NATO

NATO’s role in the evidence is narrowly defined but consequential: a NATO-based search engine, once used by Harry Hole in state-security work, provides the model for searching for links among the murders without alerting potential suspects through interviews. The novel presents the system as a powerful investigative tool, not as a detailed account of NATO’s organization or operations.

The Search Engine in Harry’s Earlier Work

When Harry and Kaja Solness discuss how to investigate the suspected connection between the murders, Harry recalls his work assembling possible threat scenarios in state security. Their method had been to look for connections without speaking to anyone. For that purpose, they had access to a NATO-based search engine, which Harry says was available long before Yahoo or Google.

Reach and Method

Harry describes the engine as giving its users access across a vast range of material: they could get into systems widely and scan practically everything that had access to the internet. The detail matters because the proposed method depends on breadth rather than confrontation. Instead of starting with interviews that could expose the investigation, Harry wants to search for patterns among accessible information and let those connections guide the inquiry.

Reuse in the Murder Investigation

Harry explicitly proposes using the same approach in the current case. He presents it as a practical way to test whether the murders are linked while keeping the investigation covert. NATO’s brief mention therefore connects Harry’s earlier security work to his present investigative strategy: the institution is evoked through a search capability that turns wide-ranging information access into a means of finding relationships without making the search visible to the people under investigation.