MemoRandom
David Sarac is a police officer who has done something unforgiveable. But how can he atone for his crimes when he can’t remember the victims?When David Sarac wakes up from a car crash in Stockholm, all he knows is that he is a police officer, he has done something unforgiveable, and he needs to protect his informant, Janus.Natalie Aden is recruited to investigate Sarac. She becomes his confidante – the only person he trusts to help him piece the clues together.But they’re not the only ones looking for Janus. And others will go to desperate lengths – and use brutal tactics – to make sure they find him first…
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HarperCollinsPublishers
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Copyright © Anders de la Motte 2014
Translation copyright © Neil Smith 2014
Lyrics from ‘Odds and Evens’ from The Sleep Tape © The Highwire 2010
Cove layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Cover photographs © Ingrid Michel / Arcangel Images (man in snow landscape); Shutterstock.com (all other images)
Anders de la Motte asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008101107
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2015 ISBN: 9780008101114
Version: 2015-10-23
For Anette
Contents
Blue lights … that’s his first lucid thought after he opens his eyes.
He can’t have been unconscious for more than a few seconds, a tiny micropause in his head. But the world seems so strange, so unfamiliar. As if he weren’t quite awake yet.
Blue reflections are dancing around him. In the rearview mirror, bouncing off the concrete walls, the roof, the wet road surface, even off the shiny plastic details of the dashboard.
A car. He’s in the driver’s seat of a car, going through a long tunnel.
The pain catches up with him. He has a vague memory of it from before he blacked out. A brilliant, ice-blue welding arc cutting straight through the left-hand side of his skull and turning his thoughts into thick sludge.
He can even identify the way it smells.
Metal, plastic, electricity.
Something’s happening to his body, something serious, threatening his very existence, but weirdly he doesn’t feel particularly frightened. He tightens his grip on the steering wheel, feels the soft leather against the palms of his hands. A pleasant, reassuring sensation. For a moment he almost gives in to it and lets go, tracing those smooth molecules all the way back into unconsciousness.
Instead he squeezes the wheel as hard as he can and tries to get his aching head to explain what is happening to him.
‘David Sarac.’
‘Your name is David Sarac, and …’
And what?
The car is still driving through the tunnel, and one of the many incomprehensible instruments on the dashboard must be telling him that he’s going too fast, way too fast.
He tries to lift his foot from the accelerator pedal but his leg refuses to obey him. In fact he can’t actually feel his legs at all. The pain is growing increasingly intense, yet in an odd way simultaneously more remote. He realizes that his body is in the process of shutting down, abandoning any process that isn’t essential to life support until the meltdown in his head is under control.
‘Your name is David Sarac,’ he mutters to himself.
‘David Sarac.’
Various noises are crackling from the speakers: music, dialing tones, fractured, agitated voices talking over each other.
He looks in the rearview mirror. And for a moment he imagines he can see movement, a dark silhouette. Is there someone sitting in the backseat, someone who could help him?
He tries to open his mouth and sees the silhouette in the mirror do the same. He can see stubble, a tormented but familiar face. He realizes what that means. There’s no one else there, he’s all alone.
The light in the rearview mirror is blinding him, making his eyes water. The voices on the radio are still babbling, louder now – even more agitated.
The shutdown of his body is speeding up. It’s spreading from his legs and up toward his chest.
