October 10, 2011.Four phone calls are received at Sabo, the Swedish state security service: a library, a government building, a department store, and the central train station are to be bombed. Sabo's counterterrorism unit is headed by the very intense Eden Lundell, recently hired away from the UK. Alex Recht is a Stockholm detective in the National Bureau of Investigation. Fredrika Bergman used to work for Alex in the police department but has since moved over to the Justice Department form the core of the investigative team; Swedish intelligence agencies know how to cooperate.
Zakaria Khelifi, an Algerian with Swedish residency, has appeared on Sabo's radar for a peripheral association with a known terrorist. The evidence is less than circumstantial, but enough for him to be detained and possibly deported. Bad timing because Parliment is set to debate the immigration issue that afternoon.
Four calls, four bombs to detonate on the quarter hour, disguised female voices, different cell phones, but all from roughly the same area near the airport. Just another gray autumn day in Stockholm . . . four false alarms. Tomorrow shouldn't be so bad.
October 11, 2011
Alex's son Erik is late, rushing to the airport. He is scheduled to be the co-pilot on SAS 573 non-stop Stockholm to New York for 400 Swedes and Americans. The flight captain is Karim Sassi, is a fav of the flight attendants and a highly respected captain, too. Lots of bad weather over New York so Karim asks for an additional five hours of fuel loaded in case they have to circle somewhere over the Atlantic.
Right after takeoff, the purser brings a note found in the 1st class lavatory to the captain. A bomb has been planted. The US government must close the Tennyson Cottage (one of those detention centers in Afghanistan) and the Swedes must release Zakaria Khelifi before the plane lands. Any deviation and the bomb will be detonated. Give the length of the flight plus the five hours of extra fuel, the authorities stil have limited time to figure out what to do.
What neither side will do is negotiate with the terrorists. Both sides must work together, but are hesitant to reveal too much to the other. The best option is for an emergency landing somewhere along the flight path, but Karim has flat out refused to vary from the terrorist's directions.
The investigation jumps from Zakaria's neighbors and acquaintances to Karim to the US security apparatus to the bomb threats to Germany to the note and other minor tidbits that may or may not be important that lead to an ending twist that I dare say no reader will have anticipated.
This is Ohlsson's 4th novel and I am absolutely positive that I will find a way to get #s 1-3. Ohlsson is one talented writer with expert experience in European intelligence units. Hostage is a relentless and breathless sprint over the duration of the flight to find out the who and the why of this horrific act. Start this when you have no pending interruptions. You'll be grabbed by Ohlsson's firm hand, dragged back and forth across the landscape of Stockholm, the escalating tension inside flight 573, and the unyielding pressure of the Americans desparate to avoid a 2nd 9/11. Expect bruises.
In brief . . . this novel kicks serious butt.
ECD
No comments:
Post a Comment