Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

involved with Freeflow for less than a day and already her loyalty was impressive.
    ‘And by the way, Magnús doesn’t work for the CIA,’ Ásta said.
    ‘How do you know?’ Erika asked.
    ‘Because he told me.’
    ‘I see,’ said Erika, not bothering to contradict her. So priests were gullible, what else was new? She was just pleased Ásta had taken the problem of Nico’s family off
her hands. ‘Can we expect the police soon, Viktor?’
    ‘They are trying,’ said Viktor. ‘I’ve just come from the District Court. They wanted a search warrant, but I put up a good case against it.’
    ‘The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative?’
    ‘That’s correct – the right of you guys to protect your sources. The judge is thinking about it: I can’t guarantee that he won’t grant the search warrant, but I
might be able to protect your computers.’
    ‘The computers are safe. Encrypted. Unbreakable.’
    ‘Hmm.’ Viktor looked thoughtful. ‘We might let them have that then – a good bargaining chip. But you should make sure the house is clean in case they do get a
warrant.’
    ‘OK. You hear that, everyone? If you have made any notes or printed out anything you shouldn’t have done, I want it burned in the next thirty minutes.’
    ‘And the ashes flushed down the toilet,’ said Dieter.
    ‘I’ve got some notes,’ said Zivah. ‘Translations of the audio.’
    ‘That definitely needs to be destroyed,’ said Erika.
    ‘If you need to keep anything, I can scan it in first and we’ll back it up remotely,’ Dieter said.
    Erika looked around her new team: Viktor, Zivah, Dúddi, Franz, Ásta. Which, if any, of them had fifteen thousand euros? Viktor was the obvious candidate. The best way to play him
was to make an appeal to all of them and hope he might approach her later. She hated taking advantage of volunteers like this, but there was no choice.
    She explained Freeflow’s financial situation and their requirements for the next few days. Ásta immediately agreed to provide groceries, as did Dúddi, who also said he would
come up with any necessary computer equipment. The idea of either of them coughing up fifteen thousand euros was clearly absurd.
    ‘I can cover your air fare to London,’ said Viktor.
    ‘Thank you,’ said Erika coolly. She held his gaze.
    He wasn’t going to offer more, she could see that. A few hundred dollars, but not thousands. He would twist arms and call in favours with his well-placed friends, but he wouldn’t
give Freeflow real money.
    Was that because he didn’t have any? Erika had heard of Iceland’s kreppa . She imagined that there were many middle-class lawyers and businessmen who were overwhelmed by debt.
Was Viktor one of them? Or did he have tens of thousands stashed away somewhere?
    She could see in his eyes that he wasn’t going to tell her.
    ‘I’ve only got a few thousand shekels in my savings account,’ said Zivah. ‘About a thousand dollars, maybe a bit more. You can have that if you really need it.’
    ‘That’s great, Zivah,’ said Erika with a smile. ‘Thank you. It’s a start. We have to begin somewhere.’
    She glanced at Franz, the Swiss guy. Maybe he would be good for another couple of thousand? She had never met him before; he was a contact of Dieter’s from somewhere on the Internet. He
was in his early twenties, short, with curly black hair and a chubby face. If he wasn’t still a student, he couldn’t have been out of college for more than a year or two.
    ‘I don’t even have that much,’ said Franz. ‘I could give you maybe five hundred euros.’
    Erika smiled weakly. She knew even that amount could be a lot of money for a young guy.
    She glanced at Viktor again. He looked down at his tanned hands.
    Silence.
    He wasn’t going to be shamed into giving money he didn’t want to. Tight bastard!
    ‘OK, everyone,’ Erika said eventually. ‘Get rid of the written evidence first. Then give your laptops to Dieter. And then we’ll get to work on the video.’
    The group broke up.
    ‘Oh, by the way,’ Erika said. ‘Just before he died, Nico came up with a code name for the video.’ She paused. ‘Project Meltwater.’

CHAPTER NINE
    M AGNUS’S PHONE RANG . He grabbed it. He had been waiting for Rannveig’s call since he had returned from the
Commissioner’s office.
    ‘OK, I’ve done a deal,’ said Rannveig. ‘I have a warrant to search the house and their computers.’
    ‘Well done!’
    ‘The agreement is that we