Chap­ter 25 begins with Pao­lo Rober­to still awake, his mind pre­oc­cu­pied with unset­tling thoughts, when he spots Miri­am Wu walk­ing alone from Högalid Church around 11:00 p.m. Rec­og­niz­ing her imme­di­ate­ly, Roberto’s ini­tial instinct is to ensure her safe­ty, so he hes­i­tates, choos­ing to wait until she reach­es her front door. How­ev­er, his attempt to keep her safe fal­ters when a dark van sud­den­ly pulls up beside her, and a giant of a man swift­ly grabs Wu, over­pow­er­ing her despite her efforts to resist. In a fran­tic moment, she is thrown into the van, and Rober­to, in a pan­ic, races after the vehi­cle, but the van speeds off so quick­ly that Roberto’s pur­suit proves to be in vain. His heart sinks as he real­izes he is pow­er­less to stop what is hap­pen­ing before his very eyes.

Deter­mined not to give up, Rober­to embarks on a reck­less jour­ney through the streets, relent­less­ly search­ing for any sign of the van. Even­tu­al­ly, he spots the vehi­cle from a dis­tance, his heart pound­ing with urgency. Inside the van, Wu con­tin­ues to strug­gle against her cap­tor, who, with ease, over­pow­ers her attempts to break free. Blood­ied and hand­cuffed, she reflects on her sit­u­a­tion, real­iz­ing just how help­less she is against the bru­tal man hold­ing her cap­tive. Mean­while, far removed from the chaos, Mikael Blomkvist is unaware of Wu’s abduc­tion. He tries con­tact­ing Rober­to, hop­ing to gath­er infor­ma­tion about Wu, but his calls are inter­rupt­ed by a bro­ken con­nec­tion, leav­ing him in the dark about the unfold­ing events.

Roberto’s pur­suit leads him to the out­skirts of town, where he los­es sight of the van, his frus­tra­tion mount­ing. As the night wears on, Wu con­tin­ues to endure a relent­less assault, and her mind drifts to grim thoughts, won­der­ing if she will sur­vive the har­row­ing expe­ri­ence. Mean­while, Eriks­son reach­es out to Blomkvist with crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion about a lawyer involved in past crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, offer­ing a glimpse into the deep­er web of intrigue that entan­gles the char­ac­ters. These rev­e­la­tions only add com­plex­i­ty to the already tan­gled nar­ra­tive, pro­vid­ing an under­cur­rent of mys­tery and sus­pi­cion that will undoubt­ed­ly play a role in the chap­ters to come.

Even­tu­al­ly, Rober­to catch­es up with the van once more, which has stopped at a non­de­script ware­house. The sense of urgency inten­si­fies as Rober­to sees Wu being dragged inside, and the weight of the deci­sion to con­front her cap­tor over­whelms him. Despite the immi­nent dan­ger, Rober­to knows he must act to res­cue Wu. Sum­mon­ing his courage, he steps inside the build­ing, only to be met by the mas­sive man, who imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­nizes him as the box­er. What fol­lows is an intense and bru­tal con­fronta­tion, one in which Rober­to real­izes that his usu­al box­ing skills may not be enough to defeat this impos­ing oppo­nent, a man built like a tank, far stronger than he ever antic­i­pat­ed.

The fight becomes a des­per­ate strug­gle for sur­vival. Roberto’s tra­di­tion­al fight­ing meth­ods, while effec­tive in many sit­u­a­tions, are no match for the brute strength of his adver­sary. The bat­tle rages on, with Rober­to strug­gling to land blows that can inca­pac­i­tate the giant. Just as the sit­u­a­tion seems hope­less, Wu, still reel­ing from her assault, finds a way to fight back, launch­ing a coun­ter­at­tack that shifts the momen­tum in their favor. This moment of team­work proves to be piv­otal as Rober­to lands crit­i­cal blows on the mas­sive man, their com­bined efforts final­ly man­ag­ing to sub­due him.

Exhaust­ed but deter­mined, Rober­to and Wu stand over their fall­en cap­tor, their hearts pound­ing with the adren­a­line of sur­vival. Despite the phys­i­cal toll of the fight, they know that the bat­tle is far from over. The ten­sion of the moment lingers, set­ting the stage for even greater chal­lenges ahead. As the chap­ter con­cludes, the two sur­vivors, blood­ied but res­olute, are left to face the after­math of their har­row­ing ordeal. Their tri­umph over the giant offers a brief respite, but the dan­gers they face in this com­pli­cat­ed web of intrigue and cor­rup­tion are only just begin­ning to unfold. With each pass­ing moment, they grow clos­er to uncov­er­ing the truth, but the path ahead is fraught with per­il.