Salander looked up from her computer. Her voice was almost inaudible as she said
to Frode, “Isn’t there anyone in your company who’s going to try to shut me up?”
Frode looked astonished. Once again he had managed to ignore her existence.
“If Martin Vanger were alive at this moment, I would have hung him out to dry,” she
went on. “Whatever agreement Mikael made with you, I would have sent every
detail about him to the nearest evening paper. And if I could, I would have stuck
him down in his own torture hole and tied him to that table and stuck needles
through his balls. Unfortunately he’s dead.”
She turned to Blomkvist.
“I’m satisfied with the solution. Nothing we do can repair the harm that Martin
Vanger did to his victims. But an interesting situation has come up. You’re in a
position where you can continue to harm innocent women—especially that Harriet
whom you so warmly defended in the car on the way up here. So my question to
you is: which is worse—the fact that Martin Vanger raped her out in the cabin or
that you’re going to do it in print? You have a fine dilemma. Maybe the ethics
committee of the Journalists Association can give you some guidance.”
She paused. Blomkvist could not meet her gaze. He stared down at the table.
“But I’m not a journalist,” she said at last.
“What do you want?” Dirch Frode asked.
“Martin videotaped his victims. I want you to do your damnedest to identify as
many as you can and see to it that their families receive suitable compensation.
And then I want the Vanger Corporation to donate 2 million kronor annually and in
perpetuity to the National Organisation for Women’s Crisis Centres and Girls’ Crisis
Centres in Sweden.”
Frode weighed the price tag for a minute. Then he nodded.
“Can you live with that, Mikael?” Salander said.
Blomkvist felt only despair. His professional life he had devoted to uncovering
things which other people had tried to hide, and he could not be party to the
covering up of the appalling crimes committed in Martin Vanger’s basement. He