185

Bjorn rinsed his thermos and put it on the rack above the kitchen sink to drip dry. Then, he went up to his room for a rest. He felt like being on his own again, and sensing that Ante was feeling the same way, he left the man in the kitchen to finish his things.

Back in his room, Bjorn took a quick peek outside. He looked over at Gus' house in the distance, and was struck by how the place had completely lost its menacing appearance now that he had met Gus in person. Having shook hands with him, it seemed quite inconceivable that the man would do anything to harm him or any of his colleagues at the checkpoint. Gus simply wasn't the type to do anything rash. Bjorn's brief encounter with the man had convinced him of that.

"Strange how that goes," Bjorn thought to himself. "How meeting someone face to face can change ones feeling about another so dramatically."

Bjorn picked up the remote control for the TV, got into bed, and started zapping through the channels.

"... fight extremism," a voice said as he zapped over to one of the news channels. And there was a picture of the Wikipedia logo in the information box next to the anchorwoman that drew Bjorn's attention.

"Is Wikipedia fighting extremism?" Bjorn wondered. But he soon understood that Wikipedia was in fact the source of the alleged extremism, and not an institution fighting it. The TV display split into two, with the minister of cultural affairs appearing with a concerned look to the right of the anchorwoman. The minister explained how articles on Wikipedia had become ever more extreme over time, and that it was currently at a point of being dangerously misleading. She had therefore decided to allocate resources towards a general clean up of Wikipedia to make sure the various articles that so many people rely on for facts, were as factual and reliable as they should be.

It would be a daunting task. But the alternative to facing the online extremism head on would be to let it grow unhindered, and that could have some very serious consequences, the minister explained. Then she made a general appeal to the public about being critical about things found on the web, announcing that people should report suspicious content to the ministry through a newly created website called Real Truth.

The web address was displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the anchorwoman repeated it twice before thanking the minister for her time.

What followed was economic news. There had been a hostile attack on the Norwegian currency, but it had been pushed back by the central bank selling record amounts of US dollars. Nevertheless, the Norwegian currency had fallen, and there were concerns that there would be renewed attacks coming soon.

"That won't go down well with Espen," Bjorn thought, remembering how cross Espen got at the unexpectedly high price of the Gram on Friday. "Surely, the Gram will go up in price even more after this."

Bjorn remembered, with some amusement, how Espen had reacted to the price rise, which had occurred despite the falling gold price, so much touted in the news. But just as Bjorn's mind started to drift, a message came in on his mobile phone, and he was cut short in his meditative ramblings. He picked up his phone to see who it might be, and was somewhat surprised to see that it was from the Blacklist.

"Please confirm the changes to your profile," it read. And on reading these words, Bjorn immediately knew that Geir had been messing around on his PC. He leaped to his feet, and headed down to the glass cage, angry and impatient with Geir's misbehavior.