Borderline Read Online Free

think I’m going to pack it in for the day,’ Annika said.
    She closed down her laptop, folding it away with practised movements and putting it into her bag, then pulled her jacket on and headed towards the door.
    ‘Hey, Bengtzon!’ came a cry from the caretakers’ desk, as she was on her way out through the revolving doors.
    Shit, she thought. The car keys.
    She followed the door round and emerged back in the entrance hall with a strained smile. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she said, putting the keys to TKG 297 on the reception desk.
    But the caretaker, who was new, just took the keys without shouting at her or asking if she’d filled the car up again or made a note in the logbook (she hadn’t done either).
    ‘Schyman’s looking for you,’ the new caretaker said. ‘He’s in the Frog conference room. He wants you to go and see him at once.’
    Annika stopped mid-stride. ‘What for?’
    He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Even worse working hours?’ he suggested.
    Maybe there was hope for the caretakers after all.
    She set off for the conference room. Why on earth was it called ‘Frog’?
    The editor-in-chief opened the door for her. ‘Hello, Annika, come in and sit down.’
    ‘Are you relocating me?’ she asked.
    Three serious-looking men in dark overcoats stood up as she walked through the door. They had spread out around the small birch-wood table. The reflection of a halogen spotlight off the whiteboard on the far wall dazzled her. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked, raising a hand to shield her eyes.
    ‘We’ve met before,’ the man closest to her said, holding out his right hand.
    It was Jimmy Halenius, Thomas’s boss, under-secretary of state at the Department of Justice. She shook it, unable to think of anything to say.
    ‘Hans-Erik Svensson and Hans Wilkinsson,’ he said, gesturing towards the other two men. They didn’t move.
    She felt her back stiffen with wariness.
    ‘Annika,’ Anders Schyman said, ‘sit down.’
    Fear appeared out of nowhere and dug its claws into her with a force that left her breathless. ‘What?’ she managed to say, and remained standing. ‘Is it something to do with Thomas? What’s happened to him?’
    Jimmy Halenius took a step closer to her. ‘As far as we know, Thomas isn’t in any danger,’ he said, looking her in the eye.
    His eyes were quite blue. She remembered being struck by the intensity of the colour before. I wonder if he wears contact lenses, she thought.
    ‘You know that Thomas is attending the Frontex conference in Nairobi about increased co-operation concerning European borders?’ the under-secretary of state said.
    Our new Iron Curtain, Annika thought. Land of the free, and all that.
    ‘Thomas attended the first four days of the conference at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. Yesterday morning he left the conference to act as Swedish delegate on a reconnaissance trip to Liboi, close to the Somali border.’
    For some reason an image of the snow-covered body behind the nursery school in Axelsberg came into her mind. ‘Is he dead?’
    The dark-clad men behind Halenius exchanged a glance.
    ‘There’s nothing to suggest that he is,’ Jimmy Halenius went on, pulling out a chair and waving her into it. She sank down and noted the look that passed between the two men called Hans.
    ‘Who are they?’ she asked, gesturing at them.
    ‘Annika,’ Halenius said, ‘I want you to listen carefully to what I’m going to say.’
    She looked around the room: no windows, just a whiteboard, an antiquated overhead projector in one corner and some sort of ventilation shaft in the ceiling. The walls were pale green, a shade that had been popular in the 1990s. Lime green.
    ‘The delegation consisted of representatives from seven EU member states who were going to find out more about border security between Kenya and Somalia, then report back to the conference. The problem is that the delegation has disappeared.’
    Her heartbeat was pounding in her