195

"You know, I can't believe you're saying all this nonsense," John said earnestly, looking over at Thomas. "Why are you even here if you hate the state so much?"
"He doesn't know," Frank replied on Thomas' behalf. "Isn't that so?"
"Yeah. It's the truth," Thomas replied with a crooked grin. "It's not like I made any secret of my opinions either, yet here I am."
"But spending all your time watching YouTube videos and looking stuff up on Wikipedia hasn't helped, has it?" Frank suggested. "You're worse now than when you came. I'm pretty sure about that."
"You think so?" Thomas asked. "Well... you're probably right. But it's the truth what they're saying."
"You know! It isn't," Frank replied confidently. "And even if it was. What are you going to do about it? Start a revolution, or something?"

Thomas did not bother to reply. But he was cool about it all. It did not seem to bother him that none of his colleagues were buying into his propaganda, not openly anyway.

"But seriously, how did you end up here?" John asked. "They didn't draft you or anything, did they?"
"No, of course not. I applied for the job, thinking I was sure not to get it. Yet I got it anyway."
"Really?"
"Yeah. So here I am, secretly hoping that Frank will fire me so I can go back to being unemployed."

Frank chuckled. "Hey! It's not that bad up here, is it?" he protested.
"No. It's not bad at all," Thomas admitted. "I'm fine. I really am."

Ante put a fruit salad and a bowl of whipped cream on the table, and there was a pause in the discussion while everybody served themselves desert.

"Did you guys see the latest news from Libya?" Espen asked, as he dug into his bowl of fresh fruits. "Things are really getting out of hand down there."
"They sure are," Frank agreed. "It's just a matter of time before they attack one of those production facilities again. We got to send ground troops. There's no way around that."
"You heard anything about that, though?" Thomas asked. "They are not sending any of us, are they?"
"Not that I know. I'd be very surprised if they did. We're not trained for that kind of stuff."
"Well, actually we are," Espen noted dryly. "You know, border control, skirmishes, insurgence... Or did you guys get a different training than I did?"
"No," Bjorn commented. "But it was a two week thing. Not exactly a whole lot of training."
"Still... It's more than many others out there."

Frank had to admit that Espen had a point, but it was in his view very unlikely that anyone at the checkpoint would be called upon to go to Libya, especially at a time when the village was about to have its first major influx of refugees.

"It's just not going to happen," Frank said confidently. "We're almost as much in the news as the Libya crisis these days. They are not going to shift us around. This project is just too important for them to risk a cock up."
"Yeah, you're right," Espen said with a nod. "The foreign minister even said this whole project is essential for the re-vitalization of the north."
"Really?" Ante asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yeah! It's now suddenly the driving force behind his arctic conquest thing."
"You're kidding! A couple of miners, a casino, and a fish processing plant. And he's thinking he's conquering the arctic?"
"I don't think he means it literally, Ante," Frank noted dryly. "But he has this vision of the arctic, with the North East Passage connecting Europe with the far east. And Lundby is an important part of that vision. It's not a bad idea at all, when you think about it."
"It's a great idea," Espen agreed. "It's the shortest route for ships going between Europe and China. Shorter by at least a week compared to the alternatives."
"When it is ice free," Thomas added. "Which is like a few weeks every summer,"
"Sure! But with the global warming and all. The passage will be used more and more."
"And it explain why the foreign minister is so obsessed with this whole thing," Frank added. "And why we don't have to worry about Libya."

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.

165

Ingunn had for a while been a rather popular character in the news, and Bjorn needed only to skim the article to be reminded of her rather eccentric stance against the state. However, she had for some reason suddenly fallen out of favor with journalists, and after she was evicted from her house, there had been no more mention of her.

Bjorn had not thought much about it. News stories come and go, and as far as he was concerned, Ingunn's story had pretty much ended with her eviction. But now that he had her full story in front of him, he read with interest that she had in fact ended up in a mental asylum for treatment after a panel of judges had declared her innocent of criminal civil disobedience due to a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia.

Rather than going to jail for her activism, she had been sentenced to treatment at the national center for the criminally insane, the same place where Anders the mass murderer was being treated for his mental illness. And just like Anders, Ingunn's release from the mental asylum would be wholly dependent on her being well enough to return to society. A panel of medical experts were monitoring her progress, and would not sign her release before they could all agree that she no longer posed a danger to herself or her surroundings.

However, unlike Anders, Ingunn had been denied all contact with the outside world. Her mental illness was such that even indirect contact with the outside world would pose a problem. She had no TV, no radio and no internet. Her only contact with the outside world was through a limited group of people deemed harmless to her health. Only a handful of close friends and relatives were allowed to see her, but only while under observation by medical experts who would make sure that the topic of conversation never stayed away from the mundane.

Ingunn's isolation was in other words complete. While Anders was free to interact with the outside world, even to the point of establishing a political party, Ingunn was denied all such interactions. Although seemingly cruel, her isolation was entirely for her own good. Her severe paranoia was such that even a tiny bit of news could have her regress into her madness.

Psychologists had in fact identified her illness at an early stage, and had advised reporters to ignore her rants and ramblings. But her world view was so eccentric and entertaining that most journalists had been unable to resist the stories that emanated from her. First it was her decision to declare her property in Skien an independent state, making herself a sovereign of her newly created nation, lovingly named Niceland.

Having declared herself a sovereign, she proceeded to send official letters to the foreign minister as if she was indeed a queen of an independent nation. She returned her passport and birth certificates, and finally refused to pay the debt on her house.

As a sovereign, she felt it wholly within her right to simply refuse to pay the "national debt". Furthermore, she argued that since her debt to the bank had been created out of thin air, there was nothing to be paid back. And with the bank unable to document the existence of any original owner, there were no one to pay the money back to. The money was simply conjured into existence when Ingunn signed the loan document, and there were no original owner. Hence, she had nothing to pay back, and no one to pay anything back to. She was therefore, in her own words, taking a principled stance against the banks and the fractional banking system that allowed for the current system of loan and currency creation.

The reporters covering this story were delighted, of course. Her David against Goliath like stance was insane. She was behaving in a manner reminiscent of Don Quijote, fighting windmills, conjuring up elaborate stories, and impressing the feeble minded with explanations that sound entirely true, yet had little or no baring in reality. And to the journalists' great surprise and further delight, Ingunn was getting followers, admirers who loved her explanations. Ingunn was becoming an increasingly popular subject for the journalist and common folks alike.

However, when a number of her followers started emulating her behavior, returning their passports and birth certificates to the state, it was becoming clear that things were getting out of hand. Reporters were again advised to stay away from the matter since it had clearly caused a lot of people to become similarly confused as Ingunn. The idea that one could simply declare oneself sovereign was of course pure madness. And seeing that her mad ideas were rather infectious, the justice department itself came out with a guideline concerning her particular kind of mental illness, making it clear that irresponsible reporting on this type of insanity could lead to criminal charges against the journalists.

Ingunn was evicted from her house, and shortly after, she was apprehended and brought to trail, charged with criminal incendiary speech with the aim to cause massive civil disobedience. The trial went largely unreported due to its sensitive nature. And with this, Ingunn's brief claim to fame came to an abrupt halt.

164

Bjorn focused on his PC again, re-reading the sentence about Pedro and his alleged involvement in the corruption scandal in Portugal. It was hard to believe that the man he had met at the building site was the man described in that sentence. He seemed so ordinary in every way. There was absolutely nothing extraordinary about the man's appearance.

But beyond the purely superficial, the man had been quite remarkable. He had shown a real interest in both Bjorn and his fellow visitors, and his uncanny frankness about Bjorn's schedule for the coming week was flattering in a way. Pedro, the man alleged to have corrupted a prime minister, had shown a personal interest in everyone, and a particular interest in Bjorn. And that made no sense, and a lot of sense at the same time.

Pedro was no doubt a man with above average people skills. He made everybody feel special. He might not even be able to help it. It might be something he just did without even thinking. And this simple personality thing was probably what made him as good as he was at what he was doing. So even though it may not be very important for Pedro to flatter people like Olga and Igor, it was something he just did. It made no immediate sense to be that way, but why not? Why not make everyone feel special if that's something that comes easily and naturally?

But Pedro's particular interest in Bjorn was more than just instinctive flattery. It was deliberate, and difficult to comprehend, particularly considering Pedro's involvement at the very top of society. Why would someone with a personal connection to the foreign minister be interested in Bjorn's schedule? Bjorn was neither rich nor powerful, yet Pedro had detailed knowledge of his weekly schedule. It made no sense, and it felt a little spooky. If it was not for the fact that Pedro had come across as a rather likable character, it would have been down right scary.

Bjorn clicked on Pedro's name in the article in front of him, almost as if drawn to it by an external force. But the short article that it brought up was virtually unchanged from last time he had been reading it. It contained the same dated picture which held little resemblance to him, and the facts were almost as limited as last time. However, Lundby was mentioned. Lance security was also mentioned. And the corruption scandal in Portugal had a brief mention too.

Bjorn could not quite remember if any of this was mentioned last time he looked for information on Pedro, but he felt sure that the article had been edited. He would certainly have remembered if Pedro's alleged connection to the Portuguese prime minister had been mentioned. Someone had added to the article. Someone out there was keeping an eye with him. And why not? It would have been rather strange if such an important figure had no mention at all. The odd thing was not that the man had a mention in Wikipedia, but rater that his mention was as brief as it was.

Returning to the article on the empire, Bjorn clicked on the link to Ingunn, a woman that he vaguely remembered reading about in connection with some weird anarchist activity. And the article on the woman was surprisingly long, with numerous pictures and a long list of references. The contrast to the article on Pedro was striking, a consequence, no doubt, of the different strategies taken by these two people as regards their public visibility.

Ingunn was clearly someone who must have liked and enjoyed the attention that she got from her activities, while Pedro was just as clearly doing his utmost to stay out of the limelight. And from a brief reading of the article on Ingunn it was clear that Pedro's strategy was by far the wisest one.

162

Returning to his room, Bjorn decided to look up Frederico and his empire thing on the web. The man had been charismatic and well spoken, and Bjorn was curious about his reach on the web. Was he as popular in cyber space as he was in the village? Bjorn was curious to know.

He turned on his PC and made a search for "the fifth empire" which immediately returned a varied list of references, some about the old Portuguese myth, and others about Frederico and his sect. There were links to blogs, including video blogs on YouTube, some in support of Frederico and others evidently attacking him and his ideas. But there were also quite a number of links to the old myth, including a few image links to a film with characters dressed up in 17th century costumes.

The top link was to an article on Wikipedia, and thinking this as good a place as any to start his research, Bjorn clicked on it.

He was immediately presented with an article relating to the myth. But Frederico's sect was mentioned right at the beginning of the article, and without spending any more time on the myth, Bjorn clicked his way to what Wikipedia described as the liberty movement. And this article in turn mentioned the myth in its initial description, underscoring the fact that the following was dedicated to the liberty movement and not the myth.

The article pretty much confirmed what Frederico had been saying. And, not surprisingly, it described Frederico's ideas as controversial. Although, largely in line with the ideas of earlier thinkers, Frederico's ideas made several unorthodox claims, not least pertaining to law and the notion of empire. Unlike previous writings on the subject, Frederico's claim was that the fifth empire is linked to the Portuguese people in a purely spiritual sense, and will not be a revival of the old empire.

"The fifth empire is not a rebirth of an old empire, but rather the coming to dominance of a political undercurrent that has been around since Babylonian times. The fifth empire will be one in which there will be no state, and where the cult of authority will be vanquished," it read.

"Basing his ideas on Biblical scripture, previous thinking pertaining to the fifth empire, writings on Portuguese culture, and political writings by prominent figures inside the liberty movement, Frederico has constructed for himself and his followers a complete belief system, containing both rational and occult elements," it continued.

Bjorn looked up from his PC to digest what he had read. It was broadly in line with what he had expected. And it was also clear that Frederico's ideas had quickly spread through the undercurrents of the web, propelling Frederico from obscurity to semi-fame in a very short period of time. Frederico's success was apparently not based on any novelty per say, but rather his ability to pull together a number of seemingly unrelated ideas to form a complete system with broad popular appeal.

Bjorn continued reading, noting the frequent references to the gentle anarchist, the golden rule, and private law, further confirming Bjorn's impression about Frederico's ideas. And when he came to the section about criticism, he read with interest that Frederico's ideas had not gone unchallenged.

Apart from purely scholarly criticism on the actual nature of the fifth empire, Frederico had already seen a lot of hard hitting political criticism by people strongly opposed to his ideas. Frederico's liberty movement had been criticized by both political opponents and many pro-liberty thinkers for being cult like, occult, and right out dangerous. However, Frederico on his side had been quick to point out that the fifth empire does not require any belief in any deity by its citizens, that citizenship is purely voluntary and can be relinquished at any time without consequence, and that the only rule that a citizen must adhere to is the golden rule.

"To claim that citizenship in the fifth empire is cult like, while simultaneously claiming that the social contract is a rational construct, cannot be taken seriously," according to Frederico. "The state and the cult of authority are clearly far more occult and dangerous than a purely voluntary arrangement that people can enter and leave as they please."

Other critics, while agreeing that the fifth empire could hardly be described as a cult, focused more on practicalities than principle, pointing to the sad fate suffered by many activists in the liberty movement. People eager to promote the idea of a stateless society have increasingly come under increased control and scrutiny by state agents, with loss of property, liberty, and in some cases even life as a consequence.

"The Republic of Venice, some early free state movements in the US, and several individual secessions in Scandinavia have all ended badly, and resistance to authority should therefore be more subtle and less confrontational," according to many of these critics.

However, to this, Frederico had only commented that he fully agreed with his critics, and that he does not promote heroism. Instead, he promotes small scale resistance, starting at the personal level, expanding to family and friends, while never confronting the authorities directly.

"The fact that the fifth empire has become widely popular cannot in itself be a reason to reject it," Frederico pointed out to one of his critics, "We will never promote direct confrontation. All citizens must act prudently within the limits of what they deem reasonable. However, as we grow more numerous, we can reasonably act more forcefully."

The article, full of links and references, had a list of related articles and topics at the bottom, including a link to the Blacklist, which surprised Bjorn since that website was less than a week old. There were also links to something called Ingunn's Niceland together with links to the Venetian Republic, various free state movements and other liberty projects.

And under a section called recent developments, there was a rather lengthy piece on Lundby with a brief mention of Pedro, who was described as an elusive billionaire, rumored to be the mastermind behind the corruption of the Portuguese ex prime minister. However, Pedro had so far neither been questioned on the matter nor charged with any wrongdoing.

62

John's paranoid comment about Pedro made Bjorn curious to find out more about the man, so he looked him up on the wed first thing on returning to his room after dinner. Bjorn typed in Pedro's full name in the search field of his browser, and immediately got up several matches, the top one being a short encyclopaedic article on Wikipedia. However, it did not say much more about the man than that he was a wealthy Portuguese investor. And the picture included in the article was clearly dated since it showed a man in his thirties while his birth date put him in his mid fifties.

Bjorn looked through some of the other pages found by the search engine, but there was very little more on the man. The only page that seemed to be personal, in the sense that Pedro must have had a say in it, was a page for a company called Lance Securities, for which he was the CEO. His name was also listed among top shareholders in various company reports, supporting the Wikipedia claim regarding the man's wealth.

The description of Pedro as CEO of Lance Securities was even more brief than the Wikipedia entry, and it used the exact same picture, which made Bjorn think that the dated picture might be the only one of him. And this curious reluctance to show a more recent picture did indeed make Pedro's existence seem obscure, if not right out fraudulent. Bjorn had to admit that John had a point when he doubted Pedro's existence. But Pedro was surely not unique in wanting to keep a low profile, and concluding that someone does not exist merely because that someone does not want to keep a high profile was stretching the imagination quite a bit towards conspiracy paranoia.

Bjorn saw no immediate reason to go along with John's hypothesis, but he could not readily dismiss it either, so he let the idea linger as unlikely but plausible while he proceeded to look through news articles on the man. Most of the articles were old and about things that Bjorn was well aware of, but one stood out from the rest, not so much because it came up as related to Pedro, but because it was posted on the Lundby Gazette's online pages.

Bjorn knew that the Gazette had an online version, but this was the first time he had come across it on the web, and eager to see what it had to say about Pedro, he clicked on the link which brought up a professional looking blog. The layout was clean cut and simple, and the advertisements were small and discrete. The article itself was only a few hours old, and mentioned Pedro as part in a dispute with the stall owners down in the village square.

Apparently, someone had distributed leaflets to the stall owners to inform them that the village square was owned and controlled by Pedro, and while the stall owners were free to set up their stalls without having to pay anything at the moment, this was about to change. All stall owners would soon have to pay a "symbolic" sum to Pedro for the right to set up their stalls.

This announcement had made several stall owners furious, claiming that they were the true owners of the land on which they had put their stalls, and that they would refuse to pay any "tribute" to Pedro. However, Pedro's claim to the land was in his view a legally binding consequence of having received the right and duty to maintain public properties for the Norwegian government in Lundby. But the protesting stall owners did not buy this line of reasoning, accusing Pedro instead of neo-feudalist rent seeking.