The Sandman

182

Saga is pointing her pistol out through the window and sees Reidar Frost in the glow of the flare. He’s picked it up, and blood is pouring down his body, he stumbles and looks like he’s going to fall, then he throws the flare.

Saga wipes the blood from her eyebrows and sees the flare spin through the darkness in a wide arc, and follows it with her eyes, seeing it land in the snow. In its white glow she can clearly make out Jurek Walter. He’s dragging Mikael behind him. They’re more than a hundred metres away.

They’re a long way off, but Saga rests her arm against the window frame and takes aim.

Jurek is moving away. The pistol’s sights keep shaking. The black figure keeps moving out of the line of fire.

Saga tries to hold the gun steady. Taking slow breaths, she squeezes the trigger, past the first notch, and sees Jurek’s head slide away.

She keeps losing focus and blinks quickly.

A moment later the angle of fire is better and she squeezes the trigger three times as the sights slip gradually lower.

The harsh, sharp blasts echo between the manor and stable block.

Saga manages to see that at least one of the bullets hits Jurek in the neck. Blood is squirting out, hanging like a red haze in front of him in the bright white light.

She fires off several more shots and sees him let go of Mikael, fall into the shadows and disappear.

Saga backs away from the window, turns and runs through the hidden doorway.

She rushes down the stairs. The pistol in her hand clatters against the banisters. She emerges into the kitchen, runs through the rooms, into the large hall and out into the snow. Gasping, she approaches the glowing light with her pistol raised. Further away she sees the black water of the rapids glint like a metallic fracture in the white landscape.

She carries on through the deep snow and tries to make out anything through the darkness, off towards the forest.

The light of the flare is weaker now, it will soon go out. Mikael is lying on his side in the snow, gasping for breath. There’s blood spattered at the very edge of the trembling circle of light, but the body isn’t there.

‘Jurek,’ she whispers, pushing into the light and spotting his tracks through the snow.

Saga’s head is aching badly as she picks up the flare and holds it aloft, then carries on moving forward. The glow flickers ahead of her. Shadows and light play across the snow, and suddenly she sees movement from the corner of her eye.

Jurek stands up and moves away through the snow.

Saga fires before she has time to aim properly. The bullet goes through the top of his arm and he lurches to one side, almost falling, then takes a few steps down the steep slope leading to the rapids.

Saga follows, with the flare held high. She catches sight of him again, takes aim and hits him in the chest with three shots.

Jurek falls backwards, over the icy fringe and straight into the black water of the rapids. Saga fires as he’s falling, and hits him in the cheek and ear.

He gets sucked down into the water and she runs over and manages to shoot him in the foot before he disappears. Saga replaces the cartridge, slides down the steep slope, falls and hits her back on the ground, sliding under the snow, but gets unsteadily to her feet and fires into the black water. She holds the flare up above the swirling rapids. The light penetrates the surface, past the spinning bubbles and all the way to the dark-brown bottom. Something large is tumbling round down there, and suddenly she catches a glimpse of a wrinkled face among the stones and swirling weeds.

Saga fires again and a cloud of blood billows out in the dark water. She takes aim and goes on firing, releases the cartridge and slides in a fresh one, then shoots again. The flashes from the barrel flicker on the racing water. She walks along the shore, following the current, and goes on shooting until she has no more ammunition and Jurek Walter’s body vanishes beneath the ice where the rapids spread out.

Panting, Saga stands at the edge of the water as the flare dies away to a shimmering red glow.

She just stares down at the water as tears run down her face, like a tired child.

The first rays of sunlight are starting to reach over the treetops, and the warm light of dawn spreads out across the sparkling snowy landscape. There’s a sound of helicopters approaching in the air, and Saga realises that it’s over at last.