Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, The - Stieg Larsson [0]
MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson
THE GIRL WHO
KICKED THE
HORNETS’ NEST
Translated from the Swedish by
Reg Keeland
MACLEHOSE PRESS
QUERCUS · LONDON
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by
MacLehose Press
an imprint of Quercus
21 Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1A 2NS
Originally published in Sweden as Luftslottet Som Sprängdes
by Norstedts, Stockholm, in 2007.
Text published with agreement of Norstedts Agency.
Copyright © 2007 by Norstedts Agency
English Translation Copyright © 2009 by Reg Keeland
The moral right of Stieg Larsson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue reference for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN (HB) 978 1 906694 16 6
ISBN (TPB) 978 1 906694 17 3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset in Monotype Sabon by Ellipsis Books Limited, Glasgow
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
PART I
INTERMEZZO IN A CORRIDOR
8 – 12.iv
It is estimated that some six hundred women served during the American Civil War. They had signed up disguised as men. Hollywood has missed a significant chapter of cultural history here – or is this history ideologically too difficult to deal with? Historians have often struggled to deal with women who do not respect gender distinctions, and nowhere is that distinction more sharply drawn than in the question of armed combat. (Even today, it can cause controversy having a woman on a typically Swedish moose hunt.)
But from antiquity to modern times, there are many stories of female warriors, of Amazons. The best known find their way into the history books as warrior queens, rulers as well as leaders. They have been forced to act as any Churchill, Stalin, or Roosevelt: Semiramis from Nineveh, who shaped the Assyrian Empire, and Boudicca, who led one of the bloodiest English revolts against the Roman forces of occupation, to cite just two. Boudicca is honoured with a statue on the Thames at Westminster Bridge, right opposite Big Ben. Be sure to say hello to her if you happen to pass by.
On the other hand, history is quite reticent about women who were common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and played their part in battle on the same terms as men. Hardly a war has been waged without women soldiers in the ranks.
CHAPTER 1
Friday, 8.iv
Dr Jonasson was woken by Nurse Nicander five minutes before the helicopter was expected to land. It was just before 1.30 in the morning.
“What?” he said, confused.
“Rescue Service helicopter coming in. Two patients. An injured man and a younger woman. The woman has a gunshot wound.”
“Alright,” Jonasson said wearily.
He felt groggy although he had slept for only half an hour. He was on the night shift in A. & E. at Sahlgrenska hospital in Göteborg. It had been a strenuous evening. Since he had come on duty at 6.00 p.m., the hospital had received four victims of a head-on collision outside Lindome. One was pronounced D.O.A. He had treated a waitress whose legs had been scalded in an accident at a restaurant on Avenyn, and he had saved the life of a four-year-old boy who arrived at the hospital with respiratory failure after swallowing the wheel of a toy car. He had patched up a girl who had ridden her bike into a ditch that the road-repair department had chosen to dig close to the end of a bike