“The whole thing is idiotic, Mikael. You might as well take a job in a circus.”
“I know. But I’m going to get 2.4 million for sitting on my backside for a year, and I
won’t be wasting my time. That’s the third thing. Round One with Wennerström is
over, and he knocked me out. Round Two has already started—he’s going to try to
sink Millennium for good because he knows that the staff here will always know
what he’s been up to, for as long as the magazine exists.”
“I know what he’s doing. I’ve seen it in the monthly ad sales figures for the last six
months.”
“That’s exactly why I have to get out of the office. I’m like a red rag waving at him.
He’s paranoid as far as I’m concerned. As long as I’m here, he’ll just keep on coming.
Now we have to prepare ourselves for Round Three. If we’re going to have the
slightest chance against Wennerström, we have to retreat and work out a whole
new strategy. We have to find something to hammer him with. That’ll be my job
this year.”
“I understand all that,” Berger said. “So go ahead and take a holiday. Go abroad, lie
on a beach for a month. Check out the love life on the Costa Brava. Relax. Go out to
Sandhamn and look at the waves.”
“And when I come back nothing will be different. Wennerström is going to
crush Millennium unless he is appeased by my having stood down. You know that.
The only thing which might otherwise stop him is if we get something on him that
we can use.”
“And you think that’s what you will find in Hedestad?”
“I checked the cuttings. Wennerström did work at the Vanger company from 1969
to 1972. He was in management and was responsible for strategic placements. He
left in a hurry. Why should we rule out the possibility that Henrik Vanger does have
something on him?”
“But if what he did happened thirty years ago, it’s going to be hard to prove it
today.”
“Vanger promised to set out in detail what he knows. He’s obsessed with this
missing girl—it seems to be the only thing he’s interested in, and if this means he
has to burn Wennerström then I think there’s a good chance he’ll do it. We certainly