Page 167 of The Sleepwalker
A man with a glittery face is dozing in one corner, a scrap of sooty foil in a red trilby on the floor beside him.
They pass a number of beer kegs, and someone starts pounding on the wall.
Joona opens the metal door at the far end of the corridor, and freezing air floods inside. He and Stina make their way down a metal staircase to a vacant plot of land.
The ground is strewn with bricks, broken glass, car tyres and boxes of wet books.
Behind a heap of concrete and twisted reinforcement steels, a woman is smoking heroin, and by the door to the other building – the one housing Redrum – there is a man in a bulletproof vest, black combat pants and boots.
He is at least six foot five, with a black Colt 933 – a modern assault rifle with a short barrel – in one hand.
‘Stop,’ he says calmly.
‘We’re here to see Olga Wójcik,’ Joona tells him.
‘Nope.’
‘Do you know her?’ asks Stina.
‘You should head back to the party.’
‘Could you go and get Olga?’ Joona asks.
‘Nope.’
‘It’s important,’ Joona explains, taking a step forward.
‘You’re not coming in,’ the guard tells him, switching his rifle to semi.
As he does so, Joona catches a glimpse of a tattoo on the inside of the man’s wrist. A dragonfly and a sword.
‘Noordwijk,’ he says.
‘Why d’you say that?’ the guard asks.
‘Did you train with Rinus Advocaat?’
‘I would’ve given ten years of my life for the chance, but they booted me out before I got that far .?.?. Hang on, you’re not Joona Linna, are you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Shit,’ the man mumbles, fixing his eyes on Joona. ‘Everyone used to talk about you.’
‘I doubt that.’
‘Joona Linna,’ the guard repeats, shaking his head with a smile.
‘We need to get in.’
‘I’ll let you in, and I’ll let you out, but I have to stay here. They’ve got my kid sister.’
‘What goes on in there?’
‘Don’t know, and I don’t want to know,’ he replies, opening the door for them.
Joona and Stina make their way inside, and the door slamsshut behind them. The green glow from the emergency exit sign overhead illuminates a corridor with vinyl flooring and peeling patterned wallpaper. Droplets of condensation glisten on the pipe on the ceiling.
Joona feels a brief sting of a migraine behind one eye, and he sees Stina anxiously push back a few locks of hair from her face.
