The Sandman

183

Saga was taken by ambulance to Danderyd Hospital, where she was examined and given a bed. She lay for a while in her room, but left the hospital by taxi before she received any treatment.

Now she’s limping along a corridor in the Karolinska Hospital, where Reidar and Mikael were taken by air ambulance. Her clothes are dirty and wet, her face is streaked with blood, and all she can hear in her right ear is a loud buzzing sound.

Reidar and his son are still in emergency room 12. She opens the door and sees the author lying on an operating table.

Mikael is standing beside him, holding his hand.

Reidar is telling the male nurse over and over again that he has to see his daughter.

The moment he sees Saga he falls silent.

Mikael takes some clean compresses from the trolley and gives them to Saga. He points at her forehead, where blood has once again started to trickle from the blackened wound on her eyebrow.

The nurse comes over, looks at Saga, then asks her to accompany him to an examination room.

‘I’m a police officer,’ Saga says, looking for her ID.

‘You need help,’ the nurse tries to say, but Saga interrupts him and asks for them to be taken to Felicia Kohler-Frost’s room in the infectious diseases clinic.

‘I have to see her,’ she says gravely.

The nurse makes a call, gets the go-ahead and wheels Reidar’s bed towards the lift.

The bed’s wheels squeak faintly on the pale vinyl floor.

Saga follows, suddenly feeling the urge to cry.

Reidar is lying with his eyes closed, and Mikael is walking alongside, holding his father by the hand.

A young nurse meets them and shows them into an intensive care room with subdued lighting.

The only sound is the slow wheezing and ticking of the machines monitoring heart rate, breathing, blood oxygenation and ECG.

In the bed lies an extremely slight woman. Her long black hair is spread out over her shoulders and pillow. Her eyes are closed and her small hands are lying by her sides.

She’s breathing rapidly, and her face is covered with beads of sweat.

‘Felicia,’ Reidar whispers, trying to reach her with his hand.

Mikael leans his cheek towards his sister and whispers something to her with a smile.

Saga stands behind them, staring at Felicia, the captive girl who has now been rescued from the darkness.