Chapter 1.

On the Baltic coast somewhere near Gräddö, Sweden, at 13:34 on Saturday, 23 June, Midsummer Day.

 

It was a picture-perfect Midsummer's Day with scarcely a cloud in the sky. The sun, near its zenith, cast its warming rays down upon a series of blue-grey, glacially-striated, granite outcroppings flanking a stretch of secluded Baltic shoreline. A gentle sea breeze blew in off the water. In the distance the white-liveried 'Silja Line' ferry-link, en route from Stockholm to Turku, Finland, could be seen wending its way through a scattering of rocky, conifer-clad islands, both large and small.

Stretched out on a flat-surfaced granite slab, each on a colorful beach blanket, lay three female sunbathers. Two were totally nude. Only one, lying between the other two, was wearing anything ... the bottom piece of a black string bikini. All were lying on their tummies, heads cradled in their arms. All wore sunglasses.

Nearby was an open food basket. And littered all around the trio was the detritus of a picnic lunch ... sandwich wrappings, an open jar of pickled herring, condiment containers, two empty wine bottles, and a number of crushed beer cans ... as well as three mounds of discarded clothing.

Rolling abruptly over onto her side and raising herself to a half-sitting position, Gun Thorell brushed a few stray strands of her dark hair from her face before poking playfully with her index finger at the side of the woman next to her.

"Come on Babs!" she teased. "This is no time to fall asleep, we still have a lot of catching up to do here! And, when are you going to get around to shedding those bikini bottoms? It's obligatory here in Sweden, as you very well know! Come on now! Let that Midsummer sun get at those tight little cheeks."

"Mmmmm," replied Barbara Moore, squirming about and extending an arm back in a half-hearted attempt to fend off the advances of her friend's tickling fingers.

Barb and Gun were, in fact, more than friends. They were lovers.

Barb was an American academic on the faculty of a large Midwestern public university, who had earned an international reputation for her work and expertise on human rights violations, especially those pertaining to women. She had met Gun, a veteran detective sergeant on the Uppsala police force, roughly a year earlier when Barb was abducted while attending an international conference hosted by Uppsala University.

Gun and her police colleagues had taken on the case and doggedly pursued the kidnappers, who turned out to be a commando-style team fielded by the so-called 'Syndicate' ... a mysterious international Asian organization that wished to force Barb's wealthy father, a U.S. Senator, to refrain from interfering in the organization's global operations. In the end, Barb and Gun had both found themselves prisoners of the Syndicate ops team, and in desperation had not only bonded but together found a way to turn the tables on their captors.

Their relationship had grown even closer when Barb returned to Sweden six months later at the behest of Ã...ke Persson, an old university acquaintance of Barb's. Persson was also an expert on human rights and had recently taken on a position as UN Human Rights Council Rapporteur assigned to investigate human rights violations in North Korea's notorious penal system. Not long after taking on the position, he had requested that Barb travel to his secluded home in SollefteÃ¥, a small town in the north of Sweden, to assist him in debriefing a highly-placed North Korean defector.

The defection of this official, a Colonel Chang, who turned out to be a woman, was more than the North Korean government was willing to tolerate. To set things right, Pyongyang had contracted the same secretive international organization that had once abducted Barb to mount a clandestine operation to silence the defector.

After a brief reunion with Gun in Uppsala, Barb had traveled on by car to Persson's home. And Gun had insisted on going along to share the driving due to an impending winter storm.

Once there, they were both snowed in and stalked by the Syndicate's hit team, which had been tasked by then with not only killing Chang, the defector, but taking out Barb and Gun as well in an act of revenge for the previous summer when Barb and Gun had turned the tables on the team sent to abduct Barb. Resourcefulness and quick thinking on the part of Barb, Gun, Ã...ke Persson, Chang and her bodyguard, and Marina ... a turncoat Syndicate mole in the Persson household ... had saved the day. But not without the timely last minute arrival and intervention of Gun's colleagues from the Uppsala Police force.

"Annika! Help me!" exhorted Gun. "Our friend Babs here is being rather stubborn about getting naked. If she won't take that thing off, we'll just have to do it for her!"

Blond-haired Annika Sjöberg was the youngest of the sunbathing trio, barely in her early twenties as opposed to her thirty-something older companions. Like Gun, Annika was with the Uppsala police, but as an intern rather than a permanent member of the force. Nonetheless, she had already shown herself to be a resourceful addition to the force, playing a key role in helping her colleagues to foil the Syndicate organization's siege of Ã...ke Persson's home in far off SollefteÃ¥ and save Barb and Gun from a terrible fate.

A playful wrestling match followed, in which Gun and Annika quickly gained the upper hand. With Gun sitting astride and pinning Barb down on her back, Annika was able, with some difficulty, to slip the American's bikini bottom down over her thrashing legs, and to hold it up triumphantly before tossing it aside.

"Shit! No fair! Two against one!" exclaimed Barb as she bucked her hips, upending and rolling over on top of Gun and begin kissing her hungrily.

With a squeal of glee, Annika piled on. Soon all three were rolling about as one ... a jumbled tangle of amorously intertwined bodies, heads, arms and legs ... until ... from somewhere on the trail leading down to the shore from above, someone shouted, "Hello!"

"Shit! It's the guys!" exclaimed Gun, abruptly breaking free from the melee.

"Already?" gasped Annika, raising her face from where it had been buried between Barb's open thighs. "I thought they weren't coming until later this afternoon!"

Rising up on her elbows, Barb turned towards the sound of the greeting from far up the trail to observe, "Nope, it's them alright. There's Hansson and Fintväder ... and Ã...ke Persson too! Quick, we'd better get something on before they get down here!"

There was a mad scramble for discarded bikini bottoms, which were located and donned just in time.

"Whoa! Will you look at this!" laughed Ã...ke, as he sauntered out onto the granite outcropping and gave all three half-naked girls, each in turn, an exaggerated looking over. "Lovely, lovely, and lovely!"

Barb replied with a hard punch to his shoulder.

"Detectives!" he cried, staggering backwards and feigning severe injury. "Arrest this woman on charges of malicious assault and battery!"

At that point everyone had to laugh.

"Good to see you back in Sweden again, Barb!" enthused Bertil Hansson. I wouldn't have missed this happy reunion for the world!"

Detective Sergeant Bertil Hansson was Gun's longtime partner with the Uppsala force, and had been involved in both efforts to save her and Barb from their two previous perilous encounters with the Syndicate.

"Nor, would I," joined in Harald Fintväder, a veteran older detective with the Norrtälje police who had also been deeply involved and instrumental in the effort to save Barb from the clutches of the Syndicate the time she was abducted. "And let me tell you that these tired old man's eyes don't mind at all feasting upon the exquisite curves of these three lovely girls."

"How gallant!" exclaimed Barb rushing to embrace the grizzled old detective in a big bare-chested hug.

"And how's that wound, Gun?" asked Ã...ke Persson, leaning in close to examine the shoulder in which Gun had taken a bullet during the shootout six months prior at his SollefteÃ¥ home.

"Healed very nicely, as you can see," she replied, pointing to a small irregular patch of lighter-hued skin.

"Indeed it has!"

"Alright now! Let's get down to some serious drinking, now that we're all here!" announced Hansson as he opened the blue and yellow IKEA bag that he carried slung over his shoulder, containing several bottles of akvavit, a package of plastic cups, and numerous cans of beer.

Moments later the six friends gathered to stand in a circle and raise their cups of akvavit in solemn toast.

"To friendship!" exclaimed Ã...ke Persson.

"To old times and happy reunions," added Bertil Hansson.

"And to beautiful women!" offered Fintväder gallantly.

"Shut up and drink!" laughed Gun.

"Skål!" shouted everyone.

A couple hours later, with everyone lounging about in a circle, all in a state of near intoxication, Bertil Hansson, his voice slurred, asked, "Soooo ... tell us about this ... uh ...invitation you girls have received to be honored at some event in Tokyo?"

"It's not an 'event' ... it's an international academic human rights conference ... a very serious and prestigious affair," corrected Barb. "We girls are to be recognized and feted there for our behind-the-scene's role in ensuring that Chang's damning revelations reached the UN Human Rights Council."

"Ahhh, Persson too, then?"

"Oh, I'll be there, but given my position with the UN there'll be no special recognition for me ... all part of the job, you see," intervened Ã...ke playing up the self-important modesty bit to the hilt.

After which Fintväder farted loudly, and everyone laughed.

"And Chang, Min-Ji and Marina Pavlova?"

"Sadly not," said Gun. "They both have reason to keep a low profile. Min-ji will remain in Switzerland, where she now lives in closely guarded seclusion. And Marina, who is persona non grata with the Syndicate, will start training later this summer under an assumed name at the Swedish National Police Academy in Solna.

"The Academy, eh? Well done!"

"Yeah, Chief Inspector Björklund saw to that, along with SÄPO Chief, Olsson. They both put in a good word or two on her behalf."

"What about security for you three?" interjected Fintväder. "It's entirely possible, as one might imagine, that the Syndicate isn't done with you yet. You've thwarted them twice now. There's such a thing, you know, as 'three times and you're out' revenge. And Tokyo might be more in their home turf, and more to their liking, than far off Sweden."

"Good point," agreed Bertil Hansson.

"We'll be okay. Gun and Annika are both police professionals," countered Barb. "I think we can take care of ourselves."

"Well, I'm not quite a full-fledged professional yet, but I hope to be," said Annika with a modest smile.

"When are you three leaving for Tokyo?" asked Bertil Hanson.

"Day after tomorrow," replied Gun. "On Air France .. departs Arlanda at 06:00 with a change in Paris. We could probably use a lift to the airport, by the way, if any of you wouldn't mind."

"Still time then," observed Hansson.

"Time for what?"

"To ask Chief Björklund tomorrow whether he'll allow me leave to accompany you to Tokyo."

"Fat chance of that! The Department has way too many backlogged cases. He can't spare both of us. He's sure to say no."

"Worth asking, nonetheless."