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Bjorn looked up from his PC again. The low sun was slowly descending towards the mountains to the north west, and was starting to shine into his room. He pulled the left curtain to prevent the glare from shining into his eyes, but he did this reflexively as his mind was fully occupied by the last bit of information that he had picked up about Pedro.

A lot of pieces were suddenly falling into place. If Pedro had indeed been behind the corruption of Portugal's prime minister, and Bjorn saw no reason to doubt this rumor, then this could easily explain why the man was so elusive. A person involved in that kind of business would hardly be interested in a lot of personal attention. It was suddenly clear why Pedro was deliberately keeping a low profile. But more importantly, the rumor had in it an explanation as to Pedro's true business model, and his reason for being involved in the Lundby project.

Pedro was involved in corruption at the very highest level. He was a master thief, as it were. And it suddenly dawned on Bjorn how thoroughly ridiculous the whole Dr. Evil idea had been. Why spend huge resources on a doomsday machine, risking his own life and safety in the process, if the treasury of a nation could be emptied by simply bribing the key holder?

Corruption, when done correctly is virtually risk free, which explains why the private sector never built a doomsday machine. Such horrible devices are the domain of governments. Only statesmen of powerful nations would ever dream of building, let alone using, such a horrible weapon. Only statesmen have virtually unlimited resources available to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians, just to make a political statement. No private organization would ever do such a mad thing, not least because the alternative is both virtually risk free and far more lucrative in terms of profits.

But corruption is not completely risk free. There is always the chance that something could go wrong, and if so, Pedro might have to answer questions by a high court. He might have to spend time and resources on defending himself. He might even have to spend a few years in jail. And so, just to be on the safe side, Pedro has found himself a nuclear bunker where he can hide out, just in case.

It all made perfect sense, and Bjorn felt very pleased with himself for having figured it out on his own. "That's it," Bjorn thought with a smile. "I cracked it!" But then another thought struck him, and he realized that he had only solved a part of the puzzle. Pedro and the foreign minister were after all friends, or at least on friendly terms, and this could not possibly be a good thing, considering the fact that the foreign minister was pretty much running the show as far as the Norwegian state was concerned.

The foreign minister had acted completely independently when he ordered the bombing of Libya. And if mass murder on behalf of the Norwegian people was within his capabilities, then the treasury too may well be within his personal reach. Who would stop him if he decided to make an "emergency transfer" to "safeguard" the sovereign wealth fund? Would there be any questions asked? No one seemed particularly bothered about the Libya campaign. Would people even notice if Pedro got a way to subtly empty the wealth fund?

There was no way to know anything for sure, and all of this was of course pure speculation. Bjorn had no way to know if any of this was actually happening. The only thing he knew for sure was that Pedro and the foreign minister were somehow connected, and that Pedro was quite probably a master of corruption, a man with access to power and money almost beyond comprehension.