Hostage (11 page)

‘Brilliant!’ Eden said, bringing both hands down on the surface of her desk.

The door closed.

‘Which databases will you be running the names through?’ Alex asked.

‘All of them. Every database and every register, then we’ll see if we find anything useful. I mean, we might get a match, but if it’s a speeding offence it’s of no
interest.’

Alex understood; they were looking for connections with serious crime.

‘I mentioned our suggestion on the phone,’ Eden said. ‘Did you have time to talk to your colleagues about it?’

He had. It had been a brief discussion, because no one could come up with anything better.

‘We agree that it would be a good idea to contact the captain and suggest an emergency landing.’

‘Good. I’ve spoken to SAS, who have stayed in touch with the captain, and he hasn’t proposed anything else. So if he doesn’t have any ideas of his own, he ought to go for
ours.’

Alex hoped so. He had been pleased to see that Karim Sassi was the captain. They had met at a birthday party at Erik’s, and Karim had made a very good impression. Steady, as Diana had put
it. Reassuring. And sensible. A lovely wife and delightful children. He didn’t seem to drift off, as Erik was in the habit of doing.

Drifting off. Is that what you’re doing now, Erik?

‘By the way,’ Alex said. ‘We were talking about the relatives of the crew members. Should they be informed?’

‘Not yet. We’re keeping the lid on this for as long as possible, at least until we’ve tried bring about an emergency landing. If this gets out it could seriously jeopardise
their safety.’

Alex nodded; he knew Eden was right. At the same time, he said a quiet prayer that everything would go well. It would look appalling if the worst came to the worst, if the plane was blown up and
none of the relatives of the passengers or crew had been informed of what was going on.

That just couldn’t happen. Not under any circumstances.

If the plane was blown up, Alex’s life would be over. He had to take a deep breath, get some air.

‘Alex?’

‘I’m okay.’

‘Nobody would blame you if you decided to . . .’

‘I said I was okay.’

His tone was sharper than he had intended, but he couldn’t bear the thought of being excluded from the case at this stage.

‘Nobody would withhold information from you,’ Eden said. ‘Just so you know. If you took a step back you would still have the number of my direct line, and you could call me
whenever you wanted to.’

He could see that she meant what she said, but he had no intention of taking a step back. He wasn’t like Peder, who had allowed his entire life to be destroyed just because he didn’t
know how to keep his feelings in check.

‘Thanks, but I’m staying put.’

‘Fine.’

She picked up the phone and keyed in a number.

‘We’re going to make the call now,’ she said. ‘Do you want to be here?’

She hardly had time to put the phone down before the door flew open. A man of about fifty came in. He was tall and looked fit, and the only thing that made Alex think he was fifty were the lines
on his face. They shook hands.

‘Alex Recht.’

‘Dennis.’

No surname, just a first name.

‘Dennis is the head of the investigation unit here at Säpo,’ Eden explained.

Dennis sat down next to Alex.

‘What’s the plan?’

‘If we call SAS, they will put us through to the plane. Don’t ask me how – it’s already passed over both Sweden and Norway.’

‘Where’s it going to land?’

‘We’ve spoken to the Norwegians, and they’re happy to accept the plane if the pilot turns back.’

Eden picked up the phone again and keyed in a number that she had written down on a piece of paper. She switched to speakerphone and put down the receiver. After three rings the call was
answered, then redirected.

Erik, Alex thought.

B
ut it was Karim Sassi who answered, not Erik. Of course. It was obvious that the officer in charge would answer when the police called.

Eden introduced herself, and explained that Alex and Dennis were listening in. Karim’s responses were brief, but the line was clear and they had no difficulty in hearing what he said.

‘What’s the atmosphere like on board?’ Eden asked.

‘Same as usual.’

Eden frowned.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Nobody knows what’s happening except the crew.’

‘Okay, let me rephrase the question. What’s the atmosphere like among the crew?’

There was a rushing sound on the line.

‘We’re fine.’

‘Nobody has gone to pieces?’ Dennis said.

‘No.’

‘Good,’ Eden said.

She clicked on her computer as she carried on speaking.

‘What’s your course at the moment?’

‘We’re still on autopilot, on course for New York.’

Alex hadn’t thought about that. Should they still be heading for the USA, or would it be a good idea to stay away?

‘You haven’t considered an alternative route, in view of what has happened?’ Eden said.

‘No.’

‘But you had requested extra fuel before you took off?’

‘Yes. Storms are forecast for New York.’

‘How many hours are we talking about?’ Dennis asked, wanting to double check the information they had been given earlier.

‘I have enough fuel for just under twelve more hours.’

Alex felt his blood pressure plummet. Twelve hours wasn’t very long for two governments to accede to two impossible demands.

‘Karim, you’re doing brilliantly,’ Eden said. ‘We have a suggestion that we would like to put to you, and we would ask you to think it over.’

There was something impressive about the hierarchy that now became apparent; Alex hadn’t thought about it before. Eden Lundell, one of Säpo’s most senior representatives, was
calling the pilot of an SAS plane and making a suggestion. Not giving an order or a directive, but making a suggestion. Because while he was at the controls of Flight 573, Karim Sassi alone was
king.

‘Are you listening?’ Eden said when Karim didn’t reply.

‘I’m listening.’

And Eden began to explain.

‘No,’ Karim Sassi said.

Time stood still inside the glass cube. Alex asked himself whether they could have foreseen Karim’s reaction, but he thought not. It was entirely unexpected.

‘No?’ Eden said.

‘The answer is no. I am not prepared to go against the hijackers’ instructions and bring down the plane. I would be jeopardising the safety of everyone on board.’

Alex saw Eden swallow hard. She rested her elbows on the desk and put her head in her hands. When she looked up her expression was dark. She wasn’t used to being contradicted.

‘Karim, listen to me.’ It was clear that she was having to make a real effort not to sound angry. ‘We share your concerns, but as I said there are a number of logical arguments
which suggest that the hijackers would have far too much to lose by blowing up the plane in mid-air. It takes time to land, and that would give the hijackers the chance to protest. In which case
you just take the plane back up again.’

A scraping noise came from the speaker.

‘I’m not doing it,’ Karim said. ‘What happens if one of the hijackers is on board, and panics? We might end up with a hostage situation. Someone could get hurt. We have
no idea what we might trigger.’

‘But at least we would know if there really is a hijacker and a genuine threat,’ Dennis said.

They heard another voice in the background. Erik. Alex felt his heartbeat increase. Without realising what he was doing he leaned forward on his chair, as if trying to hear better. They waited
as Karim and Erik spoke to one another. It wasn’t possible to hear what they were saying, but Alex could tell from his son’s tone of voice that he was wound up. Erik had always been
quick to flare up, to sound agitated, but this time Alex had to admit that he had every reason to behave that way.

Eventually, Karim came back on the line.

‘I am the captain of this plane. And I am not going to make any attempt at an emergency landing, particularly in view of the fact that I can’t dump the fuel, which we are all agreed
is out of the question.’

Eden chose her words with care.

‘We totally respect the fact that you alone are in command,’ she said. ‘But how are you intending to resolve this situation?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean exactly what I say. If you don’t intend to attempt an emergency landing, what’s your plan?’

‘What’s
my
plan? It’s not my fucking responsibility to sort this out!’

For the first time, Karim sounded really angry.

‘It’s
your
responsibility, either by finding the idiots who are behind this, or by co-operating with the hijackers and doing exactly as they say. My only task is to keep the
plane in the air until it’s all over.’

Then he ended the call.

Eden looked at Dennis and Alex.

‘Shit,’ Dennis said.

‘Although he does have a point,’ Alex said.

The others stared at him as if he had gone mad.

‘There are three ways of resolving this,’ Alex said. ‘Number one, we manage to land the plane and get everyone off without the hijackers noticing. Number two, both governments
meet the demands of the hijackers. Or number three, we find the perpetrators behind the hijacking. And that might be the only achievable solution.’

‘And an emergency landing isn’t the obvious option?’

‘To us, yes. But evidently not to Karim Sassi.’

‘Can we force him to co-operate?’ Dennis said.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Eden replied. ‘We’ll have to call SAS and check. It seems strange if we don’t have clear jurisdiction over an individual pilot.’

Dennis got to his feet.

‘I’ll go and find out.’

When he had closed the door behind him, Alex turned to Eden.

‘If Karim says no, then I’m afraid we’ll have to accept it.’

‘Me too.’

‘So what’s the alternative?’

‘Would it help if you spoke to him? Does he know you? Does he know you’re Erik’s father?’

Alex shook his head; he couldn’t imagine it would be any easier for him to get through to Karim.

‘It wouldn’t make any difference,’ he said.

Eden linked her hands behind her head and stared into space.

‘If we don’t neutralise the threat by landing the plane, then we either have to meet the hijackers’ demands or identify the perpetrators before the fuel runs out, as you said.
And to be frank, there isn’t a cat in hell’s chance of either the Swedish or American governments giving in.’

It was an accurate assessment, so Alex raised no objections.

‘In that case, we have to find whoever kicked off this entire circus,’ he said.

They sat in silence for a while.

‘There is one consolation,’ Eden said.

Alex raised an eyebrow. ‘Is there?’

‘I really don’t believe there’s a bomb on board that plane.’

After almost thirty years with the police, Alex had learned that a case could take the most unexpected turns. He ran his fingers over the pink scar tissue on his hands. He had made mistakes on
more than one occasion, and had once burned his hands badly as a result.

‘I’m not quite so convinced,’ he said. ‘We have to be prepared for any eventuality, particularly as we don’t even understand everything about the message that was
left on the plane.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Exactly what I say. For example, we don’t know how Tennyson Cottage comes into all this. And what’s the connection with Zakaria Khelifi?’

Eden was about to answer when Sebastian yanked open the door of her office.

‘Bad news. The press have started calling; someone has leaked the hijack story.’

‘Shit,’ Eden said. ‘We could have done with more time.’

‘I know,’ Sebastian said. ‘But if you come over to my office, I’ve got something to show you that’s even worse. We’ve just got a match on one of the names
from the lists. And it looks bad. Really bad.’

W
hy couldn’t they agree? Erik and Karim had had a frank and vociferous row about the call from Säpo and their suggestion of an emergency
landing. Erik couldn’t understand why Karim was so vehemently opposed to the idea that he wasn’t even prepared to discuss it. He had stated his position very clearly to Erik: the plane
was staying in the air, in accordance with the hijackers’ instructions. Under no circumstances would he attempt to land until their demands had been met.

‘For fuck’s sake!’ Erik had yelled. ‘Don’t you realise that’s not going to happen? There isn’t a sensible government anywhere in the world that would go
along with such demands!’

But Karim wasn’t listening. Or he didn’t care. Erik was seething with suppressed rage. Karim’s behaviour was totally unacceptable. It was completely unreasonable.

Wherever Erik looked, all he could see was the sky, extending into infinity beyond the plane. This usually gave him a sense of peace, but right now he was almost scared out of his wits at the
thought of being at a height of thirty thousand feet. They had seen several other aircraft in the distance, on their way to different destinations. Erik wished he was on board any one of them. He
just wanted to be anywhere but on a plane that someone was threatening to blow up.

What if this was the day when he was going to die?

Erik had a pragmatic view of death. As his grandfather used to say, death was the only certainty in life. It might come when you were old, or when you were young. As Erik’s mother had
been. Erik had always thought of her as young, even though she had been almost fifty-five. Being young wasn’t just about age; it was in the soul. Erik’s father had always been old, ever
since Erik was a child.

He watched as Karim wiped his forehead, over and over again. Karim had barely said a word since they received the threat. Unlike Erik, he didn’t seem to feel the need to talk about the
situation in which they found themselves. He just kept on staring straight ahead.

They had agreed not to tell the passengers about the threat. It would only create chaos and despair, and make the crew’s job even harder. However, every member of the crew had been
discreetly informed by Fatima, who had found the note. They had had a lot of questions, and the anxiety level was high. It had been decided that Fatima would be the link between cockpit and crew,
which Erik and Karim thought was a good idea. The fact that the crew had many questions was understandable, but unfortunately there were no answers. The plane had been hijacked, and no one knew how
the drama would end.