Prime Time by Liza Marklund

Author:Liza Marklund [Marklund, Liza]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9781849835138
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2001-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

MONDAY, 25 JUNE

The complex housing the Securities Register Centre was located on a street behind Sergels torg, one that used to be known for its hookers. It was a metal and glass structure from the 1970s, filled with mirrors and ornate concrete walls. Annika paused as she entered the building and closed her umbrella. The fastidiously official atmosphere made her uncomfortable; it clashed with the reason she was there. She wasn’t here as a journalist – she was a snoop, a secret agent, possibly even a traitor.

Slightly nervous, she took the escalator upstairs. On the second floor she encountered an artificial garden, the glass ceiling floating some twenty metres overhead. There were mosaic fountains and marble floors, and a footbridge lined with white stylized lanterns was surrounded by brown stucco office buildings. Annika tried, unsuccessfully, to blink away the surrealistic haze in her mind and stared at the glass sky instead, detecting rivulets of rain, sensing the moisture.

It’s only a standard procedure, nothing to make a fuss about.

The reception desk was on the right-hand side of the lobby. With a fixed smile on her face, she introduced herself. Her name, her personal ID number, the ID card serial number, and the date were noted in a large ledger. While the receptionist was busy writing this down, Annika glanced at the names of the previous visitors, recognizing a reporter from the financial paper Veckans Affärer.

‘The computers are over there, on the right. Let me know if you need any assistance.’

Two Philips flat-screens were humming with eternity’s journey through the universe, and Annika let her jacket, her bag and her umbrella drop to the floor between two chairs. She hit enter and a window with three small icons appeared. A click on Share Register produced a form to fill in: the issuer, a personal ID number or corporate registration number and the owner’s name.

She typed in Global Future as the issuer and Torstensson as the owner. A new window popped up next to the first one, with the heading ‘Search results for public ownership listing’.

No data accessed.

‘Excuse me,’ she said to the receptionist. ‘I have a few questions about how to search the database.’

The woman leaned over and said something that Annika didn’t quite catch into the intercom.

Annika stared at the computer screen and, just for the heck of it, tried to see how many members of the family who owned Kvällsposten also had MTG shares, seeing as they were their competitor.

Three hits.

She smiled wryly.

‘You’re doing just fine,’ a man said behind her.

Annika’s heart lurched. The carpet was so thick that she hadn’t heard the guy approach.

‘Oh, hello,’ she said. ‘How does … this work?’

The man smiled at her. There was a gleam in his eye that made her cheeks grow hot.

‘The share register is updated every six months,’ he said. ‘The version you have here is a record of public ownership as per 31 December of last year.’

Annika blinked a few times. There really wasn’t anything underhand about her business apart from its objective.

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