Page 116 of The Sleepwalker
The boy turns the rifle on him, lifts the butt to his shoulder and closes his left eye.
‘Don’t do anything stupid now,’ Gregory tells him, holding up both hands. ‘Listen to me .?.?.’
Joona notices the fishing line slacken when Åke leans forward, and he leaps up and pulls the man towards him like a shield.
The boy turns towards them with the rifle.
As Joona pulls Åke back with him, he uses his free hand to reach beneath his coat and examine the damp blocks ofexplosive.
‘Run!’ Åke tells the boy.
Joona finds the detonator and pulls it out just as the father tries to break free. Åke swings around, jolts his arm upwards and hits Joona on the cheek. The two men lose their balance and crash into the table.
Joona drops the detonator.
The mugs tip over, and the bottle shatters on the ground.
‘Dad,’ the boy gasps, following their movements in an attempt to get a clear shot.
Joona grips the barrel of the rifle and yanks it to one side just as it goes off. The bullet whizzes past his face, making his ears ring, and the hot metal burns his palm.
He tears the gun out of the boy’s hands, and the child loses his balance and falls hard onto his knees, but he doesn’t seem to react to the pain.
The detonator is now swinging around Åke on the fishing line, and Joona swings the gun around and rams the butt into his nose.
Åke’s head snaps back, and he slumps to the ground with a look of confusion on his face.
His mouth and chin are bloody.
Joona strides over to him and stamps on the detonator, pressing it down into the gravel as Åke yanks on the fishing line.
The small charge goes off beneath Joona’s boot. He feels a jolt in his knee joint, and dust and small pebbles spray out to both sides of his foot.
The girl drops the rabbit, which hits the ground, scrambles to its feet and bolts away.
Peck’s eyes are closed, and he is breathing wheezily.
The boy gets up with an absent look on his face, blood seeping through the knees of his trousers.
‘Get the air ambulance out here!’ Joona shouts.
He grips the elk rifle with both hands and sees Gregory pointing his Sig Sauer at the ground, loading a round into the chamber.
‘Sorry,’ the boy whispers.
‘Get down!’ Gregory snaps, taking aim at his chest.
‘Lower your weapon,’ Joona warns him.
The boy turns away and sways unsteadily.
‘Stop, or I’ll shoot!’ Gregory yells as the boy starts walking.
‘Secure and holster your weapon,’ Joona shouts.
‘He shot Peck, for fu—’
‘That’s an order!’
