The Nightmare. Ларс Кеплер

The talent known as musicality has no generally accepted definition. There are people who lack the ability to discern shifting frequencies of notes, and there are people who are born with an extensive musical memory and the sort of perfectly attuned hearing that enables them to identify any given note without any points of reference whatsoever.

       Through the ages a number of exceptionally talented musical geniuses have emerged, some of whom have become extremely famous, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who toured the courts of Europe from the age of six, and Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many of his greatest works after he had become totally deaf.

       The legendary Nicolò Paganini was born in 1782 in the Italian city of Genoa. He was a self-taught violinist and composer. To this day there have been very few violinists capable of playing Paganini’s fast, complicated compositions. Up to his death Paganini was pursued by rumours that he had only acquired his unique talent by signing a contract with the devil.

       1

       A premonition

      A shiver runs down Penelope Fernandez’s spine. Her heart suddenly starts to beat faster and she glances quickly over her shoulder. Perhaps at that moment she has a premonition of what is going to happen to her later that same day.

      In spite of the heat in the studio Penelope’s face feels cool. It’s a lingering after-effect from the make-up room, where the cool cream-powder sponge was pressed to her skin, the clasp with the dove removed from her hair as the mousse was rubbed in to gather her hair into twining locks.

      Penelope Fernandez is chairperson of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society. She is now being ushered silently into the news studio, and sits down in the spotlight opposite Pontus Salman, who is the managing director of Silencia Defence Ltd, an arms manufacturer.

      The news anchor, Stefanie von Sydow, moves on to a new item, looks into the camera and starts to talk about the redundancies that have followed the purchase of the Swedish company Bofors by British defence manufacturer BAE Systems Ltd, then she turns to Penelope:

      ‘Penelope Fernandez, in a number of debates now you have been highly critical of Swedish arms exports. Recently you drew a comparison with the Angolagate scandal in France, in which senior politicians and businessmen were accused of bribery and weapons smuggling, and have now been given long prison sentences. We haven’t seen anything like that in Sweden, though, surely?’

      ‘There are two ways of looking at that,’ Penelope Fernandez replies. ‘Either our politicians work differently, or our judicial system does.’

      ‘As you’re well aware,’ Pontus Salman says, ‘we have a long tradition of …’

      ‘According to Swedish law,’ Penelope interrupts. ‘According to Swedish law, all manufacture and export of military equipment is illegal.’

      ‘You’re wrong, of course,’ Salman says.

      ‘Paragraphs 3 and 6 in the Military Equipment Act, 1992,’ Penelope specifies.

      ‘But Silencia Defence has been given positive advance notification,’ he smiles.

      ‘Yes, because otherwise we’d be talking about large-scale weapons offences, and …’

      ‘Like I said, we have a permit,’ he interrupts.

      ‘Don’t forget what military equipment is …’

      ‘Hold on a moment, Penelope,’ news anchor Stefanie von Sydow says, nodding to Pontus Salman who has raised a hand to indicate that he hasn’t finished.

      ‘Naturally, every deal is examined beforehand,’ he explains. ‘Either directly by the government, or by the Inspectorate for Strategic Products, if you’re aware of them?’

      ‘France has an equivalent body,’ Penelope replies. ‘Even so, military equipment worth eight billion kronor was able to reach Angola in spite of the UN arms embargo, and in spite of an absolutely binding ban on …’

      ‘We’re talking about Sweden now.’

      ‘I understand that people don’t want to lose their jobs, but I’d still be interested to hear how you can justify the export of huge quantities of ammunition to Kenya? A country which …’

      ‘You haven’t got anything,’ he interrupts. ‘Nothing, not a single instance of wrongdoing, have you?’

      ‘Unfortunately I’m not in a position to …’

      ‘Do you have any concrete evidence?’ Stefanie von Sydow interrupts.

      ‘No,’ Penelope Fernandez replies, and lowers her gaze. ‘But I …’

      ‘In which case I think an apology is in order,’ Pontus Salman says.

      Penelope looks him in the eye, feels anger and frustration bubbling up inside her, but forces herself to stay quiet. Pontus Salman gives her a disappointed smile and then goes on to talk about their factory in Trollhättan. Two hundred jobs were created when Silencia Defence was given permission to start manufacture. He explains what positive advance notification means, and how far they have got with production. He slowly expands on his point to the extent that there’s no time left for his co-interviewee.

      Penelope listens and tries to suppress the pride in her heart. Instead she thinks about the fact that she and Björn will soon be setting off on his boat. They’ll make up the arrow-shaped bed in the fore, fill the fridge and little freezer. In her mind’s eye she can see the sparkle of the frosted vodka glasses when they’re eating pickled herring, potatoes, boiled eggs and crispbread. They’ll lay the table on the aft-deck, drop anchor by a small island in the archipelago and sit and eat for hours in the evening sun.

      Penelope Fernandez leaves Swedish Television’s studios and starts to walk towards Valhallavägen. She spent almost two hours waiting for a follow-up interview on a different programme before the producer said they were going to have to drop her to make room for five easy tips for a flat stomach this summer.

      Over on the grassy expanse of Gärdet she can see the colourful tents of the Circus Maximum. One of the keepers is washing two elephants with a hose. One of them reaches into the air with its trunk to catch the hard jet of water in its mouth.

      Penelope is only twenty-four, and she has dark, curly hair that reaches just past her shoulders. She has a short silver chain around her neck with a small crucifix from when she was confirmed. Her skin is a silky golden colour, like virgin olive oil or honey, as one boy wrote when they had to describe each other in a high-school exercise. Her eyes are large and serious. More than once she has been told that she bears a striking resemblance to film star Sophia Loren.

      Penelope takes out her phone and calls Björn to say she’s on her way, and is about to catch the underground from Karlaplan.

      ‘Penny? Has something happened?’ he asks, sounding stressed.

      ‘No – why?’

      ‘Everything’s ready, I left you a message. You’re the only thing missing.’

      ‘There’s no desperate rush, is there?’

      As Penelope is standing on the long, steep escalator down to the underground platform her heart starts to beat faster with vague unease, and she closes her eyes. The escalator grows steeper and narrower, the air cooler and cooler.

      Penelope Fernandez comes from La Libertad, which is one of the largest regions of El Salvador. Penelope’s mother Claudia Fernandez was imprisoned during the civil war and Penelope was born in a cell where fifteen other interned women did their best to help. Claudia was a doctor, and had been active in the campaign to educate the population. The reason she ended