to the house. Hardly out of breath she stood up against the façade and with a couple of steps disappeared into the shadows. Then she heard yet another muffled shot, followed by another two, then there was silence. She listened to her own breathing for a few moments, looked right and left. Peered toward the front and the back of the house. Listened again. Crouching down, she took a few steps forward, stopped at the corner of the house and looked out.

That same moment, a policeman came running. He had evidently reacted to the shot and ran with a drawn pistol toward the front. When he disappeared from view, she heard a pistol being fired again. And again. Then silence.

Jana peeped out a second time from behind the corner and immediately saw a rotating surveillance camera at the back. In her head, she counted how long the camera was pointed in her direction. Far too long. It wouldn't be possible to get inside from there. Not without being seen.

She released the safety catch on her pistol and lay down in the grass. Just as she was about to fire the gun, the glass on the camera was shattered by another shot. It came from behind her and hit the lens spot on. She quickly got up into a kneeling position and that same moment Danilo came up by her side. Under his hood he looked resolute with his lips pressed together and a cold gaze.

“Is the coast clear now?” he said briefly.

“Yes,” answered Jana, and got up. “Have you killed the policemen?”

“I had no choice.”

Danilo looked out at the rear and then half ran across to the back door. He bent down under every window he passed. With a steady hand he felt the locked glass door and then waved to her.

“Now listen,” he said to her when she reached him. “Act fast. Don't think. Just complete your task. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Jana.

“I'll stay here. If you're not out in ten minutes I'll come in.” Danilo pulled out a lock-pick and forced the lock. A click was heard after ten seconds.

“Are you certain about this now?” he said.

“Yes,” answered Jana. “I have never been more certain.”

She held up the pistol in front of her face and squeezed it with one hand. Then she took a deep breath and opened the door.

She was inside.

* * *

The room was about five by ten meters in size. It resembled a large living room with a sofa, armchair and a glass table. Paintings with nature scenes on the walls. A white pedestal stood on one side. A flowery standard lamp next to it. No plants. No rugs. She sneaked across the floor and stopped in front of an arched opening. She peered slowly into the adjoining room which was lit up by a round table lamp, and noted that it was a dining room. Ten chairs were placed around an oval table. She quickly scanned the area and then moved on to the next room, the door of which stood ajar. She peeped in through the crack. It was a hall. The first she saw was a bench and a hat rail. The staircase was wide and there was a wine-red stair carpet. There were lights on upstairs.

Jana couldn't resist the temptation to go up. So she pushed open the door with her foot. That same moment, she heard a click behind her. Jana's heart missed a beat. She slowly turned her head and saw a little boy in the half darkness. His eyes were afire. In his hand he had a pistol, which he pointed straight at her.

She didn't move a muscle. The boy was close, far too close. At that distance he couldn't miss. He came slowly closer.

“Take it easy,” she said.

“Throw your weapon away,” said the boy. “Otherwise I'll shoot you.”

“I know you will,” she said and lowered her pistol. Held out her other hand in a gesture of surrender.

“What's your name?” she said.

“Fuck that.”

“I just want to know what you're called.”

The boy hesitated a moment, then said his name: “Phobos.”

“Does it say that on your neck? Does it say Phobos there?”

Phobos looked astounded. Instinctively he put one hand up to his neck.

She went on.

“If you are what I think you are, then I want you to listen to me. I have also been like you,” she said, and tried to gain his confidence.

“Throw away the gun,” he said again.

“What you've got in your neck, that carved name. I've got one too,” she said. “Shall I show you?”

For a fraction of a second he looked confounded.

“No,” he then said roughly.

“Can't I show you?” she said again. “Please, let me show you. I want to help you. I can help you get away from here, you don't need to be here any longer.”

But the boy was not listening.

“Throw away the gun!”

“As you wish.”

And then she threw it. The gun went high over Phobos and he followed it with his gaze. When it was right over his head she took a quick step forward, grabbed his pistol with her left hand, took a firm grip of his arm with her right hand, and forced him round. She put the pistol against his head.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “But I had to do that. I know what you can do, and this is the only way to protect both you and me.”

Phobos pulled with his arm to try to get loose.

She then took a firm grip of his neck and pressed so hard that he gasped for air.

“Calm down,” she said. “I'll help you. But you must do as I say. If you don't, it is going to hurt.”

He became still. There was a gurgling in his throat when he tried to get some air into his lungs. Jana released her hold a little.

“Just do as I say now,” she said. “Do you promise?”

He tried to move his head in a nod. She loosened her grip a little more, and then looked around for the gun she had thrown. In the middle of the floor she saw a reflection of matt metal. But that wasn't the only thing she saw. There too stood a man staring straight at her. Despite the half darkness she saw who it was.

It was him.

Gavril.

“Bravo!” he said, and clapped his hands. “It isn't easy to disarm him, I can tell you that, so you did that well!”

His voice was calm and almost friendly from the darkness.

“I saw you come in.”

“Give me your weapon,” she said.

“I don't have a weapon.”

“Your son has a weapon. So you must have one too.”

“Yes, he does, but not me. Do you think the agents would let me bring a weapon into the house?”

“If your son could manage it, I presume you too have done it.”

“No, it wasn't as easy.”

“How did he do it?”

“Magic,” he hissed and threw out his hand toward the light from the lamp.

A quick gesture, then the hand drowned in the darkness again.

“So you don't have a weapon?”

“No, little miss. I don't.”

Jana tried to scan Gavril's clothes to see if he was lying to her.

“Show me your hands!” she said.

Gavril threw up his hands into the light and shrugged his shoulders.

“Hold your hands so that I can see them all the time. If you try anything I'll blow your son's brains out!”

“Sure, sure,” he said, and smiled a not particularly convincing smile. “But if I may ask, what are you doing here?”

“I had to come here. There are so many questions.”

“Oh really? Are you a journalist?”

“No. I just want to know why.”

“Why what?”

“Why you do this?”

Jana nodded firmly with her head toward Phobos who made a gurgling sound with each breath he took.

He still had his hands on Jana's arm and he held on hard.

“Why is a good word. Why, for example, should I tell you?”

“Because you owe me that.”

“I have debts to a lot of people.”

“Above all to me.”

“And what have I done to you?”

Jana felt the fury grow inside her, but forced herself to be calm.

“You used to call me Ker,” she said slowly.

“What did you say?”

“You gave me the name Ker.”

Gavril took a step forward. The light from the lamp fell on his face and revealed the scar.

He stared at her with his mouth agape. She stared back. When she saw his look, she felt calm. Her shoulders sank down.

“Well now. Ker. So you survived after all. Don't I get a hug?”

“Go to hell.”

“Oh dear, we are angry, aren't we!”

“You stole my childhood, murdered my parents and carved a fucking name into me. Why? I want to know why? Answer me! Why do you do this?”

Gavril smiled.

Leaned his head back, exposed his teeth and hissed.

“Because it is so easy. After all, nobody misses people like you. Illegal kids, that's what you are. No papers, you don't exist.”

“And that makes it more acceptable to kidnap and torture...”

“I don't torture!” Gavril cut her off with a raised voice. “I train. I give them all a second chance in life. A chance to become something. To become a part of something greater.”

“Greater than what?”

“I don't think you understand how divine it is to govern a person's life and death.”

“This is about children,” Jana said in a hard voice.

“Exactly. Meaningless children. Perfect as murderers.”

Phobos stretched a little and Jana tightened her grip around his throat. He responded by digging his fingernails even deeper into her arm.

“Why do you train them to do that? To murder?”

“What do you think? I have to defend myself. It's fucking tough in the market today. I have the best suppliers, middlemen and pushers. There are lots of buyers and it's a matter of ensuring I keep my income. Money is everything. Whatever people say, that's what everybody is after. What everybody wants. And when money is involved, there's a lot of dirty work too. If drugs are involved, there is even more. So you have to always make sure you have people around you with the same approach as you have yourself. Who want to protect me and what I have created—my market. Who want to cleanse away clumsy people, snitches, people who are unable to pay, who don't fulfill their obligations, so to speak. You see, it is difficult to recruit adults. They cost too much and when they have got a taste for the good life they only get greedy. Cheat you. Or they are totally stoned and utterly useless. Careless.”

Gavril went on.

“From a crushed child you can carve out a deadly weapon. A soldier without any feelings, without anything to lose, is the most dangerous there is.”

“Is that why you kill...”

“The parents, yes. The children are easier to deal with then. More devoted. Aren't they? That's true, isn't it? You do agree with me?”

She didn't answer, clenched her teeth.

Gavril threw his hands out again.

“I make Sweden a better country. People might think that my activities are not acceptable, but I contribute to a better world by weeding out the weak. Partly, I do society a service by reducing the number of illegal offspring. Partly I let the migrant kids themselves clean up among the weak in society. It is like Darwin. Only the strongest survive.”

“But you kill all of them.”

“Children have always been murdered. In all ages. Even in the Bible it talks about the killing of children. Don't you remember the Gospel according to Matthew where King Herod after the birth of Jesus orders all the Jewish boys under two years of age to be killed because he has heard that a future king has been born and he doesn't want a rival.”

“So you see yourself as the Herod of our time?”

“No, what I mean is that death is a weapon in itself. To convince everybody about who you are. I use children so I don't have to risk having rivals.”

Gavril looked to the right and his scar wrinkled up in the movement and hung over his eye.

“Stand still, I said,” Jana shouted.

Gavril turned his gaze back. His reddish-pink skin smoothed out again.

“I am still,” he said slowly.