How It All Goes Down
Wednesday, June 1
- Figuerola waits for Blomkvist at Blomkvist's place, then makes him come with her, but won't say where she's taking him.
- He finds himself in a meeting with Edklinth, the minister of justice, the prime minister, and, of course, Figuerola herself.
- Blomkvist plays it tough. Edklinth confirms that Gullberg was head of the Section. In the end, Edklinth hires Blomkvist as a consultant in the Salander matter.
- Berger goes home and worries about how to tell her boss he has to resign because of the story Millennium is publishing about his involvement in child labor.
- She goes into her living room and cuts her foot on glass. She realizes somebody has thrown a brick through her window and painted the word "WHORE" (17.115) on her wall.
- Meanwhile, Blomkvist and Figuerola go out to dinner at Samir's Cauldron.
- Salander works on her autobiography – she's at the part where her ex-guardian, the evil Nils Bjurman (killed by Niedermann in Fire) brutally rapes her. The story doesn't sound real.
- Salander confides in Giannini that she's a world-class hacker, and that she's using her skills to help win her case. She tells Giannini, "You don't have to break any law. But you do have to shut your eyes to the fact that I am" (17.211). Giannini agrees.
- Berger goes to the ER. Then she tries to order a new window, but settles on plywood for the time being. She learns that the security people who installed her system didn't put sensors on her living room window.
- She fires that company and calls Milton Security. She falls asleep armed with a golf club and mace, realizing that her window breaker, her tire slasher, and her cyber-stalker are one in the same.