Ask No Mercy
Page 38
Frank Ståhl had told the police that the Russian agent had threatened him and forced him to cover up the violations of Telia’s network security. But it hadn’t taken them long to see through Frank’s lies. Frank had been fired immediately and was in pretrial confinement. An official Telia press release had said that the media-relations director was guilty of serious dereliction of duty in connection with the internal hacking investigation. Max didn’t know where Frank was now, nor did he know what charges would be brought against him. But Sofia Karlsson at the National Bureau of Investigation had said the Swedish Security Service wouldn’t release him.
As far as the public knew, there was no official interest in further investigating the Telia affair, nor had Max been connected with the death of Ray Karvelis.
When the taxi came to a stop outside Vektor’s headquarters on Valhallavägen, Max and Pashie decided they wouldn’t think about any of that just now.
In the media, the entire presidential election campaign had been called a process of choosing between continued development toward democracy or a return to a Communist regime. This was it. There wasn’t going to be a third round.
They hoped for euphoria on the streets of Russia tonight.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my publisher, Karin Linge Nordh, for the courage and the will to make this story as good as it could possibly be.
John Häggblom, my editor, for turning something so difficult into a true pleasure.
Joakim Hansson, my agent at Nordin Agency, for discussing the story and for good business sense, a combination that is incarnate in few people and is completely invaluable.
Mons Kallentoft, my friend, for the kick in the butt and the text message that forever changed my way of looking at myself and my life.
Thanks to my family, my colleagues, and my friends for their patience.
To the reader who has gotten this far: we’ve only begun.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2018 Sören Vilks
Martin Österdahl has studied Russian, East European studies, and economics. He worked with TV productions for twenty years and was simultaneously the program director at Swedish Television. His interest in Russia and its culture arose in the early 1980s. After studying Russian at university and having had the opportunity to go behind the Iron Curtain more than once, he decided to relocate and finish his master’s thesis there.
The 1990s were a very exciting time in Russia, and 1996, with its presidential election, was a particularly crucial year. Seeing history in the making inspired Österdahl to write the first novel in the Max Anger series, Ask No Mercy. The series has been sold to more than ten territories and is soon to be a major TV series.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Photo © 2016
Peter Sean Woltemade is an American-born literary translator who has been based in Copenhagen since 2004 and has lived in Germany and Sweden for several years, respectively. His work has appeared in Border Crossing, Columbia, Exchanges, K1N, Pusteblume, Storm Cellar, the Brooklyn Rail, the Cossack Review, the Literary Review, the Missing Slate, and Wilderness House Literary Review. He is the translator of more than a dozen published books, including Kurt Jacobsen’s Haldor Topsøe (Historika/Gads Forlag, 2015); Stefanie Ross’s Nemesis (AmazonCrossing, 2016); and Kurt Jacobsen and Anders Ravn Sørensen’s CBS (Historika/Gads Forlag, 2017). He has worked with translators Shaun Whiteside, Maureen Freely, Sasha Dugdale, Katy Derbyshire, Karen Emmerich, and B. J. Epstein; and with authors Julia Butschkow, Kristof Magnusson, and Kristina Sandberg.