The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium series Book 4) by David Lagercrantz Read Free Book Online

in the same class in ninth grade, and she—”
    “Let’s get this over with,” Blomkvist interrupted him, and led the way to a table towards the back of the pub.
    When Amir appeared, smiling discreetly, they ordered two pints of Guinness and then sat quietly for a few seconds. Blomkvist could not understand why he felt so irritated. It was not like him; perhaps the whole drama with Serner was getting to him after all. He smiled towards Arne and his gang, all of whom were studying them keenly.
    “I’ll come straight to the point,” Brandell said.
    “That sounds good.”
    “Do you know Supercraft?”
    Blomkvist did not know much about computer games. But even he had heard of Supercraft.
    “By name, yes.”
    “No more than that?”
    “No.”
    “In that case you won’t know that what makes this game different, or at least so special, is that it has a particular A.I. function that allows you to communicate with a player about war strategy without being really sure, at least to begin with, whether it’s a real person or a digital creation that you’re talking to.”
    “You don’t say,” Blomkvist said. He couldn’t care less about the finer points of a damn computer game.
    “It’s a minor revolution in the industry and I was actually involved in developing it,” Brandell said.
    “Congratulations. In that case you must have made a killing.”
    “That’s just it.”
    “Meaning what?”
    “The technology was stolen from us and now Truegames are making billions while we don’t get a single öre.”
    Blomkvist had heard this line before. He had even spoken to an old lady who claimed that it was actually she who had written the Harry Potter books and that J.K. Rowling had stolen everything by telepathy.
    “So how did it happen?” he said.
    “We were hacked.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “It’s been established by experts at the National Defence Radio Establishment – I can give you a name there if you want – and also by a …”
    Brandell hesitated.
    “Yes?”
    “Nothing. But even the Security Police were involved – you can talk to Gabriella Grane there. She’s an analyst and I think she’ll back me up. She has also mentioned the incident in a public report published last year. I have the reference number here …”
    “In other words, this isn’t news,” Blomkvist interrupted.
    “No, not in that sense.
New Technology
and
Computer Sweden
wrote about it. But since Frans didn’t want to talk about it and on a couple of occasions even denied that there had been any breach at all, the story never went very far.”
    “But it’s still old news.”
    “I suppose so.”
    “So why should I be listening to you, Linus?”
    “Because now Frans seems to have understood what happened. I think he’s sitting on pure dynamite. He’s become completely manic about security. Only uses hyper-encryption for his phones and email and he’s just got a new burglar alarm with cameras and sensors and all that crap. I think you should talk to him – that’s why I got in touch with you. A guy like you can perhaps get him to open up. He doesn’t listen to me.”
    “So you order me down here because it seems as if someone called Frans may be sitting on some dynamite.”
    “Not someone called Frans, Blomkvist, it’s none other than Frans Balder; didn’t I say that? I was one of his assistants.”
    Blomkvist searched his memory: the only Balder he could think of was Hanna Balder, the actress, whatever might have become of her.
    “Who’s he?” he said.
    The look he got was so full of contempt that he was taken aback.
    “Where’ve you been living? Mars? Frans Balder is a legend. A household name.”
    “Really?”
    “Christ, yes!” Brandell said. “Google him and you’ll see. He became a professor of computer sciences at just twenty-seven and for two decades he’s been a leading authority on research in artificial intelligence. There’s hardly anyone who’s as far advanced in the development of