Filipson went up to Kim and gave her a hug.
“I’ve resigned from my job, Kim. I can report Albert Svan to the police. He’ll go to prison. You can avoid being a witness, because we have fingerprints from the hotel and a car that are not yours. I just needed someone’s fingerprints to compare with, and we now have that. You can travel back to your father in Russia. I hope you come back some day. I will get in touch with the Russian Embassy and tell them the whole story. The condition that I and the Swedish government will make is that you and your family are left alone. That is the price the Russians have to pay for our silence. But we are going to get Albert Svan.”
“Thanks.” That was all that Kim managed to say. “I have no more business here in Grisslehamn, I’m afraid.”
CHAPTER 157
GRISSLEHAMN, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2010
Bill Bergman was holding onto Harry Nuder and John Axman. A short distance away stood Jöran Järv. They were about ten yards behind Anton Modin and could not see his face. All they saw was his back dressed in a black leather jacket. He wanted to be left alone. The five friends had gathered for a farewell.
The sun peeked out from behind dark snow clouds. It was orange and lit up the bay and the pier as if this was an early Technicolor movie. The wind was still that day.
Modin’s head was slightly bowed. He was squatting in front of a white wooden cross, his shoulders shaking. It looked like the cross on the grave of Nuder’s dogs, but bigger.
Bergman remembered the burial of Nuder’s dogs as if it was yesterday. Two years ago, the dogs’ murder had triggered their war against Special Ops. Nuder had new dogs now. They had grown big and chased around the garden.
Bergman saw Axman patting Miss Mona. He was holding the fat cat in his arms. She looked happy. She didn’t like being left on her own.
Bergman had been home to his wife Ewa and his daughter Astrid. They had forgiven him, because he promised that it was over now, forever.
“We just have to bury Modin’s family. Then the three of us are leaving,” he had said. “From now on, only the two of you count.”
Bergman wanted to believe that what he had said was true, but he knew that his friend Modin would always mean something to him.
Without him, Modin was alone. He had lost another woman, this time not to a violent death. Kim had betrayed him and so she might as well be dead. Bergman was sure of that. Modin would never forgive her.
Bergman watched his friend stand up and walk to the cross. From inside his leather jacket, Modin took out Ellinor’s teddy bear and put it at the base.
Then he stood still, lost in thought, his mind presumably filled with the words inscribed on the cross:
My love died for the security of the state. Take care, love you all.
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Deep State
The most secretive organization in Sweden operates without any accountability to the Swedish people, hiding in the shadows: the Deep State.
Anton Modin, a former Military Intelligence Special Ops officer, is obsessed with exposing his former employer and boss, the ever present and enigmatic Lieutenant Colonel Chris Loklinth. Modin lost loved ones, his two children and beloved wife, in the M/S Estonia ferry disaster in 1994. In great despair, even 14 years later, he still accuses his former department, Special Ops, to have had a part in the accident. What he doesn’t know is that since the end of World War II, Special Ops has been cooperating closely with both the American CIA and the British MI6; together these organizations represent the Deep State. Something deeply secret in the kingdom of Sweden.
Enemy Of The State
As a reward for services rendered to the state, Navy diver and former Swedish Air Force pilot Anton Modin is given permission to spend one night in the top secret archive of the Swedish Security Service to do research. He discovers a dossier covering the 1986 murder of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Just as he is beginning to get to the details of the dossier, Modin is kicked out of the archive. That same night, the head of the Swedish Security Service dies of a massive heart attack.
When he narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life soon afterwards, Modin realizes that he has seen material not meant for his eyes. To stay alive, he has to follow the leads that uncover covert arms sales during the 1980s, the murder of an investigative journalist, a secret CIA-controlled organization called Crack of Dawn, and all the shadowy aspects and unholy alliances of the Cold War.
On his hunt for the truth, Modin meets Julia Steerback, a former operative of the Swedish Signal Intelligence and its U.S. equivalent, the National Security Agency. Together they challenge powerful forces, including the head of the Swedish Special Ops. Soon, a turf war breaks out in the archipelago to the north of Stockholm and Anton Modin’s tightly knit team of specialists and divers has to pass the ultimate test.
Under Water (Anton Modin Book 3) Page 37