Vanger held up a hand. “Enough. I get your point. But it’s never good psychology to
exaggerate. I need somebody who can do research and think critically, but who
also has integrity. I think you have it, and that’s not flattery. A good journalist ought
to possess these qualities, and I read your book The Knights Templar with great
interest. It’s true that I picked you because I knew your father and because I know
who you are. If I understood the matter correctly, you left your magazine as a result
of the Wennerström affair. Which means that you have no job at the moment, and
probably you’re in a tight financial spot.”
“So you might be able to exploit my predicament, is that it?”
“Perhaps. But Mikael—if I may call you Mikael?—I won’t lie to you. I’m too old for
that. If you don’t like what I say, you can tell me to jump in the lake. Then I’ll have to
find someone else to work with me.”
“OK, tell me what this job involves.”
“How much do you know about the Vanger family?”
“Well, only what I managed to read on the Net since Frode called me on Monday. In
your day the Vanger Corporation was one of the most important industrial firms in
Sweden; today it’s somewhat diminished. Martin Vanger runs it. I know quite a bit
more, but what are you getting at?”
“Martin is...he’s a good man but basically he’s a fair-weather sailor. He’s unsuited
to be the managing director of a company in crisis. He wants to modernise and
specialise—which is good thinking—but he can’t push through his ideas and his
financial management is weak too. Twenty-five years ago the Vanger concern was
a serious competitor to the Wallenberg Group. We had forty thousand employees
in Sweden. Today many of these jobs are in Korea or Brazil. We are down to about
ten thousand employees and in a year or two—if Martin doesn’t get some wind
into his sails—we’ll have five thousand, primarily in small manufacturing industries,
and the Vanger companies will be consigned to the scrap heap of history.”
Blomkvist nodded. He had come to roughly this conclusion on the basis of the
pieces he had downloaded.
“The Vanger companies are still among the few family-held firms in the country.
Thirty family members are minority shareholders. This has always been the
strength of the corporation, but also our greatest weakness.” Vanger paused and
then said in a tone of mounting urgency, “Mikael, you can ask questions later, but I