Paul Gelm was convinced that there were motionless mornings. And he was absolutely certain that this morning, at the end of summer, was exactly one of them. Not a leaf moved on the frail plants of the inner courtyard. And inside the office, where he stood absentmindedly gazing at the outside world, not a single speck of dust floated in the air. Also, inside his skull, very few brain cells were in motion. In other words, it was a motionless morning at the police headquarters in Kungsholmen, Stockholm. Unfortunately, the time that had passed was motionless as well. Paul Gelm belonged to the police force that, a year ago, had led the investigations into the much-discussed Powerful Murders, during which a serial killer had begun exterminating Sweden’s economic elite. Because the case was successful, this force was made permanent as a special unit of the National Crime Investigation Service, a reserve for the “combat of international-scale crimes,” as stated in its official name. In practice, this meant it was ready to be informed of and prevent any new form of crime that had not yet reached Sweden’s borders.
That was exactly where the problem lay. None of these so-called “international-scale crimes” had occurred in the country in the past year, and for this reason, more and more internal criticisms were emerging against the existence of Alpha Team. In fact, they didn’t call it Alpha Team. That was just a name someone, a bit panicked, had suggested when the team was founded, in a hurry, a year and a half ago. For formal and existential reasons, the team was now called the “Special Unit for Combating International-Scale Crimes of the National Crime Investigation Service.” But since no one could use that name in conversation without bursting into laughter, they continued to unofficially call the unit Alpha Team. Of course, that was also a rather comical name, but it had some emotional value, if nothing else. Now, however, as a team, it was ready to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Because relatively inactive public servants were not the most popular figures of the time, and the team had slowly begun to disintegrate.