Armansky wondered what was going on when Salander asked to speak to him in
private. He shut the door behind her and motioned her to the visitor’s chair. She
told him that her work for Mikael Blomkvist was done—the lawyer would be
paying her before the end of the month—but that she had decided to keep on
with this particular investigation. Blomkvist had offered her a considerably higher
salary for a month.
“I am self-employed,” Salander said. “Until now I’ve never taken a job that you
haven’t given me, in keeping with our agreement. What I want to know is what will
happen to our relationship if I take a job on my own?”
Armansky shrugged.
“You’re a freelancer, you can take any job you want and charge what you think it’s
worth. I’m just glad you’re making your own money. It would, however, be disloyal
of you to take on clients you find through us.”
“I have no plans to do that. I’ve finished the job according to the contract we
signed with Blomkvist. What this is about is that I want to stay on the case. I’d even
do it for nothing.”
“Don’t ever do anything for nothing.”
“You know what I mean. I want to know where this story is going. I’ve convinced
Blomkvist to ask the lawyer to keep me on as a research assistant.”
She passed the agreement over to Armansky, who read rapidly through it.
“With this salary you might as well be working for free. Lisbeth, you’ve got talent.
You don’t have to work for small change. You know you can make a hell of a lot
more with me if you come on board full-time.”
“I don’t want to work full-time. But, Dragan, my loyalty is to you. You’ve been great
to me since I started here. I want to know if a contract like this is OK with you, that
there won’t be any friction between us.”
“I see.” He thought for a moment. “It’s 100 percent OK. Thanks for asking. If any
more situations like this crop up in the future I’d appreciate it if you asked me so
there won’t be any misunderstandings.”