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Thursday, January 23, 2014

24

Geir wasted no time hanging around at the barracks when Bjorn entered. He too was eager to go, but as it turned out, for very different reasons than Bjorn. While Bjorn was eager to find out what the village was actually like, Geir's excitement was all about telling people about procedures and protocol, and generally being a big shot. It soon became clear to Bjorn that Geir had no interest in learning anything. As far as Geir was concerned, the village was no more and no less than a concentration camp populated by asylum seekers and profiteers. A place in grave need of regulations and control, which was what he and Bjorn was going to impose through rigid inspections and clear cut rules for operating businesses like the fish processing plant. Geir was all worked up and was soon busy lecturing Bjorn on the importance of coming across as assertive and authoritative so as to establish the right level of respect for the law and the rules and regulations that define the limits of what can and cannot be done in the village.

Geir was sitting behind the wheel of the red sedan that Ante had used to pick up Bjorn at the port two days earlier, complaining that the check point didn't have a proper military vehicle that they could use to come across more assertively on the population, when Bjorn caught eye of a billboard at the roadside promoting the Lundby Casino. It displayed a glamorous looking couple by a roulette table, and the text seemed perverse considering that the village was little more than a modern day gulag. In gold letters, below the smiling couple, the text read "Lundby, where dreams come true!"

"What sort of a sick mind came up with that?" Bjorn asked, interrupting Geir in his seemingly endless monologue.
"Came up with what?"
"The billboard we just passed. The one with an ad for the casino."
"Well, that is aimed at the scum who come out here from Kirkenes to play, get drunk, and get laid, I guess. This place is a cesspool of vice."
"Really?"
"Its the way of the Samis. They have no shame, and we should never have given them autonomy."
"Autonomy?"
"Well, semi-autonomy. That was the deal when they negotiated this plan. As long as they make sure no one escapes this place, they are free to do just about anything they please, and this kind of shit is what the they come up with. They like to present themselves as poor victims, and close to nature, and all that crap, but when push comes to shove, it's all about making money."

"And what about that apartment building over there?" Bjorn continued, catching sight of the building site he had been observing from the glass office. "Who's going to move in there?"
"The same scum bags who put up the casino, I guess. Some people are out here just to make a quick buck, you know. The factory we are about to inspect is probably no exception. Be prepared to see a lot of miserable people being exploited big time!"

Bjorn felt a sting of guilt as he once again was reminded of the sort of misery he was employed to sustain, and asked Geir if he felt the same way.

"No, I don't," was his short reply.
"Why not?"
"Its either them or us, you know. They are like parasites, and we had to stop them. Now that they have to work while they wait for their asylum papers to be processed, I'm sure we'll soon see the asylum seeker problem solved. It may be brutal for the few true asylum seekers coming to Norway, but the way things were going... You know... Things were really getting out of hand."
"Yeah I know..." said Bjorn with a nod, feeling better from hearing Geir's honest and straight forward assessment of the situation. "We really had to do something. This colony is all for the best. Stroke of political genius, if you ask me."
"Yep, that's the truth, and don't you forget it. It really was a stroke of genius, and I for one... I'm proud of being part of this."

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

23

Bjorn got up early the next day, repeating the little routine from the day before, aiming to avoid his colleagues as much as possible. But this time he came across Ante drying himself off in the bathroom, which made Bjorn uncomfortable. The whole communal bathroom thing bothered him, and he could sense that Ante was not overly happy about having to share the room either.

Bjorn tossed a quick glance at the clock hanging over the frosted glass window, noting the time so as not to repeat this minor blunder again. Then he greeted Ante politely while making a mental note of the time, quickly calculating that he should aim to use the showers between 7:15 and 7:30 in the future in order to have the place to himself. Proceeding to brush his teeth in silence, Bjorn let Ante get dressed without further interruption.

The relief Bjorn felt when Ante left the room was surprisingly intense. Bjorn was quite shocked over his own discomfort with the situation, and worried for a moment that Ante's reaction was due to his own feelings rubbing over at him. Ante was clearly in a hurry to get out and leave Bjorn alone, and this triggered again the self conscious discomfort that had been bothering Bjorn the day before. But once again, the uncomfortable feeling was soon forgotten, and by the time he met Ante in the kitchen for breakfast, it was as if the awkward situation had never happened.

Bjorn repeated his quick intake of breakfast in the same fashion as the day before, and got out of the barracks just in time to avoid Thomas and Espen. Drawing the last few puffs from his cigarette, he greeted John in the glass cage several minutes ahead of schedule, which put a smile on John's face. And tossing aside the butt of the cigarette, Bjorn went through the brief formality with of getting the keys to the gun rack, and relieving John of his morning shift.

John wasted no time, and quickly disappeared out of sight, heading for the breakfast table, while Bjorn put his thermos in the same place as the day before. "How quickly things become a routine," Bjorn wondered as he sat down in the comfortable office chair, once again taking in the magnificent view from the glass box. An intense feeling of well being surged in him as he took a first sip of his coffee, turned on the radio, and zoned out in front of the view.

There had been no nightmare haunting him during the night, and Bjorn was looking forward to a short day in the glass cage, followed by a bit of adventure, as he would soon be on his way to Lundby to assist Geir in inspecting the fish processing plant.

The day promised to be overcast but dry with temperatures again dipping below freezing, and Bjorn was again struck by the myriads of grey tones, and the complete lack of colours in the scenery, with distant houses and the occasional red or yellow car as the only exceptions.

Keeping an eye out for the ferry entering and leaving the bay every two hours, Bjorn caught sight of a fishing boat entering the bay roughly an hour before he was scheduled to go down to Lundby. It glided into the bay, heading straight for the village, tranquil and determined as it plowed through the smooth waters, leaving a trail of expanding disturbances behind it. Bjorn followed the boat lazily with his eyes while sipping his coffee, finding the sight pleasantly soothing and meditative at first, but realizing that the boat was bringing fish to the processing plant he was filled with a growing sense of excitement as the boat got closer to the village as it served as a reminder of Bjorn's imminent assignment to go down to the village.
 
By the time Thomas appeared in the doorway of the glass office, roughly at the same time the fishing boat disappeared behind the near hill of the village, Bjorn was all worked up and ready to go. He handed the keys impatiently over to Thomas, bid him goodbye, and hurried over to the barracks to hook up with Geir.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

22

Bjorn leafed through the newspaper, reading the article about Nora's place, and skimming through an article about the casino. The paper was clearly a mix of local news, right out promotions of various kinds, and bits of global news, probably cut and pasted directly from the internet. But it was certainly very unexpected for a village the size of Lundby to have a newspaper, and this was the biggest new as far as Bjorn was concerned.

However, as soon as the four o'clock news came on TV with its characteristic fanfare, Bjorn put the Lundby Gazette back on the table, turning his attention instead to the  news readers. There was nothing truly new on the news this afternoon, and the predictability of the official line and editorial focus made it almost a mind numbing experience to watch it. International news was again about the Middle East and Israel's supposed provocations and meddling in the region. Economic news was all about the crisis, with politicians talking tough, promising more regulations, and central bankers arguing for continued monetary stimulus in order to stabilize the markets.

The local news from Norway was an equally predictable series of reports on lay offs, financial hardships due to rising interest rates and rising unemployment, and deteriorating health services as well as a general lack of old people's homes. And once again, there were the usual promises by politicians to sort out the troubles, but also stern faced appeals to people to be patient and positive.

Then there was the usual series of short news flashes from around the world, with sex scandals in France and the US, and a viral video, this time of a singing dog from Singapore. And finally there was about fifteen minutes of sports highlights from the day before.

Espen, John and Thomas all appeared pretty much immediately after the end of the TV news, and Frank turned the TV off as soon as they entered the room. The four men had clearly made a habit of playing cards in the afternoon, seating themselves around the table where Bjorn had met them the day before.

"Do you play Bridge?" John asked, looking over at Bjorn, out of politeness rather than any genuine desire to invite a fifth person into the group.
"No, I don't," Bjorn answered, clearly causing a bit of relief in the card playing group.
"You should. It's fun," Thomas added, as he sat down, making an effort to take the edge off the rather transparent fact that they did not really want to include him.
"I might, one day," Bjorn replied, not feeling offended in any way by the group's desire to keep things unchanged.

Ante left for the kitchen as soon as the other men entered the room to play cards, and Bjorn decided to go and join him for a while before going up to his room. He had taken an immediate liking to Ante, and he had a feeling that Ante felt the same way about him. Come to think of it, Ante did not seem to have any great liking for any of his other colleagues. Not that he gave any indication of disliking them either, but it could well be that Ante was in need of a proper friend at the check point just as much as Bjorn.

Ante was in the process of taking out some fish and vegetables from the fridge when Bjorn entered the kitchen, and Bjorn was welcomed by Ante's usual talkative friendliness. Bjorn poured himself a mug of coffee, and pretty soon the two men were busy talking about everything from current affairs, their background, their plans for Friday, and about life in general. All while Bjorn sipped his coffee and Ante prepared the dinner for the day.

Friday, January 10, 2014

21

Back in the common room, Bjorn found Ante leafing through a flimsy little newspaper in an easy chair over by the window, and Frank still sitting in front of the TV.
"So what does 500 MG stand for?" Bjorn asked as he sat down in the sofa across from Ante.
"It is short for 500 milligram," Ante replied without putting down the newspaper. "It is half a Gram."
"Half a gram of what?"
"Of gold," Ante replied, now putting down the paper. "You can get physical gold delivered in return for those chips over at the casino. They only accept round numbers, though. The smallest gold wafer is two and a half Gram, and is really tiny. And there is a fixed service charge of 100 MG for each wafer to discourage people from trading in their chips for gold."
"So if I have five of these, I can get one of their smallest gold wafers?" Bjorn asked, holding up the green chip.
"Well, it would cost you 100 MG, so strictly speaking, you would need 100 MG in addition to your two and a half Gram in order to get one of their smallest wafers."
"That´s kind of cool, though," Bjorn remarked. "But why are they doing this?"
"Beats me. Jan and Pedro just decided to do things this way, and that´s how it has been."
"Jan and Pedro?"
"Oh, you haven´t heard of Jan and Pedro, have you?"
"No."
"Well, Jan owns the casino, and most of the land out here. And Pedro is the guy who negotiated the asylum centre deal with the foreign minister. Pedro is in charge of the asylum centre. He is into all sorts of businesses, apparently, and this is his latest venture."
"Making a living off of other people´s misery?"
"Perhaps. I don´t know. How about you? Aren´t you too making a living off of this asylum centre?"
"Well... yeah... I guess I am, in a way."

Ante was right, of course, and it was silly of Bjorn to point a moralizing finger at anyone regarding the ethics of the asylum centre. He leaned back in the sofa, and put the green chip back in his pocket.

"So have you decided whether or not you´ll come with us to Lundby on Friday?" Ante asked, changing the topic to something less political.
"I´m not sure. What´s the plan?"
"I have reserved a table at Nora´s place. It´s a Philipino place. Very good food, they say. And then we´ll go over to the casino and have a few beers afterwards."
"That´s it?"
"Yeah. What did you expect?"
"Nothing really. Who´s going?"
"Me, Thomas, Espen, and Frank. There is room for one more in my car. You know. You really should come with us. It will be fun."
"So you are going too?" Bjorn asked, looking over at Frank.

Frank confirmed the fact with a short "yep", and for some reason, this was the bit of encouragement Bjorn needed in order to accept Ante´s offer.

"Okay. I´m in," Bjorn said with a smile.
"Great!"

Ante looked at Bjorn, very pleased with himself. Then he pushed the thin little newspaper he had been reading over to Bjorn, pointing to an article on the front page. "Five stars for Nora´s place," was the title, spelled out in English rather than Norwegian.

"Here, why don´t you read this? It will make your mouth water!" Ante said. But Bjorn´s eyes was on the title of the newspaper. "The Lundby Gazette."
"They got their own newspaper?" Bjorn asked puzzled. "In English?"
"Yeah. Its a free weekly thing, and it´s all in English. Most people in Lundby don´t speak Norwegian, so I guess that´s why. I picked this one up last time I was down there. You find them everywhere. Didn´t you come across this on the ferry. They have them there too. In those metal boxes, you know."
"Really?"
"The articles are mainly promotions of Lundby as a tourist destination. But it features real news too."
"And who´s behind this?"
"I don´t know. Who cares? It´s a pretty good paper, for what it is. You find them on line too, if you´re interested. I´m sure you´ll find out who runs the thing if you´re curious. I suspect it's controlled by Jan, though. He is the one with the casino, so he is the one most likely to benefit from the PR."

Bjorn picked up the flimsy paper, and started reading it, quickly noticing that the grammar was far from perfect. Someone with a fairly limited knowledge of English was behind this, and the spelling was probably only as good as it was due to automatic spell checking. But the layout and look and feel of the thing was as good as anything. It looked very professional, so it was painfully irritating that the grammar made it hard to read at times.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

20

Bjorn found a tray in the fridge filled with left over pork, roasted potatoes and vegetables, and served up a large portion for himself which he heated in the micro. He took out the gambling chip from his pocket to take a better look at it while his food was heating. The green chip was clearly marked with "500 MG" in black ink on both sides, and its surface was mildly holographic, changing colours as he tilted it under the artificial light in the kitchen.
Ante had not actually told him how much the thing was worth. All he had said was that it could pay for a night out in Lundby. But for all he knew, a night out in Lundby might be practically free. But on the other hand, Bjorn was in the rather unfortunate situation that virtually all his income was being deducted from his account in the form of taxes and child support, leaving him practically nothing, so a bit of extra money was always welcome.

A series of events had brought Bjorn into serious money trouble from which he was unlikely to ever fully recover, and the whole thing had been so depressing that he had even given up work for several years. It all started with the tragic death of his parents in a car crash in Croatia, where they had been on vacation. Driving along the Adriatic Sea they met an out of control truck that smashed into them, killing Bjorn´s father immediately, and mortally wounding his mother, who died two days later in a hospital in Zagreb.

It was a great shock to Bjorn of course, and being their only child he had to take care of the funeral and inheritance procedures on his own. His parents had a great number of friends, and Bjorn made a point of making the funeral a lavish affair. His father´s business, selling electronic sensors to the oil industry, had been very profitable for years, so Bjorn saw no reason to be stingy with the funeral, and he found some comfort in the knowledge that he would at least be granted a rather large inheritance at the end of it all.

His father´s company was valued at several million dollars, and Bjorn signed the official papers, transferring it to him, not thinking for a moment that he was in fact signing his life away to the state. There was no way he could have anticipated the mess he was getting himself into.

Almost immediately, Bjorn got a letter from the tax authorities, with a claim for two million dollars in inheritance tax. This did not come as a great surprise, but the difficulty in finding someone to buy the company did surprise him. No one seemed interested in buying the business, and Bjorn knew nothing of his father´s business, so he could not easily run it himself. Bjorn realized too late that the sensors that his father had been selling were outdated, and that his father had in fact been in the process of unwinding the business, selling everything of value, putting all his money into a pension fund instead. An investment that became worthless the moment he and his wife were dead.

By the time Bjorn contacted the tax authorities to revoke his claim to the inheritance, the official period allowed to change his mind had expired, and Bjorn was stuck with a tax claim exceeding the value of his personal savings by more than a million dollars. Bjorn tried to argue against the inheritance tax claim based on his discovery that his father´s company was in fact much less worth than had been assumed at the time when the inheritance had been made official, but the government agents were notoriously inflexible, and there was nothing Bjorn could do to stop them from forcibly selling his apartment, and liquidizing everything he owned.

Bjorn was put on the street, together with his wife and two children, and this spelled the end of his marriage. His wife took the children and moved in with her parents, while Bjorn found shelter with some friends before finding a room in a collective in Oslo. The tax authorities were relentless in their claims for the rest of the inheritance tax, laying claim to most of Bjorn´s income and making it difficult for him to make ends meet, even as he was reducing his expenses to a bare minimum, and working extra hours.

When Bjorn´s ex made a claim for child support, nothing changed to Bjorn´s financial situation. His ex got the money she claimed, while the state got less, and Bjorn realized that his situation would be unchanged even if he stopped working altogether. The only thing changing if he stopped working would be his debt to the state which would start growing every month. But the debt was so hopelessly outsized anyway that Bjorn did not care, and pretty soon he gave up on his job, and instead of working for a living, he started living off welfare.

What had seemed like a windfall, had turned to a nightmare, and it took Bjorn several years to recover enough strength to find himself a job. And the job that he had found for himself was pretty much ideal. It required very little of him, and it provided him with food and shelter. His net income after taxes and child support was still virtually nothing. But the fact that he had no expenses to speak of made life in the military a lot more attractive than any alternative. Not even a well paid job as an engineer could compete with the job as a border guard given his current financial mess.

And with this in mind, Bjorn took another look at the green gambling chip. "Tax free income," he thought to himself. "Who cares what this is in real money? It is mine, and I´m going to enjoy spending it all on myself."

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

19

Bjorn was relieved from his shift by the chubby young man who had been sitting in the glass cage when Bjorn arrived at the check point with Ante the day before. The man introduced himself as Geir before excusing himself for being five minutes late, and he did this in a strange self important manner that Bjorn soon understood to be a part of his character. So when he explained that he had been delayed by Frank, it was almost as if he was referring to a great leader.

Frank had received news of a planned delivery of fish to the processing plant down in the village, and had stopped Geir on his way out to the glass cage to tell him that he had picked Geir to go down and inspect the site, making sure that the factory complies fully with the rules regarding the colony. He had also told Geir that he had picked Bjorn to be Geir´s assistant, since this would be a good opportunity for him to get familiar with the place.

The appointment with the manager of the processing plant was scheduled to twelve o´clock next day, and Thomas would be in charge of the glass cage while they were off on business in Lundby. Bjorn´s assignment for the next day would in other words be to man the glass cage until a little before noon, and then to spend whatever time necessary to make sure everything is in order at the plant, before returning to the regular schedule at the check point.

It all sounded fair enough, and Bjorn handed Geir the keys to the gun rack, before bidding him good bye. He walked slowly up to the barracks, lighting a cigarette as he went. The ground was soaking wet from melting snow, and the sun was pleasantly warm, contrasting the cool air. The thought of a trip down to the village the next day took hold as he stood in the sun by the entrance to the barracks, finishing his cigarette, and a sense of adventure filled him as he speculated on what it would be like.

Frank was sitting in front of the TV in the common area watching the news when Bjorn finally stepped into the warmth of the barracks. Frank confirmed what Geir had been saying, adding that he had chosen Geir because of his trustworthiness when it comes to this kind of things. No one was as well versed in the rules of the check point as him. Not even Frank knew the rules in such details as Geir, and he could always be relied upon to check out things thoroughly.

"Not like some other people who don´t seem to care one bit about the rules," Frank added with a louder voice as Ante stepped into the room.
"What? Me? Rules?" Ante asked, looking puzzled.
"Exactly!" Frank answered, with a broad smile. "You don´t care much about the rules, do you?"
"What rules?" Ante asked with an even broader smile.

Frank chuckled, and turned his attention back to the TV.

"There is left overs from lunch in the kitchen. You go and help yourself," Ante said, addressing Bjorn. "I heard you´re off to Lundby tomorrow."
"Yes, that seems to be the case."
"Do you have any Grams?"
"Grams?" Bjorn was suddenly confused.
"You know, the money they use down there?"
"Ah! No, I don´t. Do I need money going down there?"
"Only if you want to buy something."
"Like what?"
"Like cigarettes, for example. We are not going to provide you with cigarettes up here. If you want them you will have to get them yourself. And the closest place to get them is down in the village."

Bjorn had brought a carton of cigarettes from Oslo, which should do fine for several weeks, so he was not in any desperate need for more.

"Well, I don´t think I need to buy anything while I´m down there."
"Okay. But why don´t you borrow some money from me, just in case. If you don´t use it, you can return it to me."

Ante held a green gambling chip up in front of Bjorn, and Bjorn was again struck by the strange habit of using gambling chips from the casino as money.

"How much do I owe you if I spend it all?" Bjorn asked as he accepted the chip reluctantly.
"You can keep it if you take my night shift on Sunday. It buys you a night out in Lundby, complete with dinner and as much you can drink."
"Really?"
"Unless you go completely over board, of course."
"And what do I owe you if I spend just a part of this?"
"If you break it, it´s yours, and you have to take my Sunday night shift."
"That´s the deal, is it?"
"That´s the deal!"

Bjorn smiled and put the chip in his pocket. Then he headed over to the kitchen for some food. The memory of Ante´s delicious lasagne from the day before made Bjorn suddenly intensely aware of how much of an appetite he had worked up while out in the glass cage.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

18

Bjorn put down the binoculars. Now that he had studied the building site more closely, he could make sense of the distant figures as they moved around with no instrument to help him. He did no longer need the binoculars to know who were the slaves and who were the masters. And pleased to have figured out the division of labour down at the building site, he poured himself another cup of coffee, which he drank leisurely while keeping an eye with the builders.

Refreshed by the coffee, Bjorn felt an urge for nicotine, so he got up and out of the glass cage to smoke a cigarette. The clouds and the wind from the day before had pretty much disappeared, and the sun was shining down on the melting snow by the road side. A faint trickle of moving water could be heard everywhere, and the air was full of freshness and a sense of expectation. It was almost a shame to light up a cigarette in all this freshness, but on the other hand, the contrast between the sharp taste of the smoke and the mild crispness of the spring air was quite invigorating too.

The arctic summer, short and fragile, was on its way, pushing the winter to its side. Standing next to the glass box, with the sun shining down on him, Bjorn could feel how the warmth of the sun lifted his spirit, as by magic. But a cloud was drifting in from the west and would soon come between him and the sun, and that would be the end of the summery sensation. Another few minutes of sun, and then it would be gone for at least half an hour, judging by the size of the cloud and the speed that it was moving.

Wanting to keep the optimistic feeling of summer, and not wait for the cloud to spoil it with its bitter reminder of how fragile the summer will be, even at its warmest, Bjorn decided to go back into the glass cage while the sun was still bright. But just as he was about to enter, he heard a distant clatter from the south, which he immediately recognized as the sound of a snow clearing truck pushing a heavy plow in front of it, and curious to see it, he turned away from the door, ignoring the sudden chill that came with the sun disappearing behind the cloud.

Bjorn caught a first glimpse of the truck as it appeared from behind a hill, up the valley to Neiden. But it was soon gone again, and for a while, even the clatter of the plow was gone. Then the clatter reappeared, followed by the truck, now heading straight down towards the check point. Bjorn liftet his hand to greet the trucker the moment he could see him through the windshield, and the trucker responded by honking his horn.

The truck made a wide turn on the parking lot up by the barracks without reducing the speed by much. The trucker waved to Bjorn as he did this. Then, honking his horn again, he headed back towards Neiden.

Monday, January 6, 2014

17

Bjorn sat down in the office chair in front of the control panel, put his thermos on a small ledge by the window in front of him, and felt immediately at ease as he gazed out at the panoramic view of the fjord, with snow capped alpine mountains rising up from the icy marsh land on the other side.

Lundby, partially hidden from view by two low hills shielding it from the weather on either side, looked positively idyllic with houses scattered in a seemingly random fashion on the barren rocks, between which a road could be seen, with the occasional car driving by. The pace of life in the village, which Bjorn derived solely from the cars coming and going, seemed neither stressful nor sedated. From the distance, everything looked both normal and peaceful.

The port, completely hidden from view by a hill to the east could nevertheless be detected due to the regular comings and goings of the ferry. And there was almost always a little rush of cars driving by, down by the fjord, every twenty minutes after a ferry arrival. People were coming and going, and the woman that Bjorn had briefly talked to on the ferry was probably not the only one doing business in the village. Some of the cars coming in from the port were fairly large trucks, clearly carrying goods of various kinds.

Having spent some time taking in the initial impression from the commanding view of the glass panelled office, Bjorn leant back in the chair with a mug of hot coffee in his hand, letting his eyes wander freely in search of things of interest. With the road to Neiden still blocked by snow, there was no chance of anyone coming up to the checkpoint, unless in an errand for the checkpoint itself, so there was literally nothing for Bjorn to do but to let his mind wander with his gaze.

The view both barren and motionless, made any motion draw immediate attention to itself, and two cranes, partially hidden by the near hill between the check point and Lundby, drew Bjorn´s attention every time they made an occasional turn, and so did cars coming and going on the bits of road visible from the check point, as did a mobile crane getting into place at a building site down by the fjord, at the near side of the hill obscuring the view of Lundby.

It soon became intensely sleep inducing to just sit and watch the view, and Bjorn realized he had to entertain his mind in order not to nod off with his wandering eyes and mind. He decided to scrutinize the building site down by the fjord, and lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes to take a closer look. By the look of it, the building being erected was some sort of low apartment building, and the site was very busy with people, many of whom did not seem to have much else to do than to carry materials from one place to another. Others, presumably more skilled workers, were busy finishing the ground floor façade, while others were putting in place scaffolding higher up.

Everything seemed to be happening all at once, and looking through the large openings, still without doors or windows, people could be seen in the light of harsh incandescent lamps, tiding up and getting started on the interior. For every skilled worker, there seemed to be at least five people busy sweeping floors and carrying stuff around, and Bjorn got a strong feeling that what he was witnessing was nothing less than modern day slavery. The only thing missing was any sign of armed guards. And the slaves did not seem as discouraged as he would have expected. They did not work excessively hard. But they did not seem to drag their feet either.

Friday, January 3, 2014

16

Bjorn was happy to find Ante busy frying eggs and sausages in the kitchen. There was something about the man´s simple down to earth being that made Bjorn feel relaxed just seeing him do his morning routine over by the stove. Ante handed Bjorn a plate with two eggs, three sausages and baked beans, while commenting on Bjorn´s early arrival for breakfast, telling him how happy John will be to see him early in the check point office, which Ante referred to as the glass cage.

"He is probably hungry, and eager to get you up to speed on the little routines out there so that he can come in from the night shift," Ante continued, before going on to suggest that Bjorn take a thermos of coffee, or some other hot drink with him to help him while away the hours.

Bjorn ate his breakfast quickly, and was already on his way out with a thermos of steaming hot coffee, when Thomas and Espen appeared in the dining room kitchen. He greeted them briefly on his way out and felt a great sense of relief as he got out in the cold, only wearing is army sweater as protection against the weather. However, temperatures were a great deal warmer that morning, and he was told by Ante that the glass cage was heated, so no jacket was needed.

In fact, only the coldest winter days required a jacket in the glass office, and even then, some preferred to stick with just wearing a sweater, rather than wearing a bulky coat. And a relatively mild spring day was certainly not an occasion to dress up as if it was the middle of winter.

Bjorn hurried over to the check point office, eager to get started, and finally get settled into what would soon be his daily routines. John was happy to see Bjorn a full half hour early, but was no less eager to go off to breakfast as soon as possible, and gave Bjorn a very quick introduction to the tasks required by him for his guard duty.

He showed Bjorn the little control panel with buttons to open and close the barriers on either side of the glass cage, and he pointed out the alarm button and hotline phone which could communicate either directly with Frank, or function as an intercom through which emergency messages could be broadcasted alongside the alarm.

Finally, John handed Bjorn the key to the gun rack on the wall behind them, reminding Bjorn that he should not take out the gun for anything but self defence. "The check point is only a barrier and not a defensive military position," John continued, repeating the instructions Bjorn had already received in Oslo, before leaving for the arctic. "If there is a revolt in the colony, the checkpoint should be vacated, the army proper should be contacted, and any fighting should be left to properly armed personnel further up the valley to Neiden."