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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

188

"Excellent service, don't you think?" Frank asked Bjorn as soon as the two men had walked beyond hearing distance of Gus and his men.
"You placed the order this morning?" Bjorn asked.
"No. I contacted him yesterday. But still... Very impressive, don't you think?"
"Sure. Very impressive."

The two men walked in silence for a while. Then, Frank broke the silence by telling Bjorn that he was going to ask Gus to set up the fence he was planning to raise around the checkpoint.

"Really?" Bjorn asked, surprised. "Is that a good idea? I mean... Gus is one of them, isn't he?"
"Gus is harmless," Frank replied with confidence. "And a useful guy to have on our side. It's not people like Gus and Pedro and Jan we have to look out for. They are doing fine. They are profiting from this whole thing, and won't suddenly attack us. It's all the other villagers we have to keep an eye on. The desperate ones. The ones slaving away in Ane's factory, and all the others working for peanuts. The place is a prison camp. And in a prison camp you got two kinds of people. The inmates and the wardens. Gus is a warden of sorts. He's one of us."

Bjorn nodded. He agreed that Gus was hardly going to go on a suicide mission against the checkpoint any time soon. The man was no doubt doing just fine and would have nothing to gain by attacking them.

"So you're going to let Gus put up the fence?" Bjorn asked rhetorically.
"Yep. I actually contacted him several days ago when looking for quotes, and he's definitely the cheapest one. And with this quick service, he has convinced me. I'm going to use him. And why not? We use Pingo for our food, and no one finds that strange. They could in theory poison us all. But the idea is ludicrous. So ludicrous in fact that I bet you never thought of it."

Frank was right. The idea had never crossed Bjorn's mind.

"You see," Frank continued. "All these people making money out of this whole situation are completely harmless. The ones who will eventually attack us are the desperate ones. Not the ones that are profiting from this."
"Like those guys being flown in from Lier later this week?" Bjorn suggested.
"Yeah. And those slaving around in Ane's factory. There is a lot of desperation down there. And it's only going to get worse."

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