The Good Dictator I

The Birth of an Empire

An unidentified object parked on the moon - and no one seems to know where it came from. Gustavo, a middle-aged computer programmer with a comfortable and grey life, decides to make a list of what he would need to survive a hypothetical attack. He becomes obsessed with the list, spends a fortune, robs a drugstore: his own family thinks he is going insane. However, after the attack, it’s the insane who are well prepared for a new era in society. First book of a trilogy.

Excerpt:

Gustavo laughed again, he looked down with an amused look and saw the great hate that emanated from The Fatty.
- Do you know why it came down to this? You on your knees and me standing and observing your village in flames? Because you’re the weakest link. You know, you fatty, in the animal world, the ones who adapt the better to the environmental conditions are the ones who survive, and just between you and me, we both have the best example of it. You, who still think you are the GNR commander and that someone will come from the past to make me pay for my deeds. While I have quickly adapted to the new reality: as soon as the craft landed on The Moon, I made a list of indispensable things, I spent a lot of money on this list, I robbed a drugstore and was considered to be crazy by my family, but when the attack occurred, this crazy one was the one who had adapted the best to the new environment. And, let me tell you: I longed for this attack; I was fed up with living my comfortable and gray life behind a computer. It’s your fault. – Gustavo pointed out to the village, from which, on that hill, one could hear the bustling noise of gunshots and could clearly see the fire inside the village and on the fields around it. – Your pride and your attempt to keep your status-quo have brought us to this point. If you had known how to read the new winds, you would have understood that the only way was to join us and you’d certainly hold some important position in Malpica's committee or even as an officer in my army, but your lack of foresight has made your own village pay for it. Anyhow, it seems to me that it's for the best that people like you have no place in this new society – so as not to contaminate it. You’ve always taken advantage of your position to bring benefits to your house, you forgave fines, received bribes and gifts and certainly, you’d do the same in this new society if you were given a chance. But believe me, people like you, corrupt people who use their political or professional position to fill their pockets have their days numbered. For them, there will be a hard penalty, forced labor in prison along with the murderers, thieves and the remaining scum. The prisons in the Serrano Empire will be a place where there will be an average of work of twelve hours a day and if they get out of prison and commit another crime, there will be no second chance.
- In the future, Gustavo, you will be remembered as a crazy and mad dictator. – The former commander spoke now without any anger or hate, he had resigned himself to his cruel destiny and his look was serene and lost in the direction of his village. Gustavo also looked towards Malpica as if he watched a giant theater play and without shifting his eyes, he went on:
- Perhaps, history is written by the victors and the same goes for the truth, there are always different perspectives.

Gonçalo JN Dias was born Lisbon in 1977. He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering and Natural Resources. He currently lives in the Basque Country, in Spain.
He is an independent author. Manual for a Murder is his second novel. The first was The Good Dictator I – Birth of an Empire, part of successful trilogy, which has been translated into three languages.