Free MemoRandom: A Thriller by Anders de La Motte

the cops followed them and called in backup. The rapid response unit went in just as they were changing cars, and shots were fired. Adnan and Juha were killed, and Tommy was left a vegetable.”
    “Sadly that’s all true.” Abu Hamsa nodded. “I just wanted to be sure that you knew all the details. Sometimes stories take on a life of their own, people talk so much. You know how it is.” The little man held out his hands. “By the way, you don’t have to worry about Adnan’s family.” Hamsa tilted his head toward Cassandra. “There are a lot of people supporting them, people who are angry with the police. Perhaps you heard that the rapid response unit was cleared of any suspicion of using excessive force, and that the whole thing was regarded as self-defense seeing as Adnan fired first? Things looked very unsettled for a while afterward. Cars set on fire, stone throwing, all the usual.”
    Atif nodded slowly and drank his cooling coffee.
    “And I myself will keep an eye on Tindra and her mother. For the sake of old friendship,” Abu Hamsa added. The little man glanced at Atif, evidently expecting some sort of reaction.
    “Thank you, Abu Hamsa. I know Adnan would have appreciated that,” Atif said.
    Abu Hamsa went on looking at him, then broke into a smile.
    “You seem different, my friend. Calmer, nowhere near as angry as you were before. You look much healthier, and your Arabic is much improved. You did the right thing in leaving. If your brother had done the same, or me too, for that matter, who knows how things might have turned out? But it takes great courage to do what you did, leaving everything behind. Starting again from scratch. Courage that most of us don’t have.” Abu Hamsa gestured toward the ceiling again.
    “Well, my friend, I shall let you finish your coffee,” he said. “It was lovely to see you again, even if the circumstances could obviously have been better. Please, convey my condolences to your mother. How is Dalia, by the way?”
    “Alzheimer’s,” Atif said quietly. “She’s living in a nursing home. But I promise I’ll tell her. She remembers things from the past fairly well. The present is more of a problem.”
    “I understand.” Abu Hamsa nodded. “I myself have come to the painful conclusion that I have forgotten considerably more things than I remember. My doctor says that it’s all there in my head, and that I’ve just forgotten how to find it. Like a path in the forest getting overgrown. Maybe she’s right, unless she’s just saying that to cheer me up.” The little man patted Atif on the shoulder. Tenderly, almost cautiously, in a way that made Atif smile slightly without knowing he was doing it.
    “Farewell, dear friend. Now I must convey my condolences to the beautiful young widow,” Abu Hamsa said. “But if there’s anything you need, I hope you’ll be in touch. Cassandra has my number, you only have to call. No matter what.” Abu Hamsa gave him an emphatic wink.
    “Really, I thought you were going to retire?” Atif said.
    “Inshallah!” the little man said, bursting into a hoarse laugh. “If it is God’s will. Have a safe journey home, my friend!”

SEVEN
    He had to make sense of things. Get his weak, pathetic body out of this damn hospital bed and force his head to make the right connections. Try to work out what was going on. Why he had lied to his boss about the gaps in his memory, why he was scribbling cryptic warnings to himself, and why that name made his pulse race out of control.
    Janus. Clearly a code name for a CI, and a very important one, to judge by Bergh’s questions and paranoid behavior. The problem was that he couldn’t remember any code names, he couldn’t actually remember a bloody thing. Well, that wasn’t quite true, he wasn’t Jason Bourne. He could remember loads of things, just nothing that could help him make sense of what had happened. It was as if the stroke had sliced through his brain, cutting off all connections