Three Seconds

sentence who obviously had contacts who could get him a loaded gun in a high-security prison.
    ‘Classified psychopath?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Reinforced glass in the window.
    Two hostages lying naked on the floor.
    ‘And a documented history of violence?’
    ‘Yes.’
    The man in there had known what he was doing the whole time. According to the wardens he was calm and determined, he had chosen the workshop, and that wasn’t by chance, either.
    ‘Then we’ve got a problem.’
    Edvardson looked at the front of the building where they wanted to get in. They didn’t have much time, the hostage taker had just threatened to kill for a second time.
    ‘He’s been seen in the window, but the snipers can’t access it from inside the prison. And given your description of this Hoffmann and his record … we can’t force our way in either. Break down the door or smash in one of the skylights on the roof, it would be simple enough, but with such a dangerous and sick prisoner … if we were to do that, if we stormed him, he wouldn’t turn on us, he’d stand his ground, he’d point the gun at the hostages, no matter how threatened he was himself, and he’d do what he’s promised to do. He’d kill.’
    John Edvardson started to walk back towards the gate and the wall.
    ‘We’re going to get him. But not from here. I will position the snipers.
Outside
the prison.’
    __________
    He moved away from the window.
     
    They were lying naked at his feet.
    They hadn’t moved, hadn’t tried to communicate.
    He checked their arms, legs, pulled a bit at the sharp plastic band, which already was cutting in deeper than was necessary, but it was all about power. He had to be sure that word of his potency got out to those who were just turning theirs in towards him.
    He had heard sirens for the second time. The first, about half an hour ago, were police from the local station, the only ones who could get here that fast. These ones had a different sound, more persistent, louder, and had lasted for as long as it took for them to get from the national task force headquarters in Sörentorp to the prison.
    He walked across the room, counted his steps, studied the door, studied the second window, looked up at the ceiling and the layer of loose glass-fibre tiles, used to absorb and dampen sound in the noisy workshop. He picked up a long, narrow metal pipe from one of theworkbenches and started to force the glass-fibre tiles loose until they fell to the floor, one after the other, and revealed the actual ceiling.
    __________
    The heavy black car left the parking place outside the main gate into Aspsås prison and stopped about a minute and a kilometre later outside another, considerably smaller gate – one that opened onto a gravel path that led up to a proud, white church. John Edvardson walked along the newly raked gravel, Rydén beside him and the two marksmen right behind. Some visitors to the sunny, well-maintained graveyard looked uneasily at the armed, uniformed men with black faces – they didn’t fit together somehow, violence and peace. The church door was open and they looked into an empty but impressive nave, and then chose the door to the right and the steep stairs up to the next door which, given the fresh evidence on the door frame, looked like it had recently been forced open, and then finally the aluminium steps that led to a hatch in the roof and to the church tower. They bent down to pass under the cast iron bell and didn’t straighten up until they were out on the narrow balcony, where the wind was stronger and they got a clear view of the grey, square blocks of the prison. They kept a firm hold on the low railing as they studied the building nearest the wall and the window on the second floor where the hostage taker had been seen and was assumed to be hiding.
     
    __________
    Piet Hoffmann had knocked down half of the glass-fibre tiles from the ceiling when he suddenly stopped his angry movements. He had heard something. A noise in his ear. He’d heard it clearly. What until now had just been a light wind in the receiver became a bang, then steps, and then scraping. Someone was walking around, more than one, there were several pairs of feet. He ran to the window. He could see them, they were standing up on the church tower, four of them, standing there, looking at him.
     
    __________
    A shadow at the very edge of the window, just briefly, then gone.
     
    He had been standing there, he had seen them and then