How It All Goes Down
Wednesday, April 6
- Blomkvist drives out to meet Björck. Björck agrees to tell him who Zala is if Blomkvist promises not to reveal Björck's involvement with prostitutes.
- Blomkvist says OK, but still intends to publish Dag's book, which exposes Björck.
- After a neighbor reports a shot fired near Bjurman's cabin, the local police drive out.
- They find Nieminen and Lundin wounded, and missing a motorcycle.
- Detective Jerker Holmberg arrives at Bjurman's cabin. Inside, he reads the files Salander left behind. He calls Bublanski and reports that Salander wounded the two bikers, then stole a Harley.
- Salander drives to an amusement park, leaves the Harley there, then heads home.
- Björck tells Blomkvist about Alexander Zalachenko.
- Zala was born in 1940 in Stalingrad, Russia.
- When he was a year old, both of his parents died during the Battle of Stalingrad.
- He was placed in an orphanage sponsored by the Russian military. From the time he was a least five, he received military training.
- At age eighteen, he began his career with the Russian "military intelligence service" (27.92), the GRU and became a top agent.
- In 1976 he failed in a mission and defected to Sweden, seeking asylum with the Security Police, and sold them Russian secrets. Björck and Bjurman happened to be in the Säpo office when Zala arrived. They were his first Swedish contacts, and they both built their career around him.
- Blomkvist says he thinks Zala killed Dag, Mia, and Bjurman.
- Björck says this can't be. Zala is over sixty, and has an amputated foot. He isn't on the loose shooting people. Björck refuses to give Blomkvist Zala's Swedish pseudonym.
- Blomkvist decides to go talk to Salander's old guardian Holger Palmgren.