Free Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson Page A

been when he and Berger decided to hire him. He was competent, of course, and had worked at the TT news bureau, the evening papers, and Eko on the radio. But he apparently did not like sailing against the wind. During the past year Blomkvist had often regretted that they had hired Dahlman, who had an enervating habit of looking at everything in as negative a light as possible.
    “Have you heard from Christer?” Blomkvist asked without taking his eyes off the street.
    Christer Malm was the art director and designer of
Millennium
. He was also part owner of the magazine together with Berger and Blomkvist, but he was on a trip abroad with his boyfriend.
    “He called to say hello.”
    “He’ll have to be the one who takes over as publisher.”
    “Lay off, Micke. As publisher you have to count on being punched in the nose every so often. It’s part of the job description.”
    “You’re right about that. But I was the one who wrote the article that was published in a magazine of which I also happen to be the publisher. Thatmakes everything look different all of a sudden. Then it’s a matter of bad judgement.”
    Berger felt that the disquiet she had been carrying with her all day was about to explode. In the weeks before the trial started, Blomkvist had been walking around under a black cloud. But she had never seen him as gloomy and dejected as he seemed to be now in the hour of his defeat. She walked to his side of the desk and sat on his lap, straddling him, and put her arms round his neck.
    “Mikael, listen to me. We both know exactly how it happened. I’m as much to blame as you are. We simply have to ride out the storm.”
    “There isn’t any storm to ride out. As far as the media are concerned, the verdict means that I’ve been shot in the back of the head. I can’t stay on as the publisher of
Millennium
. The vital thing is to maintain the magazine’s credibility, to stop the bleeding. You know that as well as I do.”
    “If you think I intend to let you take the rap all by yourself, then you haven’t learned a damn thing about me in the years we’ve worked together.”
    “I know how you operate, Ricky. You’re 100 percent loyal to your colleagues. If you had to choose, you’d keep fighting against Wennerström’s lawyers until your credibility was gone too. We have to be smarter than that.”
    “And you think it’s smart to jump ship and make it look as if I sacked you?”
    “If
Millennium
is going to survive, it depends on you now. Christer is great, but he’s just a nice guy who knows about images and layout and doesn’t have a clue about street fighting with billionaires. It’s just not his thing. I’m going to have to disappear for a while, as publisher, reporter, and board member. Wennerström knows that I know what he did, and I’m absolutely sure that as long as I’m anywhere near
Millennium
he’s going to try to ruin us.”
    “So why not publish everything we know? Sink or swim?”
    “Because we can’t prove a damn thing, and right now I have no credibility at all. Let’s accept that Wennerström won this round.”
    “OK, I’ll fire you. What are you going to do?”
    “I need a break, to be honest. I’m burned right out. I’m going to take some time for myself for a while, some of it in prison. Then we’ll see.”
    Berger put her arms around him and pulled his head down to her breasts. She hugged him hard.
    “Want some company tonight?” she said.
    Blomkvist nodded.
    “Good. I’ve already told Greger I’m at your place tonight.”

    The street lights reflecting off the corners of the windows were all that lit the room. When Berger fell asleep sometime after 2:00 in the morning, Blomkvist lay awake studying her profile in the dimness. The covers were down around her waist, and he watched her breasts slowly rising and falling. He was relaxed, and the anxious knot in his stomach had eased. She had that effect on him. She always had had. And he knew that he had the same