The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye: Continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

he could see a flickering light above him.
    “If you behave yourself and don’t touch your belt, I won’t hit you again,” Salander said, and snatched the I.Q. test out of his hand.
    Olsen thought he could make out sounds from beyond the cell door. Was it a television in a neighbouring cell? Or some colleagues talking in the corridor? Impossible to tell, he was too dazed. He considered screaming for help. But the pain had invaded his mind, and he could not think straight. He had only a blurred vision of Salander and felt frightened and confused. His hand may have moved towards the alarm, more as a reflex than in any conscious act. But it never got there. There was another blow to his stomach and he curled up in a foetal position and gasped for air.
    “You see?” Salander said quietly. “Not a good idea. But I don’t really like hurting you. Weren’t you a little hero once upon a time, who saved his mother or something? That’s what I heard. Now this unit of yours has gone to hell, and you left Faria Kazi in the lurch – again. I have to warn you, I don’t like it.”
    He could think of nothing to say.
    “That woman has been through enough. It’s got to stop,” she said, and Olsen nodded without really knowing why. “We’re already seeing eye to eye. Did you read about me in the papers?”
    He nodded again, now keeping his hands well away from his belt.
    “Good. Then you know that I stop at nothing. And I mean nothing. But maybe we can make a deal.”
    “What?” He barely managed to utter the word.
    “I’ll help you get this place back into shape and make sure Benito and her sidekicks don’t come anywhere near Faria Kazi, and you … you’re going to lend me a computer.”
    “No way. You” – he caught his breath – “assaulted me. You’re in serious trouble.”
    “
You’re
the one in trouble,” she said. “You don’t lift a finger to stop the bullying and abuse in here. Do you have any idea what a disgrace that is? The pride of the prison service has ended up in the hands of a little Mussolini!”
    “But—”
    “Shut it. I’m going to help you to fix this. But first you’re going to take me to a computer with an internet connection.”
    “That is
not
happening,” he said in a voice that tried to sound tough. “There are cameras all over this corridor. You’re screwed.”
    “Then we’re both screwed and that’s just fine by me,” she said.
    At that moment Olsen remembered Mikael Blomkvist. During the short time that Salander had been a prisoner, the famous journalist had already visited her two or three times. The last thing Olsen wanted was Blomkvist digging around in his dirty linen. What should he do? He was in far too much pain for rational thought. Instead he held his shoulder and stomach and said, without really knowing what he meant by it:
    “I can’t guarantee anything.”
    “Neither can I, so we’re square. Let’s get going.”
    “What if we run into another staff member in the admin section?” he said.
    “You’ll think of something. The I.Q. test was such an inspired idea, after all.”
    He struggled to his feet and lurched to one side. The bulb in the ceiling seemed to be spinning above him. He felt sick. “One minute, I have to …”
    She helped him straighten up and smoothed his hair, as if to tidy his appearance. Then she hit him again, scaring him half to death. But this time there was no pain. She had put his shoulder back in place.
    “Come on,” she said.
    He thought about pressing the alarm and bawling for help. He considered hitting her with his truncheon and using the pepper spray. But instead he walked down the corridor with Salander as if nothing had happened. As he opened the sally port gates, he prayed they wouldn’t meet anybody. But of course they bumped into his colleague Harriet, who was so slippery he could not know whether she sided with Benito or with the authorities. He had the feeling she went with whichever was likely to give her the