I looked at her, now becoming very suspicious. Why the hell would they want me? Could she be sent by the Germans? But there it was, three passports, all real, staring on me at my table. I decided to play along for the time being and see what more surprises she had for me.

“Passports, I don’t need no stinking passports dear.” I said. “I can stay here as long as I want.” Smiling.

“No, you can’t.” She said. “The wehrmacht knows who you are now. They are going to get you exchanged.”

“For what? I’m no spy?”

“The Swedish government doesn’t feel it have to much leeway here Knut. Considering what you did.” She said delicately.

As I listened I wondered who it was that had tipped the Germans off. IB perhaps? Theirs was a small but ruthlessly efficient little organization, geared up for only one thing, keeping Sweden out of the war. And they didn’t let compassion stop their needs.

“So I don’t have a choice you say?” I asked.

“Of course there is a choice.” She answered. “You can try to hide, I won’t stop you. Or you can go along with me, what is it stopping you?”

I knew as well as her the answer to that question. There was nothing stopping me. It was just mine ingrained stubbornness.

“And why should I trust you?”

“Oh, my honest face?”

I had to smile at that. Honest face indeed, she was a wet dream come true, if I now had been so inclined. But I wasn’t.

“Money?”

“Now dear, don’t be greedy. You will fight the good fight, for both our crowns. And perhaps you will find something to carry you over too.”

‘Carry me over?’ She was talking in riddles. “Look Andy, I don’t run around fighting for any cause any more. Either there is something more that a passport in it, or I’ll just have to take my chances.”

She nodded. “Perhaps I can give you a little incentive then. You’ll get the Crowns protection Knut and a wage, and if it all works out, even a percentage of the spoils.”

“spoils?”

“Well as they say, no profit no fun.” She levelly answered as she thoughtfully studied me.

“To the victorious the spoils you mean?”

“Not bad Knut. That is indeed what I mean.”

“So why would you need me? I’m just an actor, not that good and out of work too.”

“But you see Knut. It’s an actor I’m looking for, with some added bonuses.”

She had to mean my willingness to kill I thought.

“Killing, is that what it is about?”

She looked at me surprised. “What made you think that Knut. No, I’ll admit that it is a bonus too, but if we have to kill the game will be over.”

Now she had lost me.

“Sorry Andy. I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Well Knut, do you remember your time in Bergen, before the war?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve made a quite throughout investigation of you Knut and your main attraction wasn’t any killing abilities. Please don’t take this wrong but, do you remember Ann?”

Of course I remembered Ann, she had been my friend and foremost confidant when we grow up. We had had a lot of fun too.

“And?”

“Do you remember your dressing up games?”

I stared at her, nobody but Ann could have told her about that. Ann and Agnes, but Agnes was dead.

“Where is she.” I said flatly. “I want to meet her before I decide anything here.”

“I’m sorry, she was deported. We don’t know if she’s still alive. But her diary helped us find you.”

My hatred for the Nazis smoldered as I tried to come to grips with her revelation. First Agnes and now Ann, suddenly I realized that I had found my real price.

“I’ll do it, whatever you want. One condition though. You get Ann out of where ever she is first.”

She kept over two hour’s arguing with me explaining why she thought that impossible but I wouldn’t budge on it. If I couldn’t save my Agnes, perhaps I at least could help save Ann. In the end she nodded and told me to stay where I was as she got up to leave.

“Oh, how are you for money Knut?”

“I’ll survive.” I said shortly, not wanting to stand in any debt to her or her masters.

She smiled at me and left. It wasn’t until I brushed my teeth I found the envelope resting on the basin. In it there was five hundred Swedish kronor. Yes, I needed that money badly, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to touch them. Somehow they felt as blood money, tainted by unknown demands and expectations. In the end my hunger won over my conscience though and I went out to get something to eat. I had money coming to me from the restaurant too so I wouldn’t really touch them I thought as I left. As I arrived to the restaurant though I was refused, the doorman telling me in no uncertain words that I wasn’t welcome anymore.

“You’ve come to apologize?”

“What for Arne? “

“She may still go to the police Knut.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve just come to collect my money.”

As he noticed my dumbfounded stare he seemed to mellow a bit, and as he started to tell me what the girl had said I realized that I was set up in more ways than I ever would have imagined. It seemed as if the owner had been assaulted just after I had finished my work. Somebody had takes the whole days earnings and left her in a heap on the street running away. And she thought it to be me.

“You better leave Knut, before she sees you. She will set the police on you.” Looking a little uncomfortable as he said it.

“You know me Arne. Do you think I would do such a thing?”

“I know what I’ve seen here.” He answered judiciously. “But it doesn’t make sense that you would come back like this Knut. So, I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt. You better leave.”

So in the end I left, without my wage, only the blood money resting in my wallet. As I walked away I realized that she was in the window, looking at me, cold eyed but still just looking. Whoever it was setting this up seemed to have a lot of clout, leaving me few options of my own. ‘A free choice indeed, damned liars the lot of them’ I thought as I wearily trudged home again.
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