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

Sweden

The minister for foreign affairs had scared Inspector Bäckman off any further investigation of Karlsson and Jonsson. But that didn’t mean she could let the matter go. What had happened to them since their return to Sweden? Someone had fired an automatic weapon into a shop where they were presumed to be?

The minister was struck by a dizzying thought. What if the North Korean security service were operating in Swedish territory and trying to execute Swedish citizens? After all, it was only recently that the life of a North Korean had been taken in Malaysia – it was a long step from there to doing the same to a Swede in Sweden, but perhaps not too long?

But… the method? Going from poison to shooting wildly?

And why hadn’t Karlsson and Jonsson reported the incident to the police? Because they were afraid? They hadn’t seemed particularly terrified in front of either Kim Jong-un or Donald Trump. Who could be worse than them?

All of this and more nagged at the minister. She had a Malmö address for Julius Jonsson, but couldn’t see herself travelling all the way from Stockholm for some sort of private investigation of two diplomats to whom she herself had wrongly supplied diplomatic passports.

Not until she happened to have reason to go there on business.

For more than a year, border patrol between Denmark and Sweden had been a source of irritation to both nations. Refugees in need journeyed all the way through Europe, and when they arrived in Denmark, the Danes gladly helped send them on across the Sound to Sweden.

That worked, until it didn’t any more. Once little Sweden had accepted more refugees than all the rest of Europe combined, with the exception of Germany, the system collapsed. There was nowhere for the refugees to live. The country was unable to investigate their refugee status within a reasonable amount of time, much less offer them a dignified future. What was more, a frighteningly large percentage of the children who arrived alone were seventeen-year-old boys, whether or not they were seventeen. They had been sent off as vanguards by family somewhere in the most miserable corner of the world, whose head of household had, as the only remaining source of pride, the task of making sure the whole family survived. Others had grown up on the street and were schooled in crime but nothing else. Still others were heroin addicts: how else could they have endured?

The rest of Europe laughed at silly Sweden. Few came to the inverse conclusion: that if the rest of the EU countries had followed the lead of Sweden and Germany, the refugee situation would have been manageable. Trying to collect gold stars in heaven, before the Day of Judgment, was out.

Anyway. At last Sweden forcibly closed its border with neighbouring Denmark. No one was let across the bridge without first being thoroughly inspected. Thousands of people who commuted between the countries experienced terrible delays.

This got immediate results. Sweden lost its reputation as heaven on earth and the number of asylum-seekers decreased from everyone to almost no one. Meanwhile daily life between the big cities of Malmö and Copenhagen was disrupted. For the first time in decades, it became clear that Sweden and Denmark were two different countries that you couldn’t randomly travel between as you wished. No matter the colour of your skin.

But now, however, it was time for a thaw in the relationship. Sweden planned to stop requiring ID from everyone who wanted to come over from the Danish side. This would be replaced with more effective border control in Sweden. Thus the Swedish border police needed fresh resources, and the long and the short of it was that the prime minister had asked Minister for Foreign Affairs Wallström to travel to Malmö to speak with the border police about the new government policy. And, if possible, reassure anxious civil servants who didn’t understand how they could be ready in time. She would strike a tone of international perspective and help the hardworking civil servants understand that they were an important part of a greater whole.

Marking oneself present, as politicians called it.

The minister took a commercial flight between Stockholm and Malmö, and after the meeting with the border police was over and had even gone well, she had three hours of free time. After considering it for a while, she informed her security team that she was planning to take a brief private side trip in Malmö before their journey home.

A side trip? Just like that? The bodyguards wanted to know more. The minister told them that the people she wished to see were old acquaintances (exactly how old, she didn’t say), and posed no threat to her. At this, they all agreed that she would be escorted to the desired address but left alone from the front door of the building onwards. Security was important, but so was personal integrity.