Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

Erica woke up at 6:00 on Monday morning and slept for less than an hour, but she felt very refreshed. It must be some kind of physical reaction.For the first time in months, she put on her jogging outfit and headed for the steamboat pier in a furious, fast sprint.But after running for about 100 meters, the pain in his heel became unbearable, so he had to slow down and jog more easily.Enjoy the tingling in your feet with every step you run. It was as if she had been reborn.It was as if death had come to her door, only to change its mind at the last moment and move on to the next house.She still can't believe how lucky she is that Frederickson has had the photo for four days and has done nothing about it.He had a scan and said he had plans, he just hadn't acted on it yet.

She decided to give Susan a very expensive Christmas present this year.She will think of something very special. Without waking her husband, she drove to Naudur for work at 7:30.She parked the car in the garage, took the elevator to the editorial room, and sat down in the glass cage. The first thing she did was to call the maintenance department to send someone over. "Frederessen has left his job and won't be coming back," she said. "Please send someone to bring a box to collect his personal belongings and deliver them to his house this morning." She looked towards the editorial desk, and Holm had just entered, met her eyes, and nodded his head.

She clicked too. Holm was a picky jerk, but after a spat a few weeks ago, he was out of trouble.If he continues to maintain the same positive attitude, he may be able to keep the news editor's job.perhaps. She should be able to turn things around, she thought. At 8:45, she saw Boshe step out of the elevator and disappear into the interior stairwell leading to the upstairs office.Be sure to talk to him today. She poured her coffee and wrote her morning memo for a while.It seems that today's page is a little deserted. The only interesting thing is a news agency report, to the effect that Salander was transferred to the Stockholm detention center the day before.Forwarded to Home with her permission.

At 8:59, The Temple House called. "Erica, come to my office right now." After finishing speaking, she hung up. Erica saw him sitting at his desk, his face pale.He stood up, picked up a stack of thick papers and threw it on the table. "What's this?" he growled. Erica's heart sank.She only glanced at the cover and knew what kind of email Boshe had received this morning. Friedrichsen didn't have time to manipulate her photo, but sent Kertesz's article and survey of Bosher. She forced herself to sit opposite him calmly. "It was written by a reporter named Henry Kertesz. The Millennium was supposed to be in last week's issue."

Boshe showed a look of despair. "How dare you do this to me? I brought you into the Swedish Morgan Post and the first thing you did was dig me up. What kind of media bitch are you?" Erika narrowed her eyes, her face covered in frost.She's had enough of the word "bitch". "Do you really think anyone cares? You think you can take me down with this worthless thing? Why did you send it to me anonymously?" "That's not how it works, Bosher." "Then tell me how it is." "The person who sent you that article anonymously was Frederickson, who was fired yesterday."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" "It's a long story. Anyway, it's been more than two weeks since I got this manuscript, and I've been thinking about how to mention it to you." "Is this what you planned behind your back?" "No, it's not me. It's entirely Kertesz's own research and writing. I don't know anything about it." "You think I'll believe it?" “Blomkvist put it down as soon as his old Millennium colleagues found out about you. He called and gave me a copy, purely because of my position. The article was later removed from my It was stolen here and it ended up being sent to you. Millennium wanted me to have a chance to talk to you before they published it. They're going to have it in the August issue."

"I've never seen a more brazen media bitch than you in my life. It's unbelievable." "Since you have read the report, you should have also considered the investigation behind it. Kertesz's ironclad evidence is solid, and you know that." "And what does that mean?" "If you were here when the Millennium story came out, it would hurt the paper. I was so worried myself, and kept trying to find a solution ... but couldn't find it." "What's the meaning?" "You have to go." "Joke, I didn't do anything illegal."

"Boshe, don't you understand the consequences of this matter being exposed? I don't want to have to hold a board meeting, it's too embarrassing." "You don't have to call anything, you're done with the Swedish Morgan Post." "Wrong, only the board of directors can fire me. Maybe you can call an interim board meeting. I suggest this afternoon." Boshe went around the table and put his face so close to Erica that she could even feel his breath. "Erica, you have only one chance to survive. You have to go to your damn colleagues at Millennium and tell them to pull this story. If you handle it well, I might be able to forget that you did thing."

Erica sighed. "Boshe, you don't understand how serious this is. I have no influence over what Millennium publishes. No matter what I say, the article is in. The only thing I care about is the Swedish Morgan What will happen to the Post, so you have to resign." Boshe pressed the back of the chair with both hands. "Erica, if your Millennium pals know you're going to pack up and go as soon as this nonsense gets out, they might change their minds." He straightened his back. "I'm going to Norrkoping for a meeting today." He looked at her angrily and arrogantly and said, "It's Svea Architecture."

"Understood." "When I come back tomorrow, you have to come and report to me that the matter has been resolved. Understand?" He put on his coat, and Erica looked at him with half-closed eyes. "Maybe you can stay at that time, get out of my office now." She went back to the glass cage, sat quietly for twenty minutes, then picked up the phone and asked Holm to come into the office.This time he came within a minute. "sit." Home raised an eyebrow and sat down. "What did I do wrong this time?" he asked sarcastically. "Holm, today is my last day at the newspaper, and I will resign from this moment. During lunch time, I will find the vice chairman and I will try my best to find various directors for meetings."

He couldn't help staring at her in shock. "I would recommend you as editor-in-chief." "what?" "Can you?" Holm leaned back in his chair and looked at her. "I never wanted to be editor-in-chief," he said. "I know, but you're tough enough. And you'll do anything to get a good story out. If only you had a little more common sense." "What happened?" "My style is different from yours. We always argue about the angle of reporting, and we never reach a consensus." "True," he said. "Never. But maybe it's my stuff." "I don't know if stuffy is the right word to describe it. You're a very good reporter and you act like a jerk, which is not necessary. But the point where we disagree is that when you say that news editors do news evaluations, they never Cannot be influenced by personal factors." Erica suddenly gave Holm a sly smile, then opened the bag and took out the original manuscript of Bosher's report. "Let's test your ability to assess the news. I have a story here from a Millennium reporter. I was thinking this morning that we should make it the headline of the day." She tossed the binder into Holm's leg superior. "You're a news editor, and I'd love to hear if your assessment is the same as mine." Holm opened the binder and read.Just the beginning made his eyes widen. He straightened up and stared at Erica, and then lowered his eyes to read the whole article.Finally, he studied the reference materials for another ten minutes before slowly putting the binder aside. "It's going to cause a huge commotion." "I know, that's why I'm leaving. Millennium was supposed to publish the June issue, but Blomkvist suppressed it. He brought me the article and asked me to talk to Bosher before they published it Let's talk." "The results of it?" "Bosher ordered me to suppress the news." "I see. That's why you plan to publish it in our newspaper to vent your hatred?" "Not out of spite, no. We have no choice. If the Swedish Morgan Post had reported it, there would have been a chance to get out of this melee. Bosche had no choice but to leave, but that also meant I couldn't Continue to stay." Home was silent for two minutes. "Damn, Erica...didn't expect you to be so tough. I never thought I'd say something like that, but if you have such thick skin, I'm really sorry you couldn't stay." "You can block publication, but if you and I are OK...do you think you will?" "Of course it will be published. Anyway, the news will be exposed sooner or later." "exactly." After Hom got up, he stood by the table a little hesitantly. "Go to work," Erica said. After Holm left, she waited five minutes before picking up the phone and calling Marlene. "Hello, Marlene, is Kertesz there?" "Yes, in his seat." "Can you call him into your office and turn on the megaphone? We have to have a meeting." Cortes arrived in less than fifteen seconds. "What's wrong?" "Kertesz, I did an immoral thing today." "yes?" "I took your report on Vittawara to the news editor of our paper." "what?" "I want the news to be published tomorrow. You are the writer, and of course you will be paid. In fact, the price is up to you." "Erica...what the hell is going on?" She recounted the events of the past few weeks and how she had nearly been destroyed at Fredrickson's hands. "My God!" Kertesz exclaimed. "I know this is your report, Kertesz. But there's nothing else I can do. Can you agree?" Kertes was silent for a while. "Thanks for asking me," he said. "It's okay to have the story under my name, I mean, if Marlene doesn't mind." "I don't care," Marlene said. "Thank you." Erica said, "Could you please tell Michael? I don't think he's here yet." "I'll talk to Michael." Marlene said, "But Erica, does that mean you're out of a job from today?" Erica laughs: "I'm going to take a good vacation for the rest of the year. Believe me, a few weeks at the Swedish Morgan Post will be enough." "I don't think you can think about vacations yet," Marlene said. "why?" "Can you come over this afternoon?" "do what?" "I need help. If you want to come back as editor in chief, you can start tomorrow morning." "Marlene, you are the editor-in-chief, there is no other possibility." "Then you will be the editor's secretary." Marlene replied with a smile. "Are you serious?" "Erica, I miss you so much. The reason I came to work here was to have the opportunity to work with you, and you ended up somewhere else." Erica was silent for a minute.She didn't expect to return to Millennium. "Do you really welcome me?" she asked hesitantly. "What do you think? I think we can have a grand celebration first, and I will organize it myself. And you come back just in time, and we just have to publish...you know." Erica looked at the clock on the table. It was ten fifty-five. In just a few hours, her whole world was turned upside down.She suddenly realized how eager she was to climb the Millennium office ladder again. "I have things to attend to here in the next few hours. Shall I be there around four o'clock?" Susan looked directly at Armansky and told everything about what happened the night before.The only thing she was hiding was that she had an intuition that the hacking of the computer at Fredrisen's house might have something to do with Salander.She kept this secret for two reasons.First, she found it too unbelievable.Second, she knew that Armansky and Blomkvist had plunged headlong into the Salander affair. Armansky listened intently.After Susan finished speaking, he said, "Beckman called an hour ago." "Oh?" "He and Erica will come to sign in a few days. He said he would like to thank us Milton for what they have done for them, and especially thank you." "Understood, it's nice to keep customers happy." "He also wants to order a home safe. We'll have it installed by the weekend and finish the whole alarm system." "That's fine." "He said he wants us to send you this weekend's expense bill, and the amount of the bill will be considerable." Armansky sighed: "Susan, Frederick can go to the police station to accuse you of a bunch of crimes. you know?" She nodded and said nothing. "Yeah, he'll end up in prison himself, but he might think it's worth it." "I very much doubt he would have the guts to go to the police." "Perhaps you are right, but your actions have far exceeded my instructions." "I know." "So what do you think I should do?" "It's up to you to decide." "Then how do you think I'll react?" "It doesn't matter what I think. You can still fire me." "It's hard, and I can't afford to lose a great professional like you." "thanks." "But if you do it again, I'll be very angry." Susan nodded. "What did you do with that hard drive?" "Destroyed, broke it in a vise this morning." "Then forget all about it." Erica spent the rest of the morning on the phone with the directors of the Swedish Morgan Post.The vice-chairman was at his summer house near Vaxholm, and she had managed to persuade him to drive into the city as soon as possible.At lunchtime, with only a handful of people making do with the board meeting, Erica began by explaining how she had obtained Kertesz's binder, and what had happened. After she finished speaking, as she expected, it was suggested to find other solutions.Erica told them that the Swedish Morgan Post would publish the story the next day, that it was her last day at work, and that she had made up her mind. She asked the directors to approve two decisions to be included in the minutes.One is to ask Boshe to immediately give up the position of chairman, and the other is to designate Holm as the editor-in-chief.Then she resigned, leaving the directors to deliberate among themselves. At two o'clock, she went to the personnel department and asked them to draw up a contract, and then went to the culture editor Strain Lund and the reporter Eva. "From my observation, you think Eva is a very capable reporter." "Indeed," said Strandlund. "When you applied for the budget for the past two years, you asked for at least two additional staff." "yes." "Eva, because of the kind of email you received the other day, if I hired you full-time, there might be nasty rumors. But are you still interested?" "Of course there is." "Then the last thing I'll do at the newspaper is sign this employment contract with you." "One last thing?" "It's a long story. I'm leaving today. Can you please keep it secret for an hour or so?" "this is……" "There will be a memo soon." After Erica signed the contract, she pushed it to Eva across the table. "Good luck," she said with a smile. "Among the people who had a meeting with Extron on Saturday, the older one was George Newstrom, a police superintendent." Figuelaura said and put the photos that Modi secretly took with his mobile phone on Extron. on the table. "Superintendent." Aiklint murmured. "Stephen confirmed his identity last night. He went to the apartment on Cannon Road." "How much do you know about him?" "He is a regular policeman. He started working for the National Security Bureau in 1983. He started working as an investigator in 1996. He has his own special area of ​​responsibility. In addition to internal control, he also checks the completed cases of the National Security Bureau." "it is good." "Six notable people have been in there since Saturday morning. Besides Jonas and Newstrom, there must have been Clinton in there. He was in the ambulance this morning for a kidney dialysis." "Who are the other three?" "A man named Odor Halbe, who worked for the National Security Agency in the 1980s, is currently on the Defense Staff, working for the Navy and Army Intelligence." "Understood. Why doesn't it seem surprising?" Figuelaura put down another photo. "The identity of this person has not been confirmed yet. He went to Halbe for lunch. When he comes home tonight, see if he can take a clearer photo. But the most interesting thing is this person." She went to the table again Put a photo on it. "I know him," Aiklint said. "His name is Waddenshire." "That's right. About fifteen years ago, he was in the Counter Terrorist Task Force. He was on the desk. He was one of our candidates for the big boss of 'the company'. I don't know what happened to him." "He retired in 1991. Guess who he was having lunch with about an hour ago?" She put down the last photo. "Secretary Schenk and Budget Director Gustav Atbohm. I want to keep an eye on these people 24/7. I want to know exactly who they've seen." "It's not practical." Aiklint said, "I can only send four people." Ai Kelinte pinched his lower lip while thinking.Then he looked up at Figuelaura. "We need more people," he said. "Would you mind sneaking up on Boblanski and asking him to have dinner with me today? About seven o'clock, how about?" Aikelint then picked up the phone and dialed a number he had memorized. "Hello, Armansky, I'm Ai Kelinte. Thanks to your kind hospitality that night, can I treat you back? No, I must. Just make an appointment at seven o'clock?" Salander spent the night in a cell measuring two by four meters in the Kronoberg Detention Center.The equipment in the cell was very simple, but she fell asleep within a few minutes after the door was locked.Waking up early on Monday morning, she obediently followed the instructions of the physiotherapist at Sogenska Hospital to do stretching exercises.Then breakfast was brought, and she sat on the bed in a daze. At half past nine, she was taken to the interrogation room at the end of the corridor.The guard was a short, bald old man with tortoiseshell glasses on a round face and a cheerful, polite demeanor. Annika greeted her warmly, but she turned a blind eye to Fast.This was her first meeting with Prosecutor Extron, but for the next half hour she just sat in a chair, staring fixedly at a point on the wall directly above Extron's head, without saying a word. Hair, move still. At ten o'clock Extron broke off the fruitless interrogation, annoyed at her lack of response.For the first time after observing this young woman who was as thin as a puppet, he felt uncertain.How could she have beaten the two villains Lan Ting and Niminan in Staller Hermann?Even if he had solid evidence, would the judge really believe it? After a simple lunch, Salander spent an hour solving the equations in her head, focusing on the field of spherical astronomy, a book she had read two years ago. At 2:30, she was taken back to the interrogation room, this time guarded by a young woman.Salander sat on an empty chair in the interrogation room, pondering a particularly complex equation. Ten minutes later the door opened. "Hello, Liz." The tone was very kind.It was Tyler Pollyan. He smiled at her, but her blood coagulated all over her body, and the elements of the equations that were originally constructed in the air fell to the ground one by one. She even heard the sound of numbers and mathematical symbols bouncing and bumping, as if they were tangible objects. Tyler Pollyan stood looking at her for a moment before sitting down across the table from her.She continued to stare at that spot on the wall. After a while, their eyes met. "It's a pity that you ended up like this," Tyler Polian said. "I will try to help you as much as I can, and hopefully we can build some kind of relationship of trust." Salander looked at him from head to toe.Messy hair, beard, gap between the front teeth, thin lips, brand new brown jacket, shirt with the collar open.She listened to his voice, smooth and eerily kind. "I also hope that this time I can help more than last time." He put a small notebook and pen on the table.Salander lowered her eyes to the pen, the pointed silver barrel. risk assessment. She resisted the urge to reach for the pen. Her eyes moved to the little finger of his left hand, and she saw an inconspicuous white mark, which was her tooth mark fifteen years ago, when she bit him desperately, almost biting off his finger, leaning on three The guards worked together to open her mouth. I was a prepubescent, terrified little girl, and now I'm grown up and ready to kill you. She fixed her gaze on that point on the wall again, picked up the scattered numbers and symbols and began to reorganize the equation. Tyler Pollyan looked at Salander expressionlessly.He can become an internationally renowned psychiatrist not because of his reputation, but because he really has the ability to see through emotions and moods.He could feel a cold shadow passing across the room, which he interpreted as a sign that the patient was feeling fear and shame despite his external composure.He thought that his appearance had affected her, and he was very happy to see that her attitude had not changed for many years.Her going to court is asking for death. The last thing Erica did at the Swedish Morgan Post was to write a memo to all the staff.At the beginning, she was very emotional, and wrote two full pages explaining the reasons for her resignation, including her impressions of some colleagues, but later deleted them all and wrote it from scratch in a calmer tone. She didn't mention Fredericsen.If he is mentioned, all the attention will be shifted to him, the sexual harassment incident will definitely cause a sensation, and the real reason for her departure will be covered up. She said two reasons.The main one is that she proposed that executives and shareholders should reduce salaries and dividends, but was strongly blocked by the management.In other words, she had to reluctantly lay off staff just after she took office at the newspaper. This not only violated the promise that the company gave her when she took over the job, but also made her plan to make long-term changes in order to strengthen the newspaper all in vain. The second reason she raised was the exposure of Bosher.She said he ordered her to cover up the story, which was so different from the job she had in mind, that she had no choice but to resign as editor-in-chief.She finally said that the dangerous situation of "Swedish Morgan Post" was not due to personnel problems, but management problems. She reread the memo, corrected the typos, and sent it to all staff at the paper, as well as copies to the News and the trade magazine The Newsman.Then she put away her laptop and walked over to Home's seat. "Goodbye," she said. "Goodbye, Erica. Working with you is a pain." They exchanged a smile. "One last thing," she said. "Say it." "Johnnes has been running a story for me." "Yes, and no one knows what he's up to." "Give him some backing. He has found a lot of things. I will keep in touch with him and let him finish the job. I promise you will be very satisfied with the results." He seemed a little alert.But then he nodded. They did not shake hands.She put the card lock on his desk and took the elevator down to the garage.Shortly after four o'clock, her BMW was parked near the Millennium offices.