Into a Raging Blaze by Andreas Norman, Ian Giles

in a cold silence.
    They didn’t believe her. They thought she was lying, that she was protecting herself.
    She knew it was too late. But she couldn’t sit there quietly. “Nils, listen to me,” she said in a last throw of the dice. “I got a report. It was given to me—by a man who said he was from the Commission. I sent the report to the affected party at Justice. That’s the truth.”
    Nils Bergh looked at her for a long time before saying, “But the Commission hasn’t got a leak. We’ve talked to them. They’ve gone through their systems and now they want us to investigate the whole thing. Sweden’s friends in the EU want us to investigate this. So we need to know more. If you really did get the material from someone at the Commission, as you claim, then you must be able to say who it is.”
    She nodded. Jean.
    “But I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said. “I’ll prove it. I can find him, if you want.”
    He interrupted her with an irritated gesture of his hand. “We don’t need to discuss this any further, Carina. You do not enter a house where you are not invited. Do you understand? As a civil servant at the MFA, you have no right to deal with issues as you see fit.”
    She remained silent as he continued.
    “I’m disappointed, Carina. You’re the last person I would have expected to do something like this.”
    He looked at her with his cool eyes. Then he sank back into his chair; the dejected movement made her shudder.
    The room was silent. They had finished and no one moved.
    “Don’t you understand? You’ve put us in a very difficult position through your self-indulgent behavior. We’ll be looked at in a different way. Seen as less reliable.”
    “Who will see us like that?”
    “That’s none of your business,” Langer cut in.
    The department head sighed and said solemnly, as if he had now reached a decision and wanted to conclude with a judgment, “You will be placed under investigation, Carina. We will therefore have to suspend you from your duties.”
    The others sat in silence.
    “Effective immediately.”
    She could no longer hold back a sharp pain that forced itself to the surface. “What is this?” she burst out. “I was sought out by someone from the Commission. How was I supposed to know what he wanted? I was there; he came to me. Why don’t you believe me?”
    “You clearly haven’t been listening to what we have said,” said the department head tersely.
    No, apparently she hadn’t listened properly. She didn’t understand what they were talking about. For a second, she fumbled in the darkness, all her thoughts running away in a chattering jumble. She didn’t understand. What had she done wrong? They didn’t believe her, and she couldn’t make them change their minds. Shehad an almost irresistible urge to slap their faces. She wanted to say more, but her mouth couldn’t form the right sounds.
    “You are relieved of your duties, but will remain on full pay until the investigation is concluded. Then we’ll see.”
    There was a strained silence.
    “You’re wrong,” she mumbled.
    They remained silent, staring at her.
    “Where’s the original?” said Wahlund, who had been quiet throughout.
    “In my office. In the safe.”
    “Is that it?” Henrik Langer looked at her sharply. “You sent the report by e-mail to my colleagues at Justice.”
    “I scanned it,” she said quickly.
    Something made her keep quiet about the USB stick. She no longer knew what was happening; all she had to go on was her gut feeling.
    “Who exactly did you send the report to?”
    “Per Lennerbrandt. And you,” she said, nodding at Henrik Langer, who didn’t respond in the slightest. “You were the only ones I sent it to.”
    “And Jamal Badawi.”
    She nodded.
    “Why didn’t you say so?” Langer said brusquely.
    She mumbled that she had forgotten.
    “Have you given the report to anyone else?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure?” said Langer, with poorly disguised