106

Frank left the room tired and fuming with frustration, leaving Igor puzzled and Ante grinning happily.

"Well, that was quite a performance," Bjorn noted, the dull sound of Frank stomping up the stairs in the background.
"What was all that about?" Igor asked.
"Frank managed to misplace his gun at the brothel," Ante answered.
"He did? What a jerk."
"Oh well, he's a nice guy. I'm sure God will forgive him... Give me five minutes, will you, and I'll be with you."

Ante left the room for the kitchen, shortly followed by Igor who went outside to wait in his car, leaving Bjorn all to himself again. The snowy weather was turning into sleet. Big heavy drops of water could be seen between the snow flakes, and the greyness outside was turning correspondingly somber and uninviting.

Bjorn was glad to have the day off, still feeling tired and dull from the night's experiences. But tonight, or was it the following night? Bjorn had promised to take Ante's shift, and he was starting to dread it. It had seemed so far into the future when he accepted the deal, but time to deliver on his promise was soon arriving.

Then a thought struck him. If he was to take the night shift tomorrow, it would lead directly to his regular morning shift, and that would mean twelve continous hours in the glass cage. That would be impossible. He would need some sort of arrangement with Ante or somebody else to get a break around breakfast time, at the very least.

Bjorn had to find out exactly what he had agreed to, so he got out of his chair and headed for the kitchen.

"When exactly am I taking your night shift?" Bjorn Asked as he entered the kitchan. "Tonight, or tomorrow ninght?"
"Tomorrow," Ante answered without taking his eyes away from the turkey legs he was marinating.
"But that leads directly to my morning shift."
"It does, doesn't it?" Ante commented, still not taking his eyes off what he was doing. "I can take thirty minutes in the cage while you get your breakfast. Or you can swap with John. He's taking my night shift tonight."
"He is?"
"It's all written down on Frank's schedule."

Bjorn looked over at the paper hanging on the door of the refrigerator. The spread sheet had hand written lines and comments in blue and red all over it, yet for some reason, Bjorn had never bothered to study it to find out exactly what the rearrangements were.

"If you were a little more attentive to details, you'd be a lot better off," Ante remarked.
"What you mean?" Bjorn asked, feeling strangely hurt by Ante's comment.
"You're not a very astute observer, are you?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you... If you spent a little more time observing the world and a little less time meditating or speculating or whatever you do, you would be much better off. I'm sure of it."
"But I do pay attention to stuff," Bjorn protested.
"I'm sure you do," Ante answered with a smile. "But are you paying attention to the right kind of stuff. That's the big question."

Bjorn did not respond to Ante's provocation.

"You'll find John in his room, second door to the right," Ante continued as he finished marinating the turkey. Then, as he washed his hands before covering the meat with aluminum foil, he suggested that Bjorn sort out his problem himself.

"If there's no change to the schedule, I'll sit in the cage for you half an hour Monday morning," Ante continued. "And if you swap with John, please note the changes on Frank's spreadsheet. That way I'll know what your plans are for Monday."
"Okay," Bjorn said with a nod.

Bjorn followed Ante to the front door where Ante stepped out in the miserable weather, only taking an umbrella to protect himself.

"I'll be back in an hour," Ante commented as he headed for Igor's beat up Volvo. "Should I pick up Frank's gun too, while I'm at it?"
"No! Don't do that!" Bjorn responded, sensing that such a favor would be received badly by Frank.
"He wouldn't like that, would he?" Ante added with a mischevious smile.
"No, he wouldn't."

105

Bjorn was completely caught up in his grand daydream when someone entered the living room behind him. He did not immediately turn to greet his colleague, engulfed as he was in visions of the future, but when he heard the sound of a key turning in the lock of the cabinet with the spare gun, Bjorn was suddenly shaken out of his dream.

Bjorn turned and looked around the side of his chair, immediately catching sight of Frank squatting in front of the cabinet, feverishly unpacking a gun and a gun belt. Then, still not aware of Bjorn's presence, he rose up, strapped the gun belt to his side and put the gun in its place before kicking the empty packaging back into the cupboard.

"So, what's up?" Bjorn asked as Frank finally locked the cabinet with his key.
"What? Me?" Frank asked, looking around bewildered.
"Yeah, what's with the gun?" Bjorn asked.
"Oh... Eh... This?" Frank asked, suddenly blushing while looking sheepishly over at Bjorn.
"Yeah? What happened to your gun?"
"My gun? Well... This is my gun," Frank said, pointing to the gun he had just strapped on.
"No, it's not. You just pulled that one out of the cabinet."
"Eh... I did, didn't I?" Frank answered, lost for words.
"So?"
"Well... It is not really any of your business, is it?" Frank countered.
"It kind of is... I'd like to know where your gun is. You didn't loose it, did you?"
"Eh... No, of course not."
"So where is it?"
"In Lundby," Frank admitted.
"In Lundby?"
"Yeah... I'll... I'll pick it up later... You know... I'm just going to wear this one until I get back down there to get my own."

Frank was about to explain himself further when Ante appeared, drawn to the living room by the sound of Frank's voice.

"So, what's in Lundby?" Ante asked.
"Frank's gun," Bjorn explained.
"You lost your gun in Lundby?" Ante asked, clearly finding this hard to believe.
"No! I know exactly where it is. I'll get it later," Frank protested.
"So, where is it?" Bjorn asked.
"At the casino. It's in a safe in the casino."
"Why?"

There was an awkward silence, with Frank unable to answer Bjorn's simple question. Ante started to chuckle and shake his head.

"You've been upstairs again haven't you?" Ante asked.
"Yeah... Well... And... You know... That's really none of your business."
"Upstairs?" Bjorn asked.
"Upstairs with the girls at the casino," Ante explained. "I knew it! We all knew it... But man... Loosing your gun. That's pretty brain dead... Even for you, Frank."
"Now, watch it, will you," Frank protested. "I'll sort this out."

Then, to everybody's surprise, Igor appeared in the living room, asking for Ante.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Frank asked, switching to English.
"I'm looking for Ante," Igor answered in his heavy Russian accent. "You just ordered a taxi ride, didn't you Ante?"
"Sure, but how did you get here so quickly?"
"I just delivered Frank... Picked him up at the casino."
"Oh... Well... I still have a few things to finish in the kitchen."
"Is it all right if I wait here while you finish whatever you're doing?" Igor asked. "There's no point in me driving down to Lundby just to return in an hour from now."

The three colleagues looked at each other.

"No, it's not all right," Frank said. "This is a military installation. You can sit in your car outside, but not in here with us."
"Come on," Ante protested. "I mean... This is Igor, he's practically part of the family."
"No! We can't have civilians roam around at our premises."
"Roam around? He's not going to roam around. What's the big deal?"
"It would be a security hazard," Frank insisted.
"Says the man who just left his gun at the casino," Ante added cynically.
"Well... Okay... I'll make an exception this once," Frank answered wearily. "Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to bed."

94

Back inside the casino everything seemed louder and more intense than when he left, and Bjorn felt again a relief from knowing that he would not have to hang around there waiting for his colleagues. He was on his way back to the checkpoint, and all he had to do was to tell his colleagues that he had found himself a taxi.

"I haven't seen Frank anywhere," Bjorn told Ante as he reached their table.
"We know," Ante answered with a smile.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he appeared out of nowhere, and now he's out on the dance floor."

Bjorn turned around to see if he could see him, and there he was showing off to two girls as if he was some sort of gift to women. The girls on their side were more than happy to indulge him, but the dance floor was so crowded that it was hard to say if they were girls who just happened to enjoy his clownish behaviour, or if they were in fact impressed by his slick appearance.

"He is not exactly hiding his gun, is he?" Bjorn said as he turned back to Ante.
"No, he's not... He clearly thinks of it as a great girl magnet."
"And it seems to be working, doesn't it?"
"That, and his gold card."
"He's showing that off too?"
"Waves it about every time he's buying a drink."
"What a clown!"

Ante smiled, and nodded in the direction of Thomas and Espen sitting at the other side of the table, engaged in conversation with an attractive blond girl. "But we're not complaining," Ante added. "He's like a honey pot the way he attracts the flies."

Bjorn looked at Ante with a frown, finding his statement a little too indiscrete. "Oh... Don't you worry," Ante said with a smile. "They are all Russians. They hardly know a word of Norwegian."

Still, Bjorn found Ante a bit out of line with his derogatory comment and promptly switched the conversation to his latest discovery.

"They got taxies here in Lundby, did you know?" Bjorn proclaimed proudly.
"Really?"
"Yeah! The bouncers at the door will get you one if you need one, and I've ordered one for myself."
"You're leaving?"
"Yeah."
"All ready?"

Bjorn shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I'm an old guy I guess," he said, partly to prevent Ante from being the first to bring up his age.
"You're not that old," Ante protested. "Come on, why don't you stay. The party has just started."

Bjorn was happy to hear Ante's protest, but he had made up his mind, and the taxi was already ordered, so he excused himself, fending off Ante's protests, and headed back to the exit. He walked briskly out of the large room, noticing on his way that Jan was standing by the table where drugs were traded openly to anyone who cared to buy some. Jan was clearly engaged in some sort of business discussion, and it struck Bjorn as odd that this man who seemed to welcome both druggies and prostitutes to his establishment was at the same time a patron of the church charity, and also enforcing strict anti smoking rules on his premises. It made absolutely no sense. But at the same time, there was something refreshingly eccentric about these inconsistent rules, and it put a smile on his face.

Stepping once again out into the cold night air, Bjorn was told by the bouncer that his car would arrive in about five minutes. "Just enough time to have a cigarette," Bjorn answered, letting the bouncer know that he would be standing over by the paraffin heaters having a smoke while waiting.

The bouncer nodded silently, and Bjorn went over to the designated smokers' area to have his cigarette. There were several other people standing there, and some were sitting in the chairs that had been put outside with woolly blankets for the guests to cover up while having their smoke. But there were no familiar faces among the smokers, and Bjorn was no longer in any mood to start a conversation, so he smoked his cigarette in silence, looking idly over at the market, the church up the hill, the moon, and the people coming and going.

Then, just as he finished his cigarette, a car pulled up to the curb, and the bouncer signalled to Bjorn that this was his taxi.

81

Thomas was clearly embarrassed by the prostitutes, and did not even reply to their advances. However, Frank and Ante made a few quick remarks that were neither rude nor dismissive, before entering the casino.

"Not now Ladies!" Frank said with a smile.
"Let us at least get a few drink first!" Ante continued.

The girls remained outside in the cold as the men entered the casino, and Ante asked a bouncer on the way in to keep an eye on them.

"Don't let them bother us," Ante said. "We're not really up for that kind of fun tonight."
"Sure," the bouncer answered. "We're keeping an eye on them. Just let us know if they get too offensive."

The casino was still relatively empty, but that suited the men just fine since it gave them an opportunity to find a table with a nice view of both the bar and the dance floor, as well as a stage that was hidden behind a velvet curtain.

Almost immediately on sitting down a very attractive black girl appeared from behind the bar, ready to take the men's orders. They all ordered a beer, with the exception of Ante who ordered an alcohol free cocktail.

"We prefer it if you pay as soon as you get your drinks," the girl informed the men in excellent English. "Alternatively, we can put it on your Gram card if you prefer."
"Nah, we all have plenty of tokens," Ante replied. "We'll pay as we go."

The men took off their jackets and laid them on a little shelf on the wall behind them, and Thomas put the weight of his balloon on top of the pile of jackets, so that the balloon became suspended above the pile as an easily recognisable landmark. And when their waiter returned with their drinks, they all paid immediately with their casino tokens. The woman was quick to find change for everyone, and disappeared quickly behind the bar again where she appeared to check the received tokens for counterfeits, just like Aung had done in the restaurant.

"So we can't smoke in here, but guns are allowed," Espen commented, looking over at Frank with his gun and gun belt clearly visible.
"Smoking kills!" Frank answered with a smile. "You know! Guns don't kill people... I kill people... with guns."

Frank leant back in his chair, pleased with his joke, and his colleagues smiled in response.

"But seriously! What sort of a twisted place is this, where smoking is forbidden, yet guns are all right?" Espen continued.
"I guess the owner doesn't like smokers," Thomas replied. "It's his casino after all."
"Or maybe he figures most people actually prefer a smoke free environment, and that he will get more people into his casino if he bans smoking," Bjorn suggested.
"Hard to say," Ante replied before taking a sip of his cocktail. "Only Jan knows... Why don't you ask him when you see him, Espen... I'm sure he'll appear again tonight."

80

Thomas tried to conveniently forget about the balloon on his way out of Nora's place, but was prevented from leaving it behind by his colleagues who insisted on him taking it with him to the casino. And seeing no way around this, Thomas put the weight at the end of the string in the breast pocket of his shirt. He then put his jacket on, zipped it up, and stepped out in the cool evening air with the balloon hanging above his head.

The air was completely still which made the walk back to the village square quite pleasant despite the low temperature. Even Frank, in his light summer jacket seemed to be doing all right in the cold.

Another family from Kirkenes, by the look of it, came walking up the other way, and the mother in the group asked if they were returning from Nora's place.

"Yes, we are!" Ante answered, delighted to help.
"So there will be a table ready for us when we get there?" the mother continued.
"I guess they are preparing the table as we speak!"
"Oh, that's good to hear. You see we are a little early."

Ante checked his watch. "Yeah, I see... We finished our seating early... I guess we could have hung around for another fifteen minutes."
"And it's right over there, right?" The woman asked, pointing to Nora's place.
"Yes! That's it... Enjoy the food! It´s fantastic."
"Yes, we will!" the woman answered before thanking the men and leading her group onwards to the restaurant.

The small talk put a smile on Ante's face, perking him up even more. "I love helping people out," Ante commented as he too was aware of his positive reaction to the woman's simple questions. And his colleagues nodded in agreement.

"There's something wonderful about being nice," Bjorn agreed. "I think that's pretty universal."
"And yet there's no end to the wars and riots, it seems," Thomas continued without dismissing Bjorn's thesis.

But before they had any time to continue their philosophical musings, they were again asked to help. This time by a man in a casual grey uniform, with the logo of Lance Security displayed both on his jacket and on his military style hat.

"Have you seen anyone loitering around here?" the man asked in broken English.
"No!" Ante answered, again quick to be of help. "Only a family heading for Nora's place."
"No teenagers?"
"Among the family members?"
"No. On their own?" the man corrected, looking anxiously in the direction of Nora's place.

The man did not wait for an answer, as he seemed to have caught sight of something, and left the men wondering what was going on as he started running towards the restaurant. Not being in a hurry, the men watched the security officer disappear around a corner, only to reappear a little later right behind the family at Nora's doorstep.

Nothing much happened after this, and the men resumed their walk towards the casino. The last they saw of the security officer was him first talking to Aung, and then remaining on the porch before drifting into the garden, disappearing behind the house, clearly still looking for the teenagers he was looking for.

"I thought they did not have any police in the village," Espen commented on the episode as they neared the village square.
"Well, that guy was working for Pedro," Bjorn replied, happy to show off some knowledge on the subject.
"Really?" Frank asked.
"Lance Security," Bjorn continued. "It's Pedro's insurance company."
"Insurance company?" Espen asked. "But that was a police officer of sorts, not an insurance sales man."
"Sure," Bjorn answered. "But there are no police in Lundby, so I guess the insurance companies have to pay for their policing themselves."

The men went silent on this latest comment until Thomas nodded in agreement. "That does make sense," he concluded, with his colleagues joining in with nods and grunts of their own.

The village square was as busy as always, and paraffin lamps, hung from the roofs of the stands, lit it all up in a pleasant warm glow. And some of the store fronts at the far end of the square were also open, with a few people window shopping in the cool arctic night. There was a kiosk selling all sorts of stuff, including PC's, mobile phones and other electronic equipment, a drycleaner, and a fashion store, all of which had escaped Bjorn's attention on his first trip to Lundby.

Pingo was still open across the square from the casino, and so was the petrol station, both still doing good business, although less so than when the men arrived earlier in the evening. And the men laying down the final bit of side walk in front of the casino were finishing up their work at the far end of the big building that used to be the local administration office for public services, according to Ante who pointed out the irony of a public building being turned into something as un-Norwegian as a house of sins.

"Everything goes in there," Ante said with a smile. "Except smoking your cigarettes."

Ante pointed to the familiar circular signs with a line crossing out a lit cigarette, posted on either side of the entrance and on every door going into the casino. And it was clear that people followed the rule, as there were plenty of smokers standing outside with their cigarettes in hand, huddling around paraffin heaters set out for comfort. But just as Bjorn was about to make a comment on this, they were all approached by two scanty clad black girls commenting on Thomas' balloon. "Hey birthday boy!" they said with mischievous glee. "Are you ready for a party?"

46

Frank got up from his easy chair, and followed Geir over to the doorway on Geir's way out. Then, sitting down with Espen and John over at the table with the deck of cards ready for their bridge playing session, he asked his colleagues if they had seen the news about Lundby. When they said they hadn't, Frank turned briefly to Bjorn to have him confirm that Lundby had actually been mentioned by name on TV.

"Sure," Bjorn said, still sitting in the sofa with the Gazette in his hand. "But its hardly the first time. It's not like it is a big secret that there is going to be a single asylum seeker centre up here."
"Well, yes and no," Frank retorted. "Compared to the war in Libya, and even the never ending mess in Syria, we're hardly being mentioned."
Bjorn shook his head thoughtfully. "It's not like there is a war going on up here. What is there really to say?"
"So, what did they say on the news," Espen asked, turning to Frank and ignoring Bjorn's rhetorical question.

Frank gave his interpretation of what he had seen, and since it was factually correct, Bjorn did not bother to interfere in the conversation. Instead, he turned his attention once again to his newspaper, only paying scant attention to what his colleagues were saying. From the little he heard, he gathered that both Frank and John were convinced that the Lundby experiment would eventually turn violent, and while Frank sounded rather exited about such an outcome, John sounded fearful. Espen on the other hand could not quite see a violent uprising coming out of such an isolated place. "They would be massacred on their way to Neiden," he said calmly and sensibly. "And if they tried to escape by boat, they would be sunk long before they managed to reach Kirkenes, or any other place for that matter."

"Or they would simply succumb to the cold and starvation," Bjorn thought to himself. "No one will ever successfully escape the village. Certainly not through violent means." And then his thoughts went briefly to the kid from Senegal, and the hopeless situation he and his father had gotten themselves into. "They are not going to get asylum in Norway, and there is no way they will ever get enough money to return to Senegal," he thought. "They are stuck, plain and simple. Imagine, coming from sunny Senegal and then get stuck up here."

Bjorn looked out of the window where he could see no let up in the low hanging clouds drifting in from the Barents Sea. Then, focusing again on his newspaper, he finished the last couple of paragraphs of the article on the bowling alley before leafing idly through two pages of advertisements.

There was no big and immediately recognizable difference in the ads in this copy of the Gazette compared to the previous one. The casino and Pingo were both generously represented, and the casino did not hide the fact that just about anything goes. Gambling and light entertainment was of course the main focus of the ad, but prostitution, and even recreational drugs were hinted at as being available for those seeking such vices. However, the casino ad was put together in such a way that it did not say straight out that this was available. Only a closer look at the ad's collage of images gave the hint of this.

However, smaller, more to the point offerings of sex for money, listed directly under the casino ad added to the general feeling of anything goes. And to Bjorn's surprise, there were even an ad making no secret of their business being recreational drugs. The ad was not very big, and Bjorn might have overlooked it in the previous copy of the Gazette, but the message was unmistakable. "The Sky is Not the Limit," it said. "Get your recreational drugs at David's Pharmacy." A small map indicated that the pharmacy was located next to the church, on the street running parallel to the village square.

There were also all sorts of other small ads in the paper, such as rooms for rent, houses for sale, and various taxi and delivery services, but none of this came as any big surprise to Bjorn who had seen first hand the hustle and bustle in and around the village square. But an ad shamelessly promoting recreational drugs was something Bjorn had never seen before.