115

By the time Bjorn got out in the hallway, everybody were clattering down the stairs, except for Frank who came staggering out of his room apparently just woken up from a dream.

"Hi Frank," Bjorn said cheerfully. "I need to talk to you about a thing."
"About what?" Frank asked grumpily.
"About a boat taxi I came across last night."
"I know, I know," Frank interjected. "Geir told me all about it."
"He did?" Bjorn asked, feeling a sting of disappointment.
"He sent me an e-mail."
"Oh... So that's taken care of then?"
"I've reported it on to Oslo," Frank explained, leading Bjorn towards the stairs. "We don't have the resources to control the entire coast line for this kind of thing, so my suggestion is that we should employ the coast guard to patrol the entrance to the bay. That way every boat coming and going can be controlled as they pass through the narrow straight to Kirkenes."

Bjorn nodded in agreement, as he walked down the stairs. Frank sure knew his stuff. He might be a show off, but he had a good head on his shoulders, at least when he made an effort to use it.

Sitting down at the table, Frank was not very happy to see his gun, but revealed no concern about this apart from an almost undetectable twitch. Then, he simply pulled the gun towards himself, and lay it across his lap. Frank was obviously in no mood to talk about the gun, and Ante, together with Bjorn, pretended to be completely ignorant about it. And with John and Espen either oblivious to it, or sensing the unspoken tension related to the gun, did not remark on it either.

And to make absolutely sure that no one would mention the gun, Bjorn announced to everyone his intention to go out with a plate of food and a glass of wine to Thomas out in the glass cage. And this had the desired effect of setting off the conversation on a happy and careless note.

Bjorn piled up some meat, potatoes and vegetables on a plate, poured a generous glass of red wine, and headed out to Thomas with it all, grabbing a paper napkin and some cutlery on his way out.

The rain had turned to a light drizzle, and Bjorn got to the glass cage without getting wet beyond a very light sprinkle that did not even soak into his clothes.

"Thanks, that's very good of you," Thomas said cheerfully as Bjorn entered the tiny office. "This will certainly make my time here in the cage pass quicker."
"I´m sure it will," Bjorn agreed.

Then, before heading back to the barracks, Bjorn took in the view from the glass cage. The clouds hanging low and heavy over the bay added to the fairy tale beauty of the place. The utter greyness and lifelessness conjured up the feeling that this was indeed the edge of the world, an arctic corner where no man was ever supposed to come, and which civilization had violated by adding roads and houses in godless defiance of the natural order of things.

"It's almost a little spooky, isn't it?" Bjorn asked rhetorically.
"What is?" Thomas asked, taking an initial sip of his wine.
"The view."
"I like it," Thomas said as a matter of fact.
"Me too," Bjorn agreed. "It's beautiful."

Bjorn left Thomas with his plate of food and glass of wine, heading back to the kitchen where the conversation had turned to the riots at the asylum centre in Lier. John had learned from looking around on the web that the riots had indeed been taking place at the very same place where Lars had organized his demonstration just days before, and John was sensing a conspiracy of some kind.

"So you think that Lars is behind it?" Espen asked.
"Well, he did not seem very upset with the riots, did he?" John replied.
"When was Lars ever upset with a riot?" Frank commented with a grin.
"But you have to admit it's a little disconcerting that he is targeting Lundby with his rhetoric these days." John added in defence of his theory.
"And that is why we are going to get a big fence around this place," Frank explained. "As long as we are one step ahead of the mob, we're fine."

The men fell silent on this note, and Bjorn took another sip of his red wine, only to be struck by its unusual taste.

"So what wine is this?" Bjorn asked, taking the opportunity to change the subject matter.
"It is a red green wine," Ante answered with a big smile.
"So they do exist," Bjorn commented glibly.
"They do indeed! Proves that even you can be right at times."
"Wasn't it Espen who came up with that theory" Bjorn asked modestly, turning to Espen.
"Or was it Thomas?" Espen asked.

Ante looked around the table with a smile.

"You know, maybe we should all take credit for being such good thinkers," Ante suggested.

And with this the conversation turned permanently to lighter matters. The wine drinkers at the table all agreed that the wine had an unusual feel to it which went quite well with the turkey. But they were more divided when it came to whether or not to repeat the experience. Frank and Espen thought it a nice experience as a one off, while Bjorn and Ante thought it good enough to try again, with Ante suggesting they should try the wine again one day with a duck or a goose or some similar fatty bird.

"Well, you're the one in charge of the household," Frank noted. "So I guess the decision is ultimately yours to make."
"It is indeed," Ante said smiling form ear to ear.

103

After telling Ante that they were feeling fine, apart from a mild hangover, Thomas confronted Ante with the fact that he had completely lost control last night, and got himself terribly drunk.

"And you were supposed to be our designated driver," Thomas said, clearly disappointed.
"Well, I was doing fine right until Bjorn came in, suggesting we all take a taxi home," Ante protested.
"No, you were not. You already had way too much to drink."
"I did not! I was drinking the occasional alcoholic beverage, but I was mainly sticking to soft drinks. I was in total control. It was you guys who suggested we take a taxi."
"Because you already had too much to drink," Thomas said, a little exasperated.
"Well... Anyway... Once we decided to order a taxi, there was no need for me to restrain myself, was there?"

There was a pause as Ante took a sip of water from his glass.

"So you know Igor, do you?" Bjorn asked, changing the subject somewhat.
"Yes, he's a good friend of mine," Ante answered with a smile.
"So why did you blank out completely when I told you there's a taxi service in Lundby?"
"I did?"
"Yeah, you did. But Igor must have told you about his taxi service. He's a pretty talkative guy."
"Sure is... Well... Now that you mention it, I thought you were talking about one of those old fashion services. You know... the type you have down in Oslo."
"And?"
"Well... I couldn't quite see it working up here. Lundby is a tiny village after all... But you're right. Igor told me all about it... He even had me download the app on my smartphone."
"And still you didn't make the connection when I told you about the taxi?"
"You know... You really caught me a little off guard when you came in... And I don't see why you're making such a fuss about this... Here, have a look at this... This is the app."

Ante fished his smartphone out of his pocket and clicked on an icon of a car, holding the smartphone at an angle to let Bjorn watch while he demonstrated it.

"So, if you want a lift, you simply type in your location here, and up comes the list of available cars."
"Looks like Igor is offline," Bjorn commented, seeing Igor's name greyed out.
"Yes, he's probably deep asleep, or just getting up... Anyway, if I set the time that I want to get a car to this evening, he might again be available."

Ante typed in nine PM, and sure enough, Igor's name was no longer greyed out.

"But look what happens if I type in some far off place like Oslo as the destination," Ante continued, typing in an address off the top of his head. "You see how Igor is greyed out again."
"Yeah, why?"
"It's because the trip will take too much time... You see here... It says that Igor cannot take the assignment because it takes too much time, interfering with other assignments... Now, if we push this button we'll get a list of all those available to take this particular job... And... as you can see, there's no cars available for this particular lift."
"Cool... and if you type in a different destination?" Bjorn asked. "What happens?"

Ante typed in Lundby village square, and up came a list with three cars, with Igor's name on top.

"And why is Igor's name on top?" Bjorn asked, curious to learn more.
"Because we used him last night, and I gave him excellent marks for his service," Ante explained.
"Well, that's great," Bjorn exclaimed, genuinely impressed.
"It is, isn't it?" Ante agreed. "You'll find it online too. In case you don't have a smart phone."

Bjorn took a sip of his coffee, thinking back to the recent unrest related to rogue taxi services in Oslo, and how the new government finally clamped down on it with full force after a particularly violent riot.

"So this is the service those anarchists in Oslo were so fiercely against?" Bjorn asked.
"Well... This, and similar services," Ante corrected. "They were pretty fierce, those rioters, weren't they? Imagine tricking all those driver into that square, and then come out and beat them up with bats and rocks and whatnot."
"And what for?" Bjorn asked rhetorically. "The poor drivers were helping people get from A to B."
"Tax evasion, Bjorn. Tax evasion," Ante said earnestly.
"Yeah but still, they almost killed one of the drivers," Bjorn protested.
"And then they locked them all up in jail together with the rioters," Thomas added. "Imagine being locked up with those thugs... I'm pretty sure they put them together intentionally, just to rub it in."

There was a pause while the men contemplated the riots that had taken place right after the elections.

"They are a bunch of perverted sadists," Thomas commented, clearly disgusted by what happened.
"Who? The anarchists?" Ante asked.
"Yeah... But the law enforcers aren't much better, are they? Putting those poor drivers in jail together with those psychopaths."
"True," Ante agreed.
"And it's not like it is the first time they did something like that." Thomas continued.
"No?" Bjorn asked, not able to think of a similar episode.
"You remember what they did to Odd, don't you?" Thomas asked.
"The painter?" Bjorn asked.
"Yeah... Locking him up two years... Also for tax evasion." Thomas explained. "With no access to paint, brushes, canvas, pencils... Did you hear what they did when they found him with some paper and a couple of pencils?"
"No, what happened?"
"They locked him in an isolation cell for a week."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it never got a mention anywhere, except briefly by Odd's lawyer, who promptly got replaced by another guy."
"You're kidding," Bjorn said shocked, but also feeling pretty sure that Thomas was exaggerating, and making things sound worse than they were.
"Look it up! The tweet was promptly removed, but you can still find copies of it on the web. And you'll also learn that Odd's lawyer was replaced due to so called irregularities... And have you seen any recent pictures of Odd, by the way?"
"No... The last ones I saw, he was still in court, fighting for his freedom."
"He looked pretty haggard even then, but you should see him now!"
"Yeah?"
"He's a wreck... They are killing him. That's what they are doing. They are making an example of him. People will think twice before trying to evade taxes again when they see what they did to Odd, and how things went with the drivers."

There was again a pause. Bjorn sent Ante a concerned look, sensing that Thomas was getting a bit too excited.

"But tax evasion is a pretty serious crime," Ante suggested.
"Worse than beating someone almost to death?" Thomas asked.
"No, but..."
"Well, the rioters were let out two months ago. The drivers, on the other hand, are all still locked up. Even Lars, the leader of the rioters is out in the free after having organized this whole episode... And now he's up to no good again, heading the anti-Lundby protests."

And that was it, of course. That was where Bjorn had seen the retro punker before. Bjorn knew there was something familiar about the man, but had completely forgotten that he was the one behind the taxi riots last fall.

"I knew I'd seen that anarchist before," Bjorn exclaimed glibly.
"You know," Thomas said, turning to Bjorn. "It's completely idiotic to call that guy an anarchist. Have you ever heard of a tax collecting anarchist? How is that even possible? Anarchist are supposed to be against the state, not working for it."
"Well... it is kind of anarchist to take the law into your own hand, isn't it?" Ante commented in Bjorn's defence.
"No, it is not?" Thomas protested. "Doing that makes you a vigilante, not an anarchist. Anarchists leave people alone."
"I think people like Lars will disagree," Ante countered. "I'm pretty sure I heard him refer to himself as an anarchist the other day."
"I'm sure he does," Thomas said, nodding wearily. "But he is not an anarchist as long as he insists on other people living by his rules. That only makes him an aspiring ruler, a thug convinced that his rules must be followed by others, no matter what."

There was again a pause. Then, Ante broke the silence by saying that he had a hard time getting the image of rock throwing thugs out of his head whenever the word anarchist was used.

"And that is probably why they call themselves citizens down in Lundby," Thomas commented. "The only true anarchists are the gentle anarchists. Everyone else is just out to dominate their fellow men."