The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

Sweden

The day after the terror attack in Stockholm, Eskilstuna-Kuriren revealed evidence of surprising incompetence at the local police station a hundred kilometres away. In the hysterical hunt for the terrorist, they had not hesitated to terrorize the most innocent of citizens. Not even the dead were spared (Bella Hansson chose not to mention that there had been no dead person in the coffin, and the fact that there had been a living corpse within it was beyond her knowledge).

The individual inspectors and police leadership were portrayed, in her article, as a bunch of nitwits who didn’t understand the concept of prioritizing. Cracking down on an innocent hearse! What next?

The article was sharp, even if it did peter out a bit towards the end. It was also rather long. Thus, at the last second, Bella cut the sections in which the police assured her that the crackdown, which incidentally was not a crackdown, had occurred due to suspicion that there actually was a link to the terrorist act in question.

Foolish police make good local-paper reading.

Foolish police make good national-paper reading too.

In no time, the Stockholm papers’ online editions had cranked out a recap of the hearse story.

As a result, two things happened.

One was that a clearly not-so-foolish police officer in Märsta noticed a possible connection. He was investigating a reckless shooting in a coffin shop from the day before, and this new clue might move the investigation forwards. He would just have to make a phone call or two.

The other was that the membership of Aryan Alliance – that was, Johnny Engvall – now knew for certain that those who must die at any cost were on a trip through Sweden.

‘You’re heading south, you pigs,’ he said to himself. ‘On back roads?’

At first he smiled at his own great intelligence. Then he realized that there were many back roads to choose from in southern Sweden. And the trail had already gone cold.

Johnny needed to know more than the article’s reporter had given him.