Arctic State: A Constable Maratse Stand Alone novella (Guerrilla Greenland Book 1) by Christoffer Petersen

Author:Christoffer Petersen [Petersen, Christoffer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aarluuk Press for Arctic Noir, Action Thrillers and Greenland Crime
Published: 2019-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

Part 5

________________________________

Maratse’s coffee was cold when Walcott interrupted him. He put it down on the table and shifted his position. If there had been a window, he would have stared out of it. Walcott sighed as he made a few more notes, before pushing the paper to one side.

“What I don’t understand,” he said. “What none of us really understand is why you don’t get it?”

“Get what?” Maratse said.

“This.” Walcott waved his arm to encompass the room. “What we’re doing here – for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes, for you. And for that crazy old lady, Inniki Rasmussen. Why don’t you understand that we’re the best thing that has ever happened, and ever will happen to Greenland?”

Maratse shrugged. “Maybe you should explain it?”

“Maybe I have to.” Walcott unscrewed the lid of the thermos can, tipped the last dregs of coffee into his mug and added a generous spoonful of powdered cream, and another of sugar. “Let me lay it out for you,” he said, as he stirred his coffee. “Under Danish rule.” He held up his hand as Maratse started to protest. “Let me finish,” Walcott said. He took a sip of coffee and continued. “Under Danish rule, your country was stagnating. Sure, there’s been a lot of modernisation since they got you out of the turf huts – for one thing, you’ve got broadband Internet.”

“Only in the capital.”

“Yeah, okay, but it’s coming.” Walcott conceded the point with a nod. “But apart from a modern hospital, modern museums, and a beautiful cultural centre, what have you really got, eh? That shopping mall is tiny,” he said, pointing in the general direction of Nuuk’s city centre. Maratse was fascinated by Walcott’s relatively keen directional sense from deep within a square building with very few windows. He nodded that Walcott should continue, that he wouldn’t interrupt. “You’ve got an impressive university, and housing is being modernised, but outside the capital, I ask you, what have you got?”

“Peace,” Maratse said.

“Is that what you call it? Peace?” Walcott laughed. “What you’ve got is a whole chunk of nothing, with no connecting roads, telecom masts that are affected by the weather – disabling your communications. You’ve got a tonne of people living in tiny houses. They’ve got no car…”

“They don’t need one.”

“They’ve got no life insurance, or insurance of any kind.”

“The state provides for them,” Maratse said.

“Oh yeah? And how long is that going to last? How long is the state going to fly people around the country for a check-up with the doctor? How long is the state going to fly police officers, teachers, dentists, doctors and who knows who else, around the country to service each and every settlement? How long?” Walcott took a breath. “Well, not very long, I can tell you that much. And not my United States, I can tell you. I understand that the government of Greenland, together with the Danes, had a secret project to move people from the settlements to the cities. I mean, that makes sense. It’s way too

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.