Meltwater (Fire and Ice)

backdoor they used. In theory our system is secure, but in practice there might be another backdoor we don’t know about. I suspect they can break in again if
they want to. I’ll keep an eye out for them. But you should all be careful what you put on the computer.’
    ‘How can you run a police investigation these days without using a computer?’ Magnus said.
    ‘Yeah. Perhaps if there’s anything important insist that it’s written down with pen and paper? You can enter it on to the system once the investigation is concluded.’
    ‘That’s a good idea,’ said Magnus. He was glad that he hadn’t made any formal notes of his conversation with Franz, or at least the bit relating to Israel. A near
miss.
    As he got back to his desk, he looked at his terminal. He wondered which of the Freeflow team had broken in. Dieter the German probably, although it could have been Franz or even the Icelander,
Dúddi. Or some other member of the organization thousands of miles away.
    Or it could have been someone outside Freeflow entirely. The people who had killed Nico and tried to kill Erika. The Israelis. Or the Italians. The Chinese. Anyone.
    Whoever it was, Magnus wanted to talk to them.
    He sat down at his keyboard and set up a file named Freeflow Secret Leaks . That should attract the attention of any future intruders.
    Then he composed a message. In English.
    Hi,
    I really don’t care what Freeflow is working on, what the details of its secret leaks are. If you have looked through my files you will see that I
     am not working for the CIA or anyone else.
    But I do care who killed Niccolò Andreose. And I am going to find that person.
    I don’t know who you are. Perhaps you are behind Nico’s death yourself. But if you aren’t, and you knew him, and perhaps worked with
     him, you owe it to him to help me. So if you have any information that might be of use, please share it with me.
    Magnus
    As Magnus read through the message, he doubted that it would provoke a response. But it might. And it couldn’t do any harm.
    ‘Hey, Magnús!’
    Magnus looked up. It was Vigdís, and she was holding the telephone.
    ‘I’ve got a call here from someone I know you are going to want to talk to.’
    ‘Who is it?’
    ‘A guy who claims he was on a snowmobile at Fimmvörduháls on Monday evening.’
    Magnus grabbed the phone. ‘This is Sergeant Magnús speaking. I understand you were up on Fimmvörduháls when Niccolò Andreose was murdered?’
    ‘I think so,’ said a man’s voice. ‘I didn’t see the murder, but I was up there at about dusk that evening. And the man I was with was wearing a red
jacket.’
    ‘What’s your name?’ asked Magnus.
    ‘Mikael Már Sigthórsson. I live in Selfoss.’
    ‘And the guy you were with?’
    ‘Pierre Joubert. He’s French, a potential client of mine. He was visiting me for a couple of days and wanted me to take him up to the volcano. So I did.’
    ‘And where is this Monsieur Joubert now?’
    ‘Back in Lyons. He flew back yesterday.’
    ‘Look, Mikael Már, I have a lot of questions for you. Can I see you in an hour?’
    ‘Sure.’
    ‘Give me your address.’
    It was less than an hour’s drive to Selfoss, a medium-sized town by Icelandic standards, on the plain between Reykjavík and the two volcanoes. The address Mikael
Már had given Magnus was a small one-storey house just off the main road that ran through the centre of town.
    Mikael Már was a lean dark-haired man of about Magnus’s age, wearing small round glasses. He led Magnus through into a room which functioned as an office and offered him some
coffee.
    ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch earlier,’ he said. ‘I just didn’t see any of the news yesterday. It was only late last night that my wife mentioned you were
looking for two snowmobilers. So I listened to the news this morning and gave you a call.’
    ‘Thanks for doing that,’ said Magnus. ‘Can you take me through what you did up on the glacier?’
    ‘Sure. Pierre had spent the day with me. He works for a big dealership in France, and I was hoping to join up with him to sell vans and light trucks here in Selfoss. I lost my job in a
bank in Reykjavík a few months ago, as did my wife, but she found something at the hospital here. So I’ve been trying to figure out what I could do and this seemed like a good
idea.’
    Magnus nodded. Iceland was full of people who had lost their jobs in the previous year and were trying something new.
    ‘I