Part 9 (1/2)

'Beck's on a case,' said Malm, pulling himself together. 'He is in fact subordinate to me in my division.'

'Oh, so the Murder Squad is working on a case?' said the Commissioner. 'Well, I'm sure he'll find the time. In any event, the Murder Squad may soon work itself right out of existence.'

'I'm on eleven cases myself,' said Gunvald Larsson.

'But you're not in my division' said Stig Malm.

'No, thank the good Lord in heaven. Or some such.'

They all arrived at the prescribed time, except Moller. Stig Malm and Gunvald Larsson greeted each other and the Commissioner, not especially warmly, but then it was not the first time they had met on this rather dreary July day. Martin Beck was there, wearing a denim jacket and baggy trousers, and the Stockholm City Police chief was sporting the usual white silk tie. But Moller was missing.

They were already seated around the conference table when the National Commissioner noticed the fact and remarked cleverly, 'Where's Moller? We simply can't start without him. You know what a fuss there is whenever Security's involved.'

Eric Moller was head of the State Security Police, better known as Sapo, but it was questionable whether even he himself really knew what he was in charge of. The actual Security Police was nothing special. It employed about eight hundred people who supposedly spent their time on two things: first, exposing and catching foreign spies; and second, counteracting organizations and groups considered dangerous to the security of the state. Over the years, however, its role had become more and more confusing, since everyone knew that Sapo's only task was to register, persecute and in general make life a misery for people with left-wing views.

When Sapo finally reached the point where they were keeping dossiers on members of the ruling Social Democratic party, the supposedly socialist government began to find it more and more difficult to control its embarra.s.sment Eric Moller arrived at the conference room thirty-three minutes late. His face was perspiring and he was puffing and blowing.

Even if Moller were a spy or a counterspy or whatever, it would have been extraordinarily difficult for him to appear in disguise. Though roughly the same age as the others, he was much more overweight and had a wreath of foxy-red hair around a bald head and large ears that stuck out at a striking angle. None of the others knew him very well, as he kept to himself, perhaps because of his profession.

The only person present who genuinely loathed Moller was Gunvald Larsson, who said: 'How're things with your Croatian terrorist friends? Do you still have tea parties in the garden on Sat.u.r.day afternoons?'

The chief of the Security Police, however, was too out of breath to reply.

The National Commissioner then opened the meeting, gave an account of the somewhat unpopular senator's coming visit on Thursday the twenty-first of November and said that Gunvald Larsson had brought back some interesting and useful material from his study trip. He spoke of the difficulty of the task and its enormous importance for the prestige of the police. Then he went on to the various special missions each of those present could expect to be a.s.signed.

Pity I didn't bring that head back with me and put it in a jar of Formalin, thought Gunvald Larsson. Now that would really be interesting and useful material.

The news of his very first a.s.signment as chief of operations reached Martin Beck in the middle of a yawn. He suppressed it as best he could and said, 'Just a minute, please. Are you talking about me?'

'Precisely, Martin,' said the Commissioner heartily. 'What is this if not a preventive murder investigation? You'll be given all the resources you need, you can choose whom you like and use your staff as you think best.'

Martin Beck at first thought of shaking his head, and then he thought, good G.o.d, the fact is he can order me to do it. Then he noticed that Gunvald Larsson was nudging him in the side and turned to him.

Gunvald Larsson murmured, 'Tell him you'll organize the whole protective apparatus, preliminary investigation, long-range security and everything.'

'How?'

'With staff from the Murder Squad and the Violent Crimes Squad. But only if someone else takes charge of short-range security, to see to it that no one pops up and bashes the senator's head in with a brick or something.'

'Gentlemen, would you stop mumbling and speak up, please,' said the Commissioner.

Glancing swiftly at Martin Beck, Gunvald Larsson said, 'Beck and I reckon that with personnel mainly from Murder and Violent Crimes, we can undertake to coordinate all long-range activity - preventive measures and everything. But we'd rather not have to deal with the close-range protection. That a.s.signment seems made for Moller and his gang.'

The Commissioner cleared his throat and said, 'What do you think, Eric?'

'Fine,' said Moller. 'We'll take that on.'

He was still having difficulty with his breathing.

'That particular job is really embarra.s.singly simple,' said Gunvald Larsson, 'I could do it with the twenty thickest cops in the city. And Moller, after all, has several hundred nincomp.o.o.ps out there in the bushes in disguise. I heard one of them photographed the Prime Minister as he was giving his May Day speech and reported that he appeared to be a dangerous communist.'

'Cut it out, Larsson,' said the Commissioner. 'That's enough. So you'll take the job, Beck?'

Martin Beck sighed, but nodded his agreement. He saw the a.s.signment ahead of him with all of its wretched complications - endless meetings, officious politicians and military people meddling in everything. Still, he could not in fact refuse to carry out a direct order, and Gunvald Larsson seemed to have some sort of idea of how the whole thing could be handled. He had already succeeded in getting rid of the Security Police, and that was a very good thing.

'Before I go on, I'd like to know one thing,' said the Commissioner. 'Something our friend Moller should be able to answer.'

'Oh , yes,' said the security man stoically, opening his briefcase.

'Well, this organization called UGH or whatever it's called, what do we know about it?'

'It isn't called UGH,' said Malm, stroking his hair.

'But it ought to be,' said Gunvald Larsson.

The Commissioner burst out laughing. Everyone except Gunvald Larsson looked at him in surprise.

'It's called ULAG,' said Malm.

”That's it,' said the Commissioner. 'What do we know about it?'

Moller took a single piece of paper out of his file and said laconically, 'Practically nothing. That is, we know it has carried out several a.s.sa.s.sinations. The first time was in March last year, when the president of Costa Rica was shot as he stepped out of a plane in Tegucigalpa. An a.s.sa.s.sination attempt was unexpected and the security measures do not appear to have been very satisfactory. If ULAG itself had not taken responsibility, the a.s.sumption would have been that the a.s.sa.s.sin was some individual psychopath.'

'Shot?' asked Martin Beck.

'Yes, apparently by a long-range sniper who lay hidden in a van. The police did not succeed in tracing him.' 'And the next time?'

'In Malawi, where two African prime ministers were meeting to discuss a border dispute. The whole building suddenly exploded and more than forty people were killed. That was in September. The security measures were extremely comprehensive.'

Moller wiped the sweat from his forehead. Gunvald Larsson reflected with satisfaction that his own physical condition was not all that bad by comparison.

”Then the organization carried out two a.s.sa.s.sinations in January. First, a North Vietnamese minister, a general and three members of his staff were all killed when their car was. .h.i.t by mortar fire. They were on their way to a conference with some senior South Vietnamese, and the convoy had a military escort.

'Only a week later, the organization struck again in one of the northern states of India. When the president of the state visited a railway station, at least five men threw hand grenades at both the train and the station building. Then the terrorists fired several salvoes with machine pistols. It was their bloodiest attack to date. Several hundred schoolchildren had gathered to cheer the president and about fifty of them were killed. All the police and security men on the spot were also killed or severely injured and the president himself was blown to bits. This was also the only time anyone saw the criminals. They were masked and wearing some kind of commando uniform. They drove away in several different cars and could not be traced.

'Then there was one more case in j.a.pan in March, where a well-known and controversial politician visited a school. In this case, too, the building was blown up and the politician killed along with a good many other people.'

'Is that all you know about ULAG?' asked Martin Beck.

'Yes.'

'Did you prepare that summary yourself?' 'No.'

'When did you get it?' 'About two weeks ago.'

'May I ask who supplied you with it?' said Gunvald Larsson.

'Yes, you may, but I don't have to give you an answer.'