Last Will Read Online Free

laughing and kicking at the gravel.
    She knew that all they saw was a single person of uncertain gender on a small motorbike, wearing dark jeans and a helmet with a visor, no memorable features, nothing to stick in the mind.
    The street came to an end and she rolled on into thin forest again, glancing quickly at her watch.
    She was slightly behind schedule, only a minute or so, because of the frost. The evening she had timed the journey it had been raining, but the road hadn’t been slippery.
    She accelerated gently, and a moment later it happened.
    The tires lost their grip on the ground and she felt the bike disappear from beneath her. Her left leg took the first blow and snapped like a matchstick just below the knee. Her shoulder hit next and dislocated instantly, then she felt a thud as her head hit the ground, thinking: I haven’t got time for this.
    When she came to again she was lying facedown on the ground.
    What the hell had happened?
    Pain was pulsing through her whole left side, from her head to her toes. The motorcycle was still growling somewhere behind her, its headlight shining into the trees.
    She groaned. Fucking fuck. What was she going to do now?
    She pulled off her helmet and lay her cheek against the frozen ground for a few seconds, forcing her brain to clear.
    At least the bike was still working: she could feel the vibrations of the engine through the ground. But she was in worse shape. Her leg was broken and her shoulder was buggered. Carefully she flexed the right side of her body.
    It seemed okay.
    She sat up with her left arm hanging uselessly by her side. The joint was dislocated; she’d seen it happen to other people but had never had it happen to her before. Her leg was excruciatingly painful: she could feel the shaft of the bone pressing against the skin just below her left knee.
    She shuffled backward until she felt a narrow tree trunk behind her, and groaned again.
    The list of possible options she had to choose from was shrinking pretty damn fast.
    Using her right side she dragged herself upright, and with a well-judged motion threw herself forward, letting her shoulder hit the tree trunk.
    Holy fucking shit!
    The pain as her shoulder popped back in was almost unbearable; she had to cling onto the tree with her healthy arm to stop herself from fainting.
    When she had pulled herself together she flexed the fingers of her left hand, gently moved her arm, and realized it was working. But there was nothing she could do about her leg.
    She leaned down carefully and caught hold of the helmet. Carefully she hopped over to the motorbike, pulled it upright and, with a great deal of effort, hoisted herself up. She had to bite her lip as she put her left foot on the pedal. The pain brought her out in a sweat as she adjusted her position on the seat.
    For a moment she wasn’t sure which direction she should be going in. The forest looked the same; she couldn’t tell where she had come from.
    Shit, shit, shit!
    She looked at the time, thirteen minutes behind schedule.
    Her wingman would wait for half an hour in the boat out at Torö, then she had given him orders to set off for Ventspils.
    Fear hit her like a dagger in the chest.
    Would this crappy job up at the bloody North Pole turn out to be her last?
    She put the helmet on, dropped the visor and put the bike in gear. She turned and rode in what she hoped was a southerly direction, with her left knee jutting out at an indescribably wrong angle.
    Annika trudged after the police officer through the winding passageways of the City Hall until they reached a long corridor. In the distance she could make out chandeliers hanging from heavy roof beams, but here there was nothing but gloom, shadows, and silence.
    Irritated, she sped up and walked past the police officer.
    “How long is this going to take?” she asked, looking at her watch.
    “I’ll see if this is where he meant,” the officer said, stopping. He tookhold of her upper arm as if she were a