Chapter 33 - Sunday Night. Joseph’s Blessing.

Late Sunday night, Harry Hole enters the custody block with fifty minutes to act. He retrieves the key to cell nine, finds Sven Sivertsen calm and cuffed, and establishes control by disabling the smoke alarm and seating Sven. Harry outlines the damning evidence: the red diamond, a Ceská Zbrojovka, and flight records tying Sven to Oslo on murder dates.

Harry probes Sven’s link to Tom Waaler. Noting Sven’s micro-reactions, Harry suggests Waaler runs an arms-smuggling ring and intended to kill Sven to contain exposure. Harry unlocks the cuffs, gives Sven water, and claims it contains “Joseph’s Blessing,” a tasteless poison Waaler uses. As Sven nauseates and vomits, Harry presses the logic: if Sven survives, Waaler will know the plot failed, leaving Sven no choice but to flip.

Harry ups the pressure with a fake antidote “pill,” demanding Sven’s testimony against Waaler. Panicking, Sven confesses his assumption that Waaler’s arrest scene was staged to help him escape, admits smuggling ties while denying murder, and accepts that only exposing Waaler can save him. Harry then reveals the bluff: the water was harmless, the “antidote” was a sleep pill, and Waaler’s ampoule had been emptied the night before.

Re-cuffing Sven, Harry moves to extract him. At reception, he faces the duty officer Groth, implying an official change of plan and that “the prisoner won’t take his medicine.” Banking on Groth’s self-preservation, Harry gets the sign-out book, signs for Sven, and marches him out into the night, intent on flipping him against Waaler.