He put away the Apocrypha and got into his tracksuit, locking the door before he
set off.
He followed the narrow path along the shore and then turned into the woods. He
ground his way through thickets and around uprooted trees as fast as he could go,
emerging exhausted at the Fortress with his pulse racing. He stopped by one of the
old artillery batteries and stretched for several minutes.
Suddenly he heard a sharp crack and the grey concrete wall next to his head
exploded. Then he felt the pain as fragments of concrete and shrapnel tore a deep
gash in his scalp.
For what seemed an eternity Blomkvist stood paralysed. Then he threw himself into
the artillery trench, landing hard on his shoulder and knocking the wind out of
himself. A second round came at the instant he dived. The bullet smacked into the
concrete foundation.
He got to his feet and looked all around. He was in the middle of the Fortress. To
the right and left narrow, overgrown passages a yard deep ran to the batteries that
were spread along a line of 250 yards. In a crouch, he started running south
through the labyrinth.
He suddenly heard an echo of Captain Adolfsson’s inimitable voice from winter
manoeuvres at the infantry school in Kiruna. Blomkvist, keep your fucking head down
if you don’t want to get your arse shot off. Years later he still remembered the extra
practise drills that Captain Adolfsson used to devise.
He stopped to catch his breath, his heart pounding. He could hear nothing but his
own breathing. The human eye perceives motion much quicker than shapes and
figures. Move slowly when you’re scouting.Blomkvist slowly peeked an inch over the
top edge of the battery. The sun was straight ahead and made it impossible to
make out details, but he could see no movement.
He pulled his head back down and ran on to the next battery. It doesn’t matter how
good the enemy’s weapons are. If he can’t see you, he can’t hit you. Cover, cover, cover.
Make sure you’re never exposed.
He was 300 yards from the edge of Östergården farm. Some 40 yards from where
he knelt there was an almost impenetrable thicket of low brush. But to reach the
thicket he would have to sprint down a grass slope from the artillery battery, and
he would be completely exposed. It was the only way. At his back was the sea.