Free Firewall by Henning Mankell Page A

the Ystad area.
It took him 19 minutes to reach the substation. The area was completely dark. Every time the power went out and he was out looking for the problem, he was struck by the same thought: that as little as a hundred years ago this impenetrable darkness had been the norm. The advent of electricity had changed everything. No-one now living could remember what life had been like before electricity. But he would also think about how vulnerable society had become. In the worst-case scenario, one single snag in the power grid could plunge a third of the country into darkness.
"I'm here," he told Ågren on his radio transmitter.
"Hurry up, then."
The power substation stood in a field. It was surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. At regular intervals there were "No Trespassing" and "Danger! High Voltage" signs. He hunched over against the wind, a set of keys in his hand and wearing a pair of protective glasses he had constructed himself with two small powerful flashlights attached to the frames. He found the right keys and stopped in front of the gates. They were open. He looked around. There was no car, no sign of anyone else. He took up his radio again and called Ågren.
"The gates have been busted open," he said.
Ågren had difficulty hearing him because of the wind. Andersson had to repeat himself.
"It doesn't look as though anyone's here. I'm going in."
The gates had been broken open before, and it was always reported to the police. Sometimes the police managed to catch the guilty party, usually drunken teenagers on a vandalism kick. But they had also considered the possibility of someone bent on sabotaging the grid. In fact, Andersson had been in a meeting only this last September where one of the Sydkraft safety engineers had proposed the installation of a whole new set of security measures.
He turned his head. Since he had his hand-held torch too, three spots of light travelled across the metal frame of the substation. A little grey building set deep among the steel towers was the heart of the structure. It housed the transformers. It had a thick steel door that could be opened only with two different keys, or by the use of powerful explosives. Andersson had marked the various keys on his chain with coloured tape. The red key opened the gates, the yellow and blue were for the steel door of the transformer building. He looked around. There was no-one there. The only thing he heard was the wind. He started walking but stopped after only a few steps. Something had caught his attention. He looked around again. Was there anyone behind him? He could hear Ågren's raspy voice coming from the radio dangling from his jacket. He didn't bother to answer. What was it that had made him stop? There was nothing there in the darkness, at least nothing that he could see. There was, however, a bad smell, but that probably came from the fields, he thought. The farmer must have fertilised them recently. He continued towards the transformer building. The bad smell lingered. Then he stopped short. The steel door was ajar. He took a few steps back and clutched the radio.
"The door's open," he said. "Can you hear me?"
"I hear you. What do you mean the door is open?"
"Just what I said."
"Is anyone there?"
"I don't know. It doesn't look as if it's been forced."
"But then how could it be open?"
"I don't know."
The radio was quiet. Andersson felt very alone.
Ågren spoke up. "Do you mean the door is unlocked?"
"That's what it looks like to me. And there's a strange smell."
"You'll have to go in and see what it is. There's a lot of pressure from above right now to get this thing cleared up. The bosses keep calling and asking what the hell happened."
Andersson took a deep breath and walked all the way up to the door, opened it further and directed his flashlight inside. At first he didn't know what he was looking at. The stench was overwhelming. Slowly it dawned on him what had happened. The power had gone out in Skåne this October evening because