“Lisbeth saved my life up there. If it weren’t for her, I’d be dead.”
Berger’s eyes widened. She stared at the girl in the leather jacket.
“And right now you need to come to an agreement with her. She is our source.”
Berger sat for a time, thinking. Then she did something that astonished Blomkvist
and startled Salander; she surprised even herself. The whole time she had been
sitting at Mikael’s living-room table, she had felt Salander’s eyes on her. A taciturn
girl with hostile vibrations.
Berger stood up and went around the table and threw her arms around the girl.
Salander squirmed like a worm about to be put on a hook.
CHAPTER 29
Saturday, November 1–Tuesday, November 25
Salander was surfing through Wennerström’s cyber-empire. She had been staring
at her computer screen for almost eleven hours. The idea that had materialised in
some unexplored nook of her brain during the last week at Sandhamn had grown
into a manic preoccupation. For four weeks she had isolated herself in her
apartment and ignored any communication from Armansky. She had spent twelve
hours a day in front of her computer, some days more, and the rest of her waking
hours she had brooded over the same problem.
During the past month she had had intermittent contact with Blomkvist. He too
was preoccupied, busy at the Millennium offices. They had conferred by telephone
a couple of times each week, and she had kept him updated on Wennerström’s
correspondence and other activities.
For the hundredth time she went over every detail. She was not afraid that she had
missed anything, but she was not sure that she had understood how every one of
the intricate connections fitted together.